Sonic Jungle part 1

By Matt Duplisea

Familiar characters
Sonic
Tails
Knuckles
Archimedes
Sally
Robotnik
Locke
Sabre
Remington
Stryker
Sojourner
Spectre
Athair
Thunderhawk
Geoffrey St. John
Bomb and Heavy
Hershey
Wombat Stu
King and Queen Acorn
Elias
Vector
Mighty
Espio
Julie-Su
Lara-Le
Zonic the zone cop
Rotor
Bunnie
Antoine
Super Sonic
The Ancient Walkers
Nate Morgan

Sonic Jungle part 1

By Matt Duplisea

          “ Catch it, Tails!”
          “ I’m tryin’, Sonic!”
          Miles ‘Tails’ Prower flew into the air faster than he expected to. He thought by the age of 10 he’d be able to control his flying skills, but he still has a few things to learn. He tried to steady himself, but was caught in the wind and was thrown into a tree. The football Sonic the Hedgehog had thrown bounced off the top of his head.
          Sonic raced towards his young friend, and climbed from branch to branch to reach him.
          “ You alright little buddy?” Sonic asked, picking Tails up out of the tree, and swinging from a vine down to the ground with Tails under his arms.
          “ I’m fine. I guess I still have a long ways to go before I’m finally able to fly correctly,” Tails said with a glum look on his face.
          “ Naw. You just need to watch where you’re goin’,” Sonic said jokingly.
          “ Whatever, Sonic!” Tails said, happier than he was before Sonic made his joke.
          “ Come on. Let’s go eat. Sally’s making some mouth watering chili dogs!” Sonic said with a not so excited look on his face.
          “ Yuk! Aunt Sally makes the worst chilidogs! They’re worse than Antoine’s!” Tails said with a nasty look.
          “ Yeah, I know. But make sure not to tell her that, alright bud?” Sonic said in a whisper.
          “ Yeah, yeah. Whatever you say Sonic…” Tails said with a smirk on his face.
          The two raced off towards Knothole Village, unaware of what would soon come to pass…
          As soon as they were out of sight, a flash of white light brightened the already beaming sun. An ear piercing thundering sound, and a strike of lightning followed the flash. After the smoke cleared, a figure standing sideways was silhouetted by the tall trees of the great forest.
          “ Drat! I just missed them! Now I’m going to have to reveal myself to all of Sonic’s friends! Something I did NOT want to do!” The figure yelled to himself.
          The figure disappeared with another flash of white light, and crashing of thunder and lighting.
          Back in Knothole village, Sonic and Tails reach the Royal Reliquary, where Princess Sally Acorn and many of Sonic’s friends are gathering to have a barbecue behind the building.
          Sonic talks with his friend Rotor, who had just returned from a long adventure. He had left on a journey to discover his parents. He indeed did in the Southern Tundra, where, after confirming they were still alive, left back home to finally see his friends again.
          Sonic spots Princess Sally in a fancy, royal Chef hat. She had never been much of a cook, but since she was kind of Sonic’s love interest, he didn’t mind having his chilidogs slightly burnt. He raced over to speak with her.
          “ Hey Sal! So, how’re those chilidogs comin’?” Sonic asked, not very excited.
          “ Just fine Sonic. I made an extra batch just for you, because you always say how much you like them!” Sally said happily.
          Sonic swallowed hard. “ Uh, yeah, heh heh. Whatever you say… I sure love your- gulp – chilidogs…”
          “ It’s been awful quiet around here lately, hasn’t it?” Sally asked Sonic.
          “ It sure has been. I thought that all of those overlanders that Robotnik had brought into Robotropolis were going to be a bit of a hassle. * But they weren’t any trouble at all,” Sonic explained.
(* See Sonic issues 92 – 95)
          “ Well, I know that when it’s quiet around here, something always springs up,” Sally said with a saddened look on her face.
          “ Yeah, but you know I’ll always be around to stop it!” Sonic said, cheering Sally up.
          “ Oh, I know you’ll always be around to stop the bad guys, Sonic,” Sally said, hugging Sonic.
          “ You know Sally, I’ve been waiting a really long time to tell you this…” Sonic said, with a grin on his face. “ Sally, I lo-“
          “ Sorry Hedgehog, but right now is just NOT the right time for poetry,” a voice spoke from behind Sonic.
          Sonic turned his head to face the being who interrupted his intimate moment with Princess Sally Acorn. He was shocked to see it was Zonic, the zone cop!
          “ What in the world?! I thought I had seen the last of you way back when!” Sonic exclaimed.
          “ You know as well as I do that things around zones are unpredictable… when things go extremely wrong, I come to you. You just never know when I might show up,” Zonic said to Sonic.
          “ Well what’s the matter now?” Sonic asked Zonic.
          “ It’s of the greatest importance that you come along with me. Although I must tell you… this will be the hardest mission you will ever partake in,” Zonic said in a cold voice.
          “ Well, that REALLY sounds like something I want to partake in,” Sonic said sarcastically.
          “ Do not joke, hedgehog. If you don’t help me, this planet, along with everyone on its face, will be destroyed. This mission could possibly last for years,” Zonic said coldly.
          Sonic just stared at Zonic, with an awestruck look on his face.
          “ Sonic, who in the world is this guy, anyway?” Tails asked Sonic.
          “ He’s Zonic, the zone cop. He keeps all of the zones in check, so nothin’ happens that shouldn’t,” Sonic explained to everyone.
          “ Well, I’m guessing you’re going on this mission,” Antoine said, Bunnie at his side.
          “ Yes… if I don’t, this whole planet will end up like Robotnik,” Sonic said, with a saddened look on his face.
          “ Well, pal, I guess this is goodbye again,” Rotor said to Sonic, walking up to him and resting his hand on Sonic’s shoulder.
          The other members of the freedom fighters walked up to him as well. Taking turns saying their goodbyes.
          Bunnie, with tears in her eyes,” I’ll seeyah latah, suga-hog.”
          “ We all love you Sonic,” Came a voice from behind the crowd of Mobians.
          King Max, Queen Alicia and Prince Alias came walking towards Sonic, with a glum look on their faces.
          “ Thanks, your highness,” Sonic said to Max.
          Sonic looked towards Princess Sally, and spoke,” Sal, I-“ then trailed off. He couldn’t bare the words.
          Sally didn’t say anything. She just fell in Sonic’s arms, weeping.
          “ Sally, I love you,” Sonic finished.
          “ I love you too, Sonic,” Sally said to him, sadly.
          Sally, still crying, ran away from everyone.
          Geoffrey St. John and the rest of the Secret Service walked towards him. They all gave him a salute, which Sonic returned.
          “ Miles ‘Tails’ Prower, you are coming along as well,” Zonic said unexpectedly.
          Tails gasped.
          “ Wha- why me too?!” Tails screamed aloud.
          “ Because. I’m in touch with the Ancient Walkers, and they spoke of you, and how much of a leader you are. They said to me that you would bring a great deal of courage to help Sonic on his long, long mission,” Zonic explained.
          “ Not Tails, too!” Sally yelled from behind everyone.
          Everyone said their goodbyes to Tails, when Zonic finally said, “Let’s go!”
          “ Hold hard, my fellow!” King Max screamed to Zonic.
          “ What is it, your highness?” Zonic asked.
          “ I believe, since Sonic has brought so many victories to this kingdom, that I should present him with the weapon of honor…” King Max said, holding a long, rectangular box. The box had an ancient, stone acorn on the front. Max opened it, to reveal… the Sword of Acorns! “ You should take this with you, Sonic. It shall bring you to victory on you mission.”
          Sonic reached for the sword, stunned, “ I- I don’t know what to say… I’m, honored!”
          With that, a bright flash of white light engulfed Sonic, Tails, and Zonic. With a strike of lightning and the crashing boom of thunder, they were gone.

          Suddenly, atop the Floating Island, another bright flash of white light and the crashing sound of thunder startled birds and native animals of the island. Sonic, Tails, and Zonic stood next to the city of Echidnapolis.
          “ What the-?! Why are we on the Floating Island?!” Sonic yelled to Zonic.
          “ This is where we pick up our next combatant. Knuckles the Echidna,” Zonic explained.
          “ Knuckles is helping too? Why him?” Sonic asked.
          “ I told you, this mission is of great importance,” Zonic said, annoyed.
          “ Well, could you atleast tell us what the mission is exactly?” Sonic asked, just as annoyed.
          “ I will once we find Knuckles, and he agrees to join our crusade,” Zonic said.
          “ That’s great!” Tails said. “ I can’t wait to see Knuckles again!”
          “ Yeah, it’ll be cool to see Rad Red again. Last time, we only met up with each other because of that water monster, Chaos…” Sonic said to himself.
          “ Well, you took care of that. Now is the time for you to take care of something else…” Zonic said to Sonic.

          Deep inside the Floating Island, Locke, Knuckles’ father, watches Sonic and his friends near Echidnapolis. He doesn’t speak, and doesn’t change the worried look on his face. A sliding of the metal door makes him move. He looks to see his father, Sabre, walk towards him, keeping hidden in the shadows of the small computer room.
          “ What is it, father?” Locke asked, turning back to the large computer screen.
          “ I can see by what you’re watching, you already know that the Hedgehog, and his friend Tails, have shown up on the island. Along with a new comer we’ve never seen before…” Sabre explained.
          “ Yes. I was going to call Remington to have them taken into custody… unexpected visitors usually turn out to be UNWANTED guests… until I realized it was Knuckles’ friends. So now, all I have to ask, is WHY they are here,” Locke said to his father.
          “ I’m guessing by the way they look, it seems that the other person may have brought them here,” Sabre said.
          The metal door swung open again, and the once guardian of the Floating Island, Thunderhawk, walked into the room.
          Sabre looked towards Thunderhawk, “ I see that you know as well.”
          “ Yes, yes. The others know too. We know that they are Knuckles’ friends, so we called Remington to ask them a few questions,” Thunderhawk explained.
          “ Good. We must be careful, though. Even if they ARE Knuckles’ friends, it doesn’t mean they may not do something drastic,” Sabre said.
          Thunderhawk and Sabre looked at Locke, who didn’t seem to be paying attention to what they were saying. He was staring at the screen, not noticing their presence.
          “ Locke?” Sabre asked.
          “ Yes father?” Locke asked back.
          “ Why do you seem almost hypnotized? It’s only a Hedgehog and a Fox,” Sabre asked.
          “ It’s not them,” Locke explained. “ It’s just that man that is standing sideways… he doesn’t look friendly…”

          “ So where do you think we’ll be finding ol’ Red, huh?” Sonic asked Zonic.
          “ He could be anywhere. This is a large island. And unlike you, who is usually in Knothole Village, Knuckles is guardian of this island, so he’s usually all over the place,” Zonic explained to Sonic and Tails.
          “ Well, let’s go scopin’ for him in the city!” Tails suggested.
          “ Oh no. You won’t be going anywhere,” a voice from behind called.
          “ Wha-?” Sonic gasped.
          They all looked to see Sergeant Remington running towards them, with a few men of the Echidnapolis Security Agency fallowing.
          “ Now, what are you doing here?” Remington asked.
          “ We’re here to find Guardian Knuckles the Echidna,” Zonic explained.
          “ Why? What do you wish to discuss?” Remington went on.
          “ We’re here to find him, for we need his help. There is something that I cannot tell you about, that is happening right now… I do not wish to explain it, for it will cause extreme panic and despair. I feel I should spare you all of the misery that you will all face in the near future,” Zonic said.
          “ That’s very compelling, but I can not allow you to see the Guardian. I’m going to have to escort you off the island-“ Remington was cut short.
          “ Hey, dude! Listen to this guy! He’s Zonic, the zone cop. Trust me when I say that if he says that something is important, then it most definitely is!” Sonic defended Zonic.
          “ Your words are kind towards you strange friend here,” Remington said, looking at the sideways Zonic with a scrunched up face. “ But I can not just take your word for it. Men, take these people to the nearest flight to the Mobian forest.”
          “ Yes sir,” The guards said together, picking up Sonic, Tails and Zonic, and carrying them into the city.
          Knuckles walked by with Juli-Su, to spot Sonic and Tails.
          “ Hold here, for a sec,” Knuckles said to Juli-Su. “ It’s Sonic and Tails!”
          Knuckles started running off.
          “ Hey! Wait for me!” Juli-Su called, chasing after Knuckles.
          Knuckles caught up with Sonic, who seemed surprised to see him.
          “ Knux! How’s it goin’ man?!” Sonic yelled.
          “ Hey, Sonic! It’s goin’ great! Say, why’s Remington and his men carryin’ you away?” knux said, who was still running to keep up with Remington’s men, who didn’t seem to care knuckles was talking to Sonic.
          “ We came here to get you to help us,” Zonic said.
          “ Who are you?!” knuckles asked, confused by Zonic, whom he’d never seen before.
          “ Don’t worry about him. Just listen to him,” Tails said to Knuckles.
          “ Alright. If you guys say so. Remington, stop your men. My friends and I need to talk,” Knuckles commanded.
          “ Yes, Guardian,” Remington agreed.
          Remington’s men dropped Sonic Tails, and Zonic. They picked themselves up off the ground to face Knuckles.
          “ Alright. Speak your piece,” Knuckles said, interested in what they wanted.
          “ Well-“ Sonic was cut off.
          “ Don’t worry, Sonic. I can explain without your help,” Zonic stopped him.
          “ Whatever. Just hurry up so we can get out of here,” Sonic said impatiently.
          “ Very well,” Zonic grumbled.
          “ Well, what is it?” Knuckles asked, getting a bit impatient himself.
          “ Well, we need your help on a mission that will be the hardest mission you’ve ever been on,” Zonic started off. “ It will be hard on you physically, as well as mentally. But Sonic and Tails have agreed, because they understand what the cost will be if they don’t.”
          “ And what is that?” Knuckles asked.
          “ The complete and utter destruction of planet Mobius,” Zonic said, not smiling.
          “ Hmmm…” Knuckles thought it over in his head. ‘ Can I go through with this?’ “ Well, tell me where we’re going.”
          “ We’ll be going to another zone. This mission may take months, possibly years. But it all depends on how you treat this mission,” Zonic explained.
          “ What zone?” Knuckles asked.
          “ I’m not allowed to explain that in front of anyone but Sonic, Tails, and you,” Zonic explained.
          “ Remington, I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to ask you and you’re men to leave,” Knuckles said sternly.
          “ Absolutely, Guardian,” Remington said, departing with his men.
          “ Alright, uh- what was your name again?” Knuckles asked.
          “ I never told you it in the first place,” Zonic said. “ My name is Zonic, the zone cop. I keep all of the zones in this universe, and every other universe in check. I make sure nothing that’s happening is something that shouldn’t be happening. And that’s precisely what this is all about.”
          “ So, go on. I’ve been waiting to hear this,” Sonic said with enthusiasm.
          “ Okay. Here it goes… this is a long story, so please bare with me. Let’s start… First off, even knowing you, Sonic, know about other realities, Knuckles here doesn’t. So allow me to explain to you, Knuckles, what they are. There are other realities of every planet. As you should know, there ARE other planets out there… all of over every universe. There are other realities of them, which are zones in themselves.
          “ This may make you think that you are just a copy of other versions of you. But you are in fact, not. Because this planet, called Mobius, is the PRIME version of all the others. Which makes it the one, true version of all the others. Therefore, everything and everyone on it are the PRIME versions of all the others. Which makes you, Knuckles Prime. Sonic, Sonic Prime. And so on and so on.
          “ And so, there are many different versions of you and this planet… our mission takes place on one of them. This version of Mobius Prime is Mobius Jungle. It is called that, because the entire planet is jungle, except for one, small town, made entirely out of metal. There, a mad man is the ruler. His name is Misst. He has minions, who work for him. He has the only computer on the planet, which he used to hack into my computer, where he found out about the other realities, as well as zones. He also hacked into the main computer of YOUR enemy, Sonic. You know him as Dr. Robotnik. Dr. Robotnik Prime, that is. Dr. Robotnik had created a mechanism that he called the Ultimate Annihilator.
          “ This machine, as you know, Sonic, could destroy a large area of a planet with but a touch of a button. He also learned that you, Sonic, had overthrown Robotnik Prime, showing Misst that YOU are very powerful. As time progressed, he kept up with what you were currently doing. The trip around the world to hunt down Ixis Naugus. The defeat of Mammoth Mogul. The defeat of Robo-Robotnik’s satellites, and the defeat of the water monster Perfect Chaos.
          “ He wondered what to do with you, Sonic. He learned that whenever something went awry in another zone, I’d call upon YOU to help out. He had wanted to be ruler of every universe, and he knew if he were to succeed in doing this, you’d have to be wiped out, along with all of your powerful friends.
          “ So that’s where the files from Robotnik Prime come in. He thought that if he could build another Ultimate Annihilator, that was bigger, and much, much more powerful, then he could get rid of you, and all of your allies, making it easy for him to conquer every universe, and be the ruler of everything in creation. So he stoll the blueprints for the original Ultimate Annihilator, and went by those in building the Ultimate Annihilator 2. If this machine is created, it will be powerful enough to destroy a planet with the push of a button. And THAT’S why we’re going to Mobius Jungle… to stop Misst before he is finished with the U.A. 2, so we can all go on with our lives,” Zonic completed, with a long sigh of relief.
          “ That has to be the LONGEST story I’ve ever heard,” Sonic said.
          “ Then you certainly haven’t read any books,” Knuckles said to Sonic. “ That story was nothing compared to some of the things I’VE read.”
          “ I was being sarcastic, Knux. I wasn’t serious,” Sonic explained.
          “ Well, at least it explained everything… and by what I hear, it’s definitely something that needs to be taken care of,” Knuckles said.
          “ So you’re in?” Zonic asked.
          “ Yeah. You can consider me in,” Knuckles said proudly.
          “ Alright. I’ll give you a few minutes to say goodbye to everyone,” Zonic said. “ You know that this mission may take a LONG time to complete, so saying goodbye to everyone can be very important, because you won’t see them for a while.”
          “ Alright. I’ll be right back,” Knuckles said, running up to Julie-Su, who had been lost trying to find him in the sea of Echidna’s walking around in the streets of the city.
          “ Hi, Knux! I was wondering where you disappeared to!” Julie-Su exclaimed. “ The rest of the Chaotix caught up with us as well.”
          Vector the crocodile, Mighty the Armadillo, and Espio the Chameleon walked up to knuckles and Julie-Su.
          “ Hey Knux! Wazzup? Haven’t seen your ugly mug in a while,” Vector said happily.
          “ Yeah! Where’ve you been?” Mighty asked.
          “ That’s not important. Guys, what is important is that I have to say goodbye to you all. You won’t be seeing me for a long time…” knuckles said sadly.
          “ Why not, buddy?” Espio asked.
          “ ‘Cause. I’m leaving on a mission that if it doesn’t’ pull through, will result in the destruction of the whole planet…” Knuckles explained.
          “ WHAT?! THE WHOLE PLANET’S GONNA GO KABOO-“ Vectors mouth was covered by Knuckles’ gloved hand.
          “ Shut up, Vector! Nobody’s suppose to know! It’ll cause too much panic! So all of you, make sure not to tell anyone,” Knuckles commanded.
          “ Okay, okay,” Vector said pulling away from Knuckles’ hand.
          Julie-Su was speechless. Knuckles walked over to comfort her. Knuckles could tell she wanted to cry, but she held back her tears. He kissed her on the check. A voice calling from behind made Knuckles turn around.
          “ Knuckles! Julie-Su called on her cell phone! She said she had lost you, and I was getting worried,” Knuckles’ mother ran up to him.
          “ Mom… I’ve got to tell you… I’m leaving on a mission. If I don’t the whole world will be destroyed. Make sure not to tell anyone…” Knuckles explained again.
          “ Oh, son! You’ve left on so many missions…” Lara-Le, Knuckles’ mother, hugged her son, crying.
          “ Oh, mom… I’ll be all right. Don’t worry…” Knuckles said, almost sobbing himself.
          “ Well, guys… I’ll see you all…” Knuckles started again. “ Julie-Su, mom… I love both of you.
          Knuckles kissed Julie-Su, then walked towards Sonic, Tails and Zonic.
          “ Are you ready?” Zonic asked.
          “ Hold on a sec…” Knuckles started rubbing his temples. His eyes closed.

In Haven, Locke was making mental contact with Knuckles.
          ‘ My son… I am against you going… but I now know the consequences if you don’t. goodbye, son. I love you,’ Locke said to his son.
          ‘ I know you’ve been listening to this story the whole time dad… and I trust you won’t tell anyone…’ Knuckles said to his father.
          ‘ Of course not, son… goodbye,’ Locke said.
          ‘ Goodbye, dad. I love you too,’ Knuckles said.
          The mental lock was broken up, and Knuckles stepped up to Zonic.
          “ I’m ready now. Let’s go,” Knuckles said.
          “ Alright. We’ll be traveling through a zone portal to get to Mobius Jungle. It’ll take but a few minutes to get there,” Zonic said, followed by another big flash of white light, the crackling of thunder and a strike of lightning. After the smoke cleared, they were gone…

          Deep within Haven, Locke walked back to the command center to meet up with the other Guardians. He walked into the room, to find no one there. His father walked in a few minutes later, followed by Sojourner, then Thunderhawk.
          “ Well?” Locke asked his father.
          “ Well what, Locke?” Sabre asked back.
          “ Where’s Spectre?” Locke asked.
          “ He’s coming. He was conferencing with our fire ant brethren. He was telling them about Knuckles’ decision… which is why we’ve come together,” Sabre explained.
          “ And what of it? It was Knuckles’ choice, only one which he could make,” Locke protested.
          “ In some ways, yes. In other ways, no,” Sojourner said.
          “ Yes, I know what you’re talking about, grandfather,” Locke said. “ Knuckles is guardian of this island. His duty to protect the innocent as well as the chaos emerald has been jeopardized by his choice… but, really, we’ve been helping him out behind the scenes since day one. What would make the difference now?”
          “ A LOT WOULD!” a voice from behind yelled.
          Spectre walked through a metal sliding door, holding up Archimedes, who had screamed to Locke.
          “ Why would you say that, Archimedes?” Locke asked calmly.
          “ Because. Ever since I introduced myself to knuckles, you’ve been telling me what to tell the boy, without him getting suspicious… we may have been helping things out, but now we have no one to enforce these things!” Archimedes protested.
          “ Yes, I know this. If I hadn’t of thought everything through, I wouldn’t have let my son go with the Hedgehog,” Locke explained.
          “ And what is your plan for the time being, Locke?” Spectre asked.
          “ I will take the mantle as guardian, since I am the latest guardians father. Everything should go smoothly until Knuckles returns,” Locke said.
          “ But you watched what that Zonic fellow said! Knuckles may not be back for up to a year!” Thunderhawk bellowed.
          “ I understand this, grandfather Thunderhawk. But I-“ Locke was cut off by a thundering sound coming from a dark corner of the room. Everyone looked to see the great Athair standing in the doorway.
          “ What are YOU doing here, old man?!” Locke bellowed. He had never cared much for Athair, because of things he had done in the past.
          “ I have come here to defend you, Locke. Why must you always be on the defensive?” Athair asked.
          Locke closed his mouth.
          “ Now, I believe Locke has gotten things straight… let him try his plans, and see how it goes. If something goes awry, then we can try other guardians for the job until Knuckles returns,” Athair suggested.
          “ Thank you for your thoughts, Athair,” Sabre thanked him almost automatically.
          “ I must be leaving now. The ancient walkers call me…” Athair said, as he disappeared. A looming smoke from Athairs disappearance formed a picture of the Ancient Walkers, then cleared.
          “ Alright, Locke. We can try this for a while… then see how it turns out,” Sabre said to his son.
          “ You can’t be serious! M’boy Knuckles is gone… how can Locke possibly take his place?” Archimedes yelled.
          “ Do not worry, Archimedes. Locke will fare well… he did when he was guardian, didn’t he?” Spectre said to the fire ant.
          “ yes, yes, he did. I’m sorry for yelling, Locke. You must understand that Knuckles was a close friend, as well as partner… he wasn’t someone I wanted to just disappear,” Archimedes said sadly.
          “ I understand. Now, I’ll be on my way to Echidnapolis,” Locke said, heading towards the door.
          “ Hold, son. You can stay here until something happens. I don’t think your ex-wife would be very happy to see you…” Sabre said.

          Deep within the zone portal in which Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Zonic the zone cop travel towards Mobius Jungle, Sonic talks with Zonic.
          “ So, what happened to the Sonic of Mobius Jungle?” Sonic asked.
          “ He was… killed by Misst,” Zonic mumbled.
          “ Oh…” Sonic said sadly.
          “ Is there other versions of us in Mobius Jungle?” Knuckles asked.
          “ Oh, of course there is. There’s one of you, Tails, Sally, Su-Su… everyone. They are, however, all over the planet, so you may not run into all of them,” Zonic explained.
          “ I remember when me and Sonic faced other versions of ourselves… they were evil versions, though. I’d like to meet Mobius Jungle’s version of me, since he’s going to be a good version,” Knuckles said.
          “ I would too,” Tails said. “ I also want to meet Rotor and Antoine. Maybe Rotor would be funny instead of smart, and maybe Antoine wouldn’t be such a wimp!”
          “ Come on, Tails. Antoine’s been cool AND brave for a LONG time now. Especially when we finally took care of Robotnik. Remember? It was Bunnie and his bomb that they planted that saved all of our butts… he’s pretty brave, if you ask me,” Sonic said in defense.
          “ I noticed you guys have been friends instead of enemies for a long time,” Tails said.
          “ Yeah. Me and ‘Twan have made piece,” Sonic said. “ So, Knux. I hear you and Su-Su are an item?”
          “ Well, yeah, kinda,” Knuckles blushed. “ Say, what’s in that wooden sheath?” Knuckles said, getting off the subject.
          “ Oh, this? It’s the Sword of Acorns. The king actually gave it to me… it’s such an honor,” Sonic said proudly.
          Sonic had put the Sword of Acorns in a Castle Acorn wooden sheath, which had a strap that he placed on his shoulder.
          “ I bet it was. I remember when you guys had me hunt for that thing… man, did it take a long time!” Knuckles grunted. “ But I’m glad you have it now, Sonic.”
          “ Thanks, Red,” Sonic thanked him.
          “ We’re here,” Zonic said, braking up Sonic and Knuckles’ conversation.
          “ Cool! I can’t wait to see this place!” Tails yelled in joy.
          “ This is a serious mission Tails,” Zonic said coldly. “ I’d like you to take it that way.”
          The four of them jumped through the end of the portal, and landed on a jungle floor. The portal was still opened.
          Sonic looked up. It was much different than the great forest back in ol’ Mobius… the air smelt different. Vines fell from high trees. The air felt damp all around him… he got up, helping his friend Tails. Knuckles got up beside him.
          Knuckles walked up to a small pond that was behind a bushel of wet branches that stuck up from the ground. The water was clearer than any stream, river or pond he had ever seen…
          Tails flew high into the air, enjoying the breeze he caught in the air. This time, unlike a couple hours ago when he was caught in the wind when playing football with Sonic, he glided along with the wind, bringing it in instead of resisting it… this place seemed to give everyone here happiness, joy and amazement… it was beautiful here… it was hard to think that somewhere on this beautiful planet, an evil being is building the ultimate weapon of destruction… something they needed to stop.
          Sonic, Tails and Knuckles walked out to where Zonic stood. They waited for their directions.
          “ So, where is this town?” Knuckles asked.
          “ I don’t know. Misst has put a block on his computer, so I haven’t been able to trace it. But I’ve been working on breaking the code. Although I haven’t been able to pinpoint it’s exact location, I’ve been able to stop where it is in a 100-mile radius. It is somewhere within 100 miles of here… I still don’t know whether it’s north, south, east or west, so you guys better get searching. Oh, and the town’s name is Roolicky,” Zonic explain.
          “ What do you mean, just us? Aren’t you going to help us?” Sonic asked.
          “ I will be helping you, every step of the way. I just won’t be here on this planet. I’ll be at my workstation, trying to crack this code. Then, I will be able to tell you where the town is, if you don’t find it right off,” Zonic said. “ So I can tell you anything that comes up, I’ll be giving my laptop computer to Tails. It runs by battery, and I’ll give you a solar powered battery charger so you can charge the battery. The whole thing is very compact, and it all is in this small bag,” Zonic handed Tails a small pouch. He looked inside to see a handheld computer, a very small battery, and an even smaller battery charger. “ Just check the e-mail to see if I’ve found anything that’ll help you. You may want to check ATLEAST once a day. Now, I’ll be on my way. Goodbye.”
          Sonic, Tails and Knuckles waved, then sat off to set up a camp.
          “ Hey Knux! Go with Tails to get some wood. I’ll start setting up a hut for us to sleep in for tonight,” Sonic said to Knuckles.
          “ Alright, Blue. Come on Tails, let’s go get some fire wood,” Knuckles said to Tails.
          “ Right,” Tails agreed.
          Knuckles and Tails set off in the air. Knuckles gliding along side of Tails, who used his two ails to rotate, making it possible for him to fly.
          Sonic sat down, setting the wooden sheath that held the Sword of Acorns in front of him. He didn’t do what he said he would; instead, he didn’t get up from where he sat. He just thought of the long journey ahead… of Sally… of Rotor, Bunnie and Antoine… and of King Max and Queen Alicia.
          ‘ I can’t believe I agreed to this…’ Sonic thought. ‘ What will I do without Sally and my friends? Sure, Tails and Knuckles are here, but that just isn’t enough. I need Sally…’
          Sonic covered his face with his hands, as he started weeping…

          “ Sonic? Sonic, what’s wrong?”
          “ Wha-huh?” Sonic woke up. He had cried himself to sleep.
          “ Why are you so sad?” Tails asked.
          Knuckles just looked down, not saying anything.
          “ Why were you crying?” Tails asked.
          “ What? How’d you know I was crying?” Sonic asked.
          “ Your tears, it’s like they stained the sides of your cheeks..” Knuckles finally spoke. “ I understand. It’s hard knowing you’re going to be away from your friends for so long, isn’t it? I hate this already…”
          “ Well, I’m upset, but I know that we’ll always have each other!” Tails said with a smile on his face.
          Sonic smiled too, and got up from the ground.
          “ You’re right, bud. Listen, I think that we aught to get some rest, and then head out tomorrow. Zonic said that the sooner this mission is complete, the quicker we get to see our friends again,” Sonic said, putting his arm around to Tails.
          “ Alright. But what are we going to sleep on? We don’t have the luxuries of beds here,” Knuckles said to Sonic.
          While Sonic was pondering this, a lighting bolt struck, and a zone portal opened. Three sleeping bags and pillows were thrown out of it, and landed on the ground. The portal then retracted, sealing it up once again.
          Sonic walked over, and picked two pillows up and threw one to Knuckles, and one to Tails. He then looked up to the night sky, stars twinkling in the midnight air. The heroic Hedgehog allowed himself a slight smile, and spoke under his breath, “ Thank you, Zonic.”

          Morning came a little too early for Sonic. He had stayed up half the night last night, and he was very, very tired. But Knuckles insisted on betting up early and heading out, incase Misst got wind of them coming to find him.
          “ Get up, you lazy Hedgehog,” Knuckles joked.
          “ Okay, okay. I’m up!” Sonic said angrily.
          Sonic got up out of his sleeping bag, and rolled it up, and tied his pillow to it. Then, with the strap that was provided for it, tied it to the back of the wooden sheath that held the Sword of Acorns. He was ready to move out now.
          Knuckles and Tails picked up there things, and put them on their backs.
          “ Hey Tails, we get anything from Zonic on the e-mail?” Sonic asked.
          “ Nope. We didn’t get nothin’ yet. It’s only been one night though. I didn’t expect to get anything,” Tails admitted.
          “ Okay, kid. Well, let’s move out!” Knuckles yelled.
          And with that, Sonic, Tails and Knuckles headed out on their mission.
          “ Zonic said that this town was in a 100-mile radius of where we set up camp,” Sonic said. “ But he didn’t tell us in which direction.”
          “ I know that, Blue,” Knuckles said irritably.
          “ Well, how do you know which direction to go?” Sonic asked Knuckles, whom he and Tails were following.
          “ I don’t need to wait for Zonic to tell us where to go,” Knuckles said. “ I want to get this mission over quickly, and I know exactly where to go.”
          “ How?!” Sonic asked.
          “ Remember when you two met up with the Echidna called Yanar, when you were caught by the High Sheriff of Snotingham?* Well he was one of a tribe of lost Echidna’s, whom I was leading to their home world of Albion. When we finally got there, Yanar gave me a guiding star gem. It shows me the way to any place I want. We can easily make it to Roolicky in no time flat,” Knuckles explained. (* Sonic issue 58 and Knuckles issues 10-12)
          “ That’s awesome! All we have to do is get to the Town of Roolicky, destroy Misst and the Ultimate Annihilator 2, and we can go home!” Tails said with joy.
          “ That’s awesome,” Sonic said. “ We’ve been separated from our friends for one day, and we already miss them. I want to get back to them…”

          The Floating Island. Deep within it, the command center known as Haven serves as a dwelling for many former Guardians of the Floating Island today. Among them, is Knuckles’ father, Locke.
          The guardians that were there were Thunderhawk, Sabre, Spectre, Sojourner, and Knuckles’ father, Locke. Archimedes the fire ant was there as well.
          “ Why did you have us all gather again, father?” Locke asked Sabre.
          “ Well, since yesterday when you became guardian for a short while, something came up. The dingoes that we live with are getting rowdy. A rumor is going around the streets of Echidnapolis, that General Stryker of the dingoes, is going to strike upon the city unless the Echidna council agrees to all of his commands,” Sabre explained. “ That is one of two of our problems.”
          “ Well, I can contact Remington. That is a matter that he and his men can take care of. What is the other problem you speak of?” Locke asked.
          “ The mission that Knuckles went on. He has the guiding star gem, so he can get to that town he needs to get to… so he won’t be gone no more than a couple weeks at the most,” Sabre explained. “ Unless the mission is met with failure. You know the consequences that will be dealt if Knuckles and his friends don’t succeed. King Acorn, of the Kingdom of Knothole, contacted me. He knows about this as well, and he does not want to see his people or ours get obliterated by the Ultimate Annihilator 2 if Knuckles and his friends don’t succeed. So incase the U.A. 2 is detonated, he has a scientist in his kingdom. He has created a device that will shield a selected area from anything that is dangerous. This means, that if the machine was activated, for example, around the Floating Island, then nothing could get to it. Making the entire place invulnerable to anything from the outside world, including the detonation of the U.A. 2.
          “ So what are your thoughts on this, Sabre?” Archimedes asked.
          “ I believe, since this is a great time of need, that the people of the Floating Island can and WILL work with the Kingdom of Knothole,” Sabre spoke.
          “ I don’t think there’s any other choice, anyway,” Sojourner said.
          “ I don’t think so, either. So, it is agreed? We will work with the Kingdom of Knothole to protect our people and our island?” Sabre presented.
          All the people in the room raised their hands.
          “ Then it is anonymous. I will get in contact with King Acorn immediately,” Sabre said.
          “ Hold hard, grandson,” A voice from behind spoke.
          Sabre and the others looked back to see Athair standing in the shadows once again.
          “ You have nothing to do with this, old man,” Sabre protested.
          “ I may not, but the Ancient Walkers do. They know what you are all planning… and they wish for you to build an energy shield yourselves,” Athair said.
          “ What? Are you out of your mind? There’s no way we could build one in two weeks! The scientist from Knothole already has some built. We could easily set it up by the end of today. Why would the Ancient Walkers protest this?” Sabre asked.
          “ Because of the risk of exposing ourselves to outsiders. You know as well as any Echidna that when we tried to make friends with outsiders many of years ago, it resulted in the attack of overlanders,” Athair said.
          “ I know. When we tried to help King Acorns wife, who were in a war with the overlanders, we ended up getting attacked by the overlanders for being allies to the King and Queen. But that was many years ago, father. The war is over now,” Sabre explained.
          “ Yes, but what of the overlander known as Robotnik? You know that he has returned, as Princess sally got in contact with you to tell you this,” Athair spoke. “ If you get in contact with the King, what will stop him from finding out about this device, and coming to this island to get it? He does not know the coordinates for Knothole Village, so if he finds out about this machine, he’ll try to get the one that he can get to first. He’s already come to this island before, so what would stop him from destroying it? Think about this, son.”
          “ We understand this, father. But if we set up the machine before he finds out, then he couldn’t get to this island anyway,” Sabre said.
          “ Uh, yes. The Ancient Walkers have thought of this. But they also know the fact that the scientist from knothole is but an overlander. What if this is just a trick? We could just be falling into a trap…” Athair said.
          The room fell silent. None of them had given this thought. What were they to do? Locke stood up, and walked to Athair.
          “ We will do what we think is right. We do not need your thoughts on this, nor the Ancient Walkers. Leave now, before we make you,” Locke said, face to face with his grandfather.
          “ As you wish, grandson. But consider this your warning…” Athair disappeared into thin air, leaving another image of the Ancient Walkers in the air, created by the smoke that was left.
          Locke sat back down. His father smiled at him.
          “ Nice job, son. Now, go call Remington on the matter of the dingoes. I’ll get in contact with King Acorn,” Sabre ordered.
          Locke got up, not saying anything, and walked into the computer room to call Sergeant Remington.
          “ Thank you all for coming,” Sabre thanked them.
          He then left the room, thinking of what Athair had said.
          ‘ What if the old man was right?’ He thought.
          Yes, what if he was…

          Sonic and Tails left Knuckles in their dust. They stormed past him with their speed, although Tails wasn’t nearly as fast as Sonic, whom could run up to speeds of over 200 miles an hour. Tails used his Tails to run, so he basically hovered a few inches above the ground, making it easier for him to travel. Knuckles laughed as he covered his eyes from the dust left behind from Sonic.
          “ Hey guys! You think you’re fast ? Check this out!” Knuckles jumped into the air, did a flip, and as he was heading for the ground, his dreadlocks spread open, and he started gliding at a fast rate. He picked up speed at an incredible rate, flying past Tails and catching up with Sonic, who just smiled at him.
          “ You think you’re as fast as me?” Sonic asked him, smiling.
          “ I’m up here with you, aren’t I?” Knuckles asked, smirking.
          “ Huh! Boy, I’m just joggin’! Later, red!” Sonic flew past him, leaving a trail of fire where his sneakers hit the ground.
          A few minutes later, Tails and Knuckles caught up with Sonic, who was standing under a tree, tapping his foot.
          “ What took you guys so long?” Sonic asked jokingly.
          “ You’ve got some amazing speed, Blue,” Knuckles admitted. “ I’ll give you that much.”
          “ Yeah, Sonic may be fast, but you’ve gotten faster too, Knuckles,” Tails said.
          “ Yeah, Knux. That was a cool little trick you did there,” Sonic said.
          “ Thanks. I’ve been working on that one for a while,” Knuckles said.
          “ Well, we better get goin’ again,” Sonic said.
          “ Hold on. We need to get back on the original trail. You must have been going so fast, you lost track of where you were, because we’re way off course,” Knuckles said.
          “ That’s too bad,” A voice from above said.
          Sonic, Tails and Knuckles looked up to see a shadowy figure standing on a thick branch of a tall tree. It jumped down in front of them, and stood straight up.
          “ Who are you?” Knuckles asked.
          “ I am Kaluka, a hitman for Misst. He had for-seen the arrival of Sonic Prime, whom I’m suppose to destroy. He said he was a blue Hedgehog, which is precisely what you are, Sonic!” Kaluka pointed at Sonic, who took battling position. “ He didn’t mention, however, some of your friends… but no matter. I’ll get paid extra to kill some your friends.
          Knuckles looked at Kaluka strangely. Kaluka had pointed hair on his head that went straight towards the sky. He had a metal gauntlet on his right arm, and large army boots. On his left arm was a bandage, and he wore a strap around his upper torso, and a belt that held his lazer cannon and his dagger. One of his ears had two rings in it, and the other ear was only half there.
          ‘ What a strange looking group of people,’ Kaluka thought.
          He looked over Sonic, Tails and Knuckles. Sonic had long quills on the back of his head and back. He had green eyes, and pointy ears. He wore white gloves, and his sneakers looked two sizes too big, but his sneakers were nice looking. Gray soles, gold buckles, red all over with a strip of white from side to side. He was blue all over, except for his mouth and stomach, which were peach.
          Knuckles was red all over, except for his mouth, which was peach. He had seven long dreadlocks, and purple eyes. His gloves were huge, with two knuckles on each hand, which were pointy. His sneakers had silver buckles, and gray soles. They were red and yellow all around, and he wore green socks. His chest bared a ring that went from around his neck. A symbol which, Kaluka thought, must be a symbol past down from his family heritage.
          Tails, had two tails. His fur was gold, and his mouth and stomachs fur was white. On his head were three pointy hairs. His shoes had gray soles, and were white and red.
          ‘ Very strange,’ he thought again.
          The moment of thought had ended. Sonic made the first move, jumping into the air and diving for Kaluka. Kaluka noticed it, and grabbed onto Sonic in mid air, and slung him into a tree trunk. Knuckles dived after Kaluka, who was distracted by Sonic’s groans of pain. Knuckles got a punch in, knocking Kaluka down with a thud. Tails flew over to see if Sonic was all right.
          “ SONIC! Are you okay?!” Tails screamed to his friend.
          Sonic didn’t say anything to his young friend. He just got up and jumped after Kaluka, who was still stumbling around from the hit he took from Knuckles. Sonic stretched out his leg, and struck Kaluka in the back of the head. Kaluka, unable to stand anymore, fell to the ground again.
          “ Did we get him?” Sonic asked.
          “ I think so,” Knuckles answered.
          Suddenly, Kaluka jumped with his lazer cannon and dagger in his hands. Kaluka fired the cannon, striking Sonic, who was thrown across the jungle by the blast. Then Kaluka went after Knuckles.
          Knuckles’ thoughts went haywire. He clenched his fists, and narrowed his eyes. He jumped into the air, and smashed Kaluka’s face. When Kaluka hit the ground, Knuckles started screaming. He hunched over, and his color started changing to dark green… he suddenly grew a foot, and his muscles bulged. He walked over to Kaluka, and picked him up. Knuckles saw fear in his face.
          “ Wha- what are you?!” Kaluka screamed.
          “ Someone you do NOT want to fuck with,” Knuckles threatened, not thinking of what he just said. “ Now get out of here.”
          Kaluka was released, and started running away. Knuckles turned his back on him, and Kaluka stopped. He reached into his boot, and pulled out a small pocketknife. He slung it at Knuckles, who turned around and saw it. Right before it reached him, it stopped in midair. It then fell to the ground.
          “ You think you can hurt me?” Knuckles asked Kaluka.
          Kaluka couldn’t believe what had just happened. He just stood where he was, unable to think.
          Knuckles closed his eyes, and a green substance built in his open hands. He then released it, throwing it towards Kaluka, who flew out of sight by the blast, screaming all the while.
          “ Knuckles! Come quick!” Tails yelled from where Sonic lay.
          Knuckles ran over to Tails, who had a shocked look on his face. Knuckles knew what he was thinking.
          “ I’ll explain later, kid. But first we need to get Sonic some help,” Knuckles said.
          “ But he’s not breathing!” Tails screamed, crying.
          “ WHAT?!” Knuckles knelt down, looking at his face. Sonic the Hedgehog was dead. His chest had been blown apart.
          Knuckles picked Sonic’s body up in his arms, and carried him under a tree. Storm clouds cluttered the sky, as raindrops fell to the ground. Lighting struck a nearby tree, so Knuckles walked back into the small, dirt trail.
          “ What are you gonna do?” Tails asked, almost in a whisper.
          Knuckles didn’t answer. He closed his eyes, and he a green glow surrounded him and Sonic.
          ‘ I hope this works,’ Knuckles thought.
          The green glow got so bright, Tails had to cover his eyes. He could no longer see Knuckles and Sonic. The glow slowly died down, until Knuckles was just standing, Sonic still limp.
          “ What did you do?” Tails asked.
          Knuckles didn’t say anything. He just looked down at Sonic. Suddenly, Sonic jumped to life, jumping around, punching and kicking the air.
          “ What happened?” Sonic asked, unaware of what happened.
          Knuckles just smiled. Sonic’s chest didn’t show a mark of where it had been blown apart. Tails didn’t ask Knuckles of what he did. He completely understood, and just smiled.
          “ Holy crap! Knuckles, what happened to you?!” Sonic yelled.
          Knuckles picked up the wooden sheath that held the Sword of Acorns, and handed it to Sonic. “ I’ll explain in the morning. Come on. I’ve had enough battling. I need some rest… we can head out later.”

          King Maximillion Acorn walked into the Royal computer lab. He walked forward to the screen, and saw the face of Sabre, the former Guardian of the Floating Island.
          “ Hello, King Max. I’m here to confirm that we will accept your proposal for the energy shield. We cannot allow one of our own to get it, so you’ll need to send one of yours to bring it,” Sabre said.
          “ Very well. I’ll send my Secret Service to bring one to you,” King Acorn said.
          “ Max, I must know,” Sabre said, “ Is your scientist an overlander?”
          “ Why, yes he is. He is the kindest person I have ever met. I know what you must be thinking. A normal overlander would want to destroy any mobian or Echidna, but I know this one. I’ve known him since I could remember… trust me when I say he is as harmless as a flea,” King Acorn reassured.
          “ Fleas bite, King Max. But, I will take your word for it… please send the machine in by morning,” Sabre said. “ Over and out.”
          King Acorn walked out of the room, and walked towards Geoffrey St. John and his secret service agents. St. John stood tall, and saluted the King.
          “ Greetings, St. john. I have a mission for you. You know where Haven is on the Floating Island, correct?” King Max asked.
          “ Yes sir. If I remember correctly, you sent me on a mission to recover the Queen, where I found her in Haven,” St. John said.
          “ Well, this mission is simpler. Please bring this energy shield machine to Haven. Present it to Sabre, who will take it. Then return here. And make sure to give him my reassurances about Nathaniel,” King Max ordered.
          “ Yes sir,” St. John saluted. “ Alright, men. Let’s move out. We have a mission tomorrow.”
          St. John and his agents Hershey, Heavy, Bomb and Wombat Stu, went to their bunkers.
          ‘ I hope the Echidna’s believe me. They are allies, and I don’t know what would happen if they don’t get that energy shield up,’ King Max thought. ‘ I just wish people would learn that not ALL overlanders are evil… ESPECIALLY Uncle Nate…’

          Morning once again came early for Sonic. He spent all night thinking about how, thanks to Knuckles, he had escaped death… he couldn’t believe it.
          This time, Sonic was the first up, because he didn’t sleep all night long. He woke Knuckles up first, because he wanted to hear why Knuckles had turned green. Knuckles turned on his side, looking up at Sonic. He then got up onto his feet, and looked at him.
          “ Thanks for saving me,” Sonic blurted out.
          “ No problem, bro,” Knuckles said.
          “ So, I’ve been waiting to hear what the story was,” Sonic said.
          “ What story?” Knuckles asked.
          “ Well, you now. Why you turned green,” Sonic answered.
          Knuckles looked at himself. He was still green.
          “ Well, let me wake Tails up first. He was curious about it as well,” Knuckles said, waking up Tails.
          Tails jumped up. He had been wondering about Knuckles’ color change and energy that he possessed all night.
          “ Well?” Tails asked, expecting an answer right away.
          “ Alright. Well, before I hatched out of my egg when I was born, my father and the brotherhood of echidna’s merged a chaos emerald with my body. Mutating me… that’s why I have Knuckles like I do. Other Guardians don’t have them. I just found this out recently… I am just now learning how much power I possess. I, am infect, a living chaos emerald*… so I can change into a chaos emerald form, and use chaos emerald energy… I am basically invincible. I have powers because of the chaos energy. That’s how I brought you back to life, Sonic. And that’s the story,” Knuckles explained.
          (* A chaos emerald is a glass shard from the planet mobius that has unlimited energy powers.)
          “ That’s awesome,” Sonic said. “ I’m only invincible when I become Super Sonic.”
          “ Yeah, that is cool,” Tails agreed.
          “ When will you change back?” Sonic asked.
          “ It kind of decides on its own,” Knuckles said. “ So I don’t now.
          Sonic and Tails just nodded.
          “ Well, let’s move out,” Sonic said.
          They picked up their things, and headed forward, Knuckles in the lead with his Guiding Star gem…

          Morning on Mobius Prime. Geoffrey St. John and the other agents of the Secret Service gather their gear, as they start to head out on a mission to deliver an energy shield to the Floating Island. Princess Sally Acorn walked across the bridge atop a tree to the next home. This home belonged to Jules and Burney Hedgehog, whom are Sonic’s parents. She knocked on the door, her head facing the ground.
          The door swung open, Burney stood in front of her.
          “ Won’t you come in, dear?” Burney offered.
          Sally just nodded, and walked in.
          “ Have a seat, dear. You’re welcome to some cookies and milk, if you’d like,” Burney told her.
          “ No thanks. I came here to discuss Sonic,” Sally explained.
          “ Oh, dear. I know you miss him. I do as well. He’s my son after all… and I love him so,” Burney said.
          Jules the Hedgehog walked into the room. He realized what was going on, and sat down next to Princess Sally. He put his arm around her to comfort her.
          “ I’m so worried about Sonic,” Sally spoke. “ What if he gets hurt?”
          “ Oh, don’t worry. Rumor has it that your friend Knuckles the Echidna is with him. I think that with friends like that, Sonic will be just fine,” Jules said.
          “ Knuckles is with him?” Sally asked, shocked.
          “ Yes, I heard it from one of my friends, and I thought it was just a rumor. But then I asked the King yesterday, and he said that Knuckles in fact IS with Sonic,” Burney explained. “ I don’t know how he’d know, though…”
          “ Oh, my dad has connections… in fact, he’s sent Geoffrey St. John on a mission to the Floating Island. They’re delivering an Energy Shield to them for them to use, just incase… Sonic doesn’t… succeed on his mission,” Sally sobbed.
          “ Yes, I know about Nate’s invention. But I don’t think we’ll need it. My son has done some very brave things before… I’m sure he can pull this off,” Jules said.
          “ I hope so,” Sally said, looking out the window. “ I just wish that I could be with him to complete it.”
          “ That can be arranged,” A voice spoke from outside the house.
          The door swung open, and Zonic the zone cop walked into the room.
          “ What are doing here?” Sally asked, amazed.
          “ I’ve come to ask you to help Sonic and his friends,” Zonic explained. “ They could definitely use a brilliant and coordinated mind like yours on the mission.”
          “ I’d love to! But, I need to go tell my father,” Sally said, jumping up.
          “ Oh, don’t worry about that. I’ve already informed him. Come along, get into the portal and we can be on our way,” Zonic said, opening up a zone portal in Jules and Burney the Hedgehog’s living room.
          “ Ok. Thank you for the comfort, Jules and Burney. I’ll tell Sonic you miss him,” Sally said, jumping into the portal.
          “ Goodbye dear!” Burney yelled to her.
          “ Take care!” Jules exclaimed.
          “ Goodbye, folks,” Zonic said, jumping into the portal. It then vanished into thin air.
          “ You know, Burney, I don’t like that Zonic fellow…”
          Me either, Jules. I’m a bit suspicious of what he’s up to…”

          Geoffrey St. John and his men jumped into their shuttle, ready to go to the Floating Island. St. John sat in the seat of the cockpit, and turned the craft on. He smiled when the plane revved up… he lived for these kinds of things.
          He turned on the monitor to see King Acorn’s face.
          “ We’re ready to leave sir. Just waiting for clearance,” St. John spoke.
          “ You have clearance to leave, St. John. Give the Echidna’s my best, will you?” King Acorn asked.
          “ Yes sir. St. John out,” Geoffrey said, watching the monitor turn blank.
          Hershey walked into the cockpit. She lifted her goggles from her eyes, and sat them atop her head, and sat down in the seat next to St. John.
          “ How are Wombat Stu, Bomb and Heavy?” Geoffrey asked.
          “ Well, Stu isn’t excited about the plane ride. He gets airsick… Bomb and Heavy are all set. Since they’re robots, they’re fine,” Hershey said.
          “ Good. Here we go…” St. John said, pulling the controls back.
          The shuttlecraft lifted up slowly, but shot off into the sky at an incredible rate of speed…

          Mobius Jungle. Sonic, Tails and Knuckles walked around a gigantic tree, that seemed to have been growing for hundreds of years and never seemed to stop. Sonic wasn’t running today. Instead, he walked behind Tails and Knuckles, holding the Sword of Acorns in front of him… he thought about it. It had healing abilities, which he had seen before… it healed his Uncle Chuck from a lazer shot, and the King from his crystallization. Knuckles, however, is a living chaos emerald himself… so the Sword of Acorns must be made out of a chaos emerald!
          “ Hey you guys! I just figured something out!” Sonic yelled to Tails and Knuckles, racing towards them.
          Knuckles stopped, and turned toward Sonic.
          “ What is it, Sonic?” Knuckles asked.
          “ I figured out something about the Sword of Acorns!” Sonic yelled, catching up with Knuckles.
          “ Well, tell us what!” Tails said.
          “ It’s - What the?!” Sonic stopped when he saw a zone portal open up.
          Princess Sally jumped out of it, landing on her feet. She looked at Sonic, then ran and put her arms around him. He did the same.
          “ Oh, Sonic. It’s only been a couple days, and I already missed you,” Sally told him.
          “ I missed you too, Sal. I missed you too…” Sonic said.
          Zonic’s head popped out of the portal.
          “ Greetings, Sonic. I figured you’d like some help with your mission,” Zonic told him.
          “ Thanks, man. Oh, and don’t worry about giving us the coordinates to Roolicky town. Knuckles has a guiding star gem, which gives us the direction to anywhere we want,” Sonic explained.
          “ Oh, uh… alright. I’ll be on my way then,” Zonic said, going back into the portal.
          The portal then closed up, leaving no signs of it ever being there.
          Inside the portal, Zonic thought to himself.
          ‘ Dang! How could I forget about that gem?! Now they’re going to get to the town extra early…’

          On the floating Island, Sergeant Duze Remington walked into the main control room of the underground lair of Haven, where Locke, the new guardian of the Floating Island, sat, watching a computer screen. On it, dingoes, which were enemies of the Echidnas, put armor on, and readied high tech weaponry.
          “ I see by what you’re watching what you called me here for,” Remington said to Locke.
          “ Yes. The dingoes have had enough waiting of the building of their city. They want it done quicker, and the Council of Echidna’s have not met their demands. Therefore, they are taking action on Echidnapolis. I need you and your men to stop them,” Locke said, turning in his seat to face Remington.
          Yes sir. My men will be ready in one hour,” Remington said. “ I’ll head straight to the police station. My men will have this under control before days end.”
          “ I hope so, Remington. We have MUCH bigger concerns at the moment, and an attack by General Stryker and other rebel Dingoes won’t help them get solved,” Locke said.
          “ I’m on my way now. See you later, Guardian,” Remington said, walking out the sliding metal door.
          Locke turned around in his chair, facing the computer monitor once again…

          The dingoes’ hut. General Stryker and many rebel dingoes ready their guns and lazers. Stryker walked in front of his men, and held his hand high to silence their whispers.
          “ Alright, men. Listen up… You all know why you are here. Because you believe in our cause… the Echidna’s should have been doing more to help us. We’ve been polite, as well as patient. But they do not care, and have not been doing the amount of work to help us build our city than they should be. Therefore, we are heading out to destroy their city, to show them how it feels to live in cabins and huts…” Stryker explained. “ We may not be able to destroy everything, but do what you can. Show those Echidna’s real pain. Now, let’s move out!”
          Stryker and his men moved out of their hut. They got into their Hummer vehicles, and drove off towards the not too distant Echidnapolis.

          In the City of Robotropolis, Dr. Robotnik sat in his metal chair. He watched computer screens, watching different areas of the planet mobius…
          On one screen, which was aimed at the sky, where the floating Island was, he saw a shuttlecraft fly towards it. This interested him greatly, and made his blood boil.
          “ Computer, freeze screen l-6. Zoom in…” He spoke to the computer, which obeyed his commands.
          The ship had a sign on it that read: ROYAL ACORN SECRET SERVICE.
          “ I KNEW IT! THAT’S A ROYAL ACORN PLANE! The King must be going to the Floating Island for protection… after all, my files of the Ultimate Annihilator were hacked into. I’ve been trying to find out who did it, but it is untraceable… I’ve kept my energy shield up ever since I found out, because you never know what can happen… and I’ll keep it up until I find the person who did it,” Robotnik mumbled to himself.
          “ Well, now that I’ve found the King, I’ll go to the Floating Island to destroy him. Then I’ll destroy that retched island too, and steal the Chaos Emerald that keeps it aloft! HUH! What a devious plan… I think I’ll get right on it!”
          Robotnik grabbed a microphone and yelled into it.
          “ Shadow- bot T-105, get my spacecraft ready, and order 50 shadow-bot’s into it. Keep this control station normal. I’ll be gone for a while… I’m going to the Floating Island!”

          Geoffrey St. John talked into the monitor in front of him from the cockpit of his shuttle plane. Sabre was on the other end of it.
          “ Head straight into the right side of the island. Do not worry, you should know that it is actually a portal leading into Haven,” Sabre explained.
          “ Yes, I remember sir. A.T.A.* is 20 seconds,” St. John said, guiding the plane into the side of the island. Inside was a shuttlecraft landing. He slowly lowered the plane. Then, when it had landed, shut it down.
          Thunderhawk, Sabre, Spectre, Sojourner, Locke and Archimedes walked towards the ship. The door hissed open, and St. John and his men walked down.
          Heavy had the Energy Shield machine in his hands, which he handed to Locke.
          “ Here you go, sir,” Heavy said.
          “ Thank you,” Locke said back.
          “ The King told me to tell you all to not worry about the overlander in our Kingdom,” St. John spoke. “ I never thought much of overlanders either, but for this one, I definitely make an exception. He is the kindest person I’ve ever met.”
          “ You don’t have to explain,” Sabre said. “ My father had almost convinced me that the overlander in your kingdom was for evil, but he only got to me because he has special powers that can almost make you think what he wants… he means well though, but he still gets on everyone’s nerves.”
          “ I understand. Well, we should be returning..” St. John said, but stopped when he heard something whistling. It started getting louder and louder. “ Do you hear that?”
          “ Yes, I do,” Locke said.
          The others all fell quiet and listened to the sound. It got louder and louder, until it was almost ear piercing…
          An explosion threw everyone across the room and against the wall.
          St. John stumbled to get up. “ That was a missal!”
          Locke ran into the computer room. He looked at the screen to see a horde of Shadow-bots blowing the island to bits. He looked at another screen to see Robotnik in a small spacecraft, leading the robots.
          He ran back out to tell everyone.
          “ It’s Robotnik!” Locke yelled over another explosion.
          “ We have to set up that energy shield around the Island, before Robotnik destroys the island!” Thunderhawk yelled.
          “ I’ll do it,” Locke said. “ I’m the guardian now. Let me see it. I’ll do it.”
          “ Just hook it up to the computer, and when the screen pops up, type, highlight the parts of the island you want covered by the shield. In this case, it’ll be the whole island,” Bomb explained.
          “ I’m on my way,” Locke said.
          As Locke ran to the computer room again, he stopped to see the entire hallway ablaze with fire.
          “ How am I going to get through this one,” Locke said to himself.

          Outside the island, Robotnik led the robotic horde.
          “ Huh! I’ll get the King once and for all…” Robotnik said.

          In the Kingdom of Knothole, King Acorn strolled around the village like a normal citizen, although he was far from that. By his side was his wife, Queen Alicia.
          Burney and Jules the Hedgehog were visiting Jules’ brother, Sir Charles the Hedgehog, known to Sonic as ‘ Uncle Chuck’.
          “ Do you think Sonic will be all right?” Burney asked Charles.
          “ Of course he will. He’s my nephew, after all,” Charles joked.
          “ Yeah, I guess you’re right…” Burney said.
          Jules turned away from the conversation for a second to see King Acorn and Queen Alicia stroll by. He ran up to them to ask them a question.
          “ Evening, Sire. May I ask you a question?” Jules asked.
          “ Well you just did. But if you wish to ask another, you may,” The King said.
          “ Well, I can’t believe you allowed Sally to join Sonic’s mission. Don’t you think that it’d be a bit dangerous for her?” Jules asked.
          “ WHAT?! SALLY’S JOINED SONIC’S JOURNEY?!” The King yelled.
          “ Yes sir. That Zonic fellow came to our house while Sally was visiting. He said that you said to him that she could join Sonic’s journey, so she left to help Sonic,” Jules said.
          “ I can’t believe it! We haven’t seen that Zonic fellow since he came here to get Sonic. And we OBVIOUSLY wouldn’t have let Sally go… It’s far too dangerous for a lady!” Queen Alicia yelled.
          “ Please don’t be angry with my wife and I,” Jules pleaded. “ We thought that you had INDEED let said Sally could go.”
          “ Oh, it’s not your fault, Jules. I don’t blame you or Burney a bit. I know whose fault it was… Zonic the zone cop’s.”

---

          Sonic, Sally and Tails followed Knuckles on a beaten path. Knuckles had been leading the way the entire time, because of his guiding star gem. Sonic and sally were holding hands the whole way, while Tails flew above them.
          “ So Knux, how long have we been traveling?” Sonic asked.
          “ I think the town should be up just a few miles!” Knuckles said happily.
          “ I don’t see why Zonic said this mission would take so long,” Sonic said. “ It’s been pretty easy except that Kaluka guy.”
          “ He was pretty tough,” Knuckles said, who had finally changed back to his normal color.
          Tails flew back to the ground, with a startled look on his face.
          “ What’s the matter, Tails?” Sonic asked.
          “ I hear some rustling in the bushes ahead,” Tails whispered to him.
          Sonic took out the Sword of Acorns and walked towards the bush Tails pointed to. He slowly reached towards it, and then tore the bush apart to see a turtle, a squirrel and a bird.
          “ What the-?” Sonic asked himself. “ What are you guys doing?”
          “ We’re hiding from Misst’s guards,” One of them said.
          “ Yeah. We were able to hold them off, but more showed up, and we had to run,” Another said.
          “ Well it’s safe. You can come out now,” Sonic said.
          The three came out from behind the shredded bush, and introduced themselves to Sonic and the others.
          “ I’m flyer,” the bird said.
          Flyer was a blue bird that wore army boots and baggy blue jeans. His beak was yellow-orange, and his wings stuck to his arms so they weren’t expanded. Sonic guessed that when he flew, they spread out. His tail was a couple of long, light blue feathers.
          “ I’m Ray,” the turtle said.
          Ray had a small body, but long legs and arms. He wore brown shoes with green soles. His whole body except his shell was green. His shell was dark brown on the back and yellow in the front. He wore yellow goggles, and white gloves.
          “ And I’m Buster,” Squirrel said.
          Buster had a round nose, and a white mouth and belly. He had pointy ears, and had a lair of hair like tails did. He was light yellow all over, and wore army boots, knee and arm pads, gloves and gauntlets on both arms. He had a long tail, and wore a black belt.
          “ So, you guys were attacked by Misst’s men?” Knuckles asked.
          “ Yeah. We were going to Roolicky town to get my brother back. His name is Nate. Misst kidnapped him, because he knew how to build some machine… I can’t remember the name of it…” Buster said.
          “ The Ultimate Annihilator 2,” Sonic completed.
          “ Yeah, that’s it. Misst knew how to build it, but Nate was a technician, and he could build things easy… Misst wanted to hurry the building process so he could use the machine,” Buster said.
          “ Do you know if he IS helping Misst?” Sonic asked.
          “ Yeah, I’m sorry to say, he is helping him. The only reason is because Misst threatened him. He said he’d kill him if he didn’t help,” Buster said.
          “ How do you know all this?” Knuckles asked.
          “ Well, I was kidnapped along with my brother, so I heard everything. Flyer and Ray came to save my brother and I, but they could only get me…” Buster explained sadly.
          “ I’m sorry. Say, why don’t you come with us? We’re going to Roolicky Town to destroy the U.A. 2, along with the entire town,” Sonic said. “ We can save your brother, too.”
          “ Sure! That sounds great!” Ray said.
          And so, the three friends joined Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Sally on their journey. As they walked, they heard a rumbling sound.
          Sonic looked around, searching for a meaning of the noise. Suddenly, a quick assailant knocked him down. Knuckles swerved around, and grabbed for the person, but received a boot to the face instead. There was more than one person there.
          Tails looked around to see a dozen of Misst’s guards circle the seven friends. Knuckles helped Sonic get back up, who spotted the person who consumed most of his hatred… Kaluka.
          “ You again?!” Sonic yelled.
          “ WHAT?! YOU’RE STILL ALIVE?!” Kaluka yelled into the air.
          “ Why, did you actually think that you could kill Sonic the Hedgehog?” Sonic asked, mockingly.
          “ I haven’t yet, but I will!” Kaluka screamed, jumping towards him, his dagger in his hand.
          Sonic dodged the swing, and grabbed Kaluka’s leg. He slung him to the ground, and started stomping on him. Kaluka yelled in pain, and grabbed for Sonic’s leg. Knuckles picked Kaluka up, who spit in his face. Knuckles grew very angry… he threw Kaluka towards the guards, who started firing at the group.
          “ Attack them!” Kaluka yelled, getting picked up by a guard.
          The guards unhooked their lazer cannons, and started firing at Sonic and the others. Sonic easily dodged the shots with his speed, and used the air he gained to dive toward Kaluka. He blocked out all the other people around him, and focused on the thing he hated most… more than Robotnik himself…
          Kaluka pulled out another dagger before Sonic made contact with him. He sliced the air, thinking he had gotten Sonic. He looked to see nothing there…
          Sonic tapped him on his shoulder. Kaluka spun around to see Sonic’s smiling face, and the last thing he saw was a fist coming straight at him.
          Two guards jumped Ray at the same time. He couldn’t handle them both, and was tossed to the ground. They started kicking him, so he dived into his shell. They started kicking it around, and firing at it.
          Ray couldn’t stay in it forever… it would eventually break, and he’d be dead.
          ‘ Isn’t someone going to help me?!’ He thought.
          The kicking and shooting started to get to him. He was about to pop out of the shell, when the shooting and kicking stopped. He popped his head out to see Flyer standing over him, his hand outstretched. Ray took his hand, and Flyer pulled him up.
          “ What did you do to them, man?” Ray asked.
          “ My wings are like sharp steel. They got a little taste of them,” Flyer told Ray.
          Buster was doing fine. He swiped guards’ feet out from under him, and then pummeled him when he was down. Three other guards jumped on his back, but he easily threw them off, and tore his belt. He wrapped it around his hand, and continued to pound his fist into their faces. He then stood up and sighed.
          “ Phew! This is tuff work!” Buster said to flyer and ray.
          “ Whatever! Just help me!” Tails yelled to them, trying to hold off a guard.
          Ray came to his aid, picking the guard up by the stomach and slamming him into a tree. He then helped Tails up off the ground.
          “ You alright, kid?” Buster asked Tails.
          “ Yeah, I’m fine. Thanks Ray,” Tails said to Ray.
          “ No problem, kiddo,” Ray said to Tails.
          Knuckles picked up two guards at the same time, and smashed them together. The last guard was chasing Princess Sally, when she stopped and ripped a piece of wood out of the ground. She turned around at the oncoming guard, and swung the piece of wood as hard as she could, cracking the guards face mask, and knocking him out. A trickle of blood flowed from his head.
          “ Well, that was fun,” Sonic said to his friends.
          “ Phew… I’ve never fought as many people as I did just now,” Flyer said.
          Well, I know what I’m doing… I’m tying this Kaluka guy up… when he comes too, I’ve got some questions to ask him,” Sonic said.

          Kaluka opened his, eyes, his head spinning uncontrollably.
          “ Wha- what happened to me?” He asked.
          His sight then turned to normal, and he saw Sonic’s face.
          “ What the-! You, Hedgehog?! I swear, I’ll kill you-,” Kaluka struggled to get at Sonic, but was stuck for some reason. He looked down, and he was tied to a tree with a rope. He looked up to Sonic angrily.
          “ Hedgehog… When I get loose, I am going to kill you,” Kaluka said to him.
          “ You’re in no position to make threats, Kaluka,” Sonic said to him. “ Now, you either tell me exactly what I want, or I’LL kill YOU!”

          Stryker’s men made it to the boundary line of Echidnapolis. He felt the rumbling below the hummer he was riding, but he tried to ignore it. He knew something was wrong though… there had been a large explosion, knocking his men’s vehicles around, but the other explosions that happened took place on the other side of the island, making them duller from where he was now…

          Remington stood alone, battle armor on. His men from stood behind buildings, holding high tech weaponry. The weapons were almost the same as the dingoes, but had more gadgets on them than the dingoes’.
          “ Hold hard, men. They’re here,” Remington said to the hidden soldiers.
          They all looked around the corner, and stood back, waiting for the surprise attack they were going to lay upon the dingoes.
          Stryker jumped out of his hummer, walking towards Remington, weapon in his hand. Remington clenched the handgun he held tight, not taking his eyes off Stryker. Another rumble caused them to be thrown off balance, but they ignored it.
          “ Hello, Remington. Come here to meet your doom?” Stryker asked, smirking.
          “ No, Stryker. You know why I’m here… you can’t do this. You have to listen to reason!” Remington yelled, trying to talk some sense into Stryker.
          “ If the Echidna Council would have listened to our pleads, then this wouldn’t have to come to pass… but it does. We’ll show you Echidna’s what it feels like to be homeless,” Stryker said, staring into Remington’s sole…
          “ It isn’t going to happen, Stryker. I won’t let you,” Remington said, not backing down. “ I’m not moving.”
          “ Well I guess I’ll have to MAKE you!” Stryker yelled, firing his weapon at Remington, who dodged it. “ Fire! Fire! Kill him!”
          The Echidna soldiers jumped from their hiding places, shocking the dingoes. They returned fire, killing many. Remington grabbed Stryker and threw him into the side of a building. Echidna’s and dingoes all around him fell to the ground, either wounded or dead.
          Remington thought to himself, ‘ This is what hell is…’

          Locke jumped on one side of the wall, dodging the fire. A burning piece of metal fell to the ground where he landed, and he had to jump out of the way to dodge it.
          ‘ How in the world did I get in this mess? I guess that Athair was right, in a sense… he said that the King sending the Energy Shield here may cause Robotnik to come here and destroy the Floating Island to get his hands on it… but I know for a fact that he must think the King was on the shuttle that St. John used to bring this machine here,” Locke thought. ‘ Although I can’t believe I yelled at him like that… I guess we have to pay more attention to what he tells us… if we live to listen to him!’
          Locke barely dodged a fireball that fell towards him.
          ‘ Why didn’t Spectre help me? Oh, yes. Now I remember… it’s not like he’d know this hallway is on fire…’ Locke thought more.
          He thought he had made it to the Computer room, when another missal hit the side of the Island. Locke was flung into the air, where he almost ran into a wall of fire. He did a roll and glided through the rest of the hall to the Computer room…

          “ Shouldn’t Locke be done installing that Energy Shield?” Sabre asked himself.
          “ Even if he does get it fired up, how are we going to get home? Robotnik will keep on pummeling this Island, or trying to, even if the shield is up,” St. John said.
          “ Well, think. How many of those machines did your scientist, Nate, build?” Sojourner asked.
          “ Probably 3…” St. john answered.
          “ Well what happened to the third one?” Sabre asked.
          “ I know,” Heavy said. “ I placed in the back of our shuttle. I thought that if we came under attack, it would come in handy.”
          St. John smiled and hugged the robot.
          “ Heavy, I’ve never been happier for you to be on my team!” St. John yelled into the air.

          Locke placed the machine on the desk near the main computer. He tried turning the computer on, but it didn’t work.
          ‘ Robotnik must have knocked the power out when he started attacking the island,’ Locke thought. ‘ Not a problem. We’ve got backup power!’
          Locke flipped a switch behind the computer, and the main control station came to life. The computer turned on, and Locke picked the machine up and walked over to the computer. He turned the machine on, and plugged it into the computer. A screen on the machine turned on, and he started typing. The screen said: AREA: FLOATING ISLAND. PLEASE SELECT AN AREA TO PLACE ENERGY SHIELD.
          Locke typed in: ENTIRE ISLAND.
          The screen went blank for a moment, then came back on. SYSTEMS INITIATED. SHIELD ACTIVATION COMMENSING… NOW. ENERGY SHIELD ACTIVATED.
          The screen showed a shield covering the entire island. Locke smiled, and looked back at the screen.
          It read: ENERGY SHIELD WILL BE ON UNTIL YOU REQUEST IT TO BE OFF. UNTIL THEN, UNPLUG THE MACHINE. WHEN YOU WISH TO TURN THE SHIELD OFF, PLUG IT BACK INTO YOUR MAIN COMPUTER AND TYPE IN: SHIELD OFF.
          Locke unplugged the machine, and sat it back on the table. He then rushed over to the side of the wall, and broke the glass that held the fire extinguisher. He turned it on, and continued to put the fire out in the hallway…

          “ Hey the firing stopped! Locke did it!” Hershey yelled.
          Locke came walking out of the hall. They all ran to him, and congratulated him.
          “ It worked. It wasn’t an overlander trick after all,” Locke said.
          “ Of course it wasn’t. I told you, Nate is a very good man,” St. John said.
          “ well I believe you, now,” Sabre said.
          “ I’m sure Robotnik is still out there, though,” Locke said.
          “ Absolutely. And we have one of those energy shields in the back of our shuttle plane, so we can go out there and take him out, and we won’t even get hit!” St. John said to Locke.

          Robotnik saw the energy shield blocking the Floating Island. He looked frustrated, because he knew energy shields couldn’t be penetrated. But he didn’t care.
          “ Shadowbots, drill harder! I want to see how much that thing can take before it breaks!” Robotnik yelled.
          The horde of Shadowbots continued to try and penetrate the energy shield. Something that couldn’t happen…

          Mobius Jungle. It was nighttime. In the town of Roolicky, the guardsmen of the town gathered. They had been called for a meeting with their leader, outside of the town.
          One guard came walking towards the group, holding a person in front of him. This person was Nate the Squirrel. Nate had his arms tied behind his back, and his legs shackled, making it hard for him to walk. He tripped, and fell to the ground.
          “ Get up, you lousy sack of crap!” The guard holding him yelled, pulling him up by the rope holding his arms behind his back.
          The guard walked him over to the crowd, and threw him on the ground. He then stood next to him, making sure that he wouldn’t escape.
          “ Get in the line formation!” The guard yelled to the other guards.
          They all followed his orders, quickly getting into a line formation. Twenty feet to the right of them all, a metal door hissed opened. A shadowy figure walked out of the door. All they could see was his silhouette, spikes sticking out of his shoulders, and a long, draping cape followed behind him. The entire place was pitch black, making it unable to even see the person next to you.
          The crowd could hear the person’s footsteps, but was unable to see him. They heard the footsteps stop. Then, a small light flicked on, showing the persons figure… it was Misst!
          Misst wore an all black helmet, but the shield covering his eyes was dark green. His cape was black, drooping behind him. He wore armor on his shoulders, which were spikes. He wore gauntlets on both arms, and gloves that had pointy finger tips. On his right hand, his glove was oversized, with long, sharp, pointy spikes, which he used for battle. He wore full body armor, and on his shins he wore leg gauntlets. His footwear was army boots, with metallic armor around them.
          “ I have come here to inform you all,” Misst spoke in a raspy voice, “ that there is a traitor among us.”
          All the guards looked at each other worriedly. They then looked back at Misst, who showed no expression because of his helmet.
          “ Now that you all of finished gawking, I will find out who it is…” Misst said.
          Misst had telepathic powers. He used them to read people’s minds… if he was suspicious of someone, it was good to use them so he could find out what they knew… and then dispose of the person.
          He walked along the line, looking at every person, who stared back at them with a worried face. Even though almost none of them did anything against Misst’s will, they still trembled even under his presence.
          He walked back to the top off the line, and then started going down it again. He came to the guard who was holding Nate, and stopped. The guard looked worried, until he saw Misst look down. The guard let go of Nate, who he knew must be guilty.
          Misst picked Nate up by the head, and held him high in the air by the throat. Nate struggled to breath as Misst’s grip got tighter and tighter, until he thought his head would explode.
          “ What do you think you were doing? Hacking into my computer? Trying to install a virus into the Ultimate Annihilator 2’s main systems? I’m sure you knew that would damage it greatly, but you stupidly thought it would destroy it and this entire town! Well, you were wrong! It indeed damaged my ultimate weapon, but my scientists fixed it. Now, you must pay the price,” Misst said, gripping Nate’s neck tighter.
          He threw him to the ground, looking at him. His eyes started glowing through his helmet. Everyone gasped.
          “ Take him to the death chamber. Put him in a cell. He’s going to be put to death later tonight,” Misst said. “ I don’t understand why I didn’t see this coming. After all, you only helped build my weapon because your life was on the line if you didn’t… now that you know what I can and WILL do if you fuck with me, I’m sure you won’t do it again… and my men will make sure that you don’t. Now, take him away.”
          The guard picked Nate up, and dragged him towards the building. Nate started kicking and screaming.
          “ You’ll never get away with this! I know all about the zones and other worlds just like this one… and Sonic Prime will be coming! Mark my words… he’ll get you back! He’ll kill you!” Nate yelled, as the door of the building closed behind him.
          Misst thought to himself, ‘ If Kaluka succeeds in his mission, I won’t have to worry about him…’

          Sonic the Hedgehog bit off a piece of meat from the chicken he was cooking from over a fire. It was cold out, but the fire warmed him up. The Sword of Acorns lay in his lap, which he was polishing a minute ago.
          Knuckles the Echidna sat back against a tree, resting. He smiled at the sight he saw. Princess Sally lay next to Sonic, smiling. Tails sat next to Knuckles, laughing. Flyer, Ray and Buster stood against a tree, smirks on their faces. The object of their happiness was Kaluka, tied up to a tree. Sonic got up, a piece of chicken in his hand.
          Kaluka licked his lips. He’d do anything for that piece of chicken… he hadn’t eaten for almost seven hours, and he couldn’t go without food for as long as four hours without feeling dizzy.
          “ You want this?” Sonic asked, a smile on his face.
          “ Yeah… I do. Give it to me, now!” Kaluka yelled.
          “ I don’ think you’re in a position to make demands… after all, you’re tied to a tree. But, if you DO want this, then you’ll have to answer some of my questions,” Sonic said, waving the chicken in front of Kaluka.
          “ Arrrgh… alright. What do you want?” Kaluka asked.
          “ Tell me who Misst is in cahoots with,” Sonic demanded.
          “ What? Misst, in cahoots with someone?” Kaluka asked.
          “ Don’t play stupid with me, Kaluka. I know for a fact that someone just doesn’t stumble onto a file that holds the blue prints for a weapon of unimaginable power… he needs someone to help him get it. Someone who already knew about it…” Sonic said, waving the chicken even more.
          “ Nope. Misst doesn’t have any allies,” Kaluka said, holding his head high.
          “ Alright. But man,” Sonic said, taking a bite of the chicken, “ Man, this is good. Mmm… I don’ think I can contain myself.”
          Knuckles’ smile spread from ear to ear.
          Kaluka started to sweat, then started yelling.
          “ ALL RIGHT! ALL RIGHT! HE DID HAVE AN ALLIE! IT WAS-“ Kaluka was cut off. A missal shot hit the tree next to him, which fell. Sonic jumped out of the way, barely missing it.
          Knuckles jumped up, looking around for the meaning of the firing. A space shuttle came swooping down. A guard jumped out of it, running towards Kaluka.
          Knuckles ran after it, but it fired at him, throwing him across the ground. He still had a slight power surge left from when his Chaos Power sprung up, so it didn’t hurt him.
          Sonic ran towards the guard, but the guard was too quick for him, and kicked him out of the way.           “ Quick, you moron! Get me down!” Kaluka yelled.
          “ Shut up,” The guard said, cutting the rope and pulling Kaluka down.
          Sally, Flyer, Ray and Buster comforted Tails, who was afraid. Kaluka and the guard ran into the space shuttle, which, surprisingly, didn’t fire at them. It just took off into the darkness of the night.
          Sonic got up, a sharp pain from the kick making him groan. Knuckles walked over to him, an angry look on his face.
          “ That guy was as quick as I am,” Sonic said.
          “ I know… listen, Sonic. We’ve got to destroy Misst and the Ultimate Annihilator 2 tonight…” Knuckles said.
          “ That’s just what I was thinking. Come on, you guys! We’re goin’ to Roolicky town!” Sonic said, picking up only the Sword of Acorns and running down the beaten path, Knuckles, Sally, Tails, Ray, Flyer and Buster following behind him…

          King Acorn walked into his bedroom, angrily. It was night on planet Mobius, and he was worried over so many things… St. John and his men weren’t back yet… he tried sending a message to Haven on the Floating Island, but the line had been disconnected.
          ‘ Has something happened to the Floating Island?’ He asked himself.
          His daughter, Princess Sally, had been transported to another reality, without his consent. He was deeply worried about her, and his wife, Queen Alicia, was uncontrollably worried. He laid down on his bed, and turned the light off.
          ‘ Perhaps everything will be better in the morning,’ He hoped…

          “ St. John, now is the time to act. Robotnik is still out there, trying to drill his way in. He’s been doing this all afternoon… and it is now close to midnight. We must get rid of him… and you have that energy shield in the back of your shuttle craft,” Locke said to St. John.
          “ I know this. It’s just that the one Heavy placed in the shuttle had not been completed… he’s trying to fix it as we speak,” St. John said to Locke.
          “ Well, I guess we can wait until Heavy gets that thing completed… after all, Robotnik will still be out there when your ready,” Sabre said.
          “ Trust me. Heavy will have it completed within an hour… and we can get rid of Robotnik before the night is over,” St. John said.
          “ Thank you, St. John,” Sojourner said.
          “ Oh, don’ thank me. It’s my shuttle that lured Robotnik here in the first place…” St. John stuttered.
          “ But at least you’re willing to help do something about it,” Sabre said, making St. John feel better.
          Suddenly, an alarm went off in the computer room. A call was coming in. Locke ran to answer it. When he turned on the screen, Remington was on the opposite end.
          “ Well, Remington? How did the battle go?” Locke asked.
          “ IT’S STILL GOING ON! We need back up… there are only a few of my men left, and I need your help, Locke!” Remington yelled.
          “ I’m on my way,” Locke said, clicking the screen off and running down the hall.
          Sabre stood up when he saw his son running past him.
          “ What’s the matter, son?” Sabre asked.
          “ Remington needs my help. We’re losing the battle with the dingoes,” Locke said, climbing into a shuttle. “ St. John, just make sure you get rid of Robotnik.”
          St. John gave him thumbs up as he watched the shuttle pick up into the air. It slowly turned 180 degrees, and shot off into the tunnel that lead to the top of the island…

          Remington dodged another shot to the head. It was night time there… the battling had been going on all day, and he had many scars, cuts, and gunshot wounds. He jumped behind a trashcan, dodging General Stryker’s shots. His men and himself had stopped the dingoes from destroying most of the city. He had the entire city evacuated, so no one would get hurt. But the dingoes were winning the battle.
          He jumped up and fired at a dingo, clipping the side of it’s head, killing it instantly. He dived back behind the trashcan, as a ton of lazer shots and gunshots fired through the air, looking for him as their target. General Stryker ran around the corner, and looked for Remington. He looked behind the trashcan to see him resting. He kicked a can to get his attention.
          Remington jumped from the kick of the can, and looked up to see Stryker’s face. Stryker grabbed Remington by the head, and slung him into the side of a wall, shattering ribs and breaking his arm.
          “ I don’t see why you try to protect the city… it’s pathetic. And so aren’t you… look at you… you’re puny,” Stryker laughed.
          Remington’s face grew red. He ignored the pain that was all over his body, and grabbed Stryker’s arm, and twisted. Bone popped out of the skin and fur on Stryker’s arm, breaking it. He howled in pain, and threw Remington across the street and grabbed his arm.
          “ You sonuvabitch! You broke my arm! I’ll kill you!” Stryker yelled, running towards Remington…

          “ Look! The towns right over this hill!” Sonic the Hedgehog yelled, pointing towards Roolicky town.
          Sally, Knuckles, Tails, Ray, Flyer and Buster ran towards him.
          “ Good. Now we can get Nate back,” Buster said.
          They all ran towards the town once again…

          In the shuttle craft that picked Kaluka up, the guard that saved him walked into the cockpit. Kaluka was flying the plane, and the guard sat back down beside him.
          “ So, did Misst send you?” Kaluka asked.
          “ No, he didn’t,” the guard answered.
          “ But you’re dressed like one of his guards,” Kaluka pointed out.
          “ Yes, I am. But you know me as Misst’s ally,” the ALLY said.
          “ Oh… so it’s you. But that still doesn’t explain why you saved me,” Kaluka said.
          “ I did it because you need to kill Sonic the Hedgehog,” the ally said.
          “ Well, I’m going to no matter what. Ever since that fight earlier this afternoon, it’s become personal…” Kaluka said, looking angry.
          “ I understand… the Hedgehog can really get on a persons nerves,” The Ally said.
          “ I’m sure he can,” Kaluka agreed. “ But how would you know?”
          “ From past experiences… he really doesn’t want to listen to anybody but himself,” The Ally said.
          “ Hey man, do you have any food? I need somethin’ to eat, or I’m gonna starve to death, literally,” Kaluka asked.
          “What? Food? Yeah, I got some,” The Ally said, tossing Kaluka a sandwich from a cooler he had.
          Kaluka started devouring it, eating down the whole thing in a matter of seconds.
          “ Thanks. I’ve been starving for hours…” Kaluka said.
          “ Yeah, I have been too. That’s why I brought this cooler along with me,” The Ally said.
          “ So, I’m guessing we’re going to Roolicky town?” Kaluka asked.
          “ Yep. This thing ends tonight…”

          Sonic and the gang slowed down when they reached the barrier to the town. Guards covered every inch of the town, making sure no one would get in.
          Sonic whispered to the others, “ Guys, come here. We’ve got to find a way to level this entire town… this ends tonight…”

          St. John and his men gathered in their shuttle craft, ready to go from out of the frying pan and into the fire…

          Remington grabbed Stryker’s broken arm and twisted more. More and more bone popped out of it, Stryker screaming in pain.
          “ Feel the pain, Stryker,” Remington whispered into Stryker’s ear.
          “ I will… and you will too!” Stryker yelled, grabbing Remington by the leg and smashing it against a telephone poll. He rapped the whole thing around it, busting bone, which popped out of his boot.
          Blood sprayed everywhere, Remington screaming in pain. Stryker laughed and hollered in pain, because his arms bones busted more as he twisted Remington’s useless leg.
          “ We the dingoes WILL win this, Remington. Mark my words- ARRGGHHH!” Stryker yelled, getting thrown across the road, getting caught by some dingoes.
          Echidna soldiers rushed up to the dingoes and fired, killing them all. Stryker ran towards Remington though, ignoring whatever had thrown him. But a hit to the stomach made him stop. In lighting fast volleys, fists punched in the face, stomach, legs, and in his broken arm. He fell down in pain. Then, Locke walked over him, a look on his face that no one had ever seen before.
          Locke then walked over to the half dead Remington. He leaned down next to him.
          “ Will my leg be able to heal?” Remington asked.
          Locke looked at it, and turned to face Remington. “ Yes, it is possible.”
          “ Good. Can you rap it up, so I can help in the battle?” Remington asked.
          Without question, Locke took a medical aid kit from around his shoulder, and rapped Remington’s leg up.
          “ What a coincidence that you’d have a first aid kit,” Remington said.
          “ Well, I figured you may need some medical attention… obviously you did,” Locke said.
          “ Well, I’m glad you came… Now, let’s finish this battle!” Remington yelled, charging forward, weapon in hand, Locke behind him…

          “ I’m sure this battle will be easy for you, St. John,” Sabre said to St. John.
          “ Yeah, it will. As long as Heavy keeps that Energy Shield up, we’ll be untouchable… literally!” St. John laughed.
          “ Well, good luck!” Sabre yelled to St. John.
          “ We won’t need it, but thanks!” St. John said back to him.
          St. John looked to the back of the shuttle to see Heavy.
          “ The energy shield will be up in five… four… three… two… one… It’s up!” Heavy yelled.
          St. John witnessed a yellow-orange shield fall over the windshield of his shuttlecraft. He jumped out of the shuttle to look at it.
          “ Hey, wait a minute! I jumped through the shield! I thought it couldn’t be penetrated!” St. John yelled.
          “ It can, only from the inside,” Sabre said. “ Why, how did you expect to get off the Floating Island?”
          Sabre chuckled.
          “ Well, I- I guess you’re right!” St. John laughed himself. “ Well, we’ll be off… and we’ll definitely rid you guys of Robotnik, mate! Heavy, turned the shield off for a sec so I can get onto the ship!”
          The shield shut off, and St. John jumped back into the ship.
          “ Alright, boot it back up!” St. John told Heavy.
          The shield made another circle around the ship. St. John smiled and gave Sabre and the others thumbs up, and revved up the ship again. The ship slowly did a 180 degree turn, and shot out of Haven, and into the battle field…

          Robotnik witnessed a ship fly out of the side of the Island. It amazed him for a moment, and then turned his amazement into anger.
          “ What the heck?! Incredible… the shield is a one-way Energy barrier! Only Nate Morgan could have thought of something THAT uncanny…” Robotnik said to himself.
          He then noticed that the shuttlecraft was the one he thought the King was in. He grew even angrier…
          “ Shadowbots! Destroy that shuttle craft!” Robotnik yelled.
          The Shadowbots fired at the ship, but there shots bounced off it.
          “ No! That ship has an energy shield too! Damn you, Nate Morgan!” Robotnik ranted to himself.
          He watched in anger as the shuttle craft destroyed Shadowbot after Shadowbot with ease…

          “ Well, Sonic, let’s make a plan.”
          “ I’m thinking, so shut up...” Sonic said to Knuckles.
          Knuckles watched the guards who guarded the entire town of Roolicky. He then turned and faced Sonic, who was holding the Sword of Acorns, thinking.
          “ Well?” Knuckles asked him.
          “ Alright… I think I got it,” Sonic said to the group of friends.
          Sonic walked over to the bush that hid them from the guardsmen’s sight. Then he looked at Flyer and Tails.
          “ Guys, I’m gonna need you to make the first move,” He said to Tails and Flyer.
          “ Why us?!” Tails yelled in a whisper.
          “ Because, I need a distraction so Knux, Buster, Sally, Ray and I to make it into the building,” Sonic explained.
          “ But what are we supposed to do after you guys make it in? We can’t dodge them forever!” Flyer said to Sonic.
          “ No kidding. That’s nothing to worry about, though. I have the sword of Acorns… I can do pretty much anything I want… so once I get into the building, I’ll use the sword to increase my speed so I can run out and grab you guys and bring you back in, without the guards even noticing,” Sonic said.
          “ Well why don’t you just do that right now?” Knuckles asked.
          “ Are you serious? I can’t carry six people at once, dude,” Sonic said to Knuckles.
          “ Then carry us one at a time,” Knuckles suggested.
          “ I’ll be way too tired to carry anybody after the third person… besides, my plan will get us all in anyways, so why are you arguing with me?!” Sonic questioned Knuckles, who closed is mouth after Sonic explained everything to him.
          “ Well, come on then… let’s get started.”

          On the other side of Roolicky, a shuttlecraft landed. Guardsmen walked toward it, weapons at the ready incase the people in the shuttle came out shooting.
          The shuttle door hissed open, and the guards aimed their weapons…

          “ How is Knuckles and his friends doing?”
          “ They are close to completing their mission… although it may not end the way it should.”
          “ What do you mean, oh holy ones?”
          “ One of their allies have gone to the dark side… they may not live to see tomorrow… and we may not wither.”
          “ But, Ancient Walkers… can’t you see what is going to happen?”
          “ Hhhmmm… no. It is too dark to foresee. I’m sorry, but we’ll all have to wait this out, Great Athair…”

          “ See if Locke is doing okay,” Sabre called from the control room.
          Thunderhawk sat in front of the main computer, looking at Locke and Remington.
          “ he’s doing fine… before he arrived, Remington and his men were losing the battle… but now, I think we have a chance,” Thunderhawk said.
          “ Good. Keep an eye on them incase something goes wrong… if it does, we’ll have to act,” Sabre said…

          Locke knocked out another dingo. Remington looked at him in awe.
          “ What is it, Remington?” Locke asked.
          “ It’s just strange that you hold a contact with the Chaos Emerald, which gives you power… but you resort to using your fists,” Remington explained.
          “ Well, that would give me an unfair advantage,” Locke explained.
          “ Huh! An unfair advantage? I’m glad you grew a sense of humor, Locke! When it comes to the dingoes, anything goes,” Remington laughed.
          “ You go along and believe what you want… but you could say I still go by my own morals and rules, and no one else’s,” Locke said sternly, knocking out another dingo.
          “ You think you’re a renegade? Have you taken a look at your son, lately?” Remington asked, shooting a dingo.
          “ Of course I have. I’ve watched him his entire life, and I know that he DEFINITELY goes by his rules,” Locke said…

          St. John fired at another Shadowbot, creating another explosion. He laughed at how easy this was.
          “ Well, there’s only one thing left to get rid of… and that’s Robotnik,” St. John said, looking up at the evil doctor.

          Robotnik was shocked, not understanding how an entire horde of robots could get destroyed in a matter of minutes.
          “ No! I don’t believe it! All of my precious Shadowbots… destroyed! I must go back to Robotropolis. There’s no way I can win this battle… besides, I don’t need power from the Floating Island. I have my robots to do what I want… but as for you, King Acorn, I’ll get you one of these days!” Robotnik yelled, turning his space craft around and flying as fast as he could to Robotropolis.
          “ I’m going after him!” St. John yelled.
          “ NO! Don’t, St. John. Just let him go… we’ll get him some day,” Hershey pleaded.
          “ Alright, love. Let’s go back to knothole… it’s been a long day!” St. John said, turning his shuttlecraft around and flying back to Knothole…

          Mobius Jungle. Night. Tails and Flyer flew into the air, where guards put a spotlight on the two friends.
          “ Holt! Stay where you are, or we’ll be forced to fire!” A guard yelled.
          “ Huh! I bet you couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn!” Tails yelled, taunting the guards.
          The guards ran towards them, firing. Tails and Flyer easily dodged the gunshots, doing flips in the air.
          Sonic waved the others to run into the building while the guards were distracted. Sonic raced to the building, the others following behind him. Sonic opened the door for them, and they all ran in. Then Sonic put the sword near his sneakers… they lit up, and he quickly flew in the air and grabbed Tails and Flyer, and racing them into the building, closing the door behind them, all in a blink of an eye.
          “ Nicely done, Sonic!” Sally yelled.
          “ Keep it down, Sal! We don’t want to catch anyone’s attention just yet,” Sonic whispered. “ Now, we need to barricade this door, so the guards can’t get back in…”
          “ I know a way,” Sally said. “ I’ll plug Nichole, my handheld computer, into the computer system on the wall over here,” Sally said, walking over to the wall.
          She plugged Nichole into the slot.
          “ Nichole, crack the code so we can lock the door,” Sally told the computer.
          “ CODE NUMBER… 75F43,” Nichole said.
          “ Thanks Nichole,” Sally said, closing the computer.
          Sally then typed the code into the number pad on the wall, and they all heard a click. The pad then said, “ DOORS LOCKED.”
          “ There we go,” Sally said, turning around and smiling.
          “ Great job, Sal. Now, let’s go get your brother, Buster,” Sonic said to Buster.
          Buster smiled to Sonic, and they all ran down the hallway, looking in every door, looking for a person that looked like Buster…

          “ St. John defeated Robotnik and his robots,” Sojourner said to Sabre.
          “ Well, I’ll be. Everything’s going our way then…”

          “ Locke, the remaining dingoes are retreating! We’ve won the battle!” Remington yelled.
          The dingoes were running back to their hummers, and driving away.
          “ Good… looks like we can bring Stryker to prison, then,” Locke said.
          “ Oh no! Look! Stryker’s in one of the hummers that’s taking off!” Remington yelled.
          “ And I’m sure they’re relocating somewhere,” Locke said.
          “ Most likely… if they just go back to their huts, the Council of Echidna’s will deal with them…” Remington explained.
          “ At least we saved the city…” Locke said.
          “ Yeah… the clean up crew can fix up the buildings that were destroyed… come on, Locke. Let’s go back to Haven.”

          In the Village of Knothole, St. John’s shuttle craft landed. The noise woke the King and Queen, who slipped on their Royal Clothing and walked outside.
          The entire village walked out of their homes to see what it was. They were happy to see St. John had returned, as they thought something had gone wrong.
          The door of the shuttle hissed open, and St. John, Hershey, Wombat Stu, Bomb and Heavy walked out of the ship. The King walked up to them, and greeted them with a bow.
          “ Thank you, King Acorn,” St. John said.
          “ What took you so long, St. John?” The King asked.
          “ Well, Robotnik happened sir,” St. John said.
          “ Robotnik?” The King repeated.
          “ Yes, sire. He must have spotted us with one of his many hidden cameras, and thought that the Royal Shuttle we were flying held you. So he attacked us, as well as the Floating Island…” St. John explained.
          Nate Morgan walked up to St. John. St. John smiled at him.
          “ Nate, thanks to you and your invention, the energy shield, we were able to defeat Robotnik with ease. I personally thank you,” St. John said to Nate.
          “ Thank you for the acknowledgement, St. John. I appreciate it, coming from you,” Nate Morgan joked.
          “ Come on, St. John. You deserve some rest… Nate has put up the energy shield around Knothole, so we can sleep soundly tonight,” The King explained.
          The entire Kingdom of Knothole went back to bed, ending the dilemma of the day for them…

          “ Look! Locke is back!” Archimedes yelled to the others.
          Locke and Remington walked into the control room. Locke wasn’t wounded, but Remington was hurt badly.
          “ Spectre, get Remington some medical attention, stat!” Sabre yelled to Spectre.
          “ Thank you, Sabre,” Remington said, getting carted into the emergency room.
          “ Well, Robotnik’s gone… the energy shield is up, and Remington and you won the battle against the Dingoes. The only we can do now is wait until Knuckles and his friends succeed… or fail.”

          “ Hold, guards,” The Ally said to the guardsmen.
          The Ally and Kaluka walked out of their shuttle craft.
          “ Well, Kaluka… I sense that Sonic and his friends are here,” The Ally told Kaluka.
          “ Where? I’ll kill them right now!” Kaluka yelled.
          “ follow me,” The Ally said to Kaluka. “ Guards, follow me too.”

          Misst walked into the computer room, where the Ultimate Annihilator 2 was. The machine was huge… it had a cannon on it the size of half the town. The entire base was a ton of wires and cables of many different colors.
          Misst walked up to one of his scientists.
          “ Well?” Misst said to him.
          The scientist flipped his clipboard around, looking at a paper in the center of the pile he had.
          “ Yes. The U.A. 2 will be ready in twenty minutes,” the scientist said.
          “ Good. Come and get me when it IS ready,” Misst said, walking away…

          Sonic ran around the corner, looking for anything suspicious. He looked in a door way, where he saw a pile of guards gathered, looking up at a screen. He held the Sword of Acorns high as he ran past the door.
          In another section of the building, Knuckles searched for Nate the Squirrel, Buster’s brother. Buster had told him that he looked just like him, except for the wavy hair and pointy ears, because Nate had round ears.
          Knuckles couldn’t run as fast as Sonic could, so he glided along the halls with Flyer and Tails, who seemed to be friends now. Knuckles didn’t mind them that much, since most people annoyed him greatly.
          Sally, Ray and Buster ran around the opposite end of the building, looking for Nate, also.

          Nate sat in his jail cell, waiting to be executed. Suddenly, the door swung open, finally giving the room some light.
          “ It’s time, you piece of scum,” A guard said, opening up his cell door and trying to grab him.
          Nate suddenly jumped at the guard. He had cut the ropes off his arms with the sharp side of his bed, and then busted his shackles off by slamming them against the door. The place was so well sealed, no one could have heard him banging against the wall.
          He rapped his arms around the guard’s throat, and broke his neck. He then walked slowly out of his cell, and walked out the door, closing it behind him gently.

          Sonic was still running around the building at full speed, searching for Nate. The building was so big, he didn’t think he’d be able to find him…

          Sally walked around the corner, Buster and Ray following. She didn’t have a clue where Nate was…

          Knuckles flew around a corner, Tails and Flyer right behind him. He didn’t think he’d ever find Nate…

          Nate ran around a corner, not thinking he’d ever find his way out of the building…

          All eight of them collided, sending each of them to opposite ends of the hallway.
          Sonic rubbed his head. It was aching uncontrollably from the collision.
          “ How’d we all end up runnin’ into each other?” Knuckles asked, getting up.
          “ We were all looking for Buster’s brother, Nate…” Sonic said, picking up the sword of Acorns.
          “ You guys were looking for me?” Nate asked, getting up from his fall.
          They all looked shocked to see Nate standing there. Buster was stunned for a second, but then ran up and hugged his brother.
          “ Oh, bro! I’ve missed you so much!” Nate said, clenching his brother tight.
          “ I’ve missed you too, Nate!” Buster said, almost in tears, glad to see his brother.
          Sonic and the others looked on, smiling, happy to see two brothers together again. Nate let go of his brother for a second to look at Sonic and his friends. He recognized Ray and Flyer, but he didn’t know who the other people were.
          Nate looked to his brother, “ Who’s your other friends, bro?”
          “ Oh, you mean the Hedgehog and the others? Well, meet Sonic the Hedgehog, Knuckles the Echidna, Tails the Fox, and Princess Sally Acorn!” Buster introduced Sonic and his friends.
          Sonic, Tails and Knuckles walked up to Nate to shake his hand, but Nate walked right by to Princess Sally.
          “ Hello, Princess. It’s nice t meet you,” Nate said, kissing Sally’s hand.
          Sonic rushed up to Nate and pushed him away from Sally.
          “ Sorry, dude, but she’s mine,” Sonic informed Nate.
          “ Sorry, man,” Nate apologized.

          Misst walked into the main control room of the Ultimate Annihilator. The scientist running things was still standing in front of the computer screen, making sure everything was going right.
          “ Is it ready yet?” Misst asked.
          “ I didn’t inform you yet, so obviously, no, it’s not. The U.A. 2 is still getting powered up. Perhaps about ten minutes,” the scientist informed Misst.
          Misst didn’t say anything. He just walked out of the room, heading down the hall.

          Sonic and the others ran down the hall at full speed, Sonic way in the lead. He slowed down to allow the others to catch up.
          A gunshot made Sonic turn around. Almost every guard in the town was piling up in the hallway, tracking down Sonic and his friends.
          “ Come on, you guys! Hide!” Sonic yelled.
          “ No, Sonic!” Nate yelled. “ I need to inform you! Misst is planning on using the U.A. 2 on your planet in about ten minutes!”
          “ How do you know that?” Sonic asked.
          “ Because, I worked on it! I know when it will be used! We have to destroy it right now, before your planet is destroyed!” Nate yelled into Sonic’s ears.
          Guards starting running down the hallway, coming after Sonic.
          “ Knuckles, come here!” Sonic yelled to Knuckles.
          Sonic waved the Sword of Acorns, and an oversized bomb lay in his hands.
          “ Knuckles, take this bomb to the main control room where the Ultimate Annihilator 2 is. Place it there, and sat it for 5 minutes, then get outta there,” Sonic said to Knuckles.
          “ But I don’t know where that is! I won’t find it in time!” Knuckles yelled.
          “ I know where it is. I’ll go with you!” Nate yelled. “ Sonic, I’m going to set the bomb to destroy this planet instead of yours.”
          “ What?! But what of all the animals and people here-“ Sonic was cut off.
          “ There is none! Trust me when I say that Misst already killed them all, I’m sorry to say… even the versions of the PRIME versions of everyone on your planet,” Nate said sadly. “ Now, have Sally use Nichole to create a zone portal to get to Mobius Prime, or we’re all gonna die!”
          Knuckles and Nate ran off, leaving Sonic and the others alone to face the guards.
          Sonic jumped at the first guard, knocking him out with a kick to the jaw, shattering it.
          “ Sally! You heard Nate! Use Nichole to build a zone portal!” Sonic yelled.
          “ Right! Nichole, start creating a zone portal!” Sally yelled to Nichole.
          “ CREATING ZONE PORTAL… SALLY, IT WILL TAKE 8 MINUTES TO CREATE A LINK FROM THIS MOBIUS TO MOBIUS PRIME,” Nichole said.
          “ Whatever! Just do it!” Sally screamed.
          Sonic was joined by Tails, Flyer and Ray in the battle.
          Sonic swiped a guards feet out from under him, and used the sword of Acorns to kill him. Tails and Flyer took Ray up into the air with them, and threw him towards the oncoming guards, knocking twelve of them down. Then, Tails and Flyer swooped down. Tails spun around and used his rotating Tails to make a small tornado, sending guards flying. Flyer spread out his steal wings, slicing at the guards, slicing their stomachs.
          Sonic did a 900, swinging the Sword of Acorns around, slicing a ton of guards to bits.
          Finally, Sonic, Tails, Ray and flyer rested.
          “ I think we got them all!” Sonic yelled happily.
          A laugh made Sonic’s face cringe.
          “ Huh! I don’t hardly think so!” Kaluka yelled from one end of the hallway.
          “ I KNEW IT! I FIGURED YOU’D COME HERE!” Sonic screamed.
          Standing beside Kaluka was The Ally.
          “ Well, I guess you thought right! Guards, attack!” Kaluka yelled.
          Ten times as many guards than before ran down the hallway towards Sonic. Sonic smirked, knowing EXACTLY what he was going to do…

          “ Knuckles, turn here!” Nate yelled, as Knuckles and him turned a corner.
          “ Are we almost there?” Knuckles asked.
          “ Yes, just right up here…” Nate said, with an angry look on his face.
          Knuckles looked at Nate, to see the angry look.
          “ What’s wrong?” Knuckles asked.
          “ well that’s a stupid question. About everything is wrong! I’ve never been in a battle like this!” Nate yelled to Knuckles, tossing his hands in the air. “ How can you keep your cool at a time like this?! It’s crazy!”
          “ It’s easy for me. I’ve been doing these kinds of things all my life… except this ones been the hardest on me,” Knuckles explained.
          “ Stop! We’re here!” Nate yelled.
          Knuckles looked at the sign on top of the door. It read: U.A. 2 LABORATORY.
          Knuckles and Nate ran in, startling the scientist near the main computer.
          “ What are you doing?! Get out of here! The U.A. 2 is going to be unleashed in four minutes!” The scientist yelled.
          “ Perfect,” Knuckles said, knocking out the scientist.
          Nate moved over to the main computer, and plugged the bomb in, and started typing in what it will be used for.
          “ Have you got it yet?” Knuckles asked, looking out the door to make sure no one was coming.
          “ Yeah, it’s done! Now, let’s go!” Nate yelled.
          “ Awesome! Let’s get outta- oh, shit!” Knuckles yelled, stopping in his tracks.
          “ Looks like the dogs found some pussy cat’s to kill…” Misst said, blocking Knuckles’ only pathway back to Sonic.

          The guards reached Sonic, who held the Sword of Acorns high in the air.
          All the guards stopped at what they saw coming out of the sword… a gleaming flash of white light, covering everything in the hallway.
          Then, everything went blank. A split second later, everything came back… except the guards. Kaluka uncovered his eyes, to look at Sonic.
          “ EHAT THE HELL?! THE GUARDS, THEY’RE ALL GONE!” Kaluka yelled.
          “ Obviously, you dolt! That’s the sword of Acorns Sonic has in his hands! That sword can do almost anything the hedgehog desires!” The Ally yelled.
          “ Tails, Ray, Flyer, join Sally. I have some unfinished business to take care of…”
          “ well Kaluka, I’ll leave you to your mission… we only have two minutes left, and I need to take care of something,” The Ally said, running past Sonic, who didn’t care what The Ally did.
          Sonic just stayed focused on Kaluka…

          Knuckles was thrown against the wall. Nate stayed hid under a table, so Misst wouldn’t notice him.
          “ I sense fear in you, Echidna. But you are hiding something… you are successfully blocking something so I can not tell what it is…” Misst said, trying to read Knuckles’ thoughts.
          Knuckles was blocking his thoughts about the bomb, which was still set to destroy Mobius Jungle instead of Mobius Prime.
          Knuckles’ energy boiled to the top like it had a couple days ago… his anger grew great… and he drooped to the ground…. Changing into a living chaos emerald once again!
          Knuckles picked Misst up and threw him as hard as he could against the wall, giving him a taste of his own medicine.
          “ Let’s see how you like a taste of a living chaos emerald!” Knuckles yelled, thrashing Misst around.

          Sonic and Kaluka jumped into the air, Sonic getting a swift kick to the face. He returned the favor with a slice at Kaluka’s arm. Kaluka fell to the ground, but jumped back up, punching at Sonic. Sonic quickly dodged the volleys, and scissor kicked Kaluka on the top of the head.

          Knuckles used his powers to unwrap the wall and tie Misst to it. Misst couldn’t move, so Knuckles allowed him to read his thoughts…
          “ WHAT?! YOU SWITCHED THE U.A. 2’S COORDINATES?! NO! I DON’T WANT TO DIE!” Misst yelled.
          “ Let me see who you really are…” Knuckles said, going up and taking Misst’s helmet off.
          Knuckles jumped back, because of the sight he saw… Misst was actually…
          “ Sonic! You can’t kill me!” Kaluka said.
          “ Sonic, this whole place is going up in forty seconds!” Sally yelled. “ Nichole, how’s that zone portal coming?!”
          “ 35 SECONDS, PRINCESS,” Nichole said.
          Sonic looked at Sally, then at Kaluka. Sonic kicked Kaluka across the face, and Kaluka fell to the ground. Sonic walked over him, and held the Sword of Acorns to his throat.
          “ I hate you,” Sonic said. And swiped the sword down, slicing Kaluka’s head clear off…

          “ I don’t believe it! Misst is actually… the Mobius Jungle Sonic!” Knuckles yelled to Nate, as they ran down the hall.
          “ Yes, you didn’t know?” Nate asked.
          “ No! Zonic, the zone cop, told us that he was killed by Misst,” Knuckles explained.
          “ In a way, yes… when Sonic became Misst, he therefore died… being killed by his new form, Misst,” Nate explained to Knuckles.

          In the main control room, The Ally ran into the bomb that was set. There was twenty seconds to go. He Quickly typed in the new coordinates he wanted… and whipped out a remote control. He pushed a button, and a zone portal opened. He jumped in it, and disappeared.

          “ Sally! Is the portal open yet?!” Knuckles yelled, catching up with his friends.
          “ We’ve got three seconds before this place goes kaboom!” Nate yelled.
          Suddenly, a zone portal zipped out of Nichole. Sonic and all the others jumped into it, and it disappeared.

          The Ultimate Annihilator 2 fired, sending two separate beams of light into the air. One went straight down, and went straight to the heart of Mobius Jungle. The other opened up its own zone portal, and went to the heart of Mobius Prime.
          Both planets started breaking apart, then shattered, destroying everything on each planet. Everything went completely white, and then nothing was there…

          Mobius Prime was no more, but three small areas remained. Knothole village, Robotropolis, and the Floating Island. They each kept their separate energy shields up…

          In Haven, Locke and all the others were shocked.
          “ I- I, I don’t believe it! Only Knothole, Robotropolis and the Floating Island remain! Knuckles and the others FAILED!” Locke yelled.

          “ Ancient Walkers! Mobius Prime and Mobius Jungle have been completely wiped out!”
          “ Do not worry, Athair. There is still hope…”

          “ Sonic! We made it! The U.A. 2 is destroyed, Mobius Jungle is too… we should be seeing Mobius Prime at the far end of the portal, though…” Sally said, looking forward.
          “ I don’t see it, though,” Sonic said, squinting.
          “ Me either,” Knuckles said, trying to see.
          “ You can’t. It’s not there anymore,” A familiar voice said.
          Sonic and the others looked up to see The Ally flying above them. All of them stopped moving, and stood there, looking at him.
          “ What do you mean, it’s not there?” Sonic asked him.
          “ Just what I said. It’s not there. I sat the U.A. 2 to destroy Mobius Jungle AND Mobius Prime…” The Ally said.
          “ WHAT?! You bastard!” Sonic yelled, jumping towards him.
          Sonic kicked The Ally’s head, knocking his mask off… Sonic stopped when he saw who it was…
          It was Zonic, the zone Cop!!!!
          “ What the hell?! Zonic?! No way!” Sonic yelled, shocked. All he could think to say was, “ Why?”
          “ Because, you fool! I want to be ruler of every universe… I met the Mobius Jungle version of you, who changed himself to Misst…”
          Sonic backed away. He couldn’t believe Misst was the Mobius Jungle version of him.
          “ That’s right. Misst was Mobius Jungle’s Sonic… he wanted exactly what I wanted… to rule every universe. I convinced him that you were the only person who could stand in his way, which you weren’t. But I have a hatred for you that is so bad, I wanted you dead. So I stole the blue prints from Robotnik for the U.A., and gave them to Misst to build a bigger version to destroy Mobius Jungle. I never actually was going to let him rule every universe. I already had the plan of destroying Mobius Jungle as well as Mobius Prime. So I came to get you and your friends here to bring you to Mobius Jungle, so you would die thinking you actually put up a fight. That Kaluka guy, he was a pawn in the whole thing, just like you, Knuckles, Tails, Sally, Misst, and all the others were… It’s all me, baby! Almost everything I told you guys about Misst and Mobius Jungle was a lie.
          The only two things that didn’t go as planned was you eight actually living, and the fact that Nate Morgan of Mobius Prime created an Energy Shield. Now Robotropolis, Knothole Village and the Floating Island are still standing… but not for long!”
          “ What?! Knothole and the Floating Island are still there?!” Sonic yelled.
          “ Yes. I tried to stop that from happening… I made a shot of St. John delivering one of the shields to the Floating Island, so he would destroy it so Knothole and the Floating Island wouldn’t be there… but the idiot is so obsessed with him wanting King Acorn dead, he took it completely the wrong way,” Zonic said. “ I’ll kill you all, now! The only way to get Mobius Prime back is through me, baby! I hold the key card that keeps time and space together or apart… if it is destroyed, then the time in space will go back from where it was last sat… which is when Mobius Prime was destroyed. I had accidentally set it to when Mobius Prime was destroyed instead of M. Prime AND M. Jungle… so if you want your planet back, Hedgehog, you’ll have to go through me!” Zonic yelled.
          “ To get my planet back, I’ll do anything,” Sonic said.
          “ Well, I know for a FACT you can’t beat me in battle!” Zonic yelled.
          “ I bet he can, and he WILL,” Knuckles said. “ Sonic, come here.”
          Sonic walked over to Knuckles.
          “ I still have my Chaos Emerald powers. Stand in front of me… I’ll give you enough Chaos power…” Knuckles trailed off, his powers surfacing in his hands. He then shot them at Sonic, engulfing him. Sonic surged with power, his figure changing. His entire body grew larger… his eyes turned red… his color changed to yellow… “… To change you into, SUPER SONIC!”
          Sonic literally flew into the air, sparkles and energy beams trailing behind him.
          “ Let’s battle, Zonic!” Super Sonic yelled.
          “ Unbelievable! I didn’t know that with you, when you are exposed to enough chaos power, you can change forms and gain powers!” Zonic yelled.
          “ Maybe you should of done more research on me, you moron!” Sonic yelled, diving after Zonic.
          The final battle began. Zonic flew into the air, followed by Super Sonic. Zonic stopped, and swung his foot around, clocking Super Sonic. Sonic retaliated by doing a back flip, and turned it into a drop kick, making Zonic flop to the ground.
          Super Sonic did a cannon ball towards Zonic, who couldn’t move fast enough to miss Super Sonic. Zonic yelled in pain. With a surge of power, Zonic picked Super Sonic off him by the throat, and threw him against the zone portals wall. He then started smashing Super Sonic against the wall, over and over. He seemed to have to run back less and less, as if the zone portals walls were closing in on them.
          “ Oh no! I forgot about the portals limited time span! Each portal can only be opened a certain amount of time… this one is closing on us! But I MUST finish this here and now!” Zonic screamed.
          He started choking Super Sonic, who gasped for air.
          “ Someone help him!” Sally yelled.
          “ No. He knows what he’s doing…” Knuckles said, as the walls closed in on them.
          Super Sonic gasped for air, but concentrated on the Sword of Acorns… he focused on it. With the powers that came with being Super Sonic, he drew the sword towards him, until it was in his hand!
          “ - No-“ Zonic stuttered.
          Super Sonic swiped the sword in the air, decapitating Zonic. He reached into Zonic’s pocket, and pulled out the card key. He used the sword to smash it into pieces.
          Suddenly, on the end of the portal, Mobius Prime slowly came back into view… until the whole planet was whole once again!
          Super Sonic raced towards his friends.
          “ Hop on! If I’m Super Sonic, I’m faster AND stronger!” Super Sonic yelled.
          The seven friends got on Super Sonic back, and he raced for the other end of the tunnel, racing against the closing portal…
          ‘ Almost their… just a bit further… I made it!’

          “ Locke! The planet! It’s back! Knuckles and the boys did it! Come on, Knuckles will be coming back to the island! Let’s go to Lara-Le’s house. That’s where he’d go,” Sabre asked.
          Archimedes transported the entire brotherhood to Echidnapolis, where Knuckles’ mother, Lara-Le, lived.

          “ Ancient walkers! Knuckles and the others completed their mission! Mobius Prime is back!”
          “ we told you not to worry… remember, there is always hope, Athair.”

          In the forest of Mobius Prime, Super Sonic has turned back into his normal self.
          “ Well? Are you guys going to join the Freedom Fighters or what?” Sonic asked Ray and his friends.
          “ No. We’re going to build our own home, here, Sonic. Thanks for all you’ve done,” Nate thanked them.
          “ Well, we’ll see each other once again, I’m sure!” Sonic said.
          “ Of course we will. Goodbye!” Flyer said, Flying Ray, Nate and Buster deep into the forest.
          Sonic, Tails and sally waved goodbye to their new friends, then looked towards Knuckles.
          “ Hey Knux. Thanks for saving me once again, dude. We’ll seeya around,” Sonic said to Knuckles, who had changed back to his normal color.
          “ No prob, Blue. I’ll be heading back to the floating Island… I’m sure they put the shield down to let me in. So I’ll seeya around… remember, don’t be a stranger!” Knuckles said, flying into the air.
          “ You either, Red! Bye!” Sonic and his friends waved goodbye to Knuckles.
          “ I’m sure they put the shield down at Knothole to let us in, too, Sonic,” Sally said.
          “ Good,” Sonic said, facing the direction where Knothole is.
          “ Come on, guys. Let’s go home.”