War for Mobius

Chapter 16

The fire flickers lightly between the two figures seated on either side of it. The campsite itself has been set up in front of the large wreck of metal and machine that had torn up much of the landscape when it dropped from the sky. There wasn't much to the camp. Some tarps used for bedding and blankets that was likely originally intended to be camouflage for the traveler's vehicle, and small campfire with a circular wall of small stones gathered around it, and a few tripwires connected to shrapnel from the wreck set up as makeshift to act as an alarm or warning system.

Simple, yet effective….if they were dealing with anyone else.

No, thinks the mobian nearby, hiding in the shadows just out of sight, this set up was too easy.

The figures hadn't moved since he first moved in, likely indicating they were dummies, decoys. The location of the campsite was also foolish. This would be the first place people would go to start their search for survivors of the wreck. If these survivors didn't want to be found, they wouldn't be out in the open like this.

The only odd thing was the tripwire alarms. If this camp was the decoy, and supplies were scarce, why waste them to set up alarms? More illusion? Not that seems unlikely. If that were the case why alarms and not pit falls or snares? They would be more effective anyways. No clearly the alarms were intended to for use, which meant the real camp must be close enough to hear them when they go off.

Curious he didn't see it when he arrived. Perhaps the decoy served purpose in distracting him.

Of course that would be the case. These weren't amateurs he was dealing with, but professional pirates and tomb robbers. They took advantage of the civil war below to mask their criminal actions, but they won't succeed here.

Pity, these mobians could have been heroes with their abilities and skills if they had not wasted their talents on selfish acts of theft and vandalism.

And a corruption that should never be tolerated.

Ordinarily the smart move would be to avoid the decoy camp and locate the main one. However these fools have crossed a line he could never forgive. It was time for them to pay for their many crimes.

This meant setting off an alarm.

Quietly and swiftly, he moves through the shadows around the trees, avoiding detection. When he reaches the first tripwire alarm, he pauses. Slowly he takes in his surroundings before setting off the alarm by kicking the wire.

From the tree drops a makeshift bucket or bell of metal making a loud crash when it hits the floor.

He quickly jumps to a nearby tree, and pulls himself onto the one of the branches to observe.

A lone mobian approaches. She was younger than he expected, being about his age, and frankly quite a bit more attractive. Pity she had fallen to this life of theft and piracy. Briefly he ponders showing her the error of her ways, and giving her a second chance, but he remembers the methods she uses.

The pirate pauses, confused on how the alarm seemed to trigger by itself. She closely examines the wire to see if it came undone or broke under the weight of the alarm. When she moves over to the bucket, he drops from the tree behind her. She tenses. Though she pretends not to notice, he is aware she knows of his presence.

He awaits for her to make the first move. The chipmunk grabs a small shard of metal from the bucket and swings it at him like a makeshift knife-blade.

He catches her arm by the wrist and twists, forcing her to drip it. He contemplates breaking her arm.

"Let her go," a voice from behind orders. He had expected there to be two of them, but where did this second one come from?

He releases the chipmunk's arm, and turns around.

The Blue hedgehog. The most dangerous one.

"And who might you be?" the hedgehog asks, "A merc?"

"Hardly," the mobian replies, "I am Knuckles the Echidna, and this is my island."

"You're island?" the female questions, still holding on the arm Knuckles had twisted.

"Yes," he replies, "I'm the protector of the Island. Its guardian if you will."

"Oh," the blue one relaxes, "Maybe you could help us out then."

"Sonic I don't…." the chipmunk begins, but is interrupted by the echidna's laughter.

"Help you?" he spits, "You came here for the Master Emerald!"

"Well kinda," the one called Sonic admits.

"Then the only help you'll receive from me is THIS!" Knuckles punches the hedgehog in the gut launching him into a nearby tree. The wind is knocked right from his lungs. Sonic falls to his knees.

"I am Knuckles the Echidna, Guardian of the Master Emerald and Protector of Angel Island and all its inhabitants," the red mobian warns, "And by the strength of the ancients I will see you pay for your transgressions!"

The hedgehog begins pulling himself to his feet. Knuckles approaches but the female stands between them, "Hold on just a moment. If this is about the emerald you're protecting then there is no foul blood between us. We didn't know anyone would be here on the island or if the emerald was even real. We can just leave without incident and nobody has to get hurt."

"A little late for that, Sal," Sonic hisses as he stands.

"Ordinarily I could forgive you if you left and never set foot on my Island again," Knuckles admits, "However I've seen how you operate. Preying on the weak and using children for your crimes."

"Children?" the hedgehog pauses, "Tails! What happened to him!?"

"The boy has been handed over to an ally of mine," the echidna replies with a shrug. Something was off, he hadn't expected the pirates to be so loyal. "Robotnik should see to his safe…"

Sonic doesn't wait for the red echidna to finish his words. Tails was in peril at the Egg-Belly's hands, and this blasted echidna was to blame. Before the so called "guardian" could react, Sonic charges him. As he does he kicks Knuckles straight in the jaw, sending him flying back. The whole attack happens in a less than a second.

"Where is he?" Sonic demands as Knuckles lands in a heap. The echidna responds by kick the blue hedgehog's feet out from beneath him. Both manage to get back up at the same time.

Knuckles goes for a blow to Sonic's face, but the blue blur manages to dodge to the left and imitates the attack. The guardian leans right letting the attack pass by. Sonic swings again, but Knuckles just deflects the blow with his forearm. He roars as he goes for an uppercut to the hedgehog's jaw. It connects and Sonic is knocked straight up into the air.

Sonic uses the momentum to flip over backwards in the air. Before Knuckles can even comprehend what he is seeing, Sonic smashes both his feet into the echidna's face. The guardian is launched backwards, eyes spinning, as he lands on his back.

Continuing through his backflip, having used Knuckles's face as a spring board, Sonic manages to land back on his feet. He takes a moment to run his tongue over his teeth to double check if they are all still intact after the blow to his jaw. Satisfied with his findings, he speeds over to the echidna, "Tell me where Tails is now!"

A howl of rage escapes the guardians mouth, as he crashes his fist into Sonic's gut. As he doubles over in pain, Knuckles grabs the hedgehog by the neck and hurls him towards the nearest tree. The momentum causes Sonic to bust through the tree and land roughly on the other side.

Sonic wipes some blood from is lips as he attempts to stand back up, but with an elbow to the back, Knuckles forces him back down.

"Stay down, hedgehog," he commands.

Suddenly, Knuckles takes and unexpected blow from behind, forcing him to step away from Sonic. He turns to find Sally in a fighting stance. "Last warning," she threatens, "Back off."

The guardian can't help but grin, "A shame we couldn't have met under better circumstances." He throws a punch at her face, not holding anything back.

Sal ducks under the punch and jabs the echidna in the gut, winding him. While he's still stunned by the surprise blow, she sweeps his legs out from beneath him with a kick.

Knuckles rolls away quickly and hops back to his feet, expecting another attack. However Sally instead takes the opportunity to help Sonic back up.

"That's twice you owe me," she mocks.

"Nuh-uh," Sonic counters, "We already made a deal about the first time today, 'member?"

"You think this is some kind of game!? A joke?!" the guardian barks at the duo.

"No," Sonic manages to straighten himself and stand on his own, "but we sure think you are." He backs towards a tree. Sally follows.

Rage fills his eyes and lungs as Knuckles charges them. At the last second, they both dive out of the way, letting the echidna plow straight into the tree.

"You claim to protect this island, and yet you let Robotnik run amuck on it," Sally spits, in a not very lady like manner.

"Robotnik provides the island with the means to fight off outsiders like you, who through their own greed and ignorance would bring about Armageddon!" the echidna snarls as he punches is way off the tree.

"What do you mean?" she queries.

Knuckles pulls the tree from the ground and swings it at the chipmunk like a bat, but Sonic, spinning into a ball rapidly, manages to buzz saw the tree in half before it comes in contact with her.

"I should tell you thieves nothing! You've already proven yourselves unworthy of such sacred knowledge when you abduct children into your schemes."

Now is Sonic's turn to be enraged. He dashes over and grabs the Guardian roughly by the neck, "You're the one who handed him to Robotnik! If he's been Roboticized there won't be enough of your precious emerald to…"

"Roboticized," Knuckles chockes, "What do you know…."

Sonic release him, even before Sally shouts for him to do so.

The echidna falls to his knees to catch his breath, "What do you know…about Roboticization?"

"Roboticization is the process in which organic mobians such as ourselves are turned into mindless machines," Sonic replies, "We don't know where it came from or how the process was thought it up."

"However we do know, Doctor Ivo Robotnik, military and science advisor to my father, used it as one of his key weapons to dethrone my father and take over most of the Mobian Nations."

"Your father?" Knuckles cough, "You mean you're Princess Acorn."

Sally smiles, "Yes, I'm Princess Salina Acorn."

"Sal for short," Sonic nods.

"Then why did you come for the Master Emerald?" the guardian continues, "Are nations had agreed to remain separate!"

"We came to keep it from Ro-butt-nik's hands, duh," the hedgehog groans, shaking his head, "What did you think?"

"Robotnik warned me of a group of pirates who were preying on those who were caught up in the civil war from below," Knuckles explains, rising back to his feet, "Since Angel Island has declared neutrality from the world below, I haven't been keeping tabs on what has happened."

"But I do know," he continues, "That my father, John Locke, The Guardian before me, was roboticized before the civil war broke out. I believe this was to prevent Angel Island from becoming involved with your war."

"See, you have no reason to side with Ol'Egg-belly," Sonic reaches out his hand in a sign of friendship, "You should be helping us!"

The Guardian slaps the hand away, "And all this could be a trick. My mission for Mobius's greater good, so forgive me, but I can't take your words on face value."

Sonic is about to protest, but The Princess interrupts, "At least takes us to Tails. If nothing else, trust us enough to rescue our friend."

Knuckles looks like he is about to refuse, but he pauses long enough to look Sally in the eyes, "Very well. I can at least help you find your friend."

"That's all we ask, thank you," she smiles.

Quickly, the echidna turns away, "Follow me."

For moment, Sonic thought he saw the guardian blush at Sally's thank you, "I don't think I like this guy…"

Tails opens his eyes. He has no idea where he is being held, but he does know he has been taken prisoner, and needs to escape as soon as possible.

The room he is being held in, is a small chamber of sorts and seems to have no openings save for a small window on the wall near the ceiling. The walls and floor are made of some sort of stone tiles.

The Temple he had seen earlier? That would be the most logical solution, if he had seen where he was being held.

On the other side of the room to Tails's right, appears to be a large pile of rubble. Broke stones and bricks block what was likely at one point an entrance or passage way at the very least.

He moves over to the window, spinning his tails to give him lift so he can see out it. The window doesn't provide much of a view, and all Tails can see is stone tiles that make up a walkway. Alas the window itself is too small for him to slip through and escape.

This doesn't make any sense. If there was a way for him to get in, there has to be a way for him to escape back out.

The young fox hops down from the window and slumps next to the wall. He's tired, frustrated, and still getting over all that has happened since they arrived on the Island. Just a moment of rest is all he needs.

As he sits against the wall, he notices something he hadn't noticed before. There is a rumbling sound coming from the other side of the wall. He pushes his ear against it to hear better. Machinery! It sounds like some sort of factory engine.

Is that how the island remains afloat?

Tails taps his knuckles on the stone wall. Too thick for him to bust through without tools. Perhaps the rubble might provide something…

A voice interrupts his thoughts. Someone is speaking outside the window. The fox tiptoes back over so he listen in.

"…should be ready to launch as soon as we have the emerald installed." Tails recognizes the voice as Snively.

"Excellent," Robotnik's booming voice follows, causing chills to run down Tails's spine, and his hair to stand on end, "We can finally make our move and rid ourselves of that accursed echidna."

"About that sir, he seems to have gone off radar." Snively continues.

"Come again?"

"Knuckles, after capturing one of the Freedom Fighters who found us, left to confront the others. But the brain-bots lost track of his location," Snviely explains, his voice trembling with fear. Honestly Tails couldn't blame him.

"He's up to something," Robotnik ponders aloud, "Make sure Mecha is activated and prepped to take him on. Which of the Freedom Fighters did he capture? The Princess? The hedgehog perhaps?"

Sonic and Sally were alive?

"No sir, the young mutant fox."

"Useless," Robotnik sighs, "Have him Roboticized immediately."

"Sir, about the hedgehog, I thought he was unimportant…"

"I would berate you for being naïve, but I too thought so I'm afraid," Robotnik admits, Until I did research on his Uncle."

"Sir Charles Hedgehog?" Snively asks.

"Yes," the large overlander hisses at the name, "I was unaware he was connected to the late Royal Family of Mobodoon."

"Sir Charles was connected to Mobodoon? I thought he was just your rival in the Kingdom of Acorn."

Tails ponders this as well. Mobodoon, as far he can remember from those brief history lessons the others would attempt to teach him, was an allied nation of the Kingdom of Acorn from the olden days. However during the Great War, most of Mobodoon had been lost against the Overlanders, and small pieces merged into the Kingdom of Acorn. The King and Queen of Mobodoon had disappeared under mysterious circumstances, leaving many to believe they were captured or Killed by the Overlander Military.

"Interesting," Snively continues, I wouldn't have guessed…."

"Of course you wouldn't have," Robotnik berates, "but it is deeper than that. Chuckie was the brother of the King."

"I see," Snively replies before letting that sink in, "JULES!?"

"Of course," Robotnik spits at the name, "My old Political nemesis."

Tails had intended to keep listening but the realization hit him as well. Jules, King of Mobodoon, through marriage, was brothers with Uncle Chuck. Sonic's Uncle. This would make Sonic's father Jules. Sonic was Royalty?!

The mind of the young fox was blown. Sonic was the least Prince Like person he knew…save maybe Drake…and Johnny…well he just didn't seem Prince Like. Not that Tails knew many Princes, but even still it was a huge shock and seemed impossible.

Was this the secret Ben and Antoine had discovered?

Tails tries to climb up to the window but slips.

"What was that!?" Robotnik hisses.

The young twin-tailed fox holds his breath. What seems like hours pass, but Tails stays still and silent.

"I didn't hear anything," Snively finally whispers.

"You couldn't hear the island shatter beneath your feet," Robotnik counters. Silence follows. After some time Tails hears footsteps wall away from his location.

He waits a bit longer before climbing back to the window. There isn't anyone in sight, not that his view was really all that great.

Didn't they know he was being held here? Was this information a ruse?

Could Sonic really be a Prince?

There isn't much else the young pup can do but wait it out and ponder what he had overheard.

"How long till the Death Egg is Operational?"

"All that is needed now is the power source, the Master Emerald. It is too late."

"No, there is still time."

"Are you sure the kid can warn them in time? He doesn't even have the full story, Robotnik didn't remain long enough for him to overhear."

"I have faith that when he is rescued they can figure out what they need to know."

"I'm taking an awfully big risk here, your plan better work."

"Don't you worry; it'll all be worth it in the end…"

"If you say so Charles."