Sonic Runaways

Sonic, Tails and Amy strolled through Obuericos at morning. It was a nice little town in a small landmass known as Ideal Island. It was just off the shore of Shamar (yet under control of the Iron Dominion). More importantly, it was where Professor Pickle and Ata had been dropped off after the raid on Spagonia U.

Individual floors of broken skyscrapers from the old, predominantly Ironese civilization had been turned into small houses for both the Obuerican natives and the Ironese. The ruins from a volcanic eruption decades ago had been repaired and painted with stripes of lime green, flamingo pink, and sky blue. It was a peace offering from the Obuericans, the original owners of the land, to the Ironese in the midst of the tragedy. Even after the Ironese had seized their land from them long before, the Obuericans came out of hiding shortly after the eruption to help rebuild the Ironese city. Now, it was a monument to the unity and friendship between the two races, limited to the confines of the island. Though they collaborated as a society on Ideal Island, their mainland counterparts were still enemies and paid little mind to the island. "Pay attention, guys," Tails told Sonic and Amy as they were distracted by the sights. "Professor Pickle and Ata are around here somewhere. We need to find them, quickly!" They then heard a rumbling sound from below. They all stopped, stepping back as the manhole just up ahead was punched away by a spiked fist.

"KNUCKLES?!" Sonic, Tails and Amy exclaimed, as Knuckles the Echidna climbed up from the sewers.

"Sonic!?" Knuckles asked, shocked. Amy ran over to try and help him onto the surface. She squeaked in pain as Knuckles gripped her hand tightly and pulled himself up. Knuckles stepped foot on the ground. "What the heck are you doing here?" Knuckles asked, pointing at Sonic as Amy darted back to the hedgehog's side and held his hand.

"What are YOU doing here?" Sonic asked in turn.

"Searching for the Master Emerald shards. I'm sensing one here," Knuckles explained. "I had to go through a LOT of haunted mines to get here, so just don't get in my way."

"It broke again?" Sonic groaned, shaking his head as Knuckles walked off. "Wait, Knuckles! We could really use your help right now."

"Whatever it is, it's not my problem," Knuckles replied. Sonic ran after him.

"It kind of is!" Sonic exclaimed. "Listen, Eggman's gonna fire that cannon again at midnight. This time, it won't be a warning shot."

"What cannon?" Knuckles asked. "Could it possibly be linked to that noise I heard in the mines?"

"... Probably!" Sonic answered, following Knuckles into a narrow alleyway. "Eggman already blew up half the moon with the ARK's Eclipse Cannon, and now he's holding the whole United Federation hostage with it! Who knows what he can do with that thing?" Knuckles took it all in.

"He blew up the moon?! With the ARK…? That word sounds very familiar," Knuckles mumbled, hand on his chin as they stepped out of the dark cold alleyway into the bright town square. Since it was so early, there was hardly anyone out enjoying the fresh, cool morning air. "I remember Pachacamac saying something about a Space Colony ARK. Something about a scientist who regularly came to Angel Island to study our culture."

"Now's not the time to go down memory lane, Knux! We need a way to enter the ARK and shut down the Eclipse Cannon," Sonic begged. "A Master Emerald shard! If you let me borrow one, I could turn into Super Sonic and go into space long enough to destroy the cannon."

"Then what?" Knuckles asked. "It won't last long enough for you to re-enter the atmosphere safely." Sonic stopped in his tracks and thought on it. "And I'm not going to risk that shard burning up in the fall, either."

"I mean, maybe it won't last long enough!" Sonic exclaimed. "But what if I don't even try? Eggman would have TWO of the world's most powerful countries under his control, and the rest of the world would basically be his for the taking! I can't let that happen!" Knuckles stopped walking and held his hand up.

"Wait…" Knuckles whispered. "I feel the shard moving."

"Ew…" Sonic mumbled.

"Silence! You're distracting me," Knuckles growled. He then squinted, and dashed off. Sonic followed, Tails and Amy running after the two from far behind.

"C'mon, Knucklehead. I'll just need the shard for a second," Sonic insisted, irritated. Knuckles glanced at him in annoyance. "What if Eggman targets Angel Island next? Huh? His Flame Crafts were bad enough… the Eclipse Cannon could take out the whole island in one shot!" Sonic looked ahead, before screeching to a halt at the sight of Professor Pickle and Ata in his path! "Whoa— sorry, guys!"

"Sonic, my boy! Glad to see you safe and sound," Professor Pickle exclaimed. "I see you've brought a new friend."

"I'm not his friend," Knuckles replied.

"Knuckles? Is that really you?" Ata asked, smiling wide. Knuckles spun around to face her, and walked forward cautiously as she looked into the past by mere seconds. "Whoa, it is! How's it been?" Knuckles reached to the necklace string around Ata's neck, and pulled it up. "Hey! Give that back!" Ata cried, jumping and reaching for the necklace as Knuckles held it in the air over her head. Attached to the string was a small glass capsule holding a Master Emerald shard. She had been hiding it under her shirt. Ata grinned, sweat beading up on her face.

"Explain yourself, olm," Knuckles muttered. Ata put her hands behind her head.

"Oh, y'know how you said I couldn't keep the shards I found in Azure Lake?" Ata asked sheepishly. "I kinda… didn't listen." Knuckles sighed, opening the glass case and taking the shard out. He handed the empty necklace back to Ata. Ata looked down at the necklace in her hand. "I was gonna give it back someday…" Ata mumbled.

"Alright, I suppose my work here is done," Knuckles sighed. "Farewell."

"Knuckles! Please stay!" Amy cried, giving Knuckles puppy-eyes. "We need your help." Knuckles glanced back towards her.

"Yes, we do," Professor Pickle stated, looking up at the sky. "Not many people know this, but I studied closely under the founder of the ARK for a great deal of my youth." Knuckles turned to Professor Pickle. "He told me all about his inventions, including the Eclipse Cannon. It was meant to be powered by the Master Emerald, the very emerald you seek. But he could never obtain the stone from its resting place on an Angel Island despite his companionship with the natives, so the cannon remained dormant until now. Eggman must have used the Master Emerald to reactivate it."

"Robotnik… Eggman… whatever you must call him, attempted to steal the Master Emerald from me," Knuckles replied, gritting his teeth. It sickened him just to think about what his precious emerald was being used for. "I broke it into pieces to try and stop him, but it would seem he has retrieved some of the shards before me. That's why the Eclipse Cannon is now active." Knuckles trailed off. "I wonder if Rouge has anything to do with it. She already helped him take it once before, and she has been hunting for the shards too. I wouldn't put it past her to be collaborating with Eggman."

"She's that bat girl, right? If Eggman, Shadow and 'Rouge' only have a few shards from the emerald, the Eclipse Cannon shouldn't be at full power," Tails ruminated. "So Eggman's threats are just a bluff! For now, at least. We should stage an assault on the ARK so that he doesn't have the opportunity to fire again, we need to move NOW!"

"Wait… you weren't planning to before?" Ata asked. "Why not?" A silence befell the town square.

"Ata, we have no way to get to the ARK," Tails mumbled. "We didn't come here to plan… not at first. We came here to say goodbye." The color drained from Ata's face, and not because she was looking into the past.

"GUN's not gonna back down from a fight like this. They've been acting really aggressive lately. It's like they don't even care about protecting themselves, instead they've just been attacking everything in sight," Sonic followed up, leaning against a wall. "We figured since Eggman had the Eclipse Cannon, and the UF wasn't gonna surrender, nowhere would really be safe after he destroyed this continent. We just wanted to spend what could have been the last almost normal day with you guys."

"But now we know we can attack the ARK while the cannon recharges, which might take longer than the countdown says!" Amy exclaimed, with a smile on her face. "We just… need a way to get there first." Suddenly, Knuckles' phone rang. Knuckles looked at the contact.

"Oh… excuse me, I have to take this," Knuckles said. He held the phone to his ear. "Rouge?"

"Knuckles. I can't do this anymore," Rouge sighed on the other end of the call. "I need your help up on the ARK, to unscrew this situation."

"Uh-huh?" Knuckles asked, intrigued. "How so?"

"Listen, no time to explain. Eggman and Shadow are getting more and more suspicious of me. I need you to go to these coordinates, it's one of Eggman's bases in Erigypt. He has a teleporter there that you can use to get to the ARK and put a stop to this whole operation. All you need to do is help me get rid of Eggman and Shadow so you can get the shards out of the Eclipse Cannon. I'll let you keep them too! For a while... Bring backup if you can, they're quite the powerhouses individually. I don't want to see you get…" Rouge trailed off. "Look, I just don't know who else I can turn to anymore. Except you. See ya soon, Knucklehead. And if you don't care, then… goodbye, I guess." Rouge hung up, leaving Knuckles with a text containing the coordinates to the base. Knuckles held his phone up so the others could see the message.

"I have a lead," he said.