Sonic Series Fan Fiction ❯ Framing the Shadow ❯ Blind Rage ( Chapter 4 )

Framing the Shadow: Chapter 4

'At the time, I knew jewels weren't the only thing on her mind. After looking in those lucid eyes of hers, I knew there was something else she wanted to hunt for. And whatever that particular thing was, it didn't include me, nor the Master Emerald.'

Washed away in a monsoon of his own dreams, Knuckles continued to plague his mind with thoughts and theories of his failure to stop Rouge before she left him. Even in the midst and depths of his sub-consciousness, he could still feel the distinct swelling of pain in his heart.

'If only she had at least given me a hint to where she was going…I could have stopped her…! I know she was being led by someone…'

As anger began to course through him, his mind drifted back to the Space Colony when he had franticly flown into the room Rouge was in and saw her inside of the emerald -alloy capsule. The look she gave him was still fresh and clear in his mind.

Her lush turquoise eyes were full with a mixture of confusion and awe that quickly glossed over with a thin film of tears.

'…What was she thinking…? Why were there tears in her eyes?! …Were they because of me…?'

Recalling the moment when the turbulence from the ARK forced her backwards into the pod sent a cold stab to his very core.

She was immediately torn from his sight. He couldn't do anything in time to stop it. He hated the feeling of defeat, especially when it dealt with him protecting something precious.

'…Why hadn't she told me anything!?'

His heart wrenched remembering the sound of her voice as she franticly called his name after being forced into space.

Knuckles murmured in his sleep and shook his head from side to side. He hated to hear such a fearful sound coming from her. In it's place, he briefly imagined her voice erotically cooing his name and pictured her stroking his dreadlocks whilst they passionately made love.

Even if he was getting ahead of himself, creating that diversion got him to calm down a little, but not by much. He still regretted that he couldn't do anything to help her.

'…I failed her...'

In the far distance from the boundaries of his dream, he heard a laugh. Then, from out of the ebony surroundings of his sub-consciousness, emerged the bat-girl he had been so infatuated with. With a coy smile on her face, she turned her back to him. Reaching in her pocket, she pulled out a blue chaos emerald and held it close to her face. 'This or me?' she claimed with a deep edge to her voice. And with that, she brought the emerald to her crimson lips and kissed it as if it were a piece of ripened fruit. With a playful scoff, she tossed it onto the air and the moment she caught it, she disappeared.

Knuckles could only hear the sound of her taunting laughter. Within seconds, she reappeared with a smug smile on her face. Still tossing the emerald, she licked her lips and said in a low and sensuous tone: '…I know what you want…'

With that, she brought the emerald to her chest and suggestively and seductively rolled it down the length of her voluptuous curves, bending in a rather alluring way, then paused with it positioned beneath her tail. '…But your annoying moping around won't solve anything. So wake up!' she exclaimed, throwing the emerald at him.

*

"Oh! His eyes moved! I think he's finally going to wake up!"

"Yeah, but make sure you don't get too close, Amy! You don't want to take his share of oxygen…"

'Who…' Knuckles wondered, abruptly coming out of his sleep. He was so engrossed in his dream, he hardly recognized the high pitched voices next to him. Slowly, he opened one eye, then the other. He could make out two blurry figures to his side-one orange, the other pink.

"Tails…and Amy..." he mumbled in a muffled tone while he instinctively tried to sit up.

"Oh no you don't!" Amy exclaimed, lightly pushing him back down, "You shouldn't try to move so much after the crash!"

Knuckles growled and brushed her hand away. "Don't talk to me like that! A warrior like me has been through much worse than this…" Trying to get up again, he grimaced and clutched his back.

"See! I told you!" Amy claimed, waving a finger at him.

"Amy, cut it out." Tails lightly scolded, "He just woke up, give Knuckles some space, already."

Knuckles said nothing in reply, but simply looked at Amy with a stern expression, silently agreeing with Tails.

Feeling her cheeks grow hot from embarrassment, Amy turned away from them with crossed arms. "Fine, then that means you're coming with me!"

Tails blinked. "Wha?"

"Come on, Tails!" Amy stated, already grabbing Tails by the arm and leading him away from Knuckles. "If I have to give him space, then that includes you too! Being next to Sonic is more exciting anyway!"

"Ah--! Amy! You're hurting my arm..!"

"Then walk faster!"

With a cold frown, and emotionless stare, Knuckles watched them leave. "Hmph…what a headache." He mumbled, slowly sitting up. Through gritted teeth, Knuckles growled while taking the sudden pain until he was on one knee. Breathing heavily, he forced himself to check his surroundings. He was in an uncharted forest, and right in the middle of all the escape pods he and the others took to escape from the ARK with. Narrowing his eyes, he remembered how he had punched the wall of the pod he and Sonic were in and forced it to plummet to Earth. He growled. He knew Sonic would rub that in his face and never make him forget it.

"So, Knuckles, how do you like your handiwork?"

…And speak of the devil…

"Sonic…You couldn't just resist rubbing it in, could you?" Knuckles grumbled, turning to face the smug hedgehog. Rubbing his nose, Sonic shrugged and looked at him with one eye. "Ah...come on, always so serious. Lighten up, will ya?"

"Lighten up?!" Knuckles exclaimed, forgetting about his pain and rising to meet Sonic's eyes. "And just how do you expect me to do that while in the middle of nowhere?!"

"Sheesh, just calm down, Knuckles. I see you're back to normal." Sonic said plainly, then a serious expression took over his playful features. "…You ok?"

Knuckles raised an eyebrow. "Am I--. Am I okay?" He looked down for a moment, then lifted his attention elsewhere, away from Sonic. "I'm fine." he replied dryly.

Sonic narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms. "Somehow I don't believe you…"

"Believe what you want, Sonic, I don't care." Knuckles snapped back, turning his back to Sonic. "I'm out…"

Before he could take a step, Sonic reached out and grabbed his shoulder. "Hold on Knuckles…" he started, his voice lower than usual and straight-toned.

"What is it now?" Knuckles uttered without knowing and looked back at Sonic. Meeting his burning amethyst eyes with Sonic's warm and placid viridian ones, Knuckles winced at the amount of seriousness and sincerity he was getting from the hedgehog all of a sudden. He never thought Sonic could get that serious…

After a tense passing second, Sonic removed his hand and got in front of Knuckles. "Listen…" he began in a low tone, "I know what you're really feeling…"

Knuckles half smiled, but it looked more like a frown. "…You know, huh?"

Sonic nodded. "Yeah…" He leaned in closer as if what he had to say was extremely personal, and to one of them, it was. "You miss her, don't you?"

"Her?"

"Rouge…"

Knuckles frowned and turned his attention abruptly away from Sonic. "..."

Unaware of his actions, Sonic took a step closer and touched his shoulder again. "Hey man, it's allright, I understand…"

"You don't understand…You know nothing…"

Hearing such a deep tone come from Knuckles, Sonic winced and took his hand away. "Knuckles…" He didn't expect things to turn out so negatively. Instead of continuing with his rare seriousness, Sonic tried to cheer Knuckles up a little.

"Hey…come on Knuckles. I'm sure she made it out allright. That Rouge is one tough lady."

"…." Knuckles said nothing in reply, but from hearing Sonic talk so casually about Rouge got that muscle in his jaw to tense.

Yet, Sonic obliviously continued on. "So stop blaming yourself already, allright? It's not like your moping around will make her come back, or make you feel better…"

Knuckles froze at Sonic's words. They were similar to the ones Rouge spoke to him in his dream.

'Your annoying moping around won't solve anything!'

His eyebrow twitched.

Sonic was seriously beginning to test his temper.

"Besides, she's probably looking for you already! So…just keep your cool and move on. I'm sure she'll turn up someplace."

Feeling his burning anger course through him like a cascading lake of molten lava, Knuckles clenched his fists. "…That's…enough… Sonic…" he growled lowly, barely recognizing his own voice.

Sonic was surprised himself. "Wha? But Knuckles, I'm just trying to cheer you---"

"I SAID THAT'S ENOUGH!" Knuckles thundered, swiftly turning on his heels and sending a right hook squarely into Sonic's face that sent him flying into the depths of the forest. Unable to control his anger, Knuckles relentlessly chased after Sonic's flailing form and charged fiercely through the forest. Blinded by rage, Knuckles continued his insane pace until he spotted Sonic being roughly ten feet away from him. He had been ricocheted into a secluded part of the forest that was different from the rest of it. There was a space in the treetops where beams of sunlight pooled the ground below it and illuminated a small spring of some sort. And in that spring, was Sonic.

Struggling to jump out in fear he would drown, even in a one-foot deep spring, Sonic managed to fall out of it and wipe his mouth from the impact of Knuckles' punch.

Keeping his racing eyes on his target, as Knuckles neared closer to Sonic he thrust his fists forward and toppled over two trees in the process. Quickly snatching up one, he made a vain and crazy attempt to swing it at Sonic. But this time, Sonic was able to dodge it and jump over Knuckles' head. "Are you crazy!?" he shouted to the enraged echidna.

With a growl, Knuckles swung the tree again. "YOU JUST DON'T KNOW WHEN TO QUIT, DO YOU?!!"

"What?!! Get a grip, Knuckles!" Sonic called, landing on the tree and running down it at supersonic speed to kick Knuckles in the forehead with the heel of his shoe.

"GYAH!!!" Knuckles roared, his balance unstable. The moment he regained it, Sonic charged for him from behind, spinning into a ball and landing a blow right into Knuckles' back.

With a cry of sheer pain, Knuckles dropped the tree and fell face first into it and the dirt.

Firmly, he clutched his back and squirmed in pain. "Ahhhh!" he yelled between pants "What…what did you do to me?!!"

Catching his own breath, Sonic rested on one knee while watching Knuckles writhe in obvious pain. Knuckles had been hit with his blows before, but they never effected him this badly. "…What happened…" Sonic uttered, already trying to get up. "Knuckles!"

Struggling wildly to block out the pain, Knuckles was oblivious to anything else. Trying to move he managed to drive a fist halfway into the dirt and concentrated.

"Knuckles are you…" Sonic paused in his tracks the moment he saw a green aura surround him. "What is that?"

After gathering enough energy from the planet, Knuckles smirked. His last minute healing technique that he had learned when still a pup, actually worked. Being a Guardian really had its whimsical advantages.

Standing to his feet, Knuckles threw an icy glare to Sonic. "That was a sensitive spot your spiny tail rammed into."

Alarmed, Sonic shrugged. "How was I suppose to know? And anyway, you attacked me first! So what's your problem Knuckles?!"

"My problem…?! I had no problem, you just happened to piss me off."

Sonic scoffed. "What?! That's the best excuse you can come up with?!"

Knuckles clenched a fist and pointed it at Sonic. "See? There you go again…"

"What!! Knuckles, this is pointless!" Sonic exclaimed, "Fighting like this over nothing, just because you got upset, won't change a thing! We'd still be on this deserted island for who knows how long, there's no place we can turn back to, and Rouge may not ever come back!! "

That did it.

"I can't BELIEVE you Sonic!! You just don't stop!" Knuckles bellowed, already beginning to charge for Sonic, but the moment he took his first step, a giant hammer smashed down right in front of him from out of nowhere, but luckily he managed to jump out the way. "What the-"

"Why don't YOU stop Knuckles!?!" Amy stated, glaring at the fierce echidna with a fiery look of her own.

"Amy!" Sonic called to the pink hedgehog.

With a swift movement of her wrist, Amy removed her hammer from being embedded in the ground and jumped into Sonic's, un-welcoming, arms. "Oh, Sonic sweetheart, are you allright?!!"

"Uh…"

"I told you I'd protect you!"

"Ah…Amy…"

"What's wrong, aren't you proud of me Sonic??" Amy chirped cheerfully.

"Well I…"

Irritated, Knuckles wiped the dirt off his legs and arms from Amy's sudden attack and scoffed. "$#!+ She almost killed me!! Control your damn girlfriend, Hedgehog!"

"Hey!" Sonic retaliated "She's not my--!"

"Save it, Blue. I've had enough ill-natured atrocities for one day to last me a few years." Knuckles retorted, glaring at Amy. "I'm out." And with that, he kicked off the ground and glided out the way he charged in.

A bit annoyed from Knuckles behavior, and also finding himself alone with Amy, Sonic sulked and quickly separated himself from her eager embraces.

"Huh? Where are you going Sonic?"

"Um…I just remembered, I uh…had to um…take care of something."

"What?" Amy asked, narrowing her eyes and placing her hands firmly on her hips. " And just what would that be?"

"Well uh…" Sonic hesitated for a bit, then quickly pretended that he heard something in the distance by twitching his hear and cupping it. "Wait a minute…Is that Tails? "

"Tails? Oh yeah! He wanted me to tell you guys that he was able to come up with an idea to put together the scraps of the pods we landed here in and make a machine so we could get off this island!" Amy stated, unknowingly getting Sonic's undivided attention.

"He is?"

Amy nodded. "He sure is! And then I saw you two fighting like there was no tomorrow! Seriously Sonic, when you marry me and we have kids, will you still be getting into such fights? You should set a better example for our future children!"

'Future children!!!? Oh man…this girl's lost it.' Sonic thought, then quickly spoke up. "You're allright, though, aren't you?"

Amy nodded enthusiastically. "Of course!" She then turned slightly away from Sonic and dreamily clasped her hands together.

'Allright. Here's my chance!' Sonic thought to himself as he quietly and quickly snuck away from her and left the same way Knuckles did.

"Although….even if we were stuck on this on this island for the rest of our lives, I wouldn't mind being stranded here with you. You could practice my boxercising together, or join me in my tarot study, and then we could somehow get married and have lots and lots of children and---HEY!" She paused, looking around. Finding herself alone, Amy growled and stomped her foot. "THAT SONIC!" Then, just as quickly as she became upset, her features swiftly changed to a cute and composed expression. "Awww…he's so shy! I'll have to get him out of that later, if he's going to marry me!" With a girlish giggle, she picked up her hammer and dashed off to reunite with her one and only crush.

---Ick. I'm going to say it right now. Amy. Is. Crazy. No if's, and's or but's about it. The girl is a bundle of nervous energy waiting to wrap itself around something and never let go.

In Adventure 1 and 2, she's cool. I actually missed playing as her in Adventure 2. And in Advance, she's cool. Just in Battle….oh….my goodness, what a shock. And then I found out she was 12…..

And speaking of Battle, I managed to get my hands on Sonic Battle, so I've been playing that for days…^_^ Had to collect personality data before I could write anything major. Besides, when I first started working on this story before playing Battle, it was a mess. I had to be familiar with Knuckles in order to finish this chapter…all the while listening to Sonic Battle music ^^

Hey, don't laugh. Whatever it takes to get into character, go for it!

-Mel