Sonic Runaways

Knuckles jumped down a secret chute to the Hydro City, the abandoned undersea cavern town that he had banished Sonic and the others to. He knew he couldn't let them run free on the off chance they survived. Besides, even if they hadn't, he still needed Sonic's Chaos powers. He knew he could just channel them out of Sonic if they were indeed Chaotic. Every Knuckles Clan echidna possessed some degree of control over Chaos. This way, he wouldn't have to "tear the Chaos powers out of the hedgehog's remains" like Pachacamac said.

Knuckles landed in a hidden room, and peered out a large window. To his surprise, he could see Sonic, Tails, Amy and the robot they had defeated all traversing the desolate murky grotto. They didn't seem to notice him. He sighed. He had just gotten over the guilt of potentially killing all of them, and now he had to do it again. Except this time… he promised himself that their deaths were absolute.

He walked to and pushed a button on the other end of the room. The water level rose exponentially. Looking at the four miscreants now was like looking at fish in an aquarium. They all did their best to hold their breaths, but it didn't look like they were doing all too well as the seconds piled up. Strange… Amy looked like she was reaching into her pocket.

Amy then pulled out a stack of cards. When she fanned them, they disappeared into a large collection of air bubbles. The bubbles combined, and the larger bubble enveloped all four of them. Knuckles stood behind the glass, dumbfounded.

"Thanks Amy," Tails groaned after a large gasp of air.

"You're welcome, Tails. Now, how does my Sonikku feel about it?" Amy asked. She looked to Sonic, who had been moved to tears. "Sonikku, don't cry!"

"I'm sorry--- I can't help it," Sonic sobbed, now safe from the evil, horrible, terrifying water. "I am forever in your debt, Amy!" The four continued on through Hydro City.

Knuckles scampered through the halls of the observatory, trying to keep up with the fugitives as he threw all the death traps available their way. He was strongly flipping every lever for every crushing wall, and furiously spinning every crankshaft for every whirlpool. At first, the echidna was pulling out all the stops. But it was slowly sinking in that none of these traps were working. The four fugitives were simply too crafty and too fast to be harmed by any of them. Eventually, Knuckles was left to stand and watch passively. He was fascinated by Sonic's skill, Tails and the robot's combined resourcefulness, and of course Amy's sorcery. He couldn't activate the death traps anymore if he wanted to. He had already used all of them up. The fugitives were almost on the outskirts of Hydro City.

"What are you doing?" Pachacamac asked, his voice coming from Knuckles' communicator. "Are you just going to let them flee?"

"They're already out of range of all the traps," Knuckles sighed. "They're all too fast--- especially Sonic."

"Urgh… the incompetence! If you cannot kill them there, I suppose I must take matters into my own hands. Get out of there now, and station yourself in Carnival Night. If you don't, you'll be caught up in the transferring procedure for those fugitives," Pachacamac grumbled. "I'm sending them to the Marble Garden now. If you want to be the one to save your kind from the Doomsday, you must learn to not hesitate for a second on the battlefield. Do better next time, and do NOT interfere with my extermination unless they break through to Carnival Night."

"Roger that," Knuckles replied. He ran off to the nearest exit.

Sonic and the others were heading through a large tunnel. "Darn--- these echidnas really want us dead," Tails stated, still safe within the bubble.

"This isn't a problem we can handle ourselves," Robotnik followed up. "We're completely outnumbered as it stands. I suggest calling some of my empire's forces to this island. They can assist in retrieving the Master Emerald from the launch base I stored it at before, and will also give us a way home."

"To your country?" Sonic asked.

"Yes. Now that I'm in the right state of mind, there is no reason at all for you to not come back," Robotnik stated. "I would love to have you and Tails return, and your new friend can come along too."

Sonic stopped walking. But the others continued on, causing him to be pushed along by the back of the Bubble Shield. "Back? You want me to go back there?" Sonic asked.

"Of course I do!" Robotnik replied. "Why wouldn't I?"

"That's a good question, but---" Sonic sighed. "I'm not sure if I want to."

"Sonic's right," Tails followed up. "Going back to the empire, even if everything's fine now between you and us… it would bring up a lot of bad memories. You treated us both horribly when you were a human."

"It would be like if I went back to Little Planet," Amy said. "Even though Aurora is making sure everything's okay there, it would be scary."

"I agree with them. Besides, ever since Tails and I made a run for it..." Sonic said, though he started to trip on what he wanted to say next. "Things have gotten a lot more interesting." They all rolled the bubble up a slope, above the water level. The far-off automatic symphony echoed off the walls of the cavern, between the water-damaged buildings, and into Sonic's ears. Sonic let his guard down, to relax for a second. Not long after he obtained a relaxed state of mind, the ground began to quake. And then that state of mind was gone.

"Whoa!" Everyone cried, trying to keep their balance. Amy fell over, but Sonic caught her. A huge waterspout then shot upwards from layers upon layers of solid bricks. Then another one, this time right below the bubble. Everybody was carried upwards by the waterspout. Knuckles climbed up from a crevasse and stood on the surface. He watched on the edge of Angel Forest as the four were blasted up into the air. He clenched his fists as the fugitives began to fall down into the Marble Garden valley. He began to glide over the lowlands, on his way to the Carnival Night zone.