Operation: Angel Island

Above the clouds in the middle of nowhere is an island hidden from the world. It wasn't on any map, and the landscape was so varied that it might as well be a world unto itself. Keeping it afloat was the Master Emerald, guarded by the last of its kind, Knuckles the Echidna. The icy wind blew through his dreadlocks, he sat right next to it's pedestal on top of an ancient stone altar near a cliff. The gem was his only company, keeping him warm and calm after each night, but recently, it's calming effects have been dwindling.

The birds around Knuckles flew off as he sprung awake, his heart racing after dreaming about getting shot during a massacre in the middle of a strange forest. His instant course of action was taking a look at the Master Emerald before scanning his surroundings, but they were peaceful as usual. Starved in the desert, pierced by arrows in a primitive war, sacrificed to the gods, drowned in the rage of Perfect Chaos. He's had a lot of dreams about death since Eggman was sent to prison, and each reminder filled him with dread and desperation.

Was the Master Emerald trying tell him something? On the day he dies, when the Echidnas will be officially extinct, no one would be around to protect it, only they had the necessary bond to be guardians. Knuckles sighed, he was too young to be thinking about these things.

He tried laying down, but the peaceful atmosphere was disrupted by subtle rustling coming from one of the bushes, thankfully for him, it was just a small squirrel. Moments later, the noise returned, he rubbed his eyes to keep himself awake, the moment he looked towards the pyramid's base he saw Dr. Eggman standing there. He quickly stood and assumed a fighting stance, ready to beat him to a pulp. But he was there all alone, no sign of Metal Sonic or any Badnik that could steal the Emerald, not even his Eggmobile. Knuckles' eyes narrowed, this had to be a ruse.

"You came to tell me that Sonic's going to steal the Master Emerald again, right?" Knuckles said as he meticulously searched for traps, then looked back at Eggman, "I'm not that gullible anymore, at least not enough to fall for the same trick twice... maybe three or four times... forget about it."

"Apologies for this disturbance, but your dearest friends, Sonic and Tails are currently hield captive," Knuckles' eyes widened as he leapt towards him, pulling the collar of his jacket after landing in front of him. "If you want to set them free, you'll have to give me the emerald... or else."

"What's that thing?" Knuckles raised an eyebrow upon noticing the strange device on his wrist.

"It's my new watch, magnificently fashionable, isn't it?"

"I didn't know you liked watches," Knuckles remarked, squinting for closer inspection. He wasn't anybody to judge other people's fashion choices, but it's dull gray and green didn't quite look like it would fit his style.

A sinister grin formed on Eggman's face as they were hit by a violent gust of wind, by the time Knuckles turned around, the Master Emerald had vanished. He punched Eggman in the stomach with his spiked boxing gloves, knocking him into the ground, just careful enough to not cause serious harm. Then, he instinctually ran into the forest, honing in his sixth sense to track the Emerald's location.

It's soft green glow reflected on the trees within the pitch black woods, carried further away by two figures. As soon as he began to make them out, blood spilled as a fissure opened on his chest, making him fall over. Knuckles pressed his hands against the sudden wound, desperatly looking for the attacker, which only became harder as the forest was being covered by a thickening fog.

Crickets chirped and owls hooted, water rippling as the wind's delicate chanting ceased. Not even his Chaos Sense could help him keep track of the Emerald's location anymore, finding himself at an opening with a large river running through the middle, only a couple stones bridged the path.

"Sorry for the inconvenience, my dear Slash should have chosen a better moment to play with vermin like you," From within the mist emerged a two-tailed fox with fur as silver as his surroundings, his hair long and shaggy. Next to him, a dark blue weasel landed delicately, sporting scars from head to toe, his crimson eyes piercing into his soul. "Would you mind entertaining him for the time being? I have more important matters to attend."

A hand grabbed Knuckles' shoulder and an emerging blade curled around his neck like a snake, Knuckles turned around and saw Slash appear right behind him, drooling on his head with a toothy grin, also wearing that same device Eggman wore. Knuckles punched the sickle coming from his arm and leapt to the side, shards scattering on the floor as Slash howled in pain. Enraged, he grew another one, the shockwave alone was enough to cut a tree behind Knuckles, which he dodged by rolling to the side before it fell on him.

His body was weakening, every passing second he felt closer to collapsing and yet, he gathered enough stamina to duck under the next swing of Slash's blade. Next he knew, Knuckles was laying on all fours, panting and coughing up blood as Slash's sickle poked the top of his head. He closed his eyes as a devilish smile was drawn on Slash's face, for a moment he felt like death was near, until he heard a voice echoing from the forest's depths.

"Time to guard the guardian!"

After hearing a loud zooming noise, he opened his eyes again to find himself at the opposite end of the river, Sonic carrying him on his arms bridal style. He was far from relieved, as spotting that dreaded device making pressence on Sonic's wrist further concerned him, it only made this situation seem even fishier. Slash licked his lips as Sonic placed Knuckles on the ground, then bumped his fists together with his usual cocky smirk.

"What's going on? Don't tell me you're also into trendy watches!" Knuckles hissed between each painful breath.

Sonic ignored his words and charged towards Slash instead, jumping high before the sickle emerging from his chest could land a single scratch. He then pulled out another blade from his tail as Sonic touched the ground with the tips of his fingers, bouncing off to dodge the swing. Sonic grunted as drops of blood came from his fingers, nothing more serious than a paper cut.

"Don't overdo it Slash, you know we can't have your little fight hindering our mission," Mist leaned on the tree behind him and puffed some smoke from his cigar, his tone relaxed and casual despite his situation.

A trail of blood followed Knuckles as he desperately scraped nearby bushes for healing herbs, which only grew more difficult as his vision became blurrier. At that moment, everything came to a screeching hault, as the ground began rumbling and shaking. Knuckles had a hard time telling it apart from his dizziness at first, until he saw cracks forming on the floor, a clear sign that Angel Island was falling into the ocean.

"What's taking so long!? You better come back right now!" A rough, militant voice shouted, it's sound reverberating throughout the forest from the grainy speakers in each device. "Don't forget about our... misdemeanor prevention messures."

Slash retracted both sickles and started approaching Knuckles again with full disregard for the sargeant's orders, as he ripped a herb from the ground and wrapped it around the wound. Opposed to the incoming threat, Knuckles tried getting up only to plummet back into the floor, much to Slash's perverted delight. His heart hastily pounded as yet another sickle emerged from Slash's arm, right where he was about to stab him, if not for Sonic grabbing him in time and taking the hit with his arm.

"Second Warning!" The voice barked as Sonic howled in pain.

"Show a little more patience, Sarge. There's a bothersome Echidna blocking our path," Mist smirked and snapped his fingers, vibrant blue flames errupted from each puddle of blood scattered around the ground, not taking any longer to spread around the forest. "I doubt he'll be capable of surviving a technique so meticulously refined as my Shuryo no Onibi in this state, it's almost unfair."

Sonic grabbed Slash tightly, his sickle piercing deeper as Sonic pushed him back. Slash realeased another sickle, nearly stabbing through Sonic's chest before he felt Mist tapping his shoulder. Slash scoffed as he realeased Sonic, and they both disappeared from the area. The fire crackled as it wrapped around each tree, Knuckles could barely see Sonic's sillouhette behind a curtain of smoke until a burning trunk fell between them.

"I'm sorry," Sonic lamented before running away.

Knuckles laid down amongst the scorching flames, coughing up blood as his vision became blurrier. Was the Master Emerald warning him about this? He's never felt so helpless, he never thought he could feel that way at all. Sonic wasn't like this. The last thing he could see was a group of black figures approach him, their foreheads glowing a wide array of colors. The one in front extended it's arm, Knuckles looked away, he wasn't ready to be taken by the Grimm Reaper just yet. But Knuckles took it's arm anyways, he had no other choice.

"So... nic..." Knuckles murmured before passing out.

"No signs of life from Team Beta, DAMNIT!" The sargent mumbled after noticing each dot tracking their location was missing from the radar, resisting the urge to throw it into the floor. "Team Alpha better return here with the Emerald in one piece."

He was sitting on a tree stump next to Topaz, standing in the desolate beach alongside his squad near the helicopter. They looked towards the path leading into the forest, waves peacefully rocking back and fourth despite the Island lifting a massive Tsunami moments ago. It was a miracle that they managed to survive the island's landing, even if they ended up soaked as a result.

Topaz heared footsteps hissing on the grass as a figure emerged from the shadows, she turned around and looked into the path leading to the forest and instinctively pointing her gun, only to put it down after noticing a dim glow behind him. It was Feels, his ears wrapped around the Emerald. She sighed in relief as Sonic appeared right next to him, Mist and Slash following suit.

"Speed dash! Your Emerald has arrived!" Sonic winked, holding out a thumbs up before sighing.

His mind wanted to escape with the Emerald, but the sargent's stare kept a weight on his body. He couldn't bear to look at it, let alone touch it. He tried running back into the forest, but Slash summoned a blade before he could take another step. One inch further and he'll be sliced in half, for the first time ever, Sonic knew what control meant. He backed off and faced them again, only Rouge seemed sensible, she was the only face in this place he could trust. He lifted the sickle out of the way and tried to sneakily back off, but was stopped by a pat on his shoulder.

"I don't like this predicament either, but part of being a master mind is knowing when to save face," Eggman said, pointing at the sargeant, whose finger moved increasingly closer to his device's detonator.

"And here I thought you wouldn't make it," Sonic sighed, crossing his arms. "Now that we're all here, let's go home."

"We could've arrived a lot earlier if Sonic didn't attempt to destroy the Master Emerald, I tried stopping him, but then he punched me in the stomach!" Eggman hissed, tightly clenching his stomach. "Owww, it still hurts!"

"What are you saying?!" Sonic yelled, unaware of the sargeant pushing down one of the a detonator button.

They were all frightened by a loud crash, the surrounding area illuminated in an intense orange as a towering explosion engulfed Slash's body in flames. Almost everyone covered their faces and looked away, only the sargeant looked at his burning body while the rest could only imagine it. Even in this excruciating state, Slash managed to refrain from screaming, knowing how doing so could only alert the Marauders.

The fire stopped, Slash's scorched body fell into the ground, Sonic began approaching him as the wind began dissolving it into ashes. He covered his mouth and inched towards the corpse, eyes focused on Slash's face, his crooked smirk fading away as he pulled out one last sickle from his arm. It reflected the horrified look on his face, shattering into tiny crystals which the wind blew away.

"THIS ISN'T A GAME!" The sargeant admonished, "Any of you could share the same fate if I catch you trying to play clever, UNDERSTOOD?"

Eggman was right, this was very real, one mistake and he was gone. Atleast this nightmare was about to end, or atleast that's what he thought. Slash wasn't a good person, far from it, but Sonic couldn't help but feel bad for any poor soul that met a premature end like this. This wasn't the time to panic, he stood up and walked into the helicopter, alongside everyone else. GUN may be a powerful organization, but they will no longer control him.