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solalunar-eclipse · 7 months ago

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Sonic Boom - S3E19

Chapter title: Unknown From M.E. (Part One)

Summary: Knuckles has been having some odd dreams lately…what could be causing them? The team bands together to explore a new area and find out.

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[The camera opens up in a first-person perspective. We see two red arms, ending in white mittens with double knuckle-spikes on each hand.]

The echidna pushed aside a tangle of vines, walking through a dense jungle. The scenery looked nothing like the forests of Seaside Island, instead appearing distinctly more tropical in nature.

It seemed quite familiar to the person walking through it, at least, since they climbed over fallen trees and pushed through the undergrowth with ease. Clearly, they were quite confident in their own abilities.

Suddenly, however, a faint chanting could be heard off in the distance.

The servers are the Eight Chaos…

The echidna looked up sharply in the direction of the voice, startled. After a moment’s pause, they began to walk closer to where they’d heard the chant.

“Hello?” they called, their voice pitched high with youth.

Chaos is power, enriched by the heart…

The young person began to run through the forest, chasing the sounds to the foot of a mountain. They looked up at the peak and began to climb, digging their spikes into the solid rock. However, the next time the voices came, they sounded further away.

The controller serves to unify the chaos…

Abruptly, the echidna dropped from their perch, beginning to dig into the ground instead. As they burrowed deeper and deeper, they heard the chant one last time, guiding them into the very center of the mountain.

This is what we have been sworn to guard.

And with that, the echidna emerged into a room—a room that gleamed green from every surface, sparkling and shimmering like it was made of one massive crystal.

They reached out to touch the floor beneath their feet…

…and Knuckles fell out of his hammock in his home, gasping for breath.

[The intro sequence goes off perfectly well! The individual character introductions and team shot all stay the same.]

[This time, the villain intro shows a red glow that illuminates a massive cave painting, one that’s difficult to make out. However, it appears to depict many different creatures holding oddly shaped machinery. Some of them are being struck by a mysterious unidentifiable force, dropping their possessions in the process…]

[The intro then continues on, before ending with the title of this week’s episode.]

Another day, another attack from Dr. Eggman, located in the town square. As always, Sonic and all his friends were there to fight back, frustrating the ever-persistent (or perhaps simply just in-denial) doctor.

“Come on, Sonic! Can’t you just give me one win?” he complained, hovering warily nearby in his Eggmobile.

“I already gave you a win, remember? It was on New Year’s Eve!” Sonic shot back, spindashing several badniks as he spoke.

“That one doesn’t count!”

“Yeah it does!”

“No it doesn’t!”

“Yeah it d—!”

Before Sonic could continue his argument with his nemesis, Knuckles stumbled into his side, having overshot his left hook.

“Wh-whoa!” the hero yelped, struggling to stabilize his taller friend. “Knux, you good?”

“Oh yeah, I’m fine!” Knuckles gave him a thumbs-up. “Just didn’t sleep a lot last night, but it’s no problem!”

Sonic frowned, but let it go for the time being, opting to smash more badniks instead of pressing the echidna on the matter. Soon enough, the tide of the battle was turned, and Dr. Eggman was forced to retreat, grumbling all the way back to his evil lair.

“Knuckles?” Amy called, tugging on her hammer from where it had gotten stuck in a bush. “What happened back there? You don’t normally kick my hammer instead of the robots…”

“Knux here says he didn’t sleep last night.” Sonic showed not a single sign of remorse as he revealed this information to known health enthusiast Amy Rose.

“Sonic!” the echidna cried, shooting him a distinctly betrayed look.

Amy immediately dragged her hammer out of the bush and de-summoned it as she rushed over to get a better look at Knuckles. “Oh no, you’ve even got dark circles under your eyes!” she fretted. “Do you want that sleep hygiene checklist I mentioned a while ago?”

He grinned sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head. “I dunno, I mean, I don’t drink coffee before bed or anything like that! I just had some weird dreams lately, that’s all.”

“They’re not nightmares, are they?” Shadow asked softly, giving Knuckles a cautious look.

“Nope! Just weird! It kinda feels like someone’s trying to tell me something…” he mused.

Sticks clambered up on top of Knuckles’s shoulders, squinting at him warily. “Do you need me to make you a tinfoil hat? I can make ‘em good so no aliens talk to you in your sleep!”

“Before we decide if it’s aliens or not, I think we should ask Knuckles what these strange dreams are about.” Tails said decisively. “It may be nothing, or it could be important, but we won’t know unless we have all the information.”

“Would you like to talk about it here, or would you prefer to go back to one of our houses first?” Amy asked kindly, taking one of Knuckles’s hands in her own and giving him a reassuring smile.

Knuckles beamed back gratefully. “The second one sounds great.”

Once they’d all settled down in Tails’s living room (“Just in case it does turn out to be something that requires further investigation!”) and Amy had helped make everyone drinks (“We may be close, but that just means I get to be a good host even in your homes!”, she’d quipped), she sat down on the sofa next to Knuckles, leaving a small amount of space in between them and looking up at him hopefully.

“So…in the dream, I’m somewhere else. I can’t see it super clearly, but it’s someplace that isn’t Seaside Island.” Knuckles began. “I’m smaller, I think, and I hear some people talking, so I go looking for them. It sounds like the noise is coming from inside a mountain, and I dig inside, but once I get there, all I find is this cave made of green crystals. Then I wake up! I just wish I knew who was talking.” He frowned, genuinely somewhat concerned by the fact that he couldn’t identify this mysterious person.

Tails leapt to his feet excitedly. “So it really could be someone who’s trying to communicate with you! Is it the same dream every time?”

“Yeah, it is!” The echidna couldn’t help but be infected by his friend’s enthusiasm, brightening up as the engineer began to scan him.

“Huh…” Tails hummed, frowning down at his screen. “I’m not seeing much out of the ordinary, but my screen is a little on the fritz.” He tapped the side of his device, concerned.

Shadow teleported over beside him, making the fox squeak as his fur puffed up briefly. “Sorry.” he muttered, already looking over the device. “Can you scan the ambient wavelengths around Knuckles? That might be a better way to tell if someone else is sending him messages.”

“I guess…my software might have some trouble with something that subtle, but if I boost the strength, it could work.” Tails mused, flying over to his friend and adjusting several settings in an effort to improve the data.

The android moved a little closer to Knuckles as well, only to freeze, his eyes wide. “Tails? Actually, I have a feeling that technology, incredible as it may be, is not what is required here.”

“Why not?” Tails shot him a distinctly skeptical look.

“Because,” Shadow began, “he is currently surrounded by an incredible amount of raw Chaos energy.”

Suddenly, everyone began shouting at once, making Shadow wince at the shocking increase in sound. Thankfully, they all noticed the effect almost immediately, backing off and watching him and Knuckles expectantly, but with a distinct aura of concern.

“It isn’t necessarily dangerous.” the android explained. “Raw Chaos energy simply refers to energy that originates directly from one of the eight Chaos Crystals, without having been absorbed or filtered through a Chaos user’s body.”

The tension in the room dropped significantly.

“But Knux doesn’t have a Chaos Crystal, does he?” Sonic asked, still looking confused. “All he has is that Fregosi Sapphire thing.”

“Yeah! I think I’d know what jewels I do and don’t have!” Knuckles added.

Shadow inclined his head slightly. “This is true. However, distance is not always an issue when it comes to Chaos. From what I have heard, these crystals existed long before the time of even the Ancients, with some legends claiming that they are fragments of whatever force first brought Chaos energy into the world. Legends aside, there was enough scientific research done on them in my time to suggest that the Chaos Crystals do have a limited form of sentience. Essentially, they have their own wishes and desires, and they are capable of limited communication, if they find someone they deem worthy of their attention.”

“Um, that’s definitely not creepy or anything,” Amy said. “Seeing as we’ve spent time around them once or twice already.”

Shadow exhaled in a way that almost sounded like laughter. “Don’t worry. The crystals have always been supportive of people who intend to help others. They want the world and those within it to remain thriving as much as you all do.”

“So how do I find out which one’s trying to talk to me?” Knuckles asked.

“If you will allow me, I can do my best to help.” The android folded his arms. “I can assist you in tuning your personal energy to the same frequency as whichever Chaos Crystal is causing this, so that we can work together to find its source.”

“Why wouldn’t I let you?” Knuckles looked over at him, bewildered. “Go ahead!”

Shadow blinked, momentarily silent with astonishment. “You do realize that you are, essentially, allowing me access to your life force, yes?”

Knuckles shrugged. “I mean, I already trust you not to beat me up every day. I do that with all my friends! I don’t think this is any different.”

A small smile made its way, unbidden, onto Shadow’s face. “Very well then. Let’s give this a try.” He moved to stand directly behind where Knuckles sat on the couch, placing his hands on the echidna’s broad shoulders. “Are you ready?”

“As I’ll ever be!”

“Very well then, close your eyes.”

As the other four looked on, golden energy began to glow and swirl around Shadow’s hands. It twisted and spun in the air, before slowly making its way down Knuckles’s arms to his hands. At the same time, its color gently faded from gold to green.

Abruptly, the energy shot towards the echidna’s heart, glowing so brightly it was almost difficult to look at—

—and then it vanished, and both of their eyes snapped open as the two suddenly gasped for breath.

“Are you both alright?!” Tails exclaimed.

“I believe so. That was…” Shadow wheezed, “…not a source of Chaos energy I have ever sensed before.”

Knuckles beamed. “I am in contact with it now, though, and I think I can find it! Thanks, Shadow!”

The android struggled to meet Knuckles’s eyes. “Well…of course. Anytime.”

“A new source?! Do you think you could direct me to it if we were flying in my plane?” Tails asked excitedly.

“I think I could!” Knuckles stood up from the sofa, a determined look in his eyes. “Let’s go find the thing that’s giving me weird dreams so I can sleep normally again!”

Shadow laughed quietly, shaking his head. “Only you all would have to hunt down a mysterious energy source because its mystical dreams were disturbing your sleep.”

“Well, it’s not going to hunt itself!” Sonic declared. “Alright, guys, let’s do it to it!”

Everyone stared at him blankly.

“Uh, I was just—I was trying a new thing.” Sonic stammered, explaining quickly. “Audiences said they wanted us to be a little more genuine, so I thought I’d give it a go, and—you know what, let’s just go find this weird energy thing!”

[Cut to Tails’s plane, carrying all six heroes as it flies over the ocean.]

“It should be coming up on our left now!” Knuckles shouted, trying to make himself heard by the entire team over the roar of the propeller. Tails quickly banked to the left, soaring downwards and coming in for a smooth landing on the beach of the island that Knuckles had indicated.

Once the echidna had hopped off the biplane, however, he froze.

It took a moment for his friends to notice that he was standing stock-still, staring into the jungle beyond the yellow sand of the beach. Amy walked up to him, giving him a concerned look. “Knuckles? Is everything alright?” she asked gently. Knuckles blinked rapidly, before looking down at her with a stunned expression.

“This…this is the island where I grew up.”

“WHAT?!” everyone collectively shrieked, staring at him incredulously.

Knuckles grinned sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. “First my gliding, then this…I guess I forgot to tell you guys a lot, huh?”

“I knew you grew up in the wild like me, but on another island? How’d you even leave?” Sticks asked.

The echidna shrugged. “I didn’t originally mean to—I just went out on a raft one day trying to catch fish, but a storm blew in suddenly while I was out on the water. When I woke up, I was on Seaside Island, with no idea how to get back. And as much as I wanted to, once I met you guys, well…that started to seem less important.”

“Aw, Knuckles, that’s so sweet!” Amy latched onto his arm, her eyes wide and sparkling.

Tails flew over to him, hovering around excitedly. “Does this mean we’re gonna get to see the village where you grew up?”

Knuckles sighed, his mood suddenly much lower. “As far as I know, there’s nobody else on the whole island. If I had a family, I don’t know who they are—I hatched alone and learned to survive that way, too.”

Shadow walked up to him, giving him a sympathetic look. “I am glad you survived. It’s incredible that you were able to do so, and the world would have been at a loss had you not.”

The echidna had a small smile on his face at that. “Thanks…” he muttered, half to himself.

“And hey, that doesn’t mean you can’t show us around the place where you grew up! I want all the secret Knuckles lore!” Sonic added, shooting his friend an encouraging smile.

Thankfully, Knuckles perked up quickly and began to lead the way forward into the trees. “Let’s go check it out!”

After some navigating through the jungle, the six emerged into a clearing surrounding a massive mountain that soared up through the clouds, around which were clustered a variety of buildings. All of them were at least two stories tall, bolted into the side of the rock and made largely of intricately carved wood. Outside each one, a knotted rope hung from a hook, with different patterns of knots for each individual house.

“I used to live in this one here.” Knuckles explained, gesturing to the largest building there was. The building was marked above its door with a classic diamond-cut jewel symbol in green pigment. It was twice as wide as most of the other houses and rose eight stories into the air.

Tails whipped out his Miles Electric and began to scan it immediately. “This is a marvel of architecture! I’ve never seen wooden structures of this height before on Seaside Island, either Ancient or modern!”

Sticks frowned. “Hey, Knuckles, do you still feel that weird energy?”

The echidna jolted back to attention, having briefly been lost in his memories of the island. “Oh, right! Yeah, I do—I think it’s inside the mountain, just like in my dream! I can’t actually dig into it, though, it’s made of solid rock.”

“Well, maybe there’s an entrance somewhere?” Amy mused, eyeing the rock in front of her thoughtfully. “There’s a gem painted on the front of that building, so surely they must have known about the existence of powerful crystals, if nothing else.”

“Hey, lil’ bro, I know you’re all hyped about this village, but you think you could spare your scanner for a sec to find us a way inside this mountain?” Sonic asked, tugging playfully on Tails’s shoe—the only part of his brother he could reach, since Tails had started flying in excitement some time ago.

“Sonic!” the fox whined, shaking himself free and landing a safe distance away. “Of course I can!”

He held the Miles Electric up, scanning the general area. “Ugh, there’s so much ambient energy here, it’s making my screen glitch out really badly!” Tails called, frowning at it—

—and then nearly dropped his screen when the glitching stopped entirely.

“Um.” he added nervously. “…thank you? To whoever…or whatever…fixed that?”

The entire team shared wary glances.

“Sooo, if I can still trust this to be even remotely accurate, it says there’s an opening on the roof of that tall building that Knuckles used to live in.” Tails said.

“Nice one, pal!” Sonic zipped over and ruffled Tails’s hair, making the fox yelp and bat at him in an attempt to get his brother to release him once again.

Quickly, the entire team scaled the house, using their various skills. Amy hammer-jumped to get herself to the second level and clambered up from there, while Sonic just sped directly up the mountain alongside it. Sticks climbed the structure with ease, Knuckles punched his spikes into the rock of the mountain, and Tails, of course, simply flew all the way up (stopping to rest once). Meanwhile, Shadow actually ascended through the inside of the house before teleporting through the roof.

[Please envision a cross-section of the house with all of this happening at once for the desired effect.]

Once they were at the top, Shadow scrutinized the mountain’s face skeptically. “That…doesn’t look an awful lot like a door, I’m afraid.”

“Maybe Knuckles has to be the one to open it?” Amy suggested.

The echidna placed the palm of his hand hesitantly against the rock…and nothing happened.

“I’m sorry, guys, I really thought it was up here!” Tails’s ears drooped unhappily at the thought that he’d led them wrong.

“No, I can feel it stronger through here—I’ll try again!” Knuckles insisted. He pushed both his palms fiercely against the side of the mountain, willing it to move as powerfully as he could.

And with that, a circular outline flared green around where he stood, before receding outwards into the mountain…leaving an empty, pitch-black tunnel beyond.

“Well, that certainly isn’t a safety hazard.” Shadow muttered.

Sonic smirked. “Just ‘cause you don’t have special light-up gear doesn’t mean you’ve gotta be nervous, Shads—we’ll keep you safe!” As he spoke, his bandages and bandana lit up, and the other three with glowing gear did the same. (Meanwhile, Sticks pulled out some of their bioluminescent paste and smeared that onto their face, arms, hands, and legs.)

Shadow stared at Sonic unblinkingly for a long, uncomfortable moment. Silently, he held up one hand, palm up, and let golden Chaos energy blaze to life around it.

“Hmph. Show-off.” the blue hedgehog muttered, rolling his eyes.

“Let’s just get in there, alright?” Amy sighed, pushing past them both and into the cave. “We’re here to help Knuckles, not inflate either of your egos any more.”

The rest of the team filed into the cave behind her, walking one by one down the path. Between the six of them, there was more than enough light to see by. It illuminated all the walls of the cavern…as well as the split in the path up ahead.

“So which way do we go from here?” Sticks asked, frowning at the two different tunnels.

Knuckles closed his eyes for a moment, doing his best to focus. “I think we go…left.”

“I trust you, pal.” Sonic patted his forearm briefly, turning to go the way he’d suggested.

“Can you really feel the source of all that energy?” Tails flew up to hover alongside Knuckles as they continued down the path. “What’s it feel like?”

“It feels sorta…comfortable? But also lonely, I think.” the echidna explained, before stopping as they reached another junction, this time with three pathways. “Uh…center this time.”

The caverns continued in a similar manner, branching and diverging in various ways, with Knuckles leading them through all of it. At one point, once they’d been walking for quite some time, Amy spoke up hesitantly.

“We’re sure this energy thing isn’t just leading us in circles, right?” she asked, smiling nervously.

“I don’t think it would do something like that.” Knuckles spoke with surprising confidence despite his low volume. “Something like this…I think the people who made these tunnels knew it needed to be kept safe. If it really is as powerful as it seems—y’know, with all the causing dreams and fixing Tails’s scanner—then it’d probably be pretty bad if someone like Eggman got his hands on it.”

There wasn’t time for more than a second or two of silence before a green light began to shine from the end of the tunnel, immediately drawing everyone’s attention. Amy shook her head wryly. “I’ll admit it. I was wrong to doubt you, Knuckles.”

The team rushed forward, eager for some freedom from the dark, cramped tunnels. Quickly, Knuckles entered the chamber beyond—only to stop short, causing everyone behind him to slam into his back and then sprawl all over the floor. As they began to get up, in various states of grumbling and collecting themselves, they all froze and stared in awe alongside him at the place they’d found.

A massive cavern soared over their heads, formed entirely out of green crystal. Huge gem stalactites speared out from the ceiling, while the floor was polished and smooth. Various ledges were present at different heights along the walls, which formed a near-perfect circle around the jewel-like floor. And within every single facet, an otherworldly green glow shone, casting all of the heroes in its own color.

“Whoa, Knux…what is this place?” Sonic breathed.

But it wasn’t Knuckles who replied.

“Chaos,” Shadow swore. “It’s the Master Crystal!”

#sonic boom #sonic the hedgehog #shadow the hedgehog #miles tails prower #knuckles the echidna #amy rose #sticks the badger #sonic boom: ancient secrets #sol's fanfiction #the second part will be posted tomorrow!! we're so close to finishing this story entirely :O #i edited this chapter to 'red hot skull...for red mountain' if that interests anyone #it's so exciting to almost be finished--i have so many new ideas that are just dying to be written

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