Sonic Adventure 2: Dry Lagoon and Wild Canyon
A fan fic adaptation of Knuckles' and Rouge's introductory scenes from Sonic Adventure 2.

By The Virus



Desert Area.


Dr Robotnik wiped the sweat from his bald head with a meaty palm and took another swig from his water flask. Not for the first time he cursed his choice of location for his headquarters. The huge and ancient pyramid had seemed ideal for his purposes when he had chosen it several weeks ago, and he had quickly set about converting it into a high tech badnik factory and base of operations. The cavernous chambers inside the structure made the perfect housings for the gigantic machinery that he had installed, and more importantly it was all completely invisible from the outside, which made sure he wouldn't attract any unwanted attention.

Of course, what Eggman hadn't anticipated was the long, arduous journey he would have to make to and from the base under the sweltering desert sun. Cooped up in the tiny Egg Pod flying machine, he chugged slowly toward the distant pyramids, the tubby aircraft hovering several metres above the dunes. At this rate he wouldn't reach the base until nightfall, and he made a mental note to bring a faster vehicle the next time he had to cross the desert.

To take his mind off the situation and try and clear his foul mood, Eggman thought about last night's successful assault on the secret military installation. To begin with it had went horribly: he had set off the security systems much earlier than he had intended, and the corridors were soon crawling with Gun Hunters and Mono Beetles, as heavy iron doors closed off to block his progress. But the defences had proved no match for Eggman's skill and firepower and soon he had reached his goal and awakened Project Shadow.

Shadow the Hedgehog...

Eggman pondered the mysterious black hedgehog he had released from the military containment unit. His grandfather, Professor Gerald Robotnik had supposedly designed the creature to be the Ultimate Life Form. In shape and ability, Shadow had closely resembled Eggman's long-time enemy, Sonic the Hedgehog, and the Doctor had to admit that Sonic was an extremely powerful adversary. If Shadow was as formidable as Sonic, and also had the ability to manipulate the incredible energies of the Chaos Emeralds at will, then maybe his title of Ultimate Life was well-deserved.

An electronic beep sounded from the Egg Pod's instrument panel, and Robotnik glanced down at the dashboard. The Emerald radar was detecting a large Chaos energy reading several miles away. It could mean only one thing: a Chaos Emerald was close by.

Dr Eggman brought his machine to a halt and tried to pinpoint the location of the energy source. It seemed to be high up in the air and moving towards him at a steady pace. Slightly puzzled at this, Eggman peered into the sky in the direction of the reading. An enormous dark shape was silhouetted against the clear blue sky. In direct defiance of the laws of gravity, thousands of tonnes of stone and earth floated as easily as a cloud, the awesome power of the Master Emerald allowing the rules of nature and physics to be bent with ease: Angel Island.

*****

Scrambling up the rocky slope at the base of the cliff, Knuckles cursed himself again for falling for the thief's diversion. How could he have been tricked so easily? Knuckles dug the sharp points on his fists into the stone, and began to scale the cliff face rapidly, his natural adaptations leaving him with no need for any ropes or equipment.

When the explosion had rung out from the southern end of the Isle, the echidna had immediately left the Altar and went to investigate. It was his duty as Guardian to protect the Island and the Master Emerald from harm, and an explosion meant big trouble. By the time he had returned, the Master Emerald had gone, along with whoever took it. The thief had remotely detonated a small explosive charge to lure the Guardian away from the Emerald Altar, leaving the precious gemstone unprotected.

Luckily the perpetrator hadn't gotten far before Knuckles had realised what had happened, and with his superior knowledge of the landscape and spiritual connection with the Emerald, he was now in a position to cut off the thief before he left the Island.

The echidna clambered over the edge of the cliff, and darted over to the top of a tiled wall. Peering down into the pillared area below, he saw a figure enter the location struggling under the considerable weight of the massive green jewel. Knuckles leapt from the wall and landed in front of the thief. The creature dropped the Emerald on the floor and jumped back with a feminine shriek and a flurried beating of leathery wings, surprising Knuckles enough to call off his attack.

Knuckles eyed the girl suspiciously. She appeared to be a bat, with the characteristic large ears, and dark, membraned wings extending from her back. Her fur was white and she wore a black bodysuit that hugged her shapely figure closely. The bat put her white-gloved hands on her curvy hips and sneered at Knuckles, revealing a set of pointed fangs.

"So you finally realised I took it, huh Red?" she said with a mocking tone. "I must say I'm impressed... You must be smarter than you look!"

Knuckles scowled at the bat. "I don't have time to argue with you, thief. I'm taking the Emerald back to the Altar before this island falls to Earth."

Knuckles moved to pick up the jewel, but then recoiled reflexively as the girl swung a heeled white boot at his head, the pink heart motif on the toe narrowly missing his face.

"Just let it go!" snarled the bat aggressively. "You just don't know when to give up, do you?!"

"What are you talking about?" snapped Knuckles. "That Emerald's mine! You got that?" He sighed in exasperation. "The Master Emerald contains special powers that neutralise the energy of the Chaos Emeralds - that makes it very powerful."

To Knuckles' surprise, a large metal grabber claw suddenly dropped down between the two antagonists and snatched the Emerald away from both of them. "What the-?!" gasped the echidna, looking up to see the round metallic underside of an oddly familiar machine.

The bat was equally stunned: "Wha-? Thief!" she yelped.

Knuckles shot her a glance at this remark. "Look who's calling who a thief..." he muttered.

As the pair watched the green stone lift into the air, a portly moustachioed face appeared over the side of the craft and peered at them through round dark spectacles.

"I came here following the signal from the Emerald," said the bald man, grinning at the two animals. "If I'm not mistaken, this is the Master Emerald, is it not?"

"It's you..." breathed Knuckles in astonishment. "Dr Eggman!"

"So that's Dr Eggman..." mused the bat thoughtfully. Knuckles didn't have time to reflect on her curious interest in the scientist, because at that moment the Egg Pod began to move away from them carrying the Master Emerald beneath it.

"Well I guess I can use it for something. I'll just take it with me," declared Robotnik as he piloted the craft over the edge of the island. "Farewell Knucklehead!" he called with a snort.

"Not if I can help it!" growled Knuckles with righteous determination. The echidna was suddenly faced with a sense of déjà vu. Several adventures ago, Eggman had tried to make off with the Master Emerald in much the same way as this, and Knuckles had immediately leapt to its defence, clinging to the stone as it hung from underneath the Egg-pod. He still had the scars from that experience, and was not about to repeat it now. Regretfully Knuckles made his decision, and he leapt towards the suspended jewel, swinging a powerful punch at its multi-faceted surface. The pointed knuckles of his fist connected hard with the Emerald, and the stone exploded in a shower of green shards that rained down over the landscape below.

"Aaaauughh!" wailed the bat-thief in horror. "What was that all about?!" she grabbed the echidna by the throat as he dropped back on the island and shook him violently. "And look what you did to my emerald!" she screeched angrily.

Knuckles pushed the girl off him roughly. "I did that to prevent the Master Emerald from being stolen, you idiot! If it's in pieces, I can restore it. And by the way, that's not your Emerald..." he reminded her with a glare.

Eggman shrugged and turned his aircraft away from the bickering pair. "Hmmm. Doesn't matter," he dismissed casually. "I'll look into it once I get back to the base." With that he set off in the direction of a cluster of pyramids in the distance. Knuckles and the bat watched him go.

The girl turned to Knuckles and fixed him with a fierce stare. "I despise anyone who takes jewels from me," she hissed. "All the worlds' gems are mine to keep!"

"Yeah, we'll see about that, Bat Girl!" retorted the echidna, and then they both leapt from Angel Island, the bat's leathery wings and the echidna's dreadlock quills carrying each of them safely to Earth.

*****

Rouge the Bat alighted on the edge of a cliff overlooking a verdant oasis. An underground spring meant that this beautiful green haven could thrive in the arid desert environment. The gorge showed evidence of a long gone civilisation. Tiled walls were carved with iconography similar to that Rouge had seen on Angel Island. She noticed GUN robots patrolling the upper levels, looking starkly out of place in the pleasant blend of greenery and ancient architecture.

Her finely tuned jewel sense told her that there were several pieces of the Master Emerald somewhere in the area. Hopping from her perch and gliding gently into the valley, she turned her head left and right, swivelling her large ears in order to better pinpoint the shards' positions.

Like all members of her species, Rouge had a natural form of radar called echolocation. By emitting a series of high-pitched squeaks, a bat could get an idea of its surroundings based on the reflected sounds that returned to their sensitive ears. This radar allowed them to navigate even in the darkest of caves or the blackest of nights. Through years of practice Rouge had developed her echolocation to single out the distinct harmonic resonance that gemstones returned, enabling her to hear the presence of jewels long before she saw them.

The bat touched down on the soft grass and walked to the structure in the centre of the oasis. Sturdy marble pillars supported a domed roof over a pool of clear sparkling water. Peering into the pool, Rouge could see that the channel ran deep into the earth - an underwater subterranean passage. Her echolocation told her that an Emerald shard lay somewhere in those depths. Rouge was a strong swimmer, but she was in no hurry to go diving into unknown tunnels just yet, so she topped up her flask in the spring water and turned to where she detected another piece near a tall palm tree.

An odd sight greeted her under the tree: two eight foot tall Gun Hunters had cornered a large turtle and would not let it pass to get to the water. Rouge could see that the poor creature was suffering under the harsh desert sun, and she knew that if she allowed this act to go on much longer, the turtle was sure to die.

Rouge cautiously approached the robots, unsure of how to handle them. She knew from past experiences that Hunters were mindless drones that simply did as they were programmed, so it would be no use trying to reason with them. After a moment's hesitation she decided that the only way they would let the animal go was if she forced them to. She lashed out at the nearest machine with a sweeping kick to the legs, and it crumpled to the ground. Jumping into the air she brought both boots down heavily on the robot's chest and it collapsed into scrap.

The second Hunter raised its weapon to aim at her, but she hopped up onto the turtle's domed shell and swung a roundhouse kick at the automaton's head. The metal cranium flew from its shoulders, and the machine keeled forward onto the grass.

Squeaking gratefully, the huge turtle dragged itself forward on its flippers, plunging into the cool water with a splash.

"You're welcome Big Guy!" laughed Rouge, waving as the turtle resurfaced and watched her from the comfort of the pool.

The bat glanced up at the palm tree. Sure enough, she could see a green Emerald shard glittering among the branches. Spreading her wings, she fluttered up into the tree, and snatched the jewel from its hiding place.

Back on the ground she studied the gem with a highly trained eye. Even by itself, it was a very nice stone. But Rouge almost drooled when she thought of the complete Master Emerald. If that echidna could restore it like he claimed, the biggest, most spectacular gemstone in the world could be hers for the taking.

Rouge approached the central pool and its reptilian inhabitant. The next piece lay beneath those waters.

"Think you can help me find that emerald?" she asked the turtle. It cocked its head to one side like a puppy. Rouge smiled at the cute expression, and then hopped onto the creature's shelled back. The turtle submerged quickly, and Rouge had to hang onto the edge of its carapace to avoid being swept off.

The channel went straight down for about thirty feet before turning through ninety degrees and continuing on into darkness. At that corner, Rouge found the Emerald shard glinting unmistakably in the mud. After pocketing the gem, she and her scaly guide resumed their trek through the caves, emerging moments later in the centre of a tranquil lagoon in another green valley.

Rouge shook the water from her ears and looked around at her new location, slightly out of breath from her short period of airlessness. On the shore directly in front of her was a tall stone obelisk engraved with hieroglyphics. She patted the turtle's head in thanks and then, opening her wings, glided over to the monument. The deep carvings provided plenty of hand and footholds, and she deftly scaled the column. At its pyramidal peak, Rouge looked left and right into the gorge, over the low cliffs that surrounded the lagoon basin. A burst of sonar in each direction soon told her that another Master Emerald fragment lay further down the canyon to the left.

The bat girl floated gently across to the top of the cliff and walked down the valley. A huge human face carved from marble stared at her from the rocky wall at the end of the ravine. As she neared it, she saw that two more stone countenances faced each other, either side of the first, over a pedestal in the centre of a shallow pool.

Rouge waded into the knee-deep water, under the expressionless gaze of the three marble giants. The top of the central pedestal seemed to ripple in the breeze, in a shimmering rainbow of iridescent colours. Only when she came close enough to disturb them did Rouge realise that the stone surface was covered with countless butterflies, and they rose up into a vibrant undulating cloud before dispersing up into the air.

Still smiling at the striking display, Rouge retrieved the green shard from where it lay partly buried in the sandy bed of the pool, and then with a flap of her wings leapt onto the cliff alongside the centre face. She quickly ascended the rocky wall, and pulled herself over the edge, back on the desert surface. The pyramids that Eggman had been heading for loomed on the horizon, appearing to distort in the waves of heat emanating from the dunes.

"Time to get back to work," she sighed reluctantly, toying with a chunk of Emerald idly in her hand. Her assignment brief had identified the pyramids as the most likely location for Robotnik's lair, and after her earlier encounter with the terrorist he had seemed to head in the direction of the structures, supporting the intelligence reports.

Checking her hip flask, Rouge started across the sand toward the pyramids.

*****

In another, less hospitable canyon, an irritated echidna watched helplessly as his island hung dangerously low overhead. As the Master Emerald's power ebbed from its stones, Angel Island was slowly being overcome by gravity. Knuckles was a little concerned about the possible danger of the island coming down on solid ground. Three times in the past Angel Island had fallen from the sky (and all four occurrences were the fault of that blasted Eggman, recalled Knuckles with a scowl) but those previous impacts were softened by the landmass coming down in the ocean. This time it would make planet-fall in the middle of this desert region, and Knuckles could only hope that the collision would not destroy the island that was his ancestral home and blood-borne responsibility.

He tore his attention away from the flagging isle and focused on the task at hand. He'd already found a handful of Master Emerald shards in this dry gorge, baked doubly as it was by the desert sun and by geothermal updrafts from a huge fissure in the canyon floor. The ancient echidna people who had once inhabited this area had apparently regarded the place as sacred, judging by the statues, murals and ornamentation that adorned the great underground hall, with an altar of sorts built around the wind tunnel itself.

Knuckles climbed the steep canyon wall and hauled himself over the lip. Back on the arid surface he considered his next move. There was another canyon a little to the south, a region of forbidding looking mountains to the west, and the cluster of pyramids in the east that Eggman had been angling towards. Knuckles closed his eyes and reached out with his mind. The echidna had spent his entire life in the presence of the Master Emerald's power, and in those times that he had been separated from it, he discovered that he had developed something of a bond over the years. Without it near him, Knuckles felt a discomfort, a distinct uneasiness. He could also feel the great stone calling to him, each tiny shard acting as a homing beacon to his mind. Now he felt the Master Emerald's energy in several directions: the westward mountain range seemed like a good bet, but there was also a source to the east, a small yet definite blip on his internal radar. He peered across the dunes in that direction, shielding his eyes against the sun. He could make out a distant figure moving towards the pyramids.

The bat girl.

It had to be her. She must have found some pieces of the Emerald. Immediately the echidna stormed after her, eager to claim his property back from that thief. But he stopped himself. He had no water supplies and he was already parched from rooting around in the windy canyon. The bat had a good head start and it would be difficult to close that gap before sunset. Knuckles didn't want to be out in the desert when night fell, because the temperature would drop drastically. If he didn't die from heat exhaustion or dehydration, the frigid night was sure to finish him off.

As much as it pained him to do so, Knuckles had to let the thief go. At least for the time being. He had a sneaking suspicion that their paths would cross again soon enough.

He turned towards the mountains, and despite the heat an involuntary shiver ran down his spine. Even under the afternoon sun, the peaks looked sinister and threatening. Several mountaintops appeared to have been carved into enormous ghastly faces that leered down menacingly over the land. What purpose this served, Knuckles was unsure. Perhaps to discourage intruders from a site of significance to the echidna race that once inhabited this area. He felt a little uneasy at the thought of trespassing on what might have been hallowed ground to his ancestors, but the Master Emerald had to take precedence. He set off towards the foothills.