Act One: The Mysterious Vixen


It was a normal Tuesday for the red echidna, boring even. His senses were tranquil as he would guard over his sacred Emerald. it was no secret even to him that this was a rather monotonous task of guarding over the Master Emerald did bore him as he had done so for years now. As the flickies would chirp and the mobini would scurry around the alter Knuckles would observe their activity. In his older age Knuckles had loosened up and while still doing his sacred duty to his clan, he would be much more lenient after the adventures he had with his friends over the years.


"You know? It's times like these that I miss the gang" the red echidna muttered to himself.


His memories were coming back to him as if they were yesterday, all the adventures with Sonic, Tails, and Amy. Things were much simpler back then. Yet Knuckles knew it would always end up like this. They have their duties towards Mobius and he has his.


Knuckles soon would get up to stretch a bit. As far as he knew Eggman was too busy in that distant war going off below on the inland of Mobius. He could afford to loosen up and stretch as the red echidna would proceed to stand upright and do just that before doing a healthy amount of over thirty consecutive pushups. Up and down he would push himself with his two massive gloved palms as he would effortlessly elevate himself and release himself up and down without breaking a sweat.


CRASH!


As Knuckles finished, he would hear an loud sudden sound. It sounded like a loud explosion off in the distance. Almost instantly the red echidna would get into a immediate motion jumping up to his feet as his spines would stick up in an alert manner. Was this Eggman's doing? After all these years he would still try to capture his prized relic gemstone?


"What now? Don't tell me it's who I think it is" Knuckles said as he would groan.


He had wizened up over the years. Instead of dashing off to the sound of the explosion the echidna would simply get into a defensive stance and close his eyes as he would let his hearing senses take over. He knew better to flee his post if it were the doctor, but if it were a natural incident then everything would return back to normal.

As a few moments passed Knuckles would tune in, and would hear very little except for the wind to gradually sway his locks of spines and he would suddenly smell something very distinct. It was smoke. At this the red echidna would open up his eyelids and look off into the distance of the smoke. Sure enough fuming from the trees off in the distance he could see what looked like the remnants of fire off in the distance.


"Something is burning, on my island? This can't be the work of Eggman. He would have a much grandeur entrance than that, wouldn't he?" the echidna asked himself.


At this, Knuckles decided to chance it. After all, Eggman wasn't known to not show up with some fancy robot or machine. That, and if there was a fire spreading on his island that would be bad for the local wildlife. Thus Knuckles would proceed to rapidly dash towards the location of the smoke and forest.


"I have to hurry, I can't let this sacred ground be scorched!" Knuckles would mutter to himself as he would rush at speeds only falling short of his old friend Sonic's capabilities.


Soon with the echidna's speed and agility he would simply leap off a large rock and begin to glide towards the source of the incident. Off in the distance he would see what he thought was a raging fire was some sort of downed and wrecked aircraft? It was one like he'd never seen before. It didn't look like any Egg Empire or human made aircraft. It looked like the ship would be able to be piloted by Mobians, such as himself.


However, upon advancing closer, he'd see a very startling sight. Laying next to the wreckage was a rather lengthy woman whom he'd presume was in peril. She looked like she was on her chest and had tried to crawl out of the wreck. He didn't see anyone else around so perhaps she was the only survivor he thought.


"This is bad" Knuckles said as he would rush over to the crash to see if there were other survivors.


It appeared by his quick analysis that she was not only the only survivor, but perhaps the pilot of the vehicle. To this the echidna would frantically act quickly and scurry over to help her. She would remain still as he would come over. He would put his gloved hand on her back where she was wearing some oddly purple sports bra on. However, much to his relief however as he touched her she would begin to twitch and cough.


"You're alive! Hold on while I help you out of here!" the echidna said as he would try to reach down and help her up.


Before he could, she would turn around and open up her two green colored eyes. She would cough as she would wave her hand to indicate that she could help herself as she tried to sit down on her rear while coughing. As she did this she would try to grab onto the ground and prop herself upright to stand. To this Knuckles would stand back to give her some room.

"You think you gonna be okay? I perhaps may have some herbs to heal you."


"No thanks, I got it. J-just let me get up a bit" She replied as she would slowly stop to cough.


She was an odd sort in appearance. For one, this vixen women appeared to be rather tall for a Mobian, even taller than himself. It appeared her height dwarfed both Sonic and himself. Yet she was also oddly dressed. Clearly, she didn't look like she was in a pilot's uniform, but some weird causal outfit consisting of long pink stockings, a purple sports bra, a matching outer purple skirt, and what looked like work boots.


The vixen woman would start to wobble around until she would stand upright. She would cough and point as she would slowly begin to walk away from the wreckage. It took a few moments to clear her throat before she would speak again.


"Hurry up and get away from that, thing! It looks like it's gonna blow!" she would indicate to him.


"Don't need to tell me twice!" Knuckles said as he would rush behind her as they would both begin to run away from the crash.


It seemed the woman had excellent stamina. While he was able to easily catch up with her it appeared she wasn't even winded for a woman who looked like she was about to lose consciousness. They would both be able to get a good distance away from the craft as it suddenly would explode.

This would cause the vixen woman to grab her foxy ears as she would hit the ground and brace from the explosion. Knuckles would curl up into a ball in response as well. Fortunately for the both of them the craft's seismic activity and explosion was far enough to while it hurt their ears they wouldn't succumb to the blast, the inferno of the explosion, or to flying shrapnel.


"Phew! That was close!" she would exclaim.


"I'll sure say. Looks like you barely made it out of that one alive" Knuckles said.


"Yeah" she simply responded with.


"Care to tell me what you're doing on my island?" Knuckles asked.


"I uhh, I don't know. One moment I was flying and my barometer went crazy. Then I got caught in a storm and well here I am" she replied as she shrugged.


This was slightly odd to Knuckles, due to the fact he's been watching the sky since morning and there wasn't a cloud in sight. Then again, it could be that she simply thinks she was in a cloud or that her mind is trying to make sense of everything in a sense of shock. He would observe as she would wobble over as if she was aching over to a tree and begin to hug it.


"Hey uh, if you need help I can bring you over to a nearby temple to rest" Knuckles replied.


"That'd be great, I think I can walk though" she replied.


"What's your name by the way?" Knuckles asked.


To this there was a slight pause. From the looks of things she was trying to remember as she leaned over on the tree before suddenly clutching her head. She would rub her large amount of light red hair before patting her head. Clearly she was disoriented from the crash it seemed.


"I-uh, who am I? Do you know?" she asked as the vixen would turn her head over to him and give a confused pouting look.


"I don't know either, I think you may have bumped your head when you landed though. You sound like you have amnesia." Knuckles responded with.


"Oh bummer" she simply replied.


"Ugh, come with me. I have a temple you can stay until I can get some medicine" Knuckles replied as he would waive for her to follow.