Angel Island: Hope from failure.

[AnT]

Morning's sun arisen over the ocean that carried the once floating island, Angel Island. The majestic island now acts like any normal island; floating in the great sea.

And standing on the alter area, Knuckles the Echidna still has fallen into a pit of deep despair. He stood before where the Master Emerald was once kept, like before a tombstone of a dear friend. Stood, he did, through the entire night, with no word, no eye bat to the world. Only he stood there to let his failure torture him. 8

[YolkaEd]

Not too far from where Angel Island now floated, was the outskirts of the Mystic Ruins Jungle, a place which seldomly saw anyone leave it after entering it.


However, Big the Cat suddenly burst through the jungle, turning his head at every angle concievable. "Froggy! Froggy! Where are you, Froggy?" Then, he suddenly noticed something ahead of him... "When did that island get here?" he mused, as he tapped his fishing rod against his shoulder. "Maybe Froggy went to that island!" With that, Big headed towards the new island, in hopes of finding his amphibian friend.

[AnT]

Finally, since his last battle, Knuckles finally made a muscle; dropping to his knee and slamming the ground with his sorrow. I failed....ancestors...I failed...

[YolkaEd]

Big ventured throughout the mysterious island, searching for Froggy. "Where could he be?" Big sighed, before he noticed a cave going into the mountain next to him. "Maybe Froggy went in there?" he thought to himself, before walking into it. "Froggy? Froggy! Where are you, Froggy?" he called, his voice bouncing off the walls into an echo.

[AnT]

All that's left of the Master Emerald were just...small piles of tiny shards...almost dust. Knuckles scooped some up, hoping that...maybe the emerald will come back. "...What do I do?"

[YolkaEd]

As Big exited the tunnel, he came across a huge altar, which was old of age. However, all he could see was a red echidna, and no Froggy. "Froggy! Are you here, Froggy?" he called again, approaching the altar.

[AnT]

That goofy voice was enough to get through Knuckles' angsty aura; aggravating him. "Great..."

[YolkaEd]

"Froggy!" Big called again, as he began climbing the stairs of the altar, looking both left and right. "He's not answering... Maybe he isn't here..." he mused, as he got up to the top of the altar, seeing the echidna on his knees. "Excuse me, but have you seen Froggy?" Big asked the echidna, unaware of the events that had taken place earlier here.

[AnT]

Normally, like a grumpy old man who hates people in his front lawn, Knuckles would've kicked the fat joke right off the edge of the island. But after last night...he just wasn't in the mood.

"N...No..." he grumbled, still kneeling before the emerald pebbles.

[YolkaEd]

Big tilted his head once he heard the echidna speak. "You seem sad." he said quite simply. "Did something bad happen to you, too?" he asked, sitting down next to the echidna.

[AnT]

"Bad?...B-B---BAD?!?"

Knuckles stomped his foot THROUGH the stone steps, crushing the emerald pebbles, as he GLARED at the cat.

"A FREAKIN NIGHTMARE IS WHAT HAPPENED!!!!!"

[YolkaEd]

Big, a little startled due to the echidna's sudden outburst, strangely took it quite calmly. "So, something bad DID happen. But what did happen, then?" Big asked once again, tilting his head.

[AnT]

"That's none of your business!!" Turning back to the emerald pedestal, Knuckles slammed the pebbles back in with the rest. "How can I go on with my duties? I probably made my ancestors be ashamed of me. An island without it's heart...is there anything left to defend?"

Knuckles clenched his fist, shuddering over the memories of that monster that hatched from the destroyed emerald.

And was my purpose as a guardian really to keep that...THING imprisoned?

[YolkaEd]

Once he heard the echidna talk about the island missing a heart, Big put two and two together, in his own way. "So, you lost the heart to the island?" he asked again, not aware that his constant questions could be driving the echidna insane. "Why aren't you trying to find it?"

[AnT]

"BECAUSE IT'S DESTROYED!! SHATTERED!! NO MORE!!!"

Waddling back to the pedestal, Knuckles reached in the emerald dust and pulled out two emerald rocks to show to Big. "They're in pieces, you moron!!! How am I supposed to put them back together?" Knuckles kept slamming the rocks at each other. "I can't put them together with super glue! It doesn't work that-"

Suddenly, the rocks burst with brilliant green light.