The Begining: Chapter One

Chapter One


On the floating Angel Island, a red echidna sat. Behind him was the precious Master Emerald, and it was this echidna's duty to protect it. It was a peaceful night, for there was no threat around. The echidna, Knuckles, was bored and alone.

Suddenly, a piercing beeping sounded, echoing in the darkness. Knuckles glanced at his cell phone and groaned. Sonic was trying to call him.

'He must want something from me.' Knuckles thought as he answered, "What do you want, Sonic?"

"Is that anyway to treat a friend, Knuckles?" Sonic replied, "I'm throwing a party at my place. Everyone's invited, even you. Could you bring pop or something?"

Knuckles thought for a moment and finally said, "Why would I want to come to any of your parties? And what if the Master Emerald gets stolen while I'm gone?"

"Don't worry about that. Rouge is here, so she won't go stealing the Master Emerald. And for your information, this party isn't for me; it is for some new members of the team. Tails tested them today, so they are officially in. At least come meet them."

"Fine, I'll come to your stupid party, but only because I don't have anything else to do." Knuckles grumbled.

"See you later, Knuckles." Sonic said before he hung up.

'What have I gotten myself into?' Knuckles thought, shaking his head as he walked to his house to prepare for the party.

-30 minutes later

When Knuckles got to Sonic's house, the party was already in full swing. The music was fast and exciting, inviting everyone to dance and have a good time. There was a cooler in every room; no doubt they were filled with pop and beer. The furniture splayed with no real direction were in fashion, but not very comfortable. All the Sonic heroes were there, talking, laughing, and dancing to the music. They were dressed casually, which was a good sign to Knuckles since to only clean things he had was a t-shirt and jeans.

Sonic ran up to Knuckles the moment he entered the house. "You came Knuckles! Wait, where's the pop?"

"I must have forgotten to bring some. So, where are the new recruits?" Knuckles asked, looking around.

"Oh, they're somewhere around here. Stick around and they'll show up eventually. Have some fun while you're here. I need to go make an announcement to everyone." Sonic replied before running off to find a microphone.

Knuckles wandered about the house, looking for something to do. He saw Shadow leaning against a wall, ignoring Rouge, who was trying to strike up a conversation. Tails was explaining some project he is working on to Cosmo. Charmy, Cream, and Cheese were dancing in the middle of the music room. Knuckles saw Silver open a can of pop only to have it explode in his face, and Blaze laughing while she helped him clean the mess. Espio was meditating by the fireplace despite the music. Vector was flirting with Vanilla near one of the coolers. Amy was walking around asking, "Have you seen Sonic? Do you know where he is?"

Eventually, Knuckles noticed three new people standing in the corner of the room with two chao. One of the two girls was a red hedgehog and the other was a purple fox. The boy was a green fox. Both chao had a red necklace around their necks. Knuckles was going to approach them when Sonic found a microphone and turned off the music.

"Hello? Testing…testing… Attention everyone, this is your host speaking. It is time for the karaoke contest. If you want to sing in front of everybody, then write your name on a little piece of paper and put it in this bowl. The contest will start shortly, and you can choose which song to sing. Thanks for coming and have some fun." Sonic announced before running from Amy, who was squealing, "Sonniku, my love, come back!"

The purple fox started jumping up and down excitedly. "Jenny! You could sing in this contest! It could be fun! Do you want to try?" she exclaimed.

The red hedgehog looked over at the little glass bowl that was being filled with little papers as she spoke. "I don't think that this is the best place or time. What if they think that my voice is bad or try to take advantage of me if they think it is good? I don't think I should."

"Oh for goodness sake Jenny! You have a great voice. And no matter what these people think, we will always be here for you, right Jake?" said the purple fox exasperatedly.

"Right," replied the green fox shyly.

"Thanks, Becky. That's sweet. Maybe I'll do it, but only if you do it too." Jenny, the red hedgehog, said.

"It's a deal." promised Becky, the purple fox.

As they walked to the glass bowl to offer their names for the contest, Knuckles approached the green fox and the chao. The fox looked a little nervous and out of place without his friends around. He had on a red t-shirt and jeans, his hair was spiky and a bit long, and he had two tails that twisted and untwisted to his will. He looked like a punk version of Tails, but he seemed like a normal seventeen year old mobian.

"Hi," said Knuckles, "You must be one of the newbies. I'm Knuckles the Echidna."

"Yes, I've heard of you before. My name is Jake the Fox. This is my chao, Molly, and this other chao is Penny. Penny belongs to a friend."

"Who owns Penny?" asked Knuckles.

"You see that red hedgehog over there by the contest bowl? That is Jenny the Hedgehog. She owns Penny. And that crazy purple fox that is probably entering prank names in the bowl? That is my annoying sister, Becky. She shares Molly with me."

"Chao, chao!" chimed Penny and Molly.

"Alright everyone, time is up! If you didn't write your name and put it in the little bowl right here, then you aren't nominated. I will pick five people to sing and they will get to choose their song. The rest of you will determine the best contestant by applause. Now the first name is…" Sonic said while sifting his hand through the bits of paper and pulled one out dramatically. "Mike Roch?"

Becky started elbowing and smiling knowingly at Jenny. Jake rolled his eyes and Knuckles could barely keep from laughing at the confused expression on Sonic's face.

Sonic regained his composure, though the prank took a blow on his pride. "Very funny guys, but let's get serious here." He said, pointedly glaring at Becky, who simply grinned back evilly.

"The first contestant is … Cream. The next is Vector, then … Becky, then … Silver, and finally … Jenny." Sonic continued as he picked through the bowl. He had to throw out a lot of pieces that he picked out, making it obvious that there were more prank names. "All contestants come to the kitchen to choose their song to sing. Thank you for participating."

With that being said, Sonic led the five contestants to the kitchen. Knuckles turned back to Jake, who was shaking his head and smiling. "I can't believe she would even try to pull something like that. My sister is going to get us kicked off the team before our first fight."

"Sonic just can't take a joke. I wouldn't be surprised if he tries to get revenge though. Do you have any special abilities, Jake?"

"Sure, I can fly using my tails, turn invisible, and become intangible."

Before Knuckles could comment about that, Cream came out with the microphone and started singing If we were a Movie in a high, off-key voice. Everyone applauded for the little girl afterwards and she got a special hug from Charmy before she went to join her mom.

Vector came out next and he sang All Summer Long. His voice was so loud and obnoxious that everyone in the room covered their ears, but he didn't care.

After he was done, Becky tried to sing Moondance even though it was obviously not a song she knew. When she was done, she walked over to Jake and Knuckles.

Silver started singing his song Dream of an Absolution before anything could be said. He was a pretty good singer, but he did a funky little dance while he sang, ruining his performance. He succeeded in making blaze laugh again, which was all the happiness he needed.

Finally, Jenny was up. She sang Everytime We Touch and it was sung perfectly in a voice sweeter than honey dripping like dew on a grass blade. No one made a sound, except the shuffling when they drew closer to the voice. Knuckles felt like he would follow this voice to his death if he had to.

When the song was over, everyone in the room was too stunned to applause. The first to snap out of the spell was Jake and Becky, who erupted in whistles and applause. Then the entire room was filled with cheers so great the Penny and Molly cowered behind the Fox siblings as Jenny went to her friends with a light blush on her cheeks.

Sonic picked up the microphone and yelled until he had their attention. "Thank you for your performances, contestants. I think we all know who won this contest. Good going, Jenny. Everyone, feel free to request a song to the DJ, Manic." Manic waved at everyone from behind the sound system against a wall.

"You had them speechless, Jenny. I told you that you would do fine, and you did." Becky said, smiling at her friend. Penny hovered over Jenny's shoulder affectionately.

"What happened to you out there, Beck? I thought you asked Sonic that you wanted to sing Never had a Dream come true?" Jenny asked.

The purple fox started fiddling with her long hair and answered, "Yeah, he must have mixed up the tracks. I don't think he liked the prank names in the bowl. How was I to know that people don't do those kinds of things at parties?"

"Guys? This is Knuckles. Knuckles, this is my sister Becky and her best friend Jenny." Jake introduced each other.

Both girls smiled and greeted him cheerfully. "I know about you. You're the guy that guards the Master Emerald, right?" Jenny said.

"Yeah. It's a pretty important job. People keep trying to take it away." Knuckles explained. "But if the Master Emerald was removed from Angel Island, the island would fall into the ocean."

"That would be catastrophic!" exclaimed Jenny as they started a conversation that lasted until Sonia came downstairs and kicked everyone out for 'disturbing her beauty sleep'. Jenny wanted to know about what it was like to be the guardian of the Master Emerald. Knuckles wanted to know about how Jenny joined the team.

Jenny was born with the ability to control the will of others by singing. She grew up learning to wield this power, and everyone in her town supported her talent. When she was older, she moved to another town with her family, but the new town scorned such a gift and branded her as an outcast.

Just when she thought she was alone, she met someone who didn't care about what others thought; Becky. Becky grew up just outside of town with her brother. She was always too caught up in her own world to be bothered with society. She and Jenny became friends almost immediately.

When enough trust was built in their friendship, Jenny revealed her special talent to Becky. She was surprised to find that Becky had a secret ability as well. She has the ability to become any animal and some objects at will. They decided that with their powers, they should try to help the public. So they came over from the opposite side of the planet to sign up and join.

Knuckles was fascinated by her tale, but he had many more questions to ask. Neither he nor Jenny were able to ask many more questions because the party was over and her friends came over from wherever they disappeared to and they went to their rented apartment.

Knuckles walked back to his home, feeling more alone than before. He couldn't believe that he went to one of Sonic's parties and enjoyed it, yet it was fun to meet the newbies.