The Trail of Emeralds

[hammy_ham_ham]

The Trail of Emeralds

Ok, this is my second fic, but I never finished the other one, so you could call this my first. This is about knuckles' and rouge's search for the emerald pieces, and their growing feelings for each other. Later on it tells what they did when they got all the pieces. This is NOT based of SA2B, it is a completely different story! This happens a few years after the events of SA2B.

This fic is rated PG for minor violence while finding the pieces and an amount of romance between knux and rouge. If I feel I need to go beyond what was specified in either of these departments I will change the rating to PG-13 and bold it so you will notice.

~chapter 1, meeting again~

It was a sunny day on Angel Island, Knuckles was watching the clouds while sitting in front of the Master Emerald, thinking about what will happen if he ever can leave the shrine.
He groaned, muttering “I wish I had someone who cared for me, who loved me... Then I wouldn't be so lonely.” quietly, but it seemed he hadn't done it as quietly as he thought, because he heard a laugh come from behind him at the comment.
“But-that laugh was familiar, it sounded like-” Knuckles said, but was cut short when a white bat with purple wings flew up to the shrine. “Rouge!” Knuckles yelled in surprise, staring in shock at the bat he hadn't seen in years
Rouge only winked, then headed toward the master Emerald. “Oh no, where do you think you're going!?!” Knuckles called, blocking Rouge before she could get to the Emerald.
“You said you were gonna lay off the master Emerald, shows how much your word's worth!” Knuckles yelled, disgruntled at the bat's lack of trustworthiness.
“I don't care what I said, this gem is mine!” Rouge called back at Knuckles, trying to kick him.
Knuckles dodged, and drill clawed Rouge away. She was hit, and tried to fly over to the Emerald, but was blocked by Knuckle's glide attack.
Rouge was hit by a volley of punches, and fell down the bottom of the shrine.
“Wait, are you alright!?!” Knuckles called down from where he was standing, realizing what he had done.
Rouge weakly stood up and looked disgustingly at Knuckles. She tried to walk up to the shrine's top, but fell on the steps and blacked out.
Knuckles ran over to Rouge and checked her over. “Man, What was I thinking!” Knuckles thought to himself while getting Rouge onto his back. He took her to what he had been using for a bed, a tree house-like bed of leaves.
“She can stay here while she heals up, but if she tries for the Master Emerald again I can't try to help her if she gets hurt.” he thought, trying to adjust her so it wouldn't be putting pressure on where he had punched her.

~A few hours Later~
Rouge woke up to see she was in a pile of leaves supported by branches. Not exactly her taste in furniture.
She looked toward the sky, it was sunset, and Knuckles was standing in front of the Master Emerald, looking at Rouge suspiciously.
He walked over to Rouge and asked how she was feeling. “Why should you care, you nearly killed me with those fists of yours!” Rouge hissed at Knuckles, who jumped back. “Well, at least you're awake..” Knuckles replied, angered Rouge didn't appreciate what he had done to try and make her comfortable.
“Whatever, this doesn't mean I owe you one!” Rouge said, hoisting herself off the bed of leaves and walking away slowly.
Knuckles, seeing where she was heading, ran in her way. “There's no way you're getting your hands on the Emerald, especially after what happened a few hours ago!” he said, blocking Rouge from approaching the Emerald.
“Um, the Emerald is the same way as the exit” Rouge commented, looking toward the stone steps.
“Fine, leave, but don't go near the Emerald again!” Knuckles scoffed to Rouge.
Rouge walked toward the Emerald, and grinned,”Fool” she thought, before kicking the Master Emerald.
“What the!? What do you think you're doing!” Knuckles screamed, watching the pieces scatter everywhere.
“What it takes to get my gem!” Rouge cackled before gliding away.
“Dang it, how did I not see that coming!” Knuckles thought, glaring at Rouge from afar.
“Well, being mad isn't gonna help, I'll have to get those pieces before she does..” he thought, coming back to his bed so he could get his things before setting off to find the Master Emerald's shards.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

That is the end of chapter 1. Next chapter, Knuckles and Rouge set off to find the Emerald shards, and get into a bit of trouble getting them.

Ok, chapter 1 is kinda small because I didn't know how big to make it. Tell me how big and I'll make it that way.

 

[destiny~dragonair]

um.....isn't it supposed to be at the fics or others section? Because pokemon shipping fic seems to be here. Thats what I think. Anyway. Its a good fic.

 

[hammy_ham_ham]

wait, I thought this could be any shipping. Since this is a shippy fic, shouldn't it be in the shippy fic area?

and thanks, I was hoping I did an OK job.

 

[EXP:282]

Hi!!!!
Bit short, but i can see where this is going.
Nice work.

 

[hammy_ham_ham]

Here's chapter 2! This one will be a bit longer and a bit more detailed. I've decided to double space, for easier reading.

Chapter 2, the quest begins.

Knuckles got what he needed, and set off to station square.

He took the bridge over to mystic ruin, where his emerald radar started going off.

"Well, seems it won't take too long do get the master emerald!" he said, pleased.

He flew around the trees and up the cliffs, when he saw something green glimmering at the top of the mountain.

"There!" he thought, climbing up the cliff. When he got to the cliff, there was the Emerald piece, giving off a faint green glow.

He grabbed it and hid it away, then looked down. "Oh geez, why'd I take this way!?!" he thought, looking at the 100 ft drop below him.

He looked around, he had some options.

"I could, A, freefall down the cliff and try to glide away, or B, tobogan down the waterfall and land in a lake filled with rocks.. Why, both seem so much fun..."he muttered, sarcastically.

He was about to jump off the cliff and glide, when he heard a familiar voice yell "Hey, watcha doing knux?"

Startled, he spun around to see who it was, and before him he saw a spiny blue hedgehog with green eyes, a peach stomach, and the cockiest grin you'd ever see.

"Hey Sonic, what're you doing here?" Knuckles asked, dumbfounded.

"I came when I saw the emerald pieces explode all over like that, what happened?" sonic asked, lookingly toward the direction of the green explosion.

"That dumb bat rouge happened, she tricked me and kicked the master emerald." knuckles answered, mad at himself for falling for a trap like that.

"Tricked again, how many times have heartless villains tricked you now?" sonic said snidely, counting up on his fingers.

"Why, you little.."knuckles threatened, tightening his fist before trying to knock sonic clear to next Tuesday.

"Hey, calm down, I was only joking!" sonic called back, dodging the enraged echidna's famous fists.

"Yeah, whatever....Why'd you really come?" knuckles asked, trying to supress his rage.

"I came to help, eggman harnessing the power of the master emerald is the last thing I need." sonic explained.

"I agree, but I need to get those pieces soon, otherwise rouge'll get them." knuckles added, before stuffing his emerald radar back in it's pouch.

"You two having another spat? Uh oh.."sonic teased, thinking of how knuckles had saved Rouge on ARK and he tried to swallow down a giggle.

"You want to go flying down the waterfall hedgehog!?!" knuckles angrily replied, blushing slightly at sonic's comment about him and rouge.

"Erm, no, just saying.." sonic stuttered, a bit scared as knuckles was preparing to give one of his more powerful punches.

"Keep a check on yourself, sonic.." knuckles said, strokes of anger still lingering in his voice.

"Ok, you stop trying to kill me with those fists and I won't make any more fun of you and rouge.." sonic said, trying to make a barrier between him and those gnarly spikes.

"Deal." knuckles agreed, before looking toward where sonic had come from, there was a long, straight hill he had run up.

"Well, let's go!" sonic announced, as he and knuckles both ran down the hill and headed toward the train station.

WITH ROUGE...
Rouge had flown to one of her favorite gem spots, and climbed to the top of the mountain, where her emerald radar started going off.

"Well welly well, it seems this place has more to it than old memories." she excitedly said, before gliding out with the radar infront of her. She landed, before her radar said the emerald piece had fallen down a hole.

"Ohhh, and I just got a manicure!" rouge annoyedly groaned before climbing down the hole.

When she got to the bottom, there was a water stream coming from the roof and a series of very dark spooky caves.

"Why does this place seem so odd, I've been in graveyards less spooky than this!" she thought, trying to figure it out. When she saw the emerald piece, it was glinting in in one of the room's floors.

She ran into the room and snatched it up, "Aha!" she called, her voice echoed. She took a breath off air, it smelled musty and rotten.

Then, she looked around, and stood frozen, stiff as a board, as she saw the skeletons of echidnas through the chamber.

"What the!? How'd they get in here!" she stuttered, frightened, but she snapped herself out of it and looked at the carvings on the walls.

"Where have I seen these marks before.." she asked herself, before realizing they were marks on the master emeralds altar.

"So this is the burial grounds of knuckle's tribe, scary" she thought, walking slightly farther into the chamber.

She saw something else on the wall, a picture depicting a thief making off with the emerald and an orange echidna, probably one of the past gaurdians, killing him brutally.

She looked, horrified, at what knuckles was supposed to have done to her, and she tried to block it from her mind, and continued through the chamber.

The picture came her mind again, and just then she saw the skulls of several thieves of the emerald staring at her blankly from a pit.

"Oh good lord, why is this place here and filled with dead things, and more importantly, what would have happened to me!" her mind screamed, before she made toward the door and as far from the skeletons as she could.

"Self note, stay out of holes full of dead echidnas!" she said, catching her breath.

She dusted herself off and took a minute to look the emerald piece over. "Well, atleast I got my prize!" she thought, admiring the glittering jewel.

She flew off toward where she thought the next piece might be.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I decided to add the burial grounds for a bit of fun, and a bit of spookiness. Keep in mind, the events happened at the same time, and the double spacing didn't always work, as I don't double space in the middle of a single sentance or thought. I may add in more about the burial grounds later, not sure.

What do you think? This will get more and more detailed as time goes on, but for now I can only do chapters on saturday and sunday, so expect new chapters then.

 

[EXP:282]

pretty good. I liked the idea of puting the burial grounds.
Keep it up!

 

[hammy_ham_ham]

Here's chapter 3! My hamsty died yesterday, but I'll try to stay positive! This one is with knux, sonic and tails, the next one will be all rouge!

~~~~~Chapter 3, pieces and friends of yester year~
Sonic and knuckles ran down the mountain, and they stopped right infront of the tornado, apparently tails had been waiting while sonic and knuckles were talking.

"Hey, looks like we're all here!" knuckles said, grinning at the kit.

"yep, like old times, hop in!" tails said, gesturing toward the tornado's passenger side door.

"Thanks, I think we outta go over to red mountain" knuckles said to tails, trying to remember the direction of the emerald pieces.

"Why?"

"Rouge came in and kicked the thing, that's why, I need to get the pieces"

"Good enough for me!" tails said, understanding knuckle's perdicament.

He started up the tornado, which stirred and buzzed, then took off into the crisp morning air.

~~~~~~~~a half hour later~~~~

Tails landed the tornado on a mesa in the red mountains, and the three old friends exited and looked around at the surroundings.

"Beautiful, but deadly..."knuckles said, looking at the spiny plants stinking out of a nearby slope.

"Sorta like rouge?" sonic teased, implying something knuckles was trying to kill the idea of.

"Yeah, sorta like...Hey!" knuckles growled, blushing slightly, before aiming a fist at the blue hedgehog hero for breaking his promise.

"Chill dude! Chill! PUT THE SPINE DOWN!" sonic commanded, a bit scared at first but now treating knuckles like a trained dog.

"One more crack about that and you won't wake up to see another day" knuckles threatened, tightening his fists to release some of his anger.

Tails, quite uptil now, stepped in, "Hodl on guys! I have no clue what's going on, so please explain this to me!"

Sonic and knuckles took their eyes of eachother and turned to tails, and knuckles began.

"The lunatic hedgehog here says I have some feelings for rouge, which do not exist!"knuckles insisted, trying to hide his face which was now the color of amy rose's favorite dress.

"and I'm telling you he does have feelings for that bat, I mean, don't you remember what happened at the christmas party!?!"

Knuckles quickly swallowed his answer and remembered the night he thought of so fondly.

~~~~flash back~~~~~~

Knuckles was sitting by the punch bowl, wolfing down christmas cookies as fast as his mouth would let him, when a small white-gloved hand patted his shoulder. He quickly turned around, and saw rouge standing their in a deep red dress.

"Hey, since everyone else is dancing and you're the only one left, wanna dance" rouge asked, a bit nervous about asking knuckles.

"Erm...mmie ho mmt mmemm" knuckles tried to say, his voice full of green and red christmas cooking. He swallowed down the cookies, then tried again."Why do you wanna dance with me?"

"You're the only one left!" rouge answered, blushing slightly. She knew darn well that many others didn't have a dancing partner, but she didn't care. She wanted to dance with knuckles.

"Well, fine, but only because you're soo desperate to dance with me!"

"Whatever, I just want to dance!" rouge retorted back, getting onto the dance floor with knuckles.

They danced together beautifully, nobody expected knuckles was capable of even doing the hokey pokey, let alone the walts, but they were saddly mistaken when knuckles and rouge when sailing across the dance floor as one.

After a while, when they reached the edge, knuckles broke off and made a bee-line for the buffet.

"Typical, men always think of their stomaches first!" Rouge thought, angered.

When the party was done, they both made for the door, but their was one last christmas moment.

"Hey, knucklehead, bat girl, look up!" tails called from below, holding a piece of mistletoe above them from the air Rouge and knuckles both looked up, and went red as the holly decorating the hall.

"Why you little!!" knuckles called, but sonic held him back from bashing tails' brain out.

"Oh come on, it's Christmas! You gotta do it, or else you'll be getting coal next year!" sonic said, giving a congradulatory thumbs up to tails and his plan.

"Oh...Why does it always have to be 'or else you get coal?'!?!" knuckles coffed, angered at his friends, but then he looked at rouge, who wasn't looking angry at all, she was blushing.

"Well, fine.." knuckles gave in, he stared into rouge's deep aqua eyes and slowly moved in. He closed his eyes, waiting. "Oh man, this is gonna feel so wierd-" knuckles thought, but it was quickly cut short when rouge pushed her lips to his.

"Hey, this isn't so bad. This feels, actually, nice." Knuckles thought, he opened his eyes, to see rouge the closest he ever had. "Hey, I never noticed, she's beautiful..Wait a minute, what's that warm thingy floating up in my stomache, I haven't had anything hot to eat, so it must be that wierd feeling I heard about, I must be-no! I can't be thinking that, she's a theif!" knuckles thought, trying to make sense of what he was feeling.

Rouge felt the same way, their lips broke and they shook their heads, trying to make sense of what they were feeling. That boiling hot thing in their stomaches that made them feel weak that had passed through them in that moment.

~~~end flashback~~~~

"You looked pretty comfortable right when you too kissed, heck, you were smiling and blushing and everything!" sonic told knuckles, trying to get an edge on him.

"I was thinking of how good the cookign was, that's all!" knuckles protested, both he, sonic, and tails knew he was lying, but he needed some kind of comeback.

"Well..I do remember you too looking all happy.." tails remembered. "But let's not thinka bout that, we got some emeralds to find!" tails reminded them, and they both shot out of their war-world and jumped all around, searching for the pieces.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Okay! How was that! Not too bad for a 20 minute work, wouldn't you say? I already have the final chapter done(don't worry, there'll be TONS of chapters before then, I like doing the conclusion early!), but I'll do many many more chaps before then, so be happy!

 

[hammy_ham_ham]

I'll add a bit, thanks for the tip. Rouge and knux will start exploring their feelings in the next few chaps, so don't worry too much. and if I feel I need to, I might add in a bit of sonic X amy, so kncukles can get some dirt on sonic XD.

In upcoming chapters, plan to see alot of flashbacks, and the characters starting to wonder about themselves. Character developement will occur then.

 

[EXP:282]

awwww that was soooo cute!!!
Reminds me of a few pokeshipping fics

 

[hammy_ham_ham]

come on now, it's been nearly a month and no new posts, wah...

well, that's one more broken dream to add to my collection...

 

[EXP:282]

i thought you were updating!
Oh well. I still like it. Keep going!

 

[ryman]

I like it! I'm a Knuckles fan, so this is pretty good. Oh, and try using caps at the beginning of a character name! Otherwise it's good. The characters have a different personality, but that is to be expected.

 

[Veek]

I used to hate Rouge. Now I think she's cool ^^ I really like the story. Please put up the next chapter. *bangs head on desk* I've been waiting.. and waiting, and WAITING!

 

[hammy_ham_ham]

sorry, sorry! I've been mega busy with school, I'll do the next chappy now!

don't fret! and I'm afraid I won't be naming chapters, it's sorta hard to do names with me for some unknown reason..

dreams and thoughts will be in italics, BTW.

this one's with rouge.
~chapter 4~

Rouge had been looking for an emerald piece for several hours now, She was starting to wonder if one was anyone near here.

"Ugh, why does that stupid thing have to spread it's piecesso far!?!" She groaned, her wings and legs now aching from all the running she'd been doing.

She decided to take a break, 'maybe a nice nap...' She thought, lying her head down on the ground.

Within a few minutes, She was breathing rhythmically, and her mind started concocting a dream.

"Where am I, I'm in some kind of jungle." Rouge thought, her dream self getting up off the ground. She looked around, and the jungle looked strikingly familar...

"Wait, isn't this Angel Island? Wait, what am I doing here, a second ago I was in Green Hill..." She said aloud, looking round the surrounding area.

"But wait, there's something...Different this time. This is Angel Island, that much can be sure, but I haven't seen this part of the forest before, there's some kind of path, and after all the things I've done here I would have noticed." She thought aloud.

She walked up the path, and standing infront of her, where all her 'friends'. Sonic, Shadow, Sails, Amy, Cream-"Hey, wait, where' Knucklehead?" She wondered, when all at once, Knuckles jumped out of the trees and barreled her into the ground, laughing.

"Wha? Where'd you come- huh?" She asked, all of the standing ones started laughing, as if she had just fallen into a garbage can or done some other funny act.

She hated that laughter ringing in her ears, but wait, Knuckles' laugh isn't cruel, it's almost like He was..joking.

"You fell right into that one, Rouge..." He said, chuckling slightly. The others were still laughing in that embarassing tone, but when Knux give them a poisonous glare, they all shut their mouths and scurried off.

"Thanks-" Rouge began, but was cut off by an echidna paw over her mouth.

"Rouge, there's something I gotta tell you." Knuckles began.

"What?"

"Well, I haven't had the guts to say it before, but Rouge-"

The dream had been rudely cut short by an icy drop falling on Rouge's delicate bat ears, She shot out of the dream and back into reality the moment the annoying drop of water made contact. She looked up, it had started to rain.

"Just great, I was starting to actually enjoy that dream!" She called up to the clouds, which answered with a flash of lightning and a booming clash of thunder that made her ears start throbbing.

"Okay okay, just stop that crashing!" Rouge commanded, grabbing her bag She had dropped before falling asleep and running under a rock jutting out of a cliff that could keep the rain off of her.

"Why'd I dream about knux like that, he didn't have the guts to tell me something, but what was it?" She thought, but before She could consider any more, her natural ability to read conversations kicked in and She got her answer, but it shook her world and chilled her brain.

"No, that can't be it, but what about what happened at the Christmas Party, no, that meant nothing!" She tried to convince herself, mind wrestling itself about what the dream, and memory, meant.

As the sky boomed again, the memory of that one tender moment, that one kiss under the mistletoe, surged onto her like the rain now bombarding her shelter.

Her mind stopped wrestling and breathed in the memory, that one moment that brought her deepest desire to the bat's eyes.

"But...How..This makes no sense!" She called, the smaller animals nearby hiding into their havens to escape the booming, confused voice erupting from under the stone roof.

Rouge was now holding her head like it would crack, her mind racing to find something, anything to stop the fight between her logic and her heart.

"It can't be! But then, why'd I wenjoy that kiss so much? It meant nothing, you were happy about something else! But that was the only thing that I was enjoying...Wait, did I just say I enjoyed it? No, that can't be right! But it felt so nice, so..right." her mind toiled on, each side trying to convince the other about what she was feeling at this very moment.

She closed her eyes and started reaching for something to grab onto, she grabbed onto something that dislodged, and opened her eyes to inspect it, trying to end some of the pain that was aching inside her head.

She look at the small thing in the palm of her hand. She grinned victoriously as she saw what is was, the thing whom's search had revealed something she couldn't yet accept.

Nestled in her head was a glowing green shard of the Master Emerald.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

what do you think? Rouge is in denile, but upcoming events will change her idea about this revalation.

Now my hands are achey and my head is too, so I'll see you folks later!

 

[ryman]

Good! Good! I like the way you introduce the character's feelings with flash backs and dreams and such.

 

[Veek]

^^ Poor Rouge! Poor, poor, confused bat. I liked this chapter alot. Very Good. Very Good.

 

[hammy_ham_ham]

thanks! Indeed, poor rouge..

but, lots of people get confused when they discover they have feelings for another, especially rouge and knux, they tried to put eachother in the hospital, and yet, it says right on the sega of amrica webset she has a crush on knuckles.
I love this shippy so much, it seems to otherworldly, and yet, so obvious and true, it's like everybody should see it, and yet, it's so secret. Not many shippings can pull that off.


[offtopic]Veekatgirl, I just noticed, you named your blaziken what I named mine XD[/offtopic]

 

[EXP:282]

Interesting. Rouge is totally confused now.
Cant wait for to see what happens next!

 

[hammy_ham_ham]

yeah, thought it'd be interesting to have a confused rouge. Next chapter, knux..I'M NOT TELLING! XD!

Or, I might decide to do a second rouge, then do two knux after that(cuz rouge is in a variable place in the story) What should I do next, rouge, or knux?

 

[Veek]

Knux. Knuckles is so cool ^^ Charmy is cooler but Knuckles is awesome too.