Sonic Adventure Zero - Death of Angels

By Master hunter

For Sonic's 14^th Birthday. This is my version of what I think the story for Sonic 2, Sonic 3 & Sonic and Knuckles is. Starts from Emerald Hill and finishes with Knuckles fighting Mecha Sonic. It's obvious, and no doubt being sonic fans you already know, that Sonic 3 & Knuckles follows directly from Sonic 2 and that the merged version has more plot.

There are some new ideas and some old ones. It certainly wasn’t easy to write as there is very little story though I managed to write out 14 chapters with 5 pages each.

I debated whether or not to use Hyper Sonic or just Super Sonic. I started with Super but changed to Hyper. So you may find something I forgot to change. I don’t actually say this though, the Master Emerald gets a tiny amount of Chaos Energy back, enough to lift Death Egg but not Angel Island.

You may have noticed some changes in my bio. I have a Deviant ART account for all my background info and pictures. Please take a look as I have pictures of Ruby Rose, Emerald the Chameleon and a new Joz pic by SilverenX. Comments are always welcome.

Also I’m about to start a new section, full fic mode. This is for those of you who would rather print off a full version of a fic and read at your leisure. This fic should be the first of those, though I will do the others I’ve uploaded soon enough.

Keep a look out for short nods to the other universes. Trademark lines from AoSTH, SatAM and Sonic Underground have been inserted.

So without further ado, I present to you, Sonic Adventure Zero: Death of Angels.

Character copyright:

Everything is based from Sonic 2 and Sonic 3 & Knuckles, so it's all SEGA more or less.

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Chapter 1 - Enter Tails

Sonic the Hedgehog was on a high. He had defeated Dr. Ivo Robotnik and stopped the Scrap Brain project from happening, twice! The People of South Island saw him as a hero, the greatest Earth's ever had. A Blue Hedgehog that could run at the speed of sound, who came out of nowhere and saved the world. Everywhere he went Sonic found more and more people praising him, and he liked it.

"So there I was, staring Eggman in the face. ’No machine this time?' I asked. Eggman smiled back at me and I began to get a bit worried. His previous machines were tough to beat, but I made it look easy. Suddenly a huge metal pillar came out from the ground beneath my feet. I jumped out the way quickly. Lucky for me my reflexes were as quick as my running or I would've been crushed", said Sonic telling his story to a circle of kids.

"Wow! You're awesome Sonic", said one of the kids.

"Let him finish the story", said another

"The Pillar fell to the ground again and orbs of electric energy started raining down on the arena. I knew if I touched one of them it would be the end but I managed to avoid them all. Then another pillar rose up and I saw him. I span into the pillar and the glass began to crack. Then the orbs came, another pillar, etc. Until I finally cracked the glass. Eggman was so worried he set off the self-destruct. I dropped my guard for a split second and he ran away. But I soon caught up with him. Eggman jumped into his Eggmobile and tried to get away but I clung on to it. He led me out of the base where I smashed myself into his prized machine. I could've sworn he died when that exploded but he came back", said Sonic, "However that's another story which I'll tell another time. After the explosion I quickly ran back to Green hill and suddenly the 6 Chaos Emeralds started acting weirdly. They started shining brightly and then all of a sudden after a quick flash Green hill changed, for the better. Peace returned to South Island for a while"

Sonic got up to his feet and turned towards Green hill

"Well kids it's been fun. I'll tell you the Sky base story another time OK", said Sonic

"Aw Sonic! Please don't go. I wanna hear the rest of the story", said a small fox with two tails

"Sorry kid but I'm tired. I'm going to go home", said Sonic, "Even Heroes need to rest"

Sonic ran off into the nearby Jungle, heading towards his home, if you could call it that. Really it was just a tattered old red plane that he found himself next to one day. He can't remember anything before that but something told him the Plane was his and that it was named the Tornado. It didn't work and he had no idea how to fix it.

Sonic suddenly felt something he had never felt before. Nothing could keep up with him but something told him that something was. He looked behind him and one of the kids had followed him.

"Impossible! I was almost running at full speed, there's no way anyone could keep up!" said Sonic.

He took a good long look at the orange figure approaching him. It was that fox with two tails, and he was using them to propel himself forward like a fan.

"Wow! I knew I was fast but I didn't think I could keep up with you", said the fox.

"Kid go home! I'm impressed that you kept up with me an all but it's just too dangerous to be around me", said Sonic.

"I'm sorry Sonic I just wanted to stay with you as long as possible", said the fox.

Neither of them spoke, and then all of a sudden Sonic ran off at full speed. He ran out of the Jungle and reached the harbour. He looked back and saw no trace of the strange young fox. Sonic turned around to find that the young fox was in front of him.

"How did you?" asked Sonic.

"I took a shortcut. I flew across from the cliff over there", replied the fox.

"Flew?" asked Sonic.

"Yeah I can fly using my Tails", said the fox.

The fox jumped into the air and sure enough he was flying. His two tails acted like Rotor blades holding his body in the air like a Helicopter.

"What's your name kid?" asked Sonic.

"Miles Prower, but everyone just calls me Tails", said the fox.

"Well Miles, you certainly are one amazing little boy but, like I said last time, I cannot have anyone following me. GO HOME!" said Sonic.

"Please call me Tails. I don't like the name Miles", said the fox.

"I don't care, for the last time GO HOME!" said Sonic.

Tails didn't do anything. He just stood there waiting for Sonic to run off. Eventually Sonic started running off and Tails once again followed him. Sonic got on a boat and sat down on a bench. Sonic was getting a little scared now.

"So where we going?" asked Tails, "Looks like we're heading towards South Island"

Sonic didn't reply.

"Is that where you live? South Island? So you didn't have too far to go to reach Scrap Brain", said Tails.

"Is there anything I can do that'll make you GO HOME!" said Sonic.

"To be honest that would be rather difficult. You see I don't really have a home", said Tails

"Huh? Do you think I'm stupid kid? You couldn't be more than 8 years olds yet being alive is evidence enough that you have a home", said Sonic.

"Well if you call the Westside Isle Orphanage a home. But I don't like it there, I wanna stay with you", said Tails

"Trust me kid, my home is no better than yours", said Sonic.

The boat reached South Island and the two headed straight for Green Hill. Sonic led Tails to a fairly rusted red plane. Sonic thought Tails would be shocked at the sight of Sonic's home. On the contrary he was more excited than ever.

"Well this is my home. Told you it wasn't much. Now for the last time, GO HOME! You can't seriously be suggesting that this heap of metal is better than your nice building", said Sonic.

"WOW! A plane. That's so cool. What's it called?" asked Tails.

"That? It's called The Tornado. Not sure how I got it, just one day I woke up and found myself sleeping in it. I can't remember anything before that", said Sonic.

"Weird. Want me to fix it for you? I'm a pretty good mechanic you know", said Tails.

"You? A mechanic at your age? Even if you were that things pretty banged up", said Sonic.

"I thought you would've known by now. Looks can be deceiving. I may only be 8, but hey how many foxes do you know that have two tails?" asked Tails, "Anyway, I can make it fly a little. Enough to get us back to Westside Island, to my workshop, where I can finish it".

"Workshop?" asked Sonic.

"Yeah, it's part of the Orphanage", said Tails, "I'm usually in there if I'm not made to go through a boring class at School"

Sonic paused for a moment to think.

"Ok then. A workshop sounds much nicer than just the Tornado when it comes to sleeping. And I would like to see this thing fly, it's my only real possession", said Sonic.

Tails pulled out an Emerald and placed it inside the plane.

"Wait! That's not a Chaos Emerald is it? I mean I collected them all last time", said Sonic.

"That was one part of the story I didn't quite get. You do know there's seven Chaos Emeralds not six right?" asked Tails.

"Huh? Eggman only had the six. There were only six of those elaborate security systems. And then there's the whole land-transforming thing that happened with only six emeralds. You sure there's seven?" said Sonic

"Yes definitely. I had the seventh during your fight with Dr. Robotnik", said Tails, "Well hop in, let's go to Westside Island"

The two got in the place and flew off to Emerald Hill on Westside Island. As they approached the Island Tails noticed something strange in the distance. He knew the surrounding area of Emerald hill quite well, but the Factory he could see wasn’t there before.

“Huh? Since when has Emerald Hill had a Chemical Plant?” asked Tails.

“What?” asked Sonic.

“Oh it’s nothing. Just that Factory over there is news to me”, said Tails, “Hold on, we’re coming in for a landing”.

Sonic grabbed the wings tightly. The Tornado only had the one seat so he had to stand on the wings. Tails landed the plan successfully outside a huge building.

“Well, we’re here. Make yourself at home”, said Tails. Sonic sat down next to a wall, leaning his back against it. He closed his eyes and appreciated the feel of the warm sunshine. Tails moved the Tornado into the Workshop.

It was nice and quiet, until Sonic heard something. It was a soft buzz that was getting louder and louder. Sonic opened his eyes to find that a Buzz bomber squad had appeared.

“He’s back. Oh yeah this could be fun”, said Sonic smiling.

Sonic ran out and quickly took the Badniks out with his spin attack. They were nothing to Sonic. He could beat the smaller Badniks with ease. Sonic turned back to the workshop and began walking back to the wall he was leaning against. Another quick buzz could be heard and then an explosion. Sonic had dropped his guard and a Buzz bomber was just about to shoot at him.

Sonic turned around, curious as to why it exploded. There was Tails, who had smashed the badnik.

“These things again? Hey does that mean Robotnik’s back?” asked Tails.

“Looks that way. Wait, what did you do?” asked Sonic.

“I simply used the spin attack on him”, said Tails

“You can do it too?” asked Sonic surprised.

“It took some time to perfect the technique but yes, I can use the spin attack like you”, said Tails.

Suddenly a large car with a drill appeared. Inside the cockpit was Eggman.

“What happened to Buzz Bomber squad J? Argh! You again!” said Eggman.

“Have you learned yet Eggman, if you try anything bad I’ll be there to stop ya”, said Sonic.

“You insolent fool. You will show we respect and refer to me as Dr. Robotnik, the greatest scientific genius in the world”, said Eggman.

“I’ll never show respect to a giant talking Egg”, said Sonic smiling.

“So that’s Dr. Robotnik huh? Come on Sonic, let’s destroy that thing”, said Tails.

“You stay back, I’ll take care of this!” said Sonic.

Sonic span into the machine quickly and dodged as Eggman tried to drive into him drill first. After several attempts to get Sonic and several attacks from Sonic, Eggman’s drill car was sparking. I can’t take much more. OK Sonic you leave me no choice!

Eggman fired the drill part like a gun and it hit Sonic, knocking him off his feet. Eggman drove over the fallen hedgehog.

“Ho Ho. I knew it was only a matter of time before you fell Hedgehog. Die!” said Eggman.

Then a streak of Orange passed through the machine just as the car was about to squash the Hedgehog. The Drill car began to explode as Tails grabbed Sonic and ran to a safe distance. Sonic woke up from his sucker punch.

“Oh that hurt! What happened?” asked Sonic.

“I finished him off before he could kill you”, said Tails.

“You saved my life? Well that’s a first”, said Sonic.

“Which means you owe me now. From now on I’m going to follow you as you fight Eggman”, said Tails.

“Oh man! I guess I have no choice. Ok then, but don’t do anything reckless. Eggman is more dangerous than that. He got lucky”, said Sonic.

“Well what now?” asked Tails.

“That Chemical Plant! No doubt it’s another one of Eggman’s bases. That’s where we head next”, said Sonic.

“Ok, just let me install a remote control for the Tornado and off we go”, said Tails.

“Sure, just don’t keep me waiting”, said Sonic.

That kid. He’s amazing. So young yet he can handle Badniks with ease, keep up with me, repair broken machines and Fly! Fly! I just hope I don’t regret letting him come with me.

Soon afterwards Tails came back with a remote control, ready to go.

“You Ready? Here we go!” said Sonic.

Sonic and Tails dashed towards the Chemical plant and thus began their first real adventure.

Chapter 2 – Deadly Liquids

It wasn’t long before the two heroes reached the Chemical Plant. It was filled with Badniks and all sorts of sinister traps. Parts were still under construction and it stank like nothing else.

“Something about this place doesn’t seem right”, said Sonic.

“What do you mean?” asked Tails.

“Eggman’s into robots, though it doesn’t look like Robots are being made here”, said Sonic.

“But this is a Chemical Plant. Perhaps he’s developing some sort of fuel”, said Tails.

“I suppose something has to power those things, but I thought the Animals did that?” said Sonic scratching his head.

“Perhaps this fuel is for something else then”, said Tails.

“Correct fox”, boomed a voice above them.

They looked up to find Eggman in a new vehicle that held a canister full of a blue liquid.

“Eggman! What’s all this about?” said Sonic.

“Like I would really tell you my master plan”, said Eggman, “Let’s see if you can get through my Chemical Plant”

Eggman jetted off into the distance laughing, while Sonic and Tails followed. Eggman flew higher and soon disappeared, while the ground beneath our heroes began to collapse from both ends.

“Oh no this isn’t good”, said Sonic.

The floor beneath the two collapsed and they found themselves in a pink liquid. Sonic fell to the ground beneath them while Tails swam through the strange liquid. Tails was surprised Sonic wasn’t swimming, but running along the floor beneath them.

Tails flew above the liquid and landed on a nearby platform. Soon Sonic jumped out of the liquid from the other side of the platform and landed beside Tails. Sonic fell to his knees coughing.

“That strange liquid…making me weak…must find Eggman soon”, said Sonic.

“What’s the matter, can’t you swim?” asked Tails.

“No”, said Sonic, “Never felt the need to learn”

Tails helped Sonic back up and the two heroes navigated through the devious traps which included more of the pink liquid. Eventually they found themselves at some huge tanks, full of blue liquid. A huge robot picked up one of the tanks and began carrying it off. Sonic and Tails hid from the robot. Soon Eggman appeared and started talking to the robot, the two heroes stayed back and listened.

“Carrier report”, said Eggman.

“This is tank 50 of 50 needed to power the Death Egg”, said the robot.

“Excellent. Soon I will launch my beautiful Death Egg and the world will fall at my knees. This world will learn to fear the name Robotnik all over again”, said Eggman, “You are dismissed”

The huge robot left the Chemical Plant carrying the tank away.

“So that’s his plan. He has some new weapon and this place creates fuel for it”, said Sonic, “We need to destroy this place”.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea. All this flammable liquid will create an explosion big enough to destroy Westside Island”, said Tails.

“Good point. Guess we should concentrate on destroying the Death Egg then”, said Sonic.

Suddenly the wall they were hiding behind began to melt, until nothing was left.

“So you made it past my traps. I would’ve thought the pre-processed fuel would poison you if you didn’t drown in it first”, said Eggman.

“What is this Death Egg?” asked Tails.

“If you manage to get passed me perhaps I will tell you”, said Eggman.

Eggman’s Eggmobile threw another ball of blue goop at them. Sonic and Tails dodged it and started dashing towards the machine. Both Heroes approached the machine their own way. Eggman couldn’t choose between them. For him it was too late though as both heroes span into the machine, causing severe damage. Eggman then started throwing the balls of goop at random, but even then it was no use. It slowed the heroes down but they still managed to get a hit.

All of a sudden the floor beneath Sonic’s feet collapsed. He quickly grabbed the end of the platform but found himself neck deep in the pink liquid again. Eggman decided Tails was the bigger threat now and fired a ball at the orange fox. Tails began to fly in the air to avoid the balls of goop. After avoiding a great deal of these blue balls Tails was now tired and found it hard to fly at full speed. Eggman aimed one last blue ball at Tails, who seemed exhausted.

But just as Eggman was about to fire he found his control panel exploding. Sonic had managed to get back up and attack his machine while Eggman was trying to bring down Tails. Sonic grabbed Tails who had fell to the ground exhausted. Behind them Eggman’s vehicle blew up again and Eggman fled the Chemical Plant.

“We work quite well as a team don’t we?” asked Tails smiling.

“I have to admit, that was some fancy flying back there”, said Sonic, “You ready to go chase down Eggman?”

“Yeah I’m fine”, said Tails.

“Ok then, Here we go!” said Sonic.

The two heroes ran out of the Chemical Plant in the direction they last saw Eggman head off to. They were quite high up now, in a lake amongst some ruins. They had lost sight of Eggman but knew he couldn’t have gone far.

Sonic scanned the area but found nothing but water and stone pillars.

“More f’ing water”, said Sonic under his breath.

“We ready to go then?” asked Tails

“As ready as I’ll ever be”, replied Sonic.

Sonic grabbed Tails’ hand and the two explored the depth of the lake.

None of the traps seemed to stop the dynamic twosome. Soon they had reached the other side of the lake to find Eggman was waiting for them.

“What took you do long?” asked Eggman smirking.

“Huh?” asked Tails.

“Dammit! It’s a trap!” shouted Sonic.

Soon they were in a cage of pillars too high to jump over. Tails shrugged his shoulders.

“Is that all?” asked Tails, “I’ll fly out of here and find a way to bring down the pillars”.

Tails tried to fly out of the stone pillar cage, through the gap at the top. Eggman laughed and smashed a huge hammer into the fox. Tails was knocked back to the floor, his face smashing into the ground. Tails quickly got up and rubbed the part of his face that hurt the most.

“Now now! No flying fox boy”, said Eggman.

“You can’t leave though can you?” asked Sonic, “If you do Tails can escape”

“Oh I have no intention of leaving”, said Eggman laughing.

Eggman then flew over to a random pillar and smashed the big hammer across the top. An arrow fired out of one of the engraved mouths on the pillar. Sonic and Tails easily avoided it and began laughing back to Eggman.

“Is that the best you can do? Those things are never going to hit us”, said Sonic.

“Not now, but eventually you’ll tire out and then…” said Eggman smashing the hammer into another pillar.

Sonic and Tails kept dodging the darts fired from the pillars Eggman smashed. The darts kept getting closer and closer as Eggman’s plan was working. They were getting tired. Fortunately Sonic came up with an idea.

“Tails go fly over one of the pillars”, said Sonic.

“OK, but I don’t know how that will help”, said Tails.

“Just avoid the hammer, make it smash into the pillar”, said Sonic.

Tails flew over one the pillars and sure enough Eggman tried to smash the hammer into Tails. Tails dodged the attack but couldn’t escape. After three hits on the pillar and blue blur streaked through Eggman’s Eggmobile.

“What? This is impossible. I’m too high for you to jump to”, said Eggman.

“Keep flying over the pillars Tails. My plan it working”, shouted Sonic.

Eggman panicked. He didn’t realise Sonic was using the arrows that were fired as platforms to gain height. Each arrow had gotten stuck in the opposite pillar. Eggman didn’t know what to do but he couldn’t let Tails escape. He kept trying to whack Tails with the hammer, but after every three arrows or so, Sonic managed to attack the Eggmobile. Eventually Eggman’s Eggmobile fell out the sky and smashed into one of the stone pillars.

Eggman managed to fly off while Sonic and Tails fell to the floor in exhaustion.

“Nice plan…but could we take a short rest?” asked Tails.

“Way ahead of ya!” said Sonic falling onto his back.

It had become night as they rested. Tails got up and decided to look around, due to boredom. Sonic sat down beside a tree. Tails wandered over to the horizon and froze in horror.

“SONIC!!” he shouted.

Sonic quickly ran over to Tails and he took froze in horror. Behind the Casino area was a huge base, with a huge black space station in the middle.

“That thing is huge!” said Sonic.

“No doubt that’s what the Death Egg is. A Huge Space station, probably equipped with a massive powerful weapon”, said Tails.

“Look at that security. A direct assault will just get us killed”, said Sonic.

Tails scanned the horizon and noticed the mountains beside the city. He then smiled.

“Then let’s sneak through the back door. Lets take a detour through that mountain”, said Tails.

Tails pointed to a big mountain with a river of oil coming out from behind it. Sonic didn’t looked too thrilled with the idea though.

“You do know those are the Mystic caves. They are said to be haunted. And if we do get through the dark confined caves we have to cross the oil fields, dubbed Oil Ocean. This is all assuming we get passed the magma traps just outside the mystic caves”, said Sonic.

“Hey I didn’t say it would be easy”, said Tails, “but think of the alternatives. Like you said a direct assault is likely to get us killed. And I’m sure the base has plenty of anti-air defenses ruling out the Tornado”.

“Well when you put it that way”, said Sonic grabbed Tails’ hand, “Here we go”

Sonic ran at full speed to the entrance to the Casino area. It was a city completely designed as a huge casino. There were a couple of these scattered across the world. Casino Park and Night Babylon were other big ones. It was believed that Eggman used these casinos to raise funds for his diabolical schemes. Although Sonic hated that, he knew that depriving the people of such an entertaining place was just as bad.

“Open the door to the casino!” Shouted Sonic.

Nothing happened. The doors remained shut. Sonic skidded to a stop.

“Hey I told you to open the door. We don’t have time to waste. Eggman is about to launch…” said Sonic.

“Sorry no minors”, said a robot bouncer.

“What?... You’re kidding me. We need to get past this casino to save the world as we can’t get in because we’re under 18”, said Sonic.

“It is against the law for us to allow anyone under the age of 18 to enter this establishment”, said the robot bouncer, “We cannot allow you to get past”.

“Dammit! If only I was 3 years older”, said Sonic.

“Yeah and me 10 years older. But we don’t have to go in Sonic”, said Tails.

“What do you mean?” asked Sonic.

“Let’s just stick to the rooftops”, said Tails.

“Ah! Good idea. That’s OK with you isn’t it?” asked Sonic.

“I don’t see why not” said the robot bouncer, “But no going down below the rooftops. If you do we’ll be forced to bring out our security badnik army”

Tails grabbed Sonic and flew up to the roof of the casino. As soon as Sonic could, he ran across the rooftops as the two tried to stay as high as possible. Though no matter how careful they were, they ended up slipping off and hit the floor hard.

All of a sudden they were surrounded by Badniks.

“It’s OK, we slipped. Just let us get back to the rooftops…” said Tails.

A gun began firing at them. Sonic grabbed Tails and the two began running off trying to hide. Although it was a city it was still quite dangerous, especially for those not meant to be there. The two managed to get to a point just short of the other end, when they heard Eggman’s voice. They decided to eavesdrop on the conversation.

“Here you go Eggman. Here is your 80 percent share of this months profits”, said a man quivering with fear.

“Ah! Excellent. I knew it was a good idea to build casinos and security robots, just in case money ever became an issue”, said Eggman.

“Then perhaps we could re-negotiate our share of the profits. Say 70 to you 30 to us”, said the man, “We could do with more money to develop the city further”.

“I’m sorry but I need all the money I can get right now. Don’t worry though; when I take over the world money will not be a problem for me. Stay loyal to my empire and I may just reward you with more money”, said Eggman.

Suddenly a badnik came storming into the building.

“Dr. Robotnik sir! Sonic and some orange two tailed fox have entered the city. Your orders?” said the badnik.

“Do I really have to tell you? Destroy them both immediately”, said Eggman.

“Understood”, said the badnik who quickly left in search of the two Heroes.

“Those little pests. Why can’t they just leave me to conquer the world in peace”, said Eggman, “Hey wait a minute, they’re both underage! How did they get past the main gate?”

“We’ll do everything we can to stop them”, said the man.

“I wish that filled me with confidence but it doesn’t. I guess I’ll have to deal with this myself. Evacuate the other gate. They’ll have to get past me to leave here”, said Eggman.

Eggman left in his Eggmobile and stopped at the nearby gate. A giant claw with an electrical current running between the ends appeared.

“Electric claw check, Spike bombs check. Just try it Hedgehog”, they heard Eggman say faintly.

Sonic was actually delighted by this. He grabbed Tails and dashed to meet Eggman head on.

Chapter 3 – The Mountain Detour

Typically Eggman wasn’t too happy that Sonic and Tails had caught up with him so quickly.

“Why won’t you leave me to take over the world in peace Hedgehog?” asked Eggman.

“’Cause no way am I taking orders from a big giant egg”, said Sonic.

“You cheeky...I will make you pay for that. But first tell me how you managed to get past security”, said Eggman.

“Like a gate could stop us. We simply went to the roof, Up, Over and Gone!” said Sonic.

“Bah! Enough talk. Lets see just how much Electricity that body of yours can take”, said Eggman.

Eggman flew over Sonic and fired some spiked bombs. Sonic avoided the bomb and jumped up from underneath the Eggmobile. The big yellow claw electrocuted Sonic. Tails managed to hit the Eggmobile and Sonic was released. Tails went over to check on Sonic.

“Are you OK?” asked Tails.

“I’ll live. Take it we have to get some height first”, said Sonic coughing.

Sonic ran up the wall of some nearby buildings, jumped off and smashed into the Eggmobile.

“Bah! This is too easy”, said Sonic.

As soon as Sonic did that Eggman knew he was beaten. The two heroes repeated the trick until the Eggmobile blew up again. Eggman flew off through the gate and Sonic and Tails followed.

Outside Eggman retreated to a massive fortress, armed to the teeth with guns.

“Holy… No way we getting through that door”, said Sonic.

“Then it’s off to the mountains”, said Tails.

“Ok then, there’s no time to lose. Here we go!” said Sonic.

Sonic and Tails dashed towards the top of the nearby hills. By the time they reached the lava fields of Hill Top it was morning again.

Meanwhile Eggman watched them as they headed off towards the hills. He knew those mountains did allow them to get through to the heart of Metropolis. Despite the dangers in front of them, it did seem the most logical option. Although he wasn’t going to leave anything to chance. He prepared his Eggmobile for an assault on the two heroes. He was going to make the Mountain Detour tough for them, if they reach Metropolis before the Death Egg and Wing Fortress are ready then all his hard work would be in vain.

It was starting to get tricky for the two heroes. Platforms would collapse at will; lava often rose in the dark confined caves. Fireballs appeared out of nowhere. Unlike last time, touching the liquid meant instant death.

But the two managed to get to the Mystic Cave entrance in one piece. Though suddenly Eggman appeared from underneath the lava and fired some fireballs in random directions. There was no banter this time, only action. Sonic and Tails managed to avoid the Fireballs and Sonic even managed to bounce on the Eggmobile. However this was what Eggman wanted.

“Die you fool”, said Eggman laughing.

Eggman sunk back into the lava he had appeared from, while Sonic continued to bounce on the machine. The walls got much taller, to the point where escape was impossible. Sonic was in trouble, as soon there would be nothing to bounce off (unless you count the lava).

One last bounce and the machine began to explode but as Sonic came down it was a guaranteed death, if it wasn’t for Tails. Tails had grabbed Sonic just in time and flew him out of the pit back to safety.

“Phew! Thanks Tails. I was wondering how I was going to get out of that”, said Sonic.

“Smart, Agile and can fly. That’s some sidekick you’ve got there Hedgehog”, said Eggman.

“Yeah, I have to admit Tails has been quite useful so far”, said Sonic.

Tails blushed with Embarrassment.

“Though let’s see how useful his flight is inside the caves. I’ll be waiting for you inside, if you have the guts to enter”, said Eggman.

Eggman flew into the caves. Sonic and Tails rested for a bit.

“So are you ready to enter the caves yet?” asked Sonic. Tails froze in fear.

“Suddenly I seem to remember all those ghost stories you hear about these caves”, said Tails shaking.

“Yeah they say the spirits of some merciless killers haunt the caves”, said Sonic.

Tails gulped, still shaking in fear. A cold sweat took over his body.

“Hey you’re not scared are you?” asked Sonic.

“No, of course not. I’m a hero now”, said Tails suddenly switching to a more bold stance.

“Ok then after you”, said Sonic.

Tails slowly started walking forward. Soon he was inside the caves and started to feel a little calmer.

“BOO!” Shouted Sonic all of a sudden while quickly placing his hand on Tails’ shoulder.

Tails jumped with fright. Sonic laughed so loudly it echoed throughout the caves.

“Sorry Tails, I couldn’t resist”, said Sonic.

The caves themselves were fairly dark. There was some light, but it mostly came from Badniks that use electric attacks. It was a very dangerous place as there were plenty of traps scattered around the place. From collapsing bridges to moving pillars intended to crush trespassers. Someone wanted people to stay out of these caves.

Suddenly Sonic’s foot got trapped within a bridge that then collapsed. Beneath him was a tall spike pit with no way out. Quickly Tails grabbed him and pulled him out of danger.

“Thanks buddy. I can’t wait until we’re out of these caves”, said Sonic.

“Don’t mention it. Let’s just get out of these caves”, said Tails.

Then the roof started to cave in. Sonic grabbed Tails and ran as fast as he could. There was no time to discuss the situation as the two headed towards the small light at the end of the tunnel. As they reached the exit they were stopped by Eggman who this time had two large drills on either side of his Eggmobile.

“Congratulations on making it this far. But to get out of these caves you’ll have to get past me”, said Eggman.

“Whatever Egghead. You haven’t stopped me before, what makes this time any different?” said Sonic.

“No flying sidekick. Let’s see if you two can survive a cave-in here”, said Eggman.

Eggman drilled into the ceiling and several rocks and spikes fell down. The two heroes dodged the falling objects but then Eggman reappeared and smashed into both of them. Eggman laughed as the two heroes fell on their backs.

“Any ideas?” asked Sonic.

“Let’s split up. He can’t attack both of us”, said Tails.

“Agreed”, said Sonic.

The same thing happened again but this time when Eggman re-appeared he could only hit Sonic, while Tails was able to smash off one of the two drills. The drill’s absence made the vehicle spin out of control. While Eggman tried to sort his vehicle out Sonic and Tails ran out of the exit.

The sun was beginning to set for another day and ahead of the two heroes was one more challenge before they reached Eggman’s base, the Oil Ocean. This area of Westside Island was famous for its huge industrial area, scattered around a huge oil reservoir. The oil would often be gathered by the big companies and manufactured into something useful.

Sonic and Tails prepared for a quick dash towards Eggman’s base. It meant going through the Oil Ocean that was full of security traps. It would also be very slippery as oil got everywhere here. In many ways it was just as dangerous as the Mystic caves.

“Oh god! What is that smell?” said Sonic.

“Duh! The oil of course”, said Tails.

The gates of Metropolis were in their sights, it wouldn’t be long now. They managed to get through the devious oil traps that often led to spikes, the invisible mazes of jet tunnels, and the deep tar pits that consumed all that good stuck within them.

As they were just about to reach the Metropolis gates they found the industrial area disappear into nothing but a couple of platforms above the ocean of oil.

Then all of a sudden a massive harpoon was fired at them. The two heroes managed to dodge it thanks to their quick reflexes.

“What was that?” asked Tails.

“Eggman! But where did he fire it from?” asked Sonic.

Seconds later a snake like metal chain appeared. On the end was a gun aimed directly at them. It fired some sort of freeze ray at them. They dodged the attack and soon found where the attacks were coming from.

“He must be down there in some sort of Oil submarine”, said Sonic

“I see, so how do we defeat him?” asked Tails.

Another ray of blue freezing light shot out from the gun. Again they dodged it.

“There’s no way he can see down there”, said Sonic.

“Perhaps he’s using some sort of sensors to target us. Maybe heat or motion sensors”, said Tails

One last shot from the gun and Eggman surfaced from beneath the Oil Ocean’s surface.

“Having fun figuring out how I can attack you from underneath this oil? There’s no way you can beat me this time Hedgehog. You can’t even see me”, said Eggman laughing.

Sonic dashed towards the submarine but it sank before he could get a hit in. The harpoon was fired at them again. It was easily dodged. Then the Freeze gun appeared and started firing. As they dodged the blasts Sonic managed to grab hold on the gun and aimed it down towards the oil. After three blasts the submarine re-appeared, this time with a frozen hull.

“Why you little…” shouted Eggman in anger.

Sonic span into the frozen hull and shattered it. Eggman flew out of the broken submarine in his Eggmobile.

“Well done Sonic. But I’m not beaten yet. If you can survive Metropolis’ traps you may be able to face me again. Until then hedgehog”, said Eggman.

Eggman flew off towards his base and disappeared into it.

“This is it little buddy. All we have to do is get to the core of the base and blow everything up with the self destruct mode”, said Sonic.

“Now I know how you felt when you first saw Scrap Brain”, said Tails, “This base is huge!”

“Yeah, to be honest Scrap Brain was tiny compared to this thing. Well then are ya ready?” asked Sonic.

Tails nodded, slowly shaking a little in fear.

“Ok then. Here we go!” shouted Sonic.

Sonic grabbed Tails’ arm and headed inside Metropolis.

Meanwhile Eggman was panicking. They were here and he wasn’t ready. He rushed to the core to find his prototype weapon and attached it to his vehicle.

“Has this weapon been tested yet?” shouted Eggman suddenly.

“Yes Master. Optimum performance”, said a robot.

“Excellent. All Badnik squadrons, this is not a drill. Sonic will be inside Metropolis any minute now. Do all you can to stop him”, said Eggman over a tannoy.

“You! Are the wing fortress and Death Egg ready for launch yet?” asked Eggman.

“They still need at least another half hour master. Even at their best we estimate Sonic and his friend will not reach the core of Metropolis for another 40 minutes”, said the robot.

“We’re cutting it a little too close. If Sonic manages to set off the Self-destruct while the Wing Fortress and Death Egg remain inside the base, I will personally scrap every single one of you. Do not let me down”, said Eggman.

“Understood”, said the robot.

“Then get going”, said Eggman.

The Robot quickly left the core and prepared to give all it had to stop the two heroes destroying everything.

I will not let you succeed this time Hedgehog.

Chapter 4 – Death Rises

Metropolis was a huge mechanised city. Pools of lava were used to generate heat and in turn power up the massive base. Jets of steam appeared out of nowhere and huge cogs appeared at random, always turning. It was like being inside a massive machine.

It took much longer to get through the base. It seemed like the end would never come.

“How much longer Sonic?” asked Tails.

“I don’t know. Scrap Brain wasn’t this big”, said Sonic.

Then all of a sudden Eggman appeared in front of them. His Eggmobile surrounded by a shield of small metal orbs, a single row that rotated round the machine.

“Oh, so close yet so far. In 2 minutes the Death Egg and my ultimate Flying battleship will take there rightful place above the world. Even if you defeat me here and blow up Metropolis, there is no way you will ever get to my precious Wing Fortress, let alone the Death Egg”, said Eggman.

“We’ll see. Though you should know it doesn’t matter what happens, I’ll never give up, never stop fighting you”, said Sonic.

“1 minute 50 seconds Hedgehog. This is the beginning of the end”, said Eggman.

Sonic tried jumping at the machine but found the shield got in the way.

“Damn, bad timing”, said Sonic.

Eggman charged into the two heroes and sent them flying in the opposite direction. Sonic and Tails sprang to their feet.

“We have to time our attacks just right”, said Sonic.

“Gotcha”, said Tails.

“HAHAHA! Just under a minute left”, said Eggman.

Sonic and Tails made a well timed jump and hit the machine. Two of the metal orbs morphed into big balloons of Eggman.

“What? I knew you were made of hot air Eggman but this is ridiculous”, said Sonic. Tails giggled.

Sonic and Tails ignored the balloons and attacked Eggman again. Two more of the metal orbs morphed into Eggman balloons. They kept this up until the entire orb shield disappeared and Eggman flew up into the air. Two balloons burst behind the two heroes and sent them flying towards the edge of the arena. They hung for to the edge for their lives as beneath them was a dark pit with no visible bottom.

“Perhaps we should’ve taken care of the balloons”, said Tails.

“Ya think!” said Sonic.

Sonic and Tails climbed back into the arena.

“10 seconds…9….8…” said Eggman counting down the seconds.

Sonic and Tails dodged all the balloons as the exploded. Eggman fired a massive laser at them which the two heroes just narrowly dodged. Eggman reached 3 as Sonic and Tails made their jump attacks.

2…Sonic hit the machine

1…Tails hit the machine

0…Eggman’s machine blew up

Sonic made one last desperate dash towards the control room but it was no use. The whole base began to shake. Sonic watched the weapons rise on a screen as Tails caught up with him. A huge black sphere disappeared into the sky as it went into orbit around Earth. A huge golden battleship also rose into the air.

“We’re too late”, said Tails.

“We’re never too late. Let’s blow up Metropolis and chase after that battleship. Then we can think of someway to get to the Death Egg”, said Sonic.

“Ok then”, said Tails.

Tails hacked into the computer and set off the self destruct sequence. Sonic grabbed his arm and ran back out towards the entrance of the base. They saw Eggman escape through the roof, laughing as he went. Tails grabbed Sonic and tried to fly out of the same exit, but it sealed shut before they had the chance.

The siren wailed, “SELF DESTRUCT SEQUENCE HAS BEEN ACTIVATED. FIVE MINUTES LEFT. EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY”

Sonic grabbed Tails and followed the Badniks out of the base. They had to smash their way through them but didn’t find it too difficult. As it approached the last minute they saw the exit and quickly ran out of it, heading out through the main gate towards the other end of Casino area.

“This should be far enough. I’ll call the Tornado”, said Tails.

Tails brought out a remote control, pushed a button and the two waited for the Tornado to arrive. Just as the base exploded the plane landed next to them. Tails jumped in the cockpit and Sonic stood on the wings.

“Ok, next stop the Wing Fortress”, said Tails.

The Tornado flew off towards the Golden battleship and soon found itself attacked by a fleet of Badniks.

“How are the guns on this thing Tails?” asked Sonic shouting.

“Not sure if they work”, shouted Tails.

“Great”, said Sonic sarcastically, “Bring me in as close to a badnik as you can. I hope your piloting skills are as good as you say they are”, said Sonic.

“Don’t worry, I won’t let you fall”, said Tails.

One by one Sonic smashed the Badniks while Tails dodged their fire and caught Sonic before he fell into the abyss below. They flew above the Fortress only to have it fly up past them, blowing them off course. Tails quickly moved the Tornado back into position as more Badniks attacked the plane, some even ramming into them.

It sounds worse than it actually was, and soon Sonic and Tails were making their final decent onto the fortress. Suddenly giant lasers fired at them. Tails did his best to dodge them but one managed to hit him.

“Need to be faster…Hey Sonic…What the?” said Tails as Sonic made one massive leap onto the fortress.

Sonic looked back down to the plane as it slowly descended to the ground.

“It’s been fun kid but it looks like I’m on my own from now on”, said Sonic.

Tails managed to land the plane OK. Luckily there wasn’t too much damage. He got out his tools and quickly repaired the plane. He then thought about speed and started working on a new jet engine.

Meanwhile Sonic was busy infiltrating the fortress. Some of it was still being built but most of its security was activated in full force. It wasn’t easy but he soon found the cockpit. There waiting for him was Eggman.

“Well done Hedgehog. What do you think of my fortress?” asked Eggman.

Sonic dashed towards him but was knocked back by an invisible light barrier. Sonic quickly sprang back to his feet.

“Not bad. But it’ll take a lot more than that to stop me”, said Sonic.

“Shame your fox friend couldn’t make it too. That’s a nice plane you have there”, said Eggman.

“Tails will be back. Just you wait”, said Sonic, “That little fox has more in him that you know”

“It doesn’t matter. Soon I will depart for the Death Egg and execute my brilliant plan”, said Eggman.

“Which is?” asked Sonic.

“To hold the world at ransom with my ultimate weapon”, said Eggman.

“There’s no way I’m going to let you fire any weapon on Earth”, said Sonic.

A dome at the top of the cockpit opened up and 3 small spiked platforms appeared. The platforms moved randomly around the arena while a laser in the dome charged up energy.

“We’ll just see about that”, said Eggman.

The laser dome moved towards Sonic and fired a huge laser beam straight downwards. Sonic leaped towards the laser dome but he just couldn’t reach it. As he fell back to the ground he had to dodge the spiked platforms. The laser dome appeared above him once more and Sonic quickly used the platforms to get extra height in his jumping attack. He smashed into the laser and jumped out of the way before it fired.

Sonic noticed the light barrier and the machine Eggman was standing on spark a little. He then knew what he had to do. A few more successful hits and the light barrier fell as Eggman’s controls blew up. Eggman ran out onto a platform at the back of the fortress. The Wing Fortress began to explode in parts and it was obvious Eggman was evacuating.

A huge spaceship soon appeared from inside the fortress. Eggman was in the cockpit. He smiled and waved as he took off on it, knowing there wasn’t any chance of Sonic catching him this time. Even if Sonic managed to get into space it would be too late. Enough time would’ve passed allowing him to fire his ultimate weapon. Sonic could do nothing but watch the spaceship fly off into orbit.

Then suddenly he heard a familiar voice shout out his name. It was Tails flying in the Tornado, approaching very fast. Eggman casually flew off into orbit unaware that Sonic and Tails were closing in one him with a more advanced Tornado. He looked behind and soon noticed the heroic pair. He started to fly faster but by then the Tornado had caught up with the Spaceship. Sonic jumped, grabbing onto the machine. He hung onto it for dear life as Tails had to deal with the Tornado after it had been pushed to its limits. Tails returned to Earth as the Spaceship docked into the Death Egg.

The Death Egg was a huge black round space station. Sonic has heard the odd story about a place called ARK in space. This eclipsed his vision of ARK despite him being told ARK was really huge. Sonic let go and fell to the floor. His grip had been so tight he was relieved to let go of it. He lay on his back taking a short rest.

Although his sight was upside down he noticed Eggman running through a door. Sonic quickly sprang to his feet again.

“Thanks Tails. That was some flying back there. I wonder if Eggman knows I’m here”, said Sonic softly.

Sonic dashed towards the door Eggman had left through and found that it was locked.

“Dammit. He knows alright”, said Sonic slamming his fist into the cold metal door.

Sonic quickly searched for alternatives. He then noticed the Chaos Emerald he had taken from Tails during their trip had started to glow quite brightly.

“They’ve done this before. The other emeralds are here”, said Sonic, “So I have to get the Emeralds, knock this thing out of the sky, take out Eggman and find a way back to Earth safely. All before Eggman threatens the world and fires his ultimate weapon. Bummer may Horace”

Meanwhile Eggman reached the central control room and started typing things into a computer console.

“He’s here. And I don’t even have any Badniks to help me, well except for the Mecha Sonic prototype”, said Eggman angrily.

Eggman activated a Robot Sonic. Its armour had yet to be painted but that was all that needed to be done. Its weapons were ready and its attack protocols complete. If Sonic managed to get this far he would have to fight the Mecha Sonic prototype. If he then defeated the robot he would still have to face his battle armour droid, The Egg Robot.

Eggman had dreamed of using The Egg Robot. It was heavily armoured and had more deadly weapons that any of his previous machines. It needed a Chaos Emerald to operate, even though he was so close to finding a way around that. Luckily for him, his ultimate weapon only needed five Chaos Emeralds to work, leaving one for his machine. He didn’t know where the Seventh Emerald was but he didn’t care. 6 emeralds were enough for him.

He watched the security cameras for a glimpse of Sonic. He knew he was in the Death Egg somewhere. He was amazed at how Sonic could hold onto the Spaceship like that. The Hedgehog was certainly tenacious and determined. He was horrified to find that Sonic had found the weapons core room. He hadn’t finished security there yet and thus Sonic could easily grab the emeralds.

Sonic did quickly grab the emeralds and soon noticed that he had all but one left. He found that the once locked doors had been unlocked by someone. He was surprised to find no resistance what so ever except for every door being locked. He thanked the lord that Eggman hadn’t secured the air vents. A cliché yes, but an effective one nether the less.

Sonic ran out of the weapon chamber to find a screen with Eggman’s face on the wall opposite.

“You little thief. No matter, come to the control room Sonic. We end this tonight. I’ll destroy you, take all 6 of your emeralds and charge my cannon to even greater power”, said Eggman.

“A cannon huh? Oh well. There’s no way I’m going to let you win Eggman”, said Sonic.

“What are you going to do Sonic? I’ve released all but one escape pod, the one in my ultimate battle armour droid. The Spaceship I came here with has been blown up. You’re stuck here Hedgehog and it’s only a matter of time before I find you. I have cameras placed all around the Death Egg. There is no hiding from me”, said Eggman.

“I have no intention of hiding from you. Which way to the control room?” asked Sonic.

“Just follow the lights”, said Eggman.

The path to the control room was made clear when all the lights went out, except for a highlighted path towards the control room. Sonic ran down them as quickly as he could. He never backed down from a challenge from Eggman, and he wasn’t going to start now.

Meanwhile back on Earth, Tails kept himself busy repairing and adjusting the Tornado. He knew that if he took one moment to think about what was going on he’d start to panic. He was already getting there the moment he realised Sonic had to find his own way back to Earth. Burning up on Re-entry or just floating in space wasn’t an option.

Come on Sonic. I know you can do it.

Chapter 5 – A Super Discovery

Sonic reached a corridor with huge windows looking out into space. He felt his heart pound faster and he began to sweat much more the usual. It was like reaching the heart of Scrap Brain; no matter how cool you were you were still nervous when you reached the end.

The corridor led to a giant room. Another screen appeared with Eggman’s face on it. The sounds of jets broke the deafening silence as a Robot Sonic appeared from the highest part of the room. It landed softly on the floor and looked up to Sonic.

“This is it? The big fight? Another Robot Sonic! This one looks even worse than the last one”, said Sonic laughing.

“No this isn’t the big fight. This is just a warm up”, said Eggman.

“I am Mecha Sonic. Priority one, destroy Sonic the Hedgehog. Initiating attack modes”, said the Robot Sonic.

Mecha Sonic span into a ball and quickly spin dashed towards Sonic. It was easy enough to jump over. Although as Sonic landed on the floor he was hit in the back by the machines ram mode. Sonic fell to the ground and jumped straight back up again as he began to hit the Robot with his own spin attack. As he hit the machine he noticed the metal spikes oscillating like a saw. Sonic quickly decided to stay away from them. A couple of hits later Mecha Sonic span into a ball again, only this time he jumped into Sonic and Sonic jumped expecting another Spin dash. Sonic fell back to the ground into the opposite direction to Mecha Sonic.

“You’re pretty tough after all. Not bad, but I’m better”, said Sonic.

Mecha Sonic tried to ram Sonic again. This time though Sonic got a few more hits on the machine and it started to spark. It went into a ball and jumped across the room again, firing spikes in down towards Sonic. Sonic back flipped to avoid them and made a desperate dash towards Mecha Sonic. He managed to get the final hit he needed to destroy the machine.

As it exploded a door at the opposite side of the room opened up. Behind it was Eggman at another computer console, hitting it hard with his fist in a moment of pure frustration. He looked up to find Sonic smiling at him. Eggman panicked and ran as fast as he could away from Sonic. Sonic laughed as he slowly ran to chase Eggman. Sonic could’ve easily caught Eggman but decided to have some fun instead. This ended up being a mistake as Eggman jumped into a dome shaped like the evil villains head.

Sonic skidded to a halt as a huge machine appeared in front of him. The machine’s size was only eclipsed by the huge arena Eggman had built especially for this fight. The machine was 5 times as big as Sonic. Sonic swallowed a very big gulp as in front of him was the real fight, the ultimate battle armour, The Egg Robot.

“Now Sonic. This is the real fight”, said Eggman.

“Bring it on Eggman”, said Sonic.

The Egg Robot started to walk forward. Sonic didn’t take any time to think as he made a spin jump directly at the machine. Sonic used all his strength to avoid the spikes he was going to hit if he kept attacking like he did. Deviously Eggman had placed spikes on the end of the Robots arms, at the exact height Sonic jumped at. Sonic ran to the other side of the room and watched the Egg Robot carefully.

Every time he takes a step forward one of the arms moves back while the other arm moves forward. I got it!

Sonic made a well timed jump that landed a hit precisely when both arms were at the same point. He waited for the next opportunity but the next time Eggman took a step back and Sonic just crashed into the floor. The Egg Robot then flew into the air.

“Amazing, that huge thing can fly?” asked Sonic in amazement.

Sonic dashed around the arena as Eggman tried to crush him. Eventually the Egg Robot crashed back to the floor. This time Sonic found himself facing the machines back. Eggman laughed as several bombs were fired out of his back, each one shaped to look like Eggman. Sonic dashed between the Robots legs as the bombs exploded. He looked back to find one of the spiked arms had been fired at him like a missile. Sonic came within an inch to the opposite wall as he skidded to stop himself crashing into the wall. He expected the spiked arm to hit him but found that the arm had returned to its original position and the other arm had been fired. The other arm reached a point before returning to its original position.

Eggman laughed as the machine flew back into the air. This time Sonic stood still and waited for Eggman to drop. He made sure this time the machine’s back was next to a wall. It started walking again, which allowed Sonic to make some well timed jumps again. Several hits later and The Egg Robot started to spark a little.

“All that, and he’s only sparking a little. This is some armour”, said Sonic.

The Egg Robot ascended into the air again. Sonic waited for the drop and just narrowly avoided each spiked arm as it was fired. He needed all his focus on dodging the attacks so he couldn’t get any of his attacks in. The machines flew into the air and crashed into the ground, it started to walk again. Sonic smiled as he got some good hits in this time and the Egg Robot was sparking like crazy.

“NO! THIS ISN’T HAPPENING”, shouted Eggman.

Sonic made one last hit and the Egg Robot started to explode. The Chaos Emerald that had powered it fell to the ground and Sonic quickly grabbed it. Sonic ran far enough away from the explosion, which opened up a pathway out of the arena into Space. However the explosion also affected the Death Egg’s computer and it was about to explode, sending the huge space station crashing back to Earth.

Sonic wasn’t going to wait to see what happened. He’d rather die in peaceful space than blow up inside the Death Egg. He ran into space and prayed that somehow everything would work out fine. Then the Chaos Emeralds started to glow.

Meanwhile, back on Earth an explosion could be seen in the sky. Tails became overcome with worry as the explosion only got brighter. No doubt Sonic had won but how was he going to get back to Earth. A flicky flew to Tails and handed him a note.

Something has fallen from space into the sky. It looked like a golden flame but I can’t be sure. It could be your friend. I’ve calculated where it’s likely to land and if it is him he’s going to need your help. Fly into the skies above the ocean to the west and you should see him.

MP

Tails jumped into the Tornado and noticed a fleet of flickies were following him. He took off towards the place the note told him to go.

Sonic sighed as he watched the Death Egg crash back towards Earth. He could do nothing but watch it all and die peacefully when the artificial atmosphere created by the Death Egg disappears.

So this is how it ends. Earth looks so peaceful, I’m glad I could save it one last time…I won’t let him die like this…huh? I can feel a warm energy surround my body.

Sonic opened his eyes and found himself surrounded by a golden aura. His usual blue fur had been replaced by golden fur. He stood in space, breathing normally, with his spikes pointing up and his eyes turning red (though he hadn’t noticed those things yet). He had completely transformed and felt stronger and faster.

“Way past cool”, said Sonic, “Is this the power of the Emeralds?”

It was then that he realised it must have been as the emeralds had disappeared. He then realised it might not be permanent and headed back to Earth. He broke into Earth’s atmosphere and found that the friction fire from re-entry wasn’t hurting him. He was invincible.

He looked down and saw Tails in the Tornado, searching frantically for him. Sonic then rejoined his new sidekick and flew around the Tornado. Tails looked shocked.

“Sonic is that you?” asked Tails.

“Yep, cool isn’t it?” asked Sonic.

“But how?” asked Tails.

“The Seven Chaos Emeralds must have done this to me”, said Sonic.

“So you don’t need my help after all?” asked Tails.

Sonic started feeling a little weaker so stood on the wings of the plane. He reverted back to his blue self and saw the Chaos emeralds move away from him. Not wanting that power to disappear he quickly grabbed all the emeralds again by unexpectedly jumping towards them. Tails had to have amazingly fast reflexes and an amazing flying ability to make sure Sonic didn’t fall to his death. Luckily he did. Tails saved Sonic and began shouting at him.

“What are you crazy? You almost got yourself killed”, said Tails.

“Hey I aint losing these things again”, said Sonic.

“Well I suppose it’s OK. Anyway what do we do now?” asked Tails.

“I don’t know. Hey how did you know to look for me here?” asked Sonic.

“Some guy gave me a note saying he saw you falling into this region. He must be at some observatory or something. He called himself MP”, said Tails.

“Well we should go thank him”, said Sonic.

Just then a huge crash could be heard and a tidal wave appeared. The two heroes looked to where they thought the crash happened. A huge Island had suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

“Could it be? Angel Island?” asked Tails.

“Angel Island?” asked Sonic.

“I heard stories about it when I was in the orphanage. Legend has it that the Master of the Emeralds sleeps there, normally holding the Island in the sky. I always thought it was nothing more than a story, but if it has fallen out of the sky it would explain that tidal wave”, said Tails.

“It doesn’t matter. Look at THAT!” said Sonic pointing at a huge black dome, just visible but mostly hidden by a mountain.

“The Death Egg? It survived re-entry and the crash?” asked Tails.

“I’m sure that’s the Death Egg, which means this adventure isn’t over. Take us to the Island”, said Sonic.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Before the crash, Knuckles, a red echidna had been exploring the Island he called his home. He knew little of why he was the only person on the island, but to be honest he didn’t care. The Island had always stayed in the sky, hidden from the naked eye by mysterious clouds. His only real knowledge was a good knowledge of the English language and that he had to guard the Master Emerald.

Since no-one had come to the Island, he knew it was safe in the Hidden Palace. It was in a shrine under a volcano, completely hidden from the naked eye. He felt it was much safer there than on the primary shrine he found it at. His first memory was waking up in front of that huge Green Emerald, warm from the glow it gave, crying in hunger. Somehow he managed to get fed and taught by a mysterious voice. He didn’t quite understand it but it happened.

He assumed it was the Emerald protecting its guardian somehow. It didn’t concern him, as he grew up he found his own way to feed himself, the Island had it’s fair share of tasty food scattered around. Moving the Emerald to the hidden shrine allowed him to search the island in peace. So many mysteries involving the Island, he had learned so much yet felt there was so much more. All the hidden pathways he had found must’ve had a purpose.

He spent all his spare time exploring the island, checking on the Emerald every now and then. During one of his searches he saw a huge black sphere headed straight into the jungle area behind the Ice Cap Mountains. He still didn’t know how he knew that name, or any name relating to the areas of the Island. Hydrocity, Marble Garden, Ice Cap, Mushroom hill, Sandopolis, Lava Reef and the Sky sanctuary.

A shockwave of force knocked him off his feet as the black sphere crashed into the island. As he sprang to his feet he found the entire Island started to shake. It started to fall out of the sky for the first time ever.

Although there was many mysteries, one thing he knew more than ever was that the Master Emerald held up the Island. If the Island fell then there was something up with the Emerald. For the first time ever the Master Emerald was in danger.

He rushed through the tunnels back to the Master Emerald. It was difficult to get there but he managed. As it crashed in the ocean Knuckles froze in horror. The Emerald that had glowed with an intense green light barely shone at all.

“What is happening here?” asked Knuckles, “That thing that crashed into the Island! It’s the cause for all this”.

Knuckles made his way to the crash site as quickly as he could. He soon found himself at the crash site. The Black sphere was made out of some sort of metal, and the crash had smashed it into two large pieces. He found a large bald fat man trying to free himself from the wreckage.

“Who are you and what are you doing on my Island?” asked Knuckles.

The fat man shook his head and tried to recover from the effects of the crash.

“I am the great scientific genius Dr. Ivo Robotnik”, said the fat man.

“Robotnik huh? So what’s this thing Doctor?” asked Knuckles.

“It is the De…Life Egg. A place where sick people could be healed without fear of spreading a disease across the world”, said Dr. Robotnik.

“Uh huh, and why is it a wreck? Why did it crash into my Island causing it to fall into the ocean”, said Knuckles.

“Fall into the ocean? Is this…Angel Island?” asked Dr. Robotnik.

“Yes, now answer my question”, said Knuckles.

“An evil Blue Hedgehog by the name of Sonic broke into the Life Egg and screwed up the orbit controls. It crashed back to Earth and amazingly found itself crashing into this once considered mythical island”, said Dr. Robotnik.

“Mythical? Well I guess that’s how people consider something that hasn’t appeared in thousands of years”, said Knuckles.

“The crash knocked the Island into the ocean? Interesting. How does the Island stay up in the sky anyway?” asked Dr. Robotnik.

“Sorry I can’t tell you… I can hear a plane approaching”, said Knuckles.

There was a brief silence.

“No, why can’t he just leave me alone. That must be the Tornado, Sonic’s plane. Please you have to stop him. I’m a scientist not a fighter, it’s all down to you”, said Dr. Robotnik, “Who knows what he’s come to the island to do”

“You poor man. I’ll take care of this little problem”, said Knuckles.

Knuckles disappeared and Dr. Robotnik laughed.

“That fool, so easily tricked. I’ll let him take care of Sonic while I find a way to restore the Death Egg. This Island is usually in the air. If I can find out how it can stay in the air without rockets I will be able to use it to launch the death egg again”, said Dr. Robotnik.

Ok let’s begin.

Chapter 6 – Fire and Water

I can feel some energy coming towards the Island at an incredible speed. It’s a similar energy signal the Master Emerald gives off. Huh? What this…my fist…it feels different…collect the seven chaos…What was that? The Energy is getting closer; I have to do something now.

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Eggman was trying to plan his attack. He couldn’t rely on the Red Echidna to stop Sonic. However all was not lost, for geniuses always have a back-up plan. He had plenty of options he just didn’t know which to choose.

Knuckles headed towards the Jungle. Yes! The Fire Beetles would be a natural choice. Burn the Jungle down, taking the little pests with it.

Fortunately for Eggman, the Death Egg’s main computer was still in tact, as was the communication satellite. He could relay orders to his most secret base, his home. He sent the message to his home.

“Sonic I’ll burn you into the ground”, said Eggman.

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The Tornado rushed towards Angel Island, but it still took some time to get there.

“Tails stay behind a bit”, said Sonic all of a sudden.

While Tails thought about his new orders, Sonic recharged into his super form and dashed full speed towards the Island. A Gold Streak was the only thing left as Super Sonic headed full speed towards the Death Egg crash site.

Only to be stopped a minute later by a Red Echidna. Somehow he managed to separate Sonic from his super form, with the Seven Chaos Emeralds spilling onto the floor.

“What? How? Who?” asked Sonic confused.

“My name is Knuckles the Echidna. Leave my Island now Evil Hedgehog”, said Knuckles before digging into the ground and disappearing completely.

“Hey wait! What’s going on here?” asked Sonic.

Tails landed the Tornado and rejoined Sonic.

“What happened to your super form?” asked Tails.

“I don’t know. One second I’m dashing full speed towards the Death Egg, the next I’m my own blue self after someone called Knuckles takes my Emeralds”, said Sonic, “He referred to me as an Evil Hedgehog, doesn’t he know who I am?”

“Evil? Do you think Eggman got to him first?” asked Tails.

“I do now. Come on we have to get to that crash site, the traditional way”, said Sonic.

Sonic grabbed Tails’ hand and dashed off. Only to stop minutes later when he saw a badnik.

“Badniks? Boy, Eggman sure works fast doesn’t he?” asked Tails.

“Just more for me to destroy”, said Sonic.

Sonic destroyed the badnik and continued on. The Angel Island Jungle was much more dangerous than he had imagined, but they two got through it Ok. It wasn’t long before they met up with Eggman’s Fire beetle squad. One appeared in front of the two heroes.

“What’s this? It’s too big to be a regular badnik”, said Sonic.

The Beetle like machine fired special bombs all around the two heroes as the rest of the squad did the same elsewhere. Soon the entire Jungle was in flames and the Beetles disappeared. Sonic and Tails chased down the beetle and soon caught up with it. It wasn’t too hard to defeat as its main attack was an easily dodged flamethrower. Sonic and Tails stood proudly over the fallen machine.

“What’s the matter? Were we too hot to handle?” said Sonic. Tails giggled.

Sonic and Tails then continued their dash to the Death Egg crash site.

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Meanwhile Knuckles watched in horror as the Jungle burnt with intense flames. What we he to do against a fire that big that just came out of nowhere? Eggman then made his appearance in his Eggmobile, with flame cannons attached to the sides.

“Sonic’s here I see. Well it’s time to fight fire with fire”, said Eggman.

“You didn’t seem like the type to fight earlier on Doctor”, said Knuckles.

“Desperate times call for desperate measures. I made a special blimp, equipped with enough bombs to take down a small army. If he gets past that he’ll have to face me at the waterfall”, said Eggman.

“And if you fail, I’ll send him to the depths of the Hydrocity ruins. A flooded Labyrinth full of devious traps. I have no doubts that this Sonic is indeed evil. The Golden version was indeed worrying”, said Knuckles.

“Golden version?” said Eggman.

“Yes, he came rushing into the jungle at full speed in a golden form. I managed to turn him back into a blue form”, said Knuckles.

I still don’t trust him enough to reveal the prophecy runes deep within the Hidden Palace. It shows a machine keeping the Master Emerald away from a golden flamed demon. Perhaps he’s here to help after all. Though there’s something about him that stops me from trusting him. Telling him about the other Emeralds may also cause problems.

“I don’t know much about this feud between you and this Blue Hedgehog, but it seems that I’m a part of it now”, said Knuckles.

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Sonic and Tails were soon slowed down by a huge blimp that started dropping bombs on them. Sonic grabbed Tails and ran full speed straight ahead. The bombs narrowly missed them and eventually the blimp flew off, possibly to reload.

“That was close”, said Tails.

“We’ll take a rest at that waterfall ahead. With all that water the fire behind us won’t be so threatening”, said Sonic.

They continued on only to be stopped seconds later by Eggman.

“We meet again Sonic. Why can’t you just leave me alone?” asked Eggman.

“I just can’t. You work fast Egghead. I never thought you’d have such tricky defenses so soon. They were nothing we can’t handle, but considering what happened I’m quite impressed at how quickly you defended yourself”, said Sonic.

“Come on now. A genius always has a back-up plan”, said Eggman, “Now Sonic, burn”.

Eggman fired a couple of fireballs out of the cannons and then hid behind the Waterfall. They were pretty easy to avoid, though it meant only having a second to hit Eggman when he reappeared. Fortunately a second was all they needed and the two heroes managed to get a couple of good hits on Eggman’s machine before it hid behind the waterfall again. Again they dodged the fireballs and hit Eggman in the time it took him to fire more and hide. Soon the machine started to spark. Eggman flew high and noticed Sonic was standing on a wooden bridge. Instead of firing at the Hedgehog he concentrated on the bridge. The bridge collapsed and Sonic started to fall. Fortunately for Sonic, Tails came to the rescue and used his helicopter ability to fly them both to safety.

“That was too close”, said Sonic, “I’m glad you’re around kid”

More fireballs were fired and Sonic managed to get the final hit needed to bring the machine down. Eggman retreated to safety behind Knuckles on the overlooking cliff.

“Impressive Sonic. But I’m not letting you live now. Not after what you did to my precious Jungle. Down you go”, shouted Knuckles.

“You’ve got it all wrong…whoa!” said Sonic as the bridge he was standing on collapsed and he fell into the dark abyss below.

Tails wasn’t quick enough this time and so followed Sonic. Knuckles laughed as he watched Sonic and his friend drop into Hydrocity. He knew it was a dangerous place and with Dr. Robotnik’s robots down there too it would take a miracle for them to survive. If they didn’t drown, the devious spike traps or the armed robots would kill them. Though he couldn’t help but think about what Sonic said before he fell.

Have I really got it all wrong? Is he the hero and the doctor the villain? I’m so confused. Better work out how to restore the Master Emerald, and to keep everything a secret.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sonic gulped as he saw nothing but water beneath him. He couldn’t swim and hated water with a passion. He crashed under the surface of the water and slammed into the floor of the pool. He quickly jumped out and onto dry land. A raised ruin surface stuck out of the water, which had the blue hedgehog panting in exhaustion on top of it. Tails soon found himself in the flooded ruins of Hydrocity too, though due to his ability to fly he softly landed next to Sonic.

“Are you OK?” asked Tails.

“I’m fine. Water again? Why does it always have to be water?” shouted Sonic.

Tails sighed and waited for Sonic to lead their escape through Hydrocity. Soon they were stopped by a strange spherical robot that used some sort of missiles to shield itself. The arena was a pool of water with curved sides and in the centre was some sort of whirlpool machine. The Robot itself wasn’t too tough and it was soon exploding. It crashed into the floor creating a vortex that sucked Sonic and Tails deeper into the Labyrinth. Sonic and Tails raced for air only to find that the wall behind them was moving close to the walls in front of them.

Sonic grabbed Tails and raced up the curved slopes of the walls in front of them. There was always a small corridor at the top, which if they didn’t go through would end up crushed. Air was no longer a problem as the two heroes broke through the surface. Devious traps that accelerated the two heroes to full speed only to send them flying into spikes were commonplace here in the deepest part of Hydrocity.

Later the two heroes found themselves on a bridge with Knuckles just in front of them. He had his foot over a switch.

“Down there’s where the Doctor is waiting for you. I’m impressed, I thought the traps I set throughout Hydrocity would stop you”, said Knuckles.

“Knuckles why do you fight us? Eggman is the enemy?” asked Tails.

“Eggman?” asked Knuckles.

“He means Dr. Ivo Robotnik. There’s no way he is getting any respect from me”, said Sonic.

“Sonic! When you talk like that you give the wrong impression”, said Tails.

“You’re right. Listen Knuckles I don’t know what he’s told you, but it’s all lies”, said Sonic.

“It doesn’t matter. Right now I have my own problems to take care off. I’ve decided not to trust either or you. The Doctor has a high IQ apparently so he’s more useful to me right now”, said Knuckles, “Enjoy your fall Hedgehog”.

Knuckles pressed the switch and Sonic and Tails fell once more into the dark abyss below.

I hope I’m doing the right thing. What am I saying? The Island comes first and neither party seems to be friendly right now. I don’t know who to trust.

Sonic and Tails crashed into more water to find a fan blowing them through water currents at a great speed. They crashed through a wall and the water that carried them spilled across the floor of a huge arena. In the middle was Eggman.

“Good to see you made it through Hydrocity”, said Eggman.

“Can it Egghead! We know you tricked Knuckles into believing we were the bad guys. I can tell he’s got a good heart and when he finds out the truth, you’ll be sorry”, said Sonic.

“So you know. The important thing is he doesn’t and for some reason the fool trusts me”, said Eggman, “Right now the Death Egg is being rebuilt. Getting ready for its triumphant rise back into orbit. With Knuckles at my side slowing you down and my plan B weapons and Badniks already armed and scattered across the island you’re going to have to do something special to stop me this time”

“Special is my middle name. Well actually it’s “The”, anyway I brought it out of orbit and managed to make it back to Earth safely. Don’t underestimate me”, said Sonic.

“That was down to the power of Chaos though. I already know Knuckles has the Chaos Emeralds”, said Eggman.

“No way! You have all seven!” said Tails.

“I don’t think so. I reckon Knuckles still has them and has hidden them somewhere on this island”, said Sonic.

“How did you?….Oh never mind. One of my weapons will stop you Hedgehog. Will this be the one”, said Eggman.

Eggman flew over the two heroes who were belly deep in water. Eggman had dropped some charges into the water and a jet of water rushed into the air whenever they exploded. He was just too high for Sonic or Tails to reach jumping and the water made Tails’ flight too sluggish to be effective.

Eggman then dropped to the centre of the arena and created a vortex, before rising back to safety. Sonic managed to get a couple of hits as Eggman was closer to the waters surface. The vortex sucked everything towards the sharp rotating fan on the base of Eggman’s vehicle. Tails lost control and was sucked into the vortex. Sonic quickly grabbed his hand and ran the best he could away from the vortex.

The vortex soon stopped and Eggman returned to dropping charges. Tails then thought of something and with a well timed jump, used the upward jet of water to gain enough height to hit Eggman’s machine. Sonic then used the effective technique and got a hit in himself. Eggman sighed as he knew they had found a way to stop this weapon too. He didn’t give up though, even if his attacks were worthless now.

Soon Sonic and Tails finished off Eggman’s machine. Eggman cursed them and flew off into the skies above them. Sonic and Tails looked up to find a small hole at the top of the arena, with rays of sunlight seeping through the tiny gap.

“Think you can fly us up there?” asked Sonic.

“I doubt I could make half way without getting exhausted”, said Tails.

Meanwhile Knuckles watched the two heroes effortlessly take care of Eggman. As they moved to the centre of the arena Knuckles decided to reward them by sending them flying out of Hydrocity and into the Marble Gardens. After all, Hydrocity led to the Hidden Palace and there was no way he was going to allow visitors to the sacred resting place of the Master Emerald. He pulled down a lever which sent Sonic and Tails flying into the air on a massive jet of water. Once the two intruders were through the exit he sealed it back up and headed down towards Hidden Palace.

Sonic and Tails crashed back into the ground, only to find themselves sliding down a grassy slope. They could see the area beneath them. A beautiful Garden full of Marble statues and ruins. They could also see a theme park in the distance, resting between the Marble Garden and mountains. They knew behind those mountains was the Death Egg and they had to hurry if they wanted to stop Eggman. Once again Time was running out.

Chapter 7 – Restoring the fallen

Knuckles reached the Hidden Palace and examined the one thing he could count on. He knew the mural inside the palace was a prophecy. He didn’t know how he knew, he just did. It showed the a picture of a huge robot carrying the Master Emerald while a Golden Demon chased after it. For years he examined it, trying to work out whether the Robot was protecting the Emerald from the demon, or whether the demon was trying to get it back from the Robot who stole it.

One thing he was sure of, the prophecy was coming true. The Golden Demon was no doubt Sonic in his super form and the Robot was most likely one of the Doctor’s machines. It confused him even more, who were the good guys and who were the bad guys?

Then all of a sudden the Chaos Emeralds he had taken started to glow. He had left them by the Master Emerald, a natural resting place. He watched as the Chaos Emeralds ascended into the upper area of the chamber. They circled the ceiling rapidly before becoming seven rays of light. Each slammed into a special pedestal that coincidently lay beside the Master Emerald. In each now was a much bigger emerald, though it was no longer a jewel but a black stone.

“What is this?” asked Knuckles confused.

Free the Emeralds power, jump on top of one of the stones and complete the task given to you. Do it for all seven and restore the controller.

“Huh? What was that? Who said that?” asked Knuckles even more confused.

He then realised it was another one of the guardian tasks he wouldn’t understand, but just had to do. He stood on the one closest to the Master Emerald and found himself in a strange new world. He was standing on a chequered plain, covered in spheres. Some were blue, some were red, some were yellow and some were white with red stars.

Collect Blue Spheres! Avoid the Red ones.

“Right then”, said Knuckles before setting off to collect the Blue Spheres.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Meanwhile Sonic and Tails had ventured through the Marble Garden. It was full of spike traps, oil traps and strange manmade traps that seemed almost tribal. They had found a machine with two drills that like to cause cave-ins. Just like Eggman in the Mystic caves. It fell much more easily.

As the progressed they were suddenly ambushed by Eggman. But instead of attacking he drilled into the ground and disappeared. The whole of the Marble Garden started morphing, the ground beneath them started to rise and they only had the one option, to rush ahead regardless of what dangers await them. It was tough but eventually they caught up with Eggman. Eggman said nothing as the two heroes took a moment to catch their breaths. Then all of a sudden he drilled the arena they were in and everything disappeared.

Tails took in the initiative and flew like he never flew before. He held Sonic into the air and never stopped flying. They caught up with Eggman and Sonic jumped into the drill machine. Tails caught him before he dropped into the dark abyss beneath them.

“Whoa! Tails are you not getting tired?” asked Sonic.

“I…can’t…fail”, said Tails, more determined than ever.

Then suddenly Eggman charged at them, Tails quickly dodged and Sonic countered. This time he bounced on the machine, causing massive damage.

“Hurry Sonic, I don’t know how much longer I can keep this up”, shouted Tails.

Eggman angrily tried to ram them again. The same tactics as last time were used and Sonic managed to blow up the Drill machine. Sonic and Tails followed the best they could but Tails was almost drained of his energy. As they started dropping slowly into the Carnival beneath them, they saw it. A brief glimpse of the Death Egg resting comfortably in the mountains. Tails crashed into the ground, panting in exhaustion.

“Well done Tails. I don’t know what I would’ve done without you”, said Sonic.

“Aw shucks”, said Tails blushing before falling to the ground.

“You take a minute or two to rest, and then we’re off towards the Death Egg. Looks like we’re in a carnival. I suppose like the casino this is a source of revenue for old Egghead. He sure works fast”, said Sonic.

Sonic sat down next to Tails and waited for him to recover.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Knuckles managed to collect all the Blue spheres and found himself back in the Hidden Palace shrine.

“I get it now. When the huge spaceship crashed into Angel Island the shockwave must’ve knocked the Master Emerald’s power out into the shrine itself. The power is invisible to the naked eye but it was scattered across the chamber waiting for something to focus it back into the Master Emerald. The Chaos Emeralds absorbed the extra power but for some reason became stone. I must liberate the extra power in all these Super Emeralds and then perhaps the Master Emerald’s power will be restored”, said Knuckles out loud.

“KNUCKLES? KNUCKLES? WHERE ARE YOU?” said a familiar voice coming from a radio.

The Doctor gave Knuckles a radio so he could ask for his help anytime.

“Knuckles here. Sorry but I’ve been busy”, replied Knuckles.

“Doing what? While you were ‘busy’, Sonic and his pesky friend Tails managed to get through the Marble Garden and are currently in the Carnival Night Zone”, said Dr. Robotnik.

“Sorry but I cannot tell you what I’ve been doing. Hey! You built a Carnival on my Island?” asked Knuckles angrily.

“I needed the money. Sonic and Tails are on their way, I cannot let them reach the Life Egg before I can launch it again. Please Knuckles I need your help. Stop Sonic or at least slow him down. He’s a danger to everyone”, said Dr. Robotnik.

Knuckles took a moment to think.

“I’m on my way”, said Knuckles.

I’ll come back to restore the Emeralds later. They’ll be safe here, the doctor may not be.

Knuckles left the Hidden Palace and headed towards the Carnival Night Zone.

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The bright lights of the Carnival Night zone hurled past Sonic and Tails as they ventured through the deadly traps and balloons. It was empty as many parts were still unfinished, well empty as in no people.

Soon they saw Knuckles standing over a switch.

“Knuckles!” said Sonic. The two heroes stopped in front of the red echidna.

“I must applaud you for getting this far. I can’t say I approve of this carnival but it’s slowed you down at the very least”, said Knuckles.

“So you joining our side now?” asked Sonic.

“No! Get off my Island. I cannot trust you or the Doctor, but if you’re gone I can take care of him myself if he gets out of hand”, said Knuckles.

“No can do Knuckles. If he re-launches the Death Egg we could all be destroyed”, said Sonic.

“Life Egg, Death Egg, who am I to believe? I can see I can’t stop you with words. Leave me to deal with this alone. It’s my task not yours”, said Knuckles.

“Eggman is more powerful than you can imagine. His machines are getting stronger, hell even I’ve had to get assistance. Without Tails by my side I don’t know how I could’ve made it this far”, said Sonic.

“It doesn’t matter, I cannot let you pass. Let’s see you find your way in pitch black darkness”, said Knuckles.

Knuckles pressed the switch and destroyed it. All the lights suddenly went out leaving the entire carnival dark. Unfazed by this the two heroes ventured on and soon found themselves in water. Part of the Carnival was flooded.

“As if not being able to see was bad enough”, said Sonic before diving into the water.

Soon afterwards they found another switch which restored power to the area. Shortly afterwards they came across a big badnik that floated above a set of chequered blocks. Sonic and Tails jumped into the arena, only to find a door lock behind them. A small spiked platform separated from the main machine and started smashing the blocks below.

“Well we can’t go out the way we came”, said Tails.

“Let’s take care of this annoyance first shall we?” said Sonic.

Sonic span into the machine only to bounce off without doing any damage. However it froze in the air with its main body extended into a much bigger machine. Tails tried his spin attack but bounced off too.

“There must be a way to hurt it”, said Sonic.

The machine retracted back into its smaller form as the spiked platform smashed the blocks underneath.

“Hmmm, I wonder”, said Tails.

Sonic dodged the spiked platform as Tails dashed off to the other side of the arena.

“Sonic, get on the platform”, shouted Tails.

Sonic didn’t argue. He jumped on the platform as Tails smashed into the machine. While extended the added weight of Sonic sent the spiked platform right through the machine. It cut through the machine like a knife through butter. The machine exploded and smashed into the opposite wall, leaving a nice hole for the two heroes to escape through.

They ventured on through the carnival to find Knuckles waiting for them. He smiled as he pressed another switch, sending Sonic and Tails back the way they came. Sonic and Tails found themselves on the highest point of Carnival night, on top of a huge platform. They saw a large cannon aimed at the mountains.

“Cool a shortcut”, said Sonic.

“You mean the cannon? Are you crazy?” asked Tails.

“We have to get there quickly. It’d take much longer by foot as we’d have to climb it first”, said Sonic.

“But a cannon? Oh well I hope you know what you’re doing”, said Tails.

Suddenly a giant green ball fell towards the two heroes. Sonic pushed Tails out of the way before falling onto his back. The Green ball skidded to a halt.

“Once again I have to say I’m impressed again. I never thought Tails could fly for so long. Oh well Live and Learn”, said Eggman who was in the air above them, “I suppose you plan to use that cannon to cover some ground”

“Yeah, and I suppose you’re here to fight us again. Well if you’re that desperate to lose again, bring it on”, said Sonic.

Eggman collected the Green ball which gave Sonic and Tails enough time to get a few hits in. He then fired the Green ball at them again. As Eggman approached the ball the two heroes prepared another attack, finding it hard to believe how easy it was. They skidded to a halt as they realised this time Eggman wasn’t going to collect the ball. Instead he created a vortex with electricity.

“You see hedgehog, when electricity circles around this ball it sucks everything towards it”, said Eggman.

Sonic, Tails and a great deal of the arena started to be sucked into the vortex. Sonic grabbed Tails and ran as quickly as he could in the opposite direction. They managed to get a great deal of distance between themselves and the ball as Eggman upped the power. Sonic started to sweat as he found the pulling force getting strong enough to affect him at full speed. To his relief Eggman stopped the vortex and went to reclaim the ball. Sonic let the force take him and spinning in a ball smashed into Eggman. Tails also did this and Eggman’s machine started to spark.

“Damn, another failure”, said Eggman.

Sonic and Tails got a couple more hits in and Eggman’s machine started to explode. Eggman retreated towards the mountains as Sonic and Tails climbed into the cannon.

“Wait, are you absolutely sure about this?” asked Tails.

“Nope, but there’s only one way to find out”, said Sonic.

They fired the cannon and the two heroes flew towards the mountain’s peak at an incredible speed.

Meanwhile Knuckles had been making his way back to the Hidden Palace. He still had a job to do regarding the Emeralds. He reached the palace and jumped on another Super Emerald.

“Number 2. If I change another Emerald in-between setting more traps for Sonic I might be able to free the Emeralds and stop my Island being their battleground. I’ve already lost the lush jungle to their war and the holy ruins in the Marble Garden have definitely been left scarred”, said Knuckles, “I won’t let my Island be the place for their war any longer”

Knuckles disappeared inside the Emerald.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Meanwhile Eggman was recovering from the fight. He could easily fly over the mountains and prepare he next weapon, while Sonic and Tails dealt with the Badniks patrolling the area. The region Knuckles called Ice cap could very well be Sonic’s tomb if he managed to freeze him, and his latest weapon was designed to do just that.

But he could help but wonder about Knuckles. Was he really an ally? Had he realised it had been a trick? Where was he?

One thing was for sure, Knuckles had his own agenda. He couldn’t be relied upon. Fortunately for him the Death Egg was almost fully repaired.

By the time those fools reach the Death Egg it’ll be too late. I will have re-launched the Death Egg and glory will still come to the Robotnik Empire.

Chapter 8 – We’re too late!

Sonic and Tails flew over the mountains and saw the Death Egg a lot closer than before. They could tell that it was almost ready to be re-launched. They had to hurry.

As Sonic approached Ice Cap he noticed a snow board sticking out of the snow. Tails slowed himself down by flying while Sonic crashed into the snow board and started snowboarding down the mountain. An avalanche was created by the force which chased Sonic as he went down the mountainside. Tails stayed high above the action. He watched as Sonic navigated through the trees and finished by crashing into a wall. He jumped off the board and landed on the ground beneath them before the snow caught up with him.

A big pile of snow landed on Sonic. Tails quickly pulled Sonic out of the snow and Sonic shuck off the snow. He grabbed Tails and raced down the slippery slopes of Ice cap. After many ice related traps, Badniks (most shaped like penguins) and long slides they were stopped by another of Eggman’s machines. This one was a small circular machine with magnetised points sticking out, shaping it like a ‘Y’.

The machine covered itself with balls of ice, practically shielding it from attack. It flew towards the ground where Sonic and Tails stood. Sonic and Tails jumped out of the way as the machine ascended back in the air. It then fired the Ice balls into the air, which then fell to the ground. Sonic and Tails managed to dodge the massive hail stones and even managed to get in a couple of hits before it could create another shield.

With a new shield it dived towards them again, before quickly returning into the air. Just like the last time it fired off the ice shield as hail, and just like last time Sonic and Tails managed to do some damage. Even though it was sparking it never changed the pattern and eventually fell to the two heroes.

“That wasn’t all that challenging. Eggman’s losing his touch”, said Sonic.

“Maybe it wasn’t meant to stop up, only slow us down. We’ve wasted enough time already, let’s get going”, said Tails.

“You’re right. Ok! Here we go!” said Sonic before racing off through Ice Cap once more.

More traps lay ahead of them, including some in the ice cold water. Soon they were at the end of Ice Cap and were confronted by Eggman. He said nothing but flew above the heroes as a small platform connected to his vehicle dropped to waist height. It fired a stream of freezing gas as it moved towards Sonic and Tails.

“He plans to freeze us. On the platform”, said Sonic.

Tails nodded and the two jumped onto the platform. They struck the underside of Eggman’s vehicle, right at the joint connecting the platform to the vehicle. The stress caused from their attacks managed to break the joint, causing the platform to fall off. The freezing gas simply escaped through the bottom of Eggman’s vehicle. Eggman angrily descended a little. The freezing gas was now being fired from all directions in short bursts (except above Eggman). Eggman kept moving towards Sonic and Tails hoping that the freezing gas would get them. Tails flew into the air and grabbed Sonic, who then jumped off and smashed into Eggman’s vehicle causing it to explode.

Eggman dashed off towards the Death Egg’s Launch base, and Sonic and Tails followed, running straight into a wall of Badniks. Eggman smiled knowing that the heavily armoured Badniks would at least give him the time he needed to retreat to the Death Egg. He picked up his radio and made another call to Knuckles.

“Knuckles? Answer me this instant!” said Eggman.

“What is it doctor?” asked Knuckles.

“Sonic is at the Launch base. He got through Ice cap relatively easy and he’s here now. If he reaches the Life Egg the whole world will be doomed”, said Eggman.

“Ok Doctor, I’m on my way”, said Knuckles.

Eggman reached the storage hangar where he kept his security drones. He picked up a crate and was surprised to find Sonic and Tails had already caught up with him. While being hit by Sonic Eggman grabbed the crate and flew off into the air. Outside was Knuckles who had just reached the place where they first met. He gave Knuckles a bomb and told him to use it to blow up Sonic.

“Desperate times call for desperate measures. I have to prepare my weapon in case you fail”, said Eggman.

Knuckles took a moment to think.

“Don’t let him win. He is a danger to you and the island. You must do something”, said Eggman.

Knuckles nodded and headed back the way Eggman had came, where he soon met up with Sonic and Tails. They were all inside a big storage building, right at the roof. Knuckles stood in the only exit beside the one Sonic and Tails came through. He lit the bomb and threw it in the building before laughing and jumping out. Sonic and Tails quickly jumped out too and ducked for cover as the building they were in collapsed.

As they got up they noticed Knuckles had completely disappeared and the only thing in front of them was a big opening to a big arena. Inside Eggman had left the crate and pressed a switch. He flew off quickly despite Sonic’s attacks. The crate started to open and out came a sphere with chains coming out of it, sort of like arms and the hands were spiked balls.

The Sphere began to zigzag towards them, with the spike arms circling the sphere. The arms would extend then retract randomly. Sonic tried an attack but was knocked back when the arms extended again quickly. He fell to the ground, flipping himself back to his feet just before he reached the ground. This time Sonic waited for the arms to start retracting before he attacked. He hit the machine at one of the joints between an arm and the main body. Tails hit the other joint with a well timed jump attack. It was all a matter of timing their attacks perfectly and after a few more hits one of the arms came off, later followed by the other. With the main body defenseless it fell to the ground and smashed into pieces.

“Not much time left”, said Sonic.

Sonic grabbed Tails’ arm and ran as quickly as he could through the pipes leading to the Death Egg.

At the other end of Launch base Eggman waited in his cannon machine. Knuckles was standing by his side.

“The bomb didn’t work. How the hell are we supposed to stop Sonic?” said Eggman angrily.

“What now?” asked Knuckles.

“Get in the spare Eggmobile waiting for you down there. If he managed to get past these cannons he still has to stop the Life Egg launching. You wait in the Life Egg for me. Together we’ll fight him; we can at least slow him down. Give enough time for the Life Egg to launch again”, said Eggman.

“Right”, said Knuckles.

Knuckles jumped in the Eggmobile but couldn’t get it to work. Instead he jumped and glided to a nearby pillar. He didn’t need that machine; he could jump and glide his way there.

Meanwhile Sonic and Tails had reached Eggman’s cannon console.

“Ten minutes hedgehog. That’s all you have before I re-launch the Death Egg. There’s no spaceship for you to grab onto this time. If it launches the world is doomed”, said Eggman.

“We’ll see”, said Sonic.

Sonic tried to strike the console Eggman was using to fire the cannons but it was just too high for him to reach alone. The two heroes dodged the cannon fire and Tails grabbed Sonic attempting to get more height first. Eggman fired a quick shot at them just as Tails let go off Sonic. Sonic smashed into the console as the cannon fire hit Tails. Tails fell to the ground unconscious.

“TAILS! Right that’s it. No more mister nice Hedgehog”, said Sonic.

Eggman fired more cannonball; Sonic dodged them while trying to think of a way to hit the console again. He noticed one of the cannons fired from behind a door that opened out.

“8 minutes Hedgehog. That lucky hit didn’t do that much damage. Face it I’ve won this time”, said Eggman.

Sonic jumped over a cannonball and bounced off the door that had opened out. It gave him enough height to hit the console again.

“You were saying?” said Sonic falling back to the ground.

“No! Wait! I can hold out for a few more minutes”, said Eggman, “Bring it on”.

Since Sonic had found the pattern to defeating Eggman he repeated the process until the console was sparking. Eggman abandoned the console just before it exploded.

“Two more minutes! You still have to get onto the Death Egg”, said Eggman.

Eggman looked down to find the Eggmobile he left for Knuckles was still there. He froze in terror knowing that Sonic could easily use that to reach the Death Egg. He soon reached the hangar platform and prepared for another battle.

If Sonic reaches here, he still has to fight two of my most devious weapons ever created.

Meanwhile Tails had regained consciousness and the two jumped into the vehicle left by Eggman. Tails quickly learned how to master it and off they went. There was no road left for them to walk on as they were finally there. They were underneath the Death Egg, though by the time they set off there was only seconds left before it launched. They slowly flew over the water beneath them heading straight for the Hangar Eggman was at.

“We’re going to make it easily”, said Tails at the controls.

“Not if I have anything to say about it”, said Knuckles standing on one of the pillars.

“Sonic I can’t change course. We’re going to fly straight into him”, said Tails.

“But we’re hardly moving fast. Oh no!” said Sonic.

Knuckles punched the vehicle back at bit and Tails stopped it.

“Sonic we can’t get passed him”, said Tails.

“Damn. He’s going to launch that thing and there’s nothing we can do”, said Sonic.

Then the rockets under the Death Egg fired and the huge sphere of Black Death began to rise. The force made the pillars shake and while Knuckles laughed at his success he was knocked off his pillar by the shaking. Knuckles disappeared into the water beneath them and Tails started the Eggmobile again. They reached just reached the Hangar before the Death Egg’s ascent got too high.

There were no more words as Eggman appeared in a tower machine that fired lasers at Sonic. Sonic and Tails quickly made short work of the tower, continuously hitting it until it blew up. The only time they had to be careful was when a small spike ball flew over Eggman’s cockpit. Eggman fell to the floor and Sonic quickly grabbed him.

“How do we stop this thing?” asked Sonic.

“You think that’s it? That was just the warm up”, said Eggman.

Suddenly another much larger machine appeared. The top of the cockpit was covered in spikes while the base had two large metal arms ready to grab anything the fell into its waiting hands. Eggman jumped inside it as the sky went dark. They were entering orbit and had to work quickly. Eggman flew in his new machine high above them. He moved around them quickly before descending back to the ground. He then charged along the hangar platform they were on, his spikes sticking out like a shark in water. The platform began to get smaller as Eggman smashed through it trying to ram into the two heroes.

Tails began to fly bringing Sonic up into the air. Eggman then charged at them. Once again the cockpit was the obvious weak spot, but hitting it was difficult. The spikes at the top and the deadly arms beneath them meant is their aim wasn’t accurate they would get hurt, badly. Sonic managed to hit it though as Eggman’s charge separated the two heroes. Eggman quickly turned around and Sonic back flipped into a spin attack just as Eggman made another ram attack. A perfect hit and Eggman’s machine started sparking.

“Tails you deal with the Death Egg. I’ll take care of Eggman”, said Sonic.

“But Sonic?” said Tails in a worrying voice.

“Don’t worry about me, just do it”, said Sonic, “I’m counting on you”

Tails flew into the Death Egg and frantically searched for the control room. Meanwhile back on the Hangar platform, the fight between Sonic and Eggman really started to heat up. Eggman tried the same pattern again only to have Sonic get another couple of good hits. Eggman furiously went through the pattern faster and this time grabbed Sonic. He flew into the air ready to smash Sonic back into the platform.

Meanwhile Tails found the Control room and stopped the Death Egg, sending it crashing back down to Earth. He ran back the way he came and reached the hangar again only to find Sonic in serious trouble. Eggman crashed back down into the hangar platform and Tails made a desperate dash. He jumped into a spin attack and hit the machine just before it hit the ground. The arms released Sonic, who jumped off them and made the final hit.

Eggman’s machine blew apart and flew into the two joints hanging up the platform. The platform broke free from the Death Egg and fell towards the ground. As it fell Sonic and Tails watched as the Death Egg also fell. Tails jumped for joy and Sonic smiled as the Death Egg crashed into a volcano.

“Yeah we did it!” said Tails.

“No we didn’t. It still exists doesn’t it? We only stopped another launch. This isn’t over yet. This time we’ll make it to the volcano and blow that thing up”, said Sonic.

“Oh Ok! But it’s still a victory right”, said Tails.

“You said it little buddy. Though I’m a little worried about us. Any ideas on how we can crash into the ground and still live?” asked Sonic.

Sonic and Tails screamed as the fell into the strange forest area beneath them.

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Knuckles meanwhile took the time they spent fighting to free another Emerald. He had just returned to the Hidden Palace shrine to feel the crash shockwave from the Death Egg crashing into Lava Reef volcano.

“Sonic managed to stop the Doctor it seems. That shockwave wasn’t as intense as the first one but if they keep crashing that thing into my Island I might never get the Island restored again”, said Knuckles.

He raced out of the Hidden Palace to find Eggman stuck in his vehicle that had crashed into the Space station’s walls. He was screaming for help and was glad, though also angry to see Knuckles just standing there.

“He beat you then Doctor?” asked Knuckles.

“Yes. He’s just so strong. But that isn’t going to stop me. I’ll launch this thing yet”, said Dr. Robotnik.

“I really wish you wouldn’t and just forget about this thing”, said Knuckles.

“Hey! Where were you during the big fight? Why didn’t you take the Eggmobile I left for you? If you had just took it the Life Egg would be safely in orbit again”, said Dr. Robotnik.

“I couldn’t get that thing to work. Besides don’t blame me if you’re weapons aren’t strong enough to beat him”, said Knuckles, “Right now I have my own agenda too. Stay out of my business or you’ll be sorry”

What’s he hiding?

Chapter 9 – The second flying fortress

The platform carrying Sonic and Tails accelerated to the ground and was now dropping very fast.

“Sonic grab my hand”, shouted Tails.

Sonic didn’t argue and Tails flew into the sky holding Sonic up. The platform crashed into the ground, crushing many trees and some of the giant mushrooms that filled the area. The two heroes landed on the ground safely.

“Shall I call the Tornado?” asked Tails.

“Nah, by the time it gets here Eggman could have fixed the Death Egg and we’d have another fight like the one before. We need to get there before he can repair it and destroy it once and for all”, said Sonic.

They dashed forward to quickly skid to a halt seconds later when they heard a door opening. They watched over a cliff as they saw Knuckles come from the wall behind them. Knuckles didn’t notice them and continued onto wherever he was going. Sonic and Tails checked out the wall when it was safe.

“This must be one of those secret tunnels that allow Knuckles to travel around the Island quickly”, said Tails.

“So we go down one of these tunnels and we’ll end up at the Death Egg right?” asked Sonic.

“Maybe, but more likely we would get lost. I think it would be better just to head in a straight line”, said Tails.

“I guess you’re right. Ok then here we go!” said Sonic before running off through Mushroom Hill.

Once again the area was crawling with Badniks and their quest was soon interrupted by a big woodcutting badnik. It cut off a small chunk off wood and fired it towards Sonic and Tails, separating them a little.

“Here we go again”, said Sonic.

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Meanwhile Eggman had left the Death Egg to search for his enemies. He was running out of weapons though he still had one big flying fortress ready, and he had ordered some of his worker drones to build an even bigger Egg Robot, just in case Sonic makes it to the Death Egg again. His Flying Battery flew high above the Mushroom Hill area, frantically searching for the two pests. He knew they were there. They couldn’t have gotten that far away from the Hangar Platform crash site.

Eggman knew the woods offered the two pests thousands of hiding places and thus he had to remove them. He landed next to some special hurdles he had made for when Sonic and Tails reached his location. He fired off special rays from a satellite dish that slowly began to kill the plants in the woods.

Knuckles had just caught up with him when he noticed the nearby area had started to turn grey.

“Hey what’s the meaning of this doctor?” asked Knuckles Angrily.

“They are here and we need to find them ASAP. I’m sorry Knuckles but this is the best chance we have of finding them”, said Dr. Robotnik.

Knuckles didn’t know what to think, though he was starting to believe that maybe Sonic had been right all along.

“Ah Knuckles. Sonic and Tails are fighting my wood cutter about 5 miles west of here. Go slow them down”, said Dr. Robotnik.

“Ok. But when we have them I want you to switch that thing off”, said Knuckles.

Knuckles reluctantly dashed off to the arena where Sonic and Tails were.

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Sonic and Tails soon disposed of Eggman’s machine. It was clearly no match for them.

“Another machine designed only to slow us down, not to defeat us”, said Tails.

“I know. Let’s get going”, said Sonic.

Sonic raced off to find Knuckles standing in front of them about to pull a lever.

“Well well hedgehog. Seems that it’s not only cats that have nine lives. How on Earth did you survive that crashing platform?” asked Knuckles.

“Meh! Nothing we can’t handle”, said Sonic.

“You know I did prepare plenty of traps designed to help me fight intruders. This is one of them. The fans beneath your feet should sent you flying into the air where there are more traps”, said Knuckles.

Tails examined the floor beneath them.

“Remarkable. How did you create such devices? You don’t seem like the type to build machines of this quality”, asked Tails.

“I have a lot of free time. Well off you go”, said Knuckles.

Knuckles pulled the lever and the fans started whirling. Sonic and Tails found themselves being thrown into the air, though due to their quick reflexes they managed to grab hold of some strong vines on the floor. Knuckles pressed the lever down again and again and the fans started whirling faster and faster. Soon the force was too great and they were sent flying into the air. Once again Tails slowed down their decent and gave them a nice landing. The woods had suddenly turned brown and they knew Eggman was here.

“He’s here isn’t he?” asked Tails.

“Well it wouldn’t be a party without him”, said Sonic, “Come on there’s still plenty of road ahead of us”

Sonic and Tails ventured on. The brown plants turned to grey they further they went. They soon found the cause of it all as they came across Eggman’s satellite dish. They quickly smashed it to pieces only to find Eggman appear from beneath their feet in his traditional Eggmobile.

“It has to be said Doctor, you work fast”, said Sonic.

“You have more lives that a cat hedgehog”, said Eggman.

“Funny, Knuckles just said that to us too”, said Sonic.

“It doesn’t matter how strong or how lucky you are. One of my plans will succeed”, said Eggman.

“We’ll see. Come on then Eggman, bring it”, said Sonic.

Eggman flew backwards away from the two Heroes and across the specially laid out spiked hurdles. Sonic shrugged his shoulders and led the charge towards Eggman. The lower hurdles were easy enough to jump over and the higher ones were high enough to walk under.

“What’s his game this time?” asked Tails.

“I don’t know, but if he thinks these hurdles will slow us down he is sorely mistaken”, said Sonic.

Sonic tried to attack Eggman but found whenever he was close enough to hit him a spiked hurdle got in the way. He bounced straight back down to the ground.

“He’s stalling for time. We can’t hit him as every time I get close those spikes get in the way”, said Sonic.

“Now you’re catching on Hedgehog”, said Eggman.

Sonic and Tails then realised something Eggman hadn’t. When they destroyed the satellite dish they also restored the woods and more importantly, allowed the big tree in front of them to grow to full size again. They laughed as Eggman unaware of the tree crashed into it

“ARGH! Where did that come from?” said Eggman scratching his head.

Sonic and Tails laughed as they ran past the tree and continued on, only to find a giant chasm stood in there way. The flying fortress that had been flying overhead dropped to the ground to pick up Eggman. As soon as they realised, Tails grabbed Sonic and flew towards the top of the fortress.

Sonic and Tails made their way to the heart of the fortress, though they were soon stopped by Eggman’s voice from an overhead speaker.

“Welcome to my back-up fortress, The Flying Battery. Here you will no doubt see many capsules like the ones you’ve frequently broke. The capsules holding a herd of small animals, which I use to power my Badniks”, said Eggman.

“Like it matters egghead. I’ll free them all and crash this thing into the ground, just like I did with the Wing Fortress”, said Sonic.

“By all means try Hedgehog. Just be careful. Some of them are booby trapped and I wouldn’t want you to get hurt. I want to finish you off myself”, said Eggman.

Sonic and Tails continued on through the fortress as Eggman laughed. Soon they were stopped again when they came across a lone capsule. It was strange to find one on it’s own as the fortress was stacked to the top of the metal prisons. Sonic quickly jumped on the release button only to find it had been a trap.

Two eyes and two chain arms appeared with massive spike balls for hands. Sonic jumped off and smashed into the side of the fake capsule. However it was no use as the sides had been re-enforced making it invincible to their attacks.

“What do we do now Sonic?” asked Tails

There was no time to reply as the fake capsule smashed the ground where they were standing at with its spike hands. Fortunately Sonic and Tails had dashed to the other side. Just as they reached the other side though the fake capsule smashed the ground next to them again. Sonic and Tails jumped back to avoid the attack but this meant they had their backs against the wall.

“It seems to be tracking our movements”, said Tails.

“Oh of course, follow me”, said Sonic.

Sonic jumped back on top of the capsule and grabbed Tails’ hand just as Tails reached the top. Sonic pulled Tails away from the capsule as he himself jumped off the capsule. The spiked hand smashed the place where they had stood, smashing into the capsule itself. It did heavy damage on itself.

Sonic and Tails nodded to each other and jumped on top of the capsule again. They jumped off as the spiked hand smashed on the top of the capsule again. They kept this up until the capsule destroyed itself. With the way forward ahead of them the two heroes took no time to rest and headed straight down the path.

Soon they were staring Eggman right in the face. It was déjà vu as Eggman stood behind a wall of light at a computer terminal.

“This trick again. Are you running out of ideas?” asked Sonic.

Eggman said nothing and the dome above them opened to reveal another giant laser.

“But hey where are the platforms?” asked Sonic.

“Not this time Hedgehog”, said Eggman.

“Tails think you can fly me up there?” asked Sonic.

As he finished that sentence the laser fired straight down at the ground. It wasn’t threatening though as Sonic and Tails stood at the other side of the small arena. They turned around to find another wall of light had appeared behind them, trapping them inside the small arena. And to make matters worse that wall of light moved closer shrinking the arena further, whenever the laser hit the ground.

Sonic and Tails had their backs to the wall of light as the arena got so small there was just enough room to avoid the laser. If the arena got any smaller there would be no room and the laser would surely kill them.

“That’s it. One more blast will give you no room to avoid the other. I’ve finally beaten you Hedgehog”, said Eggman.

The laser fired and, to the two heroes relief, blew up the computer system operating the laser. Eggman’s computer terminal blew up. Eggman ran off as the two walls of light started to fade. In front of them the battleship began to shake, with the floor rising. Sonic and Tails dashed to a part where there was a vertical tunnel they could climb. A series of vertical and horizontal tunnels, with a few spike traps lay ahead of them while the floor beneath them continued to rise.

They managed to get through the deadly path and ended up in a huge arena. The floor continued to rise and became very thin as it got high into the air. The floor stopped as it had become nothing more than a thin beam. Eggman dropped onto the beam in a new machine, this one had spiked hands on chain arms and a flamethrower on the top of Eggman’s cockpit. The spiked hands grabbed the beam and the machine swung round the beam before stopping to hang under it and edge closer to the two heroes.

Sonic and Tails jumped between the hands and heard Eggman’s Flamethrower charge. They quickly jumped to the other side and turned to find that Eggman had indeed fired his flamethrower straight up.

“Whoa! If we hadn’t jumped out we would’ve been barbecued”, said Sonic.

“Look he’s starting to swing around the beam again”, said Tails.

“Now’s our chance”, said Sonic.

Sure enough Eggman had started to swing around the beam again and as it appeared above the beam, Sonic and Tails struck the machine causing some damage.

“If we can keep that up this weapon will be history”, said Sonic.

“Right”, said Tails.

Sonic and Tails made sure they kept away from Eggman’s machine, jumping between the hands and back out again if it came too close. Every time the machine swung above the beam they landed a hit and soon they did enough damage to make it explode.

“We better get off this fortress”, said Sonic.

“But aren’t we going to bring it down first?” asked Tails.

“No time. It crossed the chasm for us. We can continue on to the Death Egg”, said Sonic.

“Right, lead the way”, said Tails.

Sonic and Tails ran down the beam and jumped through a hatch, falling to the ground beneath them.

“Are you crazy? How are we meant to land safely?” asked Tails.

“Look down. We’ll be landing in a desert of soft sand”, said Sonic, “And look where it leads”.

Tails examined the area carefully. It was full of Pyramids, though it ended right at the Volcano where the Death Egg lay.

“Ah I see. Not long now”, said Tails.

Meanwhile Eggman watched from a balcony on the Flying Battery.

“You can run Sonic, but you can’t hide. We all know where you’re heading”, said Eggman, “Knuckles has already told me about that area. It leads directly into the Lave Reef Caves under the volcano. It’s also a city full of deadly sand traps the houses a haunted Pyramid. It’ll be interesting to see you get through Sandopolis”

Chapter 10 – The Underground Path

Sonic and Tails smashed into a tall sand dune which cushioned their fall. They quickly sprang back out of it and turned to see the Flying Battery fly into the Volcano.

“It won’t be long now little buddy. Let’s get going”, said Sonic.

Tails nodded and followed Sonic through the traps scattered around Sandopolis. They ventured on until they were stopped when a huge Pyramid came up from the ground. It sat right at the base of the Volcano blocking a cave entrance.

“This is odd. Why build a Pyramid so close to a Volcano?” asked Tails.

“Perhaps the same reason it was hiding underneath the ground. Someone doesn’t want anyone to get in the Volcano and it has nothing to do with the Death Egg”, said Sonic.

“You mean it’s some sort of fortress designed to guard the entrance to the Volcano. Maybe there’s something very valuable in there”, said Tails.

“I think so. Anyway our best course of action is to go through the Pyramid itself”, said Sonic.

Suddenly the entrance to the Pyramid opened and a boulder appeared in front of the two heroes. As they went into investigate the boulder sprouted arms, legs and a head. It was a Stone Golem created to stop anyone entering the Pyramid. As it jumped a step forward Sonic attacked the golem when it hit the ground and it turned back into a boulder.

“Phew that was easy”, said Sonic.

Though just as he finished that sentence the Golem regenerated itself and jumped towards them again. Sonic and Tails both smashed into it and again it collapsed into a boulder again. Though it just regenerated itself again and while they were getting good hits on the Golem it never stopped or slowed down. Sonic and Tails found themselves with their backs facing towards a big pool of Quicksand.

“I have an idea”, said Tails.

The Golem jumped again this time landing right on the edge of the quicksand pool. Tails had managed to fly Sonic over the stone beast and as it turned round Sonic smashed into it. The Golem fell apart and slid inside the quicksand. It dropped through the quicksand until it was out of their sight.

“That was your idea right?” asked Sonic.

“Yeah”, said Tails

“Ok then inside the Pyramid”, said Sonic.

Tails nodded and in they went.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Meanwhile in the Lava Reef caves Knuckles had came out of the palace to see what had happened. He had heard Dr. Robotnik mumbling angrily, he was heading towards the Sandopolis pyramid in his Eggmobile.

“Doctor, what are you doing here? Is Sonic here already?” asked Knuckles.

“Almost. Last I saw the two pests were racing through Sandopolis”, said Dr. Robotnik.

Knuckles grabbed the doctor’s shirt firmly and angrily got into his face.

“You better not let them get down here. I’m not happy you’re here let alone Sonic”, said Knuckles.

“Why? What’s down here that’s so important?” asked Dr. Robotnik.

“That’s none of your business. The pyramid was designed to stop people from entering this place. It was assumed no-one would be foolish enough to climb down an active volcano”, said Knuckles, “Now the Pyramid has been raised which means they are either fighting the Golem or are inside already. Get going. If the ghosts don’t stop them you will have to”

The Doctor didn’t like being ordered but he had no choice. If Sonic and Tails made it through the pyramid, they would literally be under the Death Egg. The situation was dire; there was no way the Death Egg would be able to launch so soon, despite it being fully repaired. He needed time to generate some fuel.

While angry that he had been given an order, he also felt curious as to what Knuckles was talking about. Why was Knuckles so bothered about people entering this place? It was nothing more than a series of lava filled caves. The heat was unbearable. It was a baron dry wasteland. Yet it was so important, almost sacred to Knuckles.

The Doctor decided now was not the time to find out and rushed to the Pyramid. He was unsure of what to do there though. He had kept most of his more powerful weapons on the Death Egg. The more powerful Mecha Sonic Mark II and his Egg Giant slept there just in case the Hedgehog made it on there. He barely had anything left. Regardless he raced on to meet the two pests head on.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sonic and Tails ventured through the dark tunnels of the Pyramid. It had started off really dark though they had found a light switch pretty quickly. As time progressed, the lights would get dimmer until they eventually switched off altogether. Though there were plenty of switches there to bring the lights back on to full strength.

They came across a looping section that sent them flying into a rock version of the capsules Eggman had used to store the animals he captured. A series of what could only be described as white ghosts flew out of the broken capsule.

“What? Ghosts?” said Tails shaking in fright.

“Aw man. We have to get out of here quick”, said Sonic.

They ventured on to find that as the lights got dimmer the ghosts got stronger and started attacking them. When they restored the lights the ghost’s disappeared but reappeared whenever the lights had started to dim again.

Their quest ended with a long fall into an arena. In front of them was a much larger Stone figure that suddenly awoke. It moved towards them and fired a laser from the jewel in its head. Sonic and Tails managed to dodge the laser and Sonic even managed to strike the thing. A series of stone bricks fell off the figure to reveal Eggman controlling the thing. He quickly hit Eggman a couple of times before the figure restored itself.

“It’s Eggman in that thing. Come on let’s finish him”, said Sonic.

By hitting the chest they expose Eggman and quickly got a couple of good hits on him every time. Once they figured that out the machine exploded and all the stone fell to the ground. Eggman disappeared down a tunnel.

“Man that was pathetic”, said Sonic.

“He must be running out of ideas”, said Tails.

“Well let’s follow him. No doubt he’s running straight to the Death Egg”, said Sonic.

Tails nodded and the two headed down the tunnels into the Lava Reef Zone.

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The Doctor came rushing into the Lava Reef zone.

“They’re here. Battle stations everyone”, shouted Dr. Robotnik.

“You fool. You led them straight to the Master Emerald”, said Knuckles angrily.

“The what?” asked Dr. Robotnik

“Never mind that. I cannot allow anyone near it. You better stop them here”, said Knuckles.

Dr. Robotnik and Knuckles stared at each other before separating. Dr. Robotnik in desperation started making new machines to fight them. He still had the lava surfer it he needed to use it and the Death Egg’s defenses would surely help. Plus the mining machines in the area could prove useful.

Hold on a Minute. Did he say Master Emerald? I’ve heard the legend of the Controlling Emerald so many times, and if it is what the legend say it is I think I may have found my Death Egg’s fuel source.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sonic and Tails became drenched with sweat as the dashed through the searing heat of the Lava Reef zone. It had been a long journey but that had finally cornered Eggman and the huge space station attached the Volcano’s mouth proved that. There were signs that Eggman was desperately hunting down an alternate fuel source in these caves as they came across many a mining machine. They ventured on until they were stopped on a platform directly under the volcano’s mouth. Two large metal tentacles sprouted from the lava surrounding the platform.

“So we climb up the opposite cliff side and whoa!” said Sonic suddenly noticing the tentacles.

The tentacles fired a barrage of bullets at the two heroes who managed to jump out of the way. A ship rose from under the lava to show where the tentacles were coming from. Inside was Eggman.

“Like my latest fighting machine. It’s purely designed to pull the left over rocks from the mining into the lava”, said Eggman.

A giant hand sprung out and smashed onto the platform. It pulled some rocks that had been piled up, into the lava.

“I’ll drag your behinds into the lava, or shoot you dead with the security tentacles. Either way there’s no way you can attack the main body”, said Eggman.

“He’s right”, said Tails

“Though who says we have to hit the main body?” asked Sonic.

Sonic smashed into a tentacle causing it to spark. The hand then smashed onto the platform and Sonic began hitting the joint.

“No weapons, no threat”, said Sonic.

The tentacles reappeared and taking a tentacle each the two heroes managed to destroy them. All that was left was the hand and that soon fell too. The lava suddenly started to cool and a new path appeared. They could see a passage open in the far distance where a series of platforms sprouted from under the cooled lava.

“Should I fly us up there?” asked Tails.

“Not yet. Eggman could reheat the lava at any time. Let’s follow this new path”, said Sonic.

“Ok”.

They continued on. It had got much cooler though the traps got much more intense. They were later stopped by Knuckles who stood by a giant boulder. The platform they were standing on was thin and almost acted like a staircase leading to something else entirely.

“You will not reach the Sacred Hidden Palace. Not while I’m still Guardian Hedgehog”, said Knuckles.

Knuckles punched the boulder towards the two heroes and with jumping off the platform onto the cooled lava below being the only other option, Sonic and Tails grabbed onto the boulder and ended up falling onto those platforms they saw being raised earlier. The Death Egg then charged a heat wave attack and the lava beneath them started to boil once more. The Death Egg fired missiles at them and the two heroes quickly began jumping from platform to platform. The missiles struck the platforms that had been standing on and smashed them into pieces. The platforms led to a Lava waterfall in which small falling platforms were pushed into the giant pool of lava below. The passage that had opened up before was blocked by Eggman in a new machine.

Sonic and Tails stood on one of the small platforms and found themselves amongst a series of the small platforms scattered across the pool of lava. Eggman fired Spike balls at the two heroes and then created a hill of lava, which sent all the platforms down the slopes of the hill. The platform Sonic and Tails were on started drifting straight into Eggman’s machine, which destroyed all the platforms that came in contact with it. Sonic grabbed Tails and jumped from platform to platform in the opposite direction. The spiked balls that had been fired from Eggman earlier made it even more difficult to land on some of the platforms, though each of them smashed back into Eggman’s machine causing damage.

“It’s just like that fake capsule. Make Eggman hurt himself”, said Sonic.

Tails agreed as Eggman disappeared under the lava. Another lava hill appeared forcing the platform Sonic and Tails were on in the opposite direction, though still towards Eggman. They kept jumping from platform to platform as Eggman fired more spike balls. Managing to safely get from platform to platform, the spiked balls continued to smash into Eggman’s machine and did enough damage to cause it to spark. Eggman made one last desperate attempt but Sonic and Tails just did the same thing again and Eggman’s machine exploded.

The lava cooled once more and the passage was cleared. The two heroes, much to Knuckles’ horror entered through the decorated entrance to the Sacred Hidden Palace. Knuckles raced to the arena in front of the mural that had confused him before. He waited for Sonic and Tails to arrive preparing to fight them himself.

Soon enough they were there, as the marble palace had no security to speak off. It was designed as a holy place and so was only guarded by Echidna warriors. Behind Knuckles was the Emeralds. 4 had been freed leaving 3 left as stone. A giant Green Emerald sat on a pedestal on top of the chamber.

“I can’t say I’m happy that you’re here Hedgehog. This is the Sacred Hidden Palace. The secret resting place for the Master Emerald. There is a shrine on the surface of the Island though when it is in danger it rests here. It has the power to control the Seven Chaos Emeralds and also holds up Angel Island in the sky”, said Knuckles.

“Something’s wrong with the Master Emerald though isn’t there?” asked Tails.

“Yes. Though I believe that’s why the Chaos Emeralds transformed into those much larger ones. If I unlock the power in each of them the power of the Master Emerald will be restored hopefully”, said Knuckles.

“We’ll help you if you want”, said Tails.

“It’s no use Tails. Look at that mural over there”, said Sonic.

Tails turned to the mural Sonic had been looking at. It was the one with the Golden flamed demon chasing after the huge robotic man.

“It looks like Super Sonic trying to get the Emerald back from Eggman in one of his big machines”, said Tails.

“Or it could be Eggman protecting the Master Emerald from me in my super form”, said Sonic.

“Oh you’re right. So that’s why Knuckles can’t trust either of us. This looks like a prophecy of a future event”, said Tails.

“Yes it is a Prophecy, and it looks like its coming true. But enough of my folklore. You are trespassers on the holy ground. You must be destroyed”, said Knuckles.

Knuckles clenched his fists and dashed towards Sonic.

Chapter 11 – Frantically Chasing Death

Sonic and Tails jumped out of the way of Knuckles’ attack.

“Tails you go and fix those stones emeralds. I’ll take care off Knuckles”, said Sonic.

Tails flew towards the emeralds but was knocked straight to the ground by Knuckles’ fist. Tails smashed into the ground and lay there unconscious.

“One down, one to go”, said Knuckles.

“He was just a kid”, said Sonic, “You’re going to pay for this”

Sonic dashed towards Knuckles and got in a few punches. Knuckles fell backwards a little smiling.

“Now the fight has really began”, said Knuckles.

The fight intensified with kicks and punches being thrown left, right and centre. After a while they stopped to take a breather.

“Hey Knuckles you’ve been working with Eggman to stop us. Does he know about the Master Emerald?” asked Sonic.

“Yeah I let it slip. Well enough talk let’s continue”, said Knuckles.

“No. If that emerald can lift this giant Island, what could it do to the Death Egg? No we should be concentrating on restoring the Emerald and guarding it from Eggman”, said Sonic.

“Your tricks won’t fool me”, said Knuckles.

“It’s not a trick. If Eggman comes here…” said Sonic.

Sonic’s speech was interrupted by a punch from Knuckles. None of them was going to get past them. Meanwhile Tails woke up and rubbed the spot where Knuckles had hit him. Sonic soon noticed and nodded him on. Tails jumped on top of the Emerald.

“YOU! COLLECT THE BLUE SPHERE’S AVOID THE RED”, shouted Knuckles.

A confused Tails disappeared. Sonic then dashed on top of one of the stone Emeralds.

“Enough fighting. I’ll prove I’m on your side. You take the last one”, said Sonic.

Sonic disappeared inside the Emerald. Knuckles didn’t care anymore. With the two intruders restoring the stone super emeralds he could finally finish the job. Knuckles jumped on the last remained stone Emerald and disappeared inside.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Eggman had been watching it all from the roof of the palace. He had heard everything and concluded that the Master Emerald would be the perfect choice in raising the Death Egg back into orbit. Though he had also overheard that the Master Emerald still needed to be restored. As the three fighters disappeared into the Emeralds he waited over the Master Emerald and grabbed it with a crane attached to his Eggmobile.

Don’t pick now to fail Hedgehog.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sonic, Tails and Knuckles reappeared from their Emeralds to find that the Chaos Energy had started to return to the Master Emerald, though Eggman had grabbed it already and lifted it from its resting place.

“Damn, he heard everything”, said Sonic.

Knuckles didn’t say anything as he jumped and clung onto the Eggmobile.

“I WON’T LET YOU LEAVE WITH MY EMERALD”, shouted Knuckles angrily.

Knuckles started smashing the side of the vehicle. Two small metal arms appeared and electrocuted the Echidna. He fell to the floor while Eggman managed to escape.

“He’s going to raise the Death Egg. We have to get on there”, said Tails.

“How?” asked Sonic.

“You need…height right….Quickly….come with me”, said Knuckles panting.

Knuckles punched an extravagantly decorated door down and dashed towards an orb sitting in a golden machine. Sonic and Tails followed.

“On…transporter”, said Knuckles still panting.

Knuckles jumped on top of the transporter and disappeared. Sonic jumped on the transporter.

“Come on Tails”, said Sonic.

Sonic disappeared and Tails jumped on the transporter too. He found himself rejoining the others on ruins covered in moss.

“This is…Sky Sanctuary… Quickly…Run to the top…Perhaps you could jump onto the spaceship…before it returns to orbit”, said Knuckles almost collapsing with exhaustion.

“Doubt it. I’ll call the Tornado to meet us here”, said Tails.

Just then the Death Egg appeared in the background. It was rising up through the air, through the clouds.

“Hey this place is floating in the sky”, said Sonic.

“It always does. Its ability to float has nothing to do with the Master Emerald. Please Sonic, get the Master Emerald back”, said Knuckles starting to regain his strength.

Knuckles jumped over a large gap and hit a switch. A bridge appeared allowing the two heroes to continue.

“What about you?” asked Sonic.

“I’m too exhausted. You two go. Save us all”, said Knuckles.

“We will. Come on Tails”, said Sonic.

As the two heroes ventured through the Sky Sanctuary they were confronted by several Badniks shaped like Eggman. They carried big laser guns but their shots were easily avoided.

“They are not too tough”, said Sonic while racing through the ruins.

“Haven’t you learned anything by now? They are only here to slow us down”, said Tails.

Their speedy venture through the Sky Sanctuary was soon stopped by a Robot Sonic that appeared in Eggman’s Eggmobile. It carried a huge wrecking ball that swung from side to side.

“Oh not this again!” said Sonic.

“Isn’t that the first Eggman weapon you ever faced?” asked Tails.

“Yes. All you need is well timed jumps and it falls quickly”, said Sonic.

Sonic was surprised at just how quickly it fell. Two hits each and the machine exploded and disappeared.

“Come on, there’s no time to waste”, said Sonic.

The two heroes continued on only to be stopped again by the Robot Sonic. This time it appeared in the same contraption they met in Eggman’s Metropolis.

“Ah come on! You’re not even trying”, said Sonic.

Sonic and Tails defeated the weapon the same way they did earlier and continued on. They saw the highest point of Sky Sanctuary and it was quite close to the Death Egg. The Tornado could be seen approaching the area.

“Plenty of time”, said Sonic.

A blue streak appeared out of nowhere and split the two heroes in two. Sonic and Tails turned to face whatever ran straight through them. It was the Robot Sonic. It had been painted Blue and was quite well armoured.

“Remember me Hedgehog?” asked the Robot Sonic.

“Huh?” asked Sonic scratching his head in confusion, “Metal Sonic?”

“No. I am the finished version of Mecha Sonic, the one you faced on the Death Egg”, said the Robot Sonic.

“Another weapon I’ve already beaten. Ok then bring it loser!” said Sonic.

Mecha Sonic span into a ball and bounced right in front of the two heroes. The Robot bounced over their heads and landed with its spikes facing them. It jetted through the heroes, who jumped out the way, and appeared on the other side of the arena.

“Man he’s fast!” said Tails.

“But not fast enough”, said Sonic dashing off to hit Mecha Sonic as it stood still preparing it’s next attack.

He didn’t have long but managed to get a couple of good hits. Mecha Sonic span into a ball and managed to hit both Sonic and Tails. The two heroes quickly sprang to their feet and dashed to attack Mecha Sonic. They managed to get a few more hits. The fight continued like this until Mecha Sonic collapsed sparking.

Though there was no time to celebrate as the Death Egg had got above the Sky Sanctuary. It had crashed through Sky Sanctuary, destroying half of it, including the bit connecting the arena where the fight had taken place to the rest of Sky Sanctuary. The arena started to fall to the ground as Sonic grabbed Tails and ran up spiral slope that led to the highest point of the Sanctuary. The tower they were running around started to collapse also. Sonic ran as quickly as he could and made it to the top.

Tails then took over and flew them both to the Tornado. Tails jumped in the cockpit and fired some missiles straight into the wall of the Death Egg closest to them. It created a hole big enough for Sonic and Tails to fit through but no the Tornado.

“I’m setting it to Auto Pilot. Come on let’s jump aboard”, said Tails.

“No. You stay behind, this is something I have to do alone”, said Sonic.

“Not this time. You need me”, said Tails.

“What do you mean?” asked Sonic.

“Enough chasing this thing. Let’s blow it up, and you need me for that. I doubt you’re any good at computer hacking”, said Tails.

Sonic paused to think.

“Fine. But as soon as we set it to self destruct you are taking the first escape pod back to Earth”, said Sonic.

Sonic and Tails jumped inside the Death Egg while the Tornado flew off to a safe hiding place. The Death Egg was quiet until a loud message could be heard over the tannoy system.

“It’s them! All units battle stations. Sonic and Tails have entered the Death Egg”, said Eggman.

“Well he knows we’re here. You ready to fight our way to the core”, said Sonic.

“Ready when you are”, said Tails.

Sonic and Tails ventured through the metallic fortress. Most of it was black, with only the white light of the Electric traps breaking the sea of Black metal. It was huge and filled with many Badniks and Gravity and electricity related traps. They managed to reach the core only to find that Eggman had properly protected it with a dangerous security system.

A shield of Black orbs, like the one’s surrounding the Metropolis weapon only much bigger, surrounded the computer. They moved from the top of the computer tower to the bottom and back up again randomly. Every time either Sonic or Tails managed to hit the machine one of the Black orbs exploded and fired a barrage of spikes in all directions. When all the orbs were gone the security system went into full alert and the red eye, that was the centre of the security system, burst out of the tower surrounding itself with two big spiked platforms.

“Hurry Tails. Do your thing while I’ll take care of this”, said Sonic.

Tails hacked into the computer system and set off the self destruct sequence. The whole room went red from the lights that worked with the sirens blasting through the base, telling all about the self destruct sequence. Sonic smashed into the Red eye shattering it. It smashed straight into the ground revealing a secret elevator to the outer area of the Death Egg. An artificial atmosphere made it possible to move through the area without having to worry about breathing.

The self destruct suddenly went off as they started to venture through the outer area of the base.

“You fools. This is my space station I make the rules”, said Eggman over the tannoy system again.

“Dammit, it was worth a shot though right”, said Tails.

Sonic didn’t reply, instead he raced through the area until he came across and elevator and an escape pod.

“Right Tails. It’s time for you to go back to Earth. Get in that pod now”, said Sonic

“Aw! Can’t I stay and fight Eggman with you”, said Tails.

“No. It’s too risky. I won’t let you die”, said Sonic.

Tails reluctantly went inside the escape pod.

“See ya on Earth Tails”, said Sonic.

“You promise”, said Tails.

Sonic paused for a moment.

“Yeah, of course. Now go”, said Sonic.

Sonic released the escape pod and entered the elevator. He arrived in a strange arena with a huge metal orb in the middle. At the sides were two elevators that obviously switched the gravity, he had come across those types of elevators before. The orb released some spiked buggies while Sonic bounced off the bumper shield the orb defended itself with. Sonic tried to attack again but he couldn’t hit the orb.

Maybe it’s another masochist.

Sonic raced into the elevator and used it to switch the gravity. The buggies fell spike first onto the roof which was now the floor. A couple sliced through the orb machine while some stuck into the ground. Sonic picked one up and threw it at the orb machine. More spiked buggies fell out of the machine. Sonic used the same technique again and again until the machine took enough damage to explode. It crashed into one of the elevators to reveal Eggman at a computer console. Eggman dashed off and got some distance before Sonic could start chasing.

“You’re not going to get away that easily”, said Sonic.

Chapter 12 – The Prophecy comes true

Sonic caught up to Eggman just as he had jumped into another machine. A gigantic machine rose into the air that completely eclipsed the Egg Robot. This was a whole new ball game as the Egg Giant must’ve been at least a quarter of the size of the Death Egg itself. Two metal hands came out from the Egg Giant and grabbed onto the path ahead of Sonic. Behind him the path he had come on had completely collapsed. Sonic now stood on a Ringed path with the Egg Giant firmly on the outside of the ring.

The Egg Giant moved alongside Sonic with the fingers of the hand about to clamp onto the platform. Jumping towards the Egg Giant wasn’t an option. One false move and he would be sent straight back down into orbit. He wasn’t even sure they were still on the Death Egg until he looked up and saw the bulbous side of the Death Egg.

Sonic quickly rushed out of the way of the fingers and attacked them as they hit the ground. Memories of the Lava Reef boss came flooding back as he thought that no weapons would make the thing useless. He was partly right as when all the fingers had been destroyed the Egg Giant disappeared. Though then it smashed up through the ring platform facing Sonic who was a little in front of it. The Egg Giant moved forward through the ring platform making segments drop while the others behind him moved back up into place. One thing was for sure, Sonic didn’t want to be on a segment as it dropped.

Sonic raced forward as the Egg Giant chased him around the ring. The Egg Giant fired a long flame from the flamethrower attached to its forehead, if you could call it that. Sonic avoided the flame and tried to figure out its weakness. Another flame was fired which was avoided.

“Come on now Sonic, is that the best you can do?” laughed Eggman.

“As soon as I figure out how to hit you safely I’ll destroy that thing”, said Sonic.

“Take your time; I can chase you all day. Though can you run and avoid my flames forever?” asked Eggman still laughing.

Sonic decided to take action and after dodging another blade smashed into the belly of the Egg Giant. It fell off to reveal the Master Emerald inside a glass container.

“So that’s where it is”, said Sonic before smashing into the glass. The glass cracked a little.

Sonic then started to hear something being charged up. He wasn’t taking any chances as he ran off to get some distance between him and the Egg Giant. The Egg Giant then fired a huge green laser at Sonic. Sonic ducked the laser which left him moving closer to the Egg Giant. The Belly shield came back up and Sonic just managed to avoid another flame that had been fired.

“I see how to beat you now Egghead. It’s only a matter of time”, said Sonic.

Sonic avoided another flame attack and hit the belly shield again. He managed to get a couple of hits on the glass before the laser fired. This time he jumped over it and waited for the belly shield to come back up. The glass had gotten very weak, a few more hits and it would be destroyed.

Sonic continued to avoid the flames and laser as he brought down the belly shield and smashed into the glass. Eventually it broke and Sonic pulled out the Master Emerald. Jumping and getting some distance Sonic looked back to see the Egg Giant explode without its main power source.

“ARGH! This isn’t happening! No matter, I’ll simply set the Death Egg to self destruct and leave with the Master Emerald. Goodbye Sonic. There’s no way you can survive up here without the Death Egg’s artificial atmosphere. Of course that’s assuming the explosion doesn’t kill you first”, said Eggman.

Eggman appeared in his normal Eggmobile and picked up the Master Emerald. The whole Death Egg started to fall apart, but Sonic didn’t care. It was his turn to chase as he attacked Eggman, aiming to free the Master Emerald again. The Ring platform started to collapse behind him at a much more rapid rate.

Sonic managed to free the Master Emerald before the Ring fully collapsed. The Death Egg exploded as Eggman went back to reclaim the Emerald. He picked it up and raced out of the area, just making it out in time to avoid the explosion. A new machine appeared and combined with him. This time it was a heavily armoured blue battleship. He looked back at the Explosion.

“Farewell my admirable adversary”, said Eggman.

Suddenly a multicoloured flame appeared from the explosion and started chasing him.

“It’s not possible”, said Eggman before jetting off into a nearby asteroid belt.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Earlier Sonic placed his hand on the Master Emerald. He wondered how he was going to get out of this one. Only a little chaos energy entered the Master Emerald, enough to raise the death egg but not Angel Island.

If only I could use the Chaos Energy in this Emerald. But I can’t.

Back at the Hidden Palace shrine Knuckles sat and watched the Super Emeralds. All of a sudden giants rays of light shot out of the Super Emeralds straight through the roof. The Super Emeralds completely disappeared as the chaos energy headed straight towards the Master Emerald. Though when that energy reached the Master Emerald it had already been taken. It had to go somewhere and so went straight to Sonic. He felt a new power, greater than Super Sonic. Two images of himself sat by his side showing his spikes standing up. His body glowed with colours of the Emeralds, Red, Magenta, Blue, Cyan, Green, Yellow and Grey.

Sonic had gone beyond Super, he was now Hyper Sonic. The explosion didn’t even scratch him and he immediately rushed through the asteroid belt to chase after Eggman.

“No rocks are going to stop me in this form”, said Hyper Sonic.

Eggman frantically fired loads of missiles at the Multicoloured Demon, but neither the Asteroids nor the missiles seemed to do any damage. Those that hit Hyper Sonic only slowed him down. Soon Hyper Sonic had caught up with Eggman’s battleship. Hyper Sonic cheekily flew in a circle around the battleship.

“The power of the emeralds is strong isn’t it Egghead. Betcha didn’t count on them giving me a Hyper form, allowing me to fly through space, invincible, extremely fast and extremely strong”, said Hyper Sonic.

Hyper Sonic smashed into the side of the battleship but did no damage.

“Ha Ha! Despite your new strength you can’t even scratch this armour”, said Eggman.

Hyper Sonic attacked the head but just bounced off that too. Eggman fired all the battleship’s weapons. Bullets and Homing missiles fired in all directions. Hyper Sonic tried to shake off the missiles but couldn’t. He then came up with an idea and led the missiles right back into the head of the battleship. The missiles exploded into the head blasting some of the armour away.

“Maybe I can’t scratch your armour Egg belly, but your own missiles can”, said Hyper Sonic.

Hyper Sonic led more and more missiles into the head exposing the vulnerable core. Eggman shred the blue armour and appeared in a new model of the Egg Robot. In its hands was the Master Emerald. It jetted through the asteroid belt again.

This is not good. Just run and hope Hyper Sonic exhausts himself. There must be a limit to his power.

Indeed there was and Hyper Sonic began to feel weak.

Uh oh! I should really hurry up.

Hyper Sonic raced through the asteroid belt and smashed into the Egg Robot. He suddenly realised this was it. This was what the mural had prophesised. A few more hits and he was struggling a little. Hyper Sonic pushed himself even further and got the final hit he needed. The Egg Robot let go of the Master Emerald as it exploded. Hyper Sonic grabbed the Emerald and raced back through to Earth.

Tails, you better be waiting for me. I don’t know how much longer I can keep this up.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Meanwhile Tails had safely landed in the ocean just outside of Angel Island. He swam to the beach where he found Knuckles and the Tornado waiting for him. Tails reached the shore and sat down next to his plane exhausted.

“That’s a nice plane you have there”, said Knuckles.

“Thanks. But it’s actually Sonic’s plane”, said Tails.

A huge explosion filled the sky. Tails and Knuckles froze in horror.

“No. Sonic”, whimpered Tails.

Tails then jumped in the Tornado, hoping that Sonic had somehow managed to escape the explosion.

“Where are you going?” asked Knuckles.

“To save Sonic”, said Tails. I better make some quick adjustments first though”, said Tails.

Tails flew off to his workshop and fitted on a big magnet. He then flew through the blue skies near Angel Island.

Hyper Sonic dropped like a comet through the air, carrying the Master Emerald as he fell. He frantically searched for Tails, feeling his strength weaken 10 fold with every second. He heard the Tornado and dropped on its wings. The Master Emerald dropped out of his hands but was picked up by the Magnet that had been attached to the Tornado. Sonic reverted back to his normal blue self and the extra energy finally returned to where it belonged. The Seven Chaos Emeralds that remained scattered across the globe, this time Sonic was too tired to recapture them.

“Thanks…Tails…I don’t know what I would’ve done without you”, said Sonic panting with exhaustion.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Eggman braced for impact. With the Egg Robot destroyed the only thing keeping him from certain death was a cramped escape pod that broke off the machine. The pod vibrated violently due to the force until it crashed into the ocean. The pod rose to the surface and a dazed Eggman opened a hatch and took a breath of fresh air. His blurred vision started to focus on a red plane flying through the air with a green emerald attached to its rear. It was the Tornado carrying the Master Emerald and it was headed straight for Angel Island.

Dammit, he beat me again!

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Tails flew low as the Tornado came above Angel Island. Knuckles started waving at them and ran off through Angel Island. Tails followed Knuckles to a small separated island, covered in ruins with a bridge connecting the small island to the main island. Knuckles pointed to the centre of the ruins and Tails took that as a sign that he wanted the Master Emerald there. Tails dropped the Master Emerald carefully and Knuckles placed it in the shrine.

Knuckles prayed that this was enough. Tails circled around the shrine as all three watched the Master Emerald carefully. The Emerald started to glow brightly and a wave of green light consumed the Island. Sonic grabbed Knuckles and the two rivals stood firmly on the wings of the Tornado as Tails flew it to a safe distance.

Everybody watched as Angel Island slowly started to rise into the air. A tear came to Knuckles’ eye as his home was returning to normal. When Angel Island returned to its normal height Knuckles put out his hand as if to shake Sonic’s.

“Thank you Sonic, and you too Tails. I’m sorry I misjudged you”, said Knuckles.

“No we understand. Don’t worry, if Angel Island is ever in danger again we’ll be sure to help you, friend”, said Sonic shaking Knuckles hand.

“Friend? Well I suppose we are friends now. I’ve never really had a friend before”, said Knuckles turning to Angel Island, “Whenever you are near the Island be sure to come see me”.

“Of course”, said Sonic.

“So long Sonic. I still have a job to do. A job I’ll have to do every second or every day for the rest of my life”, said Knuckles before jumping off the plane and gliding to Angel Island.

“So long Knuckles”, said Sonic waving back.

“Well what now Sonic? The Death Egg is destroyed, Eggman has been beaten, the adventure’s over isn’t it”, said Tails.

“For now yes. But I wouldn’t be surprised if old Egg belly is making new plans as we speak”, said Sonic.

“You’re right, though where do we go from here? Back to my workshop, Back to Green hill?” asked Tails.

Sonic paused for a moment.

“I don’t know where to go? Erm…take us back to your workshop”, said Sonic.

“Ok!” said Tails.

Tails flew the Tornado back to his workshop. The Soft Ocean air felt good as it caressed the two heroes’ skin. Sonic gazed off into the horizon wondering when his next adventure will happen. For him his next adventure wouldn’t happen for quite some time, though this story isn’t over yet.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

As Sonic saved the world again, the part of Sky Sanctuary that broke off from the rest crashed into Angel Island just outside of Mushroom hill. Lying in the rubble was Mecha Sonic, trapped between the rocks and leaking fluid. It was strange for a robot to feel fear though it had also been strange that he had felt anger and envy. He despised Sonic as he had to deal with his program. A program that acted like a voice in your head, always telling him to destroy Sonic. The only way he could relieve himself of this torture was to fulfill his main objective, though Sonic was too strong.

Mecha’s advanced hearing heard scrapping noises. As if someone was pushing the heavy blocks that trapped him away. He felt a wave of hope wash over his body, followed by a sigh of relief when he saw daylight as one final block was removed. The daylight was soon replaced by an Egg Robo.

“Mecha Sonic! I am Egg Robo number 25”, said the Egg Robo.

“An Egg Robo? Sonic must’ve missed one. Remove these blocks now”, said Mecha Sonic.

“Yes sir”, said Egg Robo

Egg Robo proceeded to move the blocks trapping Mecha Sonic in the rubble. Egg Robo helped Mecha Sonic out of the rubble and began repairing the machine.

“You are lucky I found you when I did”, said Egg Robo.

“So Egg Robo 25, what’s the situation? My scanners can’t seem to find Sonic”, said Mecha Sonic.

“The Death Egg is no more. The Master Emerald has been returned to its normal resting spot and Angel Island has returned to its normal resting place”, said Egg Robo.

“But what of Sonic?” asked Mecha Sonic.

“Location unknown!” said Egg Robo.

Mecha Sonic smashed his fist into the floor.

“That is not good. I must destroy Sonic the Hedgehog”, said Mecha Sonic.

“Our master is also missing. Perhaps he left the island in defeat”, said Egg Robo.

“Perhaps. Even without master Robotnik though we should still complete our mission of restoring the Robotnik Empire”, said Mecha Sonic.

“What do you suggest we do?” asked Egg Robo.

Mecha Sonic paused for a moment.

“I have all the blueprints to all of out master’s creations. We will rebuilt his weapons and make an assault on the Master Emerald. Bringing that emerald to our glorious leader is our new main objective”, said Mecha Sonic.

“But what about Knuckles, the guardian of the Master Emerald? He will not let us take the Emerald without a fight”, said Egg Robo.

“You have a point. Then we’ll just have to deal with him first”, said Mecha Sonic.

Chapter 13 – Robot Revolution

Some time had passed and for Knuckles things were back to normal. Angel Island was once again his playground. The Island had remained a secret for ages and with only Eggman, Sonic and Tails knowing it’s location he felt safe leaving the Master Emerald alone for a while. After all if something happened to it he would know it. Knuckles lay back on the ground in Mushroom Hill as he took a small rest. The softness of the rays of sunlight that managed to poke through the woods made him feel at peace once more.

He felt even happier than usual as he had made a couple of friends and defined an enemy. Life on Angel Island was getting pretty boring and the excitement of Sonic’s adventure on the Island was a welcome change. Victory felt good and it was no surprise that the echidna dropped his guard.

Knuckles poked his head up to find a Robot had thrown a bomb at him. The Robot looked sort of like Eggman but the fact that it was a hostile robot told him Eggman was back. Knuckles jumped out of the way but was still hurt. Shaking off his pain he quickly chased the Eggman robot through Mushroom Hill.

The wood cutting robot that Sonic and Tails met in this area soon stopped Knuckles in his tracks.

“What the hell is this? I’m sure I saw Sonic finish this thing off before I sent him flying through the woods”, said Knuckles.

Knuckles jumped out of the way as the wood cutting badnik sliced a bit of a tree and fired it at him. Knuckles put his fist through the badnik who miraculously was still active. Another piece of tree came flying at Knuckles. Knuckles dodged and struck the badnik. This time it couldn’t continue and blew up.

“Did that robot repair the Badniks that Sonic and Tails destroyed?” asked Knuckles, “I wonder what else they repaired”

Knuckles continued on to find Mushroom Hill’s plants dying. He immediately knew what that meant. The satellite dish had been repaired and that meant a fight through the spike hurdles. Knuckles soon reached the dish and smashed it into pieces.

“What is the meaning of this robot?” asked Knuckles angrily.

The Eggman Robot appeared again in the same machine Eggman used when he fought Sonic and Tails.

“I am Egg Robo 25. For our master we will destroy you and take your Emerald”, said the Eggman Robot.

Egg Robo flew through the spike hurdles. Oddly the same thing happened as Egg Robo kept flying backwards, smashing into a tree.

“How pathetic. Wait did it say we?” asked Knuckles confused.

Egg Robo flew off into the air onto a flying airship. Knuckles climbed the tree and found himself on the Flying battery. It was as if Sonic and Tails had never been on the fortress.

“This is Eggman’s battleship, but there’s no way he could have repaired it so quickly. This is all confusing, what the hell is going on here?” said Knuckles out loud.

Knuckles sighed and ventured through the flying fortress. He soon came across the fake capsule unaware of its attacks. The fake capsule smashed its spike hand into Knuckles, though Knuckles smashed his fists into the spiked hand sending it flying back into the machine. The spiked arm sliced through the armour on top of the machine. Knuckles hopped on top and found the ‘wound’ had exposed the wires. Knuckles pulled out the wires and the fake capsule collapsed into a heap of metal.

“Surely Eggman had better machines that this”, said Knuckles before venturing on.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Meanwhile Mecha Sonic stood next to the Master Emerald. He felt it’s warmth for the first time and it felt incredible. He had never felt anything like this before. Anger, jealousy, even a little pain yes but never a sensation like this. It was almost as if he could absorb the energy within the Emerald. He actually felt good and stayed standing still admiring the warm glow of the Emerald.

Egg Robo was keeping Knuckles busy, hopefully destroying him in the process. Mecha Sonic felt no need to rush. Mecha told Egg Robo to lead Knuckles to the Hidden Palace knowing it led to Sky Sanctuary. If Egg Robo failed he would take care of things. Sonic may have been able to beat him twice, but that didn’t mean Knuckles had a chance against him.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Back on Flying Battery, Knuckles had found himself trapped between two walls of light with a huge laser firing straight down. Knuckles avoided the laser blasts only to find one of the walls edging closer to the other with every hit. Unknown to him Sonic and Tails had already gone through this. Knuckles started to panic as the wall got very close, leaving almost no room to move. He was relieved to find the whole system exploding and a defeated Egg Robo running off through the unstable part of Flying Battery.

Leaving no time to rest Knuckles raced through the area, climbing up vertical sections, to find himself in a large arena. A metal beam rose up from the ground and brought Knuckles high into the air. The swinging machine Sonic and Tails fought appeared and began swinging round the beam. Knuckles had been fixing an emerald when Sonic and Tails fought this machine so he was unaware of its abilities. Despite this though he managed to figure the pattern out and take it out in the same way.

However this time Knuckles hit the final blow with such force the machine crashed back into the heart of Flying Battery. The Battleship began to lose altitude and fell to the ground pretty quickly. Knuckles dashed to the emergency exit and jumped off the airship into the sand dunes of Sandopolis. Flying Battery crashed into the volcano and Knuckles, who still wanted revenge, ventured on through Sandopolis.

Knuckles reached the Pyramid that concealed the entrance to Lava Reef only to find the stone golem waiting for him.

“This is impossible. Sonic and Tails dumped you in the quicksand”, said Knuckles.

Knuckles rolled out of the way as the stone golem jumped to where Knuckles had been standing. Knuckles punched the golem’s head, picked up the boulder and threw it straight into the quicksand. The door to the pyramid opened.

“I may not know how you came back to life, but I sure know how to beat you”, said Knuckles.

Knuckles proceeded through the pyramid. He knew Sandopolis like the back of his hand, though it was still deadly even when he knew where he was going. He had however reached the lava reef caves entrance guardian much quicker than what Sonic and Tails had. The guardian started to move and fire lasers at Knuckles. Knuckles knew its weakness and found Egg Robo at the controls.

The guardian lay smashed in pieces and Egg Robo raced off into the Lava Reef caves. Egg Robo flew over the pitfall Knuckles then jumped over. That pitfall took anyone who fell in it straight to the bottom of the caves, which sadly Sonic and Tails had fell through. Knuckles kept chasing Egg Robo as it began to talk to someone over the radio.

“Mecha, come in Mecha”, said Egg Robo.

“Mecha here. What is it Egg Robo?” asked Mecha Sonic over a radio.

“Knuckles is here in the Lava Reef caves. Why haven’t you taken the Master Emerald?” asked Egg Robo.

“I will take the Emerald when I am good and ready. I do not take orders for a medium level Badnik”, said Mecha Sonic.

“Well I’m heading straight to Sky Sanctuary. I have the mining machine on auto pilot. Knuckles will still have to get passed it in order to reach the Hidden Palace”, said Egg Robo.

“Very good. I will meet you there and perhaps Knuckles as well”, said Mecha Sonic.

“So your pal Mecha is about to take the Master Emerald to Sky Sanctuary. What is this all about Robot?” asked Knuckles.

“We plan to give the Emerald to Master Robotnik and destroy you Echidna. If you get past the mining machine and the traps in Lava Reef safely we’ll be waiting for you on Sky Sanctuary”, said Egg Robo, before flying through the volcano roof.

Knuckles sighed and continued on through Lava Reef. He knew a shortcut that would lead him straight into the Hidden Palace but like it or not he had to face the mining machine Sonic and Tails fought at the bottom of the Volcano.

The Machine was no match for him and only really slowed him down a bit. As he took a short rest to celebrate his small victory he felt the Island shake.

“It begins”, said Knuckles.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

While Knuckles continued on through Lava Reef, Mecha Sonic took the Master Emerald to Sky Sanctuary. The warmth of the Emerald’s glow still confused yet delighted him. He placed his hand on the Emerald and felt a surge of energy flow through him. Just then Egg Robo arrived at Sky Sanctuary wondering what Mecha had been doing.

“Mecha? May I ask what you are doing?” asked Egg Robo.

“No but you just did anyway. For some reason I feel the Chaos Energy inside the Emerald become a part of me whenever I touch it”, said Mecha Sonic.

“What? But that’s impossible. You are just a machine”, said Egg Robo.

“Impudent worm. I am Mecha Sonic, king of the Badniks. Nothing is impossible for me”, said Mecha Sonic.

“Except beating Sonic”, said Egg Robo quietly.

“What did you say? I will destroy you for making such a remark unless you give me a reason not to”, said Mecha Sonic.

“Oh I am so sorry sir. Though besides saving your life so to speak, I also have a plan to easily take care of Knuckles”, said Egg Robo.

“That pest? I can deal with him myself”, said Mecha Sonic.

“Of course. Though why make it difficult on yourself. We both know the logical option is to work together”, said Egg Robo.

“I suppose so. So what’s this plan of yours then?” asked Mecha Sonic.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

With the mining machine down it was a fairly simple venture through the cooled Lava Reef to the Hidden Palace’s secret entrance. Some of Eggman’s Badniks still roamed this area as Sonic and Tails had taken the long road round, but they were no match for him. The shaking of Angel Island beginning to fall didn’t help either but soon he was inside the Hidden Palace and staring at the warp to Sky Sanctuary.

“Those robot fools wish to fight me on sacred ground, so be it. I’ll destroy them take back my emerald and restore Angel Island to the way it was”, said Knuckles.

Knuckles jumped into the warp and found himself on Sky Sanctuary. He could see Angel Island in the background about to fall. He had to find the Master Emerald quickly and restore his Island to its former state.

Suddenly Egg Robo appeared in one of Eggman’s vehicles with a metal pincer at the bottom. Egg Robo grabbed Knuckles in the pincer, trapping him inside. A Robot Sonic now stood near the warping orb.

“Excellent Egg Robo. Knuckles is trapped which should make the kill so easy. Any last words worm?” asked the Robot Sonic.

“You must be Mecha. Is Eggman so desperate he makes Robots the look and act like Sonic”, said Knuckles.

“That is Mecha Sonic to you and I’m far superior to that blue hedgehog. Once I destroy you I’ll move onto the world and take out Sonic myself”, said Mecha Sonic.

“Mecha Sonic explain yourself! Why have you become a rogue? What happened to following our glorious leader master Robotnik?” asked Egg Robo.

“I have found a secret to my design that will give me enough power to take over this planet. Why should I listen to that gasbag anyway? I’ll destroy him too if he gets in my way”, said Mecha Sonic.

“Ha Ha Ha! Old Egghead can’t even keep his own robots under control”, said Knuckles.

“Once I thought I was at Robotnik’s mercy, but with the Master Emerald there will be nothing to stop me”, said Mecha Sonic, “Now, echidna prepare to die”

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sonic may have saved the world but he still had one last part to play in this adventure. When the two heroes returned home Sonic said a quick goodbye and ran off without any real warning. Because of the shock Sonic had completely gone out of sight before Tails had noticed. Sonic left Tails with the Tornado, knowing he would make better use of it.

Sonic had gone straight to the mountains. He never really had a home; his first memory was waking up in that plane. Minutes later he would be on a quest to stop Eggman taking over the world. He never really questioned how he knew so much without ever remembering going to school. He never really questioned his teenage looks, why he can’t remember anything before that moment despite looking like he was about 16 or 17.

The mountains were now his adopted home. Quiet, secluded and full of open areas to run in. He couldn’t sit still for too long and the area had many places to quench his adventure thirst. Though he would soon find that a mini adventure would soon fall before him.

Sonic looked out onto the ocean from a mountain peak. He knew something was still happening on Angel Island as it had started to wobble. Something told him one of his new friends needed him.

What’s going on now? It’s way too early for Eggman to be attempting another diabolical scheme. I should go and investigate.

Sonic raced down the mountainside straight to Emerald hill and Tails’ workshop. Sonic jumped into the Tornado and started the engine. Tails came from under the plane covered in oil and holding a spanner.

“Sonic? Hey I’m working on the Tornado”, said Tails angrily.

“Can it fly in its current state?” asked Sonic.

Tails tightened a bolt.

“Now it can”, said Tails.

“Get out of the way”, said Sonic.

“What’s going on?” asked Tails moving out of the way.

Sonic didn’t reply as a second later he had taken off into the air.

“OH THANKS A LOT! IS THAT ANYWAY TO TREAT YOUR NEW SIDEKICK”, shouted Tails, “Aw I wanted to go too”.

Chapter 14 – The power of Chaos

Mecha Sonic crouched into a ball. The ball began to spin creating a circular saw effect with its metal spikes. Knuckles struggled to get free but it was no use, the pincers were too tight. Mecha Sonic made his attack and struck the Eggmobile dead on, though Knuckles had been released.

“What the?” asked Knuckles turning to see Mecha Sonic destroy the Eggmobile.

“Destroy Mecha Sonic Knuckles. He’s gone nuts”, said Egg Robo.

“Traitor!” said Mecha Sonic.

“Really? I’m the traitor? I’m not the one betraying our master. For the glory of the Robotnik Empire…ARGH!” screamed Egg Robo as Mecha Sonic’s attack had made the Eggmobile explode.

Knuckles felt sorry for Egg Robo. He was loyal to Robotnik all the way until the end. Despite Robotnik being an evil villain he couldn’t help admire his loyalty. Mecha Sonic smashed into the ground furious.

“Ok fine! I’ll destroy you the fun way”, said Mecha Sonic.

“Just try it metal head”, said Knuckles.

Mecha Sonic smashed into Knuckles pushing him closer to the Master Emerald. Mecha then span into a ball and bounced into the air. As Mecha landed he jetted backwards, spike first straight into Knuckles. Knuckles jumped out of the way just in time though as he turned to see Mecha Sonic he found the blue robot already attacking again. This time Mecha’s attack hit and Knuckles slid across the floor. Its spikes cut Knuckles’ cheek. Knuckles wiped the blood from his face and sprung back to his feet.

“That’s it”, said Knuckles.

Knuckles smashed the ground with his fist which knocked Mecha Sonic off his feet. Knuckles then dashed straight to Mecha Sonic and smashed his fist straight into the robot’s chest. Mecha Sonic fell backwards but only lay on the ground for a quick second before springing back to his feet.

“Scanning...Damage 25%....Nice hit Echidna”, said Mecha Sonic.

“So 3 more of those and it’ll all be over”, said Knuckles smashing the ground again.

This time though Mecha jumped into the air. Knuckles waited until Mecha fell to the ground and smashed his fist into the machine again when it landed.

“2 more. You really aren’t any match for me or Sonic. How pathetic”, said Knuckles.

“I will make you eat those words”, said Mecha Sonic angrily.

Mecha made another desperate attack that Knuckles avoided. As Mecha Sonic turned he found Knuckles waiting for him. Knuckles smashed his fist into Mecha Sonic’s chest.

“No this isn’t happening”, said Mecha Sonic falling on his metal backside.

“It’s over Robot. I won’t give you a chance to get back up”, said Knuckles.

Knuckles stood over Mecha Sonic preparing his fist to smash straight down. Mecha Sonic was sparking like mad; it was time to use his trump card.

“You think that’s it Echidna?” asked Mecha Sonic.

Knuckles watched confused as Mecha Sonic dashed backwards towards the Master Emerald. The Robot jumped on top of the Emerald and laughed.

“Ha Ha! You fool! I have the ability to directly use the Chaos Energy inside the Master Emerald. I don’t quite understand it myself, though the doctor gave me this ability and I plan to use it. Goodbye Knuckles, this is the end”, said Mecha Sonic.

Streams of Chaos Energy seemed to disappear straight into Mecha Sonic as its blue body started to bronze. Knuckles could sense the Chaos energy inside Mecha Sonic; it reminded him of Super Sonic. Knuckles began to shake a little in fear. A Robot, being able to manipulate chaos energy. A Robot version of Super Sonic! He looked over to the Island which was wobbling like crazy and he knew he was the only one who could stop this monstrosity. This was his density, the ultimate test he had to do as guardian of the Master Emerald.

“I am the guardian of the Master Emerald. I don’t know why I was chosen, but I was. I will not allow the Master Emerald to be abused like this. I will not allow Angel Island to fall into the ocean again. I will defeat you”, said Knuckles.

Super Mecha Sonic jumped off the Master Emerald and hovered high above the arena. Super Mecha Sonic fired a barrage of bronze rings at Knuckles who jumped out of the way. Knuckles jumped off the Master Emerald for height and smashed his fist into the Bronzed Robot. Knuckles’ fist just bounced off the bronze metal.

“Did you honestly think you can hurt me in this form?” asked Super Mecha laughing

Knuckles fell back to the ground and landed safely on his feet. He jumped out of the way of another attack.

How am I going to beat something I can’t hit?

Knuckles began to panic and could only dodge Super Mecha’s attacks. Attack after attack, Knuckles began to pant with exhaustion. He couldn’t keep this up.

Then it happened. Super Mecha Sonic crashed straight into the ground unexpectedly. When the smoke cleared the robot had reverted back to its normal blue form.

“That’s it. The super form is only temporary. Now’s my chance. EAT THIS ROBOT”, said Knuckles dashing to punch Mecha Sonic.

Knuckles smashed his fist into Mecha Sonic. But Mecha Sonic did not explode.

“What? You were down to your last hit!” said Knuckles.

“The Master Emerald restored me. Now if you don’t mind”, said Mecha Sonic before dashing straight back to the Master Emerald.

Knuckles chased and got another good hit before Mecha Sonic could recharge. Mecha Sonic returned to his Super form.

“Give up Echidna. I have an unlimited power source, you will eventually tire”, said Super Mecha Sonic.

“I will never give up. Next time I won’t let you recharge”, said Knuckles.

Super Mecha Sonic kept attacking with a variety of attacks. The Bronze rings, giant balls of energy and ramming attacks. Knuckles avoided them all until Mecha Sonic fell to the ground again. Knuckles hit the Robot with all he had and managed to make Mecha Sonic spark.

“Damage at 80%. This isn’t possible. The Master Emerald should’ve recharged my energy again”, said Mecha Sonic.

Mecha Sonic dashed and recharged himself on the Master Emerald.

“I will not lose to you”, said Mecha Sonic as more chaos energy was absorbed.

“Perhaps the chaos energy is eroding you. That would explain why you weren’t told about it. You can’t control this energy. Stop it or it will completely destroy you”, said Knuckles.

“Perhaps, but I am not losing again”, said Mecha Sonic.

Mecha Sonic became Super Mecha again though he looked exhausted. He moved more slowly and found it difficult to make an attack. He did manage to attack but every time the super form faded. This time though he only stayed in his normal form for a few seconds before returning to his super form. Knuckles avoided the attacks and struck Mecha Sonic with his fists when the robot was blue. The Robot was sparking like mad.

“Damage at 99%...warning damage at 99%....ARGH! I WILL NOT FAIL AGAIN!!” screamed Super Mecha.

One final attack and Mecha Sonic was at Knuckles’ mercy.

“I warned you. It’s over robot”, said Knuckles.

Knuckles smashed his fist straight through Mecha Sonic who crashed into the floor and exploded. The force made Sky Sanctuary collapse. Nothing was left. Though as he fell, Knuckles grabbed the Master Emerald. Angel Island hadn’t fallen yet but it was about to. Knuckles couldn’t get any height and the fall was still huge. Knuckles squirmed through the debris of Sky Sanctuary. A huge chunk of Sky Sanctuary flew above Knuckles head. There was no way he was going to avoid it.

“Dammit! I failed!” said Knuckles closing his eyes awaiting the block to crush him.

Then all of a sudden he heard the propeller of a plane, and felt the wind brush his skin.

“You OK?” asked someone who sounded familiar.

Knuckles opened his eyes to see Sonic flying the Tornado. Knuckles was standing on the wing, holding the massive emerald in his arms.

“Sonic? Am I glad to see you”, said Knuckles.

“I take it you want to be taken to Angel Island”, said Sonic.

“Yes and hurry”, said Knuckles, “Thank you Sonic. But how did you…?”

“When I saw Angel Island wobbling I knew something was wrong”, said Sonic, “So what exactly did just happen?”

“A couple of Eggman’s left over Robots caused some trouble. Nothing I couldn’t handle though”, said Knuckles.

“Oh yeah that block would’ve missed you entirely. I don’t know why I came out”, said Sonic.

Knuckles laughed.

“I’ll tell you all about it once I fix the Island”, said Knuckles.

Sonic brought the Tornado to the Angel Island shrine and Knuckles returned the Master Emerald to its rightful place. Knuckles then told Sonic the whole story.

“Mecha was still alive huh? A Super Robot, man I wished I could’ve fought it”, said Sonic.

“It was one hell of a fight. Shame Sky Sanctuary is completely destroyed now”, said Knuckles.

“Well Eggman has been defeated, Angel Island is back where it belongs and I’m hoping now, everything is back to normal”, said Sonic jumping into the Tornado.

“I take it this means goodbye”, said Knuckles.

“For now. I should really get back to Tails. He sounded rather mad at me when I took off”, said Sonic.

“Ok then, see ya around Sonic”, said Knuckles.

Sonic waved goodbye before returning the Tornado back to Tails’ workshop. Knuckles leant back against the Master Emerald and closed his eyes.

“I’m not letting you out of my sight again”, said Knuckles.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Meanwhile Eggman had found himself back on land, just outside a massive jungle. In the middle was an ancient temple, a stone pyramid that stuck out above the trees. Angry, Eggman plodded through the jungle mumbling angrily to himself. The further he went through the jungle the more ideas he started to get.

“This would be a good place to build a new base. Secluded, well hidden and huge. It’s decided. My new base shall be built here”, said Eggman.

Eggman reached the stone pyramid and wandered through it. He reached a large room with a stone mural. This one depicted a huge sea monster destroying a city. He had a good knowledge of ancient races and had heard of a legendary monster that destroyed the most powerful ancient civilisation. In front of the mural were a couple of stone tablets. Eggman picked one up and started reading it. He couldn’t decipher all of the ancient marking but he made out most of them.

Our greed was our own downfall. We angered the god and we paid for it with our blood. Very few of us remain as the God of Destruction has killed many of my echidna brothers. I thought I would be next, my injuries meant I was done for anyway. Then I saw the girl. She was right we should’ve listened to her. I saw the holy guardian being sucked inside the Master Emerald. Despite all that we did to her she saved the last of us. I say us; I’m really not sure how many are left. I could be the only one.

He began reading the next one.

A holy light descended from the heavens and I began to hear a soft female voice. It told me that the disaster was over and our punishment had been enforced. It told me that I was all that was left and I alone had to prevent it from happening again. Chaos, the god of destruction had been imprisoned inside the Master Emerald which made it more powerful than ever. I was assigned as the new guardian and I found my strength returning and reaching a whole new level. I alone know that the only way to release Chaos again would be to smash the emeralds. I will not allow that to happen.

Interesting. The Master Emerald holds yet another secret. A powerful weapon I can use for my own desires. I must have it. No doubt Sonic and his new friends will try and stop me. I must create an army, I will not fail again. Glory will come to the Robotnik Empire yet.

Eggman left the pyramid and started planning his next attack, which was the start of the next big Sonic adventure.

A new day brings new adventure, but for now, rest easy heroes

THE END

In memory of my Aunt Christine, who died during the writing of this fanfic.