CHAPTER TWO: CHAOS TWO Knuckles squinted in the light. "So, this is Station Square." he commented. "Gah, I hate the city. Give me desolate any time." He looked at a large sign. "Speed Highway" it read. "Speed Highway?" Knuckles said to himself. "This isn't where I want to be." He looked at the map he was holding. "Let's see... I need to find Sonic, as much as it pains me, and he'd be at that resort place he's staying at." He pointed on the map. "The resort is... there, and I am... here. Ah geez, how could I make that kind of mistake? Lessee.. I could go via the Town Hall, or the factory building here.. Town Hall is closer.. that would mean.. HEY!" The echidna tripped over something and landed flat on his face. "Unnnnh.." he moaned. "Who left that thing lying around?" He looked at what tripped him, and almost collapsed again. A MASTER EMERALD SHARD! "What??" Knuckles yelled. "HOW??" He joyfully picked up the shard, and another green glow somewhere caught his eye. "They're all over the place!" Knux realised. "Here I am planning to bust into Robotropolis and flush them out, and they're all right HERE! They must have fallen out of Robotnik's ship!" He looked up, even though the vessel was long gone. "I wonder how many fell out?" he asked himself. "Well, this makes my job a little easier and a little harder... easier in that I don't have to invade Robotnik's city... harder in that I'm going to have to search every point on the flight path of Robotnik's ship to find where they all dropped..." The wind was furious as Sonic and Tails trekked through the hills. "What IS this place?" Tails asked. Sonic shrugged. There were windmills everywhere, all working at maximum capacity. "I dunno, it looks like a place for generating electricity." Sonic said. "Maybe it's where Station Square get their power?" Tails suggested. "Maybe.." Sonic replied. "Keep on the lookout for pieces of the emerald, Tails. "Gosh it's windy today!" Tails complained. The two went over a bridge, as the sky grew dark. "I wonder how Knuckles is faring without the Master Emerald?" Sonic asked. "The Floating Island is probably sunk!" "And he won't be able to repair it if that Chaos thing keeps swallowing them all!" Tails added. "Hey Sonic, where did that creature come from, anyway?" Sonic didn't reply. "Sonic?" Tails asked. "Tails... run.. it's the tornado!" Sonic suddenly said. "What?" Tails asked. "No! The Tornado is back in the hangar, remember?" "NO!" Sonic replied. "I don't mean the Tornado, I mean the TORNADO!" "What the heck?" Tails asked. "The FORECAST tornado!" Sonic shouted. Tails looked at where Sonic was gazing. A massive twister was ripping through the countryside, throwing windmills and machines about. It was heading their way.. and it was faster than them. "TAILS! GET INSIDE!" Sonic shouted, struggling against the wind. He opened the door to a large windmill, and the two went inside and slammed it shut. They waited.. nothing to be heard except the squeaking of windmill gears working in overdrive powering a buzzing generator. "Is it gone?" Tails asked. The windmill was ripped out of the ground, and its passengers were strewn about. They could see the world spinning past them through the hole in the bottom. They were thrown about like rag dolls, then the windmill was tossed like a javelin through the air, and landed on the ground, throwing Sonic and Tails several meters into a pile of debris. "Ow." Sonic commented. Tails looked around the place... devastation everywhere. He could see several windmills, barns, and the remains of all manner of structures.. and something was glowing green amidst it all. "Sonic.. an emerald!" he shouted. "Giant whales.. Twisters.. Liquid monsters.." Sonic grumbled, ignoring the statement. "Sonic!" Tails shouted again. "An EMERALD!" "Huh?" Sonic asked, looking at the green glowing shard. "HEY! Cool! That's lucky!" "Lets go back to the city, Sonic.." Tails said, yawning. "We can continue this tomorrow, it's getting dark." Knuckles walked down the street with the four green Master Emerald shards that were the result of searching Speed Highway all day. It was now dark, and he was looking for the next place that he might find some parts of his most valued treasure. He wouldn't be able to sleep with his island in such turmoil, so he needed not worry about that. He passed by a huge building labelled "Casino", and, at first glance, he thought they had a giant gold statue of Sonic the Hedgehog! He chuckled to himself. "Nah.. couldn't be!" he said. He had a look inside anyway. The casino was absolutely massive, to say the least.. though Knux had never seen the inside of a casino, he figured this was pretty big. They had all sorts of decorations, with lights all over them... a pirate ship, an automated lion's head... the place wasn't very busy, but it sure was beautiful. Then Knuckles noticed, beside a card table, a glass case with all kinds of prizes in it.. one of them was an emerald shard! Knuckles walked up to the ferret who was dealing the card game. "Gimme that emerald!" he demanded. The ferret laughed. "Sure pal! If you win this little game!" "No time for games!" Knux protested. "Sorry pal, rules is rules." the ferret replied. Knuckles looked around at all the security guards lining the walls. Punching this guy out and smashing the glass was definitely out of the question. Though he was in desperation, Knux was defeated, and walked outside the casino. He thought he would have to bust in and take it after-hours or something. Not that he wanted to look like a criminal, but he decided that the fate of the Floating Island was more important than a game of cards. He glanced in the darkness and saw two figures looking very much like Sonic and Tails. "Why would they be here?" he asked himself. Shrugging it off, he walked away in search of more pieces of his emerald. Sonic and Tails walked down one of the many streets of Station Square. As they did, Sonic noticed the huge building marked "Casino". Somebody walked out the door. It was dark, but Sonic thought it looked like Knuckles. "Hey, is that Knux?" he asked. "I don't think so.." Tails replied. "Why would he be here? He doesn't gamble!" "Yeah, I guess you're right." Sonic replied. "Hey Tails, wanna check out the casino?" "I guess so!" Tails replied, smiling. "Nothing better to do.." The casino wasn't very busy that night.. but it was a spectacular building. Inside, there was a giant pirate ship, and huge gold statues of people. And of course, there were poker machines. LOTS of poker machines. Sonic and Tails looked around in awe. Then Sonic spotted something in a display case of prizes. "Tails! Is that....an emerald?" he asked. Tails looked. "Yeah!" he replied, holding up the other one and comparing them. "Sir!" Sonic shouted to a brown ferret shuffling a pack of cards. "We need that emerald!" "Gotta be in it to win it." the ferret replied, not shifting his gaze. "You don't understand!" Sonic replied. "This is important! Doctor Robotnik.." "Gambling is important." the ferret replied. "This casino is important. My next paycheck is important. So if you wannit so badly, hand over some chips and bet for it." "Can we buy it off you?" Tails asked. "Buy it?" the ferret asked. "With what? You gonna shave your fur off and make me a hat?" "He's right, Tails.." Sonic added. "We don't have any mon..." "This!" Tails replied, holding up something glowing yellow. "It's the eighth Chaos Emerald!" Sonic stared at the object blankly. "Tails, what the heck?" he asked. "That's not a Chaos Emerald." the ferret replied. "It's a big jagged yellow rock." "It's not like the other emeralds!" Tails replied. "It's special! Worth much more than that green thing in the display case. You gonna take it?" The ferret compared the jewels for a long time, and finally let out a sigh. "Tails, where did you get that thing from?" Sonic asked, walking outside with the two shards of the Master Emerald. "It's a long story.." Tails admitted. "Lets get some sleep. We can keep going in the morning." "I wonder how many of these things there are?" Sonic asked. "They seem to have fallen everywhere! I wonder if Knux is out looking for them as well?" "Well, that would make FOUR of us!" somebody yelled from the shadows. Before Sonic could turn, somebody whacked him over the head. He sprawled fowards, and he was caught in a cloud of purple smoke. The smoke made him dissy, and he toppled over.. the last thing he heard being Tails' protests that someone was stealing his emerald. "HEY!" Streak shouted, running up to his cousin. When he caught up, he started panting for breath. "Big.. what are you.. doing?" Streak asked. "Looking for my poliwag pal, Froggy!" Big replied. "Look! There he is!" A frog with a long tail hopped past. "Uh... he looks kinda.... funny." Streak commented. "I'd better follow Froggy before he gets hurt!" Big declared. "Hey, I oughta follow YOU before you get hurt, ya big lug!" Streak replied. But Big was already gone. Streak shrugged strongly. "A... frog!" he exclaimed. "Just a dumb frog! Hey Big! Wait up!" "What.. happened?" Sonic asked, waking up. It was daylight, and the both of them were lying in a gutter outside the casino. People must have thought they were a couple of drunks. "Robotnik.." Tails replied. "That was Robotnik?" Sonic asked. "He must be pretty desperate! I mean.. he MUGGED us! He has all the technology at his hands, and he MUGGED us outside a casino!" "He's got three emerald shards now.." Tails lamented. "Two." Sonic replied, holding up an emerald. "He took yours, he didn't seem to know I had one too." "Oh, cool." Tails replied. "But still, that's our one to his two, and that's NOT good..." "Let's get busy..." Sonic replied. "We've gotta get more of these things, maybe we can stop him from getting any further. I'd hate to see what happens to that Chaos creature after it evolves again... Knuckles snapped awake. He was at the base of a temple. "What?" he asked. "Hang on.. where am I?" He realised that the last thing he remembered was walking down the street... now he was in an ancient city with a massive temple. Moreso, the place was swarming with echidnas! Knux walked through the crowd with his jaw hanging wide open. How had he gotten there? Where was he? The questions pounded in his mind. He shook his head and saw two echidnas standing at the base of the temple having an argument... and one of them was Tikal! "Could it be?" Knux gasped. He ran up to the two... they were dressed up very strangely, more elaborately than the other echidnas, and Tikal's hands weren't abnormally large like they were last time they had met. Knux shook his head. "No... it can't be.. it isn't." he told himself. "TIKAL!" the other echidna raged. "It is." Knux said to himself. The other echidna, who was much older and looked like a chief of some kind, looked down angrily at Tikal. "Tikal, they are coming! We have to fight back!" he commanded. "No, father!" Tikal replied. "We are no match for them! We have to flee!" "This is the third test!" the chief replied. "We have survived two previous! The echidna civilization will prevail! It is our gods' will!" "Only because we had help in the other tests, father!" Tikal protested. "In the first test we had the Xnaoo Emeralds! In the second test we had the Sky Sanctuary from Floating Island! We have nothing now, father!" "We must fight!" the chief replied, unfazed. "Fight, or die!" With that, he walked away, and Tikal sighed deeply. Knuckles ran up to her. "Tikal!" he shouted. Tikal turned around. "Yes?" she asked. "Tikal, it's me!" Knux replied. "Where are we? How did I get here?" Tikal looked confused. "I'm sorry, I... I don't know you." she replied. Knuckles' heart fell into his stomach. "Tikal!" he exclaimed. "It's me! Knuckles! Remember?" "I'm sorry.." Tikal replied. "I can't help you. I.. need to go now. You understand.." She began to walk away. "No! Tikal!" Knuckles shouted. "Tikal! Tikal! TIKAAAAAAAAAAL!!!" The people on the city street looked at him strangely. "TIKAL!" he shouted again. He opened his eyes. He was standing back at Station Square. It was daytime.. Everybody was staring. Knux realised that he was dreaming, and must have been screaming "Tikal" in his sleep. "Uhhh... eheh.." he chuckled embarrasedly. He walked away, flushed. "Maybe I really DO need more sleep!" he decided. He looked up, and noticed that he was near the resort that Sonic was staying at. Somebody walked in the door... DOCTOR ROBOTNIK! The hate that Knuckles felt for that man at that moment was unrivalled. He couldn't help but storm into the hotel so he could punch the good doctor's head inside out. When he went inside, he noticed also that Robotnik had a very proud look on his face, and was clutching a shard of the Master Emerald! "He is asking for it so badly that it's funny!" Knux declared. "HEY! YOU! GET BACK HERE!" But Robotnik had already taken the elevator. Knux pressed the button and impatiently waited for it to come back down. It did, the doors opened, and Knuckles stormed in angrily. Robotnik had rented the luxury suite. It was incredible.. fully furnished and clean. Knux wondered for a second why Robotnik was renting a room at a Station Square hotel.. but then he remembered why he was there. "ROBOTNIK!" he shouted. Robotnik turned around, shocked. "Knu...Knuckles!" he stammered. "Give me the Master Emerald!" Knuckles threatened. "If you do that, I won't bloody up your face as much!" "You want it?" Robotnik cackled "COME AND GET IT!" "Gladly!" Knuckles replied. "CHAOS!" Robotnik yelled. "Huh?" Knuckles turned around and was hit in the head with a flying puddle! "GAAAH!" he yelled, toppling over. As he pickled himself up, he saw the puddle was at Robotnik's feet.. and it began to transform. It grew and solidified into a barely human shape, just taller than Robotnik, with a huge crab's claw. "What the heck is that thing?" Knuckles demanded. "Knuckles... meet Chaos One!" Robotnik replied. "Soon to become Chaos Two!" "You have another emerald for Chaos?" Chaos asked, not shifting his gaze from the echidna. "Indeed I do, Chaos!" Robotnik replied. "Catch!" He threw the emerald shard at Chaos. "NO!!" Knux shouted, leaping. Chaos smacked him out of the way, and grabbed the emerald hungrily in his claw. It immediately passed through his skin and into his liquid interior, where it began to glow brightly. Then Chaos' body shape began to change. His arms grew longer... His entire body grew bigger and bulkier.. his head changed and grew three short prongs down the back. When he stopped glowing, he was about twice Robotnik's height. "Yes....YES!" Robotnik yelled. "It's working! It's WORKING! STATION SQUARE WILL BE MINE!" "What.. the HECK?" Knuckles demanded. Chaos looked down at him intimidatingly. "Meet.. Chaos.. Two!" he boomed. Then he banged both fists on his chest and snarled. Knuckles took a step back... How did Robotnik gain posession of a giant liquid gorilla? It made no sense! Chaos sucked his body mass into a giant ball, and bounced towards Knuckles, knocking over furniture. Knux ducked out of the way, and raised both fists in attack formation. When the ball came close, he punched it as hard as he could... but Chaos just re-formed and solidified with Knuckles' hand trapped, snarled and threw the echidna across the room. "YESS!" Robotnik hissed evilly. Knuckles picked himself up, dazed, then jumped across the room in a leap and a bound with his fist outstretched. But Chaos split in two, re-formed behind him, and punched him from behind into the wall. Robotnik, grinning, hopped into an elevator across the room. "Come, Chaos!" he called. "That's enough! We must be gone to find more emeralds for you!" Chaos melted into a puddle, and slithered into the elevator. "Maybe you should go find your friend Sonic!" Robotnik suggested to Knuckles. Knux, sprawled on the ground, looked up and growled. "What about Sonic?" he asked. "He's looking for the pieces of the emerald too, you know!" "What??" Knux demanded. "What would SONIC want with the Master Emerald?" "You're not the only one on a wild goose chase, idiot!" Robotnik shouted back. "Why should I ruin the surprise?" With that, he pressed a button on the elevator. "Ciao." he called. Knux picked himself up and hurled himself at the elevator, but the door closed on his face. He fell backwards and held his head. "Good grief!" he exclaimed. "That creature.. or whatever it is.. grows when he gives it an emerald shard! Lucky he didn't find mine!" He walked to the other elevator - the one he got there in - and opened the door. The emerald shards were sitting there where he left them. "I'd better truck it back to the Floating Island and store these!" he announced. "And I need somewhere to think."