Sonic the Hedgehog in
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                                 TIME AND SPACE
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                                By Shax the Raptor

  Part Three - Impossible Temple

  CHAPTER NINE: DARKNESS

  "Ouch!" yelped Sonic, bumping his head on something hard. He had just 
  woken up, and everything in the small room was pitch black. The air 
  was moist and dense, and the air smelled like it had been just sitting 
  there for a hundred years. He heard a groaning voice from elsewhere in 
  the room, "Oooh, where are we now?" and he recognized it as Knuckles' 
  voice.

  He remembered everything, being warped through the galaxy to the 
  Planet of the Scorching Sun, being transported into a parallel universe, 
  the Anti-Verse, right through to being teleported to this damp, dark 
  room. He woke up as if the entire journey had been a dream, but he knew 
  better of it. The last time he had believed it to be a dream, it had 
  been in the Anti-Verse, and it was more like a nightmare made real. 
  Besides, it had obviously been real, because he had woken up in this 
  strange place, and he could hear the voices of Tails, Knux, Streak, 
  Petals and Amy, all trying to figure out where they were. This expedition 
  had been one strange thing after another, and nobody could figure out 
  what the purpose was. Little did they know of Dominatrek's ulterior 
  motive. The reason all this was being set up for them. But more about 
  that later...

  "Eh, anyone got a match?" Sonic asked his invisible allies. "Right here" 
  answered Streak's voice. There was silence for a few seconds, then the 
  sound of frustration. "I thought I could light up the place with a 
  spark of electricity" said Streak, "But I can't seem to get it to work 
  just now." Suddenly, there was a crackling sound, and the room filled 
  with a luminous light. "No matter" said Sonic. "Well" said Petals, 
  frustrated expression on her face. "Where the *&%^%* heck you think we 
  are now?" Sonic looked at her. "I'd hate to see the guy who thought 
  you were delicate enough to call 'petals'." he said. Knux looked around. 
  "It looks like the Sandopolean Pyramid, back on my island, except for 
  the fact that it's probably more ancient, and a lot bigger." Sonic 
  stared at the walls of the mysterious old building. "I heard that 
  Dominatrek guy talking about some 'Impossible Temple of Ghil-
  something-or-other'." he said. "I don't think I like the way the 
  word 'impossible' is used." mumbled Knux, under his breath.

  Their attention turned to the light that had so suddenly filled the 
  room. There didn't seem to be any particular source to the light, it 
  was just a light, suspended evenly in the room. "Creepy!" said Tails. 
  As they walked down a corridor, they came to a blockage made from 
  small, loose stones. Knux grinned. "I'll take care of this" he said, 
  pulling his fist back. He slammed his hand, knuckles first onto the 
  pile of rocks. At that moment, Knux's grin faded to a bizarre mouth 
  shape. A small droplet of water appeared on his bottom eyelid, and a 
  strange noise escaped his throat. He had tried to get a knuckle hold, 
  to rapidly dig away the rock pile, but somehow, it had failed. He pulled 
  back his clenched fist, to reveal a tear in the front of his glove, a 
  narrow flow of blood slowly trickled out of it. Almost instantly, Knux 
  realized why his attempt at digging had failed. His hand was bare. The 
  two sharp, pointed knuckles that had once poked out of his hand had 
  vanished utterly. He quickly checked his other hand. Like the other, 
  the knuckles were not there, as if vanished into thin air.

  CHAPTER TEN: POWERLESS

  "What the heck are you all staring at?" asked Petals, bossily. "What 
  is wrong with the stupid echidna?" "My knuckles are gone" replied Knux, 
  scowling at her. "Maybe you dropped them or somethin', I dunno, who 
  cares?" said Petals. Knux just stood and stared at her. "oh, look" said 
  Petals, rolling her eyes. She walked up to the stone wall in an attempt 
  to kick it down. When she swung her leg at the wall, there was a 
  cracking sound, and she let out a squeal and fell onto the ground, 
  her face twisted in pain. "I---pulled---a---muscle" she gasped. "Wait 
  a minute" said Sonic, thinking. "I think that Dominatrek jerk took 
  away our powers!" "Huh?" asked Streak. "Well," replied Sonic, "When 
  you tried to use your electricity, it failed, right?" Streak nodded 
  his head. "And Knux's sharp knuckles are gone, and when Petals tried 
  to use her martial arts skills, she badly pulled a muscle." Streak 
  started to see what he meant. "Sonic!" shouted Tails. "I'm missing a 
  tail! I only have one!" Sonic looked down at his friend's single tail. 
  "Well, now I'm certain" he said.

  "Well, I don't have any powers to lose" Amy spoke up. "But what are 
  you missing, Sonic?" Sonic thought about it. "Probably my spin-dash" 
  he said. "That's just about the only special power I have." he 
  curled into a ball, and as he was about to spin-dash, he fell flat 
  on his face. Everyone (except Petals) laughed. "Ohh" moaned Sonic. 
  "That's it all right." Then Streak spotted a strange panel next to 
  the pile of rocks. The panel had a picture of the sun, with sixteen 
  little points on it, and the top point was longer. Around the sun, there 
  were four little moons. "What the heck?" said Streak. Everyone turned 
  to the panel. "Some kind of lock?" asked Knux. Amy pushed through the 
  crowd made by the other five. "It's an ancient puzzle lock" she said. 
  "It's called that because to unlock it, you have to solve a puzzle." 
  Everyone listened closely, even though they would have already known 
  that. Amy looked at the lock with great interest. Then she smiled and 
  put her finger on one of the points on the star. The point lit up and 
  a small sound came from the wall, like the sound of a small lock 
  opening. Amy smiled wider and began touching every fourth point, each 
  one lighting up and making a sound. As soon as four points had lit up, 
  there was a huge noise as the stone wall crumbled.

  Amy giggled with satisfaction, and the others simply stared. "That was 
  a fairly easy one" she said. "Most of them are said to be almost 
  impossible." The others continued to stare at her. "Whassamatter?" she 
  asked. "Don't like being beaten by a girl?" 

  Nobody answered, they just walked down the corridor further. There was 
  a rumbling sound in the distance. "What was that?" asked Tails, a little 
  frightened. "I dunno" replied Sonic, still thinking about the strange 
  temple they had been put in. The group walked into a very wide, open 
  room. There was a closed door on the other side, with another strange 
  puzzle on it. As soon as they entered the room, the doorway behind them 
  crumbled, leaving a pile of old brown rocks in it's place. "WOW!!!" 
  yelled Tails, looking up. The roof was so high it was literally out of 
  sight. He stared up at the infinite darkness above. "I'd hate to fall 
  from up there!" said Sonic, also staring upward. "Well, let's see this 
  next puzzle" said Amy. There was a huge bang as Amy walked towards the 
  closed door. There was silence for a little while, and Amy turned towards 
  the others. They were still in the center of the room, staring 
  hypnotically into the void above. Then Sonic spoke up, his gaze not 
  shifting from the sky. "Uhm, Amy, could you hurry it up a bit on that 
  puzzle?" He sounded nervous. "Why, what's wrong?" asked Amy. Sonic 
  simply pointed upwards. Everyone was still staring at the roof, now 
  white as a sheet. Amy looked upwards and gasped. The roof was now in 
  sight. It was covered in small spikes, and it was falling fast. Falling 
  to crush them into hero pancakes.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN: PUZZLES GALORE

  Amy let out a screech of terror and immediately got to work on the 
  puzzle. She let out a whoosh of air when she realized it was another 
  math puzzle. Thinking quickly, she pushed a couple of buttons and the 
  door made a satisfied click and swung open. Everyone zoomed out the door, 
  just as the roof hit the ground. "That was a little TOO close" said Sonic, 
  panting. "Yeah" replied Amy. "I seem to have a knack for these things."

  They walked for about five minutes, just down a long, twisting corridor. 
  Amy seemed to be thinking about something. At last she said, "He's 
  setting us up for something." Sonic looked at her. "Who?" he asked. 
  "Dominatrek." she replied. "Why? What's he setting us up for?" asked 
  Sonic again. Amy looked up at him. "He's very clever. He's testing our 
  warrior skills. The first place he sent us was to the desert, then to
   a robot-ridden planet, then to a puzzle temple. He tested our 
  survival skills in a hostile environment, he tested our fighting skills 
  on a planet full of evil, and now he has taken away our special 
  powers and sent us to a place where we have to survive using nothing 
  but our brains. Surviving, fighting and thinking." Sonic realized 
  exactly what she meant. "You're right!" he said. "It's as if he wants 
  us to win a war for him or something." They continued down the corridor 
  until they found another locked door and another puzzle. Amy opened 
  it with ease, and they gasped as they saw the other side of it. There 
  was just an abyss. A bottomless pit with a few stepping stones going 
  across. "OK," said Sonic. "Nobody panic, just take it slowly." Then 
  Knux did a really bad mistake. He climbed up the wall behind them, 
  and jumped to glide across the chasm. He had forgotten that 
  everybody's powers had been removed, and he glided for about two seconds 
  before the glide turned into a dive. Everyone gasped as Knux 
  uncontrollably took a vertical dive into the dark pit.

  Knuckles let out a whoosh of air as he grabbed one of the tall 
  stepping stones with the tips of his fingers. He swung around for a 
  bit, then grabbed the platform with his other hand and pulled himself 
  up. When he was safely on the platform, he caught his breath and 
  muttered, "Note to self: stop doing that." Everybody else got over 
  the shock and started balancing across the narrow paths and stones. 
  Sonic turned to Amy. "I thought this temple was strictly an 
  intelligence test! What's with the pit?" Amy shrugged. "I guess 
  Dominatrek just threw this in for something to do." Except for a 
  few wobbles, the group passed the pit without incident. They were 
  faced with another few puzzle doors, then they came to a giant, 
  square room with a puzzle on one of the walls. Once again, the 
  door they came through crumbled behind them. "I sure hope the 
  roof doesn't move in this room" said Streak. 

  He was right, the roof didn't move in to crush them. This time the 
  walls did. "Oh cr**!" yelled Knux. Amy ran over to the puzzle and 
  started working on it. "Oh oh, this one's hard" she said, worrying. 
  The walls moved faster inward. This time, Amy wasn't so quick. 
  Everyone ran over to help her try to solve the puzzle, but it was 
  way over their heads. "This must be the 'impossible' bit" said 
  Sonic, frantically. They didn't have to worry about the puzzle for 
  long, the panel and the door were crushed by the incoming wall. No 
  way out. Everyone was speechless. This would be where it all ended.

  CHAPTER TWELVE: THE GREAT ESCAPE

  It was about ten seconds before they would be crushed. The strange, 
  frantic, scratching sound from behind the small scrap of wall left. 
  Suddenly, something burst through and screamed "RUN!!!" Everyone 
  obeyed without question. They escaped through the hole just before 
  the walls slammed shut. "Now that was WAY too close" said Sonic. 
  They stared at the creature who had freed them. It was a raptor, the 
  same one who had freed them from the cages in the Anti-Verse. "Who 
  are you?" asked Sonic. "No time to explain" replied the lizard. "You 
  are nearly out, all you have to do is go down this way" he pointed 
  down a path. "And whatever you do, SURVIVE!" Just at that moment, the 
  raptor disappeared before their eyes. "Ok, well, let's go!" said 
  Sonic.

  They walked down the path for about ten minutes, it was a very long, 
  downhill slope. Tails heard a bump further back behind them, but 
  thought it was nothing important. Boy, was he wrong. They walked a 
  couple of meters further, then stopped as they heard a rumbling sound. 
  They looked behind them, and saw a giant boulder rolling towards them. 
  "What's this?" yelled Sonic, "Indiana Jones in the Temple of Doom?" Knux 
  stared at the incoming boulder. "We'll be Indiana BONES if we don't run 
  right this second!" he screamed. Everyone ran as fast as they could. 
  Sonic was confident that his super speed could take him to safety. 
  Unfortunately, he didn't think that super speed might come under the 
  "special power" category, and it wouldn't work so well. He sent his 
  feet spinning, then he pulled a muscle and fell flat on his face. "Oh 
  oh" he muttered. Would he get up in time?

  He was going to be run over by the giant rock. Luckily, one split 
  second before he was squished, he noticed a slight cave in the wall 
  beside him. He did a barrel roll and landed in the crevice just as 
  the boulder speeded past him. "That was WAY, WAY, too close!" he said, 
  panting uncontrollably. He emerged from the cave in time to see his 
  friends run up to him. "How are you?" asked Knux, worried. Sonic 
  grunted as he picked himself up. "Way past cool." he said, without 
  expression. The group, eager to escape before anything else happened, 
  ran down the path. The path eventually became a lot wider, which was 
  how the other five had escaped the boulder. They came to a cliff 
  with a narrow path around the outside. "This stupid temple has too 
  many d*** bottomless pits!" said Petals, spitting off the edge of 
  the cliff. The group started to tiptoe their way across the narrow 
  path to the other side. While they were about halfway across, there 
  was a sudden jolt, like a small earthquake. Everyone was able to 
  quickly hold onto the rocky outcrops on the cliff face and avoid a 
  nasty accident. Everyone except Amy, who lost her balance and fell 
  over the edge.

  Sonic instinctively threw himself off the cliff and grabbed onto 
  her hands. He only held onto the top of the cliff by his toes. 
  "Eh...a little help?" he asked his friends on the cliff, who were 
  amazed by the quick rescue. Knux and Streak ran up and grabbed 
  onto Sonic's feet and pulled him and Amy up. Amy, still shocked 
  from the fall, turned to face Sonic. "Sonic, you know how before, 
  you asked if we could be friends, and I said I'd think about it?" 
  she asked him. "Yeah" replied Sonic. "Well, I'd like to be friends, 
  now!" she said, hugging him. They got on with crossing the narrow 
  bridge, this time holding tighter onto the wall, in case there was 
  another jolt. They got to the other side and found a huge door, with 
  a small panel beside it. Another puzzle. It didn't take too long 
  for Amy to work it out, and the door swung open, revealing that they 
  were outside! It turned out to be the middle of a dense jungle, in 
  the center of some ruined ancient city, like the Aztecs. "Well, now 
  what?" asked Sonic. Suddenly, everyone felt a huge jolt of 
  electricity, and Dominatrek appeared. Sonic looked at him angrily. 
  "THAT WAS THE WORST PLACE YET, YOU JERK! WE WERE NEARLY KILLED 
  SEVERAL TIMES!" Dominatrek just looked at him with a blank face. 
  "YOU HAVE ALL DONE WELL" he boomed. "YOU HAVE COMPLETED THE THREE 
  TESTS, AND PASSED ALL OF THEM. NOW, YOU SHALL BE TELEPORTED SOMEWHERE 
  THAT IS NOT A TEST. THIS IS REAL. THIS IS WAR." Everyone started to 
  talk at once, but another, more violent jolt ripped through them. 
  They were torn away from each other, and flung into a place full 
  of swirling colors. There was suddenly no gravity as they floated 
  to a location that would be a mystery...

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