Halfway Across the Galaxy

by Shax

Knuckles is taken to a hostile planet to rescue his ancestors from a terrible fate. He takes Sonic with him, but is the hedgehog cut out for it?

HALFWAY ACROSS THE GALAXY

Series 2 - The Three Tests
Episode 10
The coming of the second test

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Part One - Tesseract

PROLOGUE:

The clock of Mobius struck 12:01 am on Monday morning, 1st of November 1999... the return of the second test, as prophecised by Pantheos the Echidna, was due to begin.

He ran.

His mind was a flurry of random thoughts.. he couldn't simply stay focused on the task at hand. He knew he must escape this planet at all costs, lest his entire race be doomed. He forced himself to focus, as he could hear the slugs slithering after him, screaming things in their own language. He kept running. He was un-armed, he would have to improvise.. he jumped over an obstacle, turned a corner, and practically limboed under a door which was closing in on him. He could hear the slugs collide with the other side of the door as it closed. Success! Or at least for a while. Aah, there they were.. the arachdrones were coming, as expected. He ducked a swinging obstacle and leaped for a pipe across a chasm.. he barely made it, and had to climb his way to the other side, or else it was a long drop into the pit below. He could hear the Ghooplgs go wild as they got a whiff of his flesh above them. The sound chilled him as he reached the other side of the chasm. He looked across... success again! The arachdrones were trapped on the other side! He took off again as they unsuccessfully tried to shoot him from the far side of the pit. He was nearly there! There was a large area ahead, he knew.. PERFECT for tessering. He only had to pass a few more rooms.. he entered the testing area, and passed rooms full of fish bowls.
Then he heard a sound from behind him that sank his heart, drained the colour from his face and took away most feelings of hope that he had before. "Cupid's Arrow.." he muttered quietly, sweat beginning to drip down his face, which was now visibly almost white. Without any further hesitation, he bolted down the corridor. He was not going to be stopped.. he was this close. Behind him, the large barrel of a gun poked out from the wall. An electronic arm loaded a long spear-like contraption into the weapon, and another arm equipped the spear with a flat panel on the side. Pulses of electricity flowed from the gun into the spear, a green light flashed, and with an enormous blast, it shot out the weapon of immense torture, colourfully named 'Cupid's Arrow' by the fugitive's race.
He ran faster and faster, past the rooms with fishbowls, around the corner, over the ledge, onto the ground, over another hurdle, then around another corner and into a dark tunnel.
The arrow whizzed past the rooms, and around corners which showed that it was guided with expert precision.
He burst out of the tunnel, and ran down a long corridor. He could hear the whizzing of the arrow not very far behind him. It was faster than he was.. there was not much time. He burst into a large, wide hall. "YES!" he yelled, pulling a contraption out of his pocket. A small platfom. He pulled out the legs, stumbling with nervousness quite a few times. He threw the contraption on the ground, then stumbled for a remote-control device. He flipped the lid off a big button. "Come on, come ON!!!" he screeched, listening to the sound of the arrow behind him. He pressed the button hard, and suddenly there was a feeling of immense cold as he was ripped from the room, and thrown into limbo.
He didn't know where he was for a second, until he became aware of his surroundings. What he saw made his eyes water.. the light made him squint. "Oh.. man..!" he muttered. "This is Mobius again for sure!" He heard voices further in the forest, quite a distance away. Perhaps it was a town! He could begin the search there. His race was surely saved. He heard a strange sound behind him... turning around, he noticed something materializing behind him. When it's shape became visible, he could almost have broken down and cried. Cupid's Arrow had been closer behind him than he thought. It had entered the tesseract. It was here. There was no stopping it. He immediately tried to run, but the arrow was too fast. He felt immense pain as something latched onto his back, and burned his skin away. The shaft of the arrow, having served its purpose, fell away and desintegrated into minerals. Suffering greatly, the victim felt the metal panel fused to his back. The mission had failed. His race was doomed. He dropped to his knees, sobbing, then when the electric shock kicked in, he blacked out from pain.

CHAPTER ONE:

"Mecha." Packbell said. There was no answer. "Mecha, come online." Packbell said again. Mecha Sonic's red eyes suddenly blinked on, and he shot into a sitting position. "I am ready for your orders, Doctor Robotnik." he saluted. It was what he was programmed to say whenever he was brought online forcibly, as Robotnik was usually the only one to ever do such a thing. "Mecha, it's me." Packbell insisted. Mecha looked at the android. "Packbell?" he asked. "What is your purpose for bringing me online?" Packbell looked around the chamber nervously. "I have found some information which may interest you." he said. "What information?" Mecha asked suspiciously. "You might have noticed our master has been acting suspiciously lately." Packbell said. "I have studied some records on Robotnik's personal computer while he was taking a shower.. it went against my programming, but I must say I was curious." "What did you find out?" Mecha asked eagerly. "Not much." Packbell replied. "But it seems that around January this year, Robotnik recieved quite a large amount of raw steel from an outside seller, who has yet to be payed for the sale." Mecha listened intently. "That was around the time he built up the city and created the E-100 robots." he said. Packbell nodded. "But more interesting is the fact that payment for the goods was due in April, then extended to August, then further extended to yesterday, the end of October. And now, it appears Robotnik still hasn't paid, and there has been no further extension!" "So Robotnik cheated some poor soul out of a few bucks." Mecha said. "A few THOUSAND 'bucks'." Packbell corrected.
"Eighty-nine thousand six hundred and forty-two dollars and thirty-eight cents." Robotnik commented, standing in the doorway. "So.. I have been found out, it seems. You have been snooping around my office." Packbell's eyes widened, and then he put his head down. "Are you going to deactivate me?" he asked. "No, no, I will not punish you." Robotnik replied. "You were programmed to be sneaky and devious, I cannot hold it against you. I would have told you when the time was right, anyhow. I would have had to." "Might I ask from whom the purchase was made?" Packbell asked. Robotnik hesitated a long time. "Arack." he stammered.
"THE ARACK EMPIRE!" Packbell exploded at the top of his lungs. Mecha Sonic fell over. "MY GOD, HAVE YOU GONE MAD, MAN?"
"SHUT UP PACKBELL OR I _WILL_ DEACTIVATE YOU!!" Robotnik roared. "I am fully aware of my mistake. The Empire called this morning.. I have been blackmarked."
"BLACKMARKED!" Packbell whined. "Sire, they... they will rip us out of the ground like an ANT colony!"
"MAY I ASK.." Mecha inquired over the noise "Who or what is 'Arack'? I have no records.."
"The Arack Empire.." Packbell began. "A kingdom residing on the far west of the continent. They have three capital cities, and a population of three million, the majority of them spiders and other arachnids." "Spiders?" Mecha asked. "I have never heard of such a kingdom.." "They have sprung up only recently." Packbell assured him. "Their technology is out of this world. Their military force alone consists of twice the population of Robotropolis, robotized Mobians and E-101s included. They outnumber us two-to-one. According to my calculations, every resident of Robotropolis would be dead or driven away within thirteen hours of them launching an attack." Mecha looked at Packbell helplessly, then shifted his gaze to Robotnik. "What is our plan of action?" he asked.
"Flee." Robotnik replied without hesitating. "Evacuate Robotropolis and give them everything. What other hope do we have?" He began to walk out of the room. "The empire could attack at any time." he assured them. "That is why we must be gone by the end of the month. Take nothing but the essentials with us. And that is final." "Is there nothing we can do..?" Mecha asked. "Not unless you have a plan to take over Station Square." Robotnik replied. "Because the only way we can get the empire off our backs is to pay them back ten fold. That's their terms, and they will not change."
"What of the E-102 droids?" Packbell asked. "I have finished planning them, and began to construct them three days ago! There are five of them near completion.."
"Suspend construction..." Robotnik ordered. "Until you are given further orders. Who knows? There may still be hope."

"WE'RE HERE!" Yelled Sonic, racing around. "Wow, this place is GREAT!" The Freedom Fighters had reached Station Square, and Sonic was breathtaken. Station Square was the first large city Sonic had seen since Mobitropolis was taken over, but it wasn't like Mobitropolis at all. It was much more modernized. Streets with cars all over them were everywhere, seperating the shopping centres and fast food chains. Sonic had his eyes fixed on a particularly scrumtious looking hot dog joint across the road. He was starved. "Hey Sal, mind if I have some eats?" he asked. Sally looked up at him. "We really should get down to business.." she replied. "I want to meet with the leader of the Station Square Freedom Fighters, I don't even know what her name is! And we really should get supplies.."
Sonic was about to reply, but his two-way radio buzzed. He held it up to his ear. "This is Stringybark.. come in Knothole!" came the voice. "This is blue blur to Stringybark, I read you loud and clear!" he replied.
"We found an injured Mobian in the forest." said the voice on the other end. "Echidna..."
"Knux?" Sonic asked immediately. "Negative, Sonic, he's about in his forties.. besides, we already radioed Knux on the Floating Island, and he's on his way as well. We thought maybe one of you could identify who he is." "Alright, I'll go.." said Sonic. "I'll bring Sage. Over." He put the radio away again, and walked up to Sagittarius, who was admiring the city. "I have never seen ANYTHING like this!" he noted, in awe. "Hey Sage, they found an injured echidna in the forest.." Sonic reported.
"Friend of yours?"
"Huh? No.." Sage replied. "I'm from the Chaos Isle, remember? I don't think they have any way of getting here... but I'll come with you, just in case.."

The echidna, middle aged and very dirty, lay unconcious in the medical hut, on a wooden bed. His skin barely had a tint of red, it was so pale and faded. "What's wrong with him?" Sonic asked. "Something on his back.." replied a tall rabbit, who was the village's doctor. "He has a metal plate on his back, and it's shocking him, we don't know how it works." "Can't you take it off?" Sonic asked. "No, it's part of him.." the doctor replied. "It has taken the place of his skin. If we removed it, there would be a gaping hole in his back, and we just don't have the equipment necissary for a skin graft. I don't think there's anything we can do for him."
The echidna opened his eyes. "Michael.." he stammered. "Where is Michael?" Sonic turned around. "Who's Michael?" he asked. Sage and the doctor both shrugged. Sonic turned back to the echidna, and nieled beside him. "We don't know anybody named Michael.." he said. The echidna sighed. "Then my race is indeed doomed." he said. "I have failed them.. I was their only hope.. now I am a warrant for this world. YYYAAAAAAAAAUGH!!!" The doctor rushed to his aid, sedative in hand, but the echidna shook his head. "No.. no, it will not help." he said. "Knuckles will be here soon." Sonic said. "He might be able to help you.
As if on cue, Knuckles opened the door and walked in, a glass of water in hand. He looked at the echidna for a few seconds, a look of pity on his face. But then the look of pity transformed into a look of amazement, maybe even horror. He tried to say something, but the words wouldn't come out. The glass of water fell from his hands and smashed on the ground. "I.. don't believe it." he stammered. "No, no, it's IMPOSSIBLE!"
"What's up, Knux?" Sonic asked. "It's not like you've not seen enough echidnas in your time, I thought you'd be over the shock.."
"No, Sonic, LOOK AT HIM!" Knuckles shreiked, pointing at the figure on the bed. "LOOK! On his chest! He.. he has a crescent! THE FAMILY CRESCENT! Sonic... he is RELATED to me!"
"Michael!" the echidna stranger gasped, overjoyed, pointing directly at Knuckles. "Michael.. I have found you!"

"Michael?" asked Knuckles, running over to the echidna and kneeling beside him, taking one of his hands in his own. "Michael? Is that my name?" The echidna flinched in pain again, and nodded. "You are the son of Locke, aren't you?" Knux nodded.
"Wait, wait a second here!" Sonic said. "This is Knuckles, not Michael!" Knux shifted his gaze to the hedgehog. "Knuckles is a name I practically made up on the spot when Robotnik crash-landed on my island.. He was the first other person I had met since I could remember.. my parents died when I was young, I couldn't even remember my name." He looked back at the echidna stranger. "But now I know. Wow... Michael.."
"I am so glad I found you!" the echidna said. "We may be saved yet! I am Broaste, brother of Locke... your uncle, Michael." Knux nearly fainted. "My uncle?" he stammered. "Y.. you're my UNCLE? Where have you been all these years? Where is everybody else? What happened to you? How did you get here?"
"Settle, child!" Broaste chuckled. "I will answer everything you need to know, but nothing more.. for I am dying." Knux listened intently, and Broaste took a deep breath.

"Your bretherin echidnas have been living the past fifty years in a place the inhabitants have named 'Kha'. It is a horrid place.. even Hell itself can barely compare. They lock us up in cells.. in cages. They feed us horrid gruel which is the only thing keeping us alive. And our captors themselves look like enormous slugs. And recently they have been stealing us away.. one by one. And once you have been taken, you never return."
He stopped to wipe a tear from his eye, then continued.
"Recently, a few of our kind overheard that the son of Locke was still alive on Mobius, and that he had defeated an invading party of slugs and killed the Commander Rupture-Amon. We saw hope, and the others chose me to attempt an escape. The slugs had a... a device, it was experimental, and could only be used once. A travelling device... I escaped their prison, and fled to Mobius, but.... not.. quick enough to keep my life, it seems." He chuckled a sad, lamenting chuckle, and then winced in immense pain. Knux leaned over him to comfort him.
"Will... will you res.. rescue us?" Broaste asked. "Even if it means giving my own life, I will make sure the echidnas escape that horrid place." he said, holding Broaste's hand. "Th.. thank you!" the echidna replied, beginning to cry. His body was ravaged by another blinding pain, and he yelled out at the top of his lungs. "Good... luck... Michael..." he struggled to say. "My death.... has arrived....."
Knuckles turned and motioned for everybody to get out of the hut. Nobody was going to argue. Last out of the room, Sonic turned and silently closed the door behind him. So.. they finally knew what happened to Knux's ancestors. They had not simply disappeared, they were taken. Sonic recalled the last time the slugs, the Chichi Bobo, had been the topic of conversation. Near the end of the previous year, they had travelled to Mobius to get Knux and take him away. Now he knew why. Things that Rupture-Amon said began to make sense, suddenly. He never forgot that conversation.. Rupture had mentioned something about a mistake, where Knux's family had been 'left behind'. That, at least, made sense now. As he was thinking about this, Knuckles opened the door and left the hut. "Give him a decent burial." he muttered to Roy, who was standing nearby. "A hero's burial." he turned to Sally. "I won't be able to assist the Freedom Fighters for a while, I have my own matters to attend to. You won't be able to contact me."
"Wait, Knux, where are you going?" Sonic asked.
"I'm getting my family back!" Knux replied. "I'm going to Kha, and I'm getting them out myself."
"Going to Kha?" Sonic asked. "In WHAT? Your mystical spaceship? Or will you just fly your island there?"
"One person is bound to know a way!" Knux replied. "KA1. I'm going to contact him, and demand that he send me to Kha somehow."
"Wait, Knux..." Sonic halted him. Knuckles stopped and side-eyed him. "Let me come with you." Sonic said. "I'm sure you can use some help." Knuckles was about to refuse, but then he thought about it. Two heads WERE better than one, but could he trust the hedgehog? His mind had been corrupted so easily by the Hyper-Neutrino the previous week... "Fine.. come along." he said, finally. "If you're up to it."

CHAPTER TWO:

Knuckles pressed the button on the strange box. Nothing happened at first, but then it began to vibrate, and displayed an image of KA1 on the wall... just as it had before. "KA1!" Knuckles exclaimed. As the image came into view, Knuckles could see two other Kallympians standing nearby the leader. KA1 appeared surprised at first, but then regained his composure. "What can I do for you, young Knuckles?" he asked.
"I need you to teleport me somewhere!" Knuckles declared boldly. "Just like you took me to Terran that time.. now I need to go to Kha." KA1 seemed to take a while to take in what Knuckles actually said. "You wish me to take you to KHA?" he asked in disbelief. Knuckles nodded. "My ancestors are prisoner on the planet Kha, and it is my duty to rescue them. "Knuckles..." KA1 responded. "..I... I can't do that. I'm sorry." Knuckles was nearly knocked over by the responce. "WHY?" he demanded. "The.. the dangers!" KA1 replied. "Do you have any idea what you are asking? Kha is without a doubt the most dangerous place in the galaxy, ESPECIALLY so for an echidna so WANTED by the Chichi Bobo! You would have a price on your head!" "I DON'T CARE!" Knux protested. "I can HANDLE that!" "I'm sorry, Knuckles." KA1 said, standing up and beginning to walk out of sight. "It's too dangerous, and we cannot risk your safety. There is nothing I can do for you." He walked away.
"NOO!" Knux wailed, falling to his knees. "What's so important about me? Why can't I be 'risked'? I have to do this! I.... I have to..." The echidna broke down and began to cry.
"Knuckles..." Sonic tried to comfort him to no avail. "My uncle... gave his life... he gave his life, Sonic..." Knuckles sobbed. "Knuckles, look at me.." came a voice. Knuckles looked up. Only one Kallympian was visible on the projection, now. It wasn't KA1. "Greetings, Knuckles, I am KA3." he said. "I know how you feel.. I want to help you." Knuckles brushed a tear out of his eye. "You do?" he asked. "Yes." KA3 replied. "I cannot teleport you, that requires the knowledge of an exact arrival co-ordinate, and we know nothing about the nature of Kha. However, if you desperately need to get there, I can open a tesseract." Knuckles cocked his head. "Tesseract?" he asked. "Yes, it is a paradox in the fourth dimention. A wrinkle in the spacetime continuum."
The hedgehog and the echidna stared blankly at him.
"Think of it this way..." KA3 began. "Imagine yourself an ant. And imagine you must travel from one side of a meter of cloth to the other. It would take you quite a while to do that, wouldn't it? Well, what if you scrunched up the cloth, and brought the sides together? The journey would be much shorter. That is what a tesseract does to a distance. You see, you can represent one dimention with a line. The two dimentional equivilant is a square plane. The three dimentional equivalent is a cube, and the fourth dimentional equivalent is a tesseract. Do you... understand?"
"Just." Sonic replied. "Stranger things have happened in my time, I assure you."
"And this.. tesseract.." Knuckles said. "Can it take us to Kha?"
"Yes.." KA3 replied. "But you must understand that it is very dangerous. The destination will come to you, but so will the coldness of space. If you are in any way unable to withstand the cold, I suggest you forget about it." "Temeratures can get extremely low of the Floating Island.." Knux commented. "Yeah, and I've been snowboarding in Icecap!" Sonic added. KA3 smiled. "But there is one more thing." he said. "I cannot communicate to you on Kha, they have signal blockers covering the atmosphere. So I can tesser you there, but you will have to find your own way back." Sonic's expression fell. "Whoa, hang on, dude, find our OWN way back? What if there ISN'T a way back?"
"Broaste got here." Knuckles replied. "We will too." He turned to KA3. "We are ready.. open the whatchamacallit." KA3 walked away, and the image was blank. "Where'd he go?" Sonic asked. Suddenly, the air grew denser and a lot colder. Sonic hugged himself for warmth. The room began to distort visibly. "Here we go!" announced Knuckles. He grabbed Sonic's hand, and both awaited what would happen.

It was more violent than they thought. They were ripped from the room, seemingly torn from reality itself. They became unbearably cold, Sonic felt like he had frostbite. Everything was black, and space and time itself seemed to be crumpled up like note paper. Sonic began to black out from the cold. Would they wind up in the right place? Or did KA3 make a horrible horrible mistake...?

Part Two - Planet of the Slugs

CHAPTER THREE:

Sonic and Knuckles hit the mud with a sickening splat.

The hedgehog looked up. The ground was very moist, as if it had been raining for a very long time. There were pieces of sharp metal and debris littered everywhere. He was glad they hadn't landed on those. Everything was completely silent, and very dark. Sonic thought it was nighttime at first, but then he spotted the sun. It was trying to shine through the thick, brown, ugly blanket of pollution that covered the atmosphere, but it was futile. It created enough light to see by, but that was all. He spotted Knuckles a few meters away. He was lying down, shivering violently. "Knux!" Sonic shouted. "H...H...He said c..c..cold..." Knuckles stuttered. "B...B..But I d..didn't expect THAT!" Sonic began to sweat. This planet was very hot. It wouldn't be long before Knux recovered from the shock.
"Where are we?" Sonic asked.
"Hopefully on Kha!" Knux replied, picking himself up. He was warming up, and he felt a pain on his leg. He looked down, and saw a stream of blood dripping from a cut, where he had landed on a piece of shrapnel. "Great." he muttered. "We're in some kind of rubbish dump."
He was right... piles of rubbish were built up like mountains as far as the eye could see. The dump appeared to stretch to the horizon. "Calling them wasteful would be an undeserved compliment." Sonic muttered. "Welcome to the planet of the slugs."

"What's that?" Knux asked. There was some kind of carriage nearby. Actually, there were several. A chain of carriages that went just as far as the rubbish around them. Each carriage was wooden, and looked worn out. "I wonder if it still works?" Sonic asked. "It's some kind of train.." Knuckles climbed onto one of the carriages, and looked around. It was vibrating a little, as if the engine was running. Underneath the train's wheels was a track. As Knux was inspecting the vehicle, the carriage in front of him jerked into movement. He looked up, and saw that he was moving as well. Slowly, but speeding up. "Sonic! Get on!" Knux yelled. "Maybe it'll take us somewhere!" Sonic ran after the carriage, and jumped on beside his friend. The train was moving very fast, now, maybe 200km/h. The two had to struggle not to be thrown off.
The rubbish dump was quite a few kilometers across. It took about an hour for anything except rubbish to be seen anywhere. What was at the end was amazing. Knuckles saw it first. He thought at first that it was a massive city, but then he realised that there was not more than one building. It was the biggest construction the echidna had seen in his life. To call it a fortress would be an understatement. More like an arcology. The building was about three times bigger in itself than the whole of Robotropolis was. "Sonic.. check that out!" Knux stammered. Sonic looked in his direction, and gasped. "What is that?" he asked. "Probably where they live." Knuckles said coldly. "The slugs. That building looks large enough to house three generations of a kidnapped civilisation to me."

The train approached the massive building, and carriage after carriage disappeared through a small entrance. Everything, even the walls, looked so sharp. Sonic and Knux had to duck while entering the building, fearing they might be cut, or worse, decapitated, by the incoming doorway. The inside of the building was pitch black, and silent, except for the rattling of the carriages. They approached a lighted hallway. Something was moving. "What's that?" Knux asked, staying low. Something was dropping from the roof onto the train, but neither could make out what it was. "KNUX, WATCH OUT!" Sonic warned. Knuckles was caught off-guard by the warning, and jumped back as something dropped onto his head. He winced in pain, and looked up. A trap-door was opening above him, pieces of debris falling through. The echidna didn't have time to run before a full cargo of bent metal, rotting plant remains and strange manure was 'loaded' onto his carriage... on his head. Sonic, speedy as he was, had already run to another carriage, and was now frantically trying to dig Knux out of the waste. The echidna was also digging, and before long, both were sitting on top of the pile of waste, brushing strange fruit skins off their bodies. "On this planet for an hour, and already I need a bath." Knuckles complained.

Sonic looked around.. they appeared to be in the catacombs of the building, now, and the train they were on was beginning to exit again, for the long trip back to the garbage dump. So the two jumped off, and began to search for what Knuckles came for. They passed room after room after room... they appeared to be for storage. What caught Sonic's attention was a room near the end.. it was filled with fish bowls. "Hey, Knux, wait up!" he called, walking inside. Knuckles stopped, and stared as Sonic looked around the room. "What would these slugs want with fish?" the hedgehog asked. "I dunno, but that's not what we're here for.." Knuckles said. Sonic inspected the fishbowls a little closer, then frowned. There were no fish in them, just water. "I guess you're right." he said. As he began to walk away, one of the bowls moved. He froze, and stared. "Knux!" he called. "Yeah?" Knuckles asked. Sonic looked into the water which appeared to be swirling a little. "This water is moving!" Sonic said. "How can water move?" Knux asked, impatiently. "You tell me!" Sonic replied, spellbound. "Come on.." Knux said. Sonic finally walked out of the room. "What a creepy place!" he exclaimed.
They came to a big steel door at the end of the hall.
"Do we open that?" Sonic asked. Knuckles inspected the door. "How will we do it?" he asked. Sonic looked it over. There wasn't a doorknob or a visible way of opening it. Sonic put his back to it and pushed. Nothing happened. Knux tried helping him, but to no avail. Suddenly, the door opened by itself. "Hey, we did it!" Sonic cheered. But then he found that he HADN'T done it.. somebody else had. Somebody from the OTHER side of the door. A slimy, disgusting.. SLUG. Bigger than the usual ones. The alien looked down at Sonic and Knuckles, as if unsure of what to do. Knux stared in disbelief. Sonic shrank away a little.
"Uhhhh..." he said.. "Take me to your leader!"

Knuckles stared out at the doorways and pieces of strange machinary whizzing past. It was hard to see them through the close metal bars. He could hear the wheels underneath the cage spinning - taking him to an unknown location. He looked across at Sonic. "Take me to your leader?" he asked, frustratedly.
"Well, what was I SUPPOSED to say?" Sonic demanded.
"Something a little more intelligent than 'take me to your leader'!" Knuckles replied. "It sounded like we were a couple of galactic invaders!" "THEY WOULD HAVE CAGED US ANYWAY!" Sonic protested. "You have a PRICE on your head, Knux!"
Knuckles shook his head and looked outside the bars again. "I shouldn't have brought you with me." he said, loathefully. "I should have left you on Mobius, I can't even TRUST you any more!"
"Aw come on, Knux!" Sonic protested.
"No, you shouldn't have to meddle!" Knux replied. "You're always meddling in everything, as if YOU are the center of attention! As if this entire universe is set up as a set of stories about YOU! Well it's NOT, Sonic! So from now on, you can keep your hands OFF my island, OFF my emerald and OFF my ancestors!"
Sonic sank back. Wow, Knuckles was really mad at him! He thought he had better keep away from him for a while.. which would be difficult. They were both stuck in the same boat for a while until they could get home.

"ARCH VILL CRAG FLO!" one of the slugs yelled angrily. A big group of them tipped the cage and sent Sonic and Knuckles flying down a chute. It would be easier to bare if there weren't so many pointy things down the length of the chute. By the time they got to the bottom, they were bruised and cut. Knuckles moaned. "What next?" he asked. He opened his eyes, and twenty spears were pointed at his skull.

Knuckles would have shot up, but he thought better that he made no sudden movements. "Sonic..." he whispered. "Where are you?" "Right here.." Sonic replied from quite a distance away. "Knux, you... ARG! Knux, I need help!" Knuckles pulled away from the spears, and saw Sonic.. or rather, where Sonic was. He was being mobbed by a crowd of people. Were they... echidnas? Knuckles watched in horror as Sonic was almost smothered by about fifty echidnas.. others, the ones with spears, dropped their weapons and jumped into the crowd as soon as they caught a glimpse of blue fur. They were crushing him as he fought aimlessly to get away. "H...hey!" Knux shouted. "HEY!!" The echidnas either didn't hear him or ignored him. Something was strange about them.. they were pale, almost pink. Just like Broaste was. Knuckles jumped on the pile of squirming echidnas, and tried to pull them off his friend. "GET AWAY FROM HIM! YOU'RE CRUSHING HIM!" he warned. Once again, no attention was paid to him. He didn't know what to do.
"GET AWAY FROM THE NEWCOMER! ALL OF YOU!" came a strong, loud but feminine voice. As if voice controlled, the echidnas fell away and shifted to the back. Sonic was sprawled on the ground in a strange position. With difficulty, he pulled himself to his feet, uttering a few swear words under his breath. Knux looked at the source of the voice. A figure stepped from the shadows.. a female echidna. She was one of the palest echidnas Knuckles had seen so far, but she was probably also the most beautiful. She raised her hand in greeting, and it was then that Knuckles noticed something horribly wrong... her hands were huge, and her fingers were sharp like claws. She wore gloves.
"Who are you?" Knuckles asked, raising his own hand in greeting. A small grin spread across the female echidna's face. "I could ask the same question for you!" she replied. "I am Tikal." Her expression changed when she saw Knux's hand in the proper light. "Let me see your hand.." she said. She rushed over, and grabbed his hand in her own. She gasped. "You are Michael Echidna? Son of Locke?" she asked. "Yeah.." Knux replied. "How did you know?" Tikal raised her own hand so he could see. "You are the other child." she replied. "It explains our deformities. The tests..." "The other child?" Knux asked.
"WAIT ONE BLOODY SECOND!" came a voice from the corner. An echidna burst from the crowd and pointed an accusing finger at Knux. "THAT is Michael?" he demanded. He was nowhere near as pale as the other echidnas, but then again, he looked like he was red from anger. "HE IS MICHAEL?" he demanded again. "WHAT THE HELL IS HE DOING IN HERE??"
Tikal looked back at Knux. "You were captured by the slugs?" she asked. "Yeah, but it's no fault of my own." Knux replied, pointing at Sonic. Everybody stared at the hedgehog. Sonic was leaning against the wall, supporting his sore back as best he could. Bruised, he stared at his viewers and waved half-heartedly.
"You poor thing.." Tikal said, walking over to him. "Are you alright?"
"S'okay.." Sonic replied. "It's just.. my bones.. and organs.."
"I apologise about them.." Tikal said. "They're just.. excited. They've never seen anybody who's not a slug or an echidna... or a Ghooplg." "How did you tell them what to do like that? Are you the leader or something?" Sonic asked.
"Well, my father was an echidna cheif, and my mother was her wife." Tikal replied. "Her name was Tikal also, and she was the daughter of another cheif before her. So, naturally, I guess I have the leadership blood in me... but now that the full-blood echidna guardian is here, he can be our leader!"
"OH CRAP, WE ARE ALL DOOMED!" screamed the raging red echidna.
"Who ARE you?" Knux asked.
"Jackson!" replied the echidna. "What does it matter? WHAT THE HELL DOES ANYTHING MATTER? WE'RE DOOMED!!"
"Why do you keep saying that?" Sonic asked. Jackson frowned hard, and walked right up to the hedgehog. He banged his knuckles on Sonic's head hard.
"HELLO? HELLOOOO? ANYBODY HOME??" he inquired. Sonic, already in pain, lashed out at the echidna, who pulled back. "YOU are supposed to rescue US!" Jackson exclaimed. "You travelled a hundred light years, and as soon as you got here, you were CAPTURED and thrown in with US! HOW ARE YOU SUPPOSED TO GET US OUTTA HERE NOW?? YOU'RE JUST AS TRAPPED AS WE ARE!!!" "He's right.." Knux sighed, almost falling over. "I've... failed. My uncle died to contact me, and now look what's happened!"

Tikal looked at him in sympathy. "Don't worry, you tried.."
"HE TRIED??" Jackson screeched. He walked right up to Tikal and got in her face. "He was our only chance, Tikal. Our ONLY chance! You said so yourself! NOW look what we have! TWO DEFORMED HALF-BREED ECHIDNA LEADERS! I'm so sick of this..." The echidna walked away. "Half-breed?" Knuckles asked. "Don't worry about him.." Tikal sighed. "We might not have organic fathers, but we're not half breeds.. we're just as echidna as he is.."
"Organic fathers?" Knuckles asked. "What.. what are you TALKING about? I had a father! Locke Echidna! Guardian of the Floating Island!"
Tikal looked at him strangely. "You mean you don't know?" she asked. "KNOW WHAT?" Knux demanded, beginning to fret. "Michael... We were both concieved by our mothers, but one of our gender chromosomes is artificially made... Neither of us actually have the blood of our fathers."
"NO!!!" Knuckles yelled. "THAT'S NOT TRUE!!! IT CAN'T BE!!! I WILL NOT BELIEVE IT!!!"
"I'm afraid so, Michael.." Tikal said. "That's what's wrong with our hands.. some of the genes... I mean, well, they still didn't get them perfect.. the slugs, I mean."
"The SLUGS??" Knuckles yelled. "Oh GOD! I was created by the CHICHI &$#(@ BOBO?!?!" "No, no, not entirely!" Tikal assured him. "Just.. just your 'Y' chromosome."
Knuckles fell to his knees. "I'm a freak!" he stammered. "Just another.. another Chichi Bobo biological experiment...." Tikal shook her head. "It doesn't mean you're any less an echidna." she said. "Half of you still contains echidna blood.. the blood of your ancestors."
"Yes, but half of me was created by my worst enemies!" Knuckles replied. "I might as well be robotized by Robotnik.. A half-echidna cyborg, that's all I am.."
At that moment, a Chichi Bobo slug appeared at the bars of the cell the echidnas were confined in. "It's them.." Tikal said. "They've come to.. to take one of us away!" "Take you away?" Knux asked. "Yes.." Tikal replied. "Every so often they take on of us... and we never see them again... It's always a question of who will be next.."
"I HAF COME FOR THE ONE WHO IS DIFRINT." the slug said in bad English.
"Different?" Tikal asked. She looked at her oversized deformed hands. "Oh.. oh no.. m.. ME?"
The slug shook his head. "THE OTHER ONE WHO IS DIFRINT."
Knuckles looked at him in shock. "ME?" he asked.
The slug, sick of talking to such inferior creatures, opened the cell and marched inside. Tikal tried to run, but slipped over. But the slug ignored and bypassed her. He walked directly towards Knux. The echidna frowned. "If you want me, you're gonna have to FIGHT me!" he said, raising his fists. The slug reached out... and pushed Knuckles hard. Knux hit the concrete, surprised at the slug's strength. The slug continued to walk. Echidnas ran from him as he approached them, but he didn't chase after any of them. He walked right to the back of the cell, where somebody was sitting down, bruised and injured. He rose to his feet as the slug walked right up to him... Sonic the Hedgehog. "YOO." the slug said, grabbing Sonic's arm.

CHAPTER FOUR:

"Hey, you can't take him!" Knuckles protested. "I WILL DOO WOT I LIKE." the slug replied. Sonic was hardly in the condition to produce a suitable resistance. He just aimlessly tried to struggle as the alien pulled him towards his friends at the cell door. Knuckles rushed towards the slug, but several echidnas held him back. "Let him go, you'll get us all punished!" somebody said. "SONIC!" Knux shouted. Sonic, defeated, went willingly. "They won't lay a finger on me!" he shouted back. The cell door slammed, locked, and that was the last they saw of him.
"D*** YOU SONIC!" Knuckles yelled, kicking the wall. "I never should have brought him here! I never should have!"
"Don't worry... maybe we'll see him again..." Tikal said.
"PEH! Who are you kidding?" Jackson asked her. "He'll be hung on a hook somewhere.. probed.. he'll have his limbs cut off for testing, he'll be starved, then his almost-corpse remains will be thrown to the Ghooplgs!" "SHUT UP!" Tikal yelled at him, giving him a deadly stare. Jackson frowned and sat in the corner. Knuckles looked at the firey-red echidna. "I know somebody back home who would get along great with you.. a yellow porcupine.." he said. Jackson looked at him and raised an eyebrow.

"So.. are you the GARDEN variety, or do you prefer the OCEAN?" Sonic asked. A stumpy slug standing beside him looked at him strangely. "Excuse me?" he asked. "Where am I being taken, lettuce-breath?" Sonic asked, eyeing his captor, who was standing a few meters away chatting to another slug. "I really have no idea." the slug replied. "I simply keep the cells tidy, I don't know what becomes of the prisoners." Sonic raised an eyebrow. "You're rather fluent.." he said. "The other prisoners taught me their language." the slug replied, testing some kind of cleaning equipment. "They taught you?" Sonic asked. "Say, you don't seem like such a bad slug..." "Of course not!" the slug replied. "I'm against all this cruelty to aliens! Of course, I would never tell anybody that. My government would put me to death!"
Sonic pulled himself closer to the slug, despite the chains holding him back. "Is there any way I can escape?" he asked. The slug appeared startled. "Heck, I don't know!" he replied. "I know the main cell control room, but you'd have to get away from your current... situation."
"Well, where's the control room?" Sonic asked.
"Left at red, right at blue, three rooms down, 10x7. Got it?"
"No.." Sonic replied. But the slug walked off, carrying his equipment. "Oh great." said Sonic. "Left at red, right at blue, three rooms down, 10x7? What did that mean?" He didn't have much time to ponder - his captor slug returned. He was un-chained, and dragged back down the hall.

Sonic couldn't help but notice that the atmosphere was getting darker as they wandered along. There was a lot less activity, and Sonic couldn't help but wonder why.
"Where are we going?" he inquired. The slug did not reply. Sonic, hearing a strange noise, looked around. What were those things? Marching through the shadows were odd eight-legged robots, equipped with needles and guns and other instruments of torture. "Creepy.." the hedgehog muttered as they clambered out of sight. They rounded a corner, and he was led into a hallway. Many doors branched from the main hall, but the most noticable was one with a red panel over it. Sonic took that into his mind as he and his captor entered a very large room.
"KHAHKIL BRA SAT?" came a booming, very dark voice from the shadows. Sonic's captor bowed. "Holakhi brasa krassle!" he announced. Sonic was still trying to work this out, when his captor slug pushed him foward hard so he almost fell over. "Hey watch it!" he yelled. Something thick and slimy coiled around his neck, much to his surprise, and lifted him into the air. What was it? His legs dangling and thrashing, he tried to pull the attacking tentacle off him so he could get blood to his head. He was being pulled into the darkness... into the shadows...

"ANOTHER ENGLISH SPEAKER!" yelled the dark ominous voice. Sonic was thrown onto his back on the ground. When he opened his eyes, he caught sight of the biggest slug he had ever seen in his life....
It was about as big as a house, and was seated on an enormous shrine. Tentacles were writhing everywhere, each one about thirty feet long. Two more, smaller slugs were seated below him. All three were staring directly at him. He decided to say something..
"Who are you?" he asked.
"You are before the rulers of Kha, slime!" one of the smaller slugs spoke up. "The Supreme Commanders and SUPREME Supreme Commander!"
Sonic guessed that the monsterous slug was the SUPREME Supreme Commander.
"Where are you from, alien?" the other smaller slug asked.
"Planet Mobius!" Sonic replied, wryly.
"PLANET MOBIUS?" The enormous slug asked, jerking to the side. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING SO FAR FROM HOME, BLUE ONE?"
Sonic didn't answer.
"HOW DID YOU GET HERE, YOU PUNY, MINDLESS, INFERIOR PSUEDO-INSECT?" the alien asked again. Sonic remained silent.
"YOUR SILENCE WILL BE YOUR DOWNFALL, MOBIAN!" the slug boomed. "DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM? I AM SUPREME SUPREME COMMANDER OOOZE, RULER OF ALL YOU SEE!!"
"How many of you are here?" One of the smaller slugs asked.
"Hundreds." Sonic replied. "Thousands! We brought our entire army here! You slime balls are going down!"
Oooze looked at one of the other slugs. The slug shook his head. Oooze looked back at Sonic. "Perhaps we should teach the little beetle not to lie to his superior race!" he suggested, more calmly than usual. "THROW HIM TO THE GHOOPLGS!" he yelled. "I HAVE LOST MY PATIENCE WITH HIM!"

"Ghooplg?" Sonic asked. "What's a Ghoop... HEY!" He was grabbed from behind by a group of slugs, and one of them bashed him hard across the head. "YAAAAAAUGH!" Sonic screamed. He couldn't see where they were taking him, but it was quickly. He could feel blood on his head.. why the hell did they bash him like that? Maybe they just enjoyed being as violent as possible. Suddenly, he was tipped upside down and thrown like a javelin into some kind of pit!

In the spur of the moment, he spun into a spin-dash, righted himself, and landed on his feet. "What are they trying to do, break my neck?" he asked. He heard the sound of gates sliding open somewhere. He scratched his sore head, and looked up at the top of the pit. There was a pipe stretching across the chasm. He thought he would be able to grab it, but he would have to get closer. He heard a low growl sound... what was that? His vision turned to the tunnels in the walls of the pit. Just what was a ghooplg? He wasn't sure he wanted to find out. He had to escape, and escape NOW! He ran for one of the tunnels, which seemed to curve upwards. He heard the low growl again, but closer this time. Blood dripped from his head to the ground. He had been whacked quite seriously. He continued down the dark tunnel, but ran into a solid wall. No luck down this way. He turned around, and realised that he couldn't tell where he came from. There were several tunnels branching off. He wandered around, looking down the damp tunnels. Nothing seemed familiar. It was like a maze! A monsterous screech filled the air, and then a few more growls from other directions. Something was stalking him. He wandered around, growing weaker all the time. Where was a way out? Every step seemed to take him further into the cave. Every attempt seemed to bring him deeper into his doom.. The growling was all around him, now. He weakened and collapsed, everything swirling around him. When he was on the ground, he noticed the drops of blood on the ground. It was gruesome, but a sure way to find his way out. He forced himself onto his feet, and followed the stream of blood through the tunnels. As he walked, light once again appeared through the tunnels. He was nearing the exit. There was a quick, chirping noise, and a shadow quickly swept across the ground and disappeared again. What was that? Sonic got nervous. Something knew he was here. He wished it would come out in the open so that at LEAST he knew where it was.. right now, he didn't know which way to run. There was a screech behind him, and an answering chirp to his side. He didn't know whether to run or freeze. He could be a sitting duck either way. The thrill of the hunt temporarily caused him to forget his blood-loss. Eventually, he found his way back to the center of the pit. "Fat lot of good that did!" Sonic said to himself, kicking the wall. He had wandered around, gotten lost, and then found his way back to the original dilemma of having no way out of the pit! Another shadow swooshed by, and let out a screech. Sonic stumbled towards another tunnel, but tripped over something. He dislodged a pile of something and he could feel them rolling over and around him. They weren't very heavy. When he got up and shook himself off, he saw that they were skulls! Three large piles of skulls decorated the area.. no other bones, just skulls.. Sonic took a closer look. The Chichi Bobo didn't have skulls, he knew that much. Whatever these remains belonged to, they were not slugs. There were a few different kinds, and a few of them looked familiar.. echidna. He had seen quite a few echidna skeletons on the Floating Island (a remote few echidnas did not believe in burial). "They've been feeding Knux's ancestors to these things..!" Sonic muttered in alarm. Whatever lived in these caves, it had a habit of collecting skulls. The other bones were scattered along the walls, out of the way, or buried. His heart beating as fast as he could run, he stumbled around looking for a possible exit.. or at LEAST a safe hiding spot.
Then the creatures attacked.
They looked kind of like raptors, but were much bigger, and furry. Sonic didn't hear the attack until it was too late. He was knocked head-over-heels by one of the things, and rolled backwards into a wall. The creature stood on it's hind legs, and made a kind of a high pitched growling sound, calling its friends. Sonic tried to get up, and noticed something sticking out of the ground. Tugging it out, he decided it could be used as a weapon in a pinch. It was a long femur bone from some poor unidentified creature who met its demise to these monsters. Sonic, howling a battle cry, ran straight up to the first monster, then cracked the bone down over its head. It squealed and backed off. Sonic approached it for another blow, but he was knocked over by a second creature attacking from the side. It clawed a deep gash in the hedgehog's side. Sonic, startled and shocked, fell back sideways. He saw the creatures with their foaming mouths approach slowly.. just as two more emerged from the shadows. Nursing his side, and wincing from his head injury, he backed away. He was in very bad shape, and his melee weapon had just disappeared underneath the feet of the hungry creatures. Sonic did the only thing he could do - he bolted. He was weak and badly injured, so he couldn't make anywhere near his top speed. The caverns ahead of him appeared to be constructed completely out of bones! A few of them echidna, but most were very large. Probably the remains of whatever other animals used to live here, before the Chichi Bobo decided to wipe out all non-slug life.
Sonic hid under the bone structures.. he could hear the creatures gaining on him... he thought he was safe until another couple leaped out right beside him! He was ready to give up.. there was no way out... too many creatures... surrounding him. Blood loss was making him delerious. He decided to run one more time... he bolted, and looked back at the creatures behind him. He should have kept his eyes facing foward.. his faulty sense of direction sent him straight into a wall. A bone sticking out of the wall winded him, and he collapsed on top of it. It acted like a lever, and another bone fell on him, followed by another. He just had time to assume a protective position, before practically the entire wall fell on top of him. Then everything was silent. The hostile creatures surrounded the pile of bones, investigated a blood stain on the dirt, and sniffed for a while. Uninterested, they left. The pile of bones with the injured Sonic underneath did not stir. Needless to say, it was a bad idea for Sonic to come on this adventure. Had he met his demise on the terrible planet of the slugs?

Part Three - The Journey Home

CHAPTER FIVE:

Knuckles looked out the door of his cell. Wondering what happened to Sonic.. wondering what would happen to HIM. A slug marched by occasionally. Tikal walked up to him. "Still upset?" she asked. "I'm not even fit to be guardian, you know." Knux replied. "That title is passed down from a father to a son.... I have no father." "Sure you do!" Tikal replied. "Locke was still your father, it doesn't matter if you are a part of him or not! He performed the ritual, right?" Knuckles nodded sadly. "Then you're guardian!" Tikal replied. "It wouldn't matter if you were his second cousin! He loved you and trusted you enough to bestow guardianship apon you, and so he did." Knuckles looked up at the attractive female echidna. "Tell me about your family.." he said, curiously.
Tikal smiled. "My family?" she asked. "Well, my mother's name was Tikal as well, and my father's name was Deke. My mother was just a child during the third test.."
"Third test?" Knux asked. "Sonic and Sage are always telling me about that! They learned about it on the Chaos Isle.. The gods captured a bunch of echidnas, or something!"
"Yes.. just a crock." Tikal replied. "That's how we got here. Once here, we realised that the Chichi Bobo aren't gods.. just a race of sick, evil, twisted, slimy people who want to experiment on us. Anyway, my mother was always trying to convince her father.. who was the cheif at the time.. that war wasn't the path towards peace.. that we had to find another way to please the gods. But he never listened to her, and we ended up here. My mother, she... she was one of those to be.. taken.. by the slugs. One day they just came and took her out of this cell. We never saw her again." Knux put an arm around her. "I'm sorry..." he said. Tikal smiled and shook her head. "She was a wonderful person. So nice to everyone.. so nice to the chao.." "Chao?" Knux asked. "What's a.." He was interrupted when an alarm sounded. The gate right in front of the two echidnas began to open! "The gate is opening!" Tikal shouted. All the other echidnas cheered and began to stampede towards the door. Hundreds of slugs poured out of nowhere, and surrounded the echidnas, trying to keep them in one place, while more slugs tried to close the gate. "COME ON!" Knuckles shouted, realising his only chance. He grabbed Tikal by the hand, and pulled her out of the cell. They fled the scene of slugs and struggling echidnas, and ran behind a stone wall, panting. "We did it!" Tikal whispered loudly. She didn't really have to whisper, there was a lot of noise in the background. "I wonder if anybody else escaped?"
"I donno!" replied Knux. "What I'd like to know is, what opened that door?"

***

A bloody and gloved hand dug into the dirt. Slowly and painfully, it dragged something along. The body of a hedgehog. Sonic the Hedgehog was dragging himself along the ground, badly wounded. One of his legs was broken from the avalanche of bones. He had a deep gash in his side from a ghooplg attack.. his head was bleeding from where the Chichi Bobo beat him. He was bruised all over from the echidna attack and the chute to the cage. "Why.. me..?" he choked out. He looked at the pile of bones.. it created a very wonky stairway out of the pit. Just as well.. if he remained in here, he would be gored by a monster or two. He dragged himself up the pile of bones, slipping occasionally. Once at the top, he tried to struggle to his feet, but with great pain, he fell over again. "Oh, right.. the leg.." he winced. He reached over and grabbed a long leg bone which used to belong to a large creature. It was just the right size for a crutch. He struggled to his feet, and looked around. Where to now? He asked himself. He could go back to the echidna cell, but that would be pointless. He didn't have a way in or a key. His eyes turned to the door with the red panel over it. What were the friendly slug's instructions? Left at red, right at blue, three rooms down, 10x7.. It was worth a try! Sonic stumbled towards the panelled door, and entered. It was silent inside. There were several doors along the side, and sure enough, one on the right side had a blue panel over it. He stumbled through that door, and was met with a long hallway with doors down the right side. "Now.. three rooms down.." he muttered. He found the third door along, and walked inside. There was a huge console in front of him. Sonic was surprised at how easy he found it. "Guess they don't expect their enemies to be on THIS side of the jail.." he said to himself. He relieved himself on a big, comfortable-looking chair, getting a few blood stains onto the upholstery. He stared into a huge monitor in front of him. "Gha Rho Smit?" the computer asked him. "Uhhhhh...." Sonic murmured in reply. "Open the echidna cage!" The computer emitted a loud beep. "Your language has been processed as 'English'. Good morning."
Sonic sighed. He was at some kind of language select screen. He lay back and rested his bones, as all the options in front of him changed to plain english. His leg was hurting like hell, and he was extremely weak, but he managed to keep his barings. "Door controls, testing sector.." he read aloud. "Door controls, catering sector.. door controls, main sector.. door controls, processing sector.. prisoner cell controls."
He reached over and touched the button labelled 'prisoner cell controls'. "Please wait." said the computer. A monitor came out of nowhere and positioned itself beside him. It displayed a map, with flashing zones indicating all the prisoner cells. The main computer was displaying serveillance footage from inside cells... Hey! One of the displays had Knux on it! He was saying something to Tikal, with his arm around her. Sonic looked back at the map. Not knowing which cell had the echidnas, he pressed absolutely every location on the map. "Might as well stir up some havoc!" he muttered. The computer then displayed a password screen. Remembering what the friendly slug had told him, he replied with "10x7". The computer made a satisfied noise, and suddenly all the surveillance screens showed the prisoner gates opening! Sonic looked at the view with Knuckles... Yes! Knuckles and Tikal escaped! Jackson also sneaked through the shadows and out the gate. Sonic was about to get up, but he saw another screen. "Secondary password required to varify identity..." it said. "Failure to input secondary password will result in your immediate termination."
"Charming!" Sonic said. Secondary password? Nobody said anything to him about a secondary password! "Uh... I forgot it..." he told the computer. "Failure to input secondary password will result in your immediate termination." the computer repeated, in a harsher tone. "10x7?" Sonic tried. "Password is incorrect." the computer replied. "Slimebucket? Kha? Echidna?" Sonic tried, slinging random words at the computer, while backing off. "Failure to input correct password." the computer reported. "Setting off main alarms. Setting off secondary alarms. Alerting authorities. Alerting Arachdrones. Dispatching attack force. Closing off exits. Closing all prisoner cells."
Sonic grabbed his bone crutch and bolted as fast as his working leg would take him. He barely missed a door that was coming down. As he approached the main hallway, he screeched to a halt and hid back in the shadows. An army of Chichi Bobo slugs ran past, armed to the teeth. The whole facility probably knew about his meddling, now. He would probably hardly stand a chance if he was perfectly well, let alone his current badly injured state. His head and side had stopped bleeding at last, but not before a fair amount of his blood had escaped. He slithered along the shadows, trying to find his refugee friends.

CHAPTER SIX:

"MICHAEL! TIKAL!" came a shout. The two echidnas spun around to reply, but a hand clasped over both their mouths. It was Jackson. "You two made it out as well?" he asked, taking his hands away. "Yeah, did you open the gates?" Knux asked. Jackson shook his head. "It was an outside job. All the other prisoner cells are open, too, but they're all empty. The slugs don't keep prisoners any more, unless they're echidnas." "An outside job?" Knux asked. "Yeah.." Jackson replied. "Your friend, prolly. You know, 'THE ONE WHO IS DIFRINT?'" "Sonic?" Knux asked. "At least he's alright."
"Can we get out of here?" Tikal asked.
"Right." Jackson replied. "You two follow me, alright? I know more about how these guys work than both of you combined, I'll guarantee it." Knuckles nodded. Jackson was big-headed, but at least he was probably right. "Listen up." Jackson said. "We'll have to evade the guard for a while, that's the easy bit. Just a bunch of slugs with guns. Then they will clear out by themselves when the arachdrones arrive."
"Arachdrones?" Knux asked.
"Think of them as the 'clean up crew'." Jackson replied. "They'll kill anything that moves, and in the heat of the battle, they might mistake slugs for targets. Therefore, they will just release twenty or so drones, and then run for it. Arachdrones rarely fail."
"Well, how can we MAKE them fail?" Knux asked.
"Careful planning." Jackson replied. "Lightning-quick reflexes and good fighting skills."
"That's MY specialty!" Knuckles and Tikal said in unison, baring their fists. They looked at each other strangely.
"Good." said Jackson. "Arachdrones resort to stabbing and unarmed combat when they are in close range, that's one of their weaknesses. Don't let them get you, though, or they'll cut you into twenty pieces and throw you onto the garbage train. Also watch the lasers when they're some distance from you."
"How do you know all this?" Tikal asked.
Jackson just rubbed his hands together. "I've been planning this day for fifteen years." he replied. "That's as long as you two have been alive. I've been sitting in there.. observing.. learning. Today I'm putting it into operation. Don't either of you screw it up, or I'll throw you in the garbage myself."
"Whoa, Sir No Sir!' Knuckles replied, saluting sarcastically.
"Our chance is coming up...." Jackson reported. "Just... wait until... these slugs have passed..."
They waited for a while. "Okay, NOW!" Jackson commanded. The three echidnas darted out. One slug at the back of the line just happened to see them out of the corner of his eye. "HEY YOU!" he shouted, whipping out his gun. Knuckles replied with a jump and a quick glide towards him, which resulted in the slug getting a fist in the side of his head. He came down on the ground hard, and Knuckles collected his gun. "Hey, I got a weapon!" he shouted. "Good work!" Jackson shouted. Knuckles loaded the weapon, and tried to work out how it worked. There was a small trigger on the back. He ran to catch up with the other two.
"So.. you're a fighter, too?" Tikal asked Knux. "Sure am!" Knux replied. "Been fighting since I was a tot! It's these spiked knuckles on my hands.." "I fight because of my immense fists!" Tikal said, smiling. "My mother never liked my fighting.. she was more delicate than that, you see. She was more a fighter on the inside. Fighting for rights, that kind of thing." Knuckles looked around quickly for any more slugs. "Tikal, what's a chao?" he asked, curiously. Tikal eyed him. "What do you mean?" she asked. "You said something about 'the chao' before.." Knux replied. "You don't know what a chao is?" Tikal asked, surprised. Knuckles shook his head. "Oh dear.." Tikal muttered sadly. "They must have perished in the war.. poor little things. They knew a lot more about the value of life than that terrible monster they came from.." The conversation was suddenly interrupted by Jackson. "THE ARACHDRONES ARE COMING!!" he yelled. "WATCH OUT! JEEZ, THERE'S ABOUT FIFTY!" "Fifty?" Knux asked. "You said twenty!" "I was wrong!" came the reply. "Watch out!" The echidnas proceeded with caution.

Sonic suddenly recognised his surroundings. He was back at the ghooplg pit. "Great.." he muttered. There was a detour around it, but it was swarming with Chichi Bobo guards. There was only one safe way through (arguably). The pipe stretching across the pit. He took a step back, and threw his bone like a boomarang across the pit. It landed on the other side safely. Now, his turn. Gulping, he took a leap of faith. Success! But barely. There was a short distance separating a successful jump and another fall into he pit, and he barely made it. Regaining his composure, he began to climb his way across the chasm. He could hear the Ghooplgs go wild as they got a whiff of his flesh above them. The sound chilled him as he reached the other side of the chasm. He dropped to the ground, picked up his bone crutch, and continued on his way.

Knuckles heard a clicking sound behind him. He spun around, and saw his first arachdrone. They were eight-legged robots, fully equipped with just about every dangerous weapon you could think of. The one he was staring at had a circular saw on the front of it, several knives moving around quickly, a few needles for stabbing, and a gun equipped on top. It saw Knux, and immediately began shooting lasers at him. Knux returned fire with his own weapon. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Tikal run at a high speed towards the robot. She balled her large hands into fists, and bashed into the drone. When it fell over, she ripped some wires out of the underside. It fell dead. "Sweet dreams." she said, dusting her hands off. Knux reclined with a smug look on his face. "Nice job!" he said. Tikal smiled and flashed him a thumbs-up. As Knuckles turned around, he saw Jackson was busy with another couple of arachdrones. Knuckles ran up to him, and began to bash into one of them. "Get the wires out of their bellies!" he told the other echidna. He pushed the robot over, and began to tear out wires. Jackson did the same. There was laser fire from everywhere, now. Knuckles did his best to avoid it, but he ended up face-to-face with a drone that was hidden in the shadows. It practically leaped out at him, knives blazing, like some kind of psuedo-kitchen-utensil. Knux took a swing, but missed as the robot darted, and began to dig into his leg. The echidna howled in pain, but then something pulled the drone away, and smashed it hard. Knux looked at the abrasion on his leg.. nowhere near as bad as it could have been if the robot had been allowed to continue. He looked at his saviour... he saw the robot lying dead, struck down with some kind of long tibia bone, which also broke into several pieces. And there, beside the mess, unable to stand up properly, was Sonic. "Sonic!" Knux exclaimed. "You're alive!! Man.. you're a sight! What happened?"
Sonic just grunted as he tried to get on his feet. But his broken leg disallowed it. "What DIDN'T happen is more the question, Knux.." he said. "Let's see... I was attacked by your echidna friends, I think they sprained several joints and bruised me up pretty bad. Then I was thrown and hurled like a frisbee a few times, had my head bashed in, I was thrown into a pit of carniverous furballs who tore a hole in my side... I wall of bones caused the breakage of several of mine, and then I was shot with a few lasers on my way here. That's a couple of third-degree laser burns on my arm.." Knuckles looked in pity at his friend. "You should never have come with me, Sonic.. Come on, let's go home, huh? We'll get you fixed up.. good as new." He picked the hedgehog up and carried him towards the other two. Tikal turned and saw the hedgehog. "You found your friend!" she exclaimed. "Aww... poor thing.. are you okay?" Sonic grunted and made an 'okay' sign with his fingers. "Are we clear of the arachdrones?" Knux asked. Jackson nodded. "Now we just have to make our way to the machine without getting caught." "The machine?" Knuckles asked. "It's a teleportatation machine." Jackson replied. "As far as we know, there are only three of them, and one is on this planet. It's one of only two ways off this planet.. Broaste used the other, the portable tesseract, and it can only be used once."
"Wait a second.." Sonic interrupted. "This machine.. does it look like a glowing platform attached to a computer?" Jackson nodded, "Yeah." "And it will take you anywhere in the universe, anywhere through time and into any dimension?" Jackson looked at the hedgehog. "Yeah, how do you know?" he asked. Sonic looked up at Knux's face, moaning. "Knuckles, that's that darn machine again!" "What do you mean?" Knux asked. "Dominatrek used one of those things to start a war!" Sonic replied. "And as far as we know, Shred the Raptor got to Mobius on another one! This must be the third.." "Enough of the chatter, we've got to get out of here." Jackson commanded. "We're close enough to the machine to make a run for it. We'll be back on Mobius before you can blink.."
"Wait.." Knux said. "What about the others? They're still trapped!" Jackson looked at him. "Michael, with our current force, do you think we can smuggle a few hundred echidnas halfway across this facility? We'll have to come back some other time... well equipped and prepared. I don't want to abandon them any more than you do." Knuckles took another quick glance over his shoulder at the echidna prison. The gate was closed now, and was being patrolled by about thirteen slugs. "You're right." he said. "Lets roll."

CHAPTER SEVEN:

Slowly, a slug crept into the chamber of the SUPREME Supreme Commander of Kha. The two lower-in-rank Supreme Commanders turned to face the visitor. He saluted. "Supreme Commander Grak, Supreme Commander Blot.. SUPREME Supreme Commander Oooze. May I request your audience?"
Blot, one of the slugs, nodded. "What do you wish to report, Commander Frull-Amon?"
Frull walked closer. "During the recent... disturbance... in the facility, three Mobians have been reported missing, and are roaming loose."
"We heard. You sent arachdrones." Grak replied.
"Uhh.. they defeated the arachdrones, sir."
"DEFEATED THE ARACHDRONES?" the giant slug Oooze inquired. "IT IS UNHEARD OF!"
"Reports are positive, sire." Frull insisted. "They destroyed quite a few, and the others backed away."
"There is only one solution.." Grak said.
"Indeed.. one solution." Blot added.
"SEND THE ELECROMOGRAPHIC TORTURE PREPULTION DEVICE." Oooze ordered. Frull gulped. "Cupid's Arrow, sire?"
"YES, YES, IF YOU WISH TO SPEAK IN THE MOBIAN JARGON." Oooze replied. "FIRE IT. IT DOESN'T MATTER WHICH OF THEM IT HITS. THE ARACHDRONES WILL CLEAN UP THE REST."
"Dismissed, Frull-Amon." Blot said.
Frull saluted, and walked out of the office.

"We are nearly there. Round this corner!" Jackson yelled. "From there, it's just a straight path, more or less! Hurry, more arachdrones will be coming!" Sonic was wincing in pain, Knuckles wasn't carrying him very carefully. Knuckles was also wincing in pain, having to cart around a sharp-spiked hedgehog while running. Sonic moaned and listened carefully. What was that sound?
"Knux, what's that sound?" he asked. "Huh? What sound?" Knux asked.
"Some kind of machinary powering up.." Sonic replied. "There's machinary all over this place." Knuckles replied impatiently.
Behind them, the large barrel of a gun poked out from the wall. An electronic arm loaded a long spear-like contraption into the weapon, and another arm equipped the spear with a flat panel on the side. Pulses of electricity flowed from the gun into the spear, a green light flashed, and with an enormous blast, it shot out the spear.. which began to seek it's targets.

"WAIT!" Jackson yelled. He put his ear to the air, and listened. Tikal and Knuckles could see the colour drain from his face. His jaw dropped. He seemed to stop responding, almost. "HOLY &$#*@( MOTHER OF MARY!" he screamed. "THEY'VE FIRED THE %#$(#@ CUPID'S ARROW AT US!"
"Cupid's Arrow?" Sonic asked, snickering. "How bad can THAT be?"
Jackson put his face right up to Sonic's.
"Think of a slow, painful, cruel, AGONIZING death.. This thing is the ultimate torture, used to teach rebels like us an extremely painful lesson. We have to go.. NOW!"
He grabbed Knuckles' arm and tugged. Tikal had already taken off, and Knux needed very little persuasion.

The arrow zipped through the hallways, guided with expert precision. It cut a corner almost without flinching, despite it's high speed. It zipped around another corner, then another, then spun as it entered a small pipe. It came out the other side, and continued flying.

Tikal, Jackson and Knuckles fled as fast as they could, sliding around a corner and bolting down a long corridor. "The teleporter is unguarded!" Jackson announced happily. "We're going to make it! Just.. to the end of this corridor! Hurry!"

Cupid's Arrow whizzed past door after door after door. It seemed to be picking up speed. It zipped around a corner, and hovered for a while. It had visual, now. The targets were in front of it.. one of them was moving particularly slowly, because it was carrying a wounded hedgehog... seeing it's advantage, the arrow began to move again, picking up speed as it approached it's victim.

Tikal happened to turn her head when she saw the arrow burst around the corner and turn to face them. She screamed, and grabbed Knuckles' arm.. trying to get him to run faster. Sonic was weighing him down, but the hedgehog couldn't run with a broken leg. Tikal was slowing down trying to move him faster. Cupid's Arrow was picking up speed behind him.. aiming directly for a free space smack bang in the center of his back. "KEEP IT UP!" Jackson yelled. Suddenly, as Tikal ran, something burst out of a doorway in front of her. She didn't see it until it was too late. An arachdrone.. it turned to face her, and aimed a circular saw at her gut, just waiting for her to run into it. She skidded to try and stop, but she had just been running too fast. Knuckles did the only thing he could. Tikal was still holding tightly onto his arm, so he pulled hard to the left. Tikal flew out of the way of the robot, and was flung foward. The action, however, slowed Knuckles down considerably. Not by much, but it was enough.

Cupid's Arrow saw it's target.

Sonic's heart was thumping all the way through this race.. more than not because he couldn't do anything about it.. he was completely lame. All he could do was anticipate what would happen next. He was answered with a bloodcurdling scream from the echidna who was carrying him, and a second later he was flying. It happened so quickly.. he was flying through the air uncontrollably.. the good news was that he was going to get to the teleporter room first. But there was bad news, too.

CRACK.

He hit the ground landing on his face. The force nearly blacked him out. When he was able to get up again, there was blood on his hands and face. He had a squashed, broken nose. "Oh.. great.." he said, nasally. At least it was better than a broken neck. He crawled around to see why Knuckles had thrown him. Jackson and Tikal stood around the fallen echidna. Something was sticking out of his back. Tikal grabbed the handle of whatever-it-was and tried to pull it off. She pulled it off alright.. right off the arrow. The useless shaft of the arrow began to disintigrate in her hand.. it broke up into minerals and fell away. She gasped.. a tear in her eye, and turned to Sonic, also sprawled on the ground, and cringed at his bloodied face. Sonic frowned and covered his broken nose. He crawled up beside Knuckles. Knux wasn't knocked out.. but was gasping in immense pain. "It's..... burning..... my... skin away......." he gasped. There was just the panel of the arrow left on his back.. torturing him.

"Come on.." Jackson said. "There's nothing we can do for him... at least not on this planet...." Knuckles screwed up his face in pain. "I'll take the hedgehog, you can take Michael." Jackson told Tikal. Tikal sadly picked Knuckles up. "Thanks for coming to save us, Michael." she whispered. "Call... call me Knuckles..." Knux replied, wincing but smiling. "I said I would get you... out of here, even.... if it meant giving my.. life. And I d..did." Tikal smiled, a tear running down her cheek, and gave him a soft kiss on the cheek. The group headed to the teleportation device for the trip back to Mobius..

EPILOGUE:

Immense cold again. It impacted violently on the two wounded members of the party. When the journey was almost complete, it began to warm up, but suddenly they were jerked away and the cold set in again. What was happening? They were thrown from the portal, and hit the ground hard. Knuckles painfully opened his eyes. This wasn't Mobius... everything looked futuristic. It was strange. He was in some kind of bizarre building. Everything came into focus, though, when he saw the figure standing above him. "KA1..!" Knux exclaimed. "Yes, Knuckles.." KA1 replied. "I re-directed your tesser." Knuckles looked around. "Is this Kallympia?" he asked.
"You went to Kha." KA1 said, avoiding the question. "Yes.." Knuckles replied.
"And look at you now." KA1 said. Both of you. Sonic has lost about a quarter of his blood, broken three bones and recieved concussion, and you have been hit by an electronic torture and death contraption! Now you can see what happens to people who run off to dangerous planets without proper training."
"Excuse me.." Sonic said from across the room. "But I think you're being a bit cold to somebody who's on his deathbed.."
"Deathbed?" KA1 asked. "No, I can heal him. I can heal both of you. You two would be beyond help if I hadn't brought you here.. you would both be dead. I'm going to have to confine you here for four days. Only then will you be able to go home."
KA1 left the building, and Sonic and Knuckles were wheeled into the strange intensive care facility.

FOUR DAYS LATER

Sonic and Knux stood out in an open area with Tikal and Jackson and KA1. "It is time for me to tesser you home." KA1 said. "Do not try anything like this again, Knuckles. Knux grinned and turned to Tikal. "It's gonna be great to finally have someone living with me on the island." he said, grinning. Tikal looked at him strangely, and then gasped. "Oh.. I'm sorry, Knuckles." she replied.
"Sorry?" Knux asked. Jackson approached him. "We're staying here." he replied. "Staying on Kallympia? But why?" Knuckles asked.
"We're closer to Kha here than on Mobius." Tikal said. "We're going to continue to attempt to free the other echidnas. We can all return to the island together." She smiled sweetly.
Knuckles sighed and nodded. "I would do the same." he admitted. Tikal hugged him, and then he turned and put his hand on Jackson's shoulder. "Good luck... I will await your return to the island some day with the others, brother."
Jackson looked at the crescent on Knuckles' chest.. a feature he himself didn't have. "I don't think we're related.." he said. Knuckles was already walking towards Sonic and KA1, but turned around again. "As long as you're an echidna, you're my brother!" he announced. Then he waved, and the other two echidnas waved back. That was the last thing Knuckles saw before he was ripped back into the tesseract, heading back to Mobius... ready for another adventure, no matter what might come along. Content in the fact that, no matter what KA1 thought, his partaking on his uncle's quest had been a great gift to his echidna bretherin. They would soon be free, and return to their home on the Floating Island.

THE END FOR NOW

"The second woe has passed; behold, the third woe is soon to come - Revelation 11:14"

SERIES TWO CHRONOLOGY:
1. The New Girl
2. Dragon the Chain
3. Never Say Nemesis
4. When a Hedgehog Meets a Fox
5. Just Your Imagination
6. Shred
7. The Death Machine
8. Metal Made Flesh
9. Power Corrupts
10. Halfway Across the Galaxy
11. Two For One
12. Prologue to an Adventure
13. Adventure