5:Tainted Virtue

by Pip the Bat

The Chaos Emeralds are being stolen to be used to wake Damnare, the monster of destruction. Sonic must join forces with not only his allies but one of his worst enemies to bring the victory home this time ...

Tainted Virtue

By Pip the Bat

"What? Surrender when I'm losing? How predictable. How crass." - Pip

Copyright: Sonic, Tails and related characters are copyright to Sega. Pip, Sable and related characters are copyright to me, Pip the Bat. Slasher is copyright to NetRaptor. Used with permission. Spark is copyright to Ace Castle. He is not used with permission, but I've been told that he doesn't mind anyone using his character as long as they don't kill him off, which I have not attempted to do in any shape or form].

Pronunciation: ID is pronounced 'id' and not 'eye-dee'. It is merely the use of some unnecessary capitalisation.

This fanfic comes a few months after Sometimes Never.

High summer and the sun shone strongly on Knothole, giving the whole the village a lazy feeling. There were tasks to be completed, but what was the hurry? They would still be there in a few minutes time, after all.

Sonic Hedgehog, along with his brother Spark, was supposed to be taking a large pile of dried out sticks and firewood from one end of the village to the other. However, since they had nothing else to do for the rest of the day, they were doing it at a more than leisurely pace.

While Sonic was blue in colour with a creamy brown face and belly, Spark was green with a black face. One of his arms was metal and he wore a belt around his waist for carrying his knife as well as yellow and purple trainers. Sonic on the other hand just wore red and white sneakers.

Sally Acorn, a brown squirrel wearing a blue jacket and boots and who was leader of the Freedom Fighters passed them, giving them a quick wave. "I must have left Nicole at that stump I was working at before. I'm just gonna go and get her if anyone wants to know where I am."

Sonic shrugged. "Okay Sal. If you're not back within five minutes we'll start sending out the search parties." Sally rolled her eyes heavenwards, walking unhurriedly towards the forest.

After a minute or two had gone by, Bunnie, a browny-yellow rabbit with her bottom half and her left arm robocized hurried over to them. She had a strong Southerner accent, which was unmistakable in her speech. "Shugha-hog, have you seen Sally-girl? She was looking for this before." She held up Nicole. "Ah found her in Rotor's workshop."

"She went off to look for it. She'll be back soon though. Leave it here if you want."

"Thanks Sonic." The rabbit went back to her duties while the two hedgehogs continued taking the logs to the bonfire site. Quarter of an hour was passed in this fashion before they decided to take their break, having a short rest and a drink.

"Sally's not back yet," Sonic remarked idly, leaning against the shaded side of the nearest hut. "How long can it take her to find that something's not there?"

"Longer than it would take her to find something that was there. Maybe she's just decided to look somewhere else for it." The green hedgehog jerked his head up suddenly. "Did you hear that?"

Sonic shook his head, curious. "No. What?"

"Nothing." Spark settled back down. "I just thought I'd heard something, s'all. I guess I was wrong."

"Probably just someone stubbing their toe." The blue hedgehog took another swig of his drink then spluttered, spraying most of it from his mouth. Spark did not need to ask the reason: he already knew. Stumbling into the village was Sally with a familiar person who had one arm wrapped around her neck.

"Pip," hissed Sonic, narrowing his eyes at the robot bat. He had dropped his drink on the floor, but he did not notice. Even if he had done he would not have cared. She was supposed to be dead after Tails had knocked her into the waterfall several months past. Obviously, this was not the case. Since the bat was actually a little smaller than the squirrel, Sally was having to walk in an uncomfortable stoop; side-stepping like a crab.

Villagers stopped what they were doing to stare in surprise; hovering, unsure what to do in case it would endanger Sally. Someone must have fetched Slasher, the winged velociraptor, for as the robot neared the centre of the village she appeared, calmly blocking her path.

"What do you want?" Although her voice was steady, the growl behind her words was unmistakable.

The robot flashed her an insolent grin. "Hullo Slash. I take it your wing's better now, right? You had an accident with it last time we met, if I remember correctly."

"My state of health is of no concern to you, robot. I've asked you once already: what do you want?" Sonic, followed by Spark, edged closer to the robot.

"Stay where you are Sonic," she said, neither moving her eyes from the velociraptor nor relinquishing her grip on Sally. "You've got a Chaos Emerald here. I want it. Now preferably. I doubt that Sally would want my hand to slip, considering where my claws are now, anyway. It might if I'm kept waiting."

"You wouldn't kill Sally," Sonic interrupted, furiously.

It was not Pip who answered him, but another voice that he knew and feared. "Maybe she wouldn't. I, on the other hand, certainly would." A crimson robot echidna was strolling towards the group, hands clasped behind his back. As with the bat, no one was sure whether to apprehend him or not. Instead, they backed carefully away, leaving the situation to the more experienced Freedom Fighters. "Fetch the emerald."

The two hedgehogs exchanged looks, wondering what course of action Slasher would take. Finally, the velociraptor nodded. A black and white Irish Sheepdog who wore a sun shaped pendent on a chain around his neck stood at the front of the crowd of onlookers. At Slasher's nod he jogged off to get the emerald. Nobody spoke as they waited for him to return: they had nothing to say. Robo Knuckles did make a show of tapping his foot, however, while Pip dug her claws into Sally's neck, her eyes fixed on Sonic, as if to see his reaction. The squirrel screwed up her eyes, managing to stop herself from crying out. She was determined not to display her fear to the two robots, of all people.

Barely a minute had passed before the dog returned, clutching the Blue Chaos Emerald in both hands, though it seemed to last an age. He moved, very cautiously, towards Robo Knux, but a command from Slasher stopped him.

"Wait Sable." She had only turned her head very slightly, making sure that she did not let her guard down for a moment. She faced the Mecha bots squarely. "If we give you the emerald, you promise that you will not harm Sally?"

"When you give us the emerald, we will return the squirrel," the crimson robot consented, flicking an imaginary speck of dust from the end of one knux-claw. Pip said nothing. Slasher's gazed focused on her.

"And you?"

The black robot shrugged. "What ID says."

Sable glanced sharply at the velociraptor, a meaningful question in his look. "Should I-"

"No, not this time: it's too risky. Just give them the emerald."

Robo Knux held out one hand expectantly. "Listen to the raptor." Looking vaguely subdued, the puppy handed him the emerald. He took it then nodded once to the bat. Without warning, her claws slid out to their extended fighting length and she flung Sally away from her, slashing her neck viciously in the process.

"We never did say that we wouldn't hurt her," she explained, giving the onlookers her most innocent smile. Slasher's bellow of rage coincided with Pip grabbing Robo Knux's hand, activating her transparent blue gemstone that had the power to teleport the user and others. "Toodlepip for now. After all, Damnare can't be kept waiting." The two of them vanished, just as the velociraptor's charge brought her scything through the air where they had been standing a moment before. Snarling, Slasher joined Sonic and the others in aiding Sally. There would be time to think about that last parting shot later.

Sally sat up painfully, rubbing at the bandages on her neck. "It's a bit sore," the concluded eventually, speaking to the small crowd gathered around her bed.

"A couple more centimetres to the left and it would have been a lot more serious than a bit sore," Jeanne informed her, scribbling away at her trademark clipboard. "You were lucky: she just missed an artery. Bunch of careless jerks," she added, by way of a scientific diagnosis of the two robots. Jeanne was a squirrel, always seen dressed in a white lab coat - "Does she go to bed in that thing?" Sonic had once asked - she was the renowned healer of Knothole.

"Did they get away then?"

Sonic nodded glumly. "Uh-huh. With the emerald too. At least you're okay."

Sally pretended not to be touched by this last sentence. "Do we know why they wanted the emerald?" A shake of heads all round.

"It may be nothing," Sable ventured, shyly, "but did anyone else hear the bat say something about ... Damair?"

"Damnare," corrected Slasher. "Yes, I heard her say that too, although I have no idea what or who it is."

"Pass me Nicole and I'll see what I can find on it. Don't look at me like that Jeanne; it's my neck that's hurt, not my hands or eyes." Tails, the orange two tailed fox, picked up the laptop and walked back to the bed with it. The squirrel accepted it, flipping the lid open. Almost as soon as it had booted up she was touch typing away furiously on the keypad.

"Hmm," she said, after a few minutes, scratching the back of her neck absently with one hand, wincing as she remembered the bandage. "The only thing I can find that seems even remotely relevant doesn't have a lot to say."

"Typical," groaned Sonic. Sally frowned at the interruption but continued unabated.

"However, if it is the right reference then it's something to do with the ancient echidnas."

"Knux! We can ask him about it!" Knuckles was the Guardian of the Floating Island, the only know echidna on Mobius, save Zephyer, who was not even from the planet originally.

This time the squirrel glowered at him. "As I was going to say, right before you interrupted me. Again."

"Sorry Sal." The blue hedgehog put on a mock-pleading face so Sally could not help but to grin.

"Okay, okay. Just don't do it again. Now, let's try contacting Knuckles."

A few minutes later, Sonic and Sally were watching the vid-screen as the face of the red echidna swam gradually into focus, the monitor cracking and spluttering in protest. They really would have to barter for a replacement sometime soon: the current one acted like it was going to have a terminal breakdown, permanently.

"Hey guys. What's up?"

Before Sonic could reply, Sally butted in, putting on her most solicitous voice. "Knux, do you know anything about this guy called Damnare?"

Although the echidna's face only twitched, his voice was more serious when he next spoke. "Why do you want to know?" It was obvious to both the hedgehog and the squirrel that he did indeed know something about it.

"We have reason to believe that he's trying to steal the Chaos Emeralds, or at least getting other people to steal them for him." Her voice carried its own high importance, giving a regal hint to the royal blood that ran through her veins.

"I very much doubt that," Knuckles replied grimly. "Don't go anywhere; I'll be right over."

"Where would we go?" muttered Sonic, quietly.

Sonic met the red echidna on the outskirts of the village, joining him in his hurried strides. "I take it its bad then, huh?"

"That depends." He took a deep breath. "You'll have to tell me what's happened first, before I can say anything." The hedgehog opened his mouth. "When we're with the others though," he added hastily. "That way I can get to hear the whole story." Sonic nodded amiably.

"Okay." Grabbing hold of Knuckles' hand, he nearly yanked him off his feet as he dashed the last few yards towards the meeting hut like a charging bull. "There in half the time," he told the Guardian, grinning.

The others: Slasher, Sally, Tails and Sable were already seated around the oaken table, waiting for them. Tails and Sable were not there for any definite or special purpose; they were just interested in the affair.

"So," said Knuckles, taking a seat. "What's been going on then?"

Slasher explained about how the two Mecha bots had kidnapped Sally, holding her ransom for the blue emerald. Knuckles remained silent as she talked, attentive: the perfect listener. He listened intently until the velociraptor had finished her story, then he leant back in his chair, whistling softly. "We thought that this Damnare might be trying to steal the Chaos Emeralds." She tilted her head to one side, questioningly. "Are we right?"

The echidna answered at once, having been prepared for this question ever since Sally had asked it earlier. "Not really, no. For one thing, Damnare was sealed up somewhere, unable to break free from his prison of eternal torment, according to the ancient echidna lore. For another, if he really was out then he'd have no need of the emeralds." He paused. "Look, I guess it's better if I explain what his name means first. Damnare is Latin for doom, the verb transitive meaning to doom somebody."

"So ... some doomsday monster or something?" Sonic sounded a little doubtful. Doomsday monsters sounded fine in stories and other works of fiction, but they sounded merely far-fetched in real life. He did not seriously believe that there were any, unless of course Knuckles meant a creature like the water beast: Perfect Chaos. That would make more sense.

"Don't you believe it," the echidna told him. "Apparently, he nearly destroyed everything when he first appeared. The ancient echidnas, my ancestors, sent droves and droves of their best warriors to fight him."

"What happened to them?" The hedgehog noticed out of the corner of his eye that both Tails and Sable were holding their breath, wrapped up in the suspense.

"According to legend, he devoured their souls." His eyebrows were raised, allowing for incredulity, though he received none. "They managed to trick him into this trap somehow that involved using the power of the Chaos Emeralds. They are the key to releasing him. If RK and Pip are getting the emeralds for that reason, then we're all in big trouble."

"If he's just going to ... what you said ... to everybody, then what's the point in releasing him?"

"Maybe they think they can control him. I don't know if it's possible or not, but either way it won't be good news for the rest of us."

"We've got to stop them from getting the emeralds then, haven't we?" Sable suggested, helpfully. "How hard could it be?"

"Very," said Sonic. "We don't actually know where the emeralds are any more, apart from the one that they took."

"Oh. Sorry."

"It's okay," Tails told him. "You weren't to know that."

"From the sound of it, we're just going to have to play the waiting game," Slasher said. "As much as I dislike the thought, we'll have to let them make the first move."

Metal Sonic, the robot hedgehog and Mecha bot, was feeling curious. Robotnik, the former human dictator of Mobius as well as his master, had called him on his com-link, ordering him to come to him and to bring the Chaos Emerald. Since the light blue emerald was the only one that they possessed, he could only assume that it was needed to power up some new gadget of his. Still, would he not have told him what it was? Come to think of it, he might not. Robotnik had been being very secretive lately, which could only mean that he had another scheme to get back in control of the planet.

He stepped outside the corrugated iron building, out into the surrounding ghost town, (Only he could not have considered the buildings' style to be ugly.) glancing up at the sky: it was a starless night, atmospheric and moody. A faint chink, perhaps of a small stone fragment falling, caught his attention. The blue robot cast a brief look in the direction it had come from, his left, did a double take then froze. If he had been a living creature his eyes would have narrowed, hiss breathing becoming tense, faint. As it was, he merely clenched his fists.

A pair of luminous green eyes shone through the damp mist. In the swirling tendrils of fog, only a robot or a creature was excellent night vision would have been able to pick out the rest of the figure. Mecha could but did not have to see the rest of him to know who he was: Robo Knuckles.

"Dear me, what could you be doing, out by yourself on a night like this?" the echidna robot drawled, patronisingly. "Why, anything could happen to you."

"Where I am going is none of your business," Mecha growled.

"Really?" interrupted Robotnik's voice from behind him. "It surely isn't something to do with me, by any chance?" There was a laugh, then a different voice entirely added: "He sounds like a complete jerk doesn't he? Not exactly hard to imitate, huh?"

Metal Sonic did not bother to turn round. "Why did you trick me?" His voice was snappish; he hated admitting that anybody, least of all the red robot, had succeeded in deceiving him.

"I would have thought that was obvious, even to you Mecha. We're after your emerald. Hand it over." Robo Knux's voice showed sneering contempt: he obviously expected no resistance.

"No."

Some deep programmed instinct caused the blue robot to dodge to one side. Pip's extended claws merely slashed on thin air rather than their intended target: the back of his head. He hesitated, hanging back from harming the bat, instead giving her an extra kick, sending her sprawling onto the cobbled street. With barely a microsecond of respite, Robo Knuckles' knux-claws caught him hard in his midriff, slamming him forcefully into a cold wall. Somehow, although only just, he had managed to keep his grip on the emerald. Lashing out with one foot at the advancing red robot, he managed, unexpectedly, to trip him.

Taking his chance at the lull in the fighting, he made a dash for it, grasping the emerald tightly, protectively even, to his chest. From her position on the ground, Pip backflipped, her feet connected squarely with his face, knocking him backwards. Almost instantaneously, Robo Knux was on top of him, pinning him to the floor then ripping the emerald from his grasp, tossing it to the black robot.

"Thank you," he purred. "You've been very helpful, rather like those Freedom Fighters whom you despise so much." With that parting shot he drove his fist into Mecha's face.

Moments later, there was no sign of the two thieves. The whole incident had taken less than a minute.

Sally sighed, flicking her head back to get the hair out of her eyes. "Still no thefts reported," she told Knuckles and Sonic. The echidna had decided to stay on at Knothole for a while, since the matter was such a serious one. "Although I suppose no news is good news."

"What if the other emeralds are just hidden somewhere though?" the hedgehog demanded. He had been agitated for the past three days, swift to get on people's nerves and constantly under their feet. None of the others who knew about the possible impending disaster could blame him though: they were nearly as bad.

"Then we're in big trouble," she said simply.

At that moment, there was a bleep from Nicole. "Incoming message," Knuckles remarked.

"No quite: it's a vid link. Could be some news at last, I suppose. Either that or it's Pip dying to tell us what she's done." She half winked at Sonic, who made a face. In their last meeting the bat had dumped him in the bitterly cold North Lands, publicising his location on the Internet.

In fact, it was neither. At the image that appeared on the screen, Sally almost dropped the laptop. "Mecha!" Sonic exclaimed, a little scared even though he knew that the robot would be miles away. The last thing they needed was the person who would be most happy to see him dead and gone scheming against them.

Knuckles frowned, the first to notice the fault with their enemy's appearance. "What happened to your face?" he asked, curiously.

A huge gash ran down the left of Metal Sonic's face. His eye had been smashed in, in part, as if something had been driven into it with great force.

He replied evasively, answering a question with a question. "Have you had anything ... a Chaos Emerald ... stolen from you recently?"

"Why should we tell you?" Sonic asked, defensively.

"I have." Mecha's voice was flat, emotionless. "And I have reason to believe that you have too. I want to know why they need the emeralds."

Knuckles answered this time. "Where can we meet you? Not here," he added, warningly.

Mecha paused. There were not that many places in which robots were allowed, least of all him. "Beechwood Villa."

"Can you get in there?" The echidna was surprised. Beechwood Villa was a massive gleaming whitewashed pavilion, classed as 'very exclusive' in nearly everyone's book. It was still relatively new, although it look like it had been built much more recently still.

"Can we get in there, you mean," muttered Sonic. "Have you seen how posh that place is?"

"Certainly. I know the person who owns the villa. they are very susceptible to large bribes and have absolutely no morals whatsoever."

"Tomorrow then, mid day."

"Tomorrow," the robot echoed.

"Alright, we'll be there, but no tricks mind; we'll have Slasher with us."

"Affirmative." Mecha nodded once, then the transmission cut out.

As it turned out, Slasher would not be accompanying them. Only an hour prior to the transmission she had flown off to another Freedom Fighter village, based in the far east, to see if they had anything to report. She would not be back until the evening after they had met Mecha at least.

"Do you think it would be better if you stayed here, Sonic?" Sally suggested. "After all, you are the one who he hates most, and without Slasher there ..." She allowed her sentence trail off.

He nearly balked at the thought of what the robot might do to him, though he did not want the others to think that he was in any way scared. "I'm going."

"Are you sure? I'm sure someone else would go. Citras maybe, or Spark."

"I'll be fine. Anyway, I won't be on my own will I? Knux will be there."

Shrugging, Sally gave up. "It's your funeral," she warned.

Knuckles scrambled up the embankment, using his knuckles hands to his advantage, giving him that extra hold. Crouching back down, he extended a hand to Sonic, pulling him up. They both stood, brushing themselves off as best they could. Most of their cross-country journey had composed of this and they were having the time of their lives.

"There it is," the echidna told him unnecessarily, gesturing to the tall building.

Despite all the praise and comments that he had heard in its favour, Sonic had still expected it to be an eyesore, out of place at the very least. Instead, it was, well, beautiful. The whitewashed walls were pearly and unstained, somehow blending in with the surrounding beech trees and well-pruned shrubs. In shape it was rectangular, perhaps square, for they could not see it all from this side, with a gradient sloping dome from the front to the centre. The front of the building consisted mainly of glass, polished so hard that it almost hurt to look at it. From this distance Sonic judged it to be only two or three stories.

"Whoa," he said.

"Impressive," Knuckles agreed, unfazed, having seen it once before. "Time to take a closer look, huh?"

"How are we doing for time?"

The echidna checked on his rucksack shoulder straps then glanced at his wristwatch. "Fine, fine. It's only 11 'o clock now."

"He'll be early." Sonic shrugged his own straps into place. "C'mon then. Ready for some light jogging? It's all flatland from now on."

Knuckles looked at him warily. "That depends entirely on what you mean by light." In response, the hedgehog shot off as if he was in a race for his life. Groaning, Knuckles put his head down and jogged after the dust cloud left trailing by his friend.

After about half a minute Sonic slowed down, allowing Knuckles to catch up with him. Another half minute later and they were at the pavilion. Close to it looked even more impressive, at least to the hedgehog's eyes. For a brief second he wondered if it would be a good idea to go in there after all. What if they were thrown out?

This time Knuckles took the initiative, pushing open one of the double glass doors. Wordlessly, if wonderingly, Sonic followed him in. Inside there was a small reception that prefaced an airy cafe. Exotic looking potted plants were everywhere, looking almost too perfect to be real. On a closer inspection of the one by the desk, it turned out that they were indeed proper plants and not just tacky plastic imitations. A glowing staircase led upstairs, presumably to guests' quarters.

As they reached the desk, a smiling receptionist mouse greeted them with an inquiring look. She had small, well-groomed whiskers, a curling tail and two larger-than life ears. Sonic could not help thinking that she looked quite cute. "Can I help you?"

"We're supposed to be meeting a ... friend here."

"Oh yes? Then you'll be wanting the blue robot, won't you? He's just through there." She gestured a bangled hand towards the cafe. Sonic wondered what Mecha would be doing in a cafe before he realised that there was not really anywhere else for them to meet. "He's only been here five minutes," she added helpfully, as they went through the door.

"Thanks for your help," Sonic called over his shoulder, waving. Then, to Knuckles: "Why did you tell her that Mecha was our friend?"

"What was I supposed to say then, smarty? We were meeting our enemy here?" The hedgehog shrugged.

It was not hard to spot Metal Sonic. For one thing, he was the only person in the cafe and for another he was sitting, watching them, at one of the tables. It could not be said that he looked anywhere near at home.

"Four minutes forty-eight seconds," he said as they walked up, by way of a greeting.

"What?" Whatever Sonic had been expecting, it was not that.

"Four minutes forty-eight seconds. She said I'd been waiting for five minutes."

"Oh, uh ..." In normal circumstances he would have said something along the lines of "Well, hello to you too.". However, the robot did not count as normal circumstances.

"Greetings," Mecha hissed to the echidna. To his credit, only his eyes had flared up at the sight of the hedgehog instead of his temper as well: he had not done anything apart from that.

"Hi." Knuckles thoughtfully dropped into the chair next to Mecha, so that Sonic would not have to be too close to him. That would be just too provoking. Even when he was sitting down, Sonic's eyes never left the blue robot, as if he might attack him at any given moment. It was possible, Knuckles knew.

There was a long, uncomfortable pause, then Mecha asked: "Why do they need the emeralds?"

Slowly, hesitatingly, they took it in turns to tell him everything they knew about the affair. At the end of their tale, Knuckles shrugged helplessly. "And it's useless trying to stop them because we have to wait until they get the emeralds before we know where they are. Were, rather."

"I can find the locations of the Chaos Emeralds if they can."

"You're gonna help us then?"

"It does not look as if I have got much choice in the matter," Mecha retorted, peevishly.

"Excuse me." The sudden voice caused them all to jump. "Are you looking for the Chaos Emeralds by any chance?" Sonic and Knuckles spun round in their chairs to see the speaker, then gasped aloud when they saw who it was.

A tallish green cat wearing sun goggles stood there, leaning idly on a chair. Her tail was metal, although not the chunky metal of the robocizer-made variety, but carefully crafted silicon material, allowing it to swing freely. She was, arguably, the most famous person on the whole of Mobius.

"M-Megabucks?" She still looked pleased at being recognised, despite all her credentials.

"The one and only." The phrase in itself was not an overstatement: the cat owned more of Mobius than any other single person. She was the richest and most successful businessperson on the entire planet. There really was nobody quite like her. To Sonic and Knuckles, it was like somebody walking up to them and saying "Hey, this is Shakespeare, come say hi.".

"You are looking for the emeralds, right?" Something Mecha had said about the moral laxity of the pavilion's owner came back to Sonic, making him more than a little suspicious of the cat's intentions, as well as cautious of giving her a straight answer. After all, the cat owned enough of the planet to make it probable enough for her to own the pavilion too.

"Maybe."

The cat laughed. "Don't worry, I don't want to try and take them from you. I never steal anything. At least, not in that sense. It's not good for my image, y'know." Somehow, it was difficult not to believe her. Someone like Megabucks would have no need of thieving.

"Even if you did want to, you wouldn't get very far. We don't have any emeralds. They've already been stolen, both of 'em."

"Really? Tut tut. Still, if you're gonna keep looking, I might be able to help you." She twirled her tail lightly in her hands, swinging gently back and forth on the edge of the chair.

"How so?"

"I own the yellow Chaos Emerald." She waited with an almost trained patience for their reactions to die down before continuing: she had had years of experience at presentation. "I've got it with me now, in fact: I always take it everywhere I go."

"Like a lucky charm?"

"I don't need a lucky charm. I just-" She broke off as the receptionist's high pitched voice reached them.

"Just through there, Miss."

"Thank you."

"I must say, you've got nicer manners than some of the robots we get in here," she prattled, gaily.

"What did he say to her?" Sonic muttered darkly, shooting a suspicious look at Mecha.

"Really." The voice was polite if more than a little uninterested.

"Just prancing in, no pleases or thank-yous. Why, if I remember when we used to kick people out onto the street for less than that-"

"Gosh. You'd never catch me doing anything like that, I'm sure." Whether she meant the lack of politeness or kicking people out onto the streets, it was not clear.

"It's her." All three exchanged glances.

The robot bat waltzed through the door, across the room to the table they were sitting around. "Hello guys," she said cheerfully, as if they were all the best of friends.

"Don't you know who I am?" The green cat drew herself up, looking affronted.

"No. Do you know who I am?"

"Well ... no ... but ..."

"There you go then." Pip turned back to the others. Casting a quick look over her shoulder she added quietly: "I'm sorry about your face Mecha. I had no idea that ID was going to do that." She made a sign not unsimilar to that of a Brownie Guide making her promise.

"Who's ID?" Knuckles asked, curious despite himself. He knew that they were going to have to be careful with Pip.

"Robo Knux of course." She looked surprised.

Sonic thought quickly. They would have to try and keep the bat talking while they tried to think of a way to stop her from getting the emerald. "Why ID though?" he persisted.

"Oh, it's ancient echidna psychology. It says that there's three parts to the mind: the you, the part that tries to sway you towards good and the part that tries to sway you to do evil and makes you have dreams about attacking people with mindless violence. Not that I do," she added, as an afterthought. "The latter part is called id. Right?" Knuckles slowly nodded his head in confirmation. "That's why."

Sonic glanced at Mecha, realising that he had not said anything yet. For some reason that he could not define, he was looking daggers, although not at Pip or anyone else for that matter. The hedgehog did not even bother attempting to understand what was going on among the cogs and gears of the robot's mind.

"Cripes, look at the time. I'd better be going."

The blue hedgehog clenched his fists. "We won't let you take the emerald." There was no point in pretending that there was not an emerald in the building: after all, why else would the bat have come?

"Why should I want to do that?"

"You ... you don't want to take it?"

"You don't happen to be from my insurance company do you?" Megabucks asked quietly.

"Of course I don't want to. After all, ID's already stolen it while we've been having our nice little chat." She gave him a bright smile.

"Why you little ..." Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, Pip had already gone and missed finding out just what she was.

Sonic was furious with himself. There he was, trying to distract Pip while all the time Robo Knuckles had been pinching the third Chaos Emerald. He could not believe he had not thought of it: how could he have been so stupid?

The green cat sighed. "At least I'd had the thing insured. Look, hon," she appealed to Sonic. "I don't know who you are, and to be perfectly honest I don't really care, but if you're going to be going after them, could you get my emerald back?" She did not say please; that was not in her way, but she was sincere, the closest that she came to it.

"We're gonna try." Megabucks grabbed a piece of paper, scribbled the address on it and handed it to him. Despite himself, Sonic could not help thinking that the cat's writing was probably some valued collector's item. Slowly, dismally, the three of them left the building, their differences forgotten; set aside for the time being.

As soon as they were outside, Sonic and Knuckles walking a noticeably safe distance away from Metal Sonic, the hedgehog turned to the robot. "What were you getting worked up at back there? Did you know RK had stolen the emerald or something?"

"She has got a nickname for him!" Mecha fairly exploded. It seemed that this had been eating away at him ever since Pip's explanation of 'ID', that he had been waiting to blow his top sooner rather than later. Both Sonic and Knuckles stared at him in a mixture of confused astonishment. "Why does she not have a nickname for me?" He sounded hurt and puzzled.

"You ... you're just Mecha," Sonic replied, uncertainly. It appeared to be the wrong thing to say.

"Well, he is just RK!"

"Do you understand what he's going on about?" Sonic hissed to the echidna.

Knuckles shrugged. "I think he's jealous. I don't get it either though, don't worry."

Raising his voice, Sonic said: "So far they've got three emeralds while we've got none. Now there's four left. Anyone got any bright ideas, or are we just going to wait for the two jerks to destroy the world?"

The robot was at his throat in a moment. "Pip is not a jerk!" Mecha snapped. "It is all his fault." He let go of the hedgehog, turning away, standing with his back to them, observing the sky.

Sonic and Knuckles exchanged raised eyebrows, Sonic massaging his bruised neck. "Whatever. But do you have any ideas about what we can do?"

A pause. "Get me a workshop, tools and equipment and I will be able to find out the location of the Chaos Emeralds. With the help of the other Mecha bots." There was a faint note of triumph in his voice.

Knuckles nodded. "Fine. Let's go."

The orange fox sighed, his two fluffy tails bushing up behind him as he flopped down dismally onto the log. Sable sat next to him, his head resting on his hands. Together, the two were the picture of abject misery. Jeanne, passing by with her trademark clipboard could not help but smile faintly at them.

"You look down in the dumps. Penny for your thoughts?"

"We want to help Sonic and Knux," Tails explained. The young Irish sheepdog nodded without moving his head from his hands. "It's no fun waiting here doing nothing and not even knowing what's happening to them."

"I don't mind what they do as long as they don't end up in the medical hut again," the squirrel replied darkly. "Sonic for one ought to get a permanent job there. It'd save the comings and goings in between." She hesitated, glanced at her wristwatch then perched herself gingerly on the edge of the log. "Well then, that's easily sorted. When they report back, why don't you ask them?"

"You think we'd be allowed?" Tails's eyes lit up in excitement.

"Sure, why not? you're keen, eager and you've been in dangerous situations before, haven't you?" They nodded, hopefully. "I can't see any reason for them refusing then." She stood, retrieving her clipboard, which she had propped against a felled trunk.

"Thanks Jeanne."

"Don't mention it. I'm just pleased to have perked you up. If I hear that they're on the com then I'll call you straight away." Grinning, she waved to them with her free hand as she walked away.

Tails winked happily at his friend. "Let's just hope she's right then, huh?"

"So, what exactly is that ... thing?"

The blue hedgehog stood with his arms folded, leaning against the wall of the workshop. He was gazing sceptically at the contraption that Mecha was holding delicately in one hand. Circuit boards, microchips, wires, casing, various work tools as well as many other pieces of equipment that Sonic could not identify lay scattered on the tables and the floor. It was worse than Rotor's workshop. He remembered Sally saying something once about a tidy desk being the sign of a tidy mind. The hedgehog wondered what that must make the robot.

"A Synchronised Endothermic Excess Charge Detecting Unit." Fiddling with a miniature screwdriver, he did not deign to look up.

"Oh. So, uh, what does it do then?" He pushed himself up onto a relatively less cluttered bench top.

"It synchronisingly detects endothermic excess charges."

"What?"

"It will be able to locate the Chaos Emeralds at close range," Mecha replied, with an expression of infinite patience. "Now get lost." The phrase sounded more than a little strange coming from the robot. Sonic supposed that it was something Mecha had heard and had decided to try out for himself, although he was not perfectly sure that he was using it in the right context.

"Get lost and do what, exactly?"

"I would not have thought it would be too hard for you to lose yourself." His robotic voice was scathing. "Go and join Knuckles. Anything."

Sonic slid off the bench and picked his way carefully through the tangle of equipment that he labelled generally as 'a heap of junk'. He opened the door and was about to make his exit when a thought struck him. "When will you have finished that Samurised Recharger thingamajig?"

"Synchronised Endothermic Excess Charge Detecting Unit. Within an hour or two if all goes well. I seem to have everything I need."

"And a lot more besides," Sonic thought of adding. Instead, he said: "That long?"

"Certainly. No one else would have been able to manage the task in double the time." He spoke confidently.

"Okay, okay. I'll be with Knux." He walked out, leaving the door to swing shut by itself.

Out of a lack of places where both they and Metal Sonic would be accepted, they had finally decided to return to the robot's current site of operation: the ghost town of Aintree. Whatever happened, the hedgehog doubted that he would ever trust his long time foe. Knuckles, although not letting his guard down, seemed able to accept Mecha. Still, Sonic knew that as soon as this business was all behind them they would be back to being fully-fledged enemies. If they won that was. If they did not, then there was not much chance of them lasting long enough to fight anybody, let alone each other.

Cautiously, Sonic went from door to door of the silent, deserted buildings, feeling strangely as if he was desecrating them, searching for the echidna. Some of the buildings were completely empty, others had meagre unimportant contents and artefacts. One or two were fully furnished, while the remainder were filled with quirky, peculiar objects. In the last structure but one of that section, Sonic found Knuckles.

"This place ought to be renamed the Marie-Celeste," he commented, stepping in through the door. "There was a trampoline in one of those houses."

"What's so strange about that?" asked Knuckles, straightening up. He had been recharging the batteries for the mini vid-screen that they had brought with them in a power socket that he had discovered amongst the scattered lab-benches. This room was almost as untidy as the one Mecha was in, if in a slightly different way.

"It was set up as a bed; sheets, duvet, pillow and all. It even had a set of pyjamas folded up on top of it. Beat that."

The echidna raised an eyebrow. "Weird. Did you see the house next to this one? I was poking around and they had a toaster set up in their bathroom."

"Isn't that dangerous?"

"That depends on whether or not they took it into the bath with them."

Sonic shrugged. "This place is freaky. I wonder what happened to everybody."

"No idea. Hey, I was about to call in on Knothole on the vid-screen. Want to say anything to the guys?"

"Sure."

It was Jeanne who answered. This was not surprising, since the squirrel held a high status in the village, which was only partly because she was the only professional medic there. "Oh. Sonic," she said. "Don't tell me you've broken something already."

"Nah, I'm fine. So's Knux. They've got another emerald though. How's things going over there? Are you coping without me?"

Jeanne smiled wryly. "We're not as dependent on you as you might like to think Sonic. It's been very dull actually. Oh, that reminds me, Tails wants to ask you something." Her face disappeared from the screen and they could hear her voice yelling for the two-tailed fox.

Moments later, Tails's furry face appeared on the vid-screen. "Heya Sonic," he said, cheerfully. Still, the hedgehog noted a slight note of anxiety to his friend's voice that he knew well. It meant that he was gearing himself up to ask for something.

"What's up, little buddy?"

"Nothing much: it's been pretty quiet really-"

"Not the village, dude, you."

"Weeeeell ..." He hesitated, elongating his vowels, then spoke in a sudden rush. "I was wondering if Sable and I could join you. We might be able to help y'know. I mean, I can fly and Sable's got his Gemstone."

"Is that all? I thought you were going to tell me that you'd crashed the Tornado or something like that."

Tails's face read as 'Don't keep me in suspense!' "So can we?"

Without looking, Sonic could envision Tails, his hopeful expression, two tails twirling expectantly. How could he possibly say no? "Sure you can join us. At the rate we're going we're gonna need all the help we can get."

"Great! Oh, I don't mean it's great that you're not doing so well, I only meant-"

"It's okay buddy, I know what you meant. Now, we've got to figure out how to get you over here. We can't come and collect you in case Mecha tracks us ... Is Slash back yet?"

"No. She wouldn't have been back until this evening in any case, but we got a message saying that she's been delayed. The Freedom Fighters she was visiting are having a problem with bandits. She's sorting it out." Sonic could just imagine her methods, too.

"Bummer. That's no good then. You can't even teleport now that we've lost the emerald. It's too far for you to walk by yourselves." He sighed, frowning in thought. He preferred action to standing and thinking, so it was not his strong point.

"I think I know what we could do," Knuckles said, slowly. "Tails and Sable would get first class treatment too."

"Really? How?"

"I'll tell you in a moment. We'll send you some transport soon Tails, don't worry." He gave him the directions to reach Aintree from Knothole as best as he could remember, then cut the connection.

"What's your idea then?" demanded the hedgehog, impatiently. "C'mon, spill."

"I thought that if Megabucks wants her emerald back that badly, she might lend Tails some transport. After all, we're trying to get it back for her, and we might not do it without their help."

Sonic nodded. "Good call Knux. Let's try her."

They fished out her number from Sonic's rucksack. Within five minutes they were looking at Megabuck's face on the vid-screen. "It's you," she remarked, ungraciously. "What do you want?"

"We were wondering if you could help us with something."

"What?" They told her. "Sorry, but I don't run a taxi service, hon. Actually, I run several, but none of them are for free."

"Please Megabucks. It's all in the cause of getting your emerald back after all." Sonic's pleading face was not up to much. However, it worked in this case.

"I don't want it back too soon: my insurance company need some time to process the claim, but okay, I see your point. Knothole, huh? I'll need the co-ordinates." Sonic was able to rattle them straight off: he had used them so many times before that he knew them off by heart. After he had recited them, with the green cat scribbling down on an unseen notepad, she said a quick farewell ("I've got to go. I'm a busy person you know, unlike some people.") and disconnected.

"Well," said Knuckles. "That's that sorted out then."

Exploring the ghost town a little more, both the hedgehog and echidna received a jolt of fear - although neither would have admitted it to the other - when turning to exit one house they were confronted by a pair of red crescents: the eyes of Metal Sonic. The hedgehog took a step back, treading hard on Knuckles's foot by accident.

"I have completed the unit." Mecha's face of course displayed no emotion although Sonic could have sworn that he was amused at their fright. "I assume that it is too late in the day for you to be testing it however."

"Uh ... right. Yeah." He had not realised how dark it had grown outside; creeping up on them without their noticing. The sky had bypassed any form of sunset, passing instead through a deepened blue to a dark navy to purple then finally to black. A thought suddenly struck him: how could they safely go to sleep with the hate-infested robot about? It would be about as safe a prospect as checking out utahraptor's dentures without something sturdy to prop its jaws open.

The same thought must have occurred to Knuckles because he gave the robot a sharp glance and said: "Where are you going to stay for the night?" Sonic felt pleased that it had been the echidna that had asked this question and not himself since he thought he was already as downgraded in Mecha's opinion as it was possible to be.

"Do not worry. I will not try and harm you." If the robot could smirk, Sonic imagined that he would have done. "I will shut myself down for the night in the workshop that you viewed me in earlier."

"More junk," the blue hedgehog almost said, but bit his lip just in time.

"You can barricade yourselves in if you do not believe me," the robot told them, leaving the house as silently as he had come.

When they had picked the house in which they would sleep for the night, they followed Mecha's advice and barricaded themselves in, not trusting the robot not to have a relapse and attempt to kill them. They could leave nothing to chance.

As he lay back on the pillow - it was so unfamiliar that he could not think of it as his pillow - looking at the chests of drawers and other furniture piled up in front of the door, Sonic wondered if someone had told him that he would be working with Mecha to prevent a world-destroying catastrophe whether or not he would have believed them. Probably not. The robot was one of his worst enemies, if not the worst. Suddenly, he felt glad that Knuckles was with him. He could not have faced being there in that desolate ghost town on his own.

Thinking of the echidna he noticed the rhythmic breathing coming from across the room. It was that which finally got him off to sleep. At sometime during the dead of night, he awoke. He was not sure what had woken him, then he imagined that a sudden thudding noise reached his pricked ears. Not daring to breathe, he waited for it to come again, but nothing happened. Whether there had been anything or not he did not know: there was nothing more of that genre. Eventually he drifted back uneasily into the enchanted realm of the dreamer. When he awoke next it was morning; the sun was streaming through the gaps in the piles of furniture and Knuckles was shaking him into wakefulness.

Metal Sonic was already up and about by the time they had removed the temporary barricade, pulled on their shoes, gathered their rucksacks; only then leaving the building. Sonic wondered if it had been him snooping about outside the building the previous night or if he had just imagined the whole incident. Somehow, he would not put it past the robot to break his promise.

"I see you are still alive," remarked Mecha as they entered his workshop, glancing up only when he had finished what he was doing. "You are ready to test the unit today, no?"

"The thingamajig with the really long name? Yeah, we should have a couple of hours before they arrive."

A pause. "Before who arrives, pray?"

"Tails and Sable." Despite himself, Sonic felt guilty for not telling the robot.

Metal Sonic fixed him coolly with his red-eyed gaze, securing his absolute attention before he spoke. "If we are going to have to work together for this mission Sssonic, then you will have to learn to co-operate with me. You could start by telling me when you decide to do something before you actually go ahead and do it."

"And you could start by not trying to sneak in and kill me while I'm sleeping," Sonic retorted, without thinking. Mecha jerked upwards faintly: he had definitely hit the nail on the head. The two glared each other down, staring deep into each other's eyes, fists tightly clenched. Eventually, it was Knuckles who broke the silence.

"Well? Both those demands seem quite reasonable to me. Aren't you going to hurry up and agree so we can get on?" Gradually, the hedgehog and his robot copy looked away from each other: a mutual sign of defeat. "You're not being asked to like or even trust each other you know, just accept each other for a short period of time."

"Not short enough, huh?" Sonic murmured, quietly. "Okay then, I'll go along with that." Mecha nodded his head once in agreement, not as interested now that the conflict had ended. "So, where are we going to go? Have the apocalypse clique been up to anything?"

His query was directed at Mecha, since he would know the location of the other Mecha bots if anyone did. "Not as such. they have not gone anywhere that merits a theft unless they happened to trip over an emerald lying on the ground. However, they are headed in the direction of Southdale."

"That's where the excavations are, right?"

Mecha gave the echidna an appraising look. "Correct. I can only assume that there is an emerald buried somewhere in there. If we leave now, we should reach Southdale at approximately the same time as they do."

"Tails and Sable will just have to wait then," Sonic said, tapping his foot in his trademark fashion, displaying his eagerness to be away. "This stuff is urgent."

"I agree," Mecha stated simply.

"That's a first." Knuckles doubted his mutter had been audible. "Let's get cracking then, if we don't need to do anything else?" If there had been a door in the way, Sonic would probably have knocked it down; he had obviously not noticed the question in the echidna's voice. Knuckles gave the apologetic shrug on the hedgehog's behalf that now came automatically. He and Mecha broke into a straight run, although they had no hope of actually catching up with Sonic while he was sprinting at that speed.

By the time Knuckles and Mecha had reached Southdale excavations, Sonic looked as if he was about to drop off to sleep. "What kept you?" he asked, giving vent to an over-exaggerated yawn. The echidna, completely out of breath, was unable to reply.

They were standing on the brink of a quarry, relatively unimpressive in size, looking quite ordinary. Various caves and tunnels led away, deep into the side of the rock face. The main one was also the largest: a cavernous mouth waiting to engulf unwary fortune seekers.

"Is that it?" Sonic looked disappointed. "I was expecting something ... bigger."

"Do not be fooled," Mecha warned. "It leads far on underground. There is much more underneath than on the surface."

"Sounds like you're talking about a person," Knuckles commented. "I take it you've brought that device you mentioned - the emerald detecting one."

The robot lifted one hand. The unit was small, fitting neatly into the palm as he displayed it to them. "Affirmative. We will have to actually go down there to retrieve the emerald of course."

"Duh." Sonic looked about for a route down into the quarry, spotted one, and raced off towards it as if he had not just been running for a long period of time seconds earlier. Knuckles glided cautiously down while Metal Sonic was left to follow the hedgehog. He was therefore the last one down. The other two waited for him, then all three proceeded towards the main entrance and into the excavated network of underground passageways. Sonic and Knuckles were following Mecha's lead; after all, he was the one with the Chaos Emerald detector.

The two non-robot Mobians could hardly see where they were going in the nearly pitch black light, or rather dark. Luckily for them, the change from the daylight had been so gradual that their eyes had a chance to adjust to the darkness, so they were not quite as badly off as they could have been. The robot took them down winding murky earthy tunnels, twisting and turning like the lithe body of a snake; leading them far from the world of light. They began to hope that nothing happened to Mecha for they knew beyond a doubt that they would never find the way out by themselves.

"Where are the doomsday j-uh, RK and Pip." Remembering Mecha's previous reaction to calling Pip a jerk, Sonic had hastily changed his words in mid-sentence. He had no wish to fall out with Mecha in here.

"They're about," was all the robot would tell them.

"Are we far away? From the Chaos Emerald I mean."

"Not far now." They progressed in silence for a period of time, Mecha concentrating on the electronic instrument in his hands while Sonic and Knuckles focused on the no less difficult task of following him.

It was as they turned yet another bend in the tunnel that it happened: they saw the emerald. The gem glittered purple, displaying a radiant glow all through the passageway. Strangely enough, the sudden light did not blind them as it should have done: such was the serene power of the fourth emerald. Unfortunately, it also enabled them to see who was carrying the emerald, which was not such a great thing.

"Hello Mecha," purred the crimson robot. "I see you haven't had your face fully repaired yet." Sonic and Knuckles just managed to restrain Mecha as he made a spirited attempt to leap at Robo Knux. Normally they would not have stopped them fighting, but they were playing for higher stakes: they could not run the risk of losing this emerald to the robots too.

"There's more of us than you," said Sonic.

"That's nice," said Pip hovering behind Robo Knuckles. "Your point being what, exactly?"

The hedgehog was not sure how to answer that question. "Hand over the emerald," he snapped, sounding braver than he felt.

"Why?"

Sonic glared furiously at the echidna robot. He knew that they were trying to wind him up on purpose; he also knew that it was working. Knuckles decided to take over the talking, if only to prevent the other two from doing anything stupid. "Because we know what you're going to do with it if you take it. The other emeralds, too."

"Really? That's not going to do you much good now, is it?" Without prior warning, he scraped one knux-claw down the nearest wall, grabbed Pip's hand and the two of them vanished in an instant. This all happened in the blink of an eye, so Sonic and Knuckles were completely off guard for the next occurrence. Luckily for them, Mecha realised what Robo Knux had done, managing to drag them a few yards back before the almighty explosion happened.

The blast scorched all three, although only minimally, carrying them further back the way they had come. When they rolled to a battered stop, Sonic groaned, pushing himself up onto his elbows.

"Everyone okay?" Knuckles grunted something while Mecha spoke in the affirmative. "What happened back there, exactly?"

"In underground mines and excavations there are always - inevitably - pockets of unstable gas. All they need is a spark or a flare of some sort to create a large explosion." Sonic got to his fee, lending Knuckles a hand up. Mecha had already stood while he was explaining. They walked towards the entrance, and what would be their exit of the excavations, thinking how lucky they were to be still walking at all. Mecha made his red eyes a tad brighter so that the other two would be able to see better. It seemed an almost amiable gesture.

The robot continued with his lecture. "There was no way of detecting this until recently, until it was too late of course. they used to send little children down the mineshafts with just candles for light. If they died it was of no great loss for the mine owners. All they would have to do would be to notify the parents, toss them a few coppers then promptly forget about it. They had very convenient memories."

"That's ... sad." The blue hedgehog imagined a young child, smaller than himself even, crawling down into the bowels of the earth, the only source of protection they had also being their greatest danger. It made him feel a little sick.

They said nothing more as they stepped out into the sunlight, the midday beams restoring the warmth to their bodies. The Mobians had not realised how cold they had been down there. Only then did it strike Sonic, the most remarkable thing that had happened down there: Mecha had saved their lives.

The first thing the three saw when they reached Aintree was Tails and Sable rushing towards them. "We were so worried!" Tails exclaimed. They both looked deeply relieved. "This really cool looking transport collected us from Knothole - with a chauffeur and everything - and brought us here then left us. We couldn't find you anywhere though. How were we supposed to know if you'd died or something?"

"There were no bodies," Mecha pointed out, wryly.

The fox, who had not noticed him at first, jumped, gulping.

"Sorry Tails. I guess we should have left you a note or something." Sonic could tell that he had been badly scared, and felt a little guilty for not telling them where they had gone. "The only thing was that we found where another emerald was."

"Did you get it then?" asked Sable, interested.

"Not ... exactly ... It was kinda close though." The hedgehog felt very pathetic saying that.

"This is Sable," Knuckles told Metal Sonic, realising that the two had never met or been introduced.

"And you're Metal Sonic, right? I've heard a lot about you." Mecha nodded. It was inevitable that the dog would have heard at least something about him if he had been with the Freedom Fighters for any length of time. They probably used him as some sort of bogeyman. 'Go to bed or Metal Sonic will come and get you.'

"If anybody is interested, they are heading towards Oaktech." Oaktech was a large city towards the west. "They may just be visiting it, but it may be better to follow them non-stop from now on. We have the advantage that they will think you are buried under several tonnes of rock back at Southdale, although that will not last for long."

"Not you?"

"They will know that I am not. It is not just a one way system that allows me to scan their location."

"How are you for running?" Sonic asked the others.

"I'm fine at sprinting," Sable answered doubtfully. "I dunno about long distance though."

"Right." Sonic grabbed his hand. "Hold on." The dog's surprised yelp echoed around the hills as he was yanked off his feet by the hedgehog. Knuckles, Tails and Mecha were following him within seconds, the fox twirling his two tails like a rotor blade, giving him extra speed.

Non-stop running, it only took them an hour to reach the city.

"You won't be allowed into the city, will you Mecha?"

In response, the robot disappeared from sight. "What they do not see will not hurt them." Of course, Sonic thought, the robot had a cloaking device. That would make things a lot easier for them in that respect at least.

"Are they here yet?" asked Tails.

The robot shook his head. "Not yet, no. We have made good time." There was a sudden pause. "No we have not. They have teleported. Quickly!" Sonic could imagine Mecha's eyes flaring up in rage.

"Where are they?"

"The museum." They heard his footsteps pounding away from them. he obviously was not trying to gain any prizes for discreteness: several people were knocked to the ground and into walls by something they could not see. The four Mobians followed in hot pursuit, yelling apologies behind them to the stunned people that they left in their wake.

A burly security guard stood by the glass case containing the green Chaos Emerald. It was a fairly new exhibit and heavily protected. Unfortunately for the guard, the emerald was not the only thing that needed protection. He blinked in surprise as two figures appeared in the centre of the room, surrounded by a faint flickering blue glow that faded after a few seconds. The first thing that struck him was that they were robots; therefore they should not be allowed in the city, let alone the museum. The second thing that struck him was a high-powered energy blast. Moaning in agony he crumpled up in a heap on the floor.

"That's the emerald all right," said Pip happily, dashing over to the case. Robo Knuckles followed, stopping on the way to take the security guard's keys. The lock on the cabinet was pass-operated. Flicking through the keys and tags, the crimson robot came to what he was looking for: a small object that looked like a miniature torch. Pointing it at the lock, he pressed the button once. There was a click, the alarms switched off and the case was open. Flipping the lid back, Robo Knux carefully removed the emerald from its velvet setting.

"Stop right there!" Sonic smashed the door down, landing in the wreckage in a spin of spikes. Knuckles, Mecha, Tails and Sable piled in after him, ready to fight if necessary.

"Ah Sonic," Robo Knux said smoothly. "I see you've made it at last. We were beginning to think that you weren't going to be in time for the surprise."

"Surprise?"

The crimson robot put his fist through the cabinet next to him, showering the room with shards of broken glass. Instantly, the Mobians were deafened by loud alarm peals. "That surprise." The robots vanished. At the same moment, a troop of heavily armed security guards burst through the door.

"You're too late," Sonic snapped, feeling ratty. "They've got away."

"Oh yeah? We're not so green behind the ears, spiky. You don't fool us."

"What?" The hedgehog was momentarily nonplussed.

"He thinks that we have stolen the Chaos Emerald," Mecha explained, calmly.

"Too right. And one of you's a robot too. Everyone knows that you can't trust robots."

"Yes indeed," muttered Knuckles, disgustedly. "We didn't steal the emerald though. There were two other robots here a minute ago. it was them who-"

"Really? And where are they now, these imaginary robots of yours? Did they just vanish into thin air or merely go off to their aunt's tea party?" In the face of the guard's sarcasm, Sonic knew that they would not be believed if they told the truth.

"Robots don't have aunts."

The guard ignored him. "You're under arrest."

"No," said Sable. "Wait." The lead guard glanced at him, then found that he could not look away again. There was something about the dog's eyes ... "You're going to let us go." He spoke quietly, without menace in his voice, just a calm authority. "When you've got kindly out of our way you can go and report to the police that a red echidna robot and a black bat robot have stolen the emerald."

Wordlessly, the guard stood out of his way, the others following suit. Sable led the group out of the building then let his breath out slowly.

"You hypnotised him," Mecha observed.

"Kinda. I controlled him; it's much more reliable than hypnotism. I could have said all that dumb stuff about everybody feeling sleepy if I'd felt like it but I don't really need it."

"How so?"

The Irish Sheepdog held up his sun pendent. "This little beauty. It's the Gemstone of Control. It's a powerful little thing and that's just one of its powers." The blue robot nodded seriously. Sable thought of adding the well-worn phrase "It'd be dangerous in the wrong hands" but it just did not seem appropriate.

"So, where to next Mecha?" Sonic was itching to go once more, fired up with the heat of the chase, ready for some action.

"They are still in the city." Metal Sonic sounded surprised. "Follow me." Not for the first time that day the gang broke into a run, being led into the suburban area of the city by the Mecha bot. Shady alleyways led off in every direction, meaningless inscriptions of graffiti were scrawled across the walls, empty drink cans and ransacked food packets littered the streets. Sonic half expected to be jumped and mugged at any second.

Mecha slowed, frowning. "They have teleported. I do not quite see the point of this little jaunt however." He stopped. Then they saw it.

The body lay sprawled across the alley, its head at an unnatural angle. It was, or rather had been, a ferret. Sonic was first to react, taking both Tails and Sable by their shoulders and propelling them in the opposite direction, leaving Knuckles and Mecha to attempt a post-mortem with the corpse.

"So they were doing something here after all," Knuckles remarked, grimly.

"This is Robo Knuckles's work," the robot agreed, as if there was any doubt after seeing the twin gouges in the creature's face. "I assume that they has employed his services to retrieve an emerald for them."

"There's gratitude for you. They're getting more dangerous. I mean, if they're gonna start killing people left right and centre ..."

"Yes." Mecha straightened up. "There is nothing of interest on him. Come, we will have to give chase again. It might interest you to know where they are headed now."

With a sick feeling in his stomach and a sinking sensation in his heart, Knuckles asked: "Where?" He had a nasty feeling that he already knew.

"The Floating Island."

The echidna quickened his pace. The two robots had been one step ahead of them for the whole of the adventure so far: there was no way he was going to let them do anything to his precious island of the sky.

"Sonic was sick," Sable told them when they arrived at the street corner.

Sonic scowled. "I was not. And anyway, even if I was, I got closer to the corpse than you two did so you can just-"

Knuckles cut his protestations off in mid sentence. "No time for arguments guys. We've gotta get to the Floating Island. Pronto."

"They're going there?"

"Yep." There was no hiding the anxiety in the Guardian's voice. "And it's the seventh emerald they'll be going for."

Their eyes met. "We're in trouble," said Tails, flatly.

There were only a few teleporters to the Floating Island dotted around Mobius, all of them well hidden from prying eyes, so it was pure luck that they happened to be relatively near one at the time. In a shouted conversation that took place while they were running, they decided not to wait and contact the Chaotix Crew before teleporting. There was no time to waste; besides, they could alert them when they were on the Island.

Knuckles, last to use the teleporter, pulled some more leaves around it, also making a mental note to change its position afterwards, now that Mecha had seen it. A few seconds late he had joined the others on the Floating Island. They waited for his lead - it was the echidna's home after all - which was not long in coming. After a short pause he headed for Chaotix Central Base, the others in hot pursuit.

In a sudden rush of adrenaline he almost knocked the door of the Chaotix's hut off its hinges as he crashed in. "What the blazes was that?" Mighty began, but stopped when he saw who it was.

The Chaotix Crew consisted of Vector, a green and yellow crocodile who would not be seen dead without his set of earphones and retro hi-fi; Mighty, a black and yellow armadillo with a sturdy red exoskeleton; Espio, a light purple and yellow chameleon with a sharp horn atop his head; and Charmy Bee, a member of the yellow and black species, who wore red goggles. Apart from Knuckles and Talon, the anteater, they were the only inhabitants of the Island.

"I need your help guys. We've got a case of some uninvited guests who need showing the door."

"Sure Knux." Espio sprang to his feet, the others following suit. "Who, exactly?"

"Robo Knux for one."

"Golly gosh," bumbled Charmy. "Now that's what I call serious."

"Exactly. He's after a Chaos Emerald too. I've got no idea how it got to be on the Island but it must be here if he's after it."

"Which one?" They followed him out of the door.

"Either white or red." The others, who had been waiting outside, came over to join them. The Chaotix Crew stared in surprise when they saw Metal Sonic. The echidna waved away their fears impatiently. "He's with us, don't worry. Mecha, where are they headed?" He was in his element.

"Lava Reef. I therefore assume it is the red Chaos Emerald that is there."

"Makes sense," Sonic chipped in. "It's attracted to heat after all."

There were so many of them it looked as if they were doing a marathon across the Island. Feet pounded, grass churned, a dust cloud rose in their wake. They reached the entrance to Lava Reef in what was probably a world record, if anybody had bothered to make a note of it. The Guardian cast a quick, questioning glance at Mecha, who nodded.

"They're already in there," Knuckles told them.

"Should we wait for them to come on out?" suggested Mighty, rubbing his gloved fists together.

"No point," Tails told him. "They can teleport."

"Still ..." Knuckles hesitated. "It may be a good idea to have half of us stay outside, just in case. That dang Gemstone's gotta run out of charges or whatever it runs on sooner or later. The Chaotix Crew and I will go in and you can wait out here. We'll have more chance that way." Nobody argued with him, although Sonic looked fidgety.

The echidna was first into the passageway. Glancing back over his shoulder he only saw three of the Chaotix: Espio must have gone invisible. Running blindly around the next familiar corner, he collided with something hard that yelped loudly and was knocked flying into the opposite wall. It was a surprised looking robot bat: Pip.

"You were supposed to be looking where you were going," she complained, rubbing the back of her head ruefully.

Knuckles had no time to reply as at that moment he was slammed against the wall, knocking all the breath from his body, with the crimson robot's hands around his throat. He gasped and writhed, trying to shove him away with his feet, but to no avail. For no reason that was immediately apparent, Robo Knux dropped him, spinning round furiously. He sank to his knees, feeling his crushed windpipe and wondering whether he was going to vomit. It seemed that Mighty had hit the robot hard in the back of the head, using a large rock that he had picked up off the floor.

A savage blow to his face knocked the armadillo to the ground. Despite some blood he was not hurt badly, having managed to avoid the brunt of the assault, just a little stunned. Charmy, flying above, supposedly out of harm's way, received the same well thrown rock between the eyes, dropping to the ground with a yell. Vector, attempting a surprise charge, tripped over Pip's outstretched foot, sprawling in a heap and cracking his jaw heavily on the floor.

"Is it just me, or are there more of you every time we meet?" she commented, standing.

Whirling, Robo Knux fired a shot into what appeared to be thin air. With a howl of pain Espio reappeared, collapsing, his body singed badly. Then the robots were away, sprinting towards the exit.

"Sonic, look out!" Knuckles bawled at the top of his lungs.

"You go," Vector told him. "We'll make sure Espio's okay."

Scrambling to his feet, the echidna ran for the exit, breathing harshly. There was a scream from outside and he quickened his pace. Tails was sitting on the floor, looking a little shocked, but none of them were hurt. "I'm fine. He just shoved me, that's all," the fox was explaining. Sable helped him to his feet, relieved.

"After them!" Knuckles called over his shoulder, running in pursuit of the two robots. "This is the last chance we've got to stop them! If we don't do it this time then we'll all be dead or worse!"

Sonic was beside him in an instant. "I'm right with you, Knux." The others were not too far behind either. The robots had got a good head start, although no one on Mobius could outrun Sonic when he was going flat out. Unfortunately, they did not have to outrun him: they were headed straight for the edge of the island. Without looking back, the two of them ran straight off, Robo Knux's jet burners in his dreadlocks firing up; Pip merely spreading her wings. Deciding without even particularly considering the matter, that they simply could not afford to lose them now, Knuckles glided after them, his dreadlocks fanning out like he was underwater. Tails grabbed hold of Sonic's hands, airlifting them off the ground. Sable hesitated for a second, realising that he had no choice over what he was about to do if he did not want to be left behind.

"Take hold of my hand," he told Mecha, while at the same time thinking 'No, don't!'. "Whatever you do, don't let go. And make sure you shout directions to me, otherwise I won't go the right way."

Grabbing hold of the robot's proffered hand, too hurried to be nervous, he stepped into space. Instead of falling though, he just stood on thin air. Metal Sonic saw that he had his eyes closed; obviously the reason why he needed to be directed. "Forward," he commanded. Sable sprinted in the direction that he was facing. He certainly was fine at short distances, like he had said before.

"It's the other power of the Gemstone," Sable told him, answering his unspoken question.

"A little to the left. You can hover?"

"Nah. What happens is I concentrate very hard and I imagine platforms or other objects like that underneath me. They aren't there, and yet they are in some dimension - they must be: you're running on one now after all. It works for other things too. I could imagine an ice-cream soda if I wanted too, although there wouldn't be much point since it's not really there, not completely that is."

"Do you need to close your eyes?"

"No, but I don't want to get distracted at this height. It wouldn't exactly be pretty."

"True. Down." Sable ran down a flight of imaginary steps. If you had had good vision and had screwed up your eyes, you might have seen the faintest of shimmers beneath them.

After several minutes of the various ways of air travel, the two Mecha bots alighted on the ground in the area that the locals called the Mystic Caves. It was a dense overgrown jungle, filled with ruins of ancient one-grand and might buildings as well as, of course, caverns. It was to one of these that they were headed, brushing aside the creepers and hanging vines. The only real danger in the jungle was the colonies of Flashers, large insects that could let loose a large charge of high-voltage electricity if they felt threatened. These were no problem at all as long as they were left alone to their own devices.

There was a crescendoing rumble as they entered, the ground beneath their feet trembling violently. Pip looked questioningly at Robo Knuckles. "Damnare is stirring," he explained. "He can sense the closeness of the emeralds."

"A light sleeper, huh?"

A gaping chasm lay in front of them; they cleared it easily with running jumps, like fawns bounding over a particularly wide brook. The other side was a gigantic rock pinnacle with stone steps cut into the side in a spiralling effect. They began to run round the twists ...

The group of pursuers burst into the cavern, looking around. Sonic and Mecha, who were in the lead, ran to make the jump across the abyss. The robot landed safely on the other side, running up the slope after Robo Knux and Pip. Normally, Sonic would have had no problems either, except as he neared the edge he tripped over a loose rock, falling into nothingness.

Knuckles made a grab for him, securing a hold on his foot, almost tumbling over the edge himself. Tails and Sable held onto him, finishing off the balancing act. If it had not been such a deadly serious situation it could have been a laughable effect.

Elsewhere, the two robots had reached the top of the pinnacle. "Could you pass me the emeralds please?" Robo Knux asked in what he obviously thought was a gallant voice.

"Sure." Pip handed them over, just as there was a fluttering of wings from overhead. They looked up in surprise, wondering what it could be. It was, quite simply, the most ugly and repulsive creature that either of them had ever seen, alive or dead. It had huge leathery brown wings, flecked sparsely with fur, a face not unsimilar to that of a mutilated rat, a skinny blood stained body, short gnarled arms and legs, broken teeth and claws with the enamel peeling off them. The creature was covered all over in scars. It smelled as a dead creature would, rotting and decaying, a powerful stench creeping into their sensory instruments.

"A Chaos Minion." He sounded almost awed.

"Really?" said Pip. "Does it do tricks?"

The ugly creature swooped down at her, snarling. Taken completely unawares, she was smashed to the ground with a cog-jarring thump as the creature set about her, slashing and ripping. It was doing a surprising amount of damage despite its bedraggled appearance. Robo Knux succeeded in beating it off using his knux-claws; it flew back into the air, only its torn wings keeping it aloft.

"Kyrark!" it cried, obviously some kind of battle cry.

A shimmering wave passed through the air, hitting the crimson robot. The Chaos Minion's eyes glowed red as it hung suspended. "What's happened to it?" asked Pip, wonderingly.

Robo Knux did not answer right away, and when he did his voice sounded strange and almost distant. "Are they still following us?"

The robot bat was puzzled, shrugging though, she walked over to the edge of the parapet, peering over. "They look like they're having some problems too. Speedyboots has fallen into the chasm or something. I think-" She never got to say what she thought as at that moment she received a hard shove from behind. Falling into space she tried desperately to clutch at something - anything - that might break her fall. Unwittingly, she caught the Chaos Minion a blow to the head. It dropped like a stone, bouncing off the ledges with horrible cracking sounds.

Above, Robo Knux shook his head, waking from the monster's trance. He took a moment to gain his bearings then, with an anguished cry, rushed to look down. There was no sign of Pip anywhere. The crimson robot turned back, shocked. The only thing left for him to do was to wake the Bringer of Doom. With its supreme powers it might be able to bring her back. Or so he hoped.

Pip realised, with some surprise, that she had stopped falling. Something above her was holding her up by her ankle. Slowly, it pulled her up, back onto firm ground and safety. The robot immediately looked to see who her rescuer was. "Oh," she said blankly. "Mecha, you saved me."

"Are you all right?" He sounded concerned.

"I've been better, but then again I've been worse. I'll live."

The whole of the cavern shook again, more violently this time, almost dropping them into the deep oblivion. The blue robot pulled her helpfully to her feet. "Come on," he told her. "We have not got much time."

Thoroughly confused and unsure whose side she was on anymore, she followed him. Pip had been perplexed for some time: she had a nagging suspicion that Mecha and Robo Knux were going slightly mad. After all, that ferret that had given them the emerald - well, not strictly given, but exchanged for hard cash - had only insulted her. She was almost used to it by now, and it was not like it had been a really bad one. There had not been any need for Robo Knux to actually kill him for it. They really were acting very strangely towards her.

Tails and Sable had succeeded in pulling Sonic and Knuckles back into the ledge. "Look!" Tails cried, pointing. The earth tremor hit them at that moment, so it was a few seconds before they could follow his pointing finger. Robo Knuckles was standing alone on the summit, staring up the Chaos Emeralds that had lifted up off the ground and were circling high above him, casting their spectrum of colour over the surrounding area: blue, light blue, purple, red, green, yellow and white. Just below the crimson robot were Mecha and Pip, who had obviously not spotted Robo Knux yet. They were not sure why Pip was with the blue robot though, having missed the earlier drama.

"Hey," Sable said. "My gemstone's burning." Indeed it was, for it had singed the fur in the place on his chest where it usually rested. A red light was being emitted, making it look more like the miniature sun that it was supposed to represent.

"It's trying to prevent the Damnare creature from waking," Knuckles guessed. "It's not strong enough on its own though; it'd need the two other Gemstones for that."

"Can you make a bridge across?" Tails asked the dog.

"I can try." Promptly, he ran across the chasm, the others following close behind.

"How is he going to control Damnare once he has woken?" Mecha asked as they scrambled up the last few steps.

"I think he's gonna be a bit dozy when he wakes up for the first few seconds, like most people are in the mornings. ID's going to try and hypnotise him while he's like that, otherwise he wouldn't stand a chance."

"The lives of danger we lead are but the games of fools," Mecha quoted.

"Mm."

"So all we have to do is distract him long enough for Damnare to get his bearings, correct?"

"Wouldn't that be a little dangerous?"

"Fools' games. You are good at distractions, are you not?"

"Guess so."

Mecha nodded. "Good."

The two parties converged on the summit at about the same time as the earth-shattering roar echoed around the cavern. A huge head reared out of the darkness, snarling its waking cry. If anything they had seen thus far was terrifying then this abomination was beyond all definition. Its actual features were hard to make out: it was a shadow: impenetrable and free from all light. The emeralds had clattered to the ground once more, unnoticed and forgotten in the face of this threat.

"Look into my eyes," the crimson robot commanded it, recovering from his first sight of the living nightmare. He had not yet seen any of the others, so absolute was his concentration.

"The show off!" Sable exclaimed loudly. "Only melodramatic self obsessed jerks ever actually say that line." At any other time Sonic would have laughed himself silly. Somehow though, the dog's outrage did not seem funny at that moment.

However, it did distract Robo Knux who glanced around to see who had spoken. A fleeting look of worry passed over his countenance, although he discarded it with admirable swiftness. "You just don't give up, do you?" he sneered, patronisingly. "I see that you have arrived in time to witness my victory. There is nothing you can do now to stop me taking control of Damnare."

"You couldn't hypnotise a maggot," said a calm voice behind him. Turning angrily, expecting more Freedom Fighters, he found himself looking at Pip.

"You're alive. Are you ... okay?"

"You just pushed me off a cliff. What do you think?" Sarcasm was not one of the bat's strong points: she had heard that line used several times in movies.

"I promise that I can explain," Robo Knux answered smoothly, his mind returning swiftly to Damnare. "Just not right now." Focusing his liquid green gaze to make contact with the nightmare shadow, he continued where he had left off. "You are feeling sleepy ..."

Sable's meaningful cough was drowned by the great booming laugh that echoed around the cavern. "Do not tell me my feelings, little robot. I know my own mind well enough."

Robo Knux looked horrified. "You are too late," Mecha told him, his voice fairly dripping with smug satisfaction. "Damnare is beyond your control now."

"Great," said Sonic. "Now what?"

"We've got to take the emeralds: it's the only way to seal him up again." Knuckles once more stepped into the breech, being the greatest authority on powerful gems there. he spoke both quickly and quietly, though all the Mobians heard him. "Pip, can you distract him?"

"Roger that," said pip cheerfully, stepping forward. "Hey!" she called to the monster at the top of her voice. "You up there! Yep, you with the shadow-face."

"Yes?" The growl reverberated around the cavern.

Sonic and the others grabbed an emerald each, following Knuckles who had taken two. Even Robo Knux was deigning to help, since he was now included in the everything that Damnare would destroy given half the chance. The conversation, one half boomed, the other half shouted, provided their cover.

"I order you to surrender now!"

The laugh echoed about them once more. "You are asking me to surrender to you? Why not surrender yourself and I will make your death swift." Both Mecha and Robo Knux stopped dead at this, then ere pushed and shoved along by the others.

"What?" the bat rallied. "Surrender when I'm losing? How predictable. How crass. And by the by, if it's anything less than a hideously painful death then I'm not interested."

"Ha! Heroism!"

"Actually, I prefer villainism."

"You puny creature!"

"Puny creature, huh? Be warned, I never forget a face. Especially not one as big and ugly as yours."

Knuckles pointed to the pedestals, seven of them dotted at angels around the centre of the cavern mouth. "We need to put an emerald in each of those. No, don't argue. I read up on it when you first told me about it. If we trap Damnare in a circle of Chaos Emeralds then we can seal him up again. When you've done that, tilt the pedestals inwards on my say so, not before or after."

Sonic sprinted away to the furthest pedestal, the others taking his lead. Meanwhile, Pip's distraction was reaching its climax.

"I could kill you in an instant," Damnare snarled. Amidst the murky darkness two red eyes flared briefly.

"Go ahead, make my day."

Robo Knux looked up from setting his emerald to see Pip shooting through the air, not by choice either, trailing smoke. She hit the ground headfirst a few feet away with a resounding crash, rolling to a stop, completely caked in dust and mud. The crimson robot hesitated for the briefest of seconds before rushing over to her. "Speak to me!" he hissed urgently, shaking her.

Her ice blue eyes flickered back on and she gave him a groggy look. "He wasn't supposed to do that."

"Are you okay?" He realised only after he had said it that it was the second time within ten minutes that he had asked her that question.

"If I'm not dead then, yep, I guess so."

Robo Knux was bowled over backwards by a foot that came from out of the blue and planted itself in his face. Mecha glowered at him furiously. "Get lost, moron," he snapped.

"Moron yourself, jerk," retorted the echidna robot, bounding to his feet and swinging a fist at him.

It would probably have developed into a fully-fledged fight had Sonic not separated them. "Cut it out! You're going to get us all killed if you don't get back to your emeralds." On a sudden impulsive inspiration he added: "And that all includes Pip, too." Even afterwards he was not quite sure what had made him say it; it just seemed to do the trick. The robots ran back to their posts in a flash. Sonic quickly explained to the bat what they had to do before sprinting back to his own.

During this time, Damnare had been destroying the roof of the cavern using large, inky black claws, to create an easy route into the outside world. He had disregarded the insignificant creatures that milled about, deciding that they were not worth his while. When Knuckles called to him however, he looked round at once. "Still here, little creature?" he mocked. "You are more stupid than I thought."

"We've asked you once already, and this is the final time. Surrender now, or you'll regret it."

"Never!" His voice was even louder than it had been, filling the night sky with his might and power. "Even the stars tremble at my name. I am Damnare!"

Knuckles shrugged. "Goodbye." He tilted his pedestal forward, a beam of colour shooting out of the Chaos Emerald like the beam of a searchlight, hitting the shadow beast, penetrating it with its glowing radiance. All around him, the other emeralds were doing the same, making the whole illuminated scene look like the opening promenade of a fireworks display. Damnare's demonic roaring laughter had turned to screams. The shadows writhed, twisted, leapt, caught up in the eternal battle between the dark and light. The highest pitch of sound was reached; the shadows struggled their hardest ... Then there was nothing: no light, no dark, no scream: a complete and absolute vacuum.

The stillness was broken by a sudden war whoop from Sonic. The hedgehog, the echidna, the fox and the dog all ran to each other, laughing, cheering, and clapping each other on the back. "Way to go Knux!" Tails enthused, ducking a mock punch from Sonic. "You were as cool as an ice-cream in the arctic back there."

The three robots came hesitantly over, Metal Sonic and Robo Knuckles arguing over who should support Pip, who seemed to have a broken leg. "Congratulations," Mecha told them stiffly. He appeared to be under great strain not the attempt to kill Sonic, now that the worst was over. Robo Knux stood with his arms folded: there was nothing really that he could safely say.

Sable, however, had cut short his part in the celebration. Instead, he was staring at something, gnawing worriedly at his bottom lip. "Is that thing supposed to be there?" he asked eventually. "Please say yes." They looked. A spiralling vortex hovered a few feet off the floor, undulating and rippling in front of them. To say it was black would be being inaccurate: it was nothing; complete and utter non-existence. What was worse was that it was growing larger by the second. Unwittingly, they all looked towards Mecha for the answer.

"It is a gap between the dimensions. Not a particular dimension as such, but all of them at once. To put it into layman's terms, it is a void. You would know it as a black hole, I imagine. The sudden destruction of Damnare must have caused it somehow."

"Can we close it?" Sonic could not bear the thought of coming so far, destroying the monster of doom, only to be beaten by a 'lousy black hole'. It did not seem fair to his way of thinking.

"Only if someone fills the gap." Another pause. This time all eyes flicked towards Robo Knuckles. "I can think of someone very suitable for that purpose."

"Go fill it yourself."

"None of you will be doing that." They spun around. Somehow, while Mecha and Robo Knux had been speaking, Pip had managed to limp over to the vortex, her broken leg dragging on the floor like that of a wounded dog. "Because I'm going to." Sonic's brain registered complete horror. He should have guessed that the bat would attempt something like that. Even at Knothole, she had always had a strange notion that everybody else mattered more than she did. He wondered if it was possible to have a villain who was too nice for their own good.

"No!" the two Mecha bots yelled in unison. They were too late. Pip had stepped into the vortex, seeming to merge with it almost, leaving nothing where they had both been.

The ground trembled again, and they looked around them, like frightened rabbits. Then, the moon and the stars went out.

A minute or two later, the twilight colours shone once more, perhaps having been eclipsed, perhaps not. They shone down on the remains of the cavern, where only rubble lay. The six Mobians had vanished into thin air.

When the Chaotix Crew came looking for them the next day, recruiting the Freedom Fighters to help them in their search, it lasted over a week. In the end, they had to give up, since no trace of them could be found. They had simply been wiped from the face of the planet.

The End. (Until the next time)