"Well well," said Eggman, fingering his generous mustache. He sat in a comfortable swivel chair in the control room of his base, surrounded by screens. Each showed a view from a different camera or spy drone. But the center screen, in ultra high resolution, showed the view through Metal Sonic's eyes.
Together they had watched Knuckles walk straight through every obstacle in his path, his face blank and eyes fixed, like a sleepwalker. Then he stopped and looked around, apparently waking up-noticed Metal Sonic, and fled.
Orbot and Cubot watched, too. "That is very strange," said Orbot. "He acts as if that emerald is controlling him."
"When I want your opinion, I'll ask for it," Eggman snapped. "Metal Sonic, replay footage and focus on the crystal."
The footage rewound and zoomed in on the green gem. Eggman leaned close to the screen. "Hmm. It does look like an emerald. Metal Sonic, did you take readings?"
Another screen lit with a feed of Metal Sonic's findings. Spectral analysis discovered both chaos energy, and the wavelength peculiar to emeralds. Metal Sonic added a text message. "Shall I kill the echidna?"
"No! Observe only," said Eggman. "Really, since Lyric upgraded you, you've had far too many of these ideas."
Metal Sonic texted, "I exist to serve you, Master."
"Suck-up," muttered Cubot.
But Eggman continued to lean over the control panel, reading the analysis and studying the image. His enormous brain spun the possibilities every which way-a gem that hypnotized the user? Could be used to control Sonic and use him against his friends. Or get more gems and give one to all the rodents. It looked like ordinary chaos crystal. Of course, the echidna had awakened from his trance, which wouldn't do if Eggman wanted fighting machines ...
"Metal Sonic," he said, "follow and observe, but do not be seen. I need more data on this emerald, and how it affects minds."
As the sun sank that evening, Sonic knocked on the door of Knuckles's house. "Hey Knux, barbecue's on. Come and get it."
No answer. Sonic peered through a window. Knuckles was inside, lifting weights with his back to the door and headphones on.
Sonic knocked harder, but when Knuckles didn't hear, he opened the door, crossed the room, and tapped the echidna on the shoulder.
Knuckles gasped and whirled, dropping the weights. "Sonic!" He tore off his headphones. "What are you doing in my house?"
"Sorry, buddy," said Sonic. He jerked a thumb over his shoulder. "Amy's deep pit is ready."
"Oh." Knuckles stashed the weights in their rack, and laid his music player on a shelf. "You could have knocked."
Sonic shrugged and let that one go. "Hey, I wanted to apologize for earlier."
Knuckles headed out the door. "For what, being yourself? It's no big deal." He added under his breath, "We all know I'm the dumb muscle."
For some reason, this sent a surge of alarm through Sonic's heart. Knuckles never, ever acknowledged the jokes about his intelligence. He always made out that he was actually the smart one. Something had changed inside the big red echidna.
Sonic hurried to walk beside him. "What's the matter, Knux?"
"Nothing."
"Was it the storm? I know I could have done more-"
"No, it wasn't that." Knuckles walked with his head down, a scowl creasing his forehead. "I'm just hungry, that's all."
"Heh, me too." Sonic couldn't get any more out of him. But he anxiously watched his friend all through dinner.
The barbecue was otherwise a success. Amy had invited some of her friends, among them Perci, a lavender echidna who wore her dreadlocks pulled back. "Wouldn't you like to sit over here with Knuckles?"
Perci shrugged. "If it's all the same to you, I'd rather sit with Sonic." And she did, immediately asking him about his latest fight with Eggman.
Amy mentally smacked her forehead. That wasn't what she'd meant to do at all. But rather than mope about, watching Sonic entertain another girl, she kept busy serving food and making sure everyone was happy.
The only one alone was Knuckles. He had loaded a plate with beef, corn on the cob, watermelon and salad, and was eating his way through everything. Amy sat down. "How's the food?"
He gave her a thumbs up, since his mouth was full.
Amy leaned on the table and watched the party with the alert observation of a good hostess.
"You sure work hard at these things," Knuckles remarked. "Thanks."
Flattered, Amy beamed at him. "You're welcome! I think this is the first time you've ever noticed anything I did."
Knuckles glanced over his shoulder, into the dark jungle beyond the houses. "I've been noticing more stuff lately. Like, today I saw Metal Sonic."
Amy stiffened and whipped around to inspect the darkness, too, expecting to see a pair of red eyes glowing among the tree trunks. "I didn't know Eggman rebuilt him. He's here?"
"I don't know. I saw him out in the forest, but he probably followed me." Knuckles took another bite, chewed and swallowed. "Something's wrong with me."
Amy tore her eyes away from the darkness. "What? Did you hurt yourself lifting too much weight again?"
The echidna shook his head. "The reason I was out in the forest at all-I just woke up out there."
Amy folded her hands on one knee. "Really? How did that happen?" All her psychology reading sprang to the forefront of her mind, ready for use.
Knuckles again checked the dark woods. "I went out this morning, and I fou-I had an episode then. I only went about twenty feet before I woke up. Then this afternoon, I walked a quarter of a mile into the jungle."
"Like sleepwalking?" Amy said.
He shrugged. "I guess?"
"Maybe you have epilepsy. You know, seizures."
"Seizures that make me walk straight east every time?" Knuckles said, skeptically.
"Hm." Amy drummed on the table with a fork, and rested her chin in one hand. "This is fascinating. It could be some kind of hypnosis."
"What's that?"
"Hypnosis is a sleep state that is sensitive to suggestion. Has anyone interacted with you via repetitive images, moving objects, or lights?"
Knuckles ate a bite before answering, "Not really."
"Nobody?" Amy pressed. "There has to be a hypnotist involved. Unless you're hypnotizing yourself."
"What, like this?" Knuckles flexed a substantial bicep several times. "Oh yeah, I could watch that all day. Am I hypnotized?"
Amy smirked. "If it hasn't put you in a trance before, I doubt it will now." She frowned and bit her lip, resisting the urge to look over her shoulder again. "Let me know if it happens again, okay? We need to find what's causing it."
"Right. Um." Knuckles gave her an imploring look. "Don't tell anybody about this, okay? Sonic will never let me forget it."
"Or Eggman might find out," Amy said.
Knuckles stood and lifted his empty plate. "Eggman already knows. Metal Sonic saw me, remember?" He walked toward the garbage bin, leaving Amy with a sudden knot of dread in her stomach.
That night, Knuckles slept badly. Strange visions haunted his dreams-machines, faces of the Ancients carved in stone, and most of all, the emerald, always the emerald's enticing green glow.
He awoke and lay staring into the darkness. The room was stuffy and breathless, and sweat drenched his fur. The clock on his windowsill said it was 2:15.
Knuckles got up and poured himself a drink of water. It soothed his thirst, but the unrest persisted inside him. The frantic, urgent need to handle the chaos emerald, look into its glow. But no! It would hypnotize him, as Amy had said, and force him to walk who knows where. It must be feeding him suggestions, somehow.
But his palms itched for the gem's cool weight.
He opened a window and went back to bed, but sleep eluded him. It was a forbidden temptation, like knowing where the chocolate was stashed, and knowing he wasn't allowed to eat any. The more he tried not to think about it, the more he thought about it.
Finally, without consciously choosing to, Knuckles got up, opened the strong box, and extracted the emerald.
As soon as its cool smoothness hit his palm, he felt better. Keeping it away from his eyes, he shoved it under his pillow and lay down.
Sleep came immediately, but so did the dreams. Knuckles ran endlessly through dark, overgrown forest, toward a glow that remained hidden just beyond sight. Panic tore at him. Something terrible would happen if he didn't reach the light. Behind him, monsters roared. People screamed. He had to get there, before it was too late-
Knuckles blinked.
He stood in the jungle, emerald in hand. The sky beyond the treetops was the gray of dawn, and as usual, he was facing east. But in front of him was a huge boulder that had recently been cracked in two. Very recently-there was still dust crumbling from the edges of the crack. And his fist ached.
He had punched through a boulder in his sleep. Under the emerald's influence.
Knuckles's heart was still pounding from the exertion, but now it began to pound for a different reason. What if it had been a person in his way? Like Sonic, or Tails, trying to stop his entranced rush through the jungle? Would he have attacked them?
He ran back toward the village. His back trail was easy to follow-he had smashed through a fallen log, too. It was broken to splinters as if a bomb had hit it.
Panting, nervous, he stepped out of the woods and met Sticks.
She crouched in the fork of a tree fifteen feet from the ground, gripping her boomerang. Her green clothes and brown fur blended perfectly with the jungle, and the only reason he noticed her was because she drew back her arm to throw her boomerang.
Knuckles froze and shielded himself with both arms. "Sticks, don't!"
She hesitated, watching him. "I saw you run by. You were crazy. You smashed everything."
"Well, I'm not anymore," said Knuckles. He hid the emerald behind his back, but Sticks had already seen it.
"It's the shiny, isn't it?" Sticks said accusingly. "It makes you crazy."
"No! It's just something I found. Don't tell anybody, please?"
But Sticks gave him That Look. The look that said that he had gone from friend to Number One Person Out To Get Her. She leaped out of the tree and ran away.
Knuckles ran the other direction, to his hut. The door stood open, where he must have burst outside in his emerald-induced frenzy. He grabbed the black bag, stuffed the emerald inside, then dug a deep hole behind his hut and buried it.
But the damage was done.
After he showered, he went out to the little cafe where the gang always ate breakfast. Hunger gnawed inside him, and he couldn't skip breakfast if he'd wanted to. That nighttime run had burned serious calories.
Sticks was already there. She sat at a table with Sonic, Tails and Amy, their heads together. As Knuckles approached, they all looked at him with wide-eyed, speculative expressions. He cringed. What had she told them?
He ordered an omelette and a stack of waffles, then faced his friends.
"Well?" Sonic said, as Knuckles sat down.
"Well what?" Knuckles replied. Deny everything. Your word against hers.
"Sticks said you were running wild, breaking stuff. She says-" Sonic side-eyed Sticks. "-that you've been brainwashed by an alien artifact."
"And you're going to attack us to make way for your alien overlords!" Sticks exclaimed, pointing at him.
Knuckles glanced at Amy. She said nothing, but gave him a significant look. At least one of his friends was on his side.
He drew a deep breath. "I just started a new workout routine, guys. If I'm going to punch through robots, I gotta stay in shape by hitting other hard stuff. That's all."
"He had the alien artifact with him!" Sticks said. "It glowed green and it had brainwashed him!"
Knuckles held up his enerbeam bracelet. "I was using this. Duh."
Sticks glared at him, and he glared back.
The waiter arrived with their breakfasts, providing a welcome interruption. Sonic looked around the table and held up both hands. "We're going to assume that Knux hasn't been brainwashed by aliens for now. Everybody cool with that?"
Everyone nodded except Sticks, who ate without taking her eyes off the echidna.
Knuckles devoured his own breakfast, thankful for Sonic's loyalty. They had known each other since they were kids, and while Sonic teased him, he'd also stuck with Knuckles through lots of tough times.
He hoped the emerald wouldn't force him to betray that loyalty.