Ch.2: Secrets Unlocked
"Knuckles, what did you wish for?" said Sonic, trying to keep his balance on the shaking ground.
" I only wished to know what happened to my kind," said Knuckles, gripping the ground.
" Is the island falling?" asked Shadow grabbing onto a tree.
" It shouldn't be," said Knuckles.
Suddenly all the shaking stopped and everyone was able to catch a breather after the unexpected earthquake. Sonic imediately ran to the edge of the island to make sure it was still floating in the air, and returned seconds later declaring to the others that Angel Island was still airborne. Espio's concern however was locked on the sky.
"Why did the sky turn red all the sudden?" he asked.
" Must have happened when Knuckles made his wish," said Shadow.
" But he only wished to know what happened to the other echidnas" said Amy " so why did all of this happen?"
As everyone thought about it Knuckles perphial vision caught sight of a glow behind the Crystal Falls and dragged everyone's attention to it.
" There's something back there," said Knuckles.
"Then let's check it out," said Sonic.
Together all of them started to walk through a tunnel behind Crystal Falls that was revealed during the earthquake. Knuckles was in the lead followed by Rouge, Sonic, Amy, Shadow, Tails, Cream and Cheese, and the Chaotix.
"Ow!" said Sonic when he and gang were only a few feet into the tunnel.
" Are you alright?" said Amy.
"Yeah" said Sonic getting up " I think I tripped on a stone or something. It's hard to see in here,"
"There's a light up ahead" said Knuckles " hang on,"
Soon Sonic and the gang stepped into a large luminous cavern that held the perfectly perserved ruins of an ancient city. 'Wow' was the only word you could use to describe it.
"Whoa" said Sonic in awe to Knuckles " I can't believe you never metioned to us about a whole city being on your island,"
" I didn't know it was here," said Knuckles.
" It seems like this place hasn't been disturbed in thousands of years" said Tails " and yet everything is still standing, even if a bit dusty,"
" Hey" said Shadow pointing over to the center of the city were a huge shrine was " that glow is coming from that shrine,"
"What are we waiting for?" said Vector " let's find out what it is,"
But as the group wandered through the city towards the shrine a bad feeling dug into Knuckles heart causing him to give the whole city a second glance. It was all like one big illussion for he had seen this exact same city from his nightmares, but why were no other echidnas there. Something terrible must have happened long ago and as the gang got closer to the shrine Knuckles wasn't sure if he was ready to find out the truth.
"So who wants to climb to the top first?" asked Rouge.
" Is the lady to scared to climb?" asked Shadow.
" I'll go," said Knuckles and started climbing up the shrine stairs.
Not wanting Knuckles to go alone Sonic followed his pal up there, but as the two got closer to the top the ground started to shake once again forcing Sonic and Knuckles to grip onto the stairs while everyone made their way to safer ground.
A black light suddenly shot up from the middle of the alter illuminating the entire area with it's dark light. After a sudden flash the floating oject was revealed to be a chaos emerald. But something was different about this one, 'cause unlike the other seven it glowed pure black.
A silver light broke free from the dark emerald and soon took on a shape of his own. Everyone's eyes nearly widened at the similairity, for the strange silver creature looked a lot like Super Sonic except his spines were longer and his eyes glowed green.
"Finally" he said holding up the black chaos emerald " after a thousand years of imprisionment I am finally free to take my revenge of those foolish echdinas,"
"Who is this guy?" said Amy.
The strange silver being looked around, but when he spotted no other echdina except Knuckles he demanded to know what happened to the others.
"They dissappeared a long time ago" said Knuckles standing up to the silver being bravely " I'm the last of my kind,"
"Very well then young Guardian" said the silver hedgehog " I will come back to kill you at your weakest point. And let it be immortalized in stone that Nazo, the Great Destroyer, put an end to echidna race once and for all,"
With that said the being called Nazo disappeared.
