Chapter 4
The next morning, Sonic and Tails awakened from their deep sleep. They were no longer in front of Casinopolis. Instead, they were lying on a bench near the Emerald Coast Hotel.
"What happened?" Sonic wondered. "And how did we get here?"
Tails looked around, rubbing his eyes. He gasped. "The emerald's gone! Eggman must have stolen it."
"Come on, we have to get moving. He's beating us 2 to 0 with the chaos emeralds!" Sonic said. "Let's go back to the Tornado!"
With that, Sonic and Tails ran back to the beach at the Emerald Coast Hotel, where the Tornado was still waiting. They hopped in, turned the plane around, and took off, flying into the clear blue sky.
Later, Knuckles was searching around Mystic Ruins for another piece of the Master Emerald, still thinking about his experience from the night before.
"Eggman was probably right about some of this. If I find that Sonic really is going after the shards of the Master Emerald," Knuckles said as he tensed up, "I will teach him a lesson that he shall remember for a very long time."
A buzzing sound was heard overhead, and his senses began to react. The Tornado was flying above Knuckles while it was heading to Tails' workshop. Sitting in Tails' lap was a blue chaos emerald that they recently acquired. Sonic stood on the wings as usual, and all seemed to be going perfect.
Without warning, strong winds began pushing against the plane, tilting it completely on its side. Sonic was clinging on the wings for dear life as the plane started to roll over.
"It's too windy here, Sonic!" Tails screamed.
With all of his strength, Tails tried to roll the plane back to an upright position, but to no avail. The Tornado rolled onto the other side instead and spiraled out of the sky.
"Not this again!" Tails cried. "And it's not even because of an emerald this time!"
The ground was quickly catching up to them. Tails managed to jerk his plane upright at the very last second, landing safely on the ground.
"Wow. I hope I won't have to go through that again," Tails panted, trying to catch his breath.
Their relief was short-lived, however. "Look out!" Tails shouted, pointing to his left.
A large tornado was slowly but steadily moving straight towards Sonic and Tails. The chaos emerald in Tails' hand seemed to be flashing faster and faster the closer the windstorm came to them.
"Are you kidding me?" Sonic said, "The emerald seems to be inside the tornado!"
Sonic was ready to take action, but Tails was worried about what might happen to him inside the tornado.
"Tails," Sonic reassured his best friend, "maybe if I could run around the tornado in the opposite direction it's spinning, I could probably generate enough wind of my own to cancel it out!"
"Are you sure you can do it, Sonic? That tornado is pretty big!" Tails worried.
"There's only one way to find out, buddy. Let's put this Light Speed Dash to the test!"
Tails handed the emerald to Sonic. While the hedgehog was crouching down, the golden studs in his shoes began to glow, and several blue orbs of energy drew themselves into the studs.
"Ready!" Sonic cried.
Sonic bolted towards the tornado at the speed of sound, leaving behind a trail of blue light. Tails was taken aback by Sonic's speed. In no time at all, Sonic reached the mighty tornado.
"Alright, emerald, it's your turn," Sonic said. As if it was responding to him, the emerald glowed blue, and Sonic was now surrounded by a veil of blue light. He rolled into a spin dash, going even faster. Sonic whirled around the tornado in the opposite direction, and the trails of blue light wrapped around the twister like thread as Sonic continued to speed around it. With such force coming from the opposite direction, the tornado began to weaken.
"Keep going, Sonic! It's starting to work!" Tails cheered.
Meanwhile, Knuckles wasn't too far away from the natural disturbance. Following Sonic and Tails' trail, the echidna's senses began to act up again. He stopped where his senses detected an emerald, but he couldn't see any sign of one.
"Is it... underground?" Knuckles wondered.
He thought about what Tikal had last said to him. "The Shovel Claws!" Knuckles remembered. He dug them out of his sack and slipped them onto his hands.
"All right, let's see what these babies can do," Knuckles grinned as he scooped a pile of dirt with ease. He used his other hand and scooped up another pile of dirt. "These seem to be working great. I love these!" Knuckles smiled at how effective his new Shovel Claws were.
He continued scooping up more and more dirt, burrowing himself into the ground. In no time at all, he felt the claws hitting something that was rather hard. Seeing a hint of green light, he scooped up another piece of the Master Emerald. Grinning, he put both the emerald shard and the Shovel Claws into his sack. With the sensation gone, he decided it was time to have a showdown with Sonic.
Sonic was still spinning vigorously around the tornado's unsteady winds. Eventually, the tornado dispersed, and a bright green chaos emerald fell from the sky, landing in Sonic's hand.
"You did it, Sonic! I couldn't have expected anything different from you!" Tails praised his friend.
"I know," Sonic gloated, "I'm the best, aren't I?"
Knuckles watched Sonic and Tails in their moment of glory. He walked right up to them with a stern look on his face and his fists clenched tightly.
"Eggman was right. He really does want the emeralds for himself," Knuckles growled.
Sonic heard Knuckles coming towards them. "Hey, Knuckles," he smiled, "how's it going?"
Knuckles did not return Sonic's friendly greeting. "Give me that emerald. Right now! I will not ask twice! Just give it to me and we can go about this in peace."
"First," Sonic asserted, "you didn't ask me for it. You demanded it. And second, it's not going to happen!"
"How dare you defy me!" Knuckles' rage boiled from inside his very core. Knuckles swung a fist at Sonic, who easily dodged his attack.
"What's gotten into you lately, Knux?" Sonic asked.
"I just want that emerald!" Knuckles growled as he tried to punch Sonic, who quickly rolled away.
Sonic took the offensive position, jumped up, and zoomed straight down at Knuckles, who managed to deflect the hedgehog with his fists.
Knuckles slammed his fists down at the ground, causing a powerful shock wave that knocked Sonic slightly off balance. Seeing this as an opportunity, Knuckles ran at Sonic and tried to punch him again, but Sonic jumped backwards and landed some distance away.
Sonic then ran straight at Knuckles and tried to tackle him like a football player, but the echidna was prepared for the attack, and he just slid backwards, still standing on his feet. Tails was forced to watch his two best friends fighting each other from the sidelines.
"Cool it, you two!" Tails pleaded. "You're supposed to be friends!"
The little fox's cries weren't heard by either of his friends, who were too focused on one another to hear anything. Sonic charged up his Light Speed Dash, but Knuckles knocked him out of the way before it was fully charged, canceling Sonic's attempted maneuver.
Both Sonic and Knuckles have had enough. For one final confrontation, the two rivals charged straight at each other, colliding with great force. The two chaos emeralds flew out of Sonic's hands and rolled across the grass before they fell into the lake.
"No! The chaos emeralds!" Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles all shouted at the same time.
It was too late to do anything. The water began to glow with a bright light, and Chaos 2 rose out of the lake, clutching both emeralds in his hands. Another powerful evolution occurred, and Chaos emerged from the light as a shark-like creature with razor-like fins. It had a protrusion in its back that resembled a dorsal fin, and his legs were replaced by a shark-like tail. He still had the skeletal bones in his arms, but now he had a skeletal backbone that extended into the tail. The menacing Chaos 4 towered over the three heroes, who were completely dumbfounded.
Eggman appeared and flew in front of Chaos 4 before turning to the heroes. "Hahaha! Your hard work has been in my favor the entire time, you three! You practically gave me your emeralds! Er, you gave Chaos your emeralds, I mean. That means we will have even more power. Just wait until he gets all seven of them! My dreams will come true! Behold Chaos 4!"
"We will not let that happen! You know I'll whip his butt any time of the day, so stop trying. You know I'll always win, Doc," Sonic countered. "Knuckles, did you let him trick you again?"
"Sonic, just shut that big mouth of yours," Knuckles told him before turning his furious gaze towards Eggman. "Remember what happened last time? As soon as I finish off that watery monster, you're next on my list!"
"Oh, we'll see about that," Eggman snickered while Chaos 4 smoothly did a backflip in the water. He began swimming around a little bit and he popped his head back out, gazing at the three heroes.
"I think he's inviting us in for a little showdown! Bring it on, you big drip!" Sonic grinned and prepared to charge at Chaos 4.
Knuckles, being a natural warrior, was prepared for battle.
"Stay back, Tails," Sonic warned. "Knuckles and I will handle this."
"Um, are you sure about that? Sonic, in case you didn't notice, he's in the water," Knuckles teased. "You know that's your greatest weakness."
"Don't worry about me," Sonic said with very slight confidence. "I'll do whatever it takes to beat Eggman and Chaos. Now, let's not keep him waiting any longer."
Sonic and Knuckles dashed straight towards the lake. Chaos 4 swung his arm around, producing a wave of plasma that knocked the duo backwards onto the shore.
"You'll pay for that," Knuckles snarled.
Once Sonic and Knuckles got back on their feet, Chaos 4 shot a jet of water straight at Sonic, who jumped up and avoided the blast. Sailing through the air, he landed on Chaos 4's head and wrapped his arms around him as tightly as he could.
Chaos 4 tried to shake Sonic off his head, but the clingy hedgehog held on tight, flopping around like a rag doll. Knuckles got up just in time to see the monster submerge itself under the water, taking Sonic with him.
"No, Sonic!" cried Tails.
"That's it. I'm going in with him!" Knuckles said and dove into the lake.
Underneath, Chaos 4 was still trying to dislodge Sonic, who held his breath. Knuckles swam as fast as he could to come to Sonic's aid. Seeing this, Chaos grew furious and his eyes glowed a brilliant green. He began rapidly spinning around, creating a whirlpool of water around himself. Finally, Sonic was forced off of him, but Knuckles was struggling against the strong current. Still spinning, Chaos 4 rose up out of the water, creating a massive watery tornado that sucked in everything from the lake. With every passing second, the tornado grew taller and wider. Sonic and Knuckles could be seen spinning around inside, with Chaos 4 in the center of the twister.
"Oh my," Eggman said, taken aback. "Such power... it's amazing! Good work, Chaos!"
"Hey, my friends will never lose a fight with Chaos!" screamed Tails.
The twister then dispersed, and Sonic and Knuckles were thrown out into the air, surrounded by millions of tiny water droplets. They managed to steer their landing towards giant lily pads resting on the surface of the lake. Chaos 4 dove back under, swimming out of sight.
"Wow, he's more powerful than I thought," Sonic panted.
"I told you so, Sonic," Eggman gloated at his enemy. "Why don't you just surrender yourself right now?"
"We will never surrender to the likes of you!" Tails screamed.
With a mighty splash, Chaos 4 vaulted himself out of the water like a dolphin, aiming for Sonic. Sonic jumped out of the way onto another lily pad, and Chaos 4 dove back under.
"Look out!" Tails cried.
Unbeknownst to Sonic and Knuckles, Chaos 4 loomed behind them and discharged a powerful blast of energy, which they didn't react to in time.
Sonic and Knuckles were thrown into the water. Knuckles was good at swimming, so he was able to swim over to another lily pad. Sonic, however, didn't know how to swim, so the poor hedgehog was helplessly bobbing up and down in the water, going nowhere. Chaos 4 swam around and under Sonic like a hungry shark.
Chaos 4 leaped straight at Sonic, but Knuckles gave the monster a swift punch just before he would have struck the hedgehog. With Chaos 4 knocked back under the water, it gave Knuckles enough time to pull Sonic back up onto a lily pad.
"Do I really have to hold your hand all the time, Sonic?" Knuckles asked as Sonic got back up on his feet, coughing and gasping for air.
"I can do this. I'm Sonic the Hedgehog," Sonic said with determination. Chaos 4 rose back up out of the water, morphing into a large ball.
"Not this trick again!" Knuckles yelled.
Chaos 4 had other plans on his mind. He split himself into four smaller spheres, each of them bouncing towards the duo.
"Very creepy," Sonic said.
Like guided missiles, the spheres attacked Sonic and Knuckles in pairs. The heroes were frantically jumping from lily pad to lily pad, trying to outrun the spheres. After a few seconds, the spheres came together and morphed back into Chaos 4.
"I've had enough," Knuckles growled.
"Knuckles, when I say 'go'," Sonic told him, "fire me like a cannonball!"
Sonic jumped to another lily pad and charged up the Light Speed Dash. Chaos 4 swam towards him to stop Sonic's attack, but he was too late. Sonic took off, curled into a ball, and sped straight at Knuckles, who figured out what Sonic had planned to do. He summoned all of his strength, and gave Sonic a powerful kick with his right foot, sending Sonic barreling straight at the monster.
"Look out, Chaos 4!" Eggman warned.
It was too late. Sonic struck Chaos 4's body with extreme force, and the liquid life form exploded into millions of water droplets. Sonic unrolled himself and landed on the shore beside Tails.
"Wow, that was fun! Let's do it again!" Sonic said as he wiped his forehead.
Suddenly, a dark shadow blanketed the lake. A massive, magnificent flying ship sailed above their heads. The heroes looked up at it with dread.
"Behold my latest creation, the Egg Carrier!" Eggman cackled triumphantly. "Savor every second of your well-deserved victory, because I promise that it will be your last."
"Oh, no you don't!" Sonic angrily yelled as two beams of light came down from the Egg Carrier. One hit Eggman and the other hit the remains of Chaos 4. Both of them were pulled upward into the ship's hull. The Egg Carrier began to fly away.
"Come on, we have to stop them!" Sonic told his friends.
"You guys go on without me," Knuckles said. "I have an important task of my own to finish."
"Let's meet up again soon," Tails said to Knuckles as Sonic climbed into the Tornado with him. The propeller spun and they sailed into the sky, ready to take on the Egg Carrier.