Chapter 4: Sand Worms Strike!

One of the worms thrust itself at Knuckles who leapt up on to his back.

"You're just another hunk of metal" he taunted.

He slammed his fists against its back but to no avail. His surprise distracted him from the thrashing of the worm and sent him tumbling across the air. He landed roughly on the sand with the wind being knocked out of him.

"This thing is a lot tougher than I thought."

Blaze charged the other worm with her body shrouded in fire. She collided into it and began to spin around it in a torrent of flames. The temperature reached a high level before she stopped and landed back on her feet. The worm was unfazed by her attack and wriggled its body until the fire disappeared.

"I know it was built to withstand the desert heat" she commented "But that was easily twice, even three times the temperature out here."

The worm barreled itself down at her with its mouth open. Blaze unleashed the flames from her hands and was barely able to hold the beast above her. She struggled beneath its mighty jaws, wincing at the sight of its tunnel-like throat. Knuckles charged the beast from the side and used his shoulder to knock the worm in the other direction.

"We can't beat these things alone. We have to work together."

"Right" she nodded "But how can we use our powers together?"

"I noticed you can surround your body with flames, you think that would work on my fists?"

"Yeah it should, but your body isn't used to this kind of heat. It could be detrimental."

"It's a risk we're going to have to take" he noted "These things are too fast to let us escape."

"Alright then"

She held her hands out over Knuckles' fists as the flames slithered out from her body like snakes. They circled his knuckles and covered them in a deep fire. He winced as the heat increased but shook the pain from his mind as he readied himself.

"Here I go, get ready to back me up!"

She nodded while watching him take off in a sprint. He ran up to one of the worms and juked to the side, leaping up onto its back. He pulled back his fists and began hammering away at the exterior. Slowly it gave way until finally the skin broke enough to create a small gash. He grabbed the metallic flesh by the wound and pulled back enough to reveal the metallic interior.

"Go now!" he cried.

Blaze jumped into the air and covered her body in flames once more. She started spinning like a fireball and drove herself into the worm through its wound. The interior was much easier to damage as she maneuvered about, destroying everything she could. The worm began to smoke and spur with electricity. Knuckles jumped away from the creature as its mouth radiated a large beam of light.

The beast exploded in a large mushroom-shaped explosion with Blaze flying up through it center. The other worm was watching the mayhem and Knuckles used the opportunity to strike. He climbed upon the other creature's back and followed the same steps as before. Blaze saw this from up above and used her altitude to slam the creature in the soft spot. It wailed and jostled as it followed the fate of its twin.

Blaze struck so quickly that Knuckles didn't have enough time to escape the fury and was sent hurdling through the air from the explosion. His head bounced around on the sand as he crashed into the grainy Earth. Sitting up he tried to shake the dizziness from his head. The fire on his hands had gone out and his gloves were burned completely through. His hands ached from the degree of the burn.

His thoughts returned to Blaze as he looked about the area for her. He called her name, trying to throw his voice beyond the noisy sound of the burning carcass but failed to do so. He fretted to himself as he stood up, noticing the sand several meters away begin to rustle. Blaze popped out head first, spitting the grains from her mouth with a rancid expression on her face. Knuckles ran over to her with a smile.

"Doesn't taste to good does it?" he joked.

"Not at all"

He grabbed her hand and pulled her up, helping her brush the sand off of her clothes.

"That was really rough" Knuckles pointed out "I've never fought a battle so difficult before."

"Me neither. Nega never created anything that strong back in our dimension."

"Likewise for our mad doctor"

"Something must've changed about him; his skills must've improved sharply over the past few days. I wonder what he's done to himself."

"That's the million dollar question"

"Well he does have the Sol emeralds" she noted "There's no telling what effect that could have on him."

"We should probably get back though, there's no telling what may have gone down while we were away."

"Right"

The two of them hurried back to Tails' workshop to check in with their friends. The site of the defeated robot was discerning to them as they entered.

"I take it we missed some action" Knuckles teased.

"And how!" cried Amy "You should've seen our teamwork out there!"

"She's just a little excited" Cream noted "It really did take all of our efforts to bring that thing down."

"Likewise for us" Blaze commented "We ran into some trouble out in the desert."

Amy looked at them with a somber face.

"I take it you weren't able to rescue Sonic."

Knuckles looked away and scratched his head.

"I'm sorry: it got away through a portal in the dimension."

She let her head droop downwards as she walked out of the room. Cream spoke in her place.

"After everything that happened last year it's hard on her to handle something like this."

"Regardless" Tails added "Whatever Nega is trying to do he means business. We can't let him catch us off guard anymore; we have to take the fight to him."

He held up the paper that had the coordinates on it.

"His HQ is in the Lava Reef Zone. It's time for us to end this madness and get Sonic back."

In that brief moment, Tails sounded a lot like the blue friend they all admired.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Things were quiet on the Angel Island. The sunlight drifted in and out behind the cloud and began to annoy Rouge.

"How does Knuckles stand this all day? It's incredibly boring out here."

She sat with her legs crossed on the top stair of the shrine and used her hand to shield her eyes from the light. In her moment of prissiness she failed to notice the dark portal that had opened up behind the shrine. Her ears perked as she heard the soft footsteps of a man wearing boots. She stood up and turned around quickly to meet the nozzle of Nega's gun.

"It is awfully boring out here isn't it?" he taunted "Let me take all these emeralds off your hands."

From the corner of her eye she saw a red substance form up beside Nega.

"Chaos…?"

Cataclysm attacked her with a heavy one two punch that sent her flying backwards down the stairs. The last things she saw was the sky and Nega with his creature standing upside down on the shrine before she knocked her head against the bottom stair and fell unconscious.

With no one around to guard the emeralds, Eggman Nega gathered up the chaos emeralds into a bag and used the claw on his egg-o-matic to pull the master emerald from its pedestal. With Cataclysm holding onto the side of his machine, they disappeared into the dark portal from whence they came.