Chapter Seven: Knuckles' Emerald Shards

I'm so sorry that I haven't had an update yet. The thing is...well, I've been trying to reformat my computer and get back up to speed. That, combined with the fact that I already have a lot of stuff going on due to college? Yeah...that's a real bummer on my end. DX I wish that it weren't so. I'm trying to catch all the way back up, but it's slow. I'll catch ya later, for now, just enjoy this chapter.

Back in time...

The sun was shining in the city when Knuckles and Tikal finally arrived inside, with Knuckles gliding through the air and Tikal just following as a ball of light. The red echidna dropped down into the walkway in front of the train station, and he sighed. "Great...so this is where I'm going to have to find all of my emerald shards? At least, to begin with?" he asked, looking around. He had hated vast cities before, and this was no exception.

Tikal floated down beside him and she looked around the place before she said, "I'm afraid so, Knuckles. There should be four around here."

Knuckles stretched his stiff muscles and he sighed. "So basically a fifth of the Master Emerald is in this city, waiting for me to pick it up and move on. Well, that will be a nice start, but then where are the other segments?"

Tikal floated up into the sky, and as she did, she said, "I'll find that out while you're gathering your emerald shards. Remember, there are four here. Return once you have all four!"

With that, Knuckles was left alone in the city. He closed his eyes and focused, and found that he could sense the first one very close by. He was surprised and turned to where he could face it, and saw that it was probably right inside of a jewelry shop that had been established near the station. He groaned, not wanting to go and make trouble out of it. He finally got the guts to go and walk to the store; he planned on just taking the emerald and going without causing any immediate trouble.

He walked inside and was immediately greeted by a set of wind chimes clinking together. The noise attracted the attention of a young, blond haired woman with a pretty white dress on. "Hey, is there something that I can do for you?" she asked.

He hoped that nothing was going to happen, now that he had been caught by her. He cleared his throat and he said, "I would like to ask for a particular jewel shard of mine that has been placed here."

She giggled and said, "I'm sorry, but once they're in the shop, we verify if they belong to anyone. Any jewel that is here belongs to use until sold to someone or given away. There are no jewles here that could possibly belong to you."

He walked over to a display case within the store and he said, "What if I were to show you proof?" He was sure that he could prove to this woman that the shard of the Master Emerald that they had here belonged to him. It was sitting there, in the display case, shining brightly in the light.

The woman frowned and crossed her arms. "If you're going to be insistent that you can somehow prove that it belongs to you, you can get out of here. As it is, we have checked that gem over and over and over again for any indications that it came from somewhere or that someone originally owned it. There have been no such sources."

He put his hand against the glass pane and the shard pulled itself towards his hand, much to the woman's surprise. Then, it burned its way through the glass and was now in his hands. "If that's not proof enough, I don't know what is," he said, the hole now returning to normal with the shard's power.

She backed up in fear, pressing up against the wall. "Who are you to have such powers?" she asked.

The red echidna let out a sigh and he said, "I don't have the powers. This does. The only power that I have is the ability to find these through something of a sixth sense of mine."

The woman didn't respond now. Instead, she said to him, "Go. Please, just go! I don't want to have to explain to my employer about you, or have you explain it to him! Just be thankful that he doesn't know about this or that the emerald shard was ever there!"

Knuckles sighed as he put the shard into a pocket on his shorts. "I am sorry for the scare, miss. I wish that there was something I could do to make this better for you," the echidna said. He turned and opened the door and walked out of the shop, his eyes gazing at the ground. He got out along the sidewalk and walked out of sight of the shop before he ducked into an alley. "Good grief, what am I thinking?" he shouted out in anger. He was about ready to punch a hole into the wall.

Knuckles restrained himself and he let out a sigh. There was not a point in contemplating the scenario further. Instead, he turned and began scaling the wall, leaving the imprints of his spiked gloves in the building wall but nothing more. He reached the top and now closed his eyes, focusing on a trail that was in the air. It pointed him in the direction of a large hotel building. Curious, he began to traverse the city by leaping from rooftop to rooftop, occasionally stumbling but never falling off into the streets below.

He arrived on top of a building near the hotel and dropped back down into an an alley, hoping that no one witnessed him. He walked out of there, brushing dust off of his shorts and legs. He approached the doors and opened them, walking inside among a crowd of other humans and mobians all chatting. The noise in the lobby was beating against Knuckle's head, ready to drive him nuts.

He walked up some stairs and onto the first floor, where it was far more calm than it was in the lobby area. There, he relaxed in a corner and closed his eyes again, seeking that trail. Much to his horror, that trail was right down at the bottom, in the lobby. The reason why there were so many people was because they were all admiring the gem shard!

"How am I going to get that shard without making a giant scene?" he asked aloud, and he looked around the room. He heard a voice whispering to him, and he listened closely.

"Win a strength contest..." it whispered, and he thought quite a bit about that before he grinned. That would work to his advantage, especially if they were already doing that. He walked back down into the noise filled lobby, trying hard not to let the ambiance drive him insane. He pushed the crowd just in time to hear the crowd give a loud shout in cheer.

"One more contestant and if they lose, I claim this gem as my own! If they win, they take it as well as the money I'm staking!" a gruff voice shouted out, and there was another cheer. Knuckles had just pushed the crowd and managed to get up to the front. The man in front of him was very large and had a heavy build. He wore no shirt, was completely bald, and had a black beard. He was wearing black trousers that were ripped and torn at the shins.

The echidna got up on the stool that was there and he said, "I'll take you on."

The man grinned and asked, "So, are you willing to be humiliated?"

Knuckles smirked, and he asked, "Are you? If you get humiliated, will you be able to take it? I bet that you're going to run home crying to momma."

The crowd chuckled a bit, thinking that Knuckles was making a fool of himself. However, Knuckles knew that this guy could not match him in strength. The burly human said, "Best two out of three. Sound fair?"

The echidna nodded his head and now it was down to an arm wrestling match. They both got together and locked hands, and another person called out to start. Knuckles started and he immediately threw the human's hand down onto the table. The crowd let out a gasp of surprise, and the man had to shout, "I was unprepared for this kind of strength! Do not worry, he will not prevail!"

Knuckles' smirk only got bigger as they went for round two. This time, Knuckles just held him at bay, letting him think that he might be able to push his hand some. And the man tried as hard as he might, pushing against Knuckles arm with all of his strength. His muscles were straining and looked like they might pop at any second. Finally, the red echidna yawned and the male human gasped and stopped. "Are you about done? Oh? Good!" he said, slamming the human's hand into the desk so hard that it began to throb. The man pulled it off and gave a loud shout of pain, with the crowd staying mostly silent.

Broken bits of chatter started up and tags began to wag about how Knuckles had just beaten this very strong human. The man came back and he said, "This mobian echidna has won the prize of the gem, as well as the money!" There was scattered cheering.

Knuckles said, "I don't wish for the money. Only the gem." People gasped at this. Never before had they heard of someone either being selfless enough, or stupid enough not to take the money that was presented to them.

The man asked, "Are you absolutely sure on that, mr. echidna? What if I told you that you had to take all or none?" Now the people gave an offended sounding shout. That was an outrageous claim.

Knuckles crossed his arms and he asked, "Am I right in assuming that you're threatening me at this point? I have already won your stupid contest for the gem, and all I want is the gem that is actually mine. I don't care about your money."

The man was about to open his mouth when he saw that the crowd had all eyes on him. There was anger among them, their eyes were burning holes into him as they waited for his answer. He opened his mouth and said, "Fine. Take just the gem, then."

Knuckles took the green gem shard and the people around him began to clap and cheer. The people hadn't seen this kind of an act from anyone before now and it was a surprise to them. A lot of the people weren't even sure if they wanted to clap, but they were clapping because the people around them were. Knuckles walked out of the hotel and then went into an alleyway again. There, he climbed back up onto the rooftops and searched out his next trail.

The trails were clearer now because he was in possession of two of them. There were two distinct ones, and the stronger one pointed him back into the same building he had already been inside. However, that trail also pointed him towards one of the higher floors. He groaned, wondering why he had to go back inside of that dreaded building. "At least I won't be on that lobby floor," he muttered, leaping into the air and gliding into a room through an open window. He was fortunate that no one was inside as he walked through the empty apartment and left the room on the floor that he was supposed to be on to find his next shard.

This one was actually inside of a closed room and he sighed as he looked at the sign that said "occupied." He knew that this wasn't going to work out well for him now. Sneaking into someone's room wasn't something that he liked doing. He went back to the room that he had entered the building at and crawled around to where he was at the window. Unfortunately, that too was closed, but the blinds weren't shut. Looking inside, he found the shard laying on the bed, beside a girl who was sleeping. This made him feel even worse, though he then noticed that the way it was laying, it looked like it had been undisturbed. There was a patch where a hole had been melted into the window. He frowned and opened up the window, slipping inside. He quietly went over and took the shard, and then he left, being sure to close the window again. She wasn't going to be needing the shard, anyways.

The last trail now led him to a huge skyscraper, the tallest building in the entire city. This one had landed on top of it, so it was just a matter of scaling the building. However, most of it was glass. He would be noticed if he climbed up and wasn't careful. The last thing he wanted was to start trouble, so he now went down to the bottom floor to see if there was an elevator that would lead him up to the roof. There was an elevator, but it was not accessible to lobbyists. However, he didn't plan on being caught or attending the business here. When no one was looking, he slipped up and called the elevator. It just opened up for him, surprisingly. He stepped inside and pressed the button to go up to the roof. He then wondered...what kind of building wouldn't allow normal customers to go up certain floors and would block off the elevators entirely? Perhaps he was just not thinking straight, but he was sure that there was something ugly involved with that.

He didn't have the time to question it. He arrived at the roof and found what he was looking for lying on the ground in front of him. He grinned, picking it up and putting it in his bag along with the other three. He then breathed a sigh of relief, no longer detecting any traces or anything like that. However, his victory was nearly short lived. The other elevator in the set of twin elevators that he had ridden up on opened up and two security guards emerged. They thought they noticed a streak of red, but by the time that they looked over, they found nothing. Knuckles had leaped up into the air and glided through the air nice and quietly, right above their heads. He headed for the station and simply glided down to it. He caught Tikal high up in the sky and waved to her and waved her down. The light flew down with him to the sidewalks below and now she floated there before him.

"Did you retrieve all of the shards here, Knuckles?" she asked him, hoping that he had succeeded.

The red echidna nodded, bringing forth the glowing green jewels. Tikal looked over them and she smiled before saying, "Excellent! Now then, we should-" she was cut short when she heard a commotion going on nearby. A couple of people came out of the hotel, saying, "Oh my gosh, it's Doctor Robotnik!"

Knuckles knew the name well and growled. "What's he want?" he muttered, turning to face the entrance. He dashed over there, with Tikal following suit. There, he saw the doctor entering one of the rooms deeper inside of the hotel, and he chased him. "Where do you think you're going, you double crosser!" he called out, and Eggman turned before dashing inside

The room that they had both entered was a large circular room, with the large circle in the middle being something of a dance floor. It was mainly for dancing shows, with chairs all around the sides for people to eat their dinner. As Knuckles was about to catch up to the doctor, he saw water coming up around him. He bounced straight up just to avoid getting clobbered by Chaos as it formed up. He then shot down at it, his arms pointing down and his body spinning like a drill. He plowed into the water and scattered it all around again, and watched as it reformed in front of the doctor. He saw the strange skeleton with the chaos emerald in it and he frowned.

"So, it seems that it's gotten stronger since the last time I fought it," he muttered, but was now looking at the doctor as he began talking.

"You stupid echidna! When will you stop following me?" he asked, stomping his foot as hard as he could on the ground.

Knuckles grinned and pointed his fist at Eggman, saying, "You think that I'm going to magically forget how you double crossed me back on Angel Island and lied to me that entire time, idiot?"

To his surprise, the doctor seemed baffled. "What are you talking about? I don't recall anything of the sort!"

The red echidna just sat there, staring at the tall, egg-shaped man. His reaction had baffled him worse than even the doctor seemed now. "How the heck do you not recall that?" he asked, seeming quite confused now.

"What the heck are you talking about, you stupid echidna? You have been pursuing me even after I came through that damned time hole! Do you ever stop?" he shouted.

"Time hole...wait, what the heck are you talking about? There was no time hole, ever. I didn't see you coming through the time hole, this is the first time that I've seen you coming around in a long time," he said, blinking.

Then it dawned on Eggman. "Hey, wait, you aren't that one...what am I thinking, the one who is pursuing me is purple, and a female, anyways! Oh well, it does not matter. You attacked me, and so you shall pay for it! Chaos, kill this freaking echidna and make sure it's a bloody mess."

He threw the second chaos emerald into Chaos, and now a strange sort of "hat" formed on top of its head and the other arm now had a skeleton figure to it. Knuckles grinned and he said, "Throw all of the emeralds you want into the thing, I'll defeat it either way."

The creature now swung at him, almost as fast as he could swing. He barely dodged it and ran straight towards it, plowing his fist through the hat, or trying to. He found that it was much harder, as it the hat were more like a helmet that was trying to keep his fist from plowing through. He hit the membrane and shattered the creature, but then it formed into a condensed ball of water floated up before him. It began flinging itself at him, and the first two times connected. He was slammed in the face and knocked back a couple of paces and then hit in the stomach, nearly doubling him over. Then he threw his fist out and hit it right at the doctor, who had to dive into the seats to dodge it. It splashed against a pillar and then it formed back up into Chaos. It walked back out but wasn't prepared for the onslaught that awaited. It was hit in its membrane again, and it slid away and formed up, this time to find no sign of Knuckles.

It looked everywhere, even up! But where Knuckles came from wasn't anything it might have thought of. He came up from below and slammed himself through Chaos and made it splash all over. It tried to form into the condensed ball again, and flung itself at him, but he grabbed it and performed a pile drive with it, scattering it once again. This time, Chaos didn't come back up. It was too badly hurt from the sudden onslaught.

Eggman walked out and he asked, "What is this? How did you defeat it? Only Sonic ever could have, and he's currently asleep along with that strange fox girl Tails! I mean, I thought he was a boy! Shows what I know..."

"What the heck are you talking about? Have you lost your mind, Robotnik!" the red echidna called out, still giving a rather blank stare to the doctor.

Eggman shook his head and said, "Bah, it's not like it matters. Wait, I know you! You're Knuckles the Echidna! I forgot that you still existed in this time line!"

By now, Knuckles was so confused by the way that the crazy scientist was talking that he didn't know which way was left and right, so to speak. "Ugh! Why are you speaking like that! It makes no sense! You are not from a different time...oh wait, didn't Sonic originally kill you?"

"Sonic killed my other self in this time line! Huh! That would explain why I haven't been able to get any contact with him! It all makes sense now!" he said, and then he laughed. "Well, that means I have even less complications to deal with now! Good-bye, pin head!" A brilliant flash occurred and blinded Knuckles immediately, and then when his vision cleared, neither Chaos nor the doctor were there.

Tikal floated up beside him and asked, "What was he talking about?"

The red echidna shook his head and said, "No clue, but whatever it was, I guess that Sonic and Tails have to know about it. If he's from a different time...then...what does that implicate..."

Strange, eh? I hope that no one minds. And, yes, this chapter is LONG overdue. Gosh, I've been so busy with college work that I have little time to do any writing of my own. Ugh...hate that. Anywho, enjoy and expect some more to come.