Chp 07: Plague

Mystic Jungle

The bird ship landed deep within the forest, dropping those in its talons. Mighty helped Knuckles down, having just bandaged his head. Lecko jumped down and joined his friends. "I never thought we'd see you three again. How long have you been back home anyway?"

"About twelve hours." Knuckles snapped. "And within that period, Shine has destroyed both Station Square and New Prison Island, incapacitated everybody, except us, and the alternate Endigo reappeared, in numbers! What happened in your world?!"

"Chill out, Knux." Mighty replied calmly. "I'll tell you what happened. While you three where fighting your counterparts, Lecko and I snooped around the colony. We came upon three hibernation pods, two empty, one containing Maria. When we opened it, however, we found that it was an illusion. The one who was really inside was Shine."

"You freed him?!"

"Don't freak out. We had no clue that it was Shine. He knocked us out immediately, and when we woke up, we were back on Earth. Things were okay for a while, especially after we found Lecko parents, but soon, it began. The ARK repositioned itself, and it began to let loose some kind of gas. Wherever it ended up, people got sick and died. It came to be know as the ARK plague. 90% of the population died off. Then, Endigo launched the ARK straight at the planet, activating all of the emeralds across the globe. Our world was sent into a null space, which is on the other side of that vortex. Once it's large enough, the other Endigo plans to launch it into your Earth, destroying them both. And as it happens, he'll use the emeralds to warp to another universe and repeat the process until they are all gone."

"So where does Shine come into all of this?" Endigo asked.

"We sent multiple units to the space colony, but they never returned." Lecko answered. "All that we ever got were transmissions of Endigo talking to himself. He was always talking about how he would get revenge on Shine for what he did to him."

"So what are we supposed to do?"

"Use this." the chameleon pulled out a small, robotic bug. "Big invented this to kill both the ARK and all of the other Endigos."

"What about Shine?"

"Sorry, but we'll only be able to help you with the fox."

"That's alright." Shadow spoke. "If we're lucky, those robot Endigos will kill him. But if they don't, we can use the Chaos Emeralds to enter super mode."

"Looks like you'll have to use your super modes." the heroes turned their view to the trees above and found Shine sitting on one of the branches, wearing Knuckles' old hat. They prepared for him to attack, but he jumped down with a peace sign on each hand. "I'm here to make a deal."

"Why?" Endigo questioned.

"Well, I was able to destroy all of those fox bots, but more and more kept coming. I decided to follow you five, and I think we can work together to destroy that rift."

"But aren't you trying to destroy us already?"

"If his plan works, I'll die, too." the hedgehog jumped over to the bird ship and yelled, "So let's get going!" the heroes entered the plane.

As it took off, Shadow thought to himself, 'I can't believe I'm working with this monster, but if we get him to the ARK, maybe we can trap him again.

After a few hours, the plane was at the point where it could head for the ARK, when they caught sight of a small ship. Knuckles was able to see Amy and Big and shouted, "Land the bird near that boat!" as the plane went down, they had no clue of the battle that would begin.

Next: Personality Clash