Well everyone... the wait is finally over! Sorry about this one taking so long, honestly, this chapter took ages to do and also I was a bit side tracked by the Yogscast. Rythian's tekkit series is awesome! I watched it recently and it has been on my mind since then.

I hope the Knuckles fans out there like this, I tried to get his stubbornness in this chapter as well as his relationships with Sonic and/or Tails. Also this might be the longest chapter...

Please review and enjoy!


Chapter 7 – Team Mobius' First Official Exploration

"HEY GET UP! IT'S MORRNNING!" A voice boomed throughout Team Mobius' room and everyone jumped up in surprise, including the Marowak which Sonic and Tails knew him as Knuckles. Louderd left the room after and Knuckles looked around the room in panic; he then stared at the two unknown creatures in front of him. "Who are you and where are we?!"

Sonic put his paws up and said in panic, "Whoa, whoa! Calm down Knuckles! It's me Sonic and Tails is here too!" Sonic looked at the Eevee beside him who was Tails; Knuckles studied the creatures and noticed that the creature had blue quills on its head and back and it also had emerald eyes that seemed familiar to the Marowak.

"Sonic! What have you done this time?!" Sonic was about to respond, but another voice boomed out, "SONIC! TAILS! GET HERE NOW! WE HAVE AN IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT! SO GET HERE NOW!" Sonic looked at where the loud voice came from, then back at Knuckles, who was waiting for an answer. "Look Knuckles, we'll explain everything after this, I promise, but stay here until we get back".

Sonic sprinted his way towards the rest of the guild with Tails running behind him, leaving Knuckles in the room, waiting for Sonic and Tails to return; although he wanted to know what was going on, he knew he wasn't in Mobius anymore, due to Sonic and Tails' new appearances. Curious, he wanted to know if he changed as well, he had brown scales instead of red fur, but he has a skull as a head as he felt the bony material; he has a cream coloured underbelly, with his white crescent moon mark and instead of having his spiked knuckles, he held a long bone in his right hand.

'What happened to my body?! Where did my spiked gloves go?!' Knuckles looked at the direction where Sonic and Tails went earlier. 'Hmm... where did Sonic and Tails go? I gotta find out...' Knuckles then started to sneak out of Team Mobius' room, then slowly making his way to the main floor, where everyone was meeting; but Knuckles decided to hide and watch Sonic and Tails in the hallway. There were many creatures he didn't recognise, but he listened to what they had to say.


Once everyone was ready for the morning greeting, Chatot cleared his throat and said, "Everyone listen up, I have an important announcement to make; far to the northeast, then further into its outermost reaches, there lies a place named Treeshroud Forest, in Treeshroud Forest, time has apparently stopped!" Everyone except Sonic, Tails and Chatot gasped in shock, including Knuckles who was watching from the hallway.

(Playing "Time Gear Remix" from Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky OST)

Knuckles looked confused and thought, 'Time has stopped? What's going on here?' Sunflora gasped and added, "What did you say?!" Corphish added in, "You're saying time stopped?! Hey, hey, hey!" Chatot answered with a sigh, "Yes, that's correct, time has come to a standstill in Treeshroud Forest... the wind has stopped, the clouds are motionless; dewdrops on leaves won't fall, they just hang there suspended, in Treeshroud Forest, time itself has truly stopped".

Everyone discussed it among themselves; Sunflora said out loud, "How could something this awful happen? It's unthinkable!" Chatot spoke up, "Yes the unthinkable has happened..." Everyone turned to Chatot and he added, "Why has time stopped in Treeshroud Forest? Well, it's because Treeshroud Forest's Time Gear was stolen!" Everyone gasped again and they added comments like, 'Stolen?' or 'Who would steal a Time Gear?' and also 'I heard it was possible, but now it really happened...'

Chatot flapped his wings and yelled out, "Quite everyone! Officer Magnezone has already started an investigation, it's hard to believe that anyone would steal a Time Gear; but if one Time Gear can be stolen, the others may also be in danger. The officer asked to be notified immediately if we notice any suspicious characters; so keep that in mind, let us know if you notice anything, that is all."


(Playing "Wigglytuff's Guild" from Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky OST)

Chatot flapped his wings and brightened the mood by saying, "All right everyone, here's to another busy day of work!" Everyone cheered and have gone to their work positions, except for Sonic and Tails; Chatot looked at them and added, "Ah you two, come here". Sonic and Tails curiously got closer to Chatot and he added, "I would like to thank you two for exploring Treeshroud Forest and finding out that time has stopped there, as a reward, I will give you many items when you have done today's task".

Sonic crossed his arms and asked, "And what is today's task? Looking up jobs from the boards?" Chatot nodded his head and answered, "No, you will finally be assigned a mission, worthy of a proper exploration team, could you open your Wonder Map please?" Tails got the map from the Treasure Bag and unfolded it for everyone to look at.

Chatot pointed to the guild's location and explained, "Treasure Town is here..." Chatot then pointed to a cliff that has a waterfall on it. "...And over here is where we would like you to investigate, see, there is a waterfall flowing here; by all appearances, it's just an ordinary waterfall, but we've received intelligence that the waterfall may conceal a secret. That's where you come in, we want you lot to investigate the waterfall and determine what's there. That's all, do you understand what this mission entails?"

Tails had a smile on his face and nodded, "Yeah we can do this! We understand completely!" Chatot smiled and added, "Good! All right, I'll leave you all to thoroughly investigate the waterfall!" Chatot flew up the ladder to the boards, leaving Sonic and Tails, thinking about the place they are going to explore for the day; Sonic gave a big smile and jumped with joy. "Finally! A proper exploration mission! Let's go and get Knuckles and prepare for the mission".

Sonic and Tails walked back to their room to see if Knuckles was waiting for them, but Sonic bumped into someone, it was Knuckles. Sonic looked up to him and said, surprised, "Knuckles! What are you doing here? I thought you were waiting for us in our room!" Knuckles answered without changing his expression, "I was curious to know what this announcement you had to listen to was; now I want to know, has time gone wrong here? And what is a Time Gear?"

Sonic seriously looked at him and answered, "You heard all that?" Sonic looked at Tails unsurely and added, "Well, from what we know, Time Gears protect time and keeps it flowing properly in the areas they are in; we haven't seen one yet, but when we went to Treeshroud Forest, it's what Chatot described, everything is frozen in place and it's grey everywhere you look, we think whoever is stealing them may be the cause of this".

Knuckles crossed his arms, even though he was holding a bone with one hand and thought about what Sonic said. 'Well, I guess this isn't Sonic's fault... the faster we find this criminal, the sooner I can get back home and protect the Master Emerald'. "Alright Sonic, I'll join you in finding this culprit, the sooner we find him, the better... now, did that bird say we were exploring somewhere?" Sonic had his eyes widened with realisation and added, "Yeah, Chatot said we've got to explore someplace with a waterfall". But Sonic thought to himself, 'Sigh... why did it have to be water for the first exploring mission?'.

Tails added for Sonic, "But we need to prepare ourselves, so let's go to Treasure Town!" Sonic got out of his thoughts and nodded at Tails; he sprinted out in a flash, leaving Tails with Knuckles. Tails giggled and said, "He always forgets that I have all the items; let's just walk and talk". Tails and Knuckles walked out together and asked, "Do you have any questions on your mind right now?" Knuckles looked at Tails serious and first asked, "What have I transformed into exactly?"

Tails smiled and gladly answered for him. "The creatures in this world are called Pokémon, from what Sonic and the other guild apprentices have told me, Sonic is a Riolu, I'm an Eevee and you're a Marowak". Knuckles nodded, understanding what these creatures were called; but he had another question. "Where exactly are we?"

Tails answered and explained, "We're at a place called Wigglytuff's Guild, where Pokémon become famous explorers; Sonic found me in a mystery dungeon nearby here. Mystery dungeons are strange places because the area changes as you progress further; also, if you faint in the middle of a dungeon, you get kicked out of them, but there's always something new every time you enter".


Knuckles smiled, even though no one saw it and replied, "Sounds interesting, let's go and explore this waterfall". Tails smiled and had a look around at where he was; him and Knuckles were at the four-way path, but what was different there was that there was hole with stairs going down, where a boulder used to be with a sign next to it.

(Playing "Treasure Town" from Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky OST)

Tails looked at the sign, confused and replied, "This wasn't here the last time I was here, what does this say?" Tails ran up to it and read it out loud, it said:

"Spinda's Café! A Shop of Hopes and Dreams, Opening Soon! Win Big!"

"Sounds like a café will open quite soon, that could be nice... anyway, where's Sonic?" To answer Knuckles' question, a blue blur approached them and stopped closely to Tails; the blur disappeared, showing Sonic in his Riolu form. Sonic smiled and said, "I've got some useful items for our exploration... what's this?" Sonic looked at the sign Tails read out and had his eyes widened. "A new café? That's awesome! We gotta check it out when it opens!"

But Tails added in, "But Sonic, we gotta go to the waterfall today!" Sonic looked sheepish at Tails and Knuckles and replied, "Yeah I know, let's go guys!" Sonic started running the pathway to the mystery dungeons with Tails and Knuckles following behind him.


As Team Mobius went past the bluff where Tails was rescued and a small forest full of blueberry coloured berries, they reached the end of the path, where a waterfall blocked the path; the waterfall was quite wide and long in size and on the sides of it, there were trees growing on the cliffs. Sonic skidded at the end of the path, trying to avoid the waterfall; he managed to not get a drop of water on him, he sighed in relief.

Tails and Knuckles managed to catch up with Sonic and they all looked at the giant waterfall; Tails curiously looked at it and said out loud, "So this is the waterfall that's supposed to have a secret?" Tails walked towards the waterfall and wanted to touch it, but the water started to hurt him; Tails retreated and shook the water out of him.

"That water is coming down hard! Try and get closer guys!" Knuckles went first and put one of his hands out to feel the water; 'I can sense something inside this waterfall... maybe there's some treasure through here...' Knuckles looked at Sonic, who was feeling the water with his right paw, but he retreated after a second of feeling it. Sonic shook the water off him and replied, "Man, this water is intense!"

Tails looked at the waterfall confused and asked, "What do you think Knuckles? You're the best treasure hunter out of the three of us!" Knuckles looked at Tails and replied, "There's something defiantly on the other side of the waterfall, but with the water coming down hard, going through this would be unwise".

Tails and Knuckles didn't notice, but Sonic held his head as his vision started to get dizzy; everything around him slowed down, including the water flow of the waterfall. 'Oh no... it's happening again...' Sonic's vision blurred like before, but then suddenly, a white line appeared and made Sonic's vision become white; then something new was shown.

The vision showed the same location Team Mobius were in now, but something was different; a shadow of a lone Pokémon looked at the waterfall. Then the Pokémon walked back a few paces to get some distance, then, the Pokémon sprinted towards the waterfall and jumped through it; the Pokémon rolled into a cave, but go up pretty quickly and had a look around. It saw an opening and walked into it. Sonic's vision became white, but it blacked out like a television turning off; Sonic's vision returned to normal and from looking around him, Tails and Knuckles were studying the waterfall.

(Playing "I Saw Something Again..." from Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky)

'What did just see? That shadow of a Pokémon looked very familiar... but that doesn't matter right now, I think there's a cave behind this waterfall...' Tails was about to say something to Knuckles, but he just noticed Sonic looking strangely at the waterfall. "Sonic? What's wrong?" Knuckles heard Tails spoke and looked at Sonic with concern; Sonic looked at Tails seriously and answered Tails' concerning question.

"Tails, it happened again, I had another vision like when we rescued Azurill from Drowzee; in the vision, a Pokémon leaped into the waterfall and entered a cave!" Knuckles' eyes widened in surprise, he thought that Silver was the only one to have visions, not Sonic; but he was having seconds thoughts, if he can sense treasure on the other side of the waterfall, then what Sonic saw must be true, but Tails still thinks it's a bad idea.

(Playing "Waterfall Cave" from Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky)

"I don't know if this is a good idea to jump into the waterfall... but I trust you completely Sonic! Let's jump in!" Team Mobius stepped back to get a good running start; once they were ready, Sonic counted down, "Okay, on the count to 3 ready, 3, 2, 1, GO!" As Sonic shouted 'go' Sonic, Tails and Knuckles sprinted on the path; once they got close to the waterfall, they all jumped simultaneously with a splash.


All three of them rolled into a room and were covered in water; Sonic shook off most of the water since he hated water the most. As Tails and Knuckles regained their sight, they had a look around at where they were; there were in a cave which had an opening in front of them. Tails and Knuckles looked astonished at Sonic, surprised that his vision was right; Tails said with a big smile, "You were right Sonic! Let's see what this cave holds!"

Sonic and Knuckles nodded and walked through the entrance to the mystery dungeon; it was like any other cave you would see, which had many water puddles. There were many water Pokémon such as Psyducks, Poliwags, Woopers, Lotads, Surskits, Barboachs and also Whiscashs, but they were rarely around; it was quite a small cave to explore and it was quite a challenge to Sonic, due to the fact that this was Sonic's main weakness, but thanks to Tails and Knuckles, they easily got through it.


(Playing "In the Depths of the Pit" from Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky)

As Team Mobius arrived at the deepest part of the cave, they were admired by the coloured lights within the room; there were many different coloured gems stuck on the ground and the water reflected the light in the room, giving out the coloured lights from the gems. On the wall, there was a gem that was much bigger than the others, but it looked like it can't be pulled.

Team Mobius' eyes were filled with admiration and happiness; they've never seen this many gems in one room. Sonic and Tails had their mouths wide open and Tails said happily, "I've never seen so many gems before! Even though they're not Chaos Emeralds, they still look amazing!" Knuckles had a look around the room with concentration. 'I sense something strong...' He walked up to an aqua coloured gem, but its size was different, it looked bigger than your fist; Knuckles picked the gem up with interest and his sense he had before was now gone.

He knew what he had found.

A Chaos Emerald.

Knuckles held the Chaos Emerald up in the air and called out, "Hey guys! I found a Chaos Emerald!" Sonic and Tails immediately went close to Knuckles and looked at the emerald; indeed, it was a Chaos Emerald. Sonic was amazed and had to ask. "Where did you find that, Knuckles?" Knuckles answered, "I just found it here, this must have been the treasure I've been sensing since we got here".

Tails looked at the emerald and asked, "Do you think they were sent here by Chaos Control?" Knuckles nodded and replied, "That is a possibility, we must have been sent here the same way the emerald did".

As Tails and Knuckles were looking around a bit more, Sonic had his eyes on the biggest gem in the room. 'The Guild will be amazed when we take this home!' Sonic grabbed the giant gem and tried to pull it as hard as he can, but as a result, it didn't budge one bit. 'Man... this isn't moving one budge... maybe Knuckles can move it'.

Sonic looked at Knuckles and asked him, "Hey Knuckles! Could you pull this giant gem out?" Knuckles had a look at the giant gem Sonic mentioned and started to pull it; but just like Sonic, it didn't move a budge. 'Even with Knuckles' strength, it's still not moving a budge!'

Suddenly, Sonic became dizzy like it did back at the waterfall. 'Oh great... not again with these dizzy spells...' Sonic's vision became white, but then, a new vision appeared; it was the same shadow from before that jumped into the waterfall. The shadow had a look around the room that was full of gems, it then walked over to the giant gem; instead of pulling the gem, the shadow pushed the gem with a click. For a while, nothing happened, but then suddenly, the sound of rushing water echoed throughout the cave; the shadow looked around the room in panic and found a river of water flowing, taking the shadow with it.

Sonic's sight turned white, but then eventually turned to normal; he sees Knuckles still pulling the giant gem out with Tails watching him. Sonic wide-eyed at his vision, shocked at what he saw; he sharply looked at Knuckles, who stopped pulling it. "There's defiantly no way in pulling this!" Knuckles studied the giant gem more and he noticed that the gem looked like it needs to be pushed; Knuckles decided to push the gem instead and it was pressed down slightly with a click.

"No! Don't push it Knuckles!" Knuckles and Tails looked at Sonic, confused; Tails asked, "What's wrong Sonic?" That's when Tails and Knuckles heard the sound of rushing water echoing throughout the cave; Sonic immediately looked to the right, waiting for the water to come. 'Here it comes...' Tails called out, "Where's that sound coming from?" The cave started to rumble and Knuckles knew what was going to happen next; Knuckles turned to Tails and Sonic and started to run. "We have to move now! There's going to be a huge flood!"


Like Knuckles said, a huge flood covered the area, carrying Team Mobius with it; it was like this for a couple of minutes, but the water shot out from a geyser and Team Mobius were out of the caves with a splash. Strangely enough for the three of them, they were a lot warmer; then suddenly, they heard a voice.

"Hey, are you okay? You plopped out of nowhere! You startled us!" Sonic opened his eyes and stood upright; Tails and Knuckles were following Sonic and as Sonic looked around, he noticed it was a lot brighter, he was outside. Knuckles asked a teddy-bear creature, "Um, excuse us, but where are we?" The teddy-bear creature replied, "This is the Hot Spring".

(Playing "Heartwarming" from Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky OST)

Tails curiously replied, "The Hot Spring?" They were all looking around the area, astonished that such a simple push of a gem would lead them here; another voice spoke, "Indeed, this is the Hot Spring, the Hot Spring works wonders on tired muscles and creaky joints; many Pokémon visit here, tell me youngsters, do you have a map?" Tails answered, "If you mean our Wonder Map, then yes we have one". Tails went to the edge of the spring and unfolded the map for the turtle-like Pokémon; the turtle-like Pokémon added while pointing to the current location, "There, we are here, this is the Hot Spring's location".

Tails replied, "Oh I see, the waterfall is here so..." Tails gasped at the map realising something; Sonic and Knuckles went close to him, wondering what he found out. "Hey guys! That water carried us from here to over here!" The turtle-like Pokémon gasped and said, "My goodness! It was the water that carried you all this way? What a long journey that must have been! Let the Hot Spring wash away your fatigue before you make your way home".

Sonic nodded and replied, "Good idea, we'll do that! Thanks everyone!" Team Mobius laid back on the edge of the spring and relaxed for a while; they all knew that this was a reward for a successful exploration mission. However, Knuckles was thinking back to what happened back at the waterfall and in that cave, where the gems were, how did Sonic know what was behind that waterfall? Even that giant gem, somehow, Sonic warned him not to push it. He had to know why he knew.

Knuckles called out to him, who was on the opposite side of him, "Sonic? I have something to ask you... when we were outside the waterfall, how did you know there was cave behind it?" Sonic looked grim when Knuckles asked this, it was time he knew anyway, Tails knew these dizzy spells before, when they arrested Drowzee, but it was best to tell them anyway.

(Playing "I Saw Something Again..." from Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky OST)

"I've told Tails a little bit about this when we were doing our outlaw mission..." Sonic sighed but explained as best he could. "I keep getting these strange dizzy spells that show me some sort of vision... the first time was when I picked up an apple that Azurill dropped and I gave back to him, that was the first dizzy spell, which was a cry of 'help' from Azurill; then the second one happened when Drowzee bumped into me, it showed me a vision of Azurill being threatened by Drowzee".

Sonic added, "One thing that was strange though, was that the second dizzy spell, the vision... it showed me the future". Tails nodded and added in, "It's true, I saw that vision as an event with my own eyes". Knuckles was adding the pieces up and replied, "So, you got this dizzy spell back when we were investigating the waterfall?"

Sonic thought back to that moment, "I remember feeling the water before that vision appeared... and I remember seeing that shadow... I've seen that shape before..." Sonic thought carefully, but he finally found out. "Wait a minute, guys, I think Guildmaster Wigglytuff has been in Waterfall Cave before; that shadow I saw in my vision was Wigglytuff, there's no doubt it!"

Knuckles looked confused at Sonic and asked, "What about in that cave full of gems? Why did you warn me not to push the giant gem?" Sonic answered seriously, "Because at that time, I tried to pull the gem out and a second vision appeared, showing me the same shape pushing it; like what happened back there, it flooded the place, that's why I warned you".

Tails was thinking about what Sonic said, he knew something was up with him and he had to figure out what connects these dizzy spells. Suddenly, he found it out. "Sonic! I may have figured out how you're getting them! You seem to be touching something when they happen!" Sonic looked at Tails shocked, somehow, he knew Tails was right; he looked back at the other times he had the dizzy spells and he knew that he was always touching something when they happen.

"You're right Tails!" Tails smiled at Sonic and added, "There's also another thing, if you say that the Pokémon that went through the waterfall and pressing that giant gem was Wigglytuff, surely the Guildmaster wouldn't have give us this mission in the first place since he's been there before... so, to put it simply, you saw a vision of the past as well as the future!" Sonic and Knuckles gasped at this astonishment, not only did Tails figure out when Sonic's new ability triggers, but somehow, he figured out that Sonic can see the past and future.


It has been an hour since Team Mobius' arrival at the Hot Spring; they had just made their way back to the Guild and informed Chatot about the mission. Sonic didn't mention the dizzy spells or the Chaos Emerald that they found, but he asked Chatot if the Guildmaster went to Waterfall Cave before, even though their mission was to explore it; once Chatot explained it to the Guildmaster, he had indeed explored there, but many years ago.

After dinner, Team Mobius headed for their room, about to sleep for the night; but because of today's events, Sonic was the only one wide awake besides Tails and Knuckles. Sonic was looking out of the window thinking. 'Well, so much has happened today... the dizzy spells... finding that Chaos Emerald... this is turning to be one big adventure! I better get some sleep tomorrow...night Tails...night Knuckles'.


In a mountainous region...

A flash of white appeared on Mt. Bristle Peak, it looked like a Chaos Control; the flash died down showing a four footed Pokémon with black fur. It had three toes on each foot that were crimson red, it had a scythe-like tail and a sickle-shaped growth on the side of its head that were white; it had crimson coloured eyes and it had a white ruff around the neck. Its face mostly looks like a cat's face and lastly, it has crimson red stripes on one side of its front legs.

The black fur Pokémon opened its eyes and stood up, looking around its surroundings; the Pokémon spoke, "W-where am I?" That is when the Pokémon noticed its new body, the Pokémon studied its body and added in, "Did I get sent to this world by Chaos Control? If so, I will need to get the 7 Chaos Emeralds!". The Pokémon dashed out of the mountain with its speed, leaving just shadows...


Ooooh! Who is this Pokémon in Mt. Bristle? I guess some people think this will be pretty obvious. Please review and I'll see you soon... :D