Egg Carrier bridge - evening

The bridge of the Egg Carrier looked exactly as Sonic expected it would, for being built by someone like Eggman. The colors of the room were bright and garish, buttons flashing and blinking on every console and wall, with the centerpiece being a gigantic, high-tech chair clearly meant to accommodate Eggman's considerable size. Sonic smirked. Just another testament to his legendary ego.

If he was going to get to Eggman on the opposite side of the ship, he would have to find a way to revert the ship's shape back to normal. Going back through the Sky Deck as it was would take up too much valuable time - time that he didn't have.

"Hmm…" he hummed, scanning the various consoles lining the walls. He almost regretted not bringing Tails along after all due to the kid's technical expertise, though he knew there had been no other way to ensure that he and Amy could escape safely. Sonic had the Tornado 2 to use as his own escape, once he'd taken out Eggman.

Sonic hopped up into Eggman seat and sat, hoping it would give him a clue, and to his surprise it jerked, rolling forward until he found himself positioned nearly within reach of the main console. He slid out, suddenly apprehensive of potential security measures designed to ensure that no one but Eggman could take control of the ship, and happened to glance back. Hidden where the chair had sat before it moved was a large, rather obvious-looking button.

"Heh," he said. No other reason Eggman would have hidden a button like that there.

Before the chair, once again empty, had a chance to roll back over the button, Sonic dashed across it, slamming one foot down hard onto it as he passed.


Sky Deck - evening

Knuckles sighed softly to himself, staring down at the three glimmering green shards cradled in his hands. Finally. These were the last pieces - he couldn't feel any others on the ship, and this was the last location the Master Emerald had shown him. He'd found them all.

He glanced around. And now I just have to find a way off this blasted ship.

He'd felt the explosions begin to rock the Egg Carrier a few minutes ago - he didn't know what had caused them, but he knew what it meant. This place was going down in flames soon enough. The thought of Big crossed his mind, and he hesitated. He had what he was looking for… but did the cat? He wasn't a fighter, just some random wild Mobian who'd gotten caught up in this mess. Knuckles had his duty, but could he in good conscience leave without at least trying to make sure Big was okay?

Something told him the answer was no.

He took a step toward the back of the ship, intending to begin searching, and the entire deck collapsed beneath him.

The sound of screeching metal nearly deafened him. The deck seemed to be trying to retract back into the interior of the ship, but something had gone wrong - it was falling apart, tearing itself to pieces. Knuckles stumbled, then fear jolted him, and he began to run blindly, trying to get off the Sky Deck before he was crushed in the debris.

The deck tilted sideways, twisted metal overtook his vision as machinery screamed, and so did he - and then something different. A soft voice was speaking, audible even over the cacophony.

"Let me help you as you have been helping me."

Time seemed to slow, and the orange spark crossed his vision as he began the long fall to his death far below - and then, nothing but white.


Ancient altar - the distant past

Knuckles collapsed onto his knees as soon as he felt solid ground underneath his feet, heart pounding at what had just happened. He was safe, kneeling on grass, a familiar shine to the air around him. It took him a moment to recover from his shock before he looked up. Across the stone bridge, the Master Emerald's ancient altar still stood - but something was wrong. The sky was dark, and the altar was lit up an eerie, flickering red.

Whatever he might have expected from another vision, it wasn't this.

Knuckles got back to his feet and ran across the bridge, an uneasy feeling spreading through him. When he got closer he realized that the red light came from fire - tongues of flame licking along the underbrush near the stone steps. Knuckles could see broken weapons - spears and knives - strewn about on the ground, as though abandoned in a moment of panic by their wielders. A scattered collection of beads from a snapped necklace, a torn scrap of dyed cloth….

His eyes widened. Tikal was lying prone on the ground amid the discarded weapons just a few paces away, unmoving.

"Hey!" He rushed to her side and knelt, placing a hand on her shoulder. He couldn't see her face. "Hey, what happened here? Can you hear me?"

Relief flooded through him as she twitched, and then spoke - but her voice was low, strained. "I couldn't… I couldn't stop them." She raised her head weakly, turning to look at him, and her eyes met his, looking utterly defeated. "They came here, and my father…." Tikal gasped, her eyes glittering with tears. "I had no idea just how bad this would turn out…."

She tried to push herself up, and Knuckles helped, supporting her under his shoulder until she was standing shakily on her feet. He could see bruises and scrapes covering the visible parts of her body, her skirt torn at the hem, and she held her left arm as though it were badly injured.

Knuckles was about to question her further, ask what could possibly have happened here, when a distant, unearthly roar rang out from beyond the altar. Both echidnas turned at once, staring apprehensively at the place it had emanated from.

With the scene looking as bad as it did, Knuckles had almost expected the Master Emerald to be gone - but it was still there, shining bright as ever atop the altar. He could see the light from the rapidly expanding flames glimmering against its surface.

"Tikal, the emerald - " he began, but the flames grew brighter, spreading across his vision, and he braced himself to return to the present.


Egg Carrier forward deck - evening

The monorail had deposited Big somewhere near the front of the ship, and that was all he knew. He seemed to have ended up on a lower deck, with a nearby open-air elevator leading to the upper section.

"How are we gonna get out of here, Froggy?" he said, his nervousness growing by the second, especially as the ship began to tilt dangerously back and forth. Something had gone horribly wrong near the back - he didn't know what, but it was getting worse and worse the longer they stayed.

"Well well, you great lumbering beast! I see you're trying to escape with my frog!"

The voice came from somewhere behind him - and Big didn't like the sound of it at all.

"But no matter - you're right on time."

Before he could turn, something struck him in the back, and he toppled with a pained "oomph." Froggy used this as an opportunity to wriggle free - Big made a vain grasp for him, unable to bear losing him yet again, but a metal claw got there first.

"No!"

Froggy was lifted into the air in front of his eyes, and the thing that had struck Big flew ahead and up. It was a half-dome-shaped vehicle containing what seemed to be a human man with an impressive roundness to rival Big's own, wearing a bright red jacket and sporting a large mustache.

This must be Eggman. He'd stolen Froggy - first his robot had kidnapped him, and now he'd snatched him away from Big personally.

And Big had had just about enough.

He pushed himself to his feet and raced after Eggman. He'd flown to the upper deck, so Big climbed onto the elevator most obviously visible just ahead. It moved far too slowly, and Big couldn't help jabbing at it with his fishing pole. "Come on! Hurry!"

As soon as it reached the top, Big made to race forward, and halted at the sight of what awaited him. This wasn't an upper deck after all, he realized. Below him was what appeared to be a glass floor, and beneath that, a turquoise device that spun and glowed with energy. He had no idea what it was - a power generator? - but he decided it wasn't important. Close to the center of the circular area, Eggman sat in his vehicle, holding Froggy in triumph… and beyond that….

Some kind of creature floated just above the glass, made entirely out of a shimmering, glowing liquid and shaped like some kind of deformed fish with arms. It stared impassively at the scene with unnervingly blank green eyes, and in its head Big could see a brain floating free, seemingly unattached to anything else in its body.

Big froze in utter terror.

Eggman pressed down on Froggy's throat, and Froggy choked. Big cried out in alarm, but a second later Froggy coughed hard, and of all things, a yellow gem flew out - Big's old lucky charm, which he'd nearly forgotten about in the pandemonium of the last few days, save for his glimpse of it in the strange vision.

Eggman grabbed the yellow gem, pulled a second, cyan-colored gem from his pocket, and tossed both at the creature. A flash of light blinded Big for a brief moment, and when it cleared, he saw with horror that the creature had grown even larger, and had morphed into something that more resembled a giant spider. Its eyes had rearranged themselves into a vertical pattern, only making it look even more unnatural and alien, and it had grown a terrifying set of fangs around its gelatinous mouth.

"Excellent, Chaos! And now - for the frog!"

That snapped Big out of his trance.

He yelled Froggy's name, readying himself to run forward, but Eggman had already tossed the frog. Big watched, feeling like everything was moving in slow motion, as Froggy was absorbed into the creature's body. Slowly, Froggy's strange new tail melted away - and another bright light flashed outwards as the creature grew a similar tail from the back of its body, stretching high above its head.

It let out a cry that chilled Big's blood.


Egg Carrier rear deck - late evening

Upon his vision clearing, Knuckles was surprised - and relieved - to find himself standing upright. He was still on the ship, but on a completely different part of the upper deck, not falling into rapidly collapsing machinery as he had been a moment before. He let out a silent, slightly shaky breath. It would have been horrible, not to mention humiliating, to have died just on the cusp of completing his mission.

He readied himself to take off, to find a way off the ship, when a flash of light crossed his sight. Wincing, thoroughly sick of bright lights by now, he prepared to find himself in yet another vision, but upon opening his eyes he found himself to be still standing on the fortress' rear deck. He glanced up at the sky, listening for thunder, but it wasn't until the second flash of light that he realized they were coming from somewhere at the front of the ship.

Sonic? he wondered. Wherever there was commotion, Sonic was sure to be. He guessed there was only one way to find out.

He took off running, his path cleared by whatever had caused the Sky Deck to retract, aiming for the cause of the flashes.


Egg Carrier forward deck - late evening

A gust of wind buffeted Big from the side as he stared in terror at the creature holding Froggy in its body. He had frozen once again, trying to figure out what to do, when suddenly a new party entered the scene - a small blue hedgehog, who stopped in front of Big and stared out at Eggman and the creature. "Oh, no," he said in exasperation. "Not again!"

Eggman, still sitting in his vehicle on the other side of the glass platform, caught sight of them both and began to laugh theatrically. "You're too late, Sonic!" he called to the hedgehog. "Chaos has absorbed six of the emeralds, as well as his missing piece from that lumbering cat's pet frog!"

Big's trembling abruptly ceased. Pet frog?

"You won't get away with it, Eggman! We both know how these things tend to end."

Eggman only snorted. "And how do you plan to stop me? By making friends with the cat? You're no match for Chaos, even if he's not perfected yet."

Big felt his hands clench into fists, gripping his fishing pole hard.

Eggman leaned back in his seat, looking pleased. "Chaos! Destroy them!"

Big stared at the creature, which stared back directly at him - and then caught sight of Froggy, floating limply in the creature's liquid body.

And something inside him finally snapped.

"FROGGY!" he bellowed, whipping his fishing pole into position. He may not know how to fight this thing, not yet, but it was made of liquid, and that was all he needed. If there was anything Big knew how to do, it was fish.

Sonic turned to Big, staring up at him with a cocky grin. "So he's your friend, huh? No sweat, buddy, I'll help you get him b-"

"I MUST SAVE FROGGY!"

Big drew back, then cast his lure into the creature with all his might. The creature roared, fixing him with its gaze, but Big paid it no mind until it started to scuttle toward him.

"Whoa, pal," Sonic said. "I don't think he likes being… uh, fished in."

"I DON'T CARE!"

Froggy had been limp this entire time, but finally seemed to be waking back up. He wriggled around as the creature crept ever closer, and Big began to back up slowly, matching the creature's pace as Sonic took off running to the other side of the platform.

Come on, little buddy!

Froggy swam closer… closer… and his mouth closed around the lure.

Big forgot everything he knew about careful reeling and simply yanked. Froggy came flying out of the creature's body with a wet plop, sailing straight into Big's outstretched, waiting hands.

For a moment, the outside world disappeared. Froggy stared up at Big, all signs of his previous listlessness gone. He looked like his old self again. "Ribbit," he said brightly.

Big hugged him, being careful even in his joy not to squash him. "Froggy! You're okay!"

"Ribbit!"

Sonic returned in a gust of wind, bringing Big back to the present, and he looked up to see that whatever he had done seemed to have briefly confused the creature, turning it in a circle. "Good, fishing party's over, friends reunited?" he said. "Then get outta here! I'll take care of the rest."

"Really?" Big looked back at the creature, which had steadied itself and was glaring once more. For a second, he felt obligated to continue helping - this was the thing that had caused him and Froggy so much grief over the past few days, and it had nearly taken Froggy from him forever.

Then again, Froggy was free now, and Big wasn't quite sure he was ready for a fight of this magnitude.

"Okay," he said. "Then thanks - for helping."

"No problem! Now run!"

Big heeded his advice and took off as fast as his legs would carry him, holding Froggy tightly and making a beeline for the front of the ship, hoping there was something - anything - there that could get him back to safety.


Egg Carrier forward deck - late evening

Knuckles arrived at the source of the flashes, which turned out to be none other than a transformed Chaos, in time to see a large purple figure hightailing it from the scene.

Well, at least I know Big made it through alive.

He leapt onto the platform, which seemed to be covering a power generator that was slowly burning itself up from the inside, judging from the smoke clouding the glass over it. Chaos roared in the center, having taken a new, significantly creepier form (Knuckles could see two more Chaos Emeralds nestled inside it, and growled in anger), Eggman was laughing nearby, and Sonic was running laps around the thing, no doubt trying to figure out how to hurt it.

"Sonic!" Knuckles called, running forward to join the fight, and Sonic skidded to a halt next to him.

"Hey, Knuckles," he said. "Glad you finally decided to join the party! Thought you got lost or something."

"Not lost." Knuckles raised his fists and stared Chaos down. "How do we take this thing out?"

"Teamwork?"

"Be serious!"

Sonic huffed and dodged as Chaos whipped its tail at them. "I don't know!" he said. "Every time I try to get close enough to hit the brain, that tail comes around. I can't get past it!"

"Then we need to find a way to immobilize it!"

They split up, running around opposite sides of the creature. Its attention fixed on Knuckles this time, and seeing Sonic watching from the opposite side of the platform, he encouraged it, yelling "Come on! You think you're tough?"

In response, Chaos opened its mouth.

Knuckles expected a roar, but instead an incredibly strong wind caught him, and he realized with a jolt that it was trying to suck him into its body. He turned and tried to run, his shoes scuffing uselessly against the smooth glass as he was pulled closer.

"Sonic!" he yelled as he lost his balance, then he was sucked inside.

Everything was abnormally quiet in here. The liquid that comprised Chaos' body was unexpectedly warm, and felt uncomfortably tingly against his skin. Knuckles kept his eyes tight shut, not wanting to know what the liquid would do to them if he opened them, and felt forward with his hands. If he was stuck in here, he might as well do some good - and perhaps he could even hit the brain from the inside -

- but a second later, a jolt rippled through Chaos' body, and Knuckles found himself being spit back out onto the glass platform.

He gasped, able to breathe again, and rolled blindly to his feet, wondering what had caused it to release him. Sonic waved at him from behind the creature. "You're welcome!"

"Sonic!" Knuckles yelled, dodging a swipe from Chaos' tail. "I had it under control!"

"Sure you did!"

Chaos swung its tail, and Knuckles grabbed hold this time, bracing himself against the ground and pulling. "Try now!"

"Got it!"

Chaos pulled hard against Knuckles' grip, but he held on doggedly, straining to keep it from moving. Sonic leapt into the air and curled up, spinning rapidly and aiming straight for Chaos' brain - and bounced off the side.

Chaos wrenched its tail free from Knuckles, who had been distracted by his friend's failure, and lifted it straight into the air as Sonic picked himself back up the ground, grumbling. Its body began to shift into another shape once again, and Sonic and Knuckles both tensed, ready, waiting to see what it was planning this time.

The form it took could only be described by Knuckles as some sort of bottle shape, its tail extending out from the top. For a moment, it hung in place, doing nothing. Then Knuckles watched apprehensively as one by one, glowing purple spots appeared on its sides, covering it entirely.

Oh, what fresh hell is this…?

One of the spots directly in front of Knuckles glowed a little brighter, and his eyes widened.

He had a split second to dive to the side, narrowly avoiding being hit as an arm shot out at him from the glowing spot. Knuckles scrambled as another darted out, then another, and he could hear Sonic's yelps as he danced around the arms as well.

Knuckles stopped, facing Chaos, and as another purple-tipped arm lanced toward him he sidestepped and punched it out of the way. Chaos screeched furiously, but tried again, with the same results. Knuckles began to laugh, emboldened by this strategy.

"Take that, you bag of jelly!"

He winced. I'm beginning to sound like Sonic.

One of his punches missed by an inch, and Chaos took advantage of his being briefly unbalanced to slam a new arm directly into his side. He coughed, the wind knocked out of him and abruptly all the arms retracted as Knuckles fell to his knees, gasping.

"Knuckles!" Sonic yelled, trying to run to him, but Chaos' tail was keeping him busy on the other side of the platform.

Knuckles could hear Eggman laughing behind him, and gritted his teeth, standing despite the pain. "Shut up!" he roared, whirling and leaping forward to deliver a punch to the front of the Egg Carrier that left a sizeable dent and sent it skittering backward a good ten feet.

"Aaargh! Stupid echidna!"

The bottom of the floating vehicle scraped along the glass, causing a small section to crack and fall to pieces. Instantly the smoke from the malfunctioning generator began to escape, but from here it didn't look like smoke anymore. It was more like a wispy steam, and it wasn't hot, as Knuckles had expected… it was cold.

A crazy idea popped into his head.

"Are you planning on helping anytime soon, Knux?" Sonic yelled, rolling to avoid yet another swipe of Chaos' tail.

Knuckles ran forward, dodging as well. "Sonic! Break the glass under his feet, it'll freeze him!"

"What? Are you serious?" Sonic stared up at the creature, which howled in fury.

"No harm in trying!"

As Knuckles did his best to keep Chaos' attention elsewhere, Sonic leapt up to avoid another tail swing like playing the world's deadliest game of jump rope, then brought his weight down hard on his heels, cracking the glass. He turned the landing into a roll that brought him underneath Chaos' body, and steam began to spout from the crack, billowing around Chaos. It let out an earsplitting screech, writhing briefly, but Knuckles was right - the liquid of its body began to harden, then freeze completely.

Taking power from a running start, Knuckles jumped up and punched it at the same time that Sonic leapt at it, spinning like a buzzsaw.

It shattered like ice.

Knuckles and Sonic landed next to each other, staring down at the results of their handiwork.

"Noooo!" Eggman wailed behind him as the pieces of Chaos began to melt back into indistinct puddles on the glass. "I can't believe this!"

"I can!" Sonic said, dusting off his hands satisfactorily. He flashed Knuckles a grin only for both of them to freeze and turn at the sound of engines firing. Eggman's vehicle was already beginning to speed toward the edge of the ship, which was rocking in earnest now as the engines failed totally.

"Until we meet again, Sonic!" Eggman called back, his voice betraying a hint of nervousness.

"Hey, not so fast!" Sonic nearly bowled Knuckles over as he raced after the doctor. "Get back here! I was just getting warmed up!"

Knuckles glanced back at the pieces of Chaos before following - and froze. "Uh, Sonic?"

But Sonic had already taken a running leap off the side of the Egg Carrier onto Eggman's vehicle, and they disappeared below the edge of the ship, both shouting madly all the way.

"Sonic!"

The pieces of Chaos had melted completely and were re-fusing, already forming its original shape again, the six emeralds gleaming at its center.

For all his strength, Knuckles knew he couldn't defeat this thing alone, not fairly. He looked around frantically for anything that might give him an edge.

The Chaos Emeralds….

If he were just able to take those away from the beast, it would be weak - even weaker than when he'd first fought it. He needed to shatter it again to get at them, but doubted it would fall for the same trick twice. He scanned the platform as Chaos fully reformed and roared at the stormy sky. Most of the generator's covering was easily breakable glass - nice engineering choice, Eggman - but the center, which Chaos was currently standing on, was solid metal.

It was a long shot, but he had no other choice.

Knuckles began the familiar dance again, dodging swipes from Chaos' long tail. It seemed sluggish, as though the first blow had already weakened it, but it was still powerful, still dangerous. Knuckles moved to the far side of the platform, trying to bait it into moving closer.

That was the wrong choice - its mouth opened.

But this time, Knuckles was prepared. He tuned and began to run, fighting the vortex from the thing's mouth trying to draw him in. It pulled him slowly backwards, but he ran harder than he ever had in his life, his shoes scuffing the glass and leaving scratches and marks, and Chaos ran out of steam just before he reached its jaws.

He darted out of the way as soon as he was free, avoiding a snap of its teeth at his tail, and this time, made sure to stay close enough that it attacked with its tail, but just far away enough that it began to inch steadily toward him. Knuckles threw a few punches, putting up a token resistance - and finally, as he teetered at the edge of the platform, Chaos stepped exactly where he needed it to be.

Knuckles took a deep breath, then ran a wide arc around it, rolling under another tail strike and skidding to a stop directly on the central metal plate. He raised one fist as Chaos lumbered around to face him.

"You're finished!"

And he slammed his fist into the metal circle with every bit of strength he possessed.

The shockwave from his blow traveled through the entire platform, reverberating through the already weakened glass, and all of it surrounding him shattered.

Chaos screamed as it fell into the generator, only to be blasted back up by the sheer force of the cold steam, freezing instantly midair. Knuckles leapt as high as he could over most of the steam, frost forming on his shoes, and punched the rigid Chaos, shattering it once again and sending the emeralds encased inside it flying off the side of the now-wrecked generator platform.

He arced downward, and both he and the emeralds landed, tumbling, on the other side of the higher deck. He tucked in his elbows and relaxed as best he could until he finally came to a stop, breathing heavily. A part of him couldn't believe he was still alive after a stunt like that, but he'd hardly had a choice.

Knuckles pushed himself up and spotted the emeralds, lying scattered several feet away. He scrambled over to collect them before Chaos could make another comeback - assuming its physical form had even survived what he had just done to it. The emeralds gleamed as they sat in his palms - six emeralds, brought together.

Knuckles stood, tucking them away with the Master Emerald shards for safekeeping, and then found himself brought up short by a bizarre sight.

Of all people he might have encountered, Big the Cat was still on board the deteriorating Egg Carrier, standing and staring at a plane with X-shaped wings that was sitting tilted over on the deck, at the end of a long skid mark. Knuckles could see Sonic's name and Tails' trademark symbol painted on the sides. At least he knew how they had ended up on board, but it looked like they might be losing their plane after everything that had happened.

"Big!" Knuckles called, then stumbled as an explosion went off, worryingly nearby. This thing wouldn't last much longer.

Big turned at the sound of his voice, and his face broke out in a huge smile. "Mister… uh, echidna!"

Knuckles stared at him in a split second of confusion before remembering he'd never actually told Big his own name. "I see you found your frog after all," Knuckles said as he walked up, spying the creature nestled in Big's arms.

"Yep! I found him in a tank labeled 'Engine Coolant.' He was swimming in the water there, so I drained it!"

Knuckles stared in utter disbelief. "And I assume that that and this - " he jerked a thumb toward the back of the ship " - might be directly related?"

Big wasn't listening, having gone back to staring down at the plane. "I thought I could use this to get off the ship, but I don't know the first thing about it…."

The fortress rocked again dangerously, and Knuckles felt his stomach disappear as it began to drop in earnest. He looked back to see the engines going up in a terrifyingly final fireball at the very back of the ship. The final stabilizers must have failed - they were plummeting at speed.

"Big, we may not have much of a choice! I doubt Eggman installed any kind of escape pods or - "

"What does this button do?"

Knuckles turned back in horror to see that Big had somehow managed to squish himself into the Tails-sized pilot's seat, and was pressing something on the front console.

"No, wait!"

The engines fired, and the plane began to screech painfully along the deck, straight toward Knuckles.

He leapt out of the way, kicking the nose upwards as he did so, then reached out and grabbed the tail just as the plane shot up into the air.

The sound of a huge cat and a terrified echidna screaming as their borrowed plane spiraled into the darkness of the storm echoed over the Egg Carrier as it went up in flames, plunging from the sky toward the ocean far below.