C h a p t e r T h i r t e e n
C h a o s C o n t r o l
Knuckles, Maxwell, and Rouge all whirled around. Sure enough, stepping out of the shadows was Dark Knuckles. And Rouge hadn't been joking he she said he didn't look pretty. Several of his red, dreadlock-like, quills had been snapped, leaving jagged ends. A long scar ran down one side of his face, and part of it went over his right eye. Where there should've been an eye was now a robotic replacement, glowing red and giving Dark Knuckles a look that seemed that much darker. A long and evil looking sword was strapped to his back.
But he seemed to prefer his fists, because this was what he raised as he approached the trio slowly.
"You people are messing with my stuff." Dark Knuckles said in a gravely voice. "And I don't like it when people mess with my stuff."
He then moved without warning, launching himself at Maxwell. Maxwell started to react by raising his pistol, but he wasn't fast enough as Dark Knuckles decked him under the chin. the force of the blow launched Maxwell into the air, who landed on, and skidded across, the top of the Master Emerald, toppling off on the other side.
His pistol flew into the air, and clattered down somewhere behind one of the seven Chaos Emeralds, and Maxwell's hoverboard, still activated and now pilotless, shot forward, ricocheted off a column, and starting spinning like a top, it's path curving around to make it fly around the Master Emerald in a circle.
As this happened, Dark Knuckles grabbed Rouge from his double's arms, and hurled her aside. She smashed into a podium of a blue Chaos Emerald. Dark Knuckles then turned his attention to his double, punching him in the nose. Knuckles, unprepared, was knocked over.
"I also hate impersonators." Dark Knuckles growled at his double, standing over him.
He then launched himself at Knuckles. Knuckles quickly rolled aside, and planted a kick to Dark Knuckles side, pushing him aside. Then, picking himself up, Knuckles leapt onto the back of his evil twin, wrapping his arms around Dark Knuckle's throat. Dark Knuckles gagged for a moment, standing up, and backed into the side of the Master Emerald, pinning Knuckles to it.
Knuckles flinched, and loosened his grasp long enough for Dark Knuckles to throw him off, and onto the floor. Ducking as Maxwell's hoverboard whizzed by, still spinning like a top, Dark Knuckles started towards his double. But Knuckles was up in a flash, and dove for Dark Knuckles.
Dark Knuckles saw the move coming, and grabbed his double by the hands, and swung him around, almost like a discus. He let go, hurling Knuckles at a nearby column. Knuckles latched on it, and used his momentum to swing around on it and kick his doppleganger in the face.
Dark Knuckles went down. Knuckles raced towards him, but was kicked in the middle by both of Dark Knuckles feet. Getting the wind knocked from him, Knuckles doubled over, giving dark Knuckles the chance he needed to get back up. Hearing the whine of Maxwell's hoverboard as it spun by again, Knuckles quickly whirled around and latched onto the side of it.
It's crazy flight path pushed Knuckles forward and spun him around, smashing into his double. Letting go of the board and letting it go on it's way, Knuckles raced towards Dark Knuckles. His evil twin merely slapped him away. But then he had to duck as Maxwell, who had gotten up and retrieved his pistol, fired off a bolt of sizzling energy at Dark Knuckles. Ducking more shots, Dark Knuckles made his way towards Maxwell, and punched him aside. Knuckles then arrived and dealt a punch to the side of the head of his double.
Dark Knuckles then spun around and punched back, knocking his good twin into the air, and into the flight path of Maxwell's hoverboard as it spun by once more. Slapping into it, Knuckles crashed to the floor as the hoverboard flew around on an even more chaotic path than before.
Decided she wasn't going to go down without a fight, Rouge tried to get involved, by jumping onto Dark Knuckles back. Dark Knuckles threw her off, launching the injured bat into the air, and off the top of the temple. Seeing that it probably wasn't a good idea to continue falling to the ground, Rouge tried to fly, but with her broken wing, ended up merely gliding to crash into the top a nearby tree.
Maxwell, meanwhile, had picked himself up once again and raised his pistol to point at the distracted Dark Knuckles, but before he could fire, his own hoverboard came hurtling and ricocheted off the top of the Master Emerald and nearly hit Maxwell in the head. Ducking, Maxwell lost his aim. Hearing the grinding noise the hoverboard had made as it skidded off the Master Emerald, Dark Knuckles turned, saw Maxwell, and punched the hedgehog scientist in the face again.
Maxwell dropped his pistol. Dark Knuckles picked it up with one hand, and crushed it. Then Knuckles came and tackled his double from behind. Enraged, Dark Knuckles tried to throw Knuckles off by swinging around suddenly. Barely hanging on, Knuckles swung with his double, feet flying out and nearly hitting Maxwell again.
Dark Knuckles then stopped his swing, allowing Knuckles feet to hit the ground again. Getting a solid footing, Knuckles threw his double up and over his head. Dark Knuckles landed again on top of the Master Emerald, now sitting off kilter on it's podium. Knuckles hopped up to join him, and the fight continued.
Throwing punches left and right, kicking at each other whenever the chance arrived, the two fought violently. They were forced to break apart however, when Maxwell's out of control hoverboard flew at them. Quickly, they lunged to either side of the Master Emerald, allowing the hoverboard to zoom between them.
The hoverboard continued on it's path until it ricocheted off the top of a column. It sailed upward, it's nose pointing up to the sky. Eventually, however, it stalled out, and tumbled around, heading back the way it came. Dark Knuckles apparently got an idea, and leapt upward, and landed on the board as it zoomed past. Quickly gaining control over it, he used it to surge towards his double.
Knuckles tried to run for cover, but wasn't fast enough as his double grabbed him by the back, and lifted him into the air. Swinging him around, Dark Knuckles smashed his good twin into a column as they flew past it. Stunned by the blow, but seeing what his double was up to, Knuckles kicked off of the next column, and swung himself to join his evil twin on the hoverboard. Despite there hardly being room for each other, they cautiously swung punches at each other, wobbling dangerously each time they overbalanced.
Finally, Dark Knuckles managed to slap his arm into his twin's chest, and Knuckles flipped over and off the board. Quickly, Knuckles grabbed the edge of the board, stopping his fall. Dark Knuckles raised his foot to stomp down on Knuckles hand. Knuckles quickly switched his hold on the board to his other hand and let go of the board with the first, saving his hand from being crushed under his doppleganger's foot.
Knowing his double would just try that stunt again with his other hand, Knuckles swung around and grabbed hold of the nose of the hoverboard, putting some distance from Dark Knuckles. Then the hoverboard, weighted on one side due to Knuckles hanging from it's nose, tilted over to hang vertically in the air. Not being strapped down to the board, Dark Knuckles slid off it and tumbled to the ground.
The board then flipped over again, taking Knuckles with it. The momentum caused Knuckles to loose his grip, and fall off as well, crashing down to land on top of the Master Emerald again. It was then that Knuckles got an idea. Here he was fighting against a powerful enemy, when he had the best tool to combat him with sitting all around.
Seven Chaos Emeralds. Why not use them to achieve a super form, and thus finish this battle in a heartbeat?
Seeing Dark Knuckles charge him again, artificial eye blaring a bright red, Knuckles knew he wasn't going to get much of a better chance. Hopping down from the top of the Master Emerald, Knuckles grabbed the closest of the seven Chaos Emeralds, then went around grabbing the next one after that.
He had managed to grab three before Dark Knuckles caught up with him, and slapped him the back, knocking Knuckles to ground, dropping the three emeralds and rolling into the podium of a fourth emerald. One of the emeralds, the green one, skidded over to Maxwell, who picked it up. He then glanced over at the Master Emerald. And an idea started to form...
As Dark Knuckles started to charge Knuckles, fist stretched forth, Maxwell took the emerald in his hands, climbed up onto the Master Emerald, and, praying this would work, slapped the Chaos Emerald on to the top of the Master Emerald.
The two emeralds sparked, but nothing seemed to happen for a moment. But then the Chaos Emerald in Maxwell hands started to flare brightly, and suddenly, it was a Super Emerald. Knuckles was busy picking himself when he turned and saw Dark Knuckles racing towards him, and quickly went to brace himself for the blow.
Maxwell took the Super Emerald, lifted it over his head, squeezed his eyes shut, hoping this wasn't a total mistake, and exclaimed, "CHAOS CONTROL!"
For a long moment, nothing seemed to happen. Finally, Maxwell opened his eyes, and looked around. Both of the two Knuckles were staring at him, looking to be too shocked to move. For a long moment, Maxwell thought they were simply shocked at Maxwell's sudden move to try and use Chaos Control, but then saw his hoverboard, where it had been flipping over and over again in a lazy fashion.
It was frozen mid-flip.
It was then that Maxwell realized what had happened. He had successfully used Chaos Control. Exactly how...was another question. It appeared he had managed to stop time, or at least drastically slow it down. Whatever the case, it gave him the advantage he had been looking for. And better still, this Super Emerald wasn't losing it's charge. As it had been given it's super form properly by the Master Emerald and not artificially like the emerald they had used to get in this universe, it was able to maintain it's super charge.
At least for now. Maxwell presumed that repeated use and constantly drawing power from it would eventually force it to revert back into it's normal Chaos Emerald form, and then it was of little use to Maxwell, since he couldn't use the Chaos Control with a normal emerald. But Maxwell didn't intend to use the Super Emerald like that for that long.
Jumping down from the Master Emerald, he looked around, trying to decide how he wanted to do this. First, he decided he needed to spilt up the two Knuckles. Standing beside them and rubbing his chin for a moment, he wondered how he should do that. Finally, he decided to give Dark Knuckles a shove to the left, and pull Knuckles out of the way and tugging him to the right.
Satisfied, Maxwell then looked around for another way to help. Looking up at his hoverboard, he decided it would be helpful if he had it again. Climbing up onto the Master Emerald again, he hopped up and grabbed it by the nose, pulling it down again, still frozen in time. Realizing it would go into motion again the moment he exited this state Chaos Control had brought him into, Maxwell turned off the board, thus deactivating it's engines. He then leveled it out, and climbed onto it, placing his toe over the power button.
Pointing it at the two Knuckles, still frozen in time, Maxwell regarded the Super Emerald in his hand.
"How do I stop this, I wonder?" he asked aloud.
And then, like that, time unfroze and everything started to move again. Maxwell's hoverboard jolted briefly, then shut down. Dark Knuckles, about to deal his double a punch, suddenly veered off course and smashed to the ground, and Knuckles suddenly stumbled away from him.
Maxwell quickly turned his hoverboard back on, and while holding onto the Super Emerald, sped off, coming about to head towards Dark Knuckles as he picked himself up. Just a he did, Maxwell rammed into him. Dark Knuckles, in surprise latched onto the board, and was dragged along as Maxwell and the hoverboard continued on, flying off the top of the temple and out over the jungle that covered Angel Island.
Dark Knuckles hung on tightly as Maxwell watched him struggle. The double's eyes finally fell on the Super Emerald in Maxwell's hand, glowing brightly.
"What is that?" he asked, puzzled.
"It's called a Super Emerald." Maxwell explained. "Gives you an edge more than a regular Chaos Emerald would. But now that you're here, I kinda don't need it, because I can simply do this."
Maxwell turned the hoverboard sharply to the left, and in the process, Dark Knuckles lost his grasp on the board. He started to fall, several feet from the ground, and now on the outer edges on the floating island. Dark Knuckles fumbled in midair for a moment, then rolled over so his dreadlocks caught the air, and he glided down to safety. But by that point, Maxwell had turned the board around, and was well on his way back to the temple.
As he flew back, Maxwell tossed the emerald around in his hands. "I like this thing." he said with a grin.
Arriving back at the temple, he saw Knuckles standing at the top of the temple, looking impressed, and Rouge dangling from a branch in a tree, waving at him to get his attention.
"Hey, Max!" she cried out. "Think you could help a damsel in distress here?"
Maxwell rolled his eyes with a smirk, and hovered over, allowing the injured Rouge to carefully climb on, then go and land on top of the temple.
There, Knuckles was shaking his head. "I must say Max, that was some idea." he admitted. "Here I was thinking of gathering all seven emeralds to achieve a super form, but you did the more practical thing, and obtained a Super Emerald to use."
"And the best thing is that we can still use it." Maxwell said, holding up the super-charged Chaos Emerald as he put away his hoverboard.
"No need to build that machine of Eggman's that artificially charged the emeralds." Rouge noted, weakly standing up and favoring her bruised and injured parts. "Now we can just use that thing to go home."
"Then our job here is done." Knuckles said.
"Grab the other six emeralds anyway." Maxwell requested. "Because I have feeling we'll need the power of all seven before this is mess has ended."