The great emerald robbery:

"At last," Shade muttered, reaching up for the master emerald. "The power of the master emerald shall be ours!"

Suddenly, a ninja star went flying in front of Shade, burying itself in the emerald altar stone. Rouge and the Nocturnus echidnas looked up, and saw Espio and Charmy facing them. Without another word, both sides began attacking one another. Both Chaotix and echidnas clashed, and the battle was very much leapt at

Espio, who dodged several of her punches, and responded with a series of furious kicks. The female echidna managed to deflect all the blows with quick movements, before somersaulting over the chameleon, and kicking him in the back. Espio stumbled, but quickly spun around with a roundhouse kick, that caught Shade squarely in the jaw.

"You are a skilled fighter, Nocturnus warrior. Your prowess is matched only by your beauty." Esipo muttered, as she jumped back to her feet. "A pity such a master of combat fights upon the side of evil."

"Your compliments are appreciated, ninja. And your skills are nearly equal to my own." The female echidna replied, pulling out a pair of katarn daggers. "But your words shall not save you."

She rushed towards him, stabbing several times with the pair of deadly daggers. Espio jumped and flipped out of the way of the strikes, before throwing a pair of kunai (ninja daggers) at the female echidna. Shade used her two katarns to knock away the kunai, before rushing up at Espio, and chopping the top of his horn off. Shocked by this blow, Espio was caught off guard, as shade delivered an uppercut, that sent him flying off of his feet.

"You are losing your touch, Chameleon." She lunged at him on the ground with katarn drawn, ready to slice his head off. "Perhaps you should return to your sensei in Chu-nan, and seek additional training?"

Just before shade could deliver the killing blow, Espio went invisible as he dodged her attack. With Shade now momentarily distracted by his disappearance, the chameleon quickly used his fingers to touch several pressure points all over her body, sending the stunned Nocturnus warrior tumbling to the ground, paralyzed."

"Ugh!- You have bested me, noble chameleon." Shade groaned, closing her eyes, and admitting defeat. "Please grant me the mercy, of a painless death."

"There is no need for this conflict to end with the extermination of your life." Espio tied her up, then set the female echidna upright on the steps of the altar. "The battle is concluded, there is no reason for further conflict between us."

Shade stared at Espio, confused by his merciful actions, and contemplating the fact she now owed the ninja her life.

Meanwhile, Knuckles and Rouge had also lunged at each other, trading several blows as they both launched a flurry of attacks.

"Get away from my emerald, bat girl!" Knuckles snarled, throwing a series of furious punches at Rouge, which she ducked. "And get off my island! you don't belong here!"

"Well my my my, aren't we testy, handsome?" She smiled, throwing several kicks with her high-heeled boots at him, which the echidna easily dodged. "You know, you're a lot cuter than those Nocturnus echidna males I've had to deal with. I don't suppose you'd like to buy me a drink after this is all over?"

"Gahhhhhh! Stop making fun of me!" He roared, taking her flirting as an insult. Both Rouge and Knuckles launched at each other in midair, gliding past one another like two fighter planes several times, and exchanging blows at each pass. When either one of them failed to land a strike, both the bat and the echidna tunneled underground, tunneling and popping up at points to trade punches and kicks. Finally, Knuckles managed to land a powerful uppercut, sending the bat spinning backwards, and smacking her face into the dirt.

As Knuckles climbed out of the hole, he noticed Rouge was lying on the ground, and not moving.

"Oh no! What have I done?" He said, terrified he had just killed a young woman in his rage. Rushing over to her, he began to pick Rouge up."Miss, are you all ri-"

*POW!* She caught him with a savate kick, almost breaking his jaw as he fell back in pain. "Sorry to do that handsome, but you're a little too tough to fight fairly, so I had to resort to underhanded tactics." She flapped up towards the emerald. "And now, to claim the prize!"

"Hey, get away from there, lady!" Charmy yelled, flapping up to her. "Or I'm gonna have to stop ya!"

"Buzz off, you little insect!" She tried to swat him away. "I have a jewel to heist!"

"Not on my watch!" The little bee zipped towards her arm. "Take that!"

*STING!*

"Ouch! Hey, now cut that out! " Rouge cried out. "You're lucky I'm not allergic!"

*STING! STING! STING! STING! STING! STING!*

"That does it!" Rouge reached out, slamming her hands together as Charmy flew by, catching the bee with a swat between her two gloves.

*SPLAT!*

"There, that puts an end to your stinging!" The bat said smugly, as the unconscious and bruised Charmy tumbled to the ground. "They should have this place sprayed for pests!"

But Charmy's distraction had given Knuckles time to wake up. Seeing what Rouge had done to Charmy he flew into a violent rage.

"YOU MONSTER! HOW DARE YOU ATTACK A CHILD!?" The echidna raced towards her, enraged. "YOU AND THE NOCTURNUS HAVE NO HONOR!"

"A child?!" Rouge looked down at the little bee, horrified at what she had just done. "I thought he was just small because he was a bee! I didn't"

*POW!* She never got to finish, as Knuckles clocked her so hard, Rouge passed into unconsciousness. Finally having the jewel thief down, Knux proceeded to tie her up, and place her beside the restrained Shade, before going over to check on the injured Charmy.

As Espio kept watch on their two captives, shade looked over at the injured mobian bee in horror. Ix had tricked them into attacking a child... something that went against everything she believed in. And the more she thought about the injured kid, the more she thought about the prisoners she and the other Nocturnus warriors had taken... and how her tribe's priests sacrificed those prisoners, despite their terrified screams and protests. This forced her to think about those sacrifices as actual people for the first time, something she had never given much thought to. And although she had yet to kill anyone directly herself, now facing the thought for what had done made her start to silently cry... and made her so nauseated she wanted to vomit all over the grass at the base of the altar shrine.

While all of this was going on, Vector had recovered, and was fighting off the various Nocturnus warriors who were charging the altar. Delivering powerful punches and kicks, the tall crocodile began catching the Nocturnus thugs in his powerful jaws, tossing them left and right.

"You punks want a piece of me!?" Vector roared. "Come on, I'll take you all on!"

Suddenly, a star post portal opened up, and more Nocturnus echidnas came pouring forth. Swarming over Vector, they threw a net over top of him, and began to try to pull him down. Vector burst up, swinging his giant tail in a full 360-degree circle, knocking all of his attackers back. But the echidnas swarmed in again, finally pulling vector down. Knuckles and the other Chaotix dove in to help him, and a giant brawl ensued.

While all the others were caught in a melee, two nocturnus warriors had slipped off to another part of the island, and were digging through the soil, finally, they were able to pull an obsidian gemstone out of the soil.

"We have recovered the phantom ruby, the enchanted echidna gemstone whose chaos magic can create illusions." One of the nocturnus warriors boasted. "Emperor Ix's plan to use the master emerald theft attempt as a distraction worked."

"Hard to believe the present-day Angel island tribe didn't know their ancestors had buried such a powerful artifact there." The other nocturnus looked back towards the melee. "What about Shade and Rouge?"

"Ix's orders were to leave them if they were caught." The first nocturnus replied, snapping his fingers, activating a nearby star post, and opening a portal. "All nocturnus soldiers, retreat! We have what we came for!"

All of the nocturnus retreated, leaving the battle to leap though the closing portal, and leaving the confused Knuckles, Rouge, Shade, and the Chaotix behind them.

Next: Played for fools