"Looks like we'll have to make camp here" Tiara said as she plopped her bag down and sat tiredly on a rock in the small clearing.
"Tired already?" Fang said teasingly.
"Well we are about to enter Crystal Frost Zone, travelling at night isn't a good idea when temperatures can reach well below zero." She stated a matter o-factually.
"Can't take the cold?" he snickered.
"Not really, we only need to take it till we reach icecap zone which we follow till we reach Emerald Coast. Then you can take it from there, where did you say we were headed?"
"it's a floating island just above mystic jungle." He pointed out to the distance in the sky.
"Angel island?!" She replied in shock.
"Yep that's the one, sure you've never been there before?" He stated in mild surprise.
"It's a sacred site, full of traps and powerful artefacts, not exactly a tourist destination." She stated sternly "So he really is an echidna huh?" She asked out loud looking up at the stars starting to come out.
"Pretty sure he said he was, we didn't talk much" Fang replied tiredly "He can throw one hell of a punch".
"So he must be the current Master Emerald guardian" She said surely. The Emerald guardian seemed like just the answer she needed, he should be able to fix everything.
"Wouldn't have a clue about all that mystic hoodoo. But you seem to know a lot for someone who's never met this guy" He sat down lazily near her, looking up to the stars as well.
"Of course, I'm a ring smith, knowing about Chaos energy is half the job" She said with pride.
"What the hell is a ring smith?"
"You know that warp ring I threw before? That is part of it, I made that ring by focusing Chaos energy to create a more limited version of Chaos control. Those large rings that appear before special stages were also made by ring smiths and-" Her voice was full of excitement as she quickly spoke of her passion.
"Magic rings got it" Fang interrupted, not being about to take the speed at which she spoke.
"It's so much more than that" She whined.
"I don't care that much about the inner workings of magic jewellery. It's like a sausage knowing how it's made makes it loose it's magic" he pulled his hat down over his eyes as he leaned his head against the wall.
"I don't think that's a thing but whatever." she stated in defeat, she was looking forward to geeking out. "So your a merc for hire?"
"What was your first clue?" he joked.
"Why do you do it?" She asked with serious concern looking straight into his eyes and he simply looks away.
"If you must know, money. Crime seems to pay better then playing by the rules so why bother. Why are you a ring smith?"
"It's a family trade, My father taught me and his father before him and so on"
"Huh, lucky, only thing me dad ever thought me was how to avoid your family"
"sorry to hear"
"Don't be, I hear he's an asshole anyway" he crossed his hands "Why don't you make another Warp ring? Save us the travel?"
"I would but, I can't feel any Chaos Energy, it's like it's just... gone" She spoke with genuine concern.
"That must by why i'm on a wild goose chase for Emerald shards" He mused.
Knuckles looked at the large Emerald in confusion as it glowed brightly "Well that's new" He deadpanned. Laying his hand on it, it was hot to the touch like burning coal. "Glowing and hot? What does that mean?" he jumped down from the shrine and too it's stone base looking closely at the ancient runes. "Man if only they left an easy to understand instruction Manuel" he said in annoyance his ability to read the runes was limited, sure he's learnt a bit of it, but the rest? He had no one left to teach him.
The Master Emerald let off a sound like a kettle steaming causing Knuckles to jump. Just above the Emerald steam had risen from it, forming into a large cloud that eventually started to evaporate into droplets. The droplets combined to form into a single puddle of liquid that started to move about on it's own and he soon found himself staring into the mystical green eyes of Chaos.
Knuckles stood defensively knowing full well that such an event could not end well. Chaos was quick to move launching straight at Knuckles, his water hands crushing against the echidna's skin like waves as Knuckles punched into his liquid body. "Look Chaos, I don't want to fight, I don't know what's woken you up." no answer from the liquid as he pushed him farther towards the water around the shrine.
Knuckles manages to throw him into the shallow pools but with the added water Chaos swirls the water around his target, forcing him down into a liquid prison. Knuckles stares up from beneath the water the only sign that he was starting at the creature above was his soulless unblinking eyes sticking out in a sea of blue as he struggled for oxygen.
Till they heard the familiar bells in the wind. The fairy like spirit flew around Chaos and it seemed to stop letting the Echidna escape from his would be watery grave. The little Spirit Knuckles instantly recognised from his last adventure with chaos. It was the spirit of Tikal.
The little pixie thing flew past Knuckles ear and into the cave near the shrine "I take it you want me to follow" Knuckles said out loud, noticing Chaos also following the spirite.
They journeyed further into the Hidden palace zone, Knuckles knew this place all too well, this place was so important to the history of his people, runes and hieroglyphics lined the walls depicting events of the past and from what he later found out, the future. As he passed a large mural depicting a legendary figure not unlike Sonic. The walk soon came to an end as he saw Tikal's spirit swirl around a point at the edge of a wall. Beneath it a red Chao stared up in confusion at a drawing of a chao on the wall.
"Hey little guy" Knuckles said with a smile crouching down and petting it. "I wasn't expecting to find you here" Chaos stared at them, while unnerving Knuckles his lack of movement was at least reassuring. Knuckles turned to face the mural, it was a drawing of a Chao next to a chaos emerald and a ring. Nothing out of the ordinary there. He further looked out and notice a picture of an echidna and bird holding a ring together and a strange arrangement of circles like a pentagram or something and next to that? He doesn't really know but it looks bad, as a large crystal looking being looms over head surrounded by shards of crystal. He can only assume that this is an event of the past like most of what litters the wall.
But damn if it doesn't rub him the wrong way. "you can't read this can you?" He asked turning to Chaos who was happily petting the chao. Chaos merely looked at him then to the wall. He raised his hand and his eyes glowed green as water flowed by his gesture. Knuckles readied his fists preparing for another fight.
But the water stopped before reaching him forming into shapes before him. It was the 7 chaos emeralds and with a clench of Chaos' fist they shattered and reformed into a swirl of vortex and that in turn became the monster from the carving. And with that the water went back to the river. "I was thinking more of English, then interpretative water, oh well it looks like either way I have to do something about this abnormal Chaos energy event."
Chaos grabbed Knuckles arm, chao in his other hand. Knuckles turned to him in curiosity as those green orbs stared at him curiously. "What's wrong? Do you want to come too?" Knuckles asked it was a long shot but he didn't really have any idea what he could be asking. The liquid deity simply nodded.
They were both startled by a noise outside the cave.
"So your not behind this?" Rouge asked sceptically "Sorry if I find that hard to believe" She said as she placed her hands on her hips.
"Well that sounds like a you problem. I assure you I am up to no ill will at the moment. This Chaos anomaly has nothing to do with me and I don't know what caused it."
"Convenient that no one has heard from you for weeks and then something big like this pops up."
"I haven't had the time to try anything, been too busy building new robots, do you know how many that blue Menace goes through every-time he rampages through my bases"
"Then how'd you know shadow was going to explode?"
"Just because I'm not the cause doesn't mean I'm not closely monitoring Chaos energy all the time. From what I can gather is the chaos emeralds were destroyed"
"What? How does that happen? And more importantly how do you know?"
"We got it boss" Cubot and Orbot fly through the doors.
"Speak of the devil" Eggman said taking the thing from Orbot and holding it up to show Rouge. "This, I noticed it landing in my yard a little shortly ago. This is a shard of the Chaos Emerald. It is still giving off a weak signature but lacks any real energy. The fact that it released any is what helped to find it. As I'm sure you know the world is following with this energy, materialising usually as rings you find everywhere and other things" He explained.
"and let me guess you have no idea how the Emeralds shattered right?" She deadpanned.
"Bingo" He confirmed.