In the gorge that's just a few miles outside of the M.E. shrine, Finitevus and Knuckles walked up to a rock underneath a small tree.
"Now you wait here." Finitevus said as Knuckles sat down on the rock. "Your father has a marvellous surprise for you."
"Oooh. What is it?" The young echidna asked.
"If I told you, it wouldn't be a surprise, now would it."
"If you tell me, I'll still act surprised." Knuckles grinned.
"You are such a naughty boy."
"Come on, Uncle Finitevus." Knuckles begged.
"No, no, no, no, no, no, no." Laughed Finitevus. "This is just for you and your daddy. You know, a sort of father-son...thing." He started to leave. "Well, I better go get him."
Knuckles got up to follow. "I'll go with you."
"NO!" Finitevus snapped. He quickly regained his composure. "No. Just stay on this rock." He laughed a little. "You wouldn't want to end up in another mess like you did with the Babylon Rogues."
"You know about that?" Knuckles looked shocked.
"Knuckles, everyone knows about that."
"Really?" The to-be guardian looked meek and embarrassed.
"Oh, yes." Finitevus said as calm as possible. "Lucky Daddy was there to save you, eh? Oh, and just between us, you might want to work on controlling the chaos emerald. Hmm?"
"Oh...okay."
Finitevus started to walk away.
"Uncle Finitevus, will I like this surprise?" Knuckles asked.
Finitevus looked at the youngster with a fake smile.
"Knuckles," He said boldly, "it's to DIE for."
He started to walk off.
Above the gorge, a herd of non-mobain buffalos were eating some grass while Wave, Jet and Storm were hiding under a rock arch.
Jet looked around and tapped his foot against the 'wall'.
"Quit it!"
"I can't help it, Wave! I need to run! I gotta be moving at all times."
"Stay put!" Wave groaned.
"Well, can't I just get my board out and glide for a bit?"
"NO! We wait for the signal from Finitevus."
Just then, Finitevus showed up, and gave the Babylon Rogues the signal.
"There he is. Let's go." Wave gave a thumbs up as she, Jet and Storm started to do their job.
Back in the gorge, Knuckles was sitting on the rock, waiting for Finitevus and Locke to arrive.
"Controlling the chaos emerald..." He pouted. "Hump, I can do that easy!"
Suddenly, a lizard appeared, and Knuckles tried to fire some chaos energy to catch it, but it only came out as a spark. As the lizard walked past him, Knuckles tried it again, but it still came out as a couple of sparks. He jumped down, and tried again. The chaos energy fired, and hit the rock as it ran off, and the noise echoed. Knuckles smiled, but then he heard a low rumble.
He looked down to see some pebbles, and looked up at the rim of the gorge to see the herd of non-mobain buffalos running down, and towards him. He gasped in horror, and started running for his life.
Above the gorge, Wave, Storm, and Jet had chased all of the buffalos down the gorge as Knuckles continued running for his life.
Two miles away, Espio was walking with Locke, when the chameleon spotted the herd of buffalos.
"Oh look, guardian. The herd is on the move."
"Odd."
Suddenly, Finitevus went up to his 'friend' 'urgently'.
"Locke, quick! Stampede! In the gorge! Knuckles' down there!"
"Knuckles?!" Locke's face went pale.
In the gorge, Knuckles ran as the herd of buffalos caught up with him, and he climbed up a dead tree, and held onto the branch.
As Locke and Finitevus ran to the gorge, Espio spotted Knuckles from the cliff nearby. The chameleon wanted to rescue his friend, but he had no way of getting to him.
"Espio! Help me!" shouted Knuckles when saw to the chameleon standing at one end of the gorge.
"Your father is on the way! Hold on!" Called Espio from the place where he stood.
"Hurry!"
Locke and Finitevus went down on the ledge, and looked around.
Espio approached them and points them pointed at Knuckles still hanging for dear life.
"There! There! On that tree!"
"Hold on, Knuckles!"
One of the buffalos rammed into a tree, nearly breaking it as Knuckles screamed in terror. Locke immediately rushed to the rescue.
Espio was still in a panic.
"Oh, Finitevus, this is awful! What will we do?! What we do?! Hah! I'll go back for help, that's what I'll do! I'll go back for-!"
Finitevus had enough of Espio's babbling, so he pushed him into a rock wall, knocking him out cold.
Locke rushed through the herd of buffalos, and one of them ran into him. He looked up to see one of the buffalos ran into the tree, breaking it, and throwing Knuckles [who hadn't learned to glide yet] in the air.
The young echidna screamed, but his father jumped up, and caught him in his arms as Finitevus walked along the ledge.
Locke rushed though the heard of buffalos, and one of them hit him, making him drop Knuckles.
He dodged some oncoming buffalos, and Locke caught him again. He jumped to a near rock ledge, and set Knuckles down, but he then got struck down by a buffalo, and got carried off into the stampede.
"DAD!" Knuckles cried out in terror as he tried looking for him in the swirling mass of buffalos below him.
Then at the last second, Locke leapt out of the herd of buffalos, and held onto the rock slope much to the relief of Knuckles.
As Locke started to climb up with great difficulty, Knuckles turned, and climbed up to the top of the gorge.
Locke then reached a point where he couldn't climb any longer due to the steepness. He looked up at Finitevus who walked up to the ledge.
"Finitevus!" He almost slipped down. "Brother! Help me!"
Finitevus just looked at Locke disdainfully, and then suddenly latched onto his hands. Locke hollered in pain, and he looked up at his 'brother' in horror.
"Long live the guardian." He then threw his Locke backwards.
Locke free-fell, and screamed as he fell to his death.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
The herd of buffalos passed, and everything was clouded in dust as Knuckles bounded to the gorge floor.