Chapter 10 – Seeing Double

It was as if the emerald was calling out to me. I kept blinking uncontrollably and a feeling of belonging flowed through me. I blinked again and snapped out of my trance. Time really must have passed as we were now far from the last shrine. I hadn't noticed time going by one little bit. I took out the map I still held and took a brief glance at it.

"This will be our last easy emerald." I said to no-one in particular, "The final one is held by Robotnik still."

"Well maybe not." replied Klim appearing at my side, "Sonic and Tails have probably secured it by now."

"We don't know for sure." said Kit Kat.

"True but the quicker we get this emerald the quicker we can get back and find out." replied Klim.

I nodded. I had forgotten about those guys.

"Right Klim. Well the next emerald is on a floating palace on the next mountain." I replied burring my nose in the map again.

"Float?! Did you just say floating palace?" asked Kat stopping dead.

"Have a look for yourself." I said turning to show him the map.

Kat took a look at the map as I took a look at him. He looked like he was about to be sick.

"How can a palace float?" said Klim in a puzzling tone.

"Dunno. Maybe the emerald keeps it up like the Master Emerald and Angel Island?" I replied.

"Perfect!" said Kat, "So once we get it we'll have to haul tail before it falls!"

"It might not be. It's just an idea. Maybe the chaos emerald has nothing to do with it." I said.

Kat was still looking a bit ill as he replied.

"Well whatever the reason, I really don't like heights."

"Neither do I. But then sometimes you got to ignore it." I said.

Kat still didn't look convinced.

"Listen guys. I dunno why but I have a really bad feeling about Sonic and Tails. Maybe I should go check on them?"

"You sure Kat? We will really need your help again." I asked.

I noticed Klim was nodding in agreement and looking at Klim equally worried.

"Yeah I'm sure. I'll meet you guys back at Sonic's house." replied Kat.

"Ok then Kat. But if you're going take this." I said holding out the map.

"I don't need that. Us cats have a great sense of direction." said Kat pushing the map back at me.

"Then you got lost in the jungle on purpose then?" laughed Klim.

"Um…" replied Kat as he took the map from me and turned away, "Later guys."

"Cya Kat." I said with a small saluting like wave.

"Bye." cried Klim.

Kat waved and ran off away from us. I looked after Kat as he soon disappeared.

"That was unexpected to say the least." said Klim stepping up beside me, "But let's go Lynx."

"You got it. Next stop the palace." I said turning to face him.

The next few hours dragged on and the wind started to pick up. We were now fairly near the top of the mountain we were aiming at. My nine tails wafted around behind me and Klim had been forced to walk in front of me so he could actually see. I was annoyed with the wind. Further down the mountain I had tried to fly but even there the wind had been so strong I had lost control and flown straight into the ground. We were now forced to climb the mountain on foot and we had to hang on with our hands to avoid being blown off too. It was insufferable. Just then Klim spoke.

"WOW! Lynx come and look at this!" he cried.

I scrambled up the last part of the mountain and stood up next to him. Only one word fitted what I saw.

"Amazing!"

Just above the top of the mountain floated a huge palace with towers and battlements. Odd palace I thought to myself.

"Question is….how'd we get up there?" I said.

"Looky there Lynx." said Klim.

I looked at where he was pointing. A small fluffy white cloud was floating all on its own a few feet above the mountaintop. I watched Klim walk over to it and gentle place his foot on it. To both our surprise the cloud actually held Klim's weight. He put both his feet on it and it still held. I cautiously put my feet on it and it still held. I was about to speak when a second cloud appeared out of thin air a little above and ahead of us. Now I know what this place reminded me of. It was a similar style to the Sky Sanctuary level on Sonic and Knuckles.

"I can see where this is going." I said stepping onto the next cloud.

"Yep." replied Klim as he jumped up next to me and another cloud appeared.

"It's almost too easy." I joked as I jumped to the next cloud.

"Don't say that!" yelled Klim.

As Klim spoke a shrill laugh split the air. I was alert in a second but it would take a deaf person to miss the sound of the something exploding. I looked back to see that the first cloud was gone. My face fell in horror.

"RUN!" cried Klim as he jumped onto my cloud.

I spun and jumped to the next cloud as the second one exploded. The clouds started to appear in a zigzag like pattern in front of us. I spun my tails and managed to jump two at once. Klim was leaping off each one in turn gaining more speed as he did. The explosion started to gain on us but the palace was now almost in reach. Just a little further, just a little….

The cloud I was on exploded sending me into the air. This was it. I couldn't fly up here. I was road kill for sure. I was…..THUD! I landed with a heavy crunch on a solid stone floor. I looked up to see that I was actually in the castle. I wasn't road kill! I slowly got to my feet and looked over at Klim who was lying on the floor a meter away.

"Man that was close." I said dusting myself off.

"Too right." replied Klim getting up.

I took a moment to look around. We were in a huge corridor. Large picture and suits of armor lined the walls. It looked like something out of King Arthur.

"Yo Lynx, you think someone is living here?" said Klim pointing off to one side.

I looked at where he was pointing. In a room just off the corridor, a fire was burning in a fireplace.

"Possibly. Let's take a look round." I said.

"Right."

We walked into the room with the fire and, as Klim went to warm up, I went to look around the room. Lines of book cases lined the walls.

"Looks like some sort of library." I said.

"Well that's a good thing." replied Klim.

"How come?"

"Well have you ever heard of a monster that reads?"

I laughed and turned away. Klim was right. I started to look at the books on the shelf. I was surprised at the titles. A lot of them seemed to be just my style even though I don't really read a lot.

"Yo Lynx. I'm ready." called Klim.

I turned and walked back to the fire.

"Find anything interesting?" asked Klim.

"Not really, but some of those books look really good. Just my sort of thing." I replied.

"Well maybe the guy whop lives here will be nice and let you borrow some. Hell this could be our only easy emerald."

I furrowed my brow at Klim. Sometimes I wondered about him.

"Klim, that laugh we heard wasn't friendly sounding." I said.

Klim looked like he regretted opening his mouth.

"Ok then let's go." he said.

We walked back to the corridor and took a flight of stairs up to the second floor. A door stood ajar and we walked towards it. I was a bit uneasy. It was too quiet, far too quiet. As we entered the room we stopped. In the middle of the room sat a small pillar and on it…

"Klim look. Isn't that it?" I said.

"It's gotta be. I'll get it." replied Klim springing forwards.

"Klim wait!"

It was too late though. As Klim neared the pillar a large metal cage dropped from the ceiling and trapped him. I looked from the cage to the pillar to see the purple light on the top of it fade ands disappear.

"I knew you were after the Chaos Emerald." came a cold voice from the darkness at the other side of the room.

"Who are you?!" I cried spinning round.

"So you weren't stupid enough to fall for it eh. No matter, I would enjoy a fight." said the voice.

This was too weird. That voice! I knew it but it was impossible. He was in a cage next to me!

"Show yourself!" I cried drawing my sword.

"With pleasure." came a reply as a red hedgehog with white patches came into view from a dark corner.

"KLIM?!" I cried flicking between Klim and the new arrival.

"Klim? My name is Klime idiot." spoke the hedgehog.

"How?!" I cried.

"Yo Lynx. Remember Chaos Kat? He was this world version of Kat, well maybe this is this world version of me." said Klim.

"Not very friendly." I replied.

"Friendly? You walk in like you own the place and then try to take our Chaos Emerald. What do you expect?" replied Klime as he drew two daggers from his belt, "You expect me to greet you with open arms? I don't think so. Prepare to die you feeble robots."

"Robots!" shouted Klim, "That's the biggest insult I've ever had!"

"And what else would you be. Metal Sonic, Metal Knuckles….Robotnik likes making metal duplicates doesn't he. Too bad they are always so weak."

I saw Klime's daggers glow as he charged at me. He was quick! Too quick. His two daggers aimed for different points. I could only block one of them. My sword went upwards knocking the head shot out of the way but I was too slow to stop the second hitting my arm. It was just like back at the yeti fight when my sword had gone through my leg. I cried out as Klime jumped backwards. As Klime landed he saw the blood dripping from my arm.

"Blood?" he said totally astonished.

"Yes blood you total clot!" I growled at him as I placed my free hand on the cut.

"You must be clones! He must have got some of my DNA last time I went to his base. I know you are working for Robotnik, you can't fool me." replied Klime.

"You're so ignorant!" I growled.

I stood straight up and spread out my tails. My position must have looked fairly threatening as I raised my sword. But instead of striking I spun. My blade made a clean contact with the bars of Klim's cage. It had no problem as it sliced straight through them allowing Klim to craw out.

"ARG! You are starting to get to me now! Fine I'll take you both on!" growled Klime.

"No need to do it alone." said a new voice.

I froze solid. No! It couldn't be! That new voice, it was…..

"Yo Jynx!" cried Klime, "Glad you made it. Now let's take these guys down!"

"You got it." said the voice.

I spun at the voice to see a pale grey nine tailed fox entering the room. I almost fell over….it was ME! Jynx raised his hands.

"And now allies of Robotnik, you will die!" he said.

Before I could do anything Jynx had launched a volley of huge fireball at me and Klim. As they struck it was almost like my fur was melting. I let out a muted cry as my sword started to glow bright blue colour. It was just like on the mountains earlier. Fire! I collapsed to the floor with a thud. An eternity seemed to pass by as time slowed down to a virtual stop. I reached for my green emerald and seconds later there was a large green flash. I was on my feet in a second with my sword drawn and glowing.

"Now you're gonna get it!" I cried as I shot at Jynx.

"Oh no you don't!" came a cry as Klime shot in and blocked my downwards strike.

Suddenly a huge bolt of lightning shot across the room striking Klime. He fell to the floor with a scream as I looked over to see Klim holding his yellow emerald.

"Klime!" screamed Jynx as he threw out his arms.

A pale greeny blue light covered Klime's body and seconds later Klime jumped to his feet.

"Thanks Jynx." cried Klime.

I saw Jynx's eyes fix on Klim.

"You like lightning eh? Well have some of this!" he screamed in rage.

A huge lightning bolt flew from his hands and struck the ground that Klim had just vacated.

"This is not gonna be easy." he cried at me as he stood up.

"You think I ain't figured that out already?!" I screamed back as Klime came in with an attack.

As I was dealing with Klime a loud scream split the air. I shot a quick glance Jynx to see Klim's spear sticking up through the ground right next to him. By the look of things it had hit him in the leg. Jynx collapsed to the floor and Klime stopped. He shot a glance at Klim.

"I'll get you for that faker! Speed Slice!" he cried.

Klime shot across the room towards Klim. There was nothing I could do but watch. Klime almost seemed to disappear he was moving so fast. Seconds later he was stood over Klim looking pleased. I could see two deep wounds on Klim's chest and instantly took out my emerald.

"Hold on Klim!" I shouted as the emerald flashed.

A green light surrounded Klim and seconds later he was on his feet healed. I went to put the emerald away but I couldn't. Something was keeping the emerald active.

"What the….? I can't stop it! What's going on?!" I cried.

"I'm draining its energy. That's why." came Jynx voice.

I spun to see Jynx standing up a green aura around him. He looked at me.

"I knew you'd try that again so all I had to do was wait." he said.

"Time to finish them Jynx!" cried Klime.

"Yes." replied Jynx.

Suddenly a huge explosion ripped the ground where I was standing. My sword flew from my hand and time slowed right down again. The explosion hit me full force in the chest and I flew backwards as time returned to normal. As I hit the wall everything went black…