"Legato was sent on a mission, in witch he claimed was to destroy Knuckles before he could teach Fury how to use the master emerald. The problem was, Fury is not ready yet to use it's powers."

Part#20 The Forest of Sorrow and Despair.

Knuckles lie on the ground staring up at the ceiling. "Was I dreaming?" asked Knuckles. "I really doubt it. Unless you were having a dream where there is pain." Said Sonic. "I guess your right" said Knuckles calmly. He was trying to relax.

Meanwhile, Fury was practicing with his sword. His slashes were aggressive. "Hey Fury come here!" shouted Sonic. Fury sheathed his sword then trudged over to Sonic, Tails and Knuckles.

"Were ready to get going" explained Tails. "Whatever" said Fury, it sounded like he didn't care. Knuckles gave Fury a cold look, then he stood up. "Well you have the chaos emerald?" asked Knuckles, "Right here!" said Tails enthusiastically as he took a blue box out of his back pack. He opened the box and inside the chaos emerald rested on a cushion. "Good" said Knuckles "Now let's go!" he said as he darted of. Sonic, Tails and Fury caught up with him. He let them to a small door. "Were taking the quick way!" he said as he slide the door open. "Everybody in!" ordered Knuckles. Sonic and Tails hoped in, Fury walked over to it but stopped and face Knuckles. "Everybody IN!" taunted Fury in a high pitched voice. Knuckles gripped his fist tight, and prepared to make a punch for Fury's head. But before he could he found himself under Fury's grasp. Fury grasped Knuckles head Tight and held his sword up to Knuckles throat. "Last time, you caught me by surprise. Watch what your doing you it may be your death wish!" Fury dropped Knuckles and walked into the room, Where he sheathed his sword. Knuckles went in angrily. Before Fury showed up he was fine, but now there was a civil rivalry between him and Fury, where it seemed that Fury was getting the best of him. He had to think positive, he pasted the testimony and removed the shadow spirit from The Witness, It had to be the real Fury Requiem. It just had to be.

"What took you so long?" asked Sonic to Fury and Knuckles. Fury was just about to say something when Knuckles interrupted Strongly. "Nothing!" he said loudly. Fur shrugged and leaned against a wall.

"This place is actually an elevator powered by any magic force, but it our power source ran out long ago. How-ever, chaos energy is pure enough to power it." Explained Knuckles.

"Cool!" said Sonic as Tails passed Knuckles the chaos emerald. Knuckles got it and observed the panel, he found the symbol for the gateway and held the chaos emerald to the symbol. After five seconds he removed it and slid open the door. And surely enough they were in the room of the gateway.

They approached the gateway, and Knuckles looked around the for the chaos emeralds slots, "Aha" he said as he through the emerald into a slot with the letter "R" carved into it. Everything fired up and he ran over to the control pad.

"Next Shadow Creature is in the Forest of Sorrow and Despair" noted Knuckles, "Here's the deal, the orb we want is in two pieces."

"WHAT?" blurted out Sonic. "You better be joking!" warned Tails. "I'm not, there are two shadow creatures, each one has half."

Sonic and Tails moaned, but Fury kept his cool and stayed silent.

"The Shadow Creatures are the Shadow Scorpion, a large scorpion with a tail wit h12 ends, able to shots poison darts extremely fast. The other one I am worried about, the Shadow Worm, a large shadow Caterpillar that can shoot burst of energy that not only do damage, but release spores that grow into miniature version of the Shadow Worm leach onto you can drain your energy, the two stay separate though."

"How big are the mini worms?" asked Sonic. "About, two and a half inches " Knuckles replied. "Ok" said Sonic, "Tails we packed the fire ring and rhythm badge right?" he asked.

"Of Course!" said Tails as he fished them out. "Hey Knuckles" he asked while he tidied things up in his backpack. "Why is it called Forest of Sorrow and Despair?" he asked.

"If you die, and you are bitter, or evil. Or have unfinished business that was not wanted. Your soul becomes twisted and you are sent there to wander for the rest of eternity." Explained Knuckles.

"Oh, That sounds like a lovely place to go on our next vacation don't you agree Tails?" said Sonic. Tails laughed. "Yeah, it does!" he said after his final laugh. Tails closed his backpack and attached his rhythm badge to his chest and Sonic put the fire ring on his left wrist. "Were ready when you're ready!" said Sonic to Fury. "Let's just go already!" yelled Fury. Knuckles pressed down on the control pad and the gate flashed. "Go ahead, everything's ready!" offered Knuckles. Sonic Nodded excitedly, "Thanks Knux, Let's GO!" yelled Sonic excitedly as he and Tail ran over. Fury walked over to Knuckles, "Your lucky you know, I could have killed you back there you know!" said Fury as he walked away to the gate, but before he could, Knuckles words stopped him. "Yeah, whatever. Now go save the world and get out of my face!" said Knuckles firmly.

Fury stopped in his tracks. "Consider this a warning" he said, and then darted through the gateway.

"Well" said Knuckles to himself "That was easy, now what? Umm, I know, I'll write Rouge a Letter"

Meanwhile, in the Forest of Sorrow and Despair. Fury, Sonic and Tails decided what to do, but Tails was seeing some things he wished he couldn't.

"Guys" said Tails frightened. "What are those things?" he said, pointing to transparent changing colour figures, that floated around, there bodies frail and hair sprawled out from there head. Just wandering.

"Honestly Tails!" said Sonic. "This is the second time you have been seeing things."

"B-but!" argued Tails, when suddenly the figures faded away, "You Know what, never mind."

Suddenly they heard footsteps. 'Something's coming!" said Fury dimly, when a very tanned man walked ran through, "Hello There!" he said, he had a large mechanical device attached to him, in the device were large wooden figures. "What's that?" whispered Sonic to Tails, as the man laughed loudly and started to babble on. Sonic pointed to half of a large glowing green rock. "Must be half of the shadow orb, he must have killed one of the shadow Creatures

"I beg your pardon?" snapped the man. "What Shadow Creature did you kill?" asked Sonic. "None of your business" he said, rather angry "And now I shall kill you all, FOR LORD PUPPET MASTER!"

"One must wonder who the man is and who Puppet Master is. Are They Connected to Legato? And Does Legato have anything to do with this? Perhaps soon we will find out.."