Location - The Mystic Ruins.
Tails slowly came to his senses and sat up. The sky was a grey-ish purple hue. The first rays of sunlight were beginning to stream out over the horizon. He was in the Mystic Ruins. Sandi and Amy must have carried him off the train, because he did not remember doing it himself.
"Wake up, you two, it's morning," Tails whispered, gently shaking the two sleeping figures beside him. Amy groaned. Sandi yawned.
"Ohhh, is it morning already?" Amy complained.
"Hey, Miles, sorry, I mean Tails, isn't that your workshop over there?" Sandi stretched her arms wide then pointed to a small building not far off.
"Yup, sure is..." Tails began, but Sandi cut him off with a gasp.
"Who's that?" She pointed in the other direction, towards the waterfall that was cascading crystal clear water behind them. Tails saw a red figure with a mop of spiky spines walking purposefully towards them.
"Is that Knuckles?" Amy queried. "What's he doing here?"
"I don't know, but let's go and find out," said Tails.
"Who's Knuckles?" asked Sandi.
"A friend of ours," Amy replied. They went over to greet him. But when Tails reached Knuckles, he knew something was wrong. Knuckles seemed - well, different. His eyes had gone all cloudy and there was an unnatural sort of aggressiveness about him.
"Hey, Knuckles, how's it going?" Tails said in a friendly tone. Knuckles looked Tails straight in the eye, his eyebrows lowered, a wildly insane smile on his face.
"Don'cha know? Time's up, fox boy. It's time to stop running and hiding, time to get what's been coming to you for a long time!" Whilst Knuckles was talking, he was stepping forwards, forcing a very bewildered Tails back with each step. Without warning, he punched forcefully at Tails, who leapt backwards well out of the way.
"Snap out of it, Knuckles! Why are you attacking me?" Tails said, catching his breath. What did Knuckles think he was doing?
"You aint gonna win this battle. The Dark Force rules all!" Knuckles cries, enraged. He lunged for Tails, catching his wrists and pinning him p against a tree. Tails kicked him in the chest with his good leg. Knuckles fell back, winded by the blow. Sandi ran up to Tails and helped him to stand up. Amy grabbed Knuckles's arm and yanked him back before he could get at Tails again.
"Knuckles, what's the matter with you? Tails isn't an enemy!" Knuckles shook her off and pushed her away.
"Stay out of this, you girls," Knuckles rasped menacingly. "This is between me - and him." Knuckles raised his hand in a sinister fashion directly at Tails.
"Amy, you'd better do as he says. You too, Sandi. If we're gonna settle this we'd better do it his way, or things might get worse." Tails braced himself for a second attack.
"Tails, don't! He's insane! He might kill you!" Amy shouted, covering her mouth with her hands, scared for him.
"You can't fight with an injured leg!" Sandi screeched at Tails.
"Sandi, Knuckles isn't meant to know that!" Tails hissed urgently at Sandi.
"Oops." Sandi bit her lip nervously. Knuckles smirked. An injury? That would make his task all the more easy.......
Knuckles aimed another savage punch at Tails, but Tails dodged around his side. As Knuckles moved in again, Tails spun his two tails around, whip-like, and sliced open the flesh on Knuckles's upper arm. Knuckles bellowed in pain and dealt Tails a blow to the face. Tails clutched his cheek in agony and closed his eyes for a second. Whilst he was recovering from the momentary shock, Knuckles crept behind him. Tails opened his eyes again hazily and felt his arm being pulled roughly up behind his back. Tails realised with horror what Knuckles was doing. He was twisting his arm up, up behind him, aiming to snap the bones in the most agonising way possible.
"Knuckles, quit it! That hurts!" Tails squealed.
"It's meant to," Knuckles said darkly, twisting all the more. Pretty soon there would be an almighty crack!
"The creep!" Sandi raged as she watched. "I'd show him a thing or two about combat if I could."
Tails knocked Knuckles's feet off the ground with a swift swipe of his tails. The intense grip released and Tails fell on all fours. He shook his numb arm and turned around to find Knuckles right in front of him. Knuckles punched him full on in the chest and Tails stumbled a good few feet back. He scrambled up again as Knuckles swaggered towards him. Tails nimbly dodged behind a tree to escape the friend-turned-crazy-maniac that was trying to hurt him big-time. Knuckles sauntered over to the tree that Tails was using as an obstacle and laughed manically.
"Come out, come out, wherever you are!" He grinned as though it was all a big joke. On the other side of the tree, Tails's heart was beating rapidly. Knuckles had totally lost it, he had gone mental, who knows what he might do?
Knuckles took one definite, thudding step to his left. Tails nervously jumped to his left too. Knuckles did the same to his right, causing Tails to move again in an agitated way. Knuckles wanted to torment him before he destroyed him.
Tails finally burst out from his cover and Knuckles sneakily tripped him up. Tails went sprawling in the dirt. Knuckles brutally kicked his injured leg. Tails scrunched up his eyes in extreme pain and clenched his teeth. Then he lost control and began to convulse. Knuckles kicked again and again. Tails was helpless. He was not sure if he would be able to stand this for very much longer.......
Amy and Sandi watched the cruel display of strength in shock. Even though Tails had asked them to stay out of it, they could not just sit and watch. Knuckles had gone too far this time.
"C'mon, Amy, we have to help!" Sandi urged.
"And fast," Amy agreed. The two girls raced towards Knuckles, who had raised a fist in the air.
"It's the end of the line, sonny!" Knuckles growled. Tails closed his eyes. This was it....
"No!" Amy slapped Knuckles across the face while Sandi pressed her fingers down on the pressure points on the back of his neck. Sandi pressed as hard as she could, until Knuckles passed out and sank to the ground. Amy and Sandi carried Tails a good distance away from him.
"Tails! Oh, are you alright?" Sandi asked, holding him tight. For a while all Tails could do was cuddle in to his sister.
"What made Knuckles act like that, anyway?" Amy pondered out loud.
"I don't know. He's crazy, Amy. He's gone mad," said Tails feebly.
"Some friend you've got," Sandi remarked. But Tails was not listening to her. He was thinking about something Knuckles had said before he had attacked.
"Hey, you know just before Knuckles attacked me, he mentioned something about a dark force?" said Tails, speaking up and bravely ignoring his pain.
"I remember that! D'you think he's being controlled?" said Amy.
"Possibly. It's the only explanation for his strange behaviour," Tails answered. "And that gives me an idea. Since Knuckles is at his weakest, we could interrogate him and find out whether he really is being possessed or not. If he is, we should be able to find out more about what's going on."
"Yeah, I'll make him talk after what he did to you," Amy cried fiercely, pummelling her fist into the opposite hand and then proceeding to help Tails up. To their surprise, Sandi interrupted them.
"I know a way to make you friend talk," she said in her low yet bubbly voice. "And he won't even realise what he's doing." Tails and Amy watched curiously as Sandi took out a silver chain from her skirt pocket. On the chain were about six different shaped pendants, some crystal, some wooden, some metal. Sandi carefully selected a clear white crystal and, unclasping the chain, shook the other five to the ground. "This one'll do fine." She walked over to Knuckles, who was just beginning to wake up.
"Sandi, what're you doing?" Tails asked in surprise.
"This is called Dowsing," explained Sandi. "I learnt it when I was very young. Dowsing is the art of hypnotising people by swinging a pendulum in front of their eyes so they enter a trance-like state. Then you can ask them any questions you like and they will answer your questions as truthfully as they can without consciously knowing what they're doing."
"She really thinks she can do that?" Amy whispered sceptically to Tails.
Knuckles groaned and slowly tried to get up. His eyelids flickered open. Sandi gently pushed him back down and began swinging the pendulum at eye level.
"There, relax. Just watch the pendulum," Sandi coaxed. Knuckles soon became enraptured by the pendulum swinging doggedly before him. His eyes followed it's movement, to and fro, to and fro. "You can feel your eyelids closing. You can feel your muscles relaxing. You are drifting off to sleep, peaceful, soothing sleep." Amy had to snigger, it sounded so funny. All the same, Knuckles was soon deeply asleep. Sandi's bizarre method had worked. 'Go on, Amy. Ask him something. He knows you better than me," Sandi whispered to Amy. Amy stood before Knuckles and, feeling a bit foolish, spoke to Knuckles in a loud, clear voice.
"Knuckles, this is Amy. I am going to ask you a few questions. You must answer me truthfully, got that?" Knuckles mumbled a faint reply. "Good," Amy went on. "Now, why did you attack Tails?"
"Orders," Knuckles's voice came out mechanically, as though he were a robot.
"Who gave you these orders?"
"Master Robotnik. I must obey." ( "He's definitely possessed!" Amy and Tails stated in unison! )
"Do you know what Dr. Robotnik is planning to do?" Amy persisted.
"He's arranging for the shipment of a dangerous weapon, the Plasmic Generator, on board a cruiser called the Silverbelle, headed for the Trinity Islands. The ship leaves the docks today, with the Plasmic Generator secretly hidden in the basement."
"Tell me more about this Plasmic Generator." Amy cautiously knelt down.
"It is a big weapon, with the capability to increase the power of the Hiatus Orb to such a high frequency that mass populations can be possessed in one go." Knuckles began to struggle, straining his neck as though trying to break free of some invisible force.
"Stand back! He's breaking out of it," Sandi warned. Amy leapt up from her knees as Knuckles slowly came to. Now at least they were on the right track.
* * * * *
Location - Robotnik's base.
Eggman placed the Hiatus Orb in the allocated space within the heavy machinery. The display screen flickered into life as he tapped away on the keypad. Entering the password and a series of commands, Eggman once again unlocked the powers from within the Hiatus Orb as he said, "Void, show me where my faithful servant lies."
All of a sudden the screen flashed a bright green, then there appeared a picture, surrounded by swirling mists. There was Knuckles in the picture, just as he had commanded.
His latest invention had worked! It was a tracking system, which operated when the Hiatus Orb was placed in it. The system was able to track down a specific figure, for example, the zombie-like Knuckles. The screen should display an image of exactly what that character was doing in film-mode. Sound was added as an extra bonus too. Eggman watched as a fox strode over to Knuckles, who was waking up. Was that Tails? No, it was someone else, another fox! There were Tails and Amy waiting not far off as the newcomer knelt down by Knuckles and spoke softly, swinging a pendulum in front of his eyes.
'What is she doing?' Eggman wondered silently as he watched in puzzlement. The newcomer called Amy over and Amy began to ask Knuckles some questions.
' "Do you know what Dr. Robotnik is planning to do?" asked Amy.
"He's arranging for the shipment of a dangerous weapon, the Plasmic Generator...."' Eggman heard all Knuckles's words clearly. He could not believe it. Knuckles was freely giving away top secret information even through the control of the Hiatus Orb! It had to be something that that girl had done.
"Argh! What does that knucklehead think he's doing?" Eggman raged. Now Tails would know all about the Plasmic Generator on the cruiser and he was bound to ruin Eggman's plans again. Eggman struck his fist down angrily on the keypad. When he glanced at Tails on the screen again, he remembered something very important. Stella had said that she was going to find Tails and destroy him. Eggman now knew where Tails was going to go. Soon Stella would know too, and the two villains would be waiting for Tails when he got to the ship. Little did he know, Tails was about to walk straight into a trap!
Eggman picked up his walkie-talkie and clicked it on. A few seconds later Stella intercepted the call.
"Doctor, this is Stella Novacassica, I am heading east across the ocean, approximately four-point-five miles from Trinity Islands. Is there anything you require?" Stella said in one long breath, her sharp, icy voice piercing through the receiver. Eggman chuckled wickedly.
"Stella, set your co-ordinates for the cruiser, Silverbelle, immediately. Our little 'friend' Tails is also heading in that direction. After all, we want to be there in time to meet him. I'll see you there."
"Right doctor. I'm on my way." Stella switched off her walkie- talkie, leaving an empty buzzing sound on Eggman's end. Eggman took one last look at the screen before heading towards the flight deck. Tails, Amy and the other girl were walking over to Tails's workshop, where Tails kept all his aircraft inventions. Perfect.
* * * * *
Tails slowly came to his senses and sat up. The sky was a grey-ish purple hue. The first rays of sunlight were beginning to stream out over the horizon. He was in the Mystic Ruins. Sandi and Amy must have carried him off the train, because he did not remember doing it himself.
"Wake up, you two, it's morning," Tails whispered, gently shaking the two sleeping figures beside him. Amy groaned. Sandi yawned.
"Ohhh, is it morning already?" Amy complained.
"Hey, Miles, sorry, I mean Tails, isn't that your workshop over there?" Sandi stretched her arms wide then pointed to a small building not far off.
"Yup, sure is..." Tails began, but Sandi cut him off with a gasp.
"Who's that?" She pointed in the other direction, towards the waterfall that was cascading crystal clear water behind them. Tails saw a red figure with a mop of spiky spines walking purposefully towards them.
"Is that Knuckles?" Amy queried. "What's he doing here?"
"I don't know, but let's go and find out," said Tails.
"Who's Knuckles?" asked Sandi.
"A friend of ours," Amy replied. They went over to greet him. But when Tails reached Knuckles, he knew something was wrong. Knuckles seemed - well, different. His eyes had gone all cloudy and there was an unnatural sort of aggressiveness about him.
"Hey, Knuckles, how's it going?" Tails said in a friendly tone. Knuckles looked Tails straight in the eye, his eyebrows lowered, a wildly insane smile on his face.
"Don'cha know? Time's up, fox boy. It's time to stop running and hiding, time to get what's been coming to you for a long time!" Whilst Knuckles was talking, he was stepping forwards, forcing a very bewildered Tails back with each step. Without warning, he punched forcefully at Tails, who leapt backwards well out of the way.
"Snap out of it, Knuckles! Why are you attacking me?" Tails said, catching his breath. What did Knuckles think he was doing?
"You aint gonna win this battle. The Dark Force rules all!" Knuckles cries, enraged. He lunged for Tails, catching his wrists and pinning him p against a tree. Tails kicked him in the chest with his good leg. Knuckles fell back, winded by the blow. Sandi ran up to Tails and helped him to stand up. Amy grabbed Knuckles's arm and yanked him back before he could get at Tails again.
"Knuckles, what's the matter with you? Tails isn't an enemy!" Knuckles shook her off and pushed her away.
"Stay out of this, you girls," Knuckles rasped menacingly. "This is between me - and him." Knuckles raised his hand in a sinister fashion directly at Tails.
"Amy, you'd better do as he says. You too, Sandi. If we're gonna settle this we'd better do it his way, or things might get worse." Tails braced himself for a second attack.
"Tails, don't! He's insane! He might kill you!" Amy shouted, covering her mouth with her hands, scared for him.
"You can't fight with an injured leg!" Sandi screeched at Tails.
"Sandi, Knuckles isn't meant to know that!" Tails hissed urgently at Sandi.
"Oops." Sandi bit her lip nervously. Knuckles smirked. An injury? That would make his task all the more easy.......
Knuckles aimed another savage punch at Tails, but Tails dodged around his side. As Knuckles moved in again, Tails spun his two tails around, whip-like, and sliced open the flesh on Knuckles's upper arm. Knuckles bellowed in pain and dealt Tails a blow to the face. Tails clutched his cheek in agony and closed his eyes for a second. Whilst he was recovering from the momentary shock, Knuckles crept behind him. Tails opened his eyes again hazily and felt his arm being pulled roughly up behind his back. Tails realised with horror what Knuckles was doing. He was twisting his arm up, up behind him, aiming to snap the bones in the most agonising way possible.
"Knuckles, quit it! That hurts!" Tails squealed.
"It's meant to," Knuckles said darkly, twisting all the more. Pretty soon there would be an almighty crack!
"The creep!" Sandi raged as she watched. "I'd show him a thing or two about combat if I could."
Tails knocked Knuckles's feet off the ground with a swift swipe of his tails. The intense grip released and Tails fell on all fours. He shook his numb arm and turned around to find Knuckles right in front of him. Knuckles punched him full on in the chest and Tails stumbled a good few feet back. He scrambled up again as Knuckles swaggered towards him. Tails nimbly dodged behind a tree to escape the friend-turned-crazy-maniac that was trying to hurt him big-time. Knuckles sauntered over to the tree that Tails was using as an obstacle and laughed manically.
"Come out, come out, wherever you are!" He grinned as though it was all a big joke. On the other side of the tree, Tails's heart was beating rapidly. Knuckles had totally lost it, he had gone mental, who knows what he might do?
Knuckles took one definite, thudding step to his left. Tails nervously jumped to his left too. Knuckles did the same to his right, causing Tails to move again in an agitated way. Knuckles wanted to torment him before he destroyed him.
Tails finally burst out from his cover and Knuckles sneakily tripped him up. Tails went sprawling in the dirt. Knuckles brutally kicked his injured leg. Tails scrunched up his eyes in extreme pain and clenched his teeth. Then he lost control and began to convulse. Knuckles kicked again and again. Tails was helpless. He was not sure if he would be able to stand this for very much longer.......
Amy and Sandi watched the cruel display of strength in shock. Even though Tails had asked them to stay out of it, they could not just sit and watch. Knuckles had gone too far this time.
"C'mon, Amy, we have to help!" Sandi urged.
"And fast," Amy agreed. The two girls raced towards Knuckles, who had raised a fist in the air.
"It's the end of the line, sonny!" Knuckles growled. Tails closed his eyes. This was it....
"No!" Amy slapped Knuckles across the face while Sandi pressed her fingers down on the pressure points on the back of his neck. Sandi pressed as hard as she could, until Knuckles passed out and sank to the ground. Amy and Sandi carried Tails a good distance away from him.
"Tails! Oh, are you alright?" Sandi asked, holding him tight. For a while all Tails could do was cuddle in to his sister.
"What made Knuckles act like that, anyway?" Amy pondered out loud.
"I don't know. He's crazy, Amy. He's gone mad," said Tails feebly.
"Some friend you've got," Sandi remarked. But Tails was not listening to her. He was thinking about something Knuckles had said before he had attacked.
"Hey, you know just before Knuckles attacked me, he mentioned something about a dark force?" said Tails, speaking up and bravely ignoring his pain.
"I remember that! D'you think he's being controlled?" said Amy.
"Possibly. It's the only explanation for his strange behaviour," Tails answered. "And that gives me an idea. Since Knuckles is at his weakest, we could interrogate him and find out whether he really is being possessed or not. If he is, we should be able to find out more about what's going on."
"Yeah, I'll make him talk after what he did to you," Amy cried fiercely, pummelling her fist into the opposite hand and then proceeding to help Tails up. To their surprise, Sandi interrupted them.
"I know a way to make you friend talk," she said in her low yet bubbly voice. "And he won't even realise what he's doing." Tails and Amy watched curiously as Sandi took out a silver chain from her skirt pocket. On the chain were about six different shaped pendants, some crystal, some wooden, some metal. Sandi carefully selected a clear white crystal and, unclasping the chain, shook the other five to the ground. "This one'll do fine." She walked over to Knuckles, who was just beginning to wake up.
"Sandi, what're you doing?" Tails asked in surprise.
"This is called Dowsing," explained Sandi. "I learnt it when I was very young. Dowsing is the art of hypnotising people by swinging a pendulum in front of their eyes so they enter a trance-like state. Then you can ask them any questions you like and they will answer your questions as truthfully as they can without consciously knowing what they're doing."
"She really thinks she can do that?" Amy whispered sceptically to Tails.
Knuckles groaned and slowly tried to get up. His eyelids flickered open. Sandi gently pushed him back down and began swinging the pendulum at eye level.
"There, relax. Just watch the pendulum," Sandi coaxed. Knuckles soon became enraptured by the pendulum swinging doggedly before him. His eyes followed it's movement, to and fro, to and fro. "You can feel your eyelids closing. You can feel your muscles relaxing. You are drifting off to sleep, peaceful, soothing sleep." Amy had to snigger, it sounded so funny. All the same, Knuckles was soon deeply asleep. Sandi's bizarre method had worked. 'Go on, Amy. Ask him something. He knows you better than me," Sandi whispered to Amy. Amy stood before Knuckles and, feeling a bit foolish, spoke to Knuckles in a loud, clear voice.
"Knuckles, this is Amy. I am going to ask you a few questions. You must answer me truthfully, got that?" Knuckles mumbled a faint reply. "Good," Amy went on. "Now, why did you attack Tails?"
"Orders," Knuckles's voice came out mechanically, as though he were a robot.
"Who gave you these orders?"
"Master Robotnik. I must obey." ( "He's definitely possessed!" Amy and Tails stated in unison! )
"Do you know what Dr. Robotnik is planning to do?" Amy persisted.
"He's arranging for the shipment of a dangerous weapon, the Plasmic Generator, on board a cruiser called the Silverbelle, headed for the Trinity Islands. The ship leaves the docks today, with the Plasmic Generator secretly hidden in the basement."
"Tell me more about this Plasmic Generator." Amy cautiously knelt down.
"It is a big weapon, with the capability to increase the power of the Hiatus Orb to such a high frequency that mass populations can be possessed in one go." Knuckles began to struggle, straining his neck as though trying to break free of some invisible force.
"Stand back! He's breaking out of it," Sandi warned. Amy leapt up from her knees as Knuckles slowly came to. Now at least they were on the right track.
* * * * *
Location - Robotnik's base.
Eggman placed the Hiatus Orb in the allocated space within the heavy machinery. The display screen flickered into life as he tapped away on the keypad. Entering the password and a series of commands, Eggman once again unlocked the powers from within the Hiatus Orb as he said, "Void, show me where my faithful servant lies."
All of a sudden the screen flashed a bright green, then there appeared a picture, surrounded by swirling mists. There was Knuckles in the picture, just as he had commanded.
His latest invention had worked! It was a tracking system, which operated when the Hiatus Orb was placed in it. The system was able to track down a specific figure, for example, the zombie-like Knuckles. The screen should display an image of exactly what that character was doing in film-mode. Sound was added as an extra bonus too. Eggman watched as a fox strode over to Knuckles, who was waking up. Was that Tails? No, it was someone else, another fox! There were Tails and Amy waiting not far off as the newcomer knelt down by Knuckles and spoke softly, swinging a pendulum in front of his eyes.
'What is she doing?' Eggman wondered silently as he watched in puzzlement. The newcomer called Amy over and Amy began to ask Knuckles some questions.
' "Do you know what Dr. Robotnik is planning to do?" asked Amy.
"He's arranging for the shipment of a dangerous weapon, the Plasmic Generator...."' Eggman heard all Knuckles's words clearly. He could not believe it. Knuckles was freely giving away top secret information even through the control of the Hiatus Orb! It had to be something that that girl had done.
"Argh! What does that knucklehead think he's doing?" Eggman raged. Now Tails would know all about the Plasmic Generator on the cruiser and he was bound to ruin Eggman's plans again. Eggman struck his fist down angrily on the keypad. When he glanced at Tails on the screen again, he remembered something very important. Stella had said that she was going to find Tails and destroy him. Eggman now knew where Tails was going to go. Soon Stella would know too, and the two villains would be waiting for Tails when he got to the ship. Little did he know, Tails was about to walk straight into a trap!
Eggman picked up his walkie-talkie and clicked it on. A few seconds later Stella intercepted the call.
"Doctor, this is Stella Novacassica, I am heading east across the ocean, approximately four-point-five miles from Trinity Islands. Is there anything you require?" Stella said in one long breath, her sharp, icy voice piercing through the receiver. Eggman chuckled wickedly.
"Stella, set your co-ordinates for the cruiser, Silverbelle, immediately. Our little 'friend' Tails is also heading in that direction. After all, we want to be there in time to meet him. I'll see you there."
"Right doctor. I'm on my way." Stella switched off her walkie- talkie, leaving an empty buzzing sound on Eggman's end. Eggman took one last look at the screen before heading towards the flight deck. Tails, Amy and the other girl were walking over to Tails's workshop, where Tails kept all his aircraft inventions. Perfect.
* * * * *
