Part Four : Location - Tails's plane, the Thunderstorm.

For Tails and company, the battle was in full swing. Luckily, it was swinging their way. Perched in the Thunderstorm, high in the sky, they were congratulating themselves on their success at Karmen Island, and taking a well-earned rest.

"Amy, that's twice now you've saved us. Remember, the mirror, on the Silverbelle? And then the gun....oooh, Stella must be so mad! Ha ha." Tails chuckled as he lazily handled the steering controls.

"Yeah. And once again, the Spectacular Amy Rose did save the day. For real, this time," Amy said. "I'm sorry. I got you in this mess. The least I could do was get you out of it too."

"You did that alright!" Sandi said. "I really hate that woman. She's just a big fat, um, um..."

"Pumpkin, perhaps?" asked Tails, falling about with laughter. Amy smothered her giggles. Sandi looked extremely embarrassed. "Pumpkin...honestly! I have to teach you combat-speak!" Tails added. Sandi could not help but laugh too.

"I couldn't think of anything else to say," she confessed. "'Pumpkin' sounded good at the time. Only question is - what do we do now?"

"I've pinpointed the location of Eggman's base from the description Amy got. It's Shinolou Volcano on one of the Trinity Islands. I've set flight co-ordinates so we'll arrive in half an hour," said Tails.

"That's fine with me," Amy said happily.

"Me too," said Sandi. "Anyway, when's our next food stop?"

* * * * *

As Tails had predicted, they arrived at the volcano half an hour later. It was a tall, angular mountain of red rock, steeped in Mediterranean-type shrubs and trees, towering far above the other two of the Trinity Islands. It overlooked the wild expanses of the largest island, and the modern, well-built-up tourist area of the second island. There were no inhabitants on Shinolou itself. A perfect location for a typical Eggman base.

"Now we have to find the secret entrance," Tails moaned.

"You seem to know exactly what you're doing," said Sandi.

"It's always the same," Tails said wearily. Amy chipped in, stumbling off the plane. "Remember Eggman's last base in that pyramid? That took aaages to find the entrance," she reminded him.

"Thanks for the encouragement," he murmured. They walked around the side of the volcano, looking for a way in. Then Tails saw a red figure approaching. "Hide! It's Knuckles!" Tails whispered urgently. He dragged the girls into a clump of bushes behind them. They fell down a little bank and hurriedly scrambled back up again to peer out from the cover of the foliage.

"Knuckles? What's he up to now?" asked Amy.

"Remember, that Void is still controlling him," said Sandi. "Maybe he'll show us the entrance." So they watched as Knuckles went up to a bare slab of rock and pressed a long, conical stone into three indents in the rock, in order. The rock heaved open and a metal door appeared behind it. Knuckles breathed on a metal pad in the centre of the door; it made a harsh clicking sound, then a ting, and the door opened.

Amy slipped down the bank a bit, raising clouds of dust from the dry ground. She muffled a sneeze and Knuckles's blank, lifeless eyes turned her way. Amy, Tails and Sandi held their breaths tensely as his gaze passed over them. Knuckles walked in the entrance. The doors closed behind him, the rock moved back and the trio could breathe again.

"Whew! I was sure he'd see us there," said Sandi.

"I'm going to check out the entrance," Tails announced. He clambered out from the bushes and went to examine the door. Sandi noticed that he had started limping slightly again. The medicine was wearing off and the bandage around his leg was dirty and torn.

Sandi picked up the stone that Knuckles had left behind and pressed it into the holes in the rock. It opened once again to reveal the metal door. Tails breathed once or twice on the pad but an angry beep showed that entry was refused.

"It's a breath-sampler," said Tails. "I don't know how it works, but it's not going to let us in." Sandi groaned, then turned around.

"Whee's Amy?"

"Hey guys, over here! I found something seriously cool," came Amy's chirpy voice. Seconds later, Amy herself popped out from the bushes they had just been hiding in. Tails and Sandi followed her all the way down the bank until they reached a small, dark cave. "It leads right into the mountain," said Amy happily.

"Looks like an old lava vent. It should be safe enough; the volcano's been dormant for centuries," said Tails. And in they went.

* * * * *

Location - Inside Robotnik's base.

Rouge peered cautiously round the corner. Tiptoeing towards the security room, she looked through the perspex window at the television screens, displaying the security cameras. The guard robot did not notice her. She watched the centre screen, which was focussed on the main entrance. She saw Knuckles enter, then a few minutes later Tails and Sandi running up to the door, then running out of sight again. So they had arrived too. Rouge raised an eyebrow and ducked down below the window in case the guard robot turned her way. Then, quietly, she headed towards the central control room by the lava pit. Things were just beginning to heat up.

* * * * *

Location - Central Control Room, Robotnik's base.

Eggman had just finished logging the Third Amulet's data on to his master computer when Knuckles walked in.

"Master Robotnik. I have come to report back to you," he said mechanically.

"Very good. Very good....now, have you got the information that I wanted?" said Eggman. Knuckles nodded. He held out a red file. It had Tails's name on it.

"Top secret codes for the virus program you requested, Master," Knuckles stated. Eggman took it with glee.

"At last! Tails's secret invention belongs to me!" He opened the file by his humongous computer and started typing away furiously, reproducing the information. Knuckles simply stood there, as lifeless as a brick.

Suddenly a deep rumbling interrupted Eggman. He stopped his typing and looked to the source of the noise - the lava pit. A great metallic capsule rose out of it and zoomed through the fencing like a rocket. The noise it made was deafening. It landed at the other end of the rom with a bang, lava dripping from the heat-proof material and searing through the floor. The hatch in the capsule roof opened and three very familiar figures came out spluttering, steaming and red-faced from the heat.

"Tails! Amy! Sandi!" Eggman said, surprised with the rather dramatic entrance. "Don't you ever just give up?"

"That's funny. I could say exactly the same thing about you," Tails commented. Then his face assumed a serious frown. "This time you've gone too far, Dr. Eggman. You may have got rid of Sonic, but you won't win the battle. We're gonna take you out!"

"Ah, but you're too late," Eggman replied triumphantly. "I've already encoded the virus you developed into my database." Tails saw with horror his precious red file lying by Eggman's computer system.

"My....my file! You thief!" Tails shouted.

"How very flattering. But don't thank me. Knuckles here deserves the credit," said Eggman. Knuckles smirked, fixing his sinister glare on Tails. That glare brought back painful memories and Tails shuddered.

"Why did you take it?" Tails demanded.

"Isn't it obvious? With access to every computer system in the world, I can transmit the Void's power to each country across the globe, once the Plasmic Generator has multiplied it's power to the highest velocity. It ensures complete control, and then my wonderful vison of Eggman Empire will at last become reality!" Eggman accompanied this revelation with a hearty cackle, of the 'mad scientist' variety.

"You really are one crazy egg," Amy exclaimed.

"You're going down," Tails said boldly. Eggman laughed again.

"Let's see you get through Knuckles first," he said. Knuckles stepped forward. Dangerous, wild, gracefully poised for action, he was ready for whatever they gave him and Tails knew it. Tails gulped as he stepped forth to face Knuckles. But he felt a hand on his shoulder, pulling him back.

"Leave it to me." Sandi stepped in front of Tails. "I've been waiting for this." She stood, hands on hips, staring almost insolently at Knuckles. "Well, I'm all here, Knuckles. Come and get me." He charged. Sandi nimbly leapt aside and struck on the side of his windpipe with a knife-hand blow. Breath cut short, Knuckles faltered. Sandi aimed a mawashi-geri round kick at Knuckles's stomach. He spun round, regained his balance and punched her twice with an uppercut to finish. Sandi staggered back, falling to her knees. She had only a split second after that to spring out of the way as Knuckles swung a particularly powerful punch at her. He hit the floor instead, leaving a deep dent in it.

Sandi came forward, fists flying. Her speed and agility made Knuckles no match for her. She kicked, he retaliated with a punch, she leapt up into the air, did a couple of somersaults and twisted her body into a spinning sidekick from mid-air. The sheer force of the kick sent Knuckles crashing into the wall behind him.

"Nobody beats up my brother and gets away with it," Sandi snarled. Knuckles roared out something about a dark force and they began to fight again. Amy stayed on the sidelines, shouting out encouragement to Sandi. Tails crept towards the master computer, closer to his file. Nobody was paying any attention to him. All eyes were on Sandi and Knuckles. Tails had almost reached the file....

Finally his hands closed around the file and slowly, gently, he pulled it towards him. But Eggman noticed at the last moment. He grabbed hold of Tails's arm and held him up above the ground.

"Ah-ah-ah," Eggman tutted. "Don't steal thing, Tails." Tails kicked and wriggled and squirmed to get out of his grasp.

"Put me down! You big bully," he shouted. Eggman laughed and wrenched the file from Tails.

"I have no more use for this file now. The codes are already in my computer," Eggman said nonchalantly. He threw the file into the lava pit through the hole that the capsule had made. Tails saw it bubble, disintegrate and disappear below the surface of the burning lava. He felt a hollow pang of loss and despair - all that work was gone and Eggman had stolen the codes.

Now Eggman turned back to the computer, still not letting go of Tails. He lifted up a hatch on his desk and took out something black and spherical.......

As the Orb began to pulsate, Tails thrashed about like a fish out of water. By now Amy had noticed and was running to help. Eggman let the Orb power up, then he raised it high above his head with his free hand, aiming it's paralysing green beam at Tails. Just when it was about to strike, Tails swung his two tails around, knocking Eggman off balance. Eggman dropped Tails and the Orb's deadly brainwashing beam went haywire. Tails crashed into a pile of junk and a huge metal bucket fell on top of him. He felt a beam from the Orb ricochet off the bucket in the very instant that the bucket had landed over him. Tails curled up tight inside the confined space, waiting for the havoc to end. Once the noise had died down, Tails lifted the bucket. Sandi and Knuckles had taken no notice of the Orb; they were so immersed in combat. They were circling each other like two wildcats. Eggman was regaining control over the Orb, and Amy was walking towards Tails. There was....an odd look in her eyes.....

"Amy...." Tails said, trying to sound friendly. Amy glowered.

"You will never beat the Dark Force," she said throatily. Then she launched herself at Tails.

"Amy, why are you doing this?" Tails gasped, dodging in between ferocious blows from Amy. He did not know why he had asked her that. It was obvious that she was possessed, as was Knuckles. The beam had hit her. And she would not stop attacking him.

Meanwhile, Sandi had triumphed over Knuckles. After nearly being knocked into the lava pool, she had doubled back and performed a jumping scissor-kick at Knuckles. It had done the trick. Knuckles was still conscious, but he was now on the floor, temporarily dazed. Sandi sprinted towards Eggman and snatched the Hiatus Orb from his grasp. Tails watched, and was caught out by Amy, who hit him across the back of the head. He spun round and caught sight of something on one of the upper levels in the control room. Something he had seen before. Fending off Amy, he looked up again. Yes! There it was, up on the highest platform, the Plasmic Generator! Tails looked back and saw Sandi with the Orb. An idea cropped up in his head. He cast his mind back to when he had first encountered the generator. He had known how to work it, and he would have back then if Stella had not stopped him. He had to be right. If there was a way to amplify the Orb's power with that thing, then there must be a way to shrink it's power too, make it work in reverse.

"Sandi - the Orb!" Tails shouted, waving his hands in the air. Sandi understood and chucked the Orb to him. Tails caught it and ran up the stairs at the wall of the vast control room. Amy automatically ran after him.

Tails was still far from the top when he saw Rouge. She was beside the Plasmic Generator. He was certainly surprised to see her. She saw him in the same instant. Tails suddenly felt Amy pull him back. He looked below him and saw Eggman and Knuckles ganging up on Sandi. There was not much time left.

The stairs reached out right over the lava pit and there was no banister to fence them off from the deadly pool. Tails realised that both he and Amy were perched treacherously on the narrow stairs, and with Amy acting the way she was, one of them was bound to fall off.

"Rouge!" He tried to go forward but Amy dragged him back again. Tails lifted the Orb. Rouge motioned for him to throw it to her. He had to trust her. As Amy grabbed his injured leg, he raised the Orb and threw it to Rouge. Then, cringing with pain, he fought Amy off him, prising her fingers from his wounded leg. While Rouge placed the Orb in the allocated space, he called out instructions to her. "The lever...pull down the big lever and set the dial to zero. Then press 'ENTER'." He hoped she would get it right.

BLAAAMM! There was an almighty blast of noise and a flash of green light. The dark energy appeared to be flowing back into the Orb. The energy was imploding. It lasted for a full minute, this brilliant display of energy. Then the generator hummed, getting softer and softer, slowing down. It stopped abruptly.

Rouge had done it. She had minimised the Orb's power.

Amy stopped what she was doing in mid-punch. Her eyes lost their cloudiness and she gasped in astonishment.

"Tails...I was about to..hit you?" Amy lowered her fist. "But why?"

"You were temporarily under the influence of the Void." Tails told her. Amy was shocked. Rouge came down the steps behind them, holding the Hiatus Orb.

"Everyone o.k?" she asked.

"Sort of. You could give me a hand down these stairs though," said Tails. His bandage had been ripped right off and the ugly purple welt was showing. It was now throbbing as painfully as before. Rouge stared at his leg for a second, then let him lean on her shoulder.

"So you finally turned up. I figured it wouldn't take you long to catch on to Eggman's plan," Rouge commented.

"I didn't expect to see you here," said Tails. "Why are you here anyway?"

"Yeah, who's side are you on?" Amy butted in.

"I was cheated by Eggman. I don't like the way he's treating you and your friends. I may as well help you, if it means getting back at him."

"All right. You're with us, then." Tails was always ready to trust.

They greeted Knuckles at the foot of the stairs.

"Hey, guys. I feel like I've been dreaming," he said woozily.

"It's okay. Don't worry yourself about what's happened," said Tails.

"Um, what exactly has happened?"

"Eggman was controlling you with the Orb. You, er, did a lot of things you would not have normally done," Tails explained. He did not need to tell Knuckles what had happened earlier that day in the Mystic Ruins. He did not need to make Knuckles feel like a traitor.

"Why that rotten...."

"Knuckles! Look, we're in his base now, so what d'ya say we trash the place?" Sandi said. Knuckles winked.

"Sure thing."

Together, Tails, Knuckles and Sandi destroyed the master computer. Amy was thoroughly enjoying herself. She had picked up a slab of metal and was bashing it around happily, demolishing all the delicate and expensive worktops and control panels, smashing to smithereens all the intricately complex machinery that Eggman had spent ages building. Tails dealt with the electricity and Knuckles and Sandi simultaneously punched and karate- chopped their way through everything. In the havoc that followed, Eggman just about had enough time to take the Hiatus Orb from Rouge.

"Hey! Eggman's getting away with the Orb!" Amy shouted. Tails, Knuckles and Sandi swung round. Eggman was heading for the door.

"We have to stop him!" Tails cried. They ran to catch up with Eggman but he got out of the door and locked it behind him.

"You can't stop me," Eggman said. "You may have destroyed my base, but I still have the virus microchip!" He held up a tiny gleaming object for all to see through the glass porthole in the door. Tails looked furious. Then Eggman was gone.

"Man, I hate that evil doctor," Knuckles cursed.

"He stole my invention," sobbed Tails. Sandi put an arm around him comfortingly. "We'll get it back somehow. Now, why don't we blow this stinking place up, like Stella's base?" she suggested. Then an ear-splitting noise resounded in the room. It made the walls shake, like a rocket taking off.

"No. Eggman will be off the island by now," Tails said gloomily. "It's a volcano, remember. Blowing the place up will trigger an eruption and it's too close to the tourist area."

"So what's next?" asked Amy. Tails felt a thrill of leadership - that he had never had the chance to feel when Sonic was around - as their heads turned to him.

"Okay. It's seven p.m. now, so we have seventeen hours before the Orb unleashes it's power," Tails began. "We have to find out where this is taking place. So we'll need to follow Eggman. Then we can stop this whole thing before it actually happens."

"Alright!" Sandi exclaimed. They made their way to the outside of the volcano. On the way out, Knuckles spotted the Third Amulet, lying forgotten amongst the rubble. He picked it up.



* * * * *

Amy and Sandi had gone to take care of the Thunderstorm, leaving Tails, Rouge and Knuckles alone underneath the stars in the night sky. All was silent for a moment, then Knuckles broke the stillness roughly.

"What do you think you're doing here?" he snarled stiffly, giving Rouge an evil look. Rouge was taken aback.

"Me? I - I - oh, why are you being so uptight? Trust me, I'm helping you guys. And if your way of saying thanks is shouting at me, then I suggest you go find something else to do," Rouge shot back.

"How can I possibly expect to trust you? You never told Eggman before when you were working for the Government!" Knuckles argued. "I was even beginning to believe those lies you were telling me - until you turned up here."

"Knuckles, please....I'm not on Dr. Eggman's side. I - "

"Too damn right! You aint on anyone's side, except for your own."

"No....just listen! Alright, so I did get that amulet for Dr. Eggman, and he was gonna pay me for it, but - but - then I found out what he'd done to you and I said I wasn't going to work for him any more. He took the amulet from me."

"And how do I know you're not lying?" Knuckles eyed her suspiciously.

"Because I was the one who stopped the Orb from controlling you," said Rouge.

"But that was Tails!" Knuckles said, confused. Tails, who had been standing not too far off, chipped in.

"No, it wasn't me. Rouge was the only one close enough to the generator. For anyone else it would have been impossible." Tails raised an eyebrow at Knuckles, as if to indicate something.

"Why? Why did you do it? Is this still part of some plot....or did you really....mean it?" Knuckles asked Rouge quietly. Despite the coldness of the night air, he felt his blood heating up rapidly.

"I know what you think of me. But I could not bear to see you treated like that, by Eggman, by the Orb. I'm sorry..... I....." Rouge trailed off. She locked eyes with Knuckles for a moment, and suddenly they both smiled. Tails could not help but smile too.

"Well, I've got one evil scientist to catch up with, guys, so that's me outta here." He chuckled as he glanced at the reconciled pair.

"Yeah, 'scuse us both, we're off too," Knuckles said, and taking Rouge's hand in his own, he turned and walked away with Rouge at his side. Tails sighed contentedly and went back to the Thunderstorm where Amy and Sandi would be waiting.

* * * * *