Metalled With

by Crimson Chao

Sonic and Knuckles adapt. Knuckles is captured by Robotnik and is built into a Mecha-bot with Mecha Sonic, while Sonic traverses Floating Island. Netraptor.org fanfic contset entry.

Just so you know, I go by the name 'Mew020' in the forums. Enjoy it, comments andconstructive criticism are welcome.

Metalled With

By Eric "Mew020" Weisz

Copyright information: The beginning of this story written as a fanfiction contest teaser. It is not copyrighted, and may be modified as the author sees fit. Any fanfiction written with this teaser may be freely distributed. The Sonic characters are copyrighted by Sega.

This story (except the teaser part) and it's ideas are copyrighted to Mew020.

Prologue: Injury

"I'll head him off, Knux!" Sonic yelled, dashing into a side passage.

Knuckles bolted down the main tunnel, heart thundering in his chest. Metal Sonic's jet engine was hideously loud in the underground caverns, and he was already ahead of them both, homing in on the Hidden Palace where the Master Emerald was enthroned.

Curse that robot! He had come out of nowhere, screeched around Knuckles

and Sonic, and rocketed into the Floating Island's inner passages. He

must have followed them down from the surface. Knuckles cursed himself

for not noticing, and Sonic for distracting him with his chatter about

chaos emeralds and stupid myths.

He passed a side passage and heard Sonic's echoing footsteps ahead of

him. Maybe Sonic would beat Mecha there. The passages were so winding and convoluted that it would take Mecha a while to get there, even with his afterburner. The odor of his exhaust tainted all the air, and Knuckles cursed him--apart from everything else, it would take years for such air pollution to disperse from the subterranean passages.

Knuckles turned down a side tunnel, ducking to avoid the low ceiling, and sprinted along bent nearly double. He knew all the old highways, and with any luck, he could cut the robot's lead and arrive in Hidden Palace the same time as Sonic.

Fifteen minutes later, gasping for breath, Knuckles skidded into the high blue cavern of Hidden Palace. The Master Emerald was set on a pedestal in a bed of seed crystals. There was no sign of Sonic, but Metal Sonic's jet was echoing up the nearest entry tunnel. Knuckles sprang at the doorway and smashed his fists into the supports on the sides. The rock gave way, and the mouth of the tunnel collapsed in an explosion of dust and debris. Knuckles retreated, pleased to hear that Mecha's jet was now muffled and distant. Then it shut off.

Knuckles stood still, straining his ears for any indication of where his enemy was. There were two more entrance passages, but he had come through one, and the other led out into Lava Reef. Metal Sonic would take hours to find his way through...

A loud ping echoed through the cave, and Knuckles covered his ears. Unless Mecha used radar to map the tunnels, of course. Where the devil was Sonic?

The robot appeared in the far doorway, his eyes shining red and evil in the gloom. Knuckles ran to put himself between the robot and the Master

Emerald. "Stay where you are, Mecha."

"That's a good idea," said the robot. "I don't need to resort to hand to hand violence to kill you. A single bullet works just as well." He opened a panel on his hip and removed a tiny pistol.

Knuckles backed away, putting the Master Emerald's pedestal between himself and danger. Metal Sonic circled, trying to keep him in view. "Once the Guardian is dead, there will be no one to stop me from taking the Master Emerald for myself. Its fragments in my core will make me the most powerful being in the world, and the rest of the emerald will sell for an exceptionally high price."

Knuckles heard the scuffle of sneakers on marble floor, and looked over his shoulder to see Sonic standing in the far entrance, panting and surveying the situation. Knuckles returned his gaze to Mecha to see the robot's arm flick up, aim briefly, and fire.

Sonic flashed in front of him, and it was over before Knuckles realized

what had happened. Sonic landed on his knees and doubled up, and there was blood on his hands. Metal Sonic lowered the pistol and began to laugh, staring at Sonic.

Knuckles charged.

Knuckles ran at Mecha, teeth bared. Mecha waited for him, grabbed him, and tossed him to the floor. The stunned Knuckles grabbed onto one of the Super Emerald pedestals for support. He had to think of something.. Sonic was hurt, and Mecha wasn't having any trouble beating him.. Upgrades, maybe? No time to think on that, he reminded himself. He did the only thing he could think of: Slap his hand down on top of the Super Emerald in front of him, and yell "Emerald Protection!"

Knuckles felt the prickling sensation that he expected, knowing that he was transforming into his hyper form. Not hesitating, Knuckles flew again at Mecha, fists first.

As Mecha touched the Master Emerald, he sent his coordinates to his master, Dr. Robotnik. Robotnik teleported him up to his ship above the floating island, escaping.

Well, if this was happening over ground, anyway. But, it was not, so it ended quite differently. Knuckles slammed into Mecha full force, knocking him backwards into a wall. Knuckles followed, slamming at Mecha with his powered up fists. Mecha's core was screeching in error as Knuckles continued to punch away at Mecha's already doomed body. He did not notice his precious emerald demolecularizing, and particles flying through the roof.

Knuckles took one last swing at Mecha's core, as Mecha proclaimed, "You have not seen the last of me!!" After hitting Mecha's core and hearing a satisfying 'crunch', he decharged. A slight electrical shot struck Knuckles, but he didn't notice. Mecha's evil red eyes flicked off, hopefully forever.

Knuckles ran to Sonic's limp for, worried. He looked Sonic over. Sonic had been hit in the chest, but fortunately not the heart. He would eventually bleed to death in one of the most painful ways. Knuckles shot back over to Mecha's hull, scraping around for anything that he could possibly use to communicate. Finding nothing, he slammed his fists on Mecha, frustrated.

He was out of options. There was no way he could get Sonic proper help before he was dead. Blast him for not making teleporters that led to somewhere other then floating island.. He jumped onto a pedestal, and hopped up to the roof. He used one claw to hang on to the roof, and the other to dig with. He knew his attempts were in vain, but dug on nonetheless. He eventually collapsed on the emerald, noticing the injured Sonic had made his way over to the very same emerald, clinging for support.

Chapter 1: Luster Skin

When he awoke, he was surprised to find himself floating in one of the capsules with green liquid in it. He looked outside of his container, absorbing his surroundings. There were other tubes like this in the room, containing failed projects upon other things, such as Mecha's dead body. There were wrenches, screwdrivers, and other tools strewn across the floor. There was a heap of scrap metal in the corner, bent and cracked. Sonic's limp body was also on the floor, and a red robot standing guard over it, gun ready.

Questions wandered into his head. Where was he? Who had found them? How had they found Hidden Palace? Had they taken the Master Emerald? Do me a favor and shut up. Who had said that?! Not you, pitiful organic. Knuckles looked outside his capsule, searching for the owner of that voice. He saw no one.

Then, someone did enter. The first thing see-able was his enormous stomach. He could see the head next, round and ugly, goggles hiding his baldness. He had a huge orange mustache, reaching out beyond his head. Robotnik. Master.

The liquid in his capsule was drained at the touch of Robotnik's hand on the control panel in front of him, and the glass was opened at another flick of the demented man's finger. Knuckles fell out of the container stumbling, but quickly regained his composure. Two more robots entered the room that looked like twins of the red one, except a different color. There was purple one and a black one. They and the red one surrounded him, lasers erect. "Now," said the mad scientist, "I believe you have something I need."

"Your never getting my emeralds!!" he yelled back, uncomfortable with his current position.

Robotnik shook his head. "No, not this time. You have something important stored in your little brain, and I want my robot's mind back."

A robot's mind? Pfft, right. "You've got a better chance of finding a Chaos Emerald then extracting anything from my head!" He played along, anyway.

"Well, I appreciate your encouragement, for I have 3." As to prove himself, he retreated into the room behind him. He came back a moment later, holding 3 shining gems of different colors. One was purple, one was orange, and the other one was light blue. Chaos Emeralds!

Knuckles stared at them, amazed. "How did you possibly get three of them?" You find it hard to believe? With modern day energy scanners, you could find a Chaos Emerald half way around the earth. the voice answered. "Shut up!" he told the voice. It was already getting annoying..

Robotnik laughed, seeming to know what was going on. "What did I tell you? Mecha is talking to you, isn't he?"

"Well, if you know so much, get him outta my head!!!" Knuckles yelled at him.

"Yes, well, I don't really want to. I'd rather get rid of you instead." Robotnik motioned the black robot. "Stun him."

The robot complied, and shot a beam out of its gun at Knuckles. He froze, muscles stiffening. He slowly drifted off to sleep, unaware of what was about to happen to him.

Robotnik laughed evilly, and grabbed the frozen Knuckles by the scruff of the neck. He motioned for the black robot to depart. "Stay here and guard Sonic, E-102. As for you, Delta, come with me."

"Yes, master." They all complied in unison, and did as directed. Robotnik again retreated back into the room behind him, Delta following.

"Ugh.." Sonic moaned, waking from his slumber. "What happened? Knux?" Sonic's eyes darted around the room, knowing where he certainly wasn't. "Where am I?" he asked himself. He got up, and a voice sounded from in front of him.

"Halt." The red robot, christened E-102 Gamma droned. "Leaving your current position would be ill-advised."

"And why might that be? So I wouldn't bust you up?" Sonic replied, unmoving.

"No. It is ill-advised because of the lasers that will fire upon you if you leave the lighted tiles." Replied the knowing Gamma.

"Why are you telling me this, anyway? Aren't you one of Eggman's 'bots?" Sonic inquired.

"Because. He would take much pleasure in destroying you himself. If you were to be eliminated by the lasers, he wouldn't be aloud the luxury.."

"Goodbye, 'bot." Was Sonic's simply reply. He shot off the lighted tiles, lasers firing behind him. He curled into a spindash, tearing through Gamma's neck. With its energy cut off from its brain, it crumpled to the floor, beaten. "Man, Eggy's 'bots just keep getting weaker."

Sonic burst through the door in front of him with a quick spindash, and was disturbed by what he saw. Robotnik didn't hesitate to run to the next room, accompanied by Delta. But he wasn't looking at Robotnik. He was looking at the shiny red robot propped up against the wall. It had red dreadlocks coming off its head, containing mini jet engines for speed. On it's face was a silver nose jutting out from under it's two black, gleaming eyes that were sitting on top of it's shiny silver muzzle. It had silver arms, partially covered with armor, holding one radiant green gem in each. They seemed to sparkle with energy, lighting up the room.. It's hands seemed gloved, crease marks marked where it could bend its fingers. Identical ones could be found on its legs, but larger and cut differently. Its shoes were huge, which was needed to stabilize the robot. They probably contained extra fuel. And on its chest lay a white crescent, symbolizing the body inside's guardianship. But Sonic didn't know that something living hid under the scary red armor.

Sonic stepped back, wide-eyed at this new robot. Suddenly, it whirred to life, eyes lighting up in green half circles. "Sssonic.." it shuddered, getting to its feet.

It suddenly charged, claws outstretched, fixed on Sonic. What the heck are you doing?! "Killing the hedgehog." No!

The robot stopped in mid-charge, talking with itself. Horrified, Sonic stood staring blankly at the robot, as it seemed to be insane, arguing with itself. Coming to himself, Sonic sped through the door that Robotnik had fled into.

"Fool, you should have been destroyed when my mentality was programmed!" Wha? "It must not have been completed. Blasted hedgehog.."

Full of anger, Robotnik pounded on his controls. The Flying Battery wasn't responding, apparently out of power. He needed a good electric shock to jolt its system awake.. "Respond!! RESPOND!!!" he yelled, turning red, infuriated.

"Is there any way I might assist you?" Delta asked.

"Yes. Destroy that hedgehog!" As Delta began to leave, Robotnik reconsidered. "Strike that, come help me reactivate Flying Battery."

As the robot turned to go back, it suddenly fell to the floor, deactivated. Now visible from behind the door, Sonic waved, smirking. "Isn't it stupid to leave something like and EMP laying around on your ship?" Robotnik stared, suddenly nervous.

He had realizing why the controls to Flying Battery were down, and it wasn't an energy shortage. "Fool!! You've deactivated the ship with that, which will bring you too your doom!"

He hadn't expected the ship to just stop.. He charged out the door in which he had entered through, searching for a way to get out of the ship. He navigated through the doors he had previously entered, and was greeted by a familiar robot in a familiar room. He stood face to face with it for a moment, unable to move. Then, he realized it was offline. "Heh.. Stupid 'bot."

Insulting it seemed to bring it to life. "Wha?" the confused robot said, seeing Sonic. "Sonic, you have to help me!"

Sonic stared. This robot had double personalities, it seemed. "Sonic? Hello? You there?" It waved its arm in front of his face. It stared at its arm for a minute, then shuddered.

"Why should I help you? You just tried to kill me a moment ago!" Sonic asked, wondering why any of Eggman's robots would ask for help.

"Sorry 'bout that, Mecha has control over this body most of the time." Was its weird reply.

"Wh—" The ship rumbled. It was beginning to hit Floating Island's higher mountains. Sonic didn't notice the robot switch positions, looking more angry and ready for attack. Fortunately, it didn't get the chance. The ship went completely vertical, sending he and the robot to the walls. It was right between Ice Cap and Glacial Mountain, the two highest peaks in floating island. Sonic screamed as an inconvenient ledge somehow tore off the bottom of the ship, and the robot and he fell through the gaping hole towards the mountain ledge below.

Chapter 2: Ice Cap

Sonic was bombarded with snow as soon as he landed. The snow exploded from on him as he jumped out, shaking to be free of some of the snow still clinging to him. He stood for a moment, trying to catch his breath.

"Sonic!" that insane robot yelled, charging.

"So much more them favors now, hum?" He mumbled to himself, and began to run.

"Running will only make you dead tired." It screeched, claws out.

There is no way Sonic could possibly outrun the robot. It could fly over the snow, but he had to run through it. Hearing its yells from behind him only encouraged him to run faster. It would have caught him, but Sonic had tripped in luck. The robot flew right over him, missing. HE saw what he had tripped over: an oddly shaped slab of metal. It had two pipes jutting out, just low enough to hold Sonic's feet in them. Sonic remembered the snowboarding lessons he had got a while ago, and hopped up out of the snow. He hopped again to straighten out the metal, and began slowly moving down the mountain. It picked up speed eventually, just enough to avoid the robot that seemed to be conserving energy. When it saw him, it growled and began moving faster, seeing it's prey. He could hear it behind him rocketing, melting snow as it went.

"YEEEHAA!" Sonic whooped. He shot down the Ice Cap, jumping rocks and doing tricks on the ledges. The robot still flew on behind him, eyes red in hatred.

Sonic hid a hard curve, momentarily losing balance. He then hit a rock in that time, and flew off the narrow slope. The metal slab was taken by the rock, and he tumbled into the freezing abyss below. He landed in a large pile of snow, spreading it as he landed.

Up above, the robot took a sharp turn, eyes sharp for it's prey. Finding a straight downhill glide, it rocketed up ahead at top speed towards a certain flying airship, still alert for it's prey.

Snapping out of being dazed, Sonic got up, looking around. The only way he could go, unless he scaled the cliff, was into the mysterious cave below.

Cautiously, he entered the freezing cave. It was cold, dark, and damp. He stepped onto the snow-ridden floor, only to find that ice was hidden under the snow. He found out the hard way.

He slipped on the ice, finding that the snow wasn't really deep at all. He fell on his rear end, he yelped for his crushed tail. After getting over the coldness of the floor, he began to slide down, knowing he would never get up in ice. He lifted his head up, attempted to see where he was doomed to go.

"Aaaahhh!" Sonic squealed, hitting an ice stalagmite. He swerved sideways, and braced his head for another impact. It did not come, and he flew off a ledge, landing on a stable platform, without ice.

After recuperating for a few minutes, Sonic looked over his position. There were multiple floating chunks of ground floating over crystal clear water. "Great."

Sonic leaped to one of the floating rocks, catching his balance before falling into the ice-cold water below. To his horror, the rock underneath him began to sink, now holding extra weight. He jumped to the next rock, hoping it wouldn't sink as well. But his hope was slaughtered as his current position began to sink as well. He again jumped to the next rock, which in turn began to sink. He continued this process for some time, and finally landed on a sturdy rock. He starting pacing to catch his breathe, remembering that aside from keeping your body temperature up, constant slow pacing also helps you catch your breathe faster. He was thankful that Tails had parted much safety knowledge to him on his previous adventures.

He wished for Tails' companionship. It was so nice to have someone to talk to, for eerie silence could only keep one entertained for so long.

Deciding to move on, he stepped back so he could get a running start. He tripped over some stupid loose rock, sending him down on his bottom once more. "Poor tail.." he mumbled, telling himself to reminding him to land on his back or stomach next time. He got up, and took the running leap he had suffered to get. He landed on the icy platform, and slipped once more, on his stomach this time, to the ice, sliding left. He bumped into another ice stalagmite, stopping. From above where he had fell, a cold gas burst out, instantly freezing the melted snow that had come off of Sonic. It also froze the water by the ledge, and Sonic was glad he had slid away. The dispenser of this gas caught his eye, and sure enough, the were lined out on roof in front of him, waiting for an unlucky victim to come under them.

Sonic was instantly nervous, pondering how he might go about getting through these obstacles. Finding no perfectly safe way to go, he got to his feet, intent on running. He rubbed the soles of his shoes for good luck, then shot off on the ice. He heard the whooshing noise of the gas being released, usually not to far behind him. If only it wasn't ice he was treading on, he could easily outrun them.

Eventually, Sonic's foot briefly met with a tiny, friendly ice stalagmite. After saying their goodbyes, Sonic tripped and flew down the ice passage, hoping he would slide fast enough to stay out of the gas' paths. He didn't bother to get up, but tried to at least make himself into a more aerodynamic pose. He got in this pose just in time to see the cave light up brightly, and find himself flying in mid-air. From under the cave's alternate entrance, a sign bore a warning. Warning: 'Abandoned Ninja Hideout: Enter At Your Own Risk.'

Chapter 3: Flying Battery

He felt an incredibly strong rush of wind as he got up, noticing something. He was moving! He dared himself to look off the side of what he was on, and to his regret, he complied.

He was over the forest near Mushroom Hill now, and the trees looked like blades of grass as he looked down upon them. He backed away from the edge in fear, and tripped into a ventilation shaft.

"Wonderful." He said sarcastically, and began to crawl through the mess of cobwebs and dust. He crawled for a while, passing under rooms that were occupied by robots. He eventually found himself looking up at the room that held the weird robot ad Robotnik.

"Yes master." It replied to Robotnik's command, making Sonic wonder what was asked of it.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Go!" Sonic heard the 'clunk' of metallic feet against the metal, and the closing of a door. "Stupid robot.. It'll never work properly until I can finish its mental conditioning.. I'll have to wait 'till Mecha's new body has been finished.." With that, Robotnik left the room, stepping over the vent containing Sonic.

Sonic hadn't strained his brain much to figure out who was talking. He was in the middle of one of Robotnik's ships, guarded by who knows what? Sonic kicked the vent open, and climbed out. He shook and spread his fingers through his quills, ridding himself of those webs that had entangled him.

After he was sufficiently dusted off, he looked around the room. There were some file cabinets, a table with some keys stringed in a ring, and a locked safe. It wasn't combination lock, oddly enough, but a key-safe. "I wonder…"

Sonic picked up the keys, and walked towards the safe. He inserted each of the keys on the massively obese key ring, wondering what might be hiding in the safe. After he had reached the seventh key, the safe finally clicked unlocked. He pulled the handle of the safe, revealing its treasure. Lo and behold, a light blue Chaos Emerald stood in front of him. How did that fat dork find an emerald? Robots.. Mecha, probably. He pulled out the Chaos Emerald, and fingered it, feeling its power flow into him.

He didn't get much time to admire it, for outside he heard the footsteps of an annoyed Robotnik. He stashed the emerald in his quills, (Which he had found, could safely hold anything small enough to fit) slammed the safe shut, tossed the keys on the table, and ducked back into the ventilation. He pulled the cover over him, and crawled out of view.

He heard Robotnik growling something about a computer that required a key, and a Chaos Emerald. He heard the keys jingle, and the safe click open. Then he heard Robotnik yell some obscenities, mostly with Sonic's name jumbled in. He stormed out, slamming the door as he left.

Sonic had decided that coming out of this particular vent was a bad idea, and trudged on. Unfortunately for him, this was the last vent of the ones connected on his trails, and he dropped down the end of the shaft.

He was jettisoned in the air, hands struggling to find anything he could hold onto. His hands came to a pole, and he held on for dear life. He looked down against his better judgment, and found he was holding onto a pole the fed power into a rotating blade beneath him. Swallowing the knot in his throat, he looked around for anything he might be able to jump to. Up ahead, he saw something that made him very uncomfortable. The robot.

"Goodbye, hedgehog." It simply stated. It turned around, and walked behind the inactive propeller that resided there. He switched on the sideways propeller, sending tremendous gusts of wind at Sonic. He then opened a hatch above him, and retreated inside.

Sonic felt the immense power of the wind, and that power overwhelmed him. His grip faltered, sending him flying through the air once more. His hands closed around yet another pole, securing himself. He looked back, hoping that there were more poles, and to his luck, they were there in great quantities. He gulped, and let his hand slide off the pole. He grabbed another behind him, which reassured him that he could pull this off. He continued this for a while, growing confidence as he found each time he was still alive.

After a few minutes of propeller hopping, Sonic finally located somewhere a bit more stable. Problem was, it wasn't behind him. It was to the side. He wasn't sure he could make a horizontal move, but the wind had died down a little from length, and he might be able to make it.. With one hand on the propeller, he slowly reached out, aiming for the pole beside him. He had stretched his arm as far as it would go, but it still would not reach. He could just barely touch it with the tip of his fingers.

He had to jump!. He retreated his arm back to the pole, shifting to get a better jump. His legs tensed as another knot in his throat refused to go down. Then, he jumped. He had little faith as he briefly flew in the air, and he closed his eyes in fear. His hand hit something hard, and he enclosed it in his hands. He opened his eyes slowly, and realized that he was still alive.

In about three minutes, (after many attempts to get his hands to respond) he finally gained his wit, and felt a stiff platform below him. He let go, and stood on the metal below him. He slowly inched over this metal, not looking to see where he might splatter if he fell.

He sighed in relief as he found a hatch, and slowly went in. He moved his hand through his quills attempting to reform them into the style he had before this trip. Unfortunately, the wind had stiffened each quill hard in place. He again reached into his quills, this time to assure himself that his prize was still with him. Surely enough, among the sharp, pointiness of his quills laid a gleaming purple prize.

He started off once more, the touch of the emerald seemingly giving him enough strength to carry on.

A voice startled him from behind. "So, I see you have survived yet another plan. NOW YOU WILL DIE!!"

"Mocha?" Sonic gulped, dodging his foe's charge. "I thought Knox killed you!"

"You were injured, how could you have seen clearly?" Mocha relied, missing as he attempted a second attempt to decapitate Sonic.

Mecha could have been right, but how would he know either? He was probably a new robot that had been named after its predecessor. "Your just another 'bot named after him!: Sonic answered, knowing that the robot looked nothing like Mecha.

"Wrong, This body's surname is Robo Knuckles. You are talking to Mecha, put into a different body." Mecha replied, skimming Sonic's arm with the green gem on his arm. "I know how you fight. About now, you're going to—" Mecha ran after the fleeing Sonic. Just as I thought, Mecha thought.

Sonic sped through the hall, looking back every once in a while to make sure Mecha wasn't gaining. But, unfortunately, he was. Sonic sidestepped into a room, evading Mecha's charge, and closed the door. He kept going, jumping over a stunned Robotnik, and quickly stealing the Light Blue emerald automatically.

Robotnik screamed insanely, cursing the hedgehog, as Sonic ran to the engine room with is emerald.

Sonic ran through the engine, amazed at how uncomplicated it was. There were screw like things rotating at extreme speeds, powering the propellers that he could see through the glass floor. "Must've not even looked up, too afraid of what was below me…" Sonic mumbled to himself as he continued onward.

"Sssonic, where are you..?" The echidna-bot chanted as it moved through the room. "If you come out now, I might kill you quick." It taunted.

"How about you don't!" Sonic yelled, spindashing Mecha from behind. Mecha flew backwards, but stopped himself by grabbing onto the wall that he as flying past. Instantly balancing out, Mecha charged, claws first.

Sonic had run after executing his spindash, trying to find his way past the screws. As he ran, he thought about the screws. They all looked like they could be entered, but it seemed one might be crushed in a matter of moments. They seemed to go one to another floor, or so it seemed by the footsteps that could barely be heard above him. Suddenly, an insane idea popped into his head. Perhaps he could run up the screw to another floor!

He heard Mecha's enraged hiss behind him, and instantly bolted up the screw. He kept pace with the speeding screw, going up ever so slowly. He soon found a passageway into the next floor, and jumped out, tired. He heard Mecha flying up the screw, screeching in hate. Sonic saw some controls, and found a red button that said, 'descend.' He immediately pressed it, hoping he might soon get off this stupid ship. The screws immediately stopped, and started the other way instead.

For about half a second, Sonic watched Mecha charge up and attempt to get out of the screw. The screw saw to it that he never made it, as it instantly shot Mecha farther up. Looking outside a window, Sonic noticed that the ship was getting lower, and fast! Sonic looked over the controls, almost regretting pressing the red button. Not finding any other buttons of use, he reflected back to the last ship that he fell in, and decided it might be a good idea to flee, before the ground and ship met each other.

He shot off, exiting the room he was in, jumped down some stairs, continuing to do so over more stairs. He ran into another random door, finding himself in a large, circular room.

"Good of you to join me, hedgehog." Mecha snorted from the opposite side of the room. Mecha flipped a switch on some kind of remote, and suddenly, the door behind him closed. He flipped two more switches, and the room began to revolve. "For the fun of it, I decided I might make this more interesting."

"Gee, what could be more fun then fighting you in a revolving room with no exits?" Sonic retorted.

"Why, I don't know." Mecha said, jumping towards Sonic. A yellow beam flashed behind him, and Mecha chopped centimeters from Sonic's quills.

Sonic frowned at this, and jumped back from the yellow laser that was going to hit him. " Great." Sonic mumbled.

"I figured you'd like it." Purposely ignoring Sonic's sarcasm, firing a laser from one of the green gems on his arm.

Sonic leapt out of the way, watching the wall behind him melt. "Well, now I know what to expect when I get hit." Sonic said, trying not to imagine a yellow-brown puddle with blue quills floating in it.

Mecha continued his rapid-firing assault. He weaved about, evading the yellow beam as he navigated the floor with grace and speed.

Sonic wasn't so graceful, ducking and bobbing around the lasers, barely evading the one on the roof. "Time to take that thing out.." he whispered to himself. He ran around the circling room, gaining speed, and shot on the rounded wall, running up the wall and roof. He spindashed to hit it, but he had failed to calculate the spin of the room into his angle, and fell short of it. The roundness of the room kept his spindash going, and he shot around he room like a skateboarder in a half-pipe.

Mecha watched in amusement, backing away or jumping up when the rogue spindash came near him. Finally, after having a good chuckle, Mecha kicked the rolling Sonic into the door, which was surrounded by lasers.

Sonic fell to the ground, dazed, head spinning. "Ugh.. What a spin.." Sonic commented, barely keeping his eyes trained partially on Mecha, partially on the roof-laser, and partially on his shorter, blackened spines. Now, he knew not the hit the lasers guarding the door.

As Mecha once again took aim, his arm beeped. He glared at the dizzy Sonic as he listened to his Master's command. "Mecha! Report to the DE II, ASAP! No distractions!"

Mecha growled at Sonic in frustration. "I'll be back, Sssonic!" With that, he flipped a switch, dispersing the lasers. He slowly walked by Sonic, who, as soon as he passed him, shot out the opposing end. If he could have, Mecha would have rolled his eyes in annoyance.

Sonic sped out the door, which fortunately, wasn't the door he had entered from the previous room.

In front of him lay a ramp, going up for quite a long way. On the bottom, an elevator was positioned. Unfortunately for Sonic, Mecha had vaporized the controls earlier. "Stupid Mecha.." he mumbled, looking over the melted controls. Only one thing to do now. He surveyed the ramp, looking up it to make sure there were no more obstacles in the way. For once, there were none. He backed up, and he charged up the ramp.

It didn't take very long to reach the top of the incline, and when he did, he had to abruptly stop, so he wouldn't plunge to his doom. As he landed, he saw his favorite person in the world coming through the hatch. Mecha.

Mecha glared at Sonic in spite, and charged, rockets blasting him above the ground. At about 10 feet away from his prey, he shot at the sidestepping Sonic, scorching the tip of his pointer finger, and causing Sonic to lose his balance, which in turn, caused Sonic to plummet to his doom. Mecha blasted off the doomed ship, laughing, in spite of the fact he knew Sonic wouldn't die.

As Sonic fell, he pushed against the hull of the ship, sending him farther away from it. As he fell, the last words he read were printed on the ship: 'Flying Battery.' Or, at least, until he read something else.

Chapter 4: Mushroom Hill

Sonic landed on his bottom (like always, he would say) but didn't stay on the ground for very long. It wasn't ground, and he found himself up in the air once again, at about half his previous altitude. This repeated, and Sonic regained his senses in mid-bounce. Looking about 50 yards away, the Flying Battery was coming down, falling on a bed of mushrooms. On his next bounce, he checked again, and steam was coming from the broken propellers on the airship's bottom side, and also from the still-moving propellers.

As he bounced again, he looked to Lava Reef to see how far away he was from Hidden Palace. Up on the top of the volcano, he saw a round, gray ball perched over its top. "Wha?" Sonic bounced again, trying to get a better look at it, but unfortunately, he was too low.

It seemed to remind him of something, but he just couldn't figure out what. Dismissing this for later thought, he concentrated on different matters. On his next bounce, he pushed his legs upon the mushrooms, and landed in some mud.

"Ugh.." he groaned, rubbing his ever sore behind. "This is definitely bad for my hairdo.." he moaned, wondering why it mattered, since he ways miles from civilization.

He wiped the mud off, and trudged on, stopping only to look at the enormous mushrooms. "Must be in Mushroom Hill," he stated, obviously.

Eventually, Sonic ran into one of Floating Island's many rivers, flowing smoothly through its path. He didn't hesitate as he hopped in, and washed the filth from himself. He took out his emeralds, which were oddly clean, glimmering brightly. He placed them to the side of the river. As he put them down, he felt a rush of tiredness wash over him. He noted to find a comfortable position, and take a nap.

After he had sufficiently washed up, (and again failed to salvage his hairdo) and secured his gleaming prizes, he set off in search of a comfortable place, such as a tree. He wasn't having much luck. (Mushroom hill seemed to only contain mushrooms)

Off in the distance, the figure of Mecha could be seen. "Flush them out, Mecha." His master commanded.

"Yes master." Mecha replied. If this didn't kill Sonic, there aren't many other things that could. Why do you take orders from him?

"Because he is my creator. The three laws are programmed into me, and I cannot disobey." Sure you can.

"No, I can't. I may not like him, or think he has even the slightest sign of common sense, but I have to obey." Do you even like him?

"No. Would you like somebody who drives you in slavery?" No. Suppose you completed your goal—not that you ever will—what would he do with you?

"He would send me on more useless missions for world domination, I would suppose.." … Knuckles now had something to go on. Mecha hated Robotnik. Now, if he could possibly drive Mecha to ignore his master, he might be able to divert Mecha from Sonic, saving Sonic's future troubles. Maybe.. "Hm?" Mecha wondered, as he used his flamethrower to set a forest fire. "Have fun, Sssonic." Mecha growled, flicking an army ant off his hull, and took off.

Sonic mumbled as he was rudely awakened by a loud, rumbling noise. "Man.. Only.." Sonic looked up, checking the sun for movement. "Not even an hour.." Might as well find that annoying sound.." He hopped to the ground, and investigated further.

When he reached the top of a hill, he saw something very uncomforting. A massive red wave of death was washing over the ground and trees. No red but the natural red of mushroom was on the mushrooms, and Sonic figured the wave disliked them. "Of course.." Sonic grumbled, as the red wave came closer to him.

Sonic jumped up to one of the taller mushrooms, and bounced off. Rubbing his bum, he jumped to a smaller one, and bounced on top of the larger one, making small bounces to stay stable. He watched the red ants scurry under his perch, shaking the ground as they went. He decided to move on, and began to bounce.

He bounced a few times to gain height, and bounded off. AS he bounded to the next mushroom, he noticed that behind the red wave, a different kind of red-orange wave was crackling. "Forest Fire?!" he gasped. Wherever Knuckles was, this would not make him a happy echidna..

Thinking quickly, Sonic began bouncing as hard s he could. Perhaps he could jump part of the fire.. The fire continued on, threatening all it crossed. When the fire was almost upon him, he took off, jumping as far as he possibly could. Unfortunately, he had unintentionally aimed himself at the most powerful point of the fire.

Sonic flailed in the air desperately, trying to at least get a better landing site. But he could not drive off his course in mid-air, and continued on his path. He curled into a ball to protect his head from the fire, and landed in the midst of the fire, splashing down into a river.

He felt oddly non-melting as he flew into the river. He hadn't even seen the river there. Immediately when he stood up, he saw bones and carcasses lying around the ground. But the most noticeable thing about his surroundings was the fact that it wasn't hot.

Despite the fire, it wasn't in the least bit got. Sonic still didn't chance it, and waded through the river. He jumped up, yelping as he stepped on a sharp rock. He slowly lowered himself down, not waning to injure his bottom side again. When he was situated, he lifted his foot to take a look at the injury. The rock had cur a hole right through his shoes, and into his foot. It wasn't a very large injury, fortunately, his shoe and reflexes aiding him in getting his foot off the rock. He took his shoe and sock off, and laid them n a crevice in the river so they wouldn't he washed away. He cleaned off his wound, making sure to use his sock to cut off the bleeding.

As Sonic put his sock and shoe back on, he searched for the offending rock. It was very easy to spot, like a black sheep in a white flock. And in front of him lay the red Chaos Emerald, fire crackling around it in all its glory.

He stared in wonder at the flaming emerald. It might have seemed in place on shore, but under the water, its flames looked like a hoax. Slowly, the curious Sonic reached out to touch it, with the hand that still had glove over its pointer finger's tip. He quickly poked at it, retracting his finger back in fear of being burnt. When he had felt neither pain nor heat, he reached out once more, shifting it with his finger. When he became confident enough, he approached it, and reached out to grab it.

He pulled it out, and suddenly his surroundings changed. The fire extinguished, as if turned off by a switch. "Whoa.." As he held it close, he could feel strength flowing back into him. He also felt the slightest prickling feeling, but dismissed it as he placed the emerald within his quills.

He climbed atop a mushroom, (they actually hadn't been burned in the fire) and began bouncing once more. Hen he was satisfied with his altitude, he leapt away, jumping from mushroom to mushroom, growing ever closer to his destination.

Unfortunately, even though he was tired, he could not rest, for those horrible red insects were back again, and would devour him if he were to sleep. Although he was mentally sleepy, he seemed to have more physical energy then he needed. He figured the Chaos Emeralds were feeding him strength, and left it at that. No one knew anything about the emeralds, anyway.

A poor attention span was one of Sonic's faults, and that fault would put him in a very undesirable location. He miss-hopped, and shot into a hole, landing in some sort of strong current well.

This current took him into an underground river, and even is he had regained his sensed, he would have loosed the again instantly anyway. This current took him for well over 30 miles, and as he struggled to continually get his breath, he was finally flushed up into a spring, which he blocked out. The water pressure built up, and eventually shot him into the air.

Flames of Apprehension

Sonic landed abruptly, slamming face-first into the sandy ground. "Blech.." Sonic spat out the hot, bad tasting sand, which had dried up his mouth. "Great. I've landed smack dab in the middle of Sandapolis!" he yelled to the miles of desolate desert.

He stared out into the wasteland, searching for any spark of life. He located the volcano, which was sill clogged with that gray ball. Even though he was a great deal closer to it then earlier, he still just couldn't identify it. Dismissing it once more, he focused on a very small triangular object, one of the three Sandapolis pyramids. This one, the Red Pyramid, was the marker between desert and the volcano (contrary to mainlander belief, Red Pyramid was not red, but sand-colored). The other two were the Green and the Blue Pyramids, markers to the grasslands and ocean, respectively.

Sonic went back to the spring, drinking as much water as he could, and dipped himself in water to cool himself off.

He then ran off towards the Red Pyramid, heading towards Lava Reef. .Even though the sand slowed him down, he still made very good time.

"Sonic headed straight toward the pyramid, attempting to add some fun to his long journey. Sonic's short-lived good fortune had run out once more, and he fell victim to the quicksand around the pyramids.

Sonic struggled to move his feet, although in doing so just made himself go down faster. He continued struggling, unable to get hold off the solid, sandy surface of the non-quicksanded ground. Sonic's last word fell on deaf ears as he cried out in fear, "Help!" Then, he was completely taken by the quicksand.

Mecha admired the from floating in the green capsule. "Quite a masterpiece, if I do say so myself." Robotnik grinned.

"Of course, master. When will it be ready?" Mecha questioned.

"Soon, my pet. Soon, you can crush Sonic with this invincible form!" Mecha itched at being called 'pet', but went back to scanning his next body, anxious to be free of his roommate of the mind.

As Robotnik left, Mecha loosened up. "Invincible it is not. It is not as quick as my previous body, or this, and can easily be out sped by a few mobians other then him. Taking Chaos energy may make it powerful, but too much could overload it. Say, 4 Chaos emeralds, 2 super emeralds, or, the Master.. Its jetpack is easily flammable, and extremely easy to hit with a pyrotechnic device. My current body is much better, but if I am commanded into a weaker body, I will have to. And at least I'll be rid of you." Mecha complained, the last comment shot at his reflection, aware his roommate was listening. You won't take too much more. You hate your master, and are being forced into something that will put you at a disadvantage. You are going to slip.

"I believe we have been over this before. I cannot slip." Well, we'll find out soon, Mecha. Knuckles could, and had been looking through Mecha's memory. And he knew Mecha knew he was. And Mecha knew he knew that Mecha knew it. Having 2 brains would have that affect on something..

Sonic woke up, gasping for air. "Where am I..?" Last he had known, he was dieing in the quicksand. And now, here he was, alive and now in a pitch-dark tunnel. Sonic attempted to get back up, but failed. Even 2 inches was hard.. The sand must have taken mire of his energy then he would have liked. He reached back into his spines to get the warm, red glow of the red Chaos Emerald, which was bright enough to see by.

The wall seemed to twitch at the light, much brighter then anything the old walls had ever seen. Wait.. Those walls.. Part of it was twitching? "Who's there?" Sonic groaned, hoping beyond hope that whatever it was had food.

"I could ask you the same question, couldn't I, blue one?" the wall replied. "It doesn't really matter now does it?"

"Huh?" Sonic questioned, wondering what this wall—no, person, meant.

"Well, you obviously can't blend into walls, so they will see you.:

"Who:" Sonic wondered. This guy was getting weird.

"Them, of course! Don't you know of scarabs?"

"What's a scarab?" Sonic asked, beginning o feel even more uncomfortable.

"Scarabs, to put it simply, are flesh-eating bugs that can neither reproduce, nor die. They can take over your mind if they got there before killing you, but if the host dies, so does the bug. So that doesn't happen often."

"Great. Just what I needed to know. Any other way to kill them?"

"Didn't I just tell you? They are immortal and invincible!"

"Um, is there anything they don't like? Like fire, or something?" The red Chaos Emerald ignited. Its master had thought of fire, so it must be wanted. Sonic could feel a warm feeling, as if he was on a beach on a relaxing day. "Is it me, or is it warm in here?" Sonic asked, unaware on the chaotic fire.

:"Chaos flames! Excellent! That will save you from them!" the wall—person, exclaimed.

"Fire? Where?" Sonic looked around and at its master's wish, the emerald revealed the fire to him. "It isn't hot." Sonic flashed back to a time earlier, in a certain river, when fake flames surrounded the offending rock.

"Of course it isn't, to you." You are the emerald's master, it would never harm you."

"Huh? Master?" Sonic glanced, skeptically t the now purple chameleon, which was approaching.

"Yes, master. You control the emerald with your thoughts. If you think of fire, the emerald will give you flames! If you will allow me, I will gladly lead you to anywhere in my knowledge. Just tell the emerald to not harm me, and I can come closer."

"Tell.. it..?" Sonic asked.

"Yes. Talk to the emerald."

Sonic looked a the emerald. He figured it looked stupid, but no one was here but him and an eccentric chameleon. "Um, emerald. Don't hurt this guy." He felt like an idiot talking to the emerald, but, oddly enough, it worked.

The chameleon didn't hesitate to walk right in, standing in front of Sonic. "Where in Sandapolis' underground system would you like to be?"

"Put of it." Sonic replied. "I need to get out of here. My friend, Knuckles, is the guardian of the island, and I'm afraid that somebody's done something with him."

"The guardian?! You knew him? It must be wonderful to even be in his presence! But, I'm afraid that the closest place to out I can take you is the volcano." He said, depressed.

"Volcano Perfect!" replied Sonic, aware that the volcano contained Lava Reef, which in turn contained Hidden Palace.

The chameleon smiled, then asked, "What's your name? I'm going to need to be able to refer to you by more then Blue One."

"Name's Sonic. You?"

"Espio, Call me Espio." He replied.

"Nice to meet you. Now, I'm sure you're fine in the dark abyss we are in, but frankly, I don't like it. Lead the way."

Espio nodded, and motioned for him to follow. They walked along on the old, beaten path, guided by the fire of the red Chaos Emerald. They talked among themselves, ranging from food to 'are we almost there yet?' which was promptly answered with a no.

E-104 Epsilon and E-105 Zeta returned from the two corners of Mobius, holding the green and dark blue prizes. They entered Robotnik's current room, to inform him of their success. "Master, we have returned." They droned, holding the two Chaos Emeralds.

Robotnik turned from the stasis pod he was looking at, then directed them. "Good job. Now give them to Mecha."

"Yes master." They replied, scanning for Mecha. After a few moments, they stopped, confused. "Master, Mecha is not anywhere in range. There is a rogue robot emitting a signal. Shall we confront it?"

"No, don't bother. That robot is Mecha. Go, and give the emeralds to him." Robotnik replied, noting to fix the AI's in his two robots when he had launched the DE II.

"Hey, Sonic. We are now entering Red Pyramid, home of them." Espio announced nervously.

"Don't worry. If they show up, I'll just give 'em some Chaos Fire!" Sonic replied confidently.

"Heh.. Right.." Espio replied, still quite nervously.

"Hey, Espio.. D you know anything about the other Chaos Emeralds?" Sonic questioned.

:yah. I know a good deal about the red, light and dark blue emeralds, purple, and grey emeralds, some about the orange, and almost nothing about the green."

"What does the purple emerald do?" Sonic asked, kicking a rock in front of him into the wall.

"You shouldn't have done that.." Espio warned, eyeing the cracks in the wall.

"Why not? It was just a pebble." Sonic stated, confused.

"Because, now they know we are here." Espio whispered, scared. And as if to punctuate his remark, the walls began to crack even more, revealing evil black beetles. Except, those weren't beetles.

"Fire!" Sonic yelled to the emerald, bringing its power to life. Flames spread across the hall, licking off the scarabs.

Although it was a nice try, it didn't quite work. The scarabs instead climbed the walls, and dropped past the fire. Seeing Sonic as a bigger threat, they shot off after Espio, who promptly screamed and ran into the fire. Loosing their first prey, they concentrated on Sonic.

"Fire, fire, fire!" He yelled, blasting fire in all directions. He shot off into the fire, grabbed Espio, and shot into the next passage. The scarabs quickly followed, starving.

Sonic looked back seeing the scarabs loosing the race. As he looked to his front, more scarabs came from the front.

"Fire! Fire! Fire!" Sonic screamed, holding the emerald in front of him. Fire shot out, throwing scarabs to the wall. Sonic pulled Espio through it, following the flame.

Master, if you are to continue alive, I would ask that you listen to me for a moment. Sonic stared at the emerald, but there was no time to ponder how it talked.

"Ok, what do I do?" he asked, his spark of hope ever burning. Repeat after me.. Sonic listened to the simple instructions, then, with all the loudness he could muster, yelled, "CHAOS FURNACE!"

Everything went on fire. The scarabs, the pyramid, even Espio! Even outside the pyramid, the quicksand burst into flames, melting into blackened glass. After the inferno died down, the pyramid stayed red. But that didn't really matter to Sonic.

Mecha worked hastily. His master (Knuckles had failed at convincing Mecha to call him by name) was due any minute, to transfer Mecha into the new body. In the 30 minutes he had, he had successfully installed the same fail-safe as his previous body, which had transferred him into Knuckles' body. He had also made the jet fuel more difficult to ignite, and was attempting to make it less vulnerable to overloading.

Mecha sensed Robotnik with his scanner, and ended his project. If his master found he had been tinkering with his robots, he would be furious. Not that it is a bad thing Knuckles reminded Mecha. He had successfully made it to be able to take power from up to six chaos emeralds, 3 Supers, and one-third of the Master's power. As Robotnik entered, Mecha deactivated himself to prevent Robotnik from wondering how he had reactivated himself.

The door opened, and the egg-shaped man known as Robotnik entered. He walked over to Mecha, opening his head up. He searched for the data chip, wondering how Mecha had moved across the room. "Just couldn't stay away from his new body." Robotnik chuckled, pleased to find the chip.

He removed the chip from Mecha's head, and closed it up. He opened the stasis pod, and slowly lowered the robot's head. He pressed a tiny button behind the ear, and the head opened up. He inserted the chip, and stepped back, in case the robot woke up in an interesting way. He flicked a switch on the remote that he had placed on the table.

Sonic woke up, amazed at how many times he had fainted in the past few days. He looked around, seeing that the torches lined on the walls (he hit himself for not noticing them) were alight. He also saw the red flames of the red Chaos Emerald, lying on the floor, aflame as always when not held He also saw Espio lying on the ground, a large bump on his head. The bump opened (much to Sonic's disgust) revealing a dead scarab. He stared in horror, knowing what this meant. Espio was dead.

Wasn't he suppose to be protected from the flames? He looked at the red emerald accusingly, but it still felt stupid to consider an emerald alive. I did not kill him. he heard the red emerald say.

"You sure?" He told me that scarabs that control your mind don't kill the host." Perhaps scarabs drowned him, suffocating him to death. They wouldn't have eaten him afterwards, because one of there own was in his head.

"You know, for being called a Chaos Emerald, you don't think very chaotically.." Misconception, it replied.

Sonic had asked the emerald to melt a hole so he could bury Espio, but it told it couldn't because it had used up all its energy to use the last attack. It apologized, saying that it would need to charge itself for another year, or be charged by its Super counterpart, via Master Emerald. After it informed him, it immediately flickered off. Sonic had put it back I his quills, alone once more.

It was much easier navigating the pyramid, now that it was lit up. He looked at the pictures among the walls, wishing he could read the Sandapolin glyphs. A picture of a coffin reminded him of his short-lived traveling friend, Espio. Since he couldn't dig a hole in the limestone tiles, he had to use one of the empty sarcophaguses, which was better then leaving him on the floor. Sonic moved on to less morbid thoughts, such as what the purple and light blue Chaos Emeralds might do. He pulled out the violet emerald, and fingered it as he walked.

"Un, hello?" he said to it, tapping it on its top. Nothing. He couldn't get over the fact that he looked like a loon talking o an emerald, but reminded himself that there wasn't anyone to laugh at him, and continued to try to 'wake up' the emerald.

His attempts fell on deaf ears (though emeralds didn't have ears, he reminded himself) and finally stopped after 10 grueling minutes of poking and talking to an emerald.

At last, after hours of wandering, he finally located his portal to Lava Reef. Unfortunately, he didn't know if this hole had lava under it, or it there was solid ground. He found a pebble, and tossed it down the hole. It chinked of the wall, and a moment later, he heard a gurgling sound.

"Just great. Lava." He turned his head to the back, discouraged. What he saw behind him didn't help much, either. Scarabs.

"Natural pains must be attracted to me." He looked at the emerald he was holding. "Is that your power? Pest attraction?" He slowly moved backwards, nearly forgetting the pit of lava being,. He recalled this as he balanced over the pit with one leg.

"Hehe.. Care for a truce?" he asked pathetically.

Their bloody red eyes glared at him as if to give him the obvious answer. Sonic moved to jump the air, bur as he turned his head, a scarab shot at his brain, the force knocking him in the pit.

The offending scarab happened to hit the light blue Chaos Emerald, instantly dissolving into dust. "I sure wish your power is flying," he stated to the purple emerald.

Mecha chuckled. The last time he had this mission, there had actually been resistance. This time it was just he and the reef. Of course, last time, he also had the power to map out this underground maze. And also, he had entered a different way, so he was unable to use his memory of the passages. Get rid of one problem, get another. The story of his existence.

Sonic felt a presence that felt quite familiar, accompanied by flames sprouting from an emerald, But, fortunately for Sonic, it wasn't fire, but something much better for his current situation: Levitation.

Chapter 6: Freezer Burn

Sonic had his eyes scrunched closed, hands over his closed eyes! He stood there for at least 5 minutes before he actually noticed that he wasn't a puddle of molten goo.

Sonic opened his eyes. He screamed n fear, and then noticed he wasn't falling. "Don't tell me. You power is flying?" he asked the emerald. Well, you'd be dead if it wasn't, silly!

"Whatever. Can I move, or am I doomed to float here until I die of dehydration?" Um.. I'm not quite sure.. Maybe you should walk and find out!

Sonic shook his head. A telepathic emerald with the power of levitation was telling him to take his chances by walking over a molten pit of lava. "Well, I suppose it's been weirder." He remarked, not really believing his own words.

He took the leap—or step—of faith, and found that he didn't fall to his doom. As he nervously continued, he could hear the emerald giggling. After a few minutes of this, he finally could take it no longer. He asked, "What are you laughing?" The look on your face when you took the first step—priceless! You mortals are so much fun to joke with!

"That's all?" And the fact that you fail to notice that grey emerald over there.

"Emerald? Where?" Sonic's eyes searched the ground he was approaching, unable to see anything gray. He could hear the emerald burst into laughter. Sonic narrowed his eyes. "Ha, ha. Very funny." You thought so too?

Sonic was having the time of his life. He was levitating over a pit of lava, and the only thing that was protecting him was purple gem that enjoyed playing tricks on people. Just perfect.

"Could you possibly do me the favor of not joking around anymore?" Fine, fine. Spoilsport. Sonic rolled his eyes, wondering when he would be brought to insanity.

Sonic finally landed, relieved to be rid of the emerald's control. He had heard a sound he knew well, and a smell he knew better. Mecha.

He wasn't to keen on facing Mecha again. He tried to think of ways he might be able to beat Mecha quickly. His thoughts turned to levitation as he had the emerald float him over a large gap. Perhaps the emerald could help him..

AS he landed, he asked the emerald about it. "Do you have any really powerful blast attacks?" yes. I suppose that you might want to learn it, then? "Duh." Okay, when you need to use it, repeat this phrase..

Knuckles stretched his metallic body, finally having control over it. He played with every toy in his arsenal, ranging from his razor claws to lasers. After he had tasted each of his weapons (and destroyed most of the walls in the chamber) he made for the door. Perhaps he could help Sonic with Robotnik after all..

He didn't get much more then 2 seconds to think on it, as Robotnik showed up outside the door. Without hesitating, he armed his laser cannon. He attempted to fire, but couldn't seem to bring his machinery to do it. "Fool! You are programmed with the three laws. You cannot harm me.

"Wonderful. Stupid laws.." Knuckles didn't remove his cannon from in front of Robotnik, despite the fact he knew he couldn't fire it.

"Robo Knuckles! Go, help Mecha hunt Sonic!" Robotnik said, clearly punctuating Knuckles' surname.

Knuckles tried to fight what came next, but he couldn't master his programming. "Yes master." He spat, hatred burning in his eyes. He left quickly to avoid further humiliation form his 'master'.

Mecha sped through the caverns, having detected the only organism stupid enough to enter n active volcano. He blasted through, destroying even walls in his mad hunt.

Sound's like he's coming," observed Sonic, who had positioned himself on the roof, via the power of the emerald. He tensed, waiting. As on cue, Mecha blasted through the wall, red eyes blazing.

"Sssonic! It is time you die!"

"You see, that doesn't really work for me." Sonic replied, tightly grasping his emerald. He reflected back to the pyramid, shaking his head. "Here I go, killing another emerald. How many times will I have to do this?" Sonic yelled, "CHAOS DISRUPTION!!"

The world around him lifted, including the roof. As rocks flew up, one hit Mecha's jet engine, damaging the take-off ability. This did not prove a good thing for Mecha, because the almost endless pit that was under him wasn't fake. "You haven't seen the last of me!!" he screeched for the second time in his existence.

As planned, the emerald blinked off, after sending its farewell to Sonic. He landed on the lower-then normal laced block, watching other rocks fall into place. What he didn't know was that he was lower because the hotter-then-ever magma was melting away at it.

Sadly for Sonic, things don't usually go as planned, and this is no exception. The disruption of the roof didn't fall well, and the roof continued to rain upon him. Sonic evaded the rock, feeling like natural disasters were still out to get him.

He unhesitantly placed the dulled emerald in his quills, replacing it with the light blue one, who knows when he might need it, he asked himself, remembering the other two emeralds. With that, Sonic jumped into the next room, evading a rock in the passageway. Wonderful. An underground avalanche!

Sonic's bad luck was running even worse, as the dormant volcano became active. Working on overtime, walls began to melt like ice, which wasn't going over to well with Sonic.

"'Might as well have committed suicide!" he yelled to himself. Why hadn't he thought of the volcano? It wasn't called Lava Reef for nothing.

Mecha slammed his jet engine against the rock wall, intending to use the sparks to ignite it. His plan worked, and flame came to his engine. He shot his high-powered laser upward, activating his shield as well. The rocks over him rumbled, and melted into magma. His shield blocked the lava, Mecha laughed at what he had done. He had connected the volcano to the hot spot that had been blocked up before. Now this island would surely be doomed. After he destroyed Sonic, he could rest in peace, perhaps avoiding his master forever.

Knuckles shifted position, uncomfortable with his task. He didn't have to hurt Sonic, but he did have to find him. Tat would be difficult, now that the volcano had been awakened. If that volcano destroyed the island, Robotnik was going to pay. If he could get the island to float, the volcano might not blow. Leave it to Sonic to get in trouble, and everything else with it. His thoughts drifted away as he stared into the warm green flow of the Master Emerald.

Sonic leapt to another floating rock. This, was nerve wrecking. He had taken to standing on one rock till another fell, then jumping to the next. It wasn't hard to find a new position, really. Rocks fell from the roof almost every second, giving Sonic good speed to his rush to Hidden Palace. He felt he was having pre-death insanity, because the voice in his head kept trying to make him say something.

He dismissed the voice, now hopping rocks while going down a lava-fall. He then reached the bottom of the falls, flowing in the current towards the center of the volcano, which was preparing for eruption.

Not only did Sonic have to get to Hidden Palace, but he had to save Knux's island from destruction. S his nervousness grew, so did the voice in his head. Might as well submit to the voice now… The magma in the volcano was now filling up its space, ever closer to eruption. "Alright, voice, what is it you want me to do?" the exasperated Sonic said, beginning to get used to talking to disembodied voices. Please shout this next phrase as loud as possible for best affect.. it said. The Chaos Emerald! One of these things was saving his butt again! He listened, and as he reached the top of the volcano, he cried out, "CHAOTIC SPREAD!!"

Suddenly, the magma below him froze over, and disintegrated. The rest of the magma simply transformed into nice, cold rock. The plug of the volcano grew icicles, and Sonic, for the first time, recognized that grey sphere.. The Death Egg!

With the last of its power, the emerald slowly lowered Sonic down with one of the said icicles flickering off after he had landed.

"Well, I guess I ain't goin' any other way.." he mumbled, walking through the tunnel, into a familiar place..

Chapter 7: Hidden Palace

Sonic moved through the purple-blue tunnel, admiring the amethysts and sapphires that lined the walls. He'd have to tell Knuckles about this path—it just seemed to have opened up.

He boredly tossed his dead emeralds in the air, and silently caught them again. Coming to a fork in his path, he mindlessly took the left, thinking on mush different thoughts. He wanted to know how Robotnik had rebuilt the Death Egg.. He couldn't have rebuilt it. It was facedown in an active volcano. Did he see where it had crashed when he sunk it the first time? No, he hadn't see in land.. (Earlier in the year, Sonic had destroyed the Death Egg's core with a powered-up fire spindash. Although, Knuckles had helped by taking down the older version of Mecha. (Although Mecha had still some how escaped..) And there had been a cloud of ash hovering over the volcano, so afterwards, Knuckles had decided to later investigate Lava Reef for signs of an eruption, and that was when the wholes thing had started..

At least now he would know the way to the Death Egg's core, where he could relinquish its power source. Sonic continued up the stairs, not knowing who awaited him at the top..

Mecha looked down at the distracted Sonic, waiting for the perfect time to release the boulder upon him.

Sonic looked up, eyes widening. "GAH!" he screamed. Mecha released his captive boulder upon Sonic, laughing.

Sonic ran back through the passage , hitting himself for not seeing Mecha, or the monstrous boulder that was now chasing him. He came back through the fork in the road, and went the way he had neglected earlier. The boulder continued to follow him, and he wondered why he had chosen the other side of a 'T' formation. He ran down the path, ignore the glimmering red topaz and rubies lining the wall. He also didn't see the robot in front of him, who had been waiting for Sonic to arrive.

The robot Knuckles stared, wondering when Sonic would notice him standing in front of him. "Suppose you're too occupied with that rock behind, hm?" Knuckles said, and was ignored. He stood there as Sonic swerved right around him, still acting as though he was a wall. He rolled his eyes, and quickly slammed his claws into the boulder. It cracked perfectly in half, completely stopped by the force of its impact. Knuckles blasted back to catch Sonic.

Sonic had seen the robot as he passed by it, but it seemed to be frozen in place, so he had decided to keep going. He almost flew up the steps to Hidden Palace's emerald chamber, glad to be somewhere he recognized. A jet engine could be heard, but it dispersed after a moment.

"Beautiful, aren't they?" Knuckles mused, walking up the steps of the palace.

"Since when do you 'bots care about how good something looks?" Sonic replied, looking at the Master Emerald. It seemed to make him forget about everything, comforting him with its glow.

Knuckles seemed to know how Sonic felt, having guarded the emerald the majority of his life. "Perhaps you should recharge those Chaos Emeralds you dulled out earlier?" he asked.

"Huh? How do you kn—" Sonic was interrupted.

"Isn't it obvious by now?" Knuckles replied.

"Isn't that obvious?" Sonic asked, getting confused.

"The look-alike body, the emerald know-how, and the fact that I'm not trying to kill you.. I think you could get it by now.."

"So? You're just another stupid bot that knows a lot about emeralds! Mecha knows loads about them, too!" Sonic charged into a spindash, hoping to take out the robot quickly.

Knuckles swatted the spindash to the side, and slowly walked over to the dazed Sonic. He uncurled, holding a dull colored emerald tip-first towards the robot, charging again. Knuckles grabbed the emerald, holding Sonic with one hand. "Which color was this?" he asked.

"why should I tell you?" Sonic asked, still wondering, still confused.

"Fine. I'll find out myself," Knuckles tossed the captive Sonic across the room, making sure he didn't hit anything but ground. He held the dead emerald up to the Master Emerald, and it flickered light blue. "Ah, light blue." He walked over to the corresponding Super emerald, and flipped a panel in it, revealing an emerald shaped dent. He caringly placed the Chao Emerald into the dent, and closed the panel.

"It'd be nice if you would just give me the other two. That way, I won't have to hurt you." he remarked, knowing Sonic would still resist.

"Fat chance!"

"Fine. We'll do it the hard way." Sonic eyed him from the other side of the room, tensing for an attack. Knuckles quickly fired up his jet, getting ready to blast off at Sonic.

Mecha chuckled to himself. His thoughts had apparently given the other robot some influence, for he doubted the organic Knuckles would have handled his friend so harshly. "So, are you going to kill him?" Mecha asked, using the robot's intertwined network for privacy.

Knuckles swiped at Sonic, removing even more quills from his head. "I don't plan to kill him.: he relied, out loud. "I just want to restore the emeralds' powers."

"Why would that be? You can't use them in your robot state, so why bother?"

"I didn't plan to use them myself. But that isn't any of your business."

Of course it is my business. Anything that deals with that hedgehog or my Master is my concern. And at the moment, this deals with both."

"How so?"

"That is classified." After hearing that, Knuckles blocked out the rest of Mecha's messages, annoyed.

Knuckles slapped Sonic away, this time in a way to knock him out. Charging was a bad idea when you had no weapon. His metallic foot kicked Sonic to the side, and he approached the Master Emerald. Memorizing which emerald went where, he placed the other two emeralds that he took from Sonic into the slots. He picked Sonic up once more, and placed him on top of the Master Emerald. He then placed his own metallic hand on Sonic, and commanded, "Power Transfer!"

The Master Emerald glowed brightly, as did the light blue, purple, and red Super Emeralds. After a moment or so, the previously listed emeralds Super Emeralds dimmed slightly, and the panels under them popped open.

Knuckles dumped Sonic on the floor again, and took the 3 brightly shining emeralds from their positions. He re-approached the unconscious Sonic, and placed the emeralds in his quills.

The robotic Knuckles carried Sonic into a different room, being stalked by the curious Mecha. He tossed Sonic onto a glowing pink orb, and slammed his hand onto a red button. Sonic dematerialized, transported to the pre-set destination.

Knuckles yelled back at the stalking Mecha. "I'm sure you wouldn't mind pressing the red button, would you?"

"Why should I?" Mecha barked back.

"I know you don't like Robotnik. I plan to help Sonic beat him, preferably by death. Although I won't be going on the Death Egg myself, I'm going to make sure Sonic will be."

Mecha considered this proposition for a second or so, and decided. He pressed the button, and when Knuckles dematerialized, he went back into the emerald chamber to contemplate ho he might get the Master Emerald off its perch. "What a pathetic guardian he is."

Chapter 8: Sky Sanctuary

Knuckles dropped Sonic behind a wall, placing him on a large brick jutting out. "Where is it.." he mumbled, turning his energy displayer on. "Ah, there it is.."

Knuckles blasted through the wall ahead of him, locating his prize. He held up the grey Chaos Emerald, the most dull-looking emerald of them all. "The emerald of deception.. I wonder if Sonic will figure out how to use it.."

"Ugh.." Sonic groaned, rubbing his head. That 'bot hadn't been gentle with his body while he had slept.. "WHOA!" Sonic backed up against the wall, staring at the clouds below him. "That 'bot has a nice sense of humor, doesn't he.."

Sonic climbed up the wall, the bricks jutting out like handholds. Arriving at the top, he was chinked in the head with another sharp rock. He grabbed it, preparing to throw it to where it came, but he stopped. He felt a familiar surge of power, and stared at what he figured was the grey Chaos Emerald. "Have fun." The robot that was now behind him said, ant it rocketed away.

"These 'bots keep getting weirder and weirder.." he whispered, and took off in the direction of stairs.

"WHAT?!" was the reaction Knuckles yelled, as something terrible happened. The floating island had just began to re-lift itself, and now it was going back down. "Mecha.." he chortled, beginning to review the reasons why he shouldn't destroy him There weren't any. "TIME TO DIE, MECHA!" he screamed, engine screeching as he shot down like a hawk on steroids.

Mecha boarded the floating platform, the Master Emerald brightly glowing beside him. He pressed a button on the platform's controls, and took off. He checked above, making sure the emerald wouldn't hit anything and fall off, and fortunately for him, there was nothing. Perfect.

"Mecha!" the crazed Knuckles screamed, Knuckles' eye color had changed to red in his rage, and was hovering behind Mecha.

"Hello. Finally come for your emerald?" the nonchalant Mecha asked, "You're quite the lousy guardian."

"I got it from you. Knuckles said, firing his flamethrower into the jet fuel of Mecha. Nothing happened.

"Fool. You may know the weaknesses of this body in general, but your armored body could ever destroy is!" Mecha said this only for intimidation purposes, for he knew this boy was indeed inferior.

"We'll see about that!" Knuckles aimed his laser at Mecha's forehead, but didn't shoot. Mecha had held his hands up, as to say stop.

"Perhaps you should think before you act, for once. We shall fight away from this emerald, so as not to drop it into the abyss below." Mecha motioned downward, noticing that this particular platform was indeed over the ocean. "Don't worry. Your emerald will reach the top platform safely, I can guarantee that, so as long as nothing bothers its ascent.

"Fine." Knuckles growled, hovering to the closest platform. Mecha followed. Unknown to them, a very weirded out Sonic was watching them, having followed them up to see what the were talking about.

Sonic had no idea exactly why he was following them, being both of them would probably attack him on sight. Perhaps he was interested in the Knuckles 'bot, which seemed almost similar to his organic counterpart. Maybe.. No.. You couldn't transform things from flesh to metal.. but maybe, this waked out 'bot would tell him where Knux was..

Knuckles right-hooked Mecha's left eye, cracking the tough, dense glass that made it. Mecha moved to strike his head, but Knuckles slapped it away. "You were right. This new body of yours is slow."

Mecha shot a laser at Knuckles, cutting an inch off his silver claws. "True, but I know how to destroy that body. I won't need speed."

"But can you even hit me in the places you need to?" Knuckles taunted, slamming his good claws into Mecha's engine. "This should do it." Mecha's engine malfunctioned, shooting him up into the air.

Mecha cursed his body, and fixed the error, landing on a much higher platform He watched the Master Emerald float past him, and a blue figure hiding behind it. "Sssonic!" he yelled, charging at the emerald.

"I don't think so!" Knuckles burst form below him, slamming Mecha onto the roof above. Knuckles looked at Sonic, and whispered, "Invisibility." Sonic stared at him, forehead scrunched about what that was suppose to mean. Then, he disappeared. Knuckles wished he could laugh, but then, his engine was stricken. Malfunction came across his eyes, his jet engine blasting him up into the sky.

Sonic stared n wonder at where his hand would have been, thankful for that weird 'bot. He jumped off the platform, watching the Master Emerald rise from view. He then heard a startling noise from below, like some kind of super-powered jet engine. The Death Egg!

The volcano rumbled, as did the Death egg. It slowly rose, barely moving at all. "Hah! I can get on it easy!" Sonic shot up the stairs, aiming to get to the top so he could jump off onto the Death Legg.

Mecha flew up the holes in the roofs, following his foe. He evaded a laser from above, obviously Knuckles had landed. Mecha shoved right, another laser booming past. Mecha fifed one in retaliation, apparently missing as another laser came down at the same angle. Mecha evaded, and landed on a platform opposite of Knuckles.

Mecha fired another laser, and Knuckles hopped to the side. "You know, perhaps since this body of mine is indeed inferior, we can make this more interesting.." Mecha rocketed up to the top platform, not knowing that an invisible Sonic was hidden behind a wall at that very platform. Knuckles growled, blasting after him.

When he arrived at the top, he could see Mecha standing by the Master Emerald. "Let's see how you handle this!" Mecha slammed his hand down ;on the Master Emerald, taking in power. He slowly turned yellow, red eyes seemingly on fire. "Heheheh.. Let's play!" Mecha yelled, hovering in the air over him.

Knuckles gaped, unable to tell how Mecha had done it. Mecha shot a high-powered energy beam at Knuckles, grazing his hand. The metal burned off, giving Knuckles pain for the first time in a while. Looking at the damage of his hand, he saw something he hadn't expected. Flesh!

"Skin? I thought.." he stammered, unable to speak.

"Yes. The metal is merely armor, an impenetrable shell, you might say."

Knuckles laughed. "You might as well have killed yourself!"

Knuckles laughed, and walked over the his emerald. Mecha watched with interest, wondering what he would do. Knuckles slapped his flesh hand on the emerald, and whispered, "Emerald protection!"

Knuckles' eyes blazed a powerful deep green, transforming into a hot pink color his metal armor melding into his body. The only part of him that would ever remain flesh was his hand. He was truly a robot now.

He didn't care what happened. He had the emerald's power flowing through him, probably for the last time. He charged a the fleeing Mecha, lasers out. He fired in an amazing beam of green, enveloping Mecha. Mecha fell to the ground, electricity flying.

The glowing Knuckles walked over to Mecha, and flung his metallic hand into Mecha's body, and ripped out the power core. He broke it open, and revealed 3 glowing emeralds inside. Knuckles figured Mecha had stolen them from his master. "You can come out now, Sonic." He called, motioning towards the still invisible Sonic. Sonic reappeared, wondering how the robot had known. After seeing the hand inside the metal, and the fact that the Master Emerald took commands fro him, he finally came to the revelation that this robot was indeed Knuckles. Knuckles held out the emeralds, motioning for Sonic to take them.

"Now you have all seven. When the time comes, ask them to transform you. Not until you absolutely need it should you ask."

"Thanks, Knux."

Your welcome. Now go." Knuckles motioned to the Death Egg, which was almost level with them now.

"Right." Sonic replied, and had the purple emerald fly him towards the towering gray ball. Knuckles waved for no real reason, and rocketed off towards the Master Emerald.

Chapter 9: Death Egg

Sonic looked around, recognizing the halls and rooms of the Death Egg. "Just as I left you.."

"NOOO!" Robotnik screamed, enraged. Mecha had been destroyed.. Robo Knuckles had fled and Sonic had entered the Death Egg. "Beta! Epsilon! Zeta!"

"How may we serve you, master?" they all droned.

"Destroy that hedgehog!" yelled Robotnik. Sonic had already destroyed 2 of his E-100 series robots, and he had not other choice but to risk the others.

The robots left, unhappy at their current task. "We will be terminated." Stated Zeta.

"Indeed. Front attack will lead to immediate destruction" Beta said. The 3 robots headed off in the direction of the exit, conversing over how they might actually beat Sonic.

Sonic walked down the empty hallway, recalling the direction to the power core. He took a left in the fork in the path, the right leading to Robotnik's workshop and personal quarters.

Sonic saw the 3 robots approaching, not even seeming interested. "Greetings, intruder. If I were you, I would escape from my doom right now. We don't wish to be deactivated, but we have orders to destroy you." Sonic stared at the robots, dumbfounded. They didn't wasn't to fight, but had to. Robotnik was getting sloppier in his acts of robot consciousness creation.

101-Beat hoisted its laser, firing at Sonic. He dodged, and spindashed the robot to pieces. The next one, 104-Epsilon, shot its laser at Sonic, missing. Sonic repeated the destruction of the first robot, barely making a sweat. The last one, 105-Zeta, shot its laser at Sonic, missing. Sonic spindashed this one, but it sidestepped to the left. It retaliated by burning off more of Sonic's quills, trying to weaken his spindash. Sonic spindashed into it again, this time, nailing it in the wired connecting the torso to the head.

Sonic went back to the exit, dragging along the dead robots. He opened the hatch, and tossed them out. "Good riddance." He did this because if he knew Robotnik, he would just recreate the same robot, a little stronger each time.

Kittle did Sonic know, but the Death Egg's left eye lit up, and teleported the destroyed robots back onto it, before they finished their plummet to their doom. "He won't destroy the E series that easily!" Robotnik grunted, and went back to work on Gamma.

Knuckles landed on the platform were the Master Emerald lay, ready to roll it down all those stairs. He walked over Mecha's deceased body, which electrocuted him slightly as he kicked it into the sea. He felt it, and remembered that Mecha had installed the same last-ditch mechanism that his first few bodies had. "NOT AGAIN!" he yelled, and was greeted by Mecha, who now occupied half of his brain once more.

Mecha flexed the robot's body, readjusting to the body. He smiled evilly, and then wondered how his metallic muzzle had smiled. He could get that answer later.. He called over the network to Gamma, asking him to ask Robotnik to transport him up. He dematerialized, reappearing in Robotnik's workshop, accompanied by the Master Emerald. "I have something you might like." Mecha said, smiling evilly once again.

Robotnik stared in awe at his creation's smile, then set his eyes on the Master Emerald, laughing like the mad scientist he was.

Sonic shook his head as he jogged left in the fork in the hall once more. It seemed Robotnik was doing his evil laughter thing again, but Sonic didn't want to investigate. He had to destroy the Death Egg's power source, and find some manner of escape before it crashed. He slowed to a trot, wondering how Robotnik had recreated the shop. He suspected worker bots fixed anything wrong, and had sent Mecha for the new energy source.

Maybe that was the reason Mecha had went to Hidden Palace was to get the power source.. But then again, he had said something about power and money, so perhaps he had already gotten the power source. Maybe some other badly worded command had sent Mecha there, and he had to crawl back to Robotnik when he was beaten.

Sonic heard something behind him, but when he looked back, he saw nothing. He nervously continued, speeding up his trot to a jog.

Mecha silently ran behind Sonic, being invisible for the moment. The invisibility could only last for a few minutes before it started to hurt his systems.. He used this time to pester his enemy, whispering broken words into his ears, and then backing away, so Sonic wouldn't hit him when he swatted the air. Mecha decided he enjoyed this king of torture but it wouldn't last forever. He checked the invisibility timer, and it read 2 minutes. He had to hurry up if he was going to do it right. He put his metallic muzzle up to Sonic's ear.

"I'm coming for you, Sonic." He whispered, chasing after Sonic, who had deemed it necessary to run in fear. Mecha chuckled in delight, and went a different way, intending to cut off Sonic.

Sonic shot into a mad dash like a rocket, freaked out beyond reason. Was it just him, or was Mecha's ghost haunting him? He told himself Mecha couldn't be a ghost, and discarded the thought.

Mecha stood by the machine's core, activating its self defense mechanisms. He moved behind the core, where the laser from the core wouldn't affect him. He pointed his gun at the door, radar telling him where Sonic was.

Sonic finally had come to the door of the core, feelings of uneasiness spread cross his brain. "Fine. Have it your way." He whispered to the voices, and activated the gray emerald's power. He disappeared from view, and entered the room. A misdirected laser met him, presumably off-aim in surprise at the open air entering the room. Another, more concentrated laser shot past where his left arm was moments ago.

Mecha observed this, now knowing what it had shot at. He had invaded Knuckles' databanks, learning that one of the emeralds Sonic possessed could make him invisible. Plus, the laser was motion sensitive, so by tracking the laser's shots, he could find Sonic. He still wished for the heat vision from his first body, but his master was too lazy to buy or make a new one for a temporary body.

The lasers stopped. Or, at least, the lasers from the core stopped, anyway. "Ha!" a triumphic, visible Sonic yelled, tearing through the other side of the core. Mecha frowned. This wasn't a good thing for either of them..

"5 minutes until total Death Egg self destruction." The computer stated. Sonic's eyes widened.

Mecha found himself saying, "use the emeralds!" Stupid Knuckles.. He shot out the door in embarrassment that Knuckles had gotten through. "Use the emeralds? What is that supposed to mean? He shouted at his other half waiting for a reply. Let's just say the Death Egg is going to explode a bit sooner then 5 minutes. And when it does, I don't want to be here. "Affirmative."

Mecha blasted in to his master's room guns blazing. He would have to warn his master (the three laws took care of that) but he wasn't there. Mecha scanned the Death Egg, but his master wasn't there. He must have already escaped! Mecha found himself hating his master even more then before; he had left Mecha to be destroyed! "As soon as I can break the laws, I'm going to kill Robotnik!" he screamed. If Knuckles had control of the body, he would've smiled. Mecha had referred to his master as Robotnik. He may escape yet.. Mecha's form could be seen inside a heatproof room that contained him and five different colored robots.

Chapter 10: Surge of Power

Sonic was confused. Knuckles had left the Death Egg, only to come back and stalk him, then cut him off at the core and attacked him, then when Sonic destroyed the core, he whispered to use the emeralds, and bolted. What wasn't weird about this journey.

Alright, let's try the emerald thing." Sonic plucked the emeralds from his quills, holding all seven in his arms. He concentrated on the red, light blue, purple, and grey emeralds, asking them to 'power him up.' They seemed to know what he meant, and Sonic wished he knew what he meant. The emeralds seemed to pulse colors, and he could hear the emeralds talk among themselves.

They floated out of Sonics hands, slowly going higher and farther from him. They then circled around while doing this, creating a rainbow of sorts. Then, they all suddenly stopped, frozen in mid-air. Then, all seven blasted towards him, and were absorbed in his skin. Then, the Death Egg blew up.

Sonic was thrown from his position, floating in space. But, he wasn't dead! "Bweh?" he grunted in confusion. He looked down a himself, wondering why the emeralds were gone. He stared at himself, wondering exactly why he was a golden color. His arms, legs, and belly were flashing the seven colors of the emeralds. If he could have seen his eyes, he would have seen them separated into the seven different colors, flashing. Putting his awesome new color scheme to the side, (and not even touching the subject of why he was sill alive0 he looked off into space, looking for signs of his opponents. He did see a burning speck flying in the atmosphere, but discarded that as Knuckles. He turned in the direction of the moon, which was much bigger, partially to the fact that he was closer then normal, and to the fact that he seemed to have enhanced vision capabilities. He saw something that looked very disturbing. An insanely large robot that had Robotnik's face. Not even thinking of how he could, he blasted off towards it.

He could hear the emeralds excitingly talking to themselves, asking each other what they thought might happen. Sonic attempted to ignore them, but they just got louder.

The Robotnik ship landed on the moon, seemingly for refueling. It wasn't for refueling, Sonic noted a he approached. The worker bots he had suspected came out of the ship, carrying metals, flamethrowers, and other metal working tools. They began setting up without hesitation, building some kind of building.

Sonic had the gray emerald turn him invisible, and it complied. It was then he noticed he was glowing, but he figured he could pass off as stars if he levitated in the right place. He flew over the worker bots, firing icicles at them. The worker bots attention was caught, and mindlessly watched as icicles appeared out of nowhere, destroying their kind.

They went back to work, ignoring Sonic for the most part. They would twitch when he took another number off their population, but didn't seem to have the intelligence to report it to Robotnik.

Robotnik was watching his computer, analyzing how long his moon base would take to build. At first, it only seemed it would take 23 hours and 7 minutes. But new things that Robotnik didn't know had been added to the computer's factoring, and it now read 9 days, 7 hours, and 8 minutes. And it was getting longer. Robotnik finally go annoyed enough to look out the window. What he saw nearly pooped his eyes out. Icicles were destroying his robots, and there didn't seem to be anything causing it. He squinted, seeing some stars that looked out of place. He returned to his desk, and took his multi-purpose binoculars out. He put them to his eyes, and switched to heat vision. Nothing. He flipped through his goggles' options, coming to the option that he had recently added. This was so he could see chaos energy. It was quite useful for tracking Sonic, and he saw that massive bursts of chaos energy were coming from a particular place. He saw the outline of his most hated enemy and stomped around the room, yelling and throwing things that wouldn't break when thrown.

Sonic did his best evil smile and chuckle, startling the last worker bot left, He made a larger then needed icicle, and fired it combined with fire to completely destroying the last of the 'bots, along with a small chunk of the moon. Sonic then went to the ship itself. He was going to break through a window, but decided against it. The lack of air might kill him, and he didn't really want that. As Sonic approached the door, a lone 'bot approached. It stood there, waiting for its coming demise, Sonic blasted it with some fire, wondering where it had hidden.

Having heard news of the bomb being planted, Robotnik hustled to yet another of his escape ships. He made it, but before he could get the glass closed, Sonic flashed up, holding it in place.

"Hey. Would you like to say anything before I bring you down to Earth?"

"Yes, The moon will explode in 7 minutes. Robotnik smirked.

"Wha? "You.." the rest of Sonic's sentence couldn't be heard as he blasted through the wall. Robotnik immediately shut the glass on his ship, and took off.

Sonic zoomed around the moon, sonic booms unheard. He was in the air more then ground, because he had to jump the larger craters. He raced around the moon for the 12th time, still not seeing any bomb. It struck him that it might be in a crater. He had considerably slowed down to do this, and that made all the difference.

After a few minutes he decided he was getting nowhere. He pooled the emeralds' for knowledge hoping there was something like an EMP that they could use. The orange emerald spoke up, telling him that it could. The other emeralds warned him that with only six emeralds alive, he couldn't stay in this form for more then a few minutes. He didn't care, he could make it back fast enough. He held out the orange emerald, and yelled, "CHAOTIC SURGE!!"

A brilliant wave of bright yellow electricity ripped across the moon, making it like a light bulb. He heard a beeping sound in the crater across from him. He leaped into it, and saw the bomb, which was dead. He picked it up, and tossed it with all his super powerful might. It flew off into the distance, never to be seen again. Hurry, master! The 6 remaining powerful emeralds glowed brighter, exerting extra power in the absence of the missing emerald.

Sonic floated in the air for a moment, then took off. He noticed that orange was indeed missing from the circuit of colors on his limbs and belly. He felt the orange emerald reappear into his quills. Sonic flew by Robotnik's window, waved, and smiled. He busted out laughing at the face he received from Robotnik, then went behind and pushed the ship faster.

Sonic aimed towards Station Square, aiming to put Robotnik behind bars. He touched down just south of the maximum-security jail, glad for his aim. He opened the glass that held Robotnik, and pulled him out. He dragged him to the entrance, not even seeing his captive struggle. He casually knocked on the door, and as it opened, he presented his foe. "I'm sure you know of Dr. Robotnik."

"Yes. He has so many charges against him, he'll be in here forever." The jail guard accepted Robotnik from the glowing hedgehog, not even wondering how he caught this guy. Sometimes it was best just not to ask.

Epilogue

Sonic had had just enough time to make it to the edge of Floating Island, where Tails greeted him.

Tails recounted that he had gotten worried that Sonic hadn't been back for a few days, and had flown out to Floating g Island to find out. He had seen the Master Emerald fall into the ocean, and had doubled back to retrieve it. When he had got it back on the island, it had began to float again, and that's when Sonic came.

The now weaker blue Sonic and Tails had rolled the emerald to the Hidden Palace teleporter, glad that it was big enough to support the emerald.

Mecha was shut off for the moment. Knuckles had convinced him to go down into Hidden Palace, and to touch the orange Super Emerald. A surge of power had knocked out Mecha, and Knuckles had control of the body for a while. Sonic and Tails had then walked in, rolling the emerald up the stairs with much difficulty.

Knuckles had went over to help, and Sonic didn't hesitate to make room, but Tails had turned to Sonic to ask if they should trust him.

After being told that this robot was not threat, he had complied, and the Master was finally returned onto its rightful place. –The End