Sigh...yet another fic that no one notices...
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I could have waited another couple of days for you all to get back to your computers to read this thing, but...sue me, I'm bored and lazy. Read the chapter!
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Disclaimer: Sonic not owned by me
Claimer: Stuff I invented owned by me - i.e. Quill, Minastron, etc, etc...
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As a rule, Knuckles preferred to keep things simple.
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For example, he was the Guardian of the Master Emerald. Nothing fancy or confusing about that. He guarded it, and the shrine, and the island. Just him.
He had guarded it for all his life, his ancestors had guarded it since the island first rose into the air, and there would be others to continue guarding it when Knuckles was gone. Absolutely nothing complicated about that!
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But despite the fact that the Echidna preferred his more simplistic viewpoint, he was not at all ignorant. Even though this insane scientist was speaking in scientific mumbo-jumbo, Knuckles could follow it reasonably well. And he didn't like what he was hearing, not one bit.
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Struggle as he would, the robot holding him refused to let go. So Knuckles stopped struggling in order to wait for a better opportunity, and was forced to watch helplessly as Minastron went ahead with his grand plan.
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The human had gone behind some kind of metal shielding that had been set up during his 'explanation'.
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The Chaos Emerald, interestingly enough, Minastron had placed on a hastily erected stand in between himself and the Master Emerald's platform.
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Before Knuckles had time enough to wonder at this, Minastron started up the machines that now half-blocked the Master Emerald from view. What was he planning to do, drain out the energy of the Master Emerald? No, the human knew that the Emerald had infinite energy, that was the reason he was here in the first place…so what was he doing?
0-Black electricity crackled around the machines, building slowly. Some small black sparks shot off, but they disappeared when they came into contact with any nearby objects. The objects, whether they were stone or plant, withered and turned a hideous black at the touch of the sparks. Not a good sign.
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'Isolate the power core…reduce the excess mass…is he going to try breaking the Master Emerald into pieces with that strange energy?' Knuckles wondered.
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"This is negative energy that I'm charging up, in case you were wondering Mister Echidna," Minastron called, raising his voice over the sound of the machines going to work, "Anti-Energy, really. The opposite of energy, including the variety these Emeralds produce. Just wait until you see what it can do at full power!"
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That was more than enough information for Knuckles. He couldn't let this crazed idiot go through with this farce of an experiment! Summoning every last bit of strength he had, Knuckles kicked and slammed the back of his head into the robot that still held his arms pinned.
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After enough head-butting, the machine began tottering unsteadily, and one of its arms loosened its grip - just enough! Knuckles yanked his left arm free and made short work of both metal arms with his fist, the rest of the robot soon following.
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Before his feet touched the dirt below, the machines above finished charging up the so-called Anti-Energy. Bolts of black lightning were being aimed into the Master Emerald even as Knuckles hit the ground running, not really thinking, just wanting to do something, anything, to stop this!
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Something else happened as well. The pink Chaos Emerald began glowing, the jewel's natural light growing piercingly bright within seconds, even as the Echidna passed it. The same thing was happening to the Master Emerald and also, though Knuckles did not know and really couldn't have cared less at the time, to the other six Chaos Emeralds, all over the planet.
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Knuckles had only just reached the bottom of the stairs before the Master Emerald's glow turned from its normally vibrant green to a paler, more sickly looking color.
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A wave of the same light pulsed outwards from the large jewel, and Knuckles halted in his tracks as his mind and body was suddenly pummeled with a feeling of sheer, utterly indescribable agony.
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He fell, clutching his head and crying out as the sensation only got worse. An unfortunate side-effect of his lifelong attunement to the energy of the Master Emerald was that in this instance, he could far too clearly feel it scream.
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The large jewel had, in past eras and events, acted very much alive and aware, and it was, in its own way, a living, thinking creature, and what was being done to it was beyond any hope of accurate description. As wave after wave of its incredible energy pulsed out in an unfortunately natural reaction to its pain, everything with enough sensitivity to it in the entire local solar system reacted in similar agony.
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Faintly, nearly all drowned out by the other noises going on, the sound of glass cracking came. Nearly invisible lines drew themselves all over the Emerald in sharp, jagged patterns, as the Emerald's light grew paler and paler with each outward pulse of energy.
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Then the Master Emerald exploded.