A/N: Ok, I must apologise profusely for the extreme delay in this story. Truth is, I ran out of ideas for this story. Plus I'm back at college so had less time to think. I'll try not to let it happen again. Anyway, I thank you for your patience and apologise again. Also, sorry about the lack of a review response but new rules aren't letting me. I don't really want my account removed.

Underwater base

Knuckles and Tikal were still staring at the incomplete Master Emerald, while holding onto each other's arms. The emerald had just shown them where the last fragments were; an underwater base. Unfortunately they had no idea as to where the base was or how they could get to it. However, they needed to find this base and retrieve the emerald fragments, otherwise Angel Island would never return to the skies. Knuckles let go of Tikal's arms and went over to the emerald. He had to think of a way to locate the base and how to get to it. Otherwise he would be unable to fulfil his duty as defender of the Master Emerald. Tikal had come up behind him and placed a hand on his shoulder. She knew what Knuckles was going through. She felt the same way when she was unable to protect the Chao from the greed of her father. She had felt guilty about the incident ever since, even though it was resolved. She wasn't sure on what to do at this moment, but knew that something had to be done.

"Knuckles…" Tikal began but Knuckles cut her off.

"Tikal, we need to find one of Eggman's robots."

"Why?"

"We're going to follow it and find Eggman's underwater base."

"Isn't that going to be dangerous?"

"It will be dangerous going into Eggman's base, but we have little other choice."

"I suppose, but where could we find…" Tikal's attention was caught by the sound of a motor. Knuckles also heard it. They looked around quickly and saw what looked like the top of a submarine in the water passing the island. The design and colourings were undistinguishable but it seemed to be heading west. Knuckles immediately thought that it was one of Eggman's creations, not knowing that it was actually the Tsunami, heading out towards Eggman's underwater base. This immediately gave Knuckles an idea.

"Tikal, climb onto my back." Tikal did what she was instructed to and held on tight.

"What are you doing though?" Tikal asked.

"I've just seen one of Eggman's submarines. We're going to hijack it and go to the hideout like that." Knuckles jumped as high as he could and glid over to the submarine, with Tikal hanging onto him tightly. They were able to successfully land on the submarine safely, although the area they landed on was relatively small. Tikal used her hand to rub some sweat off her forehead. This was one of the most daring things she had ever done, and all to recover the master emerald. To Knuckles, this was relatively normal, apart from Tikal being around. Until now, he had lived alone, so having companionship was new to him. Even so, he found himself very protective of her.

"Tikal, just to warn you, we may have to fight everyone inside here." Knuckles said.

"Don't worry about me. I'll be ok." Tikal said reassuringly. Knuckles nodded and forced the submarine's hatch open.

Sonic, Tails and Amy were all inside the Tsunami. They were all aware that they were being boarded and were looking at the entrance ladder. Amy had drawn her hammer, ready to give the intruder a severe pounding as soon as he or she arrived. Tails had turned the engines off and had locked the control panel, meaning that if they were forced out, the Tsunami would be useless. Sonic had gotten into a fighting pose. He would force whoever it was out of the sub by any means necessary.

"Ok, whoever you are, prepare for a butt kicking as soon as you come down." Sonic called out.

"Nobody intrudes on us and gets away with it." Amy added.

"I don't like the way you put that Amy." Amy just smirked and tightened her grip on her hammer. There was a moment's silence where nothing happened. Eventually though, Knuckled jumped down from the ladder, ready to fight. As soon as he landed, he saw who was in there and calmed down.

"Oh, hi guys." Knuckles greeted.

"What are you doing knuckle-head?" Sonic asked.

"Knuckles?" Tails asked.

"Were you guys going to Eggman's underwater base?" Knuckles asked.

"Err, yeah." Amy replied.

"Well we're coming with you!"

"We? Who's with you?"

"I am." Tikal said, as she jumped down from the ladder. She had been hanging on and listening. She had realised whop was in the submarine and had sighed in relief. She didn't really want to fight but knew that she would if she had to.

"Tikal?" Tails asked.

"What are you doing here?" Amy asked.

"Long story." Tikal replied.

"But why do you guys need to get to Eggman's base?" Sonic asked.

"Because that's where the last pieces of the Master Emerald are." Knuckles replied.

"I wonder how they got there." Tails said to himself.

"Ok, we'll take you guys along. When we get there, you guys find those emerald fragments." Sonic said.

"What about you?" Tikal asked.

"We're going to find that Eggman. He has all the Chaos Emeralds. We have to get them back so he doesn't use them."

"But the chances are that the base will be defended from the outside. Prepare for a heavy amount of turbulence." Tails added.

"Guys, you don't need to worry about me so much." Tikal replied.

"We're worried because you're relatively new." Amy said.

"Well thank you for your concern."

"Come on, let's go kick some egg butt!" Sonic exclaimed.

"Ok Sonic." Tails replied, restarting the engines. The group then proceeded towards Eggman's underwater base in the Tsunami. Sonic, Tails and Amy had to find Eggman and recover the Chaos Emeralds. Knuckles and Tikal had to locate the final fragments of the Master Emerald so they could restore it. Nobody knew what was waiting for them at the underwater base. After a few minutes, the Tsunami finally arrived at the underwater base. Much to Tails' surprise, it was almost undefended. The outside had no defence turrets of any description and there were no robot guards outside. Either Eggman didn't think an underwater base would need defences or he wanted them to come. There wasn't any time to be thinking about that now, as heaven knows what Eggman might have created with the Chaos Emeralds. Tails docked the Tsunami in the base's submarine hangar, which had been left wide open. When the Tsunami was successfully docked, everybody climbed out and surveyed their surroundings. There were a couple of other submarines in the docking area, both of which were of a typical Eggman design. They were shaped like torpedoes and had numerous gun turrets and missile launchers. The Eggman Logo was also painted on the side of the Submarines. The docking area was also of a typical Eggman design. His logo was absolutely everywhere. At the far end were two very large doors, one on each side of the room.

"Ok guys, we'll take the right hand door and find Eggman." Tails instructed.

"So we'll take the left hand door." Tikal added.

"We need to find the Master Emerald Fragments. There's only three left." Knuckles said.

"If we see any, we'll grab them and give them to you later." Amy added.

"Return to the Tsunami as soon as you're done." Tails said.

"Ok team, let's move out!" Sonic instructed. The group divided into their two parties and began searching the base. Each team had a mission to accomplish, and they had to do it quickly.

Knuckles and Tikal's search for the last remaining fragments of the Master Emerald led them to the storage area within the base. They had had very little trouble in reaching the area, as there were hardly any robots. Knuckles kept his guard up all the time, thinking that this was highly unusual for Eggman. The storage room they were in was full of metal crates, all stamped with Eggman's logo. Other than that, there was very little else in the room, other than a couple of small doors on either side of the room. Knuckles and Tikal looked around the room for quite a few minutes while they were inside. Knuckles was sensing energy from the Master Emerald, meaning that there was a fragment nearby. He approached the boxes and examined each one, trying to find where the energy was strongest. He eventually came across a large crate near the back of the room. Curious as to what was happening, Tikal came over to the crate. She then began to feel the energy from the Master Emerald from within the crate as well.

"A fragment must be within this crate." Tikal reasoned.

"You can feel the energy?" Knuckles asked.

"Yes, but not as well as you can."

"Well, we've got to get those emeralds."

"How?" Knuckles motioned Tikal to stand back and then threw a lightning fast punch at the crate. He then began swinging numerous punches at the crate. Eventually, the crate shattered into small fragments and collapsed. Knuckles began sifting through the wreckage and eventually found what he was looking for. The last three fragments were together, as if someone had already found them and put them there. Knuckles picked them up but before anyone could do anything else, an alarm sounded. The room began flashing red and the main entrance to the room locked.

"Intruder in storage room beta. Robot countermeasures deployed." A computer voice in the room stated. The two small doors in the room opened and battle robots began entering the room. They were the same type of battle robots that had overwhelmed Knuckles back on the island before Eggman made off with the Chaos Emeralds. Knuckles immediately began leaping at the robots and attacking them with all his strength. A single punch to the top half of the robot was enough to deactivate them. Unfortunately, as was the case before, there were too many and Knuckles began to get tired. Tikal found herself unable to keep out of the fight for any longer. Without thinking, she lunged into the fray and began fighting alongside Knuckles. Knuckles was amazed by this sudden behaviour but decided not to argue. Tikal turned out to have just as strong a punch as Knuckles. She was also lighter on her feet and could dodge a little better, but Knuckles could tell that she was frail and could be hurt much more easily than he could. But with Tikal in the fight, the masses of robots were soon defeated. Both echidnas were worn out from their battle. Knuckles was able to look at Tikal with a look of amazement.

"Tikal, why did you do that?"

"Knuckles, I can't let you carry the burden of fighting anymore. From now on, we fight together."

"Tikal, if anything happened to you, I would not forgive myself."

"And if anything happened to you Knuckles, I wouldn't forgive myself either." Tikal went over to Knuckles and hugged him. Knuckles was a little hesitant, but he eventually returned the hug. They looked into each other's eyes and were about to kiss when another alert siren sounded.

"Warning! Warning! Self-destruct sequence activated. Base will self-destruct in T minus 5 minutes." Knuckles and Tikal looked at each other in shock at what they had just heard.

"Sonic! Why do you go for such overkill?" Knuckles asked in frustration.

"We can find out later. First we need to get out of here!" Tikal snapped. The main door had opened because of the alarm. Making sure to grab the final emerald fragments, the two echidnas fled the room and began running back to the Tsunami as fast as they could.

A/N: Again, so sorry for the delay. I really should have updated sooner but I just ran out of ideas. Don't worry, I know how the next chapter will turn out so hopefully, there won't be such a delay between this and the next. Anyway, please review.