Chapter 2: A New Mission
All was blurry for Knuckles, when he finally came to. He faintly heard Sonic's voice coming form over his head. "Bout time!" he yelled, and was abruptly hit in the back of the head, by Amy, "Sonic, don't be rude!" she said. Sonic ignored the comment and rubbed the back of his head.
Knuckles sat up, trying to remember what was going on, when he thought about the Master Emerald. Everything then came back to him in a flash, "The Emeralds!" he yelled, "Metal Sonic stole them... I've failed as a guardian." Knuckles then hung his head down in shame.
"Whoa, now! Hang on a sec," said Sonic, trying to understand the situation, "Mind filling us in on the details?"
"Well..." Knuckles was furiously trying to recall all the details of the incident. "Metal Sonic came back to try to steal the Master Emerald and Chaos Emeralds, after trying to steal them earlier. But this time he had a little help."
"Help?" Shadow said, "From who?"
"It was a tall robot with glowing green eyes. I tried to fend him off, but he was too good of a fighter." Knuckles said, looking down at his hands. "He caught my every punch..." Knuckles clenched his fists in anger, wishing he could have done more to protect the emeralds. "The thing was relentless, I couldnt get up after it had thrown me into the ground. A while later, after recovering, I saw that the emeralds were all gone, and so I came here as quickly as I could."
"So, now Metal Sonic and this mysterious new robot have all the Chaos Emeralds and the Master Emerald!" asked Sonic, "What is he going to be able to do with those?"
"I dont know..." Knuckles said, in a rather upset tone. "I've never seen anyone try to tap into the power of both the Master and Chaos Emeralds at the same time. But I can only imagine that the user would recieve power beyond belief."
"Well, what are we waiting for?" said Shadow, with a rather serious tone. Everyone turned towards him, curiously."If we want any chance of getting the emeralds back, we're gonna have to take action quickly."
Knuckles nodded, "Right! I may have let the emeralds fall into the wrong hands, but I can still get them back!"
"Do you have any idea where Metal Sonic may be, right now?" asked Shadow.
"I'm afraid I wouldn't know where to look. They could be anywhere, perhaps in hiding with the emeralds. Although I dont understand why they haven't used them yet. Surely they could have tapped into its power by now. I'd imagine we'd be the first targets."
Espio, who had been leaning against a nearby wall with his eyes shut, finally walked forward and spoke up, "If we have no leads to their where abouts, we should atleast check the Shrines for possible leads. It's the logical choice." Vector, at hearing this remark, smiled and folded his arms as if to say "That's my boy!"
Knuckles' face lit up, when he saw the others helping him when he needed them most. "Alright then! We should head over to Angel Island...uhhh, Tails? Do you think you could fly us over there in the tornado?"
"Sure," Tails said, "but we cant all fit in there. Who's gonna come?"
Sonic and Shadow immediately stepped forward upon hearing this, and Vector nudged Espio over, "You should go, Espio." The crocodile said, "They'll need your detective skills." Espio nodded and stepped forward.
"I'd like to help you, too." Blaze said, as she also stepped forward, "I feel obligated, as I too am a guardian in my world."
Tails left the house, to go get the Tornado from his Garage/Workshop. Shadow turnded to Vector, and the crocodile smiled. "Don't worry, Shadow" he said, "We'll clean the place up for you, while you're gone."
Upon hearing the engine revs of the Tornado, Knuckles and the ones who were coming with him to Angel Island exited the house and piled into the plane. It was a tight fit, but they managed just fine.
It was still dark outside when Sonic and company had left Shadow's house. Arriving at Angel Island, the group of heroes inspected every inch of the area. Espio had found some prints in the ground as it would seem that this new robot friend of Metal Sonic's was indeed quite tall and heavy. He left fairly deep prints in the ground, that also showed the robot was built as a bi-ped. Something new they'd learn about their crafty theif (except Knuckles, who'd already seen him before). However, the prints did not seem very important when Blaze mentioned something.
"Guy's, I sense something strange..." she said, "I can feel the power of the Sol emeralds... from my homeworld," Off in the distance, back on the mainland, some dark clouds were gathering, and Blaze pointed to them, "There! Something's happening there."
Knuckles also felt something, "I can feel it, somone's tapping into the power of the emeralds!"
"Back into the Tornado, we're going for another ride!" Tails yelled, as he headed for the plane.
As the Tornado got closer to the where this mysterious force was taking place, Tails decided to land the plane, as he didn't want to fly it too close to the storm that was taking shape. He and the others hopped out of the plane. "This way!" Blaze gestured for the group to follow her as she dashed off towards an abandoned warehouse. While entering the warehouse, Blaze and the others froze as they saw Metal Sonic, in his super form(The kind you see in Sonic Heroes) standing in there path, and a tall figure aside the Master Emerald. Blaze pointed towards a strange light that was formed near the Emerald, "He's opening a portal to my dimension!"