Chapter 5

The Trick

STATION SQUARE – CASINO

"Teh… Tai… Tails…" Sonic said, slurring. He was so tired and he needed to throw up so badly after his third pinball game. Where he was the pinball, of course.

"Come on, Sonic! Only 58 rings to go!" Tails screamed, trying to encourage the nauseated hedgehog.

"Wa… why can't we… play… a slot machine… game? Wa… why can't… yeh… you be the… pih… pin… pinball?" Sonic asked.

"Come on, Sonic. This is the fastest and most reliable way to get rings! I can't roll as fast as you, too. Anyway, who's gonna work the hitters? You're too tired."

MEANWHILE…

The first one's close…Knuckles thought. He actually caught a glimpse of its shiny glow, but before he could get it, a paw type thing slammed in front of him. That thing's gonna smash me to the ground if I stand under it. He waited for it to go up and then snatched the emerald shard. He sensed another one in the shower room. The wrong shower room, by the way.

"Aaaaaaaaaaah!" a woman screamed as Knuckles pulled open the curtain.

"Whoa, Sorry!" Knuckles said. He pulled open another curtain.

"Aaaaaaaaaaah! You animal!" another woman screamed.

"Sorry! Thanks for the comment, though!" Knuckles answered. He opened another curtain to expect to see another naked lady, but it was a Master Emerald shard. He started following the signal for the last emerald shard that he assumed was in the casino.

STILL IN THE CASINO…

Sonic and Tails finally got 500 rings (516 rings, to be exact) and then went to the prize area to pick up the Chaos Emerald. They found out that the emerald was on a very high ledge that Tails couldn't fly to.

"Aww… geh… grah… great!" Sonic said still feeling sick.

"Huh… how do… we geh… get it?" Sonic said again stepping on a button on the floor. Then two gigantic hands came down and shook all 516 rings out of his pockets.

"Great… ss… sick ah… again." Sonic said as Tails grabbed the silver emerald.

"Come on, Sonic, let's get out of here!" Tails said.

They ran out the door with the blue emerald and silver emerald in Tails's hands. From above, a figure was crashing down at them. It was… Eggman! Sonic spin dashed away as Tails flew away. The silver emerald popped out of Tails's hands. All three of them charged at it, but Eggman emitted some sort of gas… a sleeping gas.

"Eggman…" The two said while drowsily falling asleep.

I'M GETTING TIRED OF THIS…

The prize room… Knuckles thought to himself. I wonder what prizes they have in here…But all Knuckles found was a room full of rings on the ground and a ledge at the top. He climbed up the pile of rings and then onto the ledge, but there was nothing there. No prize, no nothing. I guess somebody already took the prize. He looked to the left and looked to the right and he saw an emerald shard! A ball of light then came down to him. He shielded his eyes from its blinding light.

UNKNOWN PLACE

Soon he found himself in a grassy area. It reminded him of some place. He decided to glide around to check the place out. When he landed he saw a girl echidna talking to an older male echidna.

"But father, you must listen to me!" the girl echidna screamed at her father. "You can't take the Chaos Emeralds just to take over other lands! Stealing and killing, greed is taking over your mind! Soon, it won't even be enough for you, and cycle starts again!"

"Tikal, you must understand. I am your father, and you must listen to me!" her father said. "The Chaos Emeralds are essential to our survival. In order for the echidna civilization to thrive, we must have all the food, water, and shelter we can get, even if it means using the emeralds for power."

"NO! I won't let you!" Tikal said and ran away. Knuckles found himself back in front of the casino.

STATION SQUARE

"Finally!" He screamed. He ran outside to rest at the hotel. The weird thing was, Sonic and Tails were sitting down, twitching, but they had their eyes closed. They were sleeping. What the heck are they doing? Knuckles thought.

When he made it to the hotel, he saw Eggman walking towards one of two elevators with a gleam of light coming from his hand. The gleam of an emerald.

"Hey, that's Eggman and he has an emerald! Wait you thief, stop!" Knuckles called after him and went up the elevator.

"Alright, Eggman. Cough up the Master Emerald piece now!" Knuckles said as he stepped out of the elevator.

"Knuckles! Ummm, this isn't what you're looking for." Eggman said, showing Knuckles the silver Chaos Emerald. "But wait, Knuckles! Before you go, I want you to go through a little test I have ready for you." Coming from the floor was the blue liquid creature, Chaos 1, who still had the bone in his right arm with the pink emerald in its palm.

"Hey, that's the creature that destroyed the Master Emerald!" Knuckles said. Eggman didn't respond and tossed the emerald at Chaos 1, who became Chaos 2 upon "eating" the emerald. It now become about a foot taller with two bones in its arms with the emeralds in its palms.

Knuckles walked towards the elevator, knowing that none of this was his business. But an idea struck into Eggman's head.

"Knuckles, wait!" Eggman called. Knuckles looked back. "Maybe you can test out Chaos's new power. Just a few minutes of your time."

Knuckles smiled. He always wanted a rematch with the creature that put him through all this misery.

"All right. Let's do this!" Knuckles said.

Chaos walked sort of like a pimp if you know what I mean. Knuckles tried his signature move on him but Chaos blocked it. Then, Chaos stretched its arms at Knuckles, but he dodged those and gave Chaos a big punch. He took the hit and liquidized. It then came back into his its figure form. It turned into a ball of water and tried to crush Knuckles into the ground. Knuckles dodged them and Chaos turned into a figure again. It threw its arm at Knuckles, and he dodged it and punched Chaos. Chaos liquidized after the hit and turned back into a figure. Chaos then melted again to fill the whole room purposely to try and hit Knuckles. Knuckles glided to dodge it. Then Chaos turned back into a figure and tried the ball move and the melt move again but it still missed Knuckles. Chaos tried one more arm move, but Knuckles was expecting it and dodged it. Then he used his signature move on it and Chaos finally ran away.

"Well done, Knuckles!" Eggman said. "The true power of Chaos has yet to come, but that was a great show! I never would have expected anyone to defeat a god, even at one of its weakest forms. Anyway, sorry to waste your time, but I do know who is after the Master Emerald pieces…"

"Master Emerald pieces? Who?" Knuckles asked.

"Sonic the Hedgehog." Eggman said and walked away.

Knuckles thought about it. Why would Sonic want the Master Emerald shards? But then again, he could use them in some way…

THE NEXT MORNING

Sonic and Tails had finally woken up after their slumber in front of the casino.

"Sonic, what happened last night?" Tails asked.

"You sound like you were drunk." Sonic said. "Anyway, I think Eggman stole one of the emeralds, but the other one's safe. He must be getting desperate over a couple of gems."

"That's not good, Sonic!" Tails yelled. "That means his two to our one and that means trouble. Come on, let's get going!"

MYSTIC RUINS

One of the weirdest things happened in the Mystic Ruins. A hole, for no apparent reason, appeared on a wall near the train station. Geologists and scientists say that some kind of explosion happened in there, causing the hole. Big had followed Froggy to the Mystic Ruins. Froggy jumped on rocks and into the hole in the wall, leading to a windy place similar to Windy Valley where Froggy jumped into.

"Froggy, wait! I got you a pretty stone!" Big called after his friend as he jumped into the wind. It carried him up to a tunnel. There was an ice door about halfway down the tunnel that had a small stone alter similar to the one at Windy Valley, except with an ice symbol on it. Froggy crawled under a small crevice under the ice door.

"Froggy, stop going under things!" Big said. "I'm tired of carrying this stone." He dropped it and it started flying. It dropped in a square hole on the alter and the door opened. "Wow! That was magic."

He ran in, seeing only a pool of water and a ladder. Next to the pool was an object engulfed in green light. Big stepped into it and it was a Life Belt.

"This is a Life Belt. It helps you to float in the water." A voice said.

"What? Who said that? Froggy, is that you?" he asked. He climbed up the ladder into an icy place with ice floors to fish for Froggy.

OUTSIDE THE HOLE

"Hey Sonic, look!" Tails yelled pointing at the hole in the wall.

"I wonder what happened over there." Sonic said.

"Maybe there's a Chaos Emerald inside! Sonic, we should search it!"

"It's worth a try, I guess."

Both of them ran in seeing the open doors to the icy cavern and climbed up the ladder. It was a familiar place to both of them, but they couldn't quite recognize what it was.

"Hey Tails!" Sonic called. "This is the Icecap. We were here before. Remember back when Knucklehead was being tricked by Eggman? I can't believe he believed that idiot."

"Sonic! I remember the way out!" Tails said.

The jumped on springs, hung on icicles, and ran across ice bridges that fell once you stepped on them. This is where the levels were. They had to jump quickly from one level to the next. After they finished jumping through the levels, a gigantic icicle fell down from the ceiling causing a bridge to an open door. They through it and saw an avalanche falling down towards them.

"Whoa!" They both screamed.

Luckily, they had left their snowboards exactly in the same spot as last time and they were able to snowboard away until they found a green Chaos Emerald and decided to leave the place.

AT THE WATERFALL

"Why would Sonic want the Master Emerald shards? I'm going to have to find him and ask." Knuckles said. Then, he saw Sonic and Tails looking at something shiny and green. A Master Emerald shard! Knuckles thought. Eggman was right.

Soon, Sonic and Tails ran over to the waterfall, where Knuckles was waiting.

"Hey Knuckles, what's up?" Sonic asked. Knuckles threw his signature move at Sonic and Tails who both dodged them.

"What's wrong with you?" Sonic asked again.

"Shut up, Sonic!" Knuckles said. "Give the emeralds you have, right now!"

"Oh, let's just see you take 'em, huh? Tails, this one's all mine."

Knuckles again threw his signature move at Sonic who jumped over it and landed on Knuckles. Then, Knuckles started gliding and hit Sonic. Soon, Knuckles rolled at Sonic and Sonic spin-dashed at Knuckles who collided, and the emeralds popped out of Sonic's pockets.

"Oh no! The Chaos Emeralds…" Sonic said.

Then, Eggman popped out from the lake on where the waterfall was and took the two blue and green emeralds.

"Ha ha! You three made it all too easy! You practically gave them to me!" Eggman said.

Then Knuckles ran over to see the emeralds and said, "Hey! That's a Chaos Emerald!"

"Way to go, Knucklehead!" Sonic said.

"That's right, fool! Now, I have four lovely emeralds! Chaos…" Then Chaos come out of the ground in its two emerald form and Eggman gave it another two. It then became Chaos 4. With two bones in its arms with emeralds in them and now some ribs with emeralds in them. All in all, it looked like a shark.

Chaos 4 jumped into the water and Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles were all up against it. Chaos started throwing all kinds of attacks at the team, but like Chaos is an air organism (if we can call it an organism), so it has to breathe sooner or later. Once it poked its head out, Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles attacked Chaos and it disappeared. But Eggman's cavalry had arrived as all of them looked up.

"Behold my floating masterpiece, the Egg Carrier!" Eggman said. "But it pales in comparison to the power of Chaos! Adieu, until we meet again my friends!"

"Come on, Sonic!" Tails yelled. "We gotta go chase it. Let's take the Tornado!" Sonic nodded in agreement, but Knuckles knew this wasn't his business yet again.

"You guys go!" Knuckles yelled. "I have some unfinished business to take care of." So Sonic and Tails headed for Tails's workshop, in pursuit of the Egg Carrier.