This wasn't working.

A beefy arm batted Sonic aside once more. The hulking frame of Knuckles had weathered over a dozen impacts so far.

"I get it, Sonic." A flaming punch briefly illuminated Knuckles' grinning face. "It's scary, right?"

"What's to be scared about?" Blood from Knuckles' arm crawled over his fur. Sonic spun in place to send it spattering across the clifftop. "You were mind-controlled last week!"

He leapt as Knuckles crashed fist first into the ground, shaking the entire island and sending a chunk of cliff tumbling down into the dark below. "Not as juicy, sure. I appreciate you trying new things for once?"

He ran into another thorn bush, rings tumbling out of him as the tiny injuries were prevented. Darn it. He couldn't see to avoid them in the dark. Sonic dashed around, scooping up as many tumbling rings as he could before they dissipated.

Like most of his fights with the crimson echidna, this was turning into an endurance battle. And he had no idea if Knuckles could even get tired now.

He charged again, but this time felt no resistance. Knuckles shimmered and warped around him, and the world flipped in on itself as the image of a pulsating brain flashed before his eyes for a brief moment. Sonic found himself standing with his back to Knuckles, his feet moved in the opposite direction he told them to.

"Wh-"

"It's okay, buddy. I understand." Knuckles batted him into the air with a brutal uppercut from behind. "But it's better for Mother to win."

Sonic tumbled in midair, ringless and helpless as Knuckles wound up the followup punch.

"At least we'll stay alive."

"Chaos Spear."

A burst of yellow illuminated the night, revealing a checkerboard of purple and red grass and fading rings before striking Knuckles with a blinding flash. Sonic faceplanted onto the floor where Knuckles had stood. More yellow lights flashed over his head. Knuckles let out a yell of pain as he crouched down, shielding his face with oversized arms as blast after blast slammed into him.

"Ugh…" Sonic staggered to his feet, still struggling to move the way he intended to. "Shadow…" He blinked as another volley of projectiles streaked past his head, singeing his quills before blasting into Knuckles once more. "Shadow stop! You're gonna kill him!"

"I can't control it, my inhibitor rings aren't working!" Shadow's scowl appeared beside Sonic, light glittering off the golden bands on his wrists. "There's too much energy here. We need to get away be-"

"We can't leave Knuckles!"

Struggling under the constant barrage, the echidna in question rose to his feet, the flesh of his arm cauterised by the scorching bolts.

"No! The lurker stirs! The threshold-" A chaos spear burst through his defences in a blinding spray of purple flame that ignited against his flesh. "The watchers!" He shimmered through another spear before falling to the earth once more, smoke rising from his still body.

Shadow stared at Sonic, lip curled.

"I'm serious! He knows what's happened to Tails!"

"We all know what happened to Tails." A white face - Rouge - stood on the opposite side of the endlessly repeating salvo of Chaos Spears. Thick lumps bulged from her fur and the exposed skin of her arms and chest.

"Rouge!" Shadow took half a step forward, approach curtailed as a blast streaked just in front of his nose.

"He is in our father's house." The bat's voice was stilted, dead of its usual sultry tone. "Our champion must be nurtured."

The lumps on Rouge split to reveal giant eyeballs underneath, swivelling to stare at both hedgehogs and the fallen Knuckles simultaneously.

"And the slaves of Shupnikkurat must be undone."

A rattling laugh sounded from behind Sonic. He managed to turn as a Zeti alighted… Zazz. The lanky Zeti's pink skin had faded to a mottled purple grey, eyes and tentacles sprouting freely from his flesh, his mouth twisted ninety degrees and tongue dangling limp from the opening.

The Zeti lunged at the two hedgehogs.

Knuckles pushed himself to his hands and knees, chaos spears now firing quickly enough to form an almost solid beam of energy burning the air above him. He caught Rouge's kick in a mitt stretched to breaking point by the oversized hand within.

"We're too late!" Shadow yelled, clutching his head.

The chaos beam ceased, and the space where Shadow had first formed it ripped into shining cerulean blue, illuminating the cliff as though daylight shone from within. Air rushed into the bright void and it grew, twice as big, four times. Faster and faster. Sonic felt himself being dragged inside. Through the void he could see a vast purple landscape far below, stretching out into the distance, unable to escape its pull...

His legs started cooperating again.

"That was too close." He dashed away from the rift, sending a multicoloured spray of grasses scattering out behind him into the portal.

Shadow grappled with the mutant Zeti that was trying to gnaw his face with uncharacteristic silence. At the far end of the cliff what used to be his friends traded blows of impossible strength, the earth beneath them shattering with each blow. More and more of the cliff tumbled away, chunks of stone getting dragged into the void as deadly projectiles Sonic had to avoid.

Nothing stopped those two from fighting, apparently.

"I need to close the rift!" Shadow yelled, one foot wedged into a furrow of his own making as tentacles coiled around him.

"Can do!" Sonic leapt, bouncing between hurtling boulders to slam into Zazz, spinning like a buzzsaw to sever the tentacles holding Shadow fast. The Zeti sprawled over on the ground, green oozing from its wounds. "Hey big guy. Mind if I… cut in?"

Shadow rolled his eyes, slipping off his inhibitor rings and stepping behind Sonic.

"Keep them off me."

Sonic could dimly feel the thrum of chaos building up behind him as Shadow began his work. Zazz flipped lithely to his feet, eyes, at least some of them, never leaving Sonic for a moment. He gave another rattling laugh as he raced forwards once more, claws outstretched.

"Y'know, you used to be way tougher before your makeover." Sonic zipped around and behind Zazz, tripping him with a toe to land in a patch of crimson thorns. "I think this purple stuff maybe isn't so good for your health?"

An ear rending wail spilled out from Zazz's misaligned lips. He launched back towards Sonic, remaining tentacles outspread.

"Your trash talk's improved though!" Sonic ducked a chunk of earth. Shadow grunted in surprise behind him. "Sorry, Shadow!"

Riiight, he was protecting the nearly indestructible Shadow, while he had no rings. He wasn't as tough as any of these guys, the next hit was going to put him out of commission. He had to keep compensating for the suction as the portal grew and this tentacled zeti was doing its best to treat him like a girl in one of Knuckles' comics.

On the upside though?

He was the fastest thing alive.

Sonic ducked as Zazz lunged towards him, planting both feet on an eyeball'd stomach and heaving with all his strength.

"You're too slow!" Sonic wagged his finger as he spun back to his feet. The Zeti flew into Rouge and Knuckles, turning them into a tangled heap. Two dozen pairs of eyes glared at him.

One pair of eyes didn't. Knuckles grabbed Zazz by the leg, using him as a living club to smash Rouge into the ground before hurling him off the edge of the cliff. Hopefully in a direction there was plenty of dirt nearby.

A foot slammed upwards into Knuckles' jaw, sending the injured echidna toppling backwards to the crumbling earth. Rouge stood, one blinking arm twisted at an impossible angle- three impossible angles.

"Give our regards to Mother." Rouge stamped down on Knuckles with all her might. The already damaged cliff crumbled away, taking the echidna with it. Rouge turned to face Sonic, plucking a damaged eye from its socket to squeeze over her broken arm. The flesh began to ripple-

"Chaos... control!"

Daylight disappeared, and so did the vacuum, making Sonic charge straight towards Rouge in its absence.

Well, may as well. He accelerated rather than braked, slamming into the bat at full concussive force.

She didn't even flinch. Glowing eyes stared down at him, up at him? Ew. She'd apparently lost a boot somewhere. Sonic grinned, backpedalling.

"Eheheh, don't mind m-gk!"

Rouge's "arm" coiled around his neck, lifting him easily to eye level.

"We will show you the ultimate mystery."

Rouge pulled him close, lips locking over his. Something pushed apart his clenched teeth.

A glowing eye winked out in a spray of gross, gunshots caught up a moment later, more sprays of foul smelling liquid bursting into the air. Sonic dropped, coughing and retching as Shadow dragged him away from Rouge.

"Good-" Sonic regurgitated something and spat it to the floor, shuddering. "Good shooting."

"Who said I was aiming for her?" Shadow pulled Sonic roughly upright, his face illuminated by a beam of light shining from his hand. "Now let's get-"

A foot smashed into his side, a golden inhibitor ring slipped from his fingers and a dozen rings exploded from his body. Sonic snatched both from midair and dashed backwards as a purple grey tentacle sliced towards him.

"Whoa! What does it take to slow you down, lady?"

"We are the chosen. Our coming was inevitable." Rouge's silhouette loomed tall as she paced towards him, the crumbling ground left less and less room to move. Dripping blood sprouted thick bushels of thorns wherever it landed to further constrain his movements. "You hold our father's gate. It must be opened."

Sonic retched again, staring at the inhibitor ring in his hand. A sliver of that alien daylight still shone through the opening, now tinged orange. Had Shadow not been able to close it? The rings suppressed the dark hedgehog's chaos abilities, perhaps- Sonic leapt over a tentacle lunging from behind a wall of thorns- perhaps he used this to constrain it?

Using the tiny portal as a flashlight, he picked out a path through the thorns. Rouge was out of sight now, but he still knew where she was. Where the thorns were. Where the grass was. Where the taint of Shupnikkurat spread. The great revelation. The gate must-

Sonic shook his head. He had rings. He could keep away from Rouge. She just walked in a straight line towards him, he could avoid her. But he had no idea where Shadow was. Had he fallen over the edge? The two of them needed to escape to spread the- no. They needed…

Sonic dropped to his knees, vomiting thick slime over the edge of the cliff.

They needed to save Tails. Needed to stop-

"Nowhere left to run, Sonic."

Sonic snapped his gaze up to thick thorns all around. Darn it. Where'd her voice come from again? He could charge through the thorns at the cost of his rings, but if he ran into her again then it was sloppy kisses time. Even worse than Amy.

His disgusted shudder was interrupted as a hand grabbed his leg, pulling him over the edge of the cliff. Knuckles' glowing red eyes greeted him, the bloodied echidna dangled from the earth by one arm.

"Mother is not ready for the watcher."

Something crawled over Sonic's fur.

"We found you!" Rouge loomed above. Her tentacle missed Sonic by a nose as Knuckles threw him bodily out into space.

"Guard the ring, Sonic! The great feast must be delayed!"

Sonic's last glimpse was of the two grappling at the edge of the cliff.

He shuddered, feeling the twin poisons collide with one another inside his body, battling for dominance

Well this had all gone just great. He wasn't even sure how things could even get worse at this point.

The dim twilight of the ring illuminated the surface of the ocean moments before he smashed into it.

Oh. That.

Sonic's final curse bubbled off to the surface as he sank into the cold dark depths like a stone.