If Chaos Emeralds are pretty, then what would Kuki do with the Master Emerald? Good thing it's not Kuki that meets him first!

I don't own any characters in this chapter. They belong to various professionals.

4

The Master Emerald

I slowly opened my eyes. Everything was foggy, and my head hurt like crap! I heard a voice, like someone talking to themselves.

At first, all I could see was a giant green blob. I remembered the emerald Kuki had found, but it wasn't that big…right? Then I saw the red blob standing in front of it. I blinked a few times and my vision finally cleared up.

I must be dreaming still. There was a gigantic green emerald on some sort of altar, with a red echidna pacing around it, talking to himself. I just sat there staring for awhile. Apparently, I eventually caught his eye, because he stopped pacing and looked at me.

"Hey, kid, are you alright?" he asked. I screamed bloody murder. He was startled and jumped back a little, then looked around for some sort of intruder. When he didn't see anyone but us, he asked "Why are you screaming?"

"Y-You can talk!" I exclaimed, backing away from him.

"Mobians can do that. Now, then, how exactly did you get here?"

"Why should I tell you, teenager?!" I said.

"Because had I not found you a few hours ago you might have died." He replied. I thought about it for a moment.

"Well, to tell you the truth, I'm not so sure myself. I mean, Number Three picked up this weird rock and there was this giant whirlpool underneath us and it was all like woosh! And then I just wake up here, in a world of talking echidnas."

"Hm…I'll have to think on that. Just stay near that diamond and I'll be right back." Then he leaped down the altar and into the tropical forest nearby. Five seconds later he was hanging by his knees on a tree, holding a bunch of grapes.

"What's your favorite fruit?" he asked.

"Uh…bananas?" he disappeared and reappeared with a cluster of bananas. He finally sat down near the emerald and ate. I took a banana and sat next to him. For a teenager, he seemed pretty decent.

"So, what do you do all day?" I asked him.

"I'm one of the last echidnas on Mobius. It's my duty to protect the Master Emerald and make sure nobody misuses it's power. Now, put your hands on my back.

"Why?" the echidna just went from cool to weird.

"Do you want me to help you get better or not?"

"Well, I'm not gonna give you a back massage."

"Dang; I was just about to ask for one too!" I reluctantly put my hands on his back, and he placed his palms against the Master Emerald.

"The servers are the Seven Chaos. Chaos is power, power enriched by the heart. The controller is the one that unifies the chaos." The echidna murmured softly. Then, a bit louder, he said "Master Emerald, please lend me your power."

The emerald glowed brighter, and I felt myself getting more energized. By the time Knuckles let go of it, I had so much energy I could have been bouncing off the walls…had there been any.

"How are you feeling?" the echidna asked me.

"Like I could kick the Crazy Old Cat Lady's butt twenty-billion times in a row."

"Why would you want to hurt an old lady? I mean, sure, they're grumpy and cranky ninety-five percent of the time, but they also have a lot of wisdom…"

"Yeah, I'll admit that, but this one has a lot of wisdom in world domination. She's trying to destroy all the kids in the world out of existence." I said. The echidna's left eye twitched before he fell to the floor, laughing.

"No kidding? That's impossible! The only way she could do that would be to kill all the babies and kids in the world. Then she'd have to kill all the adults so they wont reproduce and make more!" he said after awhile, trying to hold back his laughs. Then he started laughing again. He started slapping the ground next to him, and the altar shook.

"Ha! Good point! I bet she hasn't even thought of that!"

"No villain does! That's why they're extremely smart and extremely stupid at the same time!"

"…what did you mean by reproduce?"

"Uh…well, um…" he then proceeded to explain reproduction in the lightest terms possible.

"So we're all part frog? And baby frogs are more frog than the rest of us? I'm confused!"

"Good!"

"What do you mean by that?"

"Nothing…" we were quiet for awhile. Then I asked another question.

"So…what's your name, anyways?"

"I'm Knuckles the echidna. Anyways, you're not an Overlander…so what are you? Are you from Earth?"

"Yes. Me and some of my friends got taken here…am I the only one that survived?"

"I would hope not…hey, I know someone who might be able to help you find them. Do you want me to take you to her?"

"Well, duh! But how will we get there?"

"Easy." Knuckles ran back into the forest and came back out riding a red quad bike that actually kinda looked like him. "Hop on!" I stared at it in amazement for awhile, then jumped on behind him. He revved the engine a few times, then rode off.

Yeah…Knuckles has an awkward moment there…

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