iii. Island in the Sky
Having learned all of this, Gerald decided to try and track down the island, which over the years had been named Angel Island, although it was apparently somewhat taboo. Enlisting the help of Misty's cousin Todd, a rather devil-may-care pilot, he gave him the current coordinates through from the Space and Satellite Department and the two set out to investigate Angel Island.
The Flying Fox was a neat little plane - almost too little, for the average dokan was only about half the height of the average human and the copilot's seat proved a tight squeeze for the professor. But curiosity trumped discomfort and they set out with a flight plan to Westside Island - for permission to fly to Angel Island itself was unobtainable - and the ostensible purpose of researching the ruins there that had been originally erected by those dokan that had had to flee the spread of the echidnas. Once they were well offshore though, Todd swung the nose more southward, until they could see the massive cloudbanks that tradition (and GUN satellites) said collected around the floating island. Unfortunately the air currents around the mass were totally unpredictable and although Todd managed to turn the plane towards the island rather than the sea below, they landed with rather more force than either the pilot or his passenger had anticipated.
Fortunately the damage proved not too extensive, and Todd shooed Gerald off to "hunt for your history bits. I do this sort of repair all the time, and then I'll clear a bit of a runway before I catch up with you." Gerald allowed himself to be persuaded without argument and set off before Todd could change his mind.
The island was surprisingly large, mostly hilly, dominated by a central, snow-capped peak. Gerald climbed the closest ridge and found an amazing sight before him. What appeared to be a desert was visible to one side; a jungle of what looked almost like giant mushrooms stretched to the other side, beyond which - he tapped up the magnification on his spectacles - yes, there was a blunt topped, pyramidal or conical shape out that way. Ahead the jungle changed beyond the third ridge to look more like normal trees (and sure enough, at the increased magnification, those WERE giant mushrooms in the foreground); with some sort of ruins visible beyond that on the lower slopes of the mountain. Gerald checked his compass and delineated an arrow pointing southwest towards the truncated pyramid with some hastily collected stones. He waved at Todd, who didn't see him, and headed down the ridge towards his goal.
It was actually closer to a cone than a pyramid. The water mentioned in the old writings was gone, and the stones battered and fallen; but the basic outline was clear. An island floating in a sort of airy "bay" near the edge of the larger one, linked by an ancient wooden bridge to the main body. As Gerald picked his way cautiously across the bridge - marveling at its state of preservation - more details came clear. He was so entranced by his find that he barely heard the strange ringing sound that seemed to be emanating from the structure. Two circular levels at the peak of the hill, surrounded by a partially fallen colonnade or cloister; seven pillars ringing the lower level with a head-sized, glowing gemstone shivering at the top of each, a second set of broken pillars ringing the top level around...what was it? Gerald had an impression of an enormous green glow before - "Halt!"
Gerald jumped with shock - a short but stocky red figure lunged out from behind one of the broken pillars before him. He instantly took in the flattened spines, the massive hands with the spikes over the knuckles...prudently he stopped, but inwardly was thrilled - one of the Knuckles clan! Still here, guarding their ancestral shrine! His delight faded some what as he observed the echidna stalking towards him, noting the belligerent posture and raised fists. Quickly he began to explain his presence, actually stammering in his eagerness to be heard and gain permission for a closer look. The echidna cut him off with a growl, "I am the guardian of the Chaos Emeralds and the Master Emerald Shrine. You will leave NOW!" For emphasis the echidna slammed one spike-knuckled fist into the ground. Gerald caught a sudden flare of light - green, or white? Too bright to tell - then was plummeting into blackness and silence.
For a panicky moment he thought he'd backed off the edge of the island but the thought was cut short as he hit a hard surface. Blinking the after-images away he realized that it wasn't actually completely dark, in fact there was a fair amount of light coming through a rift in the ceiling. Because it was a ceiling. He was standing in a room with a green marble floor and walls tiled in blue. The walls themselves were rippled, giving the effect of a curtain hung around the room. And on one wall... He moved forward a few feet, and grinned as he realized the angle of the sun was just right to highlight the point of interest - on one wall was an intricate mosaic depicting a creature surrounded by an aura of fire, or force, facing down a gigantic monster. The monster had one hand grasping at a gem that resembled those up above - suddenly he remembered the echidna and looked around in alarm, but there was no sign of the guard that had precipitated his fall. With a shrug he turned back to the wall and laughed - the "monster" had a very familiar looking nose and moustache. Shaking his head and still chuckling at the fanciful notion that the ancient civilization could possibly have depicted HIM - more likely it was some sort of beak, and the "moustache" simply facial markings - he directed his attention back the to being with the gilded aura. That was no echidna; the spines were there, but wrong, they were rounder and upright, and the back spines far too pronounced - it was a hedgehog, he realized, a hedgehog in an aura of flame, or power. And the larger creature was giving or taking one of the - what had the guard said? Chaos emeralds. Not power stones...yes, the water god, formless and mutable, with that awesome destructive power and the ability to make solid rock float - the symbolic representation of Chaos itself. And these gems, the glow they gave off indicated they were no ordinary stones, but possessed of some mysterious internal power; could they have reacted somehow to cause the disaster that brought down the mighty empire? They had potentially created the "avatar" from a chao...
Gerald Robotnik was so deep in his musings that it wasn't until the rope hit him in the head that he realized he was no longer alone. Looking up, he saw Todd leaning over the edge of the fissure in the ceiling. He looped the rope around his waist and Todd hauled him out - yet more evidence of the dokan's superhuman strength. When he got to the top, there was no sign of the echidna, and Todd insisted he'd seen no one - in fact he seemed to think Gerald had imagined it as a result of hitting his head in the fall. Gerald dropped the matter and moved towards the shrine, feeling the pull of curiosity, scientific zeal, and a strange certainty. Dimly he noted that the ringing noise had stopped.. The central king stone - the Master Emerald? - was glowing more brightly than before, but the smaller Chaos gems seemed to have dimmed and stilled. Picking up one of the many fallen stones on the ground, he flung it at the nearest gem, toppling it off its pillar. With another great flash all the remaining Chaos Emeralds vanished! Gerald grabbed the fallen one - somehow shrunken to fist-sized - and ran, Todd racing beside him as if pursued by foxhounds. Neither looked back, or even slowed more than the uphill run required, until they reached the Flying Fox.
Back at the plane, neither one could explain exactly why they had fled so desperately, but even Gerald's insatiable curiosity was not enough to send him back to try and look at the greater stone, which alone had remained atop the shrine. Besides, he somehow felt sure that he had everything he needed from the island. They reboarded the Flying Fox and as Todd took off.
"Look!" exclaimed Gerald - the island's nearly touching the water now!" Indeed, the lowest spike on the bottom was being splashed by the waves beneath it.
Todd nodded. "The old stories say that sometimes the island actually lands in the ocean and floats. At other times it's so high as to be totally invisible in the clouds. It's a strange sort of place."
The return to the mainland was uneventful. Gerald said goodbye to Todd with copious thanks and returned to Spring Grove. He bid farewell to Misty and Rafe, and a few other dokan he'd gotten to know over the last few months, then smuggled his glowing prize back home to the north.
A/N : This chapter includes a modification of the Japanese story background for Knuckles. Essentially the story for Knuckles in SH3 started with Knuckles patrolling the emerald shrine where he guarded the Master Emerald and the Chaos Emeralds, then there is a major upheaval, he blacks out and when he recovers the Chaos Emeralds have all vanished. This poses a bit of a problem with the prior two stories since Sonic has been collecting Chaos Emeralds for two games, and in fact has them at the start of SH3 when Knuckles "recovers" them. So either Knuckles was out for a very long time...or perhaps the initial Knuckle was not "the" Knuckles, who is only supposed to be 16 years old, but "a" Knuckles. The version I opted for makes use of the fact that the Japanese texts always refer to the line of Pachacamac as "the Knuckles tribe". You can decide for yourself if Gerald met the Knuckles we know or a predecessor. I also, of course, referred to the common theory among fans that Gerald saw the mural on Angel Island and that figured in to why Shadow was a hedgehog.
P.S. For the purposes of this story, if it needs it, the Master Emerald was taken from the primary shrine and hidden in the cave for safety reasons after the Chaos Emeralds were stolen, and Knuckles returned it to the original place after he met Sonic and learned where the Chaos Emeralds had gone.