"All right, Espio. Come at me with all you've got!" Knuckles declared. The echidna was on the other side of the sparring arena, slamming his fists together and in a fight stance. Espio had his back up against the wall with his index fingertips facing each other. His eyes were closed and a slight smirk sprung up on his face after Knuckles had spoke.
"Just don't hit too hard, Knux. Remember, these exercises are for you to keep your guard and wits up, not to smash intruders into a coma," Espio replied calmly.
"I know, but we're not getting anything accomplished by a lecture are we?" Knuckles pressed. "Come on, let's do this!"
Espio's smirk grew a little wider as he abruptly disappeared. Knuckles was now unable to see him, but that alone wouldn't be enough for Espio to truly test the echidna's abilities. However, the environment certainly worked to Espio's advantage. When the interior of the sparring arena had been designed, it was mostly done so according to Vector's "grand vision". The walls were covered by extravagant colored rugs and padding. The unique blend of scenery along the perimeter of the arena provided Espio with immense cloaking and disguise.
He hurried up the wall he had previously been leaning against and onto the ceiling. Although he was quick yet stealthy, Knuckles had his eye in the general area Espio was. Thinking swiftly, Espio swoop and stuck to the each one of the four walls, one at a time. He did this loudly intentionally to try and confuse Knuckles with regards to his location. Knuckles had made a few steps from the opposite end of the sparring field to where Espio was, and now had his back to Espio.
Feeling a surge of energy in his fingers and feet as they stuck to the wall, Espio launched himself at the floor just behind Knuckles. Landing with hardly a sound, he spun around on one foot while stretching out his other leg and tripping his opponent. Knuckles reacted hastily, jumping his feet not a split second after his back hit the floor and drove his fist downward exactly where Espio had landed. However, the camouflage expert had already jumped away and was sticking to the wall on Knuckles' left.
Too close, Espio thought. Knuckles' instincts were definitely improving. Espio crawled up the wall and onto the ceiling, trying to think of a way to out guile him. He dropped himself off the ceiling and turned around in mid-air, landing on his feet and laying one hand down for balance. He could have landed quite silently again, but this time intentionally made a low thud noise with his feet when they made contact with the floor. Knuckles immediately jumped to his left, landed on his hands and used his elbows to spring into the air again. He now had launched a kick right toward Espio, who barely dodged it in time. Out of Knuckles' line of fire, he grabbed the echidna's leg and swung him around back in the direction from where he came.
This time, Knuckles landed with a skid but was still quick as ever in getting back up on his feet. He was breathing heavily, and Espio was just about to meet him head on when he heard the sound of clapping hands. Both of them turned toward one of the ceiling corners and saw, sitting comfortably on one of the support beams, none other than Rouge the Bat. Returning to being visible, Espio stared at her in surprise, while Knuckles grimaced.
"What are you—How did you get in here without us noticing?" Knuckles demanded. He was no less hostile to Rouge than their last meeting, mostly because she had always had a bit of an obsession with obtaining the master emerald for herself. Rouge just snickered at him.
"I'm the world's greatest jewel thief, Knucklebrain" she answered coolly. "I have my ways." Knuckles narrowed his eyes at her as she descended down from the ceiling and landed gracefully a few feet away.
"So this is the arena Charmy was going on about. I must say, I'm a bit impressed. Interesting décor. Could use a little more style and glamour, though" Rouge said as she scoped out the surroundings. Ignoring the fact that Charmy had clearly told Rouge where to find them, Espio interrogated her.
"Is there some reason why you're here?" he asked. "Other than to infuriate Knuckles, I mean?"
"Why, of course," Rouge said rather slyly. "I flew by the master emerald earlier today and noticed that our dear guardian"-her eyes motioned toward Knuckles-"was nowhere to be found. I thought that was his job and I was simply curious as to his whereabouts...you wouldn't want to live a big gem like that sitting all on its own."
"I'm on a temporary leave. The elders have cloaked the real master emerald and transferred it to a secure, undisclosed location," Knuckles growled. "The emerald you saw was an illusion. Not that a greedy dimwit like you would be able to tell the difference."
"Temporary leave?" Rouge scoffed in disbelief. "Judging by the way Espio just trounced you, I'd say you were relieved of your post." Seeing Knuckles' fist clench, Espio decided it was best to intervene.
"Well Rouge, lovely to see you again as always. We've really got a lot to work on so if you could just-"
Espio was cut off by a sudden explosion from above. The blast threw all three of them in different directions. Landing amongst a pile of debris originally part the roof, Espio groaned in pain as he tried to stand upright. It took much effort at first, but then he stunningly felt himself being pulled upward. He looked toward the ceiling and saw that it had been completely blown open. Replacing its visage was a large sphere of light and electricity. Everything in the arena was being pulled toward it, including Knuckles and Rouge. Fortunately, Espio had been blasted right next to one of the walls, and managed to stick to it before the pull of the sphere could drag him very far.
He squinted at the scene before him and saw that Knuckles had been blasted to the same side of the arena.
"Knuckles, take my hand!" Espio yelled seeing the echidna being hurled toward him on his way to the sphere. Knuckles reached out his hand as Espio did the same. Sticking to the wall with his other hand and feet, Knuckles movement toward the sphere was prevented. No sooner than Espio had taken Knuckles' hand that heard him cry out over the shrilling wind.
"Rouge!" Knuckles shouted to across the room. Espio directed his attention to the bat, who was clinging desperately to a much heavier balance beam. The beam was started to shift and move upward in response to the sphere's astonishingly strong force. Espio watched helplessly as the beam was uplifted into the air with a screaming Rouge in tow. "Rouge! No!" Knuckles bellowed as she disappeared into the depths of the sphere.
Espio looked on to where Rouge had disappeared, and for a second, he thought he saw a familiar symbol. A circle with two smaller circles in the upper half, and a row of thin stripes on the lower half resembling a toothy, eerie grin. Espio blinked, and the symbol was as gone as Rouge was. After holding onto Knuckles' hand tightly for about another minute, the pulling force receded and the sphere because to shrink quickly. In a matter of seconds it was completely gone, leaving Espio and Knuckles looking at each other in shock and horror at what had just happened.