Chapter 29

She crouched down behind the boxes. She figured that keeping hidden would be one way to keep Naugus at bay, if only briefly. She had also spread the pieces of the emerald around on the floor, which seemed to reduce their power. If the signal wasn't as strong, he would take longer finding it. Tikal sat across the way, looking towards the ceiling. Knuckles had done a good job on fixing her headband. He always had the outward appearance of a tough guy, but on the inside he was sweet like that. Big paced back and forth. Chris was amused by the contents of his shoe. Why is this kid still alive?

They heard a bang. Big ducked behind a crate. Chris wet himself. Cream peered round the edge of the box she was hiding behind. She held her gun close. The door of the warehouse finally gave way. A booted foot dropped to reveal Knuckles, behind whom Sonic, Shadow and two other figures stood. These two she didn't recognise at first. She hopped over the boxes for a better look.

"Huh? Manic? But you're…. dead aren't you? And… I've never seen you before…"

"The name's Nack, sugar, and don't you forget it." The weasel retorted irritably. Cream made her way out into the night air. She was immediately tacked by Amy with a hug.

"Easy, tiger!" She stood back a bit.

"Cream, you had me worried sick, when we lost radio contact and then we got sidetracked and we went up and down this tower and…"

"Slow down!" They paused.

"You're not hurt, are you?"

"No. I see you're okay… and as bloodstained as ever…" She laughed.

Knuckles made his way in to the warehouse.

"Tikal!" He called out, slightly worried.

"Knux-baby!" She jumped from her hiding and raced towards Knuckles. He caught her in his arms, and they spun around as they hugged. When they stopped spinning around, they kissed.

"Thank God you're okay," He whispered in her ear.

Tails looked around outside. Still no sign of Naugus. If the emerald was here, then what was taking him so long? Before he could contemplate too long, he was interrupted by a sudden wind that caught his attention. It was a cold wind, colder than the night around him. The wind grew stronger, and before long, he was beginning to struggle to stand up straight. He quickly headed for the warehouse door. At the frame, he turned around to see what the hell was going on. Over the copse, a black figure began to rise. First, a hood, then a body, then a floating pedestal. It raised itself a few metres above the ground. He stared, fixated, for several tense moments. Could nobody inside hear this? Then it spoke.

"You dare stand in my way, you filthy half-breed?" It said with pure loathing in its voice.

"Half-breed this, motherfucker…" He pulled out his shotgun and began to empty it in the stranger's direction. Each shot impacted on an invisible layer just feet away. He stepped back while he fired the next couple of shots. Nothing penetrated the shield. Finally he turned and jumped behind the crates. Everybody else, now with attention turned to this current scenario, began to hide in various parts of the room. The black figure moved unstoppably forward. The shield knocked the crates over. As Tails moved out of their way, he fell on to his back. He dropped his gun. He crawled back, unfortunately for him, on to the pieces of the master emerald. He did well to avoid putting his hand on any sharp pieces. Finally, his hand landed on one. It gave him a deep cut, which went along his forearm.

"You cannot stop me, half-breed. You would do best to stay out of my way, lest you follow your father's fate…"

This guy knows my father? He thought. He didn't move, between being backed into a corner and nursing his wound. In frustration, the black figure held out his arm. With a wave of it, he picked Tails up and hurled him across the room. He hit with the wall hard and slid to the ground.

The black figure rose up slightly and began to pick up the pieces of the emerald and they began to swirl around the room. A small vial appeared from his cloak, with a swirling yellow-grey substance in it. The cap flew off and the substance floated out of the bottle. As it contacted pieces of the emerald, they began clumping together.

"You seem shocked." He said idly. "I thought a genius, if half-breed, such as you would know that formula T is pure Chaos." Of course, Tails thought to himself. How else would it be able to fix the emerald, or how could Shadow of survived it? Amy tried to stop him by grabbing some knives and hurling them at his face. They all bounced off the shield. One however, bounced right back in her direction. She wasn't quick enough to dodge it entirely. The blade gave her a cut on the side of her face, and sailed harmlessly away. Small though it was, she fell to the ground and cried in pain. Sonic rushed over to see what was wrong. He looked at the cut. There were faint traces of glowing yellow. Formula T. He pulled her away to relative safety.

The still anonymous figure grinned to himself as he assembled the final pieces of emerald.

"Now there is nothing, nothing that can stop I…" His hood flew off to reveal his hideously aged face. "Ixus Naugus Maximus, from ruling the universe!" He cackled as he began to draw power from the whole emerald. His face began to de-age, and he was obviously growing stronger. Tails looked on with desperation. As he lay there, bleeding and losing consciousness, he managed to speak…

"No…" He uttered. He looked at his bleeding hand. Then he noticed something in his blood that hadn't seen in any of his previous injuries. In the puddle, there was a slight glow on it. He had an idea. With his unhurt hand, he dipped a finger in and flung it towards the emerald. As it came closer to the emerald, the shine grew brighter. Then it dawned on him… the bastard scion of two heavenly beings… he never knew his parents… Naugus killed his father… things began to fit. With new motivation, he struggled to his feet.

"What's this? The half-breed is still standing?" Naugus said with mocking in his voice. Tails simply smiled and closed his eyes. With no knowledge what would happen next, he concentrated with all his might. After a few moments of nothing, he began to feel the pain in his hand and from when he hit the wall disappear. He felt his feet lose contact with the ground. The cold air of the warehouse was replaced by radiant warmth. He opened his eyes to see the room filled with bright white light. He looked at himself. His black leather jacket, white t-shirt and baggy denim jeans had been replaced with just flowing white pants. God, the wind felt good on his chest fur.

"Half-breed this," He said, his voice slightly smoother than normal. He made a gesture with his hands and a bolt of lightning crashed through the roof of the building. It tore through Naugus' shield and hit the emerald square on. Instead of shattering again, it split evenly into four pieces. Knuckles cringed slightly, as the emerald, having just been repaired, was broken again. The four pieces floated around a bit, before disappearing into thin air.

"The emerald… it's gone…" Naugus stared in disbelief.

"Now it's my turn to talk some crap," Tails smiled as he moved forward, causing Naugus to retreat outside. "It's not destroyed, it's split in to four pieces and the pieces hidden. Hidden far and wide. Where you will never find them."

"YOU WILL ALL PERISH FOR YOUR INSOLENCE!" Naugus screamed, his face still aged, but not as bad as it was. He drew back and conjured a growing ball of dark energy. When it had reached a critical mass, he hurled it towards Tails, now at the front of the group. With another hand gesture, a translucent white dome appeared, encircling the entire warehouse. The energy simply crashed and dissipated at the shield. Naugus let out a cry of frustration before he vanished.