Chapter 11: Team Chaotix

Flung into a winding rail path by one of Eggman's nefarious traps, Knuckles the Echidna hurtles around inside of a hard light cage, unable to get his bearings on the area around him as he is swung back and forth against the walls and left screaming in a frightened manner as his heart pumps rapidly against his chest. Knuckles cycles through the underground of the Egg Continent for a good few minutes before he is finally thrown out of the cage and into another room.

Knuckles tumbles along the ground a few feet away from the exit of the roller coaster until he ends on a glowing glass red circle in the center of the room. He is left on his back, his vision left dizzied as he stares up towards the four glowing yellow lights on the ceiling. Lifting his head up and shaking it around against his will as he tries to recover, the echidna slurs out from his mouth "Blurb blah gah some boo bah…"

Recovering enough of his sanity to do a hard shake of the head and get himself stable, Knuckles rises to his feet and brushes the front and back of his legs off with his gloves. With an annoyed scowl on his face, the echidna punches his knuckles together and lurches forward, staring off into the distance as he says to himself "Darn that Eggman, where did he send me to now?!"

Knuckles looks around and notices a severe lack of both Sonic and Tails' presence in the room, and a quick look back reveals that the passage the echidna was shot through is quickly being sealed off by two steel doors. All that kept this room illuminated from then on were the light above, but the moment the echidna took a step forward off of the button the lights on the ceiling went offline.

"Huh?" Knuckles, for as dim-witted as he was, was able to quickly put two and two together and stepped back in order to step on the red glass, which in actuality was a button that activated the lights above. The echidna folded his arms in front of his chest and tapped his right foot against the ground, thinking about his current situation as hard as he could, which unfortunately for him meant he gave up on thinking rather quickly and instead went back to frustratingly pounding his fists together while growling in place.

"Sonic and Tails got separated from me, that's obvious, but now I'm stuck in this creepy underground room without a permanent light! Eggman's vile actions just continue to pile up!" Knuckles exclaims furiously.

The worst part of this whole ordeal for the red echidna was that there was nothing he could punch at this moment. Sure he could probably put a dent in the ground, but there was no satisfaction to gain from doing so. To make matters worse, a screech of static fills the confines of the room, causing Knuckles to slap his palms against his ears to drown out the sound until it is replaced with something much, MUCH worse.

"Well well, it seems I have trapped a RAT inside of my cage." It was Eggman, taunting the red echidna for his entrapment in an arrogantly spoken tone. Knuckles furiously brandishes his right pointer finger above him while his veins pop in the right side of his head.

"Eggman you fiend, where am I?!" Knuckles tries to pressure the infernal doctor for an answer, but the cackling that echoes throughout the room afterwards only brings more fury to the echidna.

"I think I was clear enough when I was said you are in a cage you impudent buffoon!" Eggman bluntly replies, his voice insinuating that a great deal of pleasure was being taken in listening to the anger of the red echidna.

"Fine then, I'll just have to punch my way out of this so-called cage then!" Knuckles slams his fists together twice and smiles confidently, but is swiftly interrupted by Tails' earlier warning "Remember Knuckles, don't go too crazy, we don't know where the nuclear reactor is."

The red echidna's confidence then flattens instantly, leaving his fists hanging limp in front of his body as he whispers to himself "…You have got to be kidding me…"

"Ohohoho! Your rough and tough behavior will get you nowhere this time around you pesky little echidna! Not only will you be unable to see where you are going if you move past that spot, but the room is lined with a gap that will send you hurtling towards spikes! So one misstep in the blindness and-" Before Eggman finishes his long-winded explanation off, Knuckles raises his fist into the air and slams down on the button below his feet.

The glass shatters apart instantly, and the button below fizzes with electricity as Knuckles raises his insulated glove upward and confidently steps forward with the lights staying on above him. "Heh, you forget Eggman, I'm friends with the one guy who is smarter than you!" Knuckles states as he folds his arms against his chest.

"…YOU WEREN'T SUPPOSED TO FIGURE THAT OUT YOU IDIOT!" Eggman exclaims with a great deal of fury in his voice, but after a moment of groaning to himself in annoyance the doctor goes on to mention "…Fine, but now that you have light you still need to figure a way out. Meanwhile, I will be dealing with your friends up above."

Eggman signs off, leaving the dim-brained echidna to his own devices in this lit up room. Knuckles looks around and notices a large rectangular doorway leading to a passage in the distance that was across the gap. "Huh, I could probably glide that…" The echidna comments.

But before he walks forward and tries that, he recalls how there was a suction effect that dragged Sonic, Tails and himself through the pipes earlier. Knowing Eggman's diabolicalness, Knuckles snapped his fingers and said with a scowl "Never mind, that'd be too easy."

Knuckles looks down and happens to notice a bit of metal lifting up from the rest of the fairly evenly placed flooring. "Huh, now there's an idea…" He comments as he kneels down and lifts up on the metal flooring, peeling it away from the rest of the ground and pushing it forward bit by bit as he walks atop the disabled wires underneath. Finally, once he reaches the end of the metal flooring, the echidna does one more push to create a bridge towards the door on the other side.

Slapping his gloves together on a job well-done, the echidna wastes no time in dashing across the bridge to head into the passage, his fists trailing beside his body as he runs. His mind wanders towards what Eggman said earlier in regards to his friends, and with a scoff he thinks to himself "Sonic, Tails…You two better not be screwing around up there…"

Knuckles keeps running until he reaches an ascending ramp lined with red metal railings, at which point he looks up and sees a large glass plate in the ceiling that shows that storm clouds are slowing passing by in the sky. "Tch, either Eggman's headed to a stormy part of the world or things are about to get rather hectic…"

The echidna looks back down and runs forward up the ramp until he enters yet another part of Eggman's enormous battleship. It was a triangular room with three different colored walls of yellow, green and purple. The colors were bright and noticeable even without any lights in the room, and it was clear by the way they were split down the middle that they were doors leading to somewhere. As the floor behind Knuckles closed up and trapped him in this room, he looked around and commented "Don't tell me that I'm stuck in a maze now!"

His face was wrought with panic as he considered this possibility deeply, but with a brush of his arms in front of his body he took in a deep breath and said to himself "Calm down Knuckles…This is just like hunting for pieces of the Master Emerald…"

Knuckles blinks a few times and nervously comments "…Only without any shards inside of Eggman's ship…Ugh, had I just taken a moment to ask Sonic if he had the Chaos Emeralds on him, this would probably be a heck of a lot easier…" The echidna rubs the back of his head and sighs, but as he does so the doors around him depressurize all at once, putting him on-guard in an instance as he leaps back and puts his fists up.

One light pops up in front of the doors one after the other as three egg-shaped capsules are carried out of the passageways. Knuckles, having been inside one, recognizes what's about to happen and comments with an angered growl "Eggman's sending more mind-controlled people out to face me, huh? Alright fine, I can take anyone on, even if it's three against one!"

The first egg-capsule pops opens near the yellow door, and after the green fog inside departs a young bee wearing a bright orange jacket and a pilot-like helmet that had two holes for his yellow and black striped antenna to poke through.

The second capsule near the green door opens up, revealing a bulky bipedal crocodile with a strength possibly rivaling that of Knuckles' own. The crocodile wore stylish black leather shoes on his rather short legs, a golden chain around his neck, and a pair of headphones near his ears.

When the final capsule opened up, at first Knuckles couldn't see who was contained inside it, and for a rather good reason though. Shrouded by the shadows behind him was a purple chameleon with a lone pointed yellow nose curved near the end, a set of ninja-bandaged gauntlets and knee braces, and a long yet thin and curled tail. The chameleon, with a serious demeanor that didn't appear at all affected by the purple fog, draws a shuriken into the grasp of his right hand and turns his body sideways while glaring at Knuckles.

The echidna, itching for a fight despite knowing these three people all-too well, spoke with a voice of anticipation "The Chaotix eh? I've always wanted to fight you three, but we never crossed paths that one time. Ok, let's see what you got!"

The chameleon, Espio, flings his shuriken straight at Knuckles, but the echidna wasn't in the mood for fighting the swift chameleon at the moment. The echidna dodged the shuriken without realizing it was thrown by turning and running straight at Vector the Crocodile. The crocodile raises his hands up as Knuckles throws both of his fists out at the same time, catching them in his grasp and using most of his might to keep the echidna from advancing any further.

Knuckles, with feet pressed against the ground, tries to push Vector back even an inch, but fails as his position isn't well-suited for utilizing his strength to the best of his ability. While the echidna is kept in place, Charmy the Bee comes in from behind and stings Knuckles in the back. The pain from the sting causes the echidna to let out a brief scream as he pulls his hands back and rubs on the spot where he was stung, glancing over his shoulder as Charmy flies away and gaining a scowl before exclaiming to the runaway bee "That hurt you pesky insect!"

Before Knuckles can turn around and go after the bee for harming him, Vector uses his snout to launch the echidna into the air, causing his body to tumble around helplessly as the crocodile whistles over to Charmy to turn back around. The bee, recognizing the whistle sound, flies back to Vector and curls up into a ball that is swiftly surrounding by a protective yellow shield. The crocodile grasps the shielded bee in his mouth and leaps up, thrusting his head downward to launch Charmy like a heavy projectile at Knuckles' body.

The echidna is carried downward quickly by the momentum of the projectile, and once he collides with the metal floor he is covered by flaming explosion. Charmy flips out of the explosion unharmed but with the shield no longer covering his body. Knuckles, though a little battered from the attack, is quickly able to get back on his feet after taking a moment to rub the back of his head and scowl. "That was a dirty blow…" He comments once he is standing upright again.

Knuckles charges straight at Vector again, this time unintentionally dodging an invisible Espio's attempt to kick him straight in the side of the head. Blowing so quickly underneath Charmy's body that the bee is sent flying away, the echidna pulls his right fist back and aims right for the crocodile's stomach, swinging with all of his might despite Vector placing both of his hands down to protect himself.

The punch connects with the palms and blows Vector back across the ground a good few feet, slamming the tip of his tail against the now shut doors behind him but otherwise dealing minimal damage to the crocodile. Knuckles then ducks underneath another sting from Charmy, exclaiming with delight "Ha! You think I wouldn't catch onto your tricks?! I'm not that stupid you know!"

Knuckles then flips around and jumps into the air while he's moving, delivering a swift yet light uppercut to the bee that knocks the youngling away. The echidna held back enough of his power to ensure that Charmy would only be knocked unconscious once he landed on the ground.

Once on the floor after using his uppercut, Knuckles is punched right in the back by the crocodile and sent flying straight into the yellow door in the distance like a shot forth bullet. His body punctures the metal door and sends him into the shadowy room behind it. But mere seconds later, the door is blown off by a single punch from the echidna, who then proceeded to tear up the cart that brought Charmy's capsule into the room and throw it straight at Vector.

The cart naturally misses as Vector leaps out of the way of the attack. Knuckles then leaps and glides at the crocodile quickly, dropping himself from the air moments before touching him to slam his fist against the ground to create a heated shockwave that launches the crocodile into the air and allows Knuckles to follow up by leaping diagonally upward and swirling around so quickly that his body is coated in a tornado of fire as he heads towards Vector.

But before the crocodile is struck, Espio dispels his invisibility below the echidna by summoning forth a tornado of wind and leaves around his body. This removes the flames around his body and traps him within the tornado for two seconds before he's launched away. Vector still lands on his back, but the chameleon takes over for him by leaping towards the wall to the right of him with great agility and sticking to it before he takes a shuriken out and flings it at Knuckles.

One of the spikes on the shuriken punctures through the fabric of the glove between two of the echidna's fingers and pins his hand down against the ground once he lands. Rapidly firing more shuriken down to pin the rest of Knuckles fingers down, Espio then leaps off of the wall and gracefully lands in front of the echidna's fallen body before drawing a kunai and preparing for the final blow on his opponent.

But with a strength that defies his restraints, Knuckles pulls himself off the ground and kicks himself onto his feet, where he thrusts both of his fists forward with his gloves torn apart and hits Espio as hard as he could as the kunai was halfway swung. The chameleon is sent flying towards Vector, who was rising up like a zombie at the command of Eggman, but Espio collides into him and send him flying back against the metal wall. The impact is mainly centered around the head, which manages to knock both the crocodile and the chameleon unconscious swiftly.

Knuckles, feeling as though he had secured victory over his opponents, pumps his fist into the air and then thrusts the right one forward slightly while smiling, saying triumphantly "1-2-3 and they are down for the count! Can't believe it was that easy!"

The echidna then looks around and assumes that a way out of the room would be opened up to him now that he had defeated the mind-controlled Chaotix, but not open doors or lowering platforms appeared in front of him as he looked around. Knuckles scowls and exclaims towards the ceiling "HEY EGGMAN! I beat your trap and your mind-controlled victims, so let me out of here!"

The doctor doesn't respond, but instead the calmly spoken chameleon wakes up from his unconsciousness quickly and states to the hot-blooded "Will you keep it down, you're giving me a migraine."

Knuckles looks down at Espio as he stands up in front of his partner and brushes his gauntlets off, looking at his surroundings without moving his head before commenting as he hears Vector grumbling behind him "It seems as though we made it aboard Eggman's battleship…"

The crocodile sits upright and rubs the back of his head, saying in a grumbling yet somewhat high-pitched tone of voice "We did? Refresh my memory, how did we manage that?"

Espio responds by mentioning "…Hmm, Eggman captured the three of us when we tried to infiltrate one of his underground bases, but-"

"You three were mind-controlled. Trust me, it's kind of been a common thing around here today." Knuckles interjects, causing Vector to look at the red echidna and say to him in a puzzled tone of voice "Hey you're that Knuckles guy…What in blue blazes are you doing 'ere?"

Knuckles cockily says "Stopping Eggman and taking all three of you down while you were mind-controlled by the lunatic. All in a day's work if I do say so myself."

Espio glances at Vector, who says as he stands up on his feet "Well, I guess that explains those strange capsule Eggman stuffed us in after he knocked us out."

The crocodile then faces Knuckles and says to him "So I'm guessing if you're here, Sonic is here as well, right?"

Knuckles nods his head and responds by mentioning "Yep. And Tails and Shadow are here too. Though I kind of got separated from Sonic and Tails just a few minutes ago…"

Vector swings his right fist in front of his body and declares "Well for freeing us from our mind-control, I could probably launch you so you can punch through the ceiling and maybe catch up with Sonic and the others."

The red echidna smiles at this favorable development and mutters out "Well alright then." Knuckles then walks forward as Espio steps aside, with Vector allowing him to step on his snout so he could launch him upward. Knuckles thrusts his right fist out and punches a whole right through the ceiling, flying high above as the Chaotix are left to their own devices.

Vector looks down and is suddenly spoken to by the hyperactive Charmy, who woke up just seconds before Knuckles was sent flying. "Hey Vector! You're finally awake, you silly slacker!"

The crocodile reacts furiously towards the young bee, saying in a disbelieving tone "Charmy you idiot, don't pretend like you weren't also asleep!"

The bee snickers in delight, but before him and the crocodile shared in a brotherly spat Espio interjects in his all-too serious tone of voice and asks "Vector, why didn't you tell Knuckles about how Eggman's isn't working alone here?"

Vector stops growling at Charmy and turns towards the chameleon, saying in a more professional tone of voice "Because we don't know the full situation yet Espio. For all we know this could be another 'Metal Sonic' problem. We need to go searching for more information. Besides, G.U.N. told us not to spill any beans to Sonic or any of his friends or they'd half our pay!"

Espio responds by mentioning "Fair enough. Then where should we go from here?" To which Charmy bravely flies in front of Vector before he can get a word out and says "Oh! Oh! We should go through that tunnel over there!"

The crocodile angrily brushes Charmy aside with his right hand, exclaiming to him "I'm the leader here Charmy, so I'll decide where we should go!"

Vector then looks forward, and after a few seconds of deduction he realizes that the passage opened by Knuckles' fists is pretty much the only way to go. Hesitantly growling, the crocodile is met by Charmy's slyly spoken "Weeeeellll Vector? Where are we going?"

Slapping the front of his head, Vector points forward at the tunnel and says "We should go through that tunnel over there…" in a less than enthusiastic tone of voice.

Charmy lets out a cry of "Woo-hoo!" before flying right off towards the tunnel. Vector slowly heads towards it after saying to Espio "Come on, we'll probably find something juicy on this whole Eggman thing this way…Knowing our luck." The chameleon responds with a nod of his head, and slowly joins his fellow Chaotix down into the darkened tunnel…

Next Time: Metal Sonic's Last Stand