Knuckles Chaotix: Pt 2
"Ring around the rosies, a pocket full of posies, ashes, ashes, we all fall down."
All around him, Knuckles could see the forms of echidna children running and laughing in every direction. They bumped into the echidna but he felt nothing. No matter how much he tried Knux couldn't make out their faces which were hazy blurs moving through the crowd.
"Hey there, buddy. You look confused." A gruff but familiar voice called out. "Why don't you step right up and try to knock the milk bottles down and win a prize?" Knuckles turned to face the carnival booth the voice had come from. His jaw nearly hit the floor when he saw who was speaking.
"Vector? Is that you?" Knuckles asked. "Why the heck are you dressed in that silly costume?"
"I don't know what you're talking about, Mac. I'm just trying to make an honest mobium here?" The gator replied. "Now, three balls and if you knock the bottles down, you win one of these lovely plush animals here." Vector pointed to a bunch of stuffed animals hanging above him. To his horror, Knuckles realized that the stuffed animals resembled Sonic, Amy, Tails, and Bunny.
"Sure, give me the balls." Taking aim at the milk bottles, he through the first ball and missed the stack by a mile.
"Tough luck, kid." Vector chuckled. "But you'll get it with the next ball, am I right?" Knuckles stared at the glass bottle tower and throw his second ball. It bounced right off the milk bottles and landed on the ground without knocking down a single one.
"Oohhh, looks like dumb old Knuckles couldn't knock down the bottles and win one of us." The Sonic plushie taunted him. "But then, Knucklehead never could do anything right."
"Shut up, Sonic. You're always calling me dumb." Knuckle snapped at the plushie. "I don't have to take your insults here."
"But you sure do deserve them, dreadhead." The Tails plushie added. "You could never do anything right and you usually screwed up all of our missions."
"That's not true!" Knuckles screamed back clenching the ball angrily. "I always did my best. Even when I didn't understand what was going on."
"Oh, y'all did your best alright like when y'all were flirtin' with that bat girl when my life was in danger." The Bunny plushie responded. "Y'all never really cared about me at all, did you."
"SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!" Knuckles roared, winding up the ball with all his might. "I SAID 'SHUT UP'!" The ball hit the milk bottle stack shattering them all into a million pieces. Suddenly, Vector screamed.
"NOOOOOOO!" Then, he too shattered into a million pieces. All of the plushies started to giggle and laugh at Vector before they and the entire booth shattered into tiny little pieces. Terrified, he ran off through the midway screaming in terror.
"That didn't just happen. That didn't just happen. That didn't just happen." The echidna mumbled hyperventilating. Stopping to catch his breath, Knuckles came to a brightly colored tent and heard the sound of cheering and clapping coming from inside. "Huh, looks like I found the circus." He said aloud. "I wonder what act is on right now."
Walking through the tent flap, the echidna found himself inside a dark circus tent with only a single spot light on a high-wire trapezes. The entire crowd was in shadow and a voice could be heard over the tent's PA system.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, prepare to be amazed at the death-defying stunts of our star acrobat. I give you, the lovely Miss Pikablu." Suddenly, Knuckles saw Relic in a glittery little skimpy outfit with peacock feathers on the back walk out onto the high-wire carrying nothing but a balance pole.
"Relic, what are you doing up there?" Knuckle exclaimed. "You're afraid of heights and besides you never be caught dead in something like that revealing." Suddenly, two phantom jugglers tossed flaming torches onto either side of Relic's balancing pole. Both sides began to burn up as Relic lost her balance and started to fall.
"Hurry Knuckles, save her, save her." A voice came out of the crowd, quickly it was joined by other voices. "Save her, Knuckles, hurry hurry. Don't be such a failure Knuckles. Save her like you couldn't save us." The tent suddenly lit up and Knuckles could see the audience, much to his horror they were echidnas: Pachacamac, Tikal, Al-thair, and his childhood friends and family.
"Knuckles, why didn't you save us." Alicurion, a red female echidna, asked him. "Why did you let Chaos murder us?"
"I'm sorry mother. I couldn't." Knuckles wailed, tears rolling down his face. "I was too small. There was nothing I could do but hide." The echidna heard a scream from behind him, followed by a sickening wet thud of a small body landing on the ground. Turning back to face Relic, he saw an open gloved hand attached to a tiny blue arm laying on the ground with Relic's open journal clutched in her hand.
"I won't admit this to Knuckles, dear diary. But I think I'm beginning to develop a crush on him." Knuckles read on the open page of the journal as blood oozed out all around it. "He's a really great friend and I know Knuckles would never let me fall."
"AHHHHH!" He ran through the tent in terror, screaming at the top of his lungs.
Still tramutizd by what he had already witnessed, Knuckles wondered towards the ride area hoping to find some sign of the others.
"I've got to get the last three out of here before it's too late." A terrified Knuckles thought aloud. "I can't let the survivors end up like those first two."
As he made his way past the ferris wheel, the echidna spied a familiar armadillo in the same chessy circus outfit that Vector had been in.
"Hey kid, wanna ride on the ferris wheel?" Mighty asked him. "It'll only cost you one ticket."
"Mighty, come on we got to get out of here." Knuckles pleaded. "This whole place is gone crazy and I saw…"
"Sure, I knew you wanted a ride." Mighty picked him up and slam dunked him into the seat pulling the lap bar back. "Now, hold on tight."
"NO! Mighty, I'm afraid of heights!" The echidna screamed in vain. Round and round the ferris wheel went, faster and faster. Knuckles saw the world disappear into a blur of streaking lights and muffled sounds.
Through the haze, Knuckles saw flashes of his friends pleading for help.
"Knuckles, hurry." Tails cried out as Eggman was about to crush him in his egg walker. "I need your help."
"Knuckles, y'all gotta to do somethin'." Bunny cried out as a battle bird soldier was about to shoot her in the head. "I can't survive without y'all."
"Knuckles, we're all gonna die." Amy pleaded as Metal Sonic grabbed her around the throat. "We're not going to… Uggrh!"
"Gee, Knuckles. You sure, are really slow." A familiar snarky voice came through the haze as a the blur all around him changed to blue. "You're too slow to save everyone. Yes, it's up to me again." Knuckles, then, saw flashes of Sonic defeating every enemy and rescuing every friend. "Why don't you just stick to what you're good at? Digging through the dirt and being slow and stupid."
"NOO! I'M TOO STUPID! I'M NOT WORTHLESS!" Knuckles smashed his way out of the ferris wheel seat. Tearing free of the ride, as he soared through the air. "I am sick of you always showing me up. I am sick of always being in second place." Damaged by the echidna's rampage, the ride collapsed falling over on Mighty who stood nearby.
"Oh scrap, this is going to come out of my paycheck, isn't it?" Mighty sighed as the ride crushed him to death.
"MIGHTY! NOT YOU TOO!" Knuckles wailed. "WHY DOES THIS KEEP HAPPENING!?"
The echidna ran off through the faceless crowd racing back towards the Midway from where he started. Among all of the laughing faceless children, Knuckles saw a familiar bee holding a balloon.
"Charmy, there you are. We've got to get out of here." Knuckles pleaded running up and grabbing the mobian child's shoulder. "Everyone's dying and this place is turning crazy." But as Knucles turned him around, he was horrified by what he saw. An endless grin was spread across his face and his eyeball sockets were empty. It was like staring into two empty abysses.
"We're all happier here, Knux." Charmy answered. "Join us." Suddenly, the children all around him began to pick up the chant.
"Join us, join us, join us, join us." The children replied.
Knuckles pounded at the ground, desperately trying to tunnel away from all this insanity but the soil would not give way beneath his punches… almost as if it wasn't really there.
"Knuckles, can you hear me?" A familiar voice echoed throughout the park. "If you can hear me, then you have begun to realize the true nature of this place."
"Wait, Espio?" Knuckles called out looking at the sky above him. "Where are you? What's going on?"
"It doesn't matter, Knuckles. Your mind has been clouded by falsehoods." Espio's voice lingered in the wind. "You must focus and find the center. Only the center will wash away all of these deceptions and lies." The chameleon began to chant. "The center is truth follow my voice to the truth."
"What I see are lies." Knuckles declared sitting down on the ground in a meditative position and closing his eyes. "The center is truth. My friends are unharmed. These lies seek to claw away at my identity. They seek to make me feel alone." Knuckles' voice grew angrier. "I am NOT by myself and afraid. I am Knuckles. I am the last of my clan. My friends are always with me and your lies are broken."
Opening his eyes, Knuckles found the entire carnival vanished before him. From the darkness, he saw a glowing Espio emerge. Holding up a kunai, Espio tossed the blade at the darkness.
"ILLUSION SHATTER-NO-JUTSU!" The chameleon screamed. As the darkness shattered like cracked glass and feel away all around him. Looking up, Knuckles found himself back in the metal chamber again. His friends sprawled out all over the floor around him exhausted and weary but unharmed in the center of the room. Espio sat in a meditative position chanting sutras to himself while holding a string of beads to his forehead. "Welcome back to the world of the living, my echidna friend." Espio said with a smile. "It's about time you rejoined us."