Into the Void Again: Pt 2
Knuckles the Echidna had seen many strange things in his life, from the terror of King Boomboo to the mysterious magic of the Wizard Nagus. He had faced angry battle birds and rampaging robots. But in all of his heroic career, he had never seen anything this utterly bizarre.
"Whoa, I'm getting dizzy." Knuckles exclaimed trying to hold on to the ground. "Where are we? When are we? What's going on around here?"
"It's like we're in a giant dryer or somethin'." Bunny exclaimed grabbing her head in pain. "Everythin' keeps spinnin' and spinnin' and spinnin'."
"The zone's lack of direction is throwing off our sense of balance." Shade warned. "We need to focus if we don't want our equilibrium thrown off." The great stone maze spun around them in circles. Tumbling the three freedom fighters around like socks in a dryer. All around them spun a dizzying swirl of power rings, color-changing gems, and psychedelic birds and fish.
"Whoa, I'm getting dizzy!" Knuckles exclaimed stumbling back on a stack of gems. "I think I'm gonna lose my chili dogs."
"Knuckles, wait." Shade cried out. "Don't lean on those gems. They'll give way under…" But even, as she speak the gems changed colors several times before vanishing.
"AHH!" Knuckles tumbled downward. Shade reached out and grabbed his arm before he tumbled into the endless abyss.
"Easy there, I got you." The echidna girl told him.
"Ya'll need to be more careful, Knux." Bunny added. "We don't want you to disappear into nothing."
"I could handle this place a lot better if it would just stop spinning and spinning." The red echidna replied. Just then, everything around them came to a halt. "Well, that's just great."
"Everything's suddenly gone dark and the maze has disappeared." Shade noted. "Just what exactly is going on here?"
"Well… my-my-my it seems some new playthings have found their way into my home." A crazy voice with a lisp muttered. "Perhaps you have all come to play some games with me?"
"Wait, I know that voice." Knuckles replied with a shiver. "I recognize it from the Archives of Team Sonic's adventures without me."
"Oh no, it is the demon." Shade shook in terror. "The demon who inhabited this place when we first arrived here."
"But Shade-honey, that's Dr. Warpnik. The evil scientist who was thrown into the Void during a fight with Sonic." Bunny commented. "How could he have possibly been here when your people arrived?"
"Time has no meaning in the special zone." Warpnik giggle insanely. "Up is down. Left is right. Horizontal is vertical. Tabletops are cheese. And straight is-"
"Don't say that." Shade interrupted. "There's Nocturnus children in here."
"Crooked." He finished with a maniacal laugh. "But it's time for some good ol' classical F. U. N."
"Good thing he finished that with a third letter, sugar." Bunny shook her head. A glowing light appeared in front of the three mobians that changed into the most bizarre thing they had ever laid eyes on. A spindly cartoon-like mad scientist with brown pants a white lab-coat and gargantuan shoulders appeared before them. Most terrifying of all was the fact, he had a goofy red cartoony head with buckteeth, glasses that were part of his face, and a blonde toupee that floated above his head like a chao ball.
"Holy heck, what happened to him?" Knuckles asked in shock. "He looks like one of those characters on the preschool shows that Cream watches."
"He has been twisted by the nature of the Special Zone." Shade explained. "It follows his warped will as if he and the zone were one."
"Correct, you are and your dear overlord, Ix, has been really buddy-buddy with me." The crazed scientist declared, picking up Mr. Puffykins and slurped him down, pulling him out of the sleeve of his coat. "So, it's decided to give me a new toy to play with."
Warpnik snapped his gloved fingers and a tied up echidna appeared beside him.
"Nestor!" Shade exclaimed. "What are you going to do with him?"
"He's the game we're going to play." Warpnik chuckled. "You're going to run down a race track that has rings and mines along the obstacle course. You must collect a hundred and fifty rings in order to pass the first obstacle." He rubbed his hands together. "But if you hit one of the mines, your rings all go flying and I win."
Suddenly, a tunnel appeared all around them and Nestor floated down to the very end of the track. Rings and explosives appeared on the path ahead of them.
"Guys, you two try to reach Nestor from here." Shade declared, twisting a dial on her armor. "I'm going to run the course with Warpnik unable to see me." She faded from sight and the crazy scientist just laughed.
"Visible or Invisible, it doesn't matter to me." He giggled. "The mines will blow you up all the same."
Knuckles and Bunny raced forward dashing to the left and right to avoid the deadly explosives while they collected rings.
"Wow, this is quite a workout." Bunny gasped jumping over a mine and racing into a path of rings. "Y'all gotta invite me to do this more often."
"Sure, Bunny. I love to have you along for a workout." Knuckles replied, smashing the side of the wall to make one of the mines explode ahead of him. "How would you feel about lifting thousand ton weights?"
"Uh, I think I'll pass sugar." Bunny shook her head. "That's a few thousand too light for me." She grabbed her metal arm and smiled. The two spin-jumped over an entire row of mines and dashed forward to collect a final string of rings.
"Hey, you're about to win no fair." Warpnik whined snapping his fingers again. "Well, it's time to change the game." As Knuckles and Bunny reached the last ring, it turned into a mine. Exploding on them both and scattering their rings, everywhere.
"It's over. it's over. I win. I win." He declared, prancing like a toddler on sugar. But when he looked over to where Nestor was tied, he screamed in shock. "What? Where did my toy go?" At the end of the track, Shade reappeared in tying Nestor and running up to her two friends.
"Come on, let's get out of here." Shade stated to them.
"Hey, how did you do that?" Warpnik demanded. "No one can get through my mind field track."
"I didn't go through your track, idiot." She stated to him. "I simply went invisible, climbed over the wall of the track and ran down to where Nestor was tied up."
"NO FAIR, YOU CHEATED!" Warpnik spat. "THAT'S AGAINST THE RULES!"
"Whoever said, I follow the rules." Shade replied. "Especially when dealing with an even worse cheater." Warpnik's voice screamed enraged all throughout the zone. The maze and the track began to crumble all around them as Nestor gazed in terror.
"The human fool is having a childish tantrum and the whole zone is reacting to his emotions." Nestor declared running ahead of them. "I recommend haste in our departure before we crumble with the rest of the Zone." The four ran ahead as everything around them crumbled into nothingness, a portal made of light suddenly opened in front of them, beckoning them to leave this place of insanity.
"That door up ahead." Knuckles cried. "It's our only hope."
"Are you sure, knucklehead?" Bunny asked. "Y'all don't even know where it leads."
"We don't have a choice." Nestor replied. "Hurry, everyone into the portal at once." The four mobians jumped into the circle of light.
They found themselves instantly transported from a decaying place of madness to a cold and foreboding palace made of crystal and ice. The permanency and strength of the icy walls was a symbol of pure order, the total opposite of the chaos they had just come from.
"Oh great," Knuckles grumbled, facepalming his hand against his forehead. "Where the heck are we now?"
"Welcome back, Nestor." A deep voice rumbled throughout the structure. "I did not expect you and your little friends to get away from the madman and his games."
"We're in Nagus Castle." Shade explained. "My people took refuge here when we were banished to the Zone."
"I have been waiting an eternity for the four of you." Imperator Ix declared rising from his crystalline throne and floating down to greet them. "Or has it only been five minutes? Time is such an obsolete concept here."
"We're here to put a stop to your treachery, Ix." Nestor announced, punching his fist into his hand. "And to make you pay for the hundreds of innocent lives you've taken."
"What you talking about?" Knuckles asked in confusion. "What lives did he take?"
"Ix is the one whom contaminated the creature, Chaos, with a toxin that drove him mad." Nestor explained. "He is indirectly responsible for the destruction of the Knuckles clan."
"What!?" Knuckles exclaimed. His eye twitching in a vile rage. "I'll kill that monster for destroying my people."
"NO! KNUCKLES, WAIT!" Shade protested but the enraged echidna raced forward driving his fists into the face of the Emperor. But just before he hit, an energy field appeared and blocked his blow.
"Hahahahahaha, foolish child of the guardians." Ix snarled. "You are no match for my power. You are just as foolish as your family was, their ignorance to my glory made them unfit to live in the perfect world I will make."
"You'll never get the chance to make that world, you rattlesnake." Bunny declared tightening her metal fist. "We're gonna knock you from one end of the Special Zone to the other."
"I love to see you try that." Ix replied, unimpressed by the mobian cyborg. "In my new world, imperfections such as yourself will be cleansed, removed like an infection from a healthy body." He went over to the panel. "Now, let me introduce you to my perfect antibody."
"RAWR!" A watery roar filled the chamber as the clear form of Chaos oozed into the room. Six emeralds were within his body, circling around his innards. The beast saw the five mobians and lunged forwards slashing his watery claws and tail. The emperor jumped out of the way.
"Watch where you are throwing those, you mindless brute." Ix shouted at him in anger. The watery blob made some kind of strange noise at the echidna before turning to face the other four. He attacked them with swipes of his extended arms causing the four heroes to jump and dodge out of the way.
"This guy is too fast." Knuckles stated. "What are we going to do?" The four mobians could only look on in terror as the creature prepared another attack…