Years. It felt like years had gone by when the soft drip of water welcomed the almost overwhelming aching. The wall was illuminated slightly by the sheer amount of red energy crackling up from him as he weakly let out a soft groan as he opened his eyes. He appeared on his stomach, the cold stone below him making him feel like he'd been plunged into a bucket of ice for a day straight. The stiffness in his body from the floor didn't help his condition, with every muscle feeling like it was on fire. As he slowly pushed himself into a partial sitting position on his knees, he noticed a pool of blood that had manifested and somewhat dried beneath him. He looked at his abdomen to see a nasty gash across his side, a deep one at that. The aching throughout his body just seemed to divert attention away from it, so it didn't hurt as much as it normally would have. He noticed more of the energy crackling around the gash than anywhere else besides his one leg, which when he moved it felt an agonizing shockwave of pain fly straight up his leg, causing him to collapse sideways onto his behind, getting out a pained gasp as it happened. He winced as he tried to maneuver himself enough to see what was wrong, and saw not only a somewhat small, yet still sizeable stalagmite stuck in his leg close to his knee, but that his ankle was severely swollen. When he tried to touch it to try and figure out how bad it was by moving his shoe cuff, the shockwave of pain rushed through his body again, leaving him letting out a strangle groan. His foot didn't seem to be in an odd angle, but it definitely hit something on the way down, causing it to become sprained, much to his annoyance.

"Great, I have a giant wound in my stomach, a rock in my knee and a sad ankle, I'm in an unknown place, and I'm still on that damn ticking time bomb," he hissed under his breath, before he grumbled, wrapping his hands around the stalagmite stuck in his leg. He took a deep breath as he readied himself before using as much force as fast as possible to rip it out of his leg, keeping back a cry of pain as he freed it from his leg. Immediately blood started pooling out of his leg, causing a wave of nausea to pass over him from the blood loss adding to the original loss from his stomach. If he'd have known it was gonna start up that badly he may have suffered with the stalagmite longer, but he couldn't dwell on that now. Tossing the rock away he pressed his leg down as much as his ankle would allow before applying as much pressure as he could bear to the wound, which was a lot more than he thought he could in his current state. He winced heavily from the pain shooting up his leg, but as he continued applying pressure he slowly looked up in his haze, trying to figure out if he could see up the way he had fallen. Nothing, pitch black other than the red light he was emitting, meaning if he wanted to climb back up he'd most likely have a worse off result than he did now, especially with the notable drips of water landing on his head. By this, with as much intelligence as he could wrack from his tired and nearly-back-to-passing-out brain, he deduced there was probably twist in the way he fell at some point, which could explain why he had a gash AND a stalagmite in his leg when he awoke. It was the only reason he could think of, especially with the water dripping from the darkness onto him and his surroundings from the hole.

After he had been sitting there applying pressure long enough to probably have sauntered all the way to Central City and back with a stop of the local Chao reserve, he officially decided to stop applying pressure before he lolled his head backwards as he closed his eyes. He removed his hands to retreat them to the floor as stability while he leaned back, taking in a few steady breathes before looking back at his leg. It wasn't bleeding nearly as bad, which was a plus. His gloves were pretty much his default hand color but darker on the palms. A sacrifice for not bleeding to death that he would gladly take. Besides, he had some spares back at Tails' place he could use. He let the fox watch over most of his stuff since his home was really just wherever the master emerald was, and he was especially insistent on the group NOT building him a shack where he could slack off his guarding duties. In the long run all of his spare gloves and shoes, along with any extra possessions he wished to keep, were left with Tails, the only one he could trust whole heartedly to not go snooping around in his stuff when he specifically ordered not to. Amy, as sweet and privacy-induced as she was, would totally go snooping to see if he had any, say, love interest, before coming back to give him a lecture on it, regardless of what she found. Sonic, even though he was... technically, the first of the three he had ACTUALLY met, he knew Sonic. Even if he didn't go snooping, he'd probably not put his stuff in the greatest of places and then either forget where he'd stashed it all or accidently break something inside. If he knew Big a little better he may have asked the purple cat to watch his stuff, but he'd only met the cat a few times, talked with him even less. God... what he'd give to be back on Angel Island without anything else to worry about besides the Master Emerald, Rouge coming to seduce him into giving it to her, or if Sonic was going to pay him his annually unannounced visit out of nowhere. Yet here he was, stuck in on underground cave system with a creepy bloodthirsty creature somewhere above with his friends, who were doing chaos knows what up above. He had no idea if he could even stand, let alone if he was alone. For all he knew some mutated bats could come out of nowhere and pluck his eyes out for their breakfast. He shuddered at the thought before slapping his cheeks and attempting to push himself up a bit more.

"Stop letting your mind stray from the task dammit, I need to get out of here... or at least try to find a way out until those guys can find a way down here... if they do... NO! Ugh..." Knuckles groaned, internally slapping himself for already starting to talk aloud to himself, before he put both of his hands on the ground to try and stand up. This somewhat failed, causing him to stumble into the wall, but it allowed him to stabilize himself against it and lift all the weight off of his severely injured leg, allowing him a breather. He stood there for a moment, before attempting to exert a bit of the pent up energy to try and illuminate his surroundings better. It worked a little bit, enough for him to see a good few feet in front of him. It also allowed, however, a reflection of red to burn into the side of his eye, causing him to blink in irritation before looking at his wrist to see his communicator. Wait.. yes! He may be able to contact the group from here! He put his back to the wall as he turned the device on, bringing it up to make sure they could hear him properly.

"Hey, guys? Can you read me? Hello?" It took a bit of static before a somewhat choppy reply came back.

"Knuckles? Oh my god thank chaos you're alive!" the unmistakable sound of the young fox came through, sounding terrified and relieved.

"Where are you? I've been trying for about an hour to track you but I haven't gotten a signal, are you ok? Are you in any danger?"

"Hey slow down a bit, I just got finished treating a-... a small scratch," He lied, straight through his teeth much to the shame he buried before it cracked his current demeanor.

"I'm fine, I have no idea where I am besides the fact where I fell in most likely had a turn of sorts, since it feels like a mini rainfall down here, as well as I appear to be in some sort of underground cave. I have nothing else besides that though... did you say you've been trying for at least an hour? How long have I been down here?"

"About 3, the first two we were stuck being chased by a few more of those vicious creatures, I'm not even sure if I'm trying to track you in the same place you fell if I'm gonna be honest..."

"Are the other two with you?"

"Amy is a bit ahead and Sonic is a bit behind, do you think you could try and tune your communicator to a specific channel? Like the ELEC-T03?" AT this Knuckles looked a bit weary at the device, removing it off his wrist for better access to the tiny knob on the side.

"Yeah, I can try... If I remember it was this... did that pick up?"

"Yes! You're a bit North, I'll get the other two before we head your way, please let us know if you come across danger, and I'll try to do some check ins to make sure you're doing ok, please try to do the same?" The poor fox sounded on the verge of tears through his speech, although sounding excited he seemed audibly terrified, causing Knuckles' heart to drop a bit, sympathy rising.

"Yeah, don't worry little pal, I won't go dark on you unless I'm straight up knocked out or my communicator gets busted, I promise," He chuckled, trying to sound optimistic on the situation before returning to his surroundings as he re-equipped his communicator. He was about to start moving before Tails chimed in again.

"Oh yeah, and, Knuckles? In our haste of no knowing where you weerrre aand the energy state your iiiin we kind of... mutually agreed to call team Daaark... so expect to see Shadow and Rouge at some point?"

"Why in chaos did you get THEM of all people?"

"Because I don't think any of us, as much as we love them, would trust the Chaotix to help us find you, and you know how competent they are, once we find you and get you back to the surface they'll have us back home in a jiffy!"

"Tails... I'm not even going to start... fine, thanks for letting me know before it suddenly pops up unexpectedly.." he grumbled internally at this information. Why out of everyone those two? They were the two he'd expect the LEAST to care. Well... best not to dwell on it until he didn't feel half-soaked to the bone, cold to the point his hands felt completely numb, and like every step... or technically assisted hop, was a knife stabbing into his gut. It hadn't been as bad before, but with him actually now attempting to use the wall to start finding his way around, along with the energy shocking at the tender skin around it, his abdomen wasn't in the greatest of moods right now. He didn't have his earlier start of an appetite anymore, that's for sure. It hadn't even been a full minute since he started to shuffle-hop with his hand on the wall for support, and he already wanted to fall back over and go back to sleep. If it weren't for his current anxiety and the constant knag something wasn't right, he may have succumbed to his exhaustion and passed back out, sleeping away until Tails and the group found him and then just let them carry him back. That, no matter how tempting, though, went against his entire act towards them. That would show his friends we was weak and incapable of doing anything just from some injuries. Besides, he'd had worse LONG before he met the duo, all those years ago. He just sucked it up and slowly inched his way along the wall, beginning his trek with the little energy he currently held, hoping he could find a way out.

It felt like it had been ages since he had started moving, each little limp felt like a wave of agonizing exhaustion as he traversed the dark cave. The red light and energy crackling around him had grown to an almost dangerous state by now, his body numb from it, other than the almost overwhelming pain and exhaustion combining to make everything seem like it was in slow motion to him. He couldn't even feel the bit of blood trickling from his abdomen down his leg anymore, he didn't even know if it WAS doing that now. The communicator around his wrist had been a prototype of Tails', with only the options of different signals it could let out to talk to others, so it had no features like a watch, making him completely unaware of how much more time had passed. It felt like hours, but to his knowledge it may as well have been mere minutes, if not for the last time he had turned around there was another seemingly bottomless pit just around the curve, with the spot he'd fallen being nowhere in sight. He knew he was well off from where he'd fallen, but he hadn't heard anything from Tails since he started moving, which not only concerned him, but made him twinge a little bit in unwanted frustration.

It wasn't much longer of hopping about before he ended up stumbling, rearing back in surprise as he reached a hand out to stop his fall, leaving him in an awkward plank position that left his torso in a twisted kind of angle. This meant his wound was being pulled at, causing him more pain than needed as he winced, trying to push himself back up without using his other leg. He failed, causing himself to fully collapse onto the frigid cold stone, sending a violent chill up his spine, and a searing pain from the contact on his wounds. He groaned as he lay there, panting from the exhaustion and pain coursing through his body, which he could barely feel with the mass amount of tingling in his body. After lying there for a bit, he pulled his arm over to activate his communicator, seeing if Tails would respond.

"T-Tails..?" He started, wincing at how raspy and tired he actually sounded, but tried to ignore it as he waited for a response. Nothing, even after what he counted in his head as 2 minutes, so he tried again.

"Tails? Are you there..? Anyone at all?" Another 2 minutes, nothing. This made his skin crawl in anxiety as he shifted himself again, worry taking his focus away from his wounds, pain, and current rising energy that was crackling even more around him now.

"Tails, are you there? Is anyone there at all? Sonic? Amy? Anyone?" He was starting to panic, although he tried to hide it from seeping into his voice as he kept trying at his communicator. He knew it had a signal due to the lack of static, so he was aware it was just a problem that no one was picking up the signal to reply. Everyone had a collective signal that couldn't be tampered with the outside controls unless Tails fiddles around with it, so attuning his communicator to Tails' Electric wouldn't have caused their communicator lines to disconnect. He had a fear that whatever had attacked him ended up getting to them, which made him even more anxious. Pushing himself up and through the pain, he managed to get himself standing again, and starting hopping a lot faster than he had originally, ignoring the violent protesting his body provided him. he kept checking his communicator in hopes it would light up, signaling someone had picked up, but each time he checked the screen was black.

Eventually he came to what looked like a fork in the path, almost collapsing over as he stopped to take a breather, heaving from the exertion he had to force in order to move. He still hadn't gotten anything on his communicator, so he was left to guess a way to go and hope for the best onward. He didn't feel like trying for the left path, so he stuck to the wall and continued right, having to lift himself against the wall with every movement he made. The aura eminating off of him from the growing energy lit the path nicely, but at the cost of his energy depleting with every small movement... as if his energy wasn't already sapped enough by his injuries. Parshly through, suddenly his good leg gave out on him, causing him to crash into the ground with a startled yelp, followed by a groan of pain as he shifted himself onto his back, panting as he rested his hand over his wound and stared at the cold ceiling. He was both physically and mentally drained, wanting nothing more than to sleep until help arrived. he couldn't even feel his uninjured leg anymore other than the aching muscles complaining about being overused to the point of giving out.

He lay there as he panted, now feeling the entirety of his body and the amount of pain he was in. His stomach felt like it was being stabbed repeatedly, his injured leg was almost useless through the agony convulsing through it, his good leg was too exhausted to even move, and the collective other scrapes and bruises were becoming less tolerable due to the constant pins and needles getting worse by the second. He groaned a bit as he lay there, not so enthusiastic about falling onto the ground twice within probably 30 minutes, and even moreso how he most likely wasn't getting back up this time. He lay there for a couple minutes before suddenly he heard a light crackling from his communicator. He weakly brought it up with an urgent expression as he immediately spoke up.

"T-Tails..???" He completely ignored his heavy voice crack, too worried about if the other would respond to care.

Silence for a moment, before the crackling stopped.

"Knuckles?!?!" The fox sounded like he'd just ran a marathon, much to his concern.

"Are you ok??? What happened? I tried contacting you multiple times but you didn't answer!!"

"This forest... it isn't what it seems. Shadow and Rouge arrived by our pings only to immediately have a bunch of weird mutated creatures of sorts, not Mobians, more like dogs, or deer, just suddenly attack us all! I only got to contact you now because I found a spot they can't access..."

"So... you got split up??"

"I know Shadow and Amy are nearby, but I have no idea where Rouge or Sonic are..."

"Are you ok at least?"

"Minor injuries, the worst was getting hit in the face by a berry bush branch in a hasty retreat but I'm fine otherwise... You don't sound too hot though.. Are YOU ok?"

Knuckles stifled a wince as another wave of nauseating pain washed over him before speaking.

"Y-yeah, just losing track of time in this chaos-forsaken cave, I have utterly no idea where I am..."

He heard a noise come from the other end, but before he could question it Tails spoke up again.

"I feel you're hiding something... but I won't press, so long as you are concious and still going... somewhat... I can take that. Especially since you aren't dead,"

"Please, you think this would kill me? The damn corrupted emeralds in me are gonna kill me off before some sad depressing cave," A voice in the back of his head told him otherwise however, just as another wave of pain coursed through his body. He attempted to stifle the hiss, but it seems Tails heard what little he couldn't supress.

"Knuckles, if you got hurt past some scratches, you know it would help up out to know this so we could be more prepared when we get to you. I don't want to find you with a severred limb, as an example..." He grimaced, about to protest, before pausing a second.

"I-... It's nothing I couldn't fix myself..." He couldn't help it, lying through his teeth so his friends didn't worry. They said these things all the time, yet would fuss over it regardless if it was already spoken or not. He wanted to avoid going further than what he did, not wanting to throw the already panicked fox into another frenzy with his injuries.

"Knuckles... I-" suddenly a shrieking sound echoed from the communicator, getting a gasp out of the fox. This alarmed Kncukles, causing him to manage to sit up as he looked at his communicator.

"Tails??"

"I-I need to be silent otherwise they'll find me, I'll call back asap..!"

"O-ok, please for the love of chaos be safe.." He got a grunt of affirmation from the clearly terrified fox, before the static went to silence, causing Knuckles to let out a shaky sigh. His blood pressure had risen from the shriek, his heart racing a bit as thoughts plagued his mind. Worry seeped it's way through him as he glanced at the wall in front of him, praying Tails didn't get hurt. Hell, he prayed none of them got hurt, since they got split up. Tails was by himself though... He couldn't do jack though, so worrying wasn't going to get anyone anywhere... Although, he wasn't physically going anywhere anyways, since he was forced back onto his back by another wave of pain. Even through his worry and fear for his friends, exhaustion tugged at every part of his body, lulling and begging him to fall into the dark embrace of slumber. Each passing moment got harder for him to stay awake, no matter how much he tried to take his mind off his exhaustion with worrying for his friends. He kept himself awake though through sheer force, hoping, praying to Chaos and above that his friends would be safe...