Having evaded the SQPD yet again, Sonic and Tails were making a break for the airport.
"Man, seems like the fuzz is always around when ya don't need 'em!" said Sonic. "Tails, any news yet?"
Tails shook his head. "For some reason, I'm not getting a signal from the six remaining Chaos Emeralds. Maybe Robotnik took them into outer space."
"Then we better get to that secret pyramid base…fast!"
After finding the Tornado again, Sonic and Tails flew across the world to the Great Pyramids of Mazuri, located near the Mazuri-Qitria border. Here, they encountered somebody that Sonic was hoping to find…
"Knux, long time no see! How ya doin' with the Master Emerald?"
Knuckles smiled. "Well, I managed to get all the shards back no thanks to that crazy bat. Anyways, her and Robotnik went in there." He pointed to what was seemingly the largest pyramid.
"Inside that pyramid?"
"No doubt about it. That's the pyramid where they entered."
"Then we should be able to get into outer space from there! I don't know too much about this ARK thing, but I'm gonna find that cannon, destroy it and kick their jive asses!" Sonic pumped his fist.
"All right!" Knuckles pumped his fist in tandem.
"I'll go and find the entrance!" said Tails.
Sonic and Knuckles stood by as Tails ran over to the pyramid in an attempt to find the hidden base within. Thus far, everything seemed normal, but not having Hedgehog Sense like Sonic, the Two-Tailed Wonder was at a bit of a disadvantage when it came to getting a leg up on his foes, as evidenced by a Jetpack SWATbot that swooped in on him. However, Tails was quicker on the draw and moved on without so much as a scratch on him. A second one attempted the same stunt and ended up making its last mistake as well. Soon enough, Tails came upon a wall.
"Hmmm…this looks pretty weak…"
Tails charged up a Spin Dash and broke through the wall. There was another wall just like it beyond that wall, which he also broke down in addition to another one beyond that. A group of SWATbots were guarding the entrance to a hallway, but Tails made quick work of two of them with his blaster pistol. The rest attempted to open fire on him, so he quickly ducked behind the wall and evaded their blaster bolts. Knowing that he would likely lose a head-on confrontation like this, he walked a little further down and flew over the wall with his twin tails, taking the SWATbots by surprise and enabling him to enter the hallway.
The hallway was dotted with a bunch of large ceramic pots, plus a couple of Caterkillers, none of which were too problematic for Tails. Coming back outside, a couple more Jetpack SWATbots attempted to get the jump on him, but they too were added to the ever-growing scrap pile that Team Sonic was amassing. After breaking down a few more walls and trashing a couple of Buzz Bombers, Tails seemed to have it easy for a time. Then, a couple more Jetpack SWATbots popped out at him. However, he figured that something like this would happen, so it wasn't much of a problem for him. Again, he encountered another quiet stretch, the only real problems for him being a couple of Orbinauts, which again were no real challenge for him. After this point, the main challenge for him was trying to navigate a real maze around the pyramid. At one point, there were a couple of large blocks situated on an equally large staircase.
"Let's see…"
Tails jumped at a block and cracked it. A few jumps later, he broke through. Once he disposed of the second block, he continued his quest. He soon came to a large room with multiple levels, which was no trouble for him to navigate thanks to his twin tails. Still, he wasn't really encountering any enemies…that is, until he came across a short stretch with a couple of Orbinauts and Caterkillers, which all proved too easy for him to dispose of. Then, he came upon a short hallway with a bunch of sand pits. As he approached one sand pit, a small drill bot popped out of it, which surprised him, but not long enough to prevent him from jumping up and smashing it. Seeing this, he decided to fly over the rest of the sand pits and just barely managed to dodge the rest of the drill bots. Soon, he came upon another multi-level room that he flew up in. Finally, after he blew up one last wall, he found the entrance to the hidden pyramid base, so he called Sonic and Knuckles on his watch communicator:
"Sonic, Knuckles, I found the entrance to the hidden base! I'm activating my homing beacon now!"
Tails pressed a couple of buttons on his watch communicator, and within the minute, Sonic and Knuckles showed up.
"All right, guys, let's do this!" said Sonic.
Almost immediately, Sonic took point, with Tails and Knuckles following. They sped through a long hallway, having an all right time considering there were no enemies to impede their progress, although after jumping a large gap, they came upon a door with a large hourglass in front of it. When Sonic touched the hourglass, it flipped over, and the door opened, so Team Sonic headed through and ascended a couple more levels, not encountering any enemies even as they got to another hourglass.
"This ain't normal!" said Sonic. "How come none of Robuttnik's toys are in here?"
"I'm not sure," said Tails.
"Let's keep our eyes open anyways!" said Knuckles.
Everyone did so. Still, for another stretch, they came across no enemies, but Sonic's Hedgehog Sense told them that it wouldn't be this way for much longer. He was right: they soon came across a robot that had a red/silver torso that had the number "1000" on it, a yellow head with a black face and red eyes, black shoulders, silver/red legs and large black feet. It also sported dual laser cannons, one on each arm. Nevertheless, this new robot proved to be no stronger than Robotnik's garden-variety SWATbots, nor did the other two that came after it.
"Wow, Robuttnik got thrashed and he's STILL spendin' money on R&D?" said Sonic. "That turkey don't know when to give up!"
Team Sonic certainly wasn't about to give up, either. After activating another hourglass and moving on, they came to a raised platform in front of a chain link door with the Eggman Empire logo on it. The only indication that anything was supposed to happen was a large Phillips head bolt, and Tails flew over the platform.
"Let's try putting that bolt in!"
"Right!" said Knuckles.
Knuckles picked up the bolt and inserted it into the center depression on the platform. This opened the door and allowed them to proceed further. At one point, Sonic's Hedgehog Sense went off again, and not because of the "1000" series robots, but because of something else…
"SONIC, A GHOST!" exclaimed Knuckles.
Undeterred by Knuckles' exclamation, Sonic jumped at the ghost and caused it to disappear in a puff of smoke.
"Should we maybe turn back now?" asked Tails.
"No!" said Sonic.
Team Sonic kept moving on in spite of Tails' and Knuckles' uncertainty, passing what appeared to be a series of rotating paddles. Eventually, they came to another dead end, but there was a flathead bolt there.
"Sonic, I saw another one of those platforms back where the ghost attacked!" said Tails.
"I know what to do!" said Knuckles.
After Knuckles grabbed the bolt, Team Sonic headed back, with Sonic and Tails providing cover for Rad Red as they destroyed a couple of robots. Knuckles planted the bolt once they returned to the platform, and they were able to move on despite a bunch of ghosts coming after them. At one point, Sonic got overconfident, and a ghost ended up grabbing him.
"Guys, help me out!"
Tails and Knuckles both aimed a punch at the ghost, which dissipated it.
"Thanks!" said Sonic. "I thought I was Toast City!"
"You're welcome!" said Tails.
"Yeah, we're always glad to help!" said Knuckles.
After exiting this hallway, Team Sonic came upon another hourglass, but this time, it opened a series of doors, so they had to hurry in order to make it through. Fortunately, they did so, and the next couple of sections proved to be an easy jaunt. Granted, there was the occasional robot that got in their way, but for the most part, it was smooth sailing. Eventually, they came to a large door with the Eggman Empire logo on it.
"We gotta be heading toward the center of the base," said Tails.
"Man, Robuttnik sure loves mechanical things, huh?" said Sonic. "I'll bet he has one or two spaceships lyin' around here somewhere!"
Tails approached the door. However, he could find no evidence of any handle or mechanism for opening it, just three keyholes.
"The door's locked," said Tails. "We'll need three keys to get in here."
"Maybe not!" said Sonic. "Stand back!"
Sonic attempted to knock down the door with a Spin Dash. Unfortunately for him, the door refused to budge, and he got to his feet as he rubbed his head.
"OK…that wasn't supposed to happen…"
"You're doin' it wrong, Sonic!" said Knuckles. "Lemme show ya how it's done!"
Knuckles attempted to punch the door open. Unfortunately, that had no effect, either.
"All right, looks like it's up to you to find those keys, Knuckles!" said Sonic.
"What!? Why do I have to find the key!?"
Sonic pointed at Knuckles. "Hey, you're one of the world's greatest treasure hunters, ain't ya? We're countin' on ya!"
Knuckles nodded.
After backtracking a little way, Knuckles entered another chamber within the pyramid. After jumping up onto a higher level, he activated an hourglass and went through the door that it opened. Shortly thereafter, he came upon another 1000-series robot and destroyed it, and then punched through a somewhat-cracked wall to enter another room.
"I can sense one of the keys around here…"
Knuckles activated another hourglass and ended up in a large, cylindrical room with multiple levels. In the center of the room was what appeared to be a large electrical generator. Not exactly sure of where to find the key, he ran around for a little bit until…
"It's really close now…"
Knuckles approached a giant statue and found the first key hidden behind its feet.
"Only two more to go!"
After running around the generator room for a bit, Knuckles found another weak section of wall to break through. In here, he noticed what appeared to be some uncovered dirt on the wall, so he dug through it and ended up in another room. Here, there was a crusher awaiting him, but he managed to avoid getting flattened as he moved along. In one hallway, there was another Orbinaut awaiting him, so he waited until it fired off its spiked balls before beating the snot out of it. He soon came to a room lit with purple light, and he made a right turn, where he came into a small shaft room where some more 1000s awaited him. He punched their lights out and dodged a group of bats before coming to a small room with another one of those dirt panels. Digging through this, he ended up in a ventilated room with grating on certain sections of the floor, and when he proceeded further, he could sense another key. However, he ended up at a dead end, so he backtracked a bit and found another hourglass, which opened a door. However, this one was closing rather quickly, so he slid under the door and made it through. Another Orbinaut awaited him, and he destroyed that one, which surrendered another key.
"Only one more to go…"
After activating another hourglass and heading through another door, Knuckles busted up a couple more Orbinauts before coming to another dirt panel, which he dug through. He came to a small room with a weak section of wall, and upon busting through it, he came into the room where he started. After returning to the generator room, he jumped to the bottom floor and used an hourglass to open another door. After running through a hallway, he ended up in a room that was alit with green. He took notice of another door that was closing and slid under it to enter a room with three treasure chests. Unfortunately for him, these were empty, so he took a hurdle over a fallen stone pillar and into a room with another weak wall, so he punched through that, only for a ghost to come out at him. After he gave a brief yelp, he punched its lights out.
The room that Knuckles was in turned out to be a dead end, and another dirt panel he dug through took him to the room he was in before, so he explored the opposite end, coming into a hallway with a grated floor. He managed to dodge a crusher, and then he busted up two ghosts before moving on. He came to a red room with an hourglass in it in addition to another Orbinaut, which he destroyed handily. After activating the hourglass and going through another door, he grabbed a handle and got pulled up to a higher level, where he destroyed another 1000 in another hallway.
Coming into another room, he found another cracked wall, which he busted through, and then came to another dirt panel, this one taking him into a hallway that was almost identical to the one where he found the second key. Going to the right, into a room with a drawing of a scorpion on the wall, he activated a missile that blew open a bunch of prison bars, which led to another room with two scorpion drawings in it. He could sense that the last key was nearby, so he dug through another dirt panel, and sure enough, he found the last key buried under a patch of dirt.
"Score!" Knuckles pumped his ham fist. "Now to return to Sonic and Tails!"
Doing his best to find his way back, Knuckles was getting closer to the entrance when he heard some mysterious babbling in the generator room.
"Huh!?" Knuckles turned around. "Who's there!?"
Behind Knuckles was another ghost, this one larger than all the others that had come before.
"What the…that's a really big ghost! He must be the king! Time to show 'em how I flex!"
Knuckles charged at King Boom Boo, only for the ghost to throw a fireball at him.
"Bad idea! BAD IDEA!"
Knuckles ran away flailing his arms about, hoping not to become ghost soup. Fortunately, he was just fast enough to outrun it, and at one point, it paused. While still running wildly, Knuckles noticed a smaller ghost carrying an hourglass, so as he re-summoned his courage, he put out that ghost's lights and activated the hourglass, which also opened the skylights in the room. King Boom Boo screamed and retreated into the ground, its shadow still being visible.
"Wait…that gives me an idea!"
Knuckles caught up to King Boom Boo's shadow and dug into the ground where it was. It resurfaced, only smaller, so Knuckles punched it in the back, causing it to scream again.
"Yeah, take that!"
King Boom Boo grew smaller and changed direction. Still feeling charged up, Knuckles ran after it and punched it again. He was going to punch the ghost king again when the skylights closed, and the light went back out.
"Uh-oh! Time to run!"
Knowing that King Boom Boo was best not approached in this state, Knuckles ran away again. However, this time, King Boom Boo charged at him while chomping its jaws. Knuckles tried his best to outrun the ghost, but his speed wasn't as good as Sonic's speed, and he very nearly got caught, only for the ghost to back off when it was so close. King Boom Boo attempted another such attack, but feeling the adrenaline coursing through his veins by now, Knuckles surged on and evaded it more easily than last time, also evading another round of fireballs. The smaller ghost with the hourglass reappeared, so Knuckles beat the tar out of it and reopened the skylights. This time, King Boom Boo's shadow attempted to climb up the generator walls.
"Oh no you don't!"
Knuckles climbed up the generator and flushed out King Boom Boo. More determined than ever to get back to Sonic and Tails, Rad Red charged valiantly at it while swinging punches every which way but loose. It worked: with one final scream, King Boom Boo was no more. Knuckles pointed his fist at where the ghost king was last spotted.
"That'll teach ya to mess around with the guardian of the Knuckles Clan!"
Criticism is gold. Negativity and nitpicking are pyrite.