Chapter 13: SA1 Part 4

When the group gathered their bearings after the crash landing, Sonic quickly sped on ahead to keep the missile launchers busy.

Shortly after, he came back.

"You guys alright?"

"Yeah! Let's get moving!" Tangle said as she continued to run.

Tails followed close behind, and discarded his bandages that were wrapped around his head.

In that moment, a missile hit the deck of the ship, opening a hole into it.

"You guys go on ahead, I have to find the last of the Master Emerald!" Knuckles said as he jumped into the hole.

"And I'll make sure he doesn't get into too much trouble…" Tangle said as she jumped in after him.

"Tangle?" Knuckles asked as she landed next to him.

"I figured we shouldn't leave anyone alone right now, who know's what they have prepared for us on this thing." Tangle said.

"Good thinking. Alright, let's get moving!" Knuckles said as the two of them began their search.

"How much of the Master Emerald is left to find?" Tangle asked.

"Not much, one more piece should do the trick." Knuckles explained. "It told me that the last piece is here, it's just a matter of finding it."

"Right… then we can figure out what we can do about Chaos!" Tangle said.

"Right."

After searching for a while, they came to a very… open area of the ship.

"What in the world?" Tangle asked.

"The Emerald is close… there!" Knuckles said as he pointed to a caged off part of the ship.

"Ok… so how do we get over there?" Tangle asked.

"Hm… maybe this lever does something…" Knuckles said as he pushed it.

Then, the entire area felt like it was tilting.

"WHOAWHOAWHOA!" Tangle shouted as Knuckles let go, setting the area back to normal.

"Hmm… maybe we can use that…" Knuckles said.

"How so?"

"If you tilt the area the right way, I could just glide into the cage and get the last piece." Knuckles explained.

"Sounds like a plan to me." Tangle said.

And they did just that… though it took a couple of tries. Satisfied with their work, they started making their way back to the deck to try and meet up with Sonic and Tails.

"Wait… what's that?" Knuckles asked.

A red orb suddenly appeared before them, and began to glow.

This feeling, was very familiar to Tangle.

'Tikal?'

A moment later, the light was gone.

"What was that?" Tangle asked.

"I just… got a vision of something that happened in the past…" Knuckles said.

"A vision?" Tangle asked.

'Ok, so not quite like what I went through… I was able to actually interact with everything there…'

She wasn't at the point where Sonic and Knuckles went there yet.

"Come on, I'll explain later." Knuckles said as the two of them began running again.

Eventually, they made their way outside again… only to see Sonic getting thrashed by…

"Is that Chaos?!" Tangle asked.

"Looks like it. Come on, Sonic needs our help!" Knuckles said before charging forward.

After Knuckles stopped Chaos' attack, Tangle helped Sonic to his feet.

"You good?"

"Yeah, I think so." Sonic said. "So, you guys got a plan?"

"Yeah! Imma punch him!" Knuckles said.

Tangle may not be the most experienced member or the group… or the smartest, but even she knew that wouldn't work.

"Uh, I think his body absorbs impacts Knuckles…" Tangle said. "He did that before he had any Emeralds… so…"

"Oh… uh… well… what should we do?" Knuckles asked.

"Well, it seems like he has a core… if we hit that, then we might get somewhere!" Sonic said.

"Sounds like a plan!" Tangle said.

They all nodded in agreement and began their assault.

Knuckles leapt into the air and used his shovel claw to tear a hole in Chaos' body. Tangle and Sonic then followed up with a combination of a Tail Hammer and Spin Dash to make quick work of the beast.

"WHAT?!"

And so, all that was left were the Chaos Emeralds, along side Chris and Big.

"You guys alright?" Tangle asked.

"Yeah… thanks." Chris said as Tangle helped him to his feet.

"So uh… how do we get out of here?" Tangle asked.

"Well, we have the X-Tornado…" Sonic said.

"I guess… wait…" Tangle said before pointing behind Sonic.

Eggman was trying to sneak away.

"HEY! WAIT YOU!" Sonic shouted before rushing over, the two of them flying off into the distance.

"Well… there he goes…" Tangle said. "Let's get to the X-Tornado and…"

"Hmmm… I have no idea what this is…" Big said from behind her.

"Huh?"

Big was sitting in the cockpit of the X-Tornado…

"WAIT! DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING!" Tangle shouted as the three of them charged at the plane.

"What does this do?" Big said as the plane sprung to life.

Thankfully, they were able to grab on before he took off.

Though the flight wasn't very pleasant…


Eventually, they managed to land… and in one piece! Bonus!

"Please… never do that again Big…" Tangle groaned out.

"Well, I'm going home." Knuckles said. "Gotta restore the Master Emerald."

"Right, good luck Knuckles." Chris said. "And thanks for the help!"

Knuckles responded by just waving as he left.

"Wait up! I'm coming with you!" Tangle suddenly said.

"Huh?"

'Knuckles said that I was helping them on the Egg Carrier earlier… that means that things can still go wrong…'

"I realized that I never saw your island before, or the Master Emerald! I just wanted to check it out!" Tangle lied.

"Oh… alright, I guess I can allow that. Come on."

"I'll see you later Chris! Get home safe!" Tangle said as the two of them walked away.

A little while later though…

"So, what's the real reason why you want to tag along?" Knuckles asked.

"Huh?"

"You were lying before, I can tell. So, what's the real reason?"

'If only he was this observant when Eggman is tricking him…'

"I still have a bad feeling about all of this… I want to make sure you get the Emeralds back to Angel Island safely." Tangle said. "I won't be able to relax if I don't."

"Fair enough." Knuckles said.

After a few hours of walking though…

"What in the world?!" Tangle asked.

"Eggman?!" Knuckles asked, in shock that the doctor was out cold right in front of them.

"… Looks like he's dead…" Tangle said. "Rest in peace… he won't be missed."

"Hey, is that Knuckles over there?" They heard someone say.

They turned around to see Sonic and Tails approaching them.

"Eggman?!" Sonic asked.

"What did you do to him?" Tails asked.

"Nothing, we found him like this." Tangle said. "Should we give him a burial or…?"

Tails then did the most scientific thing he could do at the time to determine if Eggman was alive or not…

Poke him with a stick of course.

And that woke him up.

"…Dang…"

"Who did this to you?" Sonic asked.

"That traitor… Chaos."

"Chaos?!"

Tangle became visibly nervous at this revelation.

"Tell us everything you know!" Knuckles shouted.

"Uh… no." Eggman said before he started floating in the air.

"HE CAN FLY?!" Tangle asked.

Turns out, Bocoe and Decoe arrived and began carrying him away from a hot air balloon.

"… Well that happened." Tangle said. "What now?"

"I don't know…" Knuckles said. "I mean… we could go after Chaos… but he can't be THAT much of a threat on his own… can he?"

"I mean…"

"Knuckles is probably right, we were able to take him just fine when he had six emeralds, so it should be easy to beat him when has none!" Sonic said. "So… let's let him come to us!"

"Sounds like a plan!" Tails said.

"Wait… but…" Tangle started.

She knew that she had no chance of getting them to agree to help… they were way to full of themselves right now.

'Tangle…'

'Huh? Tikal? That you?'

'They're Sonic and Knuckles… correct?'

'Yeah, that's right.'

'Join hands with them, I will show them what I showed you…'

'How about an abridged version of that? We're short on time.'

'Very well…'

"Sonic, Knuckles… there's something I need to show you." Tangle said.

"Huh?"

"Just… grab my hands, you'll figure it out soon enough." Tangle said as she offered her hands.

When Sonic and Knuckles grabbed them, they became engulfed in a bright light.

A couple of minutes later, the light faded.

"What… was that?" Sonic asked.

"Alright, talk! Just what is going on here?!" Knuckles asked more aggressively.

"Listen, I'll explain that later, what's important is that we can't let Chaos get the Emeralds!" Tangle said.

"I agree…" Sonic said.

"Alright, well, at least the last one hasn't been found yet." Knuckles said.

As if on cue, they heard Chris calling Knuckles name as he approached from the distance…

And he had the last Chaos Emerald.

"OH COME ON!" Tangle shouted.

Then ground began to shake, as Chris suddenly got consumed by a pillar of water.

"Chris!" Sonic shouted before leaping in and grabbing on to his friend.

After a bit of a combo attack, Knuckles and Tangle were able to disperse the water, but not before Chris lost the emerald.

And then the ground opened up, and the bag filled with Chaos Emeralds fell in.

"Oh no… WAIT! THE MASTER EMERALD PIECE WAS IN THERE!" Knuckles shouted.

Thankfully, the piece came flying out of the hole shortly after.

"Oh… That's a relief."

"Guess he didn't want anything to do with the thing he was stuck in all this time…" Tangle said.

"Still… this is bad… now he has all seven!" Sonic said.

"We… we got to get going!" Tangle said.

"Right, I parked the X-Tornado nearby! Tangle and Chris, you come with me!" Tails said.

"Right!"

'Tikal… I'm sorry…'

End of Chapter 13


Next up is the Finale of SA1!