Sonic took in the sea breeze as he and Tails made their way toward Angel Island on the Tornado. It was always a pleasant trip, all things considered, but he wished he could make it under better circumstances. After Amy had seen Knuckles' fist pop out through those weird portals Infinite and Shadow had made earlier, she was sure that the echidna had been caught up in all of this somehow, so here they were checking in on the old knucklehead.

"SONIC! LOOK!" Tails shouted out, pointing down. Sonic saw it instantly. Angel Island had fallen into the ocean again! "AH GREAT! Three guesses who screwed it up THIS time!"

Tails brought the Tornado down a bit to do a sweep of the island. The Master Emerald was still on its shrine, but it was pulsating with some weird energy, and Knuckles was nowhere to be seen. Sonic crossed his arms, concerned. "Best pull up to the beach, bud."

After landing, Sonic and Tails carefully navigated toward the nearby trees until finally reaching a familiar, grassy area. "Wait." Tails said in a hushed tone. "Do you hear that?"

Sonic listened, barely registering a deep rumble under the ground before being knocked upwards by an oversized white fist. The wind got knocked out of him by the blow, but he managed to recover enough to land safely next to Tails.

Before the two stood Knuckles in all of his glory...Save for a red and white mask covering his eyes and glowing with purple energy.

"I've been expecting you, hedgehog!" Knuckles said, flexing his fists. "Dr. Robotnik told me ALL about you and your two-tailed devil!"

"Robotnik?" Sonic repeated. Nobody had said THAT name in a good while, not even the good doctor himself.

"I won't let you use the Chaos Emeralds to harm the animals! And the Master Emerald is off-limits, too!"

Sonic just barely dodged as Knuckles began taking wild swings at him. "Knuckles! What are you doing!?" Sonic asked.

"I think that mask has him trapped in some kind of illusion! He must be remembering the FIRST time we met him!" Tails shouted. Sonic nodded as he dodged another swipe from the echidna. "Yeah, that makes sense. So how do we snap him out of it?"

"The Master Emerald seems to be reacting to whatever energy has him in this state! I think we need to get him there!" Tails instructed as he checked the readings on his Miles Electric.

"Gotcha! Meet ya at the top!" Sonic shouted, delivering a homing attack on Knuckles before racing off into the forest ahead.

"Oh no you don't!" Knuckles yelled, as he began chasing after the two.