Episode 11: Crystal Crisis

Dark clouds floated eerily up in the sky, blocking out the full moon's light as it tried to shine down upon the jagged-black mountain peaks lying beneath it. Twisting around the bottoms of those peaks, a thick fog stretched around, bending like a snake and making the ground invisible to the wandering eye.

It was no wonder Rouge's client chose to meet in a place like this. The Ghost Mountain Range was just a hop, jump, and skip away from the Pumpkin Hills.

Supernatural forces thrived here, attracting either the very foolish or the very evil. What Rouge had come to meet was the latter.

Flapping down her wings on the violently chill wind, Rouge angled her body downward to glide towards a cave with its mouth carved almost to look like a dragon's gaping maw.

Fire burned from somewhere deep inside of the cave, casting its frightening red glow across the caves stone walls.

Taking a deep breath, Rouge carefully clutched the cargo tighter in her arms and headed towards the firelight. A few seconds later, she could see a dark figure standing just in front of the blaze.

For a moment, silence gripped the air, and then the stranger spoke.

"So you have returned" the dark figure said " Did you retrieve the book?"

"Yes Master" said Rouge, handing over the tome she had stolen from the Babylon city. " Shadow and his friends proved useless to stop me."

"Yes Shadow…" said the dark figure slowly " He's always proven to be a pain for my plans. But with this, my true purpose on this earth will finally be fulfilled. Soon, I shall revive you my Master! Nazo."

Days later, back in Sonic's hometown, Eggman was on the attack again.

The good doctor had invented yet another deadly machine, and was determined to crush his foe once and for all. Well, that wasn't going to happen as far as Sonic and the rest of his team were concerned.

This new bot that Eggman had designed was fierce and was clearly built for strength. Shaped like a 1980's heavy-weight boxer, with spring-thrusting fists and an armor-plated body, this newly named Punch-Bot was proving to be a very tough opponent for Sonic and his team.

Up in his hover-chair, Eggman laughed as he watched the heroes plight, relishing in the joy at seeing Sonic and his group fall to their knees.

"Looks like it's time for the knockout round Sonic," said Eggman, gloating from above.

Sonic just growled and glared, looking towards his foe. Sonic had to admit that lately, Doctor Eggman was getting better in his attempts to destroy him. Still, this Punch-Bot had to have a weak spot somewhere.

Looking around at his allies, Sonic noticed that some of them seemed very winded and worn. Knuckles could probably make it for another assault, but it was clear that Amy, Tails, and Sticks would not.

"I have to find a way to stop this thing," thought Sonic, immediately racking his brain for a plan.

If only he could just get some of those armor plates off. Figuring that it was his best shot, Sonic got into a spin, and sped rapidly towards the hulking machine.

Latching on tight to the robot's back, after knocking its head for a loop, Sonic dug his fingers in tight through one of the cracks and tried to pry the metal casing loose.

"Not this time Sonic," said Doctor Eggman grimly.

With that said, Punch-Bot's defense systems suddenly activated, and without a word of warning, electric shocks suddenly jolted up and down the robot's shell, digging into Sonic's blue fur and making the hedgehog cry out in pain.

The torture suddenly lashing throughout his body was almost to much to bear. So with great resistance, Sonic loosened his hold on the Punch-Bot and let go, his body dropping clumsily onto the ground, electrocuted and weak.

"Sonic!" his friends cried out worried, shocked to see their friend in such a battered state. Knuckles silently ground up his fists.

"Yes, that's it Punch-Bot!" called Eggman from his chair " Now, destroy him!"

Acknowledging the order, Punch-Bot turned and swung back one of fists to pummel towards Sonic, ready to crush the hedgehog where he laid.

To weak to run, Sonic just looked towards the Punch-Bot, accepting his fate. Closing his eyes, Sonic prepared for the end, and the fist swung, but the connection never came.

Confused, Sonic reopened his eyes to see Knuckles now standing between him and the punching machine. It was the echidna who had stopped the fatal blow.

Locked in a power struggle with the mad machine, Knuckles growled as he pushed back, ignoring the electric arcs suddenly sizzling through his flesh. No puny defense system was going to cause him not to win.

Calling on the power of the chaos crystal lodged inside of his body, Knuckles felt his strength increase tenfold, as he slowly lifted up the Punch-Bot from the ground.

Pain immediately flared up inside of his chest, but Knuckles just ignored it and swung the robot high. Soon, the heavy machine was released and plunged straight into the ocean, electrical arcs shooting up in order to mark its grave.

"No!" cried Eggman, seeing his creation destroyed " This isn't over Sonic! You'll see!"

With that said, Eggman left, retreating back towards his island lair. As soon as he was gone, Sonic and the others burst out into cheers.

"Yeah!"

"Way to go Knuckles!"

"Thanks buddy" said Sonic, approaching his red-furred friend " you saved my…Knuckles?"

Sonic's statement suddenly broke into concern. Knuckles didn't respond, and his violet eyes looked glazed. His body was shaking and sweating, as his knees suddenly dropped towards the ground. Soon, the echidna's entire body collapsed, and darkness came to his mind.

"Knuckles!" shouted Sonic concerned, and then turned to look at the rest of his gang "We need to get him inside the house! Now!"

And with that said, Sonic and his friends immediately gripped Knuckles and dragged him inside the house, hoping and praying that everything would be alright.

A few minutes later, Tails conceded that he could not find the cause of Knuckles rapidly fading strength. This was not the news that Sonic had wanted to hear.

Immediately Sticks threw out some of her conspiracy theories in which Amy was quick to dismiss, but Sonic just ignored the ladies words, focusing his green eyes on his friend.

When had the strongest one among them suddenly gotten so ill? Had he been hiding it all this time, afraid that his friends would reject him, and turn him away? Or was it something more?

Whatever the reason, there was one thing that Sonic knew for sure. He did not like seeing Knuckles like this. There had to be some kind of cure, and they needed to find it soon.

"We will save you buddy" said Sonic, gripping Knuckles hand " I swear it!"

Later that evening, at Doctor Eggman's lair, the mad scientist was rambling about his latest defeat.

"How could Punch-Bot be destroyed! It was perfect! Darn that Knuckles! I need to blow off some steam!"

What the doctor meant of course was trying out his new laser cannon and aiming rapidly at the stars. He did not really care whether or not he actually managed to hit anything, he just needed something physical in order to blow off steam.

Once feeling that he had completely calmed down, Eggman yawned and dismissed himself, ready to go to bed, unaware that his shooting spree had actually managed to hit something after all.

A streaking, silver comet, suddenly split in two by a laser blast, its two pieces crumbling towards the Earth and landing far away from each other with a big boom.

A moment later, the sound of "Blaze!" could be heard screeching through the night, drowned in the depths of the lonely forest.

Meanwhile, in her hut, Sticks was finding some trouble sleeping, still fretting about Knuckles condition, even though everyone had been dismissed to leave for the night. Both Tails and Sonic were still with the echidna, and would report to the girls whether anything was wrong.

Sticks was still upset at Amy for dismissing her theories as to why Knuckles was ill. What, she didn't believe in the supernatural?

Luckily for Sticks, she was always paranoid and had set up ghost traps just in case her theory was right about the paranormal.

Around 3 o'clock in the morning, one of the alarms of her traps suddenly rang. Dragging out a baseball bat, the badger excitedly ran to where the trap had sprung, and started pounding the net with the wood.

"Ow! Ow! Hey!" yelled out a frustrated voice " That hurts! I'm not a bad guy you know!"

"Oh yeah" said Sticks, glaring at the person in the trap " then what are you doing in one of my ghost traps if you're not a ghost?"

"I'm not a ghost!" screamed the figure " My name is Silver, and I'm a hedgehog! Now please let me out of this thing."

Against her better judgement, Sticks decided to cut the net and let Silver go. The hedgehog oomphed as he plopped to the ground.

"And here I thought the natives in this time would be nice."

"Sorry about the mix-up" said Sticks " but I can't be to careful now. My friend Knuckles is sick and…,"

"Wait! Knuckles?" Silver suddenly interrupted "Where is he? Where is he right now?!"

"At my friends house" nervously pointed Sticks " just a little way that way."

"Show me!" said Silver, and using his thoughts suddenly levitated him and Sticks into the air, shooting into the direction Sticks had pointed. On the way the badger screamed.

"I knew you were a ghost!"

Later, at Sonic's house, the blue hedgehog was surprised when he heard a knock on the door, and answered to see two visitors standing outside of his house. One of the visitors was clearly Sticks, but the other was a hedgehog that Sonic had never seen.

Quickly introducing himself as Silver, the hedgehog immediately asked where Knuckles was, before noticing the echidna lying down on the couch with Tails sitting right beside.

"Oh no" said Silver, as he observed the echidna's state " this is just what we feared."

"What are you talking about?" asked Sonic, desperate for explanation " Who's 'we'? Can't you see my friend Knuckles is…,"

"Dying" interrupted Silver sadly " Your friend is dying. Once the Chaos Gem goes, Knuckles life will end."

Meanwhile, far away in another city, Shadow was also in very bad state, but not to the extreme of Knuckles case. For about a few days now, the Ultimate Lifeform had been experiencing severe pains flaring in his chests, and Rotor was scanning him now in order to figure out the cause.

When the scans were finally complete, Rotor looked over all of the data with a concerned eye.

"It's your chaos field alright" said Rotor " looks like some of your power is waning. I can't really explain the cause of it, but seems like your power is being drained. Good thing you have those limiters on, or else you would have probably passed out by now."

"You can't explain why this happening?" growled Shadow.

"Hey" said Rotor dismissively " you have remember that you are an unique case. Not everyone has chaos powers like you."

"But Knuckles does" thought Shadow " I'm sure that he is also linked. If I'm suffering from this much pain. I only wonder how he feels."

At that moment, Tails couldn't really explain what was around him, especially after the bombshell Silver had dropped to him and Sonic early that morn.

Even after going over it piece by piece, it still sent confusion into the poor, twin-tailed fox's brain. Silver was from the future? An apocalyptic time, where the whole world was nearly destroyed?

In 200 years, this sounded like an incredibly terrible fate, which why both Silver and Blaze, his partner that was also somehow lost in this present time, had dedicated their lives to finding out and stopping the cause.

However, when they had learned that chaos power was suddenly dying, they had to go back and stop whatever was causing this major change to time. If they allowed it proceed, their future would turn out worse than it already was.

Silver shivered at the thought, and said no more, but Sonic and Tails had gotten the idea.

Saying that he would go and call Amy to let her know what was going on, Sonic left to go get the phone, while telling Tails that maybe he should over to Knuckles place.

Nodding that he understood, Tails immediately left to go to Knuckles home. With any luck, that's where the echidna still had the map. The map that had first led Sonic and the group over to Angel Island.

After how chaotic the situation had turned out last, Knuckles had taken and kept careful guard over the map, protecting it from anyone who sought to enter into his ancestral home again.

Shortly after arriving at Knuckles home, it took Tails quite a while before he had any luck in finding the parchment. But soon it was found, amongst all the mess, including a strange item as well.

It didn't take long for Tails to discern that the strange item he held in his hand was a communicator, but not a communicator of his design.

Where had Knuckles had gotten this? And who…?

Suddenly remembering his mission, Tails dropped the communicator and hurried back, Angel Island map in hand. The mystery of the com could be solved later, right now Knuckles life was at hand.

The moment Tails arrived back at his and Sonic's place, not only had Amy arrived, but another guest as well…Shadow. What was the black and red hedgehog doing here?

Apparently Sonic was wondering the same thing as well, glaring at the hedgehog with a glimmer of untrust. Shadow just took that rejection in silence, glaring at the gathering that now stood before him.

"What's going on?" asked Tails, sliding next to Amy.

"Well just after Silver finished explaining things to me" said Amy " Shadow arrived, and he won't leave without seeing Knuckles."

"Why?" Sonic asked Shadow " Why do you want to see him now? Is it because of the chaos…,"

"Yes, it's because of the chaos energy" said Shadow " whatever is effecting Knuckles is affecting me as well. I knew that Knuckles was linked to chaos, I only came to make sure he's alright."

"Well, right now he's not" said Sonic " and you say this thing is affecting you too? Why aren't you more like our friend?"

"Because of these" said Shadow, touching his gold bracelets " These are chaos limiters, and prevent me from tapping into my full chaos powers. Because of them, I haven't been rendered into a comatose state. I brought a pair for Knuckles as well. They should buy us some time so we can resolve this mess."

"Fine" said Sonic, looking at his friends before looking back at Shadow " for right now, I'll trust you. Put those things on Knuckles and let's get going. We need to reach Angel Island, fast!"

Meanwhile, far away, already at Angel Island, Blaze the Cat had walked through the ancient doors and stepped onto the island floating among the clouds above. The clouds color was dark and ominous, indicating that a storm was soon to rain down upon the land.

There was no doubt that the evil forces were already here. Blaze could sense deep in her soul their eerie presence. She had to stop them, before the whole world was doomed.

"I wish Silver was here," Blaze said as she walked, passing by the frozen form of Lyric who had been turned heartlessly into stone.

But the hedgehog was no longer with her ever since that laser blast split them apart, sending them traveling down on different paths. She could not waste her time to find him. Blaze knew that they had an urgent crisis to stop. Silver would have to find her, luckily he knew where to meet.

A few seconds later, the purple cat could see the Chaos Gem's shrine, and glared through the grass as she watched Mephiles standing in front of it, sucking up the energy for his own.

The dark hedgehog laughed as his power increased, building in strength so that he could finally summon his master, Nazo, and free from his prison in the parallel world.

Blaze took in a deep breath to quell her anger, quieting the fire in her fists, when suddenly she realized that Mephiles partner in crime was nowhere to be seen. Where…where was the bat?

A hand clamped over her mouth seconds later became Blaze's answer, as the female bat had snuck up on her from behind, catching her in a trap.

"Stay silent honey" said Rouge " the real fun is about to begin."

By the time Sonic and the others had reached the doors that led to Angel Island, Knuckles had finally recovered some of his strength. Thanks in large part to the golden bracelets Shadow had given him to limit his chaos flow.

Briefly Sonic explained the whole situation to the weary echidna, careful to keep his pal steady as they walked. They were all going to stop this chaos crisis, and hopefully by the end Knuckles life would be spared.

Knuckles just nodded at the plan, and then looked towards Silver, who had taken the lead on the group. Had this psychic hedgehog really come from the future? What would his future gain by keeping the chaos power in check?

"The Chaos Gem is my responsibility" thought Knuckles " I thought it would be safe here, locked away inside my old, lost city, but it's not. Now, I have to pay the price for my sin."

Moments later, the group emerged, walking out into the marvelous beauty of the floating island. Never was there a more fantastic wonder to behold.

Even though it was night, Angel Island glowed in all the brilliance its nature provided. Shining blissfully in the moonlight, even as the sky looked disturbed from the bright, shooting beams arcing from Chaos Gem altar a few feet up ahead.

Having no doubt that was where Mephiles and his friend Rouge would be, Sonic and his group immediately headed over in that direction, and gasped at the sight they saw.

"Blaze," said Silver, eyes widening with horror as he saw the feisty, purple cat being held down by Rouge.

The females were standing just a few feet from the Chaos Gem altar where Mephiles still stood, sucking up chaos energy and absorbing it into his own body to become more strong.

Even though Shadow and Knuckles still had their bracelets on, both of them could feel the pain as Mephiles drained more and more chaos energy away. They needed to stop him, before the chaos field totally died.

With simultaneous nods of agreement, Sonic and his team dashed towards the Chaos Gem altar to bring Mephiles and Rouge. The two villains were surprised by the unexpected assault.

Silver headed towards Rouge, while Sonic and the rest sprinted towards Mephiles. Using his telekinetic abilities, Silver lifted up his hand, and dragged Rouge up and away into the air, separating her from Blaze, before moving his hand and slamming the white bat hard against a rock wall.

Rouge cried out in pain, glaring as she got back up, ready to repay Silver for his dirty move, but Blaze beat Rouge to the punch. Claws lit up with fire, the purple cat snarled towards Rouge, and then shot out her flames, burning the bat until she passed out cold on the ground.

"Are you alright?" asked Silver, after Blaze had finished her rage.

"I am now," Blaze grinned, but her smile didn't last, as the sound of groans quickly caught her and Silver's ears.

Sonic and the rest were down, having extreme difficultly now that Mephiles had absorbed all the power from the Chaos Gem he needed. Knuckles and Shadow seemed to be in the worst shape, while Sonic and the rest of his friends struggled to hold on.

Mephiles laughed at their pitiful efforts.

"Worthless mortals" he said " such weakness in the face of true power. The Chaos Gem has granted me unlimited might, and combined with the spells of Babylon, pure evil now shall return."

With that said, the black-grey hedgehog started chanting out words in the Ancient text, raising his hands out towards the sky, forcing a portal to come open.

Mouths gaped open in amaze as they saw this rift being torn through the sky, but Silver and Blaze clenched their hands in fear. He was coming, a godly force even stronger than the Chaos Beast itself, the Ancients most stupid and feared of creation. Nazo.

Not to long after, the silver being emerged, eyes burning blue with chaos power, while the gleam on his fur shined like a blazing star. Angel Island shook as if it was quaking with fear, and Knuckles could feel its terror.

Mephiles grinned as he bowed before Nazo, basking in his master's power. Nazo looked towards him and the array of mortals gathered around.

"Ah, I've returned at last" the silver hedgehog breathed " now to reign chaos upon this world."

"That's not going to happen!" said Silver, as he and Blaze showed up to fight.

Using their special abilities, Silver and Blaze threw everything they could at Nazo, but the silver hedgehog wasn't fazed and blasted back with his own power, knocking them back off their feet.

The shockwave when he moved his hand was intense and everyone could feel the pressure as it passed by. Knowing that their allies needed help in facing such strong opponents, Sonic and Shadow stood back on their feet, ready to take Mephiles and his master down.

However, even though Knuckles knew the two hedgehogs were determined, he knew that they wouldn't last for to long. The chaos energy ebbing from Mephiles and Nazo was to great.

Nazo, because he seemed to be a pure-living chaos being, and Mephiles because of all of the power he had absorbed from the Chaos Gem.

Oh, if there were only there was just a little of chaos energy left, Knuckles was sure, as Guardian, that he could call on a miracle and seal these two monsters away. But there was no more power in the Chaos Gem.

Suddenly, an idea struck him hard. There was one more source, but using it would mean his end.

"There's no other choice," thought Knuckles to convince himself, and called upon the chaos energy of the crystal lodged inside of his body, removing the bracelets he had got from Shadow, so there would be no limit to the effect.

It was only at the last second Nazo and Mephiles realized what Knuckles was doing, having been distracted by Sonic and Shadow as both the hedgehogs came to them at full force. The monsters faces were smiling then, but now, they frowned.

Sonic and Shadow also took notice of what was happening as they lay kneeling on the ground beaten, eyes widening with concern and fear as they witnessed Knuckles body fly up and glow red, shooting sparks as the chaos energy inside of him spit out and surged. His violet eyes also glowed, seeming to be brimming with pain.

"Knuckles stop!" shouted Sonic, but the echidna ignored him, and continued to chant until he finally screamed.

With that scream, Knuckles dropped to the ground, and a huge wave of chaos energy blasted towards Shadow and Sonic, infusing the two hedgehogs with its gifts.

Incredible power surged through their blood, and Sonic and Shadow's forms changed, their fur taking on a golden glow, that caused the two dark beings in front of them to back away from the intense light.

"Roar!" suddenly came the roar of the Chaos Beast, as he flew out of his resting place in the mountain-side cave.

The Chaos Beast was truly a fascinating creature, summoned out to protect the island whenever the Guardian called. Although this time, the glowing, blue-scaled, yellow-eyed, water dragon would serve to assist Super Sonic and Super Shadow as they took Mephiles and Nazo down.

"Alright, let's do it!" said Sonic, as he and Shadow flew up and got ready to fight.

Mephiles attacked first, being levitated up into the air by Nazo, he used the chaos powers that he had absorbed to blast at Sonic and Shadow, slinking around with shadow and multiplying ability to make things even more difficult for the two.

When Mephiles used his shadow ability to slink in and attack Sonic and Shadow from behind fast with his Chaos Javelin, Shadow called out the power of Chaos Control, freezing time for a moment to allow Sonic or him the time to attack straight on.

And whenever Mephiles doubles came into play, that's when the Chaos Beast would step in to help. Dragging the two hedgehogs away just as Mephiles was about to fry them with a Chaos Bolt storm, and combined his energy with the supers to knock out all the doubles at once.

After a couple of rounds of this, Mephiles was defeated, and retreated bac to his master, as Sonic and Shadow rode on the Chaos Beast to take down Nazo.

Nazo though, was more than prepared. He was being of pure chaos. He would not be so easy to defeat, unlike his faithful servant.

Reality bent and twisted to Nazo's will, giving him weapons of unlimited variety. Chaos attacks did little to damage him, and it looked for a moment that Sonic and Shadow had hit a wall.

Then, the Chaos Beast roared, and a portal opened in sky, hovering right over the silver hedgehog. Chains of chaos energy descended down from the portal, wrapping tightly around Nazo and Mephiles.

"No!" cried Nazo " We will not be sealed away so easily!"

"Then maybe it's time we force you" said Sonic " Shadow!"

"Right," said Shadow, and they both headed back towards the Chaos Beast, who opened his mouth, allowing the two hedgehogs to fly into his jaws.

Unleashing the full might of their chaos power, Sonic and Shadow blasted towards Mephiles and Nazo with a superior battle yell.

"Chaos Beast Strike!"

"Nooo!" screamed Nazo, as he and Mephiles were knocked back and forcibly sealed away.

The portal closed, the battle ceased, and the golden glow around Sonic and Shadow dimmed. The battle was over, they had won.

Roaring in victory, the Chaos Beast returned Sonic and Shadow back to the ground, before flying back to its mountainside cave, waiting until the next time it was summoned. Congratulations came instantly once the two hedgehogs returned.

"Oh Sonic, you were wonderful!" said Amy hugging the hedgehog tight.

"You did it" said Silver, as he and Blaze walked up " You stopped Nazo from taking over the world."

"We did" said Shadow " but what about Knuckles?"

With that said, all gazes turned to where the red echidna lay, being tended to by Tails. The fox's gaze was worried as he slowly shook his head.

"He's gone," said Tails.

"No," said Sonic, instantly rushing to his buddy's side.

Soon everybody was gathered around, looking at the lifeless echidna's corpse. His form was smaller, back to the way it originally was before he put the red chaos crystal inside of his body.

"What happened to him?" asked Shadow, remembering that Knuckles was glowing red before he and Sonic were granted power to take Mephiles and Nazo down.

Blaze stepped in with an explanation.

"He used the chaos crystal lodged inside his body to create a miracle so that we could win" said Blaze " Without he has returned to his normal form, but… The Chaos Gem, its power has been severely drained, and the chaos crystals are an extension of its energy. By using them, he gave up his life as well as his chaos force."

"What? No!" said Sonic " There has to be a way we can bring him back! There has to…,"

"I'm sorry," said Blaze.

"Blaze" said Silver, looking towards the cat " this what we came here to prevent. The Chaos Force is back in balance. Isn't there anything we can do to save him,"

"No," said Blaze.

"I don't believe that," said Shadow, and started walking over towards the Chaos Gem, placing his hand upon its surface. "Knuckles gave me his power, perhaps I can give it back."

"Yeah" said Sonic, joining Shadow and placing his hand on the gem as well " We both will."

With that said, Sonic and Shadow closed their eyes and concentrated, letting their chaos energy leak out. Immediately, the Chaos Gem responded and started to glow, and Knuckles body started to light as well.

Silver decided to participate, and focused some of his mental energy into Knuckles being. Then, for the second time that night, a miracle appeared, as the Chaos Gem suddenly grew and changed between Shadow and Sonic, glowing a shade of bright, emerald green.

The Chaos Crystals Tails had left at his house appeared, circled around the gem and changed as well, forming into different, colored versions of the giant emerald they all saw.

There was a cough, and Knuckles eyes opened, the glow fading from his fur, as he sat up and noticed the looks of disbelief and shock of everyone around him.

"How…," he began, but was suddenly interrupted.

"You're alive!" yelled his friends, and immediately rushed in to give Knuckles a hug.

Silver and Blaze smiled happily at the moment, before turning to each other and nodding that it was time for them to vanish and head back home.

Shadow grinned at the sight as well, before looking to side, and noticing Rouge had disappeared. So, after all that, she got away again huh? Well, there would always be a next time.

Right now, Shadow was just glad that Knuckles was safe, and turned and walked away, impressed with the echidna. He would make a great agent of G.U.N. one day.