Sonic 3 and Knuckles

By K. M. Hollar

Introduction:

Sonic 3 and Knux is based on the Sega Genesis video game of the same title. Because of a quirk introduced into my fanfics, this takes place before the Great War, but while Sonic and Tails are only a year or so younger than they are in the rest of the stories. Time is easy to manipulate, you know.

Knuckles's side is told in first person. It should be kept in mind that he is looking back on what he did and feeling mildly ashamed of himself.

This story also explains a few things I always thought needed patching up. For instance, why Robotnik robotized his left arm. Why Tails refuses to use the chaos and super emeralds. Where Slasher comes in. Why Sonic and Knuckles are friends. How eight different zones fit on the Floating Island. When Metal Sonic was constructed and who built him. What finally happened to the Death Egg ...

Prologue

The ship plunged from the sky like a fiery comet. Flames licked through it's hull, fanned by the rushing wind screeching around it. The rockets were still going, but they were far too hot. Robotnik was losing control. He was struggling to steer the Death Egg out of its nose dive.

Robotnik brushed sweat from his forehead, tightened his grip on the flight yoke and stared through the smoke-clouded windshield. The altimeter was dropping like a stone, and he would have to either bail out or crash. He thought of his enemy, Sonic the Hedgehog, who had destroyed his ship and would escape if he landed the Death Egg. But if he crashed it would take years to rebuild the massive battlestation.

The smoke cleared. Below him was the deep blue ocean. He could splash down, cooling the overheated jets and extinguishing the fire at once without harming the Death Egg. He didn't worry about spilling the leaking rocket fuel in the sea; Robotnik never worried about such things. He flipped several switches on the dashboard to close the outside doors, then concentrated on splashdown.

The metal orb slammed into the water with such force Ivo was nearly thrown from his chair. The flames were quenched with loud hissing protests, and the rockets turned from glowing red to cool grey.

After a few moments, the Death Egg rose to the surface and rotated as the heavy rockets pulled it upright. The cockpit rolled to the surface. Robotnik was too busy shutting down unnecessary operating systems to notice. He was taking on a little water, and that was soon fixed. Heat sank back into the green levels, and the alarms stopped.

Then Robotnik realized he had a problem. Death Egg was under water and inaccessible to his rescue drones. There was another problem, too; most of the fuel had burned up, and soon his systems would go off. To refuel he would have to contact his inland ground base, Launch Base. And he was too far away to contact it with the equipment he had left. For the first time in his life, Robotnik he needed help.

The wind was light that day. It ruffled my hair as I ascended to the highest point on the island, a towering column of rock. The west face was perfect for climbing.

I pulled myself up the last few feet. The rock was worn smooth from years of exposure and also happened to be my favorite place for steering the island. I brushed off my hands and knuckles, then scanned the island. Everything looked normal and healthy-the way a good guardian wants it to look.

Then I heard it. A high, far away whistle that was growing louder by the second. I turned in a circle, searching the sky for anything unusual.

A moment later, I saw a grey sphere trailing black smoke hurtling toward the ocean. I had never seen anything like it. I put my hands on my hips and watched. My island was in no danger, a mile in the air as it was. The object looked like some sort of rocket ship. I wondered what had made it catch fire.

It hit the water. From the wave it caused, I was certain it had crumpled on impact, but five minutes later (about the time the tidal wave rolled beneath my island), it rose to the surface. There was a cloud of steam all around it from the extinguished fire. I wondered if anyone could still possibly be alive inside. "Knuckles, you're too nosey," I told myself when I realized I was considering a glide. I could fly the island over there and look down.

I had the Master emerald with me. Well, actually, a miniature. The original was deep underground in my Hidden Palace. I had changed its power into a tiny gem I could carry around. It was deep green, and I used it to steer the island.

I took it out and set it on the rock, allowing its power to flow into the ground. After an interval, I picked it up, faced the direction of the submerged ship, and held out the emerald. The Floating Island began to move. I kept my eyes trained on the dark patch in the water, which was the secret to steady flight.

I squinted against the glare of the sun on the water. The smooth patch of quicksilver was broken in the middle by the top of the motionless round craft. As I drew nearer I could make out the metal paneling surrounding the crown, a glassed-in cockpit. The ugly style of the ship made me wonder if Dr. Robotnik had built it. I had never seen him or any of his creations, but Dad had told me how he wanted to make all animals into machines and digitize the entire planet. Dad had hated him ever since his service in the Mobian Civil War. Maybe I would get to find out why.

The island was quite close by now. I lowered my arm and the island slowed. The thing was just below my line of vision, so I let my arm drop. The island stopped. I placed the emerald in a compartment in my shoe, then dove headfirst off the crag. But I didn't fall; I stretched my arms out, and my red dreadlocks caught the air. I glided smoothly across the island to the very rim, landed on my toes and looked down.

I was standing directly over the spread out and downward until the water depth blocked my view. It had burned up pretty badly, for it was black in great patches. But, to my surprise, I could see lights inside the cockpit. Could someone be alive in there ... ?

I took out the emerald again, but this time I cupped my other hand over the top of it. This caused the island to sink. I looked over the edge, watching as the ocean rose to meet the bottom of the island. I looked up at the center peak, the one I had vacated. The bottom of Floating Island was about as low as the crag was high. I had reached the limit; any lower and Floating Island would be a sinking island. Which meant that I was about a quarter of a mile up.

I took a rope and tied it to a tree, flung the other end over the edge, then slid down for a closer look at the gigantic craft. I couldn't see anybody in the cockpit from above. I reached the end of the rope five feet above the water. I was quite close to the cockpit now. I caught sight of somebody. I strained my eyes, trying to see who it was. He moved into the light, and I had my first look at the brilliant (but demented) Dr. Ivo Robotnik.

I had never seen anybody so fat in my life. He had the biggest mustache I had ever known existed. It was bright orange and it stuck out past his shoulders. It was kind of a frizzy red. Anyway, he looked tired and worn out.

He turned around and saw me, and jumped. I didn't know what to do, so I yelled, "Hey! You need help?" He motioned that he couldn't hear me. He left the cockpit. A minute later a round door opened in the top of the ship. I said again, "Hey, you need help?"

"Yes," he returned. "My ship crashed and I need help to get it out."

That was obvious enough, and I tried to think of something to say. "Well, uh, I have some ropes and stuff. I could attach them to this ship or whatever it is and haul you out."

He looked up at the island for what I thought was the first time, but he didn't seem surprised to see it. "Sounds good," he said. "And the ship is called the Death Egg."

Death Egg? What kind of a name is THAT? Aloud I said, "How do you want me to hook on the ropes?"

"Oh, there's some bars and things you could ..." He looked down and noticed the ship was underwater. "Oh well, never mind that," he finished with a sigh. "I've got some chains-I think we'd better use chains-ropes won't hold this thing. You attach them to the island, I'll take care of the attachments down here. Oh, and I'm Ivo Robotnik."

So this _is_ Robotnik, I thought. Aloud I said, "I'm Knuckles, guardian of the Floating Island."

It took us two hours to attach the Death Egg to my island with thick, sturdy chains. The doctor decided to come up on the island during transit. There wouldn't be much for him to do down below. I helped him up-he wasn't much good at climbing the rope ladder I tossed down, which came as a surprise to me. (Everyone should know how to climb.) Once there, he asked me, "So, how do you fly the island?"

"Easy," I replied, and took out the emerald. "See, this is the Master emerald."

He looked at it and raised one bushy eyebrow. "Master emerald? I've only heard of the chaos emeralds."

"Oh no," I said. "The Master is much bigger and contains more power. This is just a miniature I use it to fly the island."

He nodded. "Oh. How does it work?"

"Well, to fly the island, I do this." I knelt and set the emerald on the ground. "I let its power flow into the island," I explained, "sort of like magnetizing it. After a few minutes the island is ready." I picked it up and held it in my right hand. "Now, to move it in any direction I just hold out my arm and the island moves that way. To move down I cup my hand over the emerald. To move up, I just put my other hand underneath. Watch." I slowly cupped my left hand beneath my right hand, and the island began to ascend. Robotnik was impressed.

As I lifted the island, the chains tightened and I began to feel resistance. The Death Egg must be very heavy to create that much drag. The Master seemed to pull my arm down. The Floating Island moved very slowly to lift the ship. Meanwhile, Robotnik walked to the edge and looked down at the ship. He was practically dancing with glee.

I moved the island high enough so the Death Egg was out of the water. Still holding the emerald, I looked at Robotnik and asked, "Where do want this thing, Doc?"

"Well," he said, "I need to get it to my Launch Base where I can repair it. It's called it's a long ways inland. Do you think you could reach it?"

"Sure," I replied. "All I have to do is fly a little higher. Oh, and will you watch my height? Clearance is gonna be a bit tricky."

I lifted the island higher and we moved inland. Robotnik shouted out directions like, "Go a little higher! A little lower! Need to go about a half a mile to the right!" It was interesting, because I was steering entirely on oral directions. I would have preferred to stand on the rocky pinnacle in the middle of the island, because I have a clear view and can guess how high I am. But I had to stand on the edge with Robotnik. I didn't want to leave him unsupervised on my island.

We flew for hours, and Robotnik seemed interested in everything- the emeralds, how the island flew, etc. He seemed intrigued with the Master emerald. I don't normally tell people how it works, but he was so excited and seemed so friendly I thought, aw, what the heck.

I told him about the Master emerald and how it flew the island, and even about the chaos emeralds. I told him more about them than he had ever known. I'm kinda dumb that way-if people are interested in what I'm telling them, I tend to say more than I mean to. I didn't know that he wanted the emeralds himself, or I wouldn't have told him a thing.

After a while, he decided to give me some info in exchange for what I had told him. He lowered his voice and asked me, "Do you know who Sonic the Hedgehog is?"

"Sonic?" I replied. "Sure. Everybody knows who Sonic is. I've even talked to him once. Nice kid."

A shadow passed over Robotnik's face, as if he was disappointed I knew who Sonic was. "Well," he continued, "I had better tell you this. Sonic's not on your side."

"What?" I said, surprised.

Robotnik went on. "Sonic's not on your side. He's after all the emeralds. He'd take them from the island, even if it sank."

Stunned, I shook my head. "Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure," Robotnik answered. "He wants all the emeralds because he found out what they can do. He already has all the chaos emeralds." He paused. "He was the one who wrecked the Death Egg."

This news angered me to the depths of my Guardian heart. Why would anybody want all the emeralds?

By the time we reached Launch Base, I had come to a decision. I didn't want anybody, least of all Sonic and his friends, near my island. I figured I would go into the middle of the ocean. But Robotnik had free access because I was beginning to like him. (I didn't find he was a dirty turncoat until later.)

Launch Base was _big_. It filled an entire valley. The center of the base was a single launching pad, but it had been forced into the ground so far water had nearly drowned it. What bothered me about it was that the water wasn't clear. "Why is the water black?" I asked Robotnik. He shrugged. "That's the way it's always looked."

"I mean, is the water naturally dark here, or was something spilled?"

I guess Robotnik thought I had guessed close enough. He said, "You could say I've spilled a few chemicals in the past."

I looked down at it. "It looks like more than a _few_."

"Yeah." Apparently he didn't care.

He started giving me directions about where to lower the island so Death Egg would end up on the launch pad. We got the ship unhooked and stabilized, then Robotnik said, "Thanks. Be seeing you again." He climbed down the rope ladder and was gone. Boy, did he leave me with a mindful.

I flew the island straight back out to the ocean. I didn't stop until I was around fifteen miles from shore. Then I lowered the island all the way down into the water.

I had gotten a call earlier from Hydrocity. Hydrocity is a gigantic desalination plant built under the ocean floor, so they have access to plenty of sea water. They take thousands of gallons of water and desalinate it, then pump it to the mainland. Sometimes would wind up with excess, so they'd just pump it back into the ocean. Until I came along. I have an attachment built into one corner of the island, so I land in the water to connect to the pumping station. They pump the water up to me, and it goes to the top of the waterfall. The waterfall dumps it into the river, and the river waters the island.

It didn't take that long to connect, and as I did I was thinking about Sonic wanting all the emeralds. "Man," I thought, "He must be really evil to want them all. I can't let him come near the island."

The story begins two days later ...