Sonic: Why are we here? Knuckles knows something? Kodra: We will be meeting with Knuckles but it's his relatives that have all the answers. Echnidopolis suffered the same fate as Knothole. Sonic: Oh man... Kodra: Sets Sonic down next to Knuckles and the other Kodra. Sonic & Knuckles: Huh! How come there are 2 Kodras? Kodra: It's a trick I picked up. I can be up to 10 duplicates. But for now one will suffice. The Kodra standing next to Knuckles disappears. Sonic: By the way, what is a Chaos Ruby or a Chaos Sapphire? Kodra: They are rare gems like the Chaos Emerald only more powerful. Knux: What are we gonna do now? Kodra: Right now I'm gonna train you in the arts of war. Sonic: We don't have time. Kodra: The training takes a week... Sonic: That's not bad. Kodra: But you go without sleep for that period of time and never stop. Knux: Sounds severe, but if it makes our odds any better, I say go for it. Sonic: Me too. Kodra: Alright. After just two days Knuckles was fast enough to leave 20 after images at once and strong enough to shatter solid rock. Sonic could leave 80 after images and crack a stone pillar in two. Kodra: You've done good, so far. Now it's onto energy manipulation and kinetic powers. Sonic: (huff) Say what (huff). Kodra: My "beam" attacks. Sonic: Oh. Kodra: See those rocks, guys. Sonic & Knuckles: Yeah. Kodra: Focus your energy on those rocks, on lifting those rocks, but don't touch those rocks. The rock pile begins to move. Kodra: Good. Now keep at it. Sonic's face turns a mild tint of red. Kodra: Come on guys. The rocks start to levitate of the ground. Kodra: Great work guys. Now concentrate on the air around your hands. Feel the energy. Concentrate the energy. Sonic's hand begins to glow and Knuckle's knuckles do as well. Kodra: Now release the energy. A small beam of energy comes from their hands. Kodra: The rest of the week is spent on using energy manipulation. Gather energy faster, make beams more powerful, and learn to "bend" the energy. Got it? Knux & Sonic: Got it! So Sonic and Knuckles keep improving until it's time to leave the training behind. Kodra: Ok, both of you, follow me. So the gang heads towards echnidopolis, but Kodra lands several miles away. Knux: Why did we stop? Kodra: We've arrived. Sonic: Nothing's here. Kodra: Looks can be deceiving... Kodra throws an energy beam into the air. It hits an invisible wall, which then shatters. In Haven... Alarm: Code red! Haven has been breached, I repeat, Haven has been breached. Locke: Who's the intruder? Archie: Hey it's Knuckles, his friend Sonic, but I don't know about the other one. Locke runs off. He stops in front of Kodra. Locke: You! The timing isn't right. Kodra: Okay, who do I get answers out of in this dump. Locke: You're asking for trouble with a capital "L". Knux: Daddy? Locke: You don't belong here Knuckles, not yet... Kodra: It doesn't matter because if we don't get answers there won't be anything left to protect. Locke: What do you mean? Kodra: The Kodraichs. You would know where they are hiding. Locke: The Kodraichs. Hmmm, yeah I know. But you are still trespassing and are breaking the balance of things. Kodra: The Kodraichs destroyed your city of Echnidopolis. Locke: We know. Kodra: Then give me answers so that we can rescue your people. Locke: Fine, they're at sector 548,89,0 Knux: (gasp) Devil's Range!? Kodra: You know that terrain Knuckles. Knux: Yeah, but it's real rough. Kodra: Thank you, Locke. Goodbye. With that Sonic, Knux, and Kodra leave haven. Locke: It wasn't supposed to happen that way. At the entrance to Devil's Range... Kodra: This is it guys, no matter what happens you did good. You survived the training and passed with flying colors. I've got something for you. Kodra pulls out to green medallions with blue gemstone embedded into it. He gives them to his pupils. Kodra: These are chaos emerald medallions with chaos sapphires embedded into them. If you use it power you will become much stronger. Knuckles and Sonic put the medallions around their necks. Kodra: Time to go. I'll destroy the building. Sonic will free the inhabitants of Knothole. Knuckles will free the inhabitants of Echnidopolis. Sonic: Good idea. The trio takes off. True to what Knuckles said, it's rough terrain. Eventually they make it to a tall fortress. Knuckles: We need to sneak in quietly... Kodra: Ain't gonna happen. Kodraichs have an unbelievable security system. It is physically impossible. They won't expect a direct attack though. It's our best bet. Sonic: Ok! Kodra blows the door to pieces. The trio charges. Loca: Look! It's Kodra! Get him! Kodra unsheathes his sword and splits Loca in two. Sonic slices through two of the other Kodraichs. Knuckles crushes the others skulls. Kodra: Good job, now according to the map, I go straight, Knux you go right, Sonic you go left. Understand? Sonic: Yep. Knux: Ok. With that the trio separates. Author's note: It's me again. This next part has a lot of scene changes. I'll do my best to stay clear, but it'll be confusing okay. In the left corridor... Sonic: Hmm... Let's see. Armory...Weaponry...Interro 1...That's it. Sonic enters the unlit room. Sonic: Let's see... Here's the light switch. Sonic turns on the lights. The room is filled with capsules filled a green fluid and the inhabitants of Knothole. He sees Sally. Patches of fur are missing. Blood is running from her eyes and down her cheeks. Sonic: (gasp) My god Sally. What did they do to you? He sees a control panel. He pushes some buttons. Sally and the others come around. He keeps typing. Sonic: Hmmm, this must open the capsules. Before his finger hits the button, a beam hit his finger. Sonic: Who's there? Kornath: I thought I smelled an intruder. Time for your jailbreak to end. Sally: Sonic! Run he's too powerful! You have to save yourself. Sonic: Don't worry Sal! This guys the one who should be scared! He killed Uncle Chuck, destroyed Knothole, captured my friends, my allies, my love, and tortured them. He should be the one afraid, not me. Besides, who else will stop these guys. Kornath: Lovely speech, but you should listen to the girl. I'm not scared, you should be. I'm one of the strongest Kodraichs there is! Sonic: Guess what! I'm one of the strongest Mobians there is so we're even! Kornath: Whatever you want to think! Kornath unleashes a huge energy beam at Sonic. Sonic disappears as the beam is about to hit him. He reappears cutting away at Kornath's back armor. Tails: Wow! I've never seen that move before! Kornath: Perhaps I underestimated you! I might need to try! Haha! Sonic: Laugh it up, Slimeball. Kornath appeared right behind Sonic. He punched him forward where he then appeared. He grabbed Sonic by the scruff of the neck and pushed his face into the ground. His hand began to glow. Kornath: Fool! You should've known you couldn't beat me alone. Suddenly a purple arrow zooms by and embeds itself into Kornath's skull. Kornath falls over in pain. Geoffry: But he ain't alone bloke! Sonic: (gasp) Geoffry! Meanwhile in the right corridor... Knux: This must be it, Interro 2. Hey someone's in there. Let's see if I can surprise him. Draxim: Now Julie-Su, one last question for today. If you don't give me an answer it'll be level ten for you. Level ten, as in, one less than standard execution level. Who knows if you'll survive. Knuckles sees Julie-Su in a capsule with burns all over her body. Some of her dreadlocks were missing. Draxim: The life or death question. Where is the echnida known as "Knuckles"? Knux: Right here, Monster. Knuckles swiftly makes an imprint of his knuckles in the back of Draxim's head. Draxim: Ah so this is the famous "Knuckles"! Guardian of the very city we pillaged. And he wasn't even there to stop. Probably cowering off in some corner. Ha! You're nothing to me. Knux: You Monster! You know that you sent someone to trick me! But that is in the past! This is the present and your future looks bleak! Draxim: I'm scared! You can't beat me! Draxim shoots an energy beam at Knuckles. Knuckles punches at the oncoming beam and the blast stops. Knuckles charges forward and upper cuts the Kodraich in the chin. Draxim fires another even larger blast at Knuckles. Knuckles concentrates his energy towards his hands as he was taught. He prepares to stop the blast. But when the blast hits his hands, his hands start to give way. The beam was too much. Unable to avoid his fate, he gets blasted back and is embedded into the wall. In the central core... Dracaris: So the runt decided to come back. Do you want to be a Kodraich again? Kodra: I'm here to kill them not become one! Dracaris: Ha! you really think you can beat the Kodraichs! Even if you do defeat this one base, you're still no match for our father Helzon, and you're just an insect to our grandfather Kodraich. * *His name is Kodraich, just thought I'd let you know. Kodra: Still I can beat you easily, and one day I'll kill Helzon and even Kodraich! Dracaris: That's what you think! With that Dracaris moves in to start in with the mortal combat. The hand-to-hand combat goes on for a half-hour before they finally back off. Gasping for breath they have been able to stay at most one or two blows ahead of each other. The Chaos emeralds and sapphires begin to glow. Dracaris smiles. Dracaris: How are you gonna beat me when you can't master the ruby! As Dracaris finishes speaking the ruby begins to glow. Dracaris' eyes widen. He begins to tremble. Dracaris: No! It's impossible! Kodra: Wrong Dracaris. It's time to finish this! In Interro 1... Sonic: Geoffry! You were... Geoffry: Dead? It takes more than that to kill Geoffry St. John! Anyway, a bloke named Kodra came trained me and gave me this odd medallion. I see he gave it to you to. Guess we better use em' aye! Sonic: Right. With that Geoffry and Sonic began to glow. Sonic's body turns a bright red color and his quills extend and serate. Geoffry's body turns a deep blue color and his muscles expand. Kornath: Hmm...This could be trouble. Time to do as they do. Kornath pulls out a Chaos Emerald and breaks it in his hands. The energy flows through his veins. Kornath: So let's get it on! Geoffry pulls out an arrow and energizes it by focusing his energy on it. He fires it and pierces Kornath's armor. Kornath: Time to get rid of that before it gets annoying. Kornath blasts straight at Geoffry's firing arm. At impact Geoffry's firing arm disintegrated. Geoffry fell over. Kornath: That was easy enough! Now it's your turn, rodent! Sonic: (to Geoffry) Geoffry...(to Kornath)You aren't gonna win! You will die! With that Sonic focuses all the energy he had. He let loose one huge beam. The beam hits Kornath and shatters his armor. Kornath disappears and reappears behind Sonic and breaks his largest quill. The two combatants stood there bleeding. This was it. The two blasted at each other at the same time. The fate of Knothole rested on this on Sonic. For a half-hour the beams stood stationary. Then they begin to give in the direction of Kornath. Kornath's eyes widened. Kornath: (gasp) NO! (gasp) It can't happen! Sonic: (gasp) can and (gasp) will! With that the beam engulfed Kornath. And it was over. Sonic: (gasp) I won. He blasts a hole in the side of the wall. And drags himself over to the controls. He presses the button. The capsule open up and the Mobians rush out. Sonic falls to the ground exhausted. Sally rushes over to her fallen hero. She picks him up. Sally: Hey Tails! Could you help me by getting Geoffry! Tails: Sure thing Aunt Sally. Tails picks up Geoffry and the gang head out through the hole in the wall. In Interro 2... Knuckles is sitting in the wreckage of the wall bleeding all over. He palms the mystical amulet. Knuckles: Time to see what this puppy can do... With that the energy of the amulet flows through Knuckles. He turns a vibrant shade of yellow. His knuckles extend four inches. As the transformation comes to a stop, Knuckles looks at his new body. Draxim: Even with the power of the medallion, your still no match for me. I've barely been touched. Time to die, Pest! Knuckles: You first! With that Knux slashes at Draxim, but Draxim's too quick. He dodges Knuckle's every move. Knuckles: ~ Man this guy's reading me like a book. Time to do the crazy. ~ Knux charges at Draxim as he shoots an energy blast straight at Knux. Knuckles uses the after image trick that Sonic had taught him and dove under the beam. He rebounded off the ground and drove his claws into Draxim's chest. Draxim placed his hands on Knuckle's shoulder and started to blast away at his skin. Draxim: Give up! You can't win! Knuckles: (gasp) I must win... With that Knuckles tore his claws out of Draxim's torso and inserted them into his skull. Draxim had died. Knuckles went over to the wall and destroyed it with his claws. He then he opened up all the capsules freeing his people. Just in time because he fainted immediately after that. Julie-Su: Hurry guys! Get out I'll get Knux! Julie-Su heaves Knuckles up into her arms. Julie-Su: Why couldn't you weigh 30 pounds less... The Mobians and the residents of echnidopolis meet outside. Sally: All accounted for? Tails: Looks like it! Sonic: (gasp) Kodra (gasp) Sally: Where's Kodra. Suddenly, Dracaris busts out of the fortress followed by Kodra who is a vibrant red. Dracaris: Time to die! Kodra: I insist! You first! Dracaris charges at Kodra but Kodra dodges and trips Dracaris up. Dracaris begins to spin. Kodra sees this as an opportunity to strike. He rushes and grabs Dracaris by the neck. Kodra slams his face into the wall, shattering the wall. Dracaris retaliates by punching Kodra in his face. The two unsheath their weapons and begin in on mortal combat. For an hour nothing but the clashing of steel is heard until finally Dracaris pierces Kodra in the stomach. Dracaris: (gasp) I win! Kodra: (gasp) Never! With that Kodra's sword is engulfed in a red essence. He slashes at Dracaris with such force that he breaks right through the brick wall. With Dracaris defeated Kodra takes the Chaos Ruby out of its slot. He concentrates his energy and the ruby's energy into one huge blast. He throws the energy at the fortress which explodes afterwards. Looking around he sees all is safe. He passes out and drops from the sky like a rock. Sally: Ummmm, somebody get Kodra! Echnida:(trying to lift Kodra) He's too heavy! Sally: Uhhh, Rotor, Dulcy, and you three Echnidas, get Kodra. The group complies and they leave the grim site.