This Island Floating by -- Joseph DeLaCroix This story is based on characters created by Service and Games (SEGA), and on characters created by Archie Comic Publications, Inc. Any resemblance to actual characters are not coincidental. ;) Joseph, Bahb, and all other independent creations of Joseph DeLaCroix are the copyrighted property of JoCo Inc. All rights reserved. Etc. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Timeline: One day before Doomsday. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - A pure, green-pigmented plain placed upon the northern continent on Mobius. Some dried leaves fluttered in the gentle breeze, warmed by the noonday sun. Birds sung the ancient melody of the world, and a few non-evolved rabbits hopped through the shorter grass. It was a scene beautiful enough to melt even the most jaded heart; for on this world, scenes like that might become rare... In the middle of this scene, barely visible in the high grass, was a 3 foot tall hedgehog. But this was not one of the usual variety of bipedal hedgehog. Nor was this particular hedgehog even a child of this world; rather, he was a misplaced, genetically scrambled member of a dead planet millions of light years from the spot where he now laid, calmly enjoying the beauty of his new home. This was the lot of Joseph, the descendant of two DNA helii; his natural, Ur'thaen brand, and the current Mobian hedgehog variety which he was experiencing now. However, his genetic identity crisis didn't appear to be bothering him now, as he silently laid in the sun, soaking in the yellow star's warming rays. The wind drifted over his motionless form as if it was a mother's gentle movement, tucking him in for a night's rest. A butterfly alighted on one of his longer headquills, and slowly came to peacefully rest there. This was paradise, Joseph thought, as he continued to simply lay there and revel in the sublime beauty of Mobius. He wondered why Robotnik would wish anything like this harm. Had he never simply walked outside on a glorious day as this, sat down in a field, and merely admired the handiwork of Nature? Was all of his destruction merely due to him being a homish sort? Nay, he pondered, Robotnik had been out in the wilderness. He'd sit in a field like this, take a deep breath, and think...how he'd first cut down those trees to create housing, then drill holes in the earth for oil, then ponder mining for precious metals...no, Robotnik could simply not appreciate nature. It was simply not his to appreciate this one. Probably all those simian genes. But Joseph let those unpleasant thoughts leave him. He didn't want to think about Robotnik or Robotropolis or the damned pirated Ur'thaen roboticizer now. That would only impede intuitive thought of solutions to those problems. Alas, he had only allotted himself only a few more days of being au naturale before returning to Knothole and resuming work on the deroboticization process. He needed to value this vacation time as a period to let his strained mind adjust to the myriad of changes that had affected him; landing on a foreign world, finding out that he was not the first of his kind to land here, being mutated...it made his head spin to ponder all that had occured in only a few months. However, Joseph realized that looking backward would only impede his progress. He had to overcome the obstacles placed in his path, and continue on. He had people to help now, so brooding wasn't going to do any good. But he wasn't going to think about that anymore. No, this was a vacation, and Joseph knew that thinking about work would only slow it down in the long run. So, he laid there in the field, took a deep breath, and continued staring into the sky. After a moment, he felt much better about his situation again. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Meanwhile, a different sort of conteplation was occuring an a craft speeding away from Robotropolis. The sole passenger of the craft was pondering what to say to his new friend to get him to return with him this time. He had still been reluctant to leave his precious island the last time he had visited him, but he knew that he could convince him to return with him today... Laughter echoed through the small craft as it sped further away from the dark outline of Robotropolis. Soon, the short human thought, soon, Robotnik would be out of the way; and then he, Snively the Great, could take his rightful control over Mobius! - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Eventually, Joseph grew tired of just laying in the field, thinking about nothing. If it's one thing his new body demanded, it was activity. So, he chose to get back to the activity that he had engaged in for most of his vacation; exploring Mobius. He had searched most of the Southern continent last week, and the Northern continent was already throughly charted. Perhaps he would visit the sea again. It was certainly beautiful enough to warrant a second look. Besides, he had a yearning for seafood. A boiled lobster about then seemed mighty good. He licked his lips and stood up. He hadn't yet mastered the whole powering-up thing with his running. He always seemed to mess something up. He'd either fall on his head, slip on something and fall backwards, or lose control entirely and fly into a tree. So, with some trepidation, he started running in place like Sonic did, slowly picking up speed at first, but quickly picking up speed. After a few seconds of this, he took his foot off the clutch (so to speak) and blasted forward. Surprisingly, he was able to maintain control of his propultion well enough to direct himself to the shore. Within minutes, he was able to see the line of the horizon reflecting off the sea. Now, he had to stop. He didn't particularly *like* stopping. He had never been able to cease his propultion on a 1 Mobian coin like Sonic did. He had always gone up some extreme surface without speeding up to come to a halt. The water was now in plain sight. It looked awfully blue today. He wondered how deep-- Unconsciously speeding up, he sucessfully breached the coast, and was suddenly running over the water. Whoa, Joseph thought, this is cool! He ran straight off the coast for a few minutes, and then tried a left turn. After sucessfully turning left, he tried turning right. This also was accomplished easily. Deciding to put his navigation skills to the test, he ran in a figure-8 a few times, and then shot off in a different direction. Way Past Cool, he mentally snickered, and headed off further off the coast. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - The small craft landed on the far side of an anonymous island somewhere in the Great Ocean. Snively departed the craft, told the SWAT Bot pilot to maintain a holding pattern, and walked away. As the craft took off, Snively disappeared into the island's jungle-like foilage. After walking on a roughly-beaten path for a while, he came to a clearing that he had visited countless times before. And, like every time, he walked over to a small stump, took a seat upon it, and waited for his host to appear. "Welcome, Snively-mon," a voice said, "back to my island." "Knuckles, cut the dramatics." Snively looked around. "Just tell me your answer. Will you return to Robotropolis with me, or not?" Some leaves rustled behind Snively, and a red-quilled figure appeared. "I tol' you, mon, I canno' leave dis island. I gotta guard my Ruby." "Echidna," Snively falsely smiled, "there is no one left on Mobius with the capability to find this island but myself. How could someone steal your precious `Ruby' if they don't even know this alcove exists?" "But ev'ryone wants my Ruby, mon. It's special." Snively internally chuckled. This foolish creature of the forest was so paranoid about some idiotic reddish rock. It probably was a piece of glass, or maybe it *was* a tiny little ruby. Either way, it was unimportant to Snively what it was. "I told you," he said, "you can take it with you if you want." "I can' take it. I tol' you, it don' wanna be took." Snively sighed. "Look, I could station some robot-soldiers..." Knuckles grimaced. "No! No robots! Dis island shall NOT have robots on it!" Snively recoiled. "Okay, I won't put any here. I just thought you'd want some protection for your stone." Knuckles grew silent, obviously considering some things. Snively talked as he thought. "Look, I promise you that nothing shall happen to your `Ruby' until you return." Snively put his hand on the echidna's shoulder in a false gesture of empathy. "You will return here. I *promise*." "You promise?" the echidna spouted. "Yes, I do." Knuckles hmmed. "Okay, I go wit' you. But I want one mo' day here on the island before I go. Dat okay?" Snively smiled. "Yes, that will be fine." *JUST* fine, he thought, and just in time... "I'll be back here at sundown tomorrow to pick you up. Go to the north shore, and a ship will come for you." As Snively got back up, Knuckles disappeared back into the underbrush. The short human smiled evilly, and walked back up the path to flag down his vehicle. This was too easy, he thought, as the ship landed, allowed him to board, and rocketed back toward Robotropolis. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Joseph sped over miles of water, going in no particular direction for very long, nor really planning to go anywhere. He thought he might eventually circumnavigate the world if he kept at this long enough. And, when he saw the patch of land over on the eastern horizon, he thought he had. He sped curiously over to it, wondering which coast it was. After a second or two, he was running along the coast of the land, and then realized it was an island. He hadn't quite circled the globe yet, obviously, but this phenomenon still deserved investigation. He went ashore, and started to slow-- *BONK* When he came to, it was nighttime, and he was staring up into a pair of eyes. "Uhh..." he groaned as a pair of hands grabbed him and pulled him to his feet. "How did you get 'ere!? 'Ave you come to steal my Ruby?!?" "Huh?" Something that felt like a brick nailed him across the face, causing blood to drip from his mouth. "I ASKED you a ques'ion, intruder!" "Muggaahh..." "Arrgh! "What are you, stupid?!" "I...don't understand...intruder?" *POW* - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Joseph woke up a few hours later in a bamboo cage, hanging over a large pit. A few rails had been redded with the liquid that had poured from his oral cavity after the figure had decked him. (With what, he wondered, a brick?) In addition to that painful injury, a few more additional cuts had been inflicted (but healed) on parts of his stomach and arms; obviously caused by being dragged through some sharper underbrush. Struggling to his feet, he tried to regain his bearings. He was in a dense part of the jungle. The cage was hanging from a single treebranch, but it looked stable...for now. There was solid ground closeby the pit (which he now saw having sharp spikes at the bottom) and a single path leading away from it deeper into the forest. He quickly came to the decision to try and swing the cage out from over the pit, and onto solid ground, where it would probably break open. As he began to rock it back and forth, he heard (as expected) the branch beginning to go. He rocked a little harder, and he started to hear it crack. He finally gave the cage a teriffic shake, and the branch broke, plummeting it to the earth below. The cage began falling soon after that; it tumbled toward the ground, shattered open, and spilled its contents onto the forest floor. What Joseph had forgotten to anticipate was the pain factor involved in being inside of a cage when it crushed into the earth. He agonizingly climbed out of the wreckage, picking small pieces of bamboo out of his quills. He was beginning to hate this place. A lot. After he had gotten himself together, he wandered silently down the path. Luckily, his martial arts training had not been effected by his transformation, so he was able to stealthily traverse the path without distrurbing a single item in the forest. Hopefully, he could find the shore, rev up, and get off this island before anything bad-- << WARNING: POWER LEVELS AT: 5% AND DROPPING. REQUIRE REFUELLING BEFORE DEPARTURE BACK TO DOME ALPHA. ACQUIRE POWER CRYSTALS. PRIORITY: ONE PRIORITY: ONE. PRIORITY: ONE. PRIORITY: ONE. PRIORITY: ONE........ >> --happens. He emitted a series of vile Ur'thaen curses, and snarled. This irritated Joseph to a great degree. His internal power cells were supposed to last for about 1000 years before ever dipping below 50%, and here were his systems crying 5% 6 months after it had been activated. Then, he realized exactly how much load he had put on his body in the last 6 months, and was able to calm his fears of his body having leaky fuel cells. But, it still left the problem of finding fuel. He was going to have difficulty finding something digestible without having to confront whatever it was that struck at him. It was about as strong as he was at this point, and certainly didn't like him very much...he thought Joe wanted to steal his `Ruby', whatever the hell that was. So, he did some quick internal calculations. If he went at a normal speed, didn't use his augmented strength much, and avoided further injury, he could last about a year on the island. After all, the food looked edible, and the water was fairly clean...but he didn't want to be here a year. He didn't want to be there a day! He wanted to go home. He pounded his fist against his hand. No, there had to be crystals on this island. There were crystals everywhere on this planet! All he had to do was look. He turned his optical scanners to detect energy signatures, and went off to find some. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - At daybreak, Joseph reached the shore. He had covered half the island, and he was down to about 4% of his total energy. So far, he hadn't detected much of anything. Some small pebbles were all that carried any sort of juice in them, but they had not enough to even make a spark. The sun beamed down upon Joseph, trying ineffectually to give him some solar energy. Alas, but he had no solar panels on him, and no means to make any. It did, however, warm him up enough so he physically felt better, and made him think to sweep the horizon and admire the view. As he looked around, he noticed a small, craft-shape energy imprint upon the ground. He walked over to it to examine it further. A ship had landed there earlier, no more than a day ago, and quickly had taken off again. (He could understand why someone would do that.) However, it appeared that it was a Robotropolis-brand ship that had landed there, by the blackish residue that was left on the ground. Had someone else decided to take a holiday here? He hadn't seen anyone else but the figure that attacked him...but Robotnik wasn't into bamboo, he thought. This was becoming a really strange situation, Joseph pondered, as he wandered toward the other side of the island. Mysterious guardians of unknown jewels, unknown landings of Robotnik-made crafts...it was all connected somehow, but Joe couldn't see it. He started walking down a path that led through the other side of the island. He began to mull over exactly what could be so important that whoever was guarding it would savagely beat whomever seemed to threaten it... Then, a blip appeared in front of him. A large crystal vein was on this side of the island, toward the center. He smiled. His ticket home was right on the beaten path. Perhaps this is what the strange one was guarding, Joe thought. Well, he won't mind if I take a few off his hands for lunch now, would he? He wasn't going to take any chances either way. He returned to his stealthy mode of walking, and seemed to disappear into the underbrush. Within a few hours, he was in the center of the island. He was on the very edge of the clearing. A cave was directly in front of him, giving off an reddish glow deep inside of it. This is what the person who had attacked him was guarding. "I wonder what's inside of it," Joseph whispered aloud. "My Ruby's inside o' dere." He didn't turn around. He *knew* what would happen if he turned around. So, he just burst forward toward the cave. "GET BACK 'ERE!!!" shouted the figure as Joseph hit the sound barrier halfway through the cave. << WARNING: POWER LEVELS AT: 2% AND DROPPING >> He got to the back of the cave, no longer caring whether or not that person liked him or not. When he got to the inside of the cave, he pushed a large boulder in front of the opening out, so that the individual trying to kill him would at least be slowed down. He heard thumping on the rock, and muffled shouting, but he had not broken it down enough to get through...yet. Having that out of the way, he ran as fast as was prudent to the back of the cave. He was stuck dumb with awe when he entered the area where the light was coming from. The walls of the domed area were covered in glowing, sparking energy crystal. In the center of the room, there was an energy core that was being powered by a reddish rock...his `Ruby', obviously. But why did this undeveloped island need this much power? What was this `Ruby' really? He took a closer look at it, and accessed his records of Mobian geological history. No, he thought, it couldn't be. But it *had* to be. This `Ruby' was actually a Chaos Emerald. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - This explained a lot, thought Joseph. Chaos Emeralds were mythical, mystical power crystals that are capable of generating extreme amounts of clean, emissionless energy. They were also said to have special powers of their own, depending on their color. But this was unimportant to Joseph right now. All he knew was that the red rock in the center of the room was best left where it was. It was probably incompatible with his digestive system, anyway. So, instead of attempting to acquire that particular crystalline morsel, he started trying to break off bits of the more digestible power crystal on the walls. Meanwhile, the boulder in the front of the cave suddenly formed a large crack in the center of it, and seconds later it crumbled to the ground. A very pissed-off Knuckles then strode in, looking to beat the tar out of the `thief' inside by his delicate `Ruby'. Joseph was too busy trying to chip off a mouth-sized crystal off the wall to notice the boulder crumbling to dust in back of him. He hoped that if he ate this one it would be enough to keep him going long enough to get back home. Unfortunately, he never got a chance to find out. Knuckles swiftly went into a flying tackle onto the weakened and bleeding hedgehog, knocking the crystal out of his hand. It flew across the room and shattered on the wall, directly next to Joseph's hope of leaving here peacefully. He was then slammed against the wall and kicked in the back. He yelped as he felt a quill snap off one of his lower rows and scatter onto the floor. Being driven to even more savagery by Joseph's acknoledgement of his abuse, he punched Joseph repeatedly in the face, yelling on each impact. "STAY!" *POW* "'WAY!" *SOCK* "FROM!" *BAMF* "MY!" *WHACK* "RUBY!!!" *CRACK* By the time "FROM!" had rang out, Joseph had begun to go somewhat blind, and his eyes freely bled blackish fluid. He coughed up a few mouthfuls of bloods after the 5th or 6th sucessive hit, giving Knuckles a sense of great personal pride. But, he grew tired of this, and decided to switch from his face to some other part. Making a split-second decision, he threw him to the ground and started kicking Joe in the stomach. Joseph was blinded completely, and was beginning to lose his sense of hearing. All that was left to his sensors was the pain. After a few more kicks, Knuckles grabbed him by the throat, pushed his face inside the engine core, burning a centimeter or two off of it. Joseph tried to scream; but the echidna closed his fist around his throat, choking his howl to a squeak. "You betta take a nice, GOOD look at my Ruby, 'cuz it's the LAST thing you're EVER gonna see!" << WARNING! WARNING! CRITICAL DAMAGE LEVELS! WARNING! WARNING! >> He weakly struggled to break the echidna's grip, but he barely had enough power to writhe around in agony. He got a few good kicks in around Knuckles' midsection, but nothing that could make him let go of him long enough to let him breathe... << WARNING! WARNING! ENERGY LEVELS CRITICAL! WARNING! WARNING! >> He felt like he was gagging on his own pancreas. He knew his eyeballs were about to pop out from the pressure, and his mind was beginning to go... << TOTAL SYSTEM FAILURE IN 10 SECONDS >> He clawed at Knuckles' quills, but only managed to prick himself in the fingers. He kicked and swung his arms, but Knuckles knew he was almost dead.... << TOTAL SYSTEM FAILURE IN 5 SECONDS >> No! Not again! Not before I-- << SYSTEM SHUTDOWN >> For Joseph, time stopped. He lost all memory of his life, his world, his entire existance. The struggling ceased; the static died down to silence, his sensors stopped recieving information...the world grew cold, spun, and slowly faded to black... But then, a miracle occured. Actually, a biological miracle occured. His body used the remaining volts of his internal power to mutate his tongue into an energy reciever. Then, running on sheer exhaust fumes, it gave it just enough length to wrap itself around the crystal, and shot it out to try to siphon off as much energy as it could. It got far, far more than it bargained for. In fact, it got more than enough. Immediately, ruby-red energy carressed Joseph's limp form, catapaulting Knuckles across the room and out of the cave. Slowly, Joseph's energy levels went up, slightly dimming the crystal's light. However, as Joseph was recharging, the island was beginning to sink. The beaches slowly started to retreat under a blue wall of water. Small animals desperately ascended trees, rocks, anything they could find in order to avoid being drowned. << ENERGY LEVELS RISING. 10%. 20%. 30%. 40%. 50%. 60%.... >> After a few moments, Joseph's power levels were back to 100%. As he disengaged his tongue from the crystal, and returned it to a normal length, his healing systems came back on-line, and started to repair the damage that had been done. He barely noticed the small earthquake that occured after he fell from the crystal, nor did he care what it meant. He just wanted to repair his screaming shell of a body. He slowly rubbed against the energy crystal-covered wall. He was too exhausted to even move. He doubted he was going to be able to go anywhere for 15 minutes or so as he renewed hiself. The creature had beat him up pretty bad. His vision was just coming back, and his hearing was still fuzzy. Not only that, it seemed like his entire body core hurt. He coughed up some blood and spat it onto a nearby rock. It hissed, bubbled, and ate right through it. He was relieved. He wasn't internally bleeding anymore; or else the clotting agents would have neutralized the blood's acidic effects. His sight clarified seconds later. That was much better. Checking his power levels, he was somewhat discouraged...it was eating up most of his power. He'd be back to 50% after all the repairs were complete. But that'd be enough to finish his host off... - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Knuckles was laying unconscious in a clearing about 1000 yards from the cave. The charge had knocked him clear through the forest, and he was cut up pretty bad. Of course, he didn't notice this, because he was in a stupor, but it still appeared awfully painful. His gloves were also somewhat singed, but they were at least not on fire any longer. He began to come out of it. Shaking his head, he groaned at the amount of damage the hedgehog had done to him. Ruby had shocked both of them pretty good. Hopefully, the stupid orange hedgehog thief was dead, and nobody would bother Ruby until he got back. He hated trespassers. He stood back up. Ruby was still there, by the glowing that came from the cave. But he had to be sure the hedgehog was dead. Had to. Could be alive, FAKING dead. He wandered back into the cave, and slowly returned to the crystal room. Joseph was there, acting dead. Since he didn't have any pupils to dilate, he simply gave off a pheromone that denoted deadness. Hopefully, the echidna would smell it, and think him demised. Knuckles entered. He looked over at the puddles of blood laying around, seeping into the ground. The hedgehog bled a lot. Dirty hedgehog. Bad hedgehog. He looked at the dead hedgehog. Good. His instincts told him he was dead, so he had to be. He decided he didn't like the dead hedgehog with Ruby, making the place smell bad. So, he grabbed him by the shoulders, and pulled him out of the cave. The sun was beginning to set, so Knuckles hurried along, dragging the hedgehog through the dirt. He'd leave him outside the cave as a warning. Nobody would go into a cave where a dead animal laid outside. Just the way it was. He dropped him in front of the cave, right in the center of the enterance. Thinking no more of it, he turned his back on the `dead' hedgehog, and started to walk up the trail. << REPAIRS COMPLETE >> Joseph stood up, and ran over to Knuckles as silently as the wind. He grabbed the naive echidna by the throat. "Miss me?" he whispered into his ear, and threw him into a tree. A few teeth fell out of Knuckles' mouth, accompanied by a few droplets of blood. Smiling psychotically, Joseph peeled him off the tree and spiked him on the ground. "So..." He punched him in the snout. "You *actually* think--" He fit his left ear, making it squirt most reddish fluid. "--you can go around beating--" He kicked him in the head. "--people--" He stomped on his abdomen. "--up?" He threw him down the path. "Huh?" Knuckles stumbled toward the beach, trying to escape the enraged hedgehog. He pursued Knuckles, anxious to pummel him some more. Knuckles ran toward the beach. Bad hedgehog not dead! Got strong from Ruby! Now was angry at Knuckles for stopping him from stealing Ruby. Help! Help! Snively would help. Snively powerful. Has powerful machines. Lazers that blow things up. Joseph relentlessly chased his attacker. He was going to be sure he was throughly punished for beating him up when he was defenseless, and without provocation. He didn't want to kill him, mind you--he was not a overzealous member of the warrior caste--just rough him up enough to teach him to be more tolorant. Knuckles stood on the north shore nervously. He looked back toward the path, and saw the outline of the hedgehog coming close. He looked to the horizon, and just then saw the shadow of a single ship...Snively's ship! He'd save him! He'd blast the bad hedgehog into dust. Teach him a lesson. He saw Knuckles standing on the beach, and noticed the small craft fly down, pick him up, and go back into the air. "Oh, no you don't," Joseph said, and projected some energy at the ship. It locked onto him and shot some beams back. He ran along the shore, trying to trick the ship into dropping down low enough so he could get a clear shot in. Unfortunately, it did not. Meanwhile, while the SWAT Bots were firing at Joseph, Knuckles was trying to tell Snively what had happened. He ignored most of the foolish babble about `Ruby', of course, but realized he'd have to kill this fast, nigh-invincible (hmm) hedgehog before Knuckles was going to leave. Knuckles, of course, had an idea... Joseph had now almost ran a total circuit around the island. He was wondering how he was going to escape their fire, and not let them get the Chaos Emerald at the same time. But then, Knuckles jumped out of the craft, and (instead of running at him) ran back toward the cave. Hopefully, he'd find some way of hiding it, or destroying it. He thought no more of the odd occurance, and continued dodging the fire of the SWAT Bots. He ran beneath a series of cliffs, trying to dodge the continual bursts of plasma. However, he neglected to notice the large boulder directly above him, and hid there from the ship. It apparently didn't see him...but Knuckles did. He had ran around in front of the cave, taken a path to the other side of the island, and climbed up the cliff where the boulder was. Then, he had gotten a piece of wood, lodged it under the rock, and was waiting for the hedgehog to get in position....NOW! The boulder, after being dislodged from its resting place, raced down to the ground, making hardly a sound. When Joseph finally noticed it, it was too late. It slammed into him, and shoved him deep within the moist earth. Knuckles, of course, *knew* this had to have killed him. He cheered, did a victory dance, and rapelled down the cliff. He then stumbled out to the ship, and hopped in. Seconds later, they were both gone. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - An hour passed. The rock didn't move. A small puddle of blood was forming next to it, and it was beginning to attract various insects. The tide came in, and started to wash softly against the rock, cleansing the earth of the reddish pool. The occasional bubble began to hiss up from the wet crater, making it sound like a boiling mud pool, but instead of mud, there was hemoglobin. It looked like some sort of macabre metorite had crashed. Then, as if a geyser was forcing it away, the rock split in half, and Joseph crawled out of the hole, vomiting up sand and dirt. He felt absolutely miserable. It had taken him what seemed like aeons to charge up anouther energy in his index fingers (the only part that was touching the rock after it pushed him 2 3/4 feet underground) to start cutting the rock, and it had drained him down to 25% again. This *sucked*. He had been beaten, electrocuted, buried, crushed, burned, nearly drowned, and shot at. His energy levels had gone from 100% to 1% to 50% to 25%. It felt like a really nasty form of vixen PMS. He just wanted to charge up, teleport home, and not leave the dome for 2 weeks. As he continued to wash himself off, he began to realize how fortunate it was to be able to teleport home. Sure, he'd have to get fully charged, have to pretty high up, and his broadcasting array on his body wasn't the best, but it'd be just enough to tell Bahb to teleport him home to his own power charger. He made a mental note never, never, never EVER to take another vacation the rest of his life. At least not without a plasma shotgun. Man, he could have used one of those. He wandered back up the path to the cave. The interior of the forest looked like it had seen a world war. Trees were bent over, there was blood everywhere, and nothing dared move. He grumbled. He had lost control, and messed up this entire ecosystem for everyone. Good one, moron. Hopefully, it'd heal itself in 5 years or so, with luck. It would look a little better, anyway. Approaching the cave, it didn't look much better. He'd really beaten the tar out of that echidna here. Little red quills were sticking out of the dirt like a bad hair weave. A few teeth were also intermixed with the quills, giving the whole area the stink of death. It made him sick. He wandered into the cave, which didn't look as bad. It was only *his* blood in here, and the crystals on the walls were vaporizing it pretty quickly. He went over to the Chaos Emerald, placed his hands around it, and boosted his power back to 100%. A few repairs and a minor earthquake later (possibly caused by the Emerald's draining) pursued later, he charged himself again. Now he was back to where he was supposed to be. He hoped he wouldn't have to do that again for a long time. A few minutes later, he had left the cave and ascended the cliff where the boulder was. Looking down, he realized that it had to have nailed him really freakin' hard. The cracks in the mud looked like something you'd see on one of the three moons of this planet. A complete wreck. Thank goodness it had happened in an out-of-the-way place, or else the entire island would look like a war zone. He pointed his eyes to the rising moons. He calculated his exact location in relation to Knothole, triangulated the angle of the moonbounce, and transmitted an encrypted transporter call, with full coordinates, to his teleporter in his lab. The transmission shot to the 1st moon, bounced off of it at a 34 degree angle, and refracted to the secret reciever unit by the original crash site. It traveled from there by buried wire 1 mile down into the earth, went back up the hyperfast eribrum-doped fiberobtic backbone Joseph had strung down into the earth, and back into the dome. Bahb intercepted the transmission, decrypted it, and sent it down to the 3rd level of the Dome, the laboratory. The automatic servos began pumping, and the teleporter powered up. Joseph was then surrounded by an opaque bubble, which lifted into the air momentarily and popped, leaving no trace of either bubble or passenger. With that, Joseph left the Floating Island...a wreck. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - A second or two later, he rematerialized, looking like a refugee, in the 3rd SubBasement of his home. Ahh. Home sweet home. He'd never want to leave it again. He didn't even acknoledge the computer. He hopped on the minielevator pad and went straight to the 1st level, his bedroom. Then, he plowed right into the bathroom, showered, dried off, walked back into the bedroom, laid down on the bed, and passed out. He slept for 5 days. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - But what of Knuckles and Snively? - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - "Here," Snively said, "put this on your face. It'll heal it faster." Knuckles could only moan quietly. He hurt. "Muhguh." "Oh, stop complaining. You'll be fully healed by the time we enter Robotropolis. By now, Robotnik should be throughly crushed by the hedgehog." Before Knuckles could groan something, Snively said, "No, it wasn't that one. The one I talk about is blue. Don't worry, you'll get to meet him..." He smiled evilly. "I promise." - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Epilogue - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - About 5 days later, Joseph woke back up. He mumbled as he stumbled out of bed and gave himself yet another through scrubbing. He still felt echidna quills sticking out of his back. Not only that, he'd slept for a really long time, according to his internal chronometer. He'd probably needed it. Alas, he was going to have to mine some crystal pretty soon, because he knew his energy levels weren't going to be constant for long... He got himself back to a tolorable state and went back to the surface of his home. The Dome looked especially lovely today. Bahb had made sure the windows had stayed especially clean, and the light streamed in with impunity. The entire room was warm with the power of the sun. It made him feel much better about himself, and far more vibrant-- He got an idea. Solar energy! Of course! The entire Dome was almost a perfect focusing tool; it was a massive upside down lens. All he had to do was to install another lens in the reverse direction in front of his skylight, and he could focus the rays of the sun into an extremely high-frequency energy beam. Then, he could create some sort of battery to store it, and get recharged off of the light of the Mobian sun. Just like how he powered the rest of the house! And he wouldn't have to take any more of the house's energy to do it. Quickly, he set to work on drawing up the plans for the new device, wondering what else he could use the excess energy for.... - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - THE END? - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -