GeneX - Tails the Fox
Chapter 39 - Metal Madness
Stages 21-22 - Chao Chambers
Boss 28 - Metal Sonic

Note: Sonic the Hedgehog and related characters are (c) SEGA and 
Sonic Team. You knew that, right?

Knuckles and Gemini had finally reached Darkegg Fortress, and their search for both the Master Emerald and the missing page of Gemini's spell book was well underway. However, they hadn't made good progress, and Knuckles could tell something was troubling Gemini. "What is it?" he asked. "We'll find your missing page, don't worry." Gemini gave him a small smile. "It's not that. I'm just thinking. How could Eggman even use my spells? Even with my wand, he could never use it himself..." "Don't worry about it. We'll ask him if we run into him. Which I kinda hope we do. I owe him a beating!"

They had gone high up the tower when Knuckles finally began to sense the Master Emerald. That's not all they found either. A large amount of Chao were flying around that floor of the tower. "Apparently, Eggman built a Chao Garden into his base. Looks like he hid the Master Emerald pieces with the Chao." Knuckles observed. After looking around a while, they discovered some Chao flying around a fake Master Emerald. Gemini gently shooed away the Chao. "Eggman turned the pieces into fake Master Emeralds!" she realized. She flipped through the pages of her spell book and then waved her wand over the fake Master Emerald, casting her spell. "Despellicazam!" The fake glowed brightly for a moment, then transformed back into a shard. "That's a de-spell charm for objects. Unfortunately, it won't work on me..." she sighed. "Let's find the next one!"

Following Knuckles's senses, they soon found the next one, which Rouge happened to find first. "I know this isn't the real Master Emerald, but I'm hanging onto it!" she insisted. Knuckles explained the situation. "It's a piece of the Master Emerald, magically transformed into a fake Master Emerald. If you don't hand it over, we can't change it back, and if we can't change it back, we can't fix it. Long story short, hand it over, or else!" Rouge glared at him, angered by Knuckles's threat. "Um, please?" Gemini added politely. Rouge thought for a moment and realized that if what Knuckles said was true, there was no way she could get the Master Emerald without cooperating a little. So, she gave it to Gemini, who promptly used her spell to restore the shard. "So, you WERE telling the truth." Rouge said, now sure of it. "I don't lie!" Knuckles insisted.

The trio set out to find more shards, and discovered along the way that most had been transformed. On the trail of one shard, they found Sonic and Amy at a dead end. "See, if I was on my own, I'd be at the top of the tower by now!" Sonic complained to Amy, who was apparently "leading the way." Amy turned from the dead end. "You have something to say!?" she shouted at Sonic, then noticed Knuckles. "What're you doing here?" she wondered. "Eggman didn't trick you again, did he?" Sonic said, a bit annoyed at the likelihood that this was true. Knuckles shook his fist at him. "I RESENT THAT! He does not ALWAYS trick me!" "Oh, yes he does!" Amy said, still a bit frustrated over getting lost. "Out of my way! I'll show Sonic who has no sense of direction!" The pink hedgehog ran past Knuckles, Rouge, and Gemini, determined to find the way out of the Chao Garden. "Guess I'd better go after her..." Sonic groaned. Before leaving, he handed Knuckles a fake Master Emerald. "I would guess you're looking for this. You gotta get an alarm system for the Master Emerald shrine! See ya!" As Sonic took off, Rouge chuckled. "They make several good points, knucklehead!"

As they continued to explore, Knuckles sensed a large number of Master Emerald pieces all in one place. In the westernmost point of the Chao Garden, they found a large amount of fake Master Emeralds, with a bunch of Chao admiring them. "Who's been turning the shards into these, anyway!?" Knuckles wondered aloud.

"I did!" Char the Chao flew up to the fake Master Emeralds with pride. Gemini's eyes went wide. "A Chao? You can use my wand?" she said with surprise. Char nodded proudly. "Sure! That's what impressed Eggman so much that he made me his right hand Chao! My one condition was that he put a Chao Garden into the base that he had built over my family's home! It took practice to turn those icky shards into these pretty gems, so I practiced on rocks in the Lava Glacier! That was the fake you found there!" Knuckles, not wanting to have to rough up a Chao, tried to ask nicely: "Um... Would you turn over those fakes to me? Those shards you used belong to me, you see..."

"I cannot allow that!" a voice from behind them called out. The voice belonged to none other than Metal Sonic! As the Sonic copy approached, Char led the other Chao away to a safe place. "In fact," Metal Sonic continued, "Doctor Eggman insists that you return the wand so the remaining shards can be transformed!" Thinking back to the incident with Eggman's air fleet (see Sonic Heroes), Knuckles had a pressing question. "What happened to the Metal Sonic who used to lock up Eggman? Why are you helping him now?" Metal Sonic may be an emotionless machine, but none would deny that it was now quite angry. "I would never lock up the doctor! He made me! He is my master!" "But you did!" Rouge insisted. "We all had to team up to take you down that day! It was the day Shadow reappeared." "Incorrect data! Reference made to events that never took place! You are my enemy! It is my mission to guard the Master Emeralds! If you will not give the wand back, I will take it!"

Metal Sonic tore after Knuckles and punched him in the face, knocking him backward a short distance. "That's it! You're busted! I'm just gonna finish taking you apart!" Knuckles growled. "Gemini, Rouge, stay back! I must protect the Master Emerald, so this is MY fight!" "Fine..." Rouge grumbled, leading Gemini to the "sidelines."

Knuckles attempted to punch Metal Sonic back, but the robot was too fast. It ducked the attack and tripped Knuckles, following that up by pummeling the echidna while he was down. Knuckles endured the attack for a moment before leaping into action, tackling the robot from below and driving it into the ceiling! The two combatants landed on their feet, but it was apparent that Metal Sonic had been jarred a bit by the attack. "Data recovery initializing..." the robot said to itself quietly. However, this did not distract it. Metal Sonic charged after Knuckles again, mimicking Sonic's spin dash to catch Knuckles off guard. "Whoa!!!" Knuckles was knocked into the fake emeralds, causing them to scatter over the floor. "You're asking for it!" Knuckles shouted, running after Metal Sonic. He tried to punch the robot again, but Metal Sonic caught his fist in one hand and punched him in the gut with the other, not letting go of Knuckles hand. Metal Sonic then smashed his head into Knuckles, dropping the echidna to the ground.

"Good job, Knuckles!" Rouge shouted out sarcastically. "I guess you're right, you don't need any help!" Tired of watching this madness, Gemini decided to fight back. She opened her mouth and breathed a jet of flames in Metal Sonic's direction, but Metal Sonic simply grabbed Knuckles and used him as a shield! Gemini, realizing what she was doing, quickly stopped. "Oh! I'm so sorry!" she shouted. "Stop 'helping' me!" Knuckles managed to shout. Thinking Knuckles could no longer fight back after all that, Metal Sonic let its guard down a bit. This was just the opening Knuckles needed. He quickly let loose with a flurry of powerful punches the the robot's body, ending up by hitting it with an uppercut. Metal Sonic fell backward slightly, but seemed largely unharmed, and yet, it didn't fight back either. "Huh? What gives?" Knuckles muttered.

"Data recovery complete..." Metal Sonic murmured. Suddenly, the robot clutched its head and began sparking up, its eye display flickering wildly. "ERROR!!! Conflicting data in memory!!! Impossible!!!!" The malfunctioning robot had recovered its previous memory, but still had its fake memory as well. This caused a terrible conflict within it as it tried to ascertain the truth. Gemini was the first to realize this. "The poor thing. Eggman really messed up its memory. That's terrible..." "Yeah, whatever..." Rouge said, uncaring. "Catch ya later!" Rouge ran off, something having come to her attention. "Hold it, thief!!" Char had returned, and apparently knew something of Rouge's past history. The bat simply ignored him and continued on her way, with Char trying his best to chase her.

"I guess I better get to work changing these back..." Gemini said, turning to the fake emeralds. "Despellicazam!!" The spell turned the fakes back into shards all at once. "That's about half of them!" Knuckles realized. 

"It.... can't..... be...." Metal Sonic groaned, collapsing to the ground. Gemini looked on the robot with pity. "Should we really leave it here like this?" she wondered. "Don't worry. Metal's a survivor. He'll be fine. More importantly, I sense that bat girl ran off in the direction of the remaining Master Emerald pieces! We have to get those first, then we'll find the missing page to your spell book, Gemini!" Knuckles promised. Gemini's eyes lit up. "Great! Then what are we waiting for! Lead the way, Knuckles!"

To be continued...