Sonic 3 and Knuckles
		    (for lack of a better title)

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' 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 roboticized 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


	Like a fiery comet the gigantic ship plunged from the sky. Flames 
licked through its metal paneling, fanned to greater fury by the rushing
wind created by its descent. It made a screaming sound as it fell, like a 
missile or a bomb. The huge rockets were still going, but they were too
hot--far too hot. Robotnik was losing control. He was in the cockpit of
Death Egg, struggling desperately to steer it out of its nose dive. But
he couldn't. Alarms were going off all over the place, smoke clouded the 
cockpit.
	Robotnik brushed sweat from his forehead and tightened his grip on
the steering wheel. He stared through the smoke-darkened windshield, 
trying to see where he was. The altimeter was dropping rapidly, and he
wanted to know whether he should bail out or crash. He thought briefly
of his enemy, Sonic the Hedgehog, who had caused his ship to nearly self-
destruct. If he landed Death Egg successfully, then Sonic would escape
alive. But if he crashed ... No, he couldn't crash. It would take 
forever to build another battle station. (Robotnik didn't 
know Sonic had already bailed out. He thought the hedgehog was 
still on board.)
	The smoke cleared momentarily. Below him was the dark blue 
ocean. Perfect. He could splash down in the water, cooling the over-
heated jets and extinguishing the fire. He didn't worry about spilling
the leaking rocket fuel in the sea; Robotnik never worried about things
like that. He flipped several switches on the dashboard, closing all
outside doors. Then he concentrated on splashdown.
	The metal orb slammed into the water with a jarring crash that 
nearly threw Ivo from his chair. Death Egg plunged deep under the 
ocean. The flames were quenched with long, loud hissing protests, and
the rockets turned from glowing red back to cool grey.
	After a few moments, Death Egg slowly rose to the surface and 
rotated so the rockets (the heaviest part of the base) were downward.
The cockpit rolled to the surface. Robotnik was too busy shutting down
all unnecessary operating systems to notice or even care. He was 
taking on only a little water, and that was soon fixed. Heat was 
sinking back into the green levels, and the alarms stopped.
	Then Robotnik realized his first problem. Death Egg was under 
water--he couldn't fire the rockets to launch again. There was another
problem, too. He was nearly out of fuel. To get more he would have to 
land in his inland ground base, Launch Base. And he was miles and miles 
away from it. And incidentally, his radio was dead. For the first time 
in his life, Robotnik realized he needed help from the outside--and 
desperately.

                        * * * *
	
	The wind was light that day. It fanned my face and ruffled my 
hair as I climbed to the top of the highest point on the island. A 
towering column of rock, the west face was rough and sheer--perfect
for climbing. I don't climb the way mountain climbers do. I just dig in
with my sharp knuckles and start. I think ropes and things just get in
the way. It's easier my way.
	I pulled myself up the last few feet, then clambered onto the 
top. The bare surface of the rock was worn smooth from years of wind 
and rain. Being the highest place on my island--and in the geographical
center--it just so happened to be my fave place for steering the island.
	I brushed the dust off my hands and knuckles, then scanned the 
island. Everything looked normal and healthy--the way a good guardian 
wants it to look.
	That's when I heard the sound. At first I thought I was hearing 
things, `cause it was like a high whistle, only far away. But it was 
getting louder by the minute. I turned in a circle, searching the sky for
anything unusual. The sky was empty--nothing.
	A moment later, though, I spotted it. It was almost directly against
the sun, but falling rapidly. It looked like a little grey sphere, but
it had to be on fire because of the black trail of smoke it was leaving
behind. I had seen a few aircraft in my time, but never one like that.
I put my hands on my hips and watched. I felt safe. The island was in
no danger. The ship-thing was at least two miles away, and the Floating 
Island was about a mile up, anyway. I tried to make it out again. It didn't 
look streamlined enough for any sort of jet, but it appeared to have rockets 
and stuff. I wondered what had happened to it.
	A moment later it plunged into the ocean. From the way it hit
and the wave it caused, I thought for sure it had crumpled on impact.
But no, five minutes later (about the time the tidal wave rolled 
beneath my island), it floated to the surface. There was a cloud 
of steam all around it from the extinguished fire and cooled metal. I
wondered if anyone could still possibly be alive, after a ride like
that. "Knuckles, you're too nosey," I said aloud when I realized I 
was considering gliding out there. But 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 wherever I wanted.
	I took it out now. Carefully I set it down on the rock, allowing
its power to flow into the ground. After an interval, I picked it up 
again, faced the direction of the partly submerged ship, and held out 
the emerald at arm's length. Floating Island began to move, impercept-
ably at first, then faster. I kept my eyes trained on the dark patch 
in the water. If I looked away, my hand would move, too, and the 
island would change directions.
	The distance was greater than it had seemed at first, but I had 
flown the island often and held my arm steady. I half-closed my eyes
against against the glare of the sun on the water. The smooth patch 
of quicksilver was broken in the middle by the top of the round craft.
It must be really big, for it was motionless and seemed rock solid. As
I drew nearer I could make out the metal paneling on the sides and top,
surrounding the crown, which appeared to be a glassed-in cockpit. The
rough style of the ship made me wonder if Dr. Robotnik had built it. I
had never actually seen him or any of his creations, but Dad had told 
me all about him. How he wanted to make all animals into machines and 
digitize the entire planet. Dad had hated the doctor with a vengeance
ever since his service in the Mobian Civil War. Well, maybe I would get to 
find out why.
	We were approaching the ship quickly now. I lowered my arm a 
little, and the island slowed accordingly. The thing was just below my
line of vision, so I let my arm drop. The island stopped. I pocketed
the emerald (I could feel its warmth against my skin), then dove 
headfirst off the crag. But I didn't fall; not by any means. I stretched
my arms out before me, and the spread of my red dreadlocks caught the 
air. I glided smoothly across the island to the very rim--or lip, or
beach, or whatever you want to call it. I swung my feet down and landed
on my toes. Then I peered over the edge, down toward the water.
	I was standing directly over the ship. It was round, like an orange.
It was so big that I couldn't see the edges, where it would start to 
curve under. The depth of the water blocked my view of it. From what I
could see it had burned up pretty badly. Black blotches marred the dull
grey surface. But, to my surprise, I could see lights inside the round
cockpit. Could someone still be alive in there ... ?
	I took out the emerald again, but this time when I held it out I
cupped my other hand over the top of it. This caused the island to sink
downward. I looked over the edge of the island, watching as the ocean
slowly rose to meet the bottom of the island. I looked up at the center
peak, the one I had just left. Then I looked down at the water again.
The bottom of Floating Island was about as low as the crag was high.
I had almost reached the limit for floating. Any lower and Floating 
Island would be a sinking island. Which meant that I was about a 
quarter of a mile up--around 2000 feet. That's a pretty good distance.
	I focused my attention on the ship again. I took my 'ground rope'
(I use it to get to the ground--it's about 2000 feet long), tied it to 
a tree and flung the other end over the edge of the island. I took ahold
of it and slid down it for a closer look at the gigantic craft. I couldn't
see anybody moving around in the cockpit from above, but you never know.
So anyway, I got to where I was about five feet above the water. I was
really close to the cockpit, and I looked into the windows, trying to
see if anybody was in there. And sure enough, something moved. I strained
my eyes, trying to see who it was. He moved into the light, and I got 
my first look at the brilliant (but demented) Dr. Ivo Robotnik.
	I had never seen anybody so fat in my life. I mean, he was--round.
And 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 frizzy, and
it looked like you could sweep the floor with it. Anyway, he looked 
like he'd been through an ordeal--tired and worn out.
	He turned around and saw me, and he kinda jumped, like he hadn't
expected to see anyone. I didn't really know what to do, so I yelled,
"Hey! Ya need help?" He motioned that he couldn't hear me and to stay 
there. He left the cockpit. A minute later a big round door opened in
the top of the ship--a manhole type thing. I said again, "Hey, ya need
help?" 
	"Yes," he returned. "What was your first clue? My ship crashed 
in the water and I need help to get it out." 
	That was obvious enough, and I hesitated, trying to think of 
something to say. "Uh, well, need a lift?"  
	"Yeah," was his somewhat sarcastic answer. "That might be a 
good idea."  
	We both paused. I broke the silence. "Well, uh, I have some ropes 
and stuff. I could attach `em 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, "Well, 
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 mostly underwater. "Oh bummer,"
he finished with a sigh. "Oh well, never mind that. I've got some chains
and things--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."
	Robotnik turned and vanished into the ship. A moment later, he
came back dragging some of the biggest chains I'd ever seen. I mean,
each link was more than an inch thick. They were big. He pulled them
out one by one and tossed them to me. The first nearly threw me from the
rope with its weight. Fortunately I'm pretty strong, and was able to climb
up the rope with the first one. Then, to get the others, I had Dr. Robotnik
tie the rope through each chain and I hauled them up that way. Once I 
got `em up--there were five--I took each one and hooked `em to different
places in the bottom of the island. Needless to say this took a while,
but eventually I had each one where I wanted them; dangling from the bottom
center of the island, where a heavy amount of stress wouldn't damage it.
Then I flew the island directly over the Death Egg and sank down so the
chains were all but touching it.
	I didn't know it then, but he used robots to attach the chains.
And if you know anything about robots, like I do, you know that robots
can't get wet. And I didn't know that the robots were actually
roboticized animals who drowned while trying to attach the chains. Golly,
did I feel bed when I found out! And I didn't find out until weeks later,
when I learned all about Robotnik.
	But anyway, all the chains were attached eventually, both to the 
island and the Death Egg. The good doctor decided that he would come up
on the island during transit. There wouldn't be much for him to do down
there; something had happened to the rockets while they were underwater.
They got water-logged and couldn't fire. So I helped him up on the island.
He wasn't much good at climbing the rope ladder I tossed down, which
came as sort of a surprise to me. (Everyone should know how to climb.
It should be a law.) When we finally got there, he asked me, "So, what
now? How do you fly the island?"  
	"Well, easy," I replied, and took out the emerald. I showed 
it to him and said, "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 like to carry around, and I use it to 
fly the island."  
	"Oh." He nodded. "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 all ready."
I picked it up and held it in my right hand. "Now, to move it in any dir-
ection 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 under-
neath. Watch." I slowly cupped my left hand beneath my right hand, and the
island began to move up. Robotnik was impressed. I don't know why. I
had never seen anybody get as excited over such a simple thing as he did.
	As I pulled the island up, the chains tightened and I began to feel 
resistance. The Death Egg must be really, really heavy to create that much 
drag. It felt like I was the one lifting the island, because the Master
seemed almost to drag my arm down. But I stood firm. Floating Island had
to move up really slowly to lift the ship. Meanwhile, Robotnik had 
walked to the edge and looked down at the ship. He was practically 
dancing with glee, he was so glad his ship was coming out of the water.
	Eventually I got 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, "it needs to be repaired and refueled, so I need 
to get it to my ground base where I can take care of it. It's called 
Launch Base and 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 stay on the edge and watch my height? Clearance is gonna be a 
bit tricky because of the ship-thing."  
	I still wasn't comfortable calling it the Death Egg yet.  
	"Sure," he replied. "Why not?"
	So I lifted the island higher and we started moving inland. Robotnik 
stood on the edge and shouted out directions like, "Go a little higher!
A little lower! Need to go about a half a mile to the right!" You know.
It was interesting, `cause I was steering entirely on oral directions.
I would have preferred to stand on the rocky pinnacle in the middle of 
the island, `cause I have a clear view of the entire island and can guess
pretty near to how high I am. But I had to stand right on the edge with 
Robotnik. I don't know why I didn't just leave him; I guess I was uneasy.
I didn't want to leave him unsupervised on my island. And besides, he
couldn't call directions that far.
	We flew for quite a while, and Robotnik seemed interested in every-
thing--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 all about the Master emerald, and how it worked, and 
how it flew the island, and even about the chaos emeralds. I told him 
more about the Chaos Emeralds than he had ever known; all he was familiar 
with was the basics. 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 was beginning to want the emeralds for himself, or I wouldn't 
have told him as much. It was kind of boring flying for such a long way, 
and so I told him this and that--how the Master Emerald powers the chaos 
to an extent (the chaos generate their own power) and so, in a way, all 
the emeralds are linked.
	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. `Most 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 figured 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 anymore. He's after 
all the emeralds. He wants them for himself. He'd take them from the 
island, you know, even if it sank." 
	Stunned, I shook my head. "Are you sure? I thought he was all
for Floating Island."  
	"Yes, I'm sure," Robotnik answered assuredly. "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 Death Egg." 
	I'm the guardian of the Floating Island, not to mention the Master 
Emerald. This news made me mad. Why would anybody want all the emeralds? 
I mean, you can use just one and do incredible things with it. But all of them?
	By the time we reached Launch Base, I had come to a decision. I
didn't want anybody, least of all Sonic and his friend, near my 
island. I figured I would take it out into the middle of the ocean and
just stay, `cause I didn't want nobody but nobody on my island. Except
Robotnik. He 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 almost 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 welled up and almost drowned it. What bothered
me about it was that the water wasn't clear--it was a purple-black kind
of color. "Why is the water black?" I asked Robotnik. He shrugged.
	"Oh ... just ... because it is."  
	"Duh," I said, annoyed. "I mean, is the water naturally dark here, 
or did something get spilled into it that turned it black?" 
	I guess Robotnik thought I had guessed closed enough to deserve an answer. 
He said, "Well, you could say I accidentally spilled a few chemicals in 
there."  
	I looked down at it. "It looks like more than a _few_, I mean, 
that water is _black_ and that's a lotta water."  
	"Yeah." Apparently he didn't care.
	Then he started giving me directions about where to lower the 
island so Death Egg would end up on the launch pad. I did it with very 
little trouble. We got the ship unhooked and stabilized, then Robotnik
said, "Thanks. Be seeing you again." And he climbed down the rope 
ladder and was gone. And boy, did he leave me with a mindful.
	I flew the island way up, then straight back out to the ocean. I
didn't come down near the beach, like I usually do. I just kept flying
straight on out. I didn't stop, either, until I was around fifteen 
miles from shore. Then I lowered the island all the way down into the
water; something I don't usually do, but I had a reason for it.
	I had gotten a call earlier from Hydrocity. They had some excess 
water they needed to pump out. Hydrocity is this gigantic desalination
plant built under the ocean floor, so they have good access to plenty
of sea water. They take hundreds of thousands of gallons of water and 
desalinate it (make it un-salty), then pump it to the mainland to water 
parts of Mobius. Sometimes they purify so much water they don't have 
anywhere to put it. 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 go all the way down into the water to connect to the pumping 
station. They pump the water up to me, and it goes into a small pipe 
system which carries it 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 `em all. I can't let him come near the island ever again."
	The story begins two days later ....