Chapter 45 - The Castle Towers

GeneX - Knuckles the Echidna
Chapter 45 - The Castle Towers
Boss 25-28 - Dr. Eggman, Shadow Chaos, ???

Note: Sonic the Hedgehog and related characters are (c) SEGA and
Sonic Team. You knew that, right?
GeneX and related fanchars are (c) 2BIT (TheGreatGator), the author.

The story thus far:
Punchy and his allies snuck into Despair Castle using a section of dark tunnels, which were filled with dark energy. Along the way, Punchy saw yet another vision from Tikal, suggesting that Shadow Chaos merely wished to defend the Chao that Chaos failed to protect. After losing himself to Dark Punchy during a fight with Fera, Dark Punchy hurled an unconscious Fera down a chasm. Her death devastated Illusi, who had been fighting to prevent this future all along, having viewed Fera as something of a daughter to him.
Knuckles joined Sonic in his hunt for the Master Emerald, but after a battle with Eddie, all they managed to do was snag a Chaos Emerald that was keeping Shadow Chaos held captive, thus freeing the beast.
Punchy is now searching for Violet with Rainbow, while Knuckles still seeks the Master Emerald. But danger still lurks throughout Despair Castle...
Now, on to the next chapter!


At a crossroads, Knuckles decided it was time to say good-bye to Sonic for now. "I've gotta find the Master Emerald, Sonic. I'm sure you'll be alright on your own." he said. Team Rose had caught up with him, so it wasn't like he was leaving Sonic shorthanded. "Sure, Knuckles. Heck, why don't you bring Tails along, too. I'm feelin' a bit crowded here." Sonic sighed. Amy took his arm. "I'm sure you're just kidding!" she said. Tails called SPOT and joined Knuckles. "I can calibrate SPOT to try looking specifically for the Master Emerald... Though Gemini's right, we may have trouble with interference." he said. Gemini stepped over to join them as well. "I owe you one for everything you did for me back when I was stuck as a dragon, so I'll help you out now." she said. "I thought the sewer and Shadow Arc and the Dream Temple made us even." Knuckles grinned. Gemini sighed. "How much help was I, really? Besides... I feel like dead weight with Silver and Sonic. You might actually be able to use my help." she said. Silver frowned. "Gee, sorry..." he grumbled. Knuckles sighed. "I remember when I used to work alone... Okay, come on!" he said, heading off one way with Tails, SPOT and Gemini while Sonic headed the other way with Team Rose. What they didn't realize was that Team Dark was just arriving at this same crossroads, a central area of the castle. "Hmmm... There goes Knuckles... I bet he's off on the hunt for that Master Emerald you said he lost..." she said to Shadow. "...Sounds like him." Shadow muttered. Rouge grinned mischievously. "Which implies he hasn't found it yet..." she said, trailing off. Shadow groaned. "If you must, then go. You're no good to us distracted." he grumbled. As Rouge hurried off, Omega stepped to Shadow. "If she gets to leave, then I request permission to track down Eggman!" he said. Shadow rolled his eyes. "What happened to the urgent mission we were on!?" he groaned.

Knuckles arrived at the base of the East Tower of Despair Castle, one of two large towers at the center of the fortress. Inside, he found a large, mostly empty room with a winding stairway leading all the way up the sides of the tower. Here, Dr. Eggman dropped down from above in his Egg Mobile to block their way! "Ah, Knuckles... Hey, where's Sonic?! Eh, no matter. My sensors indicate that YOU have what I want. Hand over the Chaos Gauntlets and the final two Chaos Emeralds, if you don't want this to get messy!" he threatened. Rouge ran into the room hurriedly. "You have Chaos Emeralds!? Erm... Of course, you can't give them to him!" she shouted. Knuckles looked back at her in surprise, but returned his focus to Eggman quickly. "R-right... What she said! Why don't YOU turn over YOUR Chaos Emeralds instead!" he yelled. Tails shook his head. "Yeah, right..." he sighed. Eggman looked down at his controls. "All right... You asked for it... You know, before I settled on making my fleet a carnival, I had another idea in mind. I had picked up these nifty cloud-camouflaged ships cheap, so I was going to go with a weather theme. But then, I realized, Tails has the Tornado, and the Cyclone, and I think he's trademarked the name 'Typhoon' as well. And I already did Hurricane. So what would I name anything? Nice, Tails. I can never do an evil weather station." he grumbled. Tails scratched his head. "Uhhh... Sorry?" he murmured. Eggman then started pushing buttons on his controls. "One idea DID make it past R&D, though... So say hello... To the Egg MAELSTROM!!" he pulled a red lever, and several flashing rods and tubes popped out of the Egg Mobile's underside. They started to rotate, and strange black atmosphere started to generate around the Egg Mobile! "...Okay... This is making me nervous..." Gemini muttered. Knuckles scoffed. "It's just a little cloud!" he said. Suddenly, a bolt of lightning struck out from the cloud, forcing the group to scatter very hastily! "Aaaah! ...See? The chance of getting struck by lightning is really tiny." Knuckles sighed. Eggman chuckled. "That's if the lightning has something bigger to strike... But let's play a bit. How would you like some golf-ball sized hail?" he snickered, as large balls of ice started flying out of the cloud generated by the Egg Maelstrom! Tails shielded himself with his tails and glanced at the steps. "We may have to get above him... Someone try the stairs!" he suggested.


Meanwhile, Punchy had been exploring the castle for some time, joined by Rainbow and Copter. They still hadn't found Violet, nor had they spotted the Chaos Crystal that Rainbow had allowed to be stolen to protect Violet. Having arrived at the castle ahead of everyone, Sonic was only just catching up to them. "...Hey, guys. Seen anything helpful?" he asked. Copter shrugged, so Sonic continued ahead. "See you at the finish!" he waved. Amy and Cream continued with him, but Silver stopped to converse with them. "Rainbow... We've gotta find that Chaos Crystal. Few even know about it, but it's a big piece of the puzzle here. It's something that the Darkseeker has been single-mindedly searching for this whole time." he said. Rainbow nodded. "I know... and I know what might happen if we don't get it..." she shivered. Copter raised an eyebrow. "I'm a bit fuzzy on the whole thing, honestly." he muttered. Silver sighed. "Because of events at this castle, my future ends up devastated. Gemini, who comes from the same time, doesn't know. She left from a different timeline. Her actions may have influenced the new timeline..." he said, a bit uncertainly. Punchy rubbed his forehead. "This is giving me a headache. Can't we just go beat up this Darkseeker and be done with it?" he asked. Copter shuddered. "I've met him. He induces fright just by being in the same room..." he said. Silver nodded. "Regardless, this is what we must do. Since you are among the few who know the urgency of finding the Chaos Crystal, I'm going with you now. Lead the way, Rainbow." he asked. Rainbow pointed at herself uncertainly. "...Me? Why, Shiny?" she asked. "As the guardian, you share a bond with the crystal. One that you may not yet fathom, but we need it now. You should be able to sense when we get close to it." he said. Rainbow sighed frustratedly. "Sure... Even though I was never able to even FIND it before... Why not?" she grumbled. "I believe in you." Punchy said, placing a hand on her shoulder. Rainbow smiled at him and nodded. "Well... that's the important thing. Follow me, guys!" she said, running ahead.

The four of them arrived at the West Tower after a bit of a jog. It was very similar to the East Tower. Here, they found Illusi in their path. His fur was a mess, and his cape was wrinkled and tatty as well. His eyes were bloodshot, and he generally looked awful. "So... Dark One! Still playing the hero after what you've done!" he yowled woefully. Silver frowned. "...Maybe we shouldn't have left him alone..." he realized. "Poor Mousy..." Rainbow said softly. Illusi stomped at the ground, and as though on command, Shadow Chaos dripped down from the ceiling! "I found someone else who's furious with you! ...Remember this guy! After you splattered him across the mountainside, Despair captured him! Seems you've been messing up everyone's lives!" he shouted, almost crazed. Copter looked astonished. "...They actually caught it?? But...WHY??" he stammered. Punchy growled at Illusi. "Stop blaming me for what happened to Fera! Even before it happened, you blamed me instead of trying to warn me! Maybe I could have HELPED prevent her from dying!! But she PUSHED me and PUSHED me! She FORCED Dark Punchy out!! And it backfired on her!" he shouted, furious at everything that had happened. Illusi glared at him. "Enough!! Shut your mouth! Fera... She was all the family I had... And now you'll know what it's like to suffer like I've had to suffer!! Shadow Chaos! Take your vengeance!" he cried, prompting the big drop on the floor to take shape and hurl its stretchy arms across the room, trying to slap all four of them at once! Copter jumped the attack, but the others were knocked aside swiftly. "C'mon, guys! None of you saw that coming!?" he grumbled, "Well, you don't scare ME, Shadow Chaos!" Copter growled. Shadow Chaos morphed into a big ball of black water and leapt at Copter, slamming him against the wall hard! As he fell to the ground, Copter groaned. "That's new..." he mumbled. Punchy stood up and shook his head. "Cut it out! Your fight's with me!" he growled. Shadow Chaos fired several blasts of black sludge at him, but he retaliated. "Chaos Avalanche!" he cried, trying to pull up parts of the ground to toss at Shadow Chaos. He found himself pummeled with sludge instead. "Oooogh!! Wh-what!? Why didn't it work!?" he gasped. Illusi grinned. "I'm placing all my energy on an invisible barrier. It won't let you dislodge any part of this room..." he sneered. Punchy groaned. "So, I'm basically Knuckles... Errr... No one remember I said that, please..." he grumbled.


A side effect of the Egg Maelstrom was causing rain water to splatter all around it, getting in the eyes and affecting aim for the likes of Gemini, who took to casting shields after a stray bolt from her wand grazed Rouge's wing. Eggman was done playing with hail, though, and had started flinging bolts of lightning all around the room, which was putting a real strain on Gemini's and SPOT's shields. Tails was busy flying around, trying to get past the lightning to fight back, but he was a bit preoccupied dodging to move forward. Then there was Knuckles. He'd retreated to the back wall, and started to climb it. There was no way Eggman would let them get to the stairs directly. "I just need to get... high enough." he groaned as he hit the bottom of the stairway snaking around the walls. Eggman was lower than this, sure, but Knuckles's gliding would put him below Eggman by the time he reached him. He looked back for a solution, and then chuckled softly. "Well, worth a shot..." he said, jumping from the wall and breaking into a glide! As Tails and Rouge were busy evading the lightning in the air, they heard Knuckles's voice behind them. "Gangway!!" he shouted before landing on Rouge's back, leaping from her in order to gain extra height as she dropped like a stone! "Aaaaugh!! KNUCKLES!! HOW DARE YOU!!?" she screamed, flying up after him as he resumed gliding toward Eggman! "That did seem rather rude... I should zap you out of the sky!" Eggman chuckled, firing a bolt straight at Knuckles! "Proplasmar!!" Gemini called, casting her shield around Knuckles quickly! As the lightning jolted the shield, Knuckles kept up his momentum and hurled a punch straight into the dark cloud surrounding the Egg Maelstrom! Rouge then changed course and kicked at Eggman's control panel, and the whole machine started to spark! Knuckles was jolted a bit, and fell to the floor, while Eggman rubbed his bald head in concern. "...Technical problem... I'll be right back!" he said, flying his machine up into the tower! Rouge landed beside Knuckles, as did Tails, and they looked at him with concern. "...You all right?" Tails asked. Knuckles groaned as he opened his eyes, and suddenly, everything went white! "What...?! What hit me...?!" he stammered.

Knuckles was back in front of the Master Emerald shrine. "...Why am I back in front of the altar?" he muttered, "And why am I wet?" he said, sitting in the pool of water in front of the shrine of the past. The Chao that were there were now fleeing. They finally seemed to realize that their former home was anything but safe. Howler, equipped with the Chaos Tailbands, Chaos Boots, and Chaos Sword, had defeated Shadow Chaos. Now, he turned to Tikal. "...I'll take that Emerald now!" he said, zooming up to her and snatching the Master Emerald from her hands before she could act! "W-wait!! St-stop...!" Tikal pleaded, feeling weaker as the emerald moved further away from her. Athair ran to her side, helping her to her feet. "Princess Tikal! ... What is your game, Howler!? That emerald is not part of our deal!" he shouted. Radia stepped back slowly. "He has grown too powerful... He must be stopped!" she gasped, hurrying away quickly. Howler held the Master Emerald in front of Shadow Chaos. "With this emerald... I beseech you, Dark of Chaos... Fall into slumber with my soul... And fuse with my body!! That we might carve a new world, in MY image!!" he howled. Shadow Chaos flinched, and then started to swirl, turning into a shadowy mist that was being drawn toward the Master Emerald! Tikal stumbled away from Athair and stood in front of Howler, blocking Shadow Chaos! "Enough! Now I see what you are... You are a seeker of power and control... Like my father, and like Ix of the Nocturnus! There is but one fate for greed-driven fools like you!" she declared. Howler pointed the Chaos Sword at her, but then flipped around and whipped her aside with his tailband-powered tails, instead! Tikal tumbled towards the edge of the nearby cliff, but Athair hurried to catch her! "I'm afraid there is naught we can do, princess... We've led him right to all the power he craves!" he said gravely. The scene started to fade away from Knuckles's eyes, and he felt Rouge slapping his face. "Wake UP, you dolt! This isn't over yet!" she shouted. "Ow... Thanks, Rouge..." he grumbled, standing up. At this point, Eggman was returning with the Egg Maelstrom, and he wasn't alone. "...What's a castle without a knight, eh?" he said, chuckling. A human wearing high-tech armor resembling knight's armor was coming down the stairs. He opened the eye-hatch on his helmet to reveal himself as Dr. Nammad. "Can't be too, uh, careful when going up against you, uh, animals." he sneered, holding up an odd staff that glowed with electrical energy at the tip. "Fine... I'm ready for round two!" Knuckles growled.


Punchy, Copter and Silver had been fighting Shadow Chaos, while Rainbow tried in vain to tell Illusi to put a stop to this. Suddenly, after smacking Copter and Silver aside again, Shadow Chaos lunged at Punchy, and seemed to stab its hand through his chest! "No, One!!" Rainbow gasped, but quickly recovered when she saw how little pain he seemed to be in. He couldn't move, though, and as he struggled, a dark force seemed to pulse inside Shadow Chaos. The dark creature slowly changed its shape, matching the form of Punchy, but with Shadow Chaos's yellow eyes. Illusi chuckled darkly. "Shadow Chaos has tapped into Experiment 1's darkness and merged with it... Now, see what it's like to truly face down your own dark side!" he roared! Shadow Chaos released him, and then spoke with Dark Punchy's voice. "...Finally... A chance to tear up that prison of a body that I've been confined to! Ha ha!! This feels GOOD!!" he shouted, smashing Punchy across the face with his watery fist! Punchy stumbled back, but shook it off. "So, I won't go dark? ...Good... I've been wanting to really let loose!! First... this is for Rainbow!" he growled, charging at "Dark Punchy Chaos" and throwing several furious punches right into its chest! It didn't seem to do much, but he didn't care as long as he got to blow off steam. Copter and Silver thought about helping him, but instead ran over to Illusi, who was watching intently and ignoring Rainbow. "THIS is your big plan!?" Copter yelled, "UNLEASH Dark Punchy?? Have you gone INSANE!?" he shouted. Silver nodded. "This won't end well. Remember, this is just the way Fera died. If she couldn't control the darkness, what makes you think you can?" he said. "Shut up! I don't care what happens to me... I just want vengeance..." Illusi growled. Dark Punchy threw Punchy back with a dark shockwave, and then tossed balls of black water at him to injure him further. "No big rocks to throw at me? You are an ANT railing against a god! I'm just taking my sweet time squashing you!" Dark Punchy sneered. Punchy got up and raised his fists. "I don't need Chaos Avalanche to deal with you... You don't got a cliff to throw me from now." he smirked.

Dark Punchy swung the elastic arms he got from Shadow Chaos at Punchy, letting sparks of dark energy fly through them to make them more dangerous. Punchy jumped them and came at the liquid form of his darker half. "Now, this one's for Kosmo! Without you, Copter might've talked me out of that fight!" he yelled, drilling right through Dark Punchy Chaos with his fists, only to find that he reformed himself easily. "Your heart really wasn't in that one, was it? Well, this one's for me!" Dark Punchy snarled, jolting Punchy with dark lightning! He then started to warp all around Punchy, bashing him with punches and water blasts while barely giving him an opening to hit back! "...Mousy! Stop this! He... He'll die!!" Rainbow cried. "I should step in..." Copter growled. "Wait." Silver said, "I don't think Illusi here has it in him to let that happen." Illusi glared at him. "You're a bit naive, aren't you?" he growled. Punchy tried futily to punch a couple times, and finally grew frustrated. "Grrrrr... And this... This is... for FERA!!" he shouted, to Illusi's surprise, "CHAOS BLAST!!" The chaotic explosion knocked Dark Punchy to the ground, splattering against the floor, and Illusi fell to the ground as he came to a realization. Copter guessed at it. "...It wasn't Punchy that killed Fera. It was Dark Punchy. The guy you just let out." he said. Illusi sat with tears in his eyes. "...I wanted someone real to blame... Someone I could punish... But Fera herself forced the Dark One out... And the one who allowed Fera to turn to darkness... was me." he sniffled. Rainbow placed a hand on his shoulder, her own eyes tearing up a bit. A mist escaped Shadow Chaos and flowed back into Punchy, knocking him over. "Ugh! That was foul..." he grumbled. Dark Punchy's voice spoke in his mind. "It seems I could only bond with that creature temporarily... In trying to destroy you, I nearly destroyed myself... I'm going to chew on that for a while..." he said before the voice faded. Then, Shadow Chaos pulled itself together and slithered away quickly. Copter sighed. "I'm sick of all this tension. Let's find Violet and that crystal and quit this dump!" he said. Silver nodded. "I couldn't agree more!" he smiled. Illusi stood up slowly and shakily. "...I will join you. Violet was Fera's charge. I will consider it my duty to see her safely out of this place." he said. Punchy nodded and smiled a little. "Good to finally have you back, Illusi..." he said.


As Dr. Nammad stood beside Dr. Eggman, Gemini lost her temper. "Why, Nammad?! Why waste your intelligence building doomsday machines and giving them over to people like the Covenant of Despair!?" she shouted. Nammad glared through the armor. "Aside from obvious speeches about self-preservation and the promise of, uh, rewards... GUN was squandering my genius! Talking beetles? Pitiful shooting swords? ...I once played at playing GOD! Uh... that is... until Bucky had it out with me. So when the Darkseeker came to me with the plan for Project GXterminate... I knew I had to bring it to Gunner." he sneered. Tails and Knuckles both looked dumbfounded. "Wait... Despair was behind the weapon thing from the beginning??" Tails stammered. Eggman stroked his moustache curiously. "Fascinating... But enough of that. There's still the little matter of the Chaos Gauntlets and Chaos Emeralds! Dr. Nam! Let's show them your stuff!" he chuckled, pulling a lever on the Egg Maelstrom to start it up again! This time, the first bolt of lightning struck out toward Dr. Nammad, who caught it with his mechanical staff! "...Now, I'll play god once more! Face my, uh, WRATH!!" he yelled, using his staff to bend the lightning and send it sweeping across the room, jolting a surprised Gemini and barely missing the others as they leapt out of the way! "Oh, no! ...Gemini! Are you...?" Knuckles gasped. Rouge lifted her unconscious body into her arms. "I think some of that magic was still protecting her... But I'd better get her outta the way... You stop them for us, Knuckles!" she said sternly, flying up to the winding staircase with Gemini. Eggman chuckled. "No, no... I insist you stay. It'll help Knuckles make up his mind!" he said, spewing several large hail stones from the Egg Maelstrom in Rouge's direction! Tails jumped up, flying into the path of the hail to block it! However, this wasn't well thought out, and he fell from the sky, wounded. "Aw, shoot!" Knuckles growled, glancing at SPOT nearby. "You gonna help?!" he yelled. SPOT scampered over to Tails and erected a shield. "Yeah... Not what I meant..." he grumbled.

Knuckles glanced at Dr. Nammad and got an idea. "So, the staff controls the lightning, eh...?" he muttered. He then started to charge at the armored doctor, but Eggman fired a bolt for Nammad to direct straight at him! Fortunately, Knuckles was expecting it now, and his friends were more or less safe, so all he had to do was jump and evade it. Eggman wouldn't let this slide, though. "Thunder and hail isn't all the Egg Maelstrom is limited to! Behold!" With a few button presses, a funnel of wind shot out from the Egg Maelstrom; A mini-tornado! It picked Knuckles up and blew him into the air, but he caught the wind and started to glide. "Whew..." he sighed, but the tornado was keeping him from moving forward. Just then, a laser from SPOT seared past Eggman's head, getting his attention! Tails had carefully aimed the robot to draw the doctor's focus away from Knuckles. "Aching for more, eh, Tails!? I can pummel you with hailstones all day, you weather-name-hog!" he shouted, causing the tornado to dissipate as he switched to tossing hail at Tails. Knuckles came flying at Nammad, but he just snickered at him and swung his staff as the echidna approached, jolting him with stored up electricity! "Yaaaah!! Shoulda... seen that coming..." Knuckles grunted. "So, you made it to me. Uh... Now what, stupid?" Nammad chuckled. A blast of magic from above struck at Nammad's feet, startling him long enough for Knuckles to shrug off the jolt and deliver a good smack to Nammad's arm, causing him to drop the staff! "...Thanks, Gemini!" he called, looking up to see her kneeling on the steps, smiling weakly while Rouge stood beside her, looking frustrated, possibly because she wouldn't rest. Knuckles took Nammad's staff and ran in front of Eggman with it. "Hey! Why don't you try zapping me NOW!?" he shouted. Eggman scratched his head. "Really, Knuckles? Well... Who's to say you can even control that thing. It'll serve you right to get fried!" he grinned, firing a bolt directly at Knuckles! It struck the tip of the staff, but then it started bending all over the place as Knuckles tried to get control of it! "Eeeeeaaaaargghh!! Watch out, everyone!!!!" he groaned as Tails jumped the bolt, and Gemini and Rouge ducked it from their high perch. Eggman laughed hysterically at Knuckles's pathetic attempt to control Nammad's device, but the scientist was getting nervous. "I... um... I'm out of here!!" he yelped. "No, you don't!" Tails muttered, running after him and tossing something that stuck to the back of Nammad's armor as he escaped. At this moment, Knuckles swung the staff desperately, and the lightning split, partly spraying across the back of the room, while a stray bolt jumped back and hit the Egg Maelstrom! "AAAAAIIIIIIEEEEE!!!" Eggman wailed as his machine started blowing to pieces. However, as miraculous as always, his Egg Mobile continued floating. Dr. Eggman coughed, and started to float away. "I'll... get back to you..." he mumbled. "By the way, doc... That machine had nothing to do with maelstroms." Rouge said as he passed by her. Eggman sighed. "I KNOW... What was I gonna call it... the CLOUD?" he groaned. Once he was gone, Tails started looking over SPOT's monitor while Rouge and Gemini made their way back down. "What're you doing?" Knuckles asked. "I managed to plant a tracking device on Dr. Nammad before he escaped! If my hunch is right... He should lead us right to Despair's big boss!" Tails explained. Gemini smiled. "Great! If we take him down, he'd have to turn over that fake wand and the Master Emerald!" she coughed, "Excuse me... I'm gonna need a self-healing spell, if my book has one..." she sighed. Knuckles nodded. "Well, as soon as Gemini's ready, let's go. It's about time we put an end to this, once and for all!"

To be continued...

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