Sonic was staring at Knuckles in disbelief. Was it really the same guy in Vector's story. Sonic knew that there was only one way to find out. "Do you know anyone by the name of Vector?" Sonic asked with a smile. "Why?" asked Knukles. "Do you know where he is?" "Well," said Sonic. "I was with him, but I got sepperated from the group. I know where your other friends are, but we have to hurry back before they are turned inot robots." "Great," said Knuckles. "Let's get outta this dark cave." "Wait," said Sonic. "There is a Chaos Emerald somewhere in this cave bing guarded by some big snow creature. Shadow is after the Emerald. Listen, I know how important your friends are to you, but we need to gain control over the emeralds or it'll be over for all of us." "Okay," said Knuckles. "I am a treasure hunter. I can already sense the emerald around here. Follow me." Knuckles searched around the cave. Eventually, he led Sonic inot a big opening. It was about the size of a school gym. It was lit up. Sonic saw the adult snow creature. It was asleep. "Shhh," said Sonic. "Let's just grab the emerald and get out of here." Sonic and Knuckles snuck over to the emerald. "Not so fast," a voice siad. It was Shadow. He jumped them from behind. "I'll just take what's mine and leave." Shadow rushed to the emerald. He went to grab it, but the creature woke up in rage. It was huge. (about the size of Chaos 6). The creature hit Knuckles and he went right into a rock. Knuckles was out cold. It was too bad because Sonic needed all the help he can get. Shadow jumped toward the creatureand tried to do th homing attack. He just bounced right off. Sonic tried to do a homing attack and the same thing happend to him. everyone was down. The creature started to talk.   "I am the Ice Guardian," said the creature. "You will have to kill me if you want this emerald back." Suddenly, the creature grabbed Knuckles. He was stilll out of it. SOnic ran over to Shadow. "Yo Shadow" said Sonic. "If you want the emerald we have to work together. Then we can fight for possesion for it." "Fine," said Shadow. "But I will kill you after this." "Lovely," replied Sonic sarcasticly. Sonic spun around th Ice Guardian. He tried to hit Sonic but he was too fast. Sonic had Ice under his control at this time, so Shadow took advantage. He used the spin dash from behind, but it did nothing. His fur was like a coat of armor. There was nithing that they could do. Knuckles was in Ice's hand. All the action woke him. He looked up and saw the Chaos Emerald in the other hand. Ice eventulally got Sonic and Shadow under his feet. Sonic and Shadow were being crushed. Suddenly, Knuckles jumped out and grabbed the Chaos Emerald. Knuckles was the guardian of the Master Emerald and knew the Chaos Emeralds more than anyone else. Knuckles got loose and held the Emerald in his hand. He used the power of it to knock Ice off of Sonic and Shadow. "Hurry," said Knuckles. "His defences are down!" Sonic and Shadow curled into balls and drilled themselves underground. They shot out of the ground from under the Ice Guardian. They went right throught him. They came in through his groin (ha ha very funny), and out of his head. Ice fell to the ground and died. "I'm impressed," said Knuckles. Right after he said that, Ice got up and shot a beam of Ice at Shadow from behind. Sonic and Knuckles ducked out of the way. Shadow's body became completely frozen. The Ice Guardian was about to explode, and Knuckles knew. "Take cover," Knuckles yelled out. Knuckles ran into a nearby tunnel. Sonic picked up Shadow, and dragged him over to the tunnel. "There's no time for him," said Knuckles. "Leave him there." Sonic ignored him and kept dragging. Sonic finally got Shadow to the tunnel as the guardian blew up. Sonic drilled straight up out of the cave, but Knuckles did not follow. Sonic was still carrying Shadow with him. He finally got to the top and out of the cave which was on top af a small peak. The explosion blew them both away. Thier fall was coushined by the snow. They both stood about 100 feet away from the peak as it exploded. "Nice job," siad Shadow. "Huh?" said Sonic confused as he looked atthe defrosted Shadow. "When the peak exploded, the vibration spread thoughout the whole ice cap mountain range. Another mountain started to collapse. "C'mon," said Shadow smiling. "Don't wanna get crushed." Shadow ran away." "Wait," said Sonic as he ran after Shadow. Sonic caught up with Shadow as they ran together dodging the falling rocks and ice balls. They dodged everything that came at them. Suddenly, a huge cloud of dust appeared from all the snow. Sonic and Shadow jumped quickly and gracefully from one falling rock to another. Eventually, they realized that there was no escape. They both saw an enormous boulder coming down at them. They both curled into a ballo and jumped straight up and broke through it. There were no more rocks falling and there was no place left to go. They both started falling to the ground. It was over. Then they saw a bright white flash of light. They, paused. It was like time was frozen. One second seemed to last for five minutes. What was going on?