TTTRIPLE TTTROUBLE
Writer: Michael Gallagher
Penciler: Dave Manak
Inker: Harvey "Harvo" Mercadoocasio
Colorist: Barry Grossman
Letterer: Mindy Eisman
Editor: Scott Fulop

Robotnik has a chaos emerald and plans to use its power to raise his new "most inefficient mega-engine" to pollute the planet. It required a 3-pronged power inducer but Crabmeat made it a 6-pronged inducer. The imbalance caused the emerald to split in two and go in two different directions. Robotnik calls "Bounty Hunters 'R' Us" to get someone to get the emerald shards back.

In Knothole, Rotor noticed strange power readings from the Great Forest which Sonic deduced had to come from a chaos emerald and ran off to get it. Sonic doesn't realize that someone is following him.

On the Floating Island, Knuckles is relaxing when he notices a "green meteor" crash in the Dragon Spine Mountain Range and goes to check it out. He finds that out that the "green meteor" is a chaos emerald. He doesn't get figure out much more because he's knocked unconscious by some boulders that hit him in the head.

Meanwhile, the emerald shard in the Great Forest created a zone which Sonic enters and gets through to find that there's only half of a chaos emerald. Then, he gets knocked out from behind by Nack the Weasel who captures Sonic and the emerald shard. Using his sky-sled's computer, he finds out the other half is on the Floating Island.

Knuckles wakes up to find himself in a cave and surrounded by the Ancient Walkers who tell him that the emerald shard on the Floating Island is attracted to the Floating Island's Emerald and if the one and a half emeralds combine, the Floating Island will be blown to bits. The Ancient Walkers send Knuckles back to the Floating Island to the spot where Nack is about to arrive. Knuckles KO's Nack with one punch, which sends Nack's sky-sled into the water. Sonic, who was in the sky-sled, finally wakes up and swims to the surface to find Knuckles. Fight scene. The fight is broken up when Robotnik tries to contact Nack, and Sonic and Knuckles work together to save the Floating Island. Sonic takes the emerald shard that Nack had and with some direction from Knuckles, Sonic uses his speed to take them to the Chaos Chamber. They hold up the shard and the other shard joins with the shard Sonic and Knuckles are holding. The shards become a chaos emerald and disappears. They refrain from fighting and Sonic leaves with Nack as his prisoner. Unknown to Sonic or Knuckles, the emerald reappears with the Ancient Walkers.


FIRST CONTACT
Writer: Ken Penders
Penciler: Ken Penders
Inker: Jon D'Agostino
Colorist: Barry Grossman
Letterer: Mindy Eisman
Editor: Scott Fulop

Knuckles saves Vector from a lava bath, and then notices that someone wrote the name "Archimedes" on a rock nearby. He wonders how anyone could have done that without him noticing and then follows the arrow. When the trail starts to get cold, he gets attacked by some robots and figures that Robotnik is behind this. He takes care of the robots without a problem and then falls through a hole into the Chaos Chamber. That's where he gets to speak to his antagonist, who tells Knuckles he's not Robotnik but Archimedes. However, Archimedes doesn't reveal himself. Archimedes tells Knuckles that "only when you can find me will we know that you are capable of seeing the answer within the question!" This causes Knuckles to try to do something he doesn't normally do, THINK.

To Be Continued in KNUCKLES' CHAOTIX