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Banjo: Chapter 8

The group had been trudging along in the forest for quite some time when suddenly, the trees came to an end in front of what looked to be an ancient temple. Noticing this, Silver was the first one to run over there, and the rest of the group followed. When they broke out of the trees, they saw the great temple-like structure rising up above them in many, many steps. Banjo looked to the rest of his group, and then back at the structure.

"I think this might be it," he said. "She said it was the only building on the island."

"Then what bear waiting for?" asked Humba as she looked up. "Big heap energy come from there."

"Yeah!" added Kazooie. "Let's get up there!"

The group then clambored up the steps (which they realized were a little too large to actually be stepped over), with Banjo and Kazooie hopping up and Trophy Thomas jumping as well and helping Humba and Silver get up. Silver used psychokinesis on Tooty and Mumbo, and before the group knew it they were almost to the top of the pyramid. What awaited them at the top of the pyramid, however, was something not easily forgotten by the regular bystander.

When Banjo and Kazooie had hopped on, they saw a huge green jewel with a cut similar to that of the Chaos Emeralds. This was erected on a rather short stand, and the crystal gave off a small glow that illuminated everything even under the sunny sky. Both Banjo and Kazooie were awestruck just looking at the jewel, such that they barely noticed when the rest of the group had helped themselves up and set their own eyes on the jewel.

"Wow..." said Banjo breathlessly.

Kazooie, meanwhile, was transfixed to the spot for a smaller period of time than anybody else. Looking around, she noticed an inherent lack of people guarding it.

"Hey, where's this red echidna person supposed to be?" she asked dryly. "I thought we were supposed to talk to him!"

The group, startled out of their daze, looked around and suddenly found that Kazooie was right.

"Hm... I think he'll be back later..." said Tooty uncertainly.

Trophy Thomas, who was standing right beside her, shrugged in agreement. "Yeah," said the cheetah. "But I wouldn't mind doing somethin' that would get him over here faster. A guy like me can't wait all day, you know."

Banjo nodded to this, and without a word he removed the two Chaos Emeralds from the rucksack where Kazooie had put them just before they had departed for Cloud Cuckooland the day before. Slowly, he walked over to the Master Emerald, and when held the two Chaos Emeralds up to the Master Emerald, the light suddenly shone just the slightest bit brighter than it did when they first came. Slowly, Banjo removed the emeralds away from the mother emerald, and turned to the group.

"I think that'll get his attention," said the honey bear, shrugging.

"Mumbo think so too," said the shaman, who had been the slightest bit dazed for a brief period of time after the bear had held the emeralds up.

And just as Banjo and Mumbo had predicted, only a few more seconds had transpired after this when suddenly, the frantic pounding of footsteps was heard coming from somewhere else. When they heard this, a red echidna with a white moon-shaped crest on his chest jumped into view. Not making a second thought, he glided at Banjo, the bear instantly noticing the barbs on his gloves that were pointed straight towards him. Going wide-eyed in shock, the bear jumped to the side, effectively dodging the attack as the echidna skidded to a halt just behind him. Before the bear could say much else, a peach-furred echidna in a tight black jumpsuit had jumped on him, and rolling was all Banjo could do to dode this attack. Frantically, the bear stood up, eyes darting first to the red echidna and then the peach echidna before his hands dug into his pockets where he had deposited the emeralds in the seconds it took for the two guardians of the Master Emerald had attacked.

"Wait, wait!" cried Banjo as he held up his two Chaos Emeralds up. "We come in peace!"

It was then that both echidnas had noticed the dumbfounded group behind Banjo that was just now coming closer to their leader. The red one slowly stood up, walking over to Banjo and looking at the emerald with a confused look on his face.

"How did you get these?" he asked sternly, almost as if in disbelief.

The bear shrugged before holding up the hand with the yellow Chaos Emerald. "Well," he began, looking at Siver. "Silver here brought this one over, and this one..." Banjo lifted the grey Chaos Emerald here. "This one, I picked up after someone... I think it ws Shadow, left it."

Both echidnas were suddenly quite surprised at the explanation that Banjo gave. Incredulously, they both looked at him.

"What?" asked the peach-colored echidna uncertainly.

"And we know who you two are too!" exclaimed the breegull from her perch inside Banjo's rucksack. "You're Knuckles and Shade, sitting all day defending some fancy jewel from harm."

Knuckles was still dumbfounded by all this. However, the peach-tinted marsupial tilted her head in curiosity. "And how would you know that?"

"It's a long story, Ms. Shade," replied Banjo.

"Yeah, we took long enough to find this place, I don't wanna have to sit through another explanation of what's going on..." added Bottles behind them.

Banjo pointed his thumb at Bottles, nodding in agreement. "Listen, we've gotta move the island, and we've gotta do it now."

Quite surprised at this expectation, Knuckles frowned while walking in. "Move it?" he asked. "Eggman hasn't found us yet; I don't see why we should--!"

"That's the problem!" exclaimed Banjo. "He's headed right this way!"

Knuckles and Shade both gave Banjo a quizzical look. "And what makes you think that?" asked the female echidna.

"Oh, I dunno, the fact that he destroyed our home!" exclaimed Trophy Thomas angrily. "That, and those robots of his messed up my hair!"

Silver shook his head. "Thomas, the last thing we want to hear about is your hair right now," he said as the rest of the group came to stand behind Banjo. "But yeah, he invaded their town..."

"So how did you get all the way here then?" asked Shade, probing into the situation a little more.

The honey bear said nothing, afraid he would give away Rouge's involvement if he spoke. Thankfully, Tooty spoke up. "Well, they managed to get to our house outside of town..." she said. "So we just went with him and everything was fine..."

The tan-furred echidna nodded slowly. "I see..." she said, nodding. "Knuckles, I think we should move the island."

"But we don't have Shadow!" replied the red echidna. "Without him, we won't be able to do Chaos Control."

"I can do Chaos Control," offered Silver, stepping in front of the pack.

The guardian of the Master Emerald rose one of his eyebrows before circling around the hedgehog. The echidna's purple eyes looked over the silver-furred hedgehog uncertainly, noting every little thing about him he noticed that would be a little off. After he circled him once, he nodded.

"Okay," said the echidna sternly. "But I'm still not convinced..."

Kazooie was quite annoyed at this. "Well, what do ya want us to tell you, spike fist?" she asked, irritation clearly showing in her voice.

Knuckles raised his eyebrows, grimacing slightly. "Oh, really?" he asked. "Then, what was that burst of Chaos Energy that hit me a few days ago?"

Banjo's eyes went wide, disbelieving cobalt looking at hard sapphire as Tooty looked nervously to her older brother. However, Bottles had decided to say something.

"Well, sir, Banjo's younger sister had been transported back here. It was like magic, I'm tell--"

"Shut up, goggle boy!" cried Kazooie, whacking the mole over the head with her wrench.

When she did this, however, Knuckles had already put the pieces together. His glare hardened even more than it possibly could have, and Banjo knew he was in trouble.

"It's Rouge, isn't it?" he asked, crossing his arms in front of him.

"... Yes, Mr. Knuckles..." replied Banjo. He knew there was no point in keeping a secret when the other party had already figured it out, and so he knew that now Knuckles had the right to know everything.

Dangerously, the echidna stepped forward, holding one of his fists as if he was about to attack Banjo. "Damn it, why does she always try to steal my emerald?" he cried. "Can you tell me that? I don't want her stealing this thing! It is my duty to keep this thing safe from all harm, and you know what will happen if this emerald falls into the wrong hands?"

"You don't understand!" said Banjo quickly, stepping back as the echidna cornered him. "I--!"

"I don't understand? I DON'T UNDERSTAND?" Knuckles was screaming by this point, his barbs pointing at Banjo. "I know her longer than you have! And she's crafty, I can tell you that much!"

"Wait, Knuckles, maybe you should calm down..." added Shade from behind him as she came towards them.

Knuckles shook his head. "Shade, you know how she was," he said to her. "And this isn't different, I can tell you that much! If you move this island, I'll bet you anything she'll be waiting right around the corner to steal it! This will not work, and that bat is a bitch for telling you otherwise!"

Upon hearing the echidna insult the bat, something in Banjo snapped, and instead of cowering back, he walked towards Knuckles, surprising even the unreasonably enraged echidna as he came forward. "Then why the hell would she give me back my sister after she's been missing for ten years?" asked the bear threateningly.

"She probably wanted you on her--!"

"And told me all of Dr. Eggman's plans, and proceeded to get the robots away from where I actually was?" said Banjo.

The echidna was not at a loss for words for quite a long time, however, and he frowned right back at the enraged honey bear. "Again, more to get you on her side!"

"Oh, and who's fault is it that she's on his side, anyway?" asked Banjo, stealing Kazooie's snarkiness and surprising her greatly when he did. "She told me you had said you'd rather give the Master Emerald to that Ix guy you fought than hang with her?"

"I wasn't going to let her steal that emerald from under my nose!" replied the echidna defensively. "She's tried it so many times lately that I know that that's what she would have done!"

"That's not true!" replied Banjo, getting progressively angrier by the second.

"I'll tell you what's not true," replied the echidna, cracking his knuckles. "What's not true is that this woman is on your side! Can't you see it? You're being misled by some bitch who's out for--!"

Before the guardian could finish his sentence, Banjo's hand had curled into a fist, and in one swift motion the honey bear had socked the echidna in the face. It was a move so sudden that it surprised everybody around the usually gentle bear as the guardian was knocked away from the bear. Not to be daunted, Knuckles stood up, panting in pure rage as he gazed at Banjo.

"She is not like that!" he cried. "She's got a good heart stowed away somewhere under that... craftiness, or whatever! You just didn't give it a chance to show itself! You're wrong!"

This only made the echidna angrier, but Banjo stood his ground, glaring at the opposing echidna with a hate that was both matching the echidna's and was very uncharacteristic of the honey bear.

"Oh, now you've done it!" Knuckles cried, rushing towards him as his eye began to swell.

However, something that Banjo and Knuckles both failed to realize during this exchange was that the hum of machinery had been beginning to pick up by this time. By now, there was a rather large robot army headed their way, which they suddenly seemed to realize belonged to Eggman. Kazooie, after tugging on Banjo's fur in vain to get his attention, decided to take matters into her own hands. Seeing a robot diving straight for the emerald, she readied a fire egg, waiting for the robot to get closer. And as soon as it was close enough...

"Oh, no you don't!" With this, the breegull tossed the fire egg, and the impact caused the robot to explode.

As the explosion was heard overhead, the red echidna had paused, and Banjo finally looked up to see the robot army approaching.

"We'll settle this later!" said Knuckles, pointing a finger at him accusatorily. "But if you don't fight these robots off with all you've got, I'll know something's up!"

Banjo said nothing, instead preferring to grab Kazooie by the neck, her legs tucked well in as he held the breegull much like a mini-gun. Confused, Shade left a glance at the bear, Knuckles basically ignoring it as he jumped into the air and punched a robot.

Mumbo raised the tiny staff he had hidden in his overalls before he had left Showdown Town, and taking it out, he drew on the energy of the Master Emerald. Shortly afterwards, a magic missile was sent flying at one of the robots that was heading straight towards the emerald. As more of them came along, he began firing missiles left and right.

"Cat look over bear's sister," said the shaman matter-of-factly to Trophy Thomas and Tooty as he fired the missiles.

"But... but why?" asked the tigercat.

"It safest thing you do," replied Humba, herself getting ready to cast some magic. "Big heap danger coming!"

Groaning in protest, the tigercat moved next to Tooty, and the two of them stood there watching as the battle unfolded.

Shade and Knuckles were both joining in on the fight, jumping up and essentially punching the robots so that they exploded on impact. Mumbo's magic missiles sometimes flew right over either of their dreads, but in the end, the missiles usually caused the robots that they hit to explode.

Banjo was in on the action as soon as he was able to get in on it. He fired away with Kazooie in Breegull Blaster mode, the eggs hitting the robots and either causing them to explode or otherwise making them short-circuit and thus rendering them unable to do much. As the army of robots began to come in in ever-increasing numbers, Silver was ready, with the familiar turquoise aura surrounding Bottles as he was levitated in the air.

"Oh hell no!" cried the mole.

Despite this protest, the telekinetic hedgehog began launching the mole at the robots. With the three sets of missiles flying at the robots and Shade and Knuckles literally punching them, the robot army was slowly beginning to get overwhelmed. Even with the increasing numbers, all Mumbo needed to do was have Humba reinforce his magic missiles, which she did quite quickly.

Shortly after this, however, Banjo ran out of eggs for Kazooie to use, so he quickly returned Kazooie to the backpack and nodded. Kazooie reached into the backpack and grabbed the wrench out, and with this she waved it around to do a vehicle recall. The airship they had taken to Cloud Cuckooland appeared then, and just before it slipped down to the bottom of the pyramid Banjo had managed to get one of the subsidiary vehicles he had subtly built into the airship. The small boat had a turret gun fixed on the end, and it was small and quite maneuverable. Pulling it onto the top of the pyramid, he jumped on into the airboat and hit the gas.

The tiny ship lifted off quite readily afterwards and when the robots were in Banjo's line of fire he let loose on the turret gun. Thousands of bullet were then sent flying into most of the robots that were incoming, and Banjo flew around the vicinity doing a little bit of extra work to lighten up the density of robots behind their front lines.

This line of defense was kept up for nearly an hour afterwards with no breaks at all as the robots just kept coming in without any end in sight. Knuckles and Shade were still going full force with their punches, but by then Silver was beginning to tire himself out from the telekinesis involved in using Bottles as a projectile, and the magic missiles were beginning to take a toll on their health. Banjo and Kazooie were still flying around, but they had sustained a few hits, so they knew their small airship would be going down soon.

Thankfully, however, just as gradually as they had come in, the army had gradually thinned out. Silver was the first one to stop, letting the unfortunate mole down before panting with his hands on his knees. Mumbo and Humba then stopped as well, giving themselves a moment or two to recharge as they watched Knuckles, Shade, and Banjo take care of the remaining robots.

However, the last robot that Knuckles had moved to punch was not a robot at all, so when he felt a wrench whacking his fist, he cried out in pain as he fell to the ground, somehow managing to land on his feet. Looking up, Shade and Tooty both recognized the doctor. Banjo and Kazooie, pausing their airship's flight, looked down at the doctor, recognizing him from the concept art the L.O.G. had given to them a few days prior.

"Dr. Eggman..." began Shade cooly. "So you've finally found us."

"Indeed I have," replied the doctor, scanning the group as his Chaos Energy detector buzzed right besides him. "And it seems..."

He paused when his eyes fell on Tooty. He grinned maliciously as he looked at her, and the bear suddenly hid behind Trophy Thomas.

"Ah, it's that pesky bear that Rouge helped escape, isn't it?" asked the doctor. "Oh, this is precious! I have the Master Emerald, the two remaining Chaos Emeralds, and my ways of breaking her all in one place! This is precious!"

Something about how the doctor worded this sentence alarmed the guardian of the Master Emerald. "Wait a minute!" he said. "I thought Rouge was working for you!"

"Not before she helped that little she-bear escape," countered Eggman craftily. "That Chaos Mooring is quite pesky, you understand?"

Upon hearing this, both of the echidnas tensed, looking at each other with shock ridden all over their expressions before turning back.

"W-what?" asked Knuckles. "But that's impossible!"

"Not as far as this bear is concerned," replied Eggman, pointing at Banjo and Kazooie's airship. "He was the other end of the teleport that's involved. And after that little debacle, Rouge is busy enjoying her free time behind bars with Sonic and Shadow and the rest of those insignificant insects. And there wasn't a damn thing you could do about it, you stupid, stupid echidna."

Everybody looked at the doctor incredulously as he hovered over the Master Emerald precariously. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have something that's mine to collect."

Seeing a strange crane-like contraption coming out from below him, Banjo revved his airship into gear, and he dove down, shooting a few bullets at the contraption. One of them hit, going straight through the cord that hooked up a small hand to the body of Eggman's personal ship. The hand then fell to the ground with a heavy clang, now useless to get the emerald.

"Not if I can help it!" cried Banjo, frowning as he flew in.

However, being the crafty doctor that he was, the doctor pressed a button on the control panel, and a gun turret came from the bottom. Banjo was unable to maneuver the vehicle out of the way before it let loose, so when the bullets hit the helicopter blade perched on the top of the craft the aircraft began to spiral out of control. Eventually, it hit the top of the shrine, and then Banjo and Kazooie were sent flying out, the bear letting out a grunt of pain as he hit the floor. He refrained from moving after that; he was still breathing, but this did not stop Tooty or Trophy Thomas from running to the bear with shock on their faces.

"Banjo, Banjo!" cried Tooty as she rushed to her brother.

There was no time to ponder on this, however, as Eggman promptly flew towards where the claw had fallen. Silver, somehow getting what Eggman was about to do, was quick to react. The grey hedgehog telekinetically moved the claw around the ground so fast that Eggman could scarcely get to where he needed to be before it was moved. The hedgehog kept this up for about three minutes or so, everybody looking at the hedgehog with some form of surprise on his face.

"Silver, I'm not sure that's a good idea!" said Bottles to this. "You're the only one who can--!"

But before Bottles could finish his sentence, Eggman had maneuvered so that the claw could go straight for Silver. The hedgehog had not realized this until he saw the claw hand careening in his direction. In his panic, he released his telekinetic hold on the claw hand, and before he could regain it the hand had hit Silver with such force that he knocked himself unconscious.

Snickering in delight, the mad doctor turned his attention to Knuckles and Shade, who were off to one side of the emerald.

"Of course," he said smugly. "Now it seems the only person capable of Chaos Control in this entire group just knocked himself out."

"How strange doctor man know that?" asked Mumbo from the other side of the emerald.

The physical doctor turned to the witch doctor. "Because this mole over here said that," he replied, indicating Bottles as he spoke. He then turned right back to Knuckles. "Now, I'll give you one chance to turn over the Chaos Emeralds before I end your life in the slowest, most painful way imaginable."

"I'll never give them to you!" cried Knuckles, holding the emeralds out for Eggman to see. "Even if I have to die to keep it that way!"

And before Eggman could react, the red-furred echidna had tossed the emeralds away from Eggman. They landed and rolled right to where Banjo was. Feeling a light pressure on his hand, the honey bear stirred, looking at the emeralds despondently.

"Oh, so that's the way it is, then?" asked Eggman as a rather large version of a taser came out from beneath his hovercraft. "Then eat electricity!"

The rod then touched Knuckles skin. The echidna screamed in pain as the rod made contact with his arm. Shade was very quick to react, jumping up but finding it hard to punch the rod out. The doctor had somehow forced Knuckles to the ground with this, and so the red echidna writhed in pain as an electric shock was sent throughout his being.

When the doctor relented, Knuckles rolled on his back, looking up to the doctor as he hovered mere inches away. "And I'll kill all of your friends, too!" he shouted. "Sonic, Shadow, Cream, Amy, Tails, even your precious little Shade... the whole lot of them will be dead by the time the night goes by!"

Mumbo had released a magic missile at the taser at this point, but unfortunately the missile missed as Shade went in to dismantle the taser again. When this missed as well, Eggman went in to shock the echidna again, and his screams of pain stopped any attempt to stop the doctor. When the doctor let up again, Mumbo took aim and tried to get the doctor with a magic missile again, but unfortunately this not only hit the main hull, but also reflected straight into Knuckles' fur.

Banjo, seeing all this, made no attempt to get up; his entire body was hurt, and even though Kazooie had gotten up and was standing there useless without any eggs to toss at the doctor, he knew he couldn't aggravate anything.

"And Rouge..." said the doctor menacingly, getting Banjo's attention. "Oh... the things I will do to her! She'll be screaming for mercy when I do the things I plan to do with her! She'll cry out your name, and you'll be there to see it happen so you can know that it was you that she loved!"

Knuckles, despite being shocked to a near-unconscious state, was able to look up at the doctor with pure shock written in his tired expression. "What?" he asked.

"Yes, it's true!" replied the doctor, cracking up as if he had lost his mind. "And then she'll be dead, and it will be your fault for letting things get to that point! And then, you'll be all alone! And I will be victorious for the first time against you, that fucking hedgehog, and that fucking bat who almost ruined my plans! You and that hedgehog will pay for always getting in my way, but that bat... Oh, she will be begging for a mercy that doesn't exist! Rape, electric shock, cutting, you name it! I will do it on her, and I will have you chained to the wall, unable to do anything about it!"

**Che vi credete, o dee,

Divider fra di voi del mondo tutto

La signoria, e'l governo,

Escludendone Amore,

Nume, ch'è d'ambe voi tanto maggiore?**

Banjo, having heard these words, was now invigorated to do whatever it took to stop the doctor. Reaching out, he grabbed the two Chaos Emeralds in both of his hands. The doctor spoke, but the bear's ears were now deaf to whatever he had to say. All that mattered was what he was about to do. And if it did not work, which he was sure it would not, then he knew things would go from bad to worse. But he had to try. For Knuckles. For Tooty. But most of all, for Rouge.

**Io le virtudi insegno,

Io le fortune domo,

Questa bambina età

Vince d'antichità

Il tempo, e ogn'altro dio:**

Despite the fact that his entire body protested against him, he stood up, looking at the Master Emerald as Kazooie took notice. She said something, but he ignored it. Even the light weight in his backpack was ignorable under these circumstances.

Grabbing the magical wrench that Kazooie had forgotten inside his rucksack, the bear advanced to the Master Emerald as quickly as he could with a slightly pronounced limp on one side of his body. Moving up to the Chaos Emerald, he touched the emeralds and the wrench to the large jewel, and a slightly stronger glow emanated from the emerald as he took a few deep breaths of air.

**Gemelli siam l'Eternitade ed io.

Riveritemi,

Adoratemi,

E di vostro sovrano il nome datemi.**

Finally, after a few intakes of air, and once Dr. Eggman had stopped tasering the echidna, the bear let loose with the words that the black hedgehog that had started this whole thing had said to teleport out of Hailfire peaks.

"Chaos Control!"

And despite the fact that Banjo had no affinity with Chaos energy, a white light enveloped all of Angel Island, a light so bright that Banjo should have shut his eyes but did not. The light was intensely bright for a few seconds, and then it died away just as quickly.

Dr. Ivo Robotnik was nowhere in sight when the light faded away.

Everybody looked at the honey bear as he smiled contentedly for a few seconds. However, these few seconds were brief as he then reeled around for a few seconds. Exhausted from his first time using Chaos Contro, he fell into the embrace of sweet unconsciousness.