Angel Island is rocked as Mobius breaks apart below, the beginning of the Shattered World Crisis. Knuckles, watching in astonishment, is further stunned when Chaos emerges from the Master Emerald and dives toward the planet below. A voice then emerges from the Master Emerald to inform Knuckles that the planet's condition is natural, but has occurred at the wrong time. The voice also mentions the existence of a spirit who is supposed to help the planet in this crisis, but that the spirit is weak due to the ill-timed shattering. Knuckles volunteers to travel to the planet's surface to find and help the spirit, but recognizes that the Master Emerald must be protected in his absence. To that end, he travels to the Launch Base Zone to see Relic the Pika and Fixit, an archaeologist and her robot