He happened to wake up in the Mystic Forest Jungle (after being knocked out by a rockslide) to find an Eggman Construction crew vitrificating the Jungle to make way for another base. As he fled the forest fire, he witnessed a being drop from the Death Egg above and rushed to it's impact site (which, by sheer luck, was mere meters from his location). This being introduced herself as 'Tiny', and after a brawl in the jungle, trekked to the secluded Cyber City, where the fight against Mecha Overlord (the previous incarnation of ultimate Mecha Sonic) had seperated the two.
After continuing his down-and-out life squatting in the Station Square Industrial District, he made a living by small-time jobs and civil heroics. During one particular outing, he witnessed a hit-and-run of sorts - in the form of Jet Kaosu ragdoll-surfing the windshield of a car. Nox rescued Jet from the car and soon left Jet to continue a previous spar. The next day, Jet found Nox through the address the latter had provided, which ultimately resulted in several large explosions emitting from the warehouse in which Nox lived. The two travelled to Mystic Ruins, and into the Jungle, where Jet led them into a well-concealed society, met Jet's estranged relatives, and suggested they partake in the local sports. It was in this event that Nox was reunited with Tiny, and they destroyed a Black Arms creature that had appropriately destroyed the moment.
When they returned to Nox's warehouse, events there ultimately culminated in Tiny inadvertently 'evicting' Nox from his domicile, resulting in Nox seeking new residence in Room #36.
Soon after, the destruction of half of Casinopolis by another Black Arms creature lands Nox and Tiny in hospital. This becomes the first of a considerable number of times in which Nox rescues Tiny.
After a considerably grisly battle at Emerald Coast (resulting in one human fatality), a conversation in the elevator shed some light on Nox's attitude towards Tiny and vice versa. It was here that he also asked for her assistance in combatting his frequent inebriation.
After the raid on Eggman's floating fortress six months later, Nox had proposed to Tiny (after reminding her that he did promise to do so "if the raid went without a hitch"), and the two, E-123 "Omega", Sonic, Tails, and Mecha Sonic (Reincarnated) fly back to Central City where Eggman was to execute his next scheme for world domination; by neuronally terminating the entire planet and roboticizing it. After fashioning a car into a timed explosive device to destroy the Mass Neural Pacifier's controller, Nox inadvertently persuaded a defecting Mecha Sonic to self-terminate (an outcome he still despises) before carrying out Eggman's scheme for him. The damage he had sustained forced him back into hospital, where he woke after two weeks, and was bestowed a new axe haft (the wooden former having been obliterated in the carbomb). His axe has had trouble adjusting, and shows as much by randomly burning the hands of anyone who touches the haft or blades.
One morning, Nox and Tiny witnessed as Chaos went rampaging across Station Square (again), and directly entered Tiny's room. This resulted in Nox (still weak from hospital, not to mention his wounded posterior) having a steadily progressive cardiac arrest. This was quickly, and painfully, rectified by a direct chest-height attack from Chaos itself, and a vision of that light in the dark tunnel for Nox. Soon after (and having a migraine attended to by means of a slap to the head from Chaos again), Nox underwent the strangest state to affect his existence - Chaos possessed him. Totally immobilised by the foreign mind of the deity (with rolled, whited, pupil-less eyes to boot), there, both Nox and Chaos learned that the latter was unaware of the existence of the former's entire civilisation, something that caused the former quite some hurt. After a few more words, Chaos left Nox's mind, and Nox learned that he was medically 'dead' for the duration of his trance, and that Tiny had resorted to using home-made defibrilation for cardiopulmonary restart during that time. Normal conversation returned surprisingly quickly between the two shortly after.
Taking advantage of the lack of Angel Island's midair suspension, Nox and Tiny decided to spend the day at the forgotten Carnival Night Zone, where Nox had literally "dropped in" on Tiny's old base of operations. The two were reunited by Morse Code whistling, and were nearly confronted by an unknown (and presumably hostile) entity. Tiny was able to show Nox her Chaos Power to command the shadows into (to Nox's sheer terror) a gigantic snake, which had 'appeared' to devour the entire area. The two evaded, and found the cannon once used by Sonic to leave the area entirely. The old base of operations, and the bus-load of rings there were left there, and still presumably collect dust.
On the slopes of Angel Island's Ice Cap region, (with the distraction of Tiny's severe concussive impact with the mountain, followed by her partial loss of sight, and the realisation that her 'engagement' ring had broken, all in one fell swoop, aside), the two met an upset Fenrir, and argument spurred between the two warriors. After burrowing out of the ensuing avalanche, the group had encountered a new enemy, one which had been eliminated by Fenrir Team Fastballing Nox to the fuel line, and Nox chewing it. The issue concerning the subsequent gasoline-drenched green fur was rectified by the owner of said fur boosting it's power with an Emerald, then punching itself in the face (which, when coupled with the Flare Ring would spark facial ignition). The remaining hairy fire was submerged under snow, hastily provided by Tiny. The two travelled to Eggman's disused Launch Base where they commandeered a still-functional Egg-O-Matic hovercraft to Mystic Ruins, and in turn, Station Square.
After an evening of celebratory drinking, Nox and Tiny made their way back up to their respective rooms (most of Nox's trip was spent horizontal, while the fur on the tip of Tiny's tail was ripped off by the elevator doors). Nox collapsed through his door whilst talking to Tiny (due to over-inebriation giving way to drunken slumber).
Nox next 'wakes' within his own head, apparently brought to the lucid dream by Chaos, with no trace of his intoxication. It is within his own psyche that Nox disturbedly learned that he wasn't the only discreetly special being of his sphere of life. Specificially, his "concubine" (a term which had grossly offended Nox at first) has an ''unusual quality' _{[specific detail omitted for individual plot privacy]}, and that it was up to him to restrain it. Nox was then presented with a vision of "machines fought before", being the E-X robots. Having been constructed by Eggman (though by not his own design), the robots were doomed to rebel, and run rampant (presented visually in a massacre of Nox's GUN platoon, showing just-butchered soldiers being engineered into enemies). Upon using the instinct to cleave a robot in two, he was then told that, eventually, the E-Xes would eventually become genocidal, and destroy everything alive (presented visually by an E-X, large as a skyscraper, pouring more robots onto the land, something that Nox surmised by saying "This is the way the world ends.").
Nox discards the visions and (due to a state known as Lucid Dreaming, where one is aware), he recieved a message from two familiar faces he knew over a decade before - his parents. Nox was told by 'Master' Emmerich Tepes (his father) to give up repairing his axe haft, to cremate it, but to not forget the inscription upon it. Words of pride and joy were exchanged from Tanya (his mother), and Nox woke slowly, his mental health now in utter devastation. After getting some of his possessions in order, Nox falls asleep again, only to be confronted by the also-deceased family of the other party, where Nox had a pleasant conversation with Maxwell (who appeared to despise his own surname). Among unimportant information, Nox learned of a dowry waiting for him in Tiny's old residence - a substantial quantity of whiskey.
His head clearer, Nox leaves to find Zard 'parked' just outside the downstairs drinking fountain. They went to the bar where Zard was able to clear some of Nox's confusion (of which does not consist of Zard's own scientific classification between amphibia and auropsida) astonishingly fast, through use of a conveniently stocked book.
Nox returns to his room to find a GUN invoice giving him instructions for the following day, which gave rise to a new complication, a Best Man had not been appointed. Thinking quickly, Nox siezed his chao from the Tiny Garden, gave it a note addressed to Jet, then threw it through the window (sparking a doomsdayer riot), Regardless of this, Jet was unaccounted for, and the ceremony would have to withstand the use of the hologram awarded at the time of Nox incapacitating the Mass Neural Pacifier (by a convenient coincidence, Jet was not harmed in this battle, so his photonic doppelgänger was picture perfect). Packing the tablet that served as the hologram's emitter, Nox was dressed and out of the building.
He arrived at the Mystic Ruins (where the wedding was schedued to take place) early, and maintains a low profile. When he next looks around, he sees that GUN soldiers have been posted to prevent the encroachment of recently-escaped Eggman, who was predicted to strike "at the most inconvenient time", being the wedding.
Now two minutes to the ceremony, Nox runs up to the Altar of the Emerald where
he unbags the emitter containing Jet's image, and sets it loose. On cue, the wedding march begins and Nox waits at the end of the aisle. Tiny walks in and they both wait as the service progresses (Thoughts were made during the "I do" phase (Nox's included their oath to die together, or not at all, effectively violating the "until death do you part" subclause... Tiny's thoughts were composed chiefly of childish whooping), When they were pronounced joined, words were shared between the two, until Nox stifled them and was quickly glomped as a result. Rather rudely, he told Zard (who made to seperate the two for congratulations) to absent himself before Zard's body suddenly "had more than fingers to grow back". Nox and Tiny followed back to the celebration (as everyone was waiting for them to cease making out), and (to Nox's embarrassment), they were showered with applause, including Rouge the Bat and her E-X prototype. Eye contact with the latter sent Nox into a relapse, which convinced him to tell Tiny what he was showed the preceding night.
...Before he could lead her off, however, Eggman showed himself, having somehow hidden his Egg-O-Matic within the cake. He had two thing he wanted, Rouge's E-X, Thrash and "the meddler who trashed it" - being Nox. Nox, on the other hand, wanted only one thing in return for the latter part of Eggman's demands - to dismember Eggman as bloodily, as painfully, and as gruesomely as possible. This image was steadily enforced by the meter=high flames coming from his axe, as well as the fire racing up Nox's arm, (yet not burning him or his clothes). After Tiny was able to subdue Nox, This, however was not possible, as the Egg-O-Matic was representing the perfection of defense, with an absolute nincompoopery of mobility. Eggman jumped from his immobile defense on "important business", that it was apparently worth taking an axe to the groin for. Followng Nox's conjecture of the location of Eggman's genitalia, he entered a full trance relapse, effectively retelling what he saw. He suffered extreme disorientation as this passed, and seemed to have no recollection of the trance (even recounting what he sawANOTHER time, though somewhat erronously and disjointedly). With a somewhat Boston Scout-ish reference, Tiny plants a blackjack (concealed beneath her wedding dress somehow) into his forehead, and he leaves. Subduing the remains of his anger under scotch (and vomiting and nearly falling from the Altar's peninsula simutaneously), the two decided to make better on their celebration. Mixed by Rouge's E-X, the two became hammered on Paralyser drinks (consisting of undiluted vodka), just as Zard was about to play. Thinking quickly (despite being utterly wasted), Nox commanded the E-X to carry the two out, before Zard's music made worse on alcohol-induced migraine.
Tiny was able to stagger Nox back to the hotel (and a risky journey it was, too), where the two began discussing issues of importance. Little progress was made before affection was shown for the night.
Awakening the following day was rude and painful (Nox falls out of bed and kicks his kneecap out on the ebony box beneath his bed). The two planned what would happen that day, and they decided to search for the still-missing Master Emerald As they were preparing to leave, Eggman was just floating past the window in his Egg-O-Matic, and negotiations for information began. Eggman was waiting outside the hotel in a craft that apparently has never been defeated. A fight against Nox (who treated the fight as a friendly brawl) shattered that track record, and Eggman revealed that Mushroom Hill was the place to look for the Master Emerald.
The two made to Mushroom Hill, where Tiny's Casinopolis-induced phobia of large plants kick in. After identifying the location of the Master Emerald, they made towards the monstrous tree upon which it sat by pinballing across the mushroom fields. Ominously, Tiny was snared by a vine showing some sense of sentience. Bungeeing to the bottom of the tree (though equpment provided earlier by Tiny), Nox and Tiny were able to identify an E-X control core unit and a tank of strange green liquid draining into the ground. Agreeing on a plan, Nox and Tiny jump down. However, the bulb upon which Tiny lands appeared to be akin to the Ebon Lotus, and quickly began eating her. Faced alone with the threat of oncoming E-Xes and felicidal plant life that would require a platoon of soliders and garden pest controllers alike, Nox was able to assess the situation. The E-X guarding the core was laden with a series of tanks filled with the same greed fluid, and infused one into the ground, subduing Tiny, who was still struggling within the jaws of the bulb, and allowing the latter to swallow the former beneath the ground. Armed with only Tiny's halberd (his axe suspended a hundred meters above as a bungee anchor) and his marital Flare Ring, Nox was able to destroy the control core, incinerate the vines attacking instantaneously, and act completely ferally towards the bulb, clawing, scratching, kicking, biting and (by extension of Ring) incinerating it quickly. He digs at the ground in front of it, and extricates Tiny (who had explained that she had cut herself free of the bulb's stomach). Exasperation at Tiny's repeated use as plant food and anger at such a dishonour forces Nox to holster his Flare Ring and begin using the tree as a punch bag and scratch post. The Master Emerald falls from it's perch and hits Tiny. Finally vented, Nox and Tiny climb up to a lower branch of the tree and make plans to set camp in an atmosphere as romantic as a forest. One problem remained: hiding and carrying the Master Emerald. Tiny suggested they use Nox's hip bag to store the Emerald, which was met with skepticism, as the Emerald was more than twice as large as the bag. Using the liquid portion of a GUN ration (also provided by Tiny earlier), Nox was able to stretch the burlap mouth of his bag, and the two were able to, somehow, push the Master Emerald into it. Following a strange conversation, they doze off on the branch, and Nox reawakens beneath a large mushroom in the midst of a storm, apparently having been carried or dragged there. They next wake up to find the rain falling harder, and the area around the hill on which they slept flooded and waterlogged. Scouting ahead, Tiny refers to the crash site of the Flying Battery; one of Eggman's battleships. Running from mushroom to mushroom, they make their way to the impact crater, and jump into an open porthole in the craft.
From within the Flying Battery, they encounter Knuckles, who conveniently relieves the Emerald from Nox's hip bag. Due to the psychiologically-terrorising effect of rain on felines, the only ration choice was (to Nox's disgust) to travel through the Battery to get to Sandopolis (the Flying Battery was marooned along the regional seperation line between Mushroom Hill and Sandopolis). During the trip, which had the constant inset of Nox's sullen attitude, little was discovered, except for the hearsay that a particular pyramid 'vanished' every now and then (having been submerged beneath the sand. This was the pyramid seen in 'Sonic & Knuckles'. The only memorable event was the spectation of Eggman's ongoing war against his disobedient E-X army. By the time Eggman was finished (taking a Control Core with him), Tiny had already figured his plan - to recommandeer his traitorous army. Too slow to give chase on foot, Nox and Tiny contemplate using the E-X "Carrier" as a dumb-guided vehicle. Before any decision can be made, it accidentally activates, hits a spring hidden in the sand, and hurtles upwards. Seeing this as a fast exit, Nox and Tiny use this spring to gain access to Sky Sanctuary. This escape is short lived, as the platform they land on quickly breaks and falls back to the desert (the technology which suspends the Sanctuary's floor prevented it from smashing into the desert below so much as allow it to drift leisurely, hit the spring, and soar back upwards). They jump before the platform hits the ground. Back in Sandopolis, they decided to give the area a more thorough search. Nox identifies his bearings, and soon finds the pyramid which had functioned as his tribe's temporary treasury, depleted when the tribe dispersed after the cataclysm. Tiny, meanwhile, leaves in search of Nox's old hailings in detail.
Having found a Giant Ring (usually a portal leading to the Dimension of the Emerald, now a means of purchasing any single item) in a vent leading to Lava Reef, Nox exits the treasury, passing the traps he tripped on his way in. After following her footprints, he soon finds Tiny, coming back from a village in the distance. She leads him back to his old residence under vague circumstances, where he finds a familiar voice from his past; that of Tobias, the cat responsible for Nox's lack of mental security. As soon as Tiny left, the fight broke out, and Tiny returns to find Nox hanging by his neck from Tobias's scimitar blade (Nox's pulling himself up the blade saved him from beheading), something which Nox was able to counterattack. After they both refused Tiny's request to ceasefire, the fight resumed, soon breaking into swordlock (with Nox being bourne upon by his heavier and stronger uncle) After hearing Tobias's continued referral to Tiny as "lass", Nox's fury (and subsequent use of his Chaos Emerald) allowed him to overpower and subdue his aggressor. In a strange show of mercy, is was the side of Nox's axe that impacted Tobias's skull, rather than the razor-sharp edge. After administering medical attention to Nox (primarily, the lasceration behind his chin, which was steadily leaking blood). In their haste to leave before Tobias came to, they accidentally hit another hidden spring, landing once again in Sky Sanctuary. Quickly avoiding a queer manifestation of Murphy's Law (The law that states "Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong, and at the most inconvenient time, in the most inconvenient manner.") involving the collapse of Sanctuary, they're able to escape though one of the area's ancient teleportation orb pedestals, to the tier below, where the "Carrier" from earlier falls past. A new Carrier is soon on the scene, and the fight is cut almost humourously short by Tiny's use of reverse-psychology in the face of Edward Murphy. Now safe, the next teleportation device takes them back to the Emerald Altar, and in turn, they walk back to Station Square, where they went back to Tiny's apartment for a more-than-well-deserved rest.
Nox awakes (bringing Tiny up with him), to carry out the next portion of Tiny's plan (and to look at real estate). The image that appears on the screen spurs another event. The image is that of the skyscraper-esque E-X that was shown to Nox in the first vision. This causes Nox to undergo premonitional relapse (again), where he imparts most of the knowledge of this creature. The stresses of Seership prove too much for Nox's body, and Nox dies as a result. He is once again brought back to the Station of Psyche before the voice of Chaos. It is here that he is told that circumstances have changed as a result of Eggman's reacquisition of his army, and that Nox may or may NOT secure success via a final blow, but this opens up the possibility of ambiguous success OR failure. He is also given divine advice to control his anger and stress.
Nox resurrects six hours after his death in a body bag. Finding humour in scaring the mortuary staff, Nox extricates himself from the bag and bids the staff good day, heading back to his room. Overhearing that Tiny was to fulfill their ultimate oath by destroying herself with Nox's Ring Blade, Nox walks in, in cloak, acting like a Grim Feline Reaper to scare the disconsolate Tiny and her councellor. Nox drags Tiny outside and introduces himself proper, only to be struck around the face and scolded. He realises his insensitivity, forcefully relieves Tiny of the Ring Blade, and apologises, becoming promptly throttled. He's yet to determine whether this was further punishment or a gesture of love and protection. Remembering what he said prior to his death, he proposes to kick his half-premonition back into gear, and stares at Tiny's monitor (still displaying the large E-X).
This gains success quickly, and Nox's subjects his eyes to exotropia once more, his vocal patterns becoming calm, but badly-stressed (think 'the G-Man from 'Half-Life'-stressed). He tells Tiny the rest of his data concerning the E-X, and delivers the complication of the prophecy, adding "This one [Nox] requests that any outstanding questions be asked with haste before consciousness returns. ...This one would like to remind the audience [Tiny] that he is in intense discomfort [Mentioning that cerebral death was imminent], haste is once again requested.". After Tiny declined, Nox returned to consciousness (with headache), and regains his bearings. After telling Tiny to dispatch emails to Sonic's crew and belaying his request for water (mentioning the complications concerning liquids on his recently-deceased digestive and renal systems), Tiny was able to secure a satellite feed to the Egg Scrapyard, just as Zard's trailerhuse was seen crashing into the E-Xs' main control tower - the 'Hive Mother'. Quickly winning the battle, Zard was also incapacitated by accidentally hitting himself with his own guitar. Using his connections with GUN, Nox was able to secure Zard a helicopter back.
More than indignant with the loss of the Hive Mother, Eggman began destroying the Emerald Resort, with the intention of taking Nox and Tiny out with it. It is here that Nox ran afoul of Eggman's mech's shield (which magnified kinetic energy fifty-fold and sent it back once charged). Faced with certain death, Nox was badly bruised and ultimately died... ...only to have Chaos throw him back in. The battle continued, and paused as Nox (blinded by Tiny's Chaos Blackout) was able to sink one of his weapons into Eggman's chest. The compassion Nox feels at this point turns out to be a huge mistake as, harnessing the power of a red Chaos Emerald, Eggman was able to attain a Super Form, and the use of the Final Egg Blaster. Outpowered, outgunned, and generally outmatched in every attribute, this becomes a losing battle, but Nox and Tiny only win due to Tiny's ability to acquire the controller responsible for the Blaster's operation. Eggman escapes through his Egg-O-Matic (and is confirmed sometime later to be have been shot down over South Island). Faced with the utter destruction of his home and his possessions, Nox faints (to be greeted with more exasperation from Chaos), and wakes up in hospital three hours later, to be informed that he has the highest concentration of non-lethal injuries the hospital has treated. These were treated through means of a GUN Long-Range Field Medical Unit ('Heal Cannon'); a deceptively effective 'tool' of medicine. Now fully healed and then some, and even under moderate narcosis, he is admitted from the hospital and they returned to a luxury suite in Emerald Coast (which was the only suite not obliterated). Apparently having an immunity to the combat stimulator (a type of adrenalin within the Heal Cannon's payload), Nox came down from his high and enjoyed a restful night sleep with his chao asleep on the side of his head.
The high spirits carried over to the next morning, where Nox's primary way of convincing Tiny to get out of bed was to set Runt upon her like an attack dog (failing miserably but otherwise succeeding in intent, with Runt only attempting to lift her head). Runt also demonstates his evolving ability to fly, by gliding at the blind cord and lifting it up, saving the eyes within the room from an otherwise-blinding morning.
After a pack-up of luggage and the finalisation of the purchase of their new house, they set off, but not before paying a final salute to the final resting place of Mecha Sonic (lasting at least twenty minutes). They take a train ride to Soleanna, where Nox suggest that Tiny replace her vocation of burglary to that of a police officer. A short time after falling asleep, Nox experiences what he believes to be a nightmare involving explosions and an Egg Pawn massacre within the train. The two awake in New City, and they somehow exploit the HammerSpace of Nox's bag like they did with the Master Emerald, and stuff the entire suitcase within it. Reviewing a digital map in New City, they travel to Castle Town, and Nox becomes hypnotised in the humouresque of a nearby accordion song. After a quick refocus, they make their way to a gatehouse outside an abandoned harbour, both no longer for for original purpose. Tiny is able to pick the lock, and they collect the deed within. Having to extricate the luggage from his bag, Nox turns the latter upside-down, and bruises his foot with the corner of the former (commenting on how much like a Matisse painting it resembles later on). The next few hours are devoted to Nox and Tiny assisting a moving crew to set in the items purchased online. Finally seeing a chance to relax and have fun in their new house, Nox procures from the basement a fire extinguisher, and immediately jumps for Tiny's rotating villain's chair, quickly becoming a green blur. Tiny jumps into the fray, and the resulting disturbment of weight tips the chair and sends a carbon dioxide-propelled Nox across the floor and headfirst into the wall, Tiny's residual kinesis sent her into the other wall. A quick assessment of injury shows exasperation at the recurring malfunction of Tiny's left eye. This was quickly rectified by Runt hurling himself at Tiny (Nox once again ordering him to attack, this time by "going for headshot"). With a suspected concussion, Nox slumps over the arm of his recliner, and refuses to move (owing partially to the fact that he was standing on his tail). Tiny leaves and returns, having acquired a Heal Cannon. Nox recoils from the bazooka, and pulls his tail straight out of his lower back in doing so. Seeking a less destructive administration of the payload, Tiny disassembles it and dumps it upon Nox's head, which was met with indignance (though shortlived, as the narcosis quickly returns). Turning on the new TV reveals insurrection through Central City's GUN force, and Nox fears that he may be examined and considered unfit for duty (owing to his 'disposition'). However, before any further thought can be lent to the issue, Tiny's computer sees telephony use, directly from GUN Command. Here, Nox is given several orders to attend to; the control of the renegades that may strike during the upcoming Festival of the Sun, and an eye out for what appears to be a robotic doppelgänger of himself (not unlike the many incarnations of Metal Sonic are for Sonic, Nox has now his own robotic counterpart).On his way back to bed, Nox collapses due to constitution debt (after he dropped from his adrenal spike, he had no remaining stamina), and finds himself in front of Chaos once more.
However, once again limited to the confines of his own psyche, Nox sees chance to kick one of his pre-recorded dreams into play - battling wave after wave of enemies without fatigue or injury, ad infinitum. Part-way though, he is proposed with an interesting concept: to fight other, real people. Fascinated by this concept, Nox agrees, and is quickly thrust into a battle with the E-X 'Thrash', and emerging victorious (being told that the robot had suddenly awoken from a nightmare of being destroyed by Nox again, something that Nox protested). Zard was pushed into battle, and was quickly vanquished. Nox then recognises that everyone he defeats wakes up from their own slumber with the images of their defeat - Nox was mentally connected to the people he was fighting. Chaos then proposes that Nox fight him (something that Nox was quick to consider heresy and an act against divinity). However, the two were unable to cause lasting damage to the other, and agreed to a stalemate. Chaos revives Nox to his physical body, and Nox awakes to find his house empty, apart from his chao. Tiny returns shortly after with news that she had joined the police force.
With little else to do, they propose to take a walk through the beach to glean the difference of Wave Ocean to Emerald Coast. After a fiasco concerning a motorised spike drum, a drowning chao, and some hydrophoic heroism on Tiny's part, they find themselves in Kingdom Valley, where Nox was mesmerised by the Church of Solaris. Caught in a recent fight against an E-X "Cavalier" and a human by the name of 'Aeolus', the Church was in a less-than-presentable state; the gutted E-X corpse and the remains of the statue of the Solaris phoenix indeed sends Nox into one of his more rageful throes - mainly taking his upset out by attacking the wall. By divine irony, this dislodges the stain-glass phoenix, which falls and smashes upon Nox's head, stopping him quite efficiently. Now fully prepared to leave having received the retribution of his antagonist god, Nox and Tiny leave, a concussion and stammer delivered to the former.
Having gotten back home (having been bowled over by Stripes on the way), Nox collapses once more and returns once more to his psyche hub. Chaos proposes Nox with a personal challenge from across time. Presented with a cat named Saigo and a few words of goodwill, Nox bursts into battle. Seeing many similarities with his resent life (like Saigo's combat moveset, and the fact that he has a Yellow Emerald pommel in his (also incandescent) sword. After breaking Saigo's arm with brute force (and receiving a slash along the chest), Saigo reveals his true objective - a warning. Cloaking their presence from Chaos to preserve the violation of their Temporal Prime Directive, Saigo warns Nox of an event that occurs during the upcoming Festival of the Sun. Two of the insurrects from Central City would attempt to cause a box of firework crackers to misfire, and herd Nox beside the explosion during his patrol. Discomforted with the assassination, Nox and Saigo depart and Nox addresses his concerns to Tiny in a less-than-his-typical-bravado manner (crying, actually).
During the night, Nox and Tiny overindulged in more alcohol. Nox was brought into and out of his own deity-co-operative dreams to witness Tiny exorcising the dark will that had followed her throughout her life, and deliver a strange message to Nox (who still doesn't understand it's meaning). He takes her to bed and falls asleep himself. After they wake up, Nox (very reluctantly, but also very eagarly) tells Tiny of the force that left through her, and Tiny is sticken hard by the realisation that all of her success (including marriage) was now down to her. Nox nearly literally slaps her to think otherwise, and tells her to "prove that that force was never necessary, prove that you can do stuff on your own!"
That day, they mope around, deciding on the best way to kill boredom, and soon find themselves in the basement, strapping a series of fire extinguishers to the Rotating Villain's Chair and the Recliner for a game of 'Rocket Jousting'. Following Tiny accidentally breaking the lightbulb, things went south hard (the axe haft slamming Nox equally hard in the neck, and pinning him between the two chairs). After a painful prying away, an electrostatically-charged Tiny torments Nox (before being incapacitated with contact from a metal slab). Nox picks her up and feels two organs of his body rise painfully in the resulting shock. After she had snapped out and recovered, Nox puts the chairs back where they belonged and slipped several disks in the process. After receiving chiropractice from Tiny, there was nothing to do besides watch TV (although the idea of using the fire extinguishers as jet-packs and having a dogfight was tossed around). A movie and a bottle of potent wine later, and they're sat in the living room with nothing to do. Tiny starts puffing smoke from her Flare Ring at Nox, and Nox retaliates by flicking his axe and sending sparks at her. This eventually carries on until Tiny engulfs herself in smoke and frightens Nox. They both sit down and end this game, and start talking. Nox reveals that, contrary to his build, he doesn't like being angry, for fear that his rage be misdirected and damage something innocent. Despite Tiny's best efforts to comfort him, Nox falls asleep worriedly.
Back inside his own mind, Nox is told that the assassination attempt upon him had been recoursed. Nox addresses his concerns of his rage to Chaos, who gives Nox an epiphany to control his own emotions.
Nox wakes up to the sound of Tiny's computer's telephony service kicking in, and is called to the on-screen face of a GUN Officer. Nox learns that the lower half of New City had suffered for the assassination attempt going awry, and Nox leaves before he had been fully briefed.
After a short run to New City, the devestation showed itself in full swing, looking like a nuclear weapon had been used there. Nox's emotions scramble over each other to manifest themselves (the axe shows this by puttering like a backfired engine). Rage wins out and the suddenly-flaming axe is hurled into the side of a building. Nox's profanity dam finally bursts it's walls and Nox expresses his distaste for the situation in a GREATLY colourful fashion. The soldiers composing GUN insurgence force swarm in an ambush, and Nox continues to curse disgustingly. as a result, several badly-aimed bullets hit him in the ear.
Before anything else can be exchanged, an extremely fast object rushes into the area and massacres the whole force. This object stops and examines Nox, and Nox stares back. It was a robot. They looked similar, from the flaming weapon, to the rifle held in the hand (the rifle WAS the hand in the robotic doppelgänger's case). A battle quickly started, eventually progressing in Metal Nox's favour. By the end, Nox was lying in a pool of his own blood (his back was opened by several miniscule cluster explosions, and he had a cut across his chest). As Metal Nox charged forwards for a killing blow, Tiny's Chaos Blackout kicks in, and Tiny kicks in...Metal Nox's head. After several more seconds of retribution, she approaches the near-mortalised flesh-and-blood Nox and opens fire with a GUN Heal Cannon, healing his most severe injuries. Nox notices (after vomiting the alcohol he had consumed prior to battle) that the attacks to his back had nearly paralysed his hands. With hands that could only feel pins and needles pricking them, Tiny hoists Nox up and helps him away,
On their way, though, they encounter several massacred bodies not involved in the battle. The small mound had consisted of a reptile, an insectoid, and two felines (later identified as the renegade parents of Saigo). As Tiny investigates a terrified noise a ways away from the morbid collection, Nox withdraws into himself, slumped against the wall. Something quickly begins attacking Nox, which turns out to be the six-year-old Saigo, convinced that Nox had killed his parents (where it was Metal Nox). Nox attempts to stem the flow of diminutive thumps and console the hysterical Saigo. This disturbs Nox greatly, creating a horrible contrast between the tormented child before him and the good-natured, mature successor that Nox had faced before. Nox pulls himself to his feet and introduces Saigo to the massacred doppelgänger, who rebukes that Nox still was under scrutiny. Nox's frustrated and self-sorrowful nature appears to induce a second-guess from Saigo, but before anything else can be said, they are confronted by a strange creature, who instantly picks up on Nox's prophetic nature. The being threatens Nox (who responds wearily and calmly with a dry threat) with a poisonous, scorpion-like tail. Without attacking, it tells Nox to inform Chaos of what could possibly be His own ending, before leaping away. After Tiny returns, Nox calls GUN through a still-intact terminal and relays what had happened (with concussion and hypohaemia garbling his message somewhat). The three go home, with the dilemma that Siago is now orphanned. After walking through the front door, Nox finally bleeds out and collapses, wherein Chaos chastises him for meddling with time. Unwilling to disclose such a secret from an omniscient entity, Nox instantly pleads for his memory to remain intact, instead learning that had the explosion had killed him, the magnitude would be sufficient to launch his mandible into the church bell two miles away, "and the less said about the lower intestine, the better.". He was also informed that Tiny was preparing a turbo from the Heal Cannon, which would awaken Nox for precisely one second (and in terrible pain) - long enough to convey a syllable of dialogue. As Tiny pulled the trigger, Nox's choice of word was expletive, and loud enough to break the window above him, before falling unconscious again.
Seeing a good opportunity to train himself, Nox calls an opponent, the E-X "Thrash". A conventional fight didn't break out, in a sense, moreover an argument. The argument was terminated when the E-X initiated a nuclear-sized self-destruct, blasting Nox through several hundred feet of psyche (and inducing Psychic Nosebleed). After some advice, Nox is sent back into consciousness in a cruel fashion - Perfect Chaos firing a beam of energy (the same one capable of destroying the Egg Carrier years ago) straight at him.
After some scolding from Tiny, they consider the adoption of Saigo. Before anything can be finalised, however, Nox receives a call from the GUN Commander, requesting a debrief. Perplexed that nobody confessed to the attempt at Nox's life, Nox is given his further orders - to apprehend Eggman. He did not take this very well. He did not take this very well, and only agreed to undertake the mission on the promise of a long-deserved promotion. He is also bestowed a personal mech, due to his promotion.
Later, Tiny and Nox begin training for the directive of capturing Eggman. Saigo is sent out with a large sack of Rings and told to bring back a pair of scimitars, but returns quickly with a pair of ornate, heavy swords, revealed to have been in the possession of none other than Rouge the Bat (before THEN, from a tomb). Instead choosing to train with their default weapons, Nox and Tiny head for the basement to lecture 'underhanded' fighting, with their weapons shielded with wax. Mixing discussion of Saigo's future with various martial tricks, much is taught and techniques Nox once thought would be upper-handed would instead be downfalling. After overhearing a particularly awful medley of channelhopping from the television, they decide to call quits and check back up on Saigo.

While discussing Saigo's education, the awkward topic of Nox's own nigh-illiteracy arose. Probably tying with his 'not intelligent' self-point, this is a result of his short-term education. Rather expecting ridicule to be taken, he doesn't expect Tiny to plan a bookshop trip. As Nox prepares to go also, something impedes him. A consciousness brushes him, before suddenly and relentlessly ram-raiding his skull (he has barely enough time to shoo Tiny and Saigo out of the door) before he faints.
Sensing an alien (non-Chaotic) presence, Nox immediately raises defense, looking around as his own mindscape is refurbished for the psychic intruder. The bethroned intruder introduces himself as (a bafflingly intricate name ending in-) 'Cambion', and not from the same universe as Nox, but is seeking the location of the swords acquired by Nox's doorstep earlier. Nox originally resorts to thinly disguised lies and sarcasm to express his distaste at Cambions own attitude, but then discloses the swords' location anyway. Exchanging information for information, Cambion uses his own knowledge of villainy (having even admitted to successfully taking over his world, many times) to expose fatal character flaws in the Big Bads of Nox's realm. To further assist, they fight (and Nox even points out how often visions end in mental conflict). After taking a bullet to the chest, Nox dumps his Emerald's energy into himself and rushes at Cambion, successfully clawing and gouging his eyes out. This results in a 'Level Up' for Nox (functioning in the same way as the EXP counterpart), and he departs, being told that physical benefits will come as a result of this conflict.
That point is made painfully obvious as Nox wakes up (and sees the door he had shooed Tiny and Saigo out slam shut), tries to activate the television, and ends up crushing the remote control in his hand. Now quite spooked that he may accidentally damage something else, he opens the door (with a very concerned gentleness) and sits on the doorstep, awaiting Tiny's and Saigo's return, but falls asleep while listening to the accordion melody drifting across the street.
Once again returning to his own (unfurbished) mindscape, Nox is instantly sought out by Chaos, who reports confusedly that Nox's mind had 'vanished' earlier, even to the point of asking if he had died at that point. After explaining the encounter, the full technical details of 'Levelling' are explained to Nox, who presents the concern that he cannot control his newfound strength properly, and may accidentally damage something (or someone). Perhaps in a disturbing twist, Nox's dexterity and finesse is tested a la 'WarioWare', with Nox deliberately failing each challenge simply out of the protest of his sanity and boredom. A more appropriate and sensible training facility is elected, and soon Nox (barely) completes his course (only failing when told to pull out an extremely brittle longsword from a stone, and snapping the foible from the sword). Dismissing it as an acceptable failure, Chaos returns Nox to consciousness, and Nox soon grows bored of waiting.
Intending to follow the path made by Tiny and Saigo, Nox soon stumbles upon a bookshop auction, and even participates (and is subsequently outdone as someone offers up a Giant Ring.) Tiny manages to take the article anyway ad the winning bidder activates the Giant Ring and vanishes. Relieving Saigo of the stack of books as tall as himself, Nox gets more than a few glances as he carries the whole stack single-handedly.
Upon returning, they recognise the familiar voice of Doctor Eggman, who seemed to be setting up a sailspitch for Extreme Gears. Nox smiles as he induces fear in the Doctor, but reclaims a calm atmosphere as he shows interest in buying a Board-Type Gear. Tiny catches up and argues Nox's judgement of buying something from the most wanted criminal under GUN's scope and Nox's directives, and immediately drops the subject when realising that Skate-Type Gears were selling.
Returning home for proper, Nox and Tiny resume conversation, and Nox poses the issue of his newfound strength. Before long, an explosion occurs outside, and a rattling occurs in the adjacent room. One investigation later, and Cambion's 'other physical benefits' are obvious in the presence of the Meteor Hammer he wielded in their mental fight. Nox picks up the ball and chain and wrappes it around himself before sprinting out the door. The explosion is caused by a hitherto-unseen mecha of Eggman's (apparently having been hidden underneath his Gear stalls). Nox joins the GUN soldiers already fighting, only to have them open fire on him. Flinching as his axe blade and chain take the bullets, Nox confronts the attending officer - Norek. Norek reacts in surprise, openly admitting that the New City incident should have decimated him. Deciding to attack the greater of two evils, Nox turns his back and begins attacking Eggman. While blows are exchanged between the two, Eggman and Nox argue over the priority of apprehending the traitorous Norek versus the priority of apprehending his other objective. Ultimately, Eggman's negotiation wins out and Nox changes targets. As he runs towards him, axe drawn, Norek removes his signature shades to reveal an interesting talent. Nox stares into his eyes and collapses, only for Chaos to berate him for dying. Nox interprets this as Norek possessing a Deathly Gaze. Norek is disabled as several 'honourable' soldiers open fire on him, but doesn't fall. Taking his axe, Nox reads out the powers vested in him by his axe, and proceeds to behead Norek.
Instead, his axe fails to do anything other than wound Norek. But Norek's body proceeds to crack like broken granite, and he evolves into a creature resembling a lethal Black Arms with wings and talons. Eggman opens fire and is promptly evicted from battle, leaving Nox to fight solo. Unable to shoot the still-fatal eyes, Nox is left with a problem with disabling the creature - not being able to see it face to face, thus impeding the aim. After a few melee attacks, Nox's axe lodges between the Black Basilisk's wings, leaving him without his most effective weapon. Tiny enters the battlefield to act as a distraction. As the Basilisk attempts to bite at her, she jams it's mouth open with her halberd, allowing Nox to jump from the nearby building to hang from the axe. Time proves to be scarce as the jacked halberd crumples, but Nox reclaims his grip and foothold on the Basilisk's wingspan. He figuratively (and literally) twists the knife, and in an attempt to remove it, the axe bursts into flames, ignites the Basilisk's circulatory system, and causes the creature to explode, sending Nox to the ground (on his hands and feet).
Nox contacts GUN Command straight after, afraid that such an outlandish tale of monster conflict would be construed as a snapped mind, . This is, however, not the case, as the Commander receives a report from Eggman (having hacked their communications array) that the very monster Nox had slain had a vulnerability to fire and explosives. Furthermore, Nox's promotion to Lieutenant (the condition Nox set for originally apprehending Eggman) may be obsolete at the current rate. After more debriefing, the communication channel closes, leaving Nox for some more well-earned rest, and more discussion with Chaos.
After waking, Nox ventures the house in search of activity, and walks into watching Saigo attacking a pillow-dummy with a broomhandle. And and Saigo discuss their future as a family, and Nox gets busted making a comment regarding Tiny's wierdness. Tiny overlooks the comment and sets about smithing a proper weapon for Saigo, and notices the mech set aside for Nox. Using the engineer's kit from the cockpit, Tiny succeeds in producing a blunt mock weapon. After watching Saigo fumble with the weapon, Nox points out (from past experience of Future-Saigo's scimitar-wielding prowess [a paradox in it's own right]) that a scimitar would be better suited for him. Before the weapon is complete, Nox is alerted to a scream from the basement. Dashing through with a Heal Cannon, he discovers that the welding torch had snapped, and proceeded to weld Tiny's arm open. Nox unloads a Heal rocket unto Tiny, who is promptly and appropriately healed, but gradually loses her grip on sanity. Clearly high as a kite, Tiny is carried to bed to recouperate, and her deranged utterings nearly force Nox to smack her. Nox waits patiently for her to wake up, and nearly falls asleep himself.
Tiny does wake up and comes down from her high, but is still unable to see reality (she raises her hand and sees nineteen fingers. Nox raises three fingers and is seen to be holding several hands). The persue another discussion on the modification of Nox's orders, given that the sieging Egg Pawns that Eggman unleashed unto the street were standing uselessly and that Norek was dead, and several confusing issues with Nox had been cleared. They soon fall asleep, battle-weary and (in Tiny's case) slightly doped.
Upon having His follower join Him once more, Chaos instantly requests from Nox the opportunity to use Tiny's drug-induced psychosis as an excuse to convert her. Nox, at first, is unwilling to allow such an exploitation, but soon decides that Tiny's own sinister mentality will deal with the situation. He nearly bursts out laughing as Chaos rushes back with enough urgency to manifest physically, reciting the entropy occurring within her mind, before being chased out bi a giant-spear-wielding Tiny. Apparently angered enough to continue persuit, none other than Tiny appears, still wielding the spear and still insistent on attacking Chaos. Tiny is originally surprised at seeing Nox in 'her' dream (before realising that she had left her own and entered his), before becoming fascinated at the sight of Nox's stray thoughts, which he had been unable to hide from Chaos (evidently, not from Tiny). Taking offense to the breach of his own mental sanctity AND the sacrelige of hostility towards his deity, Nox hoists Tiny by her collar and sternly tells her off, before ordering Chaos to evict her. He adds a sense of urgency by informing her that both his violent imagery and his paramourish persona were being unwillingly restrained (by saying that one was trying to ram it's way to the surface, and the other was asking politely to see Tiny), Tiny is promptly sent back. Nox complains that his thought process was decelerating. He points out that before Chaos filled his dreamstate, Nox used sleep as a process to organise himself. With Chaos's intervention, Nox was unable to do this and as a result, fragmented memories and thoughts were not being organised; and soon he would vegetate (like a fragmented computer). He uncloaks his memory bank - represented as a monstrously large mound of disorganised albums, and begins sorting. Using a strange representation of dropping these albums into cardboard boxes (representing different genres, such as 'Injurious' 'Spiritual Experience', 'Warm', 'Comical', 'NSFW / Erotica', 'Nightmarish', 'Social faux pas', and even one special box: 'Special - Jet and Tiny') Soon, he falls asleep (again) with a book from the latter box on his lap, to examine the memory in greater detail. He awakens(-ish) after examining a memory of the still-missing Jet Kaosu and puts the album away. Reaching into the 'Nightmarish' box, he pulls out handful of hydrophobia and splashes his face and is woken up, at the same time as Tiny.
While trying to explain what had transpired, Nox is alerted to a crash outside, and rushes to the window. He sees a boy on the road, face up, and immediately jumps from the window. Part of his memory defragmentation unlocked his old habit of parkour running, and he rolls safely as he drops. He helps the boy to his feet, who explains that he was the reason for the crash. The boy also carries a message that, due to the recent calamities, the Festival of the Sun was posponed. Eager to hear more (as it was his duty to patrol the Festival), he invites the boy to his house. He requests to examine Nox's Extreme Gear, knowing that it was a purchase from Eggman, and beings tinkering with it in the interest of finding an explosive device. Said ordnance launches from the Gear, loops around, and smashes through a window, exploding and launching Tiny to the street. Still unsettled from the Heal Cannon drugs, a poorly-aimed series of beanbag shots break through the window, and Tiny staggers in, her forehead head impaled with a two-foot-long shard of window. An ear-twitch dislodges the shard, and she nearly bleeds out as a result, the intervention of Nox and a bandage saving her. The boy tries to find his directive invoice from his government, but only succeeds in procuring ID, several cards, and a 'Organization XIII renegade directive'. Whilst patching her up, Nox requests ID from the boy, and identifies him as Aeolus, Elite Guard of the Sovereign.
To make the whole hassle complete, another missile races through the house and explodes outside, followed by an excited whoop from Saigo. Nox immediately persues the rocket's origin, and finds it to be Saigo fiddling with Tiny's Skate-Gear. Consenting to allow Saigo to field-test Tiny's Gear, Nox begins to follow, but hears a strange voice, and immediately cocks his rifle. Unable to track the voice, he returns to ease, disgruntled that his waking premonitions have returned uninvited. Resisting the intrusion, Nox picks Tiny up and starts to carry her upstairs. He accidentally drops her as a premonition starts out again. Shaking himself and resuming his duty to carry her, he moves to the bedroom and lays Tiny accordingly. He moves to the bathroom to wash his face down. As he stares at himself in the mirror, he catches a glimpse of something behind him, but it vanishes before he can focus on him. This is the last straw, and he smacks the mirror, sending glass and blood into the sink. Nox patches himself back up with paper towels and returns to the bedroom, where he learns from sourced divine that TIny is exceedingly lucky to have have been killed by the injuries that she had sustained. Both of her optic nerves had snapped (robbing her of sight), and that the only reason why her eyes had not fallen out of her head was that her eyelids were closed. He also learns that she had lost a critical amount of blood, suffered massive spinal injuries and had at least one shattered rib. Furthermore, the cause of her continued life was also the cause of her comatose. Something was gripping her and stopping her from waking up, but also from passing away. Nox demands passage to Tiny's psyche the same way that she had (accidentally) passed through to his. Ignoring warnings of innocuous danger, he pushes through the newly-formed door and sets out into a relatively unusual scenario.
Tiny's psyche is not an endless gray void as Nox's was. It was an infinitely long bridge standing firm over what looked like liquified black smoke. Every so often, a lamp-post stood firm, illuminating the area. The bricks in the bridge were said to be acts of goodness that suspended Tiny and her bridge out of the evils below. Having been warned that prolonged contact will damage both Nox's mind and the mind around him, he immediately sets off down the bridge, running his hand along the guardrails. Eventually, he finds in the distance a lamppost which had apparently malfunctioned, and thinks that this is the source of Tiny's anomaly.
Moving closer, it turns out that the lamppost is operating, but a cyclone of darkness had engulfed it. Raising his defenses, Nox shields himself and pushes through the dark winds. He finds that a large bundle of cloth had been tied to the base of the lamppost, and something conjuring up the evil winds - a smal red imp by name of 'Caktael', the same imp that Nox glanced in the bathroom mirror. The imp was surprised at the foreign mind, but explains that he is performing a serive - siphoning Tiny's darkness and repairing her broken body in exchange.
This emotionally confuses Nox greatly, and ultimately chooses to interrupt the 'transaction', on the grounds that a heart cannot function without darkness as it would rob "goodness" of it's definition. Before he has a chance to engage, the imp becomes distracted by Nox and starts undoing its repairs, by conjuring up a series of large weapons and flogging the bundle of cloths. Given the size of the bundle, Nox guesses that Tiny is wrapped in the cloth. Suddenly taken by bloodthirsty resolve to protect Tiny, he rushes the imp with axe in hand, and chops the imp in the back. The imp vanishes on contact and reappears a short distance away. It was undamaged, but it looked injured and exhausted. Nox imposes himself between imp and Tiny and threatens it. The imp stares at Nox and states that Nox's heart and mind were brimming with darkness, which Nox clearly had no intention of restraining or controlling. Far from surprised, Nox threatens the imp again that it would be on the receiving end of such foul intentions, and the imp flees with the darkness it had siphoned thus far.
Nox unties the bundle and drops it from the base of the lamppost, revealing it to be indeed Tiny. He rouses her and she awakens in front of her. He quickly realises what was meant when he was told that prolonged exposure to each others' minds would damage his own, and Nox is quick to explain that the experience would greatly injure him mentally. As Tiny responds that she understands her duties to nurse him back to sanity if she were fit enough herself, Nox turns and leaves.
As he wakes up with an unknown state of mental health, he glances at Tiny, as a familiar robot enters the room - Mecha Sonic, long-since-deceased ally and friend. Nox's mental state is quickly identified as 'pushed over edge' and starts rambling to himself. The still-unconscious Tiny mentally nudges him, but Nox ignores her, insisting that he be allowed to work himself out (all while referring to himself in the third-person and soliloquying very fast). As Mecha Sonic and Aeolus leave (the latter conjecting that the residence is an asylum for criminally insane characters), Nox steadily drifts back to lucidity through the comfort of his pillow. As Mecha leaves, Nox gives chase, sane enough to be classified as only a stealth lunatic, and engages in a conversation concerning Mecha Sonic's wellbeing (or lack thereof).
As Mecha finally leaves, Nox returns to Ciara and gains an understanding of how she had felt whenever he was in hospital. She wakes up in his arms, and is dropped in surprise as a result.. After reestablishing their promises to look out for each other, They summon Saigo into the room and Nox explains the circumstances behind Nox's strange behaviour, including the broken glass in the bathroom and hall. Saigo makes an uncomfortable reference to his father, to which Nox objects with full vigour.
As Saigo leaves for medicine, Nox learns what he wanted from Tiny, and loudly renounces his name and honour as a warrior, even going to far as to toss his axe across the room. He sarcastically adjects his desire to sleep, and Tiny provides for him a small tub of tranquilisers, upon which they both eagerly rest. Nox's sentence is carried into the ensuing divine contact, as he fails to immediately realise that he had been knocked out.
Nox stubbornly but reluctantly refuses to accept vocational counselling from Chaos, and becomes increasingly agitated as he is informed of the nature of the imp he had fought earlier. He eventually holds himself hostage, threatening to slit his own throat unless Chaos acknowledges Nox's failure to be interested. As Chaos leaves, Nox begins sorting through the backlog of his mind, pulling out a memory of a certain accordion melody as he worked.

Five months later, Nox awakens in a small cell, a completely changed (for the worse) cat. Given his location, and the state of his body and mind, he had surmised that he had been the subject of experimentation. These experiments with Chaos Energy had robbed him of most of his sanity and all of his memory, to the point that he lost his identity. The complex begins to tremor, knocking out the electric door and sending the sentries away. Nox saw this as some chance of escaping, and limps out. Apparently, during the course of his incarceration, his tail had been repeatedly broken, and resembled a chain more than anything. As he ambles away, he is tacked from behind by a kitten he doesn't recognise, who gives him an axe and a half-bottle of whiskey. The kitten tells Nox of how he came to be at the facility - that some mad scientist came and catnapped both he and his wife (he had forgotten about his marriage), about five months prior. Than the planet was shot at and subsequently repaired by a certain hedgehog. Sometime during the explanation, Nox hears something, a familiar voice. The cell of the voice's owner was empty, much to Nox's dejection. At that point, the tremors arise again, knocking part of the ceiling down, and the cats beat a hasty exit. At this point, Nox had nearly remembered the kitten's name, only saying half of it on a spur.
When they approach the top of the elevator, they are thrown out by a dark creature. While the black cloud shrouding it occluded most of it, Nox was able to recognise the creature. Despite it's hostile and deranged demeanour, Nox chooses not to fight it, instead disabling it with persuasion. The Chaos Emeralds surrounding the diabolic cat shatter, showing them all to be fake, and she powers down. Nox recognises her face, but not who it belongs to. Some part of his instinct told him to defend her with no rational explanation whatsoever. Another part told her that this particular subject should be dealt with manhandling - Nox picks her up and carries her to the exit. The kitten tells them to halt, due to the approach of the intruder garrison. The kitten thwarts most ofthe army, and the occasional profanity causes the sheer anger from the still-unconscious purple feline to destroy the larger and less managable enemies. As the three cats flee the complex, the declination in the green feline's health suddenly shows through, and he proves to tire quickly. As he slows down from losing stamina, a small boat pulls up with artillery bombardements blazing, to destroy the still-persuing robots.
The skiff, commanded by a group of familiar robots takes them all to South Island, where a small asylum settlement exists for those liberated from the Metal Island. Pieces of Nox's mind drifted back together, while the attending medics did the same to his body. He waited for two months for word on his wife's condition - for some reason, she had not regained stable consciousness. After a brief visit, the Chief Medical Officer had made a confident diagnosis. Something radioactive had spawned in Ciara's brain, information which set Nox at great discomfort, despite assurance that she was in safe and capable hands. After he was persuaded to leave (with the implication of impending surgical carnage), Nox had fallen asleep, where he remembered one of his fancies - accordion song. He had learned just prior to his rescue that his old home was the focal point for the blast that shattered the planet, and the 'Ode to Elise' was all he had left to remember the place.
He is woken up twenty minutes later by a nervous nurse robot that the procedure had been completed on strange means. The Chief Medic explained that a piece of monitoring equipment had magnetically ejected a strange glass shard, the cause of the cerebral dysfunction. After dismissing the Medics, Nox assesses Ciara himself, and turns to the shard. Touching the shard affected him very strangely. It held the promise of unlimited and corrupting power; something Nox would not give up so easily. Stealing the shard, he rushes back to his tent to retrieve his axe, setting both of them (and himself) on wildfire. The fires had been temporarily quenched by a fire brigade of robots, and Nox's irrational rage only increased. So much that his anger grew that it completely destroyed the shard and gained him another dousing of aqueous fire extinguishing foam. Now his fury was only ambient, and fueled by the echoing effect of the shard and the indignance of being showered with foam.
Clearing his head and trying to assess whether or not his short display had disturbed or angered anyone, Nox takes a brief walk. He returns on hearing a familiar scream of fear to find that a climber plant from the medical tent and been ejected into (and through) the opposite tree. The relief of hearing the disgruntled voice (for the first time in seven months) and the delivery of the owner's presence throws Nox into a fit of glee. His laughter ctches the attention of two piercing yellow eyes from the tent. Upon closer examination, the eyes were just lights (the fact that one of them had shattered made it all the more obvious), and Nox is tackled from behind by the tent's occupant. He tried to hide his joy behind a concerning tone, and with correct concern. Ciara's incarceration in both lab AND bed had robbed her body of muscle mass. Before Nox can persuade her to return to bed for a slower lifestyle, her fear of plant-life kicks in and she ramgapes with Nox's axe, eventually being subdued by the Chief Medical Officer. Further examination shows that she is not perfectly sane either, and is convinced that the botanical culture is scheming to dominate the island, something Nox pretends to validate to persuade Ciara to leave with him.
He carries her down to the beach to extract information about his life. Ciara had admitted to remembering some things, while Nox possessed no real memory of anything. Ciara divulges what she had remembered concerning Nox's origins (having apparently been told by Nox himself in the past)
[To be updated during next pause.]