Thunder, rain and lighting... The city was in a state of total chaos while the water level was rising.
People were being tossed around by the sheer force of the waves. Hundreds, if not thousands, were drowning.
They screamed and shouted and cried to no avail, their voices engulfed in the sounds of the sirens wailing.
"Oh, man, this is a BAD sign..." Knuckles thought, flexing his knuckles in exasperation.
He couldn't help anybody, as he was having a hard time climbing his way to safety, since he had taken a painful beating just a while ago. While enduring the pain, pillars of water gushed out from every other window of the building he was on, making it more difficult to climb.
That, and the darkness.
From broad daylight, the gray-as-steel clouds gathered above the city and blocked the sun, casting deep shadows that moved and swayed as dark creatures hunting for prey.
But nothing compared to the monstrosity that glared down on the people and brought destruction wherever it passed. It was made of water, but retained its form like a gigantic snake, deep blue, with its mouth full of razor sharp teeth extending far beyond its eyes. And the eyes. They were shining-emerald green, so malicious and angry that could paralyze with fear the bravest man upon a direct gaze from its reptilian pupils.
Perfect Chaos.
People ran for shelter, but there was none. "Save me!" "Help!" "Noooo!" "What's going to happen to us?"
After reaching the top of the building, Knuckles stopped to grasp for breath and think of a plan. That thing needed to be stopped.
From there, he watched in awe a great flying ship heading towards Chaos. That could only be Dr. Eggman. The ship started to shoot lasers and missiles at the beast, but Perfect Chaos took no notice of them, and did a sucking like motion with a terrible sound. A second later, a powerful beam came out of it's mouth and pierced Eggman's ship, nearly cutting it in half. Terrified, the echidna saw the ship fall and hit a distant skyscraper, exploding immediately.
He felt a strange relief when seeing Eggman's emergency ship flying out and away from the blast.
Then Knuckles saw Sonic talking to the echidna girl. He seemed very worried. When he prepared to glide their way, two rocks fell hard on the rooftop, almost hitting him. He immediately recognized them, Chaos Emeralds without color. Chaos must have expelled them, now that he had no use of them. Grabbing the Emeralds, he jumped off to meet Sonic.
He got there at the same time Amy, Tails and the weird big cat did, all of them with Emeralds in their hands. The seven of them.
After a brief conversation, they all knew they needed to rely on Sonic once again. Knuckles knew he was the only one besides Sonic who could draw a large amount of energy from the Emeralds, but he was hurting all over and wouldn't do much good to overload his body with energy. So he handed the Emeralds in his possession and stepped back.
Seeing their blue hero with the Emeralds, the surviving citizens started crying out Sonic's name, cheering him desperately.
Sonic opened his arms and let the Chaos Emeralds float around him, and shouted, "All the steps we take... all the moves we make... all the pain at stake...!"
A yellow bright light shone from his body, turning his blue quills into a golden yellow. His red eyes showed anger, but also sadness and doubt.
"I see the chaos for everyone!" Super Sonic dashed to the creature "Who are we...? What can we do?"
He was going so fast that gravity had no more effect on him, floating above the salty sea water that flooded the city. Chaos watched him. Sonic's voice boomed above all city, reaching a vast distance. It was filled with contempt.
"You and I are same, in the way that we have our own styles that we won't change, but... Yours is filled with evil and mine's not!"
They clashed.
"There is no way I can lose!"
The air wave from the blow was so violent that it made everyone watching flinch and duck. Sonic was forcing his way inside the monster, to reach it's brain-like core deep in Chaos' watery head. But the hedgehog's efforts were failing to do any damage. They saw Sonic gasp from the strain.
"He... can't hold on much longer" said Tails.
"I'll never let go!" Sonic screamed, shining brighter. "I know this is the only way!"
Amy fell on her knees, covering her eyes "How long this'll last...? He can't die...". After a brief moment, she got back to her feet wiping the tears from her eyes "I'm not gonna think this way!"
Knuckles held his hurting arm "He's not counting on others, on us."
Beside them, a pink light hovered with a faint image of a echidna girl. Tikal folded her hands and prayed "Close your eyes... and feel it burn!"
Her words reached the struggling Sonic, and he felt it, deep within the monster.
Chaos suddenly pushed back and sent him flying away. Even though he was spinning rapidly, after a brief moment Sonic managed to stop in midair, upside down. He was smiling "Now I see what I've gotta do."
Sonic focused all of his attention in Perfect Chaos with a determined gaze. And dashed to it again, shouting "OPEN YOUR HEART, IT'S GONNA BE ALLRIGHT!"
Even though the battle between the two users of the Chaos Emeralds was breathtaking, Sonic's friends were not idle, as the flooded city had many people to be rescued. Tails was flying around without a moment's respite. His ability to fly was proving to be very useful, although extremely tiring for his own good. He wouldn't allow himself to stop, though. The two tailed fox flew from one window to another, always carrying back anyone he found to safety.
He took priority on the little children, every single one of them crying. After some rescues, and landing down the last two sobbing kids in Big's care, Tails took a moment to breathe.
Looking around, he saw destruction, people shouting and weeping, collapsed buildings, people floating heads down on the sea below them. It was chaos. Confusion, and hopeless anger.
Tails bit his lips and took off to yet another building. Sonic had to stop Chaos.
The golden hedgehog knew what he had to do, but doing it was an entirely different matter. He couldn't stop hovering at high speed, or else he would fall in the water. He could float or fly higher, but that would spend more energy from the Emeralds, and for the plan he had in mind, Sonic would need all the energy he could gather from them.
Thus, all he could do was dodge the high pressure water beams, cyclones, tentacles and broken parts of building while trying to reach Chaos while maintaining a high velocity. Whenever he managed to get near the monster, it attacked, forcing Sonic to change course, breaking his momentum. When a cyclone hit him and sent him flying away farther than he'd ever been, he jumped back and landed on dry patch of highway.
He pointed at the gigantic eel in frustration "I don't know what can be done, but you drive me crazy! All your cunning tricks make me sick, YOU WON'T HAVE IT YOUR WAY!"
With that, his body shone brighter than before, blinding white. This time, he faced every obstacle head on. Concrete was sent flying, tentacles could never reach him, cyclones didn't have power enough to lift him in his speed and when there was nothing else in his path, Chaos screeched and shot the strongest beam directly at Sonic.
Throwing caution to the wind, he released all of the chaotic power granted by the Emeralds and flew right at it. Sonic's body exhaled such raw power that a fiery golden energy field was floating around him. When the hedgehog and the beam collided in midair, the high pressured water column managed to stop Sonic's advance.
Sonic stretched his body and strained as much as he could, "OPEN YOUR HEART..." he shouted, desperate "AND YOU'LL SEE...", but his power was fading. He was being pushed back, and eventually he was thrown by the pressure, so violently that he passed where his friends were and hit a collapsed building, leaving a big hole on the wall he crushed, disappearing in darkness.
Amy lost her will to move, and fell again on her knees. Knuckles clenched his fists and hit the ground with them, leaving deep marks. Tails' eyes went from the hole Sonic left on the wall to Chaos and all the destruction it brought. "If it won't stop, there will be no future for us."
Tikal murmured "It's heart is tied down by all the hate... gotta set him free!"
She floated in front of them all and her voice boomed above every other sound.
"The servers are the seven Chaos!" The seven Chaos Emeralds emerged from the collapsed building.
"Chaos is power!" They started spinning around slow at first, but then extremely fast.
"Power is enriched by the heart!" Tikal extended both her hands with palms up to the east.
"The controller is the one that unifies the Chaos!" From the direction she faced, a sharp green light came, piercing the air around it and hitting the blurry circle that was the Emeralds. The light went in the circle and was channeled through it, getting out on the other side much larger and powerful then when it entered and disappeared into the building.
Knuckles understood it. Tikal evoked the Master Emerald's power to control the seven Chaos Emeralds.
"Please, you must stop him!" She said, and then faded away, disappearing.
The building finished crumbling, leaving a big cloud of dust behind. From within the dust, thunder could be heard, and lightning showed them a light through the curtain of dirt. It whispered "I know it's a one way track." And the next second it was gone.
Sonic flew so fast towards the raging Chaos that the rest of the buildings around him crumbled, increasing the dust cloud.
In the next instant, he was in front of Chaos, facing another beam. This time, it was Sonic who pushed it back.
Tails, who was flying above the dust clouds, was the only one who saw his friend in that state. Sonic wasn't golden anymore. He was more like the sun itself, lightning covering his body with little electric waves. "Hyper..."
Sonic had his eyes closed, he felt it burn. He felt Chaos' heart burning with the negative energy of the Emeralds. He knew what he had to do. He had to neutralize that negative energy with his own energy, the positive energy of the Emeralds and the Master Emerald.
He pierced the beam and went through Perfect Chaos' mouth. Suddenly he was being crushed again, being forced out by a fearsome force which he recognized now... Hate.
Sonic opened his arms and legs and released his power, reaching every negative will and filling it with light, draining his soul and body, cleansing thousands of years of hatred and spite. "Open your heart" he murmured, "It's gonna be all right" And then... Darkness.
Tails was already there when Chaos melted away, his body turning to water and receding with the sea below. Sonic was falling, spinning without control, blue and fainted. Tails got to him, but he was spinning so violently that the fox started falling with him, struggling to slow down the fall. He managed to stop them from spinning, but they were still going too fast. Then they hit the water.
Even though Tails put both his thick tails to try cushioning them from the fall, the impact took all his breath away, and when he tried sucking air, salty water came, filling his lungs instead. He was drowning.
The pain was unbearable, but it was over in an instant. Suddenly he was out, vomiting water, and moments later, breathing. A gentle pink light surrounded him, taking him back to where his friends were. A hand touched his shoulders and there was Sonic floating with him, with a playful smile as if they had gotten away with some prank.
When he and Sonic landed, Tails saw Knuckles and Amy running to them, with Big and many people shouting Sonic's name behind. Before they reached him, Tails shook his body to dry himself and looked back.
The pink light was going away, with the echidna girl and the first form of Chaos, now peaceful. They smiled, even Chaos (or so Tails thought), and disappeared.
Amy jumped on Sonic hugging him, Knuckles patted his head and then Big got them all in a tight embrace, while Sonic laughed.
And the people shouted, thanking all of them.