********************************
*** The Ultimate Challenge ***
*** by Ryan Carroll ***
********************************
Author's Note: This story takes place on a different timeline from the rest
of the Team Chaos Chronicles stories. To clarify the difference, I left
out the Episode number and wrote the story entirely in third person.
Some references may be made to previous stories, either in my series or
in the series written by master fan-fic author NetRaptor. Which leads
me to the typical boring disclaimer: All characters besides Ryan, Jason,
Wes, Cliff, Lisa, Christie, and Lara (collectively termed Team Chaos)
are ficitious and/or the product of someone else's brilliant imagination
(i.e. Sega, NetRaptor, and other superb authors).
Enough of this; let's get to the story!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------
"Is the portal complete yet, Gamma?"
"Yes, sir; three weeks, two days, and fourteen hours behind schedule...
but complete, Master Robotnik."
"Behind schedule... If Packbell had been here that wouldn't have been a
problem!"
"Commander Packbell has been absent for some time, sir."
"DUH, bolt-brain. Ever since that botched terbium plan..."
"Unclear on terms 'duh' and 'terbium', sir."
"Never mind. It's time to launch Phase I of the Plan."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------
Jason and Ryan were chilling at Team Chaos HQ (also known as Ryan's
bedroom) listening to some new CDs Jason had just gotten. They had
the Stratego board set up between them, and (as usual) Ryan was getting
his tail kicked.
Fortunately for Ryan, the "unauthorized jump" alarm kicked in. Ryan
had set up his computer to monitor all interdimensional jumps having
to do with either Mobius or Earth. If any jump was made outside the
portal network, the alarm went off. This particular jump had been made
from somewhere in Mobius, and the destination was somewhere in southern
Arizona.
"Southern Arizona?" Ryan inquired, puzzled.
"Should we check it out?" Jason asked him.
Ryan nodded.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------
It was a quiet day in Knothole.
Perhaps a little too quiet, Slasher reflected. Most everyone was still
recovering from "the viceroid incident", Tails was happily engaged with
rebuilding the Tornado, and Spark was teaching Sonic some self-defense
moves. On the surface, everything seemed just fine...
And yet... something felt wrong.
She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but the raptor was never one
to second-guess her God-given intuition. This was the calm before the
storm. Something was happening... something _big_.
Something, pehaps, even catastrophic.
The sudden urge to double-check every loose end fell upon her like a
wet blanket. She'd start with Knothole and work her way around
Mobius...
----------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------
The two jets raced at high altitude through the Texas sky, traveling at
barely subsonic velocity. Another hour would find them above Tucson,
Arizona. They knew by now that the intruder had to be Robotnik, but
they had no idea what his reason for coming here could be.
Ryan had a sneaky suspicion that he wan't just here for sightseeing.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------
Well, everything in Knothole checked out okay, Zephyr had recently
left Eagle's Nest after a full recovery,... and Knuckles was still too
ticked off at Sonic to say anything.
But, for some unexplainable reason, Slasher still had that lingering
sense of apprehension, like she was missing something extremely
important...
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------
At the Kitt Peak National Observatory complex, the generator-projectors
were in place. All that was needed now was a power source to run them...
Half a dozen SWAT-bots "donated" their power cells to the cause.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------
"Do you see what I see?"
"If you're referring to that huge battleship sitting just off Kitt
Peak," Ryan replied, "yes."
The two jets banked toward the mountaintop observatory and prepared to
land.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------
Slasher, still convinced that she was forgetting something, strolled by
the junkyard to see how Tails was coming along with the Tornado.
"Wow, it actually looks like a biplane now!"
"Yeah, isn't it great? I'm still trying to figure out how to make it
go faster, though. I've thought about a Chaos emerald, but Team
Chaos still has those, so it wouldn't do much good."
A light bulb clicked on. "Oh, shoot."
"Something wrong, Slash?"
"I knew I was forgetting something!" With that, the raptor dashed off
towards the center of the village, leaving Tails with a questioning
look on his face.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------
"Well this is just great," Jason declared.
"Hey, how was I supposed to know that alarm trigger was there?" Ryan
retorted.
The two teens were escorted by SWAT-bots into the main telescope
chamber. "Well, well, what have we here? A couple of snoops trying to
wreck my plans yet again!" Robotnik sneered.
"What's the point of asking a question if you already know the answer?"
Ryan snapped, in a defiant and highly sarcastic mood.
"Silence! You two won't interfere this time. My Plan is perfect!"
They could hear the capital P in Plan. "Isn't this the point in time
where the evil genius outlines his diabolical plan to the helpless
captives?" Jason inquired, also in a sarcastic mood.
"I don't see why not. Telescopes work both ways."
"Yeah, so?"
"So what I will do is set up this portal generator--" here Robotnik
indicated the small box that was set up at the viewpiece of the huge
telescope "--and direct the portal outside of Earth's atmosphere. I
have another generator set up to do the same thing in a different
direction. If I set the portals at just the right angle..."
"Earth will become the focal point for the collision of parallel
worlds."
"I see you've done your homework." He addressed the SWAT-bots.
"Take them to the brig aboard the Egg Carrier."
----------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------
"Are you sure?" Sally inquired.
"I never doubt my instincts," Slasher replied.
"All right," the other acquiesced as she engaged the trans-dimensional
comm terminal.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------
"NR to Zogster."
Ryan's com-watch kept squawking. Ryan wished he could answer, but
his wrists were still bound behind his back.
"NR to Zogster. Please come in."
As Ryan struggled to get his wrists beneath his knees, he clicked the
transmit button quickly three times, then slowly three times, then
quickly three times again.
"NR to Zogster. Understood; what is the emergency?"
Ryan pushed his feet through the circle his arms now made, finally
getting the com-watch in speaking range. "Slash, we've got problems."
"So I gathered. What's up?"
"The fat man is in the desert."
"...En ingles, por favor?"
"Robotnik is here, in Arizona."
"WHAT?!?"
"He's trying to collide parallel worlds, and he has the equipment to
do it."
"You're joking."
"It gets worse."
"Okay, so you're not joking."
"Right now I'm onboard this huge airship Robotnik calls the Egg Carrier."
"This is bad. This is definitely bad."
"One word: DUH."
"Do you have any idea when the planets in question will be in phase?"
Suddenly a low rumbling sound caught Ryan off-guard. As his cell
was equipped with windows, he glanced out the tiny viewport. A bright
blue beam was creating a vortex beyond the atmosphere, causing an
ever-thickening orange haze to develop in the air.
Slasher noticed the vortex too, but since Ryan was insulated from the
full force of the sound waves, he had no idea what Slasher was
experiencing at that moment. The sound, to her, was like several
speeding trains caught up in the vortex of a tornado creating gale
force winds. Ironically, not one leaf stirred from its place during
the whole ordeal.
The orange haze thickened until it became nearly opaque, obliterating
anything more than a few inches away from one's face, then blazed
to white as the dimensional shift completed its task...
End Part 1
*** The Ultimate Challenge ***
*** by Ryan Carroll ***
********************************
Author's Note: This story takes place on a different timeline from the rest
of the Team Chaos Chronicles stories. To clarify the difference, I left
out the Episode number and wrote the story entirely in third person.
Some references may be made to previous stories, either in my series or
in the series written by master fan-fic author NetRaptor. Which leads
me to the typical boring disclaimer: All characters besides Ryan, Jason,
Wes, Cliff, Lisa, Christie, and Lara (collectively termed Team Chaos)
are ficitious and/or the product of someone else's brilliant imagination
(i.e. Sega, NetRaptor, and other superb authors).
Enough of this; let's get to the story!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------
"Is the portal complete yet, Gamma?"
"Yes, sir; three weeks, two days, and fourteen hours behind schedule...
but complete, Master Robotnik."
"Behind schedule... If Packbell had been here that wouldn't have been a
problem!"
"Commander Packbell has been absent for some time, sir."
"DUH, bolt-brain. Ever since that botched terbium plan..."
"Unclear on terms 'duh' and 'terbium', sir."
"Never mind. It's time to launch Phase I of the Plan."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------
Jason and Ryan were chilling at Team Chaos HQ (also known as Ryan's
bedroom) listening to some new CDs Jason had just gotten. They had
the Stratego board set up between them, and (as usual) Ryan was getting
his tail kicked.
Fortunately for Ryan, the "unauthorized jump" alarm kicked in. Ryan
had set up his computer to monitor all interdimensional jumps having
to do with either Mobius or Earth. If any jump was made outside the
portal network, the alarm went off. This particular jump had been made
from somewhere in Mobius, and the destination was somewhere in southern
Arizona.
"Southern Arizona?" Ryan inquired, puzzled.
"Should we check it out?" Jason asked him.
Ryan nodded.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------
It was a quiet day in Knothole.
Perhaps a little too quiet, Slasher reflected. Most everyone was still
recovering from "the viceroid incident", Tails was happily engaged with
rebuilding the Tornado, and Spark was teaching Sonic some self-defense
moves. On the surface, everything seemed just fine...
And yet... something felt wrong.
She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but the raptor was never one
to second-guess her God-given intuition. This was the calm before the
storm. Something was happening... something _big_.
Something, pehaps, even catastrophic.
The sudden urge to double-check every loose end fell upon her like a
wet blanket. She'd start with Knothole and work her way around
Mobius...
----------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------
The two jets raced at high altitude through the Texas sky, traveling at
barely subsonic velocity. Another hour would find them above Tucson,
Arizona. They knew by now that the intruder had to be Robotnik, but
they had no idea what his reason for coming here could be.
Ryan had a sneaky suspicion that he wan't just here for sightseeing.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------
Well, everything in Knothole checked out okay, Zephyr had recently
left Eagle's Nest after a full recovery,... and Knuckles was still too
ticked off at Sonic to say anything.
But, for some unexplainable reason, Slasher still had that lingering
sense of apprehension, like she was missing something extremely
important...
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------
At the Kitt Peak National Observatory complex, the generator-projectors
were in place. All that was needed now was a power source to run them...
Half a dozen SWAT-bots "donated" their power cells to the cause.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------
"Do you see what I see?"
"If you're referring to that huge battleship sitting just off Kitt
Peak," Ryan replied, "yes."
The two jets banked toward the mountaintop observatory and prepared to
land.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------
Slasher, still convinced that she was forgetting something, strolled by
the junkyard to see how Tails was coming along with the Tornado.
"Wow, it actually looks like a biplane now!"
"Yeah, isn't it great? I'm still trying to figure out how to make it
go faster, though. I've thought about a Chaos emerald, but Team
Chaos still has those, so it wouldn't do much good."
A light bulb clicked on. "Oh, shoot."
"Something wrong, Slash?"
"I knew I was forgetting something!" With that, the raptor dashed off
towards the center of the village, leaving Tails with a questioning
look on his face.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------
"Well this is just great," Jason declared.
"Hey, how was I supposed to know that alarm trigger was there?" Ryan
retorted.
The two teens were escorted by SWAT-bots into the main telescope
chamber. "Well, well, what have we here? A couple of snoops trying to
wreck my plans yet again!" Robotnik sneered.
"What's the point of asking a question if you already know the answer?"
Ryan snapped, in a defiant and highly sarcastic mood.
"Silence! You two won't interfere this time. My Plan is perfect!"
They could hear the capital P in Plan. "Isn't this the point in time
where the evil genius outlines his diabolical plan to the helpless
captives?" Jason inquired, also in a sarcastic mood.
"I don't see why not. Telescopes work both ways."
"Yeah, so?"
"So what I will do is set up this portal generator--" here Robotnik
indicated the small box that was set up at the viewpiece of the huge
telescope "--and direct the portal outside of Earth's atmosphere. I
have another generator set up to do the same thing in a different
direction. If I set the portals at just the right angle..."
"Earth will become the focal point for the collision of parallel
worlds."
"I see you've done your homework." He addressed the SWAT-bots.
"Take them to the brig aboard the Egg Carrier."
----------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------
"Are you sure?" Sally inquired.
"I never doubt my instincts," Slasher replied.
"All right," the other acquiesced as she engaged the trans-dimensional
comm terminal.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------
"NR to Zogster."
Ryan's com-watch kept squawking. Ryan wished he could answer, but
his wrists were still bound behind his back.
"NR to Zogster. Please come in."
As Ryan struggled to get his wrists beneath his knees, he clicked the
transmit button quickly three times, then slowly three times, then
quickly three times again.
"NR to Zogster. Understood; what is the emergency?"
Ryan pushed his feet through the circle his arms now made, finally
getting the com-watch in speaking range. "Slash, we've got problems."
"So I gathered. What's up?"
"The fat man is in the desert."
"...En ingles, por favor?"
"Robotnik is here, in Arizona."
"WHAT?!?"
"He's trying to collide parallel worlds, and he has the equipment to
do it."
"You're joking."
"It gets worse."
"Okay, so you're not joking."
"Right now I'm onboard this huge airship Robotnik calls the Egg Carrier."
"This is bad. This is definitely bad."
"One word: DUH."
"Do you have any idea when the planets in question will be in phase?"
Suddenly a low rumbling sound caught Ryan off-guard. As his cell
was equipped with windows, he glanced out the tiny viewport. A bright
blue beam was creating a vortex beyond the atmosphere, causing an
ever-thickening orange haze to develop in the air.
Slasher noticed the vortex too, but since Ryan was insulated from the
full force of the sound waves, he had no idea what Slasher was
experiencing at that moment. The sound, to her, was like several
speeding trains caught up in the vortex of a tornado creating gale
force winds. Ironically, not one leaf stirred from its place during
the whole ordeal.
The orange haze thickened until it became nearly opaque, obliterating
anything more than a few inches away from one's face, then blazed
to white as the dimensional shift completed its task...
End Part 1