At that moment, halfway across the world, a battered, junky fishing trawler cruised the ocean. It appeared innocent enough, its nets under, engines chugging loudly, a white streak in its wake. It moved lazily, like an old fisherman itself, rusted but seaworthy.
But in the minuscule bridge, the captain sat at the helm and ignored the blue robot who was sitting on the floor, a web of wires plugged from itself into the ship's navigation equipment. The captain had been paid handsomely to take the robot aboard, and was promised another bundle of cash upon return. And so he paid the robot less attention than he did the rumble of the engines.
Metal Sonic was focused intently on the information feeding into his systems. His miniature supercomputer was processing, processing. The information was coming from another robot, who was deep underwater, scanning the ocean floor for a treasure of infinite value. Mecha was coordinating his counterpart's operation. Neither actually spoke; there was too much information communicating across their network. They had been working since dawn.
A blip among countless billions of blips. Metal Sonic's sensors homed in on it with trained precision and identified it to his counterpart. The information pattern shifted as the underwater robot slowed and circled back. Digging. If Mecha had had an imagination, he would have almost been able to see the cloud of mud dimming the headlight, the glow of the treasure. "Got it," the underwater droid announced. "Surfacing."
"Success," Metal Sonic thought. He lifted a yellow hand and began to unhook the wires. At last, at long last ...
The blue robot stepped out onto the deck, and ignoring the crew, strode to the stern and planted himself beside the giant net winches. He stood for several minutes, unblinking, unmoving, staring at the ocean swell. It would take the other robot some time to resurface, so deep under was he. But he had found the stone they sought, and Mecha cared about little else.
A splash some distance to stern drew Mecha's attention. A gleaming red head had broken the surface, and turned toward the boat. Robo Knuckles raised one hand, and something green flashed in the sun. Metal Sonic saluted and watched as the other robot churned through the boat's wake, the propeller screws mounted on his back driving him on. Presently Robo Knux drew up beside the boat, and Mecha hauled him on board.
Robo Knux streamed water from every joint as he unstrapped the propeller and let it slide to the deck. He had been forced to flood every internal compartment but his engine and head to relieve the pressure, and in places his hull had buckled. It wasn't anything a few days in maintenance couldn't fix, however. He looked at Mecha without a word and held out his hand. Mecha held out his, and the little stone clinked into his palm. It was dirty and had a barnacle growing on it, but it was the one.
"It's a pity it's not the eighth chaos emerald," said Robo Knuckles, very quietly.
"Yes," said Metal Sonic. "But it will have to do. Let us retreat to the cabin until this cursed trip is over. I detest the sight of water."
Talon sat quietly beside the chao pen, watching them play and shamble about. The chao fascinated him, and the longer he looked the more certain he grew that he could tell them apart. There were various sizes, positions of the topknot, and head shapes. Most marked of all was Pilot, who had two points protruding from the back of her head like horns. Talon wondered at this.
The chao he had held earlier bounced up to the side of the pen, plopped down on its behind and sat looking at him. "Hi," he said softly. To his surprise it mimicked him in a little baby voice. "Hi." "Hello," Talon said, wondering if it would mimic that, too. It didn't. "You're cute," he told it. "I wish you were mine."
A moment later the chao got up and toddled away. But every five minutes or so, it would return to sit and stare at Talon through the mesh wall. "If you were mine," he told it, "I'd name you Max. You look like a Max." The chao looked at him so knowingly he wondered if it had understood.
Talon heard footsteps, and the chao lifted its eyes to someone behind him. The anteater turned his head and saw Zephyer approaching. A stranger! Instantly bashful, he rose to his feet and edged away. "Oh, don't leave," she said. "I was going to look at them, too." Talon tried to think of an excuse to leave, couldn't think of an honest one, and returned to his seat. Zephyer sat down a few feet away. The chao dubbed "Max" had not moved, and resumed looking at Talon. Zephyer noticed this. "He likes you," she pointed out. Talon only nodded. He didn't want to sit and talk to her. She was a robot. He wondered if he should go find Knuckles, and decided he would stay until she asked him some sort of personal question. He hated personal questions. It reminded him of all those psychologists he had been sent to after his parents died. That was why he liked the chao. They didn't question you, they didn't try to categorize you or label you as 'anti-social'. They just liked you for who you were.
All this time he had been staring at the chao, avoiding eye contact with Zephyer, but painfully aware she was there. Presently he ventured a glance in her direction. To his surprise, she wasn't looking at him at all; she was watching the chao. The little grey chao was seated near her, like Max was Talon, but unlike Max, the grey chao was sitting sideways, keeping a nervous eye on the other chao.
"What's his name?" Talon blurted, then blushed. He hadn't meant to say it aloud.
Zephyer glanced at him, then at the grey chao. "I was trying to think of one. What would be a good name?"
Talon looked at the grey chao. It was an ugly little thing. Its eyes appeared negatized, with white pupils and black whites. He thought of a picture he had once seen of Metal Sonic, then thought of his cousin, and shivered. "I'd name him after a metal," he suggested hesitantly. "Like steel." He expected her to wave it off and tell him it was stupid idea, but to his surprise she said softly, "Here Steel Steel Steel. No, too cold. How about Iron. No ... what other metal is silver? Aside from silver, that is."
"Why not silver?" Talon asked. "It's pretty." She hadn't told him he was stupid so far.
Zephyer shook her head, dreadlocks swinging. Hers were longer than Knuckles's, he noticed. "No offense, but Silver is a pretty name." She laughed quietly, and after a second Talon did, too. The grey chao was certainly not pretty.
"What about Zinc?" said Talon. Aside from hearing the name in relation to electronics, he had no idea what color it was.
"Zinc," said Zephyer. "Here, Zinc. Zinc and Zephyer. I like it." She flashed a smile at Talon, then leaned forward and said to the chao, "Hear that? Thou art dubbed 'Zinc'." The grey chao looked at her and smiled.
"How much do they understand?" Talon asked, assuming Zephyer would know. After all, she lived here. To his surprise, she shrugged. "I don't know. Nobody really knows much about them."
Talon's mouth formed a perfect O as he gazed at Max, who had bounced away to take a drink of water. Then he scowled. The chao who had bitten Knuckles earlier crept up and sank his teeth into the back of Max's head. Max gave a frightened squeak and ran, not to the other chao, but straight back to Talon. Talon stood up, reached down into the pen and picked up the whimpering chao. He shot a glare at the mean one. It met his frown with its naughty smile, eyes narrowing to slits.
"What a jerk," Zephyer commented. To the chao she said, "Three-headed beast. If I were doing the naming, I'd call you after the Chimera." The chao transferred his wicked smile to Zephyer before turning his back deliberately.
"Did you think of a name for that one?" Zephyer asked Talon, indicating the chao in his arms.
"Max," he replied shyly, stroking its bitten head.
She nodded and smiled. "That's cute." She wanted to add that she thought Talon was cute, too, but knew it would only embarrass him. "Let's see, we have four named already. Zinc, Max ... Chimera ..." She looked pointedly at the naughty chao. "... and Pilot. Should we name the other three?"
Talon looked at the remaining chao. Two had been left to hatch normally, and the other had hatched in water. The water one was "sort of berserk", as he thought to himself. It was afraid of everyone who walked by, of every moving shadow, of every breeze, even of the other chao. Talon pointed him out. "I'd call him 'Chalcon'. In the echidna language it means 'fearful one'." He looked at Zephyer and blushed again. "But ... you probably already knew that."
Zephyer's face fell. "Actually, I didn't," she murmured. Suddenly she stood and made as though to walk off, but Zinc gave a cry and pawed at the fence. She turned back and picked him up. "Come on, then," she said, pretending to be annoyed. She strode off, casually holding him in the crook of her arm.
Talon sat down and let Max loose. The chao scampered about on the grass, seemingly happy to be separate from his fellows, but never ventured very far from Talon. After a while, worn out, the chao returned and flopped at Talon's side with a sigh. The anteater stroked him, then blinked, wondering if his eyes were playing tricks on him. Max's blue fur and skin was green. Not grass green, but much closer to green than blue. "Max," said Talon, "you're changing colors on me! What's wrong?" The chao smiled up at him, then closed his eyes and curled up for a nap. Talon's worried gaze sought out Pilot, who was purple with a deformed head. Maybe chao could change many different colors.
Sonic appeared out of nowhere and slid to a stop near the pen in a cloud of dust. "Hiya, Talon," the hedgehog said as he reached into the pen and scooped up the nearest chao. "Whaddya think of these guys?"
Talon opened his mouth, but he was too late. The chao's teeth sank into Sonic's hand, and Sonic dropped it like a hot potato. "Ow! Why you little jerk-" He shook his hand to dissipate the pain and glared at the chao, who was laughing in a squeaky voice.
"That's Chimera, the biting one," Talon explained. "I should have said something."
"It's all right," Sonic said, his good humor returning. "I should have been more careful. What'd you call him?"
Talon explained about naming the chao. Sonic leaned on the fence. "Chalcon," he said when Talon had listed off their names and meanings. "Might as well name him 'coward'. Look at the little wimp." Chalcon was huddled in the far corner of the pen, as far from both Sonic and Talon as he could go.
"So, who's this?" Sonic asked, picking up the unnamed male chao.
Talon shrugged. He was quite comfortable around Sonic, having had met him on the Floating Island. "We didn't name the last two."
"Hmm." Sonic stroked the chao carelessly and looked at its face. It smiled back, a bland, neutral smile. "If Tails taught his chao to fly by airlifting it," said Sonic thoughtfully, "maybe I could teach you to run by taking you for a spin." The hedgehog shot away, a breeze in his wake, the chao in his arms. Talon watched them streak about through the trees and village, Sonic showing off his speed with daredevil stunts. After a few minutes he returned to the pen, panting. The chao's eyes were brighter than before, its smile more animated. "There, shorty," Sonic said, setting it back in the pen. "Did that make you like me?" In reply, the chao scampered about the pen, twice as fast as his fellows. Sonic laughed. "Look at him! What a riot! Hang on, I'm gonna get 'Rena."
The hedgehog shot away in a blue blur, returning a moment later with Serena in tow. The violet hedgehog had a book in one hand that at first Talon thought she had been reading, but as she began thumbing through it he saw it was a thesaurus. "Hi, Talon," she said, glancing at him. Then to Sonic she said, "Verbs make good names. I'll look up 'speed'."
"A fast name, that's what I want," said Sonic, picking up his chao. "I might as well get in on the name game."
Serena brushed her hair from her eyes, licked her thumb and turned a page. "Here it is. Speed is also Swiftness, Briskness, Activity, Eagerness, Haste, Hurry, Acceleration, Dispatch, Velocity, Readiness-"
"Wait, go back," said Sonic.
"Dispatch?"
"No, the other one."
"Velocity?"
"Yeah, that's it! That's a speedy word, isn't it?" He patted his chao.
Serena nodded. "I think so. Isn't it kind of long, though?"
"I don't care as long as it sounds cool," said Sonic with a grin. "Ain't that right, Velos?" The chao gave him a wide smile.
Serena reached into the pen and picked up the unnamed female chao, Chalcon shying away from her hands. "Aren't you a sweetie," the hedgehog breathed against its head. The chao reached up and patted Serena's nose with a soft, formless paw. Serena laughed softly.
"Want me to look something up, sis?" Sonic asked.
"Nope," Serena replied. "I've got a name already. Elleno."
"Elleno?" Sonic said, ears moving to a quizzical position. "Don't you mean 'Ellenor'?"
"I mean Elleno," said Serena defensively. "It ends with O, like Chao."
Sonic shrugged and held up a hand. "All right, it's your funeral." He resumed stroking the newly-named Velocity, then looked around. "Where'd Talon go?"
Indeed, Talon had slipped away quietly while the hedgehogs had been talking.
"He's so shy it's pathetic," said Serena, half to her chao and half to her brother. "I feel sorry for him."
"Me too," Sonic replied softly. "Knuckles told me that the kid has two cousins who want him dead. Strike that-one cousin. The other one is an android that hates his guts. She's supposed to be a babe, too."
"A girl android?" said Serena, eyebrows lifting. "I didn't know they made those."
"Talon's uncle built her," Sonic said, setting Velocity back in the pen. "Knux says he doesn't know what would happen if Robotnik got his hands on her." He sighed. "I wish Slasher would come back. She's been down at Riverbase with that guy long enough."
No one knew that an evil being had been brought into existence hundreds of miles to the south. Not Slasher, en-route back to Knothole, not the Freedom Fighters, enamored of the chao. The chao themselves did not know that they were destined to stand between him and world domination. No one knew, not even his creators.
The Final Egg ground base, deep in a jungle called the Mystic Ruins, was the facility that housed the monster. Deep in its cavernous bowels, a blue robot hedgehog was preparing to introduce his master to the beast.
"If you will recall, sir," Metal Sonic purred in a mechanical monotone, "a year ago you commissioned me to construct a creature as powerful as Chaos, but who would remain perfectly loyal to you. I have built a beta version of such a robot. What you will see in the next room is this beta in action. Do not fear him. He knows you are his master."
Robotnik looked at Metal Sonic for a long moment. He was thinking, for some reason, of how Robo Knux had rebelled, created second-hand, as it were, by Packbell. Another thing that caught his attention was that Metal Sonic was telling him not to be afraid. He, Robotnik, creator of the fearsome Mecha bots, Egg Carrier and Death Egg, afraid of a robot? What in the world had Mecha built?
"Proceed," said the doctor.
Metal Sonic unlocked a large steel door marked with radioactive and biohazard signs, and stepped inside. Robotnik followed, nervously fingering his mustache.
The two entered a small room with a giant window in the far wall. The left wall was made up of a giant control panel and many small monitors, glowing pale blue. Standing at the window, looking out, was Robo Knux. He turned his head, flashed his green eyes in Robotnik's direction, then returned his attention to whatever was beyond the window. Metal Sonic and the doctor stepped up to the window and followed his gaze.
The room beyond was not a room at all, but a vast space full of machinery. It was the guts of the construction equipment in the floor above; pistons pumping, gears turning like clockwork, shafts spinning, things moving up and down and in and out, things with razor-sharp edges or glowing hot surfaces. "Not even Sonic could get through that," said Robo Knux. He was on his best behavior in Robotnik's presence, as if he wished the doctor would forget who had wrested Robotropolis from his grasp. Not for long; just for the short time they were in each other's presence. Robotnik ignored him. After all, he had helped build Mecha's commissioned robot. "Now watch," said Metal Sonic, and they all did.
At first it was difficult to see. A glint of metal here and there, out of synch with the surrounding machinery. A leaping shadow. A flash of orange. Then it jumped to the top of a slow-moving gear and perched for an instant, outlined against a jet of steam. A reptilian shape. Robotnik blinked and it was gone. A small flicker of apprehension touched Robotnik's steel heart. They had modeled the robot on the one species he had sworn never to use as a model himself.
It appeared again, closer now, leaping, ducking, crawling or rolling through the machinery with tremendous speed and incredible agility, never faltering, never tiring. It seemed to know the exact way through the turning gears, no matter how small or dangerous.
"He has never been in this room before," said Metal Sonic with a touch of pride. "He is running on a hydrogen-based supercomputer that processes fifteen billion cycles every nanosecond ..." The robot continued to talk of the creature's systems, but Robotnik was no longer listening. The thing had drawn quite close and was perched in plain sight, limbs curled under it, watching a whirling vertical belt and gear set. It was at an awkward angle, and unless it could fly, it would never make it. The creature seemed to know this. It coiled itself, then gave a mighty leap. It travelled almost over the gears but came down too close. In an instant the sharp teeth caught it and lifted it up and over. The robot struggled, gained a foothold somewhere and threw itself off the gears and to the safety of the open floor on the other side. It was quite close to the window now, and the three could see its every detail.
It was a velociraptor. It had black skin and an orange underbelly. Its head and upper jaw were one piece, the teeth built right into the face. The lower jaw closed into it like scissor blades. Its shoulders, back, flanks, thighs and tail were gleaming silver metal. The tip of its tail was barbed with six-inch spikes, the toe-claws on its hind feet were twice as large as necessary. It had three fingers and an opposable thumb.
But what caught their attention was that its left leg was bent and smashed, and the fleshy parts of its side were sliced open, revealing the wiring underneath. "Looks like your pet isn't as great as it's cracked up to be," commented Robotnik dryly.
Metal Sonic and Robo Knux exchanged a glance. "Watch sir," said Metal Sonic evenly.
The raptor lowered its head, and its red eyes winked shut. A second later its injured leg straightened out, and the dents vanished. In a moment it was standing on two legs again, the left one perfectly 'healed'. Next the cuts on its silicon hide closed over and fused up. In five minutes it had recovered from wounds that would have sent a living creature to medical for weeks.
The robot lifted its lithe neck and looked at the three in the window. Then it paced to the outer door, moving like a panther, every motion smooth and well-oiled. The technology stripped from Kardot the android was in evidence. Metal Sonic opened the door for it, and it entered their room.
It towered over Robotnik and seemed to fill the room, seven feet tall, twenty feet long, three hundred pounds of steel and electronic sinew. Its eyes were red with hairline pupils. It bowed its head and stooped to the floor in a clumsy bow, the first awkward move it had made.
"What is your callsign and civilian name?" the doctor asked.
The beast stood up again and said in a low voice with no trace of robotic origins, "Mecha bot five. I am Leviathan."
Robotnik circled the robot, touching its metal and plastic flesh, kicking its legs for a sense of stability, fingering the barbs on its tail, examining the inside of its mouth, for all the world like a buyer examining a horse. Leviathan submitted to the examination patiently. He knew full well that his physical appearance was solid and frightening.
"Notice his collar, sir," said Metal Sonic. His master seemed pleased so far, and Mecha was proud of his creation. "The gem in his collar was buried deep in the ocean. It is the source of his energy and strength."
Robotnik touched the green stone and noted its warmth. "You found it, then. It was presumed lost years ago."
"Yes sir." Metal Sonic looked at Robo Knux to see the red robot stare at him, then turn his back. "With mecha bot four's aid, of course," Mecha added.
"Is it ready for combat?" Robotnik asked, stepping back and studying Leviathan's proportions. He was a trifle long in the body, but that was to add strength to the extra long tail, he decided.
"The preliminaries, perhaps," the robot hedgehog replied. "I would not recommend dispatching him against the Freedom Fighters yet."
"Yes ..." Robotnik pondered a moment, then waved a hand. "Take him to the training area, then. I want him ready for battle in two months."
"Affirmative." Mecha, Robo Knux and Leviathan, who had not spoken a word since announcing his name, strode out into the fortress. Robotnik watched the latter go with narrowed eyes. A robot that held its tongue made him uneasy.
The doctor shook his head. A pair of robots were incapable of creating a robot eviller than themselves. He had nothing to worry about. He walked out the door and snapped off the light.
