Hello! We're on to chapter four! And this time we're going to play a little game called "Who are Amy, Rouge, and Shadow?" If you can guess who all three of them are, you GEEETTTTTT...:
An invisible plush toy of your favorite character. :D
So! If you wish to participate in this guessing game, just tell me who you think each of them are and your favorite character! I will announce the winners in the next chapter. And with that, it is time to start this chapter! (I just wish I had thought to do this sooner!)
Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, or any of the other characters from the games or Sonic X.
--The Power of Chaos--Kevin Hogosha walked home from school alone; his sister was staying after to make up a test. When he heard his name being called, he turned around to see his friend Mike running over. Kevin stood and waited for Mike to catch up before they both continued walking.
"Where's everyone else?" Mike asked. "I didn't see them as I left."
"Henry stayed after to work on some difficulties with the news team, Paul stayed after for Chess Club, John got checked out today, and Ruby's walking home with some senior guy she met today," Kevin informed his friend.
Mike laughed. "Aww, but I like walking home with Ruby! I was hoping I could ask her out today." Kevin sighed.
"Bother if you only want a few dates."
"Huh? Only a few? Why?"
"She'll go on dates with anyone, as long as they're not ugly... But I hear she absolutely refuses to be anyone's girlfriend."
"Really? I never would've guessed! Have you ever asked her out, Kevin?"
"Of course not!" Kevin yelled, his face red. "She's just my friend."
"Well, I'll try anyway!" Mike said, determined. "And... you said Paul has Chess Club today?"
"Yeah. He said they have a tournament, so he'll be staying very late."
"Think he'll finally beat that ten-year-old kid?"
"Let's hope."
"Oh yeah! Henry was saying how we should go to that floating island and see what's going on there!"
Kevin stopped dead in his tracks. "Are you crazy?" he demanded. "We are not going!"
"John's worried about what Henry said about the hostile monsters, but he's the only one against it so far. Paul says there has to be some logical explanation, and he wants to find out what it is." Mike laughed. "That's just like him."
"We're not going. It's too dangerous."
"Geez, Kevin, I never knew you to back down from something like this. Guess you're just a weakling after all."
"I am not weak!" Kevin yelled in his defense.
"Sorry, bud; actions speak louder than words. Oh well, we're going to try going with or without you."
"And just how do you plan on getting to a floating island?"
"Rubs said she'd handle that."
Kevin clinched his fist. Things couldn't get any worse.
"I guess I'll just have to tell them that you're too scared and are backing out on us."
"I am not!"
"So you're coming?" Mike asked excitedly.
Okay, scratch that. They can get worse, Kevin thought. Great, now what am I supposed to do? He suddenly tripped over something and fell forwards. He threw his hands out and caught himself.
"You okay, Kevin?"
Kevin turned put his knees down and turned his head to see what he had tripped over. He noticed a huge jewel just lying on the sidewalk, with no one to claim it. It shone white, reminding Kevin of how the Master Emerald shone. The white jewel was even shaped like the Master Emerald, but it was much smaller. Kevin turned around and slowly picked it up.
"Wow, that's a nice find! You should give it to a girl or something! She'd love you forever!"
"Why must you always think like that...?"
"Think like what?"
"Never mind..." He ran his hands over the jewel. It continued to shine brightly, casting its own light. He frowned; jewels don't normally create light.
"So what are you going to do with it? Huh? Huh?" Mike pestered. "Oh! I know! Can I have it? I could give it to Ruby! She's absolutely love that!"
"No. It probably belongs to a museum," Kevin said, although he didn't believe that. "I'm going to find the owner of this and return it."
Mike sighed. "Okay, okay. Geez, you get a good jewel and you just give it away to some museum. Well, whatever."
Kevin quickly chose a direction and pointed towards it. "I'm going to go this way and try. I'll see you tomorrow."
"Uh, the closest museum is that way," Mike said, pointing in almost the opposite direction.
"It is?"
"Yeah. Well, good luck with that! See you tomorrow, Kev!"
Kevin hurried off in the direction Mike pointed until he felt that Mike was far enough away. Kevin then turned into an alleyway. This jewel... reminds me of the Master Emerald... but its not quite the same... He tucked it away in an inside pocket of his jacket and ran home, hoping that his sister would get home soon as well.
----
Later that day, Tim stared at the watch Tails had given him. He and Hiei had just finished their homework, and Tim was bored. There's still lots of time left in the day... This is so boring! He pressed the yellow button; they still had yet to use this thing, so he wanted to try it out. "Testing? Does this thing work?"
"Hey, Sonic!" Tails' voice piped up through the speakers on the watched.
"Hey, Tails," Tim greeted, not changing into his hedgehog form since his parents might come in. "What are you up to on this boring day?"
"I'm actually making some more of these watches... for Knuckles and Tikal. With everything that's going on, it might be wise for them to be able to communicate with us, just in case. Oh yeah, I'll need your watch soon so I can modify it."
"All right. ...Are you going to that island—Angel Island, right?—to give the watches to them?"
"Yep, I'm setting out in a few minutes."
"Wait for me!" Tim yelled in the thing as he threw his socks and tennis shoes on. He ran downstairs in a rush, not even bothering to turn the watch microphone off. He called to his parents as he walked out of the door, "Mom, Dad, I'm going out! I'll be back later!" He slammed the door behind him and ran down an alleyway, where he changed into Sonic the Hedgehog so he could run faster.
Tails laughed on the other side of the watch. "I'll wait for you, Sonic, so feel free to take your time."
Knock, knock.
"Hold on, there's someone here," Tails said as he muted the whole watch. He opened the door to find Sonic standing on the other side of it.
"Yeah, me," Sonic said, grinning.
"Mr. Sonic is fast!" Cream said from her seat at the eating table in the workshop.
"Chao chao!"
Tails smiled. "I see your getting better at running."
Sonic walked in and plopped down in a seat. "Are you crazy? Do you know how many walls are in between here and there? I could probably tell you!"
"Do you want anything to eat or drink before we leave?" Tails offered, opening a refrigerator.
Sonic stared. There hadn't been a refrigerator before... Now, along with the refrigerator, were counters. The one right next to the refrigerator had nothing on it, but once it reached the corner, the stashes of plates, silverware, and cups were sat out in an orderly fashion all the way until the sink. To the left of a sink was another small empty counter above the dishwasher. The counter next to that held the microwave and toaster oven. The stove sat next to those with one more counter to its left, ending the line of new appliances. "Wooow, you put a kitchen in here?"
"Yes, I used what money I had to buy things for this workshop. Now it can be more like a home for us."
"You've also done a bit of cleaning up... I'll take a Gatorade if you have it."
"I'm afraid I don't really have much yet... How about water?"
"That'll do."
Tails took out the water and used one of his fox tails to close the refrigerator door behind him. "Feel free to put anything you want on the grocery list... I'll leave that on the refrigerator until I buy groceries." He grabbed a cup from off of the counter and poured his friend some water. He put the carton up and took the water over to the blue hedgehog. Meanwhile, Cheese flew over to the counter left of the stove, where it grabbed something and flew back over. It dropped two keys next to Sonic's water before sitting back down on the table next to Cream.
"Huh? What's this?"
"That's so Mr. Sonic can come to the workshop at any time!"
"The silver one's for the workshop, and the one with the black on it is for the Tornado II."
"You trust me with that thing?"
"Well, in your previous life, you did own the first Tornado," Tails pointed out. "Besides, that day Cream, Cheese, and I came to help you... that was my first day flying an airplane in this life."
"What?"
Tails walked over to his work desk, where he continued to work on the new watches. Both his and Cream's already had new buttons on them. "I'm almost done with these," Tails said, "and then I'll need to see yours."
"Okay." Sonic went ahead and took his watch off. He laid it on the table for when Tails needed it.
"Geez, if I had known you were still working, I wouldn't have run so fast," Sonic complained.
"I said a few minutes... But just see it as good practice. Oh yeah, speaking about that... I've been thinking. You have a human form, too, don't you?" Sonic nodded. "Knuckles and Tikal are probably the same way... So since we're not used to these bodies, we should practice some. Maybe we can do that when we deliver the watches."
"Hey, that's a great idea!" Sonic agreed. And that way, my brother and that stupid Kevin won't laugh at me! He grinned wildly.
"Mr. Sonic? Are you okay?"
"Of course! So, when do we start? I have a reputation to watch!"
"We'll see what Knuckles and Tikal think when we get there," Tails answered as he grabbed Sonic's watch. The new watches were now complete. "Luckily I left a lot of room on these..." Tails said about the watches. "I'll only have room left for one more button on this side, though. If we meet more people, I'll have to start moving the buttons over to the talk side..."
"You know, if you get too much on there, people will start wondering... they won't think those are watches anymore."
"I know, but there's not much I can do. Besides, they tell the time, don't they? You can say these are for alarms."
"I guess so. But..." Sonic stopped, thinking.
"Is something wrong, Sonic?" Tails asked as he moved on to the second button.
"I was just wondering... why is this happening? Why now? Why us? How many of us are there?"
"I don't know... there may be no answer... I guess that, even if we were born in different bodies, we still have the same soul... As to how many, only time will tell us."
"But why? Wouldn't we normally have been born at different times?"
Tails' eyes widen; he hadn't really considered that. He thought for a minute before continuing off of Sonic's question. "You're right. According to the basic laws of nature, everything happens at random. Even though we were somehow reincarnated, we should've been born in different places and probably completely different centuries. What's more is how we know about our previous lives..."
"...It's all just too perfect," Sonic ended. He stared at his water, thinking. Tails, Cream, and Cheese also sat in silence, thinking about this. Realizing that they wouldn't get answers yet, Tails turned to his worktable and continued his work on the watch.
"What brought that up, anyway, Sonic?"
"Well... When I first found out I was a hedgehog... I saw three people. The short one was in a green cloak, the medium one was in a red cloak, and the tall one was in a blue cloak... They said, 'It's time for you to awaken, Sonic the Hedgehog'..."
"But they couldn't have control over this, could they?"
"I don't know..." Sonic picked up his cup of water and chugged it down. He slammed it on the table and stood up. "We'll have to ask them next time we see them. Are you done with that thing? I'm ready to go!" He walked over to the dishwasher, opened it, and put his empty cup in it.
"Almost..." Tails concentrated harder, carefully working with the wires. Since the watch was so small, he had to use tweezers to move the wires. He connected the last two and closed the watch. He started screwing it back in. "There. Go ahead and hop in the Tornado II."
"But... there's only room for two people."
Oh yeah! Tails thought. He hadn't gotten around to upgrading the amount of seats. He stared at the two, hopelessly, trying to decide what to suggest: Sonic sitting on the wing or someone staying behind. He didn't want to suggest either.
Sonic smiled, closing his eyes. When he opened them, he held up a thumb. "Don't worry, I can sit on a wing. Just don't pull any crazy stunts this time, okay?"
"Okay!" Tails agreed happily. He gave the watch back to Sonic, who put it on. He grabbed the other two watches and hopped in the Tornado II. He started the engine up while waiting for the others to get situated.
----
"Miss Tikal! Mr. Knuckles!" Cream yelled as she ran up the stairs leading to the Master Emerald. Cheese flew next to her, while Sonic and Tails walked behind her. Cream reached the top to find Tikal standing there, smiling.
"Hello. I didn't expect you to come visit," she greeted.
"Hi Miss Tikal!"
Sonic and Tails finally made it to the top, where they gave their own greetings before looking around.
"Huh? Where's Knuckles?" Sonic asked.
Tikal's smile grew. "I'm glad you two are getting along. He's at home... we decided it would be best if we switched off who came to watch the Master Emerald some at school." Her expression lost some of its happiness as her smile weakened and a glint of sadness shone in her eyes. "I suppose we should probably find something to secure it... it's hard protecting the Master Emerald here when we have other lives..."
"Oh...!" Sonic suddenly imagined what it would be like if he had something far away to protect. "That must be tough work... Why do you guys have to protect it, anyway? It's been fine for years, hasn't it?"
"Yes, but with everything going on, there's no telling how long that will last... and brother feels that he must keep it safe, no matter what."
"Is something wrong, Miss Tikal?"
Tikal stared at Cream, surprised. "W-what? Why would you say that? We're doing fine, we seem to have the Master Emerald situation under control!"
"It's just that..." Cream begun, thinking, "...you looked sad..."
Sonic glanced at Tikal's face to see it covered with only surprise now. Since Cream wouldn't continue, he decided that he would: "If something's bothering you, don't be afraid to talk to any of us. We're all here to help!"
"Yeah!"
"Chao!"
Tikal smiled again. "Thank you... thank you all..." She paused before continuing. "To tell the truth... I am a little worried... about Knuckles..."
"Why? What's going on? Is he being tricked again?"
Tikal giggled. "No. It's just that... he's really been taking this protection business extra seriously. It must've been important to him in his previous life... but..." Tikal sighed. It was too late to turn back on what she had started saying. She stood tall and stared directly at the others. "He's even been considering giving up his new life to protect it."
"What?"
"He can't!"
"Chao chao!"
"That's crazy...!" Sonic said, as awe struck as the others. "Why would he do something like that? He's spent so long in this life, why would he give up all of that, all of his family and friends?"
"I don't know... I guess the Master Emerald is important to him. Maybe none of us can ever understand that. But... he also has friends that are important to him, so I believe he'll stay the way he is."
"That's good to hear."
"It's still really hard to keep track of the Master Emerald like this..." Tikal muttered as she stared at it. "What if it's taken while we're away? We have no way of telling who may have it."
"I'll do something about that," Tails offered. "I'll make a small camera for you or something so you can see how it's doing."
"That'd be great."
"Here, I have something for you and Knuckles." Tails handed the watches over.
"Watches...?"
"That's what they look like, but they're actually made for us to communicate with each other. The blue button is for Sonic, the..." Tails began explaining the watch to Tikal while Sonic turned around and sat down on the stairs. Guess this means we won't be practicing... Sonic thought, disappointed.
"When you give that to Knuckles, tell him to contact us. We were thinking about arranging a training session, since we all need to get used to these bodies."
"That's a great idea! I'm sure he'd love to do that. Oh! That reminds me... Knuckles wanted to see you anyway."
"He did? What for?"
Sonic turned to stare at them as he listened in, very curious.
"He found something today. It's a jewel, much like the Master Emerald... only it shines white. We can't figure out anything about it, and we were hoping you could help us."
"We'll definitely take a look at it. When can we meet up with him next?"
"How about tomorrow? Here?"
"Sounds good."
----
Karen came home to find that her brother had gone out for a walk. She walked upstairs to her room, where she sat on her desk and began her homework. Cold wind blew in through her window, so she stood up and walked over to close it. Outside, she saw something very peculiar: Dr. Eggman was searching around their house. In his hand, he held what looked to be a radar. He thought as he stared at it and turned towards the house. What is he doing now...? He walked around to the front of the house. Soon afterwards, the doorbell rang. Karen's heart leaped. Oh no... this is bad... very bad... She gasped as she realized what he was after. The jewel! She ran to her brother's room and grabbed the shining white jewel. She threw open the back window as she turned into Tikal the Echidna. She jumped out and used her dreadlocks to capture air, allowing her to glide as Knuckles had done before. She landed on the street and started running, holding the shining jewel in both hands.
She stopped around the first corner she found and looked back—she had to be sure that he wasn't after something else before she ran too far. She saw Eggman running, watching the radar—he was running straight for Tikal. She glanced at the jewel before running off, holding it tight in her gloved hands.
Why... Why is he after this jewel? She quickly transferred it to just her left hand and reached for the watch with her right hand. She didn't know which button she pressed, but it didn't matter right now. "Help! Dr. Eggman's after the jewel! I'm on..." she quickly searched for a street name. "I'm running down Napalm Street!"
Tikal suddenly stopped and her eyes widened: a bunch of orange robots stood in front of her. She held the jewel tightly as she turned to find a way around them. They quickly spread out until the only way out was back where she came from. She started to run that way, but Dr. Eggman walked up and cut her off.
"Well, well... If it isn't the echidna girl..." Eggman said, staring at her. Tikal gulped and glared at him. She clutched the jewel, determined not to let him have it.
"What are you up to now?" she demanded.
"I only want that tiny jewel that you're holding. There's nothing wrong with that, right? I won't bother the Master Emerald if you give me that."
What? He's offering to not bother the Master Emerald? Is this jewel... really that strong? That he can forget the Master Emerald? "Why do you want it?"
"That's none of your business. Now, do we have a deal?"
"No!" she yelled. I will not make the mistake of trusting this man, nor will I place any power in his hands.
"Too bad... then I'll just have to take it from you."
The robots aimed their guns at Tikal as Dr. Eggman moved well out of the way. She drew herself in, scared. No... there has to be something I can do...!
Bonk! One of the robots fell forward after being hit by a chao. Cheese viciously attacked it. The other robots turned their guns to Cheese and fired, but the chao quickly flew up; the other robots only killed their robot friend. Tears of happiness stung Tikal's eyes when she saw Cream as well. Cream flew over, flapping her rabbit ears to stay in the air. She reached down as she passed over Tikal, and Tikal gladly stuck a hand up. The two flew through the air, Cheese following close behind. They flew above the city, heading towards the workshop.
From the ground, Tim, Miles, and Kevin were in different parts of the city when they noticed the girls flying. Alert, all three of them ran after the girls to see what was going on, changing into their respective animal forms as they ran.
The boys burst through the workshop door at the same time, all yelling, "What's going on?"
Tikal and Cream sat at the table, drinking water, while Cheese sat on the table. The white jewel had been thrown on the table. Tails walked over and picked it up.
"Is this what you were telling us about, Tikal?"
"Yes..." answered Tikal. "Dr. Eggman was after it."
"Dr. Eggman? But why this jewel?" Sonic asked, staring at it.
"If we check the power levels on it, maybe we can find out..." Tails walked over to a machine with the jewel. He gently put the jewel down inside of it and closed it, much like an oven. He walked around it to the computer screen and keyboard. The others curiously walked over and stared over his shoulder.
"What's that?" Knuckles asked.
"It'll tell us how much power is in this jewel." Tails started up the machine. The screen turned on, showing a chart. The line on the chart climbed quickly, faster than Tails had ever imagined. The machine exploded, spreading smoke everywhere. Everyone coughed up smoke until it cleared out the still-open door.
"I don't believe this..." Tails muttered when he was able to breath, his eyes wide.
"So... what does that mean?" Sonic asked.
"It's really powerful! It's off the charts!"
"What is it?" Knuckles asked as he grabbed it from the broken machine.
"It's a Chaos Emerald," a girl's voice said from behind them. The group turned to find the girl in the green cloak standing there. "There are seven in all."
"There are seven of these things?" Sonic burst out. "Well that's just great. So the good doctor gets a hold of one of these and we're screwed, but no, he gets all seven! Then what?"
"The seven Chaos Emeralds work best together. Together, they create a ton of energy, and only one thing can stop it."
"Well, then, what is it?" Knuckles asked.
She stared directly at Knuckles. "The Master Emerald."
"What?"
She turned around and started walking to the wall.
"Wait!" Cream called. "Who are you?"
She paused, not moving for a minute. Then, without an answer, she continued walking. She walked straight through the wall without slowing down one bit. Everyone gasped.
"W-what is she?"
"Is... is she a..."
"A ghost?"
"But... she helped us, so she can't be bad..." Cream pointed out, trembling despite herself.
"Seven Chaos Emeralds... The Master Emerald... What's with all of these emeralds?" Sonic demanded.
"The seven Chaos..." Tikal started thinking. She turned to stare at her brother. "Knuckles, remember that thing that grandma told us?"
"What, the whole 'chaos is like water' thing?"
"No! Let's see... 'The servers are the seven Chaos'..." Tikal started thinking, not remembering the rest.
"'Chaos is power, power enriched by the heart,'" Knuckles continued, almost as if he had said it every day of his life. "'The controller is the one that unifies the chaos.' You mean that?"
"Huh? What does that mean?" Sonic asked.
"No clue," answered Knuckles.
"Grandma used to say that sometimes in her sleep. She died before she ever explained what it meant."
"Seven Chaos... But surely she couldn't have known about the Chaos Emeralds, could she?"
"I don't know..."
"Either way," Tails spoke up, "if there are seven of them, we have to find the other six before Dr. Eggman gets them."
"Who cares?" Sonic said, shrugging.
"What?"
"Even if he does get them, we have the Master Emerald, remember?"
"Umm... There's just one problem with that, Sonic..." Knuckles said.
"What is it?"
"We... don't really know how to use the power of the Master Emerald..."
"Couldn't Tails just make a machine?"
"It's not that easy. It's hard to judge how much power the Master Emerald has, and making a machine that could distribute that much power would take a lot of time. It would be easiest to gather the Chaos Emeralds and keep them away from Dr. Eggman."
"Well, you guys have fun with that," Knuckles said.
"What? Aren't you going to help?"
"Nope. I have a more important job: protecting the Master Emerald."
"But you can't even use that thing!"
"It's still very powerful and needs to be protected! Besides, maybe that ghost friend of yours will tell me how to use it if we need to."
"Can't you at least help a little?"
"I'll give them to you if I find them. Other than that, you're on your own."
Sonic grumbled angrily.
"Uhh... Oh!" Tails ran up to them. "Knuckles, would you like to join us in some training tomorrow? It would be best if we all got used to these bodies."
"Really? Training?" Knuckles thought about it. Heh heh... With some good training, I could easily beat Tim at anything... "Sure!"
"All right!" Sonic cheered. Now I won't run into any more walls! Kevin will be so jealous of me! And my brother will recognize my greatness as well!
The two grinned happily, excited about the training idea.
----
Tim laid his head on his desk—how he hated waking up so early. He thought about the white Chaos Emerald, shining in his desk drawer. It'll be all right. Dr. Eggman's my teacher, so I don't have to worry about the emerald at school...
The bell rang and everyone quickly hurried to his or her seat as Dr. Eggman walked to the front. He scanned over the class to see who was missing. His eyes stopped on the desk to the right of Tim's, and he wrote something down in his book. Tim turned to his right to see what was going on—the desk was empty.
Tim leaned over to his left and whispered to Miles, "Hey, where's Emily? She's never late for school..."
"I don't know. Maybe she's sick?"
----
"Emily! Emily, open the door now!" a female voice yelled from the other side of a door. The room inside was dark, only lit by a tiny bit of light peeking past the blinds on a window. The pink room was covered in dolls, with hearts plastered all over the walls. Someone knocked angrily on the door, making the girl on the bed pull her covers closer to her.
"Not now, Mom! I'm not feeling well! Go away!" the girl on the bed yelled.
"Emily, what's wrong?" Her mom attempted to turn the doorknob. "You're going to be late for school! Emily, let me in!"
"Leave me alone!" the girl screamed at the top of her lungs. She had no idea what else to do, or what was going on—all she knew was that suddenly, she was a pink hedgehog with no way of changing back. I can't... I can't be with Tim if I'm not human!
----
...Oh yeah. I forgot Amy was shown at the end of this chapter. So I guess you get a free-be... :D'' So if you want to participate, you only have to guess who Rouge and Shadow are.
Also, if you're wondering about 'Napalm' Street... Yes, I got that name from Ragnarok Online. XD' I was out of ideas, and I had RO up. Or something.
Good luck!
Sonic Triple Kingdom
-Ayame
