"The sunrise." Sonic said as he sat down on a hill with Amy. The two of them were just sitting underneath a tree, looking out over a valley as the sun slowly rose up into the sky. "Just look at it, Ames. No matter how many times I see it...I never get tired of watching it come up...or go down."
"It IS relaxing." Amy admitted. "And romaaaaantic." She added, nuzzling him with her cheek, making him blush. However, it was no longer blushing in so much nervous embarrassment so much as it was in playfulness.
"There's no place a man can hide the sunrise." White said, leaning against the tree to the side of them. They glanced at him, startled. How the heck did he keep poppin'...oh, right. Time/space powers. "Good news, you two. My story's almost done. I've learned some interesting things about this world." He told them all.
He sat down next to them as the sunrays rose higher into the sky, casting sweet light over the darkened valley, as a few wild rabbits and animals poked their heads up to look at the sun coming up. "What's with the look, dude?" Sonic wanted to know.
"...suppose you inherited a fortune from your parents. Suppose you thought they'd gained it all by working hard. And then you find out that they got it all from something like...slavery." He mumbled, shaking his head, looking ashamed.
"Yeah, I can understand that." Sonic said. "What does that have to do with your book, though?" He asked, tilting his head to the side slightly.
"...thing is...I found out where the Emeralds originated from. You know chaos energy itself comes from them, remember? It's just that..." White said, his pink eyes filling with sad memory. "...I never thought it would be an origin riddled in blood."
"...b-blood?" Amy asked.
"Blood." White whispered. "The blood of the gifted being that helped to bless all life..."
IN THE END...
Humanity sure was something alright, Chaos thought to himself, his green, cat-like eyes gazing out over the city as he stood, leaning against the topmost tower of a large skyscraper. The people passed below him, hundreds of humans and sapients, all mingling together in the enormous city whose towers reached the heavens itself. Shining white, gleaming in the sun, it was a testament to their accomplishments.
And, interestingly, they had done something nobody else had. They had requested something that was both a gift AND a curse. This was very, very out of the ordinary, and though Order had been slightly perturbed, Chaos had been pleased as punch.
Potential. Pure, raw, potential. THIS is what humanity carried. They could be strong or weak, brave or cowardly, wise or foolish, good or evil. They could turn themselves into anything they wanted with the right tools and the right drive...or BE turned into anything. Ultimately it was hard to tell what humans were capable of or what they would do.
And this made Chaos very proud of them. A species entirely embracing his ideals...they had chosen wisely, he felt.
Order, in many ways, was pleased with humanity too, he decided. He leaned his back against a bench within the park, looking out over the city not from above, but below, a proud expression on his face.
Some saw trash and garbage piling up in the alleys. Yet he saw bums singing happily together, huddling around a fire in a garbage can, brothers brought together by a common bond. Others saw violence in the world, buildings crumbling and screams of the dying. Yet he would then see the injured being lifted up and healed, see the people join together in rebuilding, see others fling themselves in the path of death to save others. For every act of chaos and cruelty that was inflicted on them, they sought ways to "set it right", to bring order and peace to their world.
They'd chosen wisely, Order thought. They could become anything they wanted, do anything at all. And he was sure they would ultimately choose order.
...unless his brother said something about it.
And that did it. He knew then and there that he had to do something about Chaos. It was not merely a matter of hatred. It was a matter of the public good.
But how to do it? How?
...
...
...
... "Hmmmmmm." Chaos looked himself over in the mirror, frowning slightly. Behind him stood Oglive's descendant, who had so graciously let the godly being into his home so he could prepare for a very large party. Chaos had dressed himself up in a beautiful white tuxedo made of Egyptian silk, which complimented his dark skin tone very, very nicely. "What do you think?" He asked Oglive's great-great grandson, whom he'd affectionately nicknamed "Zee". "Am I stylin'?"
"Fit to kill."
"Pimpin'?"
"A to the B to the S to the O to the lutely."
"Ha-HAAAAA!" Chaos clapped hands with Zee. "That's what I'm talkin' about. Now let's get going." He told the blue hedgehog. "The party started ten minutes ago. There's fashionably late, and then there's just plain embarrassing."
The two of them left Zee's condo and headed to the local gym of the city, approaching the front doors as en echidna bouncer allowed them inside. The two of them were indeed very fashionably dressed, Chaos in his white tuxedo with Zee wearing a stylish-looking black vest and pants. Taking a seat at the bar that had been set up in the gym, they clinked glasses together and took a sip of some nice vodka as they looked out at the various women in the gym...and noticed a particular character talking to one woman very close by.
"Is that a...a CAT? No way. It's too damn big." Chaos commented, scratching his white-haired head. "And...no, it's gotta be some kind of mutant raccoon."
"No, no, it's a cat, a Maine Coon tabby, I'm pretty sure." Zee insisted, shaking his head. "Good lord, look at all those girls surrounding him!"
The cat mingled. Did very well.
...scored.
"Lucky b—tard." Zee mumbled as Chaos also came back from the bathroom, lipstick on his neck around a very deep hickey.
"Aw, cheer up. There's somebody out there for EVERYONE." Chaos insisted, sitting back with his friend as he cleaned off the lipstick with a napkin. "Sometimes there's two somebodies for one person. That's called the "Jackpot"." He told Zee with a grin.
"Hey, is that your brother over there?" Zee wanted to know, pointing through the crowd of people, pointing at a group that was situated around a large glass box that was stationed against the wall. Chaos blinked, looking at the largely-growing crowd as he saw perfect peach marble skin...
"Whaddya know. I'll be damned, it IS him." Chaos admitted, nodding his head. "What's that old fart doing here? We know everything about each other, everything there is to know...but I've never known him to be a party-type." He shrugged. "I guess even OUR kind can change." He decided, heading over to his brother as Zee followed after. "What's happening, brother?" He wanted to know.
"A contest." His brother said proudly, nodding his head. "I've got this big ol' glass box...and it's going to be filled to the brim with money, as you can see." He remarked, gesturing at a vent in the wall. "But I'm also putting in a special slip of paper with a big mark on it. Whomever gets that mark will get one wish free from me!" He told Chaos.
Chaos grinned. "Well...can anybody try it?"
"Of course. And since you are my brother, would you like to go first? You have to promise not to cheat." He demanded.
"I promise. Cross my heart, hope to die." Chaos swore, making an "x" motion over his heart.
Order nodded and calmly opened the door to the glass box. His brother stepped inside and the door closed behind him. Smiling inwardly, his brother held up a remote. "Here we go." He said.
He pressed the remote...
And gas suddenly began to fill the box. His brother gasped in horror as he tried to pound his way out of the box, and Order smirked broadly. "Don't bother, brother. That gas was specifically designed to sap the strength of anybody it comes into contact with...and to eventually choke them." He added as he snapped his fingers, a strong, shimmering wall of light forming around him and his brother. Zee gasped and slammed his fists on the wall, trying to break through.
It was no good. Chaos's eyes widened, his pupils dilating as he slowly began to sink to his knees in the glass box that was now his coffin. Order smiled and calmly folded his arms. "It's time to stop playing around and to get to work on making this world right. It's time to get in control of Life and seize destiny by the balls! And I cannot do that if you keep on trying to fool around, making things suddenly change!" He told his brother coldly as the last breath of life wisped out of Chaos's mouth.
Suddenly his body glowed and Order realized that he too was glowing the same strange, color-changing aura that his brother's corpse was shining with. "What on-" He began to say.
But...he never finished it. With a howling, wailing scream Order found himself being torn apart from the inside, and people turned their heads to see both Chaos and Order's bodies being dissolved away, one into multicolored light, the other into golden dust as a brilliant white light flooded the room. Those who COULD run, ran for their lives, rushing away out the doors of the gym as fast as they could and...
Light and fire enveloped all, flooding across the surface of the world.
Then...silence.
...
...
...
...Zee moaned as he held his head, slowly looking up. He found himself surrounded by rubble and chunks of earth that had been ripped apart, people scattered around and trying to stand up. Luckily, nobody was hurt...
It was that which had no life that had been utterly destroyed. The buildings...the bridges...the proud structures of civilization across the globe had been reduced to absolutely nothing. And...
There was something in the dirt. Golden...dust?
No, not dust. Zee dug and dug, pulling out...a ring. A golden ring. In fact, there were hundreds of them lying around in the ground, people holding them up in the air, the same golden hue as the dust that Order had become.
Zee realized then and there what had occurred. By killing his brother, Order had upset the balance of the world. And thus, reality itself had been damaged. Now the people on this world would have to start anew. But...somehow...he felt these rings would help. Just holding them gave him a sense of power and fulfillment. A sense that he could help to make order out of the chaos that the world had been left in.
Meanwhile, the echidna bouncer rubbed his head, looking stupidly at the things that had just clonked him over the head. He dusted himself off and stood up from the patch of dirt he'd been thrown into, gazing down at crystalline gems...at emeralds...all different colors.
And there was a very, very LARGE green emerald some distance away, with...a tiny figure sitting atop it. It looked like...some kind of strange, new, alien creature. The tiny blue thing had a yellow orb hanging off the top of it's head, with yellow-tipped, stubby arms and legs and a set of butterfly-like wings...
"What's your name?" The echidna asked, going towards the enormous emerald, looking down at the thing that sat atop it as it rubbed it's head.
The thing tried to say his name. But his tongue seemed tied up. Even as he tried to prounounce it, it came out wrong.
"Chow...chow..."
No, darn it. Not "chow", "Kay"! Start with "Kay", he thought to himself. Why couldn't he form those...why...why was he trying to say "Chaos"? Was that his name? He was pretty sure it was. Where did he belong? How did he know that was his name? Who was this thing? It sure was big and red...and what funny knuckles!
"So you're a "Chao", is that it?" The thing asked, scratching it's head.
Alright, if that's what he was, then that was it. He was a "Chao". The chao named Chaos nodded.
"Okay, little "Chao". C'mon." The echidna said, lifting the enormous emerald up. "I think that my family's going to really enjoy this little present you've given us." He told the thing as it floated alongside him, the two heading off towards the mountains. "We live in this place called Mystic City..."
The other emeralds were left on the ground. But, as if guided by some otherworldly force, one by one they rolled off as a small quake shook the ground for a few moments, taking off in different directions, bumping into various other creatures. And who knew what would happen should they be reunited again.
The world would never be the same.
Author's Note:
Well, this has been a fun little excursion. I got to explain the past of the Sonic world AND where the chaos emeralds and rings originated from. I guess that in a way, this story is both prequel AND sequel to my earlier story in the Sonic realm, "Courage".
But I'm not stopping here. I'm making another story. And it's going to be a big, ambitious project. Stay tuned for one heck of a ride and thanks to all who helped to support this story.
Take care...
Nick