Putting this one up a day early due to me leaving for a week or so, and not able to put it up on Wednesday.

Disclaimer: Zootopia and all characters, settings, scenes, and scenarios are copyright Disney. Sonic and all characters, settings, scenes, and scenarios are copyright SEGA.

"And you've already searched for who owned this factory?" Chief Bogo asked deeply, looking concerned over his glasses at the wreckage in front of him.

"Yes Chief, a llama named Patricia Spitshine. She filed for bankruptcy about three years ago, and then the banks took the property back, but hasn't been able to sell it yet," Grizzoli answered, looking down at his documents, a quick report that he had asked Clawhauser to pull.

"And because the bank hasn't been able to sell it, someone just walked in-" Nick started.

"I get it, Wilde," interrupted Bogo, "there was no power here for your usual camera hijinks." Bogo remained silent for a moment, obviously deep in thought, before sighing aloud. "Remain silent on this, and find the mammal that was here, either the one that broke in or was here before, I don't care which. I want them in a cell by the end of the day!" the cape buffalo announced, before walking away and signaling to one of the other detectives, a grey wolf, to come in and take a look.

"Well, Carrots, that went about as well as I wanted it to go," Nick said, turning to his partner. Judy shrugged from where she was, giving her own statement to the detectives, as well as what she had found out. Bogo had asked her, shortly after arriving, if the skylight was how a perpetrator had come out, or in. There was very little, if any glass on the roof. She was sure that whomever had broken in used the skylight, but then wasn't sure how they got out besides maybe the same.

"It went well enough. Besides, we do have a lead."

Nick stared blankly for a moment, before comprehension dawned on his face. "Right, our lead. Any ideas on where to find him?"

Judy smiled, before pulling out her phone and scrolling to one of the many documents she had contained. "A few. He has to have a few places that he hangs out at besides his house. He also has to have other friends around besides Sonic."

"You already searched for them, haven't you," Nick said, stating it in such a way that it wasn't a question. "Sly bunny."

"Yep. One of them lives in Zootopia actually; Vanilla Rabbit and her daughter Cream. They don't live far from here actually, just over in Central."

"Then we should go. If Chief Four-Eyes can't wait for the end of the day we have our work cut out for us." Judy just nodded before making sure that they weren't needed still at the scene. They would have to write up the initial reports later on, but they could do that afterwards. For now, they had a rabbit to catch.

Knuckles already knew where I was going to land. I had never been too sure how he knew that, but he always did. So I landed where I always had; a bit after the beach in the primary jungle zone, where we first stepped on Angel Island.

The jungle around me was thick and alive still, despite being about a mile in the air. Ten years ago Eggman had burned the entire thing to the ground in an attempt to kill Sonic and I. He failed, obviously, but it apparently hadn't set the growth back by all that much, given how thick it was. Vines and trees went around every corner, and sometimes it seemed there weren't any pathways at all from here.

"Thinking about old times, Tails?" Knuckles voice reached out. The red echidna, a bit taller than me even now, appeared out of one of the side bushes. Despite red being one of the most visible colors, I had somehow always failed to keep track of him sometimes, especially when he was on Angel Island. He's a lot stealthier than he looks. He still had on those metal boots of his, and his enormous gloves that show how exactly he had gotten his name.

"Just thinking about the growth. I'm surprised it's this thick only ten years later!"

"Ash'll do that for you. Used to be thicker. Trees are still new and haven't gotten to old heights yet, but the blackberries are loving all this sun. Whatcha need? You're not one to simply come out this far for botany."

A lot of people and mammals think that Knuckles is dumb. 'Dumb muscle' they'd like to think, that just anyone can outwit and fool. I can tell you here and now that he's not dumb. Naive, certainly, but he knows his stuff.

"I wanted to ask about the Super Emeralds," I said, looking into his eyes to try and show how serious I was. I think I got a little snicker out of him, so I'm suspecting I didn't succeed. Don't try to out-tough Knuckles, he'll just laugh at you, and then maybe punch in the arm. Lightly. As in it'll only give you a dead arm for about ten hours versus ten days.

"The Supers? What about 'em?"

"Are they still around?"

Knuckles gave me a blank look, before waving me onwards through the brush. "No, they're not around. The Super Emeralds were just augmented Chaos Emeralds. The Master took their power and amplified it. Once the Chaos Emeralds left the island, the Super emeralds also left with them."

"So we've been dealing with Supers ever since we came here?"

Knuckles gave another questioning glance. "No, the amplification wears off after a short time, unless the Master is in close contact with them. You know this, Tails, you've created your own Chaos Emerald, remember?"

I thought idly back to one of my first Chaos experiments; one in which I had analyzed and simply tried to remake a Chaos Emerald. I'd succeeded, but it had been blown up during the ARK incident. The lessons learned from that experiment I'd still take to my grave. If I'd done anything differently, I realized later on I could've torn the entire world asunder.

"I know, I just want confirmation to make sure of a few things."

"Alright, Tails. What is it that you actually need? Why come to me, and not Sonic or Shadow? Hell, you're the foremost expert on Chaos there is."

"I uh...I need a sounding board."

"Ah. Alright then, talk. There's a new grove in Mushroom Hill that's threatening to jump ship to Angel Island zone, and I need to take care of it."

Knuckles had been leading me away from the beach for a while, and if I never before mentioned that he knew all of the shortcuts on this island better than anyone, well, he knows all of the shortcuts on this island better than anyone. I recognized that that's where we were heading, if only by the seemingly random mushrooms that had started sprouting up, nearly eight feet tall in height and more than big enough to literally bounce off of.

"Ok..." I said, before trying to reconvene my thoughts into a single train. I took a deep breath, and began.

"Eggman's in Zootopia, he's doing something that involves the security robots and attacking us with them. I've been fighting him using hacks so far but I think it's only a matter of time before he shows himself. Sonic and GUN think he's in Empire City. I ran across one of his labs earlier that had a mech with flamethrowers attached to it, and there were a lot of parts around for similar modifications.

"To top it all off, if that wasn't all, Zootopia is a city with a lot of mammals in it, and a lot of innocents could be hurt. And I wanted to see if I could use the power of the Super Emeralds to, if I needed to, get Chaos Empowered still. And I think there's a Chaos Effect going on, or will happen soon. The yellow Emerald is beginning to flicker in that way that usually means one is either happening, about to happen, or has happened shortly before."

I took a deep breath, about ready to go on, before Knuckles raised his hand at me. "Tails, slow down. One; Chaos Effects are noticeable. And I haven't noticed anything strange with the violet emerald. Two; Zootopia is a city with a police department. Don't be afraid to go to them. Just because Sonic is doesn't mean that you should be. Remember how helpful the ones down in Station Square were?"

I nodded, remembering the aftermath of Perfect Chaos' rampage through the city. It had taken all of us, including the humans, to try and save as many people as we could. I have never lost my innocence faster than I did that day. My memory still rang clear of pulling cold, clammy, and dead hands out of the water.

"I know, Knuckles, but I think, I think they think that I have something to do with it. With all of it."

Knuckles sighed, and slowly massaged his head. He had always been amazing at keeping a level head, and sometimes when things just get to me a lot more than they should, I go to him to try and figure something out. He's a good sounding board, if only because he doesn't give his opinion until he thinks he has one. That said, if he makes an opinion he'll stick to it, stubborn until the island falls again.

"I'm not going to ask why you think that is, Tails. That's your responsibility. Now then, you wanted to check if you can still turn Super?"

I nodded solemnly. I had plenty of rings left, which is good. Because I have a feeling I'd need them.

Judy knocked softly on the small wooden door. They were in a fairly normal neighborhood, small kids out and about playing on the streets of all sizes and shapes. Most of the houses looked similar, only small differences marking the kind of person who lived where.

This particular house, a small brown two bedroom house at the most, had a mostly groomed lawn but with some weeds still managing to shoot up. Not meticulous and perfect, but shown love and care all the same. "You sure this is the place right?" Nick asked, looking around.

"341 Tail lane. According to the most recent data we have, this should be it," Judy said, knocking again loudly on the door. She thought about calling out loud, but that could make the civilians nervous. And this was as unofficial as they could get while in uniform.

The door opened slowly to a younger looking rabbit, despite being Judy's size, with cream colored fur that had splotches of darker brown. Her long ears seemed to nearly hit the floor, and were nearly half the size of the doe's body. "Yes? Oh! I'm sorry officers, how can I help you?" she said, her voice airy and cheerful.

"Hi, I'm Judy Hopps, of the ZPD. Is your mother around? We just want to ask a few questions," Judy said lightly, trying to keep an upbeat tone. She saw Nick suck in a breath next to her, and tried to get him to quiet down a bit.

"No, I'm sorry. Mom went to Empire City for a few days. She'll be back on Tuesday I think. If you'd like I can write down your questions and have her get back to you?" the girl responded.

Nick and Judy shared a glance, and slowly nodded their heads simultaneously, "That would be great, thanks!" Judy said with a smile.

The girl smiled in response, and opened the door wider, starting to look around for something. "Come on inside, I'll try to find a piece of paper to write down your questions. Do you want anything to drink?" she said, suddenly looking all over the various tables for an unused paper. The inside was rather quaint, Judy noticed. Pictures of various mammals, mostly of the girl and an older rabbit that must've been her mother, lie around on the walls. The carpet was a comfortable hue of brown, almost earthen, and various tables and chairs lie scattered around. It gave Judy a quick pulse of homesickness, which she quickly squashed down.

In the middle of the living room lay a blanket, with a small blue thing eagerly watching the TV on mute. It seemed to be some kind of children's show, which one neither Nick nor Judy knew. Nick had to stare at it for a moment. It had wings, very small wings, and a head the size of its body. Tiny little arms and feet, and a...Nick wasn't sure if the ball-like thing was floating on top of its head, or what.

"No thank you, we're fine," Judy said once she had gotten a quick look around. The girl nodded and continued to run around, moving empty envelopes around and checking in various drawers.

"Cheese, where's the paper? I can't find any!" she announced shortly afterwards. The blue thing, Cheese, finally looked up with its giant head, and for some reason a bow tie, a small little orb, as Nick started to call it, floating above it, and started to fly around on its tiny wings.

Nick and Judy just watched in amazement as the thing, which is about the only proper term to call it, flew around the house also opening up drawers, cabinets, boxes, just about anything it could find. Finally the young rabbit girl piped up from one of the others rooms, "Found it!" She walked back out into the main room, and looked at the two police officers. "Sorry about taking so long! We've moved a lot recently, and I never know where some of the basics are. Anyway, so what kind of questions do you have?" she asked.

"Well, just a few basic ones. What's your name?" Judy asked.

The rabbit suddenly looked shocked, and pulled her ears over her face. "Oh, I'm so sorry! I completely forgot to introduce myself! I'm Cream!"

"It's okay Cream. Do you know Miles Prower?"

What they were expecting could've been anything. Polite, friendly 'no', or a heartfelt 'yes'. Instead what they got was a large sigh, before she said, "Yes I know him. What'd he do now?"

Judy looked at her partner, who shared the glance. This time he asked the question, "What do you mean, 'what did he do now'?"

"Tails always gets in trouble over stuff. Most of it's not his fault, but he and Mr. Sonic still get blamed. Although recently he has been a bit more reclusive..." Cream trailed off.

"When did he start to get more reclusive?"

Cream looked thoughtful for a moment. "About maybe a year or so ago, when he was about to go into the final year of school."

Judy frowned a bit and went back to trying to think of the next question. Reclusive-ness was something that most criminals picked up easily; just look at Nick and Finnick. Although, if he was going to school that would make sense, as he'd have to concentrate on that. Fortunately, while she was off thinking and concentrating, Nick picked up the conversation, "Wow, he's in his final year?"

"I think so. The most I've gotten out of him recently was an email to avoid the security robots due to being hacked."

Nick focused his eyes on the harmless light brown rabbit in front of him, "Do you still have that email?"

"Yes, of course."

"Can you forward it to this address?" Nick asked, quickly grabbing one of the notepads that he had remembered he had and writing down an email address. As he handed it to her, he finally found an opening to say what he had noticed when Cream had first opened the door.

"Is having five fingers hard on all of you?" he asked, smiling softly. He didn't want to give the impression that he meant any offense.

Cream smiled back softly, putting out her paws in front of her. Exactly like Nick had said, and exactly like Tails and Sonic, she too had five fingers instead of a rabbit's usual four. "Not particularly. Most people don't really notice. Just a side effect I think."

"A side effect? A side effect of what?"

"A Chaos Effect," Cream said, looking up in confusion.

There are times when I hated watching Sonic turn Super. Or, if I had to call it's actual name, his 'Chaos Empowered Form'. I think I was six when I saw it for the first time, back on West Island. Sonic couldn't control it well, and as soon as he even thought about the Emeralds, his normal blue would suddenly turn a golden-yellow, gained invincibility and double speed, which made it immeasurably hard to catch up to him. It was a good thing West Island had so many rings around.

When I tried to use the Chaos Emeralds, at least at first, I had found that I couldn't, not like Sonic or Knuckles could. But if the Emeralds were powered up, augmented by the Master Emerald, the giant green gem that Knuckles devoted his life to guarding and made the Floating Island be able to actually fly, I found that I could, at least when I was on Angel Island. I had tried only once afterwards to turn Super, back when we were fighting the Metal Overlord, and had found that I couldn't. Chaos helped there nonetheless though.

I hadn't been to the Hidden Palace in years, and I noticed that Knuckles didn't take me there. Instead, he took me to the shrine of the Master Emerald on the outside, the one where Chaos had broken free so long ago. I need to stop talking like that, it makes me feel old. Seriously, it had barely been like six years. That's not that old.

"Here. Simply try and touch the Master, and absorb its power to you," Knuckles said, sitting down on the top step just slightly below the Master Emerald. Why it was here instead of the Hidden Palace, I don't know, and I wasn't going to ask. Knuckles' business is Knuckles' business.

I raised my hand slowly and felt the Emerald, every edge on it's facets, looking like all the world a giant version of the Green Chaos Emerald. There was a power underneath it, the same power that the Chaos Emeralds had but certainly not chaotic. Or rather, not as chaotic. It was an odd feeling, after working with Chaos so long as I had.

It hummed and throbbed with energy and power, and I could feel it just trying to break out. "Knuckles, are you sure this is safe?" I asked, hesitating to put my hand back on it. I recalled an old tale that Knuckles had told me, about how Metal Sonic, or an earlier version of him, had absorbed the Emerald's power to turn into a Chaos Empowered Form. I hadn't seen it, and I haven't seen anything like it, but if Metal Sonic could do it than so could I. Which is what scared me more than anything else.

"As safe as anything else with the Emeralds."

"So not at all."

"Just about."

"Great..." I said softly, taking a deep breath and steadying myself, before pushing myself to touch the Emerald again. Again the power showed up, although this time it seemed a bit more...curious. It didn't wax and weave like it did before, but seemed eager to see what this new outlet was. Sentient, this Emerald most definitely is. The power seemed slightly kinder than most other forms of Chaos, which I just attributed to it being the ruling gem. Of course it would have more control.

"And there you go," Knuckles said, his voice breaking me out of my reverie. I wasn't sure how long it had been, but my body had absorbed enough energy to turn me pseudo-super, my usual orange fur glowing white every second or so. Once I took my hand off, I could feel the power that I had absorbed from the Master, and it was unlike anything I had felt before with the exception of once.

I mentally checked my ring tally, and exactly as before, the rings were disappearing, protecting my body from my own chaotic energy. Chaos Empowerment was dangerous, and not a tool to use lightly. Extremely self-destructive, the only reason Sonic and I could use it to begin with was because of the rings. Bodies weren't meant to be able to take this much energy, and I knew that Knuckles threw a punch at me, even with all his strength, it would just bounce off. He had surprised Sonic out of Super form once, but he hadn't hurt the blue hedgehog, but he did knock the Emeralds off of him.

And to think, the only reason the rings exist is because of a Chaos Effect. That others know of them at all is only because of the Chaos Theory. 'What a world we live in...' Tails thought.

"A...chaos effect?" Nick asked, slightly worried.

"Yes, a Chaos Effect. It's what happens whenever someone grabs a Chaos Emerald, full on grabs it, barehanded. There's a reason that most of us that are Chaos touched use gloves," Cream explained saintly.

"That...doesn't make any sense."

Cream shrugged. "I know it doesn't, but that's the only thing that fits, according to Tails' Chaos Theory."

"Chaos Theory?"

"It's a paper, written by Tails, and published by GUN. Most Chaos experts swear by it, but they don't know who wrote it. GUN ensured that at least. It says that Chaos energy is driven by life, contained within the Chaos Emeralds and let out during a Chaos Effect."

"I'm...confused. Carrots, are you confused?" Judy nodded her head quickly. "Yeah, she's confused too. Try to explain?"

Cream chuckled a bit, a light laugh that seemed to somehow make the room just a bit brighter than it was. "Chaos energy is all around us, and it's the energy of life, essentially. It responds to life, both good and bad, and responds more strongly according to emotions, both good and bad. Usually, it does nothing or goes away quickly, but if it's let out, by say a Chaos Effect, it gives a stronger response."

Cream continued, "So say there was a Chaos Effect right now. Happening to one of you two or me. The Effect would be pretty weak, according to the Chaos theory, but if something happened to say, Cheese, it would be a lot stronger because of it. Does that make sense?"

"More sense yeah. What kind of Chaos Effects are there?"

"I think Tails once had a database of them, and it boiled down to 'literally anything'. One time he swore that he was seeing things happen before they happened!"

"Interesting Miss Rabbit...one last question for you. Do you know where Mr. Prower currently is?" Judy asked, as Nick froze up inside. His mind wandered to the last few days; hearing things that weren't there, feeling things that hadn't happened, seeing something that hadn't occurred. Was he...going through a Chaos Effect? Is that even possible? He knew that he hadn't touched a Chaos Emerald at all!

"Now? No, sorry. Have you checked his house near the abandoned air field near the Rainforest district?"

"Yes we have. Thank you so much for your time and all the information Miss Rabbit. Please have your mother come by or call us as soon as she's available," Judy finished up. Cream smiled and nodded, and politely led them out the door.

As she heard the police cruiser leave, the big giant tank that it was, Cream quickly pulled out her phone and dialed one of the number's she hadn't used in years. "Come on Tails...pick up!"

From: Tails

To: Sonic

Sonic,

I went by Angel Island earlier. Found I still have a Super form, which is good. Bad news is I still have a Super form.

From: Sonic

To: Tails

Tails,

Well hey, now you know you still have a Super form. Give Knuckles a punch in the shoulder for me, will ya? I haven't been able to pay him back for the time he thought punching me in the arm was a good idea.

And that's chapter 10. The explanation, or at least part of the explanation, of what Chaos Theory is. If it doesn't make sense, don't be surprised, there will be another explanation later on that I hope will...well, explain everything. Of course, that's not for a small while yet. Let me know what you think of it so far.

Also I apologize to everyone that hates Cream. I had intended for her to be literally a one-chapter character, and then things kind of took their own turn. Oops.

Until next time.