Disclaimer: I don't own Sonic, Knuckles, Robotnik and all the rest. The plot of Sonic Adventure is also property of Sega. I only own the original characters, original locations, and original plots within this fanfiction. Yay!

Cue Sonic Unlimited Opening Theme: "Change The World" by ARTIST Dream


CHAPTER 25: Don't Fear The Reaper

[TIKAL'S POV]

After Sonic screamed out, a corona of golden light blinded everyone in the nearby vicinity.

Everyone except me that is, I'm already dead after all, and so it didn't pain me to look at it.

And thus I could see into its heart, even as my dreadlocks flailed in the makeshift wind, where I saw the cobalt blue hedgehog's short-haired skin licked clean with blazing gold and his spines to grow a few extra inches.

As his eyes remained closed due to the concentration needed to adapt to his new form [and one that his friends had alluded to just a few times had gone wrong in the past], so I could not see whether his eyes were the same or not. Mine hadn't changed upon contact with Chaos [and his eyes even now remained their emerald green], so maybe nothing would happen here either.

Hmm... I wondered inwardly as I continued to bear witness our last hope of defeating Chaos [or weakening him at the very least so that he could be sealed away...], noticeably the fierce, yet gentle, aura that was now rippling around the young man's body.

An eruption of positive chaos energy that'd spouted up from the renewed Chaos Emeralds in a form I could only describe to mortal eyes as white fire.

The same white fire that now ran through Sonic's veins, causing the muscles beneath his peachy [and furred] skin to tense, tighten, and expand just a little.

It was the most amazing sight I'd ever seen [I'm sure I'd be shivering with excited anticipation, if I wasn't dead].

It was also one of those moments where one would, sometimes, rest their head contemplatively against a hand [or two], like I was now. As though I had seen this somewhere before – though not in motion.

Or have I? I questioned, not sure whether I should continue to trust my 'spacey' memories.

Not that it'd matter for much longer, I thought with a small smile [which the others, had the light not ailed them, maybe have taken to be quite sad looking, I imagined]. For after we have dealt with Chaos I'd finally be able to ascend to heaven.

That is, if I'd done the right thing by sealing Chaos [and myself] away – what I was meant to do, I added a little unsurely. And I was sure that I did, but it was just... It was just... the sheer absence of time within the Master Emerald. It gave me ample time to forget things.

Though were they even important...?

'If you can't remember something, it's like it never happened. Likewise, if something never happened, you can't remember it. Try too hard to remember and your memory might lie to you,' is something that I [still] remembered my grandmother telling me. Her sayings, and her way of looking at things always stuck with me.

She was kind of an inspiration, even now in death. Or this half-life, as some might define it as.

But still... I thought grudgingly, even if she told me now to simply wave this whole sensation off as simply some side effect of having a prolonged 'half-life' [her faith in the Tomes of Aurora were stone clad] – having not made my peace and moved on to the next life yet – I couldn't say for sure that I'd believe her [and I'd never disagreed with her, for I remembered her scolding me for never doing so].

She'd deemed it 'naivety' on my part. And that night, before I'd closed my eyes and let my body rest, I'd figured that she was right. I did find it too easy to agree with the opinions of others – though I'd put that down to being surrounded by others of similar opinions, that was, until me and father...

I shook my head of the stinging memory away, instead wondering as Sonic's cocoon of pure light began to disperse, about Knuckles.

I felt drawn to him somehow, and didn't know why. We'd never met before this event started.

Or were my memories indeed lying to me...?

I wish I knew what this all meant, I sighed. The closest, I wholeheartedly felt, that I'd ever come to doubting the powers that be, the Great Aurora.

Of that I was sure of.


[SONIC'S POV]

Wow.

That was all I could describe this as.

And then after my chaos energy levels had reached their limit, tendrils of the stuff had begun leaking out around me.

I'd screamed. Not your half-assed kind either, but a proper, primal scream, as I realised the possible implications of such untamed energies running wild.

Thankfully, peering through my eyes [which I'd already felt change to a cherry red – confirming that little detail which I'd grudgingly agreed with my friends on post-Super state], I could see that the others had shielded their eyes. Well, minus, Tikal [for obvious reasons] who looked as though she could see right into me, which was mildly discomforting for a moment or two, and then it ceased.

The licking fire in my veins had become stable. No longer was the chaos energy trashing about in there, as though it wanted to break the shell [my shell] that it was confined to.

Inside I still felt boiling all over [if anyone took my temperature now, or tried to touch them, boy, oh boy would they get a burning shock!], however, but it was no longer agonising. It was just normal for me now.

I could get used to this, he told himself. I'd never be cold again! He joked.

Lastly, beyond the peculiar change of eye colour [green to cherry red], and the few inches on my spines [which feels very cool by the way], I noted with uncanny briskness the radius of energy signals I was now [unwillingly] picking up. It was probably something like a mile or two, when before it'd been none – I only knew my own mind, my own energies and strength.

Now I could see not only infrared-like signatures of Sally and everyone inside my head, on that blank greyish nowhere space you see whenever you close your eyes [it's especially clear in total darkness], including a couple dozen across the bay, but also dim traces of what I assumed was chaos energy [it looked and felt like it, to me].

My chaos energy, shaped like a sphere at my heart, was a warm yellow whilst everyone else was either a dim orangey brown [my comrades, except for Knuckles whom had more of a striking purple thing going on, and white for Tikal, which didn't faze me] or a dark grey [those across the bay, minus one, whom was a dim orangey brown].

Surprisingly enough, despite the unthinkable feeling that the sensation was as though someone had scooped out my head and stretched it across this distance, it actually didn't cause me any pain. It was just an odd feeling.

Though I was glad that I didn't get the extension that pretty much every super-powered up hero from comic books [at least the ones I read] gets, the seemingly infinitely useful psychic powers... [I didn't want any more voices in my head but my own]

Though I'd sure like to know what Sally really thinks of me, I thought mischievously, just for a second [really].

As this thought transpired my beacon of light began to fade and it was then I finally set my stony gaze upon the source of this adventure [and ironically enough, behind my first, untainted 'super' transformation].

Chaos' aura of chaos energy was gigantic compared to my own, and looked akin a tornado. A tornado of a violent, jagged-looking emerald black sort that is.

And its eyes, those slimy green eyes were looking dead my way now, and whereas before they'd looked dismissive [as though I was just a fly he'd sooner or later relish no matter what], now there was a small crease surrounding those orbs [which looked a little darker, or was that just the flow of dark energy coursing around it... him?].

It looked as though it's interest had been heightened a bit – my power boost pushing my boundaries [as though something had been unlocked from within, I felt] and putting me more on his level – so Chaos knew I meant serious business now.

And ya know what you gigantic drip? I thought justly, as a wide grin, that wasn't the result of overconfidence, rose from my face, and I stared him right on back.

I'm going to personally show you just how much better I am now!

So I levitated swiftly into the sky, before then stopping short for just a second.

I whirled around to give the guys back on the ground the good old smile and thumbs-up to let them know things had run smoothly, and it was a good thing I had. Sal and Tails almost looked like they were crying [I'm terrible at comforting people], and perhaps they had been, but now at least I'd quelled that fear – our collective fear – before slowly ascending once again.

A wave of serenity [not a word I've ever really found the time and place to use, personally, but I couldn't think of anything else] had erected itself within the confines of my mind, spurred on by the heartfelt thought that I now had the power to protect everyone.

And with that all said and done, it was time to get this mighty show on the road.


[AMY'S POV]

I can't remember the last time I was nursed like this.

That was the first thought that rang into my head as I awoke, briefly, from the greyish black encompass.

Funny how things like that crop up in our thoughts, out of the blue, isn't it? I spoke to myself, not having the strength yet to utilise my vocals, but having a hazy half-sight in which I could see tied-back flaming hair and a furious intensity in pools of dark green hovering above me.

Amber, it's Amber, I acknowledged gladly, as though committing it to memory in case I forgot. My head retched with coiling pain.

I couldn't see or feel my own body either, just her, so it felt like I was floating, floating in nothingness. It was both liberating and scary.

I wanted to wake up. Truly wake up, now.

She was administering some kind of antiseptic on my forehead now, and then she went on to spread it on my arms, knees and legs.

I couldn't yet feel it though, and that shot me back into a flash of memory [along with a fresh dose of head pains]. And I'd called them that, ever since I was a little girl, because they were just that, a flash, not like proper daydreaming or dreams of sleep. I'd generally had them, sometimes, when I was awake and consciousness [usually when I'd remembered where such and such was, my 'eureka' moments as you will], but this one had come right before I was plunged back into the dark void. It was hazy, but not so much that I couldn't tell what and who was in it.


FLASHBACK

There was a medium brown coloured racoon woman garbed in a musty green cloak [which had seen much better days], who from what I could tell couldn't have been be less than twenty [nor anymore than twenty five], and a racoon boy [no, her son], who wore a brownish blue overalls uniform and small black shoes, had a scruffy brown-black mop on his head [which nevertheless made him look adorable to me] and might've been six, maybe five.

I, on the other hand was coming up to my eighth year.

The pair were the remaining few in the now dispersing crowd outside the school.

But it wasn't my school, no, for I viewed this from afar. They were down there and I was up here.

The roads they traversed on were made up of cream cobbles, which looked like bubbles from a rising oven mixture, and were hazardously cracked in places. And the buildings [including the school] consisted of browns, greys and musty greens, but far from being drab and dreary; to me they exuded a pleasant warmness.

Mine, the only ones I'd ever personally experienced, were the complete opposite. They were bright and loud, sometimes jarringly so. And it made me wonder how I'd be able to live here for the rest of my life if however, one day, I couldn't simply live down there.

I sighed. Knowing that mother and father probably wouldn't like it if I did that... So I turned my mind back onto the mother and son and was met with an intriguing sight.

I'd heard of the motherly 'kiss it better' display act before. Well, more overheard one of the commonly seen ladies at our house muttering something about it [I was hiding behind the tall, but thin banisters at the time, because I thought I'd heard them mention my name when I was walking down the overhead corridor]. If they did though, I never heard it come up again. I did hear mother mentioned once or twice, amidst the whispers, though.

... But as I was diverging, I had heard of it, but never experienced it myself. My mother had always been busy doing something or other, father too.

Our hired help, albeit [generally] friendly and polite, just weren't the same, and nor were their nursing hands. At least, that's what I'd believed. And still did to this day.

The beaming smile on the young boy's face as she rubbed in some lotion to his bloody knees [despite the pain] before then hugging him tightly couldn't be lying.

Just like I couldn't deny the bile of envy that was now stirring in my heart...

"Amy, what in blazes are you staring at girl?" came the pompous, boyish voice. And I winced. "Don't you remember that we have things to do, yes, many things," the boy two years my senior quickly slipped into a mutter, not listening for [or caring] for any answer I gave, before he forcefully grabbed my hand and whisked me away.

And just like that the daydream was shattered, and that as they said was that.

/END FLASHBACK


Then I was jostled back into reality, the now, with the seeds of a realisation, as my eyes fluttered into yellowish light. Though looking at it caused a faint wave of faintness to come on, threatening to drop me back towards the darkness.

It was at that time, however, that the nerves in my skin began to loosen up and I felt the effect of Amber's still working handiwork. Her touch was cool and soft, which contrasted with the shearing pain the antiseptic wrought.

And as the light began to fade and my irises began to paint in my surroundings, it was then that it clicked in my mind.

These sensations... that flashback... I reiterated to myself. Amber's touch, Amber as a person, they're both motherly.

A smile danced onto my face, where once dirtied cuts began to rest, as this sunk in.

I'd trusted Amber that day we met, let her into my ailing heart, because she had a maternal quality about her – the one I'd scarcely saw in my mother before the end...

And Lisa and Zack, they're the siblings I never had [and never will], I continued on forth, wondering at the same time just why I hadn't connected the dots before?

Why do we always recall that important nagging thing after the fact? I thought with a hint of agitation as the world saturated back into its normal, non yellow feverish-inducing state [at least in the world I knew about]. In fact, there was minimal light at all in this dark, familiar haunt of a room, almost as though–

"Ughh..." I groaned as I flung myself up instinctively – but what I'd meant to say was: Are there candles burning?

"Amy!" Lisa cried eagerly. "Don't get up just yet, rest for a while. You almost smashed your face in outside!"

"Heh, don't go changing into your sister too early now, ya hear?" I managed to smirk as instead of lying me back down [she knew how stubborn could be], the young lady propped up my pillows against, from what I can feel, was the front of the sofa.

This, for the first time, enabled me to see just how everything had changed in just a few hours.

Dust, loose ornaments and small morsels of rubble littered the floor, joined by smashed-in picture frames that'd once hung on the now dark, dust-covered walls. And the electricity board had obviously been cut – something else I should've realised quicker – for none of the lights were on, so yes, there were indeed candles lit, but only the two, one on flat piece of rubble somewhat near the room's centre, the other in Amber's hands, to reveal cracked glimpses of the worn room.

My refocused eyes then trailed to my friends. No... My family. Or a part of it at least.

Thankfully they all looked relatively unscathed, just minimal cuts and bruises. Not like your own action girl wannabe, I voiced. They all looked scared and unsure [and rightly so] of what to do with themselves. Nevertheless work their heads around the suddenness of this disaster.

"Amy, I thought I heard you telling my sister not to turn into me," teased the woman of the abode from the archway that had once led into the kitchen area, and was now filled with smoky, dark rubble from the floor above [I presumed].

"Hey, I meant nothing bad!" I chimed back, noting that she held something her free hand. "I just want her–"

"To be her own spirit? I know, I know," Amber finished for me with a pleasant breath, her smile not quite reaching her eyes as they usually did. And it made sense if you saw her eyes, which looked tired and anxious [from my angle at least].

You didn't need to be a smart alec to know that the means to survive and live through this kind of thing was never even imagined by the health and safety class at school, nor by parental figures [which Amber had, by a cruel twist of deathly fate, been given the sole reins]. In fact, I'm pretty sure I'd simply be screaming my head off, had I not had the experiences I'd had in life already.

She noted my concerned staring and gave me another smile and dropped something into limp

It turned out to be what she could salvage from the little corners of the living room [thank goodness for leftovers that were half-picked at or simply forgotten], little packets of assorted fruit and cookies [albeit a bit warm]. And upon gorging on the fruit I realised just how thirsty I'd been, and was glad that some plentiful liquids weren't that far away, for I'd seen the G.U.N. and med units across the bay on my way here.

Now I just needed to get Amber, Lisa and Zack and myself out of this place

"No pressure girl," I whispered sarcastically.

"Did you say something?" Zack piped up curiously from his own assortments.

"I was just thinking of how I could get us all out of here," I conceded, giving the quiet, but good-hearted boy a small smile, which he returned, after a reluctant pause.

I then used my right arm as a support post and hauled myself up to my feet. Whilst the gauzes and cuts remained, the pain [thankfully] hadn't, so I was raring to go.

"Wait a second Amy," Amber interjected, a stern edge to her tone. "Can you at least enlighten us as to just what's going on, and why we'd want to out there?" she continued, her voice raising. She half looked as though I'd gone mad [and considering the climb down, perhaps that was the correct diagnosis], but still we couldn't remain here. Especially not with Chaos still on the loose.

So I quickly summarised what had transpired with Chaos back on the Floating Island and the jump in time with Tikal, two pieces of the Chaos puzzle that'd formulated in today's catastrophe. I'd later fill them in on my last stand on the Egg Carrier, and Gamma's sacrifice... but for now, time was of the essence, so I strode over to the door and was about to turn my gaze onto Amber again, to persuade her that this was the best way forward [the only way] when the room was engulfed in light.

Through my partially covered eyes, through the slits in my fingers, I could see it more clearly. It was a radiant gold and white, almost heavenly, and it was coming from outside.

Curiosity halted all our other thoughts, naturally, and so we to go take a look, an anxious knot tying my heart as I did so, for I could think of this as none other than him.

But which him? My inner voice sounded tentatively, as I then joined the others and looked across the bay.

And there I found my answer.


"Who is that?" Lisa uttered in awe, seeing the same thing we all were, a figure cocooned in that radiant gold and white light rising slowly into the sky. Below him were a group of people that looked like ants from up here, but were undoubtedly Sally and the others.

And they aren't running away, or attacking, I pointed out fiercely, that knot in my heart loosening – which meant...

"Sonic... Sonic's fully taken control of his Super form!" I cried out in excitement. The others looked to me and saw hope in my eyes, and whilst they knew the barebones of the Super Sonic nightmare – they hadn't lived through it – but alas, looking at them now was like seeing a reflection of myself.

Hope is potently contagious after all, and so whilst they may not have been completely sure at what was going on – what this meant – they looked ready to leave that hope with him, with us all.

I was so entranced by the golden hedgehog, who was now level on level with 'Perfect Chaos' itself, only a mile or two of settled bay between them, that I didn't hear Amber saddle up alongside me.

"So this is it, huh," the young woman sighed anxiously. "The final showdown?"

"Yeah, it certainly is," I replied vivaciously. "Super Sonic is the ultimate force. Chaos doesn't stand a chance!" I chuckled lightly, prompting Amber to do the same.

A soft, patter of silence then crept in for a moment, or three, before we touched on the inevitable.

"So do you know what you plan to do when this is all over–" She paused. "You know, if we make it out of here?" she asked warmly, that harsh, maternal edge now slightly more tender [made even more so by the whole dramatic situation].

I knew what I wanted to say [I'd made my decision], but I didn't know just how to factor my fresh flashback [and realisation] into it [if I needn't at all]. I was still racking my brains as to why I hadn't connected it all together.

So I closed my eyes, breathed in and focused.

And then it washed in and I soaked it up, just a small glimpse, of an earlier time in my life [I guessed I was about five or six]. Me and my mother were in the garden [which was so big I'd got lost in there alot I recalled vividly] together, and I'd found something on the ground, by the big green tree.

It was a moth, or to be more specific, its cocoon. I'd learnt about them [and butterflies] in a book from school fairly recently. So I'd called mother over to look at it with me, for you see... I'd felt that something was wrong.

It'd shook mildly, from time to time, in my few moments alone with it – but still no moth was emerging [even close to such] from its silky peak now that my mother was by my side, a soft, happy expression on her made up face.

So I'd kneeled down to pick up, to help [somehow] the moth get free.

But a fierce hand pulled me back before I could [mother...] – her face now sterner, and slightly colder, in its exuberance.

"Why... Why won't you let me help Mr Moth, mother?" I'd choked up, looking up at her as moisture collected around my green pools, ready to spill like a torrent [I didn't just understand...].

"Oh Amy... My cherub..." she'd begun carefully, comfortably, trying to come across more sympathetic in spite of her fierce tug on me. I'd simply gazed up at her in confused wonder.

"You won't understand this now, but you will, one day, many years from now," mother had insisted thoughtfully, kneeling down to meet my confused, warm eyes. "But that moth in there?" she'd pointed.

I'd followed her lilac gloved hand.

"He needs to do this himself. Without any help," had been her pearls of wisdom, short and concise [no wonder I couldn't understand it].

"B-but what if h-he c-can't? What will happen to him then?" had been my worried reply.

A silent, pained expression had slipped onto my mother's face. And she'd never given me an answer [but I know now].

Eventually the moth had broken free – a medium-sized, smoky grey with orangey owl-like markings, moth to be precise – before flying away into the trickling sunlight, far, far away.

"So that's what she meant..." I realised gladly, coming back into the here and now. For just as the moth would be stronger for breaking free by itself, so would I for working things out for myself. That was the lesson mother had [tried] to let me in on, even back then.

Thank you... mother... I spoke to her [non-made] grave.

And perhaps additionally, I'd just needed to have lived, breathed and laughed with them both, side by side, to have seen just how much they all meant to me [and in what way].

"You're a strange girl sometimes, you know that?" Amber and Lisa both said near at once, causing me to burst into a fit of laughter at their awkward, yet light stares.

"Maybe so, but I wouldn't change that for the world," I rebutted with a twirl of my fingers and a cheeky wink.

"Oh, and I have decided on what I want to do, after all this," I confided politely. The trio looked to me expectedly, with Zack, I noted, leaning up against the door.

"You're a second family to me, and the Freedom Fighters my first," were the honest words that came out of my mouth, like a breath of fresh country air. "Not that I value any one of you over the other, mind –" I interjected tenderly. "You're equally more family than the blood ones I once had [at the end]".

"But I'd like to go back to Knothole with the others and catch-up, see how that goes. I've missed them, the village and everything, ya know..." I trailed off sheepishly, a touch of blush surely gracing my warm features.

"That's good Amy," Amber breathed in acknowledgement, nodding her head as she did [where more of her natural smile, the one that reached her eyes, had returned]. She knew this would be the decision I'd finally come to, I inwardly voiced, and I guess I felt a little bad about it, but not too much, for I had told the truth. "It's time you took the reins of your own destiny, only then might you find what you are wishing for," she finished boldly, embracing me in her warmth.

"Yeah," I smiled. "Thanks Amber. I'll get you all safe passage to Knothole [if I can], I promise!"

Looking back outside for one last time, I saw Super Sonic dodging Chaos' blows tentacle for tentacle, and I silently wished him all the luck in the world.

"Hey, it's good that you know what you want to do now Amy – but can we please get going already, those two could be cruising through here at any moment!" Zack shouted honestly, a bit impatient, but telling the god's honest truth nevertheless.

And so after picking up our sofa-seating bags [they'd managed to get to my room and retrieved what was salvageable, which was more than they'd expected], partly sentimental stuff, partly material, that's what we did.

As we made our way slowly down the building of flats [which I felt, even then, we knew would be the last we'd see of it] a series of sonic-booming sounds and flashes of light splashed across the skies, and through the holes and cracks surrounding us.

The battle to protect Station Square [maybe even the world] had begun.


STATION SQUARE RUINS / CENTRAL BAY / 17: 26 PM

[NARRATORS POV]

Sidestep to the right...

Duck to the left...

And spin-dashing these particular assets of his watery foe was not proving especially beneficial to the new being, Super Sonic, whom was still trying to get a sufficient blow in.

"Alright you green eyed ugly," the golden furred hedgehog taunted, batting away another tendril of water, who wanted to be too intimate [crushing him] for his liking, "Let me at ya already!"

*Play Sonic Adventure – It Doesn't Matter*

Chaos roared, as if in response to the challenge, and let its tentacles settle on some thereby half-standing building tops, before firing a massive blast of overwhelming energy at the radiant nuisance.

Super Sonic propelled himself forward, a translucent gold afterimage trailing behind him, and burst to the rightmost side [that he could] of the oncoming beam of fiery chaos energy.

Doing such a manoeuvre in his normal state would've surged his outer skin right off [and that wouldn't have done his fabulously groomed spines any favours at all], but now?

Now it just felt like an extra breeze of [unneeded] warmth. It didn't hurt an ounce. And the coursing chaos energy within him was also constantly purifying his body – his spines had never felt so groomed!

If only I could keep that, sans the golden radiance, Sonic thought merrily. Oh well...

And then with a resounding clap, he made contact with the slimy hide, and sliced right on through where an animal's right shoulder would be [though Sonic wasn't sure he could even say Perfect Chaos had any, as in his eyes the watery beasts' structure was more of an irregular mess than it had been in his previous forms].

The right shoulder-like region of said beast, worshipped as a water god, let off a crackling sound as Super Sonic descended downward, lightly skimming the moderately calm waters as he surveyed his handiwork. A crestfallen expression began to seep in and take root in no time at all [for him and his comrades across the bay, who could also see the unfolding proceedings].

For you see folks, instead of dropping off into the cool bath below, the gruesome scorched gloop was rattling about like someone with the jitters. And seconds later, gloop by gloop, it splashed together piece by piece like organic stitch work, rendering Sonic's attack, well, utter moot.

And with a hissing roar [and the return of the skewering tentacles, not to mention that beam of intense chaos energy], things then carried on as if he'd never got a shot in – and he'd been hoping for an eye shot would you have believed it – and this was beginning to aggravate the former blue hedgehog [who for a second, absentmindedly wondered if the eyes would come back the same way]...

Just what do I have to do to beat his guy? was the short [and polite] thought process that strongly bleed into his conscious mind, however, as he zigzagged to and fro, and gaining air, in an attempt to shake off Chaos' 'feelers' [as he'd now dubbed now – mainly because that evoked a slimy shudder to crawl over his skin, in a similar vein as to how being trapped under water could send him reeling with fright].

Sally, who was busy elsewhere, didn't note this [though Bunnie would voice it off-handily later], but as the Super hedgehog was forced to smash himself into [and bounce out of] a nearby business building [which was vacant, from what the blue blur could gleam from the five seconds he was in there for], the zigzag trail he left behind looked [and sparkled] rather like a lightning bolt.

And so one [or two] people's cogs began to turn...

But back to the battle ground, where as [some] Freedom Fighters looked on in awe of Sonic's newfound grace and prowess, the dark green jewels that enabled Chaos to witness the world, and in this particular scenario, this pest [not menace] of a foe, glowered with annoyance.

It was nothing on par with the anger it felt towards the echidna race for their selfish, self-glory bloodshed [and had carried for many millennia inside the Master Emerald], but the proclaimed water god was, to put it mildly, pissed off.

Perfect Chaos was so much so that even the winds were beginning to growl with increasing bile, or at least until the penny dropped on Sonic [and the others] that the wind was getting louder and stronger around them because it was being [psychically?] channelled through multiple funnels of water.

And then with elegant ease [and no tentacle arms in assistance], these watery tornados were chucked all at once in the golden hedgehog's unfortunate direction, who even with all the power he had at his fingertips, wasn't sure that being tossed around by any of them would be such a good idea...

Especially if all his chaos energy was used up because of it.

So the former blue hero darted off to the side, allowing just a fragment of biting wind to claw down his left side, staggering Sonic in mid-air and leaving him as exposed as a lone daisy in a field.

"Ok, so this is going to be a little tougher than we thought." Sonic said in a daze, unaware that little beads of sweat, a sign of his natural mortality, were trickling down the back of his neck, before realigning his upside down position with a swift spin.

And in no time at all the golden being was racing dead ahead to the towering monstrosity, his mind running on instinct, and his blood pumping as fast as a sprinting athlete.

Perfect Chaos had only three to four seconds to process this development, which led to all its piercing tentacles to gorge out mortar and water instead of mortal flesh, before the blazing form of Super Sonic planted a solid fist to the bottom of his train-length jaw.

The revered water god roared in fury at this new sensation, agonising pain, which naturally made it worse. But even in this thick veil of anger, it had realised a succulent opportunity.

For Chaos [especially now it was Perfect] did not miss twice.

And so the golden hero was startled when those aforementioned tentacles retracted back at lightning speed and blocked his notable exits, and had barely turned quarter way behind himself when he felt the maw of a single, condensed water tornado slice into him all at once.

It was almost as though Perfect Chaos had swept him up into its mouth and was now rearing with angered might to bring its fanged jaws down on him, to crush him with upmost primal glee. Even in his Super state, he didn't want to risk becoming lizard... [?] food.

But it wasn't. Not that that fact made the shearing pain that he was now enduring any less so, for it felt like he'd been cut into ribbons, or at least, all his nerves were blaring like he imagined such a grotesque execution would feel like [if the victim was still, somehow, living throughout].

Ugh... I really need to stop watching horrible flicks before bed. And maybe the accompanying late night binges, mused Sonic [half] jokily as his momentum accelerated from the reeling blow.

Super Sonic had pasted the point of no return. He knew it, and the horrified screams of the Freedom Fighters, who'd since been approached by the rescue teams over the bay, indicated that they did too as they were forced to witness their friend fall out of their sight, like a falling comet, into the waters ahead.


STATION SQUARE RUINS / CENTRAL BAY / 17: 35 PM

They had come across the sea.

At least, with the city as it was, it felt that way to Tikal, who despite having followed the Freedom Fighters [among others] since her abrupt expulsion from the Master Emerald [and so had glimpsed them, many of them in fact], this had been the first time she'd physically come into contact with any humans herself.

I can't believe that I had the opportunity to meet a whole new species; the former shrine priestess had thought in awe on reflection. And they, for the most part, looked as naked as the day Mobians are born [or it seemed], but other than that, she could see no differences in how they and Mobians interacted with the world [especially in regards to speech and emotion], as the shapely bat

They were a curious delight for her.

But she couldn't let on that fact too much, and so Tikal didn't.

So when the short haired brunette, Topaz, accompanying the bat, Rouge, and the President had tried to shake her hand, she'd flinched away, preventing contact, and had simply bowed her head in an awkward, but joyful-looking greeting instead. As not that any of them had tried to [and what reason would they have to? Tikal added internally], but she doubted that as a spirit she could be touched.

It was best that her ghostly origins be kept secret, save as to not make the current situation even more complicated.

Or at least that is what Tikal told herself, as truth be told, the echidna girl was beginning to see that there was many wonders to this brave new world she'd fallen into.

And it would hurt her heart to leave it.

Thankfully, Topaz walked off to speak with the President, seemingly oblivious to the brush off, leaving Tikal to content herself again with compounding thoughts.

Oh Chaos... she mourned inwardly, having just watched the water god secure a crushing blow against Super Sonic, If only I could remind you of the way things were; of those Chao you'd sworn to protect [they regarded you as their father you know]. And of me, for was I not your friend...?

She turned her gaze onto the Freedom Fighters, who were in animated discussions with Rouge, Topaz and the President. The man with the elongated face and dark brown hair had a grave look swimming on his face.

Tikal presumed it was about Sonic, and just what they'd do if he had fallen [not that she thought that, he just didn't look like the type to give up so easily]. This thought was cemented also due to the fact that she could feel that he was alive, shaken and battered, but alive all the same.

Then the petite echidna stopped in mid-step, noting that there was something wrong with the picture in front of her... just where was Knuckles? Did he go off to fight Chaos in Sonic's place? Tikal thought sharply. And that gave an added anxious beat to her heart, as incorporeal as it had been since she'd died a dozen millennia ago.

Unbeknownst to her at that moment, the crimson Guardian in question was now out in the quaking waters, having remembered something important about this region of town... whilst Sally and co, meanwhile, had just been enlightened on another situation, one that could aid Perfect Chaos in his complete destruction of the city [and all who still inhabited it]. For you see, the...

"–power generator, from what our scientific team at G.U.N. have observed since that monster... Chaos, swept over us all, has become increasingly AWOL due to the masses of energy being convicted by tsunami it brought," the President said seriously, sweat threatening to trickle down his brow over how bad this day had turned. He hadn't even had the chance to inform Rouge of why he'd brought her in... And that could prove disastrous in the long run.

I should make a quick phone call to Victor, just in case... the President made a mental note to do in the next few minutes, before turning a serious, clean eye back onto the assembled persons and speaking once more. "And they informed me and the head of security, who is currently advising the science team on the best possible route to the–"

"'The best possible route' you say? What do you mean by that, sir?" Rotor enquired, ignoring Sally's mild look of disapproval, not anticipating a good end to the query.

The adult man, the appointed overseer of life in Station Square [and its relations with other civilisations] for little more than two years, did not look angry at the interruption [or at least if he was, his eyes did not give anything away to Bunnie, who saw herself as a relatively good judge of character]. Instead, he merely give a small laugh and ruffled with his sleek white collar [as despite the cold infesting waters and the setting sun, I guess one could still say that there was a pretty decent summer's heat trudging on].

"The answer to that young man is horrifyingly simple," he began tentatively, boring his small, hardened eyes at them all. "If left unchecked – and the probabilities have been run countless times already – then the generator could explode and level the remaining city and surrounded areas."

This left everyone visibly shell-shocked [not just Antoine] as to how the danger factor had been turned up a notch, especially Sally who'd made that life-changing decision to start up a resistance force against Robotnik over five years ago. Before they'd been fighting against Robotnik pretty much in their own backyard, but now there were needed to help other more experienced soldiers [the Princess didn't like defining the Freedom Fighters as such, but its grains of truth couldn't be denied] in saving a whole city of thousands, maybe even millions.

It was a daunting task, but from the determined [albeit slightly anxious] looks Sally received from her comrades, her friends, she knew that they were in all the way. They had to help out, even if it got them all killed.

You don't need a reason to help someone, Sonic had said to her one night in that first year he and Tails had been adopted into Knothole Village. And now more than ever,

"Tell us what you have planned, Mr President," Sally responded diligently, the others taking their place either side of her. A look of relief had coursed over the man's face, before he'd sheepishly pasted the debrief over to Topaz, who'd been chatting to the science team via her ear piece communicator, and he had broke apart from the group to make that telephone call.

Rouge had been tempted to go after him, still annoyed at to not knowing what he'd gotten her out if her den for, and also for the fact that she'd heard that said den had collapsed into the waters not long after Chaos' attack, but she'd steeled herself to stay for the debrief.

And mostly because she doubted anyone in this 'club house' looking bunch of Mobians could undertake such specialist missions, save for maybe that crimson furred guy, who hadn't come back from his hastily dive and swim yet.

Topaz then made the bat hold open the laptop [causing Rouge to roll her eyes in annoyance], which depicted a 3D matrix of primary red and blue lines that made up the city from a side view.

With a touch of her index finger she brought to the foreground a 3D side view, consisting now only of red lines, of a series of tunnels, which the high-ranking agent then went on to explain was the sewer grid. And with another tap of a button on-screen, which Rotor, who was positively welling up with giddiness over the technology just a few steps from himself, noted said something along the lines of 'Coordinate Best Route to Value X'[this assigned value being 'power generator'], the angle then changed to a top-down view which inked in a red path.

The lovable walrus was almost tempted to ask just whether they were looking for any interns, whilst he gazed into the laptop's crystal-clear screen, and Tails, who was by his side, looked at it a little less intently, but had blue pools of curiously on him nevertheless.


The gathered group had then discussed among themselves over who should undertake the mammoth task.

And not long into the proceedings had come a bold "I'll do it y'all,' from Bunnie, whose determined demeanour both warmed, and put their hearts on tenterhooks. This generally meant Sally, and a fidgeting fox [and coyote] in particular.

"Are you sure you're up for it darlin'?" came a snide, merry interjection, from none other than Rouge the Bat, who was still wondering what to make of the abnormalities the self-proclaimed 'Bunnie' mustered. "I mean, I wouldn't you want to snap–" She made a quick snapping gesture with her hands. "–like a twig down there, all alone..."

"Rouge..." Topaz glowered – but Rouge waved her 'old lady' superior off.

"I may not have wings, and I may have metallic limbs you uptight bimbo, but I'll be darned if I weren't someone with a bit more class, not to mention strength, than yourself," had been the smooth retort through curled, smirking lips.

Steam could have literally come out of those elongated ears Rouge had [and in Tails' imagination, he swore that he in fact did see some...] from the screwed up, narrow expression that erupted from her face, venom pouring out from Rouge's sea green in particular.

"Oh yeah? Well at least I know what the company of men feels like, not to mention that I don't live in a hut in the middle of the woods like some sort of social outcast," the jewel lover had then spat back, having squeezed out of Topaz some details on their new 'best friends', for it was oh so good to have some leverage of surprise over friends and foes alike at all times, Rouge lived by.

Bunnie's eye visibly twitched, mainly from the sheer ignorance this bat girl was displaying, and inwardly on the small, belittling cut it had inflicted on her heart.

"You really are a devilish piece of work," the southern belle radiated with trembling fury, before cocking her head in Topaz's direction, who'd been holding in exasperated groans at the childish, bitchiness of her assigned comrade. "I'd keep an eye on this one, she'd stab you in the back if it got her a shiny penny," warned in mocking earnest.

At that Rouge had fallen silent, as her snaking tongue suddenly stuck to the roof of her mouth and refused to budge, but eventually managed a 'does it look like I give a damn' like scowl in her new found rival's direction.

Though deep, very deep, in the huntresses heart, she was all in honestly a bit intimidated by the fiery disposition that Bunnie had edged towards her [and not many could claim such a feat]. But that subconscious wound to her pride would have to be licked clean another day, as the Rouge fully aware of herself had decided to shrug and let things continue, knowing that should the rabbit girl fail [and she was close to wishing her to], then she'd be happy to save the day. The probabilities for rewards of gratitude from the President would be immense, after all...

Following that frosty interlude, it was actually Tails who beat the Princess to the punch, asking the southern maiden in a small quiver of a voice whether she was sure about undergoing this, for the deathly events of the echidna past wasn't looking for a new head space anytime soon.

Bunnie had noted that from his eyes in seconds, and so for probably the first time in a long while [if ever, she mused swiftly], the young woman didn't kneel down to the young fox's height – he was growing up, and she felt that she and the others should start respecting that, especially in light of their time here in this personal new part of the world.

"Sure I'm sure. But if I get in a spot of bother, I know where to holler. Y'all ain't getting' rid of me that easy," the warm-hearted rabbit promised with a wink and a small, light laugh, opting to mime fist to fist with her adopted nephew in a similar vein to that which he and Sonic shared.

And from the brightened eyes and smile on his face, as Bunnie went 'round and hugged each of the others in turn [Tikal merely wished her good luck, adding that she'd pray for her success and safe return], it looked like he appreciated her gesture.

It was then that the light of the setting sun sailed behind the maelstrom of clouds, leaving only a small band of light [and Chaos' radiance] to illuminate the ruined city. And that meant that it was going to get cooler, but colder in the calming waters, something which would increase the mortality rate of anyone still hanging on out there.

As if to defy this, a hoarse bellow, and splash, came from behind them. And what the Freedom Fighters saw was [or as Sonic would sincerely bring up later, a definite camera moment] a most unexpected [but warm-hearted] sight they'd seen all day, for being transferred from a tight neck embrace and into cradled arms was a young boy with a mop of chestnut brown hair and turquoise eyes, who could be no more than six and whom looked more tired than hurt.

And it was Knuckles who had saved him, seemingly from nowhere.

"Whoa, whose the kid, Knux?" Sonic would have asked, so Tails had voiced a shorter 'Who's the boy, Knuckles?' one instead.

"Just a fan of superheroes," was the simple, honest reply, with not an ounce of his usual self-consciousness. "Take care of him won't you?" The Guardian spoke sharply to the nurse and doctor, clad in traditional white and blue uniform, who had come across to take the young lad back to their set-up nursing pad across the bay.

"Of course, sir," said the woman with his brunette curls up in a bun. "And thank you."

"No problem," the crimson Guardian replied with a small warming smile. And with little self-consciousness either, he realised. Then Knuckles turned back to face them all. "Now then, I'll turn off this generator," Knuckles then fired up immediately, a clear-cut tone of certainty in his strong voice.

When meet with curious looks, he simply replied that he simply had good hearing – he hadn't been struggling back at the 'shoreline' for the last few minutes, of course not...

Those who knew him didn't believe him, whereas Tikal didn't see the washing line of lies and believed him.

"Naw, you're alright Knuckles. But thanks for–" Bunnie expressed politely.

"No. I insist, Bunnie. There must be more survivors out there," Knuckles added. "And you're one of the strongest all-rounder's in the Freedom Fighters. They'll need you in order to do a great team effort," he continued persuasively, his purple eyes brimming with steel resolve.

"And besides..." he trailed off momentarily. "I'd like to help in any way I can, not only to stop that monster," he almost roared, causing the guys to visibly flinch. "– and save the city, but to redeem and better myself as a Freedom Fighter – even though I really only am part-time one."

And also... for Tikal, the Guardian wisely left unsaid.

Bunnie, who had been pleasantly surprised, and to be honest, more than a little relieved to be, umm, relieved of the mission [that she didn't see anyone but Sally undertaking – and she hadn't wanted herself to be worrying for her up here if she had], took a moment to collect her thoughts.

And about whether to press him, she supposed. They all knew he was hurting from the truth about his race, and Chaos' hand in it, and so he felt. No. He needed to have a hand in his defeat, and since Sonic was now fighting Perfect Chaos again [he'd shoot up into the skies again during Knuckles' return], then this was the next best thing to doing just that.

So the rabbit gave the crimson echidna a play fist in his right shoulder and wished him luck.

Soon after that, the young man who'd been saddled with the mantle of guarding a powerful, world [potentially reality] bending emerald – and recently just six more – was now willingly undertaking another mantle. One that, if he succeeded, save countless lives and the remaining physical legacy of one of the few remaining human settlements on the planet.

The science team had quickly excavated an entrance to the tunnels, just half a mile northeast from where the FFs, Rouge, Topaz, The President and Tikal had stood, but remained nervous about the probabilities that other sections of the tunnels had probably collapsed in on themselves already.

So, thankfully for them, Knuckles was well prepared for that, and with just a quick gut-pounding moment of reluctance preceding it, the young Guardian stepped down into the darkness and let it seize him entirely, all with just one thought on his mind.

The end begins now, Chaos. My people will be avenged...


Back in the eye of the storm, and just minutes prior to Knuckles' descent, a spread of bubbles sang the arrival of a floating body garbed in golden fur to its surface.

"Heyeh?" came an incoherent mumble through a mouth awash with salt water. Which tasted icky [as one would naturally expect], but at least it wasn't blood he was tasting, Sonic thought gladly.

That aside though, and despite the pain-shearing cuts engrained into his nervous system's memory, the golden hedgehog felt more of energy than bruised and broken [though his sides did hurt a little, Sonic begrudgingly admitted to himself].

And it didn't matter that they did either, for he knew that the chaos energy would heal his wounds. Sonic wasn't afraid of having being dealt a hidden mortal blow [at least, not yet]. But he was afraid of the fact that this short dip would most likely have shortened the time he had left in this state, because after, if, he turned back, then he'd be truly out of ideas.

"Okay, enough time talking to ol' grey matter true blue," Sonic voiced impatiently, and a little ironic at that, considering he was the only in ear shot [save for maybe Chaos, who he doubted would even be interested in the world's largest pizza right now]. And then the young hero propelled himself forward so that he was floating upright in the water [whose temperature he assumed was bitterly cold, since his Super state was still keeping him constantly warm as well as refreshed], and then looked up.

And was Sonic glad that he had done!

For a barrage of tentacles, not to mention a furious roar came at him like a shockwave from ahead, reacting so swiftly, and so cleanly, that they didn't even skirt the water.

"So you resumed your little game of demolition whilst I took a time out, huh? How very confident of you," he taunted playfully, darting past the first appendage and then spinning off the next one in tow with a handstand, before boosting up vertically, spinning like a spin top toy, leaving the remaining tentacles coiled dumbly into one botched mess.

"–Because as old lard bucket has begun to realise, there's one thing that you simply shouldn't do when it comes to yours truly..." he continued enthusiastically, before then trailing off for anticipation effect [which was more for his own amusement than Chaos'].

"Never put me in a tight spot!" Because I come back twice as awesome.

And with that the golden being shot out like a bullet, his crimson eyes hungry to get back at the watery being with a winning strike.

He no longer cared for the resumed spewing of slicing tornados tearing up what remained of the Station Square skyline, but he needed to get close to pinpoint a weak spot.

But then, halfway through his approach, a familiar buzz sounded into the rushing air.

"Oh for cryin' out loud," he moaned, recognising the caller ID on his communicator [that had by a miracle, still been hanging for dear life amidst one of his back spines]. "Can't they see that I'm a tad tied up here?"

Still, he answered, more out of politeness than anything, and the next sound the cobalt blue hedgehog heard was the warm and playful, but rigid, voice of one Sally Acorn, and from what his ears could gleam [the water tornados were still coming at him after all], Rotor and Tails were with her.

Sonic supposed, hoped, that they'd come up with a plan of attack he could take rein of. And his friends didn't let him down.

Admittedly though [and so more zigzagging evasive actions later], all Sonic had heard sounded like gibberish, but then when the small matter [ha ha, Sonic inwardly laughed at his own silly joke] of Chaos' brain, the pink squidgy matter that was still as content as ever within the gigantean mass that was the head, was brought up, it all fell into place. Why hadn't he thought of it before?

... Don't answer that Mr Subconsciousness, Sonic interjected. He got enough flack about the way he used his brain from Sally every other week as it is, without arguing with a non-entity in his head. And besides, it wasn't as if the [Operation: Chaos] plan hadn't entirely not come to mind before – for he had noticed that racing at incredible speeds as Super Sonic he'd left a lightning streak, but now the others had told him that his form had also transformed into such.

Furthermore, Rotor and Tails had together theorised that using this speeding velocity would enable him to use the water tornados to his own advantage in that, to get a clear shot at the cortex of Perfect Chaos, Super Sonic would have to gain momentum, and the golden hedgehog would do that by corkscrewing around the tornados' circumferences before charging himself at Chaos. His velocity and momentum, coupled with physics and gravity, would do the rest they promised – which was good enough for this cool hedgehog!

And so, thanking them and 'signing off', Sonic turned his attentions back on his towering foe, who looked livid [or as livid as a big water monster with a train-sized mouth, and teeth, with countless probing tentacles could look like] at being ignored – if our blue blur had of gone with Tikal's suggestion to, somehow, purify the beast, then to say he was failing would be an understatement.

Wow, and to think he started off just a little bigger than me, Sonic wondered. Those Chaos Emeralds really are a barrel of surprises. It almost makes me wish for the day(s) they got into the hands of Plunder and his sky pirates, before they'd been fully restored... he continued on with a gnawing twinge, as he closed the distance between him and the mass that was Perfect Chaos. Almost. He shuddered a little at that unexpected recall.

And right that second, his crimson pools indicated, a water tornado was coming right at him.

Perfect.

Sonic had figured that flying up to meet him wasn't an option, not least because of the jaws that could trap him, but because he was adamant that a mild flick of that head would sent him careening into a nearby building and bury him. And if that were to happen, the golden hedgehog wouldn't know whether the remnants of his chaos energy wouldn't exude from him, in an explosive fashion (and thereby, possibly, hurt other people). Not to mention another full-on laser beam.

Then it hit him. If he couldn't get at the head from the top, then how about ascending from the bottom?

And so that's what Sonic settled on as he and the slicing fury of a tornado met just mere feet away from Perfect Chaos' base, in turn utilising his greatest assets, his speedy feet, in order to essentially surf his way up the watery maelstrom in a fashion that reminded him, a little, his and Knuckles' escapade at the Sky Sanctuary Zone actually. And any Robuttnik-kicking times were good times for him!

But alas, once Sonic reached the water tornado's peak, he shoot off with a flurry of the wet stuff cascading from it, breaking its form for a second or two before it went on its aimlessly merry way (and straight into another building), and then dived straight towards the base where Perfect Chaos and the new sea met.

And with rip-roaring momentum (and okay, the laws of physics), he dashed right through Perfect Chaos' watery body – feeling again a zing of that 'natural high' that had come with this fully-conscious Super transformation, and not so much a fear of the heavy water at all – and smashed into its pulsating brain with a furious bang.

Perfect Chaos spontaneously exploded in a shower of sparking liquid, roaring in pain.

"That's one point apiece now, ya big drip," shouted Super Sonic jubilantly. I will defeat you.

Perfect Chaos, meanwhile, piece by regenerating piece, had collapsed into the water and reformed a great distance across the bay. Away from its SS Tower sinkhole and nearer the Freedom Fighters, or more specifically, nearby the tunnel excavation...

And while Super Sonic could not yet hear it, the chorus of cheering extended beyond the Freedom Fighters. That is, to all of those still stuck in buildings or in the rumbling waters [and even some of those mending down on the questionable ground].

Although this strengthening bond of hope across strangers from the respective families of humanity and Mobians did not break one's resolve, one's praying spirit, that a different end could be met. And who knows... maybe miracles really can come true.


STATION SQUARE RUINS / CENTRAL BAY / 17: 51 PM

"Everyone, we need to get away from here," Tikal spoke up suddenly, out of the blue, her usual soft and gentle tone uplifted to a warning crescendo. "It's not safe."

And when Perfect Chaos had reformed himself just over a stone's throw away from them all, they all collectively had that similar strand of thought, thinking it an obvious observation, and thus completely missing the point the spirit girl had been trying to let them in on.

But like a curtain drawn over a window, they didn't see it at all, and they only mildly began to move to farther shores.

They won't get away in time, the former shrine priestess realised gravely. That small inkling of knowing within what she deemed her corporeal [but at the same incorporeal] soul getting brighter, much like a train growing closer and closer in a dark tunnel – until a collision must occur. And I'm not important.

So she expanded on the emergency at hand. And then that warning crescendo culminated with a vengeance.

"You need to get away from the building you're next to – now!" she screamed.

And so they did, putting their faith in the calm and quiet individual [though Topaz had had to press Rouge a bit more, due to her huge scepticism], and had swiftly evacuated the 'platform' they'd been standing on to another via a shrinking 'pathway'.

"How are you to be knowing this?" Antoine had spoken little below a high-pitched squeak whilst they ran, snapping shakily back to reality when he saw Perfect Chaos turn its sneering long face over to where they'd just been.

"Yeah Tikal, are you, like, a seer or something?" Rotor interjected wearily, a stitch beginning to spread at his sides.

By this time the group had come to a reassuring halt and were looking as the petite girl with anxious curiosity. Especially to Rouge and the others who by now were beginning to suspect there was more to her than met the eye [with Rouge personally having noticed that 'Tikal' wasn't leaving any foot print disturbances in the ground].

"I'm entirely sure that's the case," she responded with a slight blush, trying to explain as much as she could. What she understood of it all anyway. "But my time (and close contact) with Chaos, a god, in the Master Emerald... It opened me to a vast sea of possibilities. Like it... Well... Umm..."

"Enlightened you, or some of that jazz?" Bunnie finished for her. Tikal returned a smile in thanks.

"Yes," she articulated slowly. And there gave a small pause to look at the non-Freedom Fighters present. "But that comes with being dead I suppose."

Those not in the know gave her a shocked [silent] gasped expression. Although it was Rouge who, in her own way, thought what was really on their minds.

So, she's a ghost...? the shapely bat deadpanned, fighting heavily the urge to roll her eyes and groan. I think after today, I'm not going to be surprised by much anymore. And actually, I wouldn't be surprised if a fiery hell god came out of the ground next and started fighting that Chaos monster, she mused, bordering on sarcasm.

"But from the few instances that I've had this sensation," Tikal continued, her voice reminding those present of a cool wind washing white foam onto shore. Delicate, familiar, and yet unfamiliar all at once, as though coming from a distant unknown place. "–like how I found Knuckles in Station Square after the Master Emerald was shattered, or the robot Gamma in the Mystic Ruins." No one present, not even Amy Rose, knew just why the robot would've been stationed there [and they never would]. She paused. "And even Chaos fighting Sonic on your first night here."

"Although..." the peach-coloured echidna mused briefly, "–They have not always been accurate in their portrayal, so this building could be the one from my vision," she said truthfully.

"It iz so unfair," Antoine lamented pathetically. And Rotor joined him. "Not to mention the lameness of it all..."

It was then that Super Sonic landed another brutal blow to Perfect Chaos, and upon its re-emergence it had retaliated with a devastating energy beam right at them, thrusting the gang into the waters.

"Help! Someone please help us!" a foreign voice sliced through the air not long after. And then another, and another [and you can see where this is going].

And not one to turn down a person in need, Sally Acorn, who was little worse for wear from the unexpected swim [albeit the gushingly, sickly intake of salt water that'd wormed its way in her mouth], had utilised old lessons and swam after the survivors in need.

Seeing this, Antoine, who'd surfaced legs first, was hit over the head over just how much he wanted the Princesse to see him, actually see him – and not as the cowardly man who disgraced the soldiers uniform he wore pretty much always either.

But darting his blonde mopped head around [like a headless chicken], heart pounding in his chest [seemingly ready to take flight], Antoine couldn't see anyone that either wasn't nearer someone who would, or had been rescued whilst he'd been looking so.

And then a ginger mop of hair suddenly shot free of the water nearby, a boy of ten or a little more, and his blue eyes bleared with panic. But he wasn't screaming – although the way his mouth feverishly contorted would've argued against that – for the boy, Dan, was mute, and had been all his life.

Antoine began to push towards him, doing a half-assed attempt at doing a front-stroke crawl, before his brain and heart could even exchange hellos. So when that ginger faired kid had sunk once more back under the surface, our whimsy hero was only a hairs breadth away and so he dived on after him.

Or he would have, had a hollering voice not have sounded from a few feet away, and drawing ever closer.

"Antoine, sweetie," Bunnie breathed quickly as the waters bopped her and Antoine up and down. "Let me save the kid, okay?"

"Why?" he responded, hurt. "Are you not believing in me?"

"No, no, it's not that. It's because I –" she began tenderly, Bunnie's green eyes shining and her right hand slowly, anxiously arching over to caress the coyote's face, before he cut her off.

"Non, non," the French man seethed recklessly, all thoughts of impressing the Princesse gone from mind [mostly]. "I-I am needing to be d-doing this!"

And with that the coyote dove into the murky waters, and leaving his fate just as obscure.


STATION SQUARE RUINS / UNDERGROUND POWERGRID TUNNELS / 18: 08 PM

Down below, it wasn't the fact that a few feet into the entrance to these catacombs there'd been a pile of rubble blocking his way [that have been easily dug through], nor that downward slopes in the right path had become waterlogged [he'd practised the art of swimming a lot back home], but things weren't going so well because, well... Knuckles had actually found himself a bit lost...

Topaz had given him a spare gadget, communicator thing [to be returned, obviously], whilst her bat friend had pretended to look at though she wasn't looking at him – not that Knuckles would've noticed either way – and it was supposed to lead the way. Or the red lines were, but at the moment they were becoming obscured with orange and yellow ones [something our crimson Guardian wouldn't have linked to a certain water monster being right above him and distorting a concoction of wavelengths, an lessening the efficiency of such devices], and so it was becoming a bit disorienting.

But still he walked down the dark, mangy tunnels, whose earth-compact walls were beginning to give way to rough, but solid grey slabs. Many of the overhead lamps having instead decided to bathe in darkness due to lack of sparking nourishment, the device in his hand being his only light source. Not that Knuckles was afraid of the dark [no way], for much of the Floating Islands' own tunnel systems weren't connected to any unnatural light sources [and even if he'd wanted any installed, he was no engineer of such]. And the crimson-tempered Guardian was well aware of those.

Thinking about it, the further Knuckles trekked into these manmade tunnels, the less he thought of them. And it wasn't just the nauseatingly heavy, damp air, oh no. It was the fact that they obviously weren't serviced that much [from the worn, cracks now and again, to the general grubby wall surfaces, and naturally the ease it'd become waterlogged and the power disrupted], and they [supposedly] formed the heart of the city! And all those nauseating lights... he recalled with a grimace.

"Hmph," he grunted angrily to the empty tunnels. "My Islands' tunnel system far outnumbers these, and yet I keep tabs on them all." Best I can anyway... he added.

But still, the Floating Island Guardian frowned as the grey mass of tunnels narrowed into one path, which had one or two lamps still on. That beast could probably easily absorb whatever power this explosion of power could cause. It could even be its plan. And so I have to stop it, for everyone and myself, he cemented.

And Knuckles did this just as he passed through the last archway, and so failed to notice a curious sight hanging atop it.

It was a curious symbol, made out of seven triangular points that drew in close – that was 3 points at the bottom and top, with one [two pointed] stretching across the circumference – which simmered a radiant gold, as though it was living. And at the centre inter-linking all of this was a tall, but rounded eclipse of a shape that was made up of countless bands of light, making it look akin to a rainbow. Finally, at the core of this 'egg' like shape there was a small three pronged crown indentation, coated in bluish silver, which was almost surgically separated by a bleeding white band of white in its centre.

... Nor the quiet, melancholic sound that then brushed over that same room, whispering softly to no other but the abundant darkness.

But in the next room, however, Knuckles was met with a whirring madness of activity, almost as though a breathless welcome to its foreign visitor. For you see, its walls, its floors and its air hadn't seen a visitor in a long while [as the crimson Guardian had suspected].

That was due to the marvel of modern technology, of course.

Pillars of conduits littered [and illuminated] the four corners of the room, its size akin to a medium-sized garden [more width than height], and at its centre was the power generator, hold firmly just a few feet beneath the sleek tiled floors by a solid, thick casing of material, and its control console just in front of it.

Knuckles the Echidna had finally arrived at his destination, and as he stepped briskly forward, the young man took a gander at his device again, just to see the code once more.

Now, seconds later, he stood at the control console, a maze of levers, glass screens and buttons. And then there was the noise was a myriad of buzzing, ones that stayed at a constant humming, ones that remained low and hidden [to those of normal hearing], and then the droning, piercing ones that came every few seconds. The term 'hot under the collar' was starting to apply here too, if the gathering sweat on his forehead was of any indication.

It was enough to make his head feel woozy. Knuckles would rather deal with his ancient ancestors' ancient technology anytime instead.

But I have no choice, the Guardian remanded himself for wavering. So here I go...

The President had told him to look out for a set of controls contained within a container of purple tinted lines and so Knuckles scouted across the console for such, and found it with minimal fuss on the far right side [you wouldn't keep the power or and self-destruction switch in the centre of a console now, would you?]. The numbers panel at the bottom of said contained space glinting blue and silver up at him now, as if egging him on, causing Knuckles to shake his head of such nervous thoughts.

And then he began to enter the de-activation code, his hands lessening in their wobbling with each correct digit.

Zero.

Eight.

One.

Knuckles' finger skirts over to the last one [Five], but he hesitates, for something suddenly feels amiss.

It was [unknown to him] that quiet whisper he'd missed before, but now it darted out from the darkness and through the sparseness of the room, giving the wind-less air a soft, screaming, phantom quality that embodied the prickling sensation that one was being watched. A hair-raising feeling: that someone was behind you, completely motionless and silent, but that if you only turned around, they'd vanish into thin air, as if never there at all.

"This is ridiculous!" he shouted, cursing these spineless jitters. "There's no one here but–"

Unfortunately, Knuckles would never have the chance to utter another word, for in the shadows there was a figure. A figure so hidden, it was though it was garbed in the darkness itself, and whose eyes shone an emerald crimson – a figure also with something in his long hands.

And it was with this, and a single flick of a finger, and a sadistic beaming smile of white from the darkness, that an echo of a simple 'clicking' sound filled the large open space.

The glassy surface of the generator console served to only reflect Knuckles' shocked and angry expression before he was enveloped by the sudden explosion of fiery light.


XXXXX

Cue Sonic Unlimited Ending Theme: "My Will" by ARTIST Dream

XXXXX


And thus ends the twenty-fifth chapter of this story arc!


The beginning of the end and the end of the beginning has begun.

Next time the last stand reaches its climatic conclusion – and its aftermath will change the Freedom Fighters' lives forever!


And here we have Antoine pull off both a brave [and selfish] move to deepen his relationship with Sally, as well as prolong Bunnie's suffering [sorry Bunnie], and Amy learns an important lesson.

Tikal's grandmother's quote in this chapter is spoken by the Cheshire Cat [yes, that Cheshire Cat] in the Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories game on the GBA.

Axed titles for this chapter included: 'Hyper Sonic's Birth', 'Golden Anger', 'The Stage Is Set', 'Ripples' and 'Beyond Good & Evil'.

And who was the mysterious figure at the end? Well, let's just say... that won't be the only mystery left to figure out by the final upcoming chapter... ;-)


I don't know when you should expect the final one to come out – probably not in July, maybe in August [though I am going away on holiday for a week or two then], or September. Either way, the story will be done this year!

I hope you enjoyed this, and the chapters so far, any comments or ratings would be nice and appreciated!

Take care ya'll *smiley face*