Chapter 31: Thunder, Rain and Lightning
"Hey, am I bad, or am I bad?"
Sonic tilted his chair back on its hind legs. His feet were on the table, hands behind his head, sunglasses on his nose. A lemonade, tall and frosty, stood near his ankle. He, Tails, Knuckles, the flicky Nina and Amy were seated at a cafe table behind the Sunset Resort, only a few yards from the sea.
"No, I'm the cool one," Tails grinned. "I tore up the Egg Walker all by myself."
"What about me?" Amy demanded, setting her milkshake down with a clink. "I smashed Zero to bits, and there was NObody around to help me!"
"For that matter, I defeated Chaos 6 singlehandedly," Knuckles said from his relaxed position in his lawn chair. "And I took his six emeralds home for safekeeping, too."
"Sounds to me like you're all heros," chirped the pink flicky perched on Amy's chair. "Why argue?"
"I still think I'm bad," Sonic said, crossing his feet. "I mean, there I was, in Final Egg. Nobody around but baddies." He waved a hand through the air, palm outward. "Mecha on my tail. And then up pops the granddaddy of all robots, the Egg Viper." He proceeded to describe his battle with Robotnik in great detail. As he talked, Amy and Tails' eyes grew wide with fearful fascination, but to Sonic's annoyance, Knuckles only nodded now and then, smiling to himself and gazing at the ocean. It wasn't until Sonic reached the part about the fairy's lifesaving warning that Knuckles turned and stared at him soberly.
Satisfied, Sonic ended his tale with how fast he had escaped the fortress and came back to the city. "And that's it," he concluded. "Why were you grinning, Knux? I say something funny?"
The small smile reappeared. Knuckles shook his head. "Oh, nothing like that. I just though it was kind of funny about the Egg Viper. See, I designed it."
Tails, Amy and Sonic gaped, but Sonic recovered first. "Oh yeah, you designed a lot of robots, didn't you?"
"YOU worked for Robotnik?" Amy gasped, still staring at Knuckles as if he were Metal Sonic in disguise.
"Sure he did," Tails said, sipping his root beer. "A long time ago, Robotnik hired him ... and the Master emerald."
Amy looked inquiringly at Sonic, who leaned forward, gulped his lemonade and leaned back again. "Long story, girl. I'll tell you sometime."
Knuckles was not interested in robots at the moment. "Sonic, about the fairy--did you ever meet her before?"
Sonic brought his chair down on all fours and leaned his elbows on the table. "Well, yeah. She led me all through the pyramid."
Knuckles straightened. "You didn't go to the temple, did you? The shrine to Chaos?"
Sonic looked blank for a moment. "Oh, you mean that weird hall with the neat mural? Yeah."
"What neat mural?" Tails asked, hurt. "Sonic, you never told me about a mural."
"Or me," added Amy, who was feeling lost.
Knuckles described it briefly, then looked at Sonic. "Sonic, that was Chaos. That was what happened to my ancestors."
Sonic frowned. "How can you be sure? Did the fairy up and TELL you?"
"Well, no ..."
"Knux, we've SEEN Chaos. He's big and mean, but he's not strong enough to wipe out a city. We'd have been toast if he was." He paused and took a drink of lemonade.
"How'd you get out of the pyramid?" Knuckles asked, examining his shovelclaws innocently.
Sonic faltered. "Uh ... I, um ... you know, I got out somehow."
"Did you have a dream?"
Sonic met Knuckles' eye sideways. "Why do you ask that?"
Knuckles gazed steadily at his friend. "Because I had one there, too, and woke up outside the pyramid."
"Hey!" Tails interrupted suddenly. "I had a dream and woke up in a different place! It was about an echidna girl."
"And chao," Amy and the flicky said in unison. Amy looked over her shoulder. "Nina, you had a dream, too?"
"Ye-es," Nina said hesitantly. "It frightened me."
"Tikal," Knuckles said quietly. Everyone looked at him solemnly and nodded.
A moment later the four mobians and the flicky were leaning together on the table, talking in low voices, and Knuckles was scribbling furiously on a napkin. Everyone had had one dream apiece with the exception of Knuckles, who had had three. He figured it was because he was an echidna.
After some discussion and Knuckles had rearranged his notes, they decided that Tails's dream came first in chronological order. Tikal had not ventured to the shrine on the Floating Island, and was thinking over the oncoming war. Next was Knuckles' first vision, when Tikal had tried to talk her father out of attacking the island and taking the power stones for himself. Third was Amy's dream, when Tikal had crept to the shrine herself and encountered the chao. Amy added that a green-eyed water monster had come out of the fountain and frightened both herself and Tikal right before she woke up. "But she must have made friends with him," added Nina, "because she said he was gentle in my dream." Nina's dream came after Amy's, for Tikal as familiar with both the chao and Chaos.
Knuckles' second and third dreams came next. His second dream was of Tikal talking to the Master emerald, pleading for it to take everyone away, and Chaos's disapproving growl when she considered hiding the emeralds herself. Then she promised to help the chao and departed. But in Knuckles' third dream, the emeralds were gone, the shrine was on fire, the chao were dead, and Tikal had been abandoned. Sonic's dream came almost at the same time as Knuckles's, but Sonic had seen something Knuckles hadn't--Tikal run up the burning steps toward the Master Emerald.
"And so that's that," Sonic said. "Tikal failed and they took the emeralds. But what was all that supposed to accomplish? You know, all of us having those visions."
Knuckles stared at his notes, chin braced on one big palm. "I don't know. I thought it had something to do with Chaos, but now I'm no so sure." He sighed.
Tails noisily slurped the last of his drink from the bottom of his glass. "It's like we're missing something, don't you think?"
"Yeah," Amy added. "Didn't she say ANYthing about Chaos?"
"She said something about not wanting to rouse him," Knuckles said.
"And she said something about "he will destroy us all," Sonic added hopefully.
Knuckles jotted this down, gazed at it, then leaned back and rubbed his eyes with a thumb and forefinger. "But maybe she wasn't talking about Chaos. Maybe her father became invulnerable when he got all the emeralds."
The five of them sighed. For a few minutes there was nothing but the swish of the ocean at the shore and the mew of a passing gull.
Knuckles stood up. "I need to go. I promised the Chaotix I'd be back by three. They want to go to a football game or something." They others got up to see him off, then, feeling as if lunch was over with his departure, went their ways.
A week passed. Sonic took Tails and Amy to Twinkle Park, and the three had a grand time. Sonic wanted to go snowboarding with Knuckles, but was told that it had grown too warm and the snow was melting, so the slopes were closed for the summer.
One day they rented a boat and went out to the Egg Carrier. The monster ship was a dozen feet lower in the water, and tilted at a slight angle. It would probably sink within a few days. There was much hoopla in the newspapers about how the Carrier would pollute the bay, but no move was made to dismantle it. Everyone was too afraid of Dr. Robotnik.
On Saturday Knuckles and the Chaotix wrestled the Master emerald back to its original place in Hidden Palace.
On Sunday Sonic and Tails hopped and train to the Mystic Ruins. Tails introduced Mac and Sonic, and Sonic pledged Mac the support of the Freedom Fighters in return for helping Tails. Then the two sent the rest of the day looking for the pyramid in the jungle, which they discovered near sunset, and gleefully pointed the exploring party toward it. "Now it'll be explored," Sonic grinned to Tails as they rode the train back to Sapphire City. "We'll have to show the archeologists how it used to look, huh?"
"Sure!" Tails grinned back. "But tomorrow, I want to find that cat who took the Tornado. I want my plane back."
"Our plane, little bro, our plane," Sonic said, slapping his friend on the back.
On Monday all hell broke loose.
Chapter 32: Danger, Water Rising
At dawn Knuckles was awakened by a sinking sensation. For a moment he lay in bed, trying to recognize the feeling through his sleep-clouded head. Then he leaped out of bed and tore outside in a panic--the island was dropping again!
The Floating Island crashed into the ocean for the second time in two weeks, creating a monstrous shockwave that beat the mile-distant shore with thunder. Knuckles picked himself up--it had knocked him down--and ran for his teleporter. Visions of a second Chaos filled his panicked head, and of the Master emerald laying all over the floor in fragments--
But when the echidna reached Hidden Palace, he found everything just as he had left it. No mess, the Master emerald in one piece, the super emeralds unharmed. Flustered and confused as he was, it took Knuckles a moment to realize that something had indeed changed.
The Master emerald was dead.
At that moment, miles and miles away, a much different but more horrible scene was being played out.
Robotnik had emerged from his Final Egg fortress for some air. Engines on very low, he crept his hovercraft about the woods a few feet above the ground, too weary from his battle with Sonic to do much flying. Chaos was dead. The Egg Carrier was destroyed. There was always the Egg Carrier 2, but he had poured his resources into its mate, leaving the 2 a stripped-out shell that could do little more than fly. At the moment, the thought of complex political maneuvering to gain control of Sapphire City was very discouraging. The doctor was fed up with his goal of world dictatorship that morning and was ready to quit.
Then he jerked his hovercraft to a halt and rose up in his seat in astonishment. A pool of water had seeped out of the woods and was pouring toward him in a mass. "Chaos!" Robotnik exclaimed in delight. "You're not dead!"
A guttural snarl was his only reply. Chaos 0 grew into his small humanoid form and sprang at the hovercraft. Robotnik felt a sharp jolt as Chaos lifted his hovercraft into the air, then the sky and trees whirled around and blinked into darkness.
"Sonic! Sonic!" Tails pounded frantically on Sonic's door. He heard Sonic groan sleepily and mumble, "Who is it?"
"It's Tails! Sonic, the Floating Island fell again! I saw it!"
Tails had been standing on his balcony, watching boats in the bay, when he noticed a distant blot of land strike the ocean ...
Sonic's door unlocked and Sonic jerked it open, spines matted and eyes glassy with sleep. "What? Come in."
Tails walked in, stepped around Sonic's sneakers and socks, tossed a newspaper from a chair in the corner and sat down. Sonic picked up his shoes and socks and retreated to the bathroom. He emerged a few minutes later, spines brushed and slicked back with water, sneaker straps flapping loose. He sat on the rumpled bed to fasten them and commanded, "Tell me what you said before. What about the Floating Island?"
Tails told him as quickly as he could. For someone used to sleeping in, Sonic sure wasn't protesting. As Tails finished, Sonic sat and looked at him, digesting the news. "Tails," he said slowly, "we're in trouble now. "We'd better get out there, fast."
The two raced out of the hotel, stopping just long enough to grab a donut apiece in the lobby. Then the two locked wrists, and Tails airlifted Sonic up and out over the sea, toward the island in the water.
"This doesn't make any sense," said Knuckles.
He had examined Hidden Palace from top to bottom, paying special attention to the emerald chamber. Nothing was out of place. Nothing to indicate why the Master emerald had been reduced from a power stone to a hunk of green glass. Maybe it had lost power when it shattered ...
... or maybe the chaos emeralds caused it.
The chaos emeralds did weird things to his island. Perhaps he shouldn't have brought them back with him. He had better take them to the mainland and give them to Sonic. Sonic would know what to do ...
Knuckles gathered the six emeralds into his trusty satchel, pushing away the thought that although HE was learned in ancient lore, he knew less about how to use the chaos emeralds than a mainlander.
He rode the teleporter back to the surface and trotted down toward the eastern rim of the island, about 200 yards distant. He could glide the mile or so to the coast, then head north to Sapphire City ... it wasn't that far ...
He stopped with a gasp.
At the bottom of a little hill was a wide flat area that served as a beach when the island was resting properly in the water. On the beach was Robotnik's hovercraft, lying on its side. A few feet away from it lay the doctor himself.
Knuckles ran up and knelt beside him. Robotnik was soaked to the skin and only partly conscious. "Doc!" Knuckles exclaimed, dropping his satchel on the ground. "Doc, wake up!"
Robotnik stirred and opened his eyes. "It's terrible!" he groaned. "C-Chaos is ..."
"Is what?" Knuckles questioned. "Doc, Chaos is what?"
Robotnik only shook his head and closed his eyes again.
A sound. Knuckles turned his head. He glimpsed his bag, deflated-looking and sopping wet, and the vast pool of water lapping it. "CHAOS!" He screamed, leaping to his feet. But he was already too late.
"Take us down, Tails," Sonic said.
"Aye aye, skipper," Tails replied, clapping his heels together to deactivate his anklets. They sank down, and the island below came up to meet them. "Slower," Sonic called, and Tails held back a bit. It wouldn't do to bash them into the ground. "Okay, good, good," Sonic called. His feet touched down. He let go Tails' wrists and rubbed his arms, and Tails landed beside him a second later.
"Now, where would Knux be?" Tails began, but he was struck dumb by a sound that rose from the trees to their left--a screaming roar of obvious triumph.
Sonic blanched. He had heard that sound in his dream of Tikal. "C'mon!" he ordered, and the set off at a run toward the sound.
Sonic had expected to find Knuckles, and so was not surprised to see the echidna lying on the ground. But he had not expected to see Robotnik and his hovercraft there, too. Sonic and Tails' feet squelched in the wet grass as they ran up. "Knuckles--and Robotnik! What happened here?" Sonic was too shocked to even think of what he should do. He had never seen Robotnik absolutely powerless before.
Knuckles tried to speak, but gagged and coughed up water. He was drenched. He sat up, coughed wrackingly, then turned frightened--honestly frightened--eyes on Sonic "Sonic, Chaos is a fearsome beast. He attacked me for the emeralds--I couldn't defeat Chaos 6 without weapons!" He coughed again. Sonic crouched beside him, breathing hard, but not from running. "Knux--" "Sonic," Knuckles interrupted him, "if Chaos gets the last emerald we're done for." He grabbed the hedgehog's arm and shook a little. "The mural, Sonic! Remember the mural? That's what Chaos looks like with all seven emeralds!"
Robotnik rolled over and sat up. He looked at Sonic, Tails and Knuckles, who looked back at him without fear. Nor was he afraid of them--they were not the enemy, now. "He's not going to get away with this!" Robotnik snarled. He pushed his hovercraft back upright, climbed into it and started the engines. "Robotnik, wait!" Sonic called, but the doctor had already whirled the ship about and was roaring away in the direction of the mainland.
Suddenly Sonic exclaimed, "Hey, stop it! Aw, gee!" Tails and Knuckles looked at him to see Sonic flop down in a sitting position, head drooping and eyes closed, as if he had fallen asleep.
Knuckles stood. "Tails, I'm leaving. Don't worry about Sonic--it's another dream."
Tails understood at once. "Tikal?"
"Yeah." The echidna wrung out his dreadlocks. "Go after the last emerald as soon as he wakes up. Bye." Knuckles leaped off the edge of the island and glided away toward the mainland. Tails watched him go, wondering where he was going, then sat down to wait for Sonic to come to.
Chapter 33: Ancient City Blazing
Sonic looked around. It was night, and he was standing on a paved stone path. Everything was bathed in red-gold light, as in his previous dream or vision or whatever. Wondering what he would see this time, he jogged up the path, arrived in sight of the shrine and saw a slightly different sight than before.
The fire had only just been started; fuel was piled around the base of the shrine and lit, but the seven pillars with their emeralds were still standing. Silhouetted against the flames was what looked like an army of echidnas. Sonic circled around to see what they were doing.
They were waiting in a group, ferocious warriors bedecked in feathers and warpaint. Their leader stood before them, a chieftain echidna in a fearsome mask, carrying a razor-tipped spear. But facing him was Tikal, all the chao huddled behind her in terror.
"No, father!" she cried, holding out her arms as if that would stop the warriors from advancing.
"Out of the way, Tikal!" commanded the chief.
"No! I won't obey!" she cried. "Don't do this! I beg you!"
"Tikal, we need those emeralds to give us total power!" her father said. "It's power for the people ... and they are your people too, you know!" He raised his spear and shook it at the shrine. "We will re-take the island with the emerald power behind us!"
"Father, please!" Tikal said, voice cracking with emotion. "Destroying the guardians won't solve anything! You'll always want more power! Don't you see? You must stop before it's too late!"
Then Sonic witnessed one of the most haunting moments in the history of the Floating Island.
"Bah!" the chief bellowed. "I don't listen to the words of a child! Ready men--charge!"
"Father!" Tikal shrieked as the warriors attacked, but she was powerless against them. Sonic saw her fall, struck a vicious blow with the butt of a spear, saw swordblades flash blood-red in the firelight, heard the cries of the chao.
The hedgehog closed his eyes and covered his ears to shut out the awful scene. Seeing dead chao was bad enough, but seeing them killed was too much. He didn't look up until the warriors had finished their merciless task. Then the chief yelled, "To the Master emerald! We'll take it first!" With a chorus of battle cries, the echidnas swarmed up the steps of the little pyramid.
From where he stood, Sonic had an excellent view of what happened next.
He saw water splash out of the fountain and form into Chaos 0 at the top of the stairs, between the echidnas and the Master emerald. The chief and his men halted, piling into one another on the steps. "It's a monster!" Sonic heard the chief yell.
The seven chaos emeralds moved from their pillars, glowing like fire against the night, and entered Chaos 0's body.
Light--brighter than the fire, brighter than the sun--Sonic shielded his eyes. He heard the warriors scream and the chief cry, "NO!" and a huge rushing, crashing of water, then sudden silence. Sonic opened his eyes to see Chaos 2, the one with the hammerhead and two burly arms, standing alone on the stairs. As Sonic watched, Chaos strode down the stairs and stood among the fallen chao, looking at them with his featureless green eyes. He picked up one in his three fingered hands and held it a moment. Absolute silence. Sonic could see the chao's dark blood clouding the clear water in Chaos's hand.
Then Chaos lost his mind.
One moment Chaos was quiet, holding the chao. The next he gave a horrible scream, threw his head back, and began to change shape. He grew--up, up, into a pillar of water two stories, five stories, seven stories high, until his head, whatever it was, was lost in darkness. Then the water hit the ground and raced with the speed of a tidal wave into the night, driven by a thirst for revenge, goaded on by the blood of the dead chao in Chaos's water.
The terrible roar in the distance. Sonic knew he had played this scene before--he crossed the pavement to Tikal, lying stunned in the grass. He numbly helped her up. But this time, when she cried, "I must stop him! He will destroy us all!" and climbed the stairs of the pyramid, Sonic followed her.
It was murderously hot on top of the shrine. The air was full of smoke. Tikal laid her hands on the Master emerald, even though it must have been burning hot from the fire, and choked, "Stop Chaos, now!" The Master emerald, so dim before, flashed white, as Chaos had when he absorbed the emeralds. Sonic flinched--
And woke up.
The blue hedgehog looked up at Tails, breathing heavily and eyes brimming with tears. "They killed the chao!" he babbled incoherently. "They killed the chao and he went nuts!" Sonic stood and wiped his eyes with the back of one hand.
Tails was staring at him. "What?"
Sonic shook his head. "Can't talk now. I'll tell you later. We've got to find the last emerald before he does."
"That's what Knux said to do before he left. Um, are you okay?" Tails had never seen Sonic look like that before.
Sonic only nodded. "No airlift this time, it's not fast enough. Let's juice!"
"Sonic, wait for me!"
But the hedgehog was already gone, streaking at three hundred miles an hour toward the coast.
Big the Cat was not at home when Sonic and Tails got there. His neat, slightly sloppy shack was missing a fishing pole, so it was easy to tell where he was. The Tornado was lying near the bank of the little stream. Tails looked it over--it was bent, but not harmed too badly. The propeller with the emerald inside was still attached. "Good," Sonic said as they approached. "Let's get the emerald and get out of here."
"Right," Tails agreed, lifting his drill.
But as they reached the streambank, the water exploded upward in a column of white foam, engulfing the forward half of the biplane. Sonic threw himself in front of Tails, but there was no need; the column collapsed back into the stream. It left the propeller lying on the ground, bent and ruined, empty.
"He's got the last emerald!" Tails cried. "Now what are we gonna do?"
Sonic stood perfectly still for a long moment, staring at that empty propeller, the dripping biplane. "Tails," he said slowly, "we get back to Sapphire City, FAST!"
Chapter 34: What's gonna happen to us?
But even Sonic, with all his wonderful speed, was no match for Chaos. The monster had already returned to the sea as Sonic spoke, and was headed up the coast. Chaos had one thought on his wicked mind--destruction.
Chaos had explored Sapphire City in his own way, when Robotnik had brought him ashore. This city of the echidnas was much bigger than the one he had destroyed before. Their population must have regrown while he had been imprisoned. Well, he would destroy their new city, too, and the next he came to, and the next, until he had wiped out all land-going creatures. He must avenge the chao he had failed to protect.
The city had an extensive underground pipe system. If Chaos flooded the city from above, the water would eventually drain away through the pipes. (He had no idea what storm drains were for and thought they were only a defense against his assault.) Thus he must flood the pipes first and equalize the water level second. For a creature named Chaos, he was very orderly.
The water rose two feet higher on the beaches for a hundred miles up and down the coast, and was held there by Chaos's incredible power. The shift started the seed of a tidal wave two hundred miles from the coast. By the time it reached the city he would be ready for it. In the meantime, he forced water up the drains, sewers, watermains, subways--any opening he could find--with the pressure of a firehose.
On the surface, the people went about their daily business, completely unaware of the roaring water beneath the city. Rather, their attention was focused on a special news broadcast starring a red echidna, who was on live, warning people to evacuate to the eastern part of the city, which was built into the hills, above sea level. The reporters scoffed at him, but the echidna was so serious--almost desperate--it caught peoples' attention. "A tidal wave!" they chortled to each other, and yet looked anxiously toward the beach where the water had risen for no reason. A fourth of the city's population suddenly remembered they had urgent business on the east side of town.
By this time Chaos had flooded all the lower regions and was pumping on the pressure. Maybe piping wasn't such a bad thing--it made the destruction of the city much quicker and more complete.
In Station Square, Amy and her family watched the newscast anxiously. They lived only a block from the beach. "That's Knuckles!" Amy told her parents. "He knows that he's talking about--we'd better leave!"
Her father squinted at the screen a moment, then said, "We'll take the Speed Highway."
It was a fortunate choice.
In the center of the city, surrounded by people in cars, on sidewalks, minding their own business, the roar of the water in the mains beneath the street was inaudible. It did not remain that way for long. The manhole covers trembled a few seconds--then blasted sky-high. Up and down the street water blasted into the air in twenty-foot geysers. Cars screeched to a halt, people screamed.
From the direction of the ocean there came a massive cracking sound. The asphalt was splitting as the watermains burst under the terrific pressure. Water spurted up through the cracks, fire hydrants exploded in white plumes, cars tilted and rolled on the jagged pavement. Water filled the street.
Indoors, faucets blew their tops, drains and toilets overflowed, sprinkling systems exploded. Pipes burst in the walls. Entire floors flooded. People tried to escape their high-rise traps, but there was water everywhere and electricity had shorted out.
Windows burst out of the skyscraper windows and doors, glass flying into the crowds of bewildered people below. Sirens wailed. The water was rising in the streets, foot by steady foot. People screamed.
Then a new cry swept the city, and all eyes turned seaward. A hill had appeared on the horizon, growing higher and more terrible with each moment--a tidal wave. Behind it was gathered a great darkness--a storm called by Chaos.
The tidal wave, ten stories high, struck the breakwater at the outside of the bay. But such was Chaos's strength and fury it only crested and did not slow. It roared down upon Sapphire City, a mountain of destruction.
Skyscrapers vanished. Others withstood the beating for a fraction of a second, all windows blowing out, then collapsed. Streets disappeared, cars became debris, people died. The wave rolled onward, a symbol of Chaos's power, until it had consumed all the lower city. It reached the bluffs inland and stopped, but did not return to the sea. Chaos would hold the water where it was until he had destroyed every building and every land-dweller had drowned.
Amy and her family had made it to high ground. The Speed Highway did not collapse at once as the tidal wave swept under it, and their racing cars had reached the offramp to East Sapphire by the time the highway began to to sag.
The rapidly approaching storm swept across the sky with a roll of thunder and a few drops of rain. It grew dim and grey. The city took on a surreal appearance, with the remaining skyscrapers leaning at odd angles, windows broken out, many still streaming water. The voices of survivors were the only sounds as they cried for help, but there was no one to help them yet--the remaining part of the city was still staring in shock at its submerged half.
The windows of a still-streaming skyscraper exploded out, and water gushed forth. But instead of pouring downward, the water remained in a lump, swirling and changing shape as if in zero gravity. Then it lengthened and solidified into a giant head, like a moray eel's, with the mouth extending far back under the eyes. The jaws opened, revealing rows of razor-sharp teeth, and the beast roared--a screaming, terrifying roar of fierce triumph. Then Chaos opened his green eyes--no longer flat and featureless, but with slit pupils--to look upon the devastation he had wreaked.
Chapter 35: Shadows Keep Attacking
It was this scene of horror and grief that met Sonic and Tails as they topped the last rise. They stopped and stared at the water, so far inland, at the wretched sky scrapers poking through the surface. "We're too late!" Sonic wailed. "He beat us!"
They stared at the silent city for a long time. Gone was Station Square. Gone was the train station and the friendly clerk who had sold them their shoes and anklets. The casino and Twinkle Park were demolished, and most of the Speed Highway was fifty feet underwater.
The two did not move until a shape rose out of the water in the distance, taller than the bits of building, and form into the head and torso of a monster. As they watched, the beast attacked a building with teeth and weight, ripping it to shreds as a dog would tear a sock.
"Perfect Chaos," Sonic said expressionlessly.
Then he was gone, racing down toward the water's edge. "Sonic, wait for me!" Tails called for the second time that day, but again, Sonic didn't listen.
The hedgehog sprinted across the water's surface, toward Perfect Chaos. He had no idea what he was going to do, but he was going to do something. The monster was ripping the building to pieces with obvious relish, slinging his head about and growling to himself. By the time Sonic had gotten close enough to see him clearly, Perfect Chaos had brought the building to the water level. But before Sonic could get much closer, the monster melted into the water and vanished.
Sonic kept running until he found a wide section of Speed Highway, resting near the water's surface. He leaped onto it, panting, and looked about him. Chaos could be anywhere. But how could a monster so powerful, so quick, be defeated? COULD he be defeated? Look at what he did, hedgehog. Look what he did. How many people lost their lives here today? You should have tried harder to stop him, should have kept Robotnik from getting the chaos emeralds, should have ...
"Sonic!"
He looked up to see Knuckles gliding overheard, circling like a bird. The echidna dropped to the highway section, rocking it a little. "Careful," Sonic warned. "What are you doing here?"
Knuckles looked down at his silver claws. "I was trying to warn them."
"Who? The humans?"
"Yeah. I think some of them paid attention. Sonic, listen to me. There's no way we can defeate Chaos without help, but we can help his victims."
Sonic waved to the devastation about them. "You mean people actually survived this?"
Knuckles nodded. "Yes, and most are wounded."
Unexpectedly Sonic felt hot tears behind his eyes. Why was this getting to him? Was it because he had never seen a large disaster before?
"No time for that," Knuckles said sternly, slapping Sonic's back. (He didn't mention, of course, that he had already cried his eyes out in the privacy of a rooftop.) "You can help. Where's Tails?"
"He's coming." Sonic rubbed his eyes and set his teeth. "Let's go spoil Chaos's fun."
Tails arrived and was told of what they intended to do. Tails looked a little frightened, but agreed to help any way he could.
It began to pour rain as they searched for survivors. They were difficult to locate in the rain, but slowly the three began to find them--a man here, a woman there, two children huddled in a windowsill above the water. These they carried or floated to any flat above-water surface they could find nearby.
Two hours later and streaming water, the three sat on a building wall with a huddle of victims, heads bowed miserably under the rain. Tails lifted his head first. "A helicopter," he exclaimed, jumping to his feet. It was a full minute before Knuckles and Sonic heard the thump-thump-thump of the chopper. They waved wildly as it came into view, searchlights piercing through the rain. It looked as good as an angel to the group on the building. It hovered over them, wind from its rotors fanning their wet faces, and dropped two medics and a stretcher. "You hurt?" one yelled at the mobians. "No!" Sonic yelled back. "We've been pulling people out of the water! Help them!" He pointed to the nine humans, and the medics moved in their direction.
Before long all the humans had been evacuated. The mobians' spirits rose with the thought of additional help, and they set out to find more survivors.
By noon the three were worn out. They had seen more casualties than survivors, and more and more were hurt, some badly. As they waited for one group--mostly children--to be picked up, Sonic retreated a short distance and sat with his head in his hands. Tails walked up and sat beside him. It was several minutes before Sonic looked up, and when he did his eyes were full of tears, although the rain made it hard to tell. "They had no warning," he said softly. "Look at these kids. Some of 'em are just babies. They shouldn't have to go through what I did." Tails realized Sonic was seeing himself in their faces, as he had lived through Robotnik's coup of Mobitropolis, and it was very similar. The hedgehog's face hardened. "I've got to do something to Chaos--make him pay."
"But what?" Tails asked sensibly. "We have no way of stopping him. He's too big." The fox leaned wearily against Sonic and closed his eyes. The relief work was affecting him, too.
The helicopter came and went, leaving the three alone again, and Sonic made no effort to move. He sat where he was and stared at the dark water, as if waiting for something. Knuckles and Tails implored him to keep on, but the hedgehog refused. "Just leave me alone," he snapped.
Knuckles and Tails backed off. "It's really getting to him," Tails told Knuckles in a low voice. "It reminds him of Robotropolis."
Knuckles wiped the water off his face. "It's bothering me, too, but we can't stop now. I'll see if I can--"
Knuckles and Tails whirled, and Sonic leaped to his feet. With a splash, a pillar of water burst from the surface not fifty feet away, rose seven stories, arched at the top and solidified into Perfect Chaos. He was enormous, and gave a heart-stopping roar to underline it. He didn't notice them--he was proudly looking over his destruction for more targets. (When the water sank afterward, it became apparent that while he was underwater he was busily smashing everything beneath the surface.)
Suddenly, from out of the sky flew the little pink ball of light that had led Sonic and Knuckles through the pyramid. It flew up to Sonic and hovered before him. He held a hand under it, and at last made the connection. "You're the one who sealed Chaos in the Master emerald!" he exclaimed. "Tikal!"
The 'fairy' moved back a little, blinked and grew. It's glow faded and there stood the orange-furred echidna girl all three had met in dreams. "Tikal!" they gasped in unison.
"When I sealed Chaos in the emerald," Tikal said, her voice soft, "I was sealed in it, too. I knew not why--until we were released by the madman you call Robotnik. I knew I must warn his foes of the danger he had unleashed, so I gave you your 'visions', replayed from my own memory."
"Why did we wake up in different places?" asked Tails, so interested in Tikal he had almost forgotten Chaos.
She smiled. "Simple teleportation." Her smile disappeared. "You have seen what Chaos has done to this city. If let alone, he will destroy the world, as he tried to before. He must be sealed back the emerald, before it's too late."
Tails turned and looked toward the ocean without a word, ears picked. Sonic, Knuckles and Tikal followed his gaze.
"Eggman," said Sonic
Flying toward the drowned city was a duplicate of the Egg Carrier. Robotnik alone was piloting it--Metal Sonic had refused to accompany him. It was extended in battle mode, loaded down with weapons installed hastily to destroy Chaos with. "The Egg Carrier 2 was built because something like this could happen," Robotnik growled to himself. "You have defied your master, stupid beast."
As he drew nearer, Perfect Chaos turned his head and looked up at the ship. He himself was bigger than the Carrier, and a thousand times stronger. He opened his jaws and laughed at his former master--a horrid, throaty cackle.
The nose of the Carrier opened to reveal the same laser that had blown away Tails's biplane. On a gray strip of asphalt below, four tiny mobians ducked, but neither monster noticed them. Chaos roared in defiance, and the Egg Cannon fired. The powerful green bolt struck Chaos's middle. The monster swayed, steamed and bubbled, but did not back down. Robotnik armed his missiles. Lasers only heated Chaos and did not harm him.
But before Robotnik could fire, Chaos returned the attack. He lowered his dragon head, and a blue glow appeared in his throat. When it had grown nearly too bright to look at, Chaos raised his head and opened his mouth. A giant blue bolt of flame flashed forth. Chaos swung his head back, and his bolt cut through the Egg Carrier 2 like a knife through moist bread.
Perfect Chaos closed his jaws to extinguish his flame, then he laughed again. The Carrier was going down, a huge cloud of smoke rolling from it. It vanished behind the cracked skyline, and a moment later there was a spurt of fire and water, and smoke billowed up in a cloud.
Chaos bent his neck and shook his head like a horse would shake its mane. A group of small particles broke through his watery skin, fell and struck the pavement where the four mobians stood. "Catch them!" Tikal cried. Sonic, Tails and Knuckles ran about, catching the things before they fell into the water. They brought them to Tikal and heaped them on the asphalt. They all knew what they were. The seven chaos emeralds, but drained of all color or glow. Tikal picked one up and looked at it in horror. "He has absorbed the emeralds' power!" She looked at Knuckles, the present-day guardian of the Floating Island, thousands of years after her time, but still every bit of an echidna as she was. "He must be sealed in the Master emerald, now!"
Knuckles returned her gaze. How could he tell her that even if they succeeded in putting Chaos back in prison, the emerald was not whole, and would not contain him as before?
Off to one side, the mainlander hedgehog with no ties to ancient history was thinking furiously. He didn't understand how they could imprison Chaos so easily,and if he broke out again, what then? The whole thing would start all over again. Sonic remembered Chaos standing quietly, holding the dead chao in his clawed but gentle hand. The chao. That was it. Chao were the key.
"No!" Sonic blurted, stepped up to Tikal. "Trapping him won't do it. He's gotta see the chao."
Tikal stared at him. "What chao?"
Sonic looked desperately at Tails and Knuckles "Guys, he may have killed the chao in the hotel, but we've got the try to find them. He went nuts because the chao got killed. If he sees live ones, maybe ..." he trailed off, for there was no need to explain further. Knuckles and Tails looked at each other in sudden realization. "I could fly out and look," Tails volunteered, "and if they're trapped, Knux can break 'em out!"
He was interrupted by a ferocious roar from Perfect Chaos, which was beginning to move off across the drowned city. All four looked up at him fearfully, then Tikal picked up an emerald and thrust it at Sonic. "Here."
He looked at it blankly. "What?"
"Use these and challenge him. He mustn't attack your friends while they look for the chao."
Sonic looked down at the dull grey gem, and frowned. "But they're dead!"
"What difference does it make?"
Sonic pointed at Perfect Chaos. "YOU expect ME to attack HIM with a bunch of dead emeralds? Hah! That'd be suicide, man! I should have brought my belt."
Knuckles turned. "You didn't bring your belt, Sonic?"
Sonic glared at him, but it was himself he was angry at, not his friends. "No, I didn't. I left it home in case Knothole had trouble, stupid me."
Knuckles bounded forward and gathered up the seven emeralds. "Is there any chance they're being used right now?"
"Maybe," Sonic said doubtfully. "Sally was only to use them in an emergency. Why? What's up?"
"We'll have to chance it," Knuckles muttered. He deftly arranged the chaos emeralds in a circle, then unclipped the metal panel on top of his shoe. From it he took out a small green gem, also without a glow. "You've got the miniatures of the supers, I've got one of the Master," Knuckles explained, setting it in the middle of the circle. "But the Master went dead this morning, so I hope this works ..." The three onlookers exchanged a glance and said nothing. Tikal had never seen the Guardian at work, either.
Knuckles drew a breath and said, "Master emerald, power transfer."
In Hidden Palace, all the super emeralds lit like searchlights and focused their light on the Master emerald.
In Sapphire City, the green stone began to glow. After a moment the chaos emeralds began to glow, too. "They power they lent to the super emeralds is being returned," Knuckles said quietly. Sonic and Tails glanced at each other. What would happen to the super emeralds now?
The chaos emeralds flickered and their color returned with a rush. The tiny Master emerald dimmed, but did not die--showing that its mother gem was doing the same in Hidden Palace.
"Take it, Sonic," said Knuckles.
Chapter 36: If he won't stop, there will be no future for us
No matter how much pleasure Perfect Chaos derived from ripping the city to shreds, it did not make him happy. Nothing would ever make him happy again. Not with the image of the dead chao engraved into his memory--not with the scent of their blood forever embedded in his heart. He would never forget, and he would never forgive. Only the death of all land-dwelling things would satisfy his guilt, or so he thought. He did not foresee the day when, as the only living creature in the world, he would still be left in anguish.
But now, having drained the emeralds of all their power, Chaos was bored with tearing apart buildings. (How flimsy they were! Nothing like the solid stone structures of before.) He wanted blood to drown that of the chao. He wanted to kill, as he had the echidna army and their people. He raised his dragon head to look for flood survivors.
Perfect Chaos was thus engaged when Sonic confronted him.
"Hey you!"
Chaos lifted his head a few feet and looked with one green eye. His jaws, teeth and the water about him was stained red. Well within reach stood that pesky hedgehog who had defeated him at all his stages of development, but the hedgehog was now glowing a hot yellow. He was hovering a couple inches above the water.
Chaos moved fast, but Super Sonic moved faster. Sonic shot out of reach of the striking head and bared teeth. "Ornery today, aren't we, slimy?" Sonic taunted. "Why not pick on me instead of those poor people who can't fight back? THEY didn't kill your chao."
Perfect Chaos struck again, and again Sonic sidestepped. "You are REALLY ugly!" Sonic yelled as he shot around and around the monster. Chaos twisted his head about, trying to spot him. "You're even uglier than Metal Sonic!"
That pitiful robot? All right, if the hedgehog wanted to fight, a fight they would have. Chaos melted into the water.
Sonic had not been Supersonic in years. Hypersonic was more powerful, but Supersonic ... didn't know. It felt different, somehow. Maybe the chaos emeralds WERE as strong as the super emeralds, but in a different way.
No time to puzzle over it now--there was a monster to kill.
Sonic shot straight up into the air and landed on the roof of a leaning skyscraper. Where had Perfect Chaos gone? Ah, there he was--just lifting his ugly head out of the water several blocks away. Supersonic plunged down into the flooded street and was away like a yellow lightning bolt.
Tikal had told him, just before he left his friends, that in order to subdue Chaos, he must hit his brain, as Sonic had done before. But it was not so simple as a mere blow to the head. Perfect Chaos had a skull of cartilage that protected his brain. Sonic would have to gain enough speed on the inrun to enter Chaos's body wall at the waterline where it was at its thinnest, spiral up the trunk and strike Chaos's brain from below. Sonic didn't know if he had the nerve to carry out such an attack, but he intended to try. Too many people had died this day.
Perfect Chaos lowered his head, and from the spines on his back there came a shower of fireballs, each as big as a house. Sonic kept going, flying almost flat over the water, a curling wave in his wake, eyes made orange by the emeralds, teeth clenched. The fireballs whooshed overhead and struck the water behind him with an explosion of foam.
The monster was nearer, nearer, overhead, the wide flank looming up like a monstrous wall, covered in tiny ripples--Supersonic pierced through like an arrow. Inside the monster's body was a powerful upward current of water, sweeping up to the head, maintained by the power of the chaos emeralds. Sonic shot upward, eyes open but everything a blur. Being only Supersonic would not save him from drowning, nor enable him with undersea sight. He saw a hot pink blur above him, against the darkness of Chaos's head. He steered for it and curled into a ball of glowing spines.
Perfect Chaos's head exploded in white fire. A million tons of water crashed into the sea, and Chaos's agonized scream echoed across the city.
Supersonic landed on his feet panting, but triumphant. It had worked! He just hoped Chaos would come back for more. Again the glowing hedgehog leaped to a rooftop to spot his enemy.
It was a moment before Perfect Chaos reappeared, this time almost a mile away. Sonic dropped to the water's surface and flashed away after him.
Perfect Chaos was furious with the pain, and at the drain it had added to his power. Let that hedgehog try to get within five hundred feet of him!
As Sonic rounded the corner down the aisle of buildings, Perfect Chaos let loose the same fiery laserbolt that had brought the Egg Carrier 2 to its knees. It swept the water with a ferocious hiss, heating the water to boiling in a split second. Chaos closed his jaws and surveyed the street. That should have vaporized his enemy--
Again Chaos's head split in fire, again the water crashed from midair, again Chaos's scream echoed across the city.
When Perfect Chaos reground again, it was only at the other end of the street. Sonic would not have enough time to gather the speed he needed. Supersonic saw this at once, but he decided to give it a shot anyway. He only made it halfway up the street when Chaos hit him with the laserblast.
Supersonic was thrown backward by the force of the blast, smashed through an interfering building and out the other side, and dashed into the water.
Dizzily Sonic pulled himself onto a telephone pole and sat on it for a moment, letting his head clear. Invincibility or no invincibility, he had felt that one.
Tails sat on the tilted corner of a rooftop, a shivering chao in his arms. But his eyes were fixed over his shoulder, at Chaos in the distance. "C'mon Sonic, kick his tail this time!" the fox muttered. He could see the monster very clearly, for the rain had let up as soon as the battle began, almost as if Chaos had commanded it.
A few feet away, on the gently sloping roof, was a big jagged hole in the plaster. Crouched near it was Tikal, another chao in her arms. She rocked back and forth and murmured soothing words, gazing into the hole all the while.
After a moment there came splashing from inside the drowned building, and Knuckles' head appeared. He held up a chao to Tikal, who took it from him. "Are there any more?" she asked.
"Yeah," Knuckles said, already turning back into the darkness. "But I donno how many made it."
Tikal made a soft, sad sound and looked up at Tails. The fox was still looking at Perfect Chaos with helpless anger in his eyes. "Tails ..." He glanced at her. "Tails, Sonic can't kill him. He can only diminish his power."
Tails shot a fiery look at Tikal. "He can try, can't he?"
Suddenly there came a flash from the horizon, and Perfect Chaos's shape vanished in a fountain of fire. The beast's scream floated out to them over the water. Tails jumped to his feet. "Yes! Yes! Go Supersonic!"
Tikal only sighed and turned away.
Supersonic stood on a skyscraper for a long time, scanning the city with his eyes. Nothing moving but the rescue helicopters here and there. Perfect Chaos was gone. And yet the seawater did not drain back into the ocean--something still held the tide in. Chaos must be only lurking, nursing his wounded malice.
Sonic jumped off the building and sped toward the area where Station Square used to be. Now it was as unrecognizable as the rest of the city. The Sunset hotel was nearly submerged and leaning to one side, which left only a corner of its roof above water. This section was what Knuckles had broken through to reach the chao garden on the top floor.
Sonic saw Tails sitting on the roof's corner and leaped up beside him.
"Did you kill him?" Tails asked eagerly.
Sonic shook his glowing head. "I donno, little bro. Tikal, how're the chao?"
Tikal was seated as well as she could on the rooftop with six chao huddled around her. She looked up at Sonic. "Most of them didn't survive."
The hedgehog winced and saw for a moment the bloodied chao lying silently in the grass. He took the chao Tails was holding and stroked its damp head with uncharacteristic tenderness.
Knuckles handed another chao to Tikal and climbed out of the hole. "That's all," he said shortly. He looked at Supersonic. "Well?"
Sonic shook his head. "He never came back up. I don't know where he went."
Suddenly the light around them brightened. The clouds overhead were rolling apart, sunlight pouring down in cheerful shafts. The mobians and chao alike looked up and inhaled, as if the simple sight of the sin had the strength to lift their spirits. "His power has weakened," said Tikal.
Tails jumped off the roof margin he had been sitting on and clutched his tails to his chest. The group watched in silence as a shark fin cut through the water not five feet from the edge of the building.
"But it hasn't weakened enough," said Knuckles
Every scavenger fish for hundred of miles had been called to the city, led on by Chaos's promise of blood and carrion. He knew how to fight dirty. If the hedgehog was so intent on defeating him, then Chaos's friends would devour the flood victims behind his back.
"Sonic, it's not over," said Tikal softly.
Sonic handed the chao to her. "Not yet it isn't," he said grimly. "I'm gone." And he was.
Chapter 37: All the pain at stake ...
Perfect Chaos's ugly head reared out of the water again, green eyes searching for his little enemy. Supersonic would not get near him again. They were equal in power--had not Chaos all the city at his disposal?
Supersonic shot up a flooded street toward Chaos, keeping low, as if hoping to avoid the monster's notice. But Chaos had sharp eyes, especially when angry. He whipped his head about and launched a barrage of fireballs at Sonic, three times hotter and seven times faster than before. Two of them struck the hedgehog, pounding him backward and down into the water. Sonic righted himself, shook the water from his ears, and started forward again, only to be stopped dead and thrown backward by a laserbolt from Chaos's jaws.
A Supersonic gathered himself for another rush, Chaos melted into the water in triumph, to reappear elsewhere. The hedgehog hadn't a chance. As far as Chaos was concerned, they could battle until the drowned city fell apart with age.
"This won't work," Sonic thought as he tried to figure out a way to reach Perfect Chaos's new position. "I've got to hide until I'm right up to him, then hit him before he can react." The hedgehog's orange eyes narrowed as he gazed at the mess of buildings and collapsed highway. He had not spent most of his life running sabotage missions in Robotropolis for nothing. He had a good head for layouts and maps, and this served him well, even in a wilderness of partially-submerged buildings.
Perfect Chaos cocked his head. He could hear the faint rushing sound Supersonic made when he flew over the water, but the skyscraper tops hid him from view. Chaos waited, watching.
Sonic shot out of an alley and straight into Chaos's side. There came a brief yellow spiral up Chaos's neck, then the monster's head burst into blue flame that hissed into the water below. Chaos's body deformed, and his furious, agonized scream tore the air.
Four hits! Perfect Chaos was running on the power of only three emeralds now! How dare that hedgehog challenge Chaos! How DARE he!!
Chaos came up fighting. He rose in the same spot, looking for Sonic, wanting to rip his to shreds. The hedgehog had taken refuge nearby--Chaos could sense his presence.
In berserk rage the monster attacked the buildings around him, cracking and throwing them down with tremendous strength. Those he could not immediately reach he blew apart with his fiery breath, until presently Chaos was standing in a wide open area, safe from sneak attackers.
Or so he thought.
Supersonic had dove deep underwater, until, far down, he reached the pavement on the ground. From there he looked up, and above him, like a tunnel reaching into the air, was Chaos. Sonic shoved off the ground and shot up like a bullet, accelerating underwater almost as quickly as in air.
Again Chaos's head exploded in fire, this time golden with his wrath. But now he was craftier. Sonic must not be allowed to pull a stunt like that again. He reformed inside a skyscraper, as he had done at first, melting his head through the windows. His body was inside all the floors, his brain safely inaccessible. Let the hedgehog try to reach him now.
Supersonic saw Chaos's scheme. There was no way he could reach Chaos in there. "He can sit there all day for all I care," Sonic muttered. "I'm gonna see if I can help the survivors around here."
The glowing hedgehog collected a small crowd of people on a reasonably secure rooftop over the next hour and a half. There were sharks everywhere, along with barracudas and schools of scavenger fish that were feasting royally on the dead, and attacking the living whenever they came upon them. Sonic fought a hand-to-jaw battle with a tiger shark over a little girl, and emerged dripping but victorious, carrying the frightened girl in his arms.
He used himself as a signal to attract a helicopter, then took off to find Chaos. It wouldn't do to have the monster kill the people he had just rescued.
The building Perfect Chaos had inhabited was empty. The whole area was deathly quiet but for the lapping of water at the plentiful debris. Sonic floated and looked about suspiciously. Where had Chaos gone? Had he followed Sonic to where those people were and ...?
Sonic whirled to go back, and ran straight into Perfect Chaos's waiting jaws.
The monster's mouth could have held a five-story building laid sideways easily. The teeth were the only solid parts in Chaos's whole body; each two feet long and serrated like knives. They pointed backward in rows, toward Chaos's gullet.
Chaos was not interested in swallowing Sonic--he wanted to chew him to bits. Supersonic was caught between the jaws and bitten with all the strength Perfect Chaos had in him. But Supersonic didn't cut. Invincibility saw to that. But it did not keep him from feeling the horrible sensation of teeth crushing into his body.
Chaos opened and closed his jaws, chewing determinedly. Sonic was just as determined to get away, and after a good five minutes he succeeded in dropping to the water and fleeing from Chaos's sight. He needed to rest after that little ride.
But Chaos had other ideas. He went after Sonic furiously, pouring through the buildings in a semi-liquid state, looking for him.
Sonic crouched in a corner, panting, a deadly look in his eyes. He had had enough.
When Chaos's partly liquid head came into sight, green eyes searching and brain glowing brightly, Supersonic shot like a bullet up through his lower jaw and into his head.
"Quickly, we must get the chao to Chaos!" Tikal shouted. She, Tails and Knuckles were sitting in a helicopter, the side door open and the wind whipping their faces. All of them were looking out at where Chaos had just been, but there was now a burning pillar of flame, taller than the buildings around it.
"But how can he be down?" Knuckles yelled over the helicopter noise. "He only got hit six times!"
"He has no power left!" Tikal shouted back. "If he used the power of the last emerald, he would die. Pilot, land there, hurry!"
The chopper dropped with a sickening lurch and touched down on a section of highway not far from the burning curtain. Tikal, Tails and Knuckles piled out, each with an armful of chao. The pilot lifted off at once, afraid of his close proximity to the monster.
Sudden silence fell. The three could hear their panting and the panting of the chao, and the beating of slowly dying waves at the buildings around them. The pillar of flame had shrank to a small white mass burning on the water's surface--the last of Chaos's endoskeleton.
Something fell to their highway strip from above with a thud. They all jumped and gasped, but it was only Sonic, his normal shade of blue once more. He sat down on the pavement with a sigh, tired out and soaking wet. Tails started to ask him if he was all right, but Tikal and Knuckles silenced him with, "Shhh!" and pointed to another highway strip below.
Chaos was pouring up onto the road, not as a proud dragon, but as small, lowly Chaos 0. He solidified and stood up, his green eyes flat and featureless once more. He seemed to still be hunting for Sonic.
Tikal motioned to the chao and hopped down onto the road. Chaos spun to face her, but did not attack her. He recognized Tikal. She had tried to save the chao when he should have been protecting them. She was perhaps the only friend he had.
Slowly the rescued chao climbed or jumped down with Tikal and Chaos. Several of them bounced toward him fearlessly. Chaos stared with blank green eyes, perfectly still.
"These are the chao you were protecting," Tikal said in a low voice. "They were not all killed. They survived for generations and now live peacefully with humans and mobians."
By this time all the chao were grouped around Chaos's feet, chattering and murmuring. Chaos gazed down at them and touched their heads tenderly with his watery hands. They had not all died. They were alive. He had not failed after all. Slowly, the rage and hatred in his heart grew cold and died. He had forgiven.
"Chaos had changed again," Tails observed from above, very quietly. "This time for the better." Sonic only smiled a little and said nothing.
Tikal looked up at the three on the highway above. "Thank you so much!" she said, clasping her hands together. They grinned down at her and nodded or shrugged or gave her a thumbs up. Chaos, too, looked up and saw Sonic, but he didn't hate the hedgehog anymore. He lifted one claw in a motion that Knuckles recognized as the ancient echidna salute. He elbowed Sonic and whispered, "Bow!" Sonic bowed from the waist, and Chaos nodded and turned away.
Tikal walked up to Chaos and extended a hand. "Let's go home," she said softly. Chaos hesitated a second, looking at the chao, then slowly placed his claw in her hand.
The two vanished as if they had never been, and the three on the highway looked at each other as if it were a dream they were waking up from. But it had not been a dream, for the city stood in shambles about them, and the little group of chao still stood on the road below. "Where did they go?" Tails asked in confusion.
Knuckles had a faraway look in his eyes. "To a past that might have been," he murmured. He caught Sonic's eye. "You know what became of Chaos, I think."
Sonic frowned. "I do? What became of him--I don't know--" He stopped. He remembered the room in the pyramid with the mural of Chaos and the oddly rippling water. Chaos--the good Chaos, saying hello in his own way. Sonic had not understood at the time, but now ...
The water all around them began to move. Without Chaos's power to hold it there, it would drain back into the sea. "It's gonna go out as hard as it came in," Knuckles said, returning to the present abruptly. "You two, get the chao. I'm gonna signal the helicopter." With Sonic no longer glowing, Knuckles' red body was the most visible of the three.
Two minutes later they were airborne, huddled in the floor, surrounded by helicopter noise, the chao lying in an exhausted heap on the floor. But even in all the racket they could hear the rushing of the water as it foamed below, sucking debris and much down into the ocean. Buildings shifted, highways cracked and were dragged along in chunks. The water level dropped so quickly it seemed to Tails that they were rising into the air. Fascinated, he braced himself and peered out the door. The retreating water left the city naked to the eye, and the extent of Chaos's fury was revealed. Only a skyscraper stood here and there. Everything under three stories had been crushed and splintered. Cars had been washed into huge heaps by currents and lay like piles of dead beetles.
Two objects caught the fox's eye--one far inland, the other lying on the coast like a beached whale. As the water drained to a few feet and stopped roaring, Tails recognized them. Both of the Egg Carriers. One was the wreck Chaos had shot down, and the other was the one that had crashed a week earlier. The tidal wave had lifted the crashed one out of the bay and deposited it high and dry in the residential section of the city.
Tails remembered seeing Robotnik helpless, where Chaos had thrown him on the Floating Island. Had the doctor been killed when the second Egg Carrier went down? He had to wonder.
Sonic crawled over and sat beside Tails, holding onto the doorframe and looking out the door. He was still wet, but no longer dripping. His eyes, back to their cool green, had a hint of sadness in them as he looked down at the city. Tails put a hand on his friend's shoulder and grinned. They had won, after all. Sonic gave him a small smile, but the sadness in his eyes remained unchanged. His smile widened a little, and he pointed. Tails looked.
Flying southward, black against the blue sky there, was a small round hovercraft. "He made it!" Tails said in disbelief, his voice drowned by the helicopter noise. He looked at Sonic, and they both shrugged. Some things would never change.
Chapter 38: Epilogue
Sonic, Tails and Knuckles were given a hero's welcome as they touched down in the half of the city built above the flood level. They had, after all, defeated Perfect Chaos. Amy and the flicky family were on hand to welcome them, and Sonic was relieved to see them. Although he had never mentioned it, the safety of Amy had weighed heavily on his heart all day.
But as the sun set, Sonic and Tails were glad to retire to a motel room--not as nice as the Sunset Resort, but it was a place to rest and escape the crowds.
They sat in chairs pulled up to the balcony and watched the sun set into the ocean. Sonic had circles around his eyes, and his spines drooped. "I'm tired, Tails," he commented.
Tails looked at the hedgehog slouched in the chair. "So'm I." He paused a moment and folded his hands. "So ... what was it like? Fighting him, I mean?"
Sonic looked at him as if trying to put it into words. He lifted a hand, and let it fall. "Not now," he murmured. "I'm too tired to go through it again."
But Tails wanted to talk and pressed on determinedly. "Is Knux here?"
Sonic could answer that one. "No. He went home. He's wiped, too, and he has an island to look after."
Silence. The sliver of red shrank to a fingernail, then vanished. A faint breeze touched their faces.
"What're we gonna do with the chaos emeralds?" A pressing question. Tails looked toward the dresser, a drawer of which contained the seven gems.
Sonic closed his eyes and opened them again. "Knux said to keep 'em. Take 'em to Knothole. That way Robotnik can't get his mitts on them."
Sonic rose heavily and walked to his bed. "I'm gonna crash now," he said, flipped back the blankets and sitting down to take off his shoes. "I'm beat."
"Okay," Tails nodded. "I'm gonna stay up a little longer."
Sonic climbed between the sheets and relaxed with a heavy sigh. Tails listened to his breathing grow slow and even. Slowly the little room grew dark as the evening sky faded, and a star came out. Tails sat, fur ruffled by the slight breeze. It was peaceful here. At least Chaos had not reached this part of town ...
Sonic got up and padded to Tails, sitting in his chair and sound asleep. "Now whose the sleepy one?" he murmured. He lifted the fox and carried him to the other bed. He should have guessed Tails would fall asleep before he did. Sonic pulled the covers over him, softly closed the sliding outside door, then climbed back in bed.
Chaos had been defeated, but not by force. Tikal had been right all along. But the city ... Sonic was grieved over the city and the needless death. He could do nothing about it. No one expected him to, he guessed, but he wanted to help somehow. Do something to help make it right. But what? He thought of the chaos emeralds. He could donate them to help power the city.
He thought of the last two weeks, of flying the Tornado, snowboarding, riding the bumpercars in Twinkle Park, running around Speed Highway, exploring the Egg Carrier. Yes, all in all, he had enjoyed himself. Not to mention he had decided Amy wasn't so bad after all, and they had rescued that family of flickies.
He heard Tails sigh and turn over. Tails was safe. Knuckles and Amy were safe. Maybe that was what he had been fighting for all long. Not just the city, but his friends, too. If that was true, then he had not failed at all.
Sonic rolled over and slept.
Sapphire City was rebuilt, with chaos emeralds powering backup generators. Tails fixed the Tornado, and he and Sonic flew back north to Knothole. There they were greeted with a lavish welcome home party, both for them and for Knuckles, who was re-joining the Freedom Fighters.
The archeologists explored the pyramid in the Mystic Ruins, but never discovered the shrine to Chaos, deep underground. Knuckles sealed off that section himself, in secret. It was better left undisturbed.
Robotnik returned to his Final Egg ground base, which would remain hidden for a long time. There he commissioned Metal Sonic to build him a robot that would be as powerful as Chaos, but was completely loyal to his master. Metal Sonic was privately daunted at the enormity of such a request, but promised to begin the necessary research at once. Robotnik would not stir from his base until the robot was complete, and Mecha calculated that he would stay put for the next ten years, as it would be at least that long before the project was completed.
Thus, at least for a while, Mobius was treated to a time of peace.
The End