Legend of ChaosJedi-- Evolution
by Ryan Carroll

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Author's note: I designed things so that Netraptor's "Heart of a Chao" takes place between "Eye of the Storm" and "Evolution". Keep in mind that the exact events happen somewhat differently in my world; specifically, the chao in her story are the ones rescued from the factories in "Greater of Two Evils". Also, the chao continue to reside with the residents of Knothole after the war with the biotics.
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College. A time of change. A time of growth. A time of freedom.

Yeah, right. Only if your concept of freedom is being mentally chained to a desk writing three separate term papers all due on the same day.

Don't get me wrong. I enjoyed college... most of the time. I just didn't like the fact that all my professors had conspired to make three separate papers due on the same day. And to make matters worse, they all had to do with topics I HATED. And when I say that I hate something, it means I hate it with a PASSION.

The events I've outlined previously all happened near the beginning of the semester, and it was almost Winter Break. To be totally honest, I have NEVER, even in my high school years, wanted so much to be done with a semester. I banged out the last paragraph of my last paper, printed, collated, and stapled all three papers; triple-checked to make sure I'd put the right pages in the right groups and in the correct order; and collapsed on my bed.

Then the phone rang. I wanted to shoot something.

I picked up the handset and recognized Christine's voice. She and I had been nearly inseparable all semester, to hear my roommate tell it. I wouldn't go as far as to say that, but I did agree that we had seen an awful lot of each other over the past several weeks. I don't know if it was backlash from her time with Jason or anything having to do with the prophecy concering that pendant, but either way I was grateful to have someone to hang out with who knew exactly what I was talking about when I alluded to Mobius. It became "our little joke", and we spent many a meal comparing stories of our adventures in other dimensions.

"Hey, Ryan, it's me. You got those papers finished?"

Interestingly enough, the classes I had papers due in were the classes Chris and I had in common; go figure. "Yeah, just finished a few seconds ago. You?"

"I was done about an hour ago. You want to go for a walk?"

"At two in the morning?"

"Oh, come on, you can sleep tomorrow when all your papers are turned in. Besides, I saw how much caffeine you drank tonight. After three glasses of Jolt you have GOT to still be wired."

"You got a point. I'll be there in a few minutes. Better wear a jogging suit; it's cold out there, even in the desert."

-------------------------------------------------------------

"Brrr, you were right, it IS cold out here."

"I told you so. You were right as well, though; a brisk walk is just what I needed. Hey, what's that?"

"What's what?"

I had stopped and bent down to inspect a pair of objects half-hidden under a bush. "What the-- these are eggs!"

"Better leave them alone. Mama Bird won't be happy if you mess with them."

"These aren't just eggs. Unless an ostrich is loose from the Phoenix Zoo, these are Chao eggs! Two of them!"

"Huh? I thought that Chao only existed in Mobius."

"To the best of my knowledge they didn't even exist in Mobius until the world collision. That was over a year ago... Who knows how long these eggs have been here!"

"Should we take them with us?"

"Most definitely. And I'm getting Slasher on the D-com as soon as I get back to ask about what to do with them."

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"The one with orange spots you should keep in the sun, and the green one needs to be kept in a cool, dry place until they hatch."

"You sound like an expert. What's happened on Mobius since I've been away?"

She sounded so nonchalant about it that I didn't quite catch the drift of it for a second: "A war."

"Sorry, I didn't quite catch that."

"We've spent the last few months fighting a war."

"Oh, don't tell me Chaos8 came back," I groaned.

"No, worse."

"Worse," I repeated. "What could be worse than Chaos8?"

"Oh, quite a bit, apparently. I'll tell you all about it when you come. Judging from what you told me, those Chao might hatch tomorrow. If you don't want to have to raise both of them, I suggest you let Christine have one of them. They imprint, and I think it would be wise, not to mention interesting, if you each had one."

"Imprint, huh? I wonder if I'll let Chris know that or not..."

Slasher caught the mischievous tone of my voice. "You'd better tell her that before her Chao freaks her out. I'll tell you more about raising them when you come."

I heard a voice in the background. "Is that CJ?"

"Hey, Knux, good to hear from you!"

"Hey, Ryan," the echidna replied, reverting to using my normal name, "I just thought you should know that that piece of the Master Emerald you found? It was only half of what was missing. Turns out the other half was dredged from the ocean floor by Mecha and RK to power a particularly nasty piece of machinery. Tell ya all about it when you come by day after tomorrow."

It seemed that I was going to be learning quite a bit in the next few days.

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Sure enough, when I got back to my room from turning in my papers, the egg was just starting to hatch. I watched the process with interest, and marveled at the little creature that emerged from its egg. As it looked at me, I could almost swear I saw determination in the little Chao's eyes, determination to live, determination to be a fitting sidekick to me.

Determination to eat. I watched as he started munching on a plant I had sitting in the window.

"I don't think you'll like that very much," I told the little being, offering it some oranges I had bought on the way back to the room, aware that the little one would be hungry after an endeavor such as hatching. I peeled one and set it in front of the Chao. I settled down to watching the little creature go to town on the fruit while I tried to come up with a good name for the little one. The determination I'd seen in his eyes made me think that a Jedi name would be fitting, but all the ones I could think of were either too common or too off the wall. I thought maybe CJ would work, but people might think I was conceited.

After debating several names, I was startled by the Chao leaping into my lap.

I had been sitting a good ten feet from the window. I noticed the drawstring from the shade swinging wildly. I looked at the cord, then at the Chao. I had been on the wrong track by looking for a Jedi name. "All right, Indy. You wanted my attention; what is it?"

As if in reply, the Chao snuggled into my arms.

I wondered how Chris was doing.

----------------------------------------------------------*

Christine had the same fortunate timing as Ryan, as she had walked into her room just as the hatching process had begun. Unlike Ryan, she began encouraging her Chao to hatch. As a result, the eggshell practically exploded, leaving a Chao in its place.

"Good job," Christine exulted, and she went immediately to work washing off an apple. When she offered it to the Chao, the little creature immediately began devouring the fruit. "Boy, you must be hungry," she commented, and she sat down to think of a name. From what Slasher had mentioned, this one must be a female, so what were some good girls' names...?

By this time the Chao had polished off the apple and had discovered the computer. Almost as if she had worked with a laptop PC in her egg, she began clicking around the Internet like a pro.
Christine laughed. "You little pixel-crazy Chao!" She paused, considering... "Hey, that's what your name will be: Pixel!" Pixel smiled at Christine and went back to work on surfing the Net.

---------------------------------------------------------*

Indy and Pixel met for the first time that afternoon. I had received more extensive instructions from Slasher when I called to inform her that we had acheived successful hatching. The instructions went along the lines of "make sure the rest of the Chao meet them, but watch out for Chimera, he's a bit rough". I remembered that later while rubbing my hand. "At least I'm not bleeding," I muttered, glaring at the red Chao. Chimera favored me with a toothy smile and strutted off.

"A bit rough?" I repeated to Slasher.

"Okay, so I understated. I told him to take it easy on you guys. You should see what he's done to people he's familiar with."

"Something tells me I don't want to know. Seems Indy and Pixel had a good time in the dimensional tunnel."

"I take it the storm's died down by now?"

"With no tunnels to fuel it for the past few months, the energy's dissipated. No longer a factor in travel."

"Well that's good. Have you met the rest of the Chao yet?"

"Yeah, we introduced our two to the rest of the group a little earlier. What do you think of this, huh? A couple of Chao eggs sitting in the middle of Arizona and we just 'happen' to come across them?"

"It does seem rather convenient. Well, I'm kinda interested in how your two turn out after they otiae. That's sort of a transition into their grown form. I don't think they'll be able to use any of the Chaos Emeralds; ours have gotten kind of attached to them."

"I wonder... I absorbed the Element Stones; I wonder if I can produce the stones so that the Chao can use them."

"It's funny, they've all been saying they have the wrong emeralds. I wonder if that means they have the RIGHT ones. You think the Element Stones would give them new abilities?"

"It's possible." I smiled.

"You're not thinking of testing that theory, are you? What if you lose your powers by creating the gems?"

"I absorbed the stones and their essences. By creating a new stone I'll just be duplicating the power of the original."

"Well, that makes sense. I say let's go test that theory," Slasher replied, grinning.
Just then Rob and Christine ran up. "Indy and Pixel just went into some deep sleep! Then this cocoon formed around them; are they all right?"

Well, I could see that Christine was bonding with her Chao just fine. I tended to distance myself a little bit from Indy; it was too much like raising a kid. I could tell that Christine had that natural mothering instinct.

"That's odd." Slasher's voice broke into my thoughts. "Normally it takes a few weeks for them to otiae. The growth of your Chao seems to have been accelerated exponentially!"

"I'm kinda curious to see what Indy looks like when he gets done. Check this out," I added, producing a fedora, shrunk to miniature size. "I'd like to see if it fits him."

I was met with amused stares from all sides.

"What?"

------------------------------------------------------------

"Well, if the life cycle of these two has been accelerated to the point that they otiaed hours after hatching, the transformation should only take a couple of minutes."

"I wonder if naming them has any effect on their appearance. I'd be interested to see what Pixel looks like if that made any difference."

"Hey, Indy's cocoon is stirring!" one of the Chao, probably Velocity, announced. We all turned our attention to the cocoon, now visibly rocking back and forth. Several cracks appeared, and soon Indy was free of the chrysalis. And boy did he look like an Indy. It was almost as if he'd grown a leather jacket while in the cocoon. His appearance other than that had tended more towards growth than change, but when I placed the little fedora on his head, the picture was complete; all that was missing was the whip.

"Hey, Ryan. How ya doin'?" the Chao asked me. Apparently even imprinting was accelerated; the little guy had even picked up some of my speech patterns. The two of us took a stroll out in the woods, and Indy showed me some of his abilities, such as using one hand as a whip to swing across chasms. When we got back, Pixel had emerged. I blinked for a second. That could NOT have been the same Chao! She was taller and slimmer, and looked a heck of a lot like Christine. She sported a mini-keyboard strapped to one arm and wore one of those VR headbands, which was currently pushed up out of her face. I stared at her for a second. Hacker in training, without a doubt. I was curious to see how these guys would react to Element Stones.

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We were all in a wide open space on Floating Island, as I wasn't sure how some of these guys would react to the power of an Element Stone. I decided to divvy up the Stones to the Chao who had showed their definite element-specific abilities. I tried to think of who would get which stone...

It didn't help that all the Chao were trying to tell me that they all had the wrong emeralds in the first place, and it REALLY didn't help that all the others were trying to tell me everything that their Chao could do. I finally snapped.

"Everybody SHUT UP for a second! I can't hear myself THINK!"

Every voice in the immediate area immediately ceased.

"Thank you." I could now think logically; Pilot had exhibited lightning abilities, Chimera could breathe fire, Max shapeshifted, Velocity teleported... Some of these abilities had nothing to do with elements! Now what to do? Let's see, I had to give each Chao the right stone... "Hey, everybody," I called to the seven veteran Chao, "I need you guys to line up over here for a minute."

They did so, and I now had a visual aid. I produced the Element Stones I had generated that morning and placed them in a row. Lightning was Pilot, so I placed that stone in front of her, and I did the same with the Fire Stone in front of Chimera, being careful to stay out of reach of those teeth. Max was most comfortable in water, so I placed the Water Stone in front of him.
"Ryan, is this going to take a while?" Christine inquired. "I can head back to Earth and order some pizzas."

"Yeah, why don't you do that?" I replied. "Oh, but before you go, let Pixel borrow the Amber."

"You think she can do anything with it?"

"Won't hurt to try, will it? I have a feeling she'll respond to it more than Indy will. I'm trying to figure how to get Indy to reform at the same time I'm working this puzzle out."

"Okay, if you think it'll work. What toppings you guys want on the pizza?"

My palm slapped my forehead before the question was halfway out of her mouth, as I knew what was to come. Sure enough, voices were raised asking for certain toppings and the absence of others.
Christine, realizing the tumult she'd created, merely hung her pendant around Pixel's neck and said, "Tell you what, I'll get Extra-Large Super Supremes and you all can pick off what you don't like."

Everyone seemed to agree on that, so Chris turned and headed for the portal. After a few steps, she turned back. "What do you--"

"Two 3-liter bottles of Dr. Pepper and two of Mountain Dew."

"Great, thanks."

I turned back to the puzzle of the elements.

--------------------------------------------------------------

Two hours later the pizza was gone and so far the only thing that had worked was Pixel using the Xiro stone to evolve. She freaked me out by tapping me on the shoulder. I turned around to find a copy of Christine, albeit a copy that included all kinds of wearable computer equipment. The resemblance to Christine and not a walking PC was what had freaked me out, especially when I got the two standing side by side later after the real Chris had returned with the pizzas.

"That," I commented, "is one freaky resemblance."

Knux pulled out a mirror for the two to look at to see the similarity for themselves while I went back to work on the element problem. I was still trying to figure out the gravity, rock, air, and light stones. A thought hit me just then: why mess around with this? Why not just try it out and see what happens? I tossed the Rock Stone to Zinc on impulse, saying, "Hey, Zinc, try this one and see if it works."

"Will it work if I'm not in Ultimate form?"

"Heck, with the power that baby's putting out it shouldn't matter what form you're in. Go ahead, see if it works."

The metallic Chao popped the gem in his mouth and bit down...

The flash was dazzling, but not blinding. As a result I saw the whole transformation process take place. Zinc went from his small form, through his large form, through Ultimate, and even beyond that. I wanted to glance at Zephyer to see if she was watching, but I didn't dare look away from the transformation.

The giant android echidna didn't melt away, but was rather augmented by a larger body with powerful arms, huge fists, and better armor on the torso. I didn't doubt that one tap of a finger could set off seismographs a mile away.

Looks like random selection just might work. Max, Pilot, and Chimera all wanted to try their stones right away, but I told them to hold off; one huge creature at a time was all I needed at the moment, and, I reminded them, I still had three more emeralds to give out.

Chimera complained, as I expected he would, and the words came as if I had scripted it beforehand, right down to the whiny voice: "But you let Zinc use his!"

"That," I chided, "was a test. Now quit complaining or I'll give the Fire Stone to Indy." The Chao grumbled something, but said no more.

I considered again: who would be most likely to use these last three elements? Again on impulse, I lightly kicked the Light Stone over to Elleno. "Hold off on it, but you try this one." The little Chao nodded, and I went back to the last two. I muttered to myself for the better half of a minute: "Chalcon and Velocity, gravity and air, Chalcon and Velocity, gravity and air... Ahhh, heck with it." I pulled out a coin and flipped it. "Chalcon, gravity; Velocity, air."

I turned to see several quizzical looks aimed in my direction.

"What?"

---------------------------------------------------------------

I'm not sure why I didn't think to have all of them "go Mega", as the process became known as,
all at once right away. Maybe it was because I didn't know about the eighth Element Stone at the time. Unlike the eighth Chaos Emerald, the eighth Element Stone wasn't a talisman of evil. As it was, I didn't find out about it until later that night. Chris and Pixel had gone back to "their" dorm room, as they put it, but Indy had expressed a desire to camp out for one night on Floating Island. I was happy to oblige, and Indy and I talked half the night, with Knux present for half the conversation.

"Ryan?"

"Yeah, Indy?"

"How come I haven't got a stone like all the rest?"

"Well, there just aren't enough emeralds to go around. I'm sorry, little guy, but that's just how things turned out. We all wanted to see how the Element Stones would work on the Chao who already knew how to use them. Pixel got the Xiro stone because she was Christine's Chao, and the stone just wouldn't have worked if you had tried to use it."

"Well what about the others saying they all had the wrong emeralds? What's up with that?"

"If every single one of them thinks they've got the wrong emerald, then it must mean they have the RIGHT ones. They just think they have the wrong emeralds because they have abilities that they didn't know about before. There's nothing mismatched about those guys."

Knuckles bolted off at this point, and we both were kinda startled by the suddenness of it all.
We kept talking though, figuring Knux had just remembered something he had to do.

Indy suddenly changed the subject as Knux disappeared. "You like Chris, don't you?"

I was a bit taken aback by the sudden shift in topic, as well as the personal nature of the question. "Well, uh, yeah."

"How did you know when she liked you back?"

Whoa. I was totally unprepared for THAT question. "Well, uh, I, uh... Why do you ask?" Did my voice crack when I said that?

"'Cause I want to know if Pixel likes me."

Now THAT would be interesting. "I-I don't really know. I guess--"

Just then Knux came flying back to the campsite, book in hand. I was grateful for the postponement of the other conversation; the echidna seemed really excited about something. "Hey, Knux, what's up?"

"I just found this: According to this, the Element Stones all have to be wielded together at the same time, and they'll create a _new_ Element Stone, the Creation Stone. If my guess is right, it'll give Indy the ability to exist in any phase, from small to Mega, any time he wants!"

"Hey, cool! You mean I'll actually get my own stone?"

"Sounds like it," I replied. Looking at Knux, I asked, "What about the Xiro stone? Is large the best Pixel can hope for?"

"Hold on, let me check... Why do you ask, just out of curiosity?"

"Well I think it would be kind of unfair if Indy could suddenly go to Mega and Pixel's stuck at two phases below that."

"Good point. You know, we haven't heard from Robotnick in a while. I wonder what's he's up to."

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Christine and Pixel were having their own late-night conversation. "Chris, when did you realize that you liked Ryan?"

Unlike her partner, Christine wasn't at all fazed by the question. "I don't know; I guess it started back before I'd met him. Apparently he went back in time to save my life. When he got back, I kinda got dragged into the whole dimension-jumping thing. I don't know what happened, but when he gave me this pendant, something came over me, something that said, 'This is right. This is what was meant for you.' I guess it sounds kinda crazy..."

"Not really. I've been kinda wondering whether Indy likes me."

That admission DID surprise Christine. "Well, I imagine he's pretty jealous of you right now, since he's stuck in his small form and you can actually evolve."

"Yeah, but he'll find a way eventually. I can tell."

"What did you do, hack into a history book in the future?" the human replied, half-joking.

"No, but Indy doesn't strike me as the kind of guy who'd just give up on something."

"That's funny I was thinking the same thing about Ryan." The pair shared a laugh, but Pixel soon turned serious.

"Christine?"

"Yeah, Pix?"

"Who's Chaos8?"

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Rob sorted through the files in the community hut and sighed. He knew that, as a human, he was extremely out of place here in Knothole, but for some reason he found it difficult to live anywhere else. Who was he in reality, anyway? The last thing he could remember was washing up on the shores of Melee Island, much like Guybrush Threepwood had said he had several years before, but Rob felt no connection to the Tri-Island Area. Here on Mobius, he felt a connection, one inexplicable, but existing nonetheless.

He came across a paperclipped stack of notebook paper, and leafed through it. This appeared to be a journal of some sort, but why wasn't it in a bound book? The confused teen scanned a couple of pages.

"I suspect that the impossible has occured: When Chaos8 took over Robotnik's body, Robotnik's consiousness was transferred to Chaos8's body, giving him the appearance of a teenager. If the Interweb does its job (as I suspect it will) the original Robotnik will never remember his hatred for Sonic, his evil deeds, or his clone."

Another passage: "Is it possible that Rob is Robotnik? This innocent amnesiac doesn't seem like he could possibly be the same person as the evil doctor... And besides, how did he manage to wind up in this dimension, anyway? I don't get it; the only possibility I can think of is that the Interweb reaches out beyond the Mobius dimension, like an ever-spreading virus."

Rob considered the words on the pages in front of him. Could he be the same monster he now fought against? How could that be possible? Just because he couldn't remember his life before washing ashore didn't make him an evil mastermind! ...But, what if it was true?

Rob thought back to the first time he'd faced Metal Sonic. He'd wondered who would build a robot copy of someone just to try to destroy the original. A fragmented memory rematerialized: Robotnik taking off in the Death Egg. From Robotnik's perspective...

Rob dropped the stack of papers and ran out of the hut full tilt, nearly colliding with Slasher in the process. "What's wrong, Rob?"

"I can't be the same person as that monster! There's no way I'm the original Robotnik! Heck, I LIKE Sonic, for crying out loud!"

"You've been reading Ryan's journal, I see. Come here," she told him, beckoning to a table back inside the hut. Rob sat down, and looked at Slasher, hoping she would deny everything he'd read in that journal.

"There's a good chance that Ryan's right."

"No way. I refuse to accept that."

"But that's good! If you ARE the original Robotnik, then it proves two things: one, Robotnik can be defeated, since you know all his weaknesses. Two, you're living proof that something good can become of a catastrophe."

"Catastrophe?" Another fragmented memory: That last battle with Chaos8 before getting sucked into the Interweb.

"Are you all right?"

"No, I'm not. How could I do what I did? I've done so many horrible things..."

Slasher settled down for a long talk. Rob had provided the opportunity, and it was now Slasher's responsibility to build on that opportunity.

-------------------------------------------------------------*

Christine and I met for lunch, having left our Chao on Christine's computer playing a copy of "Escape from Monkey Island". We discussed life in general, and specifically the two little Chao who had thrown us both for a loop the night before.

"You're kidding," Christine was saying. "You mean the two might actually like each other?"

"From all appearances. It makes sense, kind of... I mean, you and me, Indy and Pixel..."

"So Indy actually asked you about us?"

"Yeah, he caught me totally off-guard with that one. I dunno, I mean, do you really think that the two of us were meant to... you know..."

"Vanquish evil and get married?"

"Yeah, something like that."

"You got me. All I know is that this partnership, the two of us working together for whatever reason, just feels right. I think God had this in his plan all along."

As I was about to reply, my pager went off. I checked it, which prompted "You have a pager?" from Chris.

"It only goes off when I have a message from Mobius. Says here that 'Rob has seen the Light. Come quickly'."

"Robotnick?"

"No, Rob. Ever since I let Slasher borrow my Left Behind series she's taken to calling Eggman 'Nick'. Strange, but it fits, I guess."

"Uh huh. So what's that about 'seeing the Light'?"

"Light is capitalized. Think that means something?"

"You're kidding! Slasher got through to him?"

"Slasher helped. God got through to him all right, though."

"What are we waiting for? Let's go!"

"Let's stop and pick up the Chao. I've got a surprise waiting for Indy."

"Another emerald?"

"You'll see. Come on."

-------------------------------------------------------------

The little group of believers was clustered around Rob's hut, listening to him tell his story as we walked up. Nearly everybody was in tears. I had a feeling that if I'd gotten here earlier, I'd have been in tears, too. Indy and Pixel were with the other Chao, so I didn't have to worry about that otherwise inevitable question.

"I don't know what I was thinking. I was insane; insane with hatred, with desire for conquest. I hope that you all can forgive me for what I've done. For Mecha, for Floating Island, for Chaos, for... Robotropolis..." At this point Rob broke down. He sat there with his shoulders heaving with sobs, his eyes filling with tears that willfully came. I came up behind him and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Since God has forgiven," I said, "then so will I." Rob looked up at me, then stood and grappled me in an embrace. Almost as one the rest of the group stood and did the same. It was as if Jesus Himself had just stepped into the room; we were all praying, singing praises, or just standing in silent awe of God. Eventually we all untangled ourselves, and Rob stood facing me. "Thank you," he said. "If I hadn't read those journal entries of yours, I might never have known."

"Welcome to the family, Rob."

"Hey, let's go see the Chao!" he chimed. Sonic and Slasher exchanged a glance that said, "Is he safe around the Emeralds?" I gave them both a look that said, "Hey, if God really worked in his life, let's give the kid a chance to prove it!"

"Sure," I told him. "After you."

-----------------------------------------------------------

Rob didn't go psycho when he got near the emeralds, so I figured it was safe to let him hang out for a while. I took Slasher aside and voiced some concerns.

"If he remembers anything useful, it could be used against us."

"You doubt his salvation?"

"I don't doubt his salvation, I doubt his resistance level. Believe me, I'm no saint, and if someone with my level of resistance can slip up..."

"You're afraid Rob will backslide to the point of being Robotnik again."

"And if you and I always stick up for him and he goes bad, who's the lynch mob going after first?"

"You have a point. I'm not sure everyone feels safe around him."

"Do you think I should take him back to Earth with me next time?"

"Do it right after your final exams. It'll feel like a vacation to him."

"How much harder do you think it'll be for Rob to fight his own clone?"

"I can't imagine. With the body Rob has now, fighting Nick will be like Sonic fighting Mecha. It's doable, but you'll likely get yourself killed in the process."

"That's true, but he may eventually feel that he has to destroy Mecha, RK, and Nick to make amends."

"If he's THAT suicidal, we'll talk to him about it."

We both turned our attention to the Chao, who by this time were antsy to go Mega. I signalled that we were all ready to go, and the Chao activated their emeralds (which once again had merged with the Element Stones) one at a time. Zinc went into his seismic robot form, and Pilot became a larger, more electrifying version of her Ultimate form that included armor in strategic locations. Chimera grew an extra pair of wings and left trails of fire behind him when he flew. Max morphed into a cross between a huge salamander and a scuba diver, and he carried a trident. Elleno's Ultimate form grew larger, stood on two legs, and formed a quiver of arrows on her back. The arrows, I knew on sight, were essentially tangible laser blasts, since she used the Light Stone. Chalcon grew past his Ultimate form and into a huge Chaos form, probably what Chaos would have looked like if he'd gotten his hands on the 8ce... Since gravity was a relatively elusive element, I knew that although Chalcon's abilities didn't manifest themselves physically, the surprise factor involved would certainly come in handy. Velocity grew in size (What was it with growing in size with every evolution? Couldn't they stay smaller and still be lethal?) and found a set of metal wings fastened to his jet. The wings could be folded out of sight, swept back for speed, or spread wide for distance.

With a bright flash, the Creation Stone blazed into view. I reached for it, but the stone flew out of my reach. As I watched, a fragment of the stone embedded itself in Christine's pendant, which immediately replicated itself. The rest of the Creation Stone rested itself on the strap of Indy's hat. The rest of the Chao reverted to small form, and we all stared for a moment. The smaller of the pendants on Chris's neck held a chunk of the stone, while the normal-sized one had no such piece. The Creation Stone hadn't allowed me to touch it, but rather had gone straight to Indy.

Chris hung the small pendant around Pixel's neck. "That stone," she said. "It wasn't meant for us..."

"It was meant for our Chao," I said, completing her thought.

Now THIS was going to be interesting.

-------------------------------------------------------------

I lay in bed that night and considered the events of the day. Rob had accepted Christ, which was great, but no one could tell whether he might revert to being his old evil self. The Chao could now all go to Mega form, and everything seemed to be going fine.

From previous experience, I knew that everything was about to hit a disruptive event, an event on the scale of *Chaos* disruptive.

I couldn't imagine what could happen to make me think that, so I flipped on my radio. A song was finishing up on the local Christian station: "In the eye of the storm, God is there / When there's armies all around you, God is there..." The fadeout led to a station ID clip and the playlist went straight to Keith Green: "There is a Redeemer / Jesus, God's own Son / Precious Lamb of God, Messiah / Holy One..." I began singing along, the words bringing comfort to my soul: "Thank you, O my Father / For giving us Your Son / And leaving Your Spirit till / The work on Earth is done..." After a couple of verses, I realized that Indy was singing along with me. The two of us sang through a few songs until someone from down the hall knocked on the door and asked us to keep it down. Hanging his fedora on a peg I'd put up for him, Indy snuggled into me as we went to sleep.

-------------------------------------------------------------

My final exams came and went, and I brought both Rob and Indy home with me. I'd been kinda worried about Indy getting along with our cat, Dizz. I knew that Dizz was good with little kids, but though Indy was little, he wasn't a human. I wasn't sure if the cat would take the presence of the newcomer as a guest or as a threat.

Rob I was worried about as well. Despite my prayers for help on the subject, I couldn't shake the feeling that I would be sleeping with the enemy, especially since the two of us would be sharing a room. I decided that trust, while not the wisest policy in other's eyes, would be the best policy in this situation. I felt that if God had worked a change, it would be proven eventually. Despite my decision to trust Rob, I put a password on the Dimensionalizer software, just to prevent an accident, if nothing else.

I expected to see Chris and Pix at Christmastime. Unfortunately, that Chaos-sized event I had foreseen happened the week before the holiday.

------------------------------------------------------------

Rob and I were playing Crazy Taxi on my Dreamcast--it was the only non-strategy based game, board or video, that I had, and Rob was GOOD at strategy-- with Indy taking an occasional turn. Unexpectedly, the Dimensionalizer gate opened and Dizz, who had been sleeping in Indy's lap (so much for my worries), bolted down the hall. Slasher came out first, and inquired, "You have room for everyone?"

"Depends on how many there are with you. What's going on?"

"We're under attack. Nick's found us."

------------------------------------------------------------

As it turned out, "everyone" added up to two hedgehogs; a squirrel; one walrus; a half-robotic rabbit; a double-tailed fox; two echidnas, one of which was mostly roboticized; a winged velociraptor; an anteater; and seven Chao. The rest of the residents of Knothole had remained at Eagle's Nest, where the group had fled to. After destroying all the portal frames in Knothole, they had used the emergency gate at Eagle's Nest. Even with that relatively small group, the entire lot of them were relegated to the basement. Granted, there was carpet, not to mentioned enough pillows and blankets in the linen closet to supply an entire Air Expeditionary Force, but it still wasn't that comfortable down there. I moved my TV, Dreamcast, and stereo down there, as well as stacked all my board games in a corner.

"I can't believe it's come to this," Sonic muttered one morning. "Taking refuge light years from home, all because of that freak of nature."

I noticed Rob's downcast look, so I changed the subject. "Have you guys got your Christmas gifts with you?"

Everyone glanced at me with a look that said, "Yeah, right."

"All right, then," I continued. "Make up some lists."

The surprise swept the room like a tidal wave. "What are you saying?" Serena asked.

"I'm saying that Chris and I will be willing to do some major Christmas shopping over the next week, as long as you guys do one thing," I replied, pulling a box out of the basement closet.

"What's that?" Zephyer inquired.

I slid the box across the floor. It was labeled "Christmas decorations".

"Decorate the house. You can add your own ornaments to the tree if you like."

Within fifteen minutes I was out the door, having faxed the girls' lists to Christine. I also transferred a good portion of some money I had won online in a drawing.

Several million dollars is nice to have when you're Christmas shopping for nearly thirty people.

-----------------------------------------------------------*

While everyone else was decorating and seemed to be cheering up, Rob sat on the couch, passively watching the festivities. Sonic approached the youth. "Hey, man, what's wrong?"

"It's my fault you're all here in the first place. It's that stupid clone of mine. If only I can remember what his weakness is..."

"Weakness? He has a weakness?"

"Yeah, I remember being upset that I couldn't have made an invincible clone of myself..." Rob winced. "Sorry. I'm probably not helping the festive mood any."

"Look, Rob, it's Christmastime. So what if Nick forced us to take refuge here? This may be the best thing that happened to us. We've never really had a major Christmas celebration without having to worry about being attacked. This is the first time we've been able to celebrate Christmas with Ryan. Cheer up, man; the answer will come to you in time. Here, pick a CD for us to listen to."

Rob smiled for the first time in a while, and selected a Mannheim Steamroller CD.

----------------------------------------------------------*

Chris came through the portal that afternoon, and we all came up with ways to pass the time. I did a bit of shopping and bought a dancing game and a couple of dance pads for my Dreamcast. At first everyone was skeptical to try it, but Chris and I tried it a few times to show them all how it worked. I guess the sight of the two of us looking like total goofballs trying to keep up with the steps on screen broke the ice, because soon everyone was clamoring to try it out. Some of them really got into it, especially Zeff and Talon, who had up to now been fairly introverted. We all laughed and tried to outdo each other for a while. I was bushed fairly quickly into it, but even some of the Chao tried it. Eventually they were outdancing everyone, and I went upstairs to check my email and do a bit of surfing. I heard two pairs of feet enter the room, but I didn't see who it was until I pulled up a satellite mapping page. Chris and Rob had come up to see me. "Hey guys, what's up?"

"I think I may have the answer to beating my clone," Rob began, "but that's not what I came up here to say. You've been such a great friend the past few days, and I want you to know that. Letting us all stay in your house and everything... It's given me the answer to our problem. But we need to wait until his conquest is over. We need to wait until he's given up on his search for Sonic."

"What's the answer? How can we beat Nick?"

"I can't tell you that now. There's still some part of my old self that won't let go of me."

"There's only one way to fight it. Let's pray about this." The three of us did, and when we finished, I looked up to see Slasher praying with us.

"This has been great, Ryan," she told me. "This is probably the first Christmas we've had without having to worry about external problems. Any chance of snow? Some of the guys downstairs are wondering if it really is December around here."

"That's Arizona for you," I laughed. "There's snow up in the mountains, but you guys aren't exactly dressed for the weather..." I opened a new Net window and pulled up an online store selling winter clothes.

"Oh, no," Slasher replied. "You've already bought Christmas gifts for us. You're not buying us new clothes on top of that!"

"Who said anything about buying?" I shot back, grinning. "Let's get the Virtualizer warmed up."
Slasher raised an eyebrow. "Will that work? Won't that be like stealing?"

"Stealing? Hardly. It's not my fault all these stores put up these great pictures of clothes on their websites."

"How do you plan to get real clothes from pictures on the Net?"

"Easy. I have an object replicator in my Virtua Lounge. This baby can produce a virtual object from any picture on the Web. It's all free, and the store doesn't lose that much revenue. After all, I'm only one person, and the only one with a Virtualizer to boot."

"Speaking of boots," Slasher replied, "you have a nice scarf on this page? I can always use one of those..."

-----------------------------------------------------------

While the gang was in the V-Lounge picking out winter clothes, I looked for a suitable location to have a snow day. I soon found a place: a nice, hilly, deserted section of Siberia. When I told Christine where we were going, her reaction was "You're kidding, right?"

"Why not? It's the best location I could think of that wouldn't give away the fact that we've got beings from another dimension hanging out with us."

"You make them sound like aliens, Ryan."

"As far as anyone else will be concerned, they ARE aliens. And besides--"

"Besides nothing. I want to at least have some pine trees to hide behind in a snow fight."

"Oookay, so where do you propose we go?"

Chris scanned my list of alternate dimensions and found the destination she had in mind.
"Absentia?" I read. "What the heck is that?"

"It's exactly what it sounds like. Earth with no people or animals."

"And yet it undergoes all the same weather patterns and geologic changes at the same time and the same rate." I gave Christine a quick peck on the cheek. "I love the way you think."

At that moment Knux came out of the Virtualizer decked out in earmuffs, scarf, coat, boots, and gloves. "Anyone know where I can get a snowboard?" he asked, his voice muffled by the scarf.
Chris and I burst out laughing.

"What? What's so funny?" His voice still muffled, we cracked up again.

"Hey, Knux, try dancing in that get up," I chuckled.

The echidna pulled the scarf down and growled, "I hate the cold, so sue me."

"Chris, I believe it's your turn," I hinted, and she walked through the virtua generator doorway to pick out her own outfit.

"I take it that was to talk with me?" Knux inquired, smiling over the scarf.

"Actually, yes. What do you think of this whole clone thing? I mean, Rob says he knows the answer to beating Nick, but he says he can't tell me yet. I mean, is his clone monitoring him somehow? What's going on with that?"

--------------------------------------------------------*

"Are you sure we can't hack into his computer across the Gap?"

"That is affirmative. It is not possible without a physical dimensional link."

"Very well, Mecha. You may go."

The blue robot glided off. This clone thing was not what Mecha had envisioned when he had returned to Mobius. This clone, though he possessed the strategic mind of Robotnik, had none of the technical skill of the old roboticist. Mecha hadn't told the clone about his own trans-dimensional link with the webcam on the young ChaosJedi's PC, for the plain and simple fact that the robot wasn't sure he wanted to work for Robotnick anymore. Sure, he had taken over Knothole, but not without making so much noise that he might as well have sent the Freedom Fighters his battle plan ahead of time.

Mecha left the Final Egg base and headed for one place he knew had a trans-dimensional gate: Floating Island. Before activating his jets, the robot sent a small pulse of info back along his camera feed in response to the discussion going on at that precise moment.

--------------------------------------------------------*

"Well that's odd," I remarked.

"What is it?" the echidna asked.

"I just got a feedback pulse along my webcam feed, and there's a message in my inbox. It's from... Mecha? Why that little--!"

"What? Mecha?"

"That lousy robot must've managed to patch into my webcam feed before he went back to Mobius. He's been spying on me for the last who knows how many months..."

"Um, Ryan, perhaps you should read the message."

"Huh? Why?"

"Because you should be expecting one more for Christmas dinner."

I whipped my head around to face the screen and read the message: "The clone is an imbecile with no technical skill whatsoever. I want to join you. You were right; there truly is nothing left for me here. Give my regards to Sonic.
"Mecha."

--------------------------------------------------------

"You have got to be kidding me."

"Just be cordial, Sonic. Your attitude never seems to help whenever he's around."

"MY attitude?!?"

"Yes, YOUR attitude. You've got this 'I'm Number One' mentality whenever you even think about Mecha. Can't you just ONCE treat Mecha as a robot with intelligence?"

Sonic glared, but said nothing.

"And don't give me that look. Slasher feels the same way and you know it."

"All right, I'll be nice, but I still don't like it."

"You're handling Rob okay. Why can't you believe that Mecha might have seen the light?"

"Because Mecha isn't capable of emotional thought. Robots can't get saved, Ryan."

Rob cut in. "I may be able to help in that respect."

"You what?" we both asked in reply.

"I've regained some of my technical expertise in the past few hours. I may be able to modify some of Mecha's programming."

"I took Java this semester," I replied. "Let me help."

"Sure, no problem." Rob seemed ecstatic that he might be able to make amends for yet another of his mistakes.

"Exhaustion takes over; will this someday be over?" Serena sang.

"One day at a time," I reminded the hedgehog. "Anyway, I do have time-space coordinates for right this moment, so we can always get back before Mecha shows up. I say let's go for the snow!"

We all piled through the gate and into the Arizona Rockies of Absentia.

-------------------------------------------------------

The snow helped us all forget about robots and clones for a while. I had a feeling Absentia existed for just this purpose: for dimension jumpers to have fun without worrying about external observation.

Everyone had done a little extra "shopping" online, and it showed. I saw skis, snowboards, and even some interesting looking slingshots and guns. Apparently for snowball wars. I picked up a gun and read the directions: Pack launcher with snow; pull back spring loader until locked; pull trigger. I decided that using the good ol' throwing arm would be much faster and a heck of a lot more fun. After all, with throwing a snowball the old fashioned way the reload time depended on how fast you could make a new snowball. I saw that even the "warm-blooded" Chao were out frolicking around, although they were so bundled up you could barely tell who was under the layers of clothing.

I was about to reach down to test the consistency of the snow when someone in an inner tube going a million miles an hour plowed into me. I'd like to say I did a perfect flip and landed on my feet, but I would be lying. No, instead of a perfect 360-degree flip, I got to about 270 degrees before the ground caught up with me. I went head over heels and slammed flat on my back. Instantly I saw about five heads appear above me.

"Someone get the license plate of that semi," I commanded woozily. Abruptly Christine's head popped into view. "Ryan, are you okay? I'm sorry about that; those things are impossible to steer!"

"It's okay, I'm just experienceing deja vu is all..."

My head cleared quickly, and I stood up without help. I immediately headed for safer locales...
Later in the day we had a three way snow fight, dividing up the group with three Chao per team. Indy, Chris, Pixel, Rob, Slasher, Chalcon, and I were in one base with Slasher doing air recon and bombing missions, and Pixel putting her VR gear to good use. She was using targeting software to help us aim our slingshots and catapults. Suffice to say, we won.

After the battle, we went back to the slopes and raced in inner tubes. Interestingly, although Sonic was an expert on a snowboard, he couldn't keep an inner tube under control to save his life. He hit rocks, trees, bumps, and everything he hit sent him flying into the air. We laughed as everyone collided with each other and caused general mayhem.

We returned to my house hours later exhausted, but refreshed. I heard a noise coming from the basement, and went to investigate. "That's funny," I muttered to myself, "I don't remember leaving my Dreamcast--"

I stopped in mid-breath when I saw Mecha dancing to the game we'd all been playing earlier.

"...on," I finished, staring at the sight.

------------------------------------------------------------

Within minutes everyone was watching the robot dancing in my basement. No one said a word; everyone was too busy staring. Sonic shook himself from the reverie first. When the next level started, Sonic began using the second dance pad to work the controls on his side of the screen.

"Get the camera," I told Slasher. Apparently Mecha wasn't even cognizant of Sonic's presence, or if he was, he didn't show it. I snapped a picture, after which Sonic shot a glare at me, to which I gave him a glance that said, "You want to be outdanced by Mecha? You'd better keep going."

The two of them kept going for the better part of an hour. Mecha, when he finally realized that he was being watched, suddenly stopped. I began applauding, and soon everyone was into it, clapping, cheering, whistling; even Sonic was laughing and clapping. I imagine if the robot was capable of embarassment, he would have been turning red... had he been capable of that, too.

"What is the reason for the applause?" the robot wanted to know.

"You've learned how to have fun, Mecha," Sonic replied. "Welcome to the family."

Rob led the robot to the garage for some "maintenance" some time later.

------------------------------------------------------------

Knuckles found me typing at my computer some time later. "What's up?" he asked me.

"I'm just making a hacked version of DDR," I replied, referring to the dancing game we all played earlier. "I wanted to plug in CD tracks of my own, but it's hard to do that with the DC disc, so I'm messing around with the code."

"That's a cool idea. Listen, what I wanted to talk to you about..."

"What is it?"

"Well, there's actually a few things. I don't trust Rob that much."

"Tell me something I don't know. To be honest, I don't even trust him fully myself. I hate to say it, but I don't think any of us do. I mean, he's proven himself several times already, but... I don't know, maybe it's just that we know who he really is. Or was..."

"All right, so that's nothing new. What about Indy and Pixel?"

"What about them? They getting along with the others okay?"

"Oh, yeah, that's not what I wanted to talk to you about... They've been asking me stuff, like I'm the Encyclopedia Britannica or something. Pixel's been asking about Chaos8, and Indy is asking about you and Christine." He raised an eyebrow at me. "He's been reading about that prophecy."

"What?"

"I think he's making the connection between you and Chris."

"Listen, pal, there's nothing serious going on between us... yet."

The echidna just chuckled. "Look, I know that things will advance only when you, Chris, and God are all ready to take things further. Anyway, there was something else I wanted to ask you..."

"What's that?"

Knux motioned toward the code I was working on. "Could you teach me how to play this game? I got creamed last time..."

-----------------------------------------------------------

Some time later I let Pixel patch into my computer to surf the Internet. It was amazing watching her; she was switching pages so fast I could hardly keep up. I couldn't figure out what she was looking for until she came across a profile page in some Internet directory. The picture was of Rob, but the name paired with the picture was Jake Carpenter. I read some short bio information and realized... this is who Chaos8 would have been without the intervention of the eighth Chaos Emerald.

As luck would have it, Rob walked in at that second. He looked at the page we were looking at, then at me. I nodded. Rob sat down on the couch and asked, "When?"

"Back during the world collision a year ago. Apparently with the continuum all out of whack, the Interweb lost its grip on the eighth Chaos Emerald, and Jake found it."

"What have I done?"

I sat down next to him. "That's all in the past. If-- WHEN," I corrected myself, "you asked God for salvation, he forgave you of all those old sins. So you were an evil scientist then. Big deal. What's important is that you're here, now, with a group of people who love you."

"Even if you don't trust me."

"That's only because we know who you were and are having a hard time adjusting to who you ARE. I would call it human nature if everyone in the house were human, but you get the idea. We may forgive you, but it's just so hard to forget."

"Hey, it's getting dark. You going to light up the house tonight?"

"You can do it, if you want."

"Sure, thanks."

"Hey, where's Mecha?"

"He's in the garage, undergoing some 'upgrades'," he replied, winking at me.

-----------------------------------------------------------

A couple of days later I got a few arcade machines that had just hit the market: a guitar simulator, a drum sim, a DJ mixing game and a full arcade version of Dance Revolution, the game we'd all been playing to death the past few days. Interestingly, all the games hooked up together, providing for up to six players at once. I toned down the volume out of respect for the neighbors, but other than that, everyone had a blast. The tree sparkled in another corner while presents galore sat underneath. There was rarely a minute that went by that someone wasn't downstairs in our "virtual club"... except for mealtimes. Don't ask me how, but I managed to feed everyone in the house without breaking my budget.

Sometime that day Mecha emerged from the garage lacking the razor-sharp forearms and the hatred we had all come to expect from the robot. His speech patterns had changed as well; the robot actually used contractions in his speech, which threw me for a loop the first time I heard him use one. The metallic hedgehog quickly became adept at the guitar and blew everyone away at the guitar sim, garnering the high score. Dancing, however, didn't prove to be Mecha's strong point. The robot clearly had two left feet.

Rob was clearly warming up to his new life. He joined in more often and smiled and laughed constantly. It was as if God had removed the burden Rob had been carrying around, allowing the youth to enjoy life. Rob proved to be an excellent drummer, and constantly worked on improving his percussion skills. With two hedgehogs on guitar, Rob on the drums, me at the Mixmaster, and two others on the "dance floor", we could've started a band on the spot.

I noticed that Indy and Pixel were the two on the DDR machine most often. Apparently the pair were getting to know each other better, and it became obvious that their resemblance to Christine and me wasn't coincidental. I found myself spending more and more time with Chris, and more than one prediction was made as to when I would "pop the question".

"After we graduate," was my usual response, although I had to admit, something was going on between us. It wasn't anything serious yet, and I doubted it would get THAT serious for a long time, but I confided in Knux that I felt drawn to Chris every time I saw her.

"That's natural. I feel the same way about Zeff, to be honest. I know she can take care of herself, but I can't stand to see her in danger or in pain..."

I zoned out at that moment. I can't say even today what caused it (the most logical answer would be God) but I had the distinct feeling that Christine was in trouble.

I rushed upstairs to find Chris backed against the wall, two blades at her throat.

A low growl rose in my throat. "RK, if you so much as scratch her, so help me God, I'll--"

"You'll what?" the robot chuckled. "Destroy me? She'd be dead before you could take a step. Oh, and I don't think she'll be needing this," he added, holding up Christine's necklace. "I think I'll enjoy killing you both."

Out of the corner of my eye (I kept my eyes trained on the robot to avoid clueing him in) I saw Velocity creep toward Chris, grab a hold of her, and teleport out. I took that instant to draw my lightsaber; the robot responded by stabbing the wall behind where Chris had been.

"Checkmate," I told him, and stabbed the robot right between the eyes.

------------------------------------------------------------

Mecha and I had dragged the robot's carcass out into the backyard to figure out how he'd gotten to Earth and what had sent him here.

The answer became painfully obvious when Mecha patched into RK's visual memory and projected a clip of Nick directing RK on what to do...

"Now listen closely, Robo Knux. I want you to go to the Earth dimension and eliminate the Freedom Fighters, especially the humans. Bring back the one they call Rob alive, but do what you like with the rest of them."

Mecha shut off the feed and looked at me. "You have GOT to be kidding. Nick thinks Mecha bot 4 could eliminate all of us? He couldn't eliminate ONE of us!"

"Well Nick forgot one thing. He hasn't got the technical skills to replace his troops."

"You're planning something, aren't you?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact I am. Let everyone know: strategy meeting in the club after dinner."

-----------------------------------------------------------

Christmas was a day we took off of our planning, for many reasons. Besides the obvious, we all needed a break from thinking about Mobius for a while. A couple of days later, we resumed our planning. I decided to make a quick recon mission into Mobius, and I took Indy with me in my backpack.

That's when everything went wrong.

I didn't even get halfway to the city from the gate when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around to find a fist homing in on my face. I blacked out instantly.

When I awoke, I found myself in an alley. Thinking I'd been dragged here by SWATbots and could finish my mission anyway, I cleared my head, checked on Indy (he was okay, since I hadn't landed on him, just concerned) and headed for the mouth of the alley.

The narrow street was crowded with people and neon signs advertising all sorts of things. There were only two problems...

I wasn't in Robotropolis...

And half of everything was in Japanese.

"Aw, shoot," I muttered.

To Be Continued...