The Team Chaos Chronicles-- Episode V
Chronological Chaos
I went back to Floating Island the next day. Knux didn't look any
better.
"You okay?"
"I had a nightmare last night."
Okay, so he was either completely crazy, delusional, or he was trying
to warn me about something.
He continued. "The Time Stones. Robotnik brought them back to
Mobius. He tried to warp the entire planet into the future, but
Mobius was destroyed in the attempt."
Yeah. He was _definitely_ trying to warn me. "You think it's a
premonition from God?"
"Could be. I don't know. What can I do?"
Only one thing I could think of that any of us could do. "Pray."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Since I had been gone, Lisa had wisely chosen to call the rest of
the team to assemble. I told the others about Knux's dream. The
general consensus was that we didn't have much time.
But what were we to do? We didn't know how to reach Little Planet,
We didn't know where Robotnik had relocated his base, and we didn't
know exactly how much time we had.
Needless to say, we didn't know very much in this situation.
"Maybe," Cliff, the team genius, conjectured, "maybe since Mobius
underwent so much strain when it was locked into its own continuum,
maybe the time travel attempt Knuckles was talking about simply tore
the planet apart."
A lot of "maybe"s, especially for Cliff, but it made sense. In fact,
it made perfect sense. Of course Robotnik would try to take over
Mobius again; it was his neverending, not to mention never-successful,
hobby.
"Yeah, well, we still don't know how to get to the Time Stones in
the first place." Christie was always coming up with doomsday
prophecies like that.
"I have an idea that won't require the stones at all."
"Yeah? What's that?"
"I've got a stealth mode in my armor. You guys can... while I take
care of..." Soon the whole plan had been plotted out step-by-step
and no one could find any holes in the fabric of the whole idea.
----------------------------------------------------------------
----------
The stealth mode worked just as I had planned. In the dim light of
Robotnik's hidden base, I went unnoticed. The suit also damped my
heat signature, so I hopefully wouldn't be picked up by any heat
trackers. I reached the bay doors. "I'm in position," I said over
the comlink.
Two seconds later a blue streak screamed up to the doors. The
security camera was on, so whoever was watching wouldn't be able
to miss the show.
Sonic stopped. Tapped his foot. Yawned. Finally yelled "Hey!
What kind of second-rate security have you got, Big-Ugly? You'd
think I lived here as easy as it was for me to get here!"
It was all I could do to keep from laughing my head off. Suddenly
the doors opened, revealing a half-dozen Ultra-SWATs.
"Hey, now that's more like it!" With that, Sonic sped off, with
the U-swats trailing far behind. I sneaked inside just as the doors
began to close. I set off a beacon in my armor. In short order
Gage warped in, with Lisa and Lara in tow.
"Let's move," I told them. We made our way to the main command
center. There we found Robotnik fuming as he watched over the
proceedings outside.
"I don't know what that hedgehog is up to, but he must have somehow
caught wind of the time machine!"
Time machine! So Robotnik didn't need the Time Stones!
"I know that there won't be a 100-percent chance of success without
the stones, but I will pull this entire planet into the future!
Then I will prove that I control time itself!"
"He's crazy!" Gage whispered to me. "There's no way anyone can
pull that huge an amount of mass through time! Such a process is
heavily unstable and completely suicidal!"
"He's mad! Mad, I tell you!"
"Shut up, Arthur!"
"Sorry."
"What if the hedgehog was a diversion?" Robotnik continued. "What
if he was merely trying to get me to open the door?"
"Cngratulations, You've just won yourself a prize!" I replied,
stepping into the open.
"You!"
"Very good; you have 100 dollars. Next question for 200..."
"Don't get smart with me!"
"Why not? You're such an idiot you could use the extra intelligence."
"Why you--"
"You can't pull this entire planet through a time warp! You'll
destroy the entire planet! There won't be anything left to take
over! Not to mention you won't be around to take over anything!"
"Maybe... but neither will you!"
"NOOOOOO!!!!!"
Robotnik slapped a button on the console. A siren began to go off.
"Warning, Warning! Trans-chrono warp will commence in two minutes!"
"So long, fools!" Big-Ugly took off down a corridor. Lisa and
Lara started to go after him. "Leave him!" I called to them.
"There's no time!"
Gage had immediately gone to work on the console. "Everything's
locked down! This console's useless!"
My eyes focused on the time-warp generator itself. A cable led
to the mainframe computer. I slashed the cable through.
"Warning, Warning! Trans-chrono warp will commence in one minute.
Cancellation code was unable to be downloaded."
"Dang!"
"What's left for options?" Lara yelled, as the whole ground started
to tremble.
"We have to remove the TCW core!" Gage replied.
"How do you do that?" Lisa asked.
"Like this!" he replied as he tore the cover off of the casing.
I activated my energy gloves and joined him.
"Warning! Trans-chrono warp will commence in 30 seconds."
"Oh, shut up!" I screamed to the calmly enunciating PA system.
Gage had finally removed the core, but it was glowing red-hot.
"We've got to get this thing out of here! Outside the apparatus,
it'll blow!!!"
"Fifteen seconds to time warp."
"That's not enough time!"
Just then, in a blaze of rainbow light, the core was ripped out
of Gage's hands. We ran outside just in time to watch the core
go supernova. It was a brilliant explosion. A form fell to
earth at our feet.
"Sonic!" Lara helped him to his feet. He had been hyper when he'd
snagged the coil, but now he was his typical blue self. A little
banged up, but otherwise okay.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
------------
I returned to Floating Island later that day, after Slash had
given Sonic a full blown physical examination. Knux was up and about.
"How you feeling?"
"Okay, I guess. How's Sonic?"
"How did you know?"
"I saw the explosion all the way over here. As high up as it was,
I figured it was him."
"He's okay. Slash says he should wait a while before he goes
off on any missions. Ever figure out why you went nuts back there
in the pyramid?"
"Gave myself a total bio-scan after you left. Had some sort of
biochemical poison in my bloodstream. It had been there for several
weeks, and it had just now started to kick in."
"Any idea where you got it?"
"No clue, but I'll give you 10 to 1 it was Robotnik."
"Well, we know what and when. I guess we'll have to figure out
where, why, and how later."
Knux nodded, but I had a sneaky suspicion he wasn't telling me
everything.
----------------------------------------------------------------
-------------
"Thanks for your help. I'll be returning to a future where Earth is
still around, thanks to you."
"No prob. Catch you on the flipside."
"Only if it's a decent song," Arthur chimed in as Gage warped home.
"Now, where were we?" I asked to no one in particular.
As if in reply, my PC crashed.
"Nuts."
End Episode V
Chronological Chaos
I went back to Floating Island the next day. Knux didn't look any
better.
"You okay?"
"I had a nightmare last night."
Okay, so he was either completely crazy, delusional, or he was trying
to warn me about something.
He continued. "The Time Stones. Robotnik brought them back to
Mobius. He tried to warp the entire planet into the future, but
Mobius was destroyed in the attempt."
Yeah. He was _definitely_ trying to warn me. "You think it's a
premonition from God?"
"Could be. I don't know. What can I do?"
Only one thing I could think of that any of us could do. "Pray."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Since I had been gone, Lisa had wisely chosen to call the rest of
the team to assemble. I told the others about Knux's dream. The
general consensus was that we didn't have much time.
But what were we to do? We didn't know how to reach Little Planet,
We didn't know where Robotnik had relocated his base, and we didn't
know exactly how much time we had.
Needless to say, we didn't know very much in this situation.
"Maybe," Cliff, the team genius, conjectured, "maybe since Mobius
underwent so much strain when it was locked into its own continuum,
maybe the time travel attempt Knuckles was talking about simply tore
the planet apart."
A lot of "maybe"s, especially for Cliff, but it made sense. In fact,
it made perfect sense. Of course Robotnik would try to take over
Mobius again; it was his neverending, not to mention never-successful,
hobby.
"Yeah, well, we still don't know how to get to the Time Stones in
the first place." Christie was always coming up with doomsday
prophecies like that.
"I have an idea that won't require the stones at all."
"Yeah? What's that?"
"I've got a stealth mode in my armor. You guys can... while I take
care of..." Soon the whole plan had been plotted out step-by-step
and no one could find any holes in the fabric of the whole idea.
----------------------------------------------------------------
----------
The stealth mode worked just as I had planned. In the dim light of
Robotnik's hidden base, I went unnoticed. The suit also damped my
heat signature, so I hopefully wouldn't be picked up by any heat
trackers. I reached the bay doors. "I'm in position," I said over
the comlink.
Two seconds later a blue streak screamed up to the doors. The
security camera was on, so whoever was watching wouldn't be able
to miss the show.
Sonic stopped. Tapped his foot. Yawned. Finally yelled "Hey!
What kind of second-rate security have you got, Big-Ugly? You'd
think I lived here as easy as it was for me to get here!"
It was all I could do to keep from laughing my head off. Suddenly
the doors opened, revealing a half-dozen Ultra-SWATs.
"Hey, now that's more like it!" With that, Sonic sped off, with
the U-swats trailing far behind. I sneaked inside just as the doors
began to close. I set off a beacon in my armor. In short order
Gage warped in, with Lisa and Lara in tow.
"Let's move," I told them. We made our way to the main command
center. There we found Robotnik fuming as he watched over the
proceedings outside.
"I don't know what that hedgehog is up to, but he must have somehow
caught wind of the time machine!"
Time machine! So Robotnik didn't need the Time Stones!
"I know that there won't be a 100-percent chance of success without
the stones, but I will pull this entire planet into the future!
Then I will prove that I control time itself!"
"He's crazy!" Gage whispered to me. "There's no way anyone can
pull that huge an amount of mass through time! Such a process is
heavily unstable and completely suicidal!"
"He's mad! Mad, I tell you!"
"Shut up, Arthur!"
"Sorry."
"What if the hedgehog was a diversion?" Robotnik continued. "What
if he was merely trying to get me to open the door?"
"Cngratulations, You've just won yourself a prize!" I replied,
stepping into the open.
"You!"
"Very good; you have 100 dollars. Next question for 200..."
"Don't get smart with me!"
"Why not? You're such an idiot you could use the extra intelligence."
"Why you--"
"You can't pull this entire planet through a time warp! You'll
destroy the entire planet! There won't be anything left to take
over! Not to mention you won't be around to take over anything!"
"Maybe... but neither will you!"
"NOOOOOO!!!!!"
Robotnik slapped a button on the console. A siren began to go off.
"Warning, Warning! Trans-chrono warp will commence in two minutes!"
"So long, fools!" Big-Ugly took off down a corridor. Lisa and
Lara started to go after him. "Leave him!" I called to them.
"There's no time!"
Gage had immediately gone to work on the console. "Everything's
locked down! This console's useless!"
My eyes focused on the time-warp generator itself. A cable led
to the mainframe computer. I slashed the cable through.
"Warning, Warning! Trans-chrono warp will commence in one minute.
Cancellation code was unable to be downloaded."
"Dang!"
"What's left for options?" Lara yelled, as the whole ground started
to tremble.
"We have to remove the TCW core!" Gage replied.
"How do you do that?" Lisa asked.
"Like this!" he replied as he tore the cover off of the casing.
I activated my energy gloves and joined him.
"Warning! Trans-chrono warp will commence in 30 seconds."
"Oh, shut up!" I screamed to the calmly enunciating PA system.
Gage had finally removed the core, but it was glowing red-hot.
"We've got to get this thing out of here! Outside the apparatus,
it'll blow!!!"
"Fifteen seconds to time warp."
"That's not enough time!"
Just then, in a blaze of rainbow light, the core was ripped out
of Gage's hands. We ran outside just in time to watch the core
go supernova. It was a brilliant explosion. A form fell to
earth at our feet.
"Sonic!" Lara helped him to his feet. He had been hyper when he'd
snagged the coil, but now he was his typical blue self. A little
banged up, but otherwise okay.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
------------
I returned to Floating Island later that day, after Slash had
given Sonic a full blown physical examination. Knux was up and about.
"How you feeling?"
"Okay, I guess. How's Sonic?"
"How did you know?"
"I saw the explosion all the way over here. As high up as it was,
I figured it was him."
"He's okay. Slash says he should wait a while before he goes
off on any missions. Ever figure out why you went nuts back there
in the pyramid?"
"Gave myself a total bio-scan after you left. Had some sort of
biochemical poison in my bloodstream. It had been there for several
weeks, and it had just now started to kick in."
"Any idea where you got it?"
"No clue, but I'll give you 10 to 1 it was Robotnik."
"Well, we know what and when. I guess we'll have to figure out
where, why, and how later."
Knux nodded, but I had a sneaky suspicion he wasn't telling me
everything.
----------------------------------------------------------------
-------------
"Thanks for your help. I'll be returning to a future where Earth is
still around, thanks to you."
"No prob. Catch you on the flipside."
"Only if it's a decent song," Arthur chimed in as Gage warped home.
"Now, where were we?" I asked to no one in particular.
As if in reply, my PC crashed.
"Nuts."
End Episode V