The Guardian Party

by Pip the Bat

A joint work of fiction with NetRaptor. The story takes place on the Floating Island, where a mysterious character is killing the chao. Will they be able to stand up to the pressure?

The Guardian Party

A story about echidnas and chao by Pip the Bat and NetRaptor
______________________________________________________
Copyright notice: Knuckles, Tikal, Sonic, etc. copyrighted by Sega.
Zephyer, Echo, chao and other fan characters copyrighted by Pip the Bat
and NetRaptor. Please do not use them without our permission.

Author's note: This story is meant to be its own continuity, and is
not meant to follow the continuties of either of our previous fanfics.
Nothing in this story has any bearing on any other stories.
______________________________________________________

High summer on the Floating Island. The trees stood limp and wilted,
the river ran warm, the air hung thick and hot over everything. The sun
burned down from a brazen sky, too bright to look at directly.

Knuckles lay in the shade under a tree, spread-eagled on the grass,
panting. On the other side of the tree lay Echo and Zephyer, also lying
flat, lazy and tired from the heat. Zephyer was robotized from the
throat down, and although she liked heat, the metal stifled her.

Echo lay nearby. Echo had appeared at the same time as Chaos earlier
that year--it seemed at first that she too had been imprisoned in the
Master emerald. But it turned out that she had absorbed so much of its
power in an ancient transfer accident, that her body was composed almost
entirely out of pure energy. Her life was bound up with the Master
emerald in a way no one completely understood.

But at the moment, the three echidnas were not thinking of their
respective histories. They thought only of the heat, if they thought
at all.

"Maybe it'd be cooler on the mainland," said Zephyer, her voice slightly
muffled by the still air.

"I doubt it," said Knuckles. "A heatwave like this won't stick to just
the island. Trust me, you don't want to be in Knothole today."

"I'll take your word for it," said Echo. She had a mortal terror of
leaving the island and the Master emerald.

The three were quiet a moment, as if the few words spoken had sapped
their strength.

"Where's Pip?" Zephyer asked.

Knuckles placed his hands behind his head. "She's off with the chao.
They're up by the Master Emerald shrine in Marble Gardens. She says
they feel secure when they're around the emerald."

"I can believe that," said Echo.

Zephyer turned her head and smiled at her. "You practically ARE the
Master emerald, Ec."

Echo smiled and didn't reply.

Zephyer stood up. "I ought to go check on them. You know how hot Marble
Gardens gets when it's like this. And I don't want poor Zinc getting
trounced by all the thugs around here." She smiled at Echo and Knuckles.
They all knew that Zinc, Zephyer's silverish chao, was not only a
freak, he was also very delicate, and normal chao could hurt him
without meaning to. Echo stood up, too. "I'd like to go. I'm trying to
get one of them to like me like Zinc likes you."

Knuckles lay on his back and watched them move off, then climbed to his
feet. "Wait up!" he called. There wasn't much point in lying around
when somebody was actually DOING something. He trotted up to the two
girls, and the three strolled in the direction of Marble Gardens.

As they came into view of the collapsed pillars and rotting stone that
composed the ruins, they saw a small black figure appear and run
toward them, metal arms glinting in the sun. "It's Pip," said Knuckles
obviously. He waved an arm. "Hi Pip! What's up?"

The black bat pelted up to them, panting, eyes wide. "Knuckles, Echo,
Zephyer!" she said between breaths, "come quick! Something terrible has
happened!" She grabbed Knuckles by the hand and tugged him in the
direction of the emerald shrine. The three broke into a run.

By the time they reached the little ornamental pyramid, they were nearly
done in by the heat. Pip was so distraught she didn't seem to notice.
"Look! Look what happened! I left for a minute to get them some water,
and I came back, and ..."

The little group of blue chao was huddled in the shade on one side of
the pyramid. Zinc was among them, Zephyer was relieved to see. A few
feet away, on the edge of the shadow, there lay a single chao--or what
was left of one.

"Somebody killed him!" Pip wailed.

For a moment the three echidnas just stared, dumbstruck. Then Zephyer
moved, hurrying over to the dead chao and kneeling by its side. The
other chao had backed away from the small lifeless body and closer to
the wall of the shrine, as if being closer to the emeralds made them
immune from harm. Or whatever it was that killed their comrade.

"It looks like it was a hard blow to the head," she told the others. "He
probably wouldn't have felt much." She straightened up and she and Echo
went over to the remaining Chao, trying to comfort them.

Pip couldn't seem to stop staring at the dead chao. How could somebody
have killed something as defenceless and innocent as a chao? It was
beyond her. Trying to put as much bravery into her voice as she could,
she said slowly and shakily "If I ever find out who did this they are
going to have their tails seriously whupped."

Knuckles realised that the best thing to do under the circumstances was
to keep Pip busy so that she didn't have a lot of time to think about
what had happened. He wasn't too sure what to say, however, until he
looked over to where Zephyer and Echo were checking on the chao. He
suddenly realised that Aqua, his own chao, was not there. "Where are
the others?" he asked.

The bat looked as if she'd been given an electric jolt. "Ohmigosh!" she
gasped. "I'd just let some of the chao go off to play hide and seek. The
special ones and one or two others..." She raced off in the direction
of the nearest forest, in which she had left the chao to play.

Knuckles hesitated for a second before turning and joining the other
two echidnas in looking after the chao. Every minute or so he glanced
over at the forest.

**********

Pip had managed to round up most of the chao. There was Bik, a sweet
little violet chao, Strelle, her own angelic looking white chao, Aqua,
Knuckles's red chao and one or two others of both special and non-special
variety. But one of their number was missing. Falcon, another of the
special chao, purple in colour with long, sticking up and out hair.
She didn't feel comfortable with having favourites, Strelle apart, but
she had to admit that Falcon was the highest of the favourites she didn't
have, still excluding her own personal chao. Something couldn't have
happened to him, like the other chao, could it? She wasn't really sure
if she wanted to know the answer.

She asked Bik, who was probably the most sensible, if she could lead
the other chao back to the Emerald Shrine while she went and looked for
the elusive Falcon. Strelle sulked a little as she wanted to come too,
but if something really had happened to Falcon, Pip didn't want any of
the chao to see. The others nervously agreed and began to make their
path back to Knuckles, Zephyer and Echo.

It took a while, and Pip was beginning to really worry about the purple
chao when she spotted him peeking out from behind the branches of a
tall tree. Smiling in relief, she called up to him. "Hey, Falcs! You can
come down now, y'know." Grinning broadly, he dropped onto her shoulder.

"You took ages and ages," he accused her. "What kept you?"

"You were pretty well hidden. If you hadn't gone and poked your head out
I probably wouldn't have spotted you. And something's happened."

"What?" asked Falcon, immediately focusing on the most important part.
"What's happened?" He looked a little upset. "You're not cross with me
for hiding so long are you?"

"Nah. No way am I cross with you pal. But a chao... a chao's been
killed."

He stared at her in disbelief. "How?" he managed.

"Someone did it. We dunno who though. I'll explain later. Let's just
get back to the Emerald Shrine for now." Then they walked back, Falcon
riding on Pip's shoulder. And from the undergrowth, a pair of cold
green eyes watched them go.

*********

The wind was blowing a cold breeze, making the approaching night much
cooler than the day had been. Masked by a dark clump of trees, a figure
stood, holding a comlink in one of his knuckled hands, his metal
knuckled hands. The robot's main colour was red with a smaller portion
of his body a steely grey while his eyes were black with luminous green
irises.

"Yes?" hissed a voice from the comlink. The very tone in which the word
was spoken would have been enough to terrify a poor chao but the figure
in the trees seemed only slightly shaken by it.

"I have done your bidding," said the robot. "The first of the chao has
been destroyed ... messily ... before the eyes of the others."

There was a pause as the creature on the comlink seemed to think this
over. "You have done well," it conceded eventually. "You may have more
intelligence then I had given you credit for. I take it that the guardians
have not given you any trouble?"

The robot paused, as if thinking of how to phrase his reply. "No they
have not, master. They are not even aware of my presence." He stopped
and corrected himself. "WERE not, I should say. I would have killed
more than one chao today ... the purple one with the hair ... but the
fool of a bat thwarted my attempt. I would like to destroy her some
day ... with your permission, of course," he added hastily. Grovelling
was not something he excelled in, and although it went against his
pride and self-respect, he knew he must pay this person the respect
due a creature a thousand times eviller than himself.

The other person considered this for a brief moment. "Maybe. But if not
_I_ will kill her. She is the only one who knows of me and my identity.
But she is so... stupid that she would never realise that I am still
alive and..." She broke off, as if she had thought better of what she
was going to say. "Try to leave the special Chao alive. The have more
emotions than the others as well as the powers of the emeralds. They
will be more susceptible to my... plan. But if the Guardians get in
your way, you have my permission to do what you will to them."

The robot's green eyes glittered for a moment like sun on the ocean.
Killing was something he enjoyed immensely. "I will let the bat alone,
for now," he purred. "And I shall not harm the special chao." Not much,
anyway, he added silently to himself. "But the other guardians ...
particularly Knuckles ... shall lose their lives if they cross paths
with me."

The answering voice was more like a snarl than anything else. "I'm not
stupid, robot," it growled. "If even one of the special chao is hurt
then you'll feel the pain a million times over. Do you understand me? I do
not like to be disobeyed. Many could bear testimony of that... the ones
who lived."

The robot's manner changed at once. "I apologise for any second thoughts
I may have had. I am programmed to think only of how to kill and ..." his
voice was dangerously near a whine. He readjusted it. "I will not harm
the special chao. I give you my word ... as far as it is worth," he
added as an afterthought. "I will be the best assassin you have ever
hired."

"Maybe," the voice replied. "But there will always be one who is better
than you. The one who finally destroyed Sonic Hedgehog. Never forget
that." The com clicked into silence once more.

**********

As this little meeting was going on on one side of the island, on the
other side, the echidnas and Pip were having a marshmallow roast for the
chao to cheer them up. The little chao had been depressed all day long,
and the heat hadn't helped much. But now it was cool, the wind was
blowing, and the chao were seated in a ring, waiting for marshmallows to
brown over the flames.

"Can I roast one? PLEASE?" Falcon whined. He had white marshmallow smeared
all over his face and hands, and even some stuck in his hair.

"Well, okay," said Pip, impaling a marshmallow on a stick and handing it
to him, "but don't expect me to touch the handle when you're through."

Falcon eagerly thrust the stick into the coals, and the marshmallow
immediately caught fire. He held it up and stared at the blackening
glob in dismay as Pip blew it out. "I don't want it," he complained.

"I'll take it!" squeaked Zinc. He would eat anything. Pip slid the black
glob off the end of the stick and handed it to him. The silver chao ate
it up, not seeming to mind the charcoal texture.

"I don't see how that can be good for him," said Zephyer. "Isn't burned
stuff supposed to be bad for you?"

"Eh, just extra carbon," said Knuckles. "It shouldn't hurt him much."

"Well then," said Zephyer, turning to Pip, "when he throws up, you can
clean up the mess."

Pip only grinned. She was busy roasting five marshmallows at a time on
her stick without setting the stick itself on fire. "If I were Robo
Knux," she said, "I'd be able to stick five on each knuckle claw, and
stick my hand right in the fire." She pretended to demonstrate, at the
same time grimacing as if her hand were burning off. All the chao tittered.

Pip handed out marshmallows, and as the chao began eating them and
distributing mess all over their faces, she stood up. "Look, I'm Robo
Knux playing basketball!" She moved stiffly in a circle, dribbling an
imaginary ball in slow motion, then lifted it chest-high and gave it a
weak toss. "Misssed," she hissed like a robot. "We'll see about that!"
She pretended to take an axe and chop off the net, and set it up again,
three feet above the ground. "Now I can slam-dunk it all day!" she said,
and the chao giggled again.

"Now I'm Robo Knux cleaning his room!" She walked into an imaginary room,
folded her arms and glared about her, looking quite like the robot in
question. "I don't have to do this. No one can make me. I'll simply run
away." She walked out of the imaginary room, and the chao and echidna
onlookers laughed.

A pair of green eyes witnessed this charade, and their owner was very,
very angry ...

************

The sun rose high into the sky, promising another day just as hot as the
one prior to it. Knuckles, Zephyer, Echo and the others slept on, but
Pip got up early, to tend to the chao. She'd been a little worried about
leaving them all night, but when she arrived back they all seemed to be
fine. Relieved, she bounded happily up to them, petted some and glanced
down at their water bucket.

"You're running a little low, aren't you? I guess it's all this heat
making you thirsty." Hefting the still heavy bucket up easily, she looked
over to the chao. "Wanna come Strelle?" Strelle ignored her, looking
pointedly in the opposite direction. Pip guessed that Strelle still
hadn't forgiven her for not letting her accompany her the previous day.
Sighing slightly, Pip said: "Okay. Anyone want to come?"

Axel, Sonic's chao, leapt up and down in the air. "Me! Me! I wanna go!"

"Hokey-dokey then." She lowered the bucket slightly and Axel leapt into
it. "Whoa, I think we might have overdone it one the marshmallow scale
last night," she told him, grinning. "Trying to break my arms, huh?"

He smiled and lay back, quickly dozing off. It didn't take long to reach
the stream; it was only about a quarter of a mile away although it was
getting hotter and hotter as the sun got higher in the sky. As Pip dumped
the bucket down, Axel leapt out and leaning over the embankment, sipped
thirstily from the water.

Pip filled the bucket, set it down once more then lay down in the grass,
waiting for Axel to finish his drink. At length, the chao lifted his
head from the water, and gave her a happy grin. "The water's much nicer
than usual. Try it; it's really lovely." He then plunged his head back
into the stream.

Shrugging, Pip cupped her hands into the water and sipped from them.
"Yeah, I see what you mean. Wonder why." She lay back again.

"I dunno, but the more I drink, the more I seem to need."

Pip suddenly sat bolt upright. "Uh, Axel, I'd stop that if I were you."
The chao ignored her. "Axel," she repeated, a more commanding tone in
her voice. "Get away from there. Please."

He sat up. "Why?" Pip opened her mouth to explain, but Axel hiccoughed,
loudly, looking surprised. "I feel a little dizzy," he said, and gave
another series of hiccoughs. With the last, he keeled over onto the
grass, almost going into the stream and lay motionless.

********

In the emerald shrine, the blue emerald's light died then suddenly
flickered again, burning as brightly as before.

********

A short while later, the others had got up. Zephyer and Echo were out
walking to have another look at the chao, to check on them when they saw
a miserable looking pale figure trudging towards them, eyes on the
object in it's hands. It was Pip carrying Axel.

"Anything happened?" Zephyer called across to her. Pip glanced up at
her shout then hurried over.

"Axel's dead," she said, looking as if she was in a trance. "The stream's
been poisoned and he drank some of it."

Zephyer carefully took the chao from Pip's hands before looking up at
her. "What about you? Are you okay?"

"Oh, I've just been a little sick. Several times."

Zephyer and Echo exchanged a quick glance that Pip didn't see.

"C'mon Pip," said Echo, trying to sound cheerful. "Why don't we see
if we can make the other chao a toy or something, huh? And while we're
at it, I might just give you a little check up to see if the poison's
got any lasting effects." She took the bat by the arm and led her away,
receiving a grateful glance from Zephyer. Echo was better at healing
than any of the others on the island, and she guessed that she would
soon have Pip back to her usual perky self.

She looked down at the chao in her hands. Poor thing. She'd see to it
that Axel got a decent burial. The others would probably want to help
too. Guessing where Knuckles would be, she jogged over to the patch of
trees where she, Knuckles and Echo had been relaxing the other day. Sure
enough, Knuckles was there.

"Wazzup?" he murmured, drowsily. Zephyer quickly explained what had
just happened to him.

"Someone's killed another chao?" he said, when she'd finished. "What
about the others? Are they okay?"

Zephyer looked surprised. "You think they've been attacked too? Of
course, while we were running around we left the chao unguarded..." She
laid the body of Axel gently down onto the grassy floor, then broke into
a run, Knuckles following her. They reached the spot where they'd left
the other chao in record time.

The chao were milling around, most of them looking frightened. The
echidna's hearts lurched. That could only mean one thing--another attack.
Sure enough, one of the chao was lying on the floor, looking much the
same as the first one to be attacked. It wasn't Zinc still, Zephyer was
happy to see, while feeling guilty for that thought.

Strelle saw them first and rushed over, looking half excited, half scared.
"This creature came up and killed him!" she declared, pointing
dramatically at the chao.

"We'd kinda guessed that," said Knuckles, trying not to look. "Did you
see who it was?" Bik and Falcon had come up behind Strelle while he was
speaking. The white chao shook her head and wandered off.

"None of us got a good look at it," said Bik, in a grown up voice she
often used. "I ran for the emeralds when it came, so that we could use
their power. But when I got back, the creature was gone."

"I knew that there wouldn't be time to get the emeralds or help," said
Falcon, in his usual lazy drawl. "I just flew straight at the guy. It
just whacked me with its hand and I've only just come round again. It's
funny though, I only saw it for a few moments, but I feel sure I've seen
it somewhere before."

"This is serious," said Bik, ignoring Falcon's faint jibe. [The two often
needled each other over who was the better of them since both wanted to
be the leader. These jibes weren't meant to be harmful though.] "Two
chao are dead already."

"Three," said Zephyer, sadly. "Axel's dead too."

Bik looked horrified. "Axel? What happened to Axel?"

Zephyer explained gently, leaving out the gory details. The chao all
looked very sad when she finished.

"I never thought Axel would die," said Bik, shaking her purple head. "He
was so alive and ... oh Zephyer, Knuckles, we must do something!"

"But what?" said Knuckles. "Take you all to Knothole? Hide you all in
Hidden Palace?"

"I wouldn't mind going to Hidden Palace," said Zinc.

"I know," Knuckles said. "That's the problem, because none of you would
ever want to leave." He looked at Zephyer. She was looking at the dead
chao with a glint in her eyes.

"I have an idea," she said.

*********

Hidden Palace was a pleasant eighty degrees, compared to the blistering
heat of outdoors. The chao ran about on the marble floor, oooing and
ahhing, gazing at the softly glowing Super emeralds, and exclaiming over
how cool it was.

"We can keep an eye on them here," said Zephyer softly to Knuckles, "and
while they're safe down here, we can go on a hunt for the murderer up
there."

"I see your point," said Knuckles, brushing his dreadlocks out of his
eyes, "but don't you think the emeralds are a little powerful for the
chao to hang around?"

Zephyer looked at the scampering chao and bit her lip a moment. "No, I
think they'll be okay for a day or two. Pip can watch them."

"A fine job she's done so far," Knuckles growled. "And who gets to break
it to Sonic that his chao's been killed?"

Zephyer winced. "Ooo. I wouldn't want to be the one ... but if Pip's not
better, it'll either be you, me or Echo."

Suddenly a chao appeared at Zephyer's feet. It was the black chao, Chalcon,
who was the fastest runner of the group and also the most conceited. He
reclined on the floor and grinned up at the robotic echidna. "Watch me,"
he said quietly, and vanished before her eyes. At the same instant he
appeared across the room, at the foot of the blue emerald pedestal, still
in the same reclined position. Zephyer gaped at him. "How'd you do that?"
She looked at Knuckles for explanation. He shrugged. "He's got the blue
emerald's power of teleportation, like Axel had. I guess it passed on the
gift to Chalcon when Axel died."

*********

"Two more chao have died today."

"Yes? No special ones, I take it."

"Actually ... yes, one was a special chao. He belonged to Sonic."

The voice on the other end of the line seemed to go bezerk. "You killed
the blue chao? How dare you! How DARE you!! I wanted him left alive! He
had imprinted many of Sonic's abilities and thought patterns, and I WANTED
HIM ALIVE!!! ALL THE SPECIAL CHAO ARE PRICELESS!!!"

"Yes ma'am, sorry ma'am," the robot apologised hastily. "I didn't mean to--
I mean, I didn't intend for the blue one to drink the water--"

"Silence," hissed the voice. "You have been reckless. Remain silent--I
know why you killed him. Pip the Bat had angered you with her impressions
of you, correct?"

It took the robot a moment to control himself. "Yes."

"And you were hoping to kill her, too."

Another pause. "Yes."

"Fool. I must remember that you are merely a collection of silicon, wires
and electricity. If you fail once more--if any more of those special chao
die--you will be replaced at once. Understand?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Ending transmission."

**********

"Knux, Zephyer, come quickly!" Echo was standing beside them suddenly.
"It's the hedgehog from Knothole, Sonic I think. He's just called. Pip
said I ought to get you. We've put him on hold for now."

Knuckles and Zephyer exchanged quick looks. "I'll stay with the chao,"
said Zephyer quickly. "You go and see Sonic."

Knuckles ran off, looking grim. Echo looked torn between running and
teleporting, but since she was a very slow runner opted instead for
teleporting. In moments, Zephyer was alone with the chao.

*********

The three of them stood, facing the screen. "Put him on, I guess," said
Knuckles, after a pause.

"How?" said Echo, curiously. There had been no computers or electrical
equipment in her time.

Knuckles had an impatient sound, reached down and clicked the screen on.
Sonic's face swam into focus. "Heya Knux, Pip and...?"

"Echo."

"Yeah, anyway, I was wondering if you and the chao would like to come
down to Knothole for a day or two. We've been preparing this massive
picnic and barbecue and everything. It's really wicked."

There was a long pause. "Uh, sorry Sonic but we're... quite busy at the
moment. A lot of stuff going on. Especially for the chao."

"Oh." Sonic sounded disappointed. "Well, okay then. How's Axel doing
anyway?"

There was an even longer pause. "Not very well," said Pip, in a small
voice.

"Aw, poor thing. What's up with him then?"

"He's dead." All three looked uncomfortable.

"Dead? How?" Sonic looked shocked and upset.

"Two other chao have died," Echo informed him. "We think there's a
murderer on the island."

"Well, how clever of you," snapped Sonic. "I wouldn't have thought of
THAT." He gave Pip a look that made her take a pace backwards. "I thought
YOU were supposed to be looking after them. You can't be doing anything
near a good job if three of the chao have been killed. How many more
are going to die before you work out what you're supposed to be doing?"

Pip turned and ran from the room. From a glimpse of her face, Echo
guessed that she was crying.

"NOW look what you've done!" Knuckles yelled at Sonic.

Echo decided it was time to creep quietly away. It would feel like
eavesdropping to her if she listened to their argument. She went and
stood out of earshot, looking at the island's sunset. It really was quite
pretty, she thought.

A moment later, Knuckles came storming out. "That stupid JERK! It's not
our fault that someone's been killing the chao. And we didn't know to
stop it before, and we're definitely going to try our best to catch the
guy who's been doing it."

Echo let him work off his anger before saying: "Who or what do you think
it is who's been killing the chao?"

"Dunno. Maybe a werewolf, I'm not sure. They're pretty vicious
creatures."

"But not underhand. They'd rather have a straight fight than poison
streams and kill chao while nobody's around. They wouldn't think it
worth their while."

"Who do YOU think it is then?"

"I couldn't say. I haven't been in this time long enough to know anyone
except Zephyer, you, the chao and Pip."

"Talking of Pip, did you see where she went?"

"No. I thought she'd have gone back to Hidden Palace."

"Guess so." They walked off. Just as they were about to step into one of
the teleporters, two figures came towards them, Pip and--

"Tikal! I haven't seen you in ages!" exclaimed Knuckles.

"You wouldn't have. I've been wandering the island mostly. I was coming to
see you when somebody ran into me. Literally."

Pip grinned sheepishly. "Sorry. I wasn't looking where I was going."

"I noticed. Anyway, Pip's told me what's been going on and I'd just like
to say, if there's anything I can do to help, you only have to ask."

"Actually, we were just going to get Zephyer and then go on a search
party to see if we can't find the murderer." Echo and Pip looked like
they were about to say "We were?" but he stepped into the teleporter
before they could say anything. Five minutes later, both he and Zephyer
emerged. "Right," he said. "Time to get cracking."

*********

Down in the Hidden Palace, there was a worried tension. All the chao were
afraid that the killer might strike again while there was no one to look
after them. Bik was running around, trying to keep everyone cheerful.
Strelle wasn't helping at all as she kept telling the other chao horror
stories with gruesome endings and sneaking up behind them and yelling
stuff. She only stopped when Falcon sneaked up behind HER and did a
very realistic growl, to which she jumped a foot in the air and ran to
hide behind the Super emeralds.

Fuft, the smallest of the special chao was sitting with Scritch,
Slasher's chao, who was telling him tales of fantasy, with castles and
dragons and knights. Aqua and Peppi were just sitting around, Aqua
looking a little bored while Peppi was dozing quietly. Chalcon was
lounging around in his usual lazy position.

Out of the corner of his eye, Falcon saw Zinc bounce up to Chalcon and
ask him something in his squeaky voice. Falcon couldn't quite hear
what it was, but Chalcon sneered at Zinc and hit him across the face.
Falcon was surprised. Conceited, yes, but he'd never taken Chalcon for
a bully. And although he wouldn't like to admit it, he quite liked
Zinc. In a flash he was standing between them.

"What's the problem?"

"This jerk here-" Chalcon indicated Zinc. "-thinks that no other chao
are going to be killed. I was just showing him that he's an optimistic
little fool."

Falcon felt the anger rise in him, although he tried to keep it down.
"What of it? I don't think any more chao are going to be killed now
that we've been moved. That's no reason to hit him."

"More's the pity," said Chalcon, yawning. "With morons like you
around."

"And what do you mean by that?" said Falcon, in menacing tones. "The
only moron I see around here is YOU."

Chalcon looked at him, and suddenly it didn't seem as if it was the
black chao any more. His eyes were different. He could almost see the
madness in them. And a cruel sneer was upon his face.

"We're all going to die," he said softly. "Can't you tell? We're all
going to DIE!" In the twinkling of an eye, Chalcon vanished and
reappeared next to the emeralds, seizing the blue one. The emerald
seemed to disappear, flowing up Chalcon's body. Falcon knew that he had
become a warrior chao, the form which special chao, in contact with
their specific emerald would take on. Falcon himself had no emerald
of his own, they had never found which one was his, but he had found
that he could use any of the others for a part of his true emerald
borne power.

The black chao shot towards him, burning with the power of the emerald.
Falcon dived out of the way just in time as Chalcon streaked over his
head. Bik grabbed the nearest emerald, the white one, and tossed it
over to him. He leapt high, hitting the emerald in mid air, absorbing
it's power as it flowed into him. He screeched aloud; for when he
became a warrior chao he assumed the shape of a phoenix, with purple
energy sparkling from his wings as he flew.

"Right, you self confident upstart," he hissed between his teeth. "Let's
see how you do in a fair fight."

They shot all over the place, each trying to get a hit in on the other,
smashing parts of pedestals as they strove to win the fight. It soon
became clear to the spectators, however, that the two powered up chao
were an even match for each other. In actual fact, Falcon was not
trying to hit his opponent as much as he would have liked to. He
realised that if he killed Chalcon while he was using the emerald, the
blue gem would be lost forever. Slowly, while avoiding Chalcon's
attacks, a plan formed in his mind...

"Hey! Loser!" he yelled across to Chalcon, as the chao closely missed
hitting him with a black jet of power. "Since you can't even hit me,
why don't I try standing still for you?" Chalcon paused for a moment,
considering. "Both of us drop the emeralds and I give you three shots
at me."

Chalcon laughed, the unnatural sound echoing and rebounding off the
walls. "All right then. I could easily kill you with three hits." His
emerald clattered to the floor, followed a moment later by the white
one. Their users dropped to the ground also. Falcon stood still as
Chalcon ran at him, showing his incredible speed, and dealt him a hard
blow between the eyes. The purple chao closed his eyes but didn't
make a sound.

Chalcon ran at him again, slashing him across his chest. Falcon took in
a deep breath then let it out again, still with his eyes closed. On the
next run, Chalcon hit him so hard he was knocked several feet back.
Then he opened his eyes and stood up. But he did not move any more
than that.

Puzzled, but clearly not about to pass up another opportunity to hurt
Falcon, Chalcon ran at him again, even faster than before. Falcon
didn't move until the black chao was almost upon him. Then he neatly
sidestepped and held out one hand. Chalcon didn't have anytime to slow
down. There was a loud cracking noise that made most of the chao
whimper, and Chalcon was hurled across the room with the impact of his
sudden, abrupt halt. He landed face down and didn't move again.


As the chao stood in stunned silence, staring at Falcon, who was
breathing heavily and still looked fierce, and at Chalcon, lying on
the floor, the light in the emerald chamber dimmed slightly. The bunch
started and looked around. The blue super emerald--Chalcon's--had
dimmed. A moment later it flared to life again, and the light returned
to normal.

"Falcon!" Strelle piped shrilly. "You killed him!"

The chao rushed to Chalcon's side and rolled him over. Bik pushed the
others back and felt for a heartbeat with a soft paw. Slowly she turned
and stared at Falcon. "He's dead," she said.

"Well, it wasn't my fault!" said Falcon angrily. "He started it by
beating up on Zinc!" He looked around for Zinc and saw him sitting
alone at a distance, watching with glazed eyes. "Look!" exclaimed
Falcon, pointing at him. "See? He's hurt!"

At that moment Zephyer returned to the emerald chamber. She was
carrying a plate of chopped fruit, which was the favourite meal of
the chao. None of them, however, ran to her with greedy cries. They all
stood and stared at her in dread.

The echidna knew at once that something had happened. "What have you
guys done now?" she asked, setting the plate irreverently on a super
emerald and walking forward. The chao looked at each other in silence.
How should they tell her?

Zephyer saved them the trouble by spotting Chalcon herself. "What
happened to Chal?" She walked over to him, knelt and picked him up.
The chao's dark head rolled lifelessly to one side, and she gasped
and nearly dropped him. "Chalcon's dead! Oh my--" She whirled to
face the chao. "What happened? Was the murderer here again?"

All the chao looked at Falcon. Falcon hung his purple head. "No, Miss
Zephyer ... we had a fight and ... I hit him awful hard ... He was
beating up Zinc!" he finished defensively.

Zephyer only looked at them all for a long moment without a word,
then turned on her heel, strode to the teleporter and beamed out.

"You're in trouble now," said Strelle.

********

Knuckles was looking at a map of the Floating Island in the shade of a
palm tree grove with Pip and Echo when Zephyer appeared. "Hi Zeff,"
said Knuckles without looking up. "We were thinking you could take
Sandopolis, because you're good with desert climates ..." He looked
up for the first time and saw Chalcon. "Uh oh. What happened now?"

"It wasn't me!" Pip exclaimed, holding up her hands.

"I know it wasn't," said Zephyer. "They said Falcon and Chal had a
fight, and ... Chal lost." Knuckles rolled his eyes, and Echo looked
shocked.

"Chalcon's been asking for a fight for ages. This could have happened
any time," said Knuckles.

"Yes, but why did it have to happen NOW?" Zephyer exclaimed, her voice
shaking with grief. "Before long they're all be dead!" She looked down
at the black chao in her hands and tried hard not to cry.

"Look," said Knuckles, patting her on the shoulder, "it's not your
fault. I'm sure it was nobody's fault except his own. These things
happen. Now, are we going to search for the murderer or what?"

"I suppose so," Zephyer answered, trying to sound cheerful.

"Now, like I said, you could go over Sandopolis with a fine comb, you-"
He turned to Echo. "-can go and check out Marble Garden and Mushroom
Hill, you-" He was looking at Pip now. "-can fly around and see if
you can spot anything from above, Tikal's promised to have a look
around the woods and I can go down to Lava Reef." He looked around.
"Any questions?"

"Should I have a look around the old theme park place too?" asked Pip.
"Just flying around wouldn't take me long."

"Oh yeah, Carnival Night. Pretty much fallen apart by now but you can
check it anyway. Any more questions?" There weren't. "Okay team, let's
go search the island."

********

Zephyer was getting quite bored. She liked the heat better than the
cold but what with the extreme heat wave they had been having recently, it
was becoming unbearable, even for her. And there had been no sight of
any chao killer. Just desert, desert and... more desert. And in the
distance, she could just make out the pyramid. Not exactly the landscape
of the year. And she couldn't get Chalcon's dead body out of her mind...

Suddenly, there was a loud hissing behind her and she swung round to see
a large desert snake, a kind of cobra by the looks of it, bearing down
on her, leaving a long groove in the sand where it slithered, poised to
strike. She had been so preoccupied she had not noticed its approach,
which had been almost silent anyway.

"Oh shoot," she murmured, under her breath.

********

Knuckles walked through Lava Reef with a propriatorial air. Nope, there
was nothing amiss. He was walking through one cavern when a small pebble
clinked down from the ceiling, bouncing down near his foot. He gave it a
cursory glance. Normally he wouldn't have paid it any more attention than
that, but then another fell, bigger this time, narrowly missing his head.
He looked up. And ran.

Just as he cleared the cavern, the whole roof caved in behind him,
shards of rock flying everywhere, one scraping his forehead badly.
Cautiously, checking that nothing else was about to fall down he approached
the cave-in, a nasty thought running through his head.

The cavern had been perfectly stable. The only thing that could have
caused it to collapse was if someone had helped it to...

He couldn't see anybody there of course. They'd have weakened the ceiling
and made a run for it. He frowned, then another thought danced across
his mind: What about the others? What if they had some dangerous prank
played on them too? Or even been attacked?

He raced out of Lava Reef and outside. It was so hot that he barely
noticed any change in temperature. Some heatwave. Deciding that the woods
where Tikal would be were nearest, he sprinted towards them, then halted.
What about the chao? What if they were discovered and attacked while
they were all searching. Torn between two choices, Knuckles changed
direction, running instead towards the nearest teleporter to Hidden Palace.

But before he got there, he tripped over something that sent him
sprawling in the grass. Turning back to see what had tripped him, he
saw Tikal, stretched out in the grass. He hurried over to her and almost
brained himself on a tree branch. Putting two and two together, he
guessed that it had been swung back into her face as she was passing by.

He hurriedly checked her pulse. It was still going, thank goodness. And
she was breathing too, just a little fast.

If there was one thing they could say about this guy, he thought, as
he carried the unconscious Tikal back to Hidden Palace, they're pretty
careful about hiding their dirty paw marks.

*********

Pip had finished her sky patrol and cautiously flew over the gates to
the ruined Carnival Night and landed inside. Everything was deathly still
and there was not a sound save for her own breathing. Shrugging, she
walked on into the park, stopping to have a look at some of the more
interesting things as she came across them.

Then she spotted something more interesting than anything else she'd
seen in the place; lying on it's side a few feet away was one of those
old robots that Robotnik had used to make. It looked like it had been
dead for a long long while. But it was made to look like a small, blue,
evil looking bat, although a dumb one as a pose to a Mobian one like
herself.

"Oh cool!" she said, stepping closer, curiosity ruling out any
apprehension she might have had. She touched it lightly with one foot.
Then, to her horror, its eyes suddenly glowed brightly and it swooped
up into the air, turning to face her, a nasty expression on its face.
"Oops," she said.

It shot towards her and she ducked just in time, rolling over on the
floor and leaping to her feet to face her opponent again. As it shot
towards her once more, she aimed her in built wing lasers with as much
care and precision as the time would allow and shot. It went right
through the robot who looked surprised for a few seconds, then dropped
to the floor, dead once more.

Supposing that it had been a freak accident, Pip proceeded on into the
park, more cautiously at first, but when none of the other dead robots
seemed about to come to life, she lost some of it.

There was a large opening in the wall of an old queuing building that
could easily be the hidden den of somebody of something. The only
problem was that to get into it you'd have to walk through a spiked
metal contraption standing in front of it and behind a disused roller
coaster. Hoping that she'd have enough time to make off in the other
direction if there was anyone there, she walked through the front of
the contraption--

And it closed behind her. Hearing the clanking sound, Pip turned back
round, puzzled. "Hey!" she exclaimed when she saw her means of escape
had gone. She looked round at the other side. She had been wrong; there
was no way through there, either that or it had been closed up too. And
that wasn't the worst of it. For on either side of her, the spiked
walls were closing in...

*********

Echo yawned in the hot afternoon sun, leaning against one of the giant
mushrooms which gave the area its name. There'd been absolutely no
sign of anything out of place in Marble Gardens nor, so far, Mushroom
Hill.

What if the others couldn't find anything? Maybe there WAS no murderer.
Or... a sudden thought struck her. Maybe Falcon was the murderer.
Zephyer had said that he'd killed Chalcon... Nah, she was pretty sure
Falcon wouldn't have done it. Bik would have told her if he had for one
thing, and she was pretty sure that Falcon wasn't that kind of chao.

Ugh. The whole thing was way too annoying and complicated. But no
murderer, however weird that would be, would be a welcome thought. Like
she had said to Knuckles before, she knew nobody in this time save him,
Zephyer and Pip. Oh, and Tikal, but she wasn't from this time either.
They'd mentioned names of others, like the hedgehog from Knothole or
wherever it was, but she had never been off the island since she'd got
stuck in this time. She was afraid of getting hurt or even dying, and
who knows what would happen to the island then... crash down on
whatever was below it, she guessed.

So she wasn't sure how she was going to know a murderer if she saw one.
Maybe they'd look evil or something; Foaming at the mouth with glowing
yellow eyes probably. Sighing deeply, she trudged off deeper into
Mushroom Hill. With a pair of green eyes following her every movement.

Echo felt her skin crawl and spun about suddenly. Whenever she got that
feeling, no matter how absurd a place, it meant someone was behind her.
And sure enough, there was a large red fellow with black eye sockets
and green pupils. He was striding toward her purposefully.

"Oh, hello," said Echo. "Who are you?"

"Me?" said the newcomer, stopping and looking at her in astonishment.
"You don't know who I am?"

"No. Should I?"

The stranger looked at her a moment, then said, "Well, I suppose it
wouldn't matter if I told you my name. I am Robo Knux. I ... er ...
live here."

"Oh," said Echo with a relieved smile, "I was worried you might be
the murderer. Knuckles must not have introduced us. I'm Echo."

Robo Knux moved a little closer, closing the gap between them to
three feet. She noticed his eyes were wavering and rippling as if
they were underwater. She gazed at them, wondering how they did that.
He began to hum, "My eyes are very pretty, are they not? Look into
them ... look deep into them ... you are beginning to feel sleepy ..."

Echo indeed began to feel sleepy. The wavering, changing, fractint
patterns of the green eyes were so soothing ... Her eyelids began to
flutter.

Robo Knux found this amusing. "You are now falling into a deep sleep.
You are sinking onto a white, fluffy cloud ..."

Echo was asleep on her feet.

"Now," said Robo Knux in his soft, hypnotist voice, "I wish to know
where the chao are being kept."

"In Hidden Palace," Echo replied dreamily.

"Tell me how you reach Hidden Palace."

"I teleport myself in."

Robo Knux said a few choice words under his breath. Aloud, he asked,
"How does Knuckles reach Hidden Palace?"

"He teleports in."

No use swearing about that one--he had seen Knuckles use the teleporters.
Unfortunately, a robot could not teleport on those kind. Actually, they
would teleport, but there was no promise that all their parts would
arrive on the other side. "How would one reach Hidden Palace on foot?"

"The entrance is in Lava Reef," said Echo in her misty, sleepwalker
voice. "I don't know where it is."

It was enough information. He could explore Lava Reef himself. "At the
count of three, you will fall into a deep sleep. One ... two ... three."

Echo drooped slightly and began to snore, sleeping standing up.

"Nieve fool," Robo Knux spat, then turned and glided away.

********

Zephyer faced the cobra, wondering what to do about it. If it could
spit venom, she was in trouble, but she was pretty sure that Knuckles
had hunted the ones on the island to extinction. She watched its swaying,
hooded head, the forked tongue flicking in and out. "Dumb snake," she
muttered. She morphed her left hand into a laser pistol, took aim and
fired. The snake recoiled, thrashed violently a second, then lay still.

"Piece of cake," she muttered, morphing her pistol into a hand and
dusting them off. She set off to investigate the ruins around the
pyramid in the distance. She did not see the snake lift its head again,
its scaly hide torn to reveal the wires underneath, and again slithered
after her.

********

Pip looked frantically around at the spike-studded walls. The spikes
were rusted from years of disuse, but their tips were disgustingly sharp.
She turned around and around in her cramped space, scanning the doors
(shut), the ceiling, the walls ... she had better think of something,
quick.

The walls closed in, closer, closer, the spikes killingly near, then--
They closed. For a moment nothing moved. Then there was a hiss of
hydraulics, and the walls slowly pulled apart, and the doors creaked
open. There was nothing inside.

Or at least, it seemed that way. After a second Pip swung down from
the ceiling, where there had been about eight inches of space between
the top of the spike walls and the barred ceiling. She had had to suck
in her stomach and hold her breath, but she had made it. Triumphantly
she strutted through the door, chest puffed out.

A second later she was running for her life. A swarm of robot bats,
apparently sent to make sure she had not escaped from the spike trap,
were shooting through the air like little winged missiles.

The chase was short, but dangerous. Pip switched to the jet engines in
her wings to try and outfly the robots, but they kept up easily, which
was a surprise. The next thing Pip thought to do was hide.

She crouched atop a rollercoaster, fifty feet from the ground as the
robots searched for her below. "This park is out to get me!" she panted
to herself. She considered leaving, but she hadn't explored all of it
yet ... and the murderer might very well have the bats set up as guard
dogs.

Pip decided to stick around. She glided noiselessly from the top of
the track and away from the robots, where she could look about more
thoroughly ...

*********

Knuckles and Tikal sat in the Hidden Palace with the chao, waiting for
the others to turn up. Tikal had only just come round and she was
still looking around a little dazedly.

"So you didn't see who it was?" Knuckles asked, for about the third
time.

"No. I was just walking along and the branch came swinging back
towards me. Oooh..." She held her head in her hands. "It still hurts."

"The others should be back by now," said Knuckles, impatiently, pacing
around the chamber, the chao scattering out of his way. "What's taking
them so long? Do you think they've been attacked too?"

Tikal shrugged, then suddenly lifted her head up. "What's that?"

"What's what?" began Knuckles, but then he heard it too. A faint
tapping from the other side of the far wall. They exchanged looks,
Tikal looking scared. Knuckles hurried over to the wall and placed
his ear against it. The taps progressed along the wall, slowly. "Do
you think someone's trying to get in?" he whispered to Tikal.

Tikal looked even more scared. "They can't get in here can they?" she
asked, anxiously. "They don't know the way."

The chao had backed into a corner, looking worried, all apart from
Strelle. She looked excited, and was stalking around the others,
whispering in a melodramatic voice.

"They're probably going to get in here any second, all dripping with
blood... They've killed Echo, Zephyer and Pip of course. That's why
they've got all the blood on them. Anyway, they're going to come in
here and kill Knuckles and Tikal then slowly walk over to us. V-e-r-y
s-l-o-w-l-y. Then they'll kill you all, and I'll go warrior and whup
their butt. Oh yep, I think I can just hear them coming now..." She
raised her hand to her ear in a theatrical gesture.

Falcon slapped her across the face, knocking her over backwards.
"Will you just shut up? We're all sick to death of you! Axel is dead,
Strelle. Doesn't that mean anything to you? And Pip's your owner. How
dare you talk about her like that?" Strelle looked more than a little
ashamed. She really did like Pip, after all. "Get out of my sight,"
growled Falcon, glaring at her. "They're never going to get in here
anyway. They don't know the way."

Strelle's eyes burned with fury as she turned and walked to the
shadowed part of the chamber. Halfway there, she turned and glanced
back at the other chao. They weren't looking at her... Quickly, she
made her way across to the teleporter and activated it.

"Yeah," she murmured. "They don't know where the entrance is. But I do.
I'll show you, Falcon..." She vanished.

Knuckles and Tikal had been unaware of this episode, as all their
attention was fixed on the wall. Tikal turned round at that moment,
and walked over to the chao. "Don't worry," she told them. "Knux
doesn't think they'll..." She trailed off, bending down over Zinc.
"Are you okay?" she asked with concern. Zinc was shaking all over
and staring fixedly in front of him.

"It's all Strelle's fault," muttered Falcon, bitterly.

*********

There was a faint noise behind Zephyer and she spun round. No, it
couldn't be. She'd shot the snake. How could it be following her again?
As it slithered towards her, she noted the trailing wires.

"Fine," she murmured under her breath, morphing her arm into a sword.
"Let's see how you like this then." As the snake darted at her, she
moved swiftly, cutting its head loose from its body. The two parts fell
to the sand and the snake was still. She let out a long drawn out
breath. "I hope you're really dead this time."

Then, thinking that there wasn't much more to be seen in Sandopolis
than she already had done, she turned and headed back to the nearest
Hidden Palace teleporter.

********

Pip had checked out most of the Carnival Night park, and was more than
disappointed to find nobody and nothing unusual there. She was about to
leave, when she saw the robot bats flying towards her once more, all
with the same fixed expression.

She ran in the opposite direction, yelling over her shoulder "Why can't
you just leave me alone? I haven't done anything to you."

And then she was at a dead end, the robots so near there was no chance
of flying to safety before the reached her. She backed away, slowly.
Suddenly, just as the robots were almost upon her, a shape came flying
out of somewhere behind her and towards the robots. Pip couldn't see
quite what it was, since it was shooting round attacking the robots
very fast, but she decided to give it a helping hand anyway, shooting
several of the robots with her lasers.

In a few seconds, there were none left. She could then see what her
rescuer was; a fairly large robot dog, an alsatian by the looks of it,
with a happy, pleased with itself expression on it's canine continence.
It grabbed one of the robot bats in it's mouth and trotted over to her,
laying it at her feet before sitting down on it's hind quarters and
holding out a paw.

Pip, unsure of what else to do, shook it. "Um, well done." The dog
leaped to its feet, rolled over then capered around her happily. "Sit,"
commanded Pip, and the dog sat obediently. She searched the dog for
some form of identification, but there was none. "Okay..." She paused.
"I'll call you Robo Rover then."

The dog leapt into the air, landed on Pip's chest knocking her over
backwards and proceeded to try and lick her face, which hurt a lot more
than a normal dog's tongue, since it was metal.

*********

Echo stood, still sleeping. Suddenly, there was a pounding of feet and
a great robot dog laid her flat out on the ground. She blinked, rubbed
her head and sat up. Pip came hurrying after it.

"Sorry about that, he's getting a little over-excited. Home, RR, home!
Good boy!" The dog turned and ran off in the direction he had come from.
"He lives in Carnival Night," Pip explained to Echo, helping her to
her feet. "He's the protector or something. I guess I'd better ask
Knux about it sometime. He didn't have a name, so I called him Robo
Rover."

Echo took all of this in slowly. Something didn't seem quite right.
Like something she had forgotten to do. She shrugged it off and focused
on what Pip had said. "Don't you have better things to do than play with
dogs?"

Pip looked hurt. "I wasn't the one who was sleeping," she said, raising
her arms in mock defence.

Funny that, thought Echo. She had been asleep. Asleep on her feet?
That didn't make sense. Oh well. "Let's get back to Hidden Palace," she
said. "And get planning a better idea than a search, since it didn't
seem to work. I didn't find the murderer, anyway." They walked to the
nearest teleporter.

*********

Strelle picked her way over the rough floor of Lava Reef. The main
cavern was so huge it would take her hours to cross it, but she didn't
care. All she cared about was that her white colour stood out against
the black basalt floor. She stopped and looked around, a little chao
alone in the cave, but there was cunning in her eyes. She would find
the murderer herself, and Falcon would be sorry for saying he was sick
to death of her. She would show him. She'd show them all.

There was something moving off in the far corner of the cave. Strelle
squinted and wished she were taller. No, it couldn't be Knuckles,
because he had been in Hidden Palace. Or was it Knuckles? It looked
remarkably like him ... Strelle waved her hands over her head and
yelled, "Hey mister! Over here! Come over here!" It took her some
time to attract the figure's attention, but at last it spied her and
moved in her direction.

It looked like an echidna, but it had a hard, pointed look about its
face and dreadlocks. Its eyes were black with green pupils. It walked
smoothly up to Strelle and looked down at her. "It's dangerous out
here for chao," he purred.

Strelle looked at the long claws on his fists. It didn't take a genius
to see that he was the chao killer. "I know it's not safe," she said,
"but I came out anyway. I'm not afraid of you like the other chao
are."

"How quaint," said the psudo-echidna. "Your point is?"

"My point is," said Strelle, trying not to look at the claws that were
only a swipe away from her head, "I'm not afraid of you so I could
tell you how to get into Hidden Palace."

The psudo-echidna's eyes glittered for a fraction of a second. "How?"
he asked.

Strelle told him about the tunnel in one of the cracks in the cavern
floor which led to the outer chambers of Hidden Palace. She described
the room with the mural on the wall and the hidden entrance there.
"And that's where everybody is," she finished breathlessly.

The robot gazed down at her for a moment without a sound, but his
eyes flashed wickedly. Then he swiped her out of his way with a single
movement, sending her rolling across the ground with two deep gnashes
in the side of her head. He glided away toward the only ravine in the
cavern floor with cooled lava, leaving Strelle to sob with pain and
wish she had never, never told him where the other chao were.

**********

Pip and Echo beamed down in Hidden Palace and found it in a minor
uproar. Zephyer was sitting on the floor with Zinc in her arms, Tikal
was seated at the other end of the room with the remaining chao grouped
around her, and Knuckles was pacing back and forth between them. "Oh
no, what's happened?" Pip exclaimed, hurrying to Zephyer. Zephyer
looked up at her, eyes full of worry. "It's Zinc. He's totally wigged."

As she spoke, the silver chao looked up at Pip, gave a terrified cry
and hid his face against Zephyer's stomach. He was trembling all over.

"It's all Strelle's fault!" Falcon called. "She was scaring him!"

"Oh yeah? Who got into a bloody fight right in front of him?" Bik
retorted.

"Quiet, all of you," said Tikal in a tone none of the chao dared
disobey.

Echo was about to ask if she could take Zinc and see if she could help
calm him down, when there came a dull thud from the far end of the
room. The echidnas and Pip whirled about and faced it. "Oh no," said
Knuckles, turning quite pale. "It's found the entrance." He bolted
toward the rear wall, but before he could reach it the wall caved
inward and Robo Knux stepped inside, green eyes glittering in
triumph.

"YOU!" everyone exclaimed in unison. At the sight of him, Echo
remembered seeing him before she fell asleep, and was as outraged
as the rest. Only Knuckles and perhaps Pip had any idea of the robot's
full power, however.

The chao shrank together behind Tikal--all but Falcon, that is.
"Hey!" he said, staring boldly at the unwelcome visitor. "You're
that guy I saw before, the one Pip was imitating!"

Robo Knux tossed a fiery glance in the purple chao's direction. "Shut
up, little fool, or you will go the same way as your white-coloured
friend."

Pip blanched. "What happened to Strelle??"

Robo Knux's reply was drowned in a scream from Zinc. All this time
he had been staring at the red robot and breathing faster and
faster, his little black eyes growing rounder and rounder. Zephyer
tried to shield him, but the chao fought her to keep his view of
Robo Knux. Now he seemed to completely snap. He leaped out of
Zephyer's arms, screaming, and ran toward the blue super emerald.
Echo tackled him and forced him down, but a second later her arms
were empty. Zinc had simply teleported away from her. He reached up
and touched the blue super emerald.

All at once he grew into his Warrior form, which was a glittering steel
robot echidna with two long blades on his forehead. His eyes now
looked exactly like Robo Knux's, but with white pupils instead of
green. He turned to face Robo Knux, then ducked his head slightly.

Robo Knux would have smiled if he could. His voice sounded as if he
were grinning like a Cheshire cat as he said to the chao, "You are
mine now."

"Zinc," whispered Zephyer, at a level almost below hearing.

Aqua stepped forward, arms folded and an annoyed expression on her
face. "You want to kill us all, right?" she demanded. "Well, I for
one oppose the motion. For Axel."

She leapt for her super emerald and grabbed it, absorbing it's power
into her own. She too grew, some of her dreadlocks shaping and
forming themselves into a headwear, the others hanging loose. She
wore boots and dark grey gloves from which her long knuckles
protruded, and the warrior breastplate with her symbol upon it
appeared. A three-dimensional diamond, which showed her to be a chao
in warrior form, orbited above her head. In a matter of seconds, she
had completely changed.

The other chao had also grabbed their emeralds, all apart from Fuft,
who wasn't yet old enough to be able to transform. Scritch had become
a partly biomechanical raptor-like creature, with small wings and a
long, flicking tail. Bik was an almost-echidna wearing a green
bandanna and boots, with one gloved hand and one metal one. Very
small claws poked out from her knuckles. Falcon had once more become
like a phoenix. Fuft meanwhile was sitting on Pip's shoulder, chewing
worriedly on one of his two tails. Tikal was keeping a firm hold on
Peppi, who was trying to get to the remaining super emeralds too.

Scritch snarled at the two robots, showing every one of his fangs,
and paced towards them. Zinc didn't wait for him to get within five
yards. He charged straight at him, head lowered, spearing him right
across his robotic middle section and smashing him into the wall,
ramming him several times for good effect.

Scritch roared in pain and bit hard into Zinc's arm, his teeth marks
plainly visible. There was a flash and Scritch was knocked from his
grasp on Zinc's arm and landed hard a few feet away. Robo Knuckles
had shot him.

Falcon and Aqua moved in to take on Zinc while Bik leapt through the
air and kicked Robo Knux several times in the face, flipping herself
over his head and landing on her feet behind him. He moved fast,
catching her hard with his knux-claws and slashing her right down her
face. Falcon circled Zinc faster and faster while Aqua did her level
best to keep the robot occupied while not coming within range of his
lethal head-spikes.

Zephyer had morphed her left hand into the laser pistol and was
trying to get a good aim at Robo Knux and not think about Zinc. Tikal
was looking after Fuft and the remaining three were gathered around
Scritch, who raised his head a little, attempting to get up and rejoin
the battle, even though he was badly injured.

"I guess we've gotta let him go Ultimate," said Pip, biting her lip.
"That's the only way he's going to get out of this without too bad an
injury." Knuckles nodded.

"Right," he said.

Robo Knuckles dealt Bik a blow that knocked her back into the cavern
wall with so much force that she thought she could hear her bones
crack. He made to strike her again, probably a finishing blow, she
thought miserably, when something thwacked into him, sending him
staggering backwards.

Scritch stood there, not in warrior form any longer, but in his Ultimate
stage. His now black tipped wings were lengthier, and he had feathers
growing out of his head. His neck was more drawn in and pronounced,
his four legs rested on the ground, and he wore a feathered cloak round
his middle. A hexagon hovered above his head, proving him to be in
his Ultimate stage. His tail, with which he had hit Robo Knux, swished
ceaselessly from left to right.

Zinc had succeeded in getting close enough to Aqua to do some damage
and had picked her up, ramming her hard against his headspikes. She
screamed out loud, but managed to pull herself away from him before
collapsing. Zinc spun and charged once more at Scritch, who turned
to meet his charge.

Falcon meanwhile shot towards Robo Knux, his eyes narrowed. The robot
lashed out easily with one hand, connecting with one of Falcon's wings
and tearing it. Falcon screeched and fell heavily to the ground,
trying to get up and move himself with his left wing, since his right
one was now useless. Robo Knuckles calmly levelled his gun arm at
Falcon and fired.

Unseen by anyone, something small and white had crawled through the
entrance through which Robo Knux had come and had surveyed the battle
in dismayed silence for several seconds. Now, seeing Falcon helpless
and unable to get out of the way, it lowered it's head, ran and leapt
between the chao and the blast.

Strelle lay on the ground from where the shot had carried her,
breathing hard and fast. Falcon crawled over to her while Zephyer, who
had now got a chance to use her laser pistol without the danger of
hitting any of the chao, was shooting at Robo Knux, the robot returning
her fire.

"Strelle?" he whispered softly, and the other chao blinked at him
once or twice, as if getting him into focus, then managed a slight
smile.

"See," she said. "I do care."

Falcon saw Pip and Knuckles hurrying over, and he supposed that if
anyone could do anything for Strelle, they could. He stood up, facing
Robo Knuckles who glanced down at him, narrowed his eyes until they
were barely more than slits and called the robot a word that would
have surprised Pip that he even knew. His broken wing flapping
uselessly at his side, he flung himself at the robot.

Echo was crouched at Bik's side. The chao wasn't even moving any more,
and her eyes were closed. "Don't die, don't die," murmured Echo,
hopelessly. Bik's breathing was slowing now, becoming less frequent.
Echo could only see one thing that she could do to save her now. She
screwed up her eyes and held on to Bik's arms, concentrating on
transferring some of her, and the Master Emerald's power to the chao.

Bik's eyes snapped open suddenly, and she breathed regularly again, but
that wasn't all that was happening; she was growing and changing too.
Moments later, a phoenix like Falcon hovered in the air, flapping
its wings in a steady rhythmic beat. It grinned at Echo, who was
leaning, drained, against the wall.

"Thanks Ec."

Zinc and Scritch were ripping and tearing at each other when another
figure launched itself into the fight; it was Aqua, in her marine
Ultimate form. Snakes were formed round her head like the Medusa monster
of legend and her feet were now amphibian. The Ultimate feathered
cloak was hung about her shoulders and her knuckles were even longer
than before. Bik swooped down at him and Zinc realised that he was
heavily outnumbered, so far at only three Ultimates to one Warrior,
but that could change if the other chao joined the battle. It was time
to even the odds, he decided.

The silver chao leaped lightly to Robo Knux's side, grabbed his arm,
and in an instant they both vanished. "Where'd they go?" cried Bik,
who had wanted to take a chunk out of Robo Knux for nearly killing
her.

"Quick, we have to find them!" Knuckles called to the chao, who were
all staring at each other in bewilderment. "Aqua, come with me! They
can't have gone far!" The echidna stepped onto the teleporter, and
Aqua followed, her snaky hair drooping slightly as she calmed down.
Zephyer made her way through the hole Robo Knux had made getting in,
and the chao followed, ready for battle, leaving Tikal and Pip to care
for the poor dying Strelle, and Echo slumped against the wall, too
exhausted to lift a finger.

......

Above ground, a wind had begun to blow across the Floating Island--
cool, fierce wind.

.......

"I can't believe what he did," Zephyer was mumbling. She was helping
Scritch to walk, for although he was in his Ultimate form, he still
felt pain from damage in his Warrior form. "I'm gonna get him," he
was wheezing through his teeth. "I'm gonna get the no-good-double-
crossing--"

"He's still my chao!" Zephyer burst out, half angry, half crying.
"He's sick or something! It's not like him!"

"Oh yeah?" Bik snapped, clicking her Phoenix beak. "Look what he did
to me! If not for Echo--"

But Falcon hissed, "Shhh!" and they all quieted as they exited the
tunnel and emerged in Lava Reef. The vast cave was perfectly silent.
Not a sound could be heard, not even the usual faint murmur of magma
hundreds of feet beneath the floor. "In the cave, the mighty cave,
the island sleeps tonight," quipped Fuft, who had trailed the large
chao along with Peppi.

Suddenly a giant shape crashed to the ground just in front of them,
cracking the basalt. The chao and Zephyer jumped back, startled. It
was Zinc--it had to be Zinc--who else would have those spikes on their
head? But this was Zinc's Ultimate, an armoured Mecha twenty feet
tall, humanoid in form, impossibly armoured shoulders and ankles. But
it was still Zinc's head, armed with even longer blades, and his
eyes shimmered down at them maliciously.

"Oh boy," said Falcon in a very small voice.

The chao and Mobian scattered as Zinc fired a rocket from his left
shoulder and blew the tunnel mouth to pebbles. "Get him!" cried Bik,
and the other Ultimates attacked their enemy.

Zephyer, who had had the presence of mind to duck behind a rock
formation when the shock of the blast passed over them, had carried
Fuft and Peppi to safety. "He's mad!" Peppi gasped, staring up at
Zephyer with wide eyes. "He's completely mad!"

"Hush," Zephyer said. "You two stay here, I've got to find Knuckles
before somebody gets killed." The robotized echidna leaped to her feet
and ran off in the opposite direction of the battle now taking place
between Zinc, Bik, Falcon and Scritch.

.....

The wind was blowing harder now, and a dark cloudbank had appeared in
the north, sweeping down upon the Floating Island.

.....

Knuckles was at the far end of the Lava Reef cavern, but he and Aqua
could hear the noise of the battle clear as a bell, owing to the
acoustics of the vast vaulted ceiling. The two were running toward it
as fast as they could, but the cave was so huge it would be several
minutes before they reached the battle. In the meantime, the battle had
risen into the air--Zinc was hovering on some sort of jets in his feet,
and the two phoenixes and winged lizard were flying about him like
crows around an owl, screeching and diving to attack. "We'll never
make it," Aqua panted. Her ultimate form was meant for swimming, not
running, and it was difficult for her.

"Look!" Knuckles gasped, holding his side with one hand and pointing
with the other.

A red echidna shape that was not quite an echidna was creeping up on
a pillar, intent as a cat stalking its prey.

"He's going to attack the young ones!" cried Aqua.

.....

Fuft and Peppi were unaware anything was approaching them. They were
both looking around the corner of a rock formation in awe as their
elders battled the renegade chao. "Wow, look at Falcon," murmured
Peppi. "I wouldn't mind being a bird."

"Me neither," agreed Fuft. Suddenly he cocked an ear and turned his
orange head to look over his shoulder.

An instant later the chao were blown in opposite directions by a
rocket placed between them. Robo Knux scanned them. The yellow one
was out cold, but the orange one was struggling to stand. The little
survivor could go first.

Fuft blinked to clear his vision and saw Robo Knux advancing on him
like the shadow of death. Somehow he knew the robot was going to kill
him. He sat up and faced Robo Knux squarely. At the same time, the
orange emerald in Hidden Palace flamed up in a brilliant flash and
vanished.

Fuft's little orange chao body melted into orange light, rose,
changed and formed into his Warrior form, a feat he was not supposed
to be able to do because of his young age. He glowed orange, the point
on his head had split into two, and two feathers curled up over the
centre of his head. He had a metal breastplate, his hands and feet
were tipped with claws, and a cape dangled from his back. Electricity
crackled and sparked from him, as if he were a live wire.

Robo Knux halted and stared. He had never seen a chao transform
before, and something told him that it was not a good idea to
interfere with this one. Fuft did not look afraid of him. Indeed,
Fuft was now moving toward him with a businesslike stride, as if he
had some job to do. The robot turned tail and fled.

At that moment Zinc and the warring chao smashed to the ground again.
One of them seemed to have scored a direct hit against the giant
mecha robot, for Zinc shrank to Warrior form and lay still on the
floor for a moment. The other chao bent over him, wondering if they
had killed them. Then suddenly Zinc grabbed Bik and attempted to cut
her arm off with his head spikes. She wrenched loose, Zinc leaped to
his feet, and the fight was on again. Fuft ran to help, his aura of
electricity increasing to a visible glow around him.

Zinc saw him coming and instantly knew he was overmatched. He gathered
his remaining strength (greatly drained by his retraction to Warrior),
and teleported away.

Fuft had been near enough for some of his forcefield to reach Zinc, and
from the draw on his power knew exactly where Zinc had gone. "He's
on the surface!" the little orange warrior shouted to the others.
They looked at him for a moment in surprise, but there was too
little time to marvel. "Quick, back to Hidden Palace!" Scritch said.
"We'll use the teleporter!"

"Hold up!" called a voice, and Aqua and Knuckles jogged up, gasping
for breath, but determined. "We'll go with you!"

Together the group made for the half-ruined tunnel mouth.

As they entered Hidden Palace, they were met by Tikal, Pip, Echo, and
to everyone's surprise, Strelle. The little white chao appeared good
as new, but for a faint reddish stain across her chest. "Hi guys!" she
said. "Lemme fight, too!"

They explained quickly that Zinc had teleported outside and they were
going after him. As they were talking, Zephyer appeared, panting and
looking worried, probably about Zinc. Knuckles fired up the teleporter,
and the gang warped up to the surface, leaving Robo Knux and Peppi
alone and forgotten in Lava Reef.

********

Slowly, Robo Knux emerged from his refuge point, making sure that
the chao and echidnas had gone. Taking a quick glance around the room,
he noted that the yellow chao was still unconscious on the floor. He
moved towards him, and as he did the Peppi stirred, lifting his head
up muzzily.

"Uh?" he said.

"The other chao are not here to protect you," Robo Knux informed him,
thinking that he was going to enjoy killing at least one chao.

"Others?" repeated Peppi, and gave a laugh that did not sound entirely
sane. As he stood up, it appeared that he was growing, and turning a
watery blue. In Hidden Palace, the remaining emerald winked out. "I
don't need others, you robotic fool."

His transformation complete, he looked down through glowing, jewel-like
green eyes at the pathetic robot who was trying to escape his wrath.
He smiled. "Chaos," he hissed.

*********

The storm had finally broken; the wind howled viciously from every
angle, rain beating down on the ground with a vengeance and great
ear-shattering booms of thunder taking turns with the lightning streaking
across the sky.

As the chao and guardians ran along, Strelle transformed into her
Warrior form; a robot with a long, tuft hairstyle which the other chao
often laughed at and what would have been large leathery wings if they
had not been metal. Her robotic claws broke out of her gloved hands.

"Any idea where he is, Fuft?" shouted Aqua above the atmospheric noises.

He shifted his head slightly from side to side. "No. Not exactly."
The others noticed that the storm seemed to be focusing around Fuft,
as he drew from its energy, electricity dancing and swathing his body
eerily.

"I guess we're going to have to split up, or we'll never find him,"
Knuckles hollered.

The others gave him the thumbs up, talking made virtually impossible by
the storm. "I'll go with Fuft," said Zephyer, her voice drifting around
aimlessly. She thought that Fuft had the best chance of finding Zinc
first, and she was quite determined to at least try and talk him
round to re-joining them. Knuckles gave her a faintly suspicious glance,
but then nodded.

"Okay, Tikal come with me and everybody else with their chao. Falcon,
you go with Echo and Bik. Scritch ..." He looked at Zephyer with
raised eyebrows, as if to say that she wasn't going to fool him so
easily. "Go with Zeff." They moved off fast in opposite directions, arms
raised to try and shield themselves from the heaven's onslaught.

*********

"Ah," said Aqua, her face lifted to the rain pouring down. "I love the
wet. This is much better than down in Lava Reef."

"To you maybe," groaned Knuckles, then halted in mid-sentence. "Zinc
may have taken shelter in one of the caves above the water-level of the
river. Do you think you could dive down and have a look if we go there
now?"

Aqua nodded, the snakes about her head hissing. "What do you think? I'd
prefer it in fact." The three of them hurried in the direction of the
river as fast as they could go.

*********


The two phoenixes wheeled off from Echo and flew into the rain to take
a look from the air, swooping back down again after not spotting the
missing chao.

"This isn't getting us anywhere," sighed Bik as she hovered once more
next to Echo. "He definitely isn't anywhere around here."

"No," began Falcon, then stopped abruptly, his pupils dilating. "Stay
there," he said, streaking off. A moment later he returned, his
breathing back to normal. "It's okay. It was nothing, just a bush lit
up by lightning."

"What did you think it was?" asked Echo curiously.

"A light chaos chao. They're supposed to turn up when a chao or even
somebody else is about to die, according to legend. It's not true of
course, but it can give you a fright when it's a dark stormy night."
He grinned, and flew off again.

Echo shuddered suddenly. "Light Chaos Chao or no Light Chaos Chao, I
hope there's gonna be no deaths tonight. Apart from that robot of
course." She was still burning with anger at the fact that she had
been caught unawares by him.

Bik flashed her a smile before flying up after Falcon. "No deaths,
I'm sure. We're all going to be really careful."

The echidna found that she still couldn't shake off her sudden fright
though, and over many years she had learned to trust to her feelings.
Overhead there was a simultaneous peal of thunder and a cracking sound
as the lightning flashed down somewhere behind her, lighting up the
sky for an instant. The storm had to be right overhead by now, surely.

From behind her came a creaking sound and she turned her head, just in
time to see most of a ledge come crashing down upon her, a large
tree having been struck by the lightning and in falling, dragging most
of the land around it with its massive structure of roots.

She managed to scream several times, before the falling earth, rock
and tree cut her off.

*******

Zephyer had wanted to go with Fuft, but she soon realised that he had
been telling the truth; he really had little idea where Zinc was. Now
all she wanted to do was to sneak off from both Fuft and Scritch, so
she would be free to look for Zinc herself.

There was a sudden scream, abruptly cut off, from somewhere to their
left. Fuft and Scritch immediately began to run in that direction
and she started after them, then stopped. This would be a perfect
chance to give the two chao the slip, she decided. She hesitated for
a moment then moved off in the opposite direction from the scream.
She was sure Scritch and Fuft could handle whatever it was.

*****


Pip and Strelle had found themselves near the entrance to Lava Reef.
Strelle groaned out loud. "We've just gone in one big circle. Let's go
someplace else."

"I guess--Hey, what was that?" There was the sound of running footsteps
and Robo Knux burst out from an opening in the rock, glancing back
over his shoulder and slowing down as he realised that whatever had
been chasing him wasn't doing so any longer.

Strelle growled, and stepped towards him angrily. The robot echidna
spun round and saw them. Before either could make a move however,
a silver shape shot past Pip and hit Robo Knux hard in the chest,
knocking him over backwards.

"Rover?" said Pip, happily. Then she noticed something oozing out of
a crack in the rock and sliding towards the fighting pair. She couldn't
make out what it was, but she guessed that it wouldn't be friendly.
"Rover, Rover, heel boy!" The robotic dog took absolutely no notice of
her whatsoever.

Seeing nothing else that she could do, she leapt forward, trying to
pull the dog back by his back paws. Strelle rushed forward to help
and was smashed back into the rockface by a powerful jet of water.
Robo Knux drove his knux-claws into Rover's chest, pushing him off
him, and ran.

Pip glanced up at the creature casting a shadow over Rover, Strelle
and herself. "Peppi?" she said. The creature snarled at her. "Oops,"
she said.

Strelle stood in front of her, snarling at the Chaos beast, her small
fangs protruding. "You come one step closer you ugly sucker and I'll
show you the exact definition of decapitated."

The lightning flashed against the sky, as if to emphasise the
situation. "How about just running?" Pip suggested. "I bet we should
just about make it to that copse before he gets us. What do you think?"

A loud voice shattered the tense silence. "Chaos! I command you! Come
to me! Come to ME!"

Strelle and Pip spun around to see Tikal standing on an outcrop of
rock behind them, her hands upwards, as if dragging Peppi towards her
by sheer force.

"No!" roared the chao in a deep hissing voice, but he couldn't pull
away. There was a small pop, and Peppi was sitting on the ground, a
small innocent chao once more.

He glanced around at his nervous gaping spectators, yawned, curled up in
a ball and said "I'm hungry," before dropping immediately off to sleep.

"Talk about an anti-climax," muttered Strelle, not wanting to show how
scared she had been.

"How did you DO that Tikal? It was so cool!"

Tikal smiled a little. "I got bored waiting around for the river gang."

"That's not what I meant," Pip complained. "I mean ... what you just
did."

"Ran," answered Tikal. "I'm not so good at it but I do try." She
wouldn't say anything more, however much the other two begged her.

"Oh okay then," said the bat, disgruntled. "Let's go see the others.
Or find someone. Or something."

"I'd rather kick butt," put in Strelle, who was itching for a fight.

"I think I'll just take Peppi. You might not see me for a ... while."
She stroked the little chao, then disappeared.

Strelle stared at Pip. "She's gone."

"Back to her own time. Don't ask me about it all, ask ... uh ...
somebody else. C'mon." She began jogging. "I thought you were so eager
to fight somebody.

"Yeah. Zinc, duh."

*********

Fuft and Scritch arrived at the source of the scream. They found a
cliff that had mostly collapsed under the torrential rain, and half
buried in the mud was a large tree that had been struck by lightning.
Steam rose from its blackened branches. "Well," said Scritch, "there's
nobody here."

"But who screamed?" asked Fuft, putting his clawed hands on his hips.
"The tree?"

Scritch sniffed at the dirt. "There's nobody here, no tracks or
anything."

Suddenly Fuft began to pick up a disturbance in his electricity aura.
"Wait, there IS somebody here," he said, cocking his head this way
and that. "And they're ... under ... there." He pointed to the fallen
tree.

Without another word, he and Scritch dove into the mud and began to
dig.

Neither noticed the figure standing on the cliff high above them,
looking down, his headspikes silhouetted against the stormy sky.

*********

Bik and Falcon were flying along, buffeted by the stormy wind, looking
hard for Zinc. Suddenly Bik looked around. "Where's Echo?"

Falcon looked back. "She was right here!" He hollered Echo's name at
the top of his phoenix lungs, which was loud enough to pass as an
air-raid siren. There was no answer. He looked at Bik, worried.

"Let's go back," said Bik.

The two birds circled back, looking for Echo now. Flying with the
wind now, it was not long before they reached the cliffs and saw Fuft
and Scritch digging. "Something tells me I'm not going to like what
they're doing," said Bik dubiously.

"Me neither," agreed Falcon, swooping down anyway.

Scritch looked up as the two birds swooped down. "It's Echo!" he
exclaimed. He was covered in mud from head to toe, and there was a
desperate look in his eyes. "What happened?" asked Bik, landing on the
tree and folding her wings.

"Avalanche," said Fuft from a few feet away, where he was digging like
a dog and flinging handfuls of mud between his legs. "Why don't you
guys go get the others? We've got to get to her before she suffocates."

Bik shot away at once, homing in on the Lava Reef entrance, where she
guessed some of the group might be.

Falcon shot up the cliff to catch the wind and look for the group
through the rain. Poor Echo ... They had better get her out soon, and
why couldn't he have a warrior form more adept at digging? As he flew
up over the edge of the cliff, he saw a flash of green light. The next
second he was driven to earth by a ferocious blow in the back. He
tried to gasp air into his lungs, but only succeeded in making
a windy cawing sound. He looked up to see Robo Knux leering down at
him, and Zinc in warrior form standing behind him, watching.

The bird instinctively rolled, and the robot's fist drove into the
ground, leaving two large grooves where Falcon's head had been. He
tried not to think about what he would look like if he hadn't moved.
Snarling with rage, the robot came at him again, Zinc standing all
the time, merely watching.

Falcon desperately tried to get airborne once more. He was angry at
his warrior form now. What was the point of flying if you couldn't
save yourself in a fight? Of course he could ... he opened his beak and
a beam of light was emitted. It missed Robo Knux and struck a tree,
setting it blazing with a strange green glow, but it had the desired
effect: the robot hesitated for one moment.

Unfortunately, when Falcon tried with an effort to lift himself off the
ground and fly, he sagged back again. What could be wrong? His wing,
it must be broken. He thought for a moment, as he saw the robot
approaching once more, through a thick red mist. His wing. He'd let
his wing be broken by some murdering low-life robot. In his mind's eye,
he saw all the dead chao one by one, all hideously defiled, and then
he saw them again, as they had been in life, headed by Axel. It seemed
to him that they were there, by his side, urging him onwards.

"You can do it," the hedgehog-like chao whispered in his ear. "I know
you can. We know you can. Do it for us Falcon, strike back. Think of
all of them, Knuckles, Zephyer, Echo, Tikal, Pip, the other chao.
Strike!"

Suddenly, he sensed another presence, this time to his left. "Chalcon?"
he mouthed silently.

"I'm here. Strike Falcon. Strike for the dead chao. Avenge us all,
on that murdering scum." Thoughts whirled around in Falcon's head, he
hardly knew where he was anymore, but then there were all his friends
to help him. Suddenly, his vision snapped back on, and he saw Robo
Knux, leaping at him, fists raised.

Falcon let out a high pitched scream, and as he did so, he changed,
growing bigger and taller, towering over the robot below him. His
massive wings were now folded behind his back, and he had a warrior's
stance.

Another voice was in his head now, one he didn't recognise. It was
soft, warm and coaxing. "Go on," it told him. "You can kill him now.
End this." Upon the ridge behind, a lightning flash illuminated the
same figure he had seen earlier; the light chaos chao, the omen of
death.

The words bounced around his head, and he narrowed his slitted eyes
still further. Something was not quite right. And the voices in his
head, dead chao did not talk ... was he going mad? He knew that
Strelle had said that he was, and now here was proof of it. He had now
only one thought in mind now, and that was to get away. Spreading his
wings, he took flight, creating a huge updraft of air behind him in
his hurry. He wasn't going to return any time soon, after all, who
would care for a mad creature?

***********

Back on the ground, Robo Knux's comlink gave a warning beep. He thought
about ignoring it in the current circumstances, but then again, the
only person who it could be was Her, and ignoring her calls was about
as safe as jumping into an active volcano.

"Yes?" he growled, glancing around to see if any of the other chao
or guardians were nearby and signalling to the silent Zinc to keep
a look-out.

"Robo Knux," said the voice flatly. "You have deliberately disobeyed
my orders, and in doing so you have failed me for the last time. Your
option to return is still open, although you will be severely ...
reprimanded for your disobedience. I am sure that you know I have some
of the finest torturers at hand, who will be more than happy to make
your worthless existence a complete and utter misery for a time of my
choosing." The voice spoke the words with every ounce of enjoyment
at another's suffering.

"However, if anything happens to you en-route, we bear absolutely no
connection to you whatsoever." Without pausing for an answer, the voice
continued, it's tone cutting.

"Perhaps I should not have given you such a taxing mission. You have
certainly failed it with more flourish than even I could have given
you credit for."

*********

"She's not here," Fuft said.

Scritch blinked in disbelief. "She must be. Where else could she have
gone?" He could see for himself that she wasn't there though.

"I'm not sure, but I'm picking up a faint aura. She might have
teleported, just before it all struck her. Now all we've got to do is
find just where she went." They both broke off, as a shape flew over
them, beating its wings rapidly.

"That's Falcon!" Scritch wasn't quite sure how he knew, but chao had
a strange connection between each other.

Fuft hovered straight up into the air. "I'm going after him. You go and
find Knux. This whole thing is turning out to be the biggest mess I've
ever seen." So saying, he disappeared in the direction that Falcon
had taken. Scritch spun across the slippery mud, and dashed off
towards the river. Fuft was right, this situation was getting out
of control.

********

"Falcon!" The giant bird turned his head slightly to see who had
called his name. Seeing Fuft, he snorted through his beak, and tried
to fly faster, his eyes rolling madly around their sockets in his
crazed frenzy.

"You're dead! You're not real! You can't hurt me! Stay away, please,
I can't bear it. All dead, talking to me ..."

Fuft narrowed his eyes and concentrated. This sounded bad, and
therefore called for desperate measures. The sky grew darker around him,
and the lightning seemed to be sucked into his swirling vortex. "At
'em," he whispered quietly, and lifted one clawed paw.

The lightning bolts streaked like great fiery comets towards Falcon,
hitting him from all angles, and sending him spiralling towards the
ground below, past all forms of control, both mental and physical.
When he hit the ground, he landed with a loud, earth shattering thud,
which reverberated around the clearing for a while.

The warrior chao alighted gently a few feet away from him, and stepped
forward cautiously, wondering if he had overdone it, and if he should
have perhaps eased his fall. A hurried check assured him that the
chao was still breathing, and closing his eyes, he placed his hands
upon his forehead. "Sleep," he whispered gently. "Sleep."

The ground and air around them seemed to glow for a moment or two,
then the light dimmed once more. Falcon shrank back to his normal chao
size, and his breathing eased. Fuft smiled to himself. "Like a baby."
Then, picking up the recumbent chao, his feet left the ground and he
levitated towards the heavens.

Falcon would be fine soon, as he had put his mind at rest. The warrior
frowned as a sudden thought struck him. What could have done this to
Falcon? It was worrying, such power as to drive a creature mad. For
now though, he would have to see his patient safely back to the
Hidden Palace, before anything else. While he slept, his memories
would retain only the happiness, and amid a battle there was little
chance of that.

**********

Echo groaned, and staggered uncertainly down the slope. She had a
splitting headache from where part of the tree had actually hit her
between the eyes. "I am fine," she muttered to herself. She hated
showing any signs of weakness, and had a very broad view on what
weaknesses were. Still, looking on the bright side, she'd had a lot
worse than a bang on the head ... her hand went instinctively to the
scar across her chest. A whole lot worse.

She flipped her head back defiantly at the world, daring it to throw
its worst at her. Zinc's steel fist hit her hard on the back of the
head and she slumped to the ground. The robot echidna bent down and
picked her up. She would make a useful hostage, he guessed. He carried
her back up the hillside, now streaming with water, toward Robo Knux.

Robo Knux was standing motionless, the rain plinking on his hull. His
green eyes were fixed straight ahead. Zinc looked at him a moment,
then set Echo down nearby. His master must be receiving a transmission
of some sort. He didn't know that Robo Knux's system was in such
shock from a severe reprimand he was momentarily incapable of all
movement.

"Zinc!"

The chao-robot spun about. A short distance away stood Zephyer, her
dreadlocks plastered to her back and face, her metal dimmed by mud and
grime. She stared at Zinc with an emotion so powerful Zinc felt it. It
angered him. Who was she to care for him? He had a new master now. He
paced toward her, head lowered.

"Zinc," said Zephyer through the rain, glancing at the motionless Robo
Knux, "what's happened to you? It's me, Zephyer!"

He kept coming, his eyes beginning to glitter. Lightning forked across
the sky with a violent crack behind him.

"Don't you remember me?" the echidna pleaded, holding out her hands.
"I raised you! I fed you when you were a baby! I protected you from the
other chao when they would have hurt you! Please, Zinc--"

He stopped before her, one deadly slash away. The rain trickled down
his headspikes. They were tarnished but for the very tips, which were
polished bright from friction. "How do you know my name?" he snarled
softly. His voice sounded amazingly like Robo Knux's.

"Zinc," said Zephyer, looking into his face. He was so different, so
cold. Where had the chao gone who had been so happy, so optimistic,
so full of life? Was he still inside this silver hunk of metal before
her? "If you're in there," she said, feeling the cold rain pound her
metal, "I just want you to know I still love you. If you keep going
with Robo Knux, they're gonna kill you. Just like they're going to
kill him. Bik went after them, they're coming here. Zinc, you have to
come back with me now." She was desperate. She didn't want to see her
chao executed by the others. It would be like having half her heart
torn out and trampled in the mud. But how could she transmit her
urgency, her pain, her longing to him? She couldn't find the words.

Zinc looked at her through slightly narrowed eyes, and said nothing.

The blow knocked Zephyer reeling into the mud several feet away. She
looked up, blinking the rain from her eyes, and saw Robo Knux above
her, his limbs curled for a killing blow. "Any last words?" he hissed.
Zephyer looked past him, at Zinc, standing silently in the rain,
watching them. "Yes," she said, looking up at the mecha bot. "Greater
love."

The robot's striking claws were met by Zephyer's swordblade. Her arm
quivered for a second under the robot's weight, then she twisted aside
and sent him stumbling into the mud. He righted himself at once and
came after her, angry not only at his victim, but at himself for
failing Her. He ignited his jets and drove himself into Zephyer at
reckless afterburner speed, and she went down with a cry. "You cannot
overpower me," snarled Robo Knux as he stabbed his claws through her
biometal hull. "And your foolish chao will not help you, either."

***********

Echo lifted her head. The uncomfortable feeling of rain pounding on
her face had finally broken through the mists in her brain. Now there
was only the pounding in her head. She sat up, rubbing her head, as a
web of lightning split the sky with fire. In the series of flashes,
she saw Robo Knux bent over something on the ground, and Zinc lower
his head and charge. She gasped and scrambled to her feet, slipping in
the mud. There was a clang as metal hit metal, then a hissing digital
scream. Zinc had attacked Robo Knux! Echo watched in amazement as the
robots tumbled through the mud like a pair of wrestlers, each trying
to rip the other to pieces. They came to a stop with Zinc on top,
who promptly smashed his headspikes through Robo Knux and into the
earth beneath. Robo Knux grabbed his enemy's arm and ruthlessly
twisted. There was a metallic snap.

Zinc yelled in pain and pulled away, his silver left arm hanging
useless. He faced Robo Knux as the other robot climbed to his feet,
sparking.

The fight had moved away from the figure on the ground. Echo ran up
and knelt beside it. It was Zephyer. The echidna was trampled several
inches into the mud, and was bleeding profusely from four gaping holes
punctured in her metal. She looked at Echo with glazed eyes. "Zeff!"
gasped Echo. There was no need to ask "are you all right", for Zephyer
plainly was not. "Make sure you thank Zinc for me," she whispered,
barely audible over the rain. Echo blinked away the hot tears that
sprang suddenly into her eyes. "No, you'll make it," she replied
firmly, forcing the quiver out of her voice. She placed her hands
on Zephyer's chest and closed her eyes, beginning yet another power
transfer. She hadn't much energy left in her, but using it wouldn't
kill her. At least, not quite.

**********

"Look! Up there!" cried Aqua, pointing. Knuckles followed her gaze to
the top of a cliff over the river, and saw two figures battling it
out in silhouette against the stormy sky. He squinted. "Who is that?
That's not--"

"It's Zinc and Robo Knux!" said Aqua, the snakes writhing and hissing
about her gorgon face. "Zinc must have really went wacko! Let's go!"
She slid into the water and was gone in a ripple. Knuckles pelted
after her along the bank.

********

"Almost there," panted Bik, winging her way through the rain. Behind
her ran Pip and Strelle. "See Zinc yet?" panted Strelle. "I'm gonna get
him! I'm gonna get him good!"

"I see them!" crowed Bik. "Two people fighting! It looks like--Robo
Knux and Zinc!"

"I got dibs on the loser," said Strelle, flexing her robotic claws.

********

Zinc landed a punch that would have smashed the knuckles of any non-robot
to smithereens. Robo Knux staggered backward, regained his balance,
and sprang at Zinc. Both robots were injured, and neither could further
harm the other. "I don't know what you did to my head," said Zinc
hatefully, "but it's better now, and I'm going to rip you to itsy
bitsy splinters. Chao don't forget their loyalties easily, and your
sick experiment failed!"

"Yes, and you failed to protect your mistress," Robo Knux hissed back.
"She is dying as we speak, her internal machinery damaged. Biometal
is not as hard as my claws."

"Then I'll avenge her," replied Zinc, his voice shaking. Zephyer was
dying? He looked toward her crumpled figure on the ground, Echo
kneeling over her, head bowed. Perhaps she had already died.

Robo Knux hit him at ninety miles an hour, but Zinc's guard was not
quite down. Just before Robo Knux struck him, the chao turned, head
down. The attacking robot impaled himself on Zinc's headspikes like
a shish-ka-bob. Zinc hauled himself to his feet, struggling to lift
Robo Knux on his head, and staggered toward the cliff's edge. The robot
on his spikes kicked and struggled. "Put me down, you idiot! Are you
crazy? Don't--don't--DON'T!!"

Zinc and Robo Knux plunged from the edge of the cliff, straight down
into the river below.

*********

Aqua waved Knuckles back. "Outta my way, I'm going in," she told him,
grinning and winking broadly, to show him that she was just messing
around.

It was several days after the two robots had fallen off the cliff in
the final battle for the safety of the chao, and the weather had cleared
tremendously in the time. It was now fine enough for Aqua to attempt
diving down into the river to search for Zinc.

"I'll go and get Zephyer," Knuckles called to her, turning to jog in
the direction of the Hidden Palace. Echo certainly had done wonders
with Zephyer; she had not died as most of the others had thought she
would, although she was still feeling the after-effects of her injury
and wasn't yet walking about. Still, she might be able to be carried
along to see Zinc. Knuckles knew that he was taking a risk in telling
Zephyer: if Zinc was not recovered, it would most probably break her
heart.

Aqua hit the water gracefully, with barely a ripple and swam the watery
depths of the river. She first knew that something was wrong when she
failed to spot the small fishes which usually frisked about near the
river bed. There was something about the river, wasn't there? She nodded
to herself as she remembered. Of course, it was poisoned, but since she
already had poison running through her veins, it wouldn't do her any
damage. Letting out a stream of bubbles in her relief, she kicked her
webbed feet and moved on, through the tangled web of weed.

Suddenly, a glint of something, shining in the light that penetrated
through the water. Slowly and cautiously, she approached. She couldn't
be sure that it was Zinc, and even if it was, he could still be
dangerous. Frisking from side to side, as if she was a fish herself,
she approached the object. Yes, it was Zinc sure enough. The chao
frowned in disgust as she saw what it was tangled up in: Robo Knuckles
was still stuck on Zinc's head spikes. She took a few paces back,
treading water, then shot towards the once red robot, slamming it hard,
and knocking it away from Zinc. She then had a closer look at the two,
now that they were separated.

Robo Knuckles had had most of his paint scraped away, and now looked
more like a carcass than a living robot. Or what passed for living
anyway, she supposed. One of his eyes was cracked, and the inside of his
robotic skull was badly damaged where the water had seeped in. His
dreadlocks still moved, caught in the current, which gave him an
eerie, half-living effect. Not wishing to look upon him any more,
Aqua turned her attention to Zinc, the main object of this search.
She winced as she saw what had happened to his arm, but apart from
that, he hadn't come off as badly as Robo Knuckles, who must have
been on the underside when they hit the water and sharp, jagged rocks.
His eyes were both intact, at any rate.

Shrugging slightly, Aqua scooped him up in her arms, glad that the
water made the robot chao a lighter weight. She doubted that she would
have been able to carry him otherwise. As she broke the surface of
the water, she managed to hurl Zinc onto the bank and clamber soggily
after him. Glancing around she saw that she was quite a distance from
where she had started. Turning back to her normal form, she looked
around for sight of Knuckles. Not seeing him, she trotted off to
look for her master and bring him back to the spot.

Feeling that she had to say something to the wrecked robot, she
mumbled: "I'll come back for you," before rounding a pile of rocks and
disappearing from sight.

Unfortunately, she wasn't the only chao in the area. Strelle crept
down from one of the rocks that she had been napping on. She had seen
all that had happened with Aqua and Zinc from her refuge point, and
had, as usual, taken the wrong view of the situation.

"I don't believe it," she told the surrounding shrubbery. "Aqua's
in league with him too. Gosh." She glanced from left to right. Like
the red water chao, she also saw no-one coming. "Ah well," she said,
rubbing her chao paws together. "I guess it's up to me to deal with
it. Oh goodie." Tossing her emerald lightly up and down in her hands,
she changed into her warrior form.

"Right," she told Zinc, imagining that she had just smashed him to the
ground in some epic battle, and pacing around him like a lioness as
she spoke. "I could let you live, even though you've gone and done
some pretty nasty stuff." She mentally switched roles, becoming a
high court judge, a keeper of justice. "But I can't take the risk
that you might do some more nasty stuff."

She yelped in terror as one of Zinc's eyes sprang into life, tracing
around as if searching for her. Strelle gulped.

"Zephyer," Zinc croaked. "I must have Zephyer."

The mobile robot chao's thoughts seemed to be proved. "Ha! I've done
you in, and you still have a thirst for blood, huh?" She had completely
forgotten by then that she had nothing to do with Zinc's cripplement.
"Well, not for much longer."

She leapt at Zinc, slashing with her claws, kicking mercilessly with
her sharp feet and beating him resoundingly with her wings. "Zephyer!
Zephyer!" screamed Zinc, again and again, in blind terror and sorrow.

There was the sound of running footsteps and a second later, Strelle
found herself knocked off Zinc and into the river. Yelping again, she
returned to her normal form, surfacing and spouting water from her
mouth. "Ack! I hate water!" she wailed. Then she saw who her
assailants were. "You're all in on it!" she moaned, and sank back
under the water. Aqua leapt in a dragged her out while Knuckles and
Echo checked on Zinc.

"The motus!" snarled Echo, furiously, looking as if she was ready to
kick Strelle into the river once more. "She's a complete and utter
socor. What the heck did she think she was doing?"

Knuckles shook his head, although he was trying to control his rage
too. "She wasn't to know that he was on our side. Don't blame her."

Bik hopped around agitatedly. "Will he be okay? Has she damaged him
too much?"

"It doesn't look good," Knuckles sighed, running a hand through his
dreadlocks, while trying to subdue his fury. He suddenly looked as if
a bolt of lightning had struck him. "What about Zephyer? She can't
see him like this."

Echo, who was taking in deep breaths of air, to calm herself down,
didn't respond for a moment. "We shouldn't have told her that there
was a chance. We've got her hopes up now, and all for nothing."

"No," whispered a soft voice. The two guardians and their chao spun
around, looking upwards. Zephyer was standing at the top of the
outcrop with Pip darting agitatedly from side to side, as if the
injured echidna would fall over at any second. She made her slow
descent towards the group, who parted silently.

As she touched Zinc, his eyes sprang alive once more. "Zeff? ..." he
whispered. "I didn't want to die without telling you that I love you
and I'm ... I'm sorry ..."

"You won't die." Tears were streaming unchecked down Zephyer's face
as she spoke. "I promise. Knux can fix you."

There was a slight gasp of incredulity from Knuckles, who was far
from certain that it was possible.

"Please hang on for me Zinc. And ... and I love you too."

Slowly, surely, Zinc reached up his hand to touch Zephyer's. As their
hands met, a strange light seemed to grow between them, growing
steadily brighter by the second. Presently, neither the chao nor his
owner could be seen. When the light faded once more, Zinc was still
lying on the ground, but in his ultimate form, with not a scar on him.
He stood, and broke the connection between them.

"Love conquers all," he whispered, breaking the hypnotic silence.

*********

It was a week later, and the guardians, echidnas and chao were
basking in the sun once more. "It'll be funny returning to Knothole
after all this," remarked Zephyer, breaking the comfortable silence.

"Knothole!" exclaimed Pip, with genuine surprise. "Gosh. I'd
forgotten it existed."

The others grinned a little. "Still, you'll be welcome back any time
you feel like it," said Knuckles, unconsciously speaking more to
Zephyer than anyone else. "Although you might want to talk to Sonic
about Axel. Y'know, a few quiet words. His temper won't have lasted
long, I'm sure, but it must be terrible to loose a chao."

"Nhn," Echo agreed, half-asleep in the warmth.

"D'you think Tikal will be back?" Knuckles considered Zephyer's
question, but it was Echo that answered, without opening her eyes.

"Oh, she might, but then again, maybe not. I remember her doing some
things, anyhow, that would probably have come after all this." Echo
spoke as having lived for hundreds of years, and any interference in
the past she would remember. Echo herself would never properly age
since the accident with the Master Emerald in her time.

The chao played happily in the shade of the long grass below. All the
chao were there apart from Peppi, even Zinc, Strelle and Falcon. They
seemed to have forgotten their differences, those who had had any,
already.

Zephyer watched them, smiling to herself. Robo Knux's cruel experiment
had failed, and he himself had been vanquished. She knew she would be
back to the island, for more interesting times, both happy and sad.
As she drifted into a peaceful sleep, her last thought was for the
chao, who were safe once more.

*********

That evening, as the light drew in and dusk approached, two figures
unfamiliar to the island stood on the cliff overlooking the river.

"You want me to fetch him mistress?" asked the smaller figure, a chao,
in disbelief. It's voice was soft, warm and coaxing, but somehow
chilling, the voice that had been in Falcon's head and driven him
temporarily insane. "But he failed you, did he not?"

"Much as I hate to admit it," hissed the other creature, the owner of
the voice that had spoken on the com-link to Robo Knuckles. "He has
his uses. Of course, I will still allow you to torture him when he is
repaired." The chao smiled with unconcealed glee. "But I want to know
something from you first. You were here on that night when they had
their last battle."

Any other creature would have quailed at the realisation that she
knew they had done something without permission and against her will,
and begged her for mercy. The chao merely returned her gaze until she
was forced to glance away, glowering hatefully.

"I don't think that that it any of your business." Then he was gone,
activating his emerald and diving into the water below. The creature
left on the cliff above frowned.

She might have to take steps about that one someday, but for now he
was far too useful to be removed. That was all it came down to in the
end, she mused. In this world, you had to be useful to survive. Which
was why she grudgingly admired chao so much.

Whatever happened, there would always be a chao.

The End