Chapter 20: Pure Chaos
Sonic suddenly rammed into the arm of the creature, which was more like slush and slime than an actual limb. But he accomplished his goal—he freed Tails from its grasp. The little fox was looking as grey as the world around them. "Regroup!" Sonic shouted, holding the unconscious fox in his arms. It took all his strength to start running back toward the helicopter. Amy and Cream didn't hesitate to follow this time.
"Mr. Sonic…" Cream whimpered. "What are we gonna do?"
Sonic looked down at Tails's face. The expression he had was one of pain. He hoped that there was still some life in his buddy, but he didn't have the chance to stop and double check. "We're…" he started. He shook his head, wanting to reassure her. "We're gonna figure it out."
Within moments, they made it to the beach.
Vacation was over.
Cream set the copter blades spinning. She, Sonic, and Amy desperately did their best to get the machine flying and manage to control it enough to get back home.
"Sonic… What's the plan?" Amy asked him.
He looked at her with a lost expression, then looked over at Cream, who was looking out the window back at the island. Chaos was coming, and they needed to be ready to fight it. "Knuckles can help," he said. It was with a tone of reassurance, but he was reassuring himself as well as the others. "The Master Emerald… the Chaos Emeralds… They've got to be able to stop this thing."
They landed hard on Angel Island, easily and immediately bringing the attention of the red echidna. "What in all of Mobius?!" he stormed toward the machine.
Cream ran out, distraught, slamming into Knuckles with tears and sobs. Knuckles was taken aback, almost falling back.
"Cream?" he asked. "What happened? What's wrong?" He had never seen her so distraught.
Amy came out of the machine next. "Chaos!" she shouted at him.
"Chaos?" Knuckles looked back toward the emerald. "What kind of chaos?"
"It's some sort of monster! It said it had the power of Chaos inside it!"
Knuckles narrowed his eyes. "The Master Emerald was trying to warn me… It's been flickering… screeching… as if trying to speak." He looked at Amy and saw as a weak Sonic was helping the unconscious Tails out of the helicopter. His eyes grew wide. "What happened to them?!"
"Chaos!" Amy repeated.
His arm, which had subconsciously wrapped around Cream as she cried against him, tightened. Cream sniffed and looked up at him. The look on his face almost scared her. It was an expression of pain, fear, and anger. He turned again to the emerald, and she backed up, sensing that he would need the space. He held out his hands and closed his eyes.
The Emerald flickered again. It was giving him a vision of what had happened at Chao Island. "They're all connected…" Knuckles stated. "The Master… the Chaos Emeralds… and this creature… this… Chaos. Even the chao's themselves… These… these are the life of Mobius." He opened his eyes. "But there's an imbalance now. Chaos has taken…" he paused a beat, "life." He turned back toward Sonic and Tails.
His brow furrowed, and Cream noticed that terrifying look cross his face again. He knelt down next to them and closed his eyes again, speaking to the Master Emerald behind him. "Master Emerald… give them back what was taken from them…"
The emerald glowed and a soft light spread like fog across them all, seeming to absorb into Sonic and Tails, returning the vibrance to their color. Tails's eyes even opened. Their life power had returned to them.
Cream was beside herself with relief, hugging Tails, who didn't seem to have any remnant pain. "Wow, Knuckles, I feel great!" he said. "How did you do that?"
"It was all the emerald," Knuckles answered with an almost imperceptible smile.
"Alright, that's it!" Sonic jumped up, obviously feeling just as restored. "How do we beat that thing up into next week?"
"Cool down, Sonic!" Knuckles snapped, his smile gone. "You need to rest."
"No. I don't. Not now, not ever, not until we beat that thing down! It's trying to take over the world, Knuckles!"
"What about the Chaos Emeralds!" Tails spoke up.
The others looked at him.
"If they're all connected like you say… Maybe the emeralds will help us stand a chance against it!"
"Tails is right!" Sonic nodded.
"We'll need my tracker!"
"And a treasure hunter or two…" Sonic eyed Knuckles.
"You're an idiot if you run back into battle like this," the echidna growled back.
"Well, unlike you, I'd rather not just sit around and wait for the battle to come to me!"
"Stubborn fool!"
"Coward!"
"How dare you?!"
"Stop!" Cream shouted. They stopped, staring at her, shocked at her outburst. "Cheese is still gone… This Chaos monster is taking the chao's… and destroying the world! Please, Mr. Knuckles… will you help us find the emeralds?"
Knuckles's brow knit as he looked down at her. He frowned and crossed his arms. "Fine."
Tails sprang up, spinning his tails. "Let's get to my workshop! Sonic, hurry and find Rouge! We gotta come up with a plan!"
.
"Here!" Tails handed out earpieces and bracelets.
"What exactly is the plan here?" Rouge asked, examining the tiny machines she was just handed. After being beckoned for an emergency meeting by Sonic, she was a bit annoyed at the lack of information she had received so far.
"Since we're gonna split up and look for the emeralds, we can let each other know we've found them through these. You talk into the bracelet, and we can all hear in our earpieces."
"Testing… testing…" Sonic said into his bracelet. Sure enough, the rest of them heard his voice through the earpieces as well as being right next to him.
"Great! It works!" Tails grinned. "Now, when we collect all seven emeralds, we go back to Chao Island and take this thing down once and for all!"
"Sounds like a plan, Tails!" Sonic gave a thumbs-up.
He was the first to burst out of the workshop, running far into the distance to start his search. The others left at their own pace. Knuckles lingered and stared off after the others. He spoke into his watch. "Don't do anything stupid," he said.
"You think everything we do is stupid, Knucklehead," Amy retorted through hers.
Knuckles sighed, then headed off to look for an emerald or two.
.
Once it became obvious that every chaos emerald was collected, the group reconvened at the house. Most of them, anyway.
"Um… guys…" the voice was Sonic's. The only emerald that was missing was the orange one, so the group was eagerly awaiting his arrival with it. Rouge was fluttering her wings and swinging her legs as she sat on the roof of the house. Cream was against a wall of the house, looking up at Rouge cautiously. Amy was sitting on her hammer. Knuckles was snarling. So it was Tails that spoke into the bracelet in reply, "What's up, Sonic?"
"I see it."
"See what?"
"Chaos."
"WHAT?!"
The whole group perked up. Chaos had reached the mainland of Mobius, and it was right next to Sonic.
"Get out of there, Sonic!" Tails called, shouting into his bracelet.
The others adjusted the earpieces after the shrill cry.
Sonic replied, "I think it's game time, guys. You think you can get over to where I am?"
"Where's that?" Rouge asked.
"North of Angel Island."
Knuckles shouted into his own communicator: "Don't be a fool, Sonic!" His teeth were clenched. "Just come back here with us!"
"Is it fun for you to disagree with everything I say? Just get over here!"
"We'll make it as fast as we can, Sonic!" Tails answered optimistically.
"You're all idiots…" Knuckles groaned.
"Told you you thought everything we did was stupid," Amy retorted.
Suddenly, a blast came from Sonic's end of the communicator.
"Sonic!" Tails gasped. "What happened?!"
"It saw me!" The group could hear the wind speeding by as Sonic ran.
"Are you coming this way now?" Knuckles asked him.
"Yeah, you happy?"
Another blast.
"GAH!"
"Sonic!" Tails started running in his direction, hoping that they could at least meet halfway and bring the emeralds together. The others followed without hesitation. "We're coming, Sonic! Hang on!"
"Your life is mine!" the creature could be heard from Sonic's bracelet.
There was another blasting crashing sound.
Then the worst sound of all came from Sonic's communicator: silence.
Tails stopped short. "Sonic?" He bit his lip, hardly able to breathe. Then, he cried, "Sonic! Answer me!"
The group waited. Still nothing.
"SOOOOOOOOOOOOOONIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIC!"
Rouge winced and pulled out the earpiece. "Tails, stop. He's gone."
Amy didn't say a word. She just fell to the ground, overcome with sobs.
Tails, too, started crying. Cream tried to hold him up. "No! It's not fair!" he wailed. "I… I… I failed him…"
"Stop it, Tails," Knuckles spoke harshly. "Stop saying that you failed him. You didn't. What happened was his fault, and his fault alone. He was being foolish and stupid!" Knuckles's face was hard. "He was reckless, just like always!" He tightened his fists, clenched his jaw, and stared out in the distance, where Sonic once was. Then, he mumbled, "I say good riddance…"
"WHAT?!" Amy screamed. Rouge looked away.
Tails's expression was blank. Cream wasn't sure if he heard Knuckles's words. She looked closely at the echidna, studying his face. That scary expression was back. "You can't mean that, Mr. Knuckles…" she tried.
He looked her straight in the eye, his eyes were clear, his mouth was a scowl. That expression… that terrible, angry ferocity in his eyes… it scared her. "I'll be with the Emerald." And he walked away.
"Well then, good riddance to you!" Amy screamed at him, tears still flowing from her eyes.
Moments passed in solemn silence, until it was Cream who broke it. "What now?" she asked.
