Chapter 6
If it weren't for my lawyer, I'd still be in prison. It went a lot faster with two people digging.
-Joe Martin
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There were no chao in the back rooms of the restaurant, according to Sonic, who sneaked in when the turtle-chefs weren't looking. He said they had boxes of lettuce, but no chao. He'd even checked the freezers.
I stood in the chemical-smelling street and gazed at the flashing crystals with helpless hatred. Somewhere among them was my chao, alive or dead. There were no Shellizaas we could ask, and Jazz didn't know any more than we did.
"I think we should split up," said Sonic. "Jazz and I can run fast--" He gave Jazz a superior look, as if to say that he was faster than the rabbit "--and we can cover more ground. Maybe we'll find something."
"We're not leaving until we do," I said.
"Let's meet up by the trees at noon," said Knuckles. "See you guys."
Sonic and Jazz vanished in opposite directions. "Took care of those hotheads," said Knuckles. He shook his head in disapproval of their rivalry. "Anyway Zephyer, where would they keep ... food?"
I closed my eyes to quell the rising sickness in my stomach. "If they keep them alive, then they'll have kennels of some kind."
"Kennels smell," said Knuckles, eyeing the crystals around us, "so they'd put them on the outskirts, I'll bet."
"Great, so all we do is hike the perimeter of Diamonda," I said, sarcasm creeping into my voice. "This place is huge--it'll take days."
He gave me a mild look. "So it'll take days. Let's get started." He set off toward the hills outside the city, and I followed, regretting my cynicism. Neither of us spoke for two blocks, and the crystals around us changed to sky blue.
Knuckles broke the silence. "Thanks for springing my bail."
My conscience pricked me, and I said, "Sorry for being such a smartmouth."
He shrugged. "It's okay."
Neither of us spoke for a few minutes, then I said, "I hope Zinc put up a fight."
"Ditto," said Knuckles, "but about Chimera. I don't even know what he looks like now."
"Zinc will know him," I said. "Zinc wouldn't lose track of Chimera like that."
Chimera had regressed and turned back into an egg, and had just hatched again. I wondered if he would recognize us.
The crystals shrank as we left Diamonda, until they were a few scattered lumps of color. Knuckles stopped several times to touch their sides and examine their growth. Each time he frowned, as if puzzled or concerned. At last I asked, "What's wrong?"
"This place," he muttered, gazing at the stubs around us. "It's like a giant crystal bed. I don't understand it. This whole valley would have to be a caldera."
"Isn't a caldera the pit of a volcano?" I asked, alarmed.
"Yeah. But crystals don't grow in calderas, that I know of. None of this makes sense. There's not enough water."
"Sure it doesn't make sense," I said. "A bunch of turtles living in giant crystals and use humans as slaves. It wouldn't make sense with a dime and two quarters."
"Isn't that human money?" said Knuckles, but he wasn't paying attention. He was looking at a large smoky crystal a little way off. "Human money," he muttered, and strode toward it.
I jogged after him. "What? It's just an expression."
"You can get anything with enough money," said Knuckles, unrolling the hem of his glove. Tucked in it were two tiny glowing rubies, cut to resemble Chaos Emeralds. He handed one to me. "Hang on to this. It doesn't have any power, but they don't have to know that."
I don't know how he knew what was inside the smoky crystal, but Knuckles entered as if he had known about it all his life. It was a little shop stuffed with knickknacks, like a pawnshop. The corners were not square, but there were so many racks and shelves that it didn't matter. Behind the counter was a turtle with a painted blue shell and a monocle in one eye. He sized us up as we entered, and to my utmost surprise, he spoke to us.
"Welcome to Jaard's Accessories! We don't get many ... non-Shellizaas." He had a strange accent, and hardly opened his beak when he spoke.
Knuckles gave me a glance to tell me he would handle this. "Thank you for recognizing us," he said formally. "We're looking for a particular rare item, and are willing to pay a high price."
Jaard gazed at Knuckles and me, and I noticed his eye lingered on my robot hand, which was holding my cloak closed. "Yes," he said. "Of course. What is this item you seek?"
"Chao." I marveled at Knuckles's calm voice. I would have assaulted the Shellizaa by now.
Jaard parted his beak in a smile. "Chao," he said. "I'm sorry, but I can't help you."
Knuckles laid his glowing ruby on the counter.
Jaard's eyes popped, and he looked closely at the gem without touching it. "A Chaos Emerald," he whispered, licking his beak with a pointed tongue. He lifted his head and blinked at Knuckles through his monocle. "You mentioned chao?"
Knuckles nodded.
There was a moment of silence as Jaard stared at the ruby, and I knotted the fabric of my cloak in my fingers.
"Do you know where the white crystal is?" said Jaard.
"To the south," said Knuckles.
"Yes," said the turtle, his head jerking to and fro as if he were expecting attack. "Behind it is an outcropping, and beneath that is where they keep the chao."
Knuckles nodded. "Thank you, sir. And be careful with that jewel." As we left the shop, I saw the turtle picking up the ruby with a pair of tongs and screwing a jeweler's glass into one eye.
"I hope you did a good job cutting that thing," I murmured as we strode southward.
Knuckles was grinning. "I had those cut by a rock badger a few years ago. He did an excellent job."
I felt a lifting of my spirits for the first time in two days, but a feeling of dread settled on me at the same time. What if we were too late? I voiced this worry to Knuckles, who nodded. "I was thinking about that. I suppose we could firebomb the Shellizaas."
"I wish," I muttered, "although I doubt it'd burn. I haven't seen a tree or anything down here."
"It's the soil," said Knuckles, turning at a cross street. "If it almost killed me, it'd sure kill any plant life. I don't see why any species would want to live here."
"Our people had crystal farms," I pointed out, thinking of the grottos on the Floating Island.
"That's different," said Knuckles, peering south for a glimpse of a white crystal. "The crystal groves had caves to themselves. We knew how dangerous the environment is when you're growing crystals."
I looked at the looming pinnacles above us. "So how dangerous is this place?"
"Extremely dangerous," said Knuckles. "It'd lower your life expectancy by half. Does that one look white to you?"
He pointed to a tall, transparent crystal with frost clouding it halfway down. "Looks like it," I said, and we took a street leading toward it. We saw a few Shellizaas in the distance, but they seemed to cluster around the city square. It seemed odd to have all these roads and so few people, but maybe none of their females wanted to live here because of the poisoned atmosphere.
"How do you know where things are?" I asked suddenly.
He glanced at me. "The colors. Can't you tell?"
I shook my head.
"Colors are rankings on Mobius," he said. "Green is authority, for one thing. Red is a militant color. Neutral colors are the merchant-types. You've been here so long and you never noticed?"
"You don't do it like that in Knothole," I said defensively. "So I don't visit many Mobian cities. Sue me."
The white crystal was the tallest of several in a clump, and there were ordinary crates stacked around it behind fences. There was a long strip of open ground that looked like a runway, but there were no planes in sight. I wondered if this was where Kita had been dropped the night before.
We circled the crystals, looking for an outcropping with a door in it. Behind the crystals, in a little courtyard, we found a chunk of rock with a crystal door embedded in it. I was moving toward it when Knuckles seized my arm and muttered, "Keep walking."
I did. As we began our second circle of the crystals, I whispered, "What is it?"
"Don't you see them?" He motioned with his eyes to the stacks of crates, and I peered toward them. Then I saw a dark furry face peering at us from around a corner. And another. In one black paw I saw a gun held at the ready. It was the monkeys, keeping watch over the supplies.
Knuckles and I put two blocks between us and the watchful apes, and by the time we stopped I was seething. "I'll unscrew their heads one by one," I hissed. "Zinc's in there--we're so close--and those stupid monkeys--"
Knuckles was as angry as I was. "I knew it wouldn't be so easy." He punched a nearby wall and cursed in Old Mobian. I copied him and immediately felt better.
"So what do we do now?" I asked, examining my knuckles for dents.
Knuckles glanced back down the crystal blocks to the white tip in the distance. "We find Sonic and Jazz."
* * *
Sonic was waiting for us at the grove of trees outside Diamonda, and I could tell by the way he was capering around that he had found something. "Where were you guys?" he exclaimed. "I've waited ages!" Without waiting for us to reply, he went on, "You see that cliff up there at the north end? That's not a cliff, it's a dam, and there's this monster lake behind it. The whole place is hot enough to take a bath in."
"No kidding," said Knuckles, gazing toward the distant dam. "That explains how these crystals grew. Sonic, we know where they've got the chao."
"Great!" said Sonic, punching a fist in the air. "So why don't you go get them?"
"Guarded by monkeys," I said, letting fury creep into my voice. "They'd have shot us if we tried to get in."
"Oh, so you need a decoy," said Sonic. "Check. Want to do it now?"
"Sure," said Knuckles. "Then we'll feed the chao lunch and get out of here."
"Excellent idea," said Sonic. "What I wouldn't give for Jazz's gun! Have you guys seen him?" When we shook our heads, he grinned. "Good! Nothing personal, but he runs too fast." He galloped down the hill back into Diamonda, and Knuckles and I followed.
When we arrived at the white crystal, we found the monkeys hard to distract. There were twenty of them, and while Sonic could draw off most of them, there were always a few left to keep an eye on Knuckles and me. They made faces, gave us crude gestures, and chattered to each other about what nitwits we were. I wondered why Robotnik had overlooked these snots, because they would have made great guards.
"I'll decoy, too," said Knuckles to me. "Get in there and break out the chao."
"Okay," I said, hoping the door was not locked. "Don't let them hurt you."
"I'd like to see them try," he said through his teeth. He ran at a nearby wall, dug in with his knuckles, and began climbing up. The three monkeys crept toward Knuckles to watch this feat. I slipped around the back of the white crystal to the storage outcropping.
The door was a sliding crystal panel, and of course it was locked. I kicked it a few times, then investigated the edges for a lock. I found a metal panel with a slot in it, probably for a keycard. I morphed my right hand into my short sword and slid the blade into the slot.
The electric shock sent me to my knees, feeling as if my body had been liquefied. I pulled out my blade and sat on the ground for several minutes, trembling, before I realized the crystal panel had slid open a hair's breadth. I levered it open with my blade, and looked down a stairwell into darkness.
I had to rest at the top before I gained the strength to go in. Then I ventured through the door and down the steps, groping along the wall for a light switch. I located one at the bottom. It ignited a weak bulb in the ceiling, and I peered around in the gloom.
The air was thick with stinging chemical odors and the reek of feces, and pools of rancid water stood on the floor. Metal cages were stacked to the ceiling, and I could see movement through the mesh. I moved closer, dreading what I would find.
To my surprise, the first row of cages contained flickies, not chao. The little birds looked at me dismally. Beside them were young lizards of some sort. Beyond them were some kind of furry creatures that were huddled in the back of their cages. On it went, young Mobians of all kinds, too young to speak, all with a dazed, stupefied look. In the back corner I found the chao cages.
It was the darkest corner, and I checked all the cages. All but two were empty, and neither of the remaining two chao were silver.
I stood there for an eternity, staring at those two chao. Zinc was gone. Of course Zinc was gone. He was my chao, and the bad things always happen to me. I felt a burning sensation behind my eyes, and pressed a hand to my face. Wait, I still ought to look for Chimera.
I peered into the cages, blinking back tears, and whispered, "Chimera?"
One of the chao turned his head, and I recognized him at once. He still had his dragon-horns, although they were shorter now, and he was light brown instead of orange, but his eyes were Chimera's eyes--defiant and crafty. I worked the catch on the door and swung it open, then reached for him. He bit my metal hand, clinging like a bulldog. I opened the other chao cage. The other chao did not move, and when I touched it I realized it was dead. The fumes in this basement had overcome it.
Rage boiled up inside of me like a thundercloud, and I began throwing open the other cages, making a racket and cradling Chimera in one hand against my chest. The little creatures stared at me, then leaped from their cages. I pointed to the stairs, but they needed no urging. One by one they hopped or crawled or flew out of the noxious basement. "Get out of Diamonda," I told them. "Run uphill. Go as fast as you can." They may not have been able to talk, but they could understand me. They gave me thankful looks and hurried out. I followed once the cages were empty.
By this time Chimera had tired of biting my hand, and was watching the proceedings with interest. He gripped my hand as we climbed the stairs and emerged in clean daylight. I looked around for the monkeys, saw none, and slipped around the corner of the white crystal. All the prisoners had vanished.
Chimera looked up. I followed his gaze and saw Knuckles gliding high overhead like a self-guided kite. A gang of monkeys was perched on a ledge high up the crystal tower, pointing and gesturing in excitement. I knew Knuckles had seen me, and waved. Unfortunately my silver hand caught the sun, for the monkeys saw me.
One of them screamed angrily, and they poured down off the ledge with their teeth bared. I bolted up the closest street, but I was weakened by my electric shock and could move only at a jog. "They're gonna catch me, Chimera," I whispered to the chao in my arms.
Up ahead the crystals parted in an alcove. I ducked into it and found a smooth cement wall blocking my way. I pressed myself into a corner and waited.
I heard the scamper of many feet on pavement, and a second later the monkeys rounded the corner, running on all fours with their guns held in their tails. They laughed in triumph when they saw me, and switched their guns from their tails to their hands. I shoved Chimera under my cloak and morphed my other hand into my laser pistol, but I knew I was outnumbered. Where were Sonic and Knuckles when I needed them?
Something moved on top of the cement wall behind me. I saw the gloating looks on the apes' faces become gapes of fear, and their eyes focused on a point high in the air. As one they backed away and fled.
I turned and looked at the top of the wall. There was a thick metal pole embedded in it, supporting a red crystal roof high overhead. There were several of these poles, and behind them was a set of gleaming objects I thought were small black crystals.
Then it snapped into perspective. Those black crystals were giant claws on a massive foot, and the foot was connected to a scaly green leg ... my eyes traveled up and up, over curled wings and a serpentine neck, finally meeting the blood-red eye of a horned dragon, who was peering down at me.
The dragon was in a cage the size of a missile silo. I wondered how it held it in as I took in its bulging muscles and the glittering malice in the red eyes.
I heard footsteps behind me, and Sonic and Knuckles panting. "Zeff, are you all right?" said Sonic. "We thought they shot you or ... or ... something..." His words died away in a gasp. "Knux, look at the size of that thing!"
"Good grief," Knuckles muttered.
I couldn't take my eyes away from the beast's face. "Thank you," I said.
The vast head lowered toward us, and it pressed its pointed snout against the bars. The dragon was so big I lost perspective again. The nostrils sniffed, and the teeth parted. A deep rumble rolled over me, and it was several seconds before I realized it had said, "You are welcome." I was stunned by the creature's size, and could only stand there with Chimera under my cloak.
Sonic stepped forward. "You have our thanks, too," he said in a raised voice. "Why are you in that cage?"
The dragon shifted its attention to Sonic, and I felt my bewilderment subside. The rumble rolled out of its throat again, and again it was a few seconds before I translated what it had said. It was like hearing someone speak with a heavy accent. "I am a prisoner of the Shellizaas."
I tore my eyes away from the dragon and looked at Sonic. His eyes were glazed, and I sensed that holding the dragon's attention had paralyzed him. Behind us, Knuckles said, "Why don't you escape?"
The dragon looked at him, and I sensed its mind settle on Knuckles like a heavy blanket. "The bars are cold iron. I cannot free myself. But if someone were to open the gate..." I saw the claws clench, and its anger struck me like a wave of heat.
Chimera gave a fierce wriggle, shoved my cloak aside, and jumped to the pavement. He landed on all fours and growled a high-pitched baby growl at the monster above us. When he had a Chaos Emerald he transformed into a dragon, although smaller, and he would not allow a real dragon to outdo him in ferocity. The dragon shifted its attention to the tiny chao, and to my surprise Chimera did not cower.
Knuckles pushed forward and picked up Chimera. Chimera shot Knuckles a fiery glance, then allowed himself to be lifted, still growling. "Zephyer, Sonic," Knux said softly, "we should leave now."
I heard them withdraw, but something held me there at the dragon's feet. "If we could free you," I said to it, "what would you do?"
One of the red eyes fixed on me, and I watched the black pupil focus. "Destroy Diamonda."
"Would you ... let us go first?" I asked. "Maybe help us?" I kicked myself for the last question. Who was I to bargain with a monster the size of a warehouse? But the dragon was not offended.
"Free me and we shall crush the Shellizaas together." The bewildering sense of drowning enfolded me again, and my mind scrambled for footing. Then it released me, and I hurried away from the cage, not daring to look back.