(In regard to the 26 new episodes of Sonic X, supposedly happening, soon. Several points must be raised…one being, and I really don't want to say this but…do we really want to see more, even if there is a new SH saga in them? Sonic X, the original, had bad animation, poor storylines and a bog standard ending. Unless there is a radical overhaul in the animation, to the level of Shaman king or the first Sonic anime, it won't be worth it really. Secondly, the ending in the 52'd episode was ominous, leaving absolutely no room for continuation. It would be hard, or impossible to build on it, which if why I cut into the Sonic X down hill spiral after the Battle saga to save it in my Sonic X heroes adaptation fic. Hey, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe we will see those episodes, (and without Chris by the looks of it. YIPPIE!)

(Sorry that this a short chapter)

SONIC GO!

SONIC. GO!

GO, GO, GO, GO, LET'S GO!

Episode 5: Chaos at the Shrine of Chaos

The rain spitting itself at his cheeks, the young red echidna just keep running, ignoring the attempts the long jungle grass below and the vines above made to try and keep a hold of him. Before and after, the two continuality blurred, becoming one terrifying whole as he kept running. Fear, intense fear kept him looking back, knowing always that those horrifying red eyes were following him, terrible danger not far behind them. All the time, a horrible laughter could be heard vibrating through the air as the child made it's attempts to get away. Tears stinging his eyes, the young boy tripped, stumbling forward, his vision blurred into a mixed haze of green as he fell.

It was some time before he opened his eyes, and to his surprise the red eyes had gone, all seemed quiet and still. As he pushed himself up, he became aware that he was standing in front of a large stone platform with a flight of vine covered stairs leading up to it. From the top of this came a warm, inviting green glow, a soft almost musical hum in the air. Like a moth, some force attracted him up the stairs, tripping only once on a vine as he climbed. It must have been teen solid minutes before he moved, decapitated at the sight of the giant jewel in front of him. It spoke with the music, it's voice as gentle as that was a caring mother. Without hesitation, he stretched his hand out to touch yet and in that moment, all that was good around him evaporated at the red glaring eyes returned. The boy didn't even have time to scream as the darkness swallowed him within a single moment.

Knuckles' shot right up in bed, sweat running down his forehead and over his dreadlocks, breathing hard, his eyes staring his horror. A shiver creeping up and down his spine. That dream again, it had been haunting him a lot lately. Those red eyes, even now that he was awake he couldn't even image them in his mind, they were too horrifying. He put a palm to his head, trying to calm his breathing. As memories came back after his unsettled sleep came back, he remembered exactly where he was and what he had to do. A simple nightmare, that's all it was, brushing it off as best he could he began to realize the depth of the task that lay ahead.

"Bad dream?" Asked a feminine voice as he pushed himself of the rather uncomfortable stone bed, finding the room empty apart from Rouge and himself, and Chuck of course, who was still asleep in his bed in the corner, snoring loudly. Everyone else had gone. Rouge had one of the black and red robes that the Priest's servants had brought them that morning. Sonic, who would never be caught dead in it, disappeared out the window with Shadow and Metal Sonic to explore the city to see if they could find the time ring that could send them back to the present. Chris had gone out to see if he could learn anything here. "Care to talk about it red?" She added back over her shoulder. Knuckles narrowed his eyes.

"I think not." He replied flatly, standing up and stretched his long arms. Rouge smiled coyly at him.

"That Priest we meet was here before you woke up, it seems we're all to gather at some inner chamber for some kind of ritual at noon." She turned back to look at the ugly robes, a contempt-full look on her face. "Since that god of theirs is one of war, I think it'd be wish to skip the service." Knuckles wasn't paying any attention, he was too busy putting on of those robes around this shoulders. "You're not serious!" Rouge

"That service may be my only chance to tell all my people what will happen if they invade the Chaos Shrine."

"Oh, and I suppose they're going to believe you when you tell them you're from the future?" She added coyly, Knuckles simply gave her a long hard stare. "Get real red, that sounds crazy even to me I know it's all true." Knuckles growled and clenched his fists by his sides.

"I still have to try." He managed to grumble.

It was still early enough for the streets of the Echidna capital to be nearly empty and it was almost perfect conditions for racing. Metal Sonic was in the lead currently, taking full advantage of his three jet engines. Shadow and Sonic were joint for second, trying desperately to outdo each other and catch up with the robotic hedgehog. Shadow, sliding to the right overtook Metal, speeding into the lead, leaving just enough time to give Sonic a cocky look back over his shoulder. Returning the smirk, Sonic's speed increased in a sudden blast, overtaking the both of them with ease.

"How the hell did he do that?" Shadow asked himself in amazement, before speeding up, skating after him. Metal Sonic, who had no intention of being last I this small contest, increased in engine output by 10, coming up jointly alongside Sonic and Shadow. Racing without a care between the three of them, it was almost exciting. Heck, scratch that, it was exciting. The three of them were equals and while each one had every intention of trying to outdo the other, there was a sort of comradeship that bound them all.

The city was a lot larger than any of them had first realized, they'd been racing the long streets between the sand stone houses looking for the supposedly hidden time ring, or somewhere large enough to hide it for over an hour now and they'd covered half the city yet.

Shadow shot into the lead, sliding around Sonic, the jets on the soles of his feet blaring at full blast. Sonic trying his best to keep up, knowing that Shadow's skating technique, while it allowed him to go faster, did not allow him to traverse ninety degree turns too well.

Sonic himself could manage tight corner turns with ease, which gave him a slight edge while the three of them ducked and served through the narrow streets.

Metal Sonic had a balanced propulsion system, that didn't go all out in one degree or another. He could accelerate to fantastic speed, and manage corners, to a certain speed level.

"Company HALT!" Sonic suddenly yelled, slamming on the brakes, come to a screeching halt. Shadow and Metal Sonic followed suite, all of them skidding to a stop in the middle of a side street behind one of the sand stone houses, littered with broken pieces of pots and wooden planks. "Look…" The blue hedgehog added, poking his head out from behind the corner. Most of the main street was still empty apart from a single Echidna girl running down it, looking back over her shoulder now and tell to see if she was being followed.

"Hey…" Shadow began, his eyes widening. He'd seen her before, during the transformation both he and Sonic had been through to merge into Nazo, she had been there, with his Maria, helping them to fuse into one being.

"Tikal." Sonic muttered to himself as the echidna girl ran past, oblivious to their hidden position. The girl who'd sacrificed her freedom, entrapping herself and the water demon Chaos inside the Master Emerald for over eight thousand years. "Weird, seeing her again." He added, staring after her for a moment. Tikal was heading for the western gates of the city, a large stone entrance that lead into the cliff face, the large carved tunnel leading outside the city limits.

"She may know the location of the second time ring." Metal Sonic put in. Sonic looked back with an amused look on his face.

"Doubtful."

"It's the best lead we've had today." Shadow put in. "Look, I'll follow her and see where she's going. The two of you clowns keep searching the city, we'll meet back at that big Cathedral place at lunch time." Sonic's stomach grumbled.

"Thanks a lot Shadow, you reminded me I missed breakfast." He snapped, before racing of, Metal Sonic following lonely behind. Shadow paused for a moment, shook his head and then stared after Tikal, who by now was nearly out of sight. Without a moments hesitation, Shadow slid silently out from his hiding place and leapt up onto the flat roofs of the houses, easily catching up with the Echidna girl, keeping himself well out of sight as he followed her.

The Egg Moon, Present:

Dr. Eggman was one to learn from his mistakes, and with these new line of machines, he was certain he had done just that.

"Activate, E 1000 series!" The word commands was received through the verbal and the four newest additions to the Eggman Empire's elite troops came on line. Each one varied in size, the largest being the size of a coach and the smallest being no higher than Cream. One their metallic chest plates were printed their codenames,

E1001: Omicron, the largest of the four still lay in it's activation chamber, wires and cables gently hanging out from it's shoulders and legs, data still being feed into it's memory banks. Each arm was the size of a limousine, rounded, with lancing spikes on each knuckle. It's eyes blinked once and started to glow green.

E1002: Sigma, Not as large as Omicron, but large none the less, this model had been designed to resemble the human anatomy, a large jet pack strapped to it's back, and a long blade curving down the top of it's left arm.

E1003: Tau was far different from the others, with tank like treads instead of legs and a pair of missile launchers for arms. Despite the cumbersome appearance, it was design to be capable to decimating a small number of G.U.N robots.

E1004: Thetha, the final one of his new series was a real scorcher. Built into each arm was a flame thrower, especially designed for battle, capable of burning a small forest to the ground in a matter of seconds. Eggman grinned to himself, crossing his arms behind his back. These new models were by far superior to the now, outdated, E100 design. They were faster, stronger, smarter. They made everything else in his army look completely obsolete. He could hardly wait to put these new robots to the test. But these were not the only edition to this only other size incredible forces that he was proud of.

"Impressive designs doctor." Decoe commented, standing beside his contour part Becoe.

"Yes I really have outdone myself haven't I?" Eggman replied, smiling evilly as he rubbing the back of his finger on his red jacket. "These new designs will be able to take care of those pathetic military contraptions without too much trouble."

"That said." Becoe began hesitantly. "That still leaves a large problem." Eggman was silent for a moment, slowly he put his arms behind his back. "One that's been bothering you for years." Expectedly, Eggman began laughing evilly before he turned to face them.

"Which is why I built this fifth robot to deal with that problem." There was a loud thump from above their head and a swift, agile shape swept out of the darkness, leaping to the floor, before straitening up to it's full height. The two hence-bots took a step back as this new robotic solider stared at them. It was the size of the average mobian, with raven black metal skin, golden triangular armour attached to it's knees and elbows. Two red eyes sat directly in the middle of it's face, and directly above them was a third, blue eye encased in a small metal dome. "Meet the Gizoid mkII. A masterpiece of robotic engineering, even if I do say so myself." Eggman added, circling this new arrival with a finger and thumb on his chin. "I've already loaded Metal Sonic's copied data back up file into his self integration system, making it as strong as that traitor was before he turned against me."

"Another Emerl?" Decoe asked in surprise, Eggman wagged a finger at him.

"Not an Emerl precisely, but rather the next generation of Data coping Androids. Far more advanced than his predecessor ever was. Care for a demonstration?"

"Ah, that won't be necessary doctor." The robot replied quickly, backing off to a safe distance. "I'll take your word for it."

"So where is the first target?" Becoe asked, already looking over the holographic dimension projection of the Earth had hung above a large mechanical doom, it's base riddled with wires and cables. "Will it be Station Square again, or one of the other word capitals?" Eggman crossed over to it, glaring at the globe.

"First of all, we need a base of operations on the planet's surface we can operate from. Somewhere that can easily be defended, somewhere like…" He let his finger trail upward. "Here." He finished, pointing directly toward the middle of the European continuant. "Surrounded by sea on nearly all sides, limiting the possibility of a land attack." He turned to give Become a glare. "Are my forces ready?"

"Aye sir, we just have to wait two more days for the moon's orbit to put us into position."

"Excellent, we launch as soon as possible. I'll be leading the attack myself."

Tikal was the one who exactly knew the way through the jungle to the Shrine, well past their borders. Well, the only safe way at least. She just couldn't understand her people's devotion to that…demon. It was leading their people down a path of hatred and violence that would destroy them, she was sure of it. As she approached the Shrine, standing on the other side of the bridge, she could hear the soft serenade of the Chao. She paused for a moment to listen to it's soft sound, before crossing the bridge, the stream before trickling down into the river a little further south.

She was unaware that Shadow was following her of course, the black hedgehog was a near expert on remaining hidden. Whether or not that was a skill built into him by Prof. Gerald was debatable. Still, when he saw the shrine he stopped in stared in awe for a moment. This was the same shrine he'd seen during the Nazo merger. What sort of game was this? What was going on? Why had he seen this? Intrigued, he kept following Tikal over the bridge and up the hill toward the shrine. A small swarm of chaos, their pink wings flapping widely, floated around the stone pillars, singing to themselves. Some of them, as they saw the girl approach, flying down to circle around her happily. Shadow positioned himself behind a pillar and watched.

"Hello there." Tikal said cheerfully, stroking the Chao around the back of it's head. The Chao gave a toothy smile, before flying up to join it's own kind. In Shadow's opinion, Chao were about the most pointless animals in existence. They had no natural defences, no basic survival extinct and were amazingly fragile. It was a miracle on their behalf they hadn't become extinct eons ago.

Shadow looked stunned as the ring of water around the shrine reared itself up, as if it had suddenly taken on a life of it's own. As the water became a pillar, two arms with cloven hands sprouted out the side, sludgy, fish like head slowly coming into shape. The water itself shimmered and directly in the middle of this head, a brain, with a spinal cord leading down it's back came into view. Two emerald green eyes sitting as the only marking on it's other wise, barren face, flared upward, staring down at the girl, who stood confidently before it, while the Ultimate Life-Form behind her had near knocking knees.

"I don't know what to do Chaos." Tikal admitted wearily as the water like beast hauled itself up, the singular pillar of water becoming legs. "They won't listen to me, they're too devoted." Chaos, the water demon stood directly in front of her and said nothing. Shadow wasn't sure if it was capable of speech. "My father flatly refuses to even speak with me about it. He'll be coming here tomorrow from the emeralds." Suddenly realizing their presence, Shadow looked up toward the seven pillars standing around the outside of the shrine. On the top of each one was a Chaos Emerald, and directly in the centre, at the top of a shrine, was the Master Emerald itself. "I've done all I can." The creature stared at her silently for a few moments, before crossing over to the steps that lead up to the top of the shrine and sat down. "You're not going to wait here for them are you." Tikal asked in what seemed like utter surprise. "Please, your people must leave before…" Before she could finish her sentence, the Chaos creature reared it's head back and et out a soft moan, that in some weird way seemed to mix beautifully with the Chao's song. Tikal was silent for a second before lowering her head. "I understand…" She eventually managed to say, with is more than Shadow could, who was a left a little speechless.

Flip Card 1:

Name: Chaos

Age: U/A

Sex: Could be either

Race: Liquid, if that can be classified as a race.

Job Description:

Guardian of the Chao race and of the Chaos Shrine. Later turned insane when the Echidna's ransacked the land, slaughtering his people.