There is no action without reaction,
There is no decision without consequence.
---
As Kir noticed the yellow emerald held in Shadow's grasp, his emerald began to glow, setting off a reaction in the yellow one. Energy crackled from the emeralds then jumped from yellow emerald, to green then into Kiraol himself, he fell to his knees and reverted to mistform, energy dancing around him, as the rest of his memories were unlocked.
His childhood, playing with Knuckles and Miira, training with his father, lessons with the Guardian, birthdays, his mother's death.
He remembered being shown how to tap into the powers of the emeralds, how to sink into the storm of chaos energies within and find the calm, the eye of the storm, the single point of order within the swirling bonds of chaos.
He remembered the chaos power that had burned itself so deeply into his mind that he could not forget it, how to teleport, how to use the shard around his neck, how to read the life energy pattern of nearby organisms, their souls as it were.
He remembered his capture…
Flashback
He and Knuckles had been playing on the beach at the very edge of Angel Island, Miira had not come, she had to do chores at home and they were free from training and chores as their fathers were busy at the shrine.
They had been there the better part of the morning, fishing, playing in the sand, climbing the palm trees along the beach and jumping into piles of palm leafs, Knuckles showing off by gliding, something Kir couldn't do.
The pair lay on the sands, "What you wanna' do now?" Knuckles asked his friend as they both lay there, staring up at the clouds
"I dunno, want to build a sand castle or something?" Kir replied, his eyes closed, almost asleep
"No, I think I'll pass," said Knuckles, his lids beginning to close as well
Then a high-pitched whine was heard, coming from beyond the edge of the island, startling both boys back to full awareness as a strange object rose above the lip of the island.
It was shaped like a sphere except the forward hemisphere had split into four and was opened like the petals of a flower, in the centre was a dome with four large holes surrounding it. Out of one of the holes shot a highly flexible arm, with a claw on the end, which grabbed Knuckles and pulled him inside the craft.
Kir ran towards the craft, jumping for the dome in the centre, hoping to smash his way in and rescue his friend. He was so focused on his goal that he failed to notice the second arm dart from another hole, he only realised this when the claw grabbed him and pulled him inside.
When he woke up he found himself strapped to a wall, opposite Knuckles, and hurting all over. He saw that his friend looked very ill; it was then he saw the needle in his arm, connected to a tube full of liquid. He turned his head and saw a similar tube rising from his own arm.
The door at the end of the room opened and in stepped a familiar figure, oval headed, triangular eyed with multiple arms and legs, it was the same type of creature that had tried to snatch the chaos emerald from the shrine.
The creature studied both of them for a moment then plunged a needle into Kir's chest, the pain causing him to black out.
He awoke in a pod, he saw the creatures on the other side of the glass, Knuckles was in the pod across the room, and a red gas was falling from a vent above his head.
End Flashback
The gaps were being filled by the power of two emeralds breaking down the barriers of his mind, opening the floodgates of memories, it was the worst, most painful experience of his life and, yet, the greatest, he knew who he was, what had happened to him, his mind was complete.
He remembered taking his father's bandolier of knifes, returning to craft that had brought him here, stepping back into the 'tomb', and slaughtering all of those creatures, killing every last one of the triangle eyed, multi-limbed freaks that had changed him into a monster.
He had then taken a mind wiper and sealed away all his memories before entombing himself within the last pod in the main lab.
The energy released when his mind clicked into completion caused a surge of chaos energy in the field which teleported him back to the lab in the tomb, and from there, after he had regained his breath, he warped to Angel Island.
But, the build up of chaos energy in the tomb had some adverse effects; the mutated creatures left in the specimen labs had been the next stage of the abductors experiments to create the ultimate super soldier, loyal, powerful and able to tap into local power sources, in this case chaos energy.
Specimen 01149 had been the last before Kiraol's massacre; he was the culmination of their research. In the bowels of the tomb the chaos energy caused a spark in the equipment and 01149's black eyes snapped open.
Kir was sitting on the edge of the island, legs hanging over the lip, he had been fishing for about three hours and had caught 7 fish, though he had caught 8 but he ate one for lunch about an hour ago. He was thinking about his future, after he had got his entire memory back he had warped up to ARK with Miira. After avoiding having his head split by Knuckles, still angry with him destroying most of the island's echidna civilisation, he told his old friend what had happened after he freed Knuckles up till he was discovered on the floating island about a week ago.
Knuckles decided to show Kir something on the island, so, leaving his trainees Ray the Squirrel, Mighty the Armadillo and Bean the Dynamite to look after the master emerald, he teleported down to he island, a mile into the lava reef system.
Cursing the transporter he led the three of them, Kir, himself and Miira, to the hidden palace and showed them what was keeping the island afloat without the Master Emerald or the super emeralds. Almost 2,000 green chaos drives had been connected together in the shape of the Master emerald, and the huge structure was sitting on the central pedestal as groups of about 700 of each colour of chaos drive sat in the super emerald columns, the supers having been transformed into pure chaos energy to power Hyper Sonic when he braved doomsday to retrieve the master emerald.
In a small, semi-official ceremony, Knuckles handed over guardianship of the island to Kir, Knuckles had sworn to protect the master emerald and was now to guard ARK instead of the island. Before he departed he gave Kir a strange, watch-like device, the island control key, Kir could now unlock the controls to drive the island.
Knuckles returned to ARK, he didn't think his trainee guardians very competent so short had their training been so far, and left Kir and Miira to their island.
Now Kir had sank the island closer to sea level and was fishing, contemplating what to do with himself now he was the island's guardian when he felt the air around him begin to heat up,
"Hi Flare," he said as he heard the faint noise of someone floating beside him.
Flare was the orange and red hedgehog Kir had released from the tomb before rescuing Miira, and had found his experimentation had given him the power to manipulate the heat of the air around him, but his personal 'airspace' remained so hot that he could not touch the ground, instead he walked on a cushion of hot air, of to move faster he skated along.
A little hot headed he had the problem of his 'airspace' responding to his emotions, the angrier or more exited he got the hotter his 'airspace' became.
"Heh, you caught me, Miira says come back, I think she's gettin' lonely" Flare said, attempting to sit next to Kir, ending up floating about two inches off the ground.
Kir smiled, "anyone would think we were married or something" he remarked, "does she want me to bring back the fish?"
Flare smiled at his friend, "I think so, and you never know, you could get…" he started
"Flare! There is nothing that intimate between us, we're childhood friends" Kir cut him off
"You never know, anyway, homeward bound then?" Flare said, getting up
"Yeah, yeah, just tell her I'll be back shortly, I've got to finish up here" Kir replied, reeling in his line, waving in the general direction of 'The Camp' as the small settlement where they all lived had become known
"Aye sir" said Flare, giving a mock salute before pinching a small fish and skating away
Kir shook his head and bundled all his things together, he didn't feel that way about Miira, did he? He had to admit she was pretty, and she did make him feel so… he shook his head, she was an old friend, not a love interest, anyway, he was a freak, who would love a creature like himself?
Yet hadn't Miira been experimented on as well? Or had she? She only remembered being dragged away from The Mist then being jabbed with a needle, the next thing she remembered was Kir staring at her through the glass of the containment tube. She might not have been touched; Flare might have been the last experiment they did before Kir killed them all.
He had been walking while he thought and found himself back at 'The Camp' in no time.
"Kir, we're all by the roasting pits, bring the fish then" came Miira's voice, snapping him out of his thoughts. The settlement had used roasting pits to cook food in as the whole population of about 20 gathered round to help cook and swap stories.
"I got 6 big fish, what else is cooking?" asked Kir, taking a seat next to Miira as he placed the fish next to the pits, one of that night's cooks, a large, red furred fox, speared one on a spit and began to roast it over the fire.
"We got's steak, fruit, bread and vegetables, along with these fish" replied the fox as he cooked.
After dinner Kir turned in for the night with Miira still in his thoughts, his dreams were mixes of nightmarish flashbacks, Miira, the mutated specimens in the tomb and chaos energy.
01149, Claws as it had named itself, had roused others from there sleep and had left the safety of the tomb, they left to feed.