What a strange feeling. I had experianced chaos control before and everytime it had felt the same. The surge of energy, the feeling of weightlessness as the pull as your body is shifted else ware. But these had been Sonic memories, the way Sonic had felt them with his own, flesh and bone body. But let me tell you, a machine feels very differently to a living being.

It was as if something had suddenly turned my systems over to full power. I felt a thousand times more electricity gush through me with force so strong I couldn't imagine how the wire frame could contain it. I felt the pull of the chaos energy pulsate through my body, sending it into violent convulsions as I was pulled through the fabric of space and time. The feeling was intence, incredable. I felt as if I were dying and feeling truly alive at the same time.

How this feeling could have only lasted for a second, I didn't know. But before I knew it, the surge of energy stopped and I found myself outside, in the decolate feilds of this future, the machine city a few miles away, it mightly spires reaching out into the sky as if to scratch there way through the murky cloud cover that blacked out the light. All around us, silence. I looked around as Shadow stood up, looking around. Only the slight whistle of the wind reached our ears and only its soft push ruffled our fur. The world was at peice.

BOOM! Echoed the load, roar from the machine city as its insides blew out, propelled by a great fire as the bomb tore the place to peices. Shadow was knocked of of his feat by the impact. I simply sat and started in awe. My pupils widdened as the great explotion of molten light radiated from the buiding. The simple amount of light was breathtacking, as if the sun itself had been replaced. But soon the brilliant amber flames burned into murky brown ones and the grey shell of the city was reavealed, an ugly monument to pollute the sky line. Great heards of smoke piled out of it, polluting the sky above even more. My shoulders dropped in depresion. The moment of lifting provided by the bomb only sheltered me from the truth for a few seconds. This world was still a dying one.

" So, we escaped" said Shadow. He was standing, staring into the distance. He couldn't see the explosion, but it was obviosly load enough to actract his attention. I sighed and said

" Yep, but I still need to be fixed. And theres only one person I know who could do it". Shadow nodded.

" Jarula?"he quered.

" Jarula" I confirmed, smiling.

A sign hung on the door. A plate of metal with the words ' Bars closed, so piss off ' scratched onto it. I ignored it and pushed open the door. As Shadow staggered into the tiny pub that I had seen only a few times before, I noticed the whole room was empty. I directed Shadow to the back room and as I approached, I began to hear music.

Well im standing by the river

But the water doesn't flow

It boils with every poison, you can think of

And im underneath the street light

But the lighted joy I know

Is scared beyond belief, we're down in the shadows

And the perverted fear of violence

Chokes the smile on every face

The commen sence is ringing, out the bells

This ain't no technological breakdown. Oh no, this is the road, to hell

" Jarula?" I called out, tencing up in Shadow arms as he carried me, almost like a bride. I didn't feel much like a bride, more like a coffin dew corpse. I saw something move in the deepest shadows of the room. I strained my eyes and saw the long snout of a crocodile.

" Clone!" He said, in a mixture of shock and anger. Shadow senced the danger in the situation and added his voice to the conversation

" Jarula, it's me, Shadow". The young crocodile came out of darkness that lurked in the far corner, so for the first time I could see his features. His eyes were tired and red and so blood shot I feared they would explode. An ugly purple brooze was forming where Knuckles had used the crocodiles fathers gun to knock out his son. His eyes showed the fear within in, but also the confusion.

" Your alive? I can't belive it! I thought those metal bitches had killed you". Next his eyes feel on me. It didn't take long for the surprise and look of hope to leave his expression. As quick as a flash he snatched a small pistol from the table and pointed it straight at my chest. " Why did you bring that thing back with you!" He demanded, his voice wavered. He feared me. A broken down, useless robot. His nerves must have been shot.

" Sonic rescued me and you'll not shot him while im around, unless you want to follow him afterwards" said Shadow. His voice steady yet intimidating. Jarula stared Shadow directly into the eye, his snout held high while his eyes seemed to be calculating.

" Your making a mistack" he simply grunted and slouched of into corner again. The small desk he sat at was lit by a single candle, it lonly light flickered uneasily. The table was strewn with papers, a small device that looked like a communicator and a large battery cell, caked in dust.

The crocodile bent over the papers, picking up a little stick from a tray and taking a deep sniff.

" Jarula! You shouldn't do that at your age!" I said. The young crocodile was barely 11 and was already using the hardcore drugs that I feared to touch. The crocodile looked at me like a peice of vermin he longed to shot and gave a great choke as sickening smoke spilled out of his mouth.

" Who cares? Dad ent' around to stop me, that bastard Knuckles took care of that". His statement reminded me of what Knuckles had said. He appeared in my mind, the image of his face, shadowed by his dreadlocks. His eyes full of despair, fear, desperation. ' I did it, for her' said his gruff voice, weakened by my anger fueled assalt, as he dissapeared into the gloom of the machine city. I gasped. We had blown up that place, the blast radius was huge, there was no way he could have ever survived that, he was chained down and beaten to the edge of life. I felt my heart sink like a lead weight. I couldn't belive it, another freind, dead, becuase of me...

" Knuckles is gone" I said, as Shadow was bending over to put me down. He stopped at my statement, obviosly he hadn't realised what had happened to Knuckles either. Jarula gave an uncomfertable shuffle, smoke curling from his nostrols. If I wasn't feeling so sick, I would have laughed at the fact that he looked like some kind of demented dragon. It was immpossible to laugh in these surroundings...

" Serves him right for bretraying us" he said, but I could there was no meaning behind his words. We all felt the sadness of the fact that Knuckles was gone. I guess becuase he wanted to change the subject, Jarula picked up a tool from his desk and announced " I guess i'll have to fix you then, but im warning you, clone, one false move and your legs wont be the only thing thats been blown off" he growled threateningly. I sighed and let him put me to sleep. Im not sure how he did it, as aniscetic obviosly didn't work on robots. But when my vision came back to me I realised I was now the proud owner of a new pair of legs. Covered neatly and naturally in a thin coat of skin and fur, my eye now back to normal and even my glove replaced. I tested my legs, flexing them and wriggeling my toes. It felt as if a sudden numbness that used to control the lower half of my body was miraculously lifted. I sat upwrite, feeling incredably powerful now I could move around once more. It was amazing, my legs were even a little longer. I wasn't sure if he had done it on purpose, or most likely he didn't have the right material to make my legs to the old length, but Jarula had made me taller!