In a large room of a loosely guarded Sanctuary, four entities of Chaos energy sit in the center at a round table with ancient text written on it, as though to give it a decorative design. Waterfalls could be heard from the empty frames in the walls. In fact, it's the waterfalls that make the frames look like windows. Along the walls are hanging vines and fruits that have taken thousands of years to grow and are still being catered to today by the ghosts of the Echidna tribe. There are also little Chao here and there, enjoying their leisurely time, watching TV and playing amongst themselves.
"This isn't good at all!" An almost peach colored echidna declared amongst a table of her peers. She frowns as a gesture of sadness, as if to reach the heart of her liquefied friend at the other end of the room. "We need to do something about this quickly!"
"And what would that be?" A dark hedgehog asks, his leg over the other and crossing his arms like that of a perplex pretzel. It suits his state of mind, along with those around him. "If you expect us to just go and make everything normal again like nothing happened, you can forget it." He pauses, closing his eyes. "It's bad enough we didn't even see this coming."
"Hey, chill out Shadow," a familiar voice calls across from him. The bandages and gold bracelets worn by him represent his status as a spirit of Chaos. "It's true. None of us expected it, but that doesn't mean nothing can be done about it. Besides, Tikal is just worried."
Tikal sighs, appearing more stressed out than usual. She's more upset about the current situation than anyone. "Thank you, Sonic."
Sonic shoots her a thumbs up, posing with his trademark smile. Shadow huffs, sticking to his usual schtick and not readily agreeing with Sonic at all. "But Shadow is right, Tikal," Sonic admits. "We can't just up and do it. Maybe when all of us are assembled, then we can think of something."
As he says that, a rather colorful individual walks through with hair of white flames, but the same physique of a Mobian. "Sorry I'm late." He says, his deep voice quaking the mixed emotions in the room.
"Solaris! Long time, no see!" Sonic spouts. "Why're you so late? I hope you weren't stabbing anyone in the back on some sketchy deals..."
Solaris scoffs, sitting amongst his peers. "Now, now, Sonic. Are you accusing me of espionage?"
Sonic chuckles, scratching the underside of his nose. "Nah, just making sure..."
Suddenly, a slight bit of yipping can be heard coming from one of the side hallways leading to the room, followed by muffled pitter patters. The chao in the corner of the room, as well as the few sitting at the foot of Tikal's seat look around in confusion. Around the corner comes a tall, yet clumsy green Seedrian in a white and green gown. Incidentally, she steps on one of the pedals of her dress, starting to fall over, however a hand wraps around her, keeping her from hitting the floor. It's a tall, violet-gray Serval. "Cosmo, I told you not to run," he says.
"S-Sorry, Gaia!" She says in embarrassment. "I just didn't want us to be the..." She looks ahead, seeing everyone in their seats. She sighs. "...last ones here..."
Sonic and Tikal look at each other, giggling amongst themselves as the two come in and sit down. Shadow continues to sit with his eyes closed, and Solaris...looks about as creepy as Mephiles does. Chaos looks to Tikal, who raises her eyebrows. She nods, standing up before her peers. "In the words of Chaos, let the meeting of the Seven Servers commence."
All 7 of them raise their hands, 6 of them saying "Aye".
Chapter 13: The Seven Servers
"So, let's overview the situation, shall we?" Gaia begins. Chaos places his hand on the table, letting his fluids create a ring around the table. The water is quickly heated up to a point where it evaporates and creates a screen of water, mapping out information in a format of text and pictures. "One of our Universes has been wiped out completely by an unknown source of power. What we do know is that it was given to Eggman...both of them...by an unknown source."
"We also know that it was similar to a Hyper Genesis Wave, an attack one of those Eggman's used once before," Solaris adds.
Shadow slides his hand down one of the sections of the evaporating water, reading more of the text that can possibly display. "It seems as though the Chaos Emeralds are fine though. Which is to be expected. All 14 from both worlds, including the 2 Master Emeralds."
"Is that a good thing?" Cosmo asks while assessing the situation. Sonic and the rest of the Servers look to Tikal, who seems to know more about the affects of the situation than anyone else. After a few seconds, she raises her chin up and turns to Cosmo.
"It's complicated. With the Chaos Emeralds and the Master Emeralds being intact, that means the Chaos of their worlds are safe and so are the children and myselves," she explains. "It also means that the Universe is still safe and everyone is alive and well. They're just...in limbo"
Next to her, Sonic crosses his arms behind his head and lays back, putting himself at ease. One of the Chao hop onto his belly and he pets it lovingly. "Well that's good. We just have to wait and everything will go back to normal."
"Not exactly," Tikal replies, debunking his theory. "In order for the world to return to it's previous state, it requires someone to come in contact with them from another world. Only then can we use them to fix everything."
"Ok," Sonic responds. "Then we just go and activate them ourselves, right?"
"You idiot," Shadow says, cutting Sonic off. Sonic turns to Shadow with an annoyed look on his face. He looks as though he's going to say something slick but he holds it in to hear what his rival has to say. "Don't you remember? We're made entirely of Chaos energy. Going to places where the Chaos energy is at work could make it unstable cause the whole grid to destroy itself. Either that or an uncontrollable Chaos Control that can do something we don't want."
"Let's also not forget that we're binded to Chaos here," Solaris follows, almost as if he's rubbing salt in the wound of his former enemies. "If we go down like that, Chaos will as well, and so will everything in this realm. This whole Multiverse will be destroyed."
"I thought you had learned that as soon as you became a Server," Shadow scolds.
"Well yeah, but I didn't ask to learn anything," Sonic says.
Cosmo looks down, hand in hand in a position of prayer. Tikal, though worried, frowns with frustration. Gaia has his elbow on the table, considering the options available.
"What's the big deal?" Sonic asks, still getting comfortable as he rests in his chair. Everyone looks up at him as if he's lost his mind. "If we can't go in there ourselves, let's just send someone else in. Compared to Evil Djinns who wanted to erase their worlds, beings who tampered with time and space, and even Solaris and Chaos here, this seems like childs play."
A couple of Chao in the corner starts picking up one of their friends, attempting to replicated what they see the cheerleaders doing in a comic book. The one on top loses his balance and falls on his face, causing the other two to lose balance and fall with him.
"You guys can sit here and argue about who can't do what, but I believe anything is possible if we put our minds to it," he wises.
Chaos looks to Sonic with admiration, as do most of the members in the room. With this new encouragement brewing through him, he's driven to finding a possible solution. With his mind turning, the screens in the room begin shifting and flicking like what mist does against a cool waterfall. In doing this, Chaos's eyes begin to glow a bright green, as it usually does when he's thinking of something. Eventually, the screen settles on a certain world in their database.
"Oh! Yes you're right!" Tikal exclaims.
"Yeah, duh," Sonic boasts with his arms crossed.
"But are you sure about this?" Tikal asks. Sonic looks to Chaos, who nods readily. "Ok. Chaos has decided on something." Everyone in the room turns to Tikal, since Chaos can't really speak for himself. Yet, she herself doesn't seem too enthused about the idea. "He wishes to elect a Seventh Server."
"A Seventh Server?" Cosmo repeats. Tikal responds with a nod. "But there's already seven of us. Doesn't that exceed the limits of Chaos's power?"
"Actually, no," says Solaris. "It doesn't."
"It can actually get confusing, but it's quite simple," Sonic explains to Cosmo. "In the prayer, 'The server's are the 7 Chaos', the 7 Chaos refers to the Chaos Emeralds, those which we power. There's only 6 of us, Cosmo."
"B-but how are all 7 being powered by 6 of us?" Cosmo asks, bamboozled by Sonic's description.
"They're not," Gaia answers with a pathetic smile on his face. "Six are powered by us, while the 7th one is powered by Chaos himself. But if we get a new Server, Chaos doesn't need to collectively power all of the gems. He'll fully be able to support the Master Emerald."
"Yes, and it's a good thing," Tikal reassures with her hands clutching each other. "The Master Emerald will be more powerful. There have been Seven Servers in the past to help with this."
"There has?!" Sonic asks in shock.
Tikal nods. "Of course. But never one like this. This new one will certainly be of a different breed."
The room goes quiet, in both curiosity and anxiety. Desperate to know the answer, Shadow breaks the silence. "What are you implying?"
"Chaos wants this one to be a separate entity, one who can do our work from the outside. That way, they can't directly cause instability with the affected Universe's Emerald's," Tikal elaborates.
Once again, a cool silence feels the room aside from the Chao playing on the floor without a care in the world. The waterfalls now feel like thunder roaring through the room.
"I agree with Sonic," Gaia finally says. "Are all we've been through, I can't help but be sure of your words. Plus, we're good friends. So I have faith in you and our new friend of the future." Gaia then places his hand on the pedestal before him, causing the table to glow a bright violet.
"I'm also confident of Sonic, as well as Chaos and Gaia. We all have fought together and helped one another. Let's do it for this world as well!" Cosmo excitedly shares. She's the second to join the pedestal, it turn green.
"If it means me still being here, I guess I could give you all assistance. It's my job anyway," Solaris shares, coming off as selfish. He follows.
"There isn't much to be said. I'm confident in everyone here. You all mean so much to me and it hurts seeing you die in another world. Let's lead this person to save it!" Tikal orders as she presses the pedestal, making it red.
Sonic and Shadow look at each other as if they were having a contest to see who could last the longest. Sonic smirks out of excitement, leading Shadow to smile and scoff at his frenemy. "Are ya ready Shadow?"
"Don't have to tell you, now do I?" Shadow asks. They both place their hands on the pedestal, releasing the colors blue and yellow. Chaos places both his hands on two adjacent pedestals and bows his head, everyone following along in prayer.
"The servers are the 7 Chaos. Chaos is power... Power enriched by the heart. The controller is the one that unifies the Chaos."
They look up at the screen, depicting the selected world for their mission. Their eyes glow, matching the colors of their selected Emerald.
"By the power of the Chaos, select us our chosen representative...the Seventh Server!"
The power of Chaos fills the room, the energy becoming blinding. The Chao's turn to witness the lights in awe. It reaches, the light, stretching even farther past the stream of waterfalls and piercing the heavens of the sanctuary. This is true Chaos Control.
Hey guys. Runner here. Sorry I changed the title, this just sounded cooler. And I'm sorry this is late. I've just got down with my final exam and I just got a job. Things are looking up for me but I suspect some things my interfere with the things I'm doing. That said, I won't stop doing what I enjoy. If you want story updates, or to keep up with the bs I do, follow me on Twitter itsHiroShima.