Chapter Nine – The Chi Bender
Manic was extremely worried. He wasn't sure how much longer his brother would last. Thankfully, Sonic would recover but he couldn't stay here. The Army was marching on them fast. Manic watched at others leave, one by one. Only when he was sure that they were safe, especially his brother, did his attention get drawn towards them. It wasn't a particularly powerful Army, most of the robots were foot soldiers, with one to two kill hits, with a few tanks here and there. There was just a large quantity of them. Even Sonic, with just his Super-speed could defeat this Army alone, it wasn't difficult. Definitely a devision. But with the others gone, it was now down to Manic. Alone.
He moved down towards the edge of the cliff and crouched down. The breeze on this warm night, cause the stiff dreadlocks of his quills to move in front of his eyes. He focused on the job in hand and tried to think of the best strategy to taking out this Army as quickly as possible. But his mind kept wondering.
He sighed. He'd seen his brother struggle with being different over the last week but no one ever seemed to consider his predicament. He was more different then them all. The was the only one among them who had nothing to do with Chaos. He didn't wield it. Hell. He didn't even generate it.
The only one of his kind?
No.
Manic didn't believe that. There had to be others. It was simply a matter of Balance. It order for all of the Chaos energy in the world to be balanced it would more Chi, the energy generated by the very planet itself, then he could provide. Manic knew from what little knowledge of Chi he was born with, that Chi came in four different forms. Depending on which element you could bend. Air, Water, Fire and his, Earth. This meant that there were a minimum of three other Chi Benders. Wielding the other elements. He definitely knew they were out there, somewhere, he could almost feel them. Maybe, they didn't even know of the powers they processed. Manic only learned Chi bending through trail and error, throughout his entire life, with a brother supporting him the whole way. If the others had never done or had that, then they would never know.
But Manic was confused. Why him? Why was he chosen to be one of the four Chi Benders? And were there more then just the main four? Manic suspected not. He had no proof but he had a suspicion that there was once. Long before the creation of the Chaos Emeralds, Chi Benders and Chaos Creatures once lived in harmony, maybe even equaling in number. But then, and Manic could only guess, war, or tragedy, or disease, but the end result was the Chi Benders got wiped out. Gone.
But Mobius wouldn't allow it. It had to maintain the Balance. Without it, Chaos would collapse and all life on the planet would perish. In order to save itself, the Chi energy was preserved in four Benders born to Chaos families, and as one dies, another one is born to replace them.
Manic sighed. He was born to properly the most famous and most powerful of all Chaos families. Looking back to what he knew of his family history, it was pure coincidence. He was forever grateful. Without his powerful abilities to bend the Earth, Manic would have certainly have been killed by Eggman. To break his brother, Sonic. Eggman did indeed try and fail in this predicament. It was how Eggman learned of and then feared, his abilities.
As he looked down from the cliff, onto the Army below him, expanding out on the vast plains beneath him. Sonic was right, Eggman was calling them out. He couldn't take them in directly or together, so he was spliting them up. He'd then turn Mobius against them, taking them out individually. He also noticed the crowd which had finished attacking Tails' House, and had now swung round. They were now very close to him. They would be on top of him as soon as he'd defeated the Army.
Would he flee, fight or surrender to the crowd? If he surrendered, he would most likely be killed. If he fought, he might hurt someone and that wasn't the Phronshentico way. If he fled, he could lead them away from his brother, but was that cowardice? Right there and then, he didn't know which way to decide as he started his decent down the cliff towards the Army. With his ability to bend Metal as well as the Earth, the robots didn't stand a chance against his might. As he slide down the hill, he stamped the ground a created a wedge of rock, similar in shape and size to an Extreme gear and boarded it. Boarding down the cliffside, he increased his speed, but turning the solid rock, beneath his board, into fast flowing sand.
Only as he got closer to the Army, did he realise that Eggman wasn't here either. An Army without a leader. Manic wasn't expecting to see him but now he was really frustrated. Seriously, where was he? What was his agenda? For the first time ever, Manic now feared Eggman. Feared the unknown he was generating. He desperately wanted answers. He pointed his rock-shaped board towards the oncoming Army and charged. They sensed him and charged in return.
The resulting clash was epic. They was robot, crushed metal, and dust flying everywhere. Most of these robots only took one hit for Manic to kill but their shear number overwhelmed him. Time and again, robots either went flying or exploded into dust and still they kept coming. He ran and grabbed a nearby tank and threw at a group of foot soldiers who crumpled under it's mass. He threw rocks and boulders, he made and shunted walls, he created quicksand and sand dunes. Still they kept coming. Was their no end to them. He created rock prisons, wreaking balls. He pummeled, thwacked, and beat as many robots in to submission as possible. But soon he was beginning to tire. He was in the middle of a vast open plain. He had the power of the entire planet at his fingertips.
He had an idea. He was one of those completely crazy idea that Sonic would normally shouted at him for. But now he needed to contain this arm and destroy them fast. He could hear cat-calling from the crowd behind him. The crowd were here waiting for him. How far could his powers go? Manic had never pushed them. He'd always been warned against it. What if it went wrong? What if he destroyed the planet? That last case was extreme but very much possible and right now, Manic just didn't care. He was very angry. His temper raged. He wanted this Army gone. He landed firmly into the ground and with all his might pushed both his hands to the ground.
He felt the resulting shockwave resonated both outwards and downwards from where he stood. It went deep down into the bowels of the planet, and that was what Manic wanted. He concentrated on it and then pulled it towards the surface. The very ground itself began to raise beneath his feet. It surrounded him as the large quantities of rock exploded upwards. Feeling the shear power of the planet, he lifted his hands of the ground and with a strong gesture, cause the rock to rise higher and higher in a ring, around the Army who were all in close proximity to him. Still the rocks rose and many robots were getting caught in the rumble, until a brand new circular mountain range appeared out of nowhere in the vast open plain. The Army was trapped.
Manic's anger was getting worse and worse. He wasn't done yet. Still the mountains rose higher and higher, leaning into towards the centre, creating a giant Earth 'tent' around them. Realising that they were trapped, Eggman's robots began to panic and tried to flee. As the 'tent' closed in at the top, Manic and the Army were plunged into darkness. He smirked. He could feel the robots panicking around him. But he wanted them gone, completely. On his feet, with his hands in the air, he now violently thrust them downwards, creating a second shockwave downwards. He was feeling for something else in the bowels of the planet.
He found it and suddenly the ground began to violently shake. Rocks were falling everywhere, but Manic was not afraid. He didn't fear the planet. He raised his hands upwards and the shaking got worse. The temperature within the 'tent' began to raise so rapidly that some the rocks began to melt. But Manic barely felt it. The ground beneath him began to gave wave way and the heat became unbearable. But still the Hedgehog didn't stop. Raising his hands still higher, he pushed upwards until the ground beneath him gave way and the giant Earth 'tent' exploded with molten lava and magna, into the largest volcano ever recorded on Mobius.
Boom!
Manic was completely engulfed by the lava in the resulting explosion. Yet, it did...nothing. If he'd had been anything other then the planet's one and only Chi Earth Bender, it would have killed him instantly. But it felt as pleasant to him as water. Somehow he was able to survive perfectly fine in the heart of the volcano, unscathed. He was even able burrow down into it and through the molten rock as easily as swimming through water. He could have exploded out of the top, spinning and spectacularly landing in front of the crowd but he decided against that. He was wanting to be more subtle. He also seemed to be able to survive underground with little to no air almost indefinitely.
The Army, however, didn't fair well, and had melting instantly, with the eruption of the volcano. Defeated. He'd won.
Burrowing down into the planet, Manic was in complete darkness and seemed to instinctively know where he was going. He dived down through the volcano and then leveled off, heading back towards Dante's Ridge, where the crowd had gather. He now feared nothing, and was keen to hear what they had to say for themselves. He had his arms and hands out ahead of him. He kicked his feet like a dolphin and the solid hard rock seemed to instantly part for him, allowed him to pass, and them close up behind him. He quickly realised that he could travel faster below the ground them he could above it.
He smirked. He would love to give Sonic a race, half way around the planet. Sonic going around, him going through it. Who would be faster? He wanted to try, if they survived. Manic then pointed his burrowing towards the surface. He exploded out of the ground right at the top of Dante's Ridge. He'd burrowed right up the cliff. As he landed, he found himself...alone.
He looked around. Twilight was emerging all around him, as the night was coming to an end. He looked down and saw that he was surrounded by weapons and torches, just dropped on the ground, as the crowd had turned and...fled. Manic was extremely surprised. Expecting a confrontation and got an anticlimax. A large explosion behind him, told him the reason for his sudden isolation. He turned around. The volcano he'd created was still erupting, throwing molten rock and lava into the air, all over the plains and surrounding area.
The crowd had ran in fear of his power.
Manic gulped. He anger had ceased and was now facing the consequences his own powers. Did he fear his own abilities? He had no idea he was capable of such power or such destruction, especially when in full temper. Now that he knew what he could truly do, he had to take responsibility for them. He panicked. He didn't want to be feared, but what else had he just done. He did very much indeed have the entire planet at his fingertips. He sighed and gritted his teeth. Now with the ability to move at speed, underground, he wanted answers.
He didn't need to find Sonic. He knew where he was and for now, he was safe.
As Manic watched the sun rise over his newly formed volcano, he decided what he was going to do.
He wanted Eggman.