A/N: Ladies, gentlemen, and various other beings on the internet. I am terribly sorry about the delay of this latest chapter in Sonic Chao Chronicles.
Edge: And I'm terribly sorry about me not doing any reviews last chapter. I had a cold!
A/N: Anyways, we better just start already.
Robotnik's Yaxchilán Base- 14:12
Swift rubbed his head as he woke up. "I can't believe he just pulled the classic pitfall trap. Who does that, these days!" The hedgehog Chao noticed the corridor he had landed in. The walls around him were silver, metallic, and shiny enough that a bunch of Swifts were looking at one another in annoyance, each Swift matched with a swirl over his little spiked head.
However, at the end of the hallway was a large, red door with the Robotnik Empire's logo on it. Swift deviously grinned- this Robotnik guy (or Eggman as he's come to know him) may have just as well placed a sign over it that said, "EGGMAN IS IN HERE. PLEASE BEAT AS MUCH SENSE OUT OF HIM AS POSSIBLE." If Chris or any of the others were around or if Swift was in a reasonable state of mind, he would have sensed how much of the trap this is. However, Swift was in a destructive mood, today, and nothing short of breaking every bone of his tiny little body would stop him from going after revenge.
Swift quickly ran through the door… and was greeted with a glass capsule dropping on him. "What in the…?"
"I must apologize," Robotnik stated as he walked in the room from behind Swift. "I knew Chao were easy to trap when they are angered, but I did not know you were that easy."
"Eggman," the hedgehog Chao growled as he locked eyes with the scientist, a swirl over his head. "I hope you have some pretty decent life insurance… I don't want your next of kin to come out of this!"
"I take it you did not like what I did with your house," Robotnik sighed. "I'm sorry, but you're the thief here. You stole, vandalized, and used official property of the Robotnik family, and, as part of your race's code, I am inclined to compensation."
"…Are you talking about those notes we found?" Swift asked, his swirl turning into a question mark. "If anything, they were there when we moved in, and the property was abandoned. Those notes belong to us because they came with it."
"I'm sorry, but I did not see a deed with it," the scientist countered. "No deed, no proof of ownership. Therefore, those notes did not belong to you. By the way, how do you like our guardian friends? They fought you over the Master Emerald, am I right?"
"Spike and Ahaw Kin?" Swift asked, calming down. "They're alright, now that they know that you stole it, among other misdeeds… but what does this entire conversation have to do with why you trashed my house!"
"To the point," Robotnik replied. "The notes… blueprints for a device- no, a weapon that runs completely on Chaos Energy, once a foreign substance, now our very planet's life energy. Ahaw Kin and Spike… test subjects for a prototype of that weapon known as the Chaos Energy Powered Human-Chao Spiritual Unity Morpher, also known as a Chaos Morpher. The Master Emerald… stronger than the rest of the Chaos Emeralds, which are limitless producers of Chaos Energy."
"Where are you going with all of this?" Swift asked, banging on the inside of his prison.
"Please don't tap the glass," the scientist told the hedgehog. "It's bulletproof, so you won't escape without my say-so." Getting back to what he was saying, Robotnik explained, "I'm sure you have been paying attention to what havoc you and your human side have wrecked on my robot army. And I've seen your fox friend in action… interesting sidekick if I say so myself. And you know how powerful Ahaw Kin is. Three Neo Mobians are simply amazing.
"Now, picture this, my hedgehog Chao adversary: an elite army of highly trained warriors, each soldier armed with a powerful Chao and a Chaos Morpher. Whoever this army worked for would be unstoppable. And you and your friends could be generals of this army, and have whatever you want. All you have to do is submit to me… we both know this is the easier and right choice."
"Maybe," Swift scowled. "It's an interesting offer, but I'm already part of a team that will only get bigger without your help. And right now, we've been hired to take the Master Emerald back!" Rolling into his ball form, Swift bounced against the capsule quickly and hard enough to break through it, surprising the scientist. "Anyways, Eggman, you made a huge mistake bringing me to you. There's nothing stopping me from beating you senseless."
"Perhaps," Robotnik shrugged. "I suppose your powers come from your overexposure to the Chaos Energy within your own Chaos Emerald, so I might have underestimated you. But tell me… have you ever clashed with someone who also uses a Chaos Emerald?" Swift blinked in confusion until he caught a whiff of yet another Chaos Emerald.
"No way," Swift gasped in horror with an exclamation point over his head as Robotnik pulled out the light blue Emerald.
"Indeed," Robotnik replied as he clenched the light blue Chaos Emerald, somehow triggering its power. All of a sudden, a tidal wave rose right in between Robotnik and Swift, making the little hedgehog Chao cringe in fear. Swift was soon washed way back by the large wave.
Episode 8: The Battle of Yaxchilán! Swift vs. the Master Emerald!
Robotnik's Yaxchilán Base, Opposite End- 14:15
"Crap, crap, crap, crap, CRAP!" Tails yelled as he fell, barely stopping himself from hitting cold, hard ground by spinning his tails at the last second.
'Holy crap, that was close,'Miles breathed.
'You can say- or think- that again,' Danny agreed as Tails softly touched down on the ground. 'What in the world happened?'
'What I want to say happened was that the pillar collapsed sending us into an underground cave,' Miles answered. 'However, what I know happened is the pillar was an elaborate trap that sent us down here.'
'Great,' Danny groaned as Tails began walking. 'Wonder why Robotnik threw us down here? What could possibly be more of a death sentence than that monstrosity that Ahaw Kin and Spike are fighting?' Soon, Tails walked into a large, circular room, where he was greeted by the sight of a swarm of Egg Pawns surrounding a stone platform. The robots were for some reason wearing clothing that vaguely resembled ancient Mayan warrior armor.
'You had to jinx us, didn't you?'Miles commented as the robots turned to them.
"IS THAT THE SACRIFICE WE WERE PLANNING TO USE?" one of the Egg Pawns asked. "I THOUGHT WE WOULD NEED A FEMALE VIRGIN OR SOMETHING TO APPEASE THE MASTER EMERALD SO IT WOULD WORK FOR THE DOCTOR."
"LET'S KILL HIM, ANYWAYS," another robot replied. "IT IS BETTER THAN JUST STANDING HERE AND GUARDING THE AREA TO THE MASTER EMERALD." Soon, the Egg Pawns protruded various swords and spears to use against the kitsune.
"Oh crap," Tails groaned as the robots came towards him. Pulling his Dummy Ring Rifle from his back, Tails took flight once again, narrowly avoiding being skewered by the Egg Pawns. The fox Neo Mobian took aim at one of them, firing a precise Dummy Ring to fry the robot's circuits. While the others were distracted by the sight of their comrade falling to the mysterious powers of the ring, Tails landed on the ground, and swung his tails through a few of them, easily ripping those robots in half.
'I'm getting slightly better at fighting,' Danny commented as he flew over the robots again and towards the opposite side of the room, where a large door awaited him.
'Maybe,' Miles agreed as Tails neared the door, 'but let's focus on the present, now. We're running for our lives from killer robots.' Tails landed near the door, and reached for the handle… only to have to jerk his hand away when it was nearly skewered by a thrown spear.
'Killer robots with good aim!' Danny added as Tails returned fire, taking out a few of them. The fox boy, after running out of Dummy Rings, threw open the door, ran through it, and slammed it back shut.
'That was even closer than the fall,' Miles remarked as Tails took a deep breath. When the fox looked up, he noticed that he had entered a maze.
'Oh boy,' Danny announced as he looked at it through Tails' eyes. 'We have to navigate this!'
'Unfortunately,' Miles answered.
'Why?'
'Were you paying attention to their little spiel?' Miles questioned. 'They said that the Master Emerald is this way, and they're trying to unlock its power- not that I knew that it was even not working for them in the first place. We get through this maze, we find the Master Emerald, and we'll be able to give it to Spike and Ahaw Kin.'
'…You're not serious, are you?' Danny questioned. 'Knowing this Robotnik guy and how easily caught off guard we were at the pier, there have to be some more traps waiting for us. Hopefully not of the giant robot variety, though.'
'Do you want to go back there?' Miles sarcastically remarked. Danny was about to answer, when another spear pierced through the door, narrowly avoiding Tails' head.
'Maze sounds good,' Danny stated as Tails got up and ran into the maze. A good thing too, for almost moments later, the Egg Pawns burst through the door, and ran into the maze in an attempt to find their foxy foe.
Yaxchilán Surface- 14:32
"Oh crap!" Knuckles yelled before colliding head first into an old Mayan idol that was in the city. Pushing off the rubble, a bleeding Knuckles looked to see the Egg Gigas approaching him. The robot seemed to be built to fight against him- in the past near half hour, Knuckles had hardly damaged the robot. Weakly getting up, the Echidna looked at his claws- both sets were broken. Focusing his Chaos Energy, two new sets produced themselves.
'This is starting to hurt a little,' Spike grumbled as Knuckles relocated his jaw.
'Indeed,' Ahaw Kin agreed.
'Where did those two go, anyways?' Spike questioned. 'This monstrosity is really laying into us.'
'We do not have time to find out, though. We have to hurry up and end this battle so we can find the Master Emerald.'
Meanwhile, Lindsey's group looked at Knuckles preparing to continue his fight. "Is that echidna crazy!" Lindsey asked. "He'll kill himself!"
"So true," Chuck stated as Knuckles barely dodged a punch from the robotic echidna and running up its arm, claws ready to slice into the robot. However, the Egg Gigas was quicker than his footwork, easily grabbing the flesh echidna with his spare hand right before he could sink his claws into one of the robot echidna's eyes. The robot, deciding that this battle has gone on for far enough, began to squeeze the echidna in his hand-
BANG!
The battle was suddenly interrupted by Lindsey shooting her pistol into the robot's right eye. Surprisingly, this actually wounded the Egg Gigas, making him drop Knuckles and hold its eye in agony. However, this had a certain side effect- such as making the Egg Gigas turn its complete attention to the humans. Ignoring its weakened foe, the Egg Gigas began to storm over to them while Lindsey took aim once again, and pulled the trigger.
CLICK.
"You have got to be kidding me," Lindsey breathed as she checked the gun's ammunition- it was dry.
"Sorry, sis," Sam nervously chuckled. "I didn't bring any extra ammo. It was a miracle I got these two through airport security."
"I pretty much own the airport!" Nelson argued as the Egg Gigas approached them, drawing back a metallically clawed fist. However, before the robot echidna could strike, its attention was yet again diverted by something. Except this time, it was a large pillar breaking itself over the Egg Gigas' head, courtesy of Knuckles.
"I thought I said that you all should leave!" Knuckles snapped at the humans while the Egg Gigas finally fell to the ground because of the impact. "I'll handle this; get out of here while you still can!"
"We're trying!" Springsteen yelled back at the echidna. "But considering how easily you were being clobbered, I'm not exactly sure we're going to be able to!"
Knuckles looked at the Egg Gigas struggling to get up. 'It looks like that thing is heavier than we thought,' Ahaw Kin stated.
'What do you mean, Ahaw Kin?' Spike questioned.
'The robot must be made of some really heavy metal on the inside,' the human guardian explained. 'Combined with those large rocks that makes its exterior and the metal claws caught in the ground…' As if to prove its point, both sets of the Egg Giga's claws were caught into the ground, further hindering it. 'This battle just turned to our favor.'
'Is it time for my signature move?' Spike hoped.
'I suppose it will do enough damage for at least a brief victory,' Ahaw Kin announced. 'But that thing may dodge before we strike. Unless…'
Knuckles then took the time to scan the battlefield, finding several abandoned firearms from the Egg Pawns. Since no more were showing up (as unbeknownst to him they were all below attempting to stop one of the intruders), he figured they were free. Quickly scooping up as many as he could, he dropped them over at the humans' feet.
"If you're going to fight alongside me," the flesh echidna stated, "do so from a distance. I will need time for this, so in case that thing starts moving, distract him." The echidna noticed a rock wall high enough for him to work from. While the others were confused, the Egg Gigas began to move again. However, before it could pull its claws out of the ground, a brown blur scooped up a gun and shot it a couple times in the eye, making it flinch.
"Chris!" Lindsey and Nelson both gasped as Chris lowered the gun.
"Sorry I'm late, mom and dad," Chris smiled at his folks.
"We would've been here sooner had we not had to drop off Miss Rose, Miss Burns, and Mr. Prower at the hotel," Tanaka apologized to the group as he ran over to them.
Chuck took Chris aside, and stated, "I'll bring you up to speed of what's happened after we get out of this mess." As Chris watched Knuckles climb, he had only one thing to whisper to his grandfather.
"Where's Tails?"
Underground Maze- 14:46
"How many of you guys are there!" Tails called back to the Egg Pawns chasing him through the maze, not caring about the potential consequences that happened to them that were in the maze.
"STOP THE FOX!" one of the Egg Pawns called out.
"WE MUST PROTECT THE MASTER EMERALD!"
'Damn it!' Miles thought as Tails faced forward, using his namesakes to gain speed. 'If only I had made more Dummy Rings!'
'Don't we have any regular Power Rings?' Danny questioned. 'We could use the adrenaline!'
'Remember the side effects,' Miles stated. 'After three minutes, we're hosed!'
'Do you have any other suggestions?' Danny argued.
'Yeah,' Miles replied. 'Run faster! We need to get to the Master Emerald before they get us!' As Tails looked back for a bit to see the swarm of Egg Pawns, Miles groaned, 'If I had better control over my Chaos Energy, we could smoke these guys.'
'You think that would work!' Danny questioned.
'It works for Swift and Chris when they're Sonic, and look what happened to the Speed Team!' Tails continued running, and looked forward in just enough time to take flight once again. The Egg Pawn were confused… until every single one of them fell into a large pitfall trap, getting skewered on the sharp spikes that were in the pit. Tails had to wince in semi-sympathy at their misfortune.
"That's a way to get them all off of my heels," Tails stated as he landed on the other side of the pit. However, he realized that all of the running from the robots had made him not pay attention to which direction he was heading.
'We're lost, aren't we?' Danny remarked.
'It doesn't help to point it out.' The next thing either of them knew, they heard the rush of water from beyond the walls of the maze.
'What the hell!' Danny questioned at the sound.
Underground Base- 14:51
The last wave washed away, leaving a soaked Swift coughing and gagging. "You are probably wondering how I am doing this," Robotnik stated as he walked towards the hedgehog Chao. "How am I summoning wave after wave of water to pound you into defeat."
"I'm… not defeated… yet!" Swift growled, a swirl over his head. "Though the thought ran through my mind after the fifth one."
"A simple answer, really," Robotnik replied. "The ancient Greeks, while modern science proved their theory of four elements wrong, were on the right track. Did you know that they also studied the Chaos Emeralds, believing them to be sent from their gods?"
"… Not really," the Chao admitted. "But what does that have to do with this?"
"They discovered that the Chaos Emeralds could, very similar to their own gods, control the elements of nature itself. The light blue Emerald I wield was said to be a gift from the water god Poseidon, capable of manipulating any form of water… including water molecules in the very air that we are breathing."
"Really?" Swift asked. "You've been pounding me with water molecules in the air?"
"That by using the Chaos Emerald I have turned into regular liquid water," Robotnik finished. "However, that's not the only form of water I have used against you." Swift now had a question mark over his head, clearly stating his confusion. "Do you know why I chose this little set of ruins as my base of operations in Latin America?"
"You mean you have more bases?"
"All around the world," Robotnik bragged, "but that's beside the point. You see, not only is this a great tourist site, but I do require fresh water to function, being a human and everything. So… I chose a location with an underground water supply."
"…You've been attacking me with an underground lake, too?" the hedgehog Chao realized.
"That's one way to put it," Robotnik remarked. "Now, for the last time, you see how outmatched you are. This can be a lot easier if you just surrender."
"I don't think so," Swift replied, getting up and sinking into a fighter's stance. "I will have my revenge for what you did to my house, and I'll shut down your little Chaos Morpher operation while I'm at it!"
"Must we do this the hard way?" Robotnik sighed before summoning another tidal wave to send at Swift. However, the wave was literally blown in half by a burst of wind that knocked the scientist over, courtesy of Swift's dark blue Chaos Emerald.
"…To be dead serious," Swift stated while looking at his Emerald, "I was expecting something cooler, like a beam of pure light."
Getting up, Robotnik chuckled, "So you have the Emerald of Wind… a pity."
"What's wrong with using wind?" Swift asked while looking at his Emerald. "It knocked you over; I just neglected to follow through with it."
"Indeed it did," the scientist replied. "But of all of the Chaos Emeralds you could have used, you brought the weakest one of them. I suppose this explains your mach speed. Yet compared to my own, you are far outmatched."
"What do you mean?" Swift asked, a swirl over his head. "They're both equal sources of Chaos Energy!"
"True they are," Robotnik taunted Swift. "But however, your Emerald is easier to tame and you can only fire bursts of wind. And there is one additional factor that puts this battle in my favor."
"What?" Swift demanded. The next thing the hedgehog Chao knew, a new tidal wave slammed into him, washing Swift into the next room. Upon regaining his sense of direction, Swift looked at his downed Chaos Emerald, surprised to see that it lost its glow. Swift looked behind him, and gasped in surprise at the sight of a large green Emerald on a pedestal. "Is that the…?"
"Master Emerald?" Robotnik replied as he stood in the doorway. "Yes. It is. And while I myself am stumped to no end about how it works, it at least has stopped your Emerald."
"So we're back on even ground!" Swift stated. "Your Emerald is just as useless as mine! I can easily clobber that mustache right off of your face, Eggman!"
"Oh, really, now?" the scientist asked, holding up his Chaos Emerald once again. Before Swift could blink, a large ring of steam formed around Swift, surprising the hedgehog Chao and making an exclamation appear over his head. Then, the steam soon solidified into ice, freezing Swift from the neck down. "From my brief studies of the Master Emerald," Robotnik explained while pocketing his Chaos Emerald, "I have learned that there is a certain area of affect that it can make the Chaos Emeralds bend to its whim. I built this room so I could find the limits of the Master Emerald's radius. And as long as you're in this room, you can't use your Chaos Emerald."
"You cheated," Swift remarked, a swirl over his head.
"So what if I did?" the scientist asked.
"Mark my words," Swift scowled. "I will get out of here! A block of ice won't hold me!"
"You tell yourself that," Robotnik stated. "When you do, though, you'll be too cold and weak to keep that Emerald of yours safe." All of a sudden, the alarms went off in the base. "In the meantime," the scientist announced, "I have to deal with a few more… unwanted visitors." Soon, Robotnik left Swift and the Master Emerald alone. Barely able to turn his head, the hedgehog Chao growled in frustration.
How could he be so careless? He should have known the scientist challenging him was a potential trap, and he fell completely for it. Now, here he was, stuck in a block of ice right next to what should have been his primary objective rather than revenge. An embarrassing defeat. But now, whoever else was here was probably going to be given the same treatment. Until the start of this, he never knew Robotnik had a Chaos Emerald. Chances are, the rest of the world was just as clueless.
If he was going to stop Robotnik, he would have to get out of his own prison.
Human Card: Nelson Thorndyke
Occupation: CEO of Meteor Tech Industries, Father
Known Relatives: Lindsey Speed-Thorndyke (wife), Christopher Thorndyke (son), Samuel Speed (brother-in-law), Charles Thorndyke (father)
Hobbies: Baseball, messing with gadgets, staying as far away from his wife's acting as possible
Kingdom Rider92's Notes: Okay, so I finally got this chapter over and done with. Sorry for the huge delay. I've been plagued by real-life stuff. Edge will now attempt to handle the reviews that he was sick for.
Edge's Corner: And since I'm feeling really good, I'll do it solo!
Sozic: Dude, you know the phrase "Crap happens?" Sorry, but it did. We're not like super-loyal-to-a-certain-schedule type of people, so we can't satisfy with updating that quickly. Also, we wanted more people for the contest. Speaking of which, maybe it was a bad idea on our part to give a deadline because we still want more entries to be competitive. As for last chapter, we were going to do reviews and add a bit more, but something screwed up and what you saw is what you got.
Jyn-the-Raccoon: Swift is stubborn, isn't he? But that's what makes him one-half of Sonic. Sonic in the games is just as stubborn and persistent as our little hedgehog Chao friend.
Zohaku: Yeah, Chris isn't exactly revealing his secret that he's Sonic the Hedgehog to them for a while. However, they have gotten out of the traps… for a bit.
Hanzo of the Salamander: I'm sorry we took so long. My cold got the better of me. Anyways, hopefully that won't happen again!
Spark681: Well, we obviously know how Tails and Swift are doing, but Knuckles' plan won't be completed until next chapter. Hopefully it's a good one!
SuperSpeed: Well, the battle's turned to Knuckles' favor, and- wait a minutes, you're a girl!
White Hunter: Swift gets huffy when he's angry- and unfortunately for us that's pretty damn huffy. So far, Swift's in another trap and Tails may be walking into one, though.
Hit-N-Miss: Wow, big one. First of all, let me say Kingdom Rider92 (you also know him on deviantART as BladeSquall) is very appreciative of the reviews you have done both here and Ross' Fortune. It's also nice to know someone agrees that Sonic X, which this series is based off of, had so much potential, only to be ruined. However, we don't blame 4Kids completely… though their dubbing and censoring wasn't really appreciated by many of us.
It's true though, about this being a potential train wreck. I mean, this was started as an idea. Who knew that this extremely bad idea would turn into one of the greatest projects Kingdom Rider92 has ever written for this site. I mean, it's almost broken 100 reviews and it's only been 20 chapters. I guess excellence takes time. And besides, Chao like us have our funny moments. And so does Robotnik.
I can't believe how well Kingdom Rider92 managed to balance Robotnik's evil madman side with his extreme goofiness that Sonic Colors recaptured for the games. We wanted to make sure that Robotnik stays Robotnik, after all, and having humorous minions he can bounce his comments off of and a variety of robots that look like animals does just that and more.
GUN… we wanted to keep them as the antiheroes they are in the games. Although the world knows they're the protectors of the people, you're right that they have a mentality that makes you wonder whose side they're on. And it's true nameless grunts don't live long. Anyways, that brainwashed agent we saw in Episode 4 was actually a major character. I can't believe people don't know who she is.
Thanks again! Back to you, Kingdom Rider!
Kingdom Rider92's Notes: Well, that's it for year. Hope you guys have an awesome 2011! Kingdom Rider92, out!