13-Angel Island

Chaos carefully carved the crystal that had once been his ship. Into a larger version of the green Emerald. He spent an entire day giving it power within the safety of Marduk's office. Just in case, he "programmed" it to scatter the other Emeralds if ever they were used together. The only thing that was left to decide was where to keep the Emeralds. Chaos had decided to guard them, especially the Master Emerald, which was powerful enough to expand the other Emeralds' power or shut them down. He brought them to a small area on the south North American coast (The humans, he reasoned, will be no danger at all.)

He took out the eight Emeralds and ordered them to separate the area from North America. They cut through the land as easily as good scissors cut through paper. Then he used their energy to lift the newly created island into the air. However, he did all this too hastily. If he had surveyed the site thoroughly, he would have known his island was connected, underwater, to another island where Echidnas thrived.

He knew when the island had been lifted to its predetermined height, though. He turned and instantly knew what must have happened. Why, some may ask, did he not just cut off the Echidnas' portion of the island? Well, what sane person would send something of that size that had once been supported from one side tumbling down, knowing that it was populated? No one.

Soon, some Echidnas came over, demanding that he see their chieftain. Chaos said,

"Only if he comes to me."

The chieftain did come. Her name was Ishtar. The first thing he noticed was the unusual orange fur tone. The second was her understanding nature.

"...so, you see," Chaos said as he finished his explanation, "I don't dare drop the island."

Ishtar nodded. "I will have my people build you a home."

"No, that's not nece-"

"I insist."

Only a month later, Chaos looked upon his new home.

"Sorry," said Ishtar apologetically, "but they seemed to think a shrine would better suit you needs than an ordinary dwelling."

"It's alright," said Chaos. "I don't need either, although this will do rather nicely."

"If you need anything," said Ishtar, "The village is just a little way east of here."

Chaos took the seven Chaos Emeralds and placed them on the pedestals the Echidnas had built. Then, he placed the Master Emerald in the middle of the shrine that sat in the exact center of the pedestals, and sat on it. It felt almost like a throne. Looking around him, a flower exactly one foot east of the shrine caught his eye. But before he could place its name, the flower was gone.

It was gone because, one hundred and twelve Terran years ago, a long war on a distant planet had come to an end. The war was between two species that were not native to the planet. The native species of the planet had barely survived, with only a few members left.

The loosing side of the war decided that, rather than let their enemies use them as slaves or meat, they should give the natives freedom. They took the creatures to their home planet where they built a ship, big enough for all of the creatures. Before launching it, the creatures would be exposed to sleeping gas before being put in suspended animation.

When the time came to launch it, they released the sleeping gas and realized that they didn't know where to send the things. They also realized that some idiot had put the control panel on the inside, because one of the creatures hit their head on it as it fell asleep. His head punched random coordinates, and the ship instantly launched. The things were put in suspended animation as they left the atmosphere.

Those coordinates just happened to be the exact location of the flower Chaos was staring at at the time he was staring at it. He ran forth to see what the creatures were. When he saw they were frozen, the took them out into the sun to dry.

What strange creatures they were, too. They were small and about humanoid. Their bodies were mostly sky-blue, although the tips of their handless arms and feet, as well as the tops of their oddly-shaped heads. Accompanying each was a yellow ball that floated above the tip of the aforementioned heads. Chaos could only assume they were part of the anatomy of the creatures, though he couldn't see what they could possibly be used for.

By an extreme coincidence, the creatures' language is incomprehensible to earthlings because all its words are pronounced the same to our ears: chao.