iv. The Next Disaster
Gerald sent Maria to her room, cut deeper into the rock of the asteroid than the main lab, and ordered Shadow to retrieve the Chaos Emerald from the Gizoid when it returned to the lab and guard the entrance to the wing. Maria disappeared down the hall, Shadow followed Gerald back out as far as the observation room. He seemed to be trying to say something to the Professor but Gerald couldn't hear him over the alarms and was intent on the Biolizard anyway. Giving up, the red and black hedgehog stationed himself in the shadows of the observation room, out of direct sight from the main corridor, and Gerald kept running. He couldn't figure out how the lizard could have gotten loose, let alone why. She had fits of temper but had never attempted to escape. He skidded around a corner and nearly ran Ilya Jansen down.
"What happened?" he grabbed her arm both for his own support and hers as they both reeled back from the collision.
"Professor!" she gasped at the same moment. "I don't know why, but she just went berserk! I saw that robot of yours go into the control room and then the subject just - shrieked and went crazy! The robot came right back out but by the time I got to the control room the lizard had knocked the WALL down into the antechamber and was squeezing her way through the access corridor. If she reaches the main halls..."
Gerald didn't need her to finish. The Biolizard was now so big that the access corridor would be a tight squeeze, but if she got into the main halls there would be room enough for her to move - and the opportunity to cause serious damage. He picked up speed again, heading for the control room with Dr. Jansen right beside him. He sprinted past the Gizoid as it came trudging up the hall, snapping out a command for it to return to his lab quickly, seeing without really registering the glow escaping along its joints and chest panel seams.
A glance in at the door was all it took - beyond the damage-proof windows the testing chamber was empty, the door and a large portion of the wall was gone. Gerald barely even slowed, grabbing a device from a clip by the control room's door and pounding on towards the access hall that connected to the weapons chamber itself, laboring for breath as he ran.
The lizard was already gone, out into the main halls. She'd evidently hit a hydraulic line along the way, as a trail of brown fluid led down the hall. Gerald prayed that the control function he'd built in to the last life support would work, but first they'd need to get her someplace manageable. He heard weapons fire in the distance and ignored it, knowing that the Biolizard's scales and hide had become impenetrable to any normal sort of armaments. He only hoped they wouldn't make her too mad.
Shadow heard the guns as well, from his post in the observation room. Something was wrong with the Biolizard, her support system "felt" strange through his Chaos senses, but he'd been unable to get that message across to the Professor. Seeing the Gizoid approaching, he ordered it to stop, but it quick-marched on past to Gerald's lab. With a grimace of annoyance, Shadow skated after the robot; once it entered the lab it finally obeyed his command to open its chest panel. The Emerald blazed within, something had upset the power greatly. There was no other way to describe it, really. Shadow had to restrain a flinch as he reached in to grasp the gem, anything that bright, his hindbrain firmly believed must be too hot to touch. In reality, the Emerald was, if anything, colder than normal. He clenched it in his fist as he dashed back to the observation room to wait. Hearing the gunfire again, he closed his eyes and reached out to locate the Biolizard - only to find that she was in a completely different direction from the sounds. Focusing in the direction of the noise, he picked out the vague traces of multiple humans...and...and...a Chaos Drive? It felt equally peculiar, as if it were being affected by the Emerald's distress or reacting to the same cause. But Chaos Drives were only in the Biolizard's life support - and the Artificial Chaos robots. He opened his eyes, gazing blankly out the window as he tried to figure out what an Artificial Chaos was doing in the main research area. They were supposed to be stored in a particular chamber near - oh. "The secret research labs near the Biolizard. And the Chaos Drive feels strange," he muttered. Closing his eyes once more he reached for the lizard again and find that the peculiar "feel" of her Drives also echoed the Chaos Emerald's upset. What was going on?
"Shadow!" Shadow jumped and opened his eyes as he spun towards the door to see Maria rushing out of their wing. "Shadow, help me!"
"Maria?" he knew Gerald had told her to stay in her room and couldn't imagine why she'd disobeyed.
"Please Shadow, I need your help!" Maria clutched at his hand. "Grandfather's experiments... something's gone horribly wrong!"
"What is it?" His mind raced for what else could be wrong. They already knew the Biolizard was loose, she couldn't know about the Artificial Chaos, could she? Surely the other Chaos lizards and the rats weren't also running amuck - but they were down in the labs near where the Artificial Chaos were supposed to be. The Gizoid was nonfunctional while Shadow had the Chaos Emerald...
"The research lab... it's going to be destroyed. Something must be done! Please Shadow, I beg you! Help grandfather and those aboard the ARK! Please!" She tugged at his hand, then pressed it to her breast as she pleaded with him.
"I'll be there, Maria. I swear, whatever it takes, I'll take care of the ARK and the professor!" Shadow raised a fist in pledge. "But do you know who's attacking the lab?"
"The Artificial Chaos. There's a message on the computer; the GUN soldiers that are stationed here are split up and some are cornered in the research lab by some of the robots! They broke out of their niches and are demolishing the lab; several are running loose on the ARK! Grandfather's out there after the Biolizard, so you're the only one who can help. And the robots are attacking people so Grandfather's in danger too! Please Shadow, hurry!" She laced her fingers together and clasped her hands under her chin, appearing on the verge of tears.
"Don't worry, Maria. I'll take care of it. Go back to your room and wait where it's safe." Well, safer, he hoped. He made certain she was retreating before he activated his hover shoes and skated out. She'd be monitoring the progress on the computer, he should have guessed. Well, now he knew why the Artificial Chaos was in the main section of the research facility. He reviewed what he knew about them as he raced towards the closest. They were created by the Professor; he'd intended them for guard and surveillance robots but GUN had modified them. They had the ability to splinter off pieces that could serve as messengers or as extra eyes and the fluidity of their composition gave them an unexpected reach, as well as invulnerability to most attacks. Shadow had learned about them and Gerald's other creations during his sleep-training, and had seen the things in their storage niches in the research lab - and in action in a weapons test - but had never interacted with them directly. But Maria was counting on him, and it seemed better to track the things down now and stop them, than to hide and wait for them to find her. No point in looking for the Professor, he's busy with the lizard. The closest one is...here!
He slid around the corner to find the globular blue construct hanging in midair. Its back was towards him as it faced the two soldiers it had cornered. One was firing uselessly at the amorphous body while the other reloaded his gun. "Aim for the head!" shouted Shadow as he jumped and homed in on the robot's helmet himself. He disoriented the thing at least, as its attack against the soldiers went wide, smashing a light on the wall. He pulled Chaos energy and aimed again, using the resonance between the gem he carried and the Chaos Drive that powered the robot to propel himself towards it a second time. All the practice in the Loop on targets suddenly had a purpose, but it was helpful that the Emerald and Drives naturally attracted each other. He felt something riffle his fur as he bounced off this time, and realized that he'd nearly been shot. Landing to take aim again, he saw the robots head explode as one of the soldiers' shots hit home. Immediately the body dissolved into blue goo. "Tell the other soldiers," he assumed they had radios or some method of communication, "they need to aim for the heads, the bodies will either absorb impacts or reflect them. If you destroy the brain or the power source, they'll lose cohesion." The last bit was called over his shoulder, as Shadow was already moving towards the next disrupted Drive feeling.
It was a long battle and between Shadow and the GUN soldiers fifty-seven of the Artificial Chaos were destroyed. The constructs had fortunately not gotten into the public areas of the colony, though they had gotten in to the "GUN lift" transport system, and from there they might easily have gotten into the colony-at-large. The battle had only ended when the remaining robots suddenly shut down and went dormant. Unfortunately the robots managed to account for over half of the soldiers stationed on the ARK; eighteen bodies were prepared for return to Earth. Shadow had a painful burn across one arm where another bullet had come too close, and a sore shoulder from a construct that had been hiding in the shadows of the GUN lift tunnel, and struck at him as he passed it. He made his rather weary way back to Maria's rooms, where she dashed about bandaging his arm and fussing over him. The alarms which had dwindled to a barely heard background noise during the fighting suddenly caught their attention again as they shut off.
Maria looked nervously at Shadow. "Do you think that means that Grandfather caught the Biolizard?"
The hedgehog closed his eyes and reached tiredly to sense the lizard's presence. Frowning slightly he opened them again and looked thoughtfully at the girl. "Something's happened to her; it's not the out of control feeling she had earlier, its more like the Artificial Chaos' dormant state. I'm not sure what that means..."
"It means," said a very weary voice at the door, "that I've put the Biolizard into stasis until I can figure out what to do with her."