Disclaimer: I don't own anything presented here in this fanfiction, besides maybe Chaos and MRU (yes, I don't even own Seraph or Suikoshi). Onto the very long author's note.

I apologize for uploading this nearly...what, 6 to 7 months after the last one? I got distracted by school and everyday normal boring life. I also finished this one a while back, and decided to upload it. If there are any glaring plotholes/stupidity/grammatical errors anybody sees, let me know and I'll change them. And now, for me to proceed going through caves. A lot. I can't wait until Caves 3...

Chaos. That's what one would've yelled had they been there. The steel ground of the Central Dome was flooding over with a mixture of rain and blood. The blood wasn't human, nor anthropomorphic animal, but rather just animal. On this mixture however, stood eight figures who had, after nearly a half hour of pure battle, finally killed the last of them.

"Let's hope, we never have to do that again. Ever." Sonic said, walking over to a clear area while the rain cleared out the blood on the ground. He was disgusted by all this...fighting. Sure, he needed to do it in order to survive, but that didn't mean he liked it anymore than the next person.

"Amen to that." Suikoshi said. The rain was hitting harder now, not quite a hail just yet. If they stood out in the rain for much longer than it would be hail. "Hey Chaos, can you cast a ryuker back up to pioneer for a bit?"

"Huh? Oh...no sorry. I'm out." Chaos said, sitting on the cold ground of the Dome.

"Wait, you're out? Out of what?" Tails asked. He knew that the energy that forces had did have a limit, but was that limit different for every person?

"Out of TP as I call it. Technique power. It's what runs the techs, such as foie and barta. Even ryuker runs off of TP. Some techs take more out of me, such as rafoie. Or even the Gi techs, such as gibarta." Chaos explained. They all looked at him as if he had gone crazy.

"Who are you, and what have you done to Chaos?" Seraph said. No one was laughing.

"Huh? I'm Chaos." Chaos said, wondering where they were going with it.

"Nevermind then..." Seraph said. Chaos was acting just a bit odder than his usual oddness, but also somewhat like he was before the force syndrome got to him...though that's probably because the force syndrome caught up to him again.

"So...we ready to move on?" Amy asked. One by one everybody nodded. Tails took a little longer to do so. They all got up, their muscles aching from the constant fighting they've been doing. The area ahead of them looked clear of everything, so they proceeded smoothly.

Until they came across the largest teleporter all of them have ever seen. It was a massive twenty feet wide, and ten feet long. The height was the only thing that was the same, at approximately seven feet. Red rings, starting from the bottom seemingly flew to the top where they ceased to be. "What...is this...?" Suikoshi asked.

"I think...it's a teleporter...A one way teleporter..." Seraph said. He had heard of these giant one way teleporters, commonly used only by the scientists of Pioneer one. Once something was sent through, the chances they could come back without going a different path was very slim.

"But why would they have that here?" Tails asked.

A voice came from out of nowhere. "To hide something that shouldn't have existed."

"Shadow!" Sonic said, turning around. Indeed, the black hedgehog did randomly show up from behind the group. "How do you know that, and where've you been? And you look like you've been through hell."

Shadow did look like he'd been through hell. He was favoring his right shoulder, and his left leg was lifted up a bit from the ground. Blood coated Shadow's fur. His spines were even crazier than usual, going every which way and more.

"Resta!" Chaos interrupted with the healing spell. The area of effect quickly shrunk as most of the energy went to healing Shadow.

"Unlike the rest of you, I've been finding remains of the past civilization. In one of their logs they said something about 'the beast we hid under the Dome'. I don't know about you guys, but I say we go in there and see what's up about that 'beast' they spoke of." Shadow said. "As for why I look the way I did, that's because they ganged up on me."

"They?"

"The monsters."

"Oh... What could possibly be so big they needed to build the Dome for it?" Chaos wondered. "In any case, let's GO!" he yelled, grabbing Seraph and Suikoshi's hands and tossing them in there, whistling for MRU to join them. The others, now a group of five, went through the teleporter also.

The nine appeared in the middle of what looked like a huge arena. They could tell magma was right beneath their shoes, but the rock was a reasonable thickness so their weight wouldn't break it. Off to the far right was a steel area, much like that of the Dome, with a small door on lockdown mode. The walls weren't made of steel, as they had all predicted, but rather sharp rocks that jutted out every which way.

Of course, they couldn't actually realize all that because their attention was on what was in the middle of said arena. Large wings covered the arms, almost like bat wings. A massive head with eyes the size of Sonic looked at them. Talons the size of Tails covered almost every inch that was still exposed. What it all comprised of however...

"A dragon." Amy said. Denial was easily heard within her voice. "We have to fight a freaking Dragon!?" she yelled. Sonic and Shadow both looked over at her like she was crazy. That was the only they had ever heard Amy swear. Ever.

A loud roar echoed through the mostly empty chamber, originating from the Dragon's mouth. The human five minus Chris got into battle stances. "I have a feeling that we've intruded on it's territory...we're going to have to get rid of it." Seraph said.

"Easier said than done." Suikoshi answered, pulling out her pallasch into an odd stance that was neither offensive nor defensive.

"Not really. All it takes is some imagination!" Chaos yelled, getting his hands ready for a rafoie.

"Chaos! Look out!" Sonic said, speeding directly for the black robed Force. A line of fire came from the Dragon's mouth, aiming directly for Chaos. Fire singed the back of Sonic's spines as he pushed Chaos out of the fire's way. The fire twisted itself to head towards the duo again.

"Sonic! Watch out!" Tails shouted, gaining the attention of the speedy hedgehog. Said hedgehog looked around, still running, not noticing anything different. "The fire!" This time Sonic actually turned around, and was surprised to see that the fire was still there. He looked towards the Dragon, only now noticing that it was aiming specifically for him, turning its body all the way around to chase the hedgehog with its fire.

"Die, you freak!" Shadow shouted, jumping up onto the head of the Dragon, pulling out his dual mechguns and firing directly into its eyes. It didn't even seem to flinch from the vicious assault. Suikoshi noticed this, and quickly threw something up to Shadow.

"Use this!" she yelled, afterwards quickly diving to the ground to avoid being trampled by the beast's massive talons.

Finally, the fire stopped. The dragon stood in place for what seemed like an eternity, before suddenly flying up into the air, Shadow along with it. "What the...!?" Shadow yelled, holding on to one of the Dragon's scales. He looked up to see the ceiling coming closer and closer. Various lights and effects came from the bottom of the cavern.

A thundercloud gathered above the Dragon, and suddenly lightning burst forth from the small cloud, striking the beast in the torso. It stayed in the air, hoping to get the annoying hedgehog off its head.

"Damn...I need to jump..." thought Shadow, thinking of when to jump at a time which would still cause the dragon to hit its head against the ceiling. He noticed the thing Suikoshi threw up to him finally catching up to him. It was just a basic saber, but Shadow thought of a way to use it almost instantaneously.

It was lucky that he did. If he had been just a few moments too late, he would've been a "hedgehog pancake" as Sonic would later put it. Shadow shoved the hilt of the saber into the roof, planting it so the blade would go straight into the Dragon's skull. He then quickly spindashed off, barely getting out with an inch of room left.

The saber did exactly as planned. As the Dragon pounded its head into the roof it forced the saber into it's skull, effectively skewering it. "That worked! Now all we have to do is finish it off!" Seraph yelled, continuing to fire. As the massive creature fell to the floor, Shadow had just landed. He turned around, expecting to see a giant dead dragon, and was surprised to see that it was still very much alive.

The Dragon did a giant roar and flew up again. "It's going to do it again!" Sonic shouted, jumping up and trying to hit the talons with his own saber. It did minimal damage, but it was better than nothing.

"No...Run!" Suikoshi screamed, running towards the walls as the Dragon went into a dive. It hit the ground, and rather than crumpling on impact, it went right through the ground into the lava below. "It's trying something!" Rocks on the other side of the cavern lifted up, giving the impression of something beneath it. As the trail of rocks increased in size, it become obvious what the Dragon was doing.

"We can't hit it like this!" Chaos said, keeping his eyes on the floor and walls. MRU nodded. For several minutes this continued, keeping track of the Dragon's whereabouts based on where the rocks were and which ones were new.

Finally, after what seemed an eternity of dodging and occasionally being hit (healed by Chaos) the giant reptile broke through the ground again. In a mocking sort of way, and with agility previously thought it incapable of, it did a few front flips in the air.

"Is it...mocking us!?" Tails said, reaching down to grab his saber. His question went unanswered as the Dragon landed. However, rather than try anything new, it toppled over to the side. The side where Tails was. His instincts said to run, and as he twirled his namesakes he pushed himself out of the way. It was a lucky thing he did, too, considering he was right where the Dragon's head had just landed.

"Did...did we kill it?" Sonic asked, walking up to the now dead Dragon. He noticed something was off about the dragon's chest, there was a plate or two that was askew.

"Yeah, I think we did. Hey! That place over there opened!" said Suikoshi, pointing over to one of the walls. The small door that had once been in lockdown status was no longer. The shutters slowly opened up into a world hidden by Pioneer 1, guarded by the Dragon.

A silence. After all this fighting, maybe they were done. Maybe this is the end of the trail. Tails' voice cut across, effectively ending the silence as well as negating any hopeful thought that this was the end. "Why do I get the feeling this is only the tip of iceberg?"

I figured it would be best to just have the Dragon have one whole chapter to itself. First time I saw it, I honestly did go "Oh...my...god...", so I figured I'd put that here too. Again, if you notice any glaring plotholes/stupidity/grammatical mistakes (I KNOW I made several) then just let me know, and I'll deal with them, hopefully on time. I also hope to have Chapter 7 put up by the end of the month.