Speedy's note: Understanding the pre-chapter-start physics note thingy below is not essential in any way. Any correctness is not guaranteed either; it goes as far as my simple mind was able to follow (which isn't very far actually….) and as far seemed remotely reasonable given the context. The principles listed were considered for some ideas to turn up later in this story, that's why it's here… well, other than sounding kinda cool… If you have enough spare time to ponder the nature of chaos (in and out of Sonic canon)… here you go. If not, just ignore it and read the chapter ;-)

Chaos, unlike widely stated, is not a state of total disorder. It involves a certain degree of randomness, but isn't random in itself. For a dynamical system to be classified as 'chaotic', it must have at least the following properties:
1. It is sensitive to initial conditions and even tiny changes to them may greatly change the outcome.
2. It is very changeable and often varies (called 'topologically mixing').
3. During its constant changes, it will never entirely return to the starting point. It gets close to this point, but chaos never repeats itself completely (this is called having 'dense periodic orbits'... sounds smart, doesn't it?)
- a very trivial and not very scientifically correct interpretation of the chaos theory-

Initial Conditions

Hopping out of his small biplane, Tails shouldered the bag with provisions he'd just bought and carried everything upstairs. Like usual, the Freedom Fighters' headquarters was a mess. The moment Tails made it through the door, he had to jump over a pile of empty pizza cardboard boxes. Almost falling down and dropping his bag, the two-tailed fox franctically moved out of the way of the small mount of dirty clothing he met halfway up the stairs. Trying to get further up the treads without slipping on old socks lying around where someone carelessly dropped them, it took Tails a few seconds to register he could use his twin namesakes for assistance.

Finally reaching the upper floor, the fox noticed distractedly that Amy really needed to come over or else they'd drown in this chaos. He snickered, Sonic wouldn't be overly fond of the idea, nor of the lecture they were all in for as soon as the pink girl saw the newest result of the group's lacking housekeeping qualities. Shrugging the speech of doom off for now, Tails dropped the bag a step after the kitchen's threshold. The stuff could be stored away later. First he wanted to say hi to his friends.

Following the sounds of the TV, the little two-tailed fox made his way over to the big living room. "Hello everybody," he shouted cheerfully when he entered, but he didn't get any answers.

Walking round the sofa, Tails found Sonic on the sofa in a position somewhere between loosely curled up and getting a knot in his limbs; one foot on the low couch table, the other one on the sofa, one of his hands under his cheek and the other arm hanging down the side of the couch. At least it was rather obvious why the hedgehog hadn't answered him – he was fast asleep... in spite of his unhealthy and uncomfortable looking position and the noise from the TV.

Tails frowned and poked Sonic's shoulder. "Hey!"

The sleeping hedgehog gave a small grunt and shifted away from Tails' fingers, deeper into the sofa.

"Sonic!"

Now, disturbed by the fox' poking, the blue hedgehog curled up tighter, ears folding against his head as if the wanted to shut Tails' calls out.

"Leave him, Tails."

The fox looked up at the sound of Porker Lewis' voice. "Hi Porker!"

"Hello Tails." The pig stepped fully through the door and came over to Tails' side. He pointed down onto the spiky lump on the sofa. "He was up almost the whole night. Let him sleep."

"Why was he?", Tails asked, a lot quieter already.

Porker shrugged. "Don't know. He didn't look as if he'd appreciate being asked, so I didn't. Maybe you can ask him later. If he talks to anyone, then to you." Although Porker knew Sonic for several years now, no one was as close to him as Tails. Well, maybe Johnny had been…

Tails nodded. "Maybe." He looked down on Sonic again. At least now he seemed as if none of his limbs would die due to cut-off circulation here while he slept. The fox reached for the remote and turned off the noisy TV. He shook his head while he watched Sonic's pointy ears slightly tip back up. "Well, then sleep tight."

"You want to come with me?", Porker asked. "I found some weird object above the planet yesterday evening. I'd like to find out what it is."

"Of course! Maybe it's Robotnik!" Tails strolled back to the door.

Following him, Porker grimaced. "I'd prefer it to be something else."

"Porker?"

"Yes?" The pig turned around to Tails.

"Whatever it is, it can't be an asteroid." Tails pointed at one of the screens. Unlike the rest of the base, the computer room was surprisingly orderly. "Asteroids move on orbits around heavier objects. The planets, moons, the sun… This thing here doesn't. It remains always in a position above Aquatic Ruins. What means…"

"It is artificial," Porker finished for him. "It's a satellite."

Tails nodded. "Yeah. A pretty big one."

Porker nodded appreciatively. The past months he'd spend down on the surface again had shown him that the young fox was not only a skilled pilot and a talented mechanic, but had also a lot of skills and knowledge when it came to physics. Right now Tails was being a big help. "You're right. Anything we can say about the form and size?"

Tails turned back to the screens. "Its orbit is about forty kilometres above the surface. And it's round. A ring."

"Really?" Porker leaned past Tails and typed a few commands into the keyboard. For a second the screen turned dark, then the remotely three-dimensional image of a ring appeared on it. "You're right."

Tails beamed proudly. "Of course I am!"

Porker typed again and several lines of number were added to the shapes of the ring. "Wow…" Porker took a deep breath. "That thing's huge…"

Tails nodded, blue eyes wide with awe. "Six and a half kilometres. That's one heck of a diameter!"

"You can say so…" Porker shook his head. He couldn't really share Tails' fascination. The only person Porker knew capable of building such a thing was Robotnik.

And Robotnik never built anything just for the fun of it.

Knuckles put his binoculars down. Looking into the blue sky was no help at all. Whatever the thing he had seen last night was, it had disappeared pretty fast, and so far it had not come back.

Maybe it really was nothing. If someone had been aiming for Angel Island, he'd landed here already... and Knuckles would know if someone had.

Still, the echidna decided to change the island's position. He was uneasy about having people cross over the Floating Island, and it was better for security to be too cautious.

While he slowly walked back down the hill he'd climbed on for his useless observations, the idea to ask his allies down on the surface to look for the mysterious thing appeared to him. The Freedom Fighters' base was well equipped when it came to technology of all kinds; their chances to track the passing somebody were much bigger than his with the help of some tiny binoculars.

A few minutes later the guardian stepped into one of the numerous caves all over the island that served him as houserooms and hideouts. He snatched his radio set from a wooden box and walked outside again.

Switching the small device on, Knuckles' eyes narrowed at the screeching and cracking the loudspeakers gave, then he realized he might be too close to the Master Emerald again; it sometimes interfered with the radio. Knuckles' experiences with the effect were not very big, though; he rarely used the radio at all.

The echidna had already lifted one foot to walk away when he froze startled as the unorganized noise faded into speech. "-finally tracked the perfect position to construct the portal," a male voice was saying; and even through the unsteady sound of the radio Knuckles recognized the voice of the archenemy immediately.

"Robotnik…", he mumbled under his breath, staring down onto the small radio.

"It was only my scientific genius that enabled me to localize the exact position of the core space-time gap that exists between our worlds," Robotnik continued.

"Our ancestors have knowledge of the existence of that core for thousands of years already," another voice interjected, one Knuckles couldn't place. "Without our advice you would have never found it. The great Drakon Empire has used the existence of said weakness in the space-time's structure many times before. We once had teleporter rings all over the planet Mobius."

"I know, I know, my dear friend. There is no need to argue; we are allies now. Just with our combined knowledge and wisdom we are unstoppable." Robotnik laughed. "But you will agree that you lost your influence on this planet centuries ago, and the small side-entrances your tiny ring-portals formed were never suited to become passages for big armies of Persecutors."

Robotnik's so-called 'ally' snorted. "We are not planning to maintain the mistakes of the past. With your portal, built after our mutual plans, the strings of energy that cross between our dimensions will be fused in one mighty passageway."

Robotnik laughed. "The furry fools inhabiting this hunk of rock will be down before they know what hit them."

"Celebrations and tales of the brave are to be held after the war. I recall you mentioning difficulties in building the portal."

"Aww… Those are tiny, unimportant things. My calculations resulted in the notion that a possible break-down of the portal during times of activity might cause a complete and final interruption of the energetic connection of our dimensions, but the probabilities of an incident like that are extremely small. We are more likely to be stricken by a lightening while we talk. The usual risk of existence." Robotnik snickered. "Nothing that shall stand in our way."

"Good. We expect you to carry out our plans with the highest caution. How long do you think the work will take now?"

"Three weeks. Minimum. The hypernano technology used is highly difficult to install, most of the important steps require my supervision and cannot be carried out by robots on their own…"

"Acknowledged. We expect you to inform us in case of any delays or interferences."

"Of course, my dear Drakon friends." The loudspeakers cracked and Knuckles was surrounded by silence once more.

The red echidna stood for almost a minute, staring down on the mute radio. Had the Master Emerald's interference by chance locked him onto Robotnik's frequency? Knuckles couldn't imagine the mad scientist to hold this kind of conversations in public.

But however, he had been eavesdropping on a war conference. Between Robotnik and the Drakon Empire; and if he'd gotten everything right, they wanted to invade Mobius through a 'dimensional portal' Robotnik currently built.

Now he really needed to contact the others on the surface.

"And we have nothing to hold against it. After Knuckles informed us, Tails and I scanned the ring Robotnik builds in Mobius' orbit, by the way still inside the atmosphere. It really is positioned inside a energetically outstanding region that marks the most intense position of the interdimensional connection between Mobius and the Drakon world. When Robotnik opens the gap in space-time to let the Drakons in… what should we put against them? They're just too many and too well equipped." Porker sat back heavily, barely held down panic obviously creeping into his voice.

"I'll fight anyway," Sonic declared stubbornly.

"Sonic, you will take out ten or hundred or whatever… and then they'll shoot you down," Amy interjected, "It's just too dangerous."

"Ah yes, too dangerous. This hedgehog laughs in face of danger." Sonic's arms folded on his chest. "We cannot let that insane Eggbreath and those fishy Drakons take over our planet. You know what they'll do once they get their hands on the Chaos Emeralds, don't you?"

Amy and Porker lowered their eyes, Tails nervously twirled his bushy namesakes, and even Knuckles' brow wrinkled.

Sonic looked between the desperate faces. "We got three weeks to think of defences judging from that message, right? Robotnik needs that time to finish his stuff. Porker? Tell me you got an idea."

The pig shook his head in defeat. "I don't. I'm sorry, Sonic. Nothing on this planet is strong enough to stand a chance against these forces. We've got not a single power source that could stand against a torn open space-time gap crowded by Persecutors."

"We've got the Chaos Emeralds," Knuckles' voice through the radio broke the awkward silence.

Sonic's head snapped to the screen that showed the group on the surface an image of the red guardian up on his island. "Can you use them?"

The echidna shook his head. "No. The Master Emerald powers the Floating Island and its defences. The Chaos Emeralds can't add to it. I'm the Master's guardian. I'm not supposed to use the Chaos Emeralds."

"Then your idea is crap, Knucklehead," Sonic muttered. "It won't help us if they lie around... And in fact, has there ever been anything good and helpful to come from them?"

"The Emeralds are just useful with someone to control them, to unify the seven fragments of power to one," Knuckles explained, completely ignoring the hedgehog's comments. "The old legends say just a few gifted people will ever have the ability to interact with the powers of chaos."

"Oh great, then go ahead, Red, you got three weeks to find one." Sonic grimaced.

"Maybe we can help!" Tails looked up, catching Knuckles' idea as the first spark of hope he heard today. "What kind of person is that?"

"You need a sharp sense for the powers, a great sensitiveness to their influence," the echidna replied surprisingly willingly. "Very few people will interact with chaos powers that way at all…" Knuckles tilted his head in thought.

"I know who does…", Tails called.

Sonic stiffened as the gazes of all four suddenly focussed on him, causing him to take an unconscious step backwards. "Hey, why are you looking at me?"

"Tails is kinda right; you are highly sensitive to chaos energy…", Porker started carefully.

"Yeah, I'm so damn sensitive" - the blue hedgehog spat out the word – "that it makes me… you know what it makes me! You've seen it happen! And it happened far too often!"

"Calm down," Amy tried, "We still have no evidence that you will turn super again at all. You haven't since the incident with the chaos monster… and you didn't a long while before…"

"I couldn't a long time before, 'cause Super was no longer a part of me and in the Special Zone!", Sonic shouted. "And I was never put close to chaos energy ever since, neither in a lot of stress! She fused him back into me, you remember? Super could as well be still there!"

"And can as well be gone forever. We may never know…" Knuckles remarked.

"And you know what, Knucklehead? I DON'T WANT TO KNOW!" Sonic took another small step backwards.

"Sonic, the chaos energy can be controlled if you know how," Knuckles said slowly, remaining completely calm even to the hedgehog's outburst. "Super Sonic - if you can control yourself -could be the most powerful defence for all of us."

"You say it: IF!" Sonic's quills ridged on his back. "IF I could control anything of it, I might help fight the enemies. But if NOT, I'm just as likely to destroy the planet before they get ready deciding where to start!" With the last word shouted, Sonic span on his heels and was gone in a flash of blue, leaving just a sharp whirl of wind behind that tossed up the papers and sheets on the tables.

"Just what was that?" Amy stared after him.

Porker turned back around to the screen just to avoid having Knuckles look at everybody's backsides. "He's scared," he said quietly.

"Sonic isn't scared of anything!", Tails contradicted, "If he hears you say that, he'll get mad at you… Or maybe he already is …"

Porker shook his head. "I'd never dare saying that aloud while he's here… but becoming Super Sonic and possibly harm some of us, or just people he wants to protect is the only thing I'm sure Sonic is scared of. – Besides water," he added after a moment.

Amy turned finally from the doorway to look at the echidna on the screen. "Do you really think there's any chance he could control it? He tried before and always couldn't do anything to prevent going super."

"I didn't mean I want to prevent it." Knuckles thoughtfully looked at the girl for a moment, then slowly inclined his head. "Have you ever considered that a lot about him has changed since his contact with the chaos creature and all of that? And I'm not talking about his eye color."

"You mean, it might have had another, bigger effect on him?", Porker asked. "I tried finding out about that, but nothing turned out…"

"But it's not mainly that I mean about Sonic having changed." Knuckles paused for a little moment. "Control requires maturity."

"Huh?" Tails and Amy exchanged glances.

"Not one legend about the powers of chaos being used talks about children," Knuckles explained. "I'm saying Sonic was too young to both mentally and physically put anything against these strong powers. Maybe he still is, but there is just one way to find out."

"But that whole Super Sonic deal didn't really turn better over the years…" Porker doubtfully shook his head.

"Controlling a force like that is not talent," the red echidna noticed, unfazed by their doubts. "Not at all. You need to learn it. You need to learn to resist it."

"But what if Sonic is right? What if he turns super as soon as he comes close to the Chaos Emeralds and starts destroying the planet?", Amy asked cautiously.

Knuckles shrugged as if indifferent. "It doesn't much matter if he destroys it or Robotnik and the Drakons, does it?"

Porker sighed. "You tell him that."