Speedy's note: I've been looking forward to this chapter ever since I started writing this story and it turned out just the way I wanted it to :) Hope you can enjoy it as much as I do.
On a different note, this chapter contains the bad word beginning with f. I've been told you shouldn't use it in more or less serious writing, but the latter also calls for trying to be authentic. There are certain situations that call for using not very gentleman-like vocabulary. I tried replacing it, but in the situation the character using this told to be so bad word is in, any other word sounds stupid. Bear with me ;)

Countdown To Chaos

The next week passed faster than Sonic had thought was possible. He had to give his host and mentor that one: He was incredibly talented stuffing one's day with odd sessions of chaos training in a way the day was over before you had really realized it had started.

Sonic didn't get to see much of Angel Island anymore, what was partly up to the just slowly improving weather... Well, improving in the sense that the not stopping downpours had turned into heavy fog and clouds around the top of the island's mountains and the occasional drizzle that would fall from them.

In the end, Sonic wasn't given a lot of chances complaining about the weather. While he had to admit with every day and every lesson he was given, he got a faster and more intuitive grasp on the Chaos Emeralds, he wasn't sure if he would ever get near as good at it as Knuckles apparently was. Praise was something the echidna gave out just rarely, but the few times he did were actually kind of motivating. The training stayed exhausting nonetheless and quite a lot of days ended with the blue hedgehog just falling asleep right where he was at the time.

With regard to the lessons' content Sonic figured out he could he could actually rather easily tap into the dark blue Emerald's speed power, even yellow's healing force was fathomable once you knew what to look for. The same went for a few others of the magic stones. Still, another few of them remained shiny gems causing tingling nerves when he touched them that refrained letting him use their powers. Much to Sonic's disappointment, he didn't manage to get the light blue Emerald to turn him invisible.

Knuckles didn't seem overly surprised about the fact his student didn't make an equal amount of progress with all of the gems. He wore a small smirk when Sonic gave up on his attempt becoming an invisible hedgehog and his voice carried an amused undertone when he noticed it was normal Sonic wouldn't get to master each of the special powers. All Sonic understood of the explanation the guardian gave was that every person, every chaos channeler at least, had something like an own chaos field that interacted with Emeralds, or chaos energies in general, that were in some way alike to it.

The echidna answered Sonic's confused comeback if he really had a such a field thing by taking him to the Master Emerald chamber, touching one hand to Sonic's forehead and the other to the Master Emerald and announcing Sonic's chaos field had a cyan blue coloring. For a moment the hedgehog considered asking Knuckles if he was one sandwich short of a picnic, but decided against it. While he had learned the echidna actually had a sense of humor, Sonic wasn't willing to find out how far it went concerning Chaos Emeralds. Still, for the rest of that day the hedgehog kept throwing side-glances at the red guardian, trying to figure out if Knuckles had played a trick on him or if he was actually serious about it.

In the evenings, sitting at a warming fireplace, Knuckles would tell him what else you could do with the Emeralds. Teleportation was something that immediately sparked Sonic's interest, but to his disappointment the echidna denied the hedgehog's begging to try it out, claiming Sonic wasn't on a level to try something as complicated yet, the whole super form thing would be more than enough, and that any attempts would consume too much of the Chaos Emerald's energy.

Energy that would soon be needed. When Porker Lewis noticed during a short radio call that the question when Robotnik's portal ring would be opened was merely a matter of today, tomorrow or the day after that, Sonic was almost shocked to notice he was right. What had happened to three weeks? It seemed to him as if the time had just vanished somewhere, and now it was Robotnik who would make the move...

Sonic hated waiting. In the blue hedgehog's eyes, it was the most annoying thing in the world. This sitting around, nothing you could do to change whatever was going to happen, you could just sit and - wait. It was pulling on all his nerves, by now all of them being close to snapping under the load, and he knew Knuckles didn't feel much better.

The echidna was pacing. Back and forth in the Emerald Chamber, one, two, three turns around the Master Emerald. Every now and then he would stop to stare at the giant green gemstone, maybe in some sort of telepathic dialogue with it whose nature nobody else would ever understand, only to continue his pacing a few seconds later.

Sonic himself was dangling his legs on the rock he sat on, slowly going crazy while he watched Knuckles walk. It went like this for two days already. For those two days they had done nothing but sit around, wait, go through the most important things again, wait, sit around, wait. The entire routine was driving Sonic nuts. How much he wished he could just go outside and run off his anxiety, run off his nervousness before he lost the last bit of sanity left watching a red echidna slowly walking grooves into his floor.

But the hedgehog knew full well he couldn't leave now. All they waited for was Porker's signal that the invasion began, and Sonic was sure once he decided to go outside, and even if it was just for half an hour, right then the damned Eggman would decide to open his stupid ring thingy.

So he was doomed to sit here, doomed to wait. Wait for something he wasn't very much looking forward to anyway… but by now he had reached the point he hoped it would happen right now, just to get out of this horrific waiting thing.

"We could… check that Sab, Sol and their friends are ready…"

Porker tiredly turned to Amy at her idea. "We did already. Four times today, and yesterday another few. If they weren't as bored as we are, they'd come back with that bomb all the way just to blow us up so we'll finally shut up."

"Oh." Amy blushed and fell silent, at least for now.

Tails shook his head, watching his feet dangling lazily from the desk he sat on. Forwards, reaching the highest point, backwards until he could see them no more, forwards again… Realizing what he was doing, the fox shook his head again.

It went like that for almost a week now. They were pretty sure both enemy parties had accepted their half-faked information on each other. The Flock had set out to Ice Cap with a bomb to use it on the little portal ring there when the time came. The Sky Pirates waited not far from the freedom fighters' home base for them, ready to fly out and attack the Drakon group on Flickies Island.

Overall, everybody was waiting. Waiting for Robotnik to finish his work on the big portal. The signal that the battle would start. So far they waited in vain.

"Um, guys? Are you sure we checked up on–"

"YES!", both Porker and Tails shouted, spinning around to Amy.

"Oh…okay…" The pink hedgehog giggled.

"Sonic? Knuckles?" Both the hedgehog and the echidna jumped at the sound of Tails' voice through the long time deadly silent radio.

Sonic had snatched it before Knuckles could even think of moving to get it. "Tails? What's up, little buddy?"

"Sonic? It's happening," the young fox blurted out right away. "Robotnik is initiating the sequence to activate the portal this moment. The others are already preparing to get to Flickies Island and rid it of the Drakon troops there… Now the rest is up to you. Good luck, Sonic!"

"Thanks, little bro. Good luck for you guys, too." Sonic stared at the radio for a moment, then put his hand holding it down. Suddenly the wait was over, suddenly the nervous sitting around taken away from him, but instead of anything else he would have expected, he felt numb now that it was gone so abruptly. Suddenly he wasn't sure if he was ready for this.

Knuckles reached to take the radio set from Sonic's hand, laying it away again before turning to the hedgehog. "Hey. Sonic. Look at me."

"Knux I…"

"Doubts? Now?" The echidna shook his head. "Don't desert me now. You're supposed to be the one telling me there is always a way winning… Isn't that your part?"

A short smile flicked on Sonic's face. "I guess…"

Knuckled nodded, for the first time in their both lives reaching to lay his hand on Sonic's shoulder. "See? You are most likely the one best prepared for what is to come now… Don't get cold feet on me now, okay?"

The hedgehog looked at him almost desperately. "Have you ever felt like suddenly carrying the whole planet, Knux?" In fact, Sonic felt that load for years already; as much as Robotnik's very existence was at least partly up to him, saving the planet and his fellow Mobians from the mad doctor's grip was somehow his responsibility. It just felt much worse to him right now. "If I screw up…"

Knuckles shrugged as though that didn't matter at all. "Since when do you screw up?"

Sonic chuckled briefly. "Maybe you're right…"

"For sure I am right. Now pull yourself together and go kick their butts, okay?" Knuckles' large hand squeezed Sonic's shoulder.

The hedgehog smiled a little, cocking a brow at the echidna. "I'd never thought you'd ever say something like that."

"Me neither." Knuckles smiled back. "Must be your bad influence on me. Count it as one of many new things to happen today."

Sonic nodded slowly. "Fine." His eyes wandered from Knuckles over to the circles the seven Chaos Emeralds formed on the floor.

Knuckles reassuringly nodded at him. "Go ahead."

Reluctantly Sonic made a few steps towards the gemstones, but stopped right before he reached them. "Maybe you better leave and take the Master Emerald out of the line too. Just in case I –"

Leaning against the Master Emerald in demonstrated relaxation, Knuckles shook his head. "No. The Emerald and me, we're perfectly safe here. I survived two and a half weeks in your company, do you honestly think a few more minutes will hurt me? I haven't spent these last weeks to miss on the outcome, Sonic."

The hedgehog smiled, feeling some of the weight loose from his shoulders at Knuckles' apparent faith in him, and turned back to the round of shiny gems, slowly taking the last steps into their midst. A last glance at the echidna brought him another nod, and Sonic closed his eyes, trying to recall everything Knuckles had taught him during the past weeks in one moment.

He failed miserably, finding his mind completely blank and almost unable to really think at all. The hedgehog swallowed dryly, forcing his breathing to drop to a steady rhythm like he'd been taught before he tried to sense out for the Emeralds surrounding him.

It took a few silent seconds, then the darkness behind closed eyes flared with colors, Emerald formed flames torched his senses, and Sonic felt as though he was standing in warm light that started to shine more from inside than around him with every second it lasted.

All seven Chaos combined were mighty, their forces pushing against the barriers Sonic had learned to put up around them and himself, the comfy warm flames threatening to become a giant blaze that wouldn't comfort but burn him. No-one could have prepared him for this. Not even Knuckles. No-one could have told him what to do when it became painful, when it tried to break him from the inside.

Sonic ground his teeth, trying his best to ignore the pain that seemed to start tearing him apart. Think of something nice… That was what Knuckles had said he should do, and so the hedgehog tried forcing his mind away from what was happening to him just the slightest bit, and the image of his friends flashed in his head, of Tails' blue eyes, Knuckles' stubborn look, Amy's cheery waves, Porker's relieved face after they had rescued him from the Metallixes…

...and Johnny...

The grimace on his face melted into a fierce grin as the heat flared once more, the pain almost bringing him down to his knees, almost shattering the picture in his mind. Trying to replace it with something else, trying to overwhelm him with its sheer might. It almost succeeded, almost got what it wanted, almost got him to crumble into fear, anger, despair.

Almost.

Get the fuck out of my head! The wording seemed ridiculous, said to a set of magical stones trying to consume his mind. But it was saying something, and if just in his thoughts, something opposing what the energy tried to do, and right now as he quivered with agony anything he put against it was a weapon. Even a colloquial curse. A more, and even if just slightly, a more powerful thing in fact than any of the pains. Still, Sonic screamed out as in a last effort working against him something that felt like a deeply buried part of his very soul was ripped out of him and scorched to die in the flames surrounding him.

The desperate gasp for air brought him back to his senses, and all of a sudden he realized, no, knew he'd just won a battle of a sort no Robotnik or empire in the universe could ever put up against him; and he hesitantly sensed out for the warm glow from the Chaos Emeralds around him, soft, waiting, longing to stroke his aching mind, and now he eventually let it through to him, gratefully accepting the relief it offered. Dams broke after a second of hesitation and a wave of chaos energy washed right over him, taking him in and filling him up until he could feel nothing else anymore. No pain, no despair, no fear, not even gravity, not even time.

Sonic slowly breathed it in until the rise of its level died out, until it was just there, as nearly a part of him. As if it had always belonged there.

And then he started to hear. Hear the loud hum of power from inside the Master Emerald rolling like booming thunder through the cave, hear Knuckles' heart fiercely beat in the echidna's chest, hear the winds rushing around Angel Island's form, hear the wake turbulence of huge airships striving through the atmosphere, hear a hole open miles away above his head.

His eyes flew open when he remembered what had brought him here. The first thing he saw was Knuckles, staring at him with a look the closest to awe the guardian most likely would ever show.

"Sonic?"

The hedgehog grinned. "Who else do you think is here?" He allowed some of his relief to drip into his voice. He could still think, he could still feel, he was still… Sonic… No, he was more than just Sonic. "So… is this how it feels, huh?"

"What do you feel?" Slowly Knuckles walked closer to him, observing in obvious curiosity. Adding to it, there was a notion is his eyes Sonic dared to guess was - pride? Maybe it wasn't that much of a wild guess even, after all, Knuckles had brought him here.

"Can't describe it, Knux," Sonic answered him, shrugging off the contemplation, busy staring at his hands. They were glowing yellow, even through the fabric of his gloves, so were his arms, and everything looked as if he was steaming energy. "I am so… light…"

"You're floating," Knuckles noticed matter-of-factly.

Sonic's gaze dropped down to his feet. The echidna was right, his sneakers suspended softly in thin air, a good foot's length above the floor. "Wow... Cool."

"You think you can get at Robotnik now?"

Sonic nodded, a cocky grin spreading on his shining face. "I'm gonna kick his fat butt better than anytime before!"

"You better be." For a short moment Knuckles grinned as well, but seriousness quickly returned to his face. "But remember what I told you about the rings. You have to keep collecting enough of them. Without rings you can't sustain this super form, and they're constantly spent on keeping all that energy inside of you now from burning you away. If you run out of them, you'll either be vaporized alive or at least transform back. I don't think your subconscious is suicidal, so I guess on the latter option. Still, depending on the situation it might be just as lethal."

Sonic nodded again, more serious himself this time. "I got it."

A small smile darted over the guardian's face again. "Good. The energy is not infinite. Every second you stay here is wasting it."

"Alright. Good luck watching over your nice big stone, Knux." Sonic softly floated past the echidna, needing a lot of self-control now once he moved not to do it as fast as everything inside of him demanded.

Knuckles inclined his head at him. "Good luck, Sonic."

The hedgehog had almost started dashing out of the cave when he turned back to his friend, rotating halfway around in the air, weightless. "Just tell me one more thing."

"Sure, what?"

Sonic felt a broad grin tug on his lips, threatening to pull the corners of his mouth ever so close to his ears. "I look mondo awesome, don't I?"

Knuckles groaned. "You do. Now get your glowing ass out of here."

"Ay, Sir!" Sonic laughed, and the island was a tiny point in the distance just a heartbeat later.