Master Of Chaos

"Critical energy level. Danger. Critical energy level. Failure inevitable. Repeat. Failure inevitable."

Sonic was beginning to hate the computer voice, beginning to hate the softness of it, this flat lack of emotion, this mocking lack of urgency. Just slightly in front of his friends, the blue hedgehog was running along the corridor, green walls rushing past, three pairs of feet leaving rapid, metallic thuds that echoed on the blank walls.

"Critical energy level. Danger. Critical energy level."

"This way to the right," Tails shouted. "That must be the way to the exit!"

Sonic's eyes darted through the room opening before them. Like many other rooms of the base, it was round and very high. A few of the silvery blue balls floated through it and behind large windows the deep blue of the ocean shone through. The idea to be underwater had never been comfortable to Sonic, but now, knowing the fake Master Emeralds were about to blow the whole place up, it seemed like his worst nightmare. Giant explosions were one thing. Giant explosions bursting the windows and flooding this whole place were something else entirely.

Tails was right; to the right of them another corridor began. Sonic ran towards it, charged past the threshold of the room and –

Screamed out in pain when colliding with a net of red-hot energy bolts.

"Sonic!" Tails' soles screeched as he stopped next to the hedgehog.

"You okay!?" Knuckles stopped his running simply by sliding into the wall next to the door.

Sonic gasped, looking himself down. A thin, red line was running over the tan skin of his chest, a line of burned, blackened fur over his hips and below the knees, and given the same hot pain coming from it, he bore another trace of the lasers on his brow. The hedgehog crawled back to his feet. "I… I'm good," he managed.

"Critical energy level. Danger. Critical energy level."

"We can't get through this fence," Tails noticed unnecessarily.

"Make that fences," Knuckles corrected acidly, pointing past Sonic.

The hedgehog turned his head, finally really looking through the net of lasers. The corridor was like the others, green walls and pale, bluish lighting, curving a little as it sloped slightly upwards. Their way out? Probably. But unfortunately the echidna was right. The fences continued as far as they could see, tight nets of red energy. Impassable barriers, every five or six meters another one.

"Critical energy level. Danger. Critical energy level."

"There's gotta be some way to get through!" Sonic span round, ignoring the sting of the burns. Come on… Something to shut down these lasers… They'd gotten so far…

"There's a switch!" Again it was Tails noticing it first. It sat at the other side of the room, a small white ball on the floor.

Sonic immediately ran over to it, stopping next to it and kicking against the ball. He turned over his shoulder and smiled. The fences were down. "Alright, we gotta hurry!"

The others nodded. Sonic was already running again, blazed past his waiting friends -

And almost rushed a second time into the laser fence. Only Knuckles gripping his arm as he raced past and jerking hard saved the hedgehog from adding another bunch of burns to the already existing ones. "What the –?"

"Critical energy level. Danger. Critical energy level."

For a second or two, Sonic just stupidly stared at the fences. "But… I shut them down!"

Tails' double namesakes nervously span behind his back. "Try again?"

Knuckles let go of Sonic's arm and stood next to the switch, activating it with his foot. The ball lit up, and the lasers went out. "Okay, it works!"

Sonic nodded. "Great, let's juice!"

Knuckles nodded back and ran towards him, but stopped after just two or three steps. He blinked, staring at the again engaged fences, at the again deactivated switch. "What's wrong? Why doesn't this work?"

"Critical energy level. Danger. Critical energy level. Failure inevitable. Repeat. Failure inevitable."

"There must be something wrong with the contact. It doesn't stay active unless someone touches it," Tails noticed, then clasped a hand to his mouth.

Sonic stared at the fox. Tails was right. "Alright. Knux, Tails, get going."

Tails just stared, and Knuckles slowly shook his head, walking all the way back to the switch. "No. You get going. I'll stay."

"Knuckles! We can't leave you behind!" Tails' blue eyes were wide with shock and disbelief.

"Knux, I won't –"

"Sonic," the red echidna interrupted. "Go, in Chaos' name. You're the only one of us running fast enough to make it out in time. And you know damn well what'll happen once the fake Emeralds blow up. I swim better than you."

Sonic blinked, his ears flattening. "Knux, I –"

"We don't go without you!", Tails insisted.

The guardian gave another shake of his head, eyes locked right to Sonic's. "Promise me you'll get Tails out of here."

"Critical energy level. Danger. Critical energy level."

Sonic blinked again, faster this time, stared into Knuckles' eyes, and swallowed. After the last few days, he could hear in Knuckles' voice what his words didn't say, that gnawing sense of guilt for having not seen through the whole affair sooner, for not having come to Tails' rescue earlier, before it was too late to stop.

The hedgehog also knew that someone had to stay behind, and he was quite sure he wouldn't be able to talk Knuckles out of his decision, even if he'd had the time to try.

He shot a brief look at Tails – get him out of here – looked back at Knuckles, forced himself to nod. "I… I promise."

"Sonic, what -?" Tails' twin tails hung limply behind him.

"Come on, Tails, we gotta hurry."

"But –" The big cerulean eyes looked up at Sonic and the hedgehog had to swallow again. This wouldn't, couldn't be easy, not on any one of them.

"I'm sorry, Tails." Before the fox had a chance to react, Sonic got a good grip around his waist and picked him up, under his arm like a large package. A package that started to struggle in earnest with all arms, legs and tails after just the second he needed to realize what the hedgehog was doing.

"Sonic, no!"

Sonic could only shake his head. He looked at Knuckles and sighed. "Good luck," he got out, voice shaking.

Knuckles nodded, giving him a little smile, and Sonic had no idea where he'd conjured that one up. "Just go."

"Critical energy level. Danger. Critical energy level."

Sonic nodded back, tried a smile himself and knew he failed at it when he turned around. He heard the small clicking sound when Knuckles stepped on the switch, but didn't bring himself to turn around again when before him the fences went down, and stayed down. He knew if he'd turn around, he wouldn't run. But he had to. He took a deep breath, shifted the still wildly kicking and winding, screaming and shouting Tails just slightly so he wouldn't drop him, and ran into the now open corridor before him.

"Critical energy level. Danger. Critical energy level. Failure inevitable. Repeat. Failure inevitable. "

The metal floor made loud clanking sounds under his quick footsteps until the rush of air was enough to drown it out. The green walls raced past him, but Sonic barely saw them. Something that wasn't really the pressure of wind was blurring his sight. The hedgehog blinked, trying to push through it. He had to get them out of here.

He'd promised.


"Critical energy level. Danger. Critical energy level. Failure inevitable. Repeat. Failure inevitable."

In certain situations a few seconds can mean a lifetime. Slowly creeping past, one heartbeat after the other. Far too slow.

Knuckles the Echidna felt just that as he stood with his foot on the lighted switch, counting the seconds down. How long would Sonic need to get out? Ten, twenty seconds? How long until he'd made it past the shut-off area? How long even had this base to live?

"Critical energy level. Danger. Critical energy level. "

Knuckles wouldn't have needed the computer voice to tell. These were Master Emeralds. Copies, sure. Imperfect fakes, but something similar to Master Emerald energy nonetheless. Just that sort of energy that ran through Knuckles' body, through his mind, his life, like his very blood.

And it was rising.

Unstable.

Chaos.

"Critical energy level. Danger. Critical energy level. Failure inevitable. Repeat. Failure inevitable."

By now decided he'd given Sonic more than enough time to escape safely, Knuckles moved away from the switch, running back a part of the way they'd come. Closer to the center.

Closer to the energy.

It flared, the radiation washing like waves through the entire base around him, echoing off the walls and ceiling, vibrating in the floor beneath his soles. Unlike the Master Emerald at home on the island, the real Master Emerald, there wasn't much serenity in this field. No balance, no control. This was its flaw. It was chaos, made with failure to understood the essence of control, the meaning of balance in chaos. Fake a Chaos Emerald? Dangerous, risky, but fine. Fake a Master Emerald? A different thing. Knuckles knew it had failed. He could feel it with every single nerve in his body.

"Critical energy level. Danger. Critical energy level. Failure inevitable. Repeat. Failure inevitable. "

He just hoped it wouldn't have failed too much. It was there, wasn't it? Messed up, chaotic, out of balance, yes, but it was there. Too much of it. Too much in this one place.

All this energy needed to go somewhere, somewhere safe so that it wouldn't ignite or blow apart the planet.

He didn't know if he stood a chance, didn't know if he'd be enough of an outlet, enough to restrict the blow that was certainly going to happen, enough to keep it to just the base. He also wasn't completely sure if he would survive the attempt, but he was the Guardian, attuned to the chaos energy in a way no-one else was quite like this. He didn't burn in the Master's mighty field, in its own way so much stronger than these out of balance powers that hindered one another more than they multiplied.

No, if something needed to burn in this unchecked chaos fire, he'd rather it be him than Mobius' atmosphere.

He briefly wondered if his friends had made it out safely by now. Would they think he was giving his life for theirs? It wasn't the truth. It wasn't a lie either.

It, too, was chaos.

Knuckles stopped just where he was, in the middle of some blank room, in front of another window showing the ocean, blue, dark, quiet, peaceful, like it didn't know that all hell was about to break loose here very soon.

Then he tore himself loose, closed his eyes, turning his palms outwards as he stood, feeling the random surges of energy around him. There were seconds left at worst, a minute at best. Knuckles slowly inhaled, listened to the beat of his heart and to the hum of the Emerald energy and focused his entire mind into his thoughts.

The servers… are the seven Chaos. Chaos is power… enriched by the heart. The Controller is the one… to unify the Chaos…

What was bound to happen was not quite an explosion for real. Not fire and heat, not smoke and dust. It was a chaos blast, but one of a size that had nothing in common with the tiny, explosive discharge of energy a Chaos Controller like Shadow could let loose as an attack in a fight. In such a blast, there was still a measure of control, a plan and a purpose.

This here… this held no control, no sense. For a few long moments, just before it happened, the air around Knuckles sizzled, sparks crackling against the tips of his spines. There was a thrum, a deep, low vibration that resonated through his entire body, and in his mind he could hear the fragile balance shift and tip, slipping unstoppably towards the point of no return, towards the point where it just could not hold.

Instinct was screaming at him to run. He fought it down. Another part of him, a sense that ran so deep it was instinct in its own right, clamoured for him to reach out and draw on the Master's energy, to extend its balance and control and somehow reign in this blistering chaos.

But he could not reach it, had not been able to do so even before, not here, not amidst this madness, all senses overwhelmed by the roaring mad energy around. Too bright, too hot, too unsteady.

He reached out for what was there instead, against all instincts and common sense opened his mind up to take it in, fumbling for a hold on the ever shifting bursts, and when he finally could snatch hold of it, he drew it in and hung on for all it was worth.

It was nothing like the familiarity of the Master Emerald's energy. Nothing like a Chaos Emerald, either. But it sensed the shift of balance, sensed the outlet, the relief of pressure, and it rushed in for it like water down into a valley, pulled more by nature's innate, eternal seeking of balance than by any of his conscious doing, so fast and so powerful he thought he was drowning in the swirling tide of it.

Deep inside, something snapped, ripped apart under the onslaught, sending sharp pain to pierce through his mind, leaving behind what felt like a gash more ragged and agonizing than he'd ever received in body. For a fearful moment the guardian felt like he was losing himself in this mess, washed out until nothing but chaos itself remained.

He fought back, struggled against the flood of it. He couldn't have stopped it from flowing in now had he meant to try. He didn't mean to try. He had started it, and he would end it. But as it was, he could only grit his teeth, trying to cling to mind and sanity and some measure of stability and control, while the raging chaos fire burned in his veins.

Gravity stopped to exist. Breathing stopped to be a necessity. The air around him filled with chaos flames, bright and hard emerald light, randomly flickering, green, red, blue, white in between, back to the green of these horrid fake Master Emeralds.

The energy was still building, and over the scorching heat eating away his nerve endings, he could feel the final crack, and for the blink of an eye it was as if the roaring in his ears would fall suddenly and utterly quiet.

Focus. He could not afford to fail now.

A bang.

A flare of white hot light.

An eruption of chaos all around him.

The base exploded.