-Chapter XVIII- Emerald Chaos

-Flying Battery Zone

-25 First Seed

-1:35 P.M.

-Nicholas

"Nick...I don't like this..." Rayman said quietly.

"Shh..." I said quietly, hardly audible to myself, "it's all right."

Tails' biplane was still in a small room that was just inside of the large metal fortress in the sky, with some sort of technology that I was not familiar with that made it seem as though it were a part of the sky. The only way we could see it was the small opening of which we entered. Some sort of docking bay, perhaps, was what Sonic suggested due to Eggman's large quantity of vehicles that he uses, the "Egg Mobile" only one of them.

I had my sword ready to strike at any given moment with Sonic, Stealth, Rayman, and Saria all following close behind. The area seemed quiet, eerily so that I felt an ambush was sure to follow. I felt like millions of eyes peered through the seemingly endless dark tunnels, I believed to hear whispers, coming from all around me with a source unknown. A strange sound pulsated in my ear, portraying the mindless rambling of a deranged man, screaming to others that weren't there. I looked around a corner, continuing the darkness, saw nothing within it, and waved the others to come closer. I shot around, looking frantically about as my eyes shot about, searching for any sign of movement: a sound, something in the corner of my eye, shuffling, something. I slowly moved on, feeling the walls, covered with a thin layer of grease, grime, and neglect.

I was startled once or twice by the sound of my own footsteps as they continued on beyond us, bounced among the walls, and came back a moment or two later. I swallowed hard as I began to notice light at the end of the tunnel we were currently in. It was faint, but undeniable. A sudden shower of sparks made my heart skip a beat, but once I realized what it was I calmed nearly immediately, though my heart didn't. The hair on the back of my neck stood up straight, my feet cold. The air was thick, filled with dust particles flying about as we continued toward the light. When I neared it, I saw it as some sort of containment capsule. I didn't know much about technology, being raised in Skyrim, so all I saw was a small metal room with something on the other side of a locked door. I thought about what to do, since the ending of the hallway we were following for the past five minutes seemed to be a dead end. I raised a hand, and knocked on the dusty glass.

After a moment, I decided it was nothing, for it seemed to lack response. I wiped the glass of the dust the best I could, and what I saw on the other side was what scared me. It...looked like Sonic, but was a machine. My eyes widened as I saw it, at first caught by surprise. "What is it, Nick?" Saria asked quietly.

"I don't know..." I said, examining the strange robot. I was startled when its eyes shot open, a bright white light emanating from them. "Run..."

"What?"

"Run!" I yelled, turning away and jumping as far as I could from the machine as it burst through the glass. I looked back at it, it was some sort of...metal Sonic. His eyes glowed red, his stare seemingly fatal. I began to run away from it, but I heard Saria scream. I stopped dead in my tracks, and turned around. He was holding her by the neck, hovering in the air with rockets connected to his feet. "Hey!" I yelled at him. His stare turned away from Saria, and straight at me. He dropped her, and shot after me. I spun around as he neared me, and swung my sword out at him and effectively going halfway through him. He stopped, sparked, then turned to me in hatred. "Oh shit." was all I could say as he blasted to me. I tried to copy the same move again, but he caught my sword mid-throw, picked me up, and threw me down the corridor.

He charged at me, with my own sword, but was stopped when Sonic jumped onto him. "I don't understand this! I thought you were destroyed!" he yelled.

He took Sonic, his grip on his head, and smashed his head onto the metal floor, leaving his organic counterpart unconscious. Rayman tried to subdue him by shooting an energy ball at him, which went straight through his lower chest, which the robot only looked at, and turned to his attacker before shooting him with some sort of pulse blast. The metal Sonic then returned to me, and rocketed towards me at a speed faster than even what Sonic seemed capable of. He held out the cobalt-blue sword to me, and I jumped out of the way, but much too early. I closed my eyes as he thrust the sword through my chest, however, I couldn't feel a thing. I opened one eye, saw the sword in my body, and I felt for the point sticking out of my back. It was there, but I opened the other eye to see Metal Sonic with my full view in a state of confusion.

I began to feel a grim smile come across my face, and began to laugh maniacally as I hung in the air. An arrow in the back of his head was what stopped Metal Sonic's confusion and brought him back to reality. For a robot, he seemed almost...sentient. He dropped me as he turn to Saria. I was about to pull the sword out of me when I noticed that it was again the light shade of blue once again, just as it was when I tried to strike the plants earlier that day. I slid the blade out, leaving no harm nor injury to me, and when it was fully out, it returned to it's deep shade. Meanwhile, Saria strung another arrow, shooting straight through Metal Sonic's face again. He took one step towards her before I bashed my sword into his back. He swung around, which caused my sword to fly towards Saria, and grabbed me by the torso.

As I struggled, I saw Saria begin to pick up the weapon, and my mind flashed to what Danica had said about it before back at the Temple... "Saria, no!" I screamed, before Metal Sonic's grip tightened, making it nearly impossible for me to breathe. She picked up the blade, and I saw a quick flash of light come from it, then disappear as quick as it had come, and Saria ran after Metal Sonic. She attempted to slash at him, but he took his free hand and swung it at her, effectively knocking her out with Sonic. "Oh, that's crossing the line, dumbass!" I yelled, using my foot, with my heavy boot, and struck him in the chest, near Rayman's carnage. Metal Sonic staggered, dropping me in the process. As he seemed to return to normal function, he glared at me when I grabbed my blade again. Though he was heavily damaged at this point, sparks flying about, he began to move towards me again. A light formed in his yellow chest cavity, and a beam of electricity shot towards me. I instinctively held up my sword to protect me, and to my surprise, the blade absorbed the attack.

The blade sparked for a second, and I could hear it buzzing almost. Metal Sonic examined his chest cavity, and I took this opportunity to impale him. Upon contact, the blade caused him to shake and seem to malfunction as he was being electrified by his own power. I put my foot up against him, and forced the blade out before victoriously replacing the sword in its sheath. He fell to his knees, sparked again, and began to get back up. I watched in horror as he began to reconstruct himself, becoming even larger than before. When he was complete, his spikes were massive, some pieces of him seemed to float, being held I guess by some sort of magnetism, and he seemed almost cramped in the corridor, which was now too small for his new size, but he was also too big for me to get under or around. "Oh...son of a bitch." I said in shock. His eyes glowed bright red, and his roared as he charged some sort of light in his chest.

"This...is...your...end..." he said in a deep, demonic, metallic voice.

I winced as I saw nothing else to do to escape this final blow. My vision became really bright through closed eyelids as I heard another demonic roar. After a few moments of pure silence, I slowly opened my eyes, not knowing what to expect. When I saw the hulking mass before me, he was in pure shock, he had a large hole with singed metal glowing bright-red outlining it where I assumed his brain was in his head, and collapsed heavily, falling to pieces as he collapsed. I recoiled when he fell to the ground with an ear-splitting crash, revealing his defeater behind him. It was Stealth with a bright, victorious smile and his usual bright, innocent eyes. He coughed up a puff of smoke, and a small flame burst from his nostrils as he sneezed. I smiled back at him, running up to him in joy. "Oh, good boy!" I exclaimed. I swept him up in my arms and hugged him, and he made a small chirping sound. "Dragon's first fireball!"

I looked up to see a robot version of Eggman, and when I began to pull out my sword, but was quickly stopped when a pair of blue robots with big bodies and small heads pulled out their own. I took a step back when their shields and swords became electrified. I turned to run with Stealth still in my arms but a third quickly subdued me.

"Well, well, well..." I heard in the distance. I awoke in a cell, alone and confused. It was dark and small, although not a typical cell, one much like the one I found Globox in back in Polokus. I felt for my sword, and was surprised to find it still in my sheath. Eggman walked in front of my cell, entering my view. "I was just keeping Sonic and his friends for a different reason, but you!" he began to laugh, "are a special bonus!" I gave him a confused expression. "Oh, don't act like you don't know. The Power Keeper, according to my resources."

"Who's that? Because I've got a feeling the only people you know is a long list of chefs."

"Oh ho, a wise guy, eh? Well, soon you'll be taken away by someone who's apparently been looking for you for quite some time..." I couldn't even imagine who he meant.

"That is, if I don't get out of here first." I told him.

"Yeah, good luck with that! There's a reason I didn't care about your sword. Besides, he said that he wanted the 'complete set', weapon included."

"You. Are. Nuts...are you on medication?" I heard Saria ask.

"Eh? Oh, brother. You're girlfriend's awake."

"She's not my girlfriend!" I yelled, just as I heard Saria yell "he's not my boyfriend!".

"It doesn't matter, because in a little bit, Sonic will be gone for good, and I'll be a rich man!"

"You forgot 'fat' rich man." I said quickly.

He glared at me. "I hope Drennen rips your voice box out." he said angrily before leaving.

When the door shut behind him on its own, I heard a familiar voice call out my name in a whisper, "Nick!"

I looked around as far as my cage would let me, and across from me I saw Tails and Knuckles in cages of their own similar to mine. "You guys got a way out of here?" I asked quietly.

"Define 'out'." Tails said.

I drew a heavy sigh, and looked around at the occupants of the other cages. There was a cream-coloured rabbit, a large, green crocodile, a big cat, and...Rayman? I saw him doing something, but what it was I didn't know. I heard a loud crash come from his cell, and suddenly its power went out, granting him his freedom. "Rayman? What did you do?"

He climbed out of his cage with a metal cover and whispered with a triumphant smile, "I told you, robots are my specialty!"

I cracked a smile, "you ready to help some people?" He nodded, then ran in the direction Eggman went, out of my view. I waited a few seconds, and there was a loud buzzing, then the lights, cages, everything in the room shut down. I jumped out of the cell, followed by all the other prisoners in the large room. From here I could see just how large it was, the ceiling went up high, and the walls far apart, lined with the electronic cells. I unsheathed my sword, "I think everyone here's ready for some good ole' fashioned revenge, eh? Well, I say Revolution!"

The room was filled with creatures of what seemed like a completely random assortment. Chameleon, bee, crocodile, rabbit, a pink hedgehog, a black hedgehog, and a silver one, Tails the Fox, Knuckles the Echidna, the assortment of characters seemed endless, and then there was Stealth, Rayman, Saria, and I. "Let's do this!" Rayman said loudly.

Everything turned silent after he spoke, and everyone stared at each other in confusion. I rolled my eyes, "he said let's do this." I said bluntly. I ran to the door, and turned to Rayman. "You take Stealth and the others and await my command, Saria and I will go on and look for Sonic."

"All right, I'll do what I can."

Saria and I exited the room, which I was glad to do, and followed the corridor straight down. It wasn't hard to figure out where I assumed Eggman was, because there were numerous crashes and heavy thuds coming from a very distinct direction. I dashed onward unsheathing my sword with Saria close behind with her bow strung. We came to a hall overlooking some sort of battle arena, where Eggman was in this huge machine, and Sonic running for his life. "Well shit." I said quickly as we searched for a way down.

"You're finished, Sonic!" I heard Eggman say.

"That's it." I said irritably. I swung my sword as hard as I could on the glass that protected our level from below. "Ready?" I asked Saria.

"Um...yes?" she said reluctantly.

"Sonic!" I called. He stopped where he was, looked up at us, and smiled. He ran toward us, and I wondered what he was planning to do, and was surprised to see him run up the wall to where we were.

"What?!" Eggman exclaimed. "How did you get out?"

He used his machine to try to punch the corridor, which effectively demolished it. Saria was able to grab hold of the mechanic arm of Eggman's machine, but I wasn't so lucky. Everything seemed to slow down as I fell, but just before I hit the floor, Sonic caught me. "Well, that's...what, three times I've almost died today?" I asked him.

"Welcome to my life!" he said with a smile. The massive robot fell back to the ground, allowing Saria down as well, and began to take aim at Sonic again. He turned to the robot, and used it to jump off of, and while we were in the air, he dropped me over it, and I used my sword to impale it. It malfunctioned, and collapsed. Sonic joined me on the robot as I pulled my sword out of it. "It's over, Eggman!"

At first he was silent, but began to laugh again, "It's over..." he said, "when I say it's over!" he smashed a button, and suddenly everything seemed to have lost its gravity.

"What's going on?" Saria asked.

"He's dropping the ship!" I yelled. I was lifted into the air and floated there for a second, but abruptly hit the floor when we started to fly again. Needless to say I got a headache...and a body ache.

"Nick!" Sonic called. I looked up, and saw Eggman and his Egg Mobile lift itself off of the big robot. Something else was extracted from the giant robot, too...seven somethings, to be exact. "The Chaos Emeralds!"

"Ohohoho! Not so high and mighty now, are you Sonic?"

"You're going down, Eggman!"

"Oh, really? Chaos Cannon!"

"Chaos...Cannon?" I asked, watching as the seven different-coloured gems began to glow, floating around Eggman and spinning around him. His Egg Mobile began to have something extend out of it, like a gun. As it charged, the gems revolved around Eggman faster and faster, glowing brighter and brighter, and just as it fired...I jumped in the way of the beam, saving Sonic and deflecting it with my blade and causing it to hit an Emerald. It spun out of control, knocking around the other Emeralds and causing them the to spin out of control, too, and soon everything went to hell. Eggman began to try to fly away in his vehicle, and when I saw this, I pointed it out to Saria. "Can you hit him?" I asked.

"Aim for the exhaust pipe!" I heard Tails say. I looked up to where the corridor overlooking the arena used to be, but now in pieces. He flew down with his two tails, using them like a helicopter, and called out again, "aim for the exhaust pipe!"

I nodded to Saria, "Do it!" and she strung her bow, and though Eggman was a moving target, the place shaking madly, and her goal hardly the size of her arrow, she hit it, dead on. It was then that I realized Saria was strangely gifted with her archery.

"You did it!"

"What? No!" Eggman cried out. The Egg Mobile shot sparks all about, and exploded in the air, sending the Chaos Emeralds flying out in different directions.

"The Emeralds!" Sonic exclaimed.

The entire fortress shook, "we should probably..." I trailed off.

"Get out of here." Saria finished.

"That's...four, now? Four times I've almost died today?" I asked as we all watched the flying fortress in the sky fall into the ocean, causing massive waves to form all around it. As it sunk, the light of the setting sun made it look as though it were set ablaze. It almost was kind of a nice sight, seeing the great threat fall into the ocean, no longer able to hurt anyone. The Chaos Emeralds were lost, surely strewn about all over the planet by then, but no one seemed to think about that at the moment.

I saw as Rayman walked up behind Sonic, and hit him upside the back of his head. "That was for trapping us when you first met us."

"Ow! What was that for?" Sonic asked, despite Rayman's explanation.

"Don't you hurt Sonic, you...thing!" Amy, the pink hedgehog, yelled before bashing Rayman with a hammer that was nearly as big as she was.

As Rayman was scattered about in the dirt, he looked around, and grunted, "oh, you've got to be kidding me!" I smiled, but I tried not to show it.

Before we left, I noticed a strange bird creature that almost seemed...familiar, and I couldn't help myself but to talk to him. "Do I know you?" I asked.

He turned to me, "I don't think so. Why? Do I look familiar?"

"Yeah, a little bit...what's your name?"

"I'm Jet, Jet the Hawk."

"Jet...that's a strange name."

He shrugged, "maybe to Americans, or Nords, or whatever race you are, but not so much here in Emerald Hills." A quick moment of silence fell between us, "besides, I was actually named after a distant ancestor of mine."

I turned to him, "oh, really?"

He nodded, "yeah, his name was Bomber, but everyone called him 'Jet'."

"Bomber..." I repeated. "Thank you."

"Yep." he said with a smile before walking away.

"Bomber." I said again.

"Hey, Nick!" it was Sonic that broke me from my short-lived trance.

"Oh, hey. I guess this is goodbye, huh?"

"Actually..." Knuckles trailed off, walking up behind Sonic with Tails and Saria.

"We want to join you guys to America!" Tails said joyously.

"If...that's alright with you." Sonic said uneasily. It was obvious he wasn't used to this sort of thing.

"Of course, if you want to." I said with a smile, which he returned.

"By the way, Nick." Rayman said. "Ly said we were going to start some sort of army...what would we name it?"

I thought about it for a moment, allowing my mind to wander away from me, "Revolution." I said without thinking.

"The Revolution..." Sonic said. "Huh, not bad."

"You will be Revolutionary." I heard Max say.