Into the Void Again: Pt 3

"Everybody, duck and cover." Knuckles exclaimed as the three mobians dove for safety. "Angry water monster at 3 o' clock." Two watery tentacles lunged at the mobian trio, barely missing them as they swept the battlefield. Seeing his trio of targets had eluded his watery grip, Chaos leapt towards Nestor the Wise. Both of his watery talons ready to taste blood.

"Yes. That's it, my pet." Emperor Ix gloated. "Destroy these so-called heroes who dare to stand against my divine will." Chaos roared in anger, a challenge to all of the mobians in front of them.

"Guys, this isn't going well." Shade exclaimed. "He's taking everything we can dish out. There's got to be a strategy that will allow us to get the better of him." Nestor tried to free himself but only managed to irritate the creature into squeezing him tighter.

"AHH!" the echidna sage screamed in agony.

"Nestor! Don't worry, I got you." Knuckles stated. Diving straight for Chaos' outstretched arm, he sliced the aquatic appendage in half, freeing Nestor causing the creature to writhe in pain.

"Good going, kid." Nestor commented. "Now, don't you guys let that ball of snot get the better of you. Don't let up for a second."

"I'm on it." Shade declared, leaping into the air and throwing a series of glowing spheres into the middle of Chaos. The grenades seemed to float in its slimy body for a few seconds before an explosion happened to reduce the feared god of destruction to a few snot puddles. "Yeah, we did it. We won."

At that moment, they could see several of the blue fragments of snot-like goo crawl towards each other and reform back into Chaos.

"Darn, I thought we had him that time." Knuckles said, snapping his fingers. "We got to find a way to make it fall apart and stay that way."

"You fools, Chaos is the god of destruction." Imperator Ix boasted. "Such a creature cannot simply be destroyed as long as the power of six emeralds are with him."

"Then, we need a way to sever that power." Shade added, jumping out of the way of a chaos spear blast. "There has to be a way to neutralize the emerald energy inside of him."

The creature roared in defiance, lunging a hand at the trio again causing them to leap out of the way. As Bunny turned to look back at Chaos, he noticed two glowing shards inside the beast's body.

"Knuckle-hun. Ah see somethin' strange floatin' around inside the beast." She called out. "Y'all think it could be somethin' important?" Knuckles gazed at the two shiny shards drifting through Chaos' slime and his internal radar suddenly went off.

"Those are Master Emerald shards." Knuckles exclaimed. "How did they get in there?"

"Chaos must have sensed their power and mistook the shards for two of the emeralds." Shade explained. "He must have absorbed the pieces sometime after he got free."

"Knuckles, I think I know what we need to do." Nestor chimed in, stroking his beard. "Do you see all of those power rings lining the room?" The three heroes looked up and saw row after row of floating power rings going up the walls.

"Yeah, so."

"The rings are pure order, just like the Master Emerald is." Nestor smiled. "If one of you were to collect the rings and charge directly at Chaos feeding their energy straight into the shards…"

"The power of order would charge the two emerald shards and neutralize the six chaos emeralds inside of him." Shade finished. "Nestor, you're a genius."

"Girls, keep this disgusting blob busy while I get the rings." Knuckles stated, scratching his nose. "Then, we've got a greasy blob to fry… Cajun-style."

"Y'all got it sugar." Bunny agreed. "Hey, you big tube of glittery toothpaste. Bet you can't catch me." RAWRR! The creature fired two eye beams at Bunny, hitting her straight on each ear. "HEY!" She screamed jumping over to the far side of the room. "You burned my ear bows off." Angrily, Bunny fired her cybernetic arm deep into the center of the beast, slamming her extended fist right into his soft and vulnerable brain. The entire monster quivered and writhed in agony before sending a charge of pure chaos energy straight up Miss Rabbot's arm. "AAIIIIIEE!" Her body lit up like a pinball machine. "HOLY HOPPIN' HORN TOADS!"

"BUNNY!" Shade exclaimed, charging up her wrist blaster and firing. The shots seemed to only make the blob-like creature angry as it moved its way towards the armored echidna girl.

Meanwhile, Knuckles began jumping up the crystal shards sticking out of the wall, climbing with his shovel claws farther and farther until he reached a ledge just below the ceiling.

"This is it. This is a moment in a man's life when he finds out whether he's an echidna or a mouse." Pulling out his wallet, and looking at a picture for a moment. "My apologizes to you for that last comment, Relic." Driving down from the ceiling, Knuckles glided around and around in circles collecting the endless rings of rings that mysteriously floated over everyone's heads. "Boy, I wish Sonic could see me right now." He chuckled. "He'd be so jealous he couldn't use his light speed shoes here." He thought for a moment. "Gee, I gotten almost 100 rings now. I wonder when I'm going to earn an extra life.

"Knuckles, hurry up with those rings up there." Shade screamed pulling out her chaos blades; jumping right at the attacking creature's head, she sliced the charging Chaos right across his glowing eyes. "All the better to see me with."

"Bad form, Shade. Bad form." Ix stated, shaking his head. "You're not half as honorable as your late sister was."

"HOW DARE YOU BRING UP MY SISTER!?" Shade roared, leaping right at Ix and slashing him at a moment he was unprepared. "YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO TALK ABOUT HER, YOU BAST-."

"NOO! SHADE, DON'T!" Bunny called out. "HE'S TRYING TO DISTRACT YOU!"

"ARGH!" Ix roared as he moved to block Shade's attack with his staff. The chaos blade cut his scepter in half causing it to flicker and fade out. "STUPID CHILD! You have destroyed my control rod." Suddenly, Chaos grabbed both mobian girls in his tentacles. "But it really doesn't matter because Chaos is going to destroy both of you anyway."

"AHH! KNUCKLES, HELP US!" The two girls were engulfed by Chaos pulled into his quivering mass of a slimy body and began to absorb all of their energy.

"Hang on, girls. I'm coming." Knuckles stated, gathering the last of the rings, gliding straight down towards Chaos. The last of the Knuckles clan let out a defiant roar as Chaos opened is wide jaws and shallowed the poor little echidna whole.

RUHHUHHUHHUH! Huh? The disgusting blob of Chaos started to laugh until a golden light shone from deep within him. The creature began to panic and flail about as rays of light burst from his body.

"NO, YOU IDIOT! SPIT THEM OUT! SPIT THEM OUT!" Ix screamed, realizing what the heroes were trying to do. "IF YOU DON'T YOU GOING TO…" BOOM! At that moment, Chaos suffered from emerald indigestion. When the light faded, there was no trace of the blob or Ix anywhere. The four mobians were laying on the ground engulfed in a green and slimy goo.

"Eww, this is gross. This is so gross." Shade added. "It reminds me of a weird dream I once had after eating too many pizza rolls one night."

"Ugh, I think we beat him." Knuckles replied, climbing out of the goo and wiping it off his face and arms. "Is everybody alright?"

"I believe we are all in good condition except for Ix." Nestor commented looking over at the slimy spot where the emperor had been standing. "I believe it was possible he was vaporized in the ensuing explosion of order energy."

"Hey, where's Bunny?" Knuckles asked, looking around. "Has anyone seen Bunny?" The three survivors looked around until they saw a large cocoon-like ball of snot moving at the far side of the chamber. A pair of floppy rabbit ears could be made out moving in the snot pile.

"Bunny, is that you?" Knuckles called out, running out to where the moving slimeball was. "Bunny, are you okay?"

"Ah… Ah think so, sugar." The rabbit mobian replied. "But I feel kinda funny." Bunny Rabbot stood up and everyone present let out a gasp. Where he metal arm and legs had been were now flesh and fur, exposed for all to see.

"Bunny, your robotisized parts…" Shade stated. "They are normal again."

"What are you…" She said as she looked down. "HOLY HORSE APPLES! I'm me again."

"Hmm… the chaos energy must have restored yourselves to normal somehow." Nestor explained. "I believe you should find your appendages are as good as new." Just then, the whole room began to shake and rumble all around them.

"Hey, what is that?" Knuckles asked. "What's going on?"

"The crystal palace must have been damaged by the chaos-order explosion." Shade explained. "We better get out of here before the whole place comes down." The four mobians quickly fled out of that part of the special zone leaving a crumbling pile of shattered crystal in their wake. But after they had fled the area and departed, a lone fist burst out of the debris covered with green snot and wearing Ix's dark glove.

"It's not over yet, Knuckles…"