Chapter Eleven
He shut down the communications channel, signing off with his creator.
Omega made sure the frog was safely secure in his metallic grasp, then he fired up his rockets and took off to the sky, leaving Emerald Coast behind with very few people watching. The frog croaked and often struggled in Omega's grip, but it's attempts to escape were to no avail.
Omega soared through the blue sky, flying over Station Square and heading in the direction of the Mystic Ruins and the doctor's base, the Egg Carrier was waiting there and there was no doubt that Omega's brothers had returned from their respective searches by now.
Just then, his sensors picked up an energy signature in the vicinity, flying in his direction. Omega buzzed and looked around, searching for the source of the mysterious new energy spike.
A glowing orange-colored orb floated into view, fluttering around him and letting off sparks of energy. Omega scanned the mysterious specter, trying to get a reading and identify whatever this new thing was.
He continued to scan in flight, trying to find some identification, when the glowing ball of light came closer to him and the world around him vanished.
The combat robot's vision came back online in seconds, but when he blinked and surveyed his surroundings, he wasn't in the air with the frog in his possession anymore; he was somewhere else, an unknown environment with torches and pyramids and some unknown architecture he'd never seen before.
Omega surveyed his new environment, then he spotted a massive structure close by, one that looked oddly familiar.
"LOCATION: MYSTIC RUINS!" Omega buzzed, "IMPOSSIBLE! THE RUINS BECAME WHAT THEY ARE A LONG TIME AGO! THAT MYSTERIOUS ORB IS CAUSING HALLUCINATIONS, UNACCEPTABLE, ROBOTS DO NOT HALLUCINATE! THIS ENVIRONMENT WILL BE EXAMINED AND EXTERMINATED, EXTERMINATE, EXTERMINATE!"
He was about to activate his weapons systems when the logical side of the robot activated, and for the first time in his existence. If this was an illusion, a vision of a long-lost civilization before it fell into ruin, then what was the point in obliterating everything and trying to change history?
Omega revised his priority, he would explore the environment and take it in. Usually, it was an A.I.'s job to learn before it acted, even though Robotnik programmed his robots to obey his commands.
The combat robot began scoping around the area, scanning and examining the architecture of the nearby temples. By that point, he could see red dreadlocked humanoids in tribal gear wandering around.
One quick scan and they almost resembled Knuckles in appearance. Since this was the ancient past, then Omega had just gotten a look at the ancestors to the Master Emerald's guardian.
"I don't know what you are supposed to be..." One echidna said, "But you look like a fighter."
"AFFIRMATIVE!" Omega buzzed.
"We need more fighters, many of us love to fight, our leader is a warrior. This is the way!"
The echidna warrior walked off and started talking with another echidna warrior, Omega then looked up at the structure that was meant to be the Mystic Ruins temple.
He could see the statues from when they were in their prime, way before the place became an overgrown jungle where the doctor set up his base, before Omega blasted away one of the statues during his first fight with Big.
He scanned the area, thinking of what else he could find. Omega fired up his rockets and hovered towards a cave, passing by piles of rocks and looking around for hidden secrets in the stone.
Light came up at the further end of the tunnel and Omega exited into a lush landscape, surrounded by grass with a stream of water beneath a bridge that led to... an altar. It couldn't be, Omega floated in closer for inspection, that altar looked familiar and so too did that giant green gemstone in the middle of it.
Impossible, it was the Master Emerald in it's prime, and the seven Chaos Emeralds were surrounding it. Omega looked around, scanning the gemstones with the seven emeralds sitting atop a set of pillars surrounding the large green emerald.
Then, he heard cooing and humming sounds. Omega's eyes darted down and his jetpack started to deactivate as he came in to land.
With the sounds piercing his sensors, he scanned for the source and spotted a pair of squat light-blue creatures with wings and dotted blue eyes by the altar, dancing and humming with one of them at the front as if it was leading the sounds.
Omega couldn't translate their... language... clearly, but it sounded like they were saying "Chao", over and over again...
"Don't come any closer."
An orange female echidna stood next to Omega, wearing blue wrist bracelets, a gold tiara, a white top, white sandals and a multi-colored tribal skirt. One scan from Omega and he could tell who this girl was, the echidna chieftain's daughter.
The echidna studied Omega, just as Omega was studying her closely. She looked concerned, but after another minute, she relaxed her face and her shoulders.
"I'm sorry..." She said, her tone sounding serene, "You must not be one of them, but you and the rest of the clan share the same color, but I don't recall any one of them wearing black on their fur or their outfits. I don't believe I've seen you around, you're... very different, just like me, and them..."
Omega's new acquaintance turned towards the creatures as they continued to sing, "Have you noticed? The presence guarding these innocent creatures. He's a kind and gentle being and, without his protection, the Chao are too vulnerable.
"It's thanks to this protection that the Chao can continue to sing and play in peace, I was surprised the first time I saw them and when we first met. But now, my father and his men are trying to take their sacred home, trying to take the Master Emerald. I've tried to reason with him, tried to make him peacefully see the light.
"But his heart is closed off to all of us, corrupted and blinded by the thralls of greed and power. And yet, my true hope is that we'll be able to understand each other one day."
Omega heard a dripping sound and the Chao's singing stopped, he looked up, spotting a puddle of water appearing. Then the puddle shifted, taking the form of the creature he'd seen before.
"There you are..." Tikal said.
The robot was processing what he had to say, but then the mysterious environment vanished into whiteness, along with the echidna, Chaos and the Chao as darkness overcame Omega's vision...