Chapter 13
For those of you wondering where Tikal, Chaos, Cosmo, Maria and myself were living at, we decided to move to a small, beachside town, one that was close to Seaside Hill. And the only reason we did so was because I knew that Sonic Heroes would be the next game canonically. And in the process, I'd kept tabs on Eggman and, during the next 6 months, he had managed to complete working on Shadow, but he did let me know of one thing.
"His memory is... harder to program than I thought. I swear that I didn't do anything to it intentionally and that it got very badly damaged during the repairs of his body... I think I could put in memories of Maria and what he'd done to save the world... but it'd mean he'd need to be in a cryogenic capsule for at least a month," Eggman said, me frowning at that.
"Just make sure that the thing is protected at all costs," I said, him nodding. "And remember, no false memories."
"Yeah, yeah," he groaned at me. And then, after nearly 1 month (not a full month... one day beforehand) I saw the cogs turning for the first parts of Sonic Heroes. Rouge had managed to reach Shadow's capsule room, but luckily, he had only 10 hours left until the process would end, which Eggman assured me that the final three days would be mainly the memories of Gerald Robotnik and nothing else. But that wasn't the thing that I was most concerned about. I had sensed that Eggman had gotten captured about a week prior and, in his place, Metal Sonic had noted Shadow's project and only then proceeded to make incomplete Shadow androids, which were all on the same location that Eggman was at.
Not only that, but I'd also sensed that Chocola the Chao (who I'd learned during visits to Cream was Cheese's sister) and Froggy were in the same area and currently being copied within Metal Sonic! Not to mention the fact that Team Chaotix was also getting involved in the adventure at Seaside Hill ahead of us and that Team Sonic were well on their way to Seaside Hill from a distant desert. And other than that?
"Uuugggghhh..." Chaos groaned as she emerged from the bathtub (her bedroom) and looked like she was extremely drained, which made Tikal gasp.
"Oh my gosh! What happened to you, Chaos?" Tikal asked in shock after sensing the watery Chao's life force. It was very drained, and I knew exactly why that was.
"I don't know... I feel like I've been... violated... water... need water..." Chaos groaned, me then immediately getting two water bottles from the fridge and pouring them right into her, since that's how she drank. And afterwards, she looked to be better, but also very annoyed. "I remember one thing... someone siphoned power from me... that means we've got to find out who it was and get some sweet vengeance!" Chaos said with anger.
"Again with the revenge plot?... Why can't we just get along?" Tikal asked as I simply frowned as I searched deeper into Chaos... and sensed that there was something specific that was siphoned from her.
"I think it'd be wise to go through with it, Tikal. Whoever siphoned power from Chaos siphoned one crucial part. Her link with the Chaos Emeralds," I said, that making Chaos gasp.
"W-WHAT?! No! I-If I'm separated from their link for too long, I'll turn into a puddle forever!" Chaos shouted in fear.
"H-How long do we have, then?" Maria asked in concern.
"We only have 6 days at least to get my powers back from whoever took them! I have no doubt that Eggman would be the only one smart enough to figure out how to do something like this!" Chaos said with seriousness, me then sighing.
"Not likely," I said, her looking confused. "I've been keeping close tabs on Eggman since the Shadow repairs were underway and right now I can tell you two things. One, Eggman has been in the same location for roughly a week, not being able to leave an area of 20 feet cubed for a good long while... and second, I've sensed that Shadow has been woken up just now by Rouge, accidentally..." I said, that making Maria gasp at the second part.
"W-What?! B-But then... th-that means that he might have faulty memories!" she shouted.
"We both agreed that the last memories he'd receive would be the ones about Gerald Robotnik creating him, since it was the least important thing... but as for the Eggman being trapped in a single place, I think he may have gotten captured by someone else. We need to find out who stole Chaos's energy by sensing for who else may have her specific DNA in her," I said, them nodding.
"Sounds like a good idea... but then where do we begin?" Cosmo asked as I then proceeded to sense the vicinity around us and sensed a match in the Ocean Palace near us!
"I sense it's at a set of ruins near the beach we're next to! We need to go out there now!" I said with seriousness, them nodding as all four of us then left the building and proceeded to rush towards the Seaside Hill. And it was here that we saw a bunch of Eggman Robots patrolling the area, which meant we had to fight our way through... but even worse? We found that there were specific blue Eggman robots and that they had a power source in the form of different Chao!
"I know for a fact that Eggman wouldn't be stupid enough to make Chao into a power source for his robots, especially if he's been captured!" Maria said with seriousness for me.
"But why are there Eggman robots that are being powered by Chao? All the other ones seem to have been switched to regular energy conversion as opposed to being powered by animals, thank the sun, but why?" Tikal asked in confusion.
"I don't know, but that means we've got another duty to fulfill whilst chasing after the one responsible for stealing Chaos's powers. Free all the Chao we can from every single one of these robots!" I said as I then sensed out around the world, seeing that every single area we needed to visit had exactly 5 Chao trapped in robots, like a regular collect-a-thon style. And we'd so far destroyed 3 in the area we were currently in. We proceeded to do the rest of the Chao rescuing in both Seaside Hill and the Ocean Palace immediately after, but we also found something else, which was hidden inside one of the giant rocks near the end of the level. It was the green Chaos Emerald.
"Well, until we can get my power back, I'm going to require these Chaos Emeralds in my body. It'll extend the time I have until I turn into a puddle," Chaos said as she then took the Emerald and absorbed it, becoming Chaos 1 in the process.
"Just make sure not to use all 7," I said, her scoffing at me.
"Even if I did, I only turn into a monster if I use the negative force of the Emeralds. If I use the positive force, I am able to become like you, Sonic, and Shadow during our previous adventure. I believe you called it 'Going Super'," she said smugly. Should've seen that coming. But regardless, we then arrived at the entrance to the Egg Hawk fight, where we saw that the giant bird machine was there, raring to go. And who was in the cockpit?
"So, you're the ones playing games with my army?" asked the voice of Eggman. But Cosmo and Tikal gasped when they sensed him.
"You... are not Eggman! You aren't even alive!" Cosmo gawked, that making the 'Eggman' look surprised.
"And I can sense that you have a Chao and Froggy inside of you!... What monster are you?" Tikal asked in shock. After she said that, the visage changed via T-1000 to reveal the real threat, that being Neo Metal Sonic.
"You are very clever to see through my disguise. But it won't be enough to stop my plans!" he said angrily before then starting to shoot bullets from the machine, me using the yellow emerald powers to stop them in their tracks and then rushing forward with the others. And as we fought, Chaos shouted at the robot angrily.
"GIVE ME BACK MY POWERS!" Chaos shouted as she slammed her liquid arm into the left rooter, resulting in the Egg hawk to start to go out of control... before falling into the water! It was awesome!
"This isn't the end!" the metallic menace exclaimed before zooming off on his own rather than using the Eggmobile. Tikal was about to chase after him... before Metal Sonic went SUPER FAST! And she then gawked at the speeds he went, since it was Mach 3!
"Oh my god, we can't fly at those speeds! We need to defeat him before he does anything worse than capturing Chao!" Maria gawked at Metal Sonic's powers.
"What the hell was that? And why did it look like a robotic Sonic?" Tikal asked... before we heard a voice behind us.
"Sounds an awful lot like Metal Sonic," said a cocky voice, us looking behind us and gawking at how Team Sonic was there behind us!
"Sonic! When'd you get here?" I asked in surprise.
"As soon as that metallic jerk revealed himself. Metal Sonic is probably Eggman's most dangerous creation. He basically took all of the speed and powers I have and made them into a robot that, half the time, doesn't even listen to the doctor himself! He must've gotten some kind of upgrade to be able to change shape like that. We need to find him and beat him before going after Eggman!" Sonic said with seriousness, that making Cosmo gawk.
"He's also got Froggy and a Chao trapped inside of him for some reason... thankfully, with our sensing powers, we can find out where they're at... and I sense that Metal Sonic is proceeding to a large city, one filled with... some kind of red liquid... and this red liquid originates from a nearby kingdom called Soleanna," she said, me then gawking at that, though internally. That made me upset that Sonic 2006 was going to happen. But maybe we could find a way to stop it from going out of control? And since there wouldn't be any glitches, we could do it without bad loading times and glitches stopping us from playing the game.
"Let's get going, then! Either he or Eggman sent a letter to us saying he'd conquer the world in 4 days!" Tails said, me then nodding as I tried to use Chaos Control to warp to Metal Sonic... but I was surprised at how I was unable to do so with sensing him specifically!
"Dammit! I can't use Chaos Control to warp to that bucket of bolts! Why won't it work?" I asked in surprise.
"It's because he's got numerous life forces within him. That's the only thing that is flawed about Chaos Control. Trust me, I know what I'm talking about," Maria said, me frowning at that.
"Looks like we'll need to go there the old-fashioned way, then. Either by flight or by running. Anyone want to fly along with me, Tikal, Maria, or Cosmo?" I asked, that making Chaos shake her head as she simply pointed at the water.
"I like running, sure, but I'm not fast enough to run on water... yet," Sonic smirked, me smiling at that. He was right, not fast enough YET. Tails happily latched onto my body as Knuckles held onto Tikal and Sonic onto Maria.
"The feeling's mutual, just so we're clear," Sonic said to her.
"Nice to know, but I'm already taken regardless. Maybe go for the pink hedgehog instead," Maria smiled, Sonic about to say something, but he was cut off by us zooming off into the distance, going nearly as fast as Mach 1, which was enough to spook the hedgehog. And as for Chaos? I'd already sensed that, since she jumped in the ocean, she proceeded to use her powers to teleport herself right to land, which was roughly 200 miles ahead of us!
"Chaos is a cheater, there I said it," I smiled.
"She's also kinda weird with how she gains power with every emerald... but what happens when she gets all 7?" Sonic asked.
"If she absorbs the negative energies of the emeralds, she turns into a monster. If she absorbs the positives, it's the equivalent of your super form you used to save the Earth and the ARK," Tikal said, me smirking at that.