Sonic Series Fan Fiction ❯ Chaos Entity: The Opened Heart ❯ Part One: A True Friend Never Dies ( Chapter 1 )

Disclaimer

I'm one of those weird people who doesn't actually like the world of Sonic as set out in the AoSTH and SatAM cartoons (if you don't know what I mean, go away and read Dan Drazen's stories). I guess you could call me a Sega traditionalist.

In this fanfic, you won't therefore be seeing Princess Sally, Bunnie Rabbot, Snively or any of the supporting characters from the show. As far as possible, I stick to the original character of each person and not their Americanized alter egos. That means Sonic's middle name is NOT Maurice. Maurice? UGH! oO;;;

This is the "FanFiction.Net Edit" of Chaos Entity. The original version is in plain .TXT format and is, IMHO, superior. You can find it on Arcana, or you could the last time I checked. It also happens to be posted at TSF, but Sonic HQ never replied to my emails -_-;

A word to the wise: ALWAYS play Sonic Adventure with the Japanese voices.

*

Characters

"Sonic" Takeshi Hedgehog
"Tails" Miles Prower
Amy Rose
Knuckles The Echidna
Big The Cat
E-102, Gamma
Doctor "Eggman" Robotnik
Metal Sonic
"Chao"

Everything in this fanfic, but EVERYTHING, expressly sole property of Sega and used utterly without permission. What? No fan characters to copyright??

*

What The Heck Does That Mean Anyway?

Konichiwa: Hello
Sayonara: Good-bye
Gomen nasai: Excuse me
Domo arigato: Thanks!
Ne?: Don't you agree?
Nani?: What?
Itai: Ouch/It hurts/pain
Sonic wa hitori dake:
There can be only one Sonic
Tupekku: Holy crap
Kawaii: Adorable (c'mon, you knew that one!)
Atchi: This way
-san: Honorific "Sir"
-kun, -chan: Friendly form of address

*

Thanks To

Catilina, for allowing me to bug her constantly about this story
NetRaptor, for the supportive MB post
Blitz, for getting me out of several plot holes
Seph, for inspiring the Chao sequences
Eerie the Gengar, for being my fave Pokémon ^_^

*

CHAOS ENTITY:
THE OPENED HEART

PART ONE
A True Friend Never Dies

Water lapped gently against the side of the rusting behemoth. The sound it made, a soft rhythmic slop-slop, mirrored the gentle swelling of the pale waves streaking the ocean. The sun shone brightly down through clear skies to touch the sea and the grounded bulk of the shattered Egg Carrier, half-beached on the shores of the small island off Mystic Ruins.

The sun shone down on something else, too; something that should not have been there. On the wide circular top of the flying fortress, there lay scattered pieces of black metal, some of the paint peeling from long exposure to sun and spray. Crumpled against the edge of this arena was the rusting, long-forgotten corpse of some mechanical device. Once-powerful pistons and servomotors, now corroded beyond repair, were strewn around the thing, and tiny pieces of smashed glass also decorated the pitted floor beside it.

A soft footstep. A small red-gold form rose with unconscious grace onto the deck of the fallen war machine, held up against gravity by -strangely- a whirring pair of twin tails. Bright blue eyes scanned the area with awed interest.

"Woah... Sonic really laid into this place."

Tails's muzzle twitched. Only the scent of salt and, beneath that, rust, greeted his sensitive nose. He hadn't really been sure what he was expecting when he took the boat out to the Egg Carrier; only that there sure was nothing alive here apart from the seagulls.

He knelt down suddenly, his sharp eyes catching sight of something on the ground. It was a piece of twisted metal. Carefully, the little fox slipped his paws around the rusted lattice and lifted it up, holding it against the light. "E-101," he read. The final character was obliterated. "E-101?"

Tails stood up, brushing himself down with one hand and holding on to the piece of steel with the other. This was a mystery. He knew about the fight with Chaos that had taken place here; Sonic had told him all of that. He also knew from Amy that she had faced off against a sentry bot called Zero on this very spot. But these pathetic remains were another puzzle. How many other battles had taken place here?

"It's like it's some kind of focal point," he murmured. "It's drawn us all here again and again." Creepy. He shivered, and dropped the battered relic. It fell apart at his feet, its legend now lost forever.

He trotted across the cracked glass surface, wary of the badly damaged areas. The more intact robot had caught his eye - he wasn't sure (who could be, after all the ravages exposure had wrought on these remains?) but he thought that he maybe recognised what was left. Kneeling beside the wreck, he ran his paw gently over the peeling, rusted flank of the robot. "E-102 Gamma," he breathed softly.

A thought struck him. Was there anything that could be salvaged? Tails stood up again, deciding to head back to his workshop for tools. He was no ace with mechs; planes were his forte, but he was no way going to leave any of this cool stuff for Eggman to pick over.

*

"Nut!" Seph demanded, bristling.

"I think he's hungry," Knuckles remarked, watching the golden lion Chao try to bite Sonic, who dodged.

"He's your problem, go feed him," the hedgehog retorted.

Since Eggman's plans had been foiled for hopefully the last time, Sonic and Knuckles had been filling out their spare time in the Chao Gardens. Never the best of friends, they could have a little friendly rivalry through the Chao - which was a less painful way of settling disputes than beating each other up.

"Seph is not a problem," Knuckles said, offended. "If any of them are problems, it's that neurotic Phooey. Why the heck did you call him Phooey, anyway?"

"Phooey. As in, aw, phooey." Sonic shrugged.

"And Ditzer," Knuckles went on, irritated. "I mean, Ditzer? That's not even a word."

"Ditz for short," the hedgehog reminded him with a grin. "He reminds me of Amy."

The echidna closed his eyes. "You'll get it in the neck if she hears you said that."

"At least mine are good-tempered," Sonic said, ignoring the veiled threat. "Seph just likes biting chunks out of everything that comes near him. Must take after you."

"And there's nothing wrong with that," Knuckles said.

"Yada neh. Gonna do anything interesting after this?"

"What's interesting? Eggman's beaten, Chaos is vanquished. Angel Island is back in the sky. There's nothing to do."

Sonic put his hands on his hips. "You should go to Twinkle Park like the rest of us. It's pretty cool now that I've zapped all the robots."

"Brag, brag," Knuckles sighed. "I was the one who defeated Chaos."

"And I defeated Eggman. What's your point?"

"Oh, whatever." The echidna scowled and stomped off. Seph watched him go with wide eyes, and then sat down and went to sleep.

Sonic sighed. "Wait, Knux." Running after him, he got in front of the echidna before he could leave the garden. "Let's not fall out, okay? Everything's groovy."

Knuckles snorted. "Gomen nasai. I'm in a bad mood, that's all. You should stay out of my way when I'm mad."

"Oh, like I'm really scared," Sonic smiled, making a joke out of what nearly hadn't been funny. "C'mon, dude. This is a vacation, remember? Lighten up. Take a powder. Stay frosty."

"Shut up, idiot." Knuckles shoved him, but it was a nice shove, a playful shove. Sonic grinned.

"Relax, muscle-head. I promised Amy I'd take her to the burger bar downtown. Do me a favour and come with us so it won't look like I'm dating someone half my age."

"She's only a few years younger than you," Knuckles remarked.

Sonic rolled his eyes. "Yeah, a few years too many. So, whadda ya say, O red dreaded one? Coming?"

"Only if you pay."

*

Eggman's vacated base in the Mystic Ruins was lit up even in the daytime, powered by some undiscovered generator hundreds of feet beneath the surface. Between them, Sonic, Amy and Tails had cleaned out most of the evil robots that once guarded the place, but it was still unwise to enter the Final Egg industrial machinery that led down to his secret workshops. Which was why the young pink hedgehog who slipped cautiously through the cable car door, had no intention of going in there. Amy Rose was here for another reason - one which Sonic would definitely have disapproved of.

Quietly padding across the room, her footsteps muffled by the sneakers she wore, she tiptoed past the stasis tube that held the mechanical Silver Sonic imprisoned and deactivated. Another tube, empty, had once held the good-hearted robot E-102 Gamma, the one who had saved Amy on board the Egg Carrier. She went past this one with nary a glance.

It was the third tube Amy came here for. Behind inch-thick nuclear-forged protective glass, a robot floated lifeless in the stasis field. Its small size - only two thirds the height and weight of Silver Sonic - did not suggest a particularly dangerous foe. But that did not explain the heavily reinforced glass; nor the security systems that surrounded the tube. Obviously, this was something that Eggman valued very much. The mech's deep, rich, blue body glittered with a polished hue underneath the yellowish-green fluorescent lights. Across the back of its left hand were stenciled the characters, MS-01. A faint crimson light emanated from its eyes, showing that its systems were working just enough to prevent utter shutdown.

"Konichiwa, Metaru-kun," Amy said, touching the glass lightly with her fingertips. "It's me again. How are you?"

There was no response from the stasis tube.

"Sorry I didn't come earlier. I've been really tied up in Station Square, there's so much to do now! Knux is staying around for a while, I think I told you that. So we've all been doing stuff together. It's pretty cool really."

Amy chattered on happily for many minutes, and the robot gave her not one single sign of awareness. She knew that Metal Sonic could never be listening to her inside the stasis tube, but it gave her some pleasure to be able to confide in someone who would never give away her secrets. If "Metaru" could have heard her, it would know all about her crush on Sonic, her daily doings in Station Square, how she had stood up to Zero all by herself, and a thousand other minor details about her life. It was kind of like a diary which nobody would ever be able to read.

She had been coming here since the first time she had entered this place in search of a little bird's family. Amy had been shocked and surprised to find Metal Sonic imprisoned, but at the same time she was almost glad he was here. She had felt sorry for him ever since he had kidnapped her on Little Planet, and Sonic had come after him to save her. Amy didn't think she was necessarily a particularly soft touch, but sometimes, as with E-102 Gamma, she felt a special bond with certain things... animate or not. It was nice to know that Metaru hadn't been destroyed after failing to terminate Sonic, as most of Eggman's failed projects were. Sometimes she wondered if there was a way to set him free of the tube, but a look around at the hundreds of buttons and levers which surrounded her, always persuaded her that it would be far too difficult.

Besides, Sonic would totally kill her.

"I've been spending time with Sonie recently," she said, continuing her line of thought. "And I was wondering, Metaru-kun, is there any chance of us being an item? I never know how he feels about me. I mean, sometimes he acts like I'm two. But then sometimes he's so nice I feel like I could cry, he gives me presents and stuff. So do you think he likes me like a sister..? Or could there be something more? I don't want to be chasing after him all my life if there's no hope for me with him. What do you think?"

There was no response.

"Domo arigato," Amy smiled. "I hope I'm not boring you with all this stuff! But I can't really confide in anyone else. I'm sure you understand me." She stood on tiptoes and pressed her muzzle against the glass, trying to look the robot in the eye. She wasn't tall enough to do it. "I'll come back soon," she promised, then happened to glance at her watch. "ACK! I'm supposed to be meeting Sonie in ten minutes! I'll have to run all the way to the station!" She waved and blew the robot a kiss, and then snatched up the small shoulder bag she had been carrying. "Sayonara!" she called back, hurrying to the cable car that would take her back to the Mystic Ruins jungle. The door slid to behind her with a mechanical hiss.

Inside the stasis tube, the eyes of Metal Sonic flickered red.

*

"Where the heck is she?" Sonic growled, tapping his foot irritatedly. In a moment, he leaped three feet into the air and then began to pace quickly to and fro upon the sidewalk. His spines were bristling.

Knuckles laughed slowly, leaning against the wall of a nearby shop. "Maybe she's stood you up."

"Oh, shut up," the hedgehog snarled. "Geez, I hate standing around!"

"I'd noticed," the echidna said dryly.

Sonic ignored him. "She's never on time! Why can't she just turn up early for once, huh?"

"She's only three minutes late," Knuckles pointed out. His laid-back tone only served to further infuriate his companion. Knuckles shrugged his powerful shoulders and muffled a yawn. "Hey, you should remember that not everyone lives on Sonic Time. The rest of us have to get along with plain ol' GMT."

"Ha ha," Sonic said sourly. "You're a real blast, you know that?"

"SONIE!" The high-pitched shriek made them both wince and clap their paws against their ears. Amy ran down the street towards them at top speed, trailing a small bag behind her. "Sorry I'm late!" she yelped, drawing up to them. "I got sidetracked, and then I missed the train, and-"

"-you were late," Knuckles finished, before Sonic could get a word in.

"Yeah. Ish."

"Why did I agree to this?" Sonic groaned. He hadn't been totally sanguine before, but the sight of Amy in the flesh was taking away all his enthusiasm. She was so irritatingly cute it was sick.

Amy pouted. "Aren't you glad to see me? I was talking to Metaru about you, actually, and-"

"Metaru?" Sonic interrupted. "Who's Metaru?"

The pink hedgehog sweatdropped. "Oops, heh heh, never mind. Anyway, are we gonna go in or not?"

Sonic blinked. "Uh. Sure. Whatever you say, Amy."

Amy bit her lip as she followed the other two into the burger bar. That had been too close. It wasn't in Amy's nature to keep secrets... she had this tendency to blurt them out to anyone who tolerated her chatter for more than a few minutes. Her friends usually coped with her overexcited conversation with a carefully timed "Shut up".

They took a window table, and Amy managed to sit down next to Sonic before he could grab Knuckles for that purpose. With a winning smile of victory, she snuggled up against him, causing a large sweatdrop to appear on his forehead. "I'll have a triple cheeseburger extra drippy, large fries, a strawberry sundae and a Diet Coke."

"Diet Coke?" Knuckles repeated doubtfully, taking his seat opposite them.

"I'm trying to lose weight."

The echidna shook his head slowly. "Hey, Sonic, she is a ditz, isn't she?"

"Wha?" Amy exclaimed. "Sonie, you creep!" She whanged him on the head with her mallet.

"I'll get you for that, Knux," Sonic groaned, rubbing a sore spot between his ears.

"Sure. Well, since you're paying, I'll have the same as her. But make mine a regular Coke."

The hedgehog let out another groan. This was going to hurt his wallet. "Maybe I shoulda left you on Angel Island. Hey, lady, we're ready to order over here!" This last was not addressed to Knuckles.

Three triple cheeseburgers later, Amy asked, "Anything happen here while I was gone?"

"In a word, no," Sonic said, picking bits of cheese from the bottom of his burger box. "I haven't been this bored since... well... ever. I kinda wish Chaos would come back or something."

"You don't want Perfect Chaos," Knuckles said seriously. "No way. There's not a person among us who could stand up to him."

The hedgehog snapped his fingers. "Oh yeah, the one who allegedly brought the echidna civilisation low. I saw the mural."

"You saw it?" Knuckles said, surprised. "How could-"

"Tikal," Sonic said simply. The others were silent for a long moment.

"How many times did _you_ see her?" Amy asked eventually.

Sonic sighed. "Just once. The Chao-"

"Don't," Knuckles said. "Don't talk about Tikal." His voice was strangely tight, and Sonic looked at him in surprise. There was a faint gleam in the red echidna's eyes, and if Sonic wasn't very much mistaken, it was the closest he had ever come to tears. The hedgehog's ears flattened as he felt a strange prickling up his spine.

"We should get together, all of us, and talk about Tikal someday," Amy said. "I guess we all got different parts of the story. If we put them together, we might understand all this stuff."

"All I know," Sonic said carefully, "is that it was way past weird. I didn't think I was the sort of guy to have visions."

"Yeah, well," Knuckles said. "I'm about as down-to-earth as they come, and I saw her many times. Let's leave this, okay?"

"Sure," Sonic answered softly. "If you want."

"Let's go to a movie," Amy said brightly. "The Odeon has a special feature on right now. Three for the price of two!"

"No, thanks." Knuckles looked out of the window. "It's getting dark. I think I'll head back to Angel Island soon."

Sonic rolled his eyes. "Thus speaks Mr. Social Life."

"I've got responsibilities. If Chaos should-"

"Chaos?" Amy broke in. "Knuckles, Chaos is dead. He's never coming back."

"You can't kill Chaos," the echidna answered seriously. "Somewhere out there, Chaos is waiting. It's my job to prevent him from ever getting hold of the Emeralds again."

Sonic made an interrogatory noise. "If Chaos is so dangerous, how come you're still hanging on to the Emeralds? Couldn't we just destroy them?"

"There's a legend that Chaos has a good and a bad side," Knuckles explained. "So far we've only seen the bad. But if I ever find the right vessel for the power, the Chaos Emeralds could be used to protect the world."

"'Heal the world, make it a better place...'" Sonic crooned. Knux kicked him under the table.

"Chaos, Chaos, Chaos!" Amy said, exasperated. "All we ever talk about is Chaos! Isn't there anything better to do?"

"Raise Chao," Sonic suggested.

"Yeah, like I wanna spend my life doing THAT."

"Tails says I'm crazy spending time with them. But... I kinda like it. They're pretty cool." From Sonic, that was the highest form of praise.

Knuckles stood up abruptly. "Well, come on then. If you've got nothing better to do, I suggest you occupy yourselves usefully. I'm heading back to Angel Island to try and fix up the altar. You can help me rebuild it."

Sonic and Amy looked at each other doubtfully. "I guess it might be fun," Amy said.

*

Tails was hard at work. He'd collected up every spare bit of hardware he could cannibalize from the Egg Carrier and his workshop was strewn with them, as well as with bits of plane from the first Tornado, now nothing more than scrap metal. The fox had hooked up what was left of E-102's central processor to his old computer and was trying to find out just how badly the module was damaged. Through Telnet.

//ACCESS DENIED//

The fox frowned, and consulted a printout he had ready. "Fine. I'll try port 122."

//ACCESS DENIED//

"123 then!"

//ACCESS DENIED//

"124?"

//ACCESS DENIED//

"Aw, phooey."

Security was tight on this guy. But then again, Tails was probably making an error in trying to treat E-102 like a web server. He rubbed his muzzle thoughtfully, wondering where he could find an ace programmer. Sonic was no good; the one and only time Tails had let the hedgehog use his PC, he'd caused three General Protection Faults trying to play Doom. Knuckles hadn't even seen a computer until Eggman crash-landed on his island. Amy couldn't operate her mobile phone.

Yeah, his friends were no good with technology. Tails got up off the bench where he'd been working, and laid hold of his moneybank. It was in the shape of a fat cartoon Eggman, and you opened it up by pulling both ends of the mustache. Sonic had given it to him as a birthday present. He shook the moneybank up and down sharply, and his ears drooped when a single lonely clink sounded from inside. He was on his own.

He turned back to the computer, wondering what to do next.

//SYSTEM ERROR. NO SENSORY INPUT RECEIVED. REQUEST LOCATION//

"Huh?" Tails yelped. That hadn't been there before! He leaped for the bench and typed in a message, his paws trembling slightly with excitement.

"Can you hear me?"

Words clicked up on the screen, green on black. //REQUEST IDENTITY OF OPERATOR//

Tails thought deeply for a moment. "Eggman," he typed in.

//IDENTITY NOT RECOGNISED//

The fox frowned, and then nodded brightly as he realised his mistake. He reached out to the keyboard again and typed: "Robotnik"

//USER IS DISQUALIFIED FROM OPERATING THIS SYSTEM//

"Why?" typed Tails, surprised.

//ABORT, RETRY, IGNORE, FAIL?//

Tails knew a delaying tactic when he saw it. For some reason, E-102 Gamma, or whoever it was controlling the messages, wasn't going to play ball with Eggman. The fox thought hard, and then sighed. He typed:

"I'm not Robotnik. I'm Tails."

//ABORT, RETRY, IGNORE, FAIL?//

"You don't believe me, huh?" This was war. He paused, fingers on the keys, and then typed some more. "Amy stopped you and Sonic from fighting, right? Eggman wasn't there. So I can't be him, because I know about that." He felt quite pleased with that logic.

//SYSTEM ERROR. NO SENSORY INPUT RECEIVED. REQUEST LOCATION//

"Does that mean you accept I'm Tails?"

//SYSTEM ERROR. NO SENSORY INPUT RECEIVED. REQUEST LOCATION//

"Oh, whatever. You're in my workshop."

//SYSTEM ERROR. NO SENSORY INPUT RECEIVED. REQUEST LOCATION//

"Mystic Ruins!"

//UNDERSTOOD//

Tails grinned. Gamma's computer was working! Somehow, after weeks of tossing about on top of a grounded airship, the delicate electronics inside that black box were still able to function. If he could now figure out how to speak computerese, he'd have a totally cool new PC.

Or was that fair?

I don't wanna exploit him like Eggman did, the fox thought miserably. I really don't. But I really want a computer I can talk to. It would be so cool.

"Hey, Gamma?" he typed. "You in there?"

//STANDING BY//

"Cool. Uh... I don't know how to fix you up. You're a total mess." That sure was true, he thought, glancing at the few rusted pieces he'd managed to get back to the workshop. Most of the smaller bits he tried to grab had fallen apart on him, and he hadn't been able to lug the heavy chassis and frame onto the boat, though he'd desperately wanted to. "You got any good ideas?"

Suddenly, complicated plans started to flash up on the screen. The diagrams and readouts whizzed past faster than the eye could even see. Frantically, Tails stabbed at the Escape key, but his computer seemed to have locked up. He sat back nervously and watched the information streak by. After nearly a minute, the screen cleared.

"I didn't get that."

//UNDERSTOOD. ATTEMPTING SECOND DOWNLOAD//

"No! Wait!"

//STANDING BY//

"Uh... I'm not a computer. I can't read all that stuff that fast. Can't you bring it up one bit at a time?"

//CLARIFY//

"Slower."

//UNDERSTOOD//

The screen cleared once more, and Tails found himself looking at what seemed to be a fantastically complicated circuit diagram. He recognised symbols meaning diodes, thermistors and capacitors from Electronics lectures in school, but most of it was way beyond him.

"These are your plans?" he typed in.

//AFFIRMATIVE//

"Wow."

*

Sonic's paws were on his hips as he critically regarded the Master Emerald's pedestal. A gentle breeze ruffled his spines, bringing with it the scent of the sea. Angel Island was settled neatly in the cup of a natural bay, in an uninhabited area of the Mystic Ruins. "And you want to do what with this?"

Knuckles ran a heavy claw lovingly over the worn stone of the altar. "My dream is to see this the way it was in Tikal's day - to have it restored. To have the Master Emerald perched on a lump of rock in the middle of a field is beneath its dignity." The huge green jewel pulsed softly with a seaweed fire, in time with the echidna's words.

Amy shook her head. "It won't ever be the same. I remember seeing the carvings and stuff, it was way too complicated. We-"

"Oh, I don't mean it's gotta look the same," Knuckles interrupted. "I just want there to be something here. To mark it."

"How about a big red X?" Sonic said sarkily.

"Don't push it, freak."

"Hey, I'm only here because I'm so bored I'm actually willing to spend an afternoon lifting rocks. You want to do this yourself, Amy an' me are happy enough to go to Twinkle Park."

"AIEEEE!" screamed Amy, clasping her hands together as she leaped up and down. "CAN WE???"

"Where should I start?" Sonic said quickly.

"Put that rock over there," Knuckles said, pointing. "This rock can go over here. That rock goes somewhere down there. That rock can just be tossed..."

"So what are you going to do?" Sonic asked suspiciously, pausing in the act of lifting a jagged fragment.

Knuckles looked around, and then selected a piece of masonry the size of his head. He flexed his hands and shook back his long spines. "I'll move this rock."

A few minutes passed in relative silence. The task was one that, while not difficult as such, required more than a little thought. Their objective first of all was to clear away all the old stone that was out of place on the altar - annoying, as half the pieces were deeply embedded in the earth after so many years of neglect. More than once, Knuckles was forced to resort to using the steel digging claws on his gloves, which he was reluctant to do in case he further damaged the ancient stone. Sonic was careless enough without the echidna adding to the injury by his clumsy strength.

"EIIIII!" screamed Amy suddenly.

"What now?" Sonic sighed.

"I BROKE A NAIL!" Tears started from the young pink hedgehog's eyes as she cradled her affected hand.

Sonic leaned close to Knuckles. "On the count of three, we throw her off the island," he stage-whispered.

"You hurt?" Knuckles asked, more prosaic.

"...no..." Amy sniffled. "But I don't have my repair kit! I'll have to walk around in this state until we get back to Station Square! It's terrible!" Knuckles facefaulted.

Sonic was ignoring Amy, more practised in reading her ways. He knelt on the ground, pulling grass up by the roots as he tried to free something from the soil. A gleam of red had caught his eye. It took him a few moments to pull the item out of the tenacious dirt, and a few more to brush the worst of the mud off it. It was a dark red gem, neatly cut in a simple octagonal diamond design and about two inches from top to bottom.

"Hey, Knux. Is this a Chaos Emerald or something?" He tossed it to the echidna.

"I don't think so. It's too small." Knuckles held it up to the sun. "Nah. Definitely not. It came out of the ground?"

"Just here." Sonic indicated the hole he had made.

"Can I have it?" Amy squealed. "It's so pretty!"

The other hedgehog and the echidna exchanged glances. "What if it's important?" Knuckles asked.

"Oh, give it to her. She'll only whine all evening if you don't."

"I don't whine!" Amy was insulted.

"Whatever," Knuckles said. "I don't think it's valuable, anyway. It's just cut glass." He threw the gem over to Amy. "Catch."

"Sure, take all the magic out of it," Amy pouted. "Eurgh! It's _dirty!_"

"That's because I just dug it out of the ground," Sonic said, in a fakely patient tone.

"I wonder how it got way up here?" Knuckles pondered.

"Who cares?" Amy held the gem on her chest. "Hey, if I can get a chain for it, it would look so cool as a pendant!"

"Sure, if you want to dress up as NiGHTS."

"Who says I don't?"

"That would be very sad."

Amy resorted to violence, and whanged Knuckles on the head with her mallet.

*

Deep within the jungle of the Mystic Ruins, there was a deep natural depression in the ground. Here, a permanent pool of clear blue water had collected from rain that fell on the lush tropical forest. Its idyllic peace and quietude, its total seclusion from passers-by, made it the perfect spot...

...for a spot of fishing.

The thick ferns that screened the pool rustled suddenly. A vast blue bulk appeared, moving with surprising grace through the undergrowth that held back less able creatures. Big, the Cat, had lived in the Mystic Ruins all his life, and though naturally shy and without curiosity, he knew more about their byways than any other creature.

Big by name, and big by nature, he stood almost seven feet tall and must have weighed five hundred pounds or more - an absolute record for a fur. But then again, his one hundred per cent fresh fish diet was probably to blame for that.

The huge cat plomped himself down on a handy tree stump, and lifted in one pudgy paw the sleek fishing rod he carried with him always. Absently, he checked the line and the reel for snags, while looking over his shoulder for his absent companion.

"Froggy? Where'd you go?" His speech, like the rest of him, was ponderous. Those who heard him talking would know instinctively that here was one who weighed his words as carefully as he weighed his fish.

"Ribbit!" A large frog, striped light and dark green, leaped from the ferns by the poolside, and settled down beside the cat.

"Ah... there you are, Froggy! I was afraid you had got lost again." Satisfied, Big made a few practise swipes with his rod, and then expertly flicked his wrist, sending the line with its hook and lure hissing into the depths of the pool. This was one of his many favorite fishing spots.

Silence descended on the clearing once again. Save for the occasional blinking of the cat's round yellow-green eyes, he could have been dozing off. Froggy sat just as patiently, his amphibian nature suited to long periods of inactivity. Patiently, Big waited for something to take the bite he occasionally jiggled on the end of his line.

It was not long before something did happen. The lure dipped beneath the surface of the pool; tentatively, something was trying it out, seeing exactly what it was. Big's yellow eyes snapped open. Tensing, the cat pricked up his ears and waited, his fingers alert for any change in the slight trembling in his rod.

Suddenly, the lure disappeared into the water, followed alarmingly fast by several feet of line. Big was on his feet in moments, reeling in for all his worth. Whatever it was, it was strong! It was gaining on him despite everything he put into it. The cat was anxious about his line, which had only a ten pound breaking strain. If he broke the line, Froggy would have to go down and retrieve the lure - his best lure, and his favorite. Big struggled to maintain control of the reel, finding that he was losing more feet every moment. He hadn't known the pool even went down this far!

A circular ripple appeared in the water, even though no rain had fallen. Surprised, Big stopped reeling his line, and lost three more feet. There wasn't that much more left on his reel, and the moment of indecision left him in a dilemma - if the line ran out, he'd have to ditch it all or risk breaking the rod.

The whatever-it-was stopped pulling at the line, though when he tried to reel any of it back, his reel wouldn't budge any way. The line was taut as a guitar string, and the tip of his rod was bent down almost to the surface of the water. Big held on grimly, staring at the innocuous blue of the pool. Another circular ripple met the outermost rings of the first, setting up a turbulence which sent out tiny wavelets across the surface. Now he thought about it, it didn't even look much like real water - it moved wrong, and...

...those green lights in the depths were weird...

...he'd seen them before...

"Oh no," the cat said. "You again?"

Froggy croaked again, and jumped swiftly away from the poolside, putting distance between himself and the water.

The twin emerald lights rose up towards the surface, and the water began to form itself into a lump, a protrusion that lifted itself out above the pool - a strange animalistic head, with only the two green eyes, like some weird monster from beneath the sea. Big jerked his rod back and snapped the line, knowing that he'd never get back his favorite lure. The cat backed away from the apparition in the water, holding his rod before him like a weapon. "Don't you hurt Froggy!" he ordered, his own voice trembling.

The water creature raised a dripping, watery paw, and Big fled through the ferns, snatching up Froggy as he went. His heavy footsteps shook the ground, but he didn't stop or slow until he had left the fishing pool far behind. Breathing heavily, the cat leaned his head against a tree, cradling the frog in his powerful arms.

"I thought that that Mr. Hedgehog had dealt with him, Froggy!" he said when he had recovered somewhat.

"Ribbit!"

"Do you think Mr. Hedgehog knows that he's here?"

"Ribbit!"

Big sighed. "I guess you're right. Nobody knows but us. Maybe I should tell Mr. Hedgehog about it. He was a nice guy. I sure don't want that monster to come after you and me again. But... between you and me... I don't know where Mr. Hedgehog is."

"Ribbit!"

"You think I should go look for him? In the city?" Big let out a thoughtful *hem!*. "I don't know, Froggy. What if I get lost? That city sure is a big place." He sighed again, heavily. "Oh well. I have to go look for him, I guess. I hope he'll help me out again. I can't fight like him."

Big stomped over to the nearby watercourse that ran through the jungle. Stooping, he gently released Froggy into the stream. "You find your way home, okay, Froggy? Don't go near deep water. I'll be back as soon as I find Mr. Hedgehog." With a cheerful croak, the frog kicked off downstream.

Alone, Big scratched his head with a plump paw. "Now, which way was that train station again?" he muttered. "Oh well. I'm sure I'll find it eventually."

*

Seph cocked a golden ear, listening to something only he and the other Chao could hear. Although nobody was in the garden to see, they were uneasy as they stopped their games and froze. Eerily, every single Chao in the garden turned to face east.

"What's that?" Seph said, half to himself.

Beta-C, the one black Chao in the garden, overheard. "Seph not know?" he said in the cute Chao patina. "Guardian come!"

"He mad," Seph said unhappily. "Bad feelings!"

Anansi and Phooey nodded together, wisely. They remembered Thingy telling them about the last time the Guardian had been awake. The Guardian was filled with anger and sadness, and the Chao could sense his intention to hurt and to destroy. It was on their behalf. The Guardian felt that he had failed to protect them. He wanted revenge on those who had harmed Chao.

Hotaru sniffled. "Guardian must not kill!"

"Trust in friends," Beta-C ordered, referring to the ones who had looked after them. "Friends will stop Guardian!"

"Friends not know about Guardian." The others turned to look at Seph, surprised. The golden lion Chao looked back seriously, his customary scowl deepened. "Friends not feel Guardian! Only Chao!"

The Chao were silent for a long moment, thinking it over. Finally Phooey spoke. "Seph right," he said.

"Bad," said Hotaru. "This bad. What we do?"

"We stop Guardian!" Seph said.

The others stared at him in real astonishment. Anansi was the next to speak. "How? We're in here! Guardian is out there!"

"Then we go out there," Seph said practically.

"Too dangerous!" Beta-C ordered. "No go!"

But Phooey, the oldest in the garden, stepped forward. "Let him go," he said. "He can talk to Guardian."

Hotaru sighed. "You brave," she said to Seph admiringly.

"I go now," Seph said, and flew into the lift. "How they work this?"

"Hit the button," Phooey said, standing just outside and watching. "Doors close, then they disappear. Outside that way."

"Seph!" called Beta-C. "Good luck!"

"Good luck," echoed Hotaru. The others gave their own good wishes with varying degrees of enthusiasm.

Seph grinned at all of his friends, and then, with a stylish confidence he didn't really feel, he flew up to the control panel and thumbed the bottom button. The doors hissed closed.

"Hope he know what he doing," Beta-C said.

*

Knuckles sat cross-legged in front of the Master Emerald, bathing in its warm green glow. His eyes were closed, and his breathing came deep and slow, to the same inaudible rhythm as the Master Emerald's pulsing light. Above him, the first stars were visible in the lavendar sky, and the crest of the pale moon was visible above the mountains in the distance.

They had worked hard all afternoon on the altar and surrounding monuments. It had been beyond even Knuckles' great strength to raise a roof above the Emerald, but most of the pillars were up in some shape or form. The damaged steps were repaired, and the gaping holes in the paved floor of the altar itself had been filled as evenly as possible with earth and the larger stones.

As if the makeshift repair job had restored some kind of ancient harmony to the place, the Emerald seemed to glow more brightly in the gathering dusk. Knuckles had often sat here in just this pose, waiting for night to come as he watched over his island, but this evening he was sure he felt the Emerald's power throbbing all around him, even in the air. The smaller Emeralds - the servers - glowed with their own multicolored light; either that or the radiance from the Master Emerald was caught within them, and that was what made them seem to shine.

It had been hard work. Knuckles smiled slightly. He had been unsure at first whether it was a good idea asking Sonic at all, but once he and Amy had gotten down to it, the job had been done at twice the speed Knuckles could have done it - and done better, too, for three people had three times the strength of one. All the same, the echidna was glad when Sonic and Amy finally left, for he couldn't help feeling jealous of anyone who came near his Emeralds - even if they had been invited. Alone with the island, Knuckles felt free. It was his world, it belonged to him alone.

He could be himself.

"Tikal..."

The word was barely loud enough to escape his lips. He felt a sweet sadness rippling through him, like the touch of cool water on a spring day.

Alone, with no other to witness what he saw as weakness, he could admit to himself that he was lonely. Tikal... she had probably been the last, or nearly the last, of his race. So much had been made clear to him. But still he did not know how he himself had come to be, alone on Angel Island. Who were his parents?

Knuckles opened his eyes, and sighed heavily. Standing, somewhat stiffly after his long period of motionless thought, he reached out and laid a misshapen paw on the Master Emerald, feeling its gathered power swirling beneath the sparkling earth. Faint silver starlight bathed the sowander in a magical haze, falling from the now dark heavens.

Time to leave, he thought.

Time to fly.

*

"He's different," Amy remarked. "Kinda sad."

Sonic, sitting opposite her on the train, was occupied in picking dirt off his gloves. "Nani?" he said, not concentrating.

"Knuckles!" the pink hedgehog said loudly. "I said, he's different!"

Sonic looked up. "Yeah?" he said vaguely. "Who's different?"

Amy's eyes narrowed. "You never listen to me!"

"I do!" Sonic protested, forgetting all about his gloves. He didn't want to be smacked around the head again, especially by her stupid mallet.

"No you don't!" The pink hedgehog pouted. "You're so rude! Sometimes I hope you get eaten by a Jigglypuff!"

Sonic sweatdropped and scratched the back of his head. "Nani?"

"Never mind," Amy sighed. "I was saying, Knuckles. He acts different since the Chaos thing."

"Oh. Yeah, I know. I guess it affected everyone. Tails doesn't even talk to me any more. He's sore about losing the Tornado 2 - it was a really cool plane, but still..."

Amy shrugged. "Oh, but Tails lives for planes. I think they're boring!" The train went over a bump.

"Everyone's gotta have something," Sonic said. "Knux has his island, Tails has his planes."

"And what have you got?" she said playfully.

"Uhh..." Sonic stopped dead.

"You just said everyone's got something," Amy pressed. "Go on, Sonie, what's most important in your life?"

Sonic looked thoughtful. "Hmm..." There was a long pause. "I dunno."

"Oy!" The pink hedgehog rolled her eyes. "And to think I had a crush on you!"

"'Had'?" Sonic fell off the seat.

"Well, not exactly. Actually, I was gonna ask you something-"

Sonic held up his hands in a placating gesture. "Whatever it is, I didn't do it!"

"No, no." Amy shook her head. "You're not listening to me AGAIN. I hate it when you don't listen! Look, I want to ask - be truthful - how come you hang out with me now, and before, you didn't even wanna be in the same street? Is it just 'cause Tails isn't around, or what?"

"It's not that," Sonic said, irritated. "Well, I guess it is partly that there's not much else to do." There was a lot more he could have said, mostly to do with the fact that Amy had definitely improved recently. She wasn't such a weirdo, for a start. She had more self-confidence and she didn't whine QUITE so much. But Sonic wouldn't admit even to himself that he didn't object to her tagging along any more, and not just because he missed Tails. She had grown up a bit since defeating Zero.

"You're so kind." Amy scowled.

"Hey, you asked for a truthful answer. If you wanted compliments, ask for 'em!"

"Like I'd get any off you."

Sonic sighed. "Let's not fight, okay? I already had one close call today."

"Sure." But she didn't look happy.

There was silence for a few more minutes, save only the steady clacking of the train tracks. Finally, Sonic shook himself and said, "This bites."

"What?" Amy asked.

"Us! We're all irritable. I dunno what it is, but something's changed around here. What happened to the good old days when Tails and me could run about bashing badniks and having fun?" He looked morosely out of the window. "It was so good when I had something important to do. Right now, the highlight of my day is lunch."

"Oh, I don't know," Amy said carefully. "I seemed to spend a lot of those good old days being kidnapped."

"And then I'd have to come and rescue you - that's what I mean! Nothing ever happens now!"

Amy glanced out of the window. "We're nearly there." The train was slowing down. "I guess I'll get an early night, Sonie. Um..."

"No worries," he said, standing up. "See ya 'round, Amy."

They walked out onto the platform together, and then Amy made her farewells. Sonic, alone, wandered down the steps idly thinking about how much he missed the old days, and wondering how he should fill the hours until dawn. His gaze fell on a small pink object lying abandoned near the station doors, and he trotted over to grab it. It was a mobile phone, and he thought he could guess by the rose-colored cover who the owner was. She must have dropped it as she left. He'd give it back to her tomorrow.

Then he heard a sound that, at that time, could not have been more wonderful. "Mr. Sonic, is that you? I need your help!"

"Big!" Sonic yelled, spinning round on the spot. He dashed back up the stairs towards the giant purple cat, who was just getting off the train. "What brings you here, pal?" the hedgehog asked, smiling. He stowed the mobile and promptly forgot all about it. "You're not much of a city person, ne?"

"I'm glad I found you so quick!" Big said cheerfully. "This place is so big I was worried I'd get lost."

"Yeah, I guess it's a bit off-putting if you don't know it," Sonic agreed. "So, again - what brings you here?"

"Something bad," Big said sepulchrally. "I was out fishing with Froggy, and then..."

Sonic's ears pricked up as he listened to the cat's tale, and before Big was halfway finished with it, some of the old adventurous sparkle had already returned to the hedgehog's green eyes.

*

The darkness had fallen already in Mystic Ruins. By night, the peaceful rainforest with its secretive inhabitants, was transformed into a world of fear - at least, to those who did not know its ways. Strange noises, the cries of hunting animals and the steady dripping of water from the lush leaves, filled the night with an aural shock.

None of this bothered Tails. The little fox was flying high above the treetops, cutting through the night sky with something approaching Sonic's speed. In the air, he was king. Which was one of the reasons he loved his planes.

Under his arm was Gamma's combined central processor and hard drive. He was flying a little clumsier than usual on account of the backpack - inside that were reams of paper upon which had been printed as many of the diagrams as he'd been able to print out in the hours until nightfall. He was here now to look for the hidden factory which Sonic had told him was somewhere in Mystic Ruins; Tails needed the industrial tools Eggman's base would be sure to have.

As it turned out, he didn't have to look far. The skyglow from the lights was visible even from the tunnel at this time of night.

Tails wasn't entirely sure what he was doing here, or what he planned to do with the thousands of diagrams and blueprints in his satchel. He had had some vague idea of somehow remaking Gamma's body, but the sheer amount of stuff on those papers was daunting. How the heck had Robotnik created all the mechs he had, in the few years he'd had? He surely couldn't have done all the work himself, or he'd be a genius. That didn't fill Tails with confidence.

By the time he finally reached the glittering searchlights, he was glad to land and rest his aching appendages for a while. He was standing at the edge of a cliff, overlooking a natural depression in the jungle. Around two hundred feet below him, almost all the rainforest had been cleared away to make room for a neon nightmare of metal and glass. The scent of oil and other by-products of an advanced steelworks assaulted his sensitive nose and made him sneeze. Panting slightly, the little fox leaned on the fence that overlooked the cliff, and waited to regain his breath. It looked like there was a cable car over to the factory, anyway - he wouldn't have to fly over to it and search for an open skylight, as he had previously intended to do.

"Guess I'd better get down to it..." He bent down and picked up the satchel which he'd dumped at his feet. Slinging it over his back by the strap, Tails trotted over to the closed car doors and thumbed the call button. There was a whir of well-oiled machinery, and then a grinding clunk.

Tails's ears flattened. "Oh... rude word," he snarled, and gave the stubbornly closed doors a kick. His toes hurt, but the car still didn't work. He hit the button a few more times, with rising force and impatience, and then gave up. Carefully avoiding the mud, he put down the processor and satchel, and then backed up for a spin attack. It was something he'd learned off Sonic during their years of running around together - well, their years of Tails running after Sonic, anyway - and though he lacked the spines, Tails was still able to break stuff quite efficiently with the technique. He curled into a ball and flew at the doors like a fuzzy orange cannonball. They dented, and then ground open with a despairing mechanical whine.

"All right!" the fox grinned. "The Eagle has landed!" He grabbed his stuff again, and dived into the cable car. Somewhat unsteadily, the carriage moved off across the long gap, heading for the very top of the tower.

*

"He was here, huh?"

Sonic peered into the deep muddy hole that had a few hours previously been Big's fishing pool. Now, though, there was nothing in here... except wet soil and dead fish. Oh, and a discarded fishing lure, along with about thirty feet of tangled fishing line.

Big jumped into the mud and began reclaiming the line, winding it around his wrist. "Right here," the cat agreed. "But there's nothing here now."

"No duh." Sonic rubbed his nose thoughtfully. "I wonder where he could have gone to?"

"Do you think he's after Froggy again?" Big asked anxiously.

"I have to say, probably not." Sonic paused, wondering how best to explain it to the cat. "I think the last time, Chaos wanted something off your frog, but whatever it was, it's gone now. Nah, the frog's safe. It's people we have to worry about."

"That's okay then," Big said, quite seriously.

Sonic sniffed the air. There was nothing unusual he could pinpoint, not even an ominous feeling. As far as he could tell, Chaos wasn't around. But that begged the question - where was he? And was he still working for Eggman? Because if he was, where was Eggman?

"There's no way I'm going into Final Egg again," Sonic muttered. He had barely escaped intact the last time, and that was without considering his battle with Eggman's vicious Egg Viper. Sonic had been peppered with splattershot from the artillery ranges on the Sky Deck of the Egg Carrier, singed by deadly robots inside the Lost World ruins, and in Final Egg he'd endured the worst of everything Eggman was able to throw at him. Sharp things, hot things, electrified things, big things that tried to crush you - the whole works. Sonic still wasn't sure how he'd avoided serious injury.

The purple cat cleared his throat. "Uh... Mr. Sonic?"

"Just Sonic, please."

"OK, then. Are you sure Froggy's safe?"

Sonic sighed. "Trust me on this, okay? Your frog is in no danger."

Big nodded slowly. "Thanks a lot, Mr. Sonic. Guess I'll be going, then. I'm very grateful that you came along."

"No problem," the hedgehog said absently, concentrating on other things. Surprisingly silent for one of his size, Big pushed through the thick jungle foliage and disappeared into the night.

Sonic looked up into the treetops. There was a patch of sky visible where an old tree had fallen into the forest floor, and it was clear of clouds. He was able to make out faint stars, almost masked by skyglow from the factory which was somewhere near here. It took a few minutes for him to be able to make up his mind - this thing with Chaos had to be investigated. Oh sure, he hadn't seen Chaos yet, but here was a place where a few hours ago there had definitely been water, and where there was now none. That was weird in itself.

Anyway, if he didn't investigate, it might turn out to be a mistake. Chaos probably couldn't get hold of the Emeralds now that Knuckles had them all safe, but if Eggman still had control of him, the whole thing might start up again. Sonic sniffed the air, made an informed guess as to the quickest route to Eggman's base, and slipped off into the jungle, just another small creature in the living forest.

*

Tails's eyes were big and round like buttons as he stared at his surroundings. "Woah..." he breathed, loving every moment of it. This place was stuffed full of hardware! Icky green light spilled down from hi-powered neon plate lights embossed into the ceiling, and this radiance illuminated hundreds and hundreds of panels, lights and complex machines, all glittering with the hue of polished chrome. The room was on two levels, and the first floor where the fox found himself was constructed of a metallic grille, through which the octagonal ground floor could be seen.

Hefting his satchel full of plans, the fox took a few hesitant steps into the room, then yelped in fear and ducked behind the nearest chunk of machinery when he saw the contents of the green capsule against the near wall. Metal Sonic! The most dangerous of Eggman's mechs, and the only one which even Sonic feared! Hesitantly, Tails poked his nose out of his makeshift hiding place, and his confidence grew again when he saw that Metal Sonic had not moved. Slowly, tense as a spring, his eyes locked on the mech, he stepped out into the center of the room. There was still no reaction. Finally, greatly daring, Tails walked right out in front of the robot, into the field of those glowing red optic lenses.

He breathed out. He hadn't realised he had been holding his breath, and he had to shake off a momentary dizziness from lack of air. Metal Sonic was shut up in that tube thing - he wasn't able to respond to anything. Tails grinned, and then stuck his tongue out at the robot. "Nyah, stupid lump of metal!"

Anyway, down to business. The fox held up Gamma's processor, looking at it thoughtfully. He wasn't sure where exactly he had to go to find Robotnik's workshops, but he didn't think they would be all the way through the factory floor. Eggman liked to save himself as much physical exertion as possible, so it was more than likely there was an easier way to get to the really cool stuff. Tails looked round, mentally checking off each of the doors. The one near Metal Sonic probably wasn't it, since there was a big red neon arrow above it with the words "Shooting Range" flashing on and off. Unless that was a decoy and the door really was the right one... but Tails didn't think Eggman went in for reverse psychology.

He tucked the processor under his arm again and went down the stairs to the lower level of the room. There was only one door here, and there didn't seem to be anything about it that said "Wrong!". Tails trotted over to it, noticing out of the corner of his eye that areas of the floor and walls were pitted and scorched as if a couple of psycho mechs had been duking it out. The octagonal shape of the room gave it a faint gladiatorial air, too... Tails shrugged and went through the door, which opened automatically as he came near it.

The door shut again, and after half a second of blind panic in the dark, Tails realised he was in a lift and that the light was broken. A faint light came from the instrument panel, which had been backlit, and it was just about enough to see by. The fox squinted in the gloom, just about able to see that the lift was a square, grey, boxy sort of thing with nothing of particular interest about it, and then his eyes alighted on a large red button at the top of the panel.

He pressed it.

The lift began to descend, smoothly and steadily. Tails heard a low-pitched mechanical whine from somewhere far below, and couldn't help wondering what exactly he was doing. He still didn't know whether the base really was deserted or not. In fact, now he was thinking about it, it was odd that Metal Sonic was here, if nobody was using the place. Tails considered hitting the emergency stop and trying to find his way back out, but then the lift started to slow down again. With barely a sound, it slid to a stop and the door hissed open. Hesitantly, Tails stepped out, and realised he was in the control room.

"All right!"

There was just one set of controls here, and one chair. But what a set of controls - and what a chair! Dials and buttons and flashing lights covered every available surface, and the number of gauges and levers was astronomical. And there were large panes of glass set into the walls - on three sides he could see out of the control room, which seemed to look down onto the entire factory. It stretched for miles on many levels, thousands of mechanical tools and industrial-strength machines, illuminated here and there by heavy-duty neon lights. Tails grinned disbelievingly and leaped into the huge Eggman-sized seat, fingers itching for a press of some of the cool buttons on the panels.

One lever, right beside the chair, caught his attention. It was labeled, EMERGENCY STARTUP.

He pulled it.

One after the other, lights went on all over the factory, illuminating the whole place. Tails watched with wide eyes as the mechanical equipment slowly began to come to life. Sounds of high-powered motors and pistons came faintly to his ears.

Suddenly, he had a great idea. What if he connected Gamma's processor directly to the control room computer network? Surely Gamma would be able to work the machinery and rebuild himself. Heck, he could build anything with this - it was the world's biggest Meccano set. Tails fished around for the processor which he'd left on the floor, and set it on the chair arm for want of a better space. There had to be some connector cables here somewhere...

*

It took a while for the effects of the backup generator activation to filter through to the entire factory. There was so much electrical equipment demanding so much power, that even the hyper-efficient dynamos built by Eggman took several minutes to reach optimum functioning.

The room at the top of the factory's central tower, where Tails had entered the base, was one of the last to receive the benefits of the full power output. The pale green lights in the ceiling suddenly blazed into glory, flooding the room with strong and uncompromising radiance. Panels lit up like christmas trees, and power returned to the door locks which had been offline during the outage.

A mechanical fist smashed through the stasis tube glass.

*

Amy felt depressed as she walked through the deserted streets towards her apartment. After defeating Zero, she had felt as if nothing could ever beat her down - she'd been on top of the world. Now, for some reason, she just felt miserable. Sonic was right - it had been better when Eggman was doing evil stuff all the time.

She wandered slowly along the sidewalk, in and out of the puddles of light that came from the streetlamps along the way. The moon wouldn't rise yet for several hours - it was about ten, by her estimate, although she didn't carry a watch. There was barely a sound in the city, save for the distant buzzing of the interstate somewhere out of town. Amy suppressed a yawn. "Maybe I'll go shopping tomorrow..."

A soft rippling of water came to her ears in the silence. She glanced down and to her right, and saw that there was a little stream of liquid flowing through the gutter. Reflexively, Amy looked up, but the sky was clear - of course it wasn't raining. Someone was washing their car maybe, although she had to admit, she couldn't hear the hose going or anything. And washing cars at this time?

Something wasn't right. Amy shivered as her fur prickled in the eerie silence. She looked quickly left and right, but there was nobody in the street. The empty, dark windows of office blocks stretched up into the night sky on both sides, and not a single light was on. There was nobody here, and in the business district, no dark alleys which could conceal attackers. So why did she feel like she was being stalked?

"Um... hello?" She hated the way her voice sounded shaky. Amy reminded herself she'd beaten Zero all by herself, and had no need to fear anything. But, just in case, she felt for the mallet in the pocket of her red dress.

Something hot burned her fingers, and she withdrew them quickly. The pretty gem fell from her pocket as she did so, and landed on the sidwalk with a clink. It was glowing brightly cherry-red. Amy knelt down and stared at it. "Nani..?"

She looked past the gem, and saw a foot. That might have been a relief, had not the foot been composed of a semi-transparent, blue, plasma-like material. Amy slowly looked up, into the eyes of Chaos.

She screamed.

*stone*

"...huh?.."

*give me*

Amy looked at the jewel again. It was glowing even brighter with the proximity of the water monster. "Ohh," she said softly. "You want this, huh?" Chaos's emerald eyes flashed brightly, and it held out a hand-like appendage. The water it was composed of rippled with the action, as if instead of moving, Chaos changed shape. It reminded her of a giant amoeba.

Slowly and deliberately, Amy reached out and closed her fingers over the gem on the ground. She looked at Chaos again, and at the proffered limb waiting for the gem to be placed in it.

"You want it..." With her other hand, she reached into her pocket. Chaos cocked its head. "You GET IT!" Amy screamed, and slammed her mallet into its head with as much force as she could. Chaos exploded into a shower of water droplets which pattered down onto the pavement like rain.

"Well, that wasn't so hard..." Amy began, clutching the gem which was cooling rapidly now. Then she noticed the scattered drops pulling together into one larger puddle, like that really scary bit in that movie...

She looked at the gem in her hand. Chaos, here in Station Square! "Well, if you want this thing, it's got to be something important," Amy said to the puddle which was growing by the second. "I'm not letting you have it! It's mine!" The puddle bulged, rising up in the middle, and Chaos's fish-like eyes began to reappear. Before it could finish its transformation, Amy closed her fist tightly around the gem and took off down the street as fast as she could possibly go. This running-away bit was a familiar scene... suddenly, she was thankful to Zero for giving her all the training. She could beat this thing!

She hoped.

*

Sonic slowly reached out a hand and ran his fingers over the dented cable car door. His eyes were fixed on the factory beneath him, in the valley. Everything was working! Not only the searchlights but the plant itself was online, and he could hear the distant sound of industrial machinery working. A faint haze of smoke clouded the air; he could taste it on his tongue. Someone had started the Mystic Ruins plant up again.

If it was Eggman...

This wasn't good. To have news of Chaos was bad enough, but this mystery was verging on the scary. Sonic had a momentary and slightly embarrassing wish that Knuckles was around. Reluctantly, he forced open the damaged door and stepped inside. The car moved off across the valley, shaking and juddering rather more than usual.

It seemed to take ages to make the crossing. Finally, however, the car ground once more to a halt, and the doors hissed partly open, revealing the fully lit laboratory beyond. Sonic's ears were pricked and alert for even the slightest unusual sound as he left the car. He hated this place...

"Now where do I go?" he muttered, and looked over at the air vent where he'd got down onto the factory floor the last time. "Oh, no, not Final Egg again, please not that..." He trotted to the staircase and peered over, down onto the ground floor. There was a small red light above the door there; that hadn't been there before. Locked? Or there for a warning?

He turned to go to the air vent, intending to see if there was any easier way down via the shaft he'd used before, and that was when he happened to step on something that crunched underfoot. With a yip of surprise, Sonic jumped two feet into the air. He felt slightly silly when he realised it was only a jagged piece of broken glass, with a pale green hue. "Hnnh, where did that come from?" he said, half to himself.

In fact, there was more broken glass nearby, and again by the door by which he had entered. Sonic looked around curiously, wondering what had broken and how.

Then he saw the empty stasis tube.

Sonic froze.

"Metal Sonic..." he whispered. As slowly and as quietly as he could, he started to sidle around the corner of the stairwell towards the cable car door. He didn't want to just run away, but he needed room to fight Metal Sonic, and he wouldn't get it in this cramped place. His ears strained for any sound that would warn of an impending attack, everything else forgotten in the needs of the moment. Instinct played a large role in his dangerous life, and right now instinct was screaming at him to get the hell out of there.

There was a small whir, the sound of a servomotor, from below. It wasn't much, but it was enough to send Sonic, already on a knife-edge of tension, into a full-blown Sonic Spin. He flashed towards the open cable car door in a tornado of blue, at a speed which no living creature on the planet could match. The door chose that moment to slam shut.

Sonic lay on the cool metal floor of the lab, wondering where the beautiful stars and sparkles of light had come from, and why he had such a humongous headache. Slowly, the fog cleared, and the hedgehog sat up with a hand to his head. "Itaii..." he moaned. Stupid, stupid, stupid! Hitting Mach 1 indoors was not a good idea!

There was a crunch of broken glass from behind him. He leaped to his feet instantly, whirling around to face his adversary with spines bristling. Only a few inches from his face were a pair of glittering red optic lenses; he could see the individual tiny LEDs. Sonic leaped back with lightning reactions as Metal Sonic swung a vicious punch straight at his head. "Hey, whatta ya know," he said with a grin. "Dodging Amy's mallet must've taught me something."

The green light of the lab gleamed fitfully off Metal Sonic's dark blue carapace. Its eyes flashed brightly, locking on to Sonic's position. He backed away, crouching slightly and ready to dodge should the robot go for him again. Metal Sonic made a couple of electronic beeps, processing, and then it spoke.

"Sonic."

"You got my name right, anyway." Sonic watched his enemy like a hawk. He knew from past experience just how strong the mech was, and how fast. This was not a good place to be right now, but he didn't seem to have much choice.

"Sonic wa hitori dake." Metal Sonic whirred again, and then took a step forward. Its eyes never wavered from his face.

"Is that so," Sonic said coolly. "Better remember, pal, you're just the copy. I'M the real deal."

"Is that so," Metal Sonic responded, playing his own voice back to him. It straightened up, taking up an attack pose. "Battle mode engaged," it said in its cold, flat, synthesised voice. "Operational capacity at maximum."

"Sounds like he upgraded you again," Sonic remarked. He stepped backwards again, then turned and vaulted over the rail, landing in the octagonal room below. Metal Sonic followed, jetting down neatly using the powerful fusion engine in its back. The roar was loud in the confined space.

"I will destroy you."

"C'mon!" Sonic yelled. He raised a fist, pointing at the mech. "You think you're so tough! Bring it on!"

Metal Sonic's jet suddenly blasted into life. It flew at Sonic, as fast as he could run. He dived and rolled out of the way, coming up on his feet as Metal Sonic turned to come back at him the other way. Sonic was already in motion by the time his brain kicked in, alerting him to the fact that Metal Sonic was faster this time around. He couldn't outrun it - at least, not here, where he couldn't reach full speed. He needed a long runway before he could fight it efficiently. Still, at least Metal had the same problem. Sonic knew the only way to get out alive was to take advantage of his own tighter turning circle. He could dodge its attacks without too much trouble on his part, while it just went round and round.

Of course, the big problem with that was that Metal wouldn't get tired of chasing him round and round...

Something buzzed past his ear and then there was a deafening explosion. Sonic's head whipped round and he saw a smoking crater in the steel wall of the room - a moment later he was forced to leap away as Metal Sonic flew straight at him, ramming speed. What the hell had that been? Was it equipped with armour-piercing or something?

"I've had enough of this!" he yelled. He leaped high into the air, gathering power, and then flung himself at the speeding Metal Sonic, curling into a ball of sharp spines. Metal turned to meet him, powering its jet to full throttle. They were both knocked to the floor by the force of the impact, and Sonic was momentarily dazed. He rolled dizzily out of the way as its titanium-clad fist slammed down an inch from his head. The floor was dented by its blow. If it had been an inch closer...

That made Sonic MAD.

"Hiyaah!" He kicked out in a move inspired by the dodgy kung-fu movies he'd often watched with Tails. His foot connected with the mech's chin and threw it onto its back on the floor. It thrashed about, momentarily unable to right itself. Sonic jumped again, trying to grind Metal into the ground with his body. It rolled an instant too soon, and he had to stop his spin to avoid smashing into the floor.

That half-second of correction was Sonic's undoing. Metal's reactions, unlike his own, could not be diminished by tiredness or distraction. It was of single mind and purpose, and its purpose was to eliminate its target. He jumped to avoid the roundhouse kick, but its followup punch clipped him in the side. Sonic gasped and pressed his hand to the sudden fiery pain in his ribs. That was when Metal Sonic swung at him again. Sonic dimly felt wind in his spines, and then he hit the wall with such force it knocked the breath right out of him. He collapsed to the floor with a groan, clutching at his chest where the robot had hit him. The next second its mechanical fingers were around his neck. Metal lifted him right off the ground with one hand, tightening its grip to close off his windpipe. Sonic choked and clawed at its arm, but he couldn't force apart its fantastically powerful fingers. The world started to go gray and fuzzy at the edges, and he felt all the fight seeping out of him as his own hands went numb. He closed his eyes to shut out the sight of its gleaming red optics triumphant in victory, knowing that this time, he had lost.

The relief when the pressure abruptly slackened and then disappeared altogether was so immense that he barely minded dropping to the floor in a heap. He lay sprawled on his side, gasping in huge beautiful breaths of oxygen and massaging his abused throat. It took a few minutes for the mist over his eyes to clear. Weakly, he forced himself to hands and knees, shook himself and then looked up.

Metal Sonic, struggling viciously, dangled by one arm from the mechanical claw-grasp of a big red mech. Sonic wasn't so far gone that he didn't recognise the shape and model, although the colors were somewhat changed. "E-102?" he panted. "TAILS?" E-102 Gamma looked gravely down at him, still holding Metal Sonic eight feet in the air.

"Uh." The two-tailed fox, perched atop Gamma's head, grinned weakly. "Hi, Sonic. I guess this would be my fault..."

*

"THIS is what you've been doing these past few weeks? Rebuilding HIM?"

Sonic, sitting on a steel packing crate while Tails examined his injuries, was having difficulty grasping the story spun by his vulpine friend.

Tails looked through the portable first-aid kit again. Eggman kept his labs well-stocked; it had been in a glass case by the cable car door. Sonic had several painful cuts from his fight with Metal Sonic, but mostly he was just badly bruised, and a little shaken. The fox grabbed a roll of bandage and began winding it around his friend's chest, where Metal Sonic's fist had left a deep gash. Sonic flinched. "Well, I didn't exactly rebuild him myself," Tails explained, tying off the home-made dressing with as much care as he could. "I got the plans off his processor, and jeez were they complex! I couldn't understand them at all. So I took him here and got the factory going, and managed to get it to automatically remake an E-100 model mech with a battery instead of a Flicky. All I had to do then was stick the processor in. Cool, huh? This product not tested on animals!"

Sonic glanced at Gamma mk II, who was in turn gazing thoughtfully at the quiescent body of Metal Sonic, dumped without ceremony on the steel grill floor. It had been a more or less simple matter, while Metal was trapped by Gamma's powerful limbs, to open the panel in its side and hit the emergency shutdown. Finally, those hellish red orbs were dark and lifeless.

"How did Metal Sonic get out?" he asked, finally. "Last time I saw it, it was stuck in that thing."

"When I started the factory machinery up, I guess it turned on everything else, even him." Tails's ears drooped as he looked unhappily at his feet. "Gamma was just about done when I looked up at the security monitor ranks. I saw you getting beat up, and we rushed up here just in time." He sighed deeply. "I'm real sorry, Sonic."

"You should never have messed with Eggman's stuff!" Sonic said, beginning to get angry. "Don't you realise how dangerous it is? I hardly made it out of here alive the last time! I don't need you playing around!" He felt bad about scolding, but darn it, those cuts stung.

"I'm sorry," Tails sniffled. "I didn't think!"

Sonic sighed deeply. "No, you didn't. It was a mistake, Tails, that's all. I'm okay. Chill out, everything's groovy."

"You forgive me?" the fox asked in a small voice.

"Sure." Sonic smiled. "I guess what you did wasn't as crazy as some of the stuff I've done, anyway. I mean, I had to walk in here looking for Chaos! I should've headed back to Station Square as soon as I saw this place was back online."

"Chaos?" Tails said, blinking. "You said Chaos? He's here?"

Sonic realised suddenly that Tails, isolated from everyone else over the past couple of weeks, had no clue what was going on. "You've got some catching up to do, buddy," he said, wondering how best to explain it. "Big chased me up this evening, said he'd seen Chaos in the Mystic Ruins. I came here with him to take a look, but I couldn't find Chaos or any proof that he was here. That's when I decided to check out Eggman's base."

"Tupekku!" Tails breathed.

"Yeah, basically. Say, what exactly do we do with him?" Sonic jerked his thumb over his shoulder, indicating Gamma.

Tails looked thoughtful. "Ano... I hadn't thought that far ahead. Hey, Gamma?" The big mech looked round, shifting his powerful bulk with ease. "What do you want to do now, buddy?"

There was a long pause. Finally, Gamma spoke. "I do not know," he said simply.

"Helpful," Sonic muttered.

"He can come with us," Tails said firmly. "If we're gonna go Chaos-hunting, we'll need help."

"Knux?" Sonic suggested.

"I think he took the island out of here already."

"Drat. I hope he took the PHS like I said. We might need to contact him."

"How are you feeling now?" Tails asked. "Can you walk?"

Sonic blinked. "Sure I can walk. He didn't break my legs or anything."

"Then I suggest we get out of here. I mean, I don't THINK Eggman is gonna come back here right now or anything, but being here is making me nervous." He glanced at Metal Sonic. "And HE creeps me out."

"Me too," Sonic sighed. "Can't we kill it?"

"That would be difficult," Gamma said, surprising them. The red mech stalked over to where Metal Sonic lay, and poked his gun into its side. "The alloy is very strong, and MS-01 is equipped with an automatic repair system."

Sonic slipped off the crate and got to his feet. "Well, in that case, let's just go. We can leave it here, it won't come after us until some idiot turns it on. Right, Tails?" The fox blushed underneath his fur.

The sudden loud ring caught them all by surprise. Sonic tripped, Tails jumped, and Gamma swung round with his gun at the ready. But no alarm seemed to be going off, and there was no other movement in the lab. Tails blinked. "Hey, is that a phone?"

Sonic's eyes widened. He reached down and unclipped Amy's rose-pink mobile from his sock, where it had stayed, miraculously, all through the fight with Metal Sonic. It rang again in his hand, and he almost dropped it in surprise, then stabbed buttons at random. The ring changed to an ear-splitting rendition of Für Elise which made even Gamma shudder. "Itai! Tails, how do you answer this thing?" the hedgehog yelled.

"Press the green button with 'Call' written on it," Tails groaned, clapping a paw theatrically over his eyes.

"This one?" The phone bleeped and mercifully stopped. Sonic hesitantly held it to his head and asked, "Hello?"

There was silence for as much as five seconds, and Tails got to the stage of opening his mouth to ask if Sonic had turned it off by mistake. Then, so clearly they could all hear it, a high-pitched, panicked voice issued from the speaker.

"Sonie? Oh my god, is that really you?"

*

Amy had to struggle not to burst into tears when she heard the voice on the other end of the line. She clutched the receiver as if she were drowning, fighting to keep control.

There was a crackle. "Amy? Where are you? What's going on?"

"I'm trapped in a phone box and Chaos is outside!"

"NANI?" That was Tails.

After a long pause, Sonic cleared his throat and spoke again. "Can you hear me? The signal's kinda jerky this end."

Amy swallowed her tears. "Yes, I can hear you. What should I do?"

"Can he get in?"

She shook her head, then realised he couldn't see the gesture. "N-no. I jammed the door shut. He's just waiting for me to come out. Sonie, I'm scared..." Outside the glass box, Chaos cocked its head, watching her unblinkingly. Its stare was like that of a monstrous insect; she felt like a small animal in a cage. She'd run from it as far as she could in the strangely deserted city, but Chaos never got tired and she never found any help. Finally, it had caught up with her as she tried to contact whoever had her mobile; she couldn't remember why it wasn't in her bag, but she had supposed she'd given it to one of her friends.

"Okay," Sonic said. "Listen to me. If he can't get in there, you're safe for the moment. We're in Mystic Ruins, but we'll be there as soon as we can. Stay put for the moment, okay? Don't try to go out there. Where are you?"

She looked around. "Uh... it's near the beach. On the sea front, the one behind the hotel."

"Hai, I know the one you mean. See you there."

"Don't go!" Amy cried desperately. It had been such a relief just to hear his voice...

"Amy-chan, I have to. I can't run and talk at the same time. I promise, I'll be there."

"But what if he tries to get in?" she panicked.

"I don't think he will." He was quiet, confident. "Just sit tight, okay? I'm ending the call now."

"Sayonara," Amy whispered, closing her eyes. There was a distant bleep and then the hum of an open line. Slowly, she hung up the receiver and heard the clink as a coin dropped into the box beneath the phone.

Moonlight gleamed on Chaos's wet skin. It was only three feet away from her... just standing, staring. The red gem she held tight in her fist was hot, vibrating slightly every time she moved. So far, she hadn't even relaxed her fingers for a second, though her knuckles were aching with the strain. She looked out of the glass, and Chaos looked in.

*

"Just sit tight, okay?" Sonic said into the phone. "I'm ending the call now." Slowly, he lowered the mobile and hit the red button. Lifting his head, he looked grimly at Tails and Gamma. "We go. Now."

"Is she all right?" Tails asked frantically.

"At the moment, she is. But we've gotta get there as fast as we can. Tails, have you got a working plane yet?"

"Uhh..." The fox covered his eyes with a paw, an aid to concentration. "The Tornados are both a write-off. I've got a backup, but it's just a glider. It won't take two... and definitely not three," he added, glancing at Gamma. He didn't know how much the big mech weighed, but they were probably looking at freight transport.

"I can fly," Gamma said.

Sonic sweatdropped. "No way. Absolutely not."

Tails glared at the hedgehog, tapping his foot. "Sonic! We can't take the train, it'll take an hour or more to get back that way. We'll have to use our initiative. He can fly us home."

Sonic groaned. "Do I get hazard pay?"

Tails facefaulted.

"Enough talk," rumbled Gamma. The big mech turned and stomped towards the cable car door.

"He's got a point," Tails sighed, dusting himself down. "C'mon, Sonic, we don't have any choice. We've gotta do it."

"Then I guess we do it." Sonic looked at the mobile in his hand, then bent and clipped it back onto his sock. "I hate these things," he remarked, straightening up again. "Do they really fry your brain if you talk too long?"

"Probably," Tails said, wondering if that would affect Sonic anyway. He followed Gamma into the cable car, feeling distinctly uneasy about the journey back over the valley. Okay, this car was strong, but it hadn't seemed to be particularly stable recently, unless that was just him. He glanced at Sonic, and knew by his friend's flattened ears and bristling spines that it wasn't just him. The whole car rocked as Gamma entered, and the groaning and squeaking it made as the mechanism started up was almost enough to persuade Tails to stay in the lab with Metal Sonic. Almost.

Sonic had his muzzle pressed to the window glass. "Wow... look at the size of this place!" he said excitedly, referring to the factory plant they were passing over.

"How can you look down?" the fox groaned, squeezing his eyes shut.

Sonic blinked. "You fly planes in your spare time, and you're saying you get vertigo?"

"Funny, ha ha."

The car stopped, and the dented doors slid drunkenly open in a series of jerks. There was still four or five feet of nothing before the edge of the cliff. Sonic looked out in some surprise and then leaped the gap, landing neatly on the very lip of the divide. He turned and faced the others, slicking back his spines with one hand. "There is no way I'm ever going on that thing again."

Tails looked at Gamma. "You can jump that, right?"

"It is within my ability." The big red mech crouched on the edge, tipping the car slightly, and then jumped, landing with a loud clang on the solid ground of Mystic Ruins. Tails found himself astonished by the power in those pneumatic limbs. Gamma must be immensely strong; no wonder he could beat Metal Sonic. He was going to be pretty useful, if they could persuade him to hang out with them. The twin-tailed fox spun his tails together and helicoptered over to his friends.

"I wish I was a robot," he said wistfully.

"Can be arranged," Sonic remarked. "Just walk up to Eggman and offer your services."

"Shut up, Sonic. What I mean is, it would just be really cool! I'd be super strong! I'd have lasers and missiles and flamethrowers and mines and-"

"-you'd be too heavy to walk with all those weapons. Shut up, Tails."

Gamma seemed amused by the exchange.

The fox looked up at the red mech. "Well... you really think you can fly all the way to Station Square? And carry us, too?"

"Your weight will be negligible," Gamma said. "Please hold on tight."

Tails smiled and scrambled onto the flat top of the mech's head. He looked down at Sonic, who was still hanging back.

"Come on, don't be a chicken."

"If I fall off, I'll kill you," Sonic remarked, and clambered up, grabbing onto the air vents in Gamma's back for handholds. There was just enough room for the both of them to sit together, but there wasn't much to hang on to. Gamma changed modes, folding his legs under him and activating the helicopter rotors that normally lay flat, out of sight under his heavy chassis. Gracefully, the big mech rose into the night sky.

*

Chaos had changed tactics. The water creature prowled around and around the phone box, its eyes never leaving Amy. Occasionally it reached out a fluid appendage and trailed it across the surface of the glass, a gesture which seemed to say, Here I am, and Here you are.

*come out* it said.

"No!" Amy said angrily.

*give me*

"I told you, I won't! It's mine!"

*give or die*

"You can't have it!" she yelled. "Go away!"

*mine*

"Why do you want it?" Amy asked. "What's so important about it?"

*my stone*

"I TOLD you, you're not getting it! Give up!"

Chaos pressed up against the phone box, flattening itself against the glass. It heaved, and Amy felt the box rock. She bit down on a scream and clenched her fists tightly. Chaos had tried this twice already now, and each time it pushed, it seemed to push just a little harder. If it pushed the box right over, it could get in at the bottom. This time, again, it gave up, flowing back down the glass and resuming its endless circling.

"Just go away," she said tiredly. She wondered what time it was, and suppressed a yawn. God, she wished she was in her apartment right now. It felt like she'd been stuck here for hours; looking up at the moon, which was now high in the sky, she thought she probably had been. Her legs ached from standing up so long, but she was scared to lean against the side of the phone box. "I hate you," she whispered. It was trying to grind her down with psychological warfare.

Suddenly, Chaos halted in mid-stride. Its head turned towards the bridge which carried the railway line over the road. Amy watched it with some surprise, wondering what it had seen. Then a light flashed up in the midnight-black sky, among the stars. Amy craned her neck to see what it was. Reflected city lights on a small plane or something - why was it flying without lights? Wasn't that illegal? The object was coming down. Amy pressed her hands against the glass, misting it with her breath, as she watched in astonishment. It wasn't a plane - or a helicopter - it was smaller than that! And wasn't that someone riding on top of it? SomeONES?

"SONIE!" she shrieked, banging on the glass as E-102 Gamma touched down neatly in the middle of the road. "GET ME OUT OF HERE!" Chaos's head whipped round at her cry, and it took a few steps back towards the phone box.

"Oh, no you don't!" came a familiar voice. Sonic, gleaming black under the orange glow of the street lamps, charged out of the darkness and slammed straight through the water monster in a whirling spin of spines. Chaos fell apart on the ground, but instantly began to recombine again. Sonic ignored it, darting straight to the phone box and yanking the door open by brute force. Amy fell out into his arms with a sob.

"I thought you were never going to come!"

He grinned at her. "Hey, since when was Sonic the Hedgehog late for anything?"

A wolf-whistle came from Gamma's direction. "Sonic and Amy, sitting in a tree..."

Sonic growled. "Tails, SHUT UP!"

The fox, still sitting on Gamma's head, pointed towards Chaos, who was nearly halfway remade. "Uh, can you two finish that later? Because he looks really, REALLY mad."

"No problem!" Sonic grinned, shoving Amy away from him as he took up a fighting pose. "This guy's gonna be a damp patch on the sidewalk when I'm done!"

"No, Sonic!" Amy cried, grabbing his arm. "If you hit him, he'll just go back together again! We can't fight him with normal attacks!" As if to prove her words true, Gamma, locked-on, fired a shot from his upgraded blaster. Chaos splattered onto the ground again, but even as they landed the drops were pulling together.

"How are we supposed to beat him then?" Sonic exclaimed, backing away with Amy in tow. "Crud! I hate invincible enemies!"

"Yeah, it means you have to use your head," Tails said dryly. "But I suggest we vote with our feet, and retreat."

"I hate retreating!" Sonic yelled.

"This way." Gamma turned and moved towards the station. "Perhaps we can lose him in the back streets," the big mech suggested, looking back at the others for their approval.

Amy shook her head. "That won't work. I tried hiding from him before. He always knows where I am."

"Why's he after you?" Sonic asked in surprise.

The pink hedgehog opened her hand slightly, revealing the glowing gem. Sonic's eyes widened. "I don't know what it is," Amy explained, "but he wants it really bad!"

"And if he wants it, we better not let him have it," Sonic finished.

"Exactly."

"Look out!" Tails yelled. Chaos freed itself from the ground and flowed lightning-fast towards Sonic, who jumped out of the way. Gamma fired another shot and blew the water creature up again.

The puddle rippled. Then it flowed smoothly across the road and into the gutter. Before any of the watchers could make a move, Chaos slid through a drain cover and vanished into the sewers.

Sonic walked over slowly, and crouched to look into the grating. The others gathered around him, but then the hedgehog stood up and shook his head. "Nada. He's gone."

"He figured out he was outnumbered, I guess," Tails said, jumping off Gamma. "Now what do we do?"

"It's kinda funny," Sonic said with a faint smile. "Just this afternoon, we were talking about how Chaos was never gonna come back. Now this!"

"I don't see anything funny in that," Amy shivered. "You weren't the one in the phone box."

In a sudden temper, Sonic kicked at the drain. "Darn it, he got away!" he snarled. "I should have been quicker..."

"But how can you damage something that is made of water?" Gamma said. His matter-of-fact question broke through the haze of disappointment which had surrounded Sonic.

"Yeah... you're right," the hedgehog sighed. "I guess I shouldn't blame myself really. It's just that I'm not used to losing these kinds of battles."

"Hey, you're hurt!" Amy exclaimed, finally noticing the bandages around the other hedgehog's chest. "What happened?"

Sonic shrugged. "Had a fight with Metal Sonic, thanks to this bozo here." He indicated Tails, who coughed and looked away. "We dealt with him in the end, though. I'm not badly hurt."

Amy felt suddenly sick. So that was her fault! If she had told Sonic about Metaru instead of keeping it to herself... god, he could have been killed! She fixed her gaze on her feet and wished she hadn't bothered to get out of bed.

"I don't fancy staying here with Chaos under the city," Sonic said suddenly, drawing everyone's attention. "How about we go back to Mystic Ruins and spend the night at Tails's workshop? There's no running water near there, which is definitely a plus."

"I've got a water mill to run my generator," the fox pointed out.

Sonic looked at him irritatedly. "I said running water."

"Okay, okay!"

"You think they'll let Gamma on the train?" Amy asked. "Where did he come from, anyway?"

"Don't see why they won't let him on, if he pays his fare," Tails shrugged. "Come on, then. I guess it's the most sensible idea so far. We can decide on action in the morning. And Amy, don't let that, uh, thing out of your sight."

"Are you kidding?"

*

The street was deserted. There was a faint flicker of gold underneath one of the sodium lamps; a small lone creature walked slowly along the sidewalk, orange light glittering like fire on his beautiful golden skin.

Seph was exhausted. He had spent hours and hours searching for the Guardian in the scary and amazingly vast place he found himself in. Several times he had been seen, and was forced to run and hide from curious humans who wanted to take him back to the safety of the garden. He understood that they only wanted to help in their misguided way, but he didn't need that kind of attention just now.

He didn't quite understand why he couldn't find the Guardian. Every time he thought he could sense its whereabouts, the sense was lost and reappeared elsewhere. He had come here all the way from the other side of the city, when the call had come consistently from this place, but when Seph was still three or four blocks away, the call had faded again. Demoralised, confused and hungry, the little lion Chao wandered aimlessly down the street. He was no longer sure where he was in relation to the garden, or whether he could find his way back even if he gave up on finding the Guardian.

Every time he thought about giving up, the face of Hotaru came into his mind. She wouldn't be happy if he lost the Guardian. A lot depended on him, he knew. He paused for a long yawn, and then sat down for a moment to rest his aching feet.

"Hey, little guy, whatcha doin' out so late?"

Seph looked round, and saw a human heading towards him with a curious, lopsided stagger. A strong, sharp scent came from the man, and also from the glass bottle he clutched in his hand. The Chao got to his feet again, ready to run, but he sensed no ill intent in the mind of the human. The man's thoughts were strangely dulled at the edges, which Seph thought might be to do with the strange smell. It made him slightly dizzy when he inhaled it. He stood his ground, and the man came up to him and sat down with a clumsy flop. "Gold pixies tonight," he said, slurring his words. "Las' night it was bugs. Hate those damn bugs." Seph caught the scent again on the man's breath, and had to sneeze.

The man leaned back, propping his back against the wall of the nearby building. The loose, flapping overcoat he wore was stained and torn, and his shoes were old. He was very dirty. "What's yer name, pixy?" he asked, half to himself.

"I Seph," Seph said, warming towards this strange man.

"You can talk, huh." The man didn't seem surprised. "Tha's new. Never talked to a hallu... hallushunashion before."

"A what?"

He snorted lightly through his open mouth, breathing in, then said, "You're kinda cute for a pixy. Usually see more of 'em, though. Where's your little mates?"

"In the garden," Seph explained. "I out looking for friend."

"I'll be your friend." The man swayed slightly and lifted the bottle to his lips. The sharp scent spilled out into the air again, and Seph wafted it away from his face. "You want some?"

"No no," Seph said, shaking his head. "You keep. Bad!" He was sure that anything which smelled like that could not be good.

The man looked at him, opening his eyes wide. "You're right," he said with a sudden clarity. "It's bad. But what c'n I do? Go to A.A., I guess. Been there, done that. You understand, right?"

"Sure." Seph didn't have a clue what he was talking about.

"Don't want a drink, maybe you want some food?" The man was fumbling through the pockets of his voluminous overcoat. Presently he withdrew his hand and revealed a lumpy parcel of grease-spotted paper. Seph caught the scent of edible items - barely edible, but edible nonetheless - and his interest peaked. He jumped onto the man's lap. "Hungry, huh?" The man chuckled unsteadily. "Well, I'll share with you. Ain't got no-one else to share with." With extreme care, he removed the paper to reveal three squashed cheese sandwiches. He handed one to Seph and took another for himself.

Seph ate it with a speed that surprised even himself. He hadn't realised just how starving he was until he had the food in his hands, and then it was gone in moments. He sighed.

"Quite a mouth you have there, pixy," the man said, taking a bite of his. He spoke through the food, spraying crumbs. "Tell you what. You take the last one. Looks like you need it more than me."

Seph reached out eagerly, then paused in the act of grasping the sandwich. "You sure?" he asked hesitantly. He didn't want to take it if it was all the man had.

"Go ahead. Be my guest." The man waved grandly. "'S a free world."

"Thanks big much!" Seph exclaimed, mixing up his words in pleasure. He grabbed the final sandwich and swallowed it.

"Guess it's time for bed," the man said, finishing his own sandwich. "Wanna come, pixy?"

"Bed?" Seph asked, yawning. He couldn't sleep yet, while the Guardian was still around.

The man stood up and, weaving slightly, made his way towards the dark entrance of a nearby alley. "This is as good as any," he said. "Keeps the rain off." Seph followed hesitantly, and watched as the man lay down on the hard ground, pulling a sheet of tattered newspaper over his chest. "G'night, pixy," he said, and closed his eyes.

Seph paused for a moment, looking at the man, then he went up to him and tugged on his sleeve. Sleepily, the man opened his eyes again, and then he smiled and held up his arm. Seph snuggled underneath, next to the man's face, and felt his warmth. "Not so lonely with two, right pixy?" the man said.

It was only a few minutes before he fell asleep, snoring lightly with the peaceful expression of a child. Seph reluctantly crawled out from underneath the arm and dusted himself off. He felt sorry for the strange man, but he knew he couldn't stay. He bent close to the man's ear, ignoring the sharp dizzy smell, and said softly, "I go now. Thanks for food." The man mumbled something incoherent.

Quietly, Seph stole out of the alley. He could sense the Guardian again, down by the sea.

*

"Sonic! Wake up!"

"..."

"Sonic!"

Tails sighed and grabbed his friend's shoulder. "Wake up!" he yelled, and shook him. "It's six already!"

"Go away," Sonic mumbled, and pulled the blankets over his head. The blue hedgehog had never been an early riser.

Tails tapped his foot impatiently, then an evil grin spread across his face. "If you don't wake up right now," he said cruelly, "I'll get Amy in here to get you up."

Sonic sat bolt upright. "Aagh! I'm awake! ...huh, where am I? Oh yeah, don't answer that." He yawned widely and then blinked twice, looking around. "This floor is NOT comfortable."

"You think I liked sleeping on my own workbench?" Tails said, annoyed.

The hedgehog shrugged. "It was here or camping out." He got to his feet and stretched, shaking out his bedraggled spines. "No sign of Chaos yet?"

"Not yet. D'you think he'll come after us here?"

"Depends how badly he wants that... what IS it, anyway?"

"We should ask Knuckles," Tails suggested.

Sonic groaned. "Great idea. IF he took the PHS. Did he?"

The fox looked crestfallen. "I don't know..."

With a long sigh, Sonic kicked away the blanket that had tangled around his feet, then looked about for his shoes. They were in the slightly cramped main area of Tails's workshop; Amy, who had gotten the bunk in the one side-room via the virtue of being female, was presumably not yet awake. Sonic shook himself again and realised that there was sawdust in his fur, itching. "I need a shower."

"Do you?" Tails said mildly.

Sonic stared at him for a moment, then had a mental image of getting Chaos out of the faucet instead of regular water. "Hmm, I guess not. This sucks."

The fox shrugged. "Well, there's no shower here anyway. I don't spend nights here if I can help it."

"Got anything to drink?"

"Coke." He tossed him a can.

Sonic knelt down to fasten the straps on his trainers. They were pretty much brand new - he was quite proud of them - though he supposed they'd wear out pretty quickly once he got into action. He was tough on shoes. "Where's Gamma?" he asked, noticing that the big mech was not in the workshop.

"I think he went out for a walk or something," Tails said. He picked up Amy's mobile which Sonic had placed on the bench last night - this morning, even. "I'll try and raise Knux, okay? He should be warned about Chaos; it's his Emeralds at stake."

Sonic shuddered. "Yeah. Chaos mustn't get them, whatever happens. We'd all be dead meat."

"Hey, guys," Amy poked her head around the door. "Up kind of early, aren't we?" Her eyes narrowed when she saw Tails with her phone. "You'd better not be calling overseas."

"Is Angel Island overseas?" Sonic asked interestedly. "I mean, it moves, right? What would it count as?"

"Mobile rates," Tails said absently. "Depends on the network."

Amy glared at him. "Then you can pay this month's bill."

"I can't," the fox answered cheerfully. "I don't have any money!"

"I bought you lunch," Sonic said quickly as she turned her glare on him.

"Cop-out."

"That's me." He grinned. She swiped at him with her mallet, and he jumped back. "Hey, no fair, I'm wounded."

"Will you two be quiet?" Tails growled, the phone to his ear. "Jeez, Knux, pick it up already!"

"Is it just ringing?" Amy asked.

Tails sighed, and reluctantly turned off the phone. "Yeah. Either he forgot it, or he's somewhere he can't hear the ring."

"Great," Sonic said sarcastically. "We have to tell him somehow. Anyone else got good ideas?"

"Carrier pigeon," said Amy.

"Rebuild the Tornado and fly up," Tails suggested. Suddenly, he looked as if he had been struck by a fantastic idea. He slapped the bench and jumped into the air with excitement. "Sonic! What about Eggman's factory? There were tons of machines there - we could steal one of his planes and use it to get to Angel Island!"

"You mean, go back in there?" Sonic asked in amazement. "What about Metal Sonic? What if Eggman's there? What if-"

"Well, there are four of us now," Amy said thoughtfully. "If you could defeat the Egg Viper on your own, Sonie, I think you and me and Tails and Gamma could fight anything."

"It's just a matter of tactics," Tails added. "See, Sonic, Metal Sonic was designed to fight you and you alone. Speed versus speed doesn't work, but speed versus power is different. That's why Gamma could defeat him easily. If we all stuck together - I think Amy's right."

Sonic scratched his head. "How did you get so smart?"

"Ever played Pokémon?" the fox asked obliquely.

"Nah. I'm not into board games."

Tails facefaulted.

*

E-102 Gamma stood on the very edge of Tails's runway, overlooking the sea. From way up here, the deep blue water was a semicircle which surrounded and outflanked the land. The sun, new and huge in the early morning, hung like a red lantern low above the water. Radiant sparkles of light darted across the entire sea, glittering with the movement of the waves. Streaks of warm color slashed across the pale blue-greyness of the sky, pointing towards the rising sun. It was a phenomenal sunrise.

What makes me different? Gamma wondered. No machine should be able to appreciate beauty. But the colors do something to me, deep inside. I... feel...

He was unsure as to the purpose of his continuing existence. There was no directive, no mission objective. The furs he found himself with insisting on treating him like an equal, one of them. They asked his opinion, attempted to reason with him and invited him to share in their company. Gamma was unsure how to deal with such attentions. It wasn't in his programming.

But, as long as they needed him, he could feel he had an objective. He wanted to be needed, to be useful. To that end, he would help his companions to the extent of his abilities.

I have been resurrected, he thought.

There was one thing that truly dwelt in his thoughts. He had no memory of the long years of development which had given rise to him in his present form, but they had to have been different to those of the other E-100 model mechs. Only Gamma had attained sentience - the eventual goal of all artificial intelligence researchers. He didn't think any other machine had ever achieved his level of independent thought.

And the question was: could E-101 Beta have achieved it? Perhaps if he had not followed his head and terminated his older brother, Beta might have shared his vision of the world. The doctor had abused him terribly, altering his shape until it was no longer recognisable as that of an E-100 model mech, but Beta had still been Beta.

"Hey, Gamma? Gamma!"

E-102 shifted, looking behind him to the small building where they had spent the dark hours. It was the blue hedgehog, Sonic, waving to him to come back. Gamma turned around and walked sedately down the incline, his thoughts forgotten in the desire to serve.

Will Seph find the Guardian? Can Sonic and pals reach Knuckles in time? And why does Chaos want Amy's stone?

Find out in

Part Two: "Whose Bright Idea Was This Anyways?"

--GTK