Sonic Series Fan Fiction ❯ Chaos Entity: The Opened Heart ❯ Part Three: Perfect Chaos ( Chapter 3 )

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 THREE
Perfect Chaos

"Wow... listen to that rain..."

It was late afternoon. Although to take a look outside, you'd never guess it from the color of the sky. All light had bled out of the day, worn into twilight by the incessant pounding of the water which fell from the black clouds.

Sonic had his face pressed to the window in Tails's workshop, looking out at the rain-drenched Mystic Ruins. Tails's watermill was overflowing, rivulets of muddy liquid ran down the hillsides, and the runway outside was a swamp. They had parked the Egg Wasp below the workshop, on the large oval area where Sonic and Tails had fought the Egg Hornet weeks ago. What the heck was it with eggs, Sonic wondered? Probably, even E-102 Gamma's initial E stood for 'egg'... It turned out that the plane they'd stolen also doubled as a jump-jet, and was able to land with almost no runway at all. Very useful. Tails was over the moon about his new acquisition, and was already talking excitedly about painting the Egg off of it to leave it as the Wasp.

Right now, the fox was occupied with E-102 Gamma. He'd had a look at Gamma's dodgy wheel and had replaced the bent axle which had caused the bumping on the Final Egg course; now, he was checking the seals in the hope that he could make Gamma slightly more waterproof. The way the rain was coming down right now, they wouldn't be able to get him into the plane without him shorting out. Gamma bore all the attention with a kind of sweet, trusting patience; despite his size and deadly abilities, the big mech came across as somehow childlike. When not breaking enemy robots into little pieces, that was.

"Hey, Sonie!" He glanced round and saw Amy enter the room carrying a bowlful of hot water and a packet of Kleenex. She set the bowl down on the table and stripped off her white gloves. "Come here a minute, you need to be cleaned up."

"Is this going to hurt?" Sonic said suspiciously.

"Yes."

"Darn." He sat down at the table and reluctantly let her examine his injured ear. Her hands were gentle, but it did hurt. Sonic squeezed his eyes shut and began swearing volubly as she carefully cleaned off the dried blood.

Tails raised an eyebrow and whistled. "Hey, Sonic, I never knew you had such a wide vocabulary."

"Shut up," the hedgehog snarled through gritted teeth. With a shrug, the twin-tailed fox picked up the sonic screwdriver and returned his attention to Gamma's carapace. The dents would have to wait for now, he didn't have the time for major bodywork repair.

"D'you usually get this hurt when you're fighting Eggman?" Amy questioned, tipping some antiseptic onto a cotton pad.

Sonic sighed. "I could say no, but it seems to have gotten a lot more dangerous around here recently. I was pretty beat after the Egg Viper. He's learning from his mistakes." He longed to add, 'and this thing with Metal Sonic has me honestly scared', but he had to yelp instead.

"Sorry!" Amy exclaimed. "I thought that might sting."

"You never told me!" Sonic growled, pulling away.

"I haven't finished."

"It'll do." He reached up and touched the ear - better, but it stung like heck now. Oh well. "See?" he said to Amy. "I'm fine."

"If you're sure," she sighed, giving up and starting to clear the first aid stuff away. The bowl of water had a pink tinge to it.

Sonic got up and trotted to the door of the workshop. He felt a little light-headed; a run might clear it. "Hey, guys, I'm going out," he said over his shoulder. "Back soon, okay?"

"Don't go too far," Tails told him. "We have to leave real soon and I'm not gonna go out looking for you in that."

Sonic snorted and pulled the door open. A wedge of rain blew in, spattering a fan-shaped area of the floor. Quickly, before any more got in, Sonic dragged the door shut and stepped out into the driving rain. There was quite a wind getting up, too. The trees were blowing about a bit. Sonic shivered, already wet all over, and headed for the stairs that led down from the hill onto the floor of the Mystic Ruins valley. His feet splashed in muddy puddles on the worn steps; water flowed down over the stone rims, soaking into the ground. At least it wasn't particularly cold yet.

At the bottom of the hill, Sonic held a hand over his eyes to keep the rain off, and squinted through the gray curtain to make out the tall dark shape of the station platform. He crouched, powering up, and then took off across the surface of the valley floor. A spray of water and mud particles flew up behind him, mingling with the rain and turning into a kind of thick haze that took several moments to disappear. It was an interesting kind of weather, the hedgehog thought uneasily. He couldn't remember ever seeing a storm quite like this before.

A great black silhouette loomed up before him suddenly. Screeching to a halt in a spray of mud, Sonic realised it was the wall of the jungle cliffs and that he'd crossed the whole valley. Jeez... visibility was practically zero right now. He hoped the Wasp had radar, because he couldn't see how Tails would fly it blind in this sort of weather. Still, at least they wouldn't run the risk of hitting other aircraft. Only suicidal people would fly tonight.

The rain was penetrating his fur now and getting to his skin, but he didn't want to go back just yet. Spinning around on the spot, Sonic sent a shower of dirty water high into the air. He glanced up at the station platform a short distance away, figured out exactly where he was, and took off again towards the lake. As usual, it didn't take long before he was standing on the rim, looking down into the swollen bowl. The water had risen quite a bit with all the extra pouring in, though it would be a pretty long time before it ever reached the top! That would take a cloudburst of Biblical proportions, Sonic thought with some relief. They were in no danger of getting flooded out just yet. It was just a heavy storm. Thunder rolled far away, and he glanced up at the dark sky, blinking rain out of his eyes.

Something in the long grass caught his eye - something gold and shining. Shaking wet fur out of his eyes Sonic trotted over and knelt beside it, pulling soaked plants out of the way in his curiosity to see what the item was. His eyes widened. Gently he reached out and slipped his hands under the limp, cold body of the mud-spattered golden Chao, cradling it in his arms - trying to warm it with his own body. He tilted its head back and realised with a shock that it was one of the ones from the Station Square garden. What was the little guy doing here?

There was a faint flutter of movement from Seph's paw. Sonic crouched over him, shielding him from the rain as he checked for a pulse. It was there, but very faint. The hedgehog got to his feet, holding Seph to his chest as if the Chao was a sick child. He turned round, spotting the hill through the rain, and started to run towards it as fast as he could.

*

"There you go," Tails smiled, putting down the screwdriver for what he hoped would be the final time. "I think that should just about do it. Rain's fine, but don't go jumping in any lakes, okay?"

"Yes," Gamma said. He ran a status check and was satisfied with the results. Power at maximum, no reported hardware problems, software bug-free. He stood up.

"Are we going yet?" Amy asked, noticing Gamma's movement. The pink hedgehog was brushing her spines as if she was going to a movie. Tails wondered what the point was, since the moment she stepped out of the door, her hairdo would be ruined.

"In a minute," he told her. "First we have to wait for-"

The door slammed open. Sonic entered, along with a gust of rain and wind. Panting hard, the hedgehog shoved the door to with his foot and then shook himself like a dog, spattering water onto an irritated Amy. "Son-IE!" she squealed, brushing at it as if it were hot.

"Quick," Sonic gasped, grabbing a towel from the table. "Someone get a hot water bottle - blankets - food - anything!" He wrapped something in the towel too quickly for Tails to see what it was.

"What's up?" the fox asked in surprise.

"Found a Chao outside. He's hypothermic. Don't just stand there!" Tails dashed out into the tiny kitchen annexe and fumbled for the kettle, reacting more to the hedgehog's urgent tone than to his actual words.

Sonic threw himself into the nearest chair, still clutching the Chao to his chest. He could feel Seph shivering violently through the soft fabric of the towel - not good, but a heck of an improvement over the lifelessness he'd first been exhibiting. The little Chao had started to revive just with Sonic holding him; he should be okay if they acted fast. Up until now, the blue hedgehog hadn't allowed himself time to wonder properly where Seph had come from, but now he looked down at the bundle in his arms and frowned.

"Is he gonna be okay?" Amy asked, hovering over him.

"I think so," Sonic told her, still breathing heavily. "I found him just in time." He tilted the bundle so she could see the top of Seph's face, his closed eyes and dripping crest of fur.

"He's so kawaii," the pink hedgehog breathed, reaching out to stroke the fuzzy crest.

"He ain't," Sonic corrected her. "If he's the one I think he is, he's a biter. How the heck did he get way out here by himself?"

Amy shook her head helplessly. "I dunno. We don't have time to take him back to Station Square..."

"I know. The trains aren't running anyway. We have to take him with us."

"NANI?"

He looked at her. "This Chao is going to die if he's not looked after. They're not tough, Amy."

"I know that, but..." She sighed. "I dunno... it's probably going to be dangerous from here on. We've still gotta deal with Chaos."

"We'll manage," Sonic said quietly. "Seph's coming with me. He's more or less Knux's Chao, anyway."

Amy drew up a chair next to him and sat down, looking down at the bundle in the other hedgehog's hands. Gently, she rubbed Seph's crest with the end of the towel, drying the worst of the water out of it. "Poor little guy," she sighed, eyes soft.

Tails chose that moment to come out of the kitchen, a hot-water bottle firmly grasped in his paw. He did a completely unrehearsed double-take when he saw Sonic and Amy sitting together like that, but managed to cover it up without anyone noticing his lapse. The fox trotted up to his friends and handed the bottle to Sonic. "He okay?" he asked sincerely.

"He will be," Sonic told him, putting the bottle on the table. He laid Seph gently on top of it, making sure the towel was securely wrapped around him. The little Chao stirred slightly at the warmth, but he did not awaken. His sleep, though, seemed to be more of a natural one now - more a sleep of exhaustion than the lifeless stupor brought on by cold. One paw was free of the towel, and it twitched slightly as it lay on the warm surface.

"What was his name again?" Amy asked.

"Seph. Don't look at me, it was Knux's idea."

"But that's a good name!"

He shrugged. "If he was mine I'd have called him Punk, 'cos he looks like one." Sonic ran a finger down Seph's crest, and then smiled. "Knux thinks my names are rubbish. I think he's probably right. Seph's definitely a Seph, isn't he?"

"So why Seph?" Tails said, peeking at the Chao.

"Short for Sephiroth," Sonic explained. "He's a mean one."

The fox scratched the back of his head. "Oo... kay."

Gamma, finally tiring of watching everyone else, activated and stomped over to take a look at Sonic's find. He reached out with extreme care and lifted the end of the towel with his mechanical claw hand.

"Careful," Amy said uneasily. Not that he'd wilfully hurt the Chao, but Gamma WAS very big compared to Seph...

"It's a Chao," Sonic told him. "Ever seen one before?"

"No," Gamma said.

Tails sighed and picked up a backpack which he had previously been packing full of tools. "If you're set on taking him," he said to Sonic, hefting the bag on his shoulder, "we'd better get going now. It'll be warm in the plane, don't worry."

Sonic scooped his arms around the bundle, covering Seph up again with the towel. "I guess you're right. I hope the noise won't upset him."

"Got everything?" Tails asked. He opened the door slightly, shivering as rain blew in through the crack. "Jeez, it's pouring down out there. I'll go down to the Wasp and start it up - can you guys clear the workshop up a bit?" Without waiting for an answer, the twin-tailed fox adjusted his backpack and left, heaving the door shut behind him against the wind. He had a point; there were Coke cans and empty pizza boxes strewn on the floor. Mostly Sonic's fault; the hedgehog had ransacked the freezer as soon as they'd got back. It only took a few minutes to pick up the junk, but the pizza smell was going to hang around for hours.

The sound of high-powered jet engines from below, muffled through the rain but still audible, told them that Tails was in the cockpit of the Wasp. Amy opened the door, letting yet more water blow into the workshop. What with Sonic's sudden entrance and all, the floor was turning into a muddy puddle. The pink hedgehog patted her spines back primly, glanced at the others and then stepped out into the drenching rain. Sonic sighed, making sure that Seph was comfortable in the towel, and then he followed her.

Gamma was left alone in the workshop. Hesitantly, the big mech went to the open door and looked out. It was very wet, and though Tails said it was okay, he still could not help fearing water on account of his delicate electrics. Still... his friends were waiting for him. Gamma ducked through the doorway.

He could hear the rain hammering on his metal shell; water dripped from the edge of his visor. There was an inch of mud on the ground, and his feet sank deeply into it with every step he took. Another gust of rain blew water under his visor and onto his optic lenses, blurring the world into splintered segments. Gamma wished he could blink. He could still see the Wasp where it was parked down below the hill. Quickly he started down the steps towards it, not wanting to spend too long in the wet.

*

Tails tapped the side of the microphone. "Contact," he said into it. "Testing, one two three-"

"I can hear you already!" Sonic yelled into his own headset, setting off a whine of feedback. The fox winced, suppressing an urge to remove the earpiece. It might have been a mistake asking Sonic... but he was pretty sure he would need a co-pilot to take off and land the Wasp at night, and E-102 was too big to fit into the seat.

"Talk quieter," he informed his blue-furred companion, and then turned in his seat and checked on the other two, who were in the hold as usual. Amy was sitting on one of the packing crates with Seph in her lap, while Gamma had taken up his previous position near the back of the plane. Tails waved at them with a cheerful grin, and Amy looked up and smiled back at him. He returned his attention to the control panel before him. "Okay, Sonic, you're in charge of thrust. We gotta co-ordinate to get the plane up, and I'm gonna be watching the radar, so you've got to make sure we get fast enough to clear the ground. There's no flight control to warn us of a collision, if we goof we'll never know about it." It was too dark now to see much out of the windscreen, even with the external lights on.

"Cool," Sonic said cheerfully, grabbing the joystick in front of him. "Warp speed, Mr. Sulu!"

Tails sideyed him. "Concentrate," the fox admonished. "This is not a drill!" He ran through a quick pre-flight check of fuel, radar and hull integrity.

"How fast can this plane go anyway?" Sonic asked craftily.

"Behave," Tails said, "or I'll get Amy to do it. Okay, you ready? Don't overwork the engines, we don't want to be going Mach 1 at least until we're out over the ocean." Sonic groaned. "Okay," Tails told him, "press the red button on top of the stick; that's the brakes."

"Got it." The hedgehog held it down with his thumb.

"Don't let that go until the RPM is in the red."

"Huh?"

Tails leaned over and pointed at the engine output gauge. "That one."

"Right." "Watch it closely. Now, push your stick forward - slowly!" The engines' tone rose from a low growl to a hum. Tails checked the radar again and laid hold of the steering joystick. He punched a button and the cockpit light went out, leaving them in darkness except for the lights on the instrument panel. Tails flicked a few more switches, raising and lowering the wing flaps, then laid hold of the steering stick and fixed his eyes on the radar. "When it's in the red," he informed Sonic, "let go of the brakes, but try and hold the stick still. It'll buck a bit."

"Okay."

"Here we go, then." Tails adjusted his mike slightly and tightened his grip on the stick. "Whenever it's ready."

Sonic released the button. The Wasp sprang forward like a hungry beast, rising into the storm. Tails glanced at the radar and swung the stick round, leading the plane in a tight circle as its wheels left the ground. With a bump or two they were in the air, flying low over the ruins. Tails pulled back sharply, forcing the plane's nose up. "We clear?" he asked.

Sonic squinted out of the cockpit, trying to lean forward despite the plane's momentum pushing him back into his seat. He couldn't see a thing through the rain and the failing light. "Yeah," he said.

"Raise the landing gear."

"How?" the hedgehog asked.

"It should be marked. I can't look up now." He was intent on watching the radar, trying to figure out what the readouts were telling him. They were flying along the shore, or should be if Sonic had done it right.

Sonic scanned the panel and found a pull-down lever with the words "Landing Gear Activate" etched into its setting. He reached out with his free hand and locked his fingers around the handle, then yanked down; there was a mechanical clanking from beneath them as the wheels retracted seamlessly into the body of the plane. The hedgehog grinned. "Hey, I could get used to this."

"More thrust," Tails ordered. Sonic pushed forward on the stick again, and the plane powered forward like a bullet. The fox eased their steep climb into a steadier ascent, turning the plane slowly out away from the land. Rain slashed across the nose of the Wasp as they faced momentarily into the full elements. They'd be flying at forty-five degrees to the prevailing wind, and Tails reminded himself that even in a plane like this it was necessary to make allowances for wind shear. He tapped the mike again and said, "Gamma? You there?"

"Receiving," came the answer. The big mech was tuned in to their in-plane frequency, able to hear everything that was said in the cockpit.

"We'll be flying for a while, so let Amy know it if you can. I know it's noisy back there. Angel Island follows a set course over the ocean, so if he's sticking to it we should be arriving there in between one and two hours. Copy?"

"I understand."

"Good-oh. That's it for the moment, but stand by anyway." He took his eyes off the radar momentarily to check out of the windscreen; the rain wasn't so bad out here, increasing visibility somewhat. Black clouds were still all he could see above the plane. The Wasp was flying far above the sea, but even from these heights Tails guessed that the waves were reaching twenty feet. It was probably whipping up for one of those southern storms - July was a good time for them.

"Sonic, more thrust," he said, steadying their course. "You can put the pedal to the metal now."

The hedgehog whooped and pushed his stick forward as far as he could. There was a shiver and a muffled boom from the engines as the Wasp arrowed through the sky, battering into a wall of air resistance. The speedometer climbed steadily towards seven hundred and sixty kilometers per hour - Mach 1, Sonic's top speed. Sonic grinned, realising that he'd never raced a plane. He considered asking Tails about that later on, then realised he was getting distracted. He glanced at the instruments in front of him and then out of the cockpit window.

In the back of the plane, Seph stirred and murmured, "Chao..." sleepily. Amy stroked his furry crest steadily, keeping him warm with the towel wrapped around him. Slowly, the lion Chao half-opened his eyes and looked up at her.

"Hiya, little guy," she said, though the noise of the engines drowned out her words.

Seph blinked and freed a paw to rub at his eyes. He felt very tired and somewhat confused - he wasn't sure where he was. He couldn't sense the Guardian any more. Thankfully. He sighed and sat up, grateful for the warmth which surrounded him. Despite the loud engine noise, Seph hadn't felt this comfortable since leaving the Chao Garden so long ago. The pain in his limbs was more or less gone.

He wriggled out from under the towel, and jumped to the floor ignoring her yelp of alarm. Seph walked quickly up the length of the plane, turning his head from side to side to take everything in. He could feel that they were moving, very high and very fast. It looked like he'd accidentally fallen into the hands of some of the Chao friends... amazing. He had a vague memory of being carried fast through the storm, and looked around for the blue hedgehog, feeling sorry that he'd always victimised him in the garden. Seph wasn't a bully at heart.

Wandering back down the plane, he caught sight of the big red mech crouched at the back. Seph stared, sensing that this robot had a mind - a gentle mind, the sort that Chao were always attracted to. He trotted across the bare metal floor of the plane, towards E-102, intending to investigate closer.

Amy called for him to come back, trying to attract his attention despite the noise of the engines which drowned out her words. He wasn't secured - if the plane should bump, the Chao would go flying. Seph glanced back at her with a vaguely annoyed look, then walked right up to Gamma and held out both his paws in a 'hug me' gesture. It was the way Chao showed acceptance.

Tails glanced at the instruments on Sonic's side, noticing that there was a bigger storm in front of them. The fox reached up and adjusted his microphone. "Okay, looks like there's gonna be some turbulence. Sonic, activate the stabilisers - that should help. A plane like this has got to have something in that line."

"Gotcha." The blue hedgehog looked over his equipment and found the necessary switch bank; separate switches for front, back, cockpit and wings. He flicked them all on, trying to keep his grip on the stick - it was bucking a bit now; the plane obviously didn't like flying this fast with the wind against it. Luckily like all Eggman's stuff it was good on fuel, so they weren't going to run out any time soon. Which was especially good seeing as they were out over the ocean, with no land for hundreds of miles.

Seph trotted back to Amy - not that he had anything against Gamma, but the pink hedgehog was a more comfortable seat. He let her pick him up and then sat quietly in her lap, waiting for them to reach their destination... wherever that was.

*

Back in the Mystic Ruins, a dark indigo blue figure sped swiftly through the curtain of rain. The sound of the highly powered fusion engine was softened by the falling water, and its pale blue flame sputtered every now and again as liquid found its way through the vents in the mech's back. He flew up the side of the hill towards the abandoned workshop, cutting through the dusk like a hot knife. The marks of the Egg Wasp's wheels, still visible in the mud though softened now by an hour's constant rainfall, attracted only a moment's attention. Metal Sonic had other places to go.

Drawing up neatly outside Tails's workshop, the mech turned his head to examine the area. He walked quickly to the window near the watermill, and stood on tiptoes to look in.

-DIRECTIVE: LOCATE SPECIFIED TARGETS-
-SCANNING...-
-TARGETS NOT FOUND-

Metal stood back from the building, unmindful of the rain which pelted down onto his head and body. He was fully waterproof to a depth of two hundred feet, so he could be excused for ignoring a little rain. The mech turned his head with a soft whir, and scanned the plateau below. The tracks left by the Egg Wasp suggested that they had flown it along the coast, but it was more likely that they had turned out to sea.

His directive on this mission was to reclaim the untested fighter plane from the thieves. Once he had found it, he was to contact base and wait for further orders. Robotnik had expected that it would have arrived here, but the idea had not occurred to him that Sonic and his friends would fly it further.

Metal Sonic stood still, processing the information available. In the event that the furs were not at the workshop, he had been ordered to return to base. Robotnik intended to get the plane back eventually no matter what; it was a matter of waiting.

Metal realised he hated waiting.

He accessed the new memory banks so recently installed. This morning they had been empty RAM, a fantastic amount of it. Now, they were practically full of raw data of a very special kind. The dark blue mech searched the archived information, a task which took nearly twenty minutes despite the power of his main RISC processor. He found a snatch of a... memory? what? that seemed to have the information he needed. Shutting down all nonessential software, he loaded the file and watched a scene unfold before his visual and audio sensors.

"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-"

Metal ended the file prematurely. He had the information he needed. Sonic and his friends were headed for Angel Island, for some reason - that was why they had taken the plane.

The mech's head turned and he looked out towards the stormy ocean. His eyes adapted automatically to the increased darkness. There was nothing to see there that would be of interest to Robotnik; theoretically, Metal Sonic should return to the Mystic Ruins base and report his findings.

Theoretically.

The dark blue mech walked gracefully through the mud, to the end of the runway. Accessing separate data files, he found the most recent position of Angel Island and plotted a series of possible trajectories, choosing the average as the most likely flight path. Without hesitation, Metal Sonic fired up his powerful engine and flew off the runway, heading for the most probable location of Angel Island. If Sonic was after something special on the ancient floating island, Metal wanted his cut.

*

There was a blip on the radar. Tails jerked and then double-checked on other instruments, assuring himself that there was something in front of them. He glanced out of the window, but could see only dark purplish-black clouds streaming off the nose of the plane. They were thick into an impenetrable cloudbank, and the Wasp's nose lights lent the clouds an eerie luminescent hue.

"'Sup, bro?" Sonic asked, glancing at his friend. He was getting tired of holding the darn stick - his wrists were aching with the strain.

Tails flicked switches, searching for a radar mode that would tell him a little more. He managed to determine that the blip was a large - an extremely large object, fifty miles or so ahead. At their present speed, it wouldn't take more than a few minutes to cover that distance. "I think we found Angel Island," he said, slightly perplexed.

"Already? Man, that took no time!" Sonic leaned forward in his seat, trying, as Tails had done, to see out of the cockpit.

"Yeah, I know." The fox frowned. "It didn't get very far. I thought we'd be following it all the way down to Flickie Island."

There was a bump, suddenly, and the plane dropped two feet. Amy let out a shriek of fright from the hold. "Hold fast!" Tails said into the headset, hoping that Gamma would be able to inform the pink hedgehog. "It's just turbulence!"

"Just turbulence?" Sonic's fingers tightened around the stick as the plane bounced again. It felt just as if something had collided with it from below.

"Trust me," Tails said, checking the instruments again. "It's normal. We're flying through odd weather conditions."

"Very odd," the blue hedgehog remarked thoughtfully, gazing at the billowing clouds outside. The Wasp started to shudder, seemingly moving through the sky in abortive, bucking jerks. Tails held his stick steady, forcing the plane to continue on its straight course despite the bouncing. Slowly, the jittering smoothed out and the Wasp regained its previous steady flight.

The clouds in front of the plane thinned and wisped out, turning into vapory contrails which slid over the windscreen before vanishing in the plane's wake. They were coming out of the cloudbank at last. Tails took his attention off the radar to look out of the cockpit, hoping that they'd be able to see what they were headed for. In a moment, they did. The Wasp cut through the last of the clouds and was suddenly flying through a clear patch - star-spotted sky above, black waters far below, purple clouds coating the horizons and the pale moon shedding light on it all. In the center of the openness, strange and otherworldly in its airy orbit, was Angel Island.

It was immediately obvious that the island was in difficulties. It was lower than they were, only a few thousand feet above the sea, and it was tilted slightly to one side. It coasted along slowly and without much direction, seemingly following the air currents. The island's plains and forests were dark and featureless in the night - it would be hard for them to find a landing place if they didn't know the island back to front.

"What's going on here?" Sonic asked, almost letting go of the stick in his surprise.

Tails frowned. "I don't know," he said hesitantly. "I think we'd better find someplace to get the Wasp down. Right away."

"Is there a problem?" Gamma asked via the intercom.

Sonic shook his head, though the mech of course could not see the action. "Nah, don't worry about it. We're going down now, okay? Can you tell Amy?"

"Of course." There was a *bink!* as he temporarily disconnected from the intercom link-up.

"Slow down a bit, Sonic," Tails said, lowering the plane's nose to bring them on a converging course with the island. "I think we're coming in over the east jungles. If we go on over Mushroom Hill, we should be able to land in Marble Gardens."

"Okay."

Sonic sat forward in his seat and watched the island rise up in front of them. Angel Island was not large, and although there was only one regular inhabitant they would usually have been able to see the light from his dwelling, high up on the flank of Ice Cap Mountain. They were coming in from an unusual angle, so it wasn't unusual that the Master Emerald's glow was also invisible - the mountain was in the way. With no lights on this side, the island looked strangely abandoned.

They were within a few miles of it now, and the island ceased to be a single object. Instead, different features began to appear - the coastline, sand glittering pale white in the darkness. The black carpet of forest, and the mountains...

The Wasp glided in low above the first treetops, decelerating. They were flying a few hundred feet above the jungle; ahead, the land rose and became the foothills of Ice Cap. The Marble Garden, remainder of an ancient city, was located near Mushroom Hill. Tails swung the plane gently left, bringing it around the side of the mountain. The ground fell away again as they left the forests, and then they were flying over the ruins.

There was a long strip of clear ground, paved with cracking marble, in almost the center of the ruined city. Tails brought the plane still lower, until they were almost skimming the tops of the highest pillars. "We're coming in to land now," he said into the microphone. "If anything's not secured, hang on to it. Sonic, slow down just a bit more. You've gotta lower the landing gear in a sec, and then turn on the brakes real fast."

"Okay." The hedgehog slipped his paw over the lever handle. "Tell me when."

They flew between two tall towers, the sound of the plane's engines rattling the foundations of the ancient buildings. The runway was just in front. Tails took his eyes off the radar, seeing that there was nothing else in front of them. He glanced quickly out of the windscreen, seeing the moonscape of white marble outside, and then flicked the switches that controlled the wing flaps. "Sonic, now!"

The landing gear clanked into place with a jerk that shook the plane, and then a second later they touched ground - there was a screech of tyres and the Wasp bounced back up again. The airbrakes kicked in as the plane hit the ground for a second time. With a squealing shriek and scent of burning rubber, the Wasp skidded almost the whole length of the runway, finally coming to a stop less than thirty feet from a wall.

Tails slowly let go of the stick, and exhaled. "We did it, people," he said into the mike.

Sonic reached over and switched off the jets. With a soft purr, the sound of the engines faded away. Suddenly, it was very, very quiet. There was a quiet tick-tick-tick of cooling metal from somewhere, and of course there was the continual pattering rain. The hedgehog removed his headset and then looked at his friend. "You okay?"

Tails smiled. "Yep. Jeez, that was a bit close! I need some real practise at night landings."

"Why, how many have you done?"

The fox wriggled with slight embarrassment. "Er... one, actually. That was how I crashed the Tornado 2, remember?"

Sonic facefaulted.

*

The Marble Garden was well named, for even before its desertion and decay it had been as a garden of stone, its buildings carved with wonderful designs. Now, however, the garden metaphor was more accurate. Trailing vines grew over all the stone, and tiny flowers sprouted up through cracks in the ancient floor. It had been built with great daring on the very side of the mountain, and descended via great ledges of stone to the overgrown floor of the valley far below. From where the five companions stood they could see across the whole valley to the edge of the island - Angel Island was not large, but it was just about big enough to support a small community of unique wildlife, and Knuckles.

Tails was sitting on Gamma's head again. The fox found it an interesting alternative to walking, especially since the height gave him a brand new perspective to view the world from. He couldn't help but be irritated when even Amy had an inch or so on him, and now he could look down on Sonic. Gamma didn't appear to mind anyone's hitching a ride.

Seph, too, had found a less strenuous method of transport. He had attached himself to Amy, who was only too pleased to carry him. They seemed to want him along, and after his abortive bout with Chaos, the golden lion Chao was in no mood to argue. He clung to her shoulder, half-supported by her arm, and played idly with the locket that hung around her neck: fascinated by the play of light and the strange energy that it gave off.

Sonic rubbed the side of his muzzle, glancing with narrowed eyes to the left and right. He had only been to this part of Angel Island a few times, and he was worried that they would get lost before finding Knuckles. Somehow the hedgehog had expected that the red echidna would be there to meet them, as he had been before. Knux didn't usually miss uninvited visitors.

It was still raining, though not as strongly as it had been on the mainland. The stone was slick and held great puddles of water here and there; there was a lot of mud. A faint breeze blew steadily to the north-east, pregnant with salt from the sea below them. Weird... they were standing on solid ground, but there was an ocean beneath their feet. That was kinda scary. Sonic looked over the garden, trying to remember which way he had gone the last time he was there. He and Tails had chased Eggman through the gardens and their accompanying subterranean maze, and it had taken the better part of a day. Which was time he was sure they didn't have. He remembered that the Master Emerald's shrine was somewhere on the north end of the island, near the bottom of the gardens... their task then was to descend the ledges, some way or another. Knux would almost definitely be with his beloved Emerald.

"Anyone know the shortest way to the Master?" Sonic asked hopefully, glancing back at his friends.

"Master?" Seph said suddenly, opening his eyes wide.

Amy jiggled him a bit. "We're looking for an emerald, Seph."

The lion Chao ignored her, gazing round at the ruined city with new eyes. He felt suddenly as if he knew the place. Could that be possible? Closing his eyes, Seph thought back, deep into the darkest place in his memory. He was sure... he DID know this place. From a long, long time ago.

"Atchi!" he said excitedly, pointing. "There!"

"Huh?" Sonic blinked. "You know the way, Seph?"

"Master that way!" Seph exclaimed, gesticulating wildly towards the lower end of the island. "Hurry!"

*

It was pretty much a nightmare journey.

The marble was slippery as ice after such prolonged rain - only ice wasn't so hard. They slid and tripped down broken ledges, ever mindful that the slightest falter could mean a fall down several hundred feet - not that it would kill Sonic, but it would darn well hurt, even if he curled into a ball and landed spines-first. All the same, he kept more of an eye on Amy than he did on himself; the others could fly, she couldn't. Guided by Seph, they managed to get more or less halfway down the hillside before coming up against a serious obstacle.

The ledge they had been using was only around a foot wide, and it wound around and down a sheer cliff face. Here, though, it came to a sudden end, changing to a wide slope somewhat like a slide. It went straight down the mountainside at approximately a seventy-degree angle, and it was covered with wet grass. Sonic frowned; he thought he remembered doing this once before. "Uhh," he said, turning round with difficulty to face the others.

Amy was shaking her head. "Uh-uh, no way José, absolutely not. There is no way I'm going down there."

"C'mon, it's just a slide."

"Yeah, a slide to certain death!"

"Maybe you can ride on-" He stopped and glanced back at Tails, who was still sitting atop Gamma's head. "Nah, scratch that."

"I'll get off if you want," the fox offered cheerfully. He was in good spirits; all he had to endure was drizzly rain. The others had to endure drizzly rain, mud and treacherous ground, so Tails was feeling pretty good in comparison. Sonic glared at him.

"I don't wanna go down there," Amy said firmly.

He sighed. "Look, we have to. The Master Emerald is down there, we're up here. We have to be down there."

She was starting to whine again. "It looks scary!"

Sonic groaned audibly. "Okay, listen. Amy, if you go down, I'll go at the same time. Okay?"

"I'm scared!" Amy whined.

He squeezed his eyes shut in desperation. "Look, I'll hold your hand so you won't be scared."

"WAIII!!!" The resulting scream left echoes that reverberated around the empty ruins for several seconds. Amy latched onto Sonic's arm with a huge smile, then refused to let go.

Tails was laughing. The blue hedgehog snarled up at his twin-tailed companion. "Stuff it up," he said, then grabbed Amy with his free hand and jerked her after him, jumping onto the slide feet-first. Instantly his feet shot out from under him and he vanished down the wet, extremely slippery chute like a bolt of blue lightning. Twin yelps of alarm hung in the air behind them. Seph pumped his ridiculously small wings once or twice and jumped down onto the slide after them, trying to control the speed of his descent by semi-flight.

"We should follow them," Tails said to Gamma, peering down into the rainy darkness. The bottom of the slide was invisible, cloaked in shadow. "You think you can slide down that?" He slipped off the large red mech as he spoke, whirring his tails to land neatly on the ledge.

"No," Gamma said, activating his helicopter rotors and descending into the gloom.

"Oh, fine." Carefully, the fox lowered himself down onto the slide. He couldn't get any sort of grip with his sneakers - immediately he found himself hanging onto the ledge by his arms, as his feet flailed at the amazingly slippery grass coating the slide. Tails struggled for a few moments, waving his twin tails ineffectively, then he sighed and gave in. Muttering a prayer to the lords of all small creatures, the fox closed his eyes and resignedly let go.

*whoosh* "AARGH!!"

*

Sonic groaned weakly. "Augh, what a landing..."

He was lying on his stomach on wet, cold foliage; the rain pattered down onto his back and soaked into his fur. They were on the north side of the island, the most exposed; there was a wind getting up and the palm trees above were swaying strongly to and fro. Sonic jumped to his feet and shook himself, spraying water off his wet fur. The wind buffeted him in his newly upright position, ruffling his spines. "I hate those slides," he said to the empty air.

He'd done the Marble Garden slide run before, of course, but never in the wet--and Amy's added mass made a difference, kinematically speaking. He had been somewhat shocked to find himself flying out of control, and then they'd hit the upturned bottom of the slide... Sonic glanced around, seeing that he was standing in a sparsely planted plains area, with tall palm trees dotted about and leafy green furns underfoot. The moonlight was strong; they were still in the cloud-free area of sky. Everything was in shades of black and dark blue. It gave the impression of emptiness, standing there with the dark black mountain behind, and blank black skies on three sides.

"Ohh, there you are!" Amy said happily, appearing out of the darkness. She was holding Seph in her arms; the golden lion Chao was covered in mud and water. As they all were by now...

"Where's Tails?" Sonic asked, shivering slightly as a chilly breeze washed over them. There was a strong scent of salt here; the sea and the edge of the island were not far away. They could hear the crash...boom of the waves down below.

"I don't know. Itai! Sonie, you didn't tell me it would be that fast!" She looked cross, confronting him. "My hair's ruined!" Indeed, the fetching kiss-curl of fluffy pink spines had taken on somewhat of a flat look, dripping water.

Sonic facefaulted... again. "The fate of the world depends on us and you're worried about your hair?"

"Oh--boys!" She rolled her eyes theatrically. "You just don't know anything!"

There was a faint voice, just audible over the heavy soughing of the wind. "Hell-looo! Son-ic! Where are you?"

Sonic freed his trainers from the mud which threatened to claim them. "That's Tails," he said quickly. "I'm gonna go look for him. Stay here, okay?" She might have been about to reply; he didn't give her a chance. Revving up, he accelerated towards the sound, relishing the chance to dry the water from his soaked fur--even if it was only temporary. The driving rain threatened to wet him faster than he could dry it off. After a few hundred yards he skidded to a stop, listened intently and then raised his hands to his mouth. "Hello! Tails, can you hear me? Where are you?"

"Over here!" came the faint reply, closer now.

"Keep calling!" Sonic yelled back, and took off towards the sound. With an auditory guide he was able to home in on the fox, and it wasn't long before he burst through a patch of ferns and found himself confronting Tails and Gamma. The fox was almost as muddy as he was, but Gamma seemed to have escaped that fate. Sonic wiped water out of his eyes with the back of a paw, and then smiled. "Gotcha."

"Where's Amy?" Tails asked, blinking as a sudden gust of rain hit him. "Yeesh, this weather!"

"Yeah, has it gotten stronger or is that just me?" Sonic shook himself again. "Oops, sorry. Uh, I left her back where we landed. Come on--I'll take you to her. It's not far. We heard you calling out."

"Okay." Tails nodded. "C'mon, Gamma." Obediently the big mech activated, rising up on his stork-like legs and turning to follow the fox and hedgehog. They set off all three at somewhat of a leisurely pace; they had reached the correct area of the island and there was little to make them hurry now. Hopefully, soon, they would be speaking with Knuckles and the business of Chaos would be sorted out.

Amy joined them, falling in with the group without a murmur. She was too tired to complain. They had been on the go more or less all day and most of the night--and they had had an early start as well. The little pink hedgehog had snatched a little shut-eye on the plane, though the noise of the engines prevented any real rest. Right now she was almost exhausted enough to fall asleep on her feet, but two things prevented her. One was the sense of responsibility; she was carrying the chaos gem in her locket, the mysterious item which could hold the key to Chaos, and Seph was still clinging to her. The other thing was Sonic. Amy was determined not to look weak in front of him. She had had enough of being dependent. She trudged on beside Gamma, battling through the wind and rain with barely a murmur.

The glow of the Master Emerald was visible before they reached the top of the rise. The Emerald was located at the very edge of the island for ease of flying; a gentle grassy slope led down from the trees to its altar in the center of the plain. Its soft green light was discernibly different from that of the moon even before the Emerald itself came into view. They climbed the muddy bank at the forest's edge with some difficulty, and found themselves looking out at the altar, around five hundred yards further down. There didn't seem to be anyone there; the Master revolved slowly upon its pedestal, chanelling power into the magically elevated ground.

"No way," Tails said slowly. "He never leaves the Emerald unguarded when he's flying!"

Sonic shaded his eyes from the wind and spray, peering out at the deserted altar. "Something's really wrong here," he said grimly. "Come on." Without hesitation, he strode out into the open. Gamma followed him obediently.

"He's really brave," Amy sighed rapturously. Tails sideyed her and then followed the blue hedgehog out of the trees. The fox glanced back once, making sure Amy was coming. She was.

Sonic ran lightly up the steps to stand before the Master, as he had done before in the Hidden Palace. Its peaceful green light, so at odds with the evil radiance of Chaos, calmed his racing heart--just as it had done before. He had used the power of the Emeralds before, and sometimes he thought that it gave him a special bond with the Master--somewhat like that which Knuckles had. Glancing around quickly, the blue hedgehog made sure that the echidna was nowhere to be seen, and then he stepped forward quickly and laid a gloved paw upon the emerald itself. The radiance pulsed slowly in time with his heartbeat. He was sure that the emerald was trying to tell him something, but he couldn't tell just what it was.

"Sonic? You okay?" Tails skidded up the steps, which were wet like everything else with the rain that had been falling. The fox touched his friend lightly on the arm, and smiled. "Well... we're here. Where to now?"

Sonic frowned. "I dunno. I was sure he'd be here. He should have been in Marble Gardens as soon as he heard the plane come in--unless he didn't notice. But how would Knux not notice? He's not the type to get that absorbed in something else." Something was bugging him about the altar; he stood back and looked at it, trying to figure out what else was missing besides Knux. In general, he had a seriously bad feeling about all of this.

Gamma turned his head slowly, scanning the area. The energy readings coming off the great green gem were intriguing, but irrelevant. There did not seem to be anything in the area which was immediately hostile, and so he turned his attention to other things. The small amount of water pooling at the foot of the altar had a strange, faint, rusty-red tinge in comparison to the rest; he noted it as unusual in an area without iron, and automatically began to process the possibilities as to what the coloration might be from. He was designed to examine every eventuality in a possibly hostile situation.

Sonic suddenly realised what was bothering him about the altar. "Tails," he said slowly. "Where are the Chaos Emeralds?" It was a rhetorical question; it did not demand an answer.

After beating Chaos 6, Knuckles had brought back the emeralds Eggman had given to Chaos. They had originally come from the Floating Island anyway, and so it seemed only right that the echidna should return them to their ancestral home. He had placed them around the Master Emerald's pedestal, where they added their own rainbow-prism to the light of the controller.

The Chaos Emeralds were missing. The controller was there, but not the servers. They were confronted with a deserted island, Chaos risen and the six Emeralds... not there. Sonic swallowed hard. "Why do I get the feeling we're in serious trouble?" he asked.

"But Chaos isn't here!" Tails exclaimed. "How could he be? It's way out over the ocean!"

"Which is the largest body of water in the world," Sonic pointed out. "And Chaos's element is water."

"Yeah, but the water's down there," the fox objected.

Sonic looked at him, and then just pointed upwards at the rainclouds which were still disgorging themselves onto Angel Island.

"Tupekku," Tails breathed. "Maybe we should leave now..."

"Leave?" Amy yelled. "Why?" She hadn't heard the conversation.

Gamma still had no answer as to the composition of the water at the foot of the altar. He shifted his feet, stepping forward onto the stone pathway, and then visually scanned the area from his new vantage point. Something caught his attention--something dark and sodden, awash in the rain, crumpled in the space between the wall at the edge of the path and the side of the altar. His computer targeted the object and complex readouts filled his visual field.

"There is a life form here," he informed the others, swinging his head around to face the three furs standing around the Master.

"Huh?" Sonic turned and dashed down the steps again, landing with a splash at the feet of the red mech. "Where?" he asked.

Gamma raised his claw-hand and indicated the object he had spotted. Dark, it was barely visible in the moonlight, an unmoving bundle of fur. Sonic's eyes widened and he trotted to it, kneeling down beside it. There was more of the red beneath, as yet undiluted by the continual rain.

"Knuckles..?"

*

The rain and the darkness surrounded the Wasp like a cocoon. The strong searchlights on the underside of the plane lit up the ground nearby, but beyond there was nothing. It was as if the plane was the only thing that existed, a microcosm of all life.

Tails turned on all the internal heaters, cranking the power up to full. It wasn't long before the inside of the plane became steamy with all the evaporated water, and a wet-fur smell lay beneath the oily scent of the engines. There were blankets in one of the overhead compartments; nothing flashy, just standard Army-issue type cloth; he dragged out as many as he could and handed them around, tossing the rest onto the floor to soak up the water. Nobody spoke much; they were still too stunned.

Knuckles had said nothing at all. He had remained insensible for much of the way; Sonic and Tails had half-carried him, half-dragged him up through the trees to Marble Garden. Then he had started to struggle; after a moment they let him walk. He seemed somehow dazed, as if he didn't know what had happened or where he was. The blood had come from a deep gash on the left side of his face, over his eye. Like all head wounds, it had bled profusely, but it didn't seem to be serious. The echidna sat, head down and eyes closed, a blanket over his shoulders. He was shivering.

Amy caught Sonic's eye, and mouthed, "What's going on?" The blue hedgehog merely shrugged in reply. Chaos was always at the back of his mind, but if Chaos had the six emeralds there wasn't much anyone could do. They would have to fight the entity again, and reclaim the emeralds. At least by now he knew how to defeat Chaos Six... or did he? Eggman wouldn't be around to drop handy-dandy freeze capsules this time. Sonic smirked, remembering how he'd thrown one of the irritating icemakers right into Chaos's mouth, freezing the monster.

Which reminded him. He had to find out what had happened to the emeralds, and why the Master was still untouched. Aside from Chaos, he couldn't think of anyone who would want the servers and not the controller. He stood up, dropping the blanket to the floor, and made his way down the plane to where Knuckles sat. Sonic reached out and touched the echidna's shoulder gently. "Knux," he said.

Knuckles looked up slowly. He blinked twice, but said nothing.

"Listen," Sonic began, wondering whether the echidna was right in the head, "you have to tell us what happened. Who attacked you?"

Knux dropped his head again, and for a long moment Sonic thought he would not reply. Amy, Tails and Gamma were watching silently, as eager--or as afraid--as he was, to hear. Then, finally, the echidna murmured something.

Sonic leaned forward, frowning. "What was that? I didn't hear you."

"...failed."

The hedgehog stood back, somewhat confused. "What failed? Knux, you have to tell us. We might all be in danger."

"I failed." The echidna sighed heavily, still looking at the floor. He seemed almost lifeless, as if it were too much of an effort to look up. "I didn't protect the island. But what could I do?" It was the soft, helpless monotone of his voice, which worried Sonic more than anything. He had never seen Knux like this.

Sonic sat beside Knux on the crate, his face concerned. "Who attacked you? Was it Chaos?" There was a long silence. "Knux, was it Chaos?" he asked more urgently.

"Yes," Knuckles sighed. "Chaos has risen..."

"I knew it!" Amy was on her feet, dashing to the window instantly. "He's on the island! We have to get out of here!"

Now Knuckles came to life. He was up in an instant, spiked fists clenched. "I won't leave the island!" he shouted. Gamma looked at him in alarm, concerned that he would become violent.

"We're not leaving," Sonic broke in quickly. "Chill out. We just flew all the way here for a reason. If Chaos is here already, then that's even better. We'll beat him up and get the Emeralds back, okay?"

Knuckles laughed. It was a mirthless sound. Sonic shivered suddenly, wondering what exactly had happened in the echidna's mind to leave him this way. "You can't fight Chaos," Knux told him, meeting his eyes at last. "Not now, not anyone."

Sonic was struck by the hopelessness in the echidna's voice. "But why?" he asked eventually. "I don't understand. We've fought Chaos Six before, both you and me."

"Not Chaos Six, you idiot. Haven't you guessed that?" Knuckles sat down again suddenly, apparently exhausted by the effort of standing. "He found the other emerald. He was already Chaos One when he got here. I was piloting the island towards its regular orbit when he appeared--he came in the rain. He went for me as if he was crazy--I couldn't fight him off, no way. He went straight through me and grabbed the Emeralds. It was so quick..." His voice trailed off, and he put his head in his hands.

Sonic glanced at Tails, seeing the fear in the fox's eyes. This was serious now--it wasn't just a matter of bashing a few badniks. So that was what had happened at the Master Emerald. Chaos had all the Emeralds now. The hedgehog remembered the mural in the Lost World Temple--the image of Chaos Seven, Perfect Chaos, destroying cities, toppling skyscrapers. Suddenly Sonic felt very small and insignificant. It was a feeling he had very rarely experienced before, and he didn't like it. "We'll have to fight him," he insisted. "We can do it."

"Perfect Chaos is invulnerable," Knuckles said softly. "You didn't see it--I was there. There's no way, Sonic. We can't do anything. We'll have to stand back and let him do what he's come to do."

"'What he's come to do'?" Tails echoed. "Geez, you make it sound like the Apocalypse or something."

"With Perfect Chaos, it probably is," Sonic said grimly. "Okay, this isn't good, basically. Knux, don't you have any idea how we could fight him? How was he trapped in the Emerald last time?"

Knux shrugged helplessly. "I just don't know. Tikal, maybe..."

"Tikal," Tails repeated, beginning to smile. "She would know! We have to talk to her somehow!"

"How?" Amy asked. "She's in the past!"

"Don't look at me," Sonic sighed. "Time travel is not one of my skills. We don't have the Time Stones, and Little Planet won't be here for three weeks. Unless we holed up somewhere near Never Lake and waited for it to reappear..."

"We don't have three weeks," Knuckles said quietly.

"I didn't think so. Well, so that leaves us back where we started." Sonic stood up and started pacing backwards and forwards, looking thoughtful. "This is gonna be hard. We've gotta stop him somehow. But if he's really invincible as Perfect Chaos..."

Amy suddenly remembered the locket, where she had carried the gem shard all this time. She found the chain around her neck and gently pulled the locket out, flipping it open. The gem was dark; she tipped it into her hand and held it out. "We forgot about this! Sonie, remember what we came for? This thing?"

Sonic snapped his fingers. "Oh yeah! Knux, remember the jewel I dug out of the ground near the altar? That's why we came. It's got some link with Chaos. He came after Amy while I was in Mystic Ruins--apparently he wanted it really bad. We figured you might know what it's all about." He caught the gem as Amy tossed it to him, and handed it to Knuckles. "You're the expert. What do you think? Any useful ancient legends to tell us?"

Knux held the sliver up to the overhead lights, making the inside of the gem glow softly. It was dark ruby-red and faintly misty at its heart. Under the electric lighting in the Wasp, the gem no longer looked like a cheap piece of cut glass. The echidna hesitated, and then said reluctantly, "I don't know."

"Look, it's got to be something to do with Chaos! It lights up when he's near!" Sonic's spines bristled.

"So what?"

"Well, doesn't that mean anything?"

"I SAID I DON'T KNOW!"

"Calm down," Tails said in shock. "Fighting won't get us anywhere."

"We should keep it with us, anyway," Amy suggested. "Obviously, if he wants it, we can't let him have it. Give it back. I'll look after it."

Sonic nodded. "Sure. Now, I guess we should get out of here before Chaos shows up. Knux, is there anywhere on this island where water can't penetrate?"

The echidna thought for a long moment. "There are two possibilities. Sandopolis, on the southern end of the island, and the Ice Cap. Of the two, I think Ice Cap is the safer bet, since any rain that falls there will turn to snow. The elements will be on our side."

"Okay, guys and gal. Grab as much as you can carry, we're moving out."

*

Doctor Robotnik was making the finishing touches to his latest creation. The paintwork was all done, still sticky in places; there were one or two minor calibration adjustments to be done. This was what he was working on right now. Much of the time the construction work was done by the scientist's automated machinery, but when a paticularly _special_ project turned up, and when he felt particularly good about the work, he liked to do the last little bit himself--it was an ego thing. This was one of those times.

"It's finished!"

He stepped back from the control panel. The robot was imprisoned in a green glass containment field--once or twice things had gone slightly wrong during first activation, and Robotnik did not want anything else to be broken. He hit a button on the panel, and the mechanized tools that had been working on the mech retracted, folding up artfully like the limbs of a strange insect. Another button jolt-started the fusion engine, sending power through the wires of the new mech for the first time ever.

It was a tall, two-legged mech of the E-100 series. The bodywork was a rich cherry-red, coupled with big white letters upon the robot's flank. Myopic green optic lenses looked out unblinkingly from beneath a tough yellow carapace that overshadowed the eyes like a visor. There were a few differences to the first of the E-100s, though; instead of a pair of deadly guns, this robot had one mechanical claw-grasp hand, while the other arm boasted a powerful multiple weapon. An industrial laser doubled as a welding tool for self-repair, and beneath that the actual barrel of the gun housed a crystal capable of delivering heavy-duty energy blasts. Its limbs were stronger, more heavily armored, and more flexible than the other E-100s.

This robot had been the last of its series to be completed. The letters upon its side read, "E-102 (II)."

E-102, mark II. Prime directive: seek out and destroy rebel E-102, mark I, Gamma.

It was special in another way, too.

It had its creator's mind.

*

Morning found the little band of would-be heroes toiling up a snowy pass high on the flank of the Ice Cap mountain. It was bright and clear with a sky as blue as the arctic ocean, yet it was extremely cold. Ice crystals formed in the air as they breathed out, and snow clung to their bodies. Snow blown down off the mountain floated in the crisp, icy air.

"I'd f-forgotten how cold it was," Knuckles shivered, clambering over dark rocks that poked out of the snow. "Fur's not enough. Wish I'd brought clothes."

"You and me, pal," Sonic called back. The hedgehog was in the lead, some ten feet or so ahead of everyone else. His metabolism was faster than everyone else's, so he had an advantage when it came to coping with cold. The downside was that he needed to eat a lot more than everyone else, and he was hungry right now. There hadn't been much in the Wasp worth eating.

"How much farther?" Tails asked, blowing clouds of frozen vapour with each word. He was just behind Knuckles, and with his thick coat of fur the fox was almost enjoying the strenuous mountain trek.

"There's a cave up there." The echidna lifted a gloved paw and gestured up the slope. A dark patch was clearly visible in the chilly air - the snowy path led up to it at a steady gradient. "See? If we can get there, there's some emergency equipment I stashed. Flashlights, food, rope, a couple of shields. Useful stuff. We can get into the mountain from there; there's a tunnel down to Lava Reef."

"Whew," Tails smiled. "Sounds good to me."

Despite their apparent cheerfulness, a sense of despair hung over them. Chaos had not yet manifested himself, but the thought of him was in everyone's heads. The water monster's power had been immense last time - what would he be now? What WAS Perfect Chaos? They couldn't hide from him forever; sooner or later they would have to face off with him. At least while Chaos was on Angel Island, the mainland was safe enough...

With shaking hands Amy felt around for her locket, pulled it out and flipped it open. The gem was dark and dull. She had checked it several times in the past half-hour - she couldn't help herself. Trying to control her shivering, the pink hedgehog closed the locket with a snap and stuffed it back down the neck of her dress. It lay cold against her skin like a block of ice.

"Are you all right?" Gamma asked from behind her. The big robot was last in the line, more for security than for anything else.

"C-c-cold..." was all Amy felt able to say. She rubbed her arms energetically, trying to get some warmth back into them, before she hurried on up the pass after the others, who had gotten some way ahead. Her limbs felt weak and watery, her muscles burned from the exertion while the rest of her was half-frozen. "I hate this," she moaned softly, forcing herself to scramble over the broken stones in the path.

The snow grew much deeper further up; Sonic, forging ahead, was making a path through it with his body, and Tails and Knuckles trampled it down as they passed. Seph had attached himself to the echidna's shoulder, being too small to be able to walk through the snow.

"Not much further," Knuckles panted.

There was a soft purring hum, the sound of a fusion engine. It was as clear as a bell in the clean air of the mountains. Sonic, whose hearing was acute, caught it first and stopped in his tracks, turning in surprise to try and pinpoint the source of the sound. It wasn't Gamma, that was for sure; the red mech's engine wasn't that smooth.

He squinted, looking back down the mountainside, then craned his neck to look up into the clear sky. Knux and Tails caught him up as he paused. "'Sup?" the fox asked, surprised.

"Can you hear it?" Sonic asked, frowning.

"Hear what?" Tails put his head on one side, listening hard. "Hey... I hear something..."

"I don't hear anything," Knuckles insisted.

Sonic glanced at him, and then turned suddenly, sensing the approach of an enemy. His eyes widened as a familiar dark blue mech touched down lightly in the snow a few feet away from them. Metal's eyes glowed crimson as he looked at each of them in turn. The exhaust from his engine, barely visible in ordinary conditions, was a trail of pale white vapor in the cold air. "Hello, Sonic," the robot said civilly.

"What do you want, bolt-bucket?" Sonic growled, spines bristling. "If it's a fight, you'll get it!"

"A fight? Why, Sonic. You misunderstand my intentions." Metal's tone was light and cheerful. "Why should I want to hurt you?"

Sonic blinked. Offhand, he could think of about two hundred reasons.

"Oh, no," Metal Sonic went on. "It would be a waste of my time to come all the way up here and fight you, when there are self-evidently more of you than there are of me. One of you even-" he turned his head, focusing on Gamma who stood quite still in the trail, gun held deceptively low and relaxed. "One of you even has a powerful weapon trained on me at this very moment. I would not stand a chance."

"So, why are you here?" Sonic asked, genuinely confused.

"Doctor Robotnik sent me to find the aeroplane you stole," Metal answered, turning his head back towards Sonic again. "He is somewhat irked. It was very rude of you to borrow it without asking nicely first."

Tails nudged Sonic in the side. "He's weird," the fox whispered. "Sonic, he's scaring me."

"Chill, buddy," the hedgehog muttered back. "He's history if he so much as looks the wrong way." Indeed, Sonic looked serious about that; his blue spines were bristling and his head was slightly lowered as he watched the mech that was his copy. He looked as if he was ready to burst into action at any second.

"If you want the plane, you've come the wrong way," Knuckles said, sounding slightly surprised. "It's not here."

"Obviously." Metal seemed more amused than anything else. "I have eyes, marsupial. Speaking of which, I see yours are intact, though Chaos did his best to put the left one out." Knux's hand went automatically to the clotted slash on that side of his face.

The blue mech turned and began strolling equably across the snowy path. "I know where the plane is, and I will deal with that later on. Now, however, I have more pressing matters in hand. The first of which is you. You cannot be allowed to continue."

"This is more important than you think," Sonic insisted. "Listen, Chaos has all the Emeralds. If we don't stop him, he'll destroy the world, and you too. It'd be in your interest to let us go."

"Oh, but that would be no fun."

"Metaru!" Amy scrambled up the rest of the path, finally reaching the others. She barged past Sonic before he could make a move to stop her, and dashed towards the blue robot, slipping and sliding in the snow. "Metaru!" she cried again.

"What did she call him?" Tails exclaimed.

"Metaru, you must listen-" Amy began, grabbing onto the robot's arm. Sonic's eyes widened as he saw the pink hedgehog tackle his robotic duplicate in the same way she usually tackled him.

Metal Sonic let out an electronic squeal of rage and flung her to the ground. Gamma surged forward, raising his gun, but Sonic jumped into the red mech's line of fire. "Don't!" he yelled. "You'll hit her!"

Amy stared up at Metal Sonic, feeling the pain in her back and neck where she had hit the ground. "Don't you remember me?" she asked sadly. "I came and talked to you all those times - don't you remember at all?"

"I remember," Metal said flatly. He bent down and grasped her arm. She cried out in pain at the power of the mechanical grip. Metal Sonic jerked her to her feet, holding her arm tightly. His eyes glowed crimson as he looked into her face. "I remember everything," he said, lowering his voice as if he were speaking to her alone.

"So..." She swallowed hard. "Are you going to help us destroy Chaos?"

"Of course..." Suddenly, he let go of her arm and grasped her around the waist instead. She screamed as he lifted her above his head - then he threw her at Sonic, Tails and Knuckles, who had barely started to run forward. The four animals collapsed into the snow together, struggling to separate themselves out. "NOT!" Metal yelled, amplifying his voice, and then he activated his jet and rocketed into the air, just as Gamma's blast hit the snow where he had been standing. He hovered twelve feet off the ground as the others extricated themselves from the snow.

Amy looked up at him with tears in her eyes.

"Did you really think that I would stoop to helping MAMMALS?" Metal sneered. "I heard every word you said, little girl, and I despise every weak, watery one of them! What do I care about your childish thoughts? Go home and play with your toys!"

"Don't you DARE talk to her like that." Sonic was on his feet. There was a tone of deadly menace in his voice.

"Oh, did I hurt her feelings?" Metal smirked cruelly. Gamma fired again, twice in quick succession, and he dodged agilely left and right. The shots hit the far wall of the mountain and impacted there, sending puffs of snow into the air. "Hmm, that gives me an idea..." Metal mused, glancing round. His engine roared as he rose another several feet. "Well, my furry friends, it's been fun, but I've got to jet. I don't suppose we'll meet again. Nice knowing you." He twisted in the air and then flew like a bolt of blue lightning towards the mountainside. Sonic gasped audibly as he saw the blue robot fly straight into the snow-covered rock face without slowing or altering direction. Metal body-slammed the side of the mountain with a crash that echoed through the whole of Ice Cap.

Slowly, the snow just below the impact began to slide. Then it collapsed into the gorge with frightening speed, and a roaring storm of ice was heading their way.

"Brace yourselves!" was all Knuckles had time or inclination to yell, and then the wave of snow, as tall as a building, rolled over him and everyone else. Unstoppable as the tide the avalanche screamed down the mountain, razing trees, stones and anything else in its way. The hissing, roaring sound of snow receded and was gone. The sun shone brightly down onto an empty expanse of white, as clean and unspoilt as new-fallen snow. Nothing moved on the surface of the pass.

Metal Sonic pushed himself off the mountainside and flew back into the air. He criss-crossed the pass three times, searching for any signs of survival, and then with a self-satisfied nod the blue mech turned and jetted down the side of the mountain, flying low enough that a shower of snow flew up at his heels.

*

The tip of a rock poked out of the snow, very black against the endless whiteness that covered the mountain. Only a few moments ago, the entire rock had been explosed; now the very tip was all that could be seen. In places the snow was still settling, hissing softly as it flattened out to fill all the gaps in the uneven ground beneath it.

Beside the rock, there was a sudden disturbance in the pure whiteness. Some of the snow dipped a little, slipping down into a depression. There was a pause, and then a fist burst out of the clean white covering, disordering it. Submerged thrashing movements followed, breaking up the snow's perfect undisturbed surface. Struggling weakly, Tails managed to get his head above the surface. He coughed hard, feeling a freezing burning in his throat; he had swallowed snow. He was shivering violently with the cold. The fox scrabbled in the snow, trying to get a grip on anything; he found the rock and pulled himself out as far as his waist. Clinging to the stone as if it were a life raft, the fox hunched up miserably and shook snow out of his eyes.

"Guys-" The shout met another wrenching cough and came out as nothing more than a croak. Tails squeezed his eyes shut, coughed, and then tried again. "Guys! Where are you?" There was no response. "Sonic! Gamma!" he yelled desperately. "Anyone?"

Several feet away, there was a movement in the snow. Tails's head whipped round. He struggled to free himself as the face of the avalanche shifted again. Something metal gleamed darkly beneath the snow; then, with a whir, something broke the surface. The fox blinked as he realised it was Gamma's foot. The red mech must be upside down under the snow. With an effort, he pulled himself right out of the snow and crouched on the rock, then spun his tails together, trying to fly. His muscles were chilled and wouldn't respond. After a second he reluctantly slid back into the snow and half-walked half-swam over to the disturbance. Thankful for his gloves, he started burrowing in the snow, throwing it over his shoulders in handfuls. Soon he had exposed Gamma's other leg and part of the undercarriage. He backed off quickly as the big mech started struggling.

With a tremendous effort, Gamma managed to flop over onto his back, snow cascading down on top of him. The prone position was somewhat novel, but he did not relish the experience. He could see nothing, only white, but sensors told him that something had been nearby a moment ago. His left arm was trapped by the snow, but he could move the right one; he lifted it and attempted to brush the snow off his front with his gun.

Tails jumped back as Gamma's struggling caused a whole section of snow to cave in on top of him. The fox clapped his stinging hands together sharply, trying to get the blood flowing back through his fingers, and then set to digging again. He could tell that Gamma wouldn't get up easily by himself; in soft snow and on his back he was more or less helpless, like a turtle. Tails gulped. "Don't crush me, okay?" he asked hopefully, then he dived right into the snow and started digging it out from beneath the big mech. Hopefully if he dug away enough on one side, Gamma would flip over onto that side and be able to get up from there. Tails knew there was no way he could lift the mech. That was just a stupid idea.

It took nearly five minutes to dig enough snow away, and by the time he thought he was done, he was chilled to the bone and shivering violently. He backed off as the snow beneath Gamma started to shift again. Half-coated by snow, the red mech toppled over onto his side and then struggled onto his feet.

"You okay?" Tails asked.

"I cannot see."

The fox rubbed the side of his muzzle, thinking, and then he smiled as he saw the problem. He climbed up Gamma, out of the snow, and got back onto the mech's head. Clinging to the visor, he leaned forward and carefully brushed the snow off Gamma's optic lenses. Gamma turned his head from side, scanning the mountainside with his newly restored vision.

"We have to find the others," Tails said.

"That may well be impossible."

"No way. We have to find them."

"We cannot dig up the whole mountain in search of them," Gamma pointed out. "It would be wiser to seek a safe vantage point and re-evaluate the situation."

"Re-evaluate this," Tails growled, jumping down onto his rock again. "They're our friends. They'd do the same for us if we were missing."

"Terrain is hostile. They are likely to be incapacitated. I suggest we attempt to regain the cover of the cave. Then you may equip yourself with the necessary items for a mountain rescue."

"They might be dead by then!" Tails yelled.

Gamma looked at him gravely. "They have either survived, like you, or they are already terminated. Either way we will lose nothing by continuing with the original plan."

The fox blinked back hot tears, struggling to remain in control. "Okay," he said softly. "I guess we don't have much choice. Let's go."

Gamma turned and started to battle through the snow, heading back up the mountain. Tails quickly spun his twin tails and flew over to land on his previous seat atop the mech's flat head. The carapace was coated with snow and with a thin layer of ice, and the metal was extremely cold to the touch. Tails clung to the edge of the visor as Gamma barreled through the avalanche, flinging swathes of the stuff to the sides with huge sweeps of his arms. It was almost chest deep on him. Tails wondered unhappily whether the others would be able to get through it at all without the big mech. He imagined Sonic dead - really dead this time. A spiky popsicle.

"D'you know where the cave is?" he asked. Everything looked different now that the snow had covered all the landmarks. The peaks far above were the same, but there was nothing at ground level to tell where they were. He didn't know if they were even in the same area; they had been swept down the mountain quite a way, but there had been several deep passes and he had no idea which one they were now in.

"No," Gamma said. "We will look for it."

"I really hate that robot," he said angrily. "I swear, Gamma, if I ever get the chance, I'm gonna - well, I dunno."

"He is doing what he is designed to do."

"No he's not. He said he was only after the plane. Why didn't he just take it? Now he's ruined everything..."

Gamma did not comment. It was easier to work on the snow. Despite his strength, it was going to be slow going climbing back up the mountain; he hoped his motors would not freeze up. That would be embarrassing. Despite what he had said to Tails, he kept an eye out for any signs of other survivors of the avalanche. He wasn't too hopeful; they might have been spread so far by the snow that there was miles between them. He also felt slightly anxious about the presence of MS-01. If the Doctor felt he could spare MS-01 to chase after a single stolen plane, there must be something else afoot in the Mystic Ruins. Perhaps Robotnik had a replacement for MS-01; mechs tended to fall out of favour rather quickly. It only took one mistake, Gamma thought sourly. If it hadn't been for what Robotnik did to Beta, Gamma might still have been working for him. He thought now that he was glad he wasn't working for him.

By mid-morning they had traveled around five miles up the mountain, and there was still no sign of a cave. Tails, exhausted from his sleepless night, fell into an uneasy, chilled doze atop Gamma's head, lulled by the steady movement. It began to snow slightly; clouds gathered here and there, innocent in their fluffy whiteness. Finally, and despite the arctic temperature on the mountain, Gamma became aware of a flashing heat warning in the corner of his vision. He stopped and stood still in the path he had cleared, switching on his internal fan to cool off the overworked power core.

Tails opened his eyes, shivering. "Why have we stopped?" he asked dozily.

"I must rest."

"Oh, sorry. You want me to get down?"

"No. You may stay." Gamma scanned the mountainside again, noticing the speckling of rocks that began ahead. It seemed that the snow was becoming shallower; perhaps it would be easier going from now on.

*

He was cold, but he didn't really mind that. In fact, the cold was strangely pleasant to him; it made him feel numb and took the pain right away. And it was so soft and gentle... he felt as if he could lie there forever. The pain would disappear completely, if only he could stay motionless for long enough; it would go, and he would be peaceful in the soft darkness.

Knuckles became aware of an insistent sensation at the corner of his consciousness. It irritated him. He opened his eyes and the pain returned with a vengeance; with it came violent shivering. "Go away," he tried to say, but he didn't have the breath.

The tugging continued, on his arm. Slowly, with infinite effort, he turned his head to see what it was. A familiar golden face looked back at him. "You get up," Seph said sternly.

"Hhhh..." He coughed and spat half-melted snow. "G'way. Don't wanna g't up."

"Stay here, you die." The Chao pulled hard on his arm. "Up!"

Seph's shrill voice was impossible to ignore. With a groan, Knuckles tried to shake him off, but he found he didn't have the strength. Sluggishly his mind began to work, bringing with it the sharp realisation that he was half-dead from hypothermia. The thought shocked him into a more sensible frame of mind. He wriggled weakly in the snow, and then managed to roll over so that he was lying on his front. His muscles screamed at the simple movement, as blood rushed back into oxygen-starved tissues. He groaned in agony.

"Up, get up," Seph insisted. In desperation, the Chao sunk his teeth into Knux's arm. With a yelp, the echidna struggled weakly into a sitting position.

"Damn it, Seph, that hurt..." He realised his hands and feet were numb, and quickly ascertained that they were moveable. No frostbite yet, then... He gritted his teeth and got his feet under him, then stood up slowly, grasping a nearby rock for balance. The pain made him grunt, but he withstood it and it began to subside. Now that he was moving, life was returning to his mind and he felt sick when he understood how nearly he had just died. "Guess you saved my life," he said slowly.

"Yep," Seph smiled. "You owe me!"

"Heh... I guess I do. Where're the others?" He glanced around, seeing the long meandering trail of Seph's footprints in the snow. The Chao was light enough to run across the surface without sinking in; Knux could see his trail snaking all the way across the snow until a bend in the gorge hid it from view.

"Don't know," Seph said. "I saw you, is all."

"Okay." Knux coughed, and then blew on his hands. "Better get moving." He knew that he had to keep active if he wasn't to get too sluggish to move; Knuckles, not being a full mammal, had a body temperature that was much more variable than that of Sonic or Tails. He needed to generate heat externally. Feeling weak in every limb, the echidna turned to face the upwards slope of the mountain. He recognised the shapes of the peaks and their respective positions - it was his island, after all - and judged that he had been carried around two and a half miles by the avalanche. The outcrop of rock just in front had saved him being taken all the way down the mountain. Still, two and a half miles were enough. "They'll have to look after themselves," he muttered.

He glanced at the rock face nearby. The tall granite walls reached almost straight up for hundreds of feet, slippery with ice and snow. Climbing them would be difficult, but not impossible. Once he was up out of the gorge, it would be easier to travel to the cave; the land was flat and generally free of snow. Knux flexed his hands, felt the surface for a moment, and then rammed his metal knuckle-claws into the stone. He felt it give as the claws took hold, and then he set his foot in a hole a foot or so off the ground. With the leg-up this gave him he was able to free one hand and relocate the claws to a higher hold. He pulled himself up off the ground, leaving the snow behind. Seph fluttered up to keep him company. "Where going?" the Chao asked.

"Gonna climb up here," Knuckles told him, "then I can take a look over the whole mountain and see if I can spot Sonic or the others."

"Cool," Seph agreed, and fluttered onto the rock face to climb alongside him; his wings wouldn't hold him up for ever.

They climbed in silence for a while, concentrating on the rock face, which was tricky in places. Knuckles felt relieved as he found himself warming up and becoming clear-headed; he started to pay more attention to the task in hand, rather than doing the job on autopilot. Before too long he glanced up to see how far they had come, and noticed a dark blotch on the side of the mountain only a hundred feet or so above. The echidna halted, feeling the germination of another idea.

"Why you stop?" Seph complained, hanging off a small outcrop. "We hurry, find the others."

"Change of plan." Knuckles looked up at the tunnel mouth, mentally gauging the distance and difficulty of the climb. "See that cavern entrance?"

The Chao craned his head. "Yep," he said.

"That leads into the Ice Cap caves. It'll be warmer in there, and there's a way through to the top of the mountain. We can get to the cave easily, equip ourselves and then go looking for the others."

Seph smiled and nodded. "Good plan! Is warm in there?"

"Warmer," Knuckles repeated. "Come on." He planted his claws into the next hold and heaved himself up, newly confident of success. A slight wind picked up as they continued the climb; it was cold enough that it cut into them and made things slightly unpleasant. There was snow in the air, and a haze in the sky suggested more on the way.

Despite all that, it wasn't long before they hauled themselves up into the entrance of the tunnel. It wasn't that big, being around four feet wide and high enough for someone reasonably small to stand upright. Knuckles stood up and brushed snow off himself, then took a few bouncing steps into the tunnel to prepare himself for the hike and to get out of the wind. The tunnel itself was made out of pure, pale blue ice; enough light came through it to provide them adequate vision for a long way in.

"Hmm..." Knuckles put his head on one side as he looked at his surroundings. "I know where we are. We have to go through the reservoir. C'mon." He scooped the Chao up and started off down the tunnel at a smart jog.

*

Amy sniffed constantly and miserably as she clambered up across the broken stones, shuffling through powdery ankle-deep snow. She was sure she had the onset of pneumonia or something. The little pink hedgehog was shivering constantly, though she actually felt kinda hot and slightly dizzy. She was frightened, somewhere between Ice Cap and Sky Sanctuary, and all alone.

"Ooh... when I catch up with you, Metal Sonic, I'll..."

She had no idea where she was, or whether she was going the right way. The avalanche had swept her up along with everything else that had been on the mountain, and carried them all helter-skelter down the side of the Ice Cap. By some miracle, the snow had chosen to deposit Amy, bruised but unhurt, on top of a flat outcrop of rock, and had then rushed on past her, heading for the flood plain at the bottom of the mountain. The pink hedgehog sat on the miniature plateau in a state of shock, her only companions a few pieces of broken rock and driftwood.

The snow had gotten her moving again. After an interminable interval Amy became aware of the small flakes starting to drift down and land on her arms and skirt. She had had to force herself to move, and start back up the mountain in search of the others. The climb was made the worse by the demoralizing knowledge that she had done it all before, that very morning.

Luckily, instead of starting to get upset, Amy chose to get angry. She was learning. The little hedgehog clutched her hammer in her free hand, using it as a stick to aid her climb as she struggled between boulders and through snowdrifts. She was exhausted, but not beaten. In such fashion she made it several hundred yards through the snow before having to stop and catch her breath again. When she was moving, she didn't feel so cold.

Eventually she rounded a corner and came into a long, steep, straight gully in the mountainside, perhaps the very same one where they had been climbing this morning. Amy leaned on the hammer and shaded her eyes with a hand, peering up the valley. The absence of color struck her eyes like a blow. It was all white, the snow, the mountainsides and the sky far above, white with snow. Here and there the point of a rock or a speckling on the mountain was black, black as the absence of light. There were no trees; perhaps they had been razed from the flank of the mountain and were lying broken at its foot. Amy swept the valley once again, picking out possible obstacles and blinking the freezing tears from her eyes; the wind was making them water.

BLUE!

It was half-hidden at the base of an overhang of snow, already dusted with the light flakes. A small object, made tiny by the size of the mountains, a rich royal blue. Amy began to stumble up the gorge towards it. Her limbs ached anew at the exertion, but her eyes were fixed on her goal.

She reached the overhang and went to her knees beside him, not sure how to react. He was half-curled up on his side, long spines sticking out every which way. There was a stain in the snow beneath him, shockingly red against the white. He wasn't moving.

Amy could have just sat there forever, staring at Sonic's body, but then she became aware of something. The snow around him had melted slightly; he had sunk into it. And there wasn't that much snow on his fur; she laid a hand on his shoulder and it was warmer to the touch than the snow. Sonic was alive, he must just be unconscious. She took a long shaky breath and wondered what to do next. A quick glance revealed that the temporary shelter of a small cave was only twenty feet or so up the gorge. Amy looked up at the sky, which was threatening to disgorge its load any moment now, and then she slipped her hands under Sonic's arms and pulled him out from the overhang. His head lolled--dead weight. She took another look at the cave and began to pull him up the slope towards it, expending the last of her strength.

*

Knuckles paused and shook back his long spines, squinting as he tried to take in the distance across the cavern.

He and Seph had been traveling through the Ice Cap caves for several long minutes, heading ever upwards through the side of the mountain. It was more or less dark here now, since the light through the ice couldn't reach this far in, but Knuckles had come prepared with a piece of luminescent crystal from the cavern walls a little further down. Seph rode on his shoulder as he jogged, his feet sending out puffs of powdered ice in the undisturbed environment of the ice caves.

Now, they had halted at the edge of a cliff, staring down at a hollowed-out cavern so huge that the other side could not even be seen. This was one of the places where, a few years before, Eggman had excavated spaces to house refineries and construction bays. Knuckles couldn't remember this particular one offhand, but looking down he could see a series of rectangular lakes full of some glassy liquid. A synthetic plastic smell assaulted his nostrils, smelling like a deranged cross between petrol, hair gel and a My Little Pony. Knuckles sighed as he looked down, seeing the remains of Eggman's occupation everywhere. These lakes of toxic chemicals would remain here forever, inside the mountain; Eggman had never set any drainage systems here, and besides, whatever was in them, at least it was safe and non-volatile when it was stored here in the heart of the Ice Cap. It could cause no extensive harm to the environment--at least, not in the short term.

Knuckles stepped up to the edge of the cliff and looked down, mentally mapping the layout of the cavern. The lakes were separated by slender causeways of ice rising about ten feet above the chemicals; Knuckles had a feeling that the toxic fumes would be thick at that distance. Only robots could traverse the poisoned environment at the bottom with any safety. His gaze traveled further in the search for a safe crossing. Around halfway across there was a high ice platform which had not been cut away; this had been the stop-off point for the hovercars which would once have traveled the gap. A lift in the ice would take you down to the toxic causeways. Knux bit his lip and attempted to guess the distance; he thought that in this still air he might just be able to glide to it. That would bring him halfway across.

"We got to cross this?" Seph asked in distaste. "Air bad!"

"I know," Knuckles sighed. "I know." He swung his arms experimentally, getting the feel of the air. This cold, still atmosphere was not the best of conditions for a prolonged glide. Knux took a long breath, fighting the urge to sneeze away the fumes, stepped over the edge and flew.

Right from the start he knew that he wasn't going to make the platform itself. The air was simply too cold--it didn't provide the lift he needed to clear the top. He considered swinging back around and climbing the cliff wall to look for another way, but that would be too hard and he needed to hurry up. He continued on his chosen course, hoping to smack into the pillar somewhere not too far down, where he would be able to climb up the rest of the way. The fumes grew stronger as he descended into the cavern, and he couldn't help wondering exactly what they were. Some sort of coolant fluid... it was still liquid here in sub-zero temperatures, so it certainly wasn't any sort of debased water. However, that just made it all the more important not to fall in; if it was as cold as he thought it might be, touching the stuff would burn.

Let alone falling into it.

The pillar was approaching, but too slowly. Knuckles angled himself forward, spreading his quills to catch the breeze in an effort to increase his forward motion. When gliding, he always followed a delicate balance between down and along, but he could sometimes afford to play with the ratio, if he was careful. The ruse worked, much to his relief, and he saw that he would hit the pillar some seventy feet above its base. The fumes would be thickest lower down. Seph clung to him silently, watching the poisoned lake fly by beneath.

Knuckles slammed into the platform fists-first and felt the steel shovel claws dig into the firm ice. He breathed a sigh of relief as he felt the solid surface beneath his hands; quickly he started to climb up, concerned about the effect of the fumes even here. Whenever he took a deep breath, he found himself becoming light-headed. Holding his breath as best he could, he made the slippery ascent to the top, cursing all the way. Seph let go and fluttered into the air as Knuckles clambered up over the lip of the platform. Soft powdered ice crunched like icing sugar beneath his feet.

"Next," he breathed, slapping his hands together and looking over at the other side of the cavern, still so far away. The goal, the mouth of the tunnel's continuation, was high in the wall of ice to where it had stretched before the excavation. It looked like another glide-and-climb job.

Seph sneezed. "Bad air getting to me," the Chao said, scrubbing at his face with a small gold paw. "We go quick?"

"Let's hope so," Knuckles muttered, gauging the distance again. This time he was lower down; he hoped that he would be able to manage the glide. If not, he would have to land on one of the causeways and hope for the best. He stooped to pick up Seph and sit him on his shoulder, then the echidna strode to the edge of the platform and leaned over, swinging his arms to warm the muscles. "Ready?"

"Yep," Seph said, grabbing onto two long quills.

Knuckles crouched and leaped, intending to gain all the height he could before he made the glide. The air caught him once more and carried him towards the other end of the cavern. However, he found that he was once again sinking, and this time he was going lower. Knuckles made an effort to slow his descent, but it resulted in a corresponding loss of speed. "Keep calm," he ordered himself and forced himself to keep gliding as if nothing was wrong. He could still make the end of the cavern.

There were only sixty feet between him and the toxic lakes when he found himself starting to get dizzy. The fumes were overpowering him at last. In a last-ditch attempt to save himself he swerved over one of the causeways and tried to hold his breath, but the world was already going hazy at the edges. There were fifty feet to go... forty-five...

A warm purr of jet engines marred the coffinlike silence of the ice cavern. Knuckles gasped in sudden pain as a viselike grip closed on his wrist, jerking him out of the glide even as it began to turn into a dive. Then he was flying up out of the poisoned air with astonishing speed. He barely had time to look up before the end of the cavern loomed large, and they swooped gracefully up into the tunnel mouth.

Metal Sonic dropped him onto the floor of the tunnel like a sack of potatoes. The dark blue mech stood back calmly, eyes glowing like beacons in the semigloom of the ice caves, while Knuckles coughed the carbon monoxide out of his chest and massaged his grazed wrist. Color started to bleed patchily back into the world, almost like opening petals.

Presently he recovered enough to sit up and press a hand to his aching head. Seph let go of him and dropped to the ground, using him to hide from Metal. Knuckles lifted his head and stared at the robot with an expression that could best be described as confused.

"Uh... thanks. Might I ask-"

"I have re-evaluated the situation," Metal interrupted, giving him no time to finish. The dark blue mech stepped forward--he could hear the motors whine when Metal made a move in this silence--and offered him a hand up. "It would be mutually beneficial were we to co-operate."

Still groggy, Knuckles accepted the help, staggering to his feet with a prominent lack of grace. Looking at Metal, he was surprised to see that the blue mech's normally shining body was scorched and dented, as if Metal had been walking through a fire. "What happened to you?" A moment later the answer came to him and he had to laugh. "Oh, you had a run-in with Perfect Chaos? That what changed your mind?"

"I could change it again, marsupial," Metal replied coldly. "Do not push me too far."

"Whatever you say. I guess I owe you one for saving me back there, anyway." Knuckles brushed ice off his front. "Sonic is going to be REALLY P.O.ed when he catches up with you. If I were you I'd be a little more careful what I say to Amy."

"What makes you so sure that Sonic-sama has survived?" Metal asked sarcastically.

Knuckles looked the robot in the eye. "I know."

There was an uncomfortable silence between them then, which Metal broke by asking, "What do you plan to do next?"

Knuckles shrugged slightly. "Was heading up to the cave--where we WERE heading together until you showed up."

The mech inclined its--his--head slightly, showing understanding. "Very well. I shall accompany you for now. We may be of mutual assistance."

Knuckles nodded shortly and grabbed Seph, then headed on up the tunnel, not looking back to check whether Metal was following him. He didn't particularly object to the mech's presence, although he certainly wasn't about to trust him with any Emeralds or anything. At least while Metal was with him, the mech wasn't causing trouble--and besides, he might well be useful later on. If it came down to a fight with Chaos, they'd need everything they had just to stay alive.

*

Sonic groaned softly. His head hurt, and he was freezing cold. For a moment, the blue hedgehog was tempted to simply stay where he was and fall asleep, but somehow he knew he couldn't do that. He opened his eyes, wincing at the renewed stinging that caused, and looked up at a rock face.

He sat up. He had been lying on a carpet of soft sand, in a small alcove off the gorge. Snow was falling lightly only a few feet outside, but the wind was driving it away from the entrance to the little cave. Sonic frowned, trying to understand how the avalanche could have shoved him sideways into a cave. Then he turned and saw Amy.

She was fast asleep, curled up on her side next to him. Her thumb was in her mouth as she slept, shivering slightly with the cold. She looked absolutely exhausted, and the long dragged track in the snow up to the cave suggested how she had tired herself out. Sonic wriggled, feeling the melting snow still embedded between his spines. So Amy had been the one who pulled him off the surface of the mountain. She had probably saved his life by that selfless gesture. Spunky little Amy.

The blue hedgehog shivered and reached up to touch his head, which couldn't decide whether to sting or ache and was doing both at once. His fingers found a painful area at the back, between the spines, and when he took his hand away again there was dried blood on the fingertips. Sonic winced. He must have hit something on the way down the mountain. "That's just what I needed," he muttered.

Amy stirred in her sleep, crying out thinly. Perhaps she was having a bad dream. Sonic looked at the sleeping pink hedgehog and sighed, then hesitantly slipped his arm around her. Thinking that if Tails could see him he'd never live it down, he held her close to him and let her snuggle into his shoulder. At least she was warm.

He closed his eyes again, giving into the urge to sleep. Outside, the snow kept falling, thickening.

It had grown darker when Amy awoke. For a moment she was confused, not understanding where she was, then she realised who it was beside her. Everything came back in a flash--Metaru, the Chaos Emeralds, the mountain... "Sonie? You okay?" She shook him slightly, not really wanting to end the blissful moment. "Wake up?"

"'Sup?" Sonic murmured sleepily, and woke up. "Argh," he said, and let go of her to rub the sleep out of his eyes. "I'm freezing."

"You and me both," Amy sighed. "And I'm lost. Do you know where we are?"

He looked at her. "Hey, I've been unconscious for hours, what do you expect? I don't even remember how I got here."

Her eyes were wide and frightened. "Sonic..." she began weakly. "Are we gonna get out of here?"

"Don't even go there," Sonic ordered. "We'll be fine. I've got out of worse situations than this one before." He glanced at the opening, where the snow was starting to lay itself on thick. "We can't go out in this. We'll have to sit here and wait it out."

"What if we get snowed in?" Amy asked.

He shrugged. "We'll dig."

A faint smile crept across her face and she leaned her head on his shoulder. "Thank goodness I found you, Sonie. I don't think I could have gone on any longer by myself."

Privately, Sonic thought, "You're a lot tougher than you think, kid." Out loud he said nothing, but leaned back against the back of the cave, away from the snow, and looked out into the whirling clouds of whiteness. A small semicircular area of snow was making its way into the cave as the snow built up outside. It wasn't really much of a cave--more like an alcove with an overhang above it. There was a heck of a lot of storm out there... he hoped Tails would be able to find shelter. Had the fox made it? It hurt him dreadfully, but he knew that there was no way he'd be able to find out for the moment--he was in no condition to mount a search operation. He was going to have enough trouble just saving himself and Amy.

He fell asleep for a while, lulled by the falling snow. When he opened his eyes a third time it was getting dark. There hadn't been much letting up, but the snow now half-covered the entrance. Sonic wriggled his toes experimentally to make sure they hadn't frozen up. They'd have to get moving soon, or they'd be popsicle sticks. "Amy," he said, shaking her. She opened her eyes with a start. "Listen, we have to get going. It's only gonna get colder."

"But it's still snowing!" Amy complained.

"Hey, you've got fur, what's the problem?"

"I'm still freezing. And I'm tired. Can't we stay here until the snow stops?"

He shook his head. "I think Chaos is causing this. He can't manifest here because the climate control keeps it too cold for water to flow. But he's up there in the clouds, making it snow. We have to try and get to the cave Knux told us about. If we just keep heading on up the mountain, and call every so often, we might get lucky."

"Might," Amy repeated sarcastically.

"Well, it's that or freeze, 'cause there's no fire or light or warmth round here. Choose your evil." Sonic got to his feet stiffly, wincing at the twinge from his head. "C'mon, we better start now, before it gets too cold to do anything. It's already getting dark."

"Okay," she said with a sigh. She slipped her hand into his. "Ready when you are, I guess."

Sonic nodded. "Stick together. It's getting thick outside."

Holding hands tightly, they stumbled out into the snow. It was difficult to see what was going on, now that it was dark and the snow was falling more regularly. Things loomed out of the whirling cloud at them--a tall shadowy ghost a rock, a fat black serpent part of a tree that had been shorn from the mountainside. The snow came up almost to their knees and got into their shoes.

Amy shivered. "Sonie, can't you run up the mountainside or something? It's going to take forever to walk anywhere."

"Run, in this? I'll break my ankles on some hidden rock and then we'll both be stuck." He grimaced. "Anyway, I'm too tired to hit more than a gentle jog right now. My head hurts."

"I'm sorry," she said unhappily. "I don't mean to be selfish. I'm tired too, that's all."

Sonic halted and glanced at her, surprised by that admission. Where was the whiny ten-year-old he had known back on Little Planet? Maybe that Amy had never existed, not really. He knew he could sometimes be a little slow on the uptake, but it surprised him that he was only now starting to understand Amy a little more. "Come on," he said. "It's not far now."

She smiled and tightened her fingers around his. They helped each other through the snowdrifts when they came to them, making slow but steady progress up the mountain. The path was easy to follow, at least; the sides of the gorge were so steep that there was no other way to go.

Suddenly, something moved through the snow ahead, just at the limits of their vision. Amy and Sonic stopped at the same time, and both peered through the steadily thickening storm to try and make it out. It had moved like a person, on two legs, but because of the reduced visibility all that could be seen was a dark shape, that appeared and then vanished again, like a snow-ghost. "Did you see that?" Amy asked.

Sonic nodded, and cupped his free hand to his mouth. "Hey!" he called. "Who's out there? Tails? Knux? That you?" For a moment he thought of Metal Sonic, out there and possibly stalking them with infra-red imaging or something. The robot, if well equipped by Eggman, would be more efficient than any mountain rescue team--and more dangerous than any mountain. Sonic shook the thought away. It didn't matter--the way the snow was coming down now they'd be dead anyway unless they found someone. "Hey!" he yelled again, but the snow was deadening his voice. Amy joined in, calling Gamma's name.

"It's no good," Sonic said despondently after a moment of silence. "Whoever it was, they didn't hear. We'll have to hurry and catch up with them. They couldn't have gone far."

She nodded and walked forward, pushing her way through the snow. Fired up by the thought of companionship they made better headway, warming themselves by the activity. The snow cleared a little, revealing a dark clouded sky. They ascended a short, winding path between rocks and boulders, and then came to a junction. The gorge split into two here, and both paths looked the same.

They stopped and looked at each other in dismay, each wondering the same thing. "Left or right?" Amy said with a worried look. "Are we even going the right way at all?"

Sonic sighed. "There's no way of finding out. We'll have to pick one and hope for the best. If we get really lost we'll have to hole up and wait out the storm. Gamma will find us."

"Okay," she said, then stiffened, looking over his shoulder. "Sonie! There!"

"What?" Sonic turned, but saw nothing.

"That figure was there again!" Amy exclaimed, pointing up the left-hand path. "I swear! I just saw him for a moment."

"You sure?" Sonic frowned. The last thing he wanted was a wild-goose chase.

"Absolutely." She turned and headed up the left path, dragging him along with her. "Come on, I think he's leading us to the cave!"

"Well, why doesn't he just come out and say so?" the blue hedgehog objected, but allowed himself to be towed along. When the snow cleared again, he looked forward into the direction they were headed, but there didn't seem to be anything there.

Twice more the mysterious figure showed itself, always when they had come to a path divide. Both times, they called for their friends and hurried after it, but they never heard any reply and they never caught up with anyone that they could see. There didn't seem to be any footprints, either, although there could have been light ones--the snow was harder up here, and they weren't leaving much of a trail themselves.

*

"Just a little further," Knuckles grinned, picking up the pace a little. Seph clapped his small paws together happily, hopeful that the journey inside the mountain would finally be coming to an end. It was boring just going through these tunnels, and they were altogether too small; Knuckles had to duck to get through, and Metal Sonic, who was slightly taller, kept banging his extremities on the rocky walls.

"Finally," Metal grumbled. The dark blue mech disliked moving slowly, but the tunnels' confined space gave him little alternative. "I trust that this cave of yours will provide a little more room to move."

"You never quit complaining, do you?" Knuckles said mildly, privately wondering at the similarity in temperament between Sonic and Metal. The more he came into contact with the dark blue mech, the more he noticed it, and it was more than a little unsettling. "Just up here, then we turn left at the top and we're there."

Metal nodded; the information from his scans was telling him the same thing. Then he noticed something that astonished him. His visual sensors were picking up a light source ahead, but scans detected no energy reading of any kind. The blue mech halted and ran a quick diagnostic, but came up negative.

Knuckles halted and looked back, seeing that Metal had paused in the ascent. "What's up?" the echidna asked.

"What is that light?" Metal asked.

"What light?" Knux looked around, puzzled. "I don't see any light."

"Right there, in front of you." The robot pointed. "I see a light-"

The last thing he saw was Knuckles looking at him through the pale radiance of the pink lightball. Then it shot towards him and hit him in the face, overloading his visual sensors; he felt a massive jolt through his systems, and everything went dark.

Knuckles blinked as Metal toppled over in the middle of the tunnel, the lights of his eyes suddenly flickering out. The echidna hurried back down to the robot and, with a little effort, turned Metal over onto his back to take a closer look. Metal could have been a kitchen appliance for all the reaction he observed. His battery? No--Knux had seen the schematics for the MS-00 model mechs while he was working for Eggman, and he knew from hearsay that even if the fusion engine shorted out there was a Tesla coil for backup. And what had Metal been saying about a light?

"Tikal," Knuckles muttered, starting to understand. "She came to him too?" Well, of course, Tikal had come to Gamma, but still--Metal? He didn't deserve to see her.

The red echidna sighed heavily and sat down by the unmoving body of the blue mech. All he could do was wait until Metal woke up, and maybe he would have something to add to the bleak picture. At least if he was having a vision, then Tikal was still trying to help them. "Come back soon, Metal," Knuckles muttered.

*

Metal Sonic would have blinked, if he had eyelids. Instead, he settled for slowly turning around on the spot, staring at his unrecognisable surroundings. After a moment of confusion, the blue mech reached the conclusion that he had been transported somehow. It was strange that he had not picked up any energy readings on his scans; he had never heard of a teleporter like that before. And the pink lightball... it was very strange.

Like Gamma, he looked at the mountain ranges and photographed them onto his memory, enhancing the image as best he could in the darkness and the fire-glow, then he searched his archived database for matches. Unlike Gamma, he found one--in the information he had received from his rival. There was not enough data there to tell him where he was--apparently Sonic had not known either--and so he walked forward, intending to check out the fire from a closer distance.

A heavy stone bridge over a raging river separated him from the flames on the mount. Metal hesitated, running a 3-D imaging diagnostic which informed him that the bridge had serious structural flaws from the battering of the water. He was not normally so careful, but when he had no idea where he was he attempted to run all the checks he could, just in case it was a trap. The blue mech ignited his jet and flew over the river rather than chancing the bridge on foot. He touched down neatly on the other side with a whir of cooling engines, and looked up at the burning mount. It seemed familiar, but again there were no matches.

Something beside his foot caught his attention. He looked down and saw a tiny, crumpled body there. Metal knelt down and touched it, turning it over--it was a creature like the one that had been with Knuckles. Chao, informed his database. It was very dead.

There was another one, just a few feet away. Metal straightened up, seeing the blood on the ground for the first time. Another dead Chao--and there another, and another... the ground was strewn with their small corpses. What had killed them all? Such tiny, defenseless creatures--who would do such a thing?

What was he thinking? HE would do such a thing! They were just animals! Metal shook his head violently, trying to expunge the strange emotions flowing through his mechanical hull. It must be some sort of malfunction. But his gaze returned to the pitiful spectacle on the ground. He shuddered, the way Gamma had done on the Egg Carrier, and battled the upstart emotions grimly. Behind him the bridge gave up the ghost and plummeted into the roaring water, fatally weakened by the river tearing at its foundations.

But then he heard a small, thin cry from the grass. He knelt down again and parted the dusty fronds, revealing another of the Chao. It was just wounded. The small creature looked up at him and let out another high, thin, traumatised cry, its eyes full of tears. It was afraid of him.

Gently, Metal picked up the small Chao and held it, careful not to disturb its injury. His hands were sensitive enough to pick up an egg as well as strong enough to crush steel. He wanted to preserve the animal alive for now--it might carry a clue as to what was going on.

Carrying the Chao, he walked forward to the steps that led up to the burning place, which he could now see was some sort of altar. The match flashed into place--the Emerald altar on Angel Island! That was where he was! But... Metal turned around and looked back at where he had come from. Angel Island was not part of the mainland. Yet the bridge clearly led to a large body of land.

He ascended the steps, fire licking at his paintwork. The Chao cried out again and turned its face away, pressing itself against his metal shell in desperation. Metal halted at the top of the steps and scanned the area for hostile life-forms; finding none, he turned his attention to the Emerald and its companion.

She was leaning against the beautiful green stone in an attitude of exhaustion, cradling her right hand. He analysed her features and realised that she was of the same species as Knuckles. Fascinating... he had thought that Knuckles was the last of his vanished race. Metal paused, still holding the Chao, wondering what to do next. This tableau was beyond his comprehension.

The echidna girl looked up at him slowly. "I failed," she whispered. Tears fell slowly from her haunted eyes. "Now he will destroy everything."

"Who?" Metal demanded.

"Chaos." She took a shuddering breath, which turned into a sob. "It's all over. You came too late."

"Do you mean--if I had come here before, I could have stopped this?"

"No." She shook her head hopelessly. "We can't fight fate."

"Who did this?" The echidna girl looked away, unable to bear it any more. She covered her eyes with her good hand.

"My father... came here and killed the Chao... tried to take the Emeralds. Now Chaos has risen." As if to add credence to her words, a rushing roar came from somewhere far out in the darkness, the sound of an ocean brought to life. "If only I had stopped them," she whispered. "They killed the Chao."

"Not all of them." Metal hesitantly held out the injured Chao. "This one is alive."

She smiled through her tears and held out her hand to clasp the Chao close to her. "Then there is hope. Thank you. The Chao are the key to Chaos."

"How?"

"They are the true guardians of the power of Chaos. Chaos looks after the Chao." Carefully, she detached a small red diamond-shaped jewel from the Chao's neck. "These gems are the Channelers. They direct the power of the Servers and the Controller. Bring them together and..."

That roar again, closer now. The girl looked up fearfully, clutching the Chao. "He's coming here. I have to stop him!" She held the Chao out to Metal, who took it. "Please, get her to safety," the girl begged. "She is the last of them. I will deal with Chaos!"

"But-" Metal began.

"You have to save the Chao!" the girl insisted. She laid her good hand on the glowing green flank of the Master Emerald and looked back at him one last time. "Please hurry!"

That image of her tear-streaked face lit by the flames was engraven on Metal's memory. As Chaos screamed again, he held the Chao to him like a baby and ignited his jets, racing away into the night. For a moment he saw the water monster, a thousand feet tall, towering over the altar, and heard the girl's voice raised.

"The seven Servers are the Chaos Emeralds,
Chaos is power enriched by the heart,
The Controller serves to unify the Chaos..."

*

Metal sat bolt upright with a jerk, almost head-butting Knuckles who was leaning over him and looking into his eyes in search for a sign of life. "The Chao," the blue mech stuttered, confused. "Where is she?"

"Eh?" Knuckles rubbed the back of his head in puzzlement.

"Me Chao," Seph offered.

Metal Sonic got to his feet and stared about him, unable to cope with the evidence of his eyes. "I was somewhere else," he said plaintively, requesting information.

"You saw Tikal," Knuckles told him. "Let me guess. An echidna girl, an ancient city, the Emerald altar and Chao? Or some permutation of the above?"

"How did you-"

"We've all been having visions of the past," the echidna interrupted. "Sonic, me, Amy, Gamma, Tails, and now you. I don't know how or why, but it's all something to do with Chaos. What did you see when you were there? It might be important."

Metal replayed the event in his memory. It was almost as bad seeing the dead Chao the second time, and all those emotions he had tried to stifle came rushing back. Something would have to be done about it. "Everything was burning," he said, making an effort to maintain control, "The Chao were dead and the girl said that they were the key to Chaos. There was a small jewel around the neck of one. She called it a Channeler. Then..." He paused.

"Go on," Knuckles prompted.

"She asked me to save the injured Chao. I took it and then Chaos came. The last thing I heard was her, reciting some sort of poem."

"Recite it," Knuckles told him.

Metal replayed Tikal's voice through his speaker. "The seven Servers are the Chaos Emeralds. Chaos is power enriched by the heart. The Controller serves to unify the Chaos... That is all," he added in his own, emotionless tone.

"If only we knew the next line," Knuckles sighed. "It might say something about these Channelers." The next moment he stopped breathing, astonished by a thought that had just hit him. "My God!"

"What?" Metal asked.

"The Chao Gem! That's it!" Knuckles punched the air in jubilation. "Don't you see? The jewel Amy found--that was one of the gems the Chao were carrying when they were killed! It all makes sense now!"

"Well, I'm glad YOU understand," Metal said skeptically.

Knux ignored him. "We HAVE to find the others."

*

E-102 Gamma ploughed through the snow that was now reaching his chest, and wondered at the strength of his own design. He was sure that the E-100 series robots had never been intended to traverse this sort of hostile terrain; he should have frozen up by now, even with the alterations he had made to the basic design. Instead, he climbed steadily up the mountainside, clawing a deep trench through the snow. Perhaps it was his natural sheer stubbornness that kept him functional.

They were in a sharp cleft in the mountain, protected from the worst of the wind but forced to find their way through high snowdrifts. It wasn't the best sort of ground to be traveling over, even for a mech of Gamma's stamina. Tails, perched on his head, was a shivering bundle of orange fur with ice crystallizing on his muzzle. They had been at work now for many hours, stopping only occasionally to let Gamma cool off--not that that was even necessary now in the sub-zero temperatures. It was late evening, getting on for night, and a pale moon was rising above the mountains.

Tails sighed and flicked his tails, showering powdery snow off behind them. The little fox sat up and looked about him, brushing his arms and shoulders to warm them. "Where are we now?" he asked.

"I don't know," Gamma said. "I have not found a suitable place to rest."

"You're telling me." The fox blinked as a particularly large snowflake flew into his eye. "Argh. Hey, you don't have any idea at all?"

"Negative," the red mech rumbled. "It appears that our situation is becoming dangerous. The temperature is falling steadily." Gamma hesitated. "There is also a wind-chill factor to contend with," he said, "in your case. You must maintain a particular level of heat."

"And don't I know it," Tails muttered, clinging to the edge of the visor as Gamma started off again. "I feel froze."

"I cannot aid you. I am... sorry."

"Hey, it's okay." Tails fell silent for a while as Gamma navigated a particularly treacherous section of uneven ground. The red mech's stork-like legs were adaptable, yes, but when he went over he really went. Tails didn't relish the idea of having to dig Gamma out of the snow again--he'd already done that twice more--so he let him concentrate on his balance as they climbed over an outcrop of dark stone. On the other side, Gamma took a step down and sank up to his chest in snow again, nearly toppling over.

"Erf!" Tails said in alarm, sliding off the mech's head into his arms. Quickly, he spun his tails and scrambled back up to his perch, and tried to crack off some of the ice that had made him fall. It was a thin layer, but very slippery, and Gamma was coated in it.

"I dislike these conditions," Gamma said plaintively.

"Trust me, you're not alone." Tails resumed his former sitting position, holding onto the edge of the visor, and looked ahead. "Hey! We're running out of mountain!"

The snow had nearly stopped falling during their climb. Now they stood at the top of the cleft and looked out onto a bare, snowy plateau on one of the highest reaches of the Ice Cap. Ahead of them lay the very peak itself, pure ice and perfectly conical. Just a few more miles would take them to the highest and most inhospitable point of the Floating Island. A faint shimmer in the sky looked like Northern Lights, but Tails knew it was really the outward sign of the atmosphere regulator set up on the island. The regulator kept Ice Cap cold and Sandopolis hot, emulating the climate of a whole world in this tiny microcosm.

However, the interesting fact was not the presence of the peak, but their presence at the peak. They had gone too far. Somehow, they had overshot the cave Knuckles had told them about; if they were to find it, they would have to backtrack. But which way should they go? From here at the peak, there were a hundred different ways to descend.

"We are in trouble," Tails said slowly, emphasising each word.

Gamma's head swiveled almost right around as he examined each path in turn. "I am out of options," he said, shifting his feet in the suddenly shallow snow. "We cannot stay here; we will have to attempt to return to warmer areas. At least descending will be quicker than ascending."

"Yeah, but the trouble with going down is that you have to go at a steady speed," Tails told him. "That was where we went wrong before, with the avalanche. I don't suppose you know how to snowboard?"

"Snowboard?" repeated Gamma blankly.

"It's like surfing, but on snow--Never mind." The fox sighed heavily and jumped down. "You'd probably be too heavy anyway. Look, I tell you what, let's walk around and see if we can see anywhere to kip for the night. We can look for the others in the morning." He started to move off across the plateau. There were rocks dotted around that might offer some sort of shelter. If only Sonic or Knux or even Amy had been with him! At least a living creature offered more warmth than a robot...

"Wait." Gamma looked past him, towards the drop down the mountain. Tails halted in his tracks and looked back, confused. Gamma switched to enhanced mode and swept the craggy scenery with a scan, finding no trace of organic life. But something had moved, he had seen it. His night-vision clearly picked out a shape slipping between two rocks, hesitating in the gap for a moment and seeming to wave to him.

There! There it was again. Gamma lifted his gun arm and pointed, drawing Tails's attention to the figure's place. The fox looked, holding a paw up against the snow, and yelped in excitement when he saw the figure himself. It waited a moment longer, as if to make sure that they had seen it, and then ducked out of sight.

"That was Knux!" Tails yelled incoherently. "Gamma, that was Knux! Quick, after him!"

They pounded across the snowscape together, intent on reaching that figure as quick as they could, but when they skidded to a halt at the rock, in a cloud of snow, the figure had gone. Tails peered down the mountainside and saw a movement from the white snow into the darkness of the moon-stark rocks.

"We go down there," Tails said firmly. "He's leading us to the cave."

"But-" began Gamma.

"Don't argue, we'll lose him in this weather!" the fox yelled. "Come on!" Without waiting for anything more, he set foot on the snowy slope and began to half-run, half-slide down it in pursuit of the fleeing phantom. Gamma began another "but", but realised that Tails wouldn't even hear him. He hesitated a moment then set off after him, wobbling on the smooth snowy slope. Tails seemed to know what he was doing.

There probably wasn't any point trying to tell him that the figure had left no tracks in the crisp, pristine snow.

*

There was a back entrance to the supply cave, which Knuckles had hardly ever had recourse to use. Consequently, it was slightly iced up at the edges. He let out a slight "humph!" and set about widening it with his metal claws. It didn't take too long to crack the fragile ice off the doorway and open up the entrance. He stepped through, followed by Metal Sonic.

They were in a reasonably large rocky space set into the wall of the mountain; the other end of the cave, some eight feet away, housed a small round opening onto the side of the mountain. By the darkness and the faint gleam of stars, Knuckles judged it was around ten P.M. It had taken longer than he'd anticipated to clear the Ice Cap maze, and there was still nobody here.

He stalked over to where a tarp was thrown over a bundle of supply cases, and set about ripping the frozen material off the wooden crates. "You know," he said over his shoulder as he worked, "that smart little avalanche of yours has really screwed our neat plan."

Metal shrugged. "Chaos ruined mine somewhat. I had intended to deal with Sonic, return to the altar and remove the Master Emerald, and fly it back to Mystic Ruins on the recovered plane." Knux shot him a look at that admission, but the dark blue mech remained unmoved, deliberately turning his back to examine the walls of the cave.

"If you had so much as scratched my Emerald," Knuckles said quite calmly and composedly, "I would have hunted you down and rammed these up your I/O port." He turned round and held up his fists, adorned with the glittering steel shovel claws.

"Perhaps we should have a one-on-one someday," Metal suggested softly. "It would be an interesting match."

"Very," Knuckles agreed coldly, fighting an urge to punch the mech right here and now. "Jeez, you robots are so cold."

"You organisms are so emotional," Metal countered.

"You guys are so boring!" Seph broke in impatiently.

"I hungry!" Knuckles hid a smile, thinking of the Chao's teeth and Sonic, and returned his attention to the nearest packing crate. Working quickly he ripped a crowbar from its icy tomb and set the metal to the lid of the first crate. Everything was iced up after two or three years of storage here, and he had trouble opening the case. "Need some help over here," he said to the air. Metal Sonic glanced at him impatiently but slipped his fingers underneath the lid. Between them, with Knuckles's leverage and the mech's sheer strength, they managed to rip the lid off the crate. Inside, a layer of thick cloth covered a neatly packed boxful of firewood. Knux opened two more crates, revealing a whole crateful of freeze-dried apples, some tins of food and plenty of blankets. Seph dug into one of the apples with relish, despite its permafrost state.

Once he had a fire going, Knuckles started to warm up properly. The fog in his head dissipated, letting him think more clearly. With that plus came a minus--he found himself worrying about the others. Had they managed to survive out there? It wasn't exactly the most friendly of places around here, especially given the snow they'd had lately. "Metal," he said after a moment, "we have to go looking for the others."

"You look," Metal Sonic said coldly. "I have more important concerns."

Knuckles couldn't help it this time; he was really starting to get angry, and his natural temperament just had to take over from Mr. Cool Head. "Listen, you," he growled, "if you're throwing your lot in with us ORGANISMS, you better do your bit and help out. Otherwise let's forget Chaos and have that little one-on-one, right here, right now, because I'm sick of your attitude! Got it?"

Metal just looked at him. Although he couldn't exactly read any expression into that face, he had a feeling he knew what the mech was saying--go on and try to take me on. "Sheesh," he muttered, and slumped down with his head clasped in his claws. "What did I do to deserve this?"

Seph stopped eating. The Chao's posture of intense listening got through to Knux, who looked at him in surprise. Taking no notice of Knuckles or Metal Sonic, Seph got to his feet and turned to face the entrance. There was a frown of concentration on his small face. "Someone coming," he said.

Knuckles was up as soon as that had been said. The echidna hurried to the entrance and looked out, but the thin curtain of falling snow stopped him from seeing much. "You sure?" he asked, glancing back at the Chao. Seph nodded solemnly. "Metal, come over here and lend an eye, will ya?" Knuckles asked, motioning to the robot. "You can see further than I can."

Metal stood at the cave entrance for several moments, gazing out into the snowy landscape, and then he nodded slowly. "I am picking up a heat signal on the far side of this valley. They are making their way down in a haphazard fashion. I don't think they know where we are."

Knuckles cupped his hands to his mouth and called out into the snow. "Hellooo! Can anybody hear me?" He waited, hearing his echoes bouncing back to him despite the muffling effect of the snow. Sure enough, after three or four seconds, there came a reply, almost too faint to be heard.

"Hellooo?" That sounded like Tails.

Knuckles took a deep breath and yelled again. "Come towards the light! Can you see the light?"

"Keep calling!" Tails's voice came back. "Gamma can lock into your position!"

"Who else is with you?" the echidna bellowed, beginning to hope against hope that Sonic and the others were a group.

The reply, while killing his newborn optimism, reassured him that the other two were unhurt. "Just us! We're heading your way now!"

"Thank God," Knuckles said fervently, turning back towards the fire. Seph looked up at him wide-eyed and quiescent, having returned in the meantime to his frozen apple. The echidna hung about beside the fire, waiting impatiently for his friends to show themselves. Metal Sonic poked around in one of the opened packing crates, showing himself to be both disinterested and positively without guilt.

It seemed to take an age before the scrape of feet outside was heard. Knuckles straightened up eagerly as a dark shape loomed outside, and then a huge smile spread itself across his face as a white-furred snow-fox padded into the cave. Tails shook the worst of it off himself, then turned a matching grin towards the echidna. "Knux! Finally!" Behind him, Gamma stepped forward and banged his head on the low entrance. Embarrassedly, he ducked and stepped in after his much smaller companion.

"I didn't know if you guys would be able to find this place by yourselves," Knuckles said, relieved beyond measure. "I didn't give you much of a direction to follow."

Tails nodded, already stripping off his gloves in the warmth of the cave. "Well," he said, kneeling down beside the fire, "we nearly didn't find it. We got totally lost. If you hadn't shown up when you did, I dunno what would have happened."

"Me? Shown up?" Knuckles blinked. "Um, Tails, I was inside the mountain most of the time. With Metal Sonic." He indicated the other mech; Metal made no reply, leaning against the cave wall and looking away with studied indifference.

Tails's eyes widened when he saw Metal, but his attention returned to Knuckles quickly enough. "But, Knux, we saw you!" he insisted. "You led us down off the top! It couldn't have been Sonic, it was definitely an echidna. You guys have longer noses," he added with a grin.

Knux attempted to look down his own nose for a second, then shook his head impatiently. "Whoever you saw, it couldn't have been me," he informed the fox. "Metal and Seph will tell you, I've been walking around in the Ice Cap caverns all afternoon. We got here through the tunnel at the back."

Tails and Gamma glanced at each other in surprise, knowing that whoever they had seen had been real, not the product of their imagination. Here was a mystery. "Could there be another echidna up here?" the fox asked eventually.

Knuckles shook his head again. "You gotta be kidding. It's my island. I'd know."

Whatever Tails had been about to say next was lost in the general excitement when there was yet another scrape outside the cave entrance. Everyone turned to see, thinking of the mysterious stranger, but the snow-covered figures that staggered through the door arm-in-arm looked nothing like echidnas.

"Sonic!" Tails yelled. "Amy!"

"You're okay!" Knuckles cried at almost the same time.

"Just," Sonic groaned, and shook snow off himself in a shower that made everyone duck. "You might have gone a little slower, Knux!" he said, irritated. "We had to run to keep up with you! Didn't you hear us calling you or something?"

For not the first time in his life, Knuckles found himself utterly without words. "But--you--I--I never went out on the mountain!" he stuttered.

They all looked at each other, mechs and animals alike, unable to volunteer any explanation. But, a moment later, everything fell into place.

There was another light scrape outside the entrance, a crunch of foot in snow. And a small, slender form appeared in the doorway, lit by the warm red firelight. A girl, dressed too lightly for the harsh climate, with a frosting of snow in her long peach-colored spines. She took a small, uncertain step into the cave, and smiled at them all.

"Tikal!" Knuckles gasped.

*

"I am sorry I had to shock you all like that," Tikal said, "but I could not come here until Chaos turned his attention elsewhere. So I tried to help you in other ways."

Sonic nodded slowly. "You were the one who led us to the cave," the blue hedgehog said, "and you were the one who made sure we weren't buried in the avalanche." That had been bothering him, how he had landed up on top of the snow, despite being unconscious and caught by the full fury of the roaring flood.

They were all seated around the fire, thawing out after their lengthy mountain treks, as Tikal explained. Flashbacks were one thing, but seeing her in the flesh was quite another. She projected an aura of wisdom, and of age without ageing--her beautiful blue eyes held a sadness, but it was mingled with joy. When she spoke, they were all stilled, even Metal Sonic, who had finally quit his pacing to listen to her soft words.

"I sealed Chaos in the Master Emerald," she said, looking at Knuckles. "But my heart was sealed there too. I could not quench his rage, whatever I did. He has never forgotten, Knuckles, what our people did to the Chao."

"The Chao..." Sonic breathed. "Knux, you killed them?"

"Not me personally," Knuckles said hotly. "I'm nothing like my ancestors, trust me." Seph looked from one to the other, surprised.

"But you are," Tikal said gently. "In a nice way. We echidnas have spirits of fire--and fire, remember, can give life as well as death. It keeps us alive right now. That fire in your heart will always be needed, especially in you, with so many responsibilities to take care of." Knux seemed to swell a little at that praise.

"What about foxes?" Tails huffed.

Tikal turned her smile on him, like a ray of golden light in the cold. "Your people are very different," she said. "Your hearts are full of the sky. You will always strive for the highest point, like the birds. There has never been a fox who did not want to fly."

"Wow..." Tails smiled, looking thoughtful. "I guess I'm lucky that I have two tails. Now I can fly!"

"Don't tell us about hedgehogs," Sonic said quickly. "I don't want to know. Tell us how to defeat Chaos."

She nodded. "I thought you would be like that, always eager to get to the point. May your determination carry you through!" Then she looked away, suddenly sad.

"There is a way, right?" Amy said, experiencing a sudden misgiving at the sight of the echidna so preoccupied.

"There is," Tikal said, with a slight hesitation. "But it is very difficult."

"Difficult's never stopped me before," Sonic said, shrugging. "I mean, I survived Final Egg."

"Physical survival is not the issue," Tikal told him, turning to face him. "It is a question of pure survival--survival of the spirit. Let me tell you first what must be done, then you may make your own decision as to what you should do.

"Chaos rages now because his heart is so hurt. He sees only the image of the Chao he failed to protect--he cannot see that there are Chao alive and well in the world today."

"I'll say," Seph said darkly, remembering how the Guardian had attacked him when he tried to speak to it.

Tikal smiled at him and went on. "Chaos's heart is closed, I know that now. He cannot be reached by any mortal words. The only way to defeat him is to use his own power against him--to use the good side of Chaos to defeat the bad. To do this, one of you must become Chaos for a short time, absorb the Chaos power into yourself."

Sonic blinked and then smiled. "You mean go super? Hey, that's easy! I do it all the time." Tails nodded, thinking of the fair-haired invincible hedgehog Sonic tended to become in times of stress. Aside from a few color changes and the bubble of light that protected him, Sonic was the same as ever, just... yellow. The mechanics behind the transformation were something to do with all the Chaos energy the hedgehog had absorbed over the years of collecting power rings and emeralds. It was dodgy physics, but it worked. All he needed was a good supply of rings, and those were around for the taking.

"No, Sonic," Tikal said quietly. "I don't mean that. What you did was to take a little of the Chaos energy and use it for limited invincibility. This is different. One of you must accept the actual essence of Chaos into your heart. I know that this is a difficult thing to understand, but I will tell you that the Chaos you are fighting is only half of what Chaos is. He is the bad side, the fear and the anger and the hate. He is invincible to everything except one thing--the courage and peace and love of Chaos's good side. That is what you must become--the entity of Chaos. But to be the Chaos Entity--to open your heart to an alien consciousness--this is a dangerous thing. For a time, you stop being yourself and become someone else. If you are not strong enough within your own soul, you may never return to yourself. You will certainly not be the same person after that you were before."

There was silence for a long time, while they each digested Tikal's words. It didn't sound too hopeful. "I guess I understand a little more," Sonic said reluctantly. The idea of becoming Chaos, even just the GOOD part of Chaos, didn't thrill him at all. What he had seen of the "god of destruction" was not encouraging.

Knuckles cleared his throat. "What's our alternative?" he asked. "Leave him alone. He has directed Angel Island towards the nearest city. If we stay up here, alone, he will leave the island when we arrive, and destroy the world. People will survive--they did last time. We could let Chaos do what he wants, then seal him in the Emerald when he has expended his strength."

"And then, he'll burst out again sometime in the future," Sonic finished for her. "Because we didn't deal with it in the here and now. Last time, he destroyed the entire echidna civilisation. If he does it again, what'll be left?" The hedgehog looked at all the others with a challenging stare, that old adventurous sparkle back in his eyes. "I say we do this. I'll even volunteer to become this--what was it? Chaos Entity? I say we do whatever we have to do, and then go kick some serious tail!" He punched the air with a fist to emphasise his point.

"All right, Sonic!" Tails cheered.

Tikal nodded slowly. "If you are willing to do this despite the danger I have told you of--that is all anybody could ask. We must go now to the Master Emerald, and collect up the seven Servers. Chaos left them near the Master, since he had no more need of them. Once we have assembled all the Emeralds together, we can use the Channeler Amy holds to transfer the essence of Chaos. But we must hurry! We only have until dawn to reach the Emerald--by then, the island will be over Station Square and Chaos will begin his work."

"Well, then!" came a horribly familiar voice. "I'll just have to stop you doing it!"

"Eggman!" Tails yelled.

There was pandemonium as everyone sprang to their feet, adopting a fighting stance.

But it wasn't Eggman who stood in the cave, snow caking his shining body. It was a mech. A tall, comically shaped mech with long bird-like legs atop a squat body, and a powerful gun mounted on the right arm. The red and white paint job glittered like new in the firelight, and the initials of the mech's serial number stood out in flames.

E-102 (II).

Gamma sagged at the knees. "This presents a problem," he murmured with something that was as close to sarcasm as his developing intellect had reached thus far. Even at a preliminary glance, he could see that the new E-100 was far more advanced than he. Stronger, faster, with a bigger gun.

Before anyone had a chance to move, Gamma mk II lunged forward and scooped up Amy in his powerful hand. She shrieked and kicked at him, but it was like a rabbit trying to kick an elephant--he was impervious. Gamma mk II stepped back with her under his arm. "Now," he said in his voice that was too-like Eggman's, "without this Channeler, you are powerless to stop Chaos, correct?"

"Let her go!" Sonic yelled, seeing red. mk II nodded gravely, looking just like Gamma in the gesture. "I will take that as a yes," he said. "Without the gem this girl has, Chaos will destroy any organised resistance, and when he is done my master will step in to take control! Chaos doesn't even have to obey us in order to serve us!" Sonic and Metal Sonic jumped the big mech at the same time, but mk II was too quick for them. He ducked out of the opening and was gone into the snow with an eerie burst of simulated laughter.

"Follow that robot!" Sonic yelled. They raced outside, just in time to see mk II ignite a pair of afterburners and shoot off down the side of the mountain, just as if he were wearing jet-propelled skis. Sonic took a few abortive steps after him, but he knew even he couldn't catch the speeding mech now, not on this treacherous icefield.

In later times, Gamma would be astonished at the way he reacted now--he didn't stop to think anything through, he just saw an opportunity and acted upon it, as if he were an organic and not a rational computer. His eyes spotted something half-buried in the snow nearby and identified it as metallic in origin. He crouched beside it and heaved it from its snowy grave with an almighty wrench; it was a big steel panel, lozenge shaped and curling up slightly at the corners. Possibly it had come off the Death Egg, which had passed over Ice Cap as it died; wherever it had come from, it was a gift from Providence. It was exactly the right size and shape. Gamma stepped onto it, wobbling slightly; he held his arms out to keep his balance. "Go," he said to the others, turning his head. "Get to the Emerald. I will go after mk II and rescue Amy."

"Are you sure?" began Sonic. Gamma pushed off and the improvised snowboard began to slide down the slope, picking up speed as it went. Gamma quickly found it wasn't as easy as it had sounded; he wobbled all over the place, windmilling his arms, trying desperately not to fall over. He glanced back desperately at the others, disappearing rapidly as the board gathered speed, and Sonic leaped on a rock and struck a pose, trying to show him how to do it. Gamma looked back towards the front and tried to copy the hedgehog's pose. Feet flat on the board, body turned slightly sideways, arms forward and backward, now crouch--there! He was balancing! And if he leaned to one side, he could steer the board the way he wanted it to!

Now for a real race.

More or less confident on his impromptu transport, Gamma looked down the mountainside. There was mk II, his afterburner lights mere dots now. He had gained a lot of distance already--it might be hard to catch up. Gamma's own weight would help here; he could reach speeds on a slide that the much lighter Sonic could only dream about. Even now he was going around two hundred, without even trying that much. He crouched down further, streamlining, and guided the board around a sneaky outcrop.

There was a divide ahead, where the slope split in two around another of the smaller peaks. The tracks in the snow went to the left, so Gamma swung around to follow them, sending up a giant spray as he changed direction. mk II had chosen a difficult course, but one that would allow for more speed on Gamma's part; the other way had had lots of rocks to dodge. This was much easier. He estimated he was going at around two hundred and eighty miles per hour; he was actually gaining on the other mech, who had the added bonus of afterburners to aid his speed. mk II hadn't seen him coming yet. Gamma checked his gun quickly to make sure he wasn't about to run out of power, but it was fine.

Up ahead was a kind of tunnel formed by ice. mk II had already shot through it, clearing most of the obstructions. Gamma whizzed into the enclosure, using his enhanced night-vision to detect and avoid obstacles. At these speeds it was difficult to react in time, and he almost clipped one stone which sent him spinning for a moment. He recovered quickly and sped after the other mech, wanting to get hold of him before they quitted the mountains and mk II got the advantage. Even while speeding down the side of Ice Cap on a rivet plate, Gamma found the resources to congratulate himself on his ingenuity. Beta would never have thought of this one.

MINE!

He swerved violently to avoid the small, spiky object in his path, and nearly went out of control altogether. Gamma wrestled the board back under control and resumed his path, scanning ahead to find any more little surprises. Behind him, the proximity mine exploded with a soft pop and flash. He detected two more, dropped by mk II, but they were easily avoided now that he was looking for them.

They had reached the end of the first stretch. Now he was faced with a much steeper drop, a pure speed ramp. Gamma crouched lower to pick up yet more velocity. Air resistance shoved him back; he compensated by leaning forward, using his weight to go faster. Slowly but surely, mk II's tail-lights were coming up in front of him. The tracks swerved around now, as if mk II was trying to shake him off; Gamma followed the straightest course he could. Now mk II was only a few hundred yards in front. Gamma went as fast as he could, leaning as far forward as he could, but now mk II was going flat out as well. The last short distance was almost impossible to close. They flew down the slope evenly spaced, neither able to outpace the other. Gamma leveled his gun and fired twice, but mk II swerved and he missed.

Ahead, the trail divided again. One path led down, the other went up and over a rocky promontory. Gamma had another idea. As mk II flew down the downward stretch, Gamma swerved and took the higher way, sending spray flying as he changed course. He flew right up over the top, his momentum carrying him up the slope. He had lost some speed from the climb, but he was still going fast enough. Down below mk II, thinking that he had lost the other mech, slowed down a little. Looking down over the edge, Gamma could see his other self only just ahead of him. Here came the end of his little snow-ride; the outcrop ended here in a vertical cliff-drop, the slope a hundred feet or more below.

mk II slowed to cruising speed, beginning to relax. There was no sign of Gamma.

Gamma flew right off the end of the cliff. For a long moment he felt as if he was floating, so high in the air--he could see the whole island from his position--but then gravity caught up with him. He plummeted in a long, arcing dive, towards the slope below, and hit it board-first with an almighty fountain of snow, right next to mk II. They raced together for a few moments side by side, then mk II swerved right into Gamma at ramming speed. Amy screamed. Pushed momentarily into a spin, Gamma maintained control of the board and flung himself back into the other mech, knocking mk II towards the canyon wall.

"Get off me, you piece of defective hardware!" mk II spat, raising his own weapon. Gamma leaned back on the board, performing an emergency slowdown, and mk II's missiles went straight past. He shot back, aiming for the afterburners. The last thing he wanted was to destroy mk II while he still had Amy in his grasp--at these speeds, she would die too--but if he could cripple mk II's speed, he would win. mk II realised what he was trying to do and swerved sharply between the two missiles, then picked up speed, hitting critical velocity as he raced down the mountainside. Gamma followed suit, sticking to mk II's tail like a shadow. The air resistance shoved up against him with brutal force--and then disappeared. A series of hollow booms echoed off the mountains as they shattered the sound barrier together.

Gamma leveled his gun again and attempted a lock-on, but mk II swerved all over the place. The other mech slowed down just enough through doing that that Gamma went past him and found himself in front. mk II raised his weapon and fired off a charged shot from his laser. Gamma barely managed to avoid it, but did manage to slow down a little himself. Now they were neck-and-neck. "Release the girl," Gamma intoned, loading another shot. "Or you will be recycled."

"I'd like to see you try, scrap metal!" mk II returned, barging into him again. Gamma recovered and fired; it struck the other mech in the back. mk II almost went out of control, but managed to stay up and even fire back at him. It hit the snow just in front of Gamma's board, nearly upending him for good. mk II got the idea and started plugging at the front of Gamma's snowboard. Gamma began swerving desperately, bumping over the craters. The moment he got a breathing space, he fired again, and scored on mk II's left burner. It was a glancing shot, but it clipped the funnel and sent the flame sideways. mk II had to compensate by increasing the output on the other side, which reduced his ability to steer. He swerved all over the canyon before adjusting.

There was a natural ski-jump just ahead, right in the center of the canyon, a perfect mini slope with a cut-off end. Gamma got another idea. mk II was still concentrating on his steering, momentarily ignoring the other E-100--this chance might not come again. He glanced at mk II, making sure he wasn't about to start swerving about, and then headed for the jump. mk II shot right past it, and Gamma hit it at about the same time. He flew into the air again, nearly taking off with the speed, and then started to fall, just like before. This time he ditched the board and angled himself to fall forward, aiming for mk II. In a mere second he saw he wasn't going to make it, and threw both arms up in desperation. His hand latched onto one of the air vents in mk II's back, and then he hit the snow. Suddenly Gamma found himself being towed along, digging a furrow in the snow. He hung on grimly and struggled to get his gun arm up.

mk II started swerving again, trying to throw his enemy off. Nothing he did made any difference; Gamma was like a limpet. The drag was forcing him to slow down or risk overheating his engines. He couldn't fire behind himself, at least not without losing his hostage.

Gamma finally managed to heave himself up out of the snow and fling his gun arm around the other mech's body in a titanium bear-hug. His legs dragged through the snow behind them. He locked his free hand around mk II's arm and tried to break his hold on Amy. mk II flailed around with his own gun. Suddenly Gamma's grip almost slipped off; he moved his arm and jammed it under mk II's visor, blocking the other mech's vision. Now NOBODY was steering, and the free-fall descent threatened to go out of control.

"You're going to destroy us all!" mk II shouted. He shoved at Gamma's arm, but Gamma clung on tenaciously.

"Gamma, what are you doing?" Amy shrieked, panicking. There was a rock face coming up in front of them--they would have to swerve hard left to avoid it. Gamma saw the danger with a start and attempted to change their direction by yanking mk II the right way; he turned, but too slowly. They were going to hit the rock face at three hundred miles an hour.

Gamma reminded himself of the mission objective--save Amy and the Channeler, no matter what. He was just hardware, and expendable. Deliberately, he moved his left arm and slipped it under mk II's. The other mech was concentrating on removing Gamma's right arm from his face. Gamma counted to three and then heaved, using his own arm as a lever to force mk II's hand up. It worked--mk II's arm flew out and Amy slipped out from under it. She disappeared behind them in the snow, rolling over and over in the sudden deceleration. Now it was just Gamma and Gamma mk II.

"I'm going to turn you into modern art!" mk II threatened furiously, oblivious to the fast-approaching mountainside. Gamma waited until he was a hundred per cent sure there was no avoiding the rock face, and then he moved his arm away from the other mech's eyes. mk II had just a split second to take in his impending destruction--he let out the beginning of an enraged electronic scream, and then they hit the rock with an almighty bang and rending of metal. A moment later there was an explosion and a huge tongue of flame as someone's fusion engine exploded. Gamma had just enough time to hope that it wasn't his, and then everything turned to static.

*

They watched in silence as the mechs sped away and vanished around the bend of the mountainside. It seemed to take mere moments before both of them were lost to view. "I hope he finds her," Sonic said quietly.

Knuckles bit his lip as he looked down after them. "We'll have to trust that he does," the echidna said finally. "We have to get back to the Emerald altar."

"I sense a problem," Metal informed them flatly. "When I last attempted to reach the altar, I was... ah, unsuccessful. I believe that Chaos will attempt to stop us."

Sonic nodded thoughtfully. "You're probably right. I don't think he's gonna like what we have planned. Tikal, any ideas?"

The echidna girl shook her head. "I have no power over Chaos. Maybe we could distract him somehow..."

"Split up," Knuckles broke in, taking charge. "We'll take the Ice Cap caves--there's a teleporter not far from here which should take us to the east shore. Sonic, Tikal, you guys go with me to the Emerald. Tails and Metal, since you guys can fly, you'd better try and lead Chaos away."

"What makes you think he will follow us?" Metal Sonic objected.

"He attacked you before, right? Just make him mad." Knuckles shook back his quills and looked at each of them in turn. "That do?"

"It's a plan, anyway," Sonic said doubtfully. "Whoa, déja vu," he added, thinking of their theft of the Wasp.

"What?" Knux asked, confused. The hedgehog just smiled and shook his head.

"You had to be there."

"Let's go," Tails said, stamping his feet against the cold. "It's already past midnight, so we don't have much time left."

"Someone should go after Amy," Sonic objected. "What if she can't get the Chao Gem to the Emerald in time?"

Knux shook his head. "I know you're worried about her, but we'll have to let Gamma take care of it. He seems to have his head screwed on right--no pun intended--so he should be okay." A string of hollow bangs echoed up to them from somewhere below as he spoke those words, and Sonic and Tails glanced anxiously at each other.

"Sonic boom?" Metal Sonic wondered out loud.

Knux waved his hands at them. "No time, no time! Come on!" He grabbed Sonic's arm and towed the hedgehog towards the back of the cave and the entrance to the Ice Cap tunnels. The others followed with varying degrees of enthusiasm, Tikal and Tails next, and Metal bringing up the rear. Seph fluttered up and landed on Knuckles's head, still clutching half an apple in his small paws.

It actually wasn't that far, and they covered the distance at a smart jog. Knuckles led them through a dizzying series of twists and turns and then halted outside a small room, an offshoot of the main tunnel. The teleporter was in a different direction to the toxic lakes, thank heavens. They clustered around the small round device while the echidna knelt at its base, fiddling with the controls. "This one's set to take you to the old Launch Base," he explained as he worked. "I have to reset it to default and then punch in new co-ordinates."

"So you used those to get ahead of us when we were first on Angel Island," Sonic said thoughtfully. "We could never figure out how you were always there before us."

"Well, these and the Speed Tubes," Knuckles agreed. "You tried those in Lava Reef, didn't you? The compressed air blasts blow you along."

Tails grinned. "Those are FUN."

The red echidna stood up and brushed powdered ice off his knees and elbows. "There," he said. "It's all set." The teleporter globe began to glow at his last words, and a soft mechanical hum emitted from the base of the device. "Tails, wanna go first?"

"You bet!" the fox said enthusiastically. Without waiting for anyone else to speak, he jumped on top of the teleporter, tails twitching with excitement. A beam of pure white light shot straight up from the globe, and the fox disappeared with a flash. Tikal stepped up next.

Metal Sonic regarded the teleporter dubiously. "That should be impossible," he said. "According to Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, the position of a subatomic particle cannot be measured with enough accuracy to permit this... reassembly."

"Watch Star Trek," Sonic advised him, and stepped up onto the teleporter himself. The hedgehog vanished like the others had, but it didn't serve to reassure the mech any. He stood and looked at the teleporter, making no move to get onto it.

"Go on," Knux urged. "I promise, you'll just reappear on the shore. I dunno how these things work either, but they do, because I've used 'em a thousand times." Hesitantly, Metal Sonic stepped onto the teleporter. The moment both feet were on the globe, the light flashed and he disappeared. Knux smiled and shook his head, then jumped up himself.

The teleporter's other half was located, as Knux had said, on the eastern shore of Angel Island. After the freezing temperatures on Ice Cap, the beach felt positively tropical, even at night. The jungle was a black, featureless tangle on one side of them; on the other, at the end of the golden sand, was a drop into oblivion. Somewhere out in the jungle there was a crashing noise of breaking foliage, the sound of something huge moving through it. The sky above was as dark as the ground, stars gleaming here and there through the thick clouds--there was still rain, a fine drizzle. There was a faint lightening in the eastern sky, which worried Sonic. "Hey, guys," he said anxiously, looking that way, "we're seriously running out of time now."

"That is an understatement," Metal added, scanning the dark sea with his night-vision. "I see land on the horizon. We are approaching Station Square."

"It'll still take an hour or two to get there," Knux said quickly. "We've got a bit of time left. Guess this is where we split up." He pointed along the shore. "The Emerald is this way. If we just follow the coast, we'll get there soon enough." He turned and looked into the black jungle, towards the source of the crashing. "Sounds like Chaos is chewing up my rainforest," he said wryly. "Tails, Metaru, can you delay him long enough?"

"Let's hope so," the fox said anxiously.

"What I do?" Seph asked seriously. "You want I go look for the other friends?"

"You'd better stay here, where it's safe," Knuckles began, but Tikal shook her head.

"Seph might be able to guide Amy and E-102 to the Emerald," she suggested. "He can fly, which is definitely a bonus."

The Chao looked away embarrassedly. "Ah, I not so good at flying yet," he said, flushing a little. "Snapple is flier. I just break stuff."

Tikal laughed and knelt beside him, scooping him up into her arms. She kissed him on the forehead and said, "You'll do fine." Seph grinned at her and pumped his small wings once or twice. She held him up and threw him into the sky; he spiraled away like a bird. "Good luck!" Tikal called after him.

"Hope ya find them!" Sonic added sincerely.

Knux sighed as he watched the Chao disappear into the night. "I hope the little guy doesn't get hurt," he said worriedly. "Seph isn't so tough. He could have stayed here..."

"I have a feeling they will need his help before too long," Tikal said quietly. "Don't worry, he'll be okay. Now we have to do our job--are you ready?"

The echidna nodded. "Right. Let's go for it. Sonic, Tikal, follow me."

"Bye," Tails said softly. Sonic glanced back and gave him a grin and a thumbs-up; the fox returned the gesture, though without much real cheerfulness. Suddenly he was feeling afraid. And now he was alone with Chaos on one side and Metal Sonic on the other.

"Come," the dark blue mech ordered, igniting his jets. Tails looked up at him unhappily, trying and failing to see Sonic's friendly face. Metal grew impatient at his hesitation. "Are you incapacitated?"

Tails flushed beneath his fur. "No," he said.

"Then I suggest we start work." Metal Sonic rose into the air, blasting sand out from underneath him in a small cloud. "Chaos is already on the move." The crashing sounds were moving in the same direction as the others had taken. Tails spun his twin tails together and took off, helicoptering after the mech as fast as he could go. Following Metal wasn't much like following Sonic--he went faster, and he didn't look back at all. Tails had the feeling that the mech was just allowing him to tag along for the ride, without really wanting his help all that much. Maybe Metal saw him as cannon fodder.

Chaos appeared without warning, water fountaining out of the impenetrable forest canopy and nearly knocking Metal out of the air. The dark blue mech executed a graceful evasive maneuver and hovered just out of range, waiting for Tails to catch up.

"Now what do we do?" the fox asked, joining the mech. They dodged as Chaos threw another stream of water up at them, but it wasn't aimed too well. Chaos, deciding to ignore them, continued on his way, smashing down the tall palm trees and leaving a swathe of destruction through the rainforest. Every so often Tails caught a sight of the monster between the leaves, a gigantic bulk of living water--the world's largest amoeba.

"Complete mission directive," Metal Sonic told him, and replayed Knuckles's voice through his speaker. "Just make him mad."

Tails gulped. "He looks mad enough already, but he's not taking much notice of us yet. I think he's mad at something else."

Metal swooped lower and charged up his special weapon. In general, he had a pretty nasty arsenal for such a small mech, but there were one or two special features that had never been duplicated in other mechs. The first thing was his jet, built to the same specifications as space shuttle engines; he could create a controlled backfire, blowing it out through the vent in his chest. The result was a deadly laserlike jet of explosive chemical gases. Tails flew back several paces as the blast of flame seared through the treetops. Fire met water, and a gout of superheated steam rose up; Metal fell back quickly. Chaos, stung by the dart, heaved beneath the trees. Then it rose up like a giant serpent, a hundred feet or more above the canopy. Tails gulped at the sight of Chaos Seven; he had seen it transform into sharks, scorpions and other things, but this was nothing like anything he had seen before. And this was only the... head?

"DIVE!" the fox yelled, and folded his tails right up. He plummeted like a stone, and something huge and dark flashed past overhead, momentarily blocking out the stars. The fox managed to slow his descent through the trees by grabbing onto branches as he passed; he finally found himself wrapped around a branch only eight feet from the ground. Or at least, it might have been the ground; now it was just a giant seething mass of elasticated water. "Metaru?" he said shakily, looking around him. The tentacle, or whatever it was, had come between them.

There was a soft hum, the sound of a jet engine, and the dark blue mech jetted down beside him. "I suggest we leave," Metal Sonic said.

"But what about Sonic and the others?" Tails asked.

"You cannot help them dead." Metal grabbed hold of him and slung the surprised fox over his shoulder; he rocketed up out of the trees as another of the tentacles slapped down where he had been. Tails looked down at Chaos over the mech's jet flame, and thought that it seemed to be his day to be carried about by robots.

"Where are we going?" the fox asked after a few more moments. He could see that Chaos was coming after them, smashing a path through the jungle that was easily fifty feet across.

"Good question," Metal responded dryly. "What do you think?"

"Um... I hate to break this to you, but I think he's doing something."

Chaos had lifted his head up again, lashing around with those long tentacle-like objects. As Tails watched, the monstrous beast heaved and rippled, then opened his mouth in a long roar. Water cascaded down from the crocodile jaws; though the jaws were made out of water, the teeth looked real. Very real. Then the fox saw an evil purple glow building in the monster's throat.

He pounded on Metal's back. "Mayday! Mayday!"

*

Amy moaned softly and sat up in the snow, wincing at the pain in her left shoulder where she had hit the ground. The snow had cushioned the blow somewhat, but she had been going pretty darn fast back there. Thank heavens she had been thrown clear... by the looks of the wreckage down there, the impact had been a hard one. There were pieces of burning material scattered across the snow, casting an eerie red light.

"Oh, no," she whimpered. "Gamma..."

It took a lot of effort to get up and start across that burning expanse of snow. She found a long metal pin, four feet long, and used it to support herself while her legs regained their strength. Her dress was torn and stained with oil, and she had lost her hairband; she was in a mess. Using the pin as a support she limped across the snowfield towards the crash site. Something cracked beneath her foot; she looked down and saw it was a battered, scorched piece of red metal, the letters "E-102" painted on its length. Half the two was missing, and the rest of the serial number was just gone. And there was part of one of mk II's afterburners, still smouldering, and there was the fractured glass from a headlamp, and there...

Amy just looked at it, too tired to react. It was Gamma's gun, the one she had had to refuel in the Final Egg factory. She would have known it anywhere by now. The gun had been ripped off at the elbow, which ended in a tangled knot of wires.

"What am I going to tell Tails?" she whispered. Poor Tails, he was going to miss Gamma so much...

Something caught her eye. Several feet away, illuminated by a small pool of some burning liquid--lubricant oil, probably--was a red metallic hump, part of one of the E-100's hulls. She didn't really want to look at it, but she felt as if she were drawn to it. Slowly, Amy made her way across the snow, feet crunching in the crisp white surface. She stood and looked down at it. Was it her imagination or was it more or less complete? The mech was face-down in the snow, so she couldn't see any serial number which would tell her which one it was. She reached out a hand to touch it, then drew back--what if it was mk II? What if it was still alive?

The mech moved suddenly, one of the snow-buried legs jerking in a spasm. Amy screamed and fell over backwards as the snow heaved beneath her. Painfully, the E-100 struggled and flopped onto its side.

"Gamma?" she whispered. "Is it you?"

And then he stood up, and she knew. The natty red and white paint was more or less seared off his hull, which gleamed silver beneath the soot, but she could still read the letters stenciled on the metal. It was him. She looked him up and down, breathtaken.

He was unsteady on his feet; the left leg was bent, forcing him to adopt a peculiar knock-kneed posture. There was a punctured hole in his hull, low down, revealing delicate inner parts. The gun arm, of course, lay on the snow a few feet away; the place where it had been was sparking electricity from the bare ends of the wires. His headlight was gone, ripped completely from its moorings; that was probably it in the tangled twist of iron bars under where he had been lying. Gamma looked down at her from the one eye left to him, and raised his remaining arm in salute.

"Heck," Amy said in amazement. "Can you walk?"

He shifted his feet slightly, adjusting to the difference in weight caused by the loss of the gun. "Yes. But my combat rating has been significantly reduced."

"No kidding!" She stared at him wide-eyed. "I cannot believe you are standing!"

Gamma's head swiveled, slightly jerkily; his visor was dented, which stopped the pivot from turning properly. He gazed at the burning wreckage dotted about the mountainside. "Apparently, most of that is not me. I conject that E-102 mark two has been decommissioned. Mission accomplished."

Amy turned and looked down the slope. The snow here was soft and very thin; only an inch or two in places. Just a little way down the slope it became patchy and then disappeared altogether; beyond that was the first stone rooftops of the Marble Garden. They had come all the way down from the Ice Cap peaks in less than a minute. "We have to head for the Emerald, and fast!" The sky was definitely lightening in the east.

"Affirmative. Need a lift?"

"Can you carry me in your state?" she asked.

"Absolutely."

Amy smiled and climbed up onto the flat top of Gamma's head, careful not to touch any dangling wires. He took a step forward and stumbled slightly when his weight came down on his damaged leg; he corrected, recalibrating his balance to deal with it. Moving rather erratically, Gamma set off towards the base of the mountain in his bounding, stork-legged run. Amy bounced up and down atop his head, looking back at where the wreckage of mk II was still scattered. Sooner or later one of Eggman's flunkies was bound to come along and pick it up, but the evil E-102 would never be salvageable for anything more than scrap.

She looked forward, at the approaching garden. "Um," she said. "Gamma? I sense a problem here. I haven't got a clue how to get through this place. Sonie told me about it--it's a real labyrinth!"

"We will have to attempt it," Gamma said, scanning the ruins ahead as best he could with only one visual sensor. The other had been smashed in the final crash and was completely useless.

"Hey!" The small, shrill voice cut through the stillness and the slight drizzle. "Hey! You is okay?" A tiny shape appeared in the dark sky, fluttering down towards them. Amy laughed out loud and held up her hands to catch Seph as he landed. "Hello!" the Chao squealed, submitting to a hugging. "I come sent to help out!"

"Can you get us through the maze?" Amy asked, barely able to believe this second stroke of luck.

"Hmm..." Seph wriggled free and fluttered back into the air, tiny wings whirring like a hummingbird's. "I fly up, tell you ways to go, you follow!"

"Yes!" Amy yelled.

*

Sonic was the first to the Master. It was lying on its side in the middle of the field; something had upset it from the altar and it had rolled and bounced down the steps. The hedgehog reached out to lay a paw on the jewel but Knuckles slammed him out of the way. The echidna went for his Emerald like a juggernaut, grabbing it and running his claws over it with affection to check for any damage. There was none.

"Amy's not here." Sonic had taken the time to look around. The altar was soaked by rain into a sodden mudbath, but the Emerald was the only thing around. Something in the grass caught his eye and he knelt and picked up a lifeless gray jewel--one of the seven Servers. It had no light in it whatsoever; he couldn't even tell which of the Emeralds it was. "What's happened to this thing?"

"Chaos drained them," Knuckles said, looking at the emerald in Sonic's hands. "They have no power left..."

"The evil power is gone, yes," Tikal countered, coming up to them, "but the good is still within the Emeralds. We just have to let it loose. For that we will need the Channeler."

"Which ain't here," Sonic interjected. "Where's Amy? Should I go and look for her?"

"No way," Knuckles ordered, grabbing his arm. "You're too important! I'll go!"

"Let's all wait a little while," Tikal suggested. "Seph will find them and bring them back, don't worry."

"It's not Seph I'm worried about," Sonic muttered. He could hear Chaos again--or at least, he thought that smashing noise in the distance was Chaos. Were Metal and Tails managing to distract him enough? Was Metal still on their side? That thought almost had the hedgehog dashing off on Tails's behalf, but he stayed put. He had to trust that Metal would do the right thing. The mech knew what would happen if Chaos wasn't stopped, and he had a strong instinct for self-preservation.

Tikal was rooting around in the grass. He turned and looked at her in surprise. "Look for the Servers!" she ordered. "We will need all seven before we can use the Channeler!"

"Right!" Sonic knelt down and started feeling around. There was a heck of a lot of ground to cover. Lucky that Knux had that ability to sense Emerald energy... if there was enough energy left in the Servers to detect.

*

Tails was draped over a tree branch, panting like a bellows as he tried to get his breath back. Metal, cooling his jets a few feet away, didn't look much better. They had both been forced to duck and dive for their lives after Chaos exhibited a little of his power; the monster had fired a gigantic beam of pure energy that had almost blasted them both out of the sky. Metal's lightning reactions had saved them; he stalled his engine and they fell like a rock. Then, of course, he hadn't been able to get the engine started again and Tails had tried to airlift them both to slow the descent. Unfortunately, a ninety-pound hedgehog was a lot easier to lift than his three-hundred pound titanium duplicate, as Tails had very quickly found out. Thank heavens the rock had broken their fall. Chaos was right now roaring above their heads in baffled fury, unable to find his tiny prey.

"This isn't gonna work," the fox gasped, when he had sufficient air in his lungs. His tails ached. "We need a better distraction."

"I was not planning to use this," Metal said by way of introduction, "but it seems we have no choice." Tails lifted his head, ears pricking, as the mech opened a neatly hidden compartment in his side and lifted out...

"A Chaos Emerald!" Tails breathed. The jewel was dead and dark, but in the darkness under the trees he thought he could see a faint flicker of viridian light within it. "Where did you get that?"

"Never mind," Metal told him. "This is my plan..."

Chaos roared again, angry and confused. He wanted to deal with the little runts here and now so that he could get on with more pressing matters. Now, if he could just FIND them...

"Yo, tall dark and ugly!" Tails flew up out of the trees, twin tails whirring. The monster turned slowly towards him, jaws open in anticipation. He froze in mid-lunge when the fox held up a jewel he recognised. "You want this?" Tails yelled, tossing the Emerald from one hand to the other. "Come and get it!"

Chaos roared and rushed towards the little fox, intending to overwhelm him by pure force. Tails waited until the last possible moment, tossed the Emerald over Chaos's head and dived into the trees. With an angry snarl, Chaos turned the other way and saw his Emerald in Metal Sonic's hands. The mech brandished it tantalizingly, luring Chaos back the other way. One of the tentacles flashed up, aiming to swat Metal out of the sky; he lobbed the jewel overhand to Tails, who caught it again. Metal flew up out of the tentacle's swing as Chaos turned ponderously back towards Tails again. They were playing a game of piggy-in-the-middle, with Chaos in the middle. Just as Metal had suspected, Perfect Chaos's pure bulk meant he was slow to maneuver; they could not have outrun the flooding river in a straight race, nor could they have damaged the deep ocean in a head-on battle, but for pure agility he wasn't even in the running. They had found his one weakness.

Tails squeaked in alarm as a bolt of purple energy cut through the air just below him. He twisted out of the way of a tentacle and threw the jewel back to Metal; the throw was weak, and Chaos's upflung appendage almost captured the gem. Metal caught it in a daring dive and rocketed away to a safe distance. Chaos came back towards him again; he feinted right and threw the jewel to the left; Tails caught it and hovered backwards. Chaos growled... and then continued chasing Metal. Tails blinked, and waved the Emerald at the monster, flying as close as he could without actually ramming the beast. "Hey! Here! I'm over here! Chaos!" The monster ignored him completely.

Metal Sonic backed away slowly. Chaos opened his jaws again.

"Metal!" Tails yelled. "Get outa here! He's figured it out!"

The mech turned tail to flee, but it was too late. The beam of purple energy roared out with the force of a small nuclear explosion. It blasted Metal into the stratosphere. Tails was forced to throw his free hand up to shield his eyes at the strength of the light. When his vision cleared, there was no sign of the mech, and Chaos was coming back his way.

"Oh, crud," he whined. Whirling his tails as strongly as he could he turned and headed back towards the Emerald. It might ruin everything to lead Chaos back there, but if he tried any more delaying tactics he'd be dead meat. He had to try and find some sort of sanctuary. Behind him Chaos came roaring, chewing up everything in his wake.

*

Seph fluttered above the Marble Garden, shoving his wet and bedraggled crest out of his eyes. He knew he wasn't good at puzzles, and this maze on six or seven different levels was definitely a puzzle of the highest order; even a genius couldn't have found a way through without long moments of thought. The Chao gulped as he stared down at the forbidding labyrinth.

Amy and Gamma were waiting for his first direction, looking up at him patiently. The Chao bit at his lion claws in desperation. Was there even a solution? Everything depended on his getting them back in time! "Uhh..." he stuttered, panicking.

Then, with a flash, something spoke to him. Seph closed his eyes and saw the maze in his head, entire. That same something drew a line through the whole of the Marble Garden, outlining the correct route with a clarity like a glowing white line. Seph had the key to the labyrinth. He opened his eyes again and smiled.

"Go right!"

*

"That's it!" Knuckles hollered, standing up with two gems in his arms. "There's no more Emerald energy around here!"

Sonic bit his lip and dumped his one Emerald on the steps. Three more were there already, found by Tikal. Two, one and three made six... not seven. They were missing an Emerald. "Knux, you sure?" he called.

The echidna nodded. "I can't feel anything at all apart from the Master, and these. One's been taken somewhere else!"

"Well, we're sunk now," the hedgehog groaned. As if to agree with him, the steadily brightening light in the east grew to an orange glow, and the crimson disc of the sun appeared for the first time above the

skyscrapers?

Station Square! The city was on the horizon! They were only over the shallow water right now; from his position atop the altar, Sonic could see the beach and the streets with amazing clarity. People were gathered there, looking like ants as they pointed out towards the island in the sky.

The whole island shook suddenly, and tilted over to one side. Sonic, Knuckles and Tikal were thrown to the ground and clutched hold of the grass to steady themselves. The hedgehog's eyes widened as he saw what had caused the upset; a gigantic, pulsating mass of water, slipping off the edge of the island some eight hundred yards distant. It hung for a moment like a pendulous tear, and then dropped into the ocean with hardly a splash, melting into it. Angel Island rocked and returned to its upright position with a shudder, free of Chaos's influence. Knuckles raced to the Master and laid his misshapen paws on it to guide it, drawing the island back and away from the city before it crashed down onto it.

Everything started to happen at once. There was a rumble from the suddenly seething seas beneath them, which was echoed in the sky above; the thin blanket of cloud started to thicken, and waterspouts rose up all around the island as the ocean began to feed the sky. Sonic stood up and went to the very edge of the island, looking over; he had a front-row seat for the horror that happened next.

The ocean suddenly dropped. The ground below shook; Sonic actually saw it move, swell and buckle. Then the manhole covers in Main exploded. Water fountained into the street under high pressure, reaching the tops of some of the buildings. Toy cars smashed into the toy-size shopfronts, swerving to avoid the water. Then the entire surface of Main simply cracked into pieces, and water seethed up through the gaping holes. A whole line of fire hydrants burst, one after the other.

The sounds reached him then, the first cries, the screeching of tyres, the honking horns, and everywhere the rushing of water under incredibly high pressure. Angel Island drifted over the beach, responding too slowly to Knuckles's frantic directions; Sonic got a different angle for when the buildings started to explode. Water had filled them from the inside, and now their windows simply blew out with the force.

And then Chaos picked the ocean up and threw it at them.

Sonic couldn't bear to look any more. He knew the city, knew its streets and byways; he couldn't watch it all be destroyed. He turned away feeling sick, even as the wave rose up above the breakwaters and thundered down the ruined streets. Chaos's head and body manifested inside one of the skyscrapers, and he couldn't block out the roaring. The rain stopped.

Through the silence, and the hissing of the water, the distraught hedgehog became aware of another sound--the whup-whup-whup of a particular pair of helicopter blades. He raised his head and watched Tails come crashing down into the sodden meadow; the fox hit the ground with a yelp and rolled over and over before coming to a stop. Sonic raced towards his friend and knelt down beside him. "What happened?"

Tails looked up at him, chest heaving. Wordlessly, the fox held out his right hand. Clenched in his fist was the missing Emerald. Sonic took it. "Thanks," he said quietly.

"We have to stop him now," Tikal said. "He won't be satisfied with this. There are still people alive down there--we can still save them!"

"But the Channeler," Sonic began, then saw Amy and Gamma pounding out of the trees towards them. His benumbed mind barely took in the battered state of his friends. Knux was busy with the Master, rolling it up the steps and onto its perch; Sonic took off towards the other two with an urgency in his movements. "Where is it?" he yelled, even as he drew to a stop before them.

Amy withdrew her locket and tossed it down to him. "Go for it, Sonie-kun!" she yelled.

Sonic caught it, whirled and raced back towards the altar.

*

The seven Emeralds had been set in their places around the Master, resembling as best they could the layout of ancient times. Red for courage facing blue for peace, yellow for hope opposite green for envy, the purity of the white across from the passion of the purple, and the gray emerald, the balanced soul, at the top of the circle. In the center, the Master revolved slowly, beating like a heart of light.

Tikal ascended the steps and motioned to Sonic to go with her. The hedgehog glanced back once and met the eyes of his friends, gave them a reassuring smile and stepped up onto the altar. Knuckles tensed as Tikal helped the hedgehog up onto the Master, but nothing happened... yet. Tikal knelt on the stone and set the Channeler into a carved and decorated niche at the top of the steps.

"Make your move, break it out, that's what life is all about..." Tails muttered. He was twisting his hands anxiously.

Knuckles stepped forward, with more than one backwards glance at the ruined city and Chaos. "We have to harness the good power of Chaos," he said to the others. "It's locked inside the Emeralds. If we're going to use it, we have to use our good feelings about each other." He walked up the steps and took hold of the red Emerald, which flickered slightly as he did so, its faint spark becoming a little brighter. The others followed him hesitantly, each going to one of the jewels.

Tikal knelt and picked up the blue, the Emerald which corresponded to peace. All her life she had spoken out for peace, and now she was about to do it again.

Tails chose the yellow Emerald. His belief that somehow things would turn out right had never flagged, not even in the darkest times of their battle against Eggman.

Gamma picked up the white Emerald. He wasn't quite sure what the word "purity" meant when not applied to chemical compounds, but he liked the color.

Amy thought there was only really one Emerald for her. Passion more or less described her approach to life. She lifted it and held it to her heart.

Seph looked at the colors. There were only two left, green and gray. On the whole, the Chao thought he disliked the green most of all the colors. He stepped forward and picked up the gray Emerald.

The green lay on the ground, unwanted. Metal Sonic was not there to take his place in the circle.

It was Amy who started it. She started to chant, softly. "Sonic, Sonic, Sonic..." Tails took it up, then the others. They let all of their anger and passion and hope into their voices, putting it all into that one word. Sonic stood on the Master, feeling a trifle silly in the face of all this. A big, goofy grin spread itself across his face despite his embarrassment.

"Sonic! Sonic! Sonic!"

"Ganbate, Sonikku!" Tails yelled, and the yellow Emerald burst into radiance.

"Sonic Boom!" cried Amy, laughing and bathed in lavender light.

"Go get 'em, boy!" Knuckles shouted, lifting his flaming Emerald above his head.

"Open your heart," Tikal murmured.

Seph was more prosaic. "YAHOO!!" he screamed.

Gamma held his Emerald in his hand. "What they said."

Sonic felt overwhelmed. He blinked hard, fighting a swelling in his throat. Never had he felt this way--so in tune with the world, so desperate to save it--no, not desperate, determined. Nothing was going to prevent him, not even Chaos. Suddenly he understood what Tikal meant by opening the heart. He took all of his negative emotions--his anger at Chaos's destruction, his fear of the monster's phenomenal power--and threw them clean away.

The Master burst into light--white light. Sonic was enveloped in a glowing sphere seven feet in diameter. As they watched, open-mouthed, the sphere rose slowly into the air and hovered, six or more feet above the altar. It was too bright to look at. The Channeler shattered in its niche.

The light faded, and Sonic descended slowly to land on the Master Emerald, both feet first. For a moment he stood with his eyes closed. The crimson light from the new-risen sun gleamed through a rainbow haze of water in the air, and shone off something metallic. Sonic didn't even look like Sonic any more. Tails looked up at him in amazement, and awe. His spines were like Super Sonic's, but this time he wasn't just yellow. He was gold. The Chaos power had coated him in living, breathing armor. It glowed faintly with the rainbow hue of all the Emeralds together.

He opened his eyes. They weren't green any more, they were red, a beautiful ruby hue. Sonic looked around in a kind of wonder, then lifted his own hands and stared at them.

"S-sonic?" Amy stuttered.

"Chaos," Tikal corrected her. "THIS is Perfect Chaos."

*

Chaos rose up out of the water in what remained of Station Square. The water monster had destroyed almost everything within reach, but he was still not satisfied. He tackled the station building and bit a huge chunk out of the roof. The station clock fell from its two-hundred-year perch with a crash. Chaos set about knocking the roof in, sensing that there were still living creatures within. He would not leave this place until every breathing creature was dead and drowned. Only then would it be time to head onwards.

"CHAOS!" An amplified voice boomed over the destruction. Chaos's head turned and he looked towards the giant aerial bulk of one of Eggman's airships. The legend "Egg Carrier II" was painted on the side of the machine. Chaos remembered the voice, and it filled him with even more of that limitless draught of hate within his soul. That one had used him. Well, he would not be used so again!

Sitting at the hub of the Egg Carrier's controls, Eggman could see the monstrous beast quite clearly through the green-tinted glass. He felt secure in his hovership--it was almost as large as Chaos himself, and if Sonic had been able to defeat Chaos Six, then surely Chaos Seven could pose no threat to a well-armed flying vehicle. Eggman was out for revenge. He wasn't sure why he had suddenly lost contact with both E-102(II) and Metal Sonic, but he knew Chaos had had something to do with it. "The Egg Carrier Two was built because something like this might happen!" Eggman bellowed, and let out a cackle. "You have defied your master, stupid beast!"

Chaos snarled viciously, sensing the possibility of more bloodshed. The Egg Carrier turned on its own axis and began to prime its main weapon, the giant laser cannon. Splattershot from the Sky Deck peppered Chaos's hide. The bullets, unknown to Eggman, merely sank into the water and fell.

The cannon might have damaged Chaos, if it had had the chance. Chaos simply let loose another of the roaring blasts of energy with which he had felled Metal Sonic that morning. This time the blast was ten times larger, owing to Chaos's own ocean-swelled size. The little group on Angel Island watched in horror as the beam of power cut through the Egg Carrier. The huge machine simply fell apart and smashed into the water. Chaos raised his head and screamed.

"This has to stop, now." They turned when Sonic spoke. Glowing with power, the hedgehog stepped down from the altar. His voice sounded different--calm and composed, and strong with the wisdom of thousands of years. They made way for him as he walked slowly towards the edge of the island. Sonic seemed oblivious to their stares. He stopped on the very brink of the island, ignoring Knuckles's exhortations to be careful of the edge, and lifted his hands. A bright flash of energy darted around him for a moment, enclosing him in a bubble. He looked back at the others.

"Sonic--" Amy said, almost pleading.

"Don't worry," he said gently. "I'll look after him for you." With that curious statement, he stepped off the edge of the island. Tails and Knuckles rushed to the edge with yelps of alarm, but Sonic was flying--really flying--towards Chaos. He glittered like a golden meteor.

"What's going on?" Amy moaned, holding her head in her hands. "What's wrong with him?"

"Nothing's wrong with him." Knuckles stood on the edge, watching Sonic speeding towards the monstrosity of water. "That's not really Sonic. The good half of Chaos has borrowed Sonic's body... I think."

Chaos saw him coming, and wheeled round with a blast of purple fire intended to blow him out of the sky. Sonic dodged it easily; he seemed to be able to tell when an attack was fired at him. Even while flying through and around Chaos's blasts, he found time to be amazed at the sheer height of his new perceptions. He had never had this before, even while hyper on the power of the Super Emeralds. Everything seemed to be much more immediate. He felt as if he could see, not just with his eyes, but with his mind--everything around him was visible, even the waves beneath him. His consciousness took them all in, ready for any sign of a threat.

He knew that he had to hit Chaos in the brain to destroy him. He also knew that the monster knew he knew it. Chaos wasn't going to let him go without a fight, and so he was more or less prepared when the first waterspout came at him. Sonic flew low so that Chaos couldn't shoot at him, and weaved in and out of the waterspouts like a brilliantly shining dragonfly, leaving a rainbow trail of light behind him.

"Go! Go! Go!" he yelled, and dipped down onto the surface of the water itself, sending up a plume of spray behind his dragging feet. He wasn't even running, just skimming over the surface. He gathered speed, flying like a torpedo with his arms back; the sound barrier pushed him backwards and sheared across the surface of his invincibility bubble, making blue fire play across it. Now! NOW!

Sonic rocketed right up into the towering monolith of Chaos, trailing rainbow-colored stars. He smashed into the creature's brain, and Chaos dissolved into the sea with an unearthly scream. Almost at once, though, the monster reappeared at the other end of the city. Sonic flew up out of the water, located Chaos once again, and rocketed towards him a second time.

Knuckles looked at the Emeralds, drawn by some sixth sense he could not identify. He saw to his amazement that the radiance from the circle of gems had dimmed noticeably. "Tikal!" he called. "Look at this!"

"Chaos is battling itself," she said. "Our only hope is that they will tire each other out, and then we can seal him in the Master Emerald."

The red echidna hesitated a long moment, something in her tone worrying him. Finally, he said, "What if they run out of power?"

Tikal didn't answer.

"They'll both die, won't they?"

She looked at him again. "Yes," she whispered. "I'm sorry. But there's nothing we can do now. It's one life against billions."

"This is not a question of math!" Knuckles yelled, suddenly furious. Darn it, he didn't want ANYBODY to die! He spun on his heel, forgetting about Tikal, and called the others. "Everyone over here, we have an emergency on our hands! Get the Emeralds all together now!"

"You gonna go super?" Tails asked in amazement.

"I'm gonna have to," Knux said grimly, trying not to think about the added drain on the Emeralds. Someone was going to have to get between Sonic and Chaos, if they were both to be saved.

Like Tikal said, it was one life against billions.

Sonic flashed towards Chaos again. His strange expanded consciousness warned him ahead of time whenever the monster was about to make a move. Left, left, right, now left again, duck down, feint, STRIKE! Chaos exploded again and sank back down into the water. His power was drained further. Knuckles bit his lip when he saw the glow in the Emeralds getting dimmer again.

"What's going on?" Tails asked.

Knuckles gave him a tired look. "Just get the Emeralds together."

Sonic scored another hit while Knux was setting the Master up for a power transfer. This time Angel Island dropped twenty feet. The Emerald's power was being drained into the battle. As quick as he could, Knuckles gathered all the gems into his arms and effected the transfer, not wishing to take any more than he needed. Now protected by his own partial invincibility he passed the dying jewels to Tails and Amy, ran to the edge of the island, and leaped off.

Chaos was being more cautious now. The monster hung back, suspicious now of the hedgehog attacking him. He had been injured three times, and it had hurt--he had thought he was invincible in this phase. Somehow the hedgehog had found a way, and it was something to do with the glowing energy bubble surrounding him. Chaos got a new idea into his head. He waited for Sonic to come racing at him--which the hedgehog duly did. When Sonic was right within range, Chaos spat out a thirty-foot steel girder that he had sucked up into his watery body. The sharp end smacked into the bubble, which popped. Sonic flew out of the way of the girder, amazed that Chaos had gotten past his invincibility; he concentrated, trying to restore it as quickly as he could. He wasn't fast enough. Chaos expelled another gout of purple energy, and it hit. Sonic cried out in pain as he was thrown back and down, slamming into the water with a plume that reached several hundred feet in height.

"SONIE!" Amy screamed.

Chaos began to subside again, intent on taking the battle underwater, but then Knuckles arrived. The echidna glided right inside him and dealt the brain a resounding blow with his steel digging claws. That wasn't as bad as a blow from Sonic, but it stung. Chaos roared and subsided in pieces, hit four times.

Deep beneath the surface of the water, Sonic struggled towards the light. There were conflicting currents here caused by the movement of Chaos and the tight channels of the streets still intact. The direct hit had hurt worse than anything he had ever felt before, but the golden armor-like covering had saved him instant death. He kicked and clawed his way towards the surface, holding his breath--crippled without the invincibility.

And here came Chaos, rushing, silent, an invisible death in the water. Sonic felt him coming and hit out--at the water--at anything, falling back on natural instincts and claws and teeth and sharp golden quills. He choked as he swallowed water, and then bit at the water. Nothing helped. Chaos smashed into him and flung him right out of the water. In the split second between down and up, he thought he saw something he knew drifting past in the cold blueness, then he was flying out into the air, sunlight burning his eyes. He smashed into one of the buildings that was still up, went through two floors and a stairwell, and ended up wheezing on his side on the other side of the skyscraper.

Amy looked at the Emeralds. They were dimming. The light which had been a blaze a few minutes ago, was a shaky sort of glow, nothing particularly impressive.

Knuckles, too, felt the Emerald power diminishing. His borrowed invincibility was failing fast; he glided into the wall of one of the more intact buildings, and climbed quickly up to the roof, where he slumped on his front, trying to get his breath back. Tackling Perfect Chaos was not a good idea. The invincibility went out all the way, leaving him wet, sodden and dark red instead of hot crimson. Feeling weak as a newborn kit he dragged himself to his knees and staggered towards the edge of the building, to watch the rest of the battle. There was nothing more he could do.

Sonic pushed himself to hands and knees, but couldn't get up any further. He had been injured despite the protection of the armor, and it hurt even to breathe. Somehow, though, he was still intact and none of his limbs were broken. Painfully the hedgehog limped to the window and slipped outside, restoring some semblance of invincibility as he did so.

Chaos finally understood. While the essence of Chaos resided in a being of material, not water, he could not defeat it. His watery state simply would not let him inflict enough damage on the irritating hedgehog, especially while the Emeralds were failing. The water monster sank into the seething ocean in search of something that had fallen there earlier; he had an idea.

Sonic landed beside Knuckles with a heavy thud, looking absolutely exhausted. The echidna looked round with surprise, which was mingled with anxiety when he saw that the hedgehog's eyes had returned to their old green hue, though he still had the gold. "Sonic?" he said.

"It's me," the hedgehog panted. He sat down hard on the parapet and rested his head in his hands. "I think I got him. He's weak now, maybe we can trap him somewhere."

"And allow him to rise again in the future?" Knuckles challenged. "You said we couldn't do that, Sonic--remember?"

Sonic slumped, gasping for breath. "Yeah, well," he wheezed between pants, "if you've got a better idea, let me know."

The water below started to boil. Chaos was up to something again. Sonic and Knuckles leaned over the parapet to see, and they both saw a gleam of something gold beneath the surface of the water. Chaos had found something with which to infuse his own entity--the part of Chaos that was evil personified. "Not good," Knuckles muttered. "NOT good."

On Angel Island, the light of the Emeralds flickered again, sinking into a smouldering glow.

A shining form exploded from the water, rocketing up into the sky on a pillar of flame. Sonic, Knuckles and the watchers on the island stared in horror as they understood Chaos's plan. He had backed everything on one last horse.

It was Metal Sonic.

Fully repaired, as if he had just come off the production line.

And gold.

He hovered in midair and laughed at them. "If it isn't Sonic! My pathetic little nemesis! Come on then, if you think you can take the abuse!"

"You won't see another sun, Metaru!" Sonic raged, rising into the air. Now this was personal. His eyes flashed ruby-red once again as the Chaos entity took over. He didn't mind particularly. He was starting to like the power and the increased perception it afforded him.

Metal Sonic, though, was experiencing the same thing. He had been dead metal in the ocean only a few minutes ago, the plaything of the waves. Now, though, he found himself in the midst of a power he had never dreamed of. The hedgehog in front of him was fixed in his mind; he could see him from ten different positions in a 3-D simulated field, and predict his most likely moves with ease. Calculations beyond the reach of a Cray were suddenly within his capabilities. This was going to be one interesting match.

Sonic took off towards him like a bullet. Metal fired up his jets and dashed away, leading the hedgehog far up into the sky. Twin sonic booms echoed over the sinking city. They arced around each other, bouncing off each other's fields of invincibility like pinballs. Showers of multicolored sparks drifted down into the water every time they collided. The battle was too fast even to follow with the eye, though Knux thought that slowed down it would make some pretty darn good television.

The trouble with invincibility battles, though, was that nobody won. Sonic drew back after a few intense minutes, and Metal did likewise. They hovered in midair, staring at each other with expressions of deep concentration.

"You can't defeat me," Metal said finally.

"I can have a darn good try, though," Sonic answered, readying himself for another charge. Metal jetted away, and Sonic gave chase, responding to every move of the mech with one of his own. They bounced off each other for a few more seconds, then Sonic drew back again, trusting that he had made the mech angry enough. He had--Metal flew towards him at supersonic speed, trailing fire from his jet. They met head-on with a thunderous crash, and caught each other's hands.

Sonic looked into Metal's eyes for a long moment. The mech wrestled with him, trying to force him back, but they were both as strong as each other, and neither could gain the upper hand.

"I will defeat you," Metal Sonic snarled.

Sonic smiled--a smile that for one moment was one hundred per cent Sonic. "No," he said. "You won't."

He drew all his own Chaos energy, and channeled it through his hands into Metal's body. The mech's hull became white-hot with the pure energy. Sonic smiled again, and then let go of Metal's hands and fell, drained of Chaos energy.

Metal let out an electronic wail, feeling his hull start to melt under the pressure. He did the one thing he could do to save himself--he sent the Emerald energy right back into the Emeralds themselves, momentarily returning his shell to its normal dark blue hue.

It was what Sonic had been waiting for. The energy flowed through the Emeralds on the island, and straight back into his own body, energising it to the same level Metal had experienced. He felt the burning start, but he knew he would only have to experience it for a moment. He accelerated in one jump to a speed that should have been impossible according to the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, and smashed into Metal Sonic with all the force in his body. That moment seemed to go in slow motion for the watchers. Metal exploded with a bang, parts flying in all directions like shrapnel. Knuckles ducked reflexively as a razor-sharp shard slammed into the wall beside his head.

The light in the Emeralds went to a tiny spark.

The golden armor dissolved from Sonic's body, leaving him as blue as he had ever been, and several hundred feet up. He fell with just enough presence of mind to curl himself into a ball, and slammed into Knux's rooftop hard enough to crack the concrete.

The light blew out.

Knuckles staggered over to Sonic's side and knelt down beside his friend. Sonic was lying on his back, eyes closed and still smiling slightly. There was a little blood beneath him, but not that much.

The echidna felt his heart contract, and thought of the years he had known Sonic. Sure, they weren't exactly the best of friends most of the time, but they had gotten on well enough in general, once a few minor misunderstandings had been cleared out of the way. Now it was over. There would be no smart jokes or lunch in the burger bar this time.

The echidna's head lifted slightly when he heard a rippling of water. He blinked twice, and focused on the wet, gleaming form of Chaos as it appeared on the rooftop. Chaos 0, the small, silent water being that had first appeared at City Hall so long ago.

"Haven't you killed enough now?" Knuckles said, tired. "Aren't you ever going to be satisfied?"

He could read the answer in Chaos's pale green undersea eyes. No, it said. I shall never be satisfied. Not until the world is drowned and pallid ghosts blow about in the kelp beds of Station Square.

Chaos took a step forward, its cold eyes fixed on Knuckles. It was time to finish the destruction of the race that had killed its children.

"Guardian!" came a high, shrill voice. Chaos froze in mid-step and looked up, towards the source of the sound.

It was Seph, fluttering gamely towards him across the ruined city.

And not just Seph. All the Chao from the Station Square garden were there, flying in formation.

"Hotaru!" Amy squealed in amazement. "Beta-C!"

"Anansi! Snapple!" Knuckles stared up with his mouth open. "And Phooey!"

Seph grinned and waved at the echidna. "Hey, Knux! We come help!"

Chaos seemed nonplussed--stunned--stupefied. Which was a fair approximation of the way Knux felt at the moment. The Chao landed around Knux and Sonic, all looking up at their guardian with solemn expressions on their small faces.

Phooey cleared his throat. "Seph told us what you doing," he announced. "You must stop!"

"Not for us!" chimed in Hotaru, her silver skin gleaming like Seph's. "Don't kill for us!"

"Enough is enough," Beta-C said firmly. "We miss you, Guardian. Come back!"

Chaos stretched out a watery hand, and fearlessly Phooey ran to take it. The water creature lifted the Chao right into the air, looking at him from all angles. It was the cue they had been waiting for. With a chorus of coos and squeaks, the Chao ran forward and leaped at their guardian. Even Seph.

On Angel Island, the Emeralds began to glow again, not with the bright radiance of battle, but with a soft, calm hue, all the colors of the rainbow. And it was the blue Emerald that glowed more strongly than all the others.

Knuckles didn't take his eyes off the spectacle of Chaos playing with the Chao, not even when the helicopter landed on the rooftop, stirring up the water left there, and the paramedics coaxed him in.

*

Epilogue

"How is he?" Amy asked, before raising the cup of coffee to her lips. She took a sip and made a disgusted face. "Yecch."

"Sorry, it's out of the machine," Knuckles explained, sitting down beside her. The echidna was still slightly battered and very bruised, but the docs had patched him up. There was a dressing on his left arm and another over the cut on his forehead, which had finally been cleaned. "They say he's gonna be fine, he's just a bit confused at the moment. Tails is with him now."

"Can I see him?" she asked hopefully.

He shrugged. "Sure, I guess. I don't think anyone'll complain."

Amy smiled. "I knew he'd end up in hospital sooner or later. The way he rushes about, he was due for a fall anyway!"

Knux laughed and slapped her on the back. "Well, you know Sonic, it'll take more than an invincible seventy-foot dragon made of water to stop him, right?" Amy coughed out her coffee, which she had accidentally inhaled, and nodded weakly.

"Does he know he's been unconscious for two weeks?"

The echidna nodded his head, and then turned it into a shake. "Kinda. I told him but I think he thinks I'm trying it on. You can tell him as well, if you want."

Amy smiled and got to her feet.

The devastation of Station Square was complete, but now that the waters had receded the city itself was being rebuilt from the ground up. Rescue work could be heartbreaking, but for every casualty there was a survivor--the successes made it more bearable. The main hospital was out on the suburbs, where the water had merely caused a foot of floodwater to sweep through homes and ruin carpets.

Tails looked up as Amy entered the room. The fox smiled. "Hi," he said. Sonic opened his eyes and mumbled something.

For someone who had fallen three hundred feet onto concrete, he actually looked pretty good. His head was bandaged, and his right arm was in plaster, but that and an IV set up next to the bed were the only signs of injury. More than anything else, he just looked disheveled and a little sleepy.

Gamma, standing anxiously beside Tails like the world's largest mother hen, was like the rest of them; Tails had fixed the red mech up as best he could, tidying up the worst of the damage, but no real repairs had been carried out yet. A real relationship was growing up between the fox and the big robot, one that Eggman would never have suspected from his top-caliber assault machine. That had been his mistake; he had failed to notice Gamma's essentially peaceful personality as it emerged.

Amy smiled at Gamma and went up to the bed. "Hey," she said. "How are you feeling?"

Sonic grimaced. "Like I got run over by a juggernaut. How long do I have to stay here?"

"He's already desperate for a good run," Tails explained.

"You probably won't have to wait too long," Amy said comfortingly, then added, "Gimp."

"Who you calling gimp, gimp?" Sonic tried to sit up, but it hurt and he sank back down with a groan. "Ow, oh, the pain. Okay, I'm officially a gimp."

"You organisms are so fragile," Gamma mused, in a near-flawless impersonation of Metal Sonic. Knux, leaning in the doorway, snickered and then winced; he'd broken a rib or two during the battle.

Sonic glared at the big mech. "Do NOT make me laugh," he ordered sternly.

Amy smiled and sat down on the bed, eliciting another yelp from Sonic. "So, what happens now?" she asked. "Chaos is on Angel Island with Tikal and the Chao, and Eggman's lost all his most powerful hardware. Where do we go from here?"

Sonic smiled. "Hey, we'll find something," he said. "Eggman won't be hiding up forever. Sooner or later he'll come up with some new hare-brained scheme involving robots or ancient legends. And then we can ALL go after his egg-shaped butt!"

"Yeah, even the gimp here," Tails added. Sonic whacked him one with his plaster cast. "OW!"

And so they laughed, secure in the knowledge that, for now, the danger had been averted. Though Station Square was no more, the rest of the world had been saved, and that had to have counted for something in the big scheme of things. Yet it couldn't be too long before Eggman did come up with another "hare-brained scheme"...

...but at least with the five of them on the job, he would have a tough job on his hands.

fin. July 6, 2000