CHAPTER SIX: END OF THE MILLENNIUM Robotnik, fury in his eyes, gripped the steering wheel with sweaty hands. He was shaking all over as he drove through the forest, mowing down small shrubs and avoiding large trees. A colission with one would be fatal.. with the humungous nuclear warhead strapped to the roof and all. "They've brought down Ivo Robotnik.." he grumbled to himself. "Ivo Robotnik doesn't go down unless he pulls this whole frigging place down with him. I'll show them what an egg-man can do." Sonic looked at the large grey Chaos Emerald. "Why do I have to be the 'controller', Knux?" he asked. "SOMEBODY has to do it!" Knux replied. "We drew straws on this fair and square, Sonic, don't try and back out now!" Sonic sighed and stepped into the forest clearing. He was unprepared for what he saw.. Station Square quite literally looked as if a bomb had hit it. He was creeped out by the fact it was the same city he had been walking around in only recently.. And he could hear the roars of Chaos within. "What does he want?" Sonic asked, angry. "He turned on Robotnik, smashed up Station Square.. where will he stop?" "I don't think he intends to.." Amy replied. "He's just going to keep destroying..." "It's time to put a stop to this..." Sonic announced. "Once and for all." ... "CHAOS!" Sonic screamed from atop a skyscraper. His friends all around him, each held a Chaos Emerald. The huge beast turned it's quivering dragon's head... its eyes were the only solid things in the beast, even the bones had dissolved. The monster was now just an extension of the flood which ran through the city. Sonic all at once saw why the ancient echidnas feared snakes. Chaos was one. An eel, to be more precise.. some kind of slimey, legless monster from the deep. "What the heck is this thing?" Sonic found himself asking. "Is it organic? Is it alien? Is it a demon? A god?" "YOU HAVE RETURNED TO CHAOS, LITTLE WORM!" Chaos' booming voice broke his ponderings. "You are NOTHING but a parasitic insect feeding off this doomed planet!" "You think so?" Sonic shouted back. "Well this insect fights BACK! NOW!" At his call, his friends spread in a circle around him, each holding an emerald high in the air. The emeralds immediately regained their glow, and began to spark and glitter. Chaos let out a monsterous roar. "CHAOS SHALL NOT BE FOOLED AGAIN!" the beast screamed... a tentacle came out of nowhere and collided hard with the building. The c onstruction crumbled, bringing the seven Mobians down with it. Gamma managed to grab Streak and Amy and activate his rocket pack, Tails grabbed onto Sonic and Knuckles and flew to safety, and Big landed in the water below with a loud plop. "BIG!!" Streak screamed, sparks flying off his ears in a random fashion. The large cat in the river below managed to winch himself to safety, just as Chaos' head melted into the city. "TRY IT AGAIN!" Sonic screamed. "WE HAVE TO DO THIS! TRY AND FORM A CIRCLE AROUND ME!" Everybody gathered themselves into a rather shoddy ellipse and raised the emeralds again. Once again, the gems crackled to life. But something else was cracking.. the pavement beneath their feet. They stumbled and fell, there was an explosion, and the enormous head of Chaos burst out of the ground from underneath them, mouth wide open... swallowing all seven characters with one gulp. Sonic gripped the grey Chaos Emerald in one hand, and struggled to tred water as he was raised higher and higher into the sky, inside the Chaos monster. But he couldn't swim, he was too scared.. he hated water.. and this was worse than water. This was the image of death.. the bringer of havoc.. the self-proclaimed God of Destruction. This was the Perfect Chaos. And nobody can swim in Perfect Chaos. In the blink of an eye, Sonic was rushing in one direction. E-102 Gamma had blown a gaping hole in the monster's skin, and the liquid was rushing out in a fountain, taking Chaos' victims with it. Sonic cascaded down the huge Chaos waterfall, and landed on the pavement. Little water droplets with eyes ran away to avoid the falling hedgehog.. they were everywhere, running up and down the city, or what was left of it. Sonic, confused and wounded, tried to get up, but a piece of debris knocked him from behind, and he fell into a deep dark crevice... the sewer. When he shook some sense into himself, he tried to get up again, this time successfully. He looked about himself.. the sewers under the city were as destroyed as the rest of Station Square. Sunlight streamed in every so often. It seemed to go forever in both directions. He picked up the grey emerald, just as he heard a noise from one end of the sewer. Like a wave at the ocean, only much more intense. It was getting louder... Chaos was filling the sewer. "It wants to kill me.." Sonic realised, even though he had known that ever since the battle with Chaos Zero. Such a short, stumpy, egotistical little creature it was then... and now it had consumed the whole of the Master Emerald, and it was a huge, catastrophic, egotistical nightmare! Sonic turned to the opposite path than that of the approaching noise, and began to run. His speed increased as he ran, but still the Chaos liquid, travelling much faster than water, burst from every crevice and poured after him. He could hear the deafening wave behind him.. he could even feel it dripping on his neck and the droplets slithering around like slugs.. every tiny inch of Chaos was alive, as if it were a colony of minute insignificant bugs, joined to create the biggest threat in Mobius history. For the first time in years, Sonic reached the speed of sound. He knew, because he could feel his skin growing red-hot.. his body seemed to elongate, and he could no longer hear the waves behind him. Their booming sound was no longer fast enough to reach his ears. He was Sonic the Hedgehog. "I don't look back, I don't need to..." he shouted, the sound of his voice being left behind him before it could reach his own ears. "Time won't wait, and I got so much to do!" He busted out of the sewer pipe, and continued to travel through the air as if there was still ground under his feet. But eventually gravity set in, his feet no longer working against it, and he began to slow down and fall.. his skin feeling as if it was badly sunburned. Robotnik rounded a bend, and then slammed on the breaks. He could see Station Square in the distance. "Perfect.." he snarled. "I take out Chaos, I take out Station Square, I take out New Knothole, I take out Sonic, and all in one blow! I am going out with one HECK of a bang this day..." "Failed?" Sally asked. "Miserably." Sonic replied. Bruised, with his skin looking purple with a tinge of red, the hedgehog looked at all the sad faces around him. Even that mysterious Gamma robot, who had no face, looked melancholy. "He expects it this time." Knuckles announced. "He knew that the Chaos Emeralds are the only way to take him down.. so this time he was ready. He's too powerful." "Duh, we need a distraction!" Big declared. Everybody slowly turned their heads towards him. "What did you say?" Sonic asked. "A... distraction?" Big said, shrugging. "Of course!" Sonic shouted. "OF COURSE!! Big is a genius!" "I am?" Big asked. "Hold on, hold on, how are we going to distract Chaos?" Knuckles asked. "We really need to think this through." "Well, he's liquid, so shooting and stuff won't work.." Tails said. "Properties of liquids.." Amy murmured. "They can usually be converted to a gas or a solid with temperature change.." "Hey, we got a chemist over here!" Sonic announced, smiling. Amy just grinned back. "Yeah.." Streak replied. "Couldn't we evaporate Chaos? He couldn't attack us like that, we could just suck him up!" "Yeah, heat the Perfect Chaos to boiling point.. the only problem would be finding a magnifying glass bigger than my island." Knuckles replied, sarcastically. "Just a suggestion!" Streak said defensively. "Well, what's the alternative?" Sonic asked. "Freezing him!" "Probability is even less plausible." Gamma droned. "We do not have access to any materials suitable to remove heat from such a large subject." "Yeah, and freezing is a slow process." Amy added. "Even if we did find a way, Chaos would attack us before he even slowed down." "So we need something big enough to freeze him, that's also quick?" Tails asked. Sonic and Knuckles looked at each other. They had both simultaniously thought of the same thing. "Quick.." Knuckles began. "Freeze.." Sonic concluded. "Quicksleet." they said in unison. "Do you still have Robotnik's remote control?" Sonic asked. "Never left my island." Knuckles replied. "Think it will work?" Amy raised an eyebrow. "Have I missed something?" she asked. Sonic turned to her, smiling a victorious smile. "Sky Sanctuary." he said. Knuckles looked apon the giant floating machine.. it was hovering just above his island. He held a large remote control in his gloved hand. "Are we sure we want to do this?" he asked. "This machine has been activated three times - the first time it almost obliterated a civilization, the next time it almost destroyed Mobius, and the third time it wiped out Knothole and half of Robotropolis. Nothing good has ever actually come out of it." "What choice do we have?" Amy asked. "If this thing does what you say it does, then it's exactly what we need... perhaps the ONLY thing that will work." "How do we get the quicksleet to just freeze Chaos, and not the whole planet again?" Tails inquired. "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it." Sonic replied. "Let's get this thing to Station Square." Knuckles nodded, and punched something into the remote control. A generator on top of Sky Sanctuary, with a worn motif of Robotnik's face printed on it, started up. The blocks and discs floating around began to orbit the main pole very slowly, and the machine began to move. "CHAOS!" Robotnik shouted, standing on the dry remains of a building. Chaos, the enormous dragon, stared down at him. "YOU HAVE DEFIED YOUR MASTER, STUPID BEAST!" Robotnik called. "NOW YOU WILL BE DESTROYED AT ALL COSTS!" "You are a fool, Ivo Robotnik!" Chaos boomed. "Chaos is the perfect organism! Chaos was created never to be destroyed! You are but an insignificant Mobian insect! Chaos was programmed to destroy YOU, and NOT any other way around! CHAOS WILL DESTROY, AND CHAOS WILL NOT BE DESTROYED!" "You will be defeated, Chaos.." Robotnik insisted, rage and insanity in his eyes. "You and everyone who opposed me in life! Think of it as a self-destruction mechanism.." He shot his arms into the air. "THE FINAL LEGACY OF IVO JULIAN ROBOTNIK!" "How's it goin', ya big DRIP?" somebody shouted from the top of a huge building. Chaos and Robotnik looked up to see Sonic standing there! "You are persistant, infidel!" Chaos snarled. "It is pointless to imagine that you can defeat the Perfect Chaos!" "Maybe I can't, Chaos!" Sonic replied. "But the question is, can YOU defeat the Perfect Hedgehog?" As he spoke, the huge Sky Sanctuary machine drifted into the city behind him, out from the shadows of the crumbled buildings. "Chaos is the ULTIMATE!" Chaos shouted. "CHAOS IS THE GOD OF DESTRUCTION!! YOU WILL FALL TO YOUR KNEES BEFORE YOUR GOD, AND PREPARE FOR YOUR DEATH!!" "I think omnipotence might be a bit of a high goal for you right now, Chaos.." Sonic admitted. "You say you're a god, but to me, you're all wet!" With that, the hedgehog blasted into the air. Chaos drew a deap breath, then exploded with an incredible stream of water which knocked down buildings in its path. But Sonic skillfully evaded the attack, and scrambled to the top of a leaning skyscraper. "IS THAT ALL YOU CAN DO, BUBBLES?" He shouted. Chaos' head re-formed, turned, and drew back for another attack. But Sonic dodged again, hopping from building to building. Chaos whipped with his tentacles, but Sonic was simply too quick. When Chaos threw out more water blasts, Sonic jumped, skipped and leapt, landing right on top of Sky Sanctuary, which was whirring through the city. Chaos burst out from underneath in a blinding rage, mouth wide open. Sonic wasn't expecting the attack, so he jumped into the air to avoid being swallowed.. and he was caught by something! He looked up to see Tails, with a tight hold on his wrists, flying him to safety! "Great catch, little bro!" Sonic announced happily. Tails just smiled. Knuckles, atop a nearby building, was watching Chaos. The monster had swallowed Sky Sanctuary completely, and was looking around for the hedgehog who barely escaped his wrath. "CHECKMATE, CHAOS!" Knuckles yelled. He extended a finger, and pounded a button on the remote control. Chaos snapped to attention when he sensed the churning inside him. The liquid in his interior was being swirled like it was in a blender. The machine he swallowed... the blocks and discs in orbit around it has begun to spin furiously. The monster looked at Sonic threateningly. "CHAOS IS INVINCIBLE!!" he screamed. But then the machine barfed something, and the monster howled in pain. There was a cracking sound as the middle and bottom of Chaos instantly turned to ice. The ice spread downwards, freezing the flood which engulfed the city.. it spread outward until the city looked like a giant skating rink. Chaos' head exploded into about fifty smaller versions of itself.. a bunch of panicing, squirming, writhing eels, screeching at an almost ear- piercing level. When the eels came together again into one big head, it was the only part of the monster that remained liquid. Chaos threw back his head into a huge roar, and the ice engulfed him completely.. last of all freezing the beast's haunting yellow eyes which were the expression of fear. And as all this happened, seven characters stood apon the upper-most building of the city, one of the only ones that remained standing. "This is for trying to destroy the world, Chaos! Your evil will be locked away forever!" Tails the Fox announced. He shot up his hand, which contained a mouve Chaos Emerald. It began to glow. "My island crashed because you swallowed the Master Emerald! As guardian, it is my DUTY to right what you have done!" Knuckles the Echidna shouted, throwing his arm up. It held a green Chaos Emerald. "You destroyed my home! The whole of Station Square is obliterated, thanks to you! You must be stopped!" Amy Rose yelled, throwing her hand up with a light blue Chaos Emerald. "You hurt my Froggy! And you tried to drown him! I'll never let you harm anyone again!" Big the Cat announced, throwing up his hand.. he held a dark blue Chaos Emerald. "This electric shock ability was my one form of self-defence, and a really neat party trick! But you ruined it! So here's my present to you!" Streak the Cat yelled, raising an orange Chaos Emerald into the air. "You deleted Commander Packbell, Chaos.. he was my father. I must avenge his destruction." Gamma droned, holding high a Red Chaos Emerald. "HEAR ME, CHAOS!" Sonic shouted. "You have upset Sonic the Hedgehog, and everybody he cares about! You may be big, you may be scary, but NOBODY goes against a Sonic Boom without being blown away!" Sonic threw up his arms, clutching the grey Chaos Emerald... the controller. All seven emeralds began to glow brightly, sparking and jolting... then they left the clutches of those who were holding them.. the emeralds flew straight upward, into the air, spinning in a huge ring. Faster and faster... then there was an explosion, as a huge vortex opened in the space between them. It swirled and rippled... and the frozen body of Chaos began to stir... began to crack. Pieces broke off the mass, from all over the city, and began to float towards the nexus.. the chunks became bigger as the portal increased in power. The portal grew, and more and more pieces of Chaos broke away.. and, at last, it was all down to the enormous head of the monster, twisted into a terrifying silent roar, frozen in time. The entire mass cracked and splintered, and something busted out from its interior.. something broke out of the ice as the entire mass was pulled into the emerald vortex... it was the original state of Chaos, Chaos Zero. The short humanoid creature floated slowly upwards toward the portal, chunks of ice dodging it and sploshing into it like an asteroid storm. Chaos morphed his claws into paddles and tried to swim through the air.. to avoid his fate. Then he noticed Sonic standing there, in the center of the circle, staring up at him. The monster screamed and threw one limb into a tentacle. The sqirming tentacle wrapped around Sonic's waist, to the hedgehog's surprise, and pulled him into the sky with Chaos. "You will come with Chaos, yes?" Chaos chuckled. Big the Cat threw forth his fishing rod, the lure tangling around Sonic's ankle. They engaged in a tug-of war with the hedgehog, Chaos' body becoming a long, thin stream as the chaos liquid was unable to fight the pull of the Chaos Emeralds. Then the monster loosened and faltered its grip on Sonic, allowing the hedgehog to be winched to safety. The monster, yellow ellipse-eyes bulging, screamed as it entered the vortex as a thin stream of liquid. It spun around in the air like a whirlpool before being sucked inside. "CHAOS...... WILL....... RETURN!" he screamed... his head was pulled inside the nexus with a plop, and the Chaos Emeralds came together, closing the doorway.. trapping Chaos inside them once again. They crushed tightly together, and then, with an explosion that almost deafened the city, they blew apart.. each emerald flying in a different direction and disappearing over the horizon, nobody knowing where on Mobius they fell. Then everything went silent. "Chaos won't return.." Sonic announced. "Not if those emeralds never come together again. They are gone now.. I'm sick of the sight of them." Everybody agreed, and Knuckles looked down at the ground. The Master Emerald, in one piece, just as it used to be, sat on the street. Knuckles grinned. His quest was complete. "WELL DONE, FREEDOM FIGHTERS!" came a voice. Sonic, Knuckles, Tails, Amy, Streak, Big and Gamma turned around to find themselves facing Doctor Robotnik. "Robotnik!" Sonic stammered. "Hello, Sonic!" Robotnik acknowledged. "My rival from the beginning of time! And Tails.. the little mutant fox, whose parents I took great delight in eliminating during the Great War!" Tails frowned and stepped foward.. Sonic grabbed one of his tails to hold him in place. "Knuckles!" Robotnik continued "The small-minded echidna that I've always been able to trick into doing my bidding.. Amy, S onic's old girlfriend who's come back to haunt me... Streak and Big, I really don't know much about you, save for you being a couple of feline dunderheads who will achieve nothing in life. And Gamma... I'm disappointed in you, Gamma, I really am." "Do not be, Robotnik.. I act only for what is right." Gamma replied, saluting. "Which is exactly the problem.." Robotnik snarled. "You are faulty, Gamma, and it has led you to join these idiots! But no matter, you will get what you deserve very soon." "It's over, Robotnik." Sonic announced. "You're ruined. We won." "Indeed I am ruined, Sonic!" Robotnik agreed. "But do not jump to conclusions.. You have not won. _I_ have won, hedgehog." The doctor twisted his mostache, grinning. "I think your facts are wrong, just a little bit.." Sonic told him. "Oh, you think so?" Robotnik asked. "I advise you to look up, Sonic." Sonic slowly moved his eyes to the sky, as something blotted out the sun. He gasped. Robotnik, noticing the shadow, grinned. "I see it is on time!" he announced. "Unstoppable, Sonic... It's a nuclear missile! And it's heading.. straight.. towards.. this.. very.. building!" "How are you going to escape it, egg-man?" Sonic inquired. "Oh! I want to make sure PERSONALLY that it hits!" Robotnik replied. "My own life is in ruins anyway, so it is a fit sacrifice to make if it means wiping out you seven, the rest of the Freedom Fighters and Station Square! Brings meaning to the phrase 'you'll never take me alive!'" Sonic gulped, as he stared at the missile, rocketing through the air. "We.. can't escape it!" he admitted, fearfully. The robot E-102 Gamma stared at the other six characters, who were scared witless. Tails was at the point of crying.. then the robot turned to Robotnik, who was cackling evilly. Then his thoughts turned to birds.. his family, his friends.. not just birds, but every other animal. They would all perish. They should be free. Gamma knew immediately what he must do. "It has been an honor to share this adventure with you all." he announced. "You tought me of love.. of emotions. Especially you, Amy Rose. You will always have a place inside my heart. A metal heart in a metal body." Then the robot activated its jetpack. He blasted into the sky. "What's he doing?" Amy asked fearfully. "I... don't know!" Knuckles replied, cocking his head to the side. "Oh my gosh! That robot's gonna smack right into the missile!" Streak announced. "GAMMA!" Amy screamed. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!" Gamma looked down at her, then up at his target. "I know now why you cry." he announced. "This is the final target.. my robotic fighting skills have worked up to this moment. All shall be free. And he looked at slides on his hard drive.. images from his short life. Of birds.. of Amy.. of freedom. He was vaguely aware of errors flashing up briefly as his mainframe was ripped to pieces by the small radioactive holocaust high in the sky. He was at peace. he had done the ultimate good deed. Back on the ground, Amy was crying amidst the explosion which could be heard in the air. She chose not to watch what became of her robot friend. He had made the ultimate sacrifice for Mobian-kind. Robotnik snarled and cursed, stomping his feet on the ground. Then he fell silent with a short sigh. "So this is it, Sonic." he admitted. "When I was created, ironically by you yourself, I had nothing. You had nothing. It was just you, and me. Then we went our seperate ways.. I created the greatest empire on Mobius, and you joined the revolt against it. But now, we have nothing again. It's ended just how it started." "It's been a blast, Ivo." Sonic replied. "But you should have known that evil doesn't pay. Somebody as intelligent as you should have worked that out." "If I had the chance to do it all again, I would." Robotnik announced with a grin. "I have a feeling that your chance has gone." replied Sonic.