well...this is a long time coming.....
Enjoy Chapter 19!!!
Chapter 19 - Chaos Connections
“Carl is this true?” Sonic bustled back into the room, closely followed by Shadow, Knuckles, Amy, Tails, Katy, Rouge and Spyke.
“Is what true?” Carl asked. He was still staring out into the storm.
“Is it true that Hannah was using a Chaos Emerald?” Shadow asked calmly.
“Y…Yeah… she was.” Carl said.
“This can’t be true.” Knuckles said. “There is no way that she would have been able to use the power of the Emerald.”
“She did…. I don’t know how either, but she can use the Emeralds power.” Carl said.
“What exactly is a Chaos Emerald?” Katy asked. The whole conversation had completely confused her.
Sonic and the others all looked at Carl.
“What?” Carl said.
“Why don’t you explain? It would be interesting to see how far your knowledge of our ways extends.” Shadow said to him.
“Alright.” Carl took a deep breath.” A Chaos Emerald is a jewel that contains limitless power. When harnessed, these jewels can unleash incredible amounts of their energy. However, if they are in the wrong hands…”
“Hannah’s?” Katy asked.
Carl nodded. “Hannah’s, then she can use the Chaos Energy to power herself up and she will be unbeatable.”
“However,” Sonic said, “There are ways for Carl to harness the Emeralds power too, and we can use that to our advantage. There is only Hannah who can wield the Emeralds power, whereas on our side, there is Shadow, Carl and myself who can use the Energy. And we need to start training right away. Shadow, if you would.”
Shadow walked over to Carl and placed his hand on Carl’s chest.
“This will hurt Carl and I apologise.” He pulled out an orange Chaos Emerald and started drawing power from it. The energy flowed into Carl and his body started shaking violently again.
“Hold him still!!” Shadow said urgently.
Everybody took and piece of Carl’s body and held it down tightly as Shadow started pumping more Chaos Energy into Carl’s body. He then lifted his hand away and took a step back. Katy went to get off Carl, but Sonic pulled her back.
“No Katy, we can't move him yet.”
“But why? He’s stopped shaking.” Katy protested.
“You’ll see.” Sonic nodded.
Carl’s body had indeed stopped shaking, but it was glowing a vivid orange colour.
“Here it comes.” Shadow said.
“What?” Katy asked. But she soon found out. The energy that had been in Carl’s body was starting to cause Carl’s body to shake again,
“AAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!” Carl screamed in pain as the energy began to leave his body. “Shadow…..make it stop please!” Carl cried. Tears were streaming down his face.
“I’m sorry Carl. Be patient.” Shadow looked away.
“Shadow, this is getting out of hand.” Rouge protested. “Stop this.”
“No Rouge, this has to be done.”
Carl’s body stopped shaking, but he still kept crying.
“Sh……Sha…..” He stammered, clearly out of breath.
“Carl.” Shadow said. “Check your wounds.”
Everybody got off Carl slowly but he couldn’t move his arm to check himself. Sonic slowly lifted up his sleeve and Katy, Rouge and Amy gasped. Carl’s deep wound that had stretched all up his arm was gone. It was completely healed.
“Shadow, how did you..?” Amy was still staring at his arm.
“Chaos Heal.” Shadow said. “The only downfall to the technique is that it makes the target very weak for a few moments. Carl will be fine in a minute; this would be a good idea to run through our plan Sonic.”
“Right. As things stand now, it looks like Hannah is collecting all the Chaos Emeralds. And until we know otherwise, we need to assume that she is working for Eggman. So this means that we have to find the Emeralds before she does.” Sonic stopped for a second as Carl sat up and spun himself round to face Sonic.
“But we already have one Emerald tight? So that means we only have 5 more to find.”
“Wrong.” Tails said. “The Emeralds that we have here are all fakes.”
“Like when you tried to trick Eggman on ARK.” Cark nodded.
“How did you?” Tails started and then laughed. “I am amazed at how much you actually know about us Carl.”
“So we still need to find 6 then. Let’s get going.” Carl stood up and walked over to Sonic.
“I’m afraid it is not as simple as that Carl.” Shadow said. “Katy is now fully ready to fight along side us. You are not ready There is one more section of training we need to put you through. Everybody to the VR Room!”
Everybody bundled out of the room and into the VR Room. Sonic and Carl walked into the room and Shadow spoke to everybody else.
“Hey, Sonic.” Carl said, looking at the ground.
“What is it buddy?” He asked.
“I’m sorry.”
Sonic looked confused. “What for?”
“It’s my fault that Natasha is gone. And now we are down a Freedom Fighter.”
Sonic shook his head. “Let it go Carl. It isn’t your fault. Hannah caught us off guard, that’s all. And as for losing a Freedom Fighter, as soon as we are through here, we gain another one.” He smiled, but Cal couldn’t look at him. He still felt so guilty about Natasha, and he couldn’t bear to think what she was being put through.
“Alright, let’s get started.” Shadow entered the room, followed by Knuckles.
“I bought these for you.” Knuckles said. “Shadow and Sonic already have their fake Emeralds, but you need one too.”
In Knuckles’ hands were what appeared to be 4 of the seven Chaos Emeralds. Carl picked out the silver Emerald and Knuckles put the others safely in the corner of the room.
“For your final training session, we are going to teach you how to use your Chaos Powers.” Shadow said. “For this, you will need to focus immensely as this requires you to channel the energy from our “Emeralds” through your body.”
“Got it.” Carl nodded. “But we need to get a move on…. Who knows what Hannah is doing to Natasha…..”
“Alright then Carl, we’ll start with Chaos Control. This will allow you to warp anywhere or slow time down greatly” Sonic said.
In the next room Katy sat down on a nearby chair as Spyke came over to her.
“What is wrong Katy?” He asked.
“Why does Carl blame himself for what happened?” Katy sighed, “He knows there is nothing that he could have done…”
“He feels guilty because he was the only other person who could have helped.” Spyke said, “He is still lucky to be alive.”
Katy paused as violent flashes of orange, blue and silver light burst from the room next to them. She leapt up and looked through the glass. There was no-one there.
“Wha? But…..where are they?” Katy asked, completely bewildered.
“Relax Katy, I’m right here.” Carl’s voice came from behind her.
“How did you?” She began, but Carl answered by taking out his emerald.
“Chaos Control” He said and disappeared within a silvery light.
“Carl?” Katy asked.
“Over here.” Came his voice from next to Rouge’s arm. She jumped violently.
“Heh, sorry Rouge.” Carl said sheepishly.
“Carl, you need to concentrate a little bit harder… but apart from that, that was incredible….” Shadow said. “No-one has mastered Chaos Control so fast before.”
“I’m just getting through this as fast as I can.” Carl said, as he hung his head “We have to save Natasha as fast as we can.”
“Let’s get back to it then… There is one more Chaos Technique to learn… Chaos Spear. The rest you can improvise with, but it works the same way as the others.”
Sonic and Shadow lead Carl back into the VR room and closed the door.
“How is he lucky to be alive Spyke? What happened?”
“Hannah… She could have killed him if she wanted to…. But there’s something she needs. None of us knows what though.”
Katy sat and thought. What could Carl know that no-one else did? Then it clicked.
“Carl plays a lot of video games… maybe it’s related to that?”
Another 3 bright flashes of light emitted from the room.
“Could be.” Spyke said. “Who knows, we’ll have to ask him.”
Carl, Shadow and Sonic emerged from the room. Carl was clearly out of energy, as Sonic and Shadow were propping him up between them.
“He’ll be fine in a moment.” Shadow said. “His body managed to handle Chaos Spear, but he used too much power and overloaded his body.”
“Shadow, Katy believes that she may have solved the problem.”
“Which one?” Sonic said laughing.
“The information we need.” Spyke nodded.
“R…Really?” Sonic said in surprise.
“I think so.” Katy said. “He plays a lot of your computer games. Maybe what you need is related to that.”
“Sonic. Katy is right. Give me a map of Mobius. I’ll be able to tell you, if I am correct.”
“What do you mean?” Shadow said.
“The Ice Ridge….. Ice Cap…. The Canyon…. Sky Canyon….” Carl said, counting off his fingers…. “If I am right, there is one “level” from each Sonic game on this planet…. And I’ll be able to get us through them all.” He smiled and stood up. “And in each level, is a Chaos Emerald. Hannah already has the one from Ice Ridge, but if she has more, then we need to split up and scour each area immensely.”
“Alright then.” Tails nodded, “I’ll fetch a map” He left the room quickly, almost excited that he was going to learn about some of the connections between Mobius and Earth.
High above them, looking in through the skylight was a female figure. She had red fur and was wearing what seemed to be a Battle Suit. She appeared to be very similar to Natasha.
“Oh, Hannah will be pleased to find this out.” She smiled. “Or my name isn’t Scarlet.”
Scarlet moved out of sight and listened intently to what happened next.
“Here ya go Carl!” Tails said triumphantly and handed Carl a small spherical object. Tails then turned the light off. A flash of lightning re-illuminated the room momentarily as Tails pressed a button. A holographic planet appeared before them and slowly spun in place.
“Carl, this is Mobius.” Sonic explained. “If what Katy thinks is true, then you will know more about this planet than most of us.”
“Can we see each area close up Tails?” Carl asked.
“Sure.” Tails pressed another button and the planet shape disappeared making the room dark again. A large scale map appeared along with four arrows.
“Put your hand on the arrow to move the map around.” Tails explained.
“The area you see here is where we are now.” Shadow explained. “I don’t think you will recognise this area, as we only discovered it recently.”
“Alright, let’s have a look around.” Carl said.
He moved the map to the north-western most point and started moving along towards the east.
“What’s this area?” Carl asked, indicating a dense forest.
“That,” Sonic said, “Is where we found Katy. We just call it the forest…”
“Forest…..forest….. Green Forest, Sonic Adventure 2 Battle, Escape the forest in 8 minutes!” Carl announced automatically.
“Wow….I’m impressed.” Sonic said. “Green Forest huh? What do you know about it?”
“It’s long but I’m sure I can blaze through it alone.” He smiled. “It’s not that difficult.”
“Alright, what about here?” Shadow pointed to an area of water.
“What is it?”
“It was an ancient city, but then after the Ice Age, all the water flooded the city.” Knuckles explained. “The city was once one of the most powerful empire capitals of Ancient Mobius.
“Hydrocity, Sonic 3 and Knuckles.” Carl nodded. “Looks like you were right Katy.”
“What about difficulty?” Amy asked.
“Hydrocity isn’t that hard, and seeing as they are next to each other, I can go through those alone.”
“Carl, are you sure about this?” Sonic pointed out. “You are sure you can take these areas on by yourself?”
“If you have a virtual simulation of every game made, then all I have to do is practise from a First Person perspective. Then I will be more than ready. There is just one problem. Tails I’ll need to come and get some breathing equipment from you.”
“No problem. “ He said thoughtfully. “It’s hard to believe that you can relate to our world like this”
Everyone remained silent for a few seconds. Carl hadn’t thought of it like that. Their two worlds were linked in more than just being in the same position in their universes.
“Alright, that counts for 3 Emeralds…. What about the other 4?” Sonic asked.
“This next area here is Eggman’s base.” Tails said. He pointed to a large area in the centre of the map. “He managed to build it after a small meteor landed here.”
“I don’t know about this one…” Carl said. “I bet that Eggman will have that Emerald under some heavy security though…. We’d better leave that one for a while… At least Hannah can’t get her hands on it. Not yet anyway.”
“Alright, this area is Ice Ridge, so we have accounted for that. The next one is the fiery volcano.”
“Volcano Valley, Sonic 3D” Carl said “Too easy that was the only Sonic game to feature the word “Volcano””
“You really DO play too many computer games Carl” Katy smiled. “But at least you are helping.”
“Hey….” Carl exclaimed.
“Who would be able to get that one?” Shadow enquired.
“Either you or Sonic, nobody else could navigate through there fast enough.”
“Who’s going?” Tails asked.
“I’ll go.” Shadow nodded.
“Don’t forget, you won’t be able to use Chaos Control with your fake emerald. The real Chaos Emerald and your fake Chaos Emeralds may have the same energy signal, but I couldn’t make it so that you could use Chaos Powers around the real one. You can use Chaos Control to get out of there with the real Emerald though.”
“Got it Tails; I just need to get to the Emerald first.” Shadow said.
“Alright then Carl, only 2 areas left before we know exactly where we are going.” Spyke nodded.
“This area has been around a long time, it probably hasn’t changed much since Mobius left the Ice Age.”
“What does it look like?” Carl asked.
“It’s a beautiful place to go and sunbathe” Amy said, “It’s just miles and miles of hills and trees.” She sighed.
Carl just sat there and smiled. “The level that started it all…… Green Hill.” He nodded. “Anybody mind if I take that one with Amy and Spyke?” Knuckles asked.
“I’m ok with it.” Carl and Sonic said in unison.
“Then it’s settled.” Tails confirmed, “Sonic, Rouge and I will take the last area ourselves.” Tails pointed to a small island.
“What is that Carl?” Sonic asked.
“I don’t know…. Wait… Angel Island?”
“Right,” Knuckles said, “The old home of the Master Emerald. And my old home too.”
“So where is the Master Emerald now?”
“It’s here, it keeps the base fuelled with power, and Eggman can’t touch it.”
“So we have our plan, I suggest we all rest for the night and start in the morning.” Spyke said.
“Great idea,” Katy yawned. “I need some sleep.”
“Alright, goodnight everyone.” Sonic said and left the room. Carl remained sat on his bed.
“This should be interesting…” He said to himself. “Green Forest and Hydrocity….. This is going to be some day……” He sighed before leaping off the bed and walking out the room.
The storm outside was slowly subsiding but lightning continued to cut across the sky frequently.
Scarlet jumped off the roof of the complex and began running back to Ice Ridge.
“Just wait until Hannah hears this.” She said to herself, “She will deal with that boy and we will finally have what we need.”
She laughed to herself and continued on her way back to Hannah’s castle.