War of Chaos: Story of Dr. Eggman
By: Shadow the Hedgehog 2099

***Author’s Comments*** A couple quick things to note: the “War of Chaos” fan fiction is to be read under the preconceived notion that all the “Story” chapters occur at roughly the same time and come to the final chapter at the same time. Any time/space discrepancies are unintentional and unplanned, if one of those just so happens to occur between the different story paths, so be it—a wizard did it.

His eyes tirelessly viewed and reviewed the stone tablet that lay before him. Save for the occasional “hmm” and “oh-ho!” the tall, rubenesque scientist, the nefarious Doctor Eggman, stood in silent contemplation as a computer translated an ancient echidna text from approximately 5000 years ago. It told the sorrowful tale of the age-old echidna tribe that lived on the land that later became Starmen.netville. It described their ancient way of life through war and conquest so large that a great deal of the continent as well as the Angel Island had been consumed by their unstoppable military might. Their history came to an abrupt end when they invaded Angel Island—there they met with a time of economic hardship and had to settle for a spell.
During their brief encampment on the fringes of the not-yet-floating island, one of the chiefs’ daughters went off to play in nearby woods whereupon she discovered the greatest treasure on the planet, the Master Emerald and the seven Chaos Emeralds. She was uncertain as to what the gems meant or did, so she left them in their pedestals that surrounded the largest jewel in the center. There, the girl found Chao—this wasn’t terribly surprising, as Chao lived all over the world, but the tiny gelatinous creatures were incredibly more numerous in that particular area than anywhere else on the Earth. Among them she met a creature that sort of resembled the Chao but had a structure composed of water and she affectionately named “Chaos”.
Chaos seemed to the guardian over the tiny, helpless Chao creatures and seemed to be able to interpret their strange language. The girl grew up knowing Chaos and the many Chao until she was about sixteen (or that was as best as Eggman himself could estimate granted they used a very strange calendar based around just a handful of stars). At that time, the older echidnas finally caught on to where she spent most of her days playing and discovered the Chaos Emeralds as well and knew right away that their great power could not only get them out of the slump they found themselves in but also could propel them to becoming the greatest empire the world had ever known. Standing between them and their goals was the girl and the Chaos creature.
The echidnas ignored the girl’s plea for peaceful co-existence with what they had already gotten and rushed past her towards the jewels. In their mighty stampede, many Chao were gravely injured and many perished—trampled underfoot or slaughtered wholesale by heartless men. The struggle only lasted a single moment. The leaders of the tribe got to the top of the shrine and were met with the Chaos monster, who was now filled with fury, anger, hatred, malice and prejudice. Chaos itself became the incarnate of all things negative and summoned the dark powers of the Chaos Emeralds and used that fury to ascend into what later was deemed “The Ultimate Vehicle of Destruction”.
The young girl, as well as what few echidnas escaped Chaos’ unending wrath hid in the basement of their best-built shrine in the center of their city and turned to Master Emerald for help, believing it to be their last line of defense. Even from deep under the ground, the Master Emerald heard their pleas for protection from the water beast and sealed Chaos away in the center of the massive jewel, and caused it to drop the Chaos Emeralds into the ocean, where they were sent to the furthest reaches of the planet by the currents. The price to end that conflict was high as the girl and the last echidna survivors offered their lives to complete the ritual. With the world at peace again, the Master Emerald deemed it necessary to lift the Angel Island into the sky to prevent the disaster from happening again.
Eggman howled with laughter, “No elevation is too high for Doctor Eggman—Genius Extraordinaire—from getting what he needs! A simple lightning rod, some bait and some manipulation got me everything I need to use Chaos to my highest expectations… with the sole exception of those elusive Chaos Emeralds…” he paused a moment in thought as he recalled having awoken Chaos from the Master Emerald, dropped Angel Island to sea level once again, tricked Knuckles the Echidna into giving up the Chaos Tablet and having held off long enough for Shadow the Hedgehog to exhaust himself by dealing with his siblings. “This is too easy! Now, I must find those Chaos Emeralds and use Chaos’ awesome power to take over the city—and then the world!”
“Dreaming big again, I see, Doctor,” a tall, brown-haired robot stated as he walked in, “Have you forgotten we have neither the Chaos Emeralds nor Shadow out of our way yet?”
“Ishntknew! What excellent timing, my friend!” Eggman grinned, “When Shadow returned from destroying the ARK, the Chaos Emeralds came back with him! Now is the perfect time to gather them up and establish my glorious empire! How can this be any easier?!”
“I guess I can’t quite answer that one,” Ishnt smirked, “So, can I be of any help?”
“I’m so happy you asked!” Eggman howled with laughter, “Yes! The emeralds have scattered in and around the city and now would be a perfect time to go gather them all up! I’m going with Chaos to stir up a little havoc and maybe find one myself!”
“Very brazen of you,” Ishnt folded his arms across his chest, “You’re that confident in that weird creature’s power, then?”
“Yes I am!” Eggman exclaimed happily, “What’s the worst that could happen? We have a god of destruction on our side!”
“What’s the worst that could happen?” Ishnt pondered, “Shadow intervening with our plans again—that’s what,”
“Pish-posh!” Eggman exclaimed, “Shadow won’t be a problem when I get those emeralds! No one will be a problem then! Let’s see… How about you head to the western part of the city and I’ll go emerald-hunting more towards the east?”
“Sounds good to me,” Ishnt nodded, then turned and exited calmly.
“Hmm… He doesn’t really trust Chaos all that much, does he?” Eggman commented to himself. The fat scientist looked over in the corner where the watery beast’s green eyes shimmered unemotionally back at him. He paused, “Then again, I can’t blame him… Hmm… Well, come, Chaos! Time to go have some fun!”
Rain was pouring down over the scene outside a small office building as Chaos had managed to get himself surrounded by policemen and Eggman watched annoyed from the roof closest to the scene, “You dumb drip! They weren’t supposed to find us yet…” Suddenly from the back, Shadow the Hedgehog skated onto the scene and hopped over a police car that sat sideways in his way and assessed Chaos. Eggman chortled, “Well! Maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea! May as well see what Chaos can do, since we have the chance…”
The water creature reeled back and hurled one of its huge hands towards the hedgehog, but Shadow easily cleared it by jumping high into the air and high-kicking the water beast clear in the head. The beast fell to a puddle but then rose up a few feet away almost as if nothing had happened, “What’s the matter? Had enough?” Shadow challenged. The watery enemy then leaped up into the air and landed on the top of a street light and Shadow had a hard time looking up at him through the pouring rain but saw the beast was shooting its limbs at him like spears.
The nimble black hero hopped from side to side to avoid the on-coming barrages, but then curled into a ball and rocketed into the lamppost, dropping the watery creature down to the ground with a splash. “C’mon and fight you big drip!” Shadow shouted, “You’re not so tough!” The water beast reeled back and attempted to sock Shadow a quick punch, but Shadow wasn’t about to just let him do so, so he curled up into a ball and rolled off to the side and then around behind the slippery goop. “Light speed dash!” Shadow exclaimed. He then charged kinetic energies into his body and then blasted through the air and splattered the water beast and steam rose into the air from the velocity. Shadow looked and the remains of the water monster made a quick get-a-way down a manhole cover’s hole.
Eggman glared down, “What? That’s it?! That’s the best you had?! Hmm… well it doesn’t really matter. That was but round one, hedgehog, count on it!” he then tapped a button on a remote he had in his pocket and his hover craft came to him. He boarded it and took to the air. A small glass dome encompassed the usually-open cockpit to keep the rain off the scientist as he dried out his mustache and took to the sky. “I suppose I should contact Ishntknew! I’m sure he must’ve found an emerald by now,” he tapped a button on his dashboard and heard Ishnt’s reply right away.
“Hey, Doctor! I found a Chaos Emerald!” Ishnt exclaimed.
“Oooh! Excellent! Bring it to me right away!” Eggman laughed joyously.
“Easier said than done, Doc,” Ishnt grunted, “That blonde girl has it! The one who knows Shadow!”
“That’d be… Uhh… Kindarspirit if I remember right!” Eggman chuckled, “Well, she has a laser sword but should be little or no match against you!”
“Easy for you to say,” Ishnt sighed, “She hit me with her tennis racket,”
“Oh,” Eggman pinched his nose to try and stop from laughing.
“She’s heading towards the indoor sports gym where she plays,” Ishnt explained, “I’m going to follow her. She has a flicky bird with her, and it’s carrying one of the emeralds! Ishnt out!”
Eggman threw his head back and laughed, “Hit by a tennis racket?! That’s hilarious! I’m never going to let him live that one down!” Just then the rain died down and Eggman’s radar picked up a signal from a Chaos Emerald just outside of town, in the Mystic Ruins, “Oh-ho!” Eggman characteristically shouted, “There we go! When the weather calmed down my radar’s range was able to go further… so! Off to the Mystic Ruins!” And like a shot the round scientist took off through the sky. After a while of humming his favorite song (“E.G.G.M.A.N.”) he landed on a low-lying plateau and saw Shadow zoom up right behind him. “Darn it all! I guess I’ll have to play with him first…” He grinned, “My dear, Shadow!” Eggman laughed as he turned around, “So good to see you again!”
“What are you up to, Eggman?” Shadow demanded, folding his arms across his chest.
“Ahh! Well, since you’ve asked and I’m in a very good mood, I’ll fill you in on my newest plan to flatten that awful city and build my own empire right on its ruins!” Eggman laughed, “Well, I’ve made some new friends! Namely my new pet—Chaos!”
“Chaos?” Shadow skeptically asked.
“Oh! You two already played together earlier today! C’mon out, Chaos!” Eggman laughed, and just then the same water beast from before slid out from a crack in the rocks, “Shadow! Allow me to properly introduce you to Chaos! The god of destruction!”
“Some ‘god of destruction’,” Shadow sneered, “I totally kicked his butt,”
“No, you kicked his weakest form’s butt! Chaos Zero! But watch and learn, fool!” Just then, Eggman tapped a button on his console which quickly shot a robotic arm through the air at Shadow, which knocked the unprepared hedgehog over and nabbed his Chaos Emerald from him, “Snack time, Chaos!” Eggman laughed as the arm tossed the green emerald into the water beast. A flash of light enveloped the hill and when Shadow looked, Chaos’ right arm had grown larger and now appeared to have a skeletal structure surrounding the freshly-absorbed green Chaos Emerald. “Ooo-hoo-hooo!” Eggman laughed with glee, “It’s just as the tablet predicted!”
“Tablet?” Shadow gasped, totally in shock.
“The Chaos Tablet I tricked you and that stupid echidna into giving me, you fool! I’ve been studying and translating it while you were away playing games with your siblings! I now have the ultimate vehicle of destruction at my beck and call and I’m going to build my Eggman Empire in no time at all!” Eggman laughed.
Shadow leaped back to his feet, “Not if I stop you here and now, Eggman!”
“Oh! Chaos, you go ahead and look for the next yummy emerald and I’ll handle this furry pest!” Eggman chortled as Chaos returned to a puddle form and slipped back down the cracks where it came from, “Now, Shadow! Mano-el-hedgehog-o!”
“Bring it!” Shadow exclaimed. Just then, Eggman flew away in his craft down over the hill and then returned with a massive armor upgrade with a huge drill on the front and wings, “Whoa! I didn’t say bring that!” Shadow gasped.
“You’re toast now, nuisance!” Eggman snickered, “Meet my Egg Hornet!”
“You need a hobby, dude,” Shadow sighed. Shadow looked up as the Egg Hornet began spewing out a barrage of mini-missiles and the hedgehog boy rapidly dashed and darted around them and then leaped into the air, bounced off of one of the projectiles and struck the cockpit’s glass shielding the fat scientist, which began to deeply crack.
“Why you little--!!!” Eggman growled, too angry to bother finishing his sentence, “You’ll pay for that!” Eggman then brought up his machine and drove it right down at the tiny, spiny annoyance, but Shadow easily jumped from the drill’s deadly path only to watch Eggman’s machine jam its own drill into the stone below, “Oh no!” Eggman exclaimed as the drill malfunctioned and began spinning around the main ship, Eggman and all. Shadow laughed helplessly at watching Eggman twirl around, screaming but then he decided he felt sort of sorry for Eggman. So, Shadow used his spinning assault and shattered the drill, but it hurled Eggman and his hovercraft up into the air, where it eventually evened out.
“I’ll make you pay for this!” Eggman yelled, “A… as soon as I can see straight, we’ll go for round two, but until then, adieu! (Hey! That rhymed!)” He then piloted his ship for the top of some nearby mountains. “Ergh! I hate that Shadow! He ruined a perfectly good armor suit I had hidden out here! Well~ it doesn’t matter. The emerald’s location isn’t far off from here!” He got over the mountains and saw a massive structure of grates and windmills that were suspended by amazing gusts of wind and he saw a little orange streak blurring through it all, “Gah! No! Shadow beat me here!” Eggman exclaimed, taking off forward as fast as he could.
Eggman saw the blue Chaos Emerald and he knew it was just about to be his when out of no where Shadow crashed down on the island, ran forward, grabbed it and teleported away. Eggman growled loudly as he quickly pulled his ship up and out of the Windy Valley and reassessed the situation, “Okay, he may have that rock, but if I follow his energy signature and I steal that emerald just like the last one!” Eggman pinpointed Shadow’s location back in the city and was off as fast as his machine could go. When he returned to Starmen.netville he saw Shadow and Fiona walk into Casinopolis. “I see… there’s a Chaos Emerald inside that building—and I’ll take it and the other one from them as soon as they walk out!”
Eggman hovered lazily over the city as he leaned back in his chair and tried to imagine what his glorious empire would look like and what décor he would utilize in his dream mansion when, about twenty minutes later, he saw Fiona and Shadow the Hedgehogs emerge from the casino. “Yosh!” Eggman snickered, “Here’s my chance!”
Just as suddenly as silence had set in on the peaceful road they were dive-bombed by Eggman. “Hey!” Shadow exclaimed leaping out of the hovercraft’s way. However, the same mechanical hand from before nabbed the grey emerald from Fiona’s once-victorious clutches and he flew off in the sky, leaving a cloud of smoke around Fiona and Shadow, who were both blinded and coughing.
“Ooo-hooo! Yes! I am the best! Eh… I missed one, though. Hmm… doesn’t matter, I’ll get it one way or the other! I should set a trap for them!” Eggman sneered merrily, “I’ll set them up the bomb in the Mystic Ruins!” He whistled happily as he flew quickly over the city. He then picked up an interesting signal on his radar and detoured to check it out. When he arrived he was in a large park near a lake and saw Kindarspirit resting in a tree’s shade, “Oh! Ms. Spirit! How nice to run into you here!” Eggman beamed.
“Eggman!” Kindar gasped as he rose to her feet and whipped out her laser sword’s hilt and held it defensively, “Why are you here?” she demanded, hiding her flicky bird friend behind her.
“Quite simply put, your birdie friend has something I want!” Eggman snickered, “And I’ll be taking it now!”
“Go away!” Kindar growled, extending the blade from the handle and got ready to attack, “I mean it!”
“Oh~ yeah!” Eggman scoffed, “That’s so scary! Like, I’m not expecting you to wield that or something!”
Kindar whimpered, “Go away, Eggman! I’ve had a really bad day and I don’t wanna fight anymore,”
“Aww, don’t cry now!” Eggman raised his eyebrows almost sympathetically, “Just hand over the bird and I’ll leave, how’s that sound?”
“No way!” Kindar snapped.
“Well! There’s no need to be rude about it!” Eggman huffed as he peered over at the lake, “~Chaos~!” At his call, the water creature rose from the lake and trudged heavily onto the shore and Eggman tossed him the second emerald, which caused its other arm to extend and strengthen, then the rest of its body grew a bit larger in size, “Oh! Nice one, Chaos! Take care of this pest!”
“That’s the water monster Shadow beat earlier today!” Kindar gasped, “Well, I’ll trash it too! Stay back, little bird!” The bird chirped, frightened, and hid in Kindar’s long, blonde locks as she brandished her sword towards the stoic Chaos Two. Kindar held her pose for a moment as Chaos rushed forward and swung one of its arms towards her. She rolled off to the side then ran forward and slashed her sword through its body, which did no visible damage to the creature that merely twirled around and struck her in the back, and sent her to the dirt below. Kindar growled and got up again and dusted off her now-dusty pink tennis outfit and twirled the sword around her wrist and got ready again.
Chaos leaped up into the air and tried to bring its large limbs down on the girl, but she anticipated as much and somersaulted forward, then returned to her feet and jabbed her blade through its large body, but it turned around—all the while impaled—and sent Kindar down to the ground again with a single punch. She growled and jumped back to her feet and swung the sword vertically through its head and body, causing the watery enemy to leap back in agony and receding into a puddle again. Kindar gasped, “Its head! Its head is its weak point!”
Chaos then returned up and got ready to strike again and Kindar got into a defensive pose, but the bubbly beast curled into a large ball and tackled and flattened her out on the ground and bounced a few feet to the side. Kindar grunted but returned to her feet, and panted as she then decided to go on the attack and hurled herself through the air and jabbed her sword through Chaos Two’s head, dropping him into drip once again before she crashed into the dirt for the fourth time. “This has been most amusing!” Eggman cackled, “And for making it so, I’ll let you go. (Hey! That rhymed too! I’m a poet and I didn’t even know it!) But mark my words: you won’t be so lucky next time, girl!”
Kindar gazed up weakly as Eggman beamed Chaos aboard his hovercraft and was off like a shot towards the city limits. “She’s a stubborn one! But I can’t let the opportunity to get two Chaos Emeralds go for the sake of one! I’ll have to go back for it later, but that won’t be a problem. Ishnt probably will find her and now that Chaos weakened her, she won’t be a struggle!” Eggman then arrived in the Mystic Ruins just barely ahead of Shadow and Fiona, so he made a quick dive into a nearby gully. He quickly sent Chaos into the nearby lake and made a grappling hook he had in his hovercraft and made an ad-libbed snare.
“There! We can get him while he’s parked down there!” Shadow declared, setting down Fiona and confidently leaping into the gully.
“Wait!” Fiona declared, “It’s probably a—,” But too late. Eggman laughed as his weird snare nabbed Shadow by the leg and dangled him upside-down and made him drop his two remaining Chaos Emeralds, “… a trap,” Fiona sighed, climbing carefully down into the gully as well.
“Very perceptive but a tad bit late!” Eggman laughed picking up the two other emeralds and tossing them into a nearby lake.
“You won’t keep them from us like that!” Fiona declared.
“Oh! The lake isn’t as calm as it seems! Chaos~” Eggman called out.
“Oh no,” Shadow groaned, still unable to free himself from the snare.
“Chaos?! Again?!” Fiona gasped. As she said that, the liquid beast rose from the water, now with two long arms with skeletal structures around its two respective emeralds and it then sucked in the others as well for a total of four. This time, it grew a dolphin-like tail and its hands became more pincer-like.
“Ooo! Yes! I like the new style, Chaos!” Eggman laughed with joy, “Now, kill that fat girl and her annoying husband-to-be! I have other things to attend to!” Eggman laughed as his hovercraft drifted up into the air, all the while with him laughing in it. Fiona grunted as Chaos dove deeper into the lake and the water began swallowing the entire gully. “Chaos ought to handle her!” Eggman cackled, “Then when the heifer is done with, Shadow will be hung out to dry! In the mean time, I can see how my robots are doing on the Egg Carrier!” He peered forward, seeing his massive, red vessel with his white emblem on it heading his way, “Oh! Good! They actually planned ahead for a change! Not bad! Not bad!”
Once on, Eggman headed up for the control room, cackling, “Chaos Four! He’ll shred those hedgehogs, Ishntknew will get the fifth emerald from the blonde and we’ll find the last two in no time! The world is mine!”
“Uhh… sir?” the tall, slender chicken robot, Scratch, softly mumbled, “I think I see the hedgehogs on radar!”
“What?” Eggman exclaimed, “Well, Chaos Four lost? Hmm… not a problem. Just a temporary set back! Where are they?”
“Six O’clock!” the short, teal drilling robot, Grounder, declared, “What shall we do, Dr. Robotnik?”
“Turn around and blast them with the Egg-Cannon!” Eggman laughed, “At least we’ll have some target practice!” Then, he watched as his three robotic helpers turned the ship around and fired the massive laser at the helicopter and blew off its main propeller and cackled as he watched it fall like a stone, “BEAUTIFUL!!!” Eggman screamed out in joy, “They’re dandelion fodder for certain this time!”
“What now, Dr. Robotnik?” the short red monkey, Coconuts, asked excitedly.
“Land the Egg Carrier for now. You three go aid Ishntknew in finding Kindarspirit and that birdie’s Chaos Emerald!” Eggman snickered gleefully, “I’m going to take a nap! It’s been quite a successful day and you can’t conquer the world with sleep deprivation!” His three robots did as they were told and Eggman flopped down in his bed, slid off his glasses and went to sleep. A few hours passed and a refreshed Dr. Eggman sat up in his bed and stretched, put his glasses back on and combed his mustache back into its perfect shape. Suddenly, just as peace had set in on the Egg Carrier, the phone rang. Eggman eagerly answered the phone.
“Doctor!” Ishnt’s excited voice called out, “I’m about to engage Shadow and Kindarspirit… can you get the Egg Carrier here and get ready to beam me up?”
“That’s great news! Make sure you get that emerald, Ishnt! I’m on my way!” Eggman replied, then hung up then took manual control and took the large red ship took to the air. In spite of the behemoth size of the vessel, the Egg Carrier still made excellent time to get over Ishnt just as he and the other robots had managed to capture Kindar and her bird friend and beamed them aboard. “Oh-ho!” Eggman exclaimed joyously, “You really know how to make my day, don’t you, Ishnt?”
“Well, it was easy,” Ishnt smirked, “Here’s the bird and the girl!”
“We’ll beam Chaos up from the mountain springs in the Red Mountains,” Eggman planned, “Then we’ll worry about these two, but for now, lock them in a cell and make sure they stay there this time as well! (Ooo-hooo! I am on a roll today!)”
“Certainly,” Ishnt smiled, leading Kindar and her flicky bird down the hall.
“Doctor! Doctor!” Scratch cried out from his radar screen, “There’s a biplane right by our side and Shadow and his girlfriend are on it!”
Eggman sneered and then took a microphone into his hand and announced over the PA to the two intruders, “You sure are persistent for rodents! I guess I’ll have to take care of that! Get ready for your end, Shadow! Fiona!”
“What are we gonna do?” Grounder whimpered.
Eggman set down the microphone and turned to see Ishnt having just returned from imprisoning Kindar, so he said, “Use the elevator and go give our guests a ‘warm’ welcome, Ishntknew!”
“With pleasure!” Ishnt smirked, hopping onto the round platform and being brought up and out of sight to the top deck.
Eggman sighed with frustration as he hopped up into his chair overlooking his three subordinates and reclined in his chair, “Ishntknew is the best combat model robot I’ve ever built… but something makes me think the hedgehogs are going to try to divide and conquer,”
“Sir!” Coconuts announced, “Shadow has left the deck and entered the stairwell! What should we do?”
“Just sit tight and wait for right now. We’ll deal with him when he gets here,” Eggman beamed as a new plan formed in his mind.
Shadow arrived as predicted and shouted out, “Eggman! Where’s Kindar?!” “Ahh! Shadow, you’ve come! I’m so happy to see you, but where’s your big-bellied-bride-to-be? Hm? Well, I suppose she’s around here somewhere…” Eggman snickered.
“Where’s Kindar, Eggman?!” Shadow repeated, getting more agitated.
“My! My! Where are your manners, Shadow? No, ‘hello, how are you?’ or ‘Nice day today, huh?’ just barge on in here and begin demanding things of me? How rude! Scratch! Grounder! Coconuts! Teach our guest here some respect!” Eggman laughed. The three robots hesitated only for a second before all rushing at Shadow at once. The black hedgehog was not amused, as he leaped up and delivered a harsh kick to Scratch’s chicken-like head, which sent it spinning on its neck, then punched him in the metallic stomach, hurling him back into a control panel. Next was Grounder’s turn. The tiny teal robot with drills for hands and a nose rushed at the black hedgehog, but Shadow leaped over the frontal assault, gripped the much smaller robot’s treads and tore them vicious off of him.
“Heeeey!” Grounder whined, “Those were new!” Shadow merely growled, reeled back and socked the driller bot in the face, hurling it across the room and crashing harshly into the floor. Then it was the tiny monkey robot, Coconuts’ time to fight the black hedgehog. Coconuts tried to punch Shadow but the crimson-eyed warrior turned the weak straight off to the side and then rushed an open-palm strike to the light bulb on the monkey’s head—shattering it. Coconuts then stood there, totally dazed and Shadow spun around on his air kick shoes and built up speed before unleashing a violent torrent of punches, hurling the tiny monkey back at his creator, forcing Eggman to duck and sending Coconuts into a massive monitor, which he totally shattered.
“Gragh! Hey! Watch it you home wrecking hedgehog!” Eggman shouted.
“Where’s Kindarspirit, Eggman?!” Shadow repeated a third time.
“Oh, she’s around here—somewhere—I’d imagine!” Eggman snickered.
“What did you do with her?!” Shadow yelled angrily.
“My! My! Temper, temper, Shadow!” Eggman waved a finger in the air to and fro, “Your young, blonde lady friend is quite fine, I assure you! You have my word! It’s not really her I was after as much as her little birdie friend…”
“The flicky? Why would you want that bird?” Shadow asked, surprised.
“My sensors indicated that our little, winged friend had a prized item with it—a Chaos Emerald!” Eggman laughed, “And I was just about to go and get it—and the one your girlfriend has!”
“Fiona?” Shadow gasped. Had she found the emerald and forgotten to mention it to him or did the evil scientist want him to drop his guard?
“Oh, yes, my friend! Your fat fiancée just so happened to fall right on top of the last emerald—and when Ishntknew is done with her, I’ll have six of the glorious gems!” Eggman chortled with joy.
Shadow mumbled as he knew that if he had had the Chaos Emerald he would’ve made far greater use of it than his hefty hedgie honey, but he figured she must’ve forgotten in the rush to find and stop Eggman, “Well, then! I’ll just have to stop you right now!” Shadow declared. Just as the words left his lips, Eggman’s chair lifted up and, with a large hovering platform beneath it, rose up to the main deck. Once on the top deck he saw a large hole in it behind where a very tired Ishntknew and Fiona the Hedgehog kneeled in front of the other, panting for air from their long battle, as well as Chaos Four. Immediately after him, Shadow and his friend, Knuckles the Echidna arrived from the hole they had made.
“I don’t have time for this!” Eggman yelled into the air as he rushed his hovercraft into Fiona, knocking her flat and causing her to drop her purple emerald and then Ishnt reached into his bag and took out the yellow emerald and they both were fed to the water monster. “Agh! Ishnt! You had an emerald this whole time?! Why didn’t you give it to me sooner?!” Eggman shouted in frustration.
Ishnt shrugged, “I was keeping it as a just-in-case measure, Doc. I was gonna fork it over as soon as we had the other six, but desperate times call for desperate measures!”
Knuckles grunted, “That means your friend, Kindar, has the last one!”
Shadow nodded, “Yeah! But we have bigger issues on our hands!” Shadow then skated over to his tired-out fiancée and helped her to her feet. After brief words, Fiona took off past Chaos Six and Dr. Eggman down below the deck.
“Oh! This is too rich!” Eggman laughed maniacally, “Crush them, Chaos!” Shadow and Knuckles confidently nodded to the other and began moving in towards the hulking monster together. “Where do you two think you’re going?!” Eggman laughed as his chair began shooting out strange bomb-like robots.
“Those things look kind of funny,” Knuckles commented.
“There’s smoke coming off of them?” Shadow wondered aloud, “Wait! That’s not smoke, it’s steam! They must be ice robo-bombs!”
“Ice?” Knuckles thought aloud as well, “Are you thinkin’ what I’m thinkin’, Shadow?” Shadow merely grinned as he leaped through the air and grabbed one of the ice bombs in mid-flight and kicked it into the open mouth of Chaos Six, and its entire body froze up.
“No way!” Eggman shouted, “I can’t believe this!!!”
“Now, Shadow!” Knuckles called out loud as both he and his hedgehog companion charged into the ice monster and broke it into pieces.
“No! My invincible Chaos creature got iced out of the picture?!” Eggman gasped, “Noooooooo! I was only a single emerald away from winning this time!”
Suddenly, the entire ship began to shake violently, “Hey! What’s going on?!” Knuckles gasped.
“This reeks of feminine mishap,” Shadow sighed, as he peered over his shoulder towards the door just as Fiona and Kindar (and her little bird friend) came running out of the passage. Kindar was carrying a piece of the Master Emerald, which she promptly gave to Knuckles. “Hey! The last piece! Thanks!” Knuckles grinned.
“What did you two do?!” Shadow grunted.
Fiona grinned innocently, “Well, we got into a little fight down there with Scratch, Grounder and Coconuts—and well, it was near the ship’s generator and…” she trailed off. Shadow and Knuckles stared at them, deadpan.
“No!” Eggman cried out, “It keeps getting worse! The power supply’s going haywire! I’m getting out of here!!!” Eggman turned his hovercraft around and attempted to fly away.
“You’re not going anywhere, Doc!” Shadow yelled out and began viciously skating at him. Shadow attempted to tail the doctor by using a large burst of speed to try and aid his valiant leap, but came up short and plummeted to the Mystic Ruins below.
“And it serves you right you rotten rodent!” Eggman declared, “That ship took a long time to make! Well in the mean time, I’d better lay low until the fuss dies down. I’ll regroup with Ishnt, head back to the ship, make repairs, and restart the Chaos project!” He laughed, “It’s fool-proof!” Eggman flew his hovercraft just over the jungle canopy and shot down the way until he found a small cave he could rest in and he parked his vehicle just inside of it. “Not exactly what I’m used to, but it’ll make for a shelter until things cool down around here!” He then set his seat back and propped his head up with his hands and got comfy. He closed his eyes and dozed off again.
Eggman then had a dream, a very clear vision. He saw himself standing in the midst of a huge, bustling echidna village. He looked around trying to get his bearings straight but even when it dawned on him where he was he couldn’t believe it. He wandered around and admired the primitive, yet charming architecture and eventually came upon a familiar building. The building was a prominent temple he had to fly past in order to get to the cave where he took his nap, but it looked brand new. And in front of it, stood a young echidna girl reciting a poem, “The servers are… the seven chaos. Chaos is power, and power is enriched by the heart. The controller is the one who serves to unify the chaos. So, the… ‘Chaos’… must be those jewels I found! And the… controller… is the big one in the middle of them,”
“What?” Eggman gasped, just too surprised by all of it to make a coherent statement.
“Oh?” the girl gasped as she turned and looked up at the tall doctor, “How do you do? I’m Tikal. How are you? I was just reciting a poem my mother taught me before she passed away. I think it might have something to do with those pretty jewels I found,”
“Jewels? Chaos? Are you talking about the Chaos Emeralds?” Eggman pondered.
“I don’t believe we’ve met before, what’s your name?” Tikal asked. A bright light ignited his field of vision and Eggman suddenly saw himself standing in what appeared to be outer space. He dismissed this notion as foolishness as he could breathe perfectly fine, but then saw Tikal, slightly older than the moment before, standing before him.
“What’s the meaning of all this?!” Eggman demanded.
“Eggman!” Tikal declared firmly, “You have made a terribly mistake! In your lust for power you have unleashed the terrible fury of Chaos!”
“Who are you to call yourself so pure and mighty?!” Eggman rebuked her, “I’d do it again if I had the chance! I’m Dr. Eggman—the world’s greatest living scientist! I can control Chaos itself!”
“No! You can’t!” Tikal shook her head, tears welling up in her eyes, “Chaos is using you! It wants you to believe you have control, but when he gets the Chaos Emeralds, he’ll take control of the planet for himself! He’ll destroy all the cities and kill all the innocent people—just like he did all that time ago!”
“You’re the girl who befriended Chaos!” Eggman declared, “The one I read about on the Chaos Tablet!”
“Yes, that’s right,” Tikal sobbed softly, “I tried to desperately to keep Chaos peaceful within the Master Emerald, but his heart is still burning with hatred for everything and everyone! He knew you could get him the emeralds so he used you for a while to get them! He has all the jewels but one now, Doctor! Very soon, he’ll take that last one and your dreams of an ‘empire’ will be washed away by a torrent of sorrow and anger!”
“Nobody uses Doctor Eggman and gets away with it!” Eggman stomped down his large, black-booted foot, “I’ll squash that pest and put him where he belongs!”
“No!” Tikal begged, “Don’t hurt him! We could seal him back in the Master Emerald where he couldn’t cause anymore harm! Please?!”
“No dice, little lady!” Eggman exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air, “I will make sure my empire becomes reality—even if it means going back to go forward! I’ll stop Chaos myself and splatter that dirty double-crossing drip even if it means I align myself with Shadow the Hedgehog! Mark my words girl, this means war!”
Tikal bowed her head, “I guess I can’t stop you…”
Eggman then bolted awake in his hovercraft, shook his head and looked down at his phone, which was then ringing. Eggman answered it, “Hello?”
“Good to hear you, Doc,” he heard Ishnt’s voice reply, “I’ve repaired the other robots and we’ve begun repairs to the Egg Carrier. Shall we go after Shadow next?”
“No!” Eggman declared, angrily, “We have a new target! We have to stop Chaos before it can become its ultimate form: Perfect Chaos!”

--To be continued…