Mossmask: Hello all, yes, yes, I'm here, and against my better judgment, with a new story. Gah, what was I thinking? Oh well... this has just been on my mind for so darned long, I needed to get it out into writing. Well it was, but in Greek, and in an itty bitty notebook in my bookbag, so that doesn't count. So, here y'all go, Kaos.

I do want to mention though, that 'Kaos' being spelled like that means nothing. When I was translating from my rough notes in my notebook into English for the story, I accidentally wrote it like that 'cause I was still in phonetic mode, and I didn't notice at first. Afterwards, I decided that Kaos just looked so much cooler, so the name stuck. xD

~Cya on the other side.

"Come on, Sonic! We can't let Eggman use that chaos machine of his!" Tails shouted as he ran beside Sonic. When they reached the end off the hallway, Sonic quickly spin dashed the door, revealing a huge chamber. Sonic noted as he and Tails fell in that the door he had jst demolished somehow managed to close again behind them, creating a seal.

Sonic stood and looked around. He saw Amy, yelling something at him from behind a thick glass wall. He ran over to where she was, raising his hand to touch the glass. It must have been sound proof or something, because he couldn't hear a word she was saying. He could feel it was thick, but a spin dash should still be able to-- he suddenly noticed her shouting, and pointing at something behind him, at the same time he heard Tails shout his name.

"Sonic!"

Sonic spun around just in time to dodge a laser blast, mostly. The red-hot energy beam managed to graze his shoulder, and he reached up to grab the already cauterized wound. "Hey! Watch where you're firing that thing! Somebody might get hurt." Sonic realized how stupid that last sentence was almost the instant it was out of his mouth. He doubted anyone would be firing lasers in the first place if they hadn't intended on someone being hurt by them.

"That's the idea." Eggman replied, confirming Sonic's thoughts. He was sitting behind another glass panel on the opposite side of the room, apparently controlling the wall mounted lasers, all of which were now aimed in Sonic's direction.

Sonic jumped easily out of the way as another was fired in his direction. Now that he could see where they were coming from, he had no problem dodging. The only reason he'd gotten hit the first time was because he'd been caught off guard. He faked a yawn as he dodged another beam of light, and rolled his eyes.

"Come on, getting a little slow, aren't we?" He asked, risking closing his eyes for a moment.

"Apparently I'm not the only one." Eggman shot back as another beam hit home, impacting just above Sonic's knee.

Green eyes snapped open, and then quickly narrowed hatefully. "Yeah, yeah." He spat. "Whatever. Now come on, I'm getting bored. This is where you're supposed to tell me what your big, evil plan is, and I ruin it for you and save the day."

"Yes, about that." Eggman said suddenly, taking on an apologetic tone. "Terribly sorry, Sonic my boy, but it seems there's been a slight change in plans. You see, my Ultimate Chaos Device, or 'big, evil plan' as you put it, is already complete. There's nothing left for you to do here, so I'm afraid you and your friends will all have to go."

"Well then I'm afraid that you're sorely mistaken. 'Cause as long as you got yourself a big...chaos...machine...of doom, then there's always gonna be something for me to do about it."

"Well, I suppose there is one thing." Eggman said, suddenly grinning. "If you'd be so kind as to hand over the last chaos emerald?"

"Ha." Sonic shot back. "Fat chance."

"Yes," Eggman sighed, "I suspected you'd say something like that, so..." He pressed a button on the console he was sitting at, and a large machine began to raise up out of the floor in the centre of the room. It looked like a giant cylinder on top of a cylinder, almost like a super sized, vertical telescope. It had what looked like a typical laser rifle mounted on top, the only difference being the seven platforms surrounding it. On each one a chaos emerald was mounted, except for the last one, which was left empty.

Sonic suddenly felt a tug from inside his quills, and suddenly grabbed for his chaos emerald. It was a good thing that he did when he did, because it was definitely trying to make it's own way over to the pedestal.

It was then that Sonic realized two things. The first being that whatever this machine was, it was somehow summoning the chaos emeralds, something he had thought could only be done by him or Shadow when they went Super, and the other, being brought on by the first though, that he was currently in a room with all seven chaos emeralds.

He grinned, and as he grabbed onto the chaos emerald in his hands, evidently, it was the red one, even tighter, and tried calling out to the others. He promptly collapsed onto the floor, with a feeling akin to that of grabbing onto an electric fence at the zoo. He would know.

He was vaguely aware of Tails calling out to him, confused and concerned as ever, and Eggman laughing from somewhere, saying something about relative chaos energies, energy walls, and the likes. Sonic quickly tuned them out, and focused instead on the emerald he was still gripping.

It was still letting energy into him, he realized, slightly surprised by this fact. The energy was mostly warm, but there was still that sharp edge, though not as strong as when he'd tried to call on all the emeralds at once.

He tried reaching out with his mind for the other emeralds, slowly at first, then slightly stronger when he couldn't feel anything. It was like time had stopped around him, he could hear Tails or Eggman at all anymore, couldn't see Amy in her glass jail behind him. He was still aware of them, ready in case they tried anything, but it was like time had slowed, and the only things that existed anymore where himself and the chaos emeralds.

His body actually jerked back when he tapped into the first emerald, the cyan one, and he accidentally lost it. Catching himself, he tried again, this time prepared for the shock. He braced himself, and as he tried to take the emeralds energy, he could feel it pushing against him, fighting for control. Whatever had happened, he realized, these emeralds weren't going to release their power to him. They had completely blocked him out.

He looked back down at the red emerald, still in his hands. It was giving off a faint red glow, still freely giving it's energy to him. Whatever was affecting the emeralds, he reasoned, must e connected with the pedistals.

Suddenly he turned to Eggman. "What did you do to the chaos emeralds?" He snapped.

Eggman paused for a moment, looking positively stunned, then the moment passed and he looked rather furious instead. "HAVEN'T YOU BEEN PAYIN ATTENTION TO ANYTHING I'VE BEEN SAYING?!" He shouted.

Sonic shook his head. "No." He answered truthfully.

Eggman growled and lowered his head into his hands, moaning. Finally, he looked up again. "Fine, it doesn't matter. What matters," He raised his finger over another button, "is this." He slammed his fist down on the button. Instantaneously, the machine started up, the chaos emeralds becoming a glowing swirl of colours as they rotated around the main device, the 'gun-looking-thing', as Sonic aptly named it, just that moment.

He could feel the tug on the red chaos emerald suddenly increase tenfold, and actually cried out as he tried to retain his grip to it.

He saw, out of the corner of his eye, Eggman staring at him, actually looking shocked, as the emerald literally dragged Sonic towards the machine.

"What's that blue fool doing?" He shouted, slamming his fist on the console. "If he doesn't let go, he'll merge with the emeralds!"

"Like when he goes Super?" Asked a stunned Tails, not really paying attention to the fact that it was Eggman he was talking to, and just staring intently as his brother began to pick up a red glow, and was literally dragged, thrashing, across the room, still not giving up his emerald.

"No! It's nothing like when he goes Super! The emeralds only lend him their energy! The chaos emerald is actually trying to absorb his own energies, and merge with him!"

"What's gonna happen?" Shouted Tails, suddenly turning on the surprised doctor.

"I have no idea! It'll probably just kill him and break the machine, but I really couldn't say!"

Tails looked stunned for a moment, then somehow found his voice again. "Well stop it then!"

"I couldn't, even if I wanted to!"

Eggman, Tails, and Amy all watched in awe as the glowing hedgehog was pulled, writhing, ever nearer the Ultimate Chaos Device, trying to curl into a protective ball around the emerald, and not having much success in this, and the emeralds seemed to be the ones dictating his movements more than anything at the moment.

_ _ _ _ _

Meanwhile in the centre of the room, Sonic was having a different experience entirely. This, he concluded, was certainly not like touching the electrical fences at the zoo. He could feel chaos energy, which must have been at least 20 times stronger, or more potent, or...or deadlier, or, well whatever, than plain old electricity. And Sonic was currently having six emeralds worth of that coursing through him.

Strangely enough, the red emerald he was still holding was trying to put up some defence against it, and defend Sonic. He could feel a comforting warmth surrounding his hands, while the rest of his body seizured from the amounts of pure chaos energy currently inside of him.

He felt detached from the rest of his body, and tried to centre in on that warmth. He wanted to just curl up and let the red emerald protect him, but found that he was no longer master of his limbs. They thrashed wildly, paying no heed to the messages he tried to send. Then Sonic learned a whole new meaning for the word 'pain.' He was suddenly inside of the machine, in the very centre of it.

The six emeralds now spun around him, incessantly. Trying to force their energies upon him, yet his body was unwilling to accept it. Neither side willing to relent, he stood there, stock still, ragged breath catching, unable to do much more than that as the chaos battle raged inside of him. His fingers were tingling, beginning to become numb, where he still tried to hold onto the seventh emerald. Finally, his grip slipped as the pulling increased, and he felt a jolt run though him as the final emerald joined the insane glowing circle of light surrounding him.

Sonic felt like his body was being torn apart. Which in a sense, it was. His own, personal chaos energies, were being rearranged. And the red emerald was having problems of it's own. It was being called to by both this machine and Sonic. Both with it with equal fervor. Finally, the emerald reached it's breaking point, evidently, this was just about the same as Sonic's, and as the hedgehog suddenly fell limp inside the machine, the red emerald shattered in half. One half reached out to him, searching for his final shred of consciousness, and clinging to it. As it began to fade again, inside the hedgehog, the emerald went with it, vanishing as it joined with the hedgehog, and the other fell into formation, completing the circle of emerald, to complete the machine.

As the three spectators saw all these goings on, something else happened. Suddenly, in a bright flash of light, the six and a half remaining emeralds suddenly began to glow like sever, err, six and a half, suns, and as they shielded heir eyes, they heard a loud whine as the machine was pushed into operation. With an even brighter light, the not-quite-seven emeralds joined together directly above Sonic, and the large chaos beam at the front was completely charged.

It should be noted, here, that the purpose of a chaos beam is to create an assortment of chaos based energies, chaos control and chaos blast to name a few. It should also be noted, that a properly functioning chaos beam should not create both simultaneously, and, due to lack of half of an emerald, cause both of these events inside the remaining piece, which has evidently become part of a hedgehog. Finally, it should be said, that this particular chaos beam decided to do the latter.

Oh, quick question, anyone here going to Anime North this year? Normally, I would assume that nobody lives anywhere near me, so chances are we'd never end up going to the same events, but I was just wondering, 'cause Anime North is the biggest animecon ever and people come from all over the world. PM me if your going, 'cause that'd be cool, just knowing that someone else from this site was there.

~Mossmask Out