Chaos Within

[Espio]

Espio uncloaked himself as he reached the apex of the building, soaring upwards with a leap. He flung a shuriken in the direction of the shadow bird closest to Gail. However, the creature had already made a dive torwards the growing mass of enemies. The ninja lands on his feet beside Gail, left hand on the ground as he crouches down to take a look at the scene, a scowl on his face as the creatures begin to unite. What was supposed to be a infiltration and retrivial mission was rapidly turning into a full scale battle. Just what were these ominous creatures? Did the doctor summon them, and they went out of control? Or was it Mammoth?

"This is bad. Sonic had told me about a similar incident last night, while we were exchanging tales of our adventures.", he said pointing at the mass. "Remember when station square got flooded by Chaos?", he said as he got to his feet. "If we leave this thing as is, theres no telling what kind of damage its capable of if it goes on a rampage."

He then looked over to take a good look at the growing blob, making out...rather familiar glints. His eyes widened in surprise. "The emerald shards are in that thing?", he asked the canine. "If shards of the wrong color collide-", he said trailing off. The elder of the village had explained the hazards of emerald shards to all ninja assigned to searching for and retriving shards. It wasn't prerry when two shards of the wrong color meet. That creature had SEVERAL assorted shard types on it.

He pushed his worries out of his head, and took a deep breath to clear his mind. Not only was his mission in jeprody; so was his life, the life of his comraudes, and the lives of everyone in Robotropolis. He'd need a clear head to handle this. "We've got to take that thing down now. If we don't, Robotropolis won't be the only thing thats going to be wiped out of existance in the next few minutes!", he shouted, drawing one of his larger shuriken. Just in time too, as Mammoth was approaching. He was going to let it fly, but Mammoth's tone of voice seemed to imply he wasn't there to attack them. He slackened his stance somewhat, keeping one eye trained on Mammoth, the other on the growing shadow creature down at street level. "Is this your doing?", Espio called back, holding his weapon in his right hand, held back and ready to sling.

[Alpha Omega]

Omega's eyes seemed to be locked on the growing mass of shadows, particularly on the bits of emeralds located within it. He didn't know what would happen if they joined together, or even that they could, simply that they were in plain view of everyone on the battlefield. He glanced up and down the street once more, and was about to start running toward the beast, when Mogul's shouting grabbed his attention. He stopped, looking up at him.

An elephant? In a suit? In this kind of chaos? What is he doing here?

[Gail Strafer]

While the group gathered at the low building down the street, the gigantic shadow blob began to transform. It stretched from a spherical shape into more of a long oval. On the ends of the oval, four leg-like appendages began to take form. As the legs appeared, the blob stood up off of the ground with its weight on its new legs. On one end of the stretched sphere, a large, pointed lizard-like tail formed into shape. Meanwhile, on the "front" a head started to appear. The head formed a long snout up front. Even though the mouth wasn't fully formed yet, it uttered a very low-pitched, but also very loud growl from deep inside its body.

The hideous new creature didn't make a move to approach its combatants, but that probably would change once the transformation completed.

---

Quote: "We are GOING to need BIGGER guns!!"

When Chadin mentioned that, Gail looked down at his rocket launcher. Funny...and to think he thought he was unstoppable with this thing. Just like fate to send him a creature that made his new gun look downright puny.

"I don't know where we WOULD get them from, Chadin! Shoot, I don't even think my bazooka's going to be enough for this!"

Espio then landed right beside Gail, briefly causing him to stumble backwards in surprise. The wolf briefly felt both frightened and yet awed by the ninja appearing right beside him. If anyone could make the situation better, Gail for sure felt it could be a friendly ninja. Espio shared what he knew about their current situation, based on what he'd heard from Sonic.

Quote:"Remember when station square got flooded by Chaos?", Espio said as he got to his feet. "If we leave this thing as is, theres no telling what kind of damage its capable of if it goes on a rampage."

That sent Gail into a slight tremble.

No...he just ended up telling us things are even worse...

"Chaos? This thing is like CHAOS?" While Gail had only seen news reports of the incident, the images he saw chilled him to the bone. It levelled Station Square and killed thousands of people before Super Sonic defeated it. Gail prayed that he would never, ever meet a creature like the water god Chaos, but it looked like today was his unlucky day. "And it's only got like...what...two, three emeralds inside of him? I just can't imagine what it'd be like if he had MORE of them!"

It was then that Mammoth called out to them, getting their attention. Like the others, Gail felt completely baffled by his appearance. A giant elephant running around in Robotropolis wearing a nice suit, and he just happens to show right up when things are at their worst. Gail had never seen or heard of this guy before. Espio was not alone in his thinking when he accused Mammoth of creating this creature.

"So...you know this guy Espio? How?"

Meanwhile he kept looking back and forth between Mammoth and the rapidly-forming creature. While the transformation gave them a brief reprieve, Gail doubted it would last much longer.

[Mammoth Mogul]

Mammoth stopped once he was close enough to the building, satisfied that they could speak with each other without shouting excessively. "That depends upon which precise meaning you are referring to." Mogul replied to Espio's query.

"If you are somehow implying that I had a hand in creating our current predicament, then indirectly, yes. Though I suspect that the drama unfolding before you would have happened regardless of my involvement. However if you seek to imply that this is all somehow part of my plans, then you are sorely mistaken. Despite our numerous encounters over the years, I should think even you would realize that destroying an entire plane of existence is hardly conducive as ruling over one. For once, our goals our allied. Neither of us want to see this world destroyed but none of us stand a chance against such a creature alone. Speaking of which, I see you've acquired new compatriots, where is the rest of the Chaotix?"

[Dr. Robotnik]

As good ol' Rampage acted like good ol' Rampage in immediately levelling his gun at Jii, Robo suddenly forgot about the shadow monster and almost relaxed for a second. Dealing with his own personal monster was a nice reprieve from looking at the bigger one down the street. Anyway, the doctor gently pushed the rifle's barrel away from Jii.

"Rampage, please, she may be a Freedom Fighter, but I think now's a good time for a temporary truce, don't you? You'd do a lot more good if you pointed your gun that way."

He pointed a soot-covered glove at the morphing shadow creature down the street. The doctor actually did a double take for a second. It sure didn't look like that a second ago. It almost looked like it was turning into a dragon...or a dinosaur...or something. In any case, he would need to help out as well. This was his city, after all.

He jiggled several switches on his mini mecha's control panel. Sparks erupted as he made adjustments, but he paid them little mind. Finally, he twisted a handle several times, as the mecha made a sound like a car trying to turn over. Finally though, the electric engine running the mecha hummed back to life. Satisfied, he briefly turned to Jii.

"Madam, would you please get down? I don't think this is a ride fit for a lady."

[Chadin]

I slapped my face in frustration as Espio brought up the Station Square event. Once more, I was on the outside looking in. "Chaos who? Station what?" I grumbled. I couldn't begin to describe how frustrating it is to be apparently the only person here who didn't know about what he was referring to. Of course, judging by the description of apocalyptic doom did go a long way in convincing me that regardless of the details that this thing needed to be stopped, and in a hurry.

"Ugh... Never mind, how do we stop that thing?" Just the, Mogul appeared and began to converse with Espio, regarding the rest of us somewhere between indifferent and condesending. Once again, I had no idea who this might be, but he seemed to have a history with Espio, for good or bad. Something told me I'd need to have a nice long chat with Espio after this is all over.

"Look! If you know how to beat this thing, than just tell us already!! That things not getting any smaller!!" I shouted down at the elephant angrily. Seriously, it's like we spend more time talking than actually doing anything around here!

[Jijeka-Te]

Ji didn't have to be told twice. She jumped off with a stylish backflip, opened her frills, and glided. She chose a wide flight path that circled the giant creature that'd recently decided to take up space in the center of everything, which from what she could gather was probably a bad thing to have around. As she glided, she scanned the thing for possible weaknesses.

Looking up, Anu spotted her. "Your Highness! Down here!" he called, and she dropped and reunited with him.

(Ji) "Good to see you're in one piece, Anu."
(Anu) "I feel the same way about you, Your Majesty. What happened to?"
(Ji) "...I don't think I have time to explain right now."

[Rampage]

"Ugh... fine, go ahead and spoil my fun, Doc." Rampage grumbled as he raised his weapon and leaned it rakishly against his shoulder. As she flew off, Rampage watched in dismay. Every time the doctor gives him an order like that it always means an inconceivable amount of headaches for him later. Usually right after the Freedom Fighters out wit whatever double cross Robotnik has in store for them and by then it's too late for Rampage to counter it and then HE gets to listen to Robotnik complain about his inept performance in the field etc, etc.

Of course, on the other hand, as frustrating as losing is, setbacks also mean that the fight's not over; and if there was any possible way Rampage could possibly lose, it's by having one side or another actually win. So, okay, he'll put up with Robotnik's terrible judgement, if only because it means he can keep doing what he loves most.

"So? Got any spare nukes I can borrow?" Rampage asked with an impish grin as he glanced between the doctor and the enormous dragon-lizard-blob-thing.

[Espio]

Espio had a skeptical look on his face as Mammoth proposed a truce. Sure, neither side wanted the other to get their hands on the shards, but neither party wanted the fabric of this twisted world to unravel entirely in the process. He gave a nod in Mammoth's direction. "I've yet to encounter the others in this new world. For that matter, theres no telling if they would be the same chaotix from my own dimension.", Espio merely said, making small talk to cover the time he needed to come up with a plan of attack.

"If we make it out of this in one piece, I'll gladly fill you in, Gail. Long story short, he's here for the emeralds, and he won't be using them for anything good, believe me.", he said as he looked over the battlefield. Alpha was looking up at them from street level. "Good..., he doesn't appear to have been noticed yet.", he thought to himself. He heard the sound of one of the doctor's mecha booting itself up, it appeared he was back in the fight as well. And was that....the queen down there? By the time the battle is over, she would need to be out of the doctor's reach. Prisonors were NOT going to be listed in his mission report. He returns his glance briefly to Alpha, and then at the creature at street level. Among the group, no one else was going to come up with a plan. Gail was rightfully terrified, Chadin was too impatient, Mammoth probably has several plans in mind, all of them more than likely involving using them as sacrificial pawns. Ji and Anu were seperated, and who knows what the doctor was up to. For once, it was Espio's turn to take lead of a group. Now to see if they listened...

"Okay, listen up.", he said pointing at the creature, giving Alpha a long range signal on what to do. Espio was pointing at a specific cluster of emerald shards, on the right side. Hopefully on defeat of the creature, Alpha would be able to salvage some of the shards there by keeping an eye on them. Of corse...that was only if the hedgehog got the hint.

"Here's our gameplan. Chaos is the guardian god of the chao. He enhances himself by consuming emeralds. Upon observation, this thing seems to work on similar mechanics.", Espio explained. "Gail. Chadin. You two keep on the roofs, and fire at where the emerald clusters are gathered. They should be weak spots that will distract the creature. Keep the skies secure, if that thing sends out more of those birds."

"Mammoth. Can you keep it busy by attacking its sides?", the chameleon asked. Among all of them, he would be able to attack it at close range without fear of a counter attack. He -knew- what he was capable of. "Sonic was able to beat the fully evolved Chaos by boosting into it, and attacking the brain like area at the head several times. This creature is much smaller by comparison, so I might be able to attack it in much the same fashion.", he said looking at the street below. It was mostly clear, save for debris. "I'll need a running start to get going, and I'll need most of the attention off of me.", he said, letting the pieces of his plan fall into place. "I lack the running stamina of a certain blue hedgehog, so I won't be able to cloak myself, and ensure that I keep up a full sprint at the same time. Keep it distracted.", he says approaching the edge of the building. "Does everyone understand their roles?", he asked.

[Alpha Omega]

Watching Espio's hand signals wasn't entirely clear, but Omega got the idea to keep an eye on the shards. He scrambled a bit further down the street, constantly ducking around corners, doing his best to avoid the attention of the creature.