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Sonic the Hedgehog: Chaos Control Freaks

Chapter 1: Warped

The moon doesn't produce its own light. It merely reflects the light of the sun. So it is therefore possible for the inhabitants of this world to see it.

This world...no name, no designation, just...the world. A simple planet orbiting a simple star in a simple corner of the galaxy. A planet which receives the golden glow of sun at day, and the silver brilliance of moon and star at night. Such as this one. A night of full moon and many stars...most sources emitting light of their own, one reflecting it, yet also the most brilliant. It is light that is reflected even further, off a lake residing in the Mystic Ruins.

It is light that cuts through the darkness.

There are many on this world that understand these principles of light reflection and refraction. Some even know the principles of that which the light is cutting through. Some however, does not constitute all, or even most. The purple cat, awoken from his innocent slumber by the blaze of a siren, is one of them. Even if his mind is safe in its ignorance, his ears and eyes and sharp, and he quickly detects the source-the tower. No name, no purpose, just...the tower. It sprung up in a matter of days, but as it has had no effect on the area apart from the scenery, he has thought little of it. So even now, when it's emitting this awful wail, he gives it little thought. Heck, maybe it's done him a favour. A chance to do late night fishing.

If he only knew that the tower was part of an actual base...a base named Chaos Control. And its purpose was to do anything but do the inhabitants of this world favours. Inhabitants who, among them, include individuals who are willing to do what it takes to ensure that these unfavourable acts do not come to pass. So fishing as he does, the cat neither hears or sees what is happening...what is about to happen...

Lights shine from the tower, illuminating its cold, hard surface and the cleared land before it-a killzone. A killzone free of any vegetation that an attacker could use to sneak up on the facility. A killzone in which Egg Tanks are rolling forward towards to provide the first line of defence, while gun and missile turrets rise from the base itself. A killing ground. An impenetrable defence. A wall of laser, bullet and missile, making Chaos Control impregnable. An unmovable object. An object that begs the question as to what will happen to it when met with an unstoppable force?

As the force makes its way towards the object, the answer will soon be granted.

The cat doesn't know this. He doesn't know that this will be both the first...and last battle. He does not know that this planet will be spared tyranny, only for that tyranny and its history to be repeated elsewhere. He does not know that he will be there to see, if not comprehend it. He does not know that the age of heroes is coming to an end.

But as the force meets the object, as the first rounds of fire and fury are released, it is clear that this age has saved its best for last.

The tanks fired, the turrets took aim, the missiles launched...and Sonic the Hedgehog couldn't be happier.

Alright, maybe he could have been a bit happier, but he wasn't about to speculate on that. All his speculative ability was on how and why Eggman thought that the same old tactics of mass firepower were going to keep him out of Chaos Control. Heck, he could have stormed it any time, it was just that only now, as the doctor's plan drew to a close, that circumstances left him without option. Which wasn't that bad actually. Eggman would be defeated but escape, would think of some other harebrained scheme and life could go on just the way Sonic liked it.

Alright, maybe life could be a bit better. It was a given that the Egg Tanks would miss, but did they have to stir up so much dirt when their rounds hit everything but their actual target?

The "target," as the machines no doubt categorized him as, was 1 metre tall, 35 kilograms, 15 years old, mainly blue bar his emerald eyes and among other things, capable of travelling faster than any living thing on this planet and pretty much any non-living thing as well. That, and a personality that revelled in the nomadic life his speed could bring, ensured that as he evaded the gunfire, as he avoided death without a thought of what the concept meant, he was grinning the entire time. Not exactly arrogant, simply confident in the knowledge that history had never deviated from the norm. So he smiled when the Egg Tanks missed. He sniggered when dozens of missiles were launched from the base, soaring up into the night sky so the cameras in their warheads could get a better fix on his position (or something, Tails could explain it better). And even as the angels of death rained down behind him, even as he bounded off the Egg Tanks and cleared Chaos Control's fence, even as he entered a second killzone of crossfire rather than point fire, Sonic had only one question on his mind...

...is this all Eggman can throw at me?

Ducking under a stream of laser, only to jump over a missile that missed and took out a gun turret, Sonic resisted the urge to turn back and try again...when Eggman had a defence that could actually challenge him. As useless as the mad scientist was in achieving his goals (taking over the world and eradicating his arch nemesis. Neither goal was mutually exclusive), he had managed to do what no-one in history had ever managed to do...collect the seven Chaos Emeralds. Mysterious gems of unlimited power, it was said that if one had all seven...well, Sonic didn't know. Despite his boasts earlier in the day, despite his claims that world domination was finally within his grasp, the hedgehog suspected that even Eggman didn't fully understand what he was wielding. To the doctor, the emeralds were a means to an end. To Sonic, they were an excuse to storm Chaos Control, rescue his friends that the tyrant had captured for bargaining and crack Eggman's latest harebrained scheme. Preferably, but not necessarily in that order.

Well, whatever. As Sonic approached the base of the tower, he suspected this little adventure wouldn't last long enough for order to matter.

The challenger was making progress. Yet the defender would keep his crown.

Metaphorically of course. The defender had no crown, and even once he took his rightful place as ruler of this miserable world, he wasn't keen on wearing one either. Indeed, it was the process of achieving victory rather than victory itself that mattered to him. In ideal circumstances, he might let this struggle go on longer, to let the hedgehog and his friends fight the "good fight" and all that nonsense. But as enjoyable as that struggle was, it was still missing something...the thrill of actually winning. A thrill that would only be granted once, hence why the defender was willing to take his time to achieve it. But all good things had to come to an end and finally, he had the means to do so. It was time to end this.

Glancing at his energy amplifier, the scientist knew he finally had the means to do so. All seven Chaos Emeralds had been collected, and only the seventh had yet to be inserted. A bit of calibration, a bit of adjustment and soon his forces would be invincible. If Sonic knew what was good for him, he'd take such a moment as a sign to back off. If he didn't know what was good for him, which the doctor hoped he didn't, he'd finally have the opportunity to seize victory beyond mere domination...a victory that came with the thrill of crushing an opponent in both body and spirit. All he had to do was to hold off the hedgehog long enough and-...

"Doctor Eggman! Sonic's breached our last line of defence!"

Scowling, the scientist walked over to one of his mechanical assistants, not sparing it a second glance. He hadn't expected Chaos Control's defences to stop the hedgehog, but he hadn't counted on them being this useless either. Either Sonic's speed was improving, or his technological prowess was declining.

Neither possibility was appealing.

"Alright then..." the doctor murmured, pressing a button on the console in front of him displaying a 12. "If we can't blow him, we'll crush him..."

"We, sir?"

"Yes, we!" the future ruler snapped. "We in that you and Bocoe are going to initiate the lockdown! Now get to it before I set the E-12s on you as well!"

"Yes doctor!"

"Right away doctor!"

Loyalty...whether it was from fear or true dedication didn't really matter. Come sunset tomorrow, the difference would be academic.

With a grin as wide as his moustache, Doctor Eggman couldn't wait.

Man...I know Eggman is as useless as a red light in slowing me down, but come on...

It disillusioned Sonic that he'd been reduced to making quips so quickly, that he was wasting material on himself rather than on the doctor. If Chaos Control was defended adequately, his mind might have been occupied on how to stay alive. But having got past the defences' killzone, that was no longer an issue. He was less than a hundred metres from Chaos Control itself, and the only question right now was to ask-...

Crash!

...how to get past the pair of E-12s.

Sonic screeched to a halt, looking up at the six metre tall bi-pedal metal monstrosities that had burst out of the ground. Mass produced robots of Eggman's E-Series, incredibly strong, incredibly resilient and one of the few types of robot that Sonic and his friends not only encountered on a regular basis, but could actually put up a fight. A fight that the hedgehog decided in an instant, wasn't going to be fought. Not yet at least. Taking a left turn, with the robots in hot pursuit, Sonic admitted that Eggman had to come first. His toys were a distant second.

Or not so distant, as the pair engaged boosters on their backsides and gave chase.

Boosters? Come on, you could at least fly rather than look like roller-blading behemoths...

Sonic glanced back at the robots...or robot, as it became as one of the two veered off as the hedgehog approached one of the main entrances to Chaos Control. He couldn't blame it, given the relatively low height of the arch. Picking up the pace, he zoomed through, entering the sterile confines of Eggman's base. Either the E-12 would come to a halt, or crash into the wall. Sonic didn't care which.

Crash!

Scratch that...he did care. Cared because the E-12 had lowered its upper section as if kneeling forward, yet not slowing down at all. It was still tall enough to do a number on the ceiling, yet short enough to potentially do a number on its target as well.

Eggman must be desperate...the hedgehog reflected, seeing himself reflected as well on the E-12's single red lens that served as its eyes. Thinks that resorting to collateral damage is going to stop-...

Crash!

...me.

The first E-12 had torn up the ceiling. The second E-12, the one that had veered off earlier, had smashed through a wall.

"Hey, that's my job!" Sonic exclaimed, still bearing down on the newly emerged E-12, though coming to realize that while he wasn't exactly between a rock and a hard place, he'd entered the realm that only footballs on the fifty yard line understood. One E-12 behind him, another E-12 in front of him and while he could at least knock one of them back with a spin, the other would still crash into him. It was an unpleasant situation, and as the second robot made itself take up as much of the hall as possible, it was clear its programming recognised that as well. What it hadn't realized however, was that there was a side entrance leading back outside. A side entrance that at the last second, Sonic steered himself through, out of the N-zone.

A sickening crash filled the hallway and the hedgehog grinned. Right now, he felt he had a right to. Certainly not like the ugly mug of Eggman right in front of him. An ugly mug that suddenly shot up into the air as the hedgehog passed over it. Sonic let out a yell as he flew up into the night sky. This was just humiliating.

"Target acquired."

Sonic opened his eyes, seeing a third E-12 having followed him into the air, using its boosters in a sensible manner. Sensible in that using them to propel themselves after their enemy was useless. Using them to actually fly however, with their enemy currently unable to evade them, was another. It was a manoeuvre that Sonic knew was going to work.

Uh-oh...

The hedgehog let out another yell as the E-12's fist made contact, sending him flying through the night sky. He was out of the fifty yard zone, but was heading to left field.

Glancing back at Chaos Control, steadily becoming further and further away, Sonic couldn't help but wonder how much time there was left in the game...and whether upon landing he'd still be able to play in it.

"Sonic!"

Miles "Tails" Prower liked to consider himself intelligent. He was a fox for starters, albiet a two tailed one and the most common compliment he got from people was "child genius." An exaggeration in his humble opinion, yet he still accepted that he was good with machines, creating devices that even Eggman had yet to conceive. So now, flying in a bi-plane called the Tornado, the rational part of Tails's mind pointed out that flying over Chaos Control, its defences still brimming with everything but the kitchen sink, was a foolish thing to do. The rest of his mind however, told the rational part to take a hike. Sonic, his best and first friend was in trouble. Any risk in getting Sonic out of trouble was academic.

So, taking the Tornado across Chaos Control, Tails prepared to save his friend and hopefully not get shot down in the process.

Keeping his eyes on the hedgehog, still able to see him against the blues and blacks of night, Tails weighed his options. Sonic was well able to survive drops that would incapacitate a normal person, but those jumps were made with the hedgehog in control. Here, it was clear that Sonic had been sent into the air without any control at all and would thus likely land accordingly in the trees of the Mystic Ruins based on his height, speed and trajectory. It was difficult to bring maths into this while his friend was in trouble, but Tails was able to calculate that he should be able to catch Sonic based on the distance and height between them along with their comparative speeds. All that was required of him was to brave the gauntlet of Chaos Control and hope he wasn't shot down.

All right...here it goes...

Gritting his teeth, Tails flew the gauntlet, not taking his eyes off the proverbial ball. He flew as the guns blazed. He flew as bullets and lasers tore up the air around him. He even flew as some bullets found their mark in the Tornado, ripping through metal and-...

"Ah!"

The Tornado wasn't a boat, but it was certainly being rocked. It wasn't sinking, but the effects of the impacts had caused it to lose speed and altitude. And hearing the exclamation of his passenger, Tails could understand why.

"Tails, there's smoke! The plane's on fire!"

Gritting his teeth even harder and nearly biting his tongue due to the plane's vibrations, the fox glanced back at his passenger and the source of her distress. Sometimes, Amy Rose the Hedgehog could be a source of distress herself, at least for Sonic in her strange belief that they were an item. However, Amy wasn't the problem this time. What was the problem, as the pink hedgehog had pointed out, was that the plane was on fire, smoke and flame belching out.

Great. Just great...

"Tails?" the hedgehog asked, clearly on the verge of panic. "What are we gonna do?"

"We'll be fine," the fox murmured. "Just hang on..."

He had to give Amy credit, given the lack of panic. Her ability to bring a mallet to her hands at a whim tended to grant her confidence that might otherwise be lacking. Tails however possessed no such hammer and even if he did, he'd need a dozen other tools to fix the Tornado. And besides, that wasn't his primary concern. The two were out of the gauntlet, but the damage had reduced the plane's height and speed. Sonic however, still had speed if not height. It was clear even without using triangulation that the Tornado couldn't reach him in time.

But a missile could...

It would be risky and pretty much the opposite of shooting fish in a barrel. But right now, with his life in danger and more importantly, Sonic's, Tails saw no other option. Swinging the Tornado around, the fox drew his breath and fired. Fired at where he hoped Sonic would land and would be able to take advantage of the flying Pandora's Box. Not filled with hope, but something far more substantial. Something that burst out of the projectile and continued its journey to its destined owner...

...a power ring.

Ignoring the increasing sputter in the Tornado's propeller and the build-up of heat on the opposite end of the plane, Tails watched. Watched the nothingness as both Sonic and the ring disappeared under the tree line. Watched with horror at the possibility that his best friend had missed his lifeline and was lying on the ground, body and spirit broken. Watched, his spirits rising, as a blue light formed under the trees, quickly blossoming into a white one like a flower emerging from a bud. Watched as a bud of a very different kind emerged not to the sun, but to Chaos Control. A bud using the chaos energy of the power ring to his advantage, going into a super spin. Watched, his teeth now displayed in a smile, as Sonic tore through the defences of Chaos Control, unstoppable.

"He's all right..." Amy breathed, having clearly seen everything Tails had. "Sonic's all right!"

Tails nodded. His friend was safe. Filled with chaos energy, Sonic would be unstoppable for a short amount of time, but that was all that was needed for him to crack Eggman's defences and pour the yolk out of the base's shell. Now, safe in his knowledge, he could worry about something else...

...saving his own skin.

Sonic was incredible.

Never mind the fact that the Tornado was on fire. Never mind that the bi-plane was steadily losing altitude while keeping its speed dangerously constant. Never mind that the imminent landing would be anything but controlled. Right now, Amy Rose didn't care about any of this and indeed, was barely aware of it. All that mattered was that Sonic had avoided a fall of his own, having absorbed the energy of the power ring. Someday the time would come when he gave her a ring of her own, but until then, she was content to watch her boyfriend tear through Chaos Control's defences as if they were nothing. Which, compared to Sonic, they were...

Sonic, you're so dreamy when you're like this... the hedgehog thought to herself, losing sight of her loved one as his spin carried him through one of the tower's searchlights, entering the base proper. Is there anything you can't-...

"Hold on Amy!"

Amy blinked, and not because of the smoke around her. Tails's exclamation had drawn her back to reality, along with the Tornado's low altitude. Once again, fate had conspired to keep her and Sonic further apart...or rather Eggman, but that seemed beside the point right now.

Sometimes, the mind had to overrule the heart.

"Keep a steady grip!" Tails yelled, not turning around to face his passenger. "Landing's going to be bumpy!"

Gritting her teeth, closing her eyes and accepting that Sonic wouldn't be able to be her knight in shining armour this time, Amy followed suit, grasping the sides of her passenger seat and wishing it had a seatbelt. Although deprived of sight, her other senses indicated that she hadn't been reduced to a bloody pulp given the bump the plane made on landing rather than a crash along with its continued traction. Tails had made a successful landing.

Guess Sonic wasn't needed then...the hedgehog thought to herself. Shame...

Well, as disappointing as that was, at least she was still alive to be able to show her appreciation once Eggman's latest scheme went the same way as the doctor's ability to lose weight. Taking comfort in the thought, Amy opened her eyes...and lost all sense of comfort immediately.

"A rock!" Amy exclaimed. "We're gonna crash!"

Technically it was a boulder, but faced with the prospect of smashing against it, Amy wasn't too worried about technicalities right now. Nor was Tails for that matter, gripping the plane's joystick with both hands in a desperate attempt to alter the Tornado's trajectory.

It wasn't working.

"Come on Tails!" Amy screamed, watching the monolith get closer and closer as the night air rushed over her like the roar of the restless dead. "Move it! Shift this plane and-..."

"It's no use! I can't!"

Amy closed her eyes, trying to ignore the roar of the Tornado as it sped towards its destruction. Even Sonic couldn't save her now. Nothing could. All that was left was to wait for-...

Crash!

...the crash. A crash which she heard, yet was still breathing seconds after it, as the Tornado continued well after said crash and came to a stop. Her life hadn't flashed before her eyes (which to be honest, only started getting interesting after she met Sonic at the Miracle Planet), but right now, being able to continue said life more than made up for it.

"Uh..." Tails groaned, opening his eyes as well and glancing back at Amy. "You alright?"

"Yeah...I think so..." the hedgehog murmured, wishing Sonic had been here to ask her those words. "But weren't we going to hit the...the..."

Amy trailed off and Tails didn't pick up her line of speech. Simply put, there was no need to. As both the hedgehog and fox peered back to the boulder, only to find it had been reduced to shattered rocks, they found the source of their salvation.

"Knuckles..."Tails breathed. "Thank you..."

Red wasn't the same as blue, but even so, Amy was grateful. She gazed up at the echidna, standing on the largest piece of what used to be the boulder that had spelled their doom. Standing...and not doing much else. He just stared at them, his purple eyes devoid of emotion before turning to face Chaos Control...or rather what was left of it, given the fires raging around its base and the smoke from said fires obscuring what was still standing. It was as if rescuing the pair was nothing more than duty, and with that out of the way, he was free to focus on the task at hand.

"Hey!" Amy exclaimed, riled by the echidna's moodiness. "Tails just thanked you, the least you could do is..."

"Overkill...just like always. Sonic always goes too far..."

Right now, Amy really wanted her hammer. It had been hard enough to get the echidna to leave Angel Island to help in this mission and now his main contribution to it (as far as she was concerned) was to criticize Sonic's actions. What a...a...

Forget him. He's not worth it.

Sighing, Amy leant back in her seat, letting logic and exhaustion take over. She and Tails were safe. And as long as Sonic remained safe as well, that was all that mattered.

"Doctor Eggman, the base is in one-hundred percent lockdown."

"Complete lockdown, all for one rodent...damnit, why is that pin-cushion always getting in my way!"

"You should know that Eggman...it's because of all the awful things you're always doing..."

"Chao!"

Cream the Rabbit didn't really feel like speaking. Part of that stemmed from the first thing that Eggman had said to her when she'd been brought into his nasty place, that she was to speak only when spoken too. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately, all things considered), neither Eggman or his robots had spoken to her at all over the last few hours bar an offhand remark that she and Cheese could be used as bargaining chips if necessary. But now, with Eggman saying such nasty things about her friend, the six-year old couldn't keep quiet any longer. And even as Eggman walked to the glass capsule holding her and her pet chao, she met his gaze.

"All the awful things..." the scientist whispered. "My dear, you really don't want to know how awful I can be..."

Letting out a sob, Cream averted her gaze from the doctor, holding Cheese even closer. She didn't want to be here. She'd just been playing in the Mystic Ruins...had told her mother she'd meet her in time to go back to Green Hill.

Mummy...

"Of course, it no longer matters..." Eggman continued, his persona now back to confident rather than menacing. "I have all seven Chaos Emeralds. And once I insert the last one into my energy amplifier, my mecha will be invincible. Not even Sonic will be able to stop me!"

Cream dared glance up at her captor, the nasty man holding up a red Chaos Emerald. She didn't know what Eggman was talking about, whether it be a lockdown (whatever that was) or how the Chaos Emeralds were going to power his energy thingy. Yet she couldn't shake her feeling of dread. A feeling that something terrible was about to happen...and that trapped in her prison, she would be right in the thick of it.

And Sonic will be too...he can handle anything...but if something does happen...I'll be the one to blame...

Bad enough she'd been taken prisoner. But if anything happened to her friends because of her...

"Well?" Eggman suddenly asked, apparently expecting a response. "What do you have to say to that, Creamy-..."

"Sonic will stop you!" the rabbit burst out, not wanting Eggman to stare at her any longer. "He won't let you get away with this!"

The scientist chortled along with his robot servants, Bocoe and Decoe. "Sonic will stop me?" he sneered. "The base is in lockdown, my mecha are legion and despite what you believe, the hedgehog isn't invincible! There's no way he can stop me-..."

Boom!

"Sonic!"

It was like a dream...a good one, not one of those that prompted Cream's mother to bring her milk and cookies in the middle of the night. Dust was filling the room, yet she could make out its source. A source with the fading glow of a power ring in his hand. A source grinning in the knowledge that nothing could harm him. And in that knowledge, Cream smiled as well.

Sonic had come.

Hmm...interesting...

Rogue the Bat couldn't help but smile, and not only because of the quaint scene unfolding below her. Up in the rafters like the creature of her namesake, she'd spied on Doctor Eggman and his minions and captives for the past few hours. If she had a diamond for every time she reflected how "interesting" the situation was, she might not have needed to be here...almost. After all, what gems in the world were as rare or valuable as the seven Chaos Emeralds. A professional jewel thief, she normally wouldn't have bothered with men such as Eggman, leaving the dirty work to the idealistic fools that were willing to oppose him. Let them fight it out and in the meantime, give her the opportunity to snatch the gems without anyone even noticing. The best plans were those where she was never seen or heard and with the hedgehog having burst into the room, the chaos she required to succeed was at hand.

Rogue smiled...again. And not only because of the delightful look of shock, despair and frustration on the scientist's features at the sight of his enemy.

"So fast..." he murmured, his mouth in a shape the opposite of Sonic's...until he turned his frown upside down in a manner as clichéd as that saying. "But not fast enough!"

Rouge wasn't sure what the scientist meant by that, nor did she understand what inserting the Chaos Emerald into his machine and pressing buttons in rapid succession would accomplish, ending with his finger on a button attached to a chord. She'd heard him go on about "energy amplifier" this and "world domination" that, but it hadn't mattered that much to her, given that the Chaos Emeralds would be hers before Eggman could use them. It apparently didn't matter that much to Sonic either, given that he just stood there like everyone else in the room, watching the scene unfold.

Guy's got balls, I'll give him that...

"You'll never stop me now Sonic!" Eggman declared, having finished doing...whatever he was doing. "The energy amplifier is ready! One press of this button and I'll have won!"

"Yeah, if you can push it before I grab it."

Rouge had heard far more sophisticated threats in places that...well, places that the rabbit girl wouldn't be going to for a decade or so. Yet it did its job...the button was in Eggman's hands, yet any talk of victory had gone out the window. The question however, was whether a window of opportunity still existed.

Eggman's got the switch, Sonic's got the speed...so how do I get the Chaos Emeralds in the midst of this?

For better or worse, the answer presented itself. Through the dust of Sonic's entrance, a figure emerged. A figure on tracks, bearing a single green lens for an eye, two machine guns and a 13 painted on it. A guardbot-specifically, a guardbot with its sights on the hedgehog.

"Grab it before I push it..." Eggman said slowly, regaining his confidence slightly faster. "Then why don't you give it a try?"

Sonic didn't give it a try. He was too busy grinning like an idiot and evading the gunfire the guardbot was pouring at him.

Rouge smiled, though unlike the hedgehog, she had good reason to. The distraction was in place. Sonic was too busy avoiding gunfire to notice her, and everyone else in the room was too busy watching him do so to notice her either. She could wait and-...

"Stop him! No matter what!"

Rouge let out a yell as bullets whizzed past her, the guardbot hitting everything but its target. It hadn't noticed her, but that didn't mean it couldn't hit her. Maybe waiting wasn't the best strategy.

Alright...thought the world's greatest thief, her eyes on the Chaos Emeralds. Here we go...

Directive...stop target...no matter what...

Acquiring target...target velocity offsetting rate of aim adjustment...current parameters insufficient to hit target...

(External) "That's it! Drive him out like an insect!"

...current parameters will suffice. Will follow parameters...

Observation-target has landed between E-13 unit and master. Chance of hitting target and not master negligible.

(External) "Wait! Hold your fire!"

Error. Order contradicts earlier order to stop target no matter what. Will proceed with earlier directive.

Error. Target has jumped into the air and evaded projectiles. So has master, ducking below them. Projectiles have hit energy amplifier...analysis indicates only superficial damage...wait...energy output detected...amplifier has been activated...energy amplifier damage more extensive than first thought. Master recognises this.

(External) "What have you done!"

...No answer to query. White light forming...overwhelming visual feed...

Error...error...

What's happening. Did I do that?

"Cheese...I'm scared..."

"Chao..."

"Er, Becoe? What's happening?"

"I...don't know..."

Son of a...what did those jewels just do?

"What...is that?"

A space-time distortion...I think. This is fascinating. It...wait...its engulfed Chaos Control...it's...coming towards us...

Damnit, what's Sonic done this time?

"Wow Froggy...look at the pretty glow. It's...big...and white..."

...

...

...

A/N

Probably apparent, but yes, this is a novelization of the first episode of Sonic X. Feel it's worth mentioning a few things. Firstly the E-12s-I've seen the terms "Dreamer" and "Dreadnought" to describe them, but neither from an official source. Kind of late now, but I don't suppose anyone has any info on the matter?

As for the matter of Eggman's Base being named Chaos Control in the English dub (likely a translation error), I'll point out that it was confirmed as "official" via the comic series. Since quite a few people are miffed at 4Kids' editing/dubbing of the series (Season 3 the biggest offender IMO), I feel it's worth mentioning in the interests of saving myself from being lynched. 0_0