Sonic the Hedgehog and related characters are copyright SEGA Enterprises, LTD. and Archie Comics Publications. Nights and related characters are a copyright of SEGA Enterprises LTD. Delphine, Dimitria, Ali, Marco, Lisa and Devon are a copyright of Delphine. Special Thanks to Jared Matte for letting me use him in this story. Everything written here is fiction. Any similarities between real events and the events in this story are purely coincidental. (Note-- Mobian time and Earth time are different by approximately an hour) "At the edge of chaos, unexpected outcomes occur. The risk to survival is severe." "Order collapses in simultaneous regions. Survival is now unlikely for individuals and groups." -- Ian Malcolm The Red Silk Chaos and Order --Delphine The Watcher's Spot, No date, No time The Watcher floated in front of a mechanical device only describable as a large computer monitor. To its right, its left, and in back of it, there were other monitors. But it was much more intent on watching this monitor. ^Hmmm....^ it communicated, not in words, not using telepathy, but by a communication far different than everything and anything every imagined. There is no way to possibly describe it. You don't hear it, but you do; you don't hear it or see in you head, but you do. It's all around you, but it isn't. ^It seems I should have been more careful.^ It gave what would pass as a laugh that wasn't laughing at something funny. ^But maybe I should let this spin out.^ It 'thought' for a moment. It watched the figures on the monitor. ^But I could be making a grave mistake.^ Earth, New York, Thendara, The V'pirian Scouting Ship, June 28, 11:27 AM EST "Aknar, come here a moment." Aknar walked over to the Master. "Yes?" "Do you see those.... things standing in front of our ship?" "Yes. They seem to be clapping," Aknar answered. The Master smiled. It was frightening. "They are. You see what's in front of them?" "Yes, the city.... burning?" A confused look came over Aknar's face. "Yes. And I suppose that you guessed that that's what they're clapping at?" "Well, yes, actually," Aknar told him. He was confused, yet excited. He didn't know what was going on, but he knew it had to be something good. "Good. Because you're right. Now, why would they be clapping, do you think?" the Master asked. "Because they enjoy it?" "And why do they enjoy it?" "Because they're evil?" "If so, then do you know what that means?" A realization suddenly came over the younger V'pirian. "That we could possibly ally with them?" "Exactly." 100 feet away, 11:31 AM EST Jared Matte ran his hand through his dark brown hair. His leather jacket was on the ground by his feet. "So, like, what exactly do we do about this?" 16 year old Devon Comber asked Sally Acorn. His thumbs were in his pockets, and the front of his shirt was drenched with sweat. It was hot. "I don't know," she admitted. Her fur was matted down with sweat, and she was uncomfortable. "This sucks," Devon said. "No kidding. Question is, what the hell are we gonna do? I wouldn't be surprised at who caused this, but now what?" Delphine asked. "We should stop talking and go now," Sonic said. "Don't be so impatient," Sally said, annoyed. "I'm NOT being impatient," Sonic said. "Yes, you are." "No I'm not!" "Yes you are!" "NO I'M NOT! "YES YOU ARE!" "STOP!" Delphine yelled. Sonic and Sally glared at each other. Then Sally blinked her eyes, patted down her fur, and said, "No, you're not." Sonic blinked his eyes. "What?" "You're not being impatient. We're wasting time just standing here trying to decide what to do. We should go down there and find out what happened. "I, um-- yeah." Sonic looked at Delphine. She shrugged. "I guess I shoulda kept my mouth shut." "KEEP it shut? You should DUCT TAPE it shut." Sally walked down the hill, with the others all following, having their = own nervous conversations, or silently staring ahead at the burnt city that awaited them. Sally walked briskly, not talking to anyone. She was angry at herself. She knew Sonic was right; she had been wasting time. But not because she thought they needed a better plan. Because she was scared. Really scared. Through all the years in the fight against Robotnik, she had never been really scared, because she had always known what was going on. She always knew, deep down inside, that they would win. But now she was in a strange place, against an enemy she didn't know, and teamed up with others that were, physically, nothing like her, possibly against her, and she was scared. 11:59 AM EST Peter laughed. He was enjoying himself. "Let's go see the distruction we caused, up close." Snively turned to him. "Sure, why not? I--" he stopped as Peter's eyes went wide. Snively looked in the direction Peter's gaze was. His eyes widened further. Behind them, something all the robots sensors had missed, was a ship, currently decloaked. The silver-gray metal reflected the sun, making the two humans from different worlds squint. It was long and oval-like. As they were watching, a plank shot out of the side, turning down at an angle at the half point of its decent. They watched as Aknar walked out, in normal form, with two V'pirians behind them, exeptionally larger than him. A female named Heather was behind him on his left, a male named Sirrus on his right. Heather had black hair. Her eyes were a neon green, close to the color of the Chaos Emeralds. She was wearing a half-shirt , cut-offs, and tennis shoes. Sirrus was wearing black denim pants and black sneakers. His eyes were a bright pink(which he got picked on for untill the V'pire who did it the most was found dead) with a dark gray in the center. His hair was blond. Brass centered his missile gun on the small group, who didn't look threatened at all by them or the thousands of robots behind them, which had by some misderected miracle made it through the city without anyone seeing them except for some learing drunk with a half-bottle of whiskey in his hand. "Who're you?" Peter said with a low growl, trying to fend of the fear welling inside of him. Snively was doing the same, but he wasn't getting very far. He was already sweating and had a look of fear on his face. The front of his pants had a growing stain on it. "We," Aknar said, "are V'pirians. We came from a planet simmilar to this one in search of a great power. we were wondering if perhaps you could be of some assistance?" He had planed to make it sound like an order, but it came out as a question instead. "Perhaps," Peter said, his fear diminishing but still there. "We were, ah-- wondering if, ah,-- if you could, um,-- help us find it?" Aknar said. He wasn't very proud of his performance. "It matters. What's in it for us?" Peter's few diplomatic skills were finally kicking in. "A partnership in dimensional domination," Aknar said. "Cool." 12:04 PM EST Jared and Lisa were amazed. When they first met Devon, their impression = had been a nice guy with a bad backround, probably not very intelligent. Now he had changed. Neither thought that they would have been able to except the strangers from another planet without his leadership. He was a leader. And, somehow, they both new that he was their leader. Jared didn't say anything while they walked down the hill and into the small city. He was thinking about how much his life had changed over the last few days. He had just been an average teenager. Now he was helping strange beings from a strange world, walking off to who knows what, and he didn't care. Lisa was thinking something similar, but she did care. She was scared stiff. She shivered in spite of the heat. About a half-hour later, they arrived in the city. Nights, Jared, Lisa, Devon, and Marco looked around in awe. The rest took no notice. They had seen worse. The group scattered. Delphine went off on her own. Near one building, she saw a hand sticking out from under a long piece of metal. She walked over, put her hands around the piece of steel, and lifted it. She strained, but held it up long enough to see the person underneath. She gasped and dropped it. She held her hand over her mouth, in an attampt not to vomit. She swallowed a few times. When the feeling subsided, she covered the hand with rocks. She didn't want anyone else to see what she saw. Then she walked away, back towards the place were the group had diminished. She had seen someone who ended up like that before. When Robotnik caught her father all those years ago, he hadn't bothered to robotisize him, as it was with all the Mobian humans he had caught. He had used a flame-thrower instead of a laser. Delphine, five-years old, had seen what happened. Had smelled the burning flesh. Had heard him scream. She had been afraid of fire ever since. The person under the metal looked just like her father had when the flames went out. Jared, Lisa, and Devon walked around the block. They didn't like the way things were turning out. No one did. Dimitria knew something weird was going on, and Lisa allmost knew that something weird was going on. She could feel it. 12:54 PM EST Peter, Snively, Reala, Aknar, Heather, Sirrus, all the robots, and a lot more V'pirians, were all walking down into the same city. If they had gone down half an hour earlier, things might be different. They walked down in silence. Peter and Snively didn't trust the V'pirians, and the V'pirians didn't trust Peter and Snively. So they didn't talk to each other. But as they arrived in the city, small conversations began between the V'pirians. Their planet was a dark, frightening place, but they kept it clean. So they hadn't seen so many building destroyed in one place. "Looks like we did a good job," Snively said. "No kidding," Peter said. Reala nodded. He hadn't said anything since the explosion. He was too busy thinking about what he should be doing, what he was doing with these people, what Wizeman would do to him if he failed.... "So now what?" he said suddenly. "I don't know," Peter admitted. "But I know it's somewhere in the premises, and...." "Well how do you know you didn't just blow it up?" Sirrus asked angrily. Aknar cuffed him. "You idiot, nothing can destroy the Red Silk. Don't be so stupid." "Yes. Well, we should start looking. Everyone spread out. Search every building, every corner, under every rock. We have to find it before- well, just find it" Snively was going to say 'before the Freedom Fighters do' Thendara, 1:04 OM EST The Freedom Fighters, Nights, Jared, Lisa, and Devon all grouped up back where they had started. "Did anyone find anything?" Sally asked. "Nope." "Nothin'." "Nota." "Zip." Delphine thought. Dimitria gave her a strange look. Delphine resisted an urge to grin madly. The robots and the V'pirirans all headed out to search. "I wonder if they'll find it." "They will," Snively said. "They will." Thendara, 1:15 PM EST The groups dispersed once again. Delphine, Knuckles, Dimitria, and Nights; Sally, Sonic, Marco and Ali; and Lisa, Jared, and Devon. They all went off in different directions, searching for the power that needed to be found. "How do we even know we're looking in the right place?" Delphine asked. "We are," Knuckles and Dimitria said in unison. Delphine and Nights exchanged glances. "Uh.... yeah." They walked on in silence. Jared, Lisa and Devon were having a hard time taking in all that was happening; hadn't they been just normal teenagers only a few hours ago? Jared heard something to his left. He stopped and whirled his head in that dirrection. For a second he thought he saw something move. Then it was gone. "Uh, guys...." Suddenly he felt himself being violently pushed over. He crosed his arms in front of his face and twisted his body. He landed on his back. he opened his eyes and looked up at what had pushed him. It looked semi-human, but with strange colored eyes -- yellow? -- weird hair, fangs.... "A vampire?" Devon asked incrediously. "Close," the creature growled. "V'pirian. Although I'm sure it's just another mistake your stupid planet has made in the concept of spelling...." "Oh my God!" Lisa exclaimed, interupting him. "I don't think even he can help you now." The creature gave a chilling grin. Devon shivered in spite of hiself. "He doesn't need to," Jared said. Something inside of him snapped. He was finished fooling around with the shit of the world. If only it had happened years ago. He got up. First he looked to Lisa, then to Devon. They had only known each other a few days, but he felt as if they had been together forever. Then he looked back at the V'pirian. "Screw you." Then he leapt at the creature, kicking his stomach. The fight began. Thendara, 1:28 PM EST It hadn't been very long, so the groups were close enough to hear the crashing that the combatants were making; Sonic and his group took no note of it, but Dimitria knew something was up. "We should go check it out...." Witht hat she walked towards the East, in the direction of the battle. "What--?" Nights asked. Knuckles ignored him and followed Dimitria. Delphine glanced at Nights, shrugged, and they did the same. "Maybe something _is_ going on," Sally said. "Oh oh, someone tripped over a box," Sonic said sarcastically. He couldn't care less what happened; he just wanted to get this stupid thing and get out of there. It reminded him too much of Robotropolis. "She's right. We really should go see what's going on," Marco chimed in. "When I want your opinion...." Sonic started. "C'mon, let's get over there." Ali said at the same time. "I'll give it too you," Sonic finished. He sighed. "Let's go." Sally said. The three walked in the direction they had first heard the noises. Sonic stayed for a few seconds, wondering what would've happened had he stayed in bed.... He shook his head, sighed again, and followed his friends. Three more V'pirians and two SACCbots had joined in the fight. Devon had long since decided that those Karate classes had finally paid off, since he hadn't dared use them on his dad. Knuckles and his group arrived seconds before Sally's did. As sooon as they saw the fight, everyone jumped in. So did five more V'pirians. And four more SACCbots. Once the rest joined in, the tide of battle turned. Most of the 'bots and V'pirians where gone within minutes. Nothing was left except for one V'pirian. He looked around, and decided to leave. Jared chased after him. "Get back here! I'm not finished with you!" "Jared, wait!" Lisa called out. She was going to run after him when Delphine pulled her back and said "No, I'll get 'im. You stay here." Then Delphine ran off after him. Lisa narrowed her eyes. Delphine found the two fighting. The V'pirian had a two by four, and Jared had a short metal pipe. "Jared, get out of here!" she called out. He looked over at her, and the V'pirian took his chance. Jared flew backwards three feet. "Asshole!" Delphine threw an energy blast at the V'pirian, knocking him off his feet. Then she ran over to Jared and knelt down next to him. "Are you all right?" "First time I been hit with a two by four," he muttered. "Well, there's a first time for everything. C'mon cowboy, let's get out of here," Delphine said. "No way! He hit me, I'm gonna hit 'im back." Jared jumped up, picked his pipe back up, and ran towarsd the V'pirian. "Jared! Wait a minute! You don't-- stupid kid's gonna get himself killed." She shook her head. The V'pirian jumped up at the sight of Jared. He looked around for his two by four. "Need a plumbing job?" Jared hit him on the side of the head with his pipe. The V'pirian fell backwards on a piece of sharp food that was facing up. It pierced his heart. The creature dissapeared. "What the--" "I'm impressed. Good job, cowboy." "Why do you keep calling me cowboy?" "Because I feel like it. It's you." "Oh really?" "Really." They looked at each other. Delphine drew closer to him. He dropped his pipe. They kissed. Delphine suddenly pulled away. "I can't." "What?!" "I can't. It's just-- I already--" "I understand." Jared pulled away from her. "The red guy, right?" "Knuckles. Yeah." 'Yeah. Okay. That's okay. Doesn't matter." He looked away from her. Delphine sighed. "C'mon cowboy." Mobius, Knothole Village, 3:27 PM "This is bad. Really, really bad," Rotor said. "No kidding," Comet told him. Comet, Tails and Rotor were in Rotor's workshop. Archimedes had returned to the Floating Island after the chip had been found. "So what are we going to do about it?" Tails asked. "I don't know. But we've got to do something." Rotor sighed. "Might as well see if I can figure out how it works." He sat down at his work table and started picking at the chip. Tails and Comet looked at each other, then walked outside. The walked away, towards the ring pool. Earth, New York, Thendara, Some building, 2:27 PM EST "Arrrg! Stupid thing!" Peter threw his screwdriver at the wall in frustration. "What's wrong?" Snively asked. Reala looked over with little interest. "Something's wrong with the stupid thing." "The screwdriver?" "No! The portal-opener!" "Sorry. what's wrong with it?" "It ain't working." "Is that a bad thing?" Reala interupted. "Of course it is!" If it's not working, how are we suposed to get back?!" "Oh." Reala leaned against the wall and looked back out the window. "Perhaps i could help you fix it," Aknar said. "Maybe. What do ya know about electronics?" "Alot more than you think." "Good. You two just get it done. While the robots and V'pirians are keeping the Freedom Fighters busy, we'll make a plan to find the silk." Snively had found out about the fight by comlink from one of the robots before Sonic had destroyed it. "Now get working." Thendara, 2:37 PM EST "There they are!" Nights said. Sally looked in the direction he was pointing. "Good. I was beggining to worry." The two arrived within a few minutes. "Are you two all right?" "We're fine," Delpihne told her. "Are you sure you're okay?" Knuckles asked, cutting in. "Of course! Why wouldn't I be?" She kissed him. He stood for a moment, looking at her. "What?" "It's-- nothing." Something was different about the way she had kissed... "We should stay together. It's not a good idea to be running around in groups of three or four with watever these things are running around." "Good ol' Sal, always thinking in the midst of extreme danger," Delphine said. "Thanks." They walked off together, Sonic, Sally, Knuckles, Delphine, Nights, Jared, Lisa, Devon, Dimitria, Ali, and Marco. The Watcher's Spot, No date, No time He wasn't sure what had happened; for some reason, portals ended up in various places, but all in the right place; order in chaos. And yet, for some reason, they had all ended up in the same clearing, which was chaos, since that wasn't supposed to happen. No two portals are supposed to be within 100 yards of each other in one twenty-four hour period. Chaos in order in chaos. The Watcher had no control over it, although he should have; a force greater than it was at work. It had a feeling that it had something to do with the Chaos Emeralds and the Red Silk. The Chaos Emeralds where exactly that; utter chaos. There was never any logic or reason as to why they did what they did. Chaos. But the Red Silk was just the opposite; there was always a perfect order when it did what it did. If you were educated in the area, then you probably knew everything it could do. So chaos and order where coming together. Why? It didn't know. It just knew that something major was going to happen; It didn't know if it was good, or bad, or chaotic, or orderly. It just knew that it was going to happen. Soon. End of Part 3 To be continued....