I used to be a reader of your work, Cap'n, only stopped because I pretty much read most of it. But I feel like I kinda need to know why you're doing a rewrite. Just seems odd and out of the blue.

A fair question.

It started with Fanfiction.net's decision to retroactively format everyone's fanfics. This mass formatting got rid of all the chapter separations I had at the time, usually "-----"
For all practical purposes, I needed to resubmit every chapter of many of my older fanfics; the ones that used that form of chapter break. As I looked to this task, pulling up my original COA:ACO archives, I took note of many things I didn't quite get to explore in the original fanfic. I also considered all the new material that had come out over the last five or so years that I hadn't been able to fully utilize. It was also a break from what I was otherwise occupied with, and it was something I expected to finish in roughly a month or so.

Hence the rewrite, or "reload" project. A fair amount of old stuff is different or gone, a lot of new stuff is added in, and a lot of old stuff is or will be carried over. It is sort of "out of the blue" and a bit odd in fanfiction to do a rewrite of an existing major work, but I think the end product will be something better than the original (and one that will, in the end, mesh better with TFS, NWO and the third final COA story).

Are you unhappy with the new material as opposed to the original scheme?

Aha.

And no, not unhappy, was just inquisitive. 😛 Good to see you got inspired enough to effort into it to add what you want.

Well, if you're not enjoying what you write (or draw or whaehaveyou) then it isn't really something you do in your free time; its a chore. And while I'm always happy to know people enjoy my writing, and I love hearing from people who got something from the experience, I write as a way to relax, first and foremost. The same, it is only natural that the excitement we have for creative projects waxes and wanes. That's why it's best to do as much as you can while you're still worked up by it.

Nice to hear from you again, tho!
Shame I couldn't use my old account here, but at least there aren't many authors with Chryssalid-themed names.

Finished up the last part of Chapter 5. I'm heading into the conclusion of the Babylon Rogues story arc next chapter, and then into Blaze and Silver. As I don't know those characters save from the wiki references and youtube stuff, I'm particularly interested in thoughts about how I'm handling them in the fic.
I'm also considering making a series of "title pictures" for the chapters of the new COA:ACO. It'd be neat to try and use a few guest artists for it, to supplement my own meager abilities in that regard (like I did for TFS, or when Benjes did that ACO piece about the 'Death of a Rose')

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chapter 5, part 3 snippet
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'Am I asleep?'

Tails stood atop a burned out landscape. The scattered skeletons of trees rose up around him, clawing the sky with jagged fingers. From horizon to horizon, not a single shade of green could be seen. Parched black grass flittered in the hot, spitting wind, and bare faced rock jutted out of the lifeless soil. It was a wasteland as far as the eye could see, without a single redeeming or familiar feature.

Up above, the sky stretched on, dark and starless. Only a faint white glow, from one horizon to another, provided light. It was impossible to determine distance clearly; light and dark, night and day, north, south, east and west, all blended into one. Tails stood in the center of it all, vainly trying to find his bearings. Finally picking a direction, heading towards what looked like a slight hill, he shielded his eyes.

A scalding wind blew across his face, blowing his bangs against his cheeks. He wandered, up the hill, and then back down. At first, he tried to follow the wind, but it came from one direction and then another. The landscape was so bare, so featureless, and so repetitive, that he soon lost all bearings of where he had gone, where he had come from, or where he was. The sky, his constant companion, remained mute and unchanging, offering no guidance.

"Where am I?" he wondered aloud, stopping by yet another blackened and tortured looking tree, devoid of leaves or life. Gradually, he came to realize it: that there was no where to go, and no way to get away. He was lost.

"Anyone here?" he called, squinting and searching the dead land. A rock tumbled down a hill. "Sonic? Sally? Tempest?"

Another rock tumbled, this time to his side. Tails turned, and saw a shadow looming over the crest of the hill, on its highest point. It stood tall and silent, set against the glow of the horizon and the pitch black night of the sky. Despite it being only an outline of a man, Tails instantly stiffened, recognizing the distinct silhouette.

Two circular eyes, white and bright, shone inside the dark form.

"You called for me?" a familiar voice asked, amused.

"No. Not you," Tails replied, hands balling into fists.

"But you did," the silhouette chuckled, and Eggman's voice made its identity all too clear. "You're lost, but now I'm here."

"I'd sooner see you rot in Hell!" the fox snarled, slashing his hand at the apparition. "The only thing I want from you is to see you die!"

"You'd kill me, if you could." It wasn't a question. The shadowy Eggman's grin widened. "But would you do it, if it meant you'd be alone?"

Tails anger simmered, but didn't explode.

"What are you talking about?"

"You need me," the Eggman silhouette declared with a smile. "Now, more than ever. Hate me. Dream of my death. Follow me with a knife in your hand."

He then pointed off into the distance, far away.

"Let me be your guide. I'll lead you to that bright land you can't quite see."

Tails stared long and hard at what stood before him. "You aren't even real. You're just a figment of my imagination."

"No," the silhouette shifted, pointing at him. "The fake one here is you! I… I am the geist you wish you had. The motivation and conviction you doubt in yourself. I see you, the true you. Here, your pretense falls away, leaving your true self behind."

Tails stared down at his hands: they were small, and trembling. It dawned on him with awful certainty: he was in the body of a child, like when Sonic had found him. Like when Amadeus and Mary had briefly tried to raise him. Three shots, like thunder, shook the heavens. Falling to his knees, Tails struggled for breath as tears welled up in his eyes.

"Your true self," the silhouette declared, sweeping its hand away and then back down to its sides. "Motivated by fear and insecurity, following ideals blindly, looking for a father and a mother to coddle and guide you. You may be an intellectual genius, but you have the ambitions of an infant."

"No…!" Tails cried, but his voice was small and weak. "This isn't me!"

The Eggman shadow's eyes glowed. "Your existence is a lie, one you repeat to yourself every day. You busy yourself and bury yourself to hide your own helplessness."

"Helplessness…?"

"Your helplessness… in the face of failure. Your failure: to overcome." The silhouette loomed, larger now than before. "You've survived on half a soul this long, which is actually quite impressive. But how long can such false hopes survive in the face of reality? The limitations that frustrate you are not physical or intellectual. They are the cracks in your psyche."

"Do you really believe," the shadow asked, grin mutating into a smirk. "That strength or power will make them love you? Do you really think that they even want you to succeed? Do you really think… that there is even one place in this world where you belong? Where you will truly fit in? Among normal mobians or your even your own people? What are you?"

It laughed, long and loud, a booming voice that made Tails cover his ears.

"Hero! Villain! Sides of the same coin! Those with ability and ambition both make their destiny, and society labels them! Adherence to such labels brings despair and regret! Idolization is blindness, the same as devotion! Belief is another word for gullibility and delusion!"

"No!"

The silhouette raised its hands to the sky, and flames rose up in every direction.

"Why is the world so cruel? Why are you alive?" The great shadow's voice rose to a fever pitch, flames dancing higher and higher. "Who are you? What do you want? Why do you fight? You want to know why? I know why!"

Curled in a ball on the floor, Tails clutched his hands to his ears, trying to block it all out. "Please…!"

"I know the truth!"

And then all was silent.

"The truth you've been so afraid of," the Eggman silhouette's voice was calm now, almost a whisper. "Is that when you fight for yourself, and think for yourself…all the world is your enemy. Those are your limits, Miles Prower."

Tails small body flinched as he got on all fours. Eyes wide, he looked up at the shade. "My limits…"

"Overcome them. Destroy me."

Gloved hands clawed the lifeless soil.

"Overcome them. Destroy me! Level the walls between us and overcome your limitations!"

-----

In addition to chapter 6 now fully online, I also put up some "chapter title" art I threw together. I'll clip links of that down below off my site archive.

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Here's a (long) snippet from Chapter 6, too.
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Sally had never seen the Blue Typhoon before.

She knew about it, of course. It was the largest ship in what passed for the Royal Navy; the hull had been a gift from Station Square and Sally's mother, Queen Alicia, had christened it when it was first 'launched' at the converted Oil Ocean Shipyards. Tails had taken it with him to the Battle of Westopolis in Downunda, but it had never come anywhere near Knothole. It was very much one of their trump cards, but Sally had still never actually seen it with her own eyes.

Her surprise had been genuine when she found out that Tails had ordered it into the area to the east, to pick up supplies and transfer military craft. Exactly what military craft, she hadn't even known up until a few minutes ago. These projects had always been Tails' responsibility - she had no experience organizing fighter aircraft much less capital ships or Air Armadas - but it was starting to get annoying, having him pull these big stunts without forewarning.

Looking out the shuttle window, Sally could see the ship itself: it was narrow, with an easily identifiable front and rear section. The latter consisted of the engines, and it was covered with jutting angular armor, giving that area double the normal protection. Five armored corridors and a lattice of metalwork connected the engines to the main body. This section reminder her of the body of a fish, with a gaping maw at the front; a single inner section could be seen, with windows, but dominating most of the visible structure above and below it were armored sections, with no windows, and only red warning lights. The tip of a large cannon assembly could be just barely seen, peeking out from the upper half of the 'fish's mouth,' while both the above and bottom halves supported numerous weapons emplacements. Large stubby wings sprouted from the middle of the ship, halfway to the rear of the forward section.

Her shuttle maneuvered towards one of the open hangers that projected outwards from those slanted stubby wings. This meant that the hangers were perpendicular to the main axis of acceleration of the ship. Closer, she could see a bright light adjacent to the open hangar doors, on the open outside areas created by the slanted shape of the wings. Two point defense turrets swiveled in their mounts, but it was another beam that reached out to touch their ship. The shuttle buckled a bit, but then settled down as it was guided in. A series of landing lights blinked in midair, but were actually suspended by a long thin boom.

Sitting next to her, Sonic was also looking outside the window.

He whistled in obvious appreciation, and spoke up, "Boy, pretty big, huh?"

It was his first time seeing it, too, though Sonic had to have seen dozens of capital-class warships in his time at Station Square. From reports, the human fleet at the time had been quite large - and powerful enough to make offensive strikes against the Eggman Empire as well. The Terran "New Navy" had so badly mauled the Eggman Armada during the final Battle for Station Square that it was still recovering, much to the Kingdom's relief. The modern Royal Navy wasn't even in the same league.

"It is pretty big," Sally agreed, still looking up and down the length of it. She'd read, on paper, that it was some hundred and sixty meters long, and over thirty meters in girth and height. Actually seeing it suspended in the sky, defying gravity, made it seem all the more impressive. She also carefully bit back the initial feeling of awe she felt. This sort of technology had also been what they had fought against for a long time.

Didn't it contravene the natural laws to have such a thing floating in midair?

At the same time, what better way to fight an implacable foe than with his own weapons? Heading off for Station Square, Sally had never imagined that Tails would return so… inspired. Before that, he and Rotor had always seemed content to build some explosives to blow up Robotnick's factories, or to help her hack into this security system or another. The return of her father, though, and the rebuilding of the MAF had changed things. Mobians would be fighting anyway; mobians without super powers, so why shouldn't they do so with the best weapons possible? She had agreed, despite her natural suspicion towards non-Nicole technology.

"I can't believe Tails designed this… thing…" Sally wasn't sure what to call it. She'd heard the pilots refer to the ship as a she. A she! As if it were alive!

"Anything that flies," Sonic replied, falling back into his seat. The shuttle only had room for five, besides the pilot and copilot. Roaring through the sky, Sally had seen other larger shuttles, probably for boarding actions or deploying troops. Then there had been the fighter craft, all of which looked like Tails' Tornado Two. Sally sighed and also leaned back, looking up at the ceiling.

"You ok, Sal?" Sonic had noticed her agitation. "Something wrong?"

"I don't really like flying that much…"

"It's not just that, is it?"

She smiled at him, glad he could tell that much. For some reason, he was being a lot more attentive than usual. He'd even come over to talk the other day and hammer out their misunderstandings about Tempest. The kitsune was just a friend, but it was cute how worked up Sonic had gotten, despite his attempts to hide it. It was unlike Sonic to admit that sort of stuff, so Sally suspected Tails had talked him into it. The two of them shared everything between each other, after all, just like best friends, or even brothers.

"No," she admitted. "It isn't just that. I'm not looking forward to telling Tails he can't take Knothole's Chaos Emerald."

"Ah, don't sweat it!" Sonic declared with a grin. "He'll understand!"

-----

"I don't understand…" Miles said between clenched teeth. "What do you mean, I'll have to launch without it?"

"The Emerald is too important to the city, Tails," Sally put on her authoritative voice. It was the same one she had used in the past to convince him not to go on this or that mission when it was too dangerous, and it had never failed to get across her point. "You designed the shield yourself. I won't risk it."

"That is why we're going to retrieve the other emerald," Miles argued. "The Solid State shield will only be down until we come back. The cloak won't even flicker."

She added a frown, too. "I said no, Tails."

For a few seconds, there was deathly silence on the bridge. Sally remained where she stood, standing next to him; her hands on her hips. Her kitsune protégé sat in the Captain's seat of the bridge, his expression and posture rigid. He closed his eyes for a few seconds, but his face remained expressionless. The rest of the bridge, buried deep within the ship, was completely silent. The Captain's chair was on a raised area, while the other five members of the bridge crew sat in sunken stations around it: two to the left, two to the right, and the helm officer in the front. A vast array of holographic projections and displays mimicked the effect of the bridge being out in the 'open air.'

Miles reached over to a button on his chair.

"Nicole," he said, slowly. "You have the bridge."

Nicole's lynx avatar materialized to his right, appearing full size and almost Sally's height. Sonic nearly jumped, since he had been standing right next to her holographic projector without even realizing it.

Sally's eyes widened in delight. "Nicole! I didn't know you were on board!"

"This ship is sufficiently sophisticated to house a perfect copy of me," Nicole answered with a friendly smile. "Minus certain time encoded memory files, of course. I periodically update myself by contacting the original Nicole. Our memories and persona are only as synchronous as the frequency of my updates."

"Well, you certainly sound like her," Sonic spoke up. "I understood maybe half that."

"Nicole," Miles interrupted, before she could start. "Why don't you explain it to Sonic while you attend to the bridge? Princess Sally, I'd like to continue this conversation in my ready room."

Getting up, he walked off to the left, where a door adjacent to the bridge opened on his approach. Sally followed him inside. His ready room was also obviously his quarters on the ship; walking past a retractable privacy screen, Sally could see a fair sized fold out bed currently mounted and folded up to a recessed space in the wall. The room was trapezoidal, with the western wall being longer than the eastern one (where the bed was folded up). A table along the west wall displayed a handful of artifacts and antique devices, while the rest of it was taken up by a pair of 'windows' that displayed real time images from the outside of the ship. There was a desk near the back, and behind it, the door to what was likely a bathroom. Several other pictures of aircraft and ships were mounted on the slanted southern wall.

"Tails…" she started to say.

"Princess Sally," he said her name with a cold anger that she couldn't ever recall hearing. He turned from where he stood, next to his desk. "I'll ask you to not speak to me so disrespectfully on my ship. I would also appreciate it if you referred to me as Captain Prower. Or simply Captain."

"Captain Prower?" she repeated. It didn't sound right. "Why?"

He ground his teeth together in undisguised aggravation. "A Captain is the ultimate authority on his ship, and I also happen to be the highest ranked political and military officer in this region of the country. While you are the Crown Princess and the head of the Freedom Fighters, you technically have no authority to give me orders when I leave Knothole. Only the King, the current Warmaster (of which there is none), or the Minister of War may do so."

Sally stiffened. "I see."

Miles nodded in apparent satisfaction. "Princess."

"Captain."

She shifted a little uncomfortably, and glanced out the faux window.

"Captain," she began. "Your request to appropriate the Chaos Emerald currently powering the Knothole city shield is denied."

"I've told you," he replied, sounding rather bothered by having to repeat himself. "No harm will come to the city. The cloak worked fine before without an Emerald."

"We'll be vulnerable to attack," Sally countered. "The cloak only keeps us hidden."

"There hasn't been fighting near Knothole for months. Not since we pushed the Eggman back into The Ring, and cut him off at Starlight. Now is the time to push harder," Miles explained, eyes glinting at the prospect. "However, the Blue Typhoon needs a Chaos Emerald to achieve its full power! Once we begin offensive operations, we won't have to worry about Knothole. We'll be taking the fight to the enemy, not vice versa."

"It's a risk I'm not willing to take," Sally said, her stance on the issue unchanged. She could see what he meant, but she couldn't in good conscience weaken their defenses. More people depended on the Knothole city shield than on continued 'offensives.'

Miles frowned at her intransigence. "You're making a mistake. You're being too timid."

"Timid?" Sally snapped. "How dare you! I was fighting Robotnick when you were just a toddler!"

"I've been fighting since I was a toddler!" he snapped right back, taking a bold step towards her. "Where were you on West Island?! Where were you in Downunda? Where were you when Sonic and I stopped Robotnick on Angel Island? Where were you? You were hiding with your tail between your legs!"

She hit him.

Sally regretted it as soon as she realized she'd done it. Her palm quivered in the air, red from the impact. She'd hit him harder in training, even in mock fights, but she'd never hit him; never slapped him; never disciplined him. Tails had never needed to be disciplined. He had always done as he was told, efficiently and to the best of his ability.

"Tails!" she cried, clutching her hand to her chest. "I…"

"I deserved that," he interrupted, holding up his hand. With his other, he experimentally touched his cheek, where he'd been struck. "I was out of line, and spoke without thinking. I see we just have different ways of looking at this issue."

She agreed, but she also wanted to talk about what had just transpired between them. Tails was never hot headed. He always thought things through, and planned ahead. Sometimes those plans went awry, but he never just jumped in. He was so unlike Sonic in that way. That he's lost his cool, and that she'd hit him… it was something she'd never imagined, in all their years together.

"Tails, I shouldn't have… hit you…" she broached an apology. "I'm sorry."

"Didn't I already say I deserved it?" He shrugged. "I'm not concerned about that."

"I am!"

He seemed honestly perplexed. "Why?"

"Because…" She struggled to say it, though she wasn't sure why it didn't come naturally. "You're like family to me. I've known you longer than my real brother… and I love you. I'd never hurt you, Tails."

"I'm not worried about that," his response was simple, and didn't address anything, at least in her view.

"Don't you…?"

"Sally," he used her familiar name, instead of Princess, and she took note of it. His tone of voice softened, though he made no gesture to go along with it. "I'll always hold a place in my heart for you. You and Sonic. But just like I don't mimic everything he does anymore, don't expect me to do the same to you. I am me, and no one else."

"I'm sorry, Captain," she inclined her head. "You'll have to get your Emerald elsewhere."

"Very well…" Miles consented, finally. "However, when I recapture the Egg Carrier, as I've discussed doing, this argument will just come back. And next time, I'll have your father backing me up."

"I'll deal with that when it comes," Sally replied. The issue had only been put off, but at least it was settled for the time being.

"Captain," Nicole's voice came in over the ship's intercom. "We're receiving a message from Army Group North and Supreme Commandant Burke. Shall I patch him through to your ready room?"

"Go ahead, Nicole," Miles said, turning to one of the faux windows, where a sea of clouds had settled in around them. The window immediately turned back into a view screen that switched to displaying a logo of the Kingdom of Acorn. Below the logo, the transmission code, date, and registry were listed.

A second later, the face of a mobian otter appeared, his hair was cropped back and he wore the black and brown colored coat and uniform of a political officer. As the King still had a lingering fear of a coup, he had Secret Service men installed with the authority to nip any potential military revolutions in the bud. For all practical purposes, it was these Commandants who actually ran many of the Kingdom's military forces, rather than his appointed Great War educated Generals and Colonels.

"Undersecretary Prower…" the mobian noticed Sally, and inclined his eyebrow in surprise. "Princess."

"What is the situation, Commandant?" Miles asked, holding his hands behind his lower back.

"We have a bit of a situation developing here." Burke glanced off to his side for a moment. "Several capital-class ships have entered our air space, and just moments ago, they began launching fighter and drone craft. Several of these vessels appear to have once been elements of the Royal Air Force."

"Battlebirds…" Miles growled.

"Battlebirds?" Sally wasn't familiar with the term.

"Remnants of the old RAF. They turned to piracy when Robotnick seized power," Miles answered, quickly filling her in. "I destroyed most of them before I met Sonic."

Sally was left almost speechless by that. "Before you…?"

Miles nodded. "I used some of them when I retook Westopolis and Downunda. But there shouldn't be more than a few scattered ships left. The Babylon Rogues must be with them."

"I suspect they are after the Emerald held in Facility-7," Burke said, sounding slightly worried. "We could use some assistance, and the Typhoon is in the area."

"I'll change course immediately. What ships do you have available for your immediate defense?" Miles asked.

Burke glanced down, at what, they couldn't tell. Probably a report.

"We have…" he read them off, "The Prince Edward, the Prince James, the Prince Emerson, and the Frederick. The Frederick is slightly damaged, but can still fight. Field repairs on the Prince James have been going slowly, and she has only limited maneuverability."

"Hold off on a counterattack as long as you can," Miles replied. "Let them bleed themselves getting to the Facility. I'll be there as soon as possible."

"Very well," the Commandant acknowledged. "Burke out."

The signal terminated, turning back into the logo.

"Nicole!" Miles called, talking as he strode back to the bridge. "Ready all hands, and warm up the engines. We head out in one hundred and twenty seconds. Princess, you have two minutes to get to your shuttle, if you please."

"I'd actually rather stay," Sally said, as the two of them stepped into the bridge itself. "If that's alright with you, Captain?"

"As you prefer." Miles sat down in his chair. Next to him, Nicole turned from her conversation with Sonic, adopting a professional stance. "Helm! Set course to rendezvous with the HMS Frederick and Army Group North. Full speed!"

"Aye, aye, Captain," came the response from the pit.

"Sonic," Miles continued, inclining his head towards the hedgehog. "Care to go hunting with me? First one to pluck one of Jet's feathers wins?"

"Alright… cool!" Sonic snickered, looking forward to an interesting match up. "Count me in!"

-----

I've updated again. I currently have the first part up on FFN, and the whole thing up on my own site. FFN will have the other two parts of the chapter online shortly.

Here's a snippet from the first part of chapter 7.

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snippet

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Knothole.

Despite the fighting elsewhere, at least the city of Knothole was peaceful. Once little more than a lakeside hamlet, it had grown dramatically over the last five years into the new cultural capital of the Mobian mainland. Arranged in concentric rings and quadrants, it was a free city as long as one was inside it. Movement in and out, was another matter entirely; tightly regulated and overseen by special elements of the Mobian Armed Forces and the Freedom Fighters.

For refugees, Knothole was a destination one didn't expect to come back from. Robians and the dispossessed fortunate enough to have good connections flowed in, and de-roboticized mobians either remained or were carefully screened and shipped out to other "secure" areas. The wars had led to a vast population of homeless and jobless, and the Kingdom had quickly seen the misfortune as an opportunity to reshuffle the ethnic and political landscape of the continent. Areas that had been formerly homogeneous were now broken up and divided along multi-cultural lines, ensuring no racial power blocs could arise from the ruins as they had in so many other areas in the south.

Children, a special case, remained in Knothole where they were adopted wholesale by the state. It was a central location for the education and care of many of the Kingdom's next generation, where the virtues of hard work, service, and obedience were drilled ceaselessly into the nation's charges. Despite this bureaucratically efficient system, more than a few children slipped through the cracks in the red tape... some by accident and some by design. As a result, Knothole also had (ironically enough) the largest street urchin population in the region.

Blaze hadn't known any of this.

She hadn't even given such a thing a second thought. Her concern had been the mission that she and Silver were on. Their underworld contacts were trying to keep low, so their trip back into Knothole had been rather ad hoc. Luckily, a smuggler had agreed to take them on, and his arrangement with certain city border patrollers had let them sneak in undetected and undisturbed. Despite its clandestine nature, authorized smugglers and merchants kept a constant influx of goods flowing into the city, both legal and illegal.

Once inside, Blaze had figured that the rest of her mission would be a relative cakewalk. She'd even stopped to buy some food from a local vendor. At some point between paying for the "chili-dog" (as it was called) and actually biting into the messy foodstuff, she'd felt someone bump into her. Knothole was a big city by her standards, and very crowded, so she'd rather gotten used to being bumped into on her visits here. The other mobian mumbled an apology before hurrying off, and Blaze had quickly disregarded the whole thing.

Until she reached up to her collar and confirmed that her necklace was gone.

Incredulous, it took her a few seconds to wrap her mind around the fact. Blaze, Princess and Guardian of the Sol Emeralds - pick pocketed! What did she do? What else had been taken? Should she call out, cry for help, and draw attention to herself? No: that was probably the worst thing she could do! Spinning around and dropping her forgotten late lunch/early dinner, the feline stared at the shifting mass of mobians all around her. There was no way to tell who had bumped into her.

'What should I do?' Blaze's hands tensed and she could feel the inkling of her power rising to the surface. A spark danced between her fingers, followed by another. Confusion and dismay was quickly being displaced by anger and frustration. Not only was the necklace an important family heirloom, but it had one of the Sol Emeralds sealed inside it!

"Excuse me, Miss?" someone asked, and Blaze whirled on the interloper.

"What?" she snapped, still unsure what to do. Running off in some random direction after the thief was tempting but stupid and hot headed, which she wasn't, leaving her to fume and think up some kind of plan.

"Is something wrong?" The 'interloper' turned out to be a girl, younger than Blaze by a handful of years. She was a mobian rabbit, a fairly common breed, with light coloring save for the ends of her ears, around her eyes, and on a patch on the crown of her head, where it was a chestnut brown. Wearing a titian orange dress and a little blue bow, she seemed totally harmless.

'Who is this girl?'

"What?" Blaze asked, wary despite the girl's appearance. "What makes you think that?"

"The look on your face," the girl explained. "And you went deathly pale and dropped your food… If I can, I'd like to help."

'She wants to help me? Some stranger she doesn't even know! She should be more cautious, or she'll get taken advantage of…'

"My…" Blaze finally relented. What was the harm, anyway? "My necklace. Someone just bumped into me and took it. I… I'm not sure what to do."

The girl processed this information. "What is the necklace made of?"

"What does that matter? It's important to me…!"

The bunny girl held up her hands, innocently. "I didn't mean it like that. But if someone took it, they'll want to sell it. And where they take it depends on how valuable other people think it is."

Blaze stared at the girl for a second. She was right. There was no way for anyone to know there was a Sol Emerald in there. The Emeralds didn't even exist here. And a thief wouldn't care about the emotional attachment someone had to an object. The feline revised her opinion of the younger girl. She may have looked innocent enough, and even sounded it, but she had a measure of worldliness and familiarity with this era that Blaze didn't.

"White gold, I think," she replied. Blaze had never really thought about what it was made of before; she'd just worn it for as long as she could remember.

"Ok. Let's see if Cheese can help us find it before it gets pawned."

"Cheese?" Blaze asked. Was this girl off her rocker? What could a dairy product do to help?

A tiny blue creature jumped up, literally out of no where, and onto the girl's shoulder. Blaze's eyes widened at the little thing; she'd never seen anything like it. It looked like a little blue and gold blob with barely recognizable legs and arms and a round little face. Someone, probably the girl, also seemed to have attached a red bow to it somehow. It didn't remind Blaze of anything in either the animal or plant kingdom.

Maybe it was from the fungus kingdom, then? Like a mushroom. But no: that would just be silly.

"This is my friend Cheese," the girl said, and she held out her hand. The little blob landed in it, and looked up at Blaze with big curious eyes. It seemed harmless, if a little slimy and gross looking.

"Cheese?" Blaze half asked and the little creature formed a smile on its otherwise formless face. "What is it?"

"A Chao! They're a rare species found on Angel Island. My family runs Knothole's only Chao Garden! Oh!" The girl quickly bowed her head politely. "My name's Cream, by the way."

"Um… I'm Blaze…" the older girl ventured. "Nice to meet you?"

"Nice to meet you, too!" Cream beamed, and held her chao up to Blaze's face. "Get a good smell, Cheese!"

Blaze cringed back a bit, as the chao leaned in to 'sniff' at her neck. With what, she couldn't imagine. The creature didn't look like it had a nose.

Then it morphed slightly, taking on more canine features.

'What the…?'

Jumping back onto Cream's shoulder, it pointed down the street.

"Come on, let's go!" Cream took Blaze's hand, and pulled her along. The girl was stronger than the feline had expected, but she soon let go, and they ran at a brisk pace down the main venue of the open air market. This wasn't the first marketplace Blaze had been in, here in the past, but it was much larger than anything in The Ring or elsewhere she had visited. Her stomach rumbled as her nose picked up the delectable smell of smoked fish, and she silently bemoaned dropping her lunch.

Following Cream closely, the two girls ducked off of Market Street and down past a row of shops. Looking up, Blaze could see rooms - apartments - over the store fronts. They looked to be pretty well appointed, with nice white facades, wide windows and small curious cranes hanging from the top. Maybe they were used to hoist up furniture or something? Rounding the corner, they kept running away from the nicer houses and into a noticeably less attractive area.

This part of the city reminded her more of The Ring. Blaze saw graffiti on a brick wall, something she'd never seen anywhere else in Knothole, and yellow tape cordoning off a three story building. A raised monorail track passed overhead, bypassing the neighborhood as it headed off to some place less seedy. Cream didn't seem particularly afraid of the bad part of town, such as it was, and Cheese led them further down the road, past an open chain link fence, and down into a concrete ditch - it had to be some sort of water channel to control flooding or something.

Cheese pointed, hopping on Cream's shoulder excitedly.

"Looks like we found the place," the bunny girl translated from Chao-ese. Up ahead and under an overpass formed by the road crossing the ditch, a handful of mobians were hanging out. They could only be what passed for punks this far 'Uptown' (as those in The Ring called it).

"If this is it, then let's go," Blaze said, not wanting to waste time.

"Hey, wait!" Cream called, running after the older female as she walked up to the small gang. Seeing the two girls approaching, the punks dropped what they were doing and pointed. Getting closer, it became clear that they were all dressed in a similar way: their fur was dyed green in many places, and they all wore sunglasses and beaten leather jackets. It wasn't a style Blaze had seen before in The Ring.

None of them seemed armed, either.

Unlike The Ring, firearms weren't allowed to circulate among the general population in Knothole. Blaze had even heard that there were acoustic sensors across the city that could detect the sound of gunfire and pinpoint the location. In a lot of places outside the city, one wore a weapon as a sign of independence and power. It meant that, even without super powers or anything like that; you could defend yourself and your property. Many gangs defined themselves by the weapons they carried, including them as part of a dress code. These boys lacked anything like that.

"Ok, boys," Blaze said, walking right up to them. "I believe you have something of mine."

"Ey! Ey! Something of yours, issit?" one of them asked, slurring his voice. Another one, a hedgehog maybe fifteen years old, slicked back his spines and leered at her. Another just chuckled.

"Blaze…" Cream started to say, but straightened up as she got closer. "You didn't have to run in like that…"

"Sorry," the feline replied, offering the other girl a polite nod. "But I don't like wasting time on nuisances like this."

"Nuisance?" the hedgehog boy chuckled. Reaching into his jacket, he pulled out a switchblade. "Dat sure ain't a nice thing ta say. Maybe you betta apologize."

"Ey, you girls made a mistake lookin' for trouble here!" the other one piped in.

Blaze just sighed, and placed her hands on her hips.

"I just want my necklace back," she said. "I don't care who stole it. Hand it over, and we'll all be happier."

"Necklace? Dat don't sound like something we'd have!"

More chuckling. "Yeah!"

"Maybe if you gimme a kiss, it'll jog my memory," the hedgehog added with another dry laugh.

Blaze made a disgusted face, and Cream giggled.

"You Scourges are always causing trouble," the younger girl said, pointing at them. "Why don't you make something of yourselves?"

The hedgehog sneered. "Tch! I don't gotta listen to this @$@%!"

His two compatriots surged towards Cream, but never got more than a few steps in. Blaze snapped her fingers, and a ball of flame appeared in midair with a flash of fire and light. Cream jumped back, startled, and the two punks fell right on their asses. Blaze beckoned the fire over, and it floated eerily until it sat in the palm of her hand. Tossing it up into the air, and then back into her hand, like one would a baseball, Blaze smirked.

"I think I know better ways to jog your memory…"

The hedgehog punk tried to put up a confident smile.

"Actually," he said, dropping his switchblade. "I just remembered. You know… like… just realized. Necklace! Right! We did find one of those!"

Blaze's eyes narrowed dangerously.

Backing up a few steps, the punk lifted a false lid on a nearby metal trash can. Inside were more than a few stolen items: a few wallets, a purse, a couple ear rings, and a good sized necklace. Retrieving it and holding it out, he smiled weakly. Blaze snatched it out of his hands with an angry growl.

Cream, however, didn't seem satisfied.

"How many poor mobians have you boys robbed, huh?" she frowned, appearing as disappointed as she was angry. "You should be ashamed of yourselves!"

"Ey!" one of the punks on the ground barked. "Come on!"

The hedgehog leader shrugged. "Everybody's gotta make a livin' somehow, sweetcheeks."

"You keep this up, you'll end up in a labor camp," Cream warned them. "Then you'll see how you 'make a living.' Clean up your act if you know what's good for you!"

The punks growled and grumbled, but didn't bother with a reply. Blaze was already walking off, and after a few seconds of indecision, Cream followed. They were a goodly distance away when they heard the punks calling out at them.

"Freak! FREEEAAAK!!" "Chaos Freak!" "Yeah, get lost, ey!"

Blaze's scowl deepened at the taunts. It wasn't the first time her curse had left that impression on people. Even as important as she was, even with her being the Guardian of the Emeralds, she knew many other whispered behind her back. She was different. She wasn't one of them. She wasn't normal. It wasn't until Silver that she had actually met someone like her; someone who understood…

"Wow! That was pretty neat!" Cream exclaimed, sounding chipper and happy again. She snapped her fingers, or tried to. Wearing gloves, they just made a dull thump instead of a proper snap.

'Neat?' Blaze wondered, staring at the girl. Holding her necklace, Blaze stared at it and carefully put it back on. It felt good to have it on her again, and the comforting feeling of the Sol Emerald sealed inside filled her with warmth.

"I guess you have chaos powers, huh?" the girl didn't seem put off, surprised, or perturbed by the fact.

"Um… yeah," Blaze admitted. "Kind of."

"You should talk to Mister Sonic, or… Mister Tails!"

'Those two?' Blaze remembered seeing them at the club. In fact, hadn't this girl been there too?

"Cream, do you know… ah, 'Mister Sonic' and 'Mister Tails?'"

"Yep!" Cream beamed, and the two of them started walking back to the market. "Only just recently, though. My sister is one of their closest friends. They're both really nice guys, and I bet they'd love to meet another chaos user!"

"I'll look them up some time…" Blaze lied. She didn't want anything to do with those two, at least not until Mephiles was with them and they had an idea of what to do to stop Iblis. Cream was all smiles, and Blaze found her mood rather infectious.

She never noticed Cheese, the little blue Chao, glaring at her necklace.

Chapter 8, Part 1 is now up on FFN.

I've also got some new pics (actually one of which has been up on devart for some time now while I worked)

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snippet
(note: cut and paste from Word seems to have left a few indentation mucks ups on the board html)

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Low Orbit; 3219 MC

Eighteen years before the present, and eight hundred kilometers above the surface of Mobius' isolated continent of Overland, a steadily growing hive of activity hung in the sky. This was the orbital half of the mega-construct known simply as "Space City," or "The ARK." Here, high above the blue and green world below, swarms of machines spread out from the City constructing a ring that nearly disappeared into the black abyss of space. In time, it would become a single inter-connected structure: a great ring circling the entire planet.

Occasional specks rose up from the atmosphere; these were the lifelines between the space station above and the great tower below. In actuality, each "speck" was large enough to accommodate tons of cargo. The elevators ran along streams of particles, part of a looped system running between low orbit and ground control. That same system kept the Space Colony in a stable non-geosynchronous orbit while the great ring slowly continued construction. The ARK itself was the nexus, the critical hub of activity for mobian humanity and its off-world investments and colonies.

What occurred there would also prove to be the bane of mankind.

The ARK Orbital Research Compound - Suite 54-D8

In a sealed room, harsh light flickered across a man's face, highlighting the rough stubble on his chin and cheeks. Metal-rimmed glasses hid his eyes, reflecting the greenish hue from the adjacent room. The man peered into that room, empty save a single subject, with expressionless features. His companion sitting next to him winced; his face scrunching up into a look of distaste.

"I tell ya, I can't take much more of this assignment, Jim." The man said with a grunt, as he massaged his temples with hairless, human fingers. "It gets to ya, ya know?"

"Hmm?" The other man took his eyes off the other room, visible through a see-through window, to acknowledge his co-worker. "Sam… Did you just say something?"

The overlander sans glasses sighed.

"I said 'it gets to you.' The noise," he clarified, "The sound these things make."

"Oh." Jim shrugged. He went back to keeping an eye on the other room. "I suppose."

Sam looked over at a nearby instrument panel. "It just… doesn't sound human."

"What?" Jim asked. "You think it should sound human?"

"No…" The other man admitted, running his thumb over the GUN patch on his left shoulder. "Of course not. But still, I mean, we've all heard it talk. It sounds human when it talks. But when you get the thing in the chamber… when it's in there… it doesn't sound like any man… mobians… I guess mobians don't scream properly… they don't have the voice boxes for it. They yowl… like some animal caught in a trap… and I'm just getting' tired of hearing it."

Jim frowned and nodded in understanding.

"How long have you been on this detail?" he asked.

"Since it started." Sam closed his eyes, and tried to shut out the howls coming from the room next to them. "Since the old man decided to start 'conditioning' the little beast to Chaos Waveforms. I honestly don't know what he expects to happen in there…"

The man with glasses looked into the other room where a black creature was huddled in a corner, yowling and thrashing as if to escape the greenish radiation flooding into the chamber. Every so often it would start to go into a seizure, and end up smashing its head into the wall, foaming at the mouth like a rabid beast. The two humans were there to monitor its life signs, and to step in if it passed out or had another concussion. Sometimes the creature, when led into the Chaos Chamber, would stand defiantly in the middle of the room… but it always ended up in the same place, the same corner.

Screaming.

"A miracle…" Jim whispered. "We're looking for a miracle."

"Huh?" Sam asked, and sighed again. "Anyway: this one is just like all the other 'Shadows.' It'll end up chewing its wrists off, and we'll be left plugging another black rat through the same routine… again. Though that one'll probably be the last, at least. It isn't like they're going to give us the funding for an army of them like the old man wants."

Jim looked at his comrade again. "What've you heard?"

Sam looked away at the panel again. "Just that the General came by a few days ago. He's going to axe the Shadow Program in favor of the Eclipse Project. As if no one saw that coming after that 'bio-lizard' fiasco and all these little goblins we've gone through."

The other scientist rolled his head from side to side, evoking a few cracks and pops. "I suppose not…"

Project Shadow was proving to be something of a boondoggle. At least the Bio-Lizard had been useful as a prototype and experimental test platform. The Shadows were just useless. None of them seemed to have anything near the Chaos Sensitivity they were supposed to have. At least they still had the mass produced "Artificial Chaos" creatures, but that one success story wouldn't prop up the rest of the bio-engineering department's failures. They were already the laughing stock of the Research Station.

'Gerald's Billion Dollar Lab Rats,' they were called.

"Well… I guess we don't have time to dick around with pet projects at this point. Not with the President calling up a draft for the first time in thirty years. At least we're prepared for this war… Not like last time. I ever tell you that my father fought in the last war…?"

"Everyone's father fought in the last war," Jim countered.

"Yeah…" The other scientist looking down at the GUN insignia he wore. "And here I am stuck in space. Still, the girls think it's neat."

"The twins, right?" Jim smiled; glad the conversation was moving to more mundane topics. The mobian in the room adjacent had even stopped screaming… he was probably out of breath again. His vital signs were still passable.

"How old are they, now?"

"Eight." Sam looked up at the ceiling. "Nothing they like more than watching the shuttles take off from The Gateway. Jennifer says she tells them I pass overhead every three days. Supposedly they go outside and wave."

Jim chuckled softly. "Not exactly scientifically accurate."

"They're just little kids, I don't think they… Holy…"

In mid-sentence, the researcher leapt out of his chair, and gawked open mouthed at the one-way window that showed the Chaos Chamber. Swiveling, his partner looked in the same direction and saw the same thing. In the room, still huddled in a little ball, the creature codenamed 'Shadow-016' began to glow, his black spines outlined by white and red.

Slowly, painfully, the mobian hedgehog began to right himself, first on his arms and legs, and then his knees. Eyes rolled into the back of his skull, Shadow leaned back and let out a soundless scream. His whole body began to convulse and shake as a thick foamy drool slid down his chin. White flashes came and went, in a seemingly random pattern, growing steadily in intensity.

"W… what's happening…? Why did he change color?" Jim managed to say, and his eyes darted around the room for some elusive answer. "Is this Singularity? Should we do something? Should we shut the Chamber Down?"

The senior scientist slowly shook his head. "He's… absorbing it… resonating with the artificial waveform and converting it into natural chaos energy…! After all this time… after all these trials… one of them finally worked…"

In the room, Shadow's seizure-wracked body began to turn a pale white.

"Is this it? Is this the final evolution of Project Shadow?" He continued speaking, eyes set on the figure in the middle of the chamber, ignoring the warning lights that went off behind him. "A conduit for the Chaos Waveform? Or… is this another biolizard? Are we still one step short… one gene shy… of the Ultimate…"

Samuel Florentine never finished his sentence. In front of him the reinforced crystal cracked, and before he could draw breath, exploded outwards at lethal velocities. Shredded by the shrapnel, blinded by the light, he never saw the White Angel of Death he had helped to create. No one would see it again… for almost twenty years…

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Shadow stood, alone, atop one of Robotropolis' great towers.

Absolute solitude was both his bane and his comfort. He felt nothing but contempt for those robots, robians, and other abominations that scurried about the city. He felt nothing but hate for the mobians he had been created to destroy; he felt nothing but resentment for the humans who made him, discarded him, and took the innocent light of his life. If life was truly suffering, as he recalled Maria saying some believed, then sentience was the greatest curse of them all.

What could be worse than suffering; only the knowledge that you suffer.

There was nothing to redeem this world that lay sprawled out before him. From the start, Shadow had vowed to destroy it. He didn't mind waiting, days, weeks, months, even years if necessary. His cause was just, and his revenge undeniable. He rarely even thought much about it anymore, he just went about his business, but now… after months and months of work, it looked like things were reaching an impasse. He had placed all his hopes (so to speak) on rebuilding the Eclipse Cannon.

Shadow closed his eyes, remembering.

"Eclipse Cannon? What's that, Doctor?"

"Shadow," Gerald said his name with a kindness he otherwise knew only from Maria. Despite his tone of voice, though, the Professor was a busy and distant man. His kind words were rarely met by his actions and the demands he made of his creation. Still, Shadow admired him. He seemed so huge, so great, so larger-than-life…

"Eclipse is a weapon I have been forced to build. At its most powerful, it has the power to devastate a world. But it is only a device, Shadow, without values or intent. Remember this: true power is not measured in units of energy. It is in the decisions we made as sentient beings, and the lives we lead. I only hope that the mere threat of Eclipse will end this war before it begins…"

Shadow remembered seeing a sad look on his creator's face.

"To see it used… would drive me to despair for all our futures."

Silently, Shadow muttered an apology to his creator. He had intended to use Eclipse to wipe clean the world, from one pole to another; from horizon to horizon. Barring that, he had asked Snively to calculate the consequences of an overload, confirming that it would plunge Mobius into a nuclear winter lasting generations. It was a cruel response to a sinful world in need of punishment.

Except, now, the path ahead seemed unclear. Construction of Helios had stalled, and he hadn't known about the initial energy consumption issue. It made sense, he supposed, but it made a once clear end seem muddled. Tentative peace feelers had been extended by Snively, at the Eggman's request, and the initial response had been wary but positive. It was possible the Doctor's plan would work, but what if it didn't? What if Helios never got off the ground?

Shadow knew he couldn't very well hunt down and destroy all the world's life single handedly. No individual could. It had to be done in a single fell stroke, or at most, several. If Helios didn't pan out, what could he do? To his vexation, Shadow realized he really didn't have a backup plan. He had plans, but they all involved using the cannon; he just hadn't seriously considered that Eclipse wouldn't be built and activated.

The black hedgehog's eyes opened, as he sensed a presence nearby.

Dark red eyes settled on a figure floating in midair, its back turned. The creature seemed outwardly mobian, in fact, it seemed to be a reflection of Shadow himself. The coloring was slightly grayer, with dull blue highlights instead of red, but the similarities were eerie. Gradually, the new arrival turned in space, revealing a blue-green eye looking over its shoulder.

"Disgusting, isn't it?" Shadow's shadow asked, turning back to the city below.

"And what's that?" Shadow asked, making no outward move. In his mind, he instantly thought of Black Doom. Was this another Black Arms entity, like Doom's Eye? It didn't look or feel like it was, but it was possible that Doom had attempted to create a Shadow copy of his own, after the original had ultimately rejected their alliance all those months ago. Shadow had no interest in simply replacing one tortured form of life with another.

"This world," the other black hedgehog answered, lazily. "So lost in sinful neglect. How many innocents have suffered so that the vile may prosper?"

Shadow's expression remained unchanged. Inwardly, he was surprised.

"Who are you?"

"Someone like you, Shadow. My name is Mephiles…"

Shadow didn't recognize the name.

"You don't know me," Mephiles answered the unspoken question. "But I know you. You and I walk a similar path. Long before you were created, I lost someone I loved. The light of my life. The world conspired to take her away… to cast her into darkness. Now, I wish only to join her there."

In Darkness.

For Shadow, the words rang truer than any of Black Doom's. How he had loved Maria, in all ways. She had been the light of his life - the guiding light; all he hoped and cared for. Even the Doctor, his creator, had done all he had in her name, in the hope of curing her disease. The world itself had conspired against her. Conception had left her sickly and frail, the circumstances of her birth pitted her family against the world's mobians, and even her fellow humans had killed her to get at him. All her kindness had been rewarded with contempt and hate, not just by individuals, but by the callous cruelty of the world itself.

Maria, too, had been a light cast into darkness.

"What was her name?" Shadow suddenly felt the need to know.

"Iblis," Mephiles replied, with a low sigh. "She was… wonderful. I loved her. And you loved Maria, didn't you?"

Shadow screwed his eyes shut, haunted by her face. "Yes…"

"You want to punish this world," Mephiles said, stating what Shadow had kept hidden deep in his heart for so long. "So do I…. I want only to punish it and be with her again."

Shadow opened his eyes again, all traces of emotion banished.

"Who are you?" he asked, this time wanting more than a name.

"A shadow of the past," the enigma answered, turning around completely to face Shadow. For the first time, it became obvious that this… entity… had no mouth. "For centuries I have slept, waiting for the right time. That time is now. Iblis will soon be released. I will join with her, and purge the evil from this world. I will do what the God or Gods of this world have failed to do."

Shadow glared at him, asking without words: are you my enemy, or…?

"Shadow," Mephiles said, holding out his hand. "Don't you see? I understand you. Completely. Let us help each other."

Black Doom had made similar promises; Shadow was plainly interested, but not totally convinced.

"How can you help me?"

"So long as I reunite with Iblis, I don't care what happens," Mephiles explained, "Your work with this human, down below. I know it to be a sham. But you need what he is building. You are… worried… that it will not be completed."

'Is he reading my mind?' Shadow wondered. How else could this Mephiles know so much?

"I won't deny it," Shadow finally replied.

"Then let me assuage that concern…" Mephiles chuckled, a deep, dark sound that echoed in Shadow's mind. "You will find that I know many things and that I make a powerful ally…"

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Pretty cool work, Capn.