Marble Garden: Chao Central

[Stoney]

"...Wow, you've met Mister Sonic before?"

The rabbit was staring wide-eyed at her escort as he regaled her with tales of his exploits within the bowels of the subterranean Hydrocity. Her pace had somewhat slowed after they had left Knuckles and his guests behind; Mario had managed to calm her down after much coaxing, and had repeatedly warned her afterwards about the small rocks and debris that littered this area like cheese on pizza, just waiting to trip up unsuspecting travelers and send them sprawling. Reassured that they would soon get Cheese the help he needed regardless of how fast she went, Cream had heeded the plumber's advice and now followed behind Mario at a brisk walk as he guided them through the maze of crumbling stone.





"Oh yeah, I remember him all right," Mario grumbled. "He and that fox-kid contaminated one of the main water lines. Just waltzed right in like they owned the place and tracked mud everywhere. Even the ceiling."

He smiled as Cream giggled at this. He liked the kid; she was sweet, polite, and very easy to talk to after he'd begun doing so. It was the first conversation he'd had in months with anyone besides Knuckles, and the change was refreshing to say the least; a sharp breeze against his face that paradoxically cooled his temper and warmed his heart.

Speaking of his face, Cream seemed to find it humorous-looking for some reason, and had mentioned as much during their first few awkward attempts at idle chitchat. Normally Mario would have been insulted by that, but it was hard to get offended while looking into Cream's big, brown, innocent eyes. He turned to glance at her over his shoulder now and pulled an exaggerated expression of annoyance as he continued his story, causing her to giggle again.

"I finally tracked them down in Circulation Network number two, using the pipes as water slides of all things. Then I gave them the boot." He swung his foot forward in a recreation of the move for her benefit, giving a little chuckle of his own at the memory. The expression on that hedgehog's face...

"Oh, hey, we're here," He suddenly broke off as they entered a wide clearing between the collapsing stone structures. It had apparently once been some sort of meeting area at the middle of the crumbling city; ruins of buildings were arranged around it in a circle, and what might have once been a fountain resided in pieces at the center, its water source long since dried up.

The place showed signs of having been turned into a Chao Garden after its discovery; coconut trees had been planted nearby, and a small pool had been carved into the ground off to the side. "I helped build that thing," Mario murmured to Cream in passing. "The water line for the fountain was no good, so we had to drill a tunnel for a new one. It was really hard to do without damaging the ruins further, but Knux and I managed."

A few Chao were here as well, frolicking about and playing with toys that had been left there for them. One of them spotted Mario and promptly broke off from the rest, running over to greet the plumber with a gleeful cry.

"Hiya Peaches," Mario smiled at the creature as it hugged his leg and began babbling in that nonsensical language Chao were so well known for. "Didja miss me, girl?" He bent down and picked her up, hugging her with the air of two friends who have been parted for a long time.





Cream's eyes lit up. She didn't know Mister Mario had a chao! She studied it out of the corner of one eye as she looked around for the familiar medical machines that graced every Chao Garden.

Peaches was one of those rare Chao types whose colors resembled precious gemstones; unknown to Cream, however, an even rarer genetic defect had interfered with this coloration, dulling Peaches' shine and changing what would've normally been Topaz into a lighter, pinkish color that resembled the fruit after which she was named. The most prominent feature the chao had besides her color was a grouping of horns atop her head that vaguely resembled a tiara, with the tallest one in the middle and progressively smaller ones off to the sides.

And ironically enough, the chao seemed to carry herself with a fluidity and grace befitting royalty...

Cream's attention was diverted as she finally located one of the contraptions she'd been searching for. Hurrying over, she placed Cheese's unconscious body into the small circle of light on the ground, then stood back up and began selecting the options she wanted from the screens of two touch-sensitive holographs representing a massive Game Boy Advance and a Dreamcast VMU.

Standard heal cycle should do the trick...Cream hit a final button on the holo-GBA and watched as the light around Cheese intensified, then dimmed to a soothing radiance that made Cream feel calmer just by looking at it. With a sigh of relief, the young rabbit allowed her legs to release their tension and collapsed to a sitting position.

They'd walked a long way...she'd be able to rest now, though. Heal cycles always took a while to complete, especially for extensive injuries. Cream flopped onto her back and stared up at the cloud-dotted sky, letting herself become further relaxed by the delighted sounds of the chao around her as Mario played with them. For the first time since she and Cheese had tumbled into this crazy world, she felt at-ease.

The sunlight was so warm...Cream closed her eyes and basked in it, not noticing sleep creeping up on her until it claimed her moments later.

[AnT]

Sadly, Mario's long work on the garden might be ruined when pond blasted out a Mobian canary.

WhhoooAAA-OOF!!!" she fell right on the plumber, making many Chao, even little Peaches, scatter away. "Uugh...nature so hates me."

[Stoney]

One minute he was teaching Peaches how to play the trumpet -- the next, he was buried. Up to his neck, no less.

And there was someone laying on top of him. Someone heavy.

"MMM MMMPH MMM MMG NNM!"

[AnT]

"Whoa, sorry bout that, luv!" Tekno leaped off the plumber.

The green bird notice how soaked he clothes and feathers were. She then wringed the water out of her overalls. "Brillant...defiantly won't be flying with wet feathers now."

[Stoney]

Mario was similarly soaked from having been sat upon by said wet feathers...or at least his head was. The rest of him was still buried, making him look like a creepy disembodied head sitting on the ground.

A very upset disembodied head.

"WHAT JUST HAPPENED?! PEACHES, WHERE ARE YOU! ARE YOU OKAY?? Why can't I move...?"




Peaches the Chao ran up to her master upon being summoned, looking utterly terrified of the green canary standing not two feet away. She made sure to keep Mario's head between them as she babbled rapidly to him in Chaospeak.






"Hey, whoa, whoa! Calm down! I'm still here! Sorta." Mario couldn't turn his head to see his Chao, but he recognized her voice, and knew how terrified she must be. To tell the truth, he was rather unnerved, himself -- women didn't exactly drop out of the sky into his lap very often, be they birds or otherwise.

He did his best to find Tekno in the corner of his eye. "Um, excuse me miss...but do you mind helping me out here? I think I'm stuck..." Indignation, questions, and introductions could wait until he was able to properly breathe again.

[AnT]

"Whoops!"

Tekno grabbed the plumber and did her best to pluck him out of the ground. But being one with little strength, that was gonna take a while.


She growled as she pulled hard, but either he was really stuck in there, or Tekno really need to spend more time in Shadow's gym room.

"Come on ya bloody airborne island; Spit. Him. OUT!" And she finally pulled him out, at the cost of her landing on her back. "Ow...I'm not the best for pulling out turnips at t'all." [rand=20644114276866346624086668558107900837146937478644245710573609753]

[Stoney]

Mario stood up and primly dusted himself off.

"Thanks. Now...where do I begin?" He paused for a moment to think, rubbing his chin with one forefinger and thumb. "Ah, how about with this."

Deep breath. "WHAT IS GOING ON?!"

[AnT]

She stood up, being in Mario's yell. Oh and she loves this part; Explaining a scientific situation. This is where she feels that she is god of knowledge, and she loves being the know-it-all.

With a smile, an arrogant one at that, Tekno pointed at herself like she was queen. "Tekno Canary, leader of the Western Freedom Fighters, at your service, luv. But since it seems you live on this island that came from another world, you wouldn't know about the Freedom Fighters."

Her smile grew wider as she waited to see the look on his face. She loves surprising people.

"That's right, luv; another world. A world with people based on the ones you probably know. Grand, huh?"

[Stoney]

"......."

Flat stare.

"I was talking about you just now falling out of the sky onto my head. While wet. What's all this rubbish about Alternate Dimensions? Those things only exist in books."

Clearly, Mario's remote life was not privy to info about he Sol Dimension.

[AnT]

"......oh." Guess she jumped to conclusion on what he meant. Feh, it wouldn't be much fun explaining the water thing.

"Oh that? Well I fell in some water hole thing near the mountains...and slid through some tunnel. I think I broke something going through that lake."

She cleared her throat, while twisting her overalls to drain the water.

"But you're clearly wrong about alternate dimensions. They're real as where you are now. Haven't you noticed anything peculiar...besides me falling on you?"

[Stoney]

Unfortunately, Mario had stopped listening by the end of her fourth sentence.

"You...you what?" He demanded, voice cracking slightly as panic slowly seeped in. His mustache bristled in fear and he suddenly took off running in the direction of the pond -- which was no longer so much a pond as a shallow puddle, as water rapidly drained out of it through a recently-enlarged drain at the bottom.



Peaches, left without cover as Mario's legs escaped the range of her arms, cast a terrified look in Tekno's direction before chasing after her master.





Mario fell to his knees at the edge of the former waterhole, hands shaking as he saw the damage.

"No...no, NO, NO!" His voice rose in volume with each cry as he confirmed the worst: the pump he and Knuckles had spent so much time creating out of old Badnik parts and then installing down there at the very center of the pond was now smashed to bits, along with a fair bit of the piping that had circulated the water to prevent it from gaining the typical diseases and pesky organisms associated with still water. The pond was well and truly ruined now.

Mario stood back up. The shaking had now spread to cover most of his body; he turned to glare WITH THE FIRES OF HELL ITSELF at Tekno.

"You...YOU!!" Mario gestured wildly at the former pond behind him, utterly speechless with rage. The cries of distressed Chao filled the area as those who had been swimming in the pond now found themselves unable to climb its unnaturally steep slides and get out. Mario just clenched his fists and formed a fireball in each, unable to think of anything beyond revenge for this ultimate act of obnoxiousness.



Peaches sat down at the edge of the pond-that-was-not-a-pond and stared uncomprehendingly at it. Where'd the water go? Why had it left? She began sniffling. She didn't want it to go...she liked swimming here...

And with a heartbreaking wail, she began to cry -- with the other chao soon following along behind her.

[AnT]

Not even Tekno's coolly attitude could withstand....this.

Backing away, after shocked at his fiery ability, Tekno waved her hands. "Waitwaitwaitwaitwait! Look luv, it was an accident, alright? If anything, I'll help fix it; I'm reaaaaally handy with the tool-belt."

Tekno took some deep breaths.

"But look, this plumbing business is the lease of our concern. Bottom line, a madman named Dr. Robotnik, who rules this planet Mobius with an evil fist, will come and take over this land and pollute everything lush about it! Your island is practically parked not too far from his city!"

[Stoney]

On top of destroying all of his hard work, she now had the nerve to begin making up excuses. Other worlds? Fictional megalomaniacal madmen? A convenient way to escape the scene of the crime and distract him simultaneously?

Mario's blood boiled.

"SHUT UP!!" He bellowed, chucking the fireballs in both ha--

Wait.

Dr. Robotnik?

Mario halted in mid-throw. That name rang a bell somewhere in the back of his mind...wasn't there someone by that name in all the news reports prior to the Perfect Chaos incident? Except he went by a different name...

"...Are you talking about Dr. Eggman?" Mario asked suspiciously, still perched on one foot in a perfect freeze-frame pitching position. He still didn't believe a single word about this "other world" nonsense...but Knux had told him about what had happened the last time the good Doctor had visited Angel Island. If that guy was lurking around here again, it was bad news.

He frowned, waiting for the canary's answer. And no, he still didn't break his pose.

[AnT]

Tekno wondered, what kind of a world has Overlanders chuckling fireballs out of nowhere? Well, not the time to ask that because this guy still wasn't cooling off.

Luckily she heard about the other Robotnik's nickname from Nicole, otherwise she been confused and it be tough trying to convince this guy. "Well...in a way, but let's just say he has a long lost and MORE evil brother here." Yeah, she also heard that their Robotnik hadn't taken over anything; lucky bums.

"Look...I promise you, luv, I'll fix the plumbing systems here, but I drastically need to warn the leader of this island about the possible invasion. I also need to find the princess; she's here on this island. If you guys don't do anything to prepare yourselves, you'll be in great deadly danger!"

[Stoney]

Actually, that was a good idea. Take her to Knux, tell him what she did, and let HIM deal with her. The Chao Garden had been a joint project; Knux had invested just as much into it as Mario had. A grim sense of satisfaction filled the plumber as he recalled his own encounters with the echidna's spiked fists; it would be a fitting punishment for this intruding vandal.

...Except Cream was here and he couldn't leave her behind. She wasn't all that familiar with the island and could easily get lost if she wandered too far.

Mario glanced over at the peacefully sleeping bunny and frowned, debating with himself over whether he should wake her. He could leave a note explaining to her what had happened; but he didn't have any paper nor anything to write with. He could just leave and try to get back here before she woke up; but there was no guarantee she'd sleep that long.

An idea struck Mario like a floating brick block to the head.

"Peaches? Where'd you go?" He glanced around for his Chao, before realizing she'd scuttled back behind his legs again. Bending down, he picked the pinkish creature up and raised her so they were eye-to-eye.

"Peaches, I need you to listen very carefully to me, okay? You need to remember what I'm about to say."




The chao looked surprised at the sudden request. After a moment or two she nodded, showing she understood.






"I need to leave for a while. I'll be back in a few minutes, but in the meantime, I need you and the other Chao to watch Cream for me, okay? Make sure she doesn't leave the Garden. Can you do that for me, please?"




Peaches looked even more terrified upon hearing he was leaving. Her tiny chin trembled, but again she nodded, summoning all the courage she could to be brave in front of her Master.






The plumber smiled gently, and hugged his pet. "Thanks Peachy. Make sure all the others know about this, okay?"




Again the chao nodded, wrapping her chubby paws as far around his neck as she could. She really, really didn't want him to leave her so soon after he'd gotten here...but he said he'd come back soon, and she trusted him. In the meantime, she'd fulfill his request to the best of her ability.






He set Peaches down (much to her chagrin) and turned to Tekno with a hard glare. "Come on. I'm taking you to Knuckles; he owns this island, and he needs to know what's happened."

He began to walk out of the garden and through the ruins, playing guide once again.

[AnT]

"Well...that went well...I think." Tekno slowly followed suit, while taking quick peeks at the sleeping bunny behind her. She looked painfully similar to the worker-bot Shortfuse was rescuing. Could this be the other world version of her? It was no doubt about it.

My god...she looks so innocent. Tekno now felt sick to her stomach. If this world's version of the girl is as innocent as this one...or was...

By Aurora...

[Stoney]

And Cream continued to sleep, dreams of returning home to find normalcy greeting her drifting through her mind.

[Jamie Lee]

Nearby an entity was watching closely. It waited patiently for Mario and Tekno to leave the garden before a large puddle rippled with a few melodic rings. It slowly slithered through the grass, leaving no wet trail behind it, and came toward the sleeping child to get a closer look at her. She was very small and looked peaceful, if worn out.

The puddle rippled again and began to surge, pulling upward against the forces of gravity and beginning to take shape. Large cloven watery talons attached to thin lanky arms. Chaos' large lime green eyes studied the rabbit girl unblinkingly as it loomed over her. Its focus shifted and it looked over toward the VMU where Cheese was inside healing. Chaos had noted the new chao when he was carried in. His condition worried and upset it. What had happened to him to leave him in such a poor condition? Did this rabbit girl have something to do with it? It couldn't tell. It probably wouldn't be able to until the small chao was released.

Chaos turned its focus away again, this time looking directly up at the sky. It seemed bothered by this; it had heard the Master Emerald cry out earlier from all the way down in it's current resting place in Hidden Palace... it had sensed the massive influx of power and witnessed the island's passing through the Special Zone... It could not sense the Chaos Emeralds anywhere... it could not sense their brethren the Sol Emeralds either...

It continued staring straight up at the sky. It was a pristine blue with silky white clouds that hung lazily in above... but off in one direction this perfect sky was marred by a dark presence that clung and infested the sky like a plague... a city...? Perhaps... Whatever was off that way the water spirit felt immensely bothered by it.

[Stoney]

The rabbit's sleep was undisturbed by Chaos' presence, other than when one of her ears twitched a bit at all the watery gurgling and sloshing sounds coming from nearby. It was not enough to wake her, however, and she continued to nap with a slight smile on her face.






Meanwhile, the VMU/GBA gave a soft beep, and the light that had surrounded Cheese changed from sky blue to bright green. The process had finished it's first stage and had moved on from healing internal injuries to fixing the external ones.

All of the bruises on Cheese's body began to slowly fade away, while the chao continued to remain oblivious to it all within the realm of unconsciousness.

[Jamie Lee]

Chaos' head tilted to one side as it continued to study the sky in deep thought. It wondered idly... Perhaps Knuckles had some idea of what was going on? Of what had happened? That human friend of the echidna's and that bird woman had left to find him...

For a moment Chaos considered seeking out Knuckles as well. But a quick glance around the garden caused it to hesitate. The garden's pool was wrecked and its kin were unhappy. And what's more, the water spirit would be leaving behind this little girl it wasn't sure how well it could trust.

Looking back down at her the water spirit pondered over that. Idly, it reached one of its watery talons out, brushing her gently across the face, as if removing a few stray hairs that might have been in the way. She looked peaceful and innocent in her sleep. In a way she reminded Chaos of Tikal...

[Stoney]

There was something slimy on her face.

"Nnnm..." Cream's sleeping expression became uncomfortable, and one of her hands reached up to brush the tentacle away in a half-asleep stupor before returning to slumber.

A plane fell out of the sky and crashed in the next zone over, creating a massive clamor that rolled across the island like thunder. This had the effect of FINALLY rousing the rabbit from her slumber.

"Mmm...?" She sat up drowsily, her eyelids at half-mast. She glanced around. "Cheese?"

A big blue out-of-focus blob was in front of her...she blinked slowly, gazing up at it with the passive acceptance of a person still half-asleep. "You got bigger..." She mumbled.

[Jamie Lee]

The spirit's eyes widened, drawing its talon back to its body whirling around. Momentarily forgetting the rabbit girl was even there Chaos stared off in the direction of the crash.

[Stoney]

Cream yawned and stretched, slowly getting to her feet. Her eyes were still quite clouded, their lids drooping; she didn't even notice the plume of smoke emerging from the jungle some miles away.

"Ano...?" She blinked at her surroundings, tilting her head in puzzlement. "This isn't my room..."

There was a tiny squeak by her foot. Cream looked down to find a tiny peach-colored chao using it as a hiding place as it stared off at the crash site in fear.

"...Hello there." Cream yawned again. "Ah...how are you?"




Peaches looked up at Cream in terror. "Ch-chao."






After a pause that lasted several seconds, wherein Cream visibly swayed in place, she muttered, "That's nice."

She staggered over to Chaos -- leaving Peaches to scurry after her in a panic -- and poked the water spirit. "What'cha doin', Cheese?"

Then she blinked at her finger, lifting it up for inspection. It was wet.

...Huh. That's odd. Cream's mind attempted to make a connection between it and the glossy surface of the being before her, but failed horribly.

"Have you been swimming, Cheese?" A sleepy smile emerged on Cream's face. "Mmm, that sounds nice..."

[Jamie Lee]

The water spirit turned, suddenly remember the small rabbit girl. It shied away from her, glancing a few times between her and the direction of the sound of the crash had come. Shying away further it gave the girl a sideways look before attempting to answer her with a few musical rings and chimes.

With a glance toward Peaches, Chaos chimed again reassuringly, reaching a talon out for the chao to come toward it.

[Stoney]

"Wait, Cheese, come back," Cream mumbled as she stumbled after the water spirit. "Don't leave me again..." Her expression suddenly went sad. "I don't like it when y--ah?!"

Her foot had just caught on a well-hidden rock within the grass. The rabbit staggered forward, off-balance and unable to halt her momentum. With a look of faint surprise, she fell forward into Cheese's body...

...Except this wasn't Cheese. And Chaos' body, unlike those of most creatures, yielded to her like gooey Jello.

Before either of them had time to process it, the rabbit's head exited through Chaos' back as her body went horizontal. Her momentum was halted at that point, leaving her stuck within the water spirit's torso with her legs dangling in the air on his front side.

Cream blinked...then blinked again...and her eyes cleared as she woke up completely.

"...Huh...?"

Something was wrong. She could see the ground below her but couldn't feel it with her feet. She tried moving her arms to brace herself against the ground -- but they met significant resistance.

Cream looked down at herself in surprise. From the bottom of her neck down to her hips, she was encased in a thick gooey substance. Her eyes continued their downward trek, finding what were unmistakably two legs below her.

"Wh-what the--?! A-aaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

Cream kicked her legs; they flailed uselessly in the air, unable to help her get free. She tried to move her arms again, but couldn't. Her screams rose in volume as a combo of fear and panic set in.




Peaches was about to cautiously approach Chaos when the awkward collision happened. She stared at it for a few moments in confusion; then Cream began screaming.

Frightened, the little Chao skittered behind a broken piece of marble pillar laying near the outskirts of the Garden. She peered out from behind it with wide eyes.

[Jamie Lee]

Were the water spirit capable of doing so, it would have blinked as it looked down at the small child whom had just effectively impaled it.

". . ."

Impervious to Cream's fright, Chaos reached into its own torso and gently wrapped its watery talons around her. Out she slowly slid, to what might have been her surprise still dry, and was delicately set back onto her feet on the ground. After that, it stared at her, debating with itself over what to do now.

Chaos lifted its head back up toward the sky. A small and obviously frightened child in the middle of its garden was the least of its concerns for the moment, it decided... The sky... It couldn't get its mind off it. It looked wrong. It looked so different. It... it lacked the energy of the Servers, the water spirit suddenly realized. The Servers were responsible for keeping the world balanced and stable, and as a result, everything had at least a small minute trace of their energy within it. Like a fingerprint. Being as sensitive to the energy of the emeralds as Chaos was, it was able to see these otherwise invisible traces.

Chaos' eyes suddenly seemed to flash as if something had struck it, and it turned, staring off in the direction of Hidden Palace. The Master, Chaos realized... Something was wrong with the Master!!

The Master took precedence over this little intruder, and with a sudden sense of urgency the water spirit turned and made its way over to the wrecked chao pond. Breaking up its semi-solid form, Chaos disappeared down the drain to leave Cream to her own devices.

[Stoney]

To say that Cream was frightened would be about as big an understatement as, say, calling the universe "large".

She continued screaming, increased her volume when she was suddenly picked up, added flailing limbs to the mix, then...

...THEN she saw the identity of who had grabbed her, as they gently set her down on the ground. Cream's screams cut off as she stood frozen, eyes wide as dinner plates, body trembling and unable to move or speak.

She'd heard about Perfect Chaos, despite her mother's attempts to shield her from the worst of the news footage following the disaster in Station Square. Many of the kids at the school she attended had lost friends or relatives in the flood, so it was a popular topic of discussion. Chaos himself, as you might imagine, was treated with all the hatred and loathing that emotionally-hurt children could muster, and the boys frequently invented exaggerated descriptions of the water spirit to frighten the girls in the school's ever-ongoing battle of genders.

Cream was normally a very nice and tolerant child, always willing to get to know a person first before making any judgments about them or their character. But waking up inside of the torso of said person tends to create exceptions; she didn't know whether Chaos was trying to eat her or what when she so rudely interrupted him, but she was awake now and scared almost to the point of her mind snapping.

She suddenly wished more fervently than ever before that Cheese was there with her. She tried to glance over at the GBA/VMU, but her gaze remained glued to Chaos, unable to look away.

Cream's legs gave out and she fell backwards; her hands hit the ground behind her and she immediately began scuttling backwards, her breaths coming in heaving sobs. She didn't stop moving until her back hit one of the garden's boulders, trapping her.

The sound of a distant plane crash rumbled across the island like thunder; in Cream's terror, she mistook it as the precursor to an attack and shrieked, covering her head with both hands.

Minutes of silence passed by, broken only by the pounding heartbeat in Cream's ears. After holding her pose for what felt like forever - though it couldn't have been more than five minutes - the rabbit located some previously-hidden spring of courage within herself and lowered her arms slightly to peer around them.

Chaos was gone. The area was still and quiet; other chao in the Garden were emerging from hiding places where they had secreted themselves away after the screams and other scary noises began happening.

Cream felt something nudging her leg and looked down to see Peaches trying to get her attention. "Chao, chao! Ba du nnn ee!" The chao smiled and pointed over at the GBA/VMU with one stubby paw.

Cream looked. The healing process was complete; Cheese lay whole and unharmed within the ring of light next to the holograms.

Cream wasn't sure where the surge of energy came from, but it filled her limbs at that moment and within seconds she had stood up and rushed over to where her chao lay, landing on her knees beside Cheese and grabbing him up in both arms as she hugged him fiercely, tears streaming down both cheeks.