'Just from a glance, I can tell that this thing is at the very least of the fallen rank, no, maybe even corrupted, I'm sure of that. H-how the hell am I supposed to...'
"Do not panic, we have more than enough to face it," Gerald said, his voice shaky yet holding a strange resolve. Sighing, the old man continued. " I suppose it's time for me to face a sin from the past...As I said before, this is your precursor, my first attempt at creating the ultimate lifeform."
Maria looked on, her face was one of remembrance. It appeared that she knew about the creature as well.
Glancing at the chaos emeralds, Gerald's face fell into a look of realization. "I think it may have awoken from its state of suspended animation due to the gathering of chaos energy." That didn't seem to change much in Lec's view on their current situation. 'It doesn't matter how it's awake, the only thing that matters is why.'
"Well, is it friendly?" Lec's question was met with a slight chuckle from Gerald and a glare from Maria. "Far from it, that's why I locked it away in suspended animation in the first place." The good doctor paused before continuing. "Because its mind was so primitive, the Biolozard was highly unruly and completely uncontrollable. But more than that, it's in constant pain."
Turning his head, Lec focused his attention on the lizard once more. Trying to sense the emotions within it, and like clockwork, he was once again overwhelmed with that same feeling of madness. Trying his best to stay sane, he'd push through and find the emotion he was trying to find. Despair.
"Doctor, may I grab a chaos emerald?" Gerald was not at all shocked by Lec's question and simply nodded as he picked up the green emerald from the altar. Tearing his eyes away from the threat in front of them, he'd carefully take it from the good doctor's hand.
"Doc, you once said that I was practically a living chaos emerald, right?" Gerald nodded at that, unsure where Lec was going with this. "So, in my body, I have just as much energy as this chaos emerald, right?"
"Yes, I suppose that is correct."
"So, then, for me to learn how to control the chaos energy within my body, I'd need some sort of conduit, right?" A mad glint appeared in Lec's eyes as he spoke, while Gerald's widened as he heard those words. "So that's what you plan to do..."
"You plan to channel your body's own natural chaos energy through the chaos emerald itself to achieve chaos control!"
Flashing a grin, Lec tried his best to crush the fear in his heart, instead thinking back to the description of his Aspect. 'Your body is overflowing with a strange energy, yet through science, it has adapted and acclimated to your biodata, giving you control over it, as little as that control may be.'
That was the foundation of this. The spell never says things for no reason, but even through the few weeks he's been here, he'd never managed to achieve that control that it spoke of. Not until recently, during his fight with that madman. He had managed to use the power of chaos to enhance his body even further than it was already. And yet, that still wasn't the control that he wanted. It was merely the chaos energy in his body reacting to his emotions.
Lec was unsure what would happen by running his body's natural chaos energy through the emerald, but he needed to try.
Taking a deep inhale, he'd once more focus his attention on the overgrown lizard. 'This needs to work, no, this will work. After all, if it's my will, then who dares to stop me?"
The Biolizard was a huge thing, surely bigger than any house he'd ever seen, both in the outskirts and the richer areas. But it hadn't yet attacked; it simply stood there, but Lec knew it wouldn't be so peaceful for long. Through his emotion sensing, he could tell that it was growing increasingly agitated. Although he couldn't find the source of it, he assumed it to be the constant pain. 'Poor soul...'
A low growl escaped from its lips, one that reverberated through the entire room. Eventually, it'd turn into a roar as the creature threw its head forward.
But before it could reach them...
"CHAOS CONTROL!"
And in that instant, the trio disappeared in a flash of blue light, appearing all the way at the other side of the large room. Gasping for air, Lec tried his best to figure out what the hell he had just done. One moment, he was running his chaos energy through the emerald, wanting to move out of the way of the attack, and the next, he was here.
He tried his best to recall Gerald's words from all those weeks ago before he suddenly remembered.
'The basis of several chaos powers, however, is Chaos Control, a phenomenon where a user applies this energy with the proper usage of a Chaos Emerald to warp time and space.'
"Haha...so that's what that was." Turning around with an excited glint in his eyes, he'd suddenly exclaim. "I can fucking teleport!" Gerald simply chuckled at his antics, while Maria shook her head.
Gerald watched his creation, his face one of pride. 'Truly magnificent, he performed a technique I estimated would take months to learn in just a few minutes. Is this what the ultimate lifeform is capable of?'
Facing the now turning lizard, Lec couldn't help but start feeling hopeful. Yeah, he very much doubted his ability to utilize chaos control without the help of a chaos emerald, but that didn't matter now. All he had to do was run around and not get hit while targeting the creature's life support. Easy, right?
Wrong, dead wrong. Lec found himself exhausted, something he hadn't experienced since coming into this nightmare. It turns out that using chaos control drained him of almost all of his energy, and while said energy was returning rather quickly, it was still a risky endeavor.
"Ah, well, it doesn't matter. I suppose I'll have to use it sparingly..." He'd mutter to himself before grinning and giving the two Robotniks a thumbs up. "Well, wish me luck."
Taking off, he'd narrowly jump as the Biolizard swiped its tail at him. Even though he was currently being empowered by the chaos energy reacting to his rising emotions, it was still rather hard to dodge the lizard's thrashing body.
Luckily, he didn't have to deal with any arms since they were practically stubs.
Lec was currently running circles around the poor creature, dodging attacks from its legs, tail, and head. Occasionally, he'd have to use chaos control to make up for a poorly timed dodge.
He just needed to find an opening to get on top of it.
"Chaos Control!" Shouting, Lec teleported over an attack and landed on one of the wires connected to the creature's life support system. Activating his air shoes, he'd run on the wire as if it were a rail and jump up to its disc-shaped life support system.
Trying his best to stay on, he'd pull his fist back and strike the large pulsing orb, causing a crack to form and the lizard to scream. Its thrashing became even worse as Lec was forced to jump down and make a run for it, but before he could get far, the air split open.
A shriek tore through the room as the Biolizard opened its wide maw, a blast of raw chaos energy forming in it, completely wild. Truly living up to the name of chaos, it was a pure black abyss, purple sparks forming around it.
Lec threw himself sideways as it scorched the floor where he'd been standing, the blast leaving a crater of blackened, warped metal. He stared at it for half a second.
'It can shoot shit now. Great. Fantastic. Just what I needed.' Lec's legs were already moving before he'd decided to run, air shoes firing as he zigzagged across the room.
The second blast clipped the wall beside him, sending shrapnel skittering across the floor. The third, he barely avoided with a panicked half-teleport that cost him more energy than he wanted to spend.
His hands were currently shaking, yet he still had a death grip on the chaos emerald; he could not afford to drop it. If he did, he was most definitely dead. Narrowly avoiding the lizard swinging its head around, he tried to look for a solution to his current situation.
'I guess I agitated it enough for it to use those chaos spheres. I need to create an opening to teleport to his life support system." Gripping the chaos emerald, Lec steeled his resolve and funneled even more of his energy into it.
Another blast was fired off towards him, one that he barely dodged. "Damn liizard, Chaos Contr-"
Too focused on channeling his energy, Lec failed to notice the incoming follow-up attack. The Biolizard's tail slammed into him, sending him flying across the room and straight into a wall. Even through the sound of the wall being destroyed, the sickening sound of bones breaking was still audible.
"Lec!" Maria's voice yelled out for her brother figure, only for Gerald to hold her back from running. Gerald could only watch with bated breath; he was unsure if any remaining Artificial Chaos were alive, and even if they were, he doubted they'd be able to hear his commands over the Biolizards roaring.
For now, they could only hope Lec would get up before the Biolizard did anything else.
***
God, everything hurt. He knew something was broken, but he wasn't quite sure what it was. What he did know was that he needed to get up. He needed to fulfill his promise to her; he needed to survive.
'Get up!'
But it was no use; the pain was blinding, and he could barely move his body. But barely was good enough. Struggling to move his legs, he'd detach himself from the wall he was embedded in and fall to the ground. He needed to find where he dropped the chaos emerald. If he didn't, he'd never fulfill her wish for him to live. Not just survive, but to live.
"Because surviving isn't good enough."
Lec could almost feel the buildup of pressure in the air; the Biolizard was preparing to launch another attack. Spreading his arms around, he'd search every around him for the emerald until...
'There!'
Through all the pain, he clasped his hand around it just as the lizard fired its blast, engulfing him. Almost. In a flash of light, he appeared right on its life support system. His hands were placed directly on the pulsating red center. "Sorry, but I'll be ending this right now!"
He'd pull his arm back, emerald in hand, and pour any remnants of strength he had into it, roaring as he punched into it, cracking and breaking the entire structure. The Biolizard roared in pain as it fell, its limbs at its side.
Falling due to loss of stable ground, Lec's body crashed into the ground, spread-eagled. 'Ahh...that was so cool.' Looking to his side, Lec's vision began clearing as he stared at the suffering creature. "I-I'm sorry, it was either you or me."
Suddenly, something tightly wrapped around his pained body. Looking down, he'd see Maria hugging him, Gerald behind her, a look of pride on his face. "M-maria, my b-bones." He barely managed to get out a word as he patted her back. Instantly letting go, she'd look away, embarrassed as Gerald approached, kneeling down to Lec's level with some difficulty. The old man studied his creation for a long moment, and something in his expression shifted.
"You did well," Gerald said quietly. "Better than I ever could have imagined."
Lec just laughed, which he immediately regretted. "Ow. Don't make me laugh, something's definitely cracked."
The moment of warmth lasted exactly that long.
Because in a flash of light, the Biolizard disappeared and the entire Ark shuddered.