Chaos (Sonic the Hedgehog)

Chaos (カォス) is a fictional video game character and the main antagonist in the video game Sonic Adventure for the Sega Dreamcast. Chaos is the first main antagonist of a Sonic game that is not Doctor Eggman. This eventually became common in the 3D games, with Eggman's role as the main villain being replaced by other villains (though often Eggman still makes an appearance). Chaos is an immortal, ageless god-like creature (referred to as the "God of Destruction" by Eggman) that seems composed almost entirely of water (save for his brain, green glowing eyes, and, in some later forms, bones) but is also said to be concentrated Chaos Emerald energy (in Sonic X, Doctor Eggman implies that it is composed of "Chaos energy in a liquid state"), however it has been revealed that Chaos is a Chao that came into contact with the Chaos Emeralds. It was trapped inside the Master Emerald for thousands of years before being released by Dr. Eggman in a bid to conquer the world. It was also the original guardian of the Chaos Emeralds, Chao, and the Master Emerald. In Sonic Adventure it absorbed the negative energy of the Chaos Emeralds to attain its final and strongest form.

Past
Chaos is a mutated chao that uses its power to guarantee clear water around the altar of the Master Emerald, and to protect its fellow Chao. However, the leader of the Echidna tribe, Pachacamac, tried to steal the Emeralds so he can use them against his enemies. His warriors stormed the shrine where the Emeralds are kept, harming many Chao in the process. Chaos, in a fit of rage at seeing the Echidna tribe hurting the Chao, absorbs the negative power of the Chaos Emeralds and transforms into "Perfect Chaos". The resulting floods destroy the Echidna civilization. Pachacamac's daughter, Tikal, seals both Chaos and herself into the Master Emerald. It is from this point in history that the Emeralds are called "Chaos Emeralds".

Sonic Adventure
In Sonic Adventure, where Chaos is introduced for the first time, Dr. Eggman, having read ancient tablets describing the fall of the Echidnas and Chaos, releases it by shattering the Master Emerald in order to make the creature help him in his quest for world domination. Chaos swears to follow Dr. Eggman as it knows that he can get the Chaos Emeralds back.

Eventually, Eggman's plans, as always, fall through at the hands of Sonic the Hedgehog and his friends. Chaos abandons him and collects the Emeralds itself, absorbing the negative powers of them and transforming into Perfect Chaos again. This leads to the City Station Square's destruction as a result of the flooding. Having only taken the negative energy, Chaos discards the remnants of the Chaos Emeralds. This proves to be the means to its downfall as Sonic absorbs the positive energies of the Emeralds and transforms into Super Sonic, eventually defeating Perfect Chaos and in the process ridding Chaos of its evil mindset and turning it back to Chaos 0. Tikal's spiritual form then approaches Chaos, and together they disappear in a flash of light.

Sonic Adventure 2
In Sonic Adventure 2, Chaos Zero (the "zero" is spelled out in-game) is a secret character that can be unlocked by getting all A's in Rouge's missions. After that, it will be playable in the 2-Player Mode's "Treasure Hunting" stages. In Sonic Adventure 2: Battle, the game's enhanced remake for the Nintendo GameCube, Chaos Zero is an initially available character, and does not require unlocking.

Chaos Zero is a fairly slow character, but has powerful, long-ranged attacks. In this game, Chaos Zero can glide, climb and dig just like Knuckles and Rouge, and it also gains four new attacks: "Chaos Impact", a powerful ground punch that creates a small earthquake that trips the opponent and stuns him/her temporarily, "Chaos Strike", a blue energy pulse that harms and confuses enemies, "Chaos Bind", a move which freezes the air around the enemy and immobilising them for 30-40 seconds, and "Chaos Screw", in which Chaos spins upwards in the air while extending its arms. Unlike other characters in this game, Chaos Zero can't drown, being composed of water itself.

Also, in the Hero ARK missions, robots which resemble and possibly were based on Chaos Zero (Artificial Chaos) appear. They shoot yellow beams from their eyes, and hang upside-down from the ceiling. They also make an appearance in Shadow The Hedgehog.

Sonic Battle
Chaos's latest appearance is in Sonic Battle, where Knuckles the Echidna claims that Chaos only appears in times of great crisis. When Dr. Eggman threatens the Earth with his Death Egg in the final story, a nearby volcanic crater is flooded and freezes over, and Chaos emerges as Chaos 0. It can then be challenged by the player, and defeating it (with Emerl) unlocks it as a playable character for Battle and Challenge modes. It's unknown what Chaos has to say about the plot, for all he ever says (from battle proposal to the end of the battle) is "..." It also has a number of skill cards that Emerl can learn.

Chaos 0 is the slowest character in the game, but its extendable limbs give it a much wider attack range than it appears to have, and it is very powerful. Some of its combos can K.O. an opponent instantly. It can turn into puddle of water as usual, and can create fountains, tentacles, and orbs of water to attack its opponent.

Artificial Chaos
Artificial Chaos are semi-robotic enemies that appear in the Sonic Adventure 2 and Shadow the Hedgehog video games. The latter explains that the renowned scientist professor Gerald Robotnik had built them as experiments, and based them on "a god of an ancient culture", quite obviously meaning Chaos. Omochao, however, says that the robots were based"on an experiment of some sort" in the level Crazy Gadget. After being created roughly 50 years prior to the games, the experiments went out of control and started attacking everyone in sight.

In Shadow the Hedgehog, Shadow himself appears to have a flashback to his time on the Space Colony ARK, during the time when the Artificial Chaos went out of control. In the flashback level, the player can choose to find and destroy all 35 experimental Artificial Chaos, or simply stay away to make sure the professor is safe. Either way, the experiments survive, as they appear in Sonic Adventure 2 as common enemies that protect the ARK, often in vital positions, for Sonic and possibly Shadow. In the level "The ARK" in Shadow the Hedgehog, the villain Black Doom states that "they are ours now", suggesting that the Black Arms somehow took control of the Artificial Chaos. They also make a very minute appearance in the "Cosmic Fall" level, and are not mentioned by either Vector or Black Doom.

The Artificial Chaos appear as mechanical heads shaped like that of Chaos 0, towering on top of a large pillar or orb of water-like material. The pillar-shaped Artificial Chaos usually do not move, although they can turn in place. The orb-shaped Artificial Chaos float somehow in midair and they are mobile. All Artificial Chaos can only be destroyed by hitting the mechanical heads; hitting the water portions will cause the player to merely bounce off. They exist in (at least) two different versions; P-1 and P-100. P-1s fight by stabbing their enemies with quick, extremely accurate tentacles of water, or by firing laser beams from their green eyes. Some Artificial Chaos seem to lack any intelligence or aiming abilities at all, and simply spin around, shooting lasers in random directions.

P-100 Artificial Chaos can split their bodies into dozens of small drones (known as Cells) that are controlled by the floating robotic head, but are not armed with lasers. These drones constantly edge their way toward the player and explode on contact. If the player attacks them, they also explode (also causing the Cells around them to explode in a chain reaction) but they do not hurt the player. After releasing its Cells, the Artificial Chaos head simply floats, defenseless, in midair until it is destroyed. It should be noted that if the Artificial Chaos head is destroyed, all of the drones explode. In Sonic Adventure 2 any hit to the head takes them down in one hit. In Shadow the Hedgehog, they have so much health even the Shadow Rifle can't kill them in one shot, and also vary in size. The larger the Artificial Chaos, the more the health.

Sonic the Hedgehog (comics)
The Sonic the Hedgehog comic book series echoed the Sonic Adventure storyline, with a number of variations. Chaos and Tikal were both imprisoned in a Black Chaos Emerald, which was broken open by Robians under the control of Dr. Robotnik. This continuity also featured the Freedom Fighters, who assisted Sonic and Knuckles in the victory over Perfect Chaos. During the events of this plot, Robotnik shattered the Master Emerald to feed Chaos, inadvertently releasing trapped villain Mammoth Mogul.

Sonic the Comic
In the Sonic the Comic comics published by Fleetway, Chaos is depicted as a much more intelligent and evil beast. Rather than being captured within the Master Emerald, Chaos was actually imprisoned by the Echidnas in a mystical container. Robotnik somehow got a hold of this container, but never unleashed Chaos from his prison. However, his assistant, Grimer Wormtongue, released him when he saw that Robotnik was depressed after losing to Sonic so many times; Chaos would devastate the planet and Robotnik would, in exchange for being made leader, use his old "Chaos Nullifier" device to defeat the monster. Unfortunately, Grimer hadn't realized that the Nullifier didn't work and thus Chaos couldn't be stopped.

In the comics, Chaos has a 'fear factor' that instills anyone near him with incredible fear when they are around him, to the point where they fall to their knees petrified. Unlike in the game, in the comic Chaos can talk (though in his first attack he seemed little more than a beast) and is actually a transformed Prosecutor of the Drakon Empire, transformed by Chaos Energy back during the ancient war between the Drakons and the Echidnas.

Chaos first appeared in issue #175, where he attacked Metropolis City Zone. The Freedom Fighters attacked him and drove him off, but not before Chaos murdered Johnny Lightfoot. The battle also gave Sonic green eyes, due to tackling and being inside Chaos.

Chaos then attacked the Floating Island in #177 in order to absorb the Chaos Emeralds, regaining his intelligence as he came into contact with them; Knuckles was forced to jettison the Emeralds, thus sacrificing the Island, and the Freedom Fighters tried to locate them before Chaos could. Unfortunately, Robotnik - attempting to bring about Mobius's destruction - deliberately set things up so they couldn't trace the Emeralds and Chaos would get them all first. The creature transformed into Perfect Chaos (which vaguely resembled Chaos 6 from the game but was more like some sort of Lovecraftian octopus). Eventually Super Sonic (who at this point in the comic was separate from normal Sonic) absorbed all of Chaos's energy and Chaos reverts back to his fish state. The powerless fish was then thrown far away.

Sonic X (anime)
The Sonic X anime follows the plotline of Sonic Adventure in episodes 27-32, resulting in Chaos's presence in those episodes in several of his many forms. However, Chaos is never described as the "God of Destruction", or referred to as a guardian of Chao, though hints are given by Tikal, who states it watched over a few, and Cheese, who is very happy whenever Chaos appeared, and seemed upset when Perfect Chaos was being attacked.

In Sonic X, Sonic and Knuckles fight Chaos 2 together right after Sonic defeats Chaos 0. In this version of the fight, Chaos sprays water from his hands and has a near-unbreakable shield of electrical properties (which Knuckles managed to breach after a long barrage of punches). In the anime, Perfect Chaos's appearance is also slightly changed. It looks more like the Loch Ness monster due to an increased "back" size and several new tentacles. Also his brain is in a weird sort of capsule on top of his head and not in his head. Perfect Chaos also uses a few more powers, like absorbing projectiles like a sponge and then spitting them back at the attacker through its mouth, using its tentacles to attack (it is seen splitting skyscrapers in half with them), and creating crystal spires and an energy shield.

Sonic X (comic)
Chaos appears briefly in the Sonic X comic book. Set after the Sonic Adventure adaptation, the good-natured Chaos appears with Tikal in issue #6 to halt the attack of evil Chao. Chaos is seen "speaking" in one panel, as he says "Chao!" when summoning hundreds of neutral Chao to fight the evil ones.

In the comic, it is said that the Perfect Chaos seen in Sonic Adventure is Chaos's "negative" super form, due to transforming with the negative energy of the Chaos Emeralds. In the comic, Chaos absorbs the positive energies instead, transforming into an oversized Chaos 0 with the seven Emeralds positioned in its forehead. In this form, Chaos takes out Eggman's giant robot with a single uppercut.

In Sonic X issues 28 and 29, Dr. Eggman captures Chaos to power his Green Bots. Then the robots drain the power of all the chaos emeralds and the Master Emerald. Because of this the robots merge together to form one giant robot that looks like the negative Perfect Chaos. Dr. Eggman reveals that he possessed Chaos so that he could use it to destroy Station Square and build Eggmanland. However, Sonic uses the emeralds power to transform into Super Sonic. Super Sonic then destroys the remote controlling Chaos so Chaos can be free. Chaos trashes Eggmans ship and then turns back into Chaos 0. Chaos is last seen heading back to Angel Island.

Notes and references
The 2nd paragraph of "Artificial Chaos" must be changed as "Sonic Adventure 2" happens BEFORE "Shadow the Hedgehog".