A note from the author.

Sonic The Hedgehog, Sally, Bunnie Rabbot, Rotor, Antoine, Tails, Dulcey, Dr. Robotnik, The SWATbots and just about everything else on the planet Mobius are property of SEGA inc, and Achie comics. Pacbell, Sandra Nightweaver, and Bookshire are creations of and owned by David Pistone. Matt and Lucinda are owned, copy written, and are creations of the author. This story is property of the author and is protected under various copy right laws. In other words, please don’t try to make a buck off of this. I wrote this story for fun, not for profit. If any body wishes to write me with questions or comments, PLEASE…feel free! My E-mail address is nukepo2@tds.net. To the various authors, whose characters I have used, I apologize if the use of your characters has caused a problem. If there is a problem, please write me and I will request that tSf remove my story. I hope that everybody who reads this, my third Sonic fanfic, will send me some creative feed back as that will help me spawn forth many more Sonic creations. A brief warning to the reader: This story contains, scenes of violence, a fair amount of gore, and some heavy language. IF YOU ARE SENSITIVE TO THESE THINGS, THEN PLEASE…READ AT YOURE OWN RISK! I rate this story "R". There, thou hast been warned. Ok enough with the meaningless chatter and on with the show. Enjoy!

AREA-51

By Matt Butner

Scene 1

0413 mobian standard time

Packbells secret lab: Area-51

>COMM-A: X3G22, continue sweep of area and return to base for shutdown cycle.

>X3G22: Affirmative. Continuing sweep.

SWATbot X3G22 continued to perform its sweep of Area-51. The structure wasn’t very tall actually. It was a plain, single story, rectangular building with no features what so ever. It looked like a small prison with the barbed fence that surrounded the perimeter and the guard tower that sat on the roof. The facility was situated deep in the middle of a mountain pass not too far to the east of Robitropolis. The SWATbots didn’t have much of a parameter to watch but the pass was full of crags and was heavily forested. That meant good hiding spots for freedom fighters.

X3G22 walked past the northeastern electrode of the fence and walked toward the northernmost hilly area. Its audio sensors were picking something up. Some pebbles rolled down the steep rock face that it was heading towards.

>X3G22: X3G22 to COMM-A. Picking up small disturbance in sector 2 alpha. Proceeding with investigation.

>COMM-A: Affirmative.

The SWAT bot walked up the part of the hill that sloped down a little and walked around the backside. It scanned to the left…nothing. There was a sudden shuffling to the right. It scanned the hills to the right and found a weak thermal signature about five hundred yards away into the hills. X3G22 put a reticule around the reddish thermal enhanced blob and electronically zoomed in on the target. When its zoomed vision finally enhanced itself X3G22 found that it was staring at a tall humanoid figure, partially hidden behind a huge boulder, with a weapon like object raised to its shoulder. Alarm protocols started going off and X3G22 seemed to jump like as if it was startled. Streams of protocol data began to fill the SWATbots’ vision. "UNKNOWN INTRUDER. DIRECTIVE 1: CONTACT X-CONN-A."

There was a sudden burst of red color from the creatures weapon and everything went black. X3G22 slowly fell backwards and hit the ground with such a ruckus that it sounded like and empty metal trash can being thrown onto hard concrete. Its legs and arms twitched uncontrollably as sparks flew from the new hole in its head. And then all of its systems failed abruptly and it became still…permanently!

Matt smirked. ‘Like shooting cattle in a pasture,’ he thought to himself lowering the futuristic riffle in his hands.

Matt was definitely dressed for combat. He wore full combat power armor which consisted of thick, bulky leggings, knee guards, shin guards, arm guards and a very thick chest plate. The chest plate supported a bandoleer with many pouches and a solid frame back pack which had a small antenna sticking out of one side. On his right arm was a small device that looked like an elongated calculator. He also wore a small, thin helmet and head set. The whole outfit had a uniform metallic gray color to it.

He slung the riffle over his shoulder and began to climb the moderately large hill that lead up to the site. When he finally reached the top, he laid on his belly, and low and behold, there it was, building "Area 51", Packbells little torture house. Matt wasn’t impressed. The structure was very simple in design and apparently defenseless except for the guard tower and handful of roving guards. There was also a fence that surrounded about a twenty five yard parameter of the building. "Piece of cake" Matt whispered to him self confidently. He pulled out the rifle and began to scan the area with the scope. There was a SWATbot in the guard tower, three patrolling the outer parameter of the fence, and four cameras mounted on the top of his side of the fence. ‘From top to bottom or side to side?’ Matt wondered. "Screw it." He flipped the fire selector switch on his riffle to auto, took aim on the SWATbot in the tower, and fired. The gun vibrated gently and popped very loudly with each shot. Chunks of the SWATbots head flew off and the robot instantly fell. He lowered his aim and again fired sweeping across the fence, blowing the cameras to smithereens. He then took aim on the first SWATbot who was desperately trying to get a fix on Matt’s position. The human pulled the trigger. "CLICK!" The gun didn’t fire. He read the ammo counter that always floated in his field of vision. It read zero.

Instinctively, he ducked way down and began to reload the gun. A shower of sparks rained down on his head as the SWATbots wildly fired their arm blasters in his direction. Matt carefully set the gun down to his side. "What you guys need is some EMP action." He reached into the bandoleer and produced a pair of white colored egg shaped objects. They each had a button on the side and a small red LED light on the top. Matt pushed the button on both of them and the led lights came on. He then carelessly tossed the objects over his head. They rolled down the hill and stopped at the feet of one of the SWATbots. There was a brief but very intense flash of light. The SWATbots froze for a second, then crumpled to the ground.

Matt peaked his head up above the rocks and saw the SWATbots laying on the ground, not moving. "Cool." He slung his riffle over his shoulder and began to slide down the hill taking care not to loose his balance and fall.

When he reached the bottom of the hill, Matt began to survey the area, very carefully. It was very, very quiet. A bird was chirping happily off in the distance somewhere and there was a gentile breeze that felt very soothing.

Seeing that his surroundings were safe, Matt ran up to the fence. He reached into a small pocket in his leggings and pulled out a strange tool. It was jet black in color and looked like a cigarette lighter. Matt pushed a button on the side of the object and it produced a small blue flame which he used to cut a hole in the fence. Bright orange sparks flew from the chain metal as the human cut through it with total ease. He then re-pocketed the small torch and kicked the cut out patch of fence down. He then ducked through the hole and carefully ran up to the small building with his riffle to his shoulder, making himself aware of every aspect of his environment.

At the front of the building was a large, heavy metal sliding door with a small key pad next to it. Matt took one more look around just to be safe, then walked up to the key pad. He then pulled the calculator like device off of his right arm and attached it to the key pad. The tiny device beeped and churned away, hacking into the sites security system. About half a minute later the huge door opened, very slowly. Matt ripped the calculator off the key pad and ran inside the small building.

"What the hell is this shit?" Matt asked out loud when he walked inside sounding irritated. And he had good reason to be irritated because there was nothing inside. Nothing! The room he walked into was pretty small; big enough to fit twenty, maybe thirty people. The walls were made completely of dull grey steel and were unpainted. At the end of the room was another sliding metal door, smaller that the one that lead inside.

"WHAM!" The huge door slammed shut.

Matt spun around, startled, with his weapon drawn. His heart began to race. He listened and looked. There was complete silence except for the dull buzzing of the florescent lights above. He stood there for a second, watching and waiting. Nothing happened. He relaxed and again slung the riffle over his shoulder.

He walked up the door at the end of the tiny room and pushed a small button on the side panel. The door silently slid open and lead into what looked like an elevator. He walked inside and looked around. The inside walls of the elevator were made of a shiny chrome type metal. There was a small control panel on the right hand side of the door with two buttons; one with an up arrow and one with a down arrow. Matt pushed the down arrow and drew his weapon. The door silently shut and there was a sudden and very rapid descent that threw Matt’s stomach all out of whack. The elevator descended for a good thirty or forty seconds and then stopped abruptly. The door slid open. Now Matt understood exactly what area fifty one was.

 

 

{Initial planning complete.}

{Anti freedom fighter system analysis complete}

{Anti hedgehog system data compiled}

{Apropriate construction materials: available.}

"Aaah…excellent," Robotnik said to himself staring at a computer screen on his enormous chair in his command center. He pushed a small button beneath the screen.

{Enter name of project.}

Robotnik sat there for a minute, completely silent. He twisted his mustache with his hand and fell deep in thought. ‘What to name it, what to name it…’ Several minutes went by and then he decided on a fitting name. "Computer. Enter name…ARMAGEDON."

{Affirmative. Project ARMAGEDON ready for initial construction pending location of construction site.}

Robotnik "hmmed to himself for a moment still twisting his mustache and was suddenly interrupted by an obnoxious beeping.

 

The human walked out into what had to be the largest laboratory he had ever seen. It was huge; probably the size of a football field. The center of the lab was covered with large metallic tables that contained all kinds of scientific equipment. Some of the tables contained large glass tubes with things that looked like body parts inside of them. The entire lab reeked of an either type smell and was brightly lit by a vast array of fluorescent lights in the tall ceiling. The walls of the lab were littered with doors that were placed very sparsely and uniformly.

"Ta hell with this," Matt whispered out loud as he began spinning around, dizzy by the immensity of the lab. He then spotted a door with a bright, white, number one in Mobian writing painted on it. He shouldered the riffle and walked over the door. To the right hand side was a small button, probably used to open the door. Matt drew a huge pistol from his right hip holster. The weapon looked uncannily like a Nintendo Zapper and was actually quite heavy. He cocked the weapon then stood ready to strike whatever evil was inside as he pushed the access button. What he found however was not very pleasing, at all. The room was full of the bodies of dead Mobians; at least a dozen. Most of them were half rotted and mutilated. Some of them looked like they had been dissected alive because they had their bellies torn open and their guts were still hanging out. The bodies were just buried on top of each other, like as if the room was some kind of mass grave. But that wasn’t the worst of it. Matt backed out of the room, totally disgusted. It was too late though for the rancid death smell irradiated out and wafted into his nose. The smell hit Matt like an atomic bomb blast. The human dropped to his knees, choking on the rotten smells, unable to breathe. With his last ounce of strength he shut the door. Once the source of the rancid gases was gone, Matt put both hands on the floor, choked one last time, then power puked about three times, all over the floor. His head swirled and he couldn’t think for a moment but after a couple of minutes the smell left his nasal passages and his head cleared. Matt slowly got back up and spit a few times. The smell still lingered though and it needed to be cleared. Besides, he was feeling way to nervous in this horror house. ‘Gotta take a brake,’ he thought to himself, taking his helmet off. Reaching inside he pulled out a tiny box of things that looked like cigarettes and pulled one out with his mouth. He then replaced the box and helmet, pulled out the cutting torch and lit up his "square." He took a long drag and blew the smoke out slowly. The "cigarette" had an effervescent incense smell but tasted like dirt. He took another drag. The Nicotine like chemical began pulsing through his veins and it gave him a bit of a head rush, but he felt much more relaxed.

Placing the cigarette between his lips he drew the pistol from his holster. He opened door number two. The room was completely empty. Matt smiled and the he walked over to the next door. The third room was a storage area for a load of computer equipment. Room four just contained a bunch of small packaged boxes. Room five was empty. Room six was a freezer that contained a bunch of jars that contained various body parts. Room six was a small storage room that contained shelf after shelf of jars that that had names of strange chemicals written on them. Room seven and eight were empty.

By this time, Matt was growing board. He no longer stood ready to strike anything before he opened a door. Now he just simply opened them.

"I don’t think anybody’s home," said Matt gloomily to himself as he took another drag from the cigarette. He made it to door thirteen and opened it. His cigarette slowly fell from his lips and dropped to the ground.

Inside lucky number thirteen, he found his first Packbell experiment victim. It was a koala bear, male. He was small, about two feet tall. He was completely naked and strapped tightly to an ugly chair. His body was riddled with tubes that were connected to various machines. Strange liquids, and other things flowed through these tubes. They seemed to be keeping the poor koala alive, like some kind of life support.

Matt just stood there, staring at the frail being in front of him.

The koala’s eyes opened and a look of shock spread across his sunken face. "You’re…you’re not master," he said in a raspy voice. "If you are here to rescue me…I’m sorry to say this but you’re wasting your time." Tears began to well up in the poor being’s eyes.

"Wha…what are you talking about?" Matt replied.

The koala closed his eyes and wept. "You can’t…"

"Why. Don’t you want to leave this place?" Matt asked.

"How do you propose to get me out of here?" the koala yelled, frustrated. "Look at me! Packbell took my organs. That’s why I need these infernal machines to live. If you move me in any way the system will shut off and I will die." He began to weep again. "I have no reason to live anyway."

"Don’t say that," Matt snapped not knowing what to think.

"He killed my family. He made me watch while he dissected my daughter alive. For goddess sake! Can you imagine what it’s like to watch something like that? Every time I try to go to sleep I hear her screams and I wake up." He closed his eyes. "She was so beautiful." The eyes shot back open. "My life is nothing but pain now. If you want to do something to help me…please, kill me."

Matt just stood there for a minute, expressionless. ‘Lord, forgive me,’ he prayed to himself then stepped up to the frail creature, knelt down, and stared into sad hazel eyes. "What’s you’re name friend?"

"Corley."

Matt took hold of Corley’s shriveled up left hand. It was all bare and felt ere to touch. "Listen to me Corley. I’m gonna kill the son of a bitch that did this to you. Mark my words."

The koala smiled shakily. "Thank you."

Matt stood up. "Are you sure this is what you want."

Corley nodded. "It’s the only way." He smiled again.

Matt nodded. "You will be remembered. I promise." He then slowly raised the gun to the koala’s fore head and held it about an inch away.

Corley closed his eyes but held his smile. It was a smile of utter relief.

"BANG!"

With out even looking, Matt just turned away and walked out of the room.

Door number fourteen was a store room for surgical tools. Door number fifteen was empty. Door number sixteen was not…

What he found inside was by far the most horrifying thing yet. Inside, held skewered to the wall was a mobian of unknown species, for its skin was missing, completely! Matt could see, with horror, its lungs moving in and out, its heart pulsing, and its blood flowing through its veins.

"AAHH! Oh…my God. Aww, Jesus Christ almighty!" Matt exclaimed in complete horror.

The skinned creatures eyeballs focused on him and it began to make a sort of gurgling whimper. Its heart pulsed faster and its lungs moved faster.

Matt had enough. He immediately pointed his gun and unloaded the magazine on the horror before him. He immediately shut the door once the creature’s heart stopped pulsing.

Matt felt like he was going to be sick again as he reloaded his gun.

"I’m okay, I’m okay, I’m okay…Aw shit! I’m not okay! Who does shit like this?" Matt yelled as he spit on the ground.

He proceeded to door number seventeen. When the door opened he was greeted by a huge spider that was taller then he was. It’s multiple, almost reflective, chrome colored eyes focused on Matt and it hissed. "HOLY SHIT!" Matt yelled as he shut the door. He stood there, hyperventilating. "Okayokayokay…calm down…Jesus…I’ve gotta get the fuck outta here!"

When he opened door number eighteen, he found something a little more pleasant. The room was a sort of prison with gray walls and a bench chained to the wall at the end. Laying on the bench with its face to the wall was a creature that looked like a fox that was just a couple inches shorter than Matt. It wore orange pants and an orange shirt that was stenciled with a number that was too faded to read; sort of like prison clothing. The creature stirred, awake, then turned to face Matt. It was definitely a fox and appeared to be female from its broad chest. Her fur was light ochre, almost orange, and her chin and throat were streaked with white fur. Her ears were ochre color as well but were black at the tips.

Her pale blue eyes opened wide ,when she saw Matt, and sat up abruptly. "You’re not Packbell." Her voice was very soft, sweet, innocent, almost childish, but at the same time very strong and mature. She gasped. "You’ve come to rescue me?"

Matt nodded.

The fox immediately jumped up and threw he arms around him. She then kissed him on the side of the cheek and backed away, embarrassed. "I’m sorry but Packbell was going to do something horrible to me when he gets back."

Matt smiled as he looked into her blue eyes. Her breath was sweet and warm on his face. Just her presence was soothing and he liked her voice. "Well, don’t worry, you’re safe now."

She nodded happily. "Thank you so much."

"Well…it looks like this is the last one. If Mike’s not in here I’m going to be very pissed."

The fox looked over at Matt. "You looking for a friend in here?"

"Yea," he said opening the last door. Inside was a humanoid cat, a tabby from the looks of it. It was unconscious and rolled up in a fetal position.

Matt roared in absolute anger and frustration and ran across the room screaming and carrying on. The fox could hear him as she knelt down to check the cat’s pulse. It was alive but unconscious. She picked it up and carried it across her left shoulder.

"…AND THEN I’M GONNA RIP HIS FUCKING LEGS OFF AND USE HIS TORSO AS A TARGET! THEN I’LL RIP HIS ARMS OFF SMASH HIS FUCKING HEAD…"

The fox had enough. "HEY! SHUT THE HELL UP! NOW!"

Matt stopped carrying on and just stared at her with fire in his eyes. His chest heaved in and out and his fists balled and unballed.

"Look. I’m sorry if this isn’t your friend but I have this sinking feeling that something bad is about to happen.

Just then everything went pitch black. Every one was silent for a moment. Then a small light on Matt’s helmet turned on. The human reached in one of his chest pockets and pulled out a small red stick. He then snapped it in half and dropped it on the floor. Instantly, it flared up with a green flame that dimly lit the room.

"Dammit! They cut the power!" she exclaimed in a dim voice.

Matt looked annoyed. "Yea, no shit Sherlock. We’ve got find a way out of here."

"How? The elevator’s dead"

Matt walked over to the elevator door and pushed the button. It didn’t respond.

"I here you, ahh…hold on." Matt replied walking to the center of the lab. There should be a…sewer tunnel…here. And there’s a grating right…" Matt walked to his left a few paces. "…right here!" He stepped on the grating

The elevator control panel suddenly came to life and the sound of the elevator car ascending very rapidly could be heard behind the door. "We’d better hurry ‘cause we’re about to be up to our faces in robots." He walked up to the fox.

"I got it! Come’ere."

The fox complied and walked up to Matt.

"Set him down here," he said pointing to the ground in front of him.

She complied. "Okay, now what?"

"What’s your name?"

She half smiled as she ran her fingers through her long, golden hair. "Lucinda…Lucinda Re."

Matt took her hand. It was almost human like but the skin was very thick at the palm; almost pad like. There was also black fur that ran down the back of here hands, starting just above the wrist, that was very soft to the touch. Not to mention that she, like all other Mobians, only had four fingers on each hand. "I’m Matt. Matt Foxworthy. Nice to meet you. Now, down to business. Can you shoot a gun by chance?"

Lucinda nodded. "Of course."

"Good. Here, take this," he said handing her his riffle. "It’s pretty simple to use. Flick the selector switch up for semi auto and down for full auto. And just pull the trigger to shoot."

"Got it," she said taking the riffle.

Matt pulled out an extra magazine and handed it to her. There’s sixty rounds in the gun right now and here’s another sixty." He then walked over to a table and dragged it over to them. "This should give us some cover." He then tipped the table over and laid it in front of Lucinda and the cat with the legs pointing toward them. "Okay. That should be good. Now, I’m going to cut through this grating. It may take a while so I need you to cover me."

"Right," she said ducking behind the table.

Matt then began to cut through the grating. The metal must have been really tough because each rung took a considerable amount of time to melt through.

Lucinda stayed crouched down behind the large metal table with the riffle to her shoulder. She was absolutely still, like a predator stalking its prey; only her large bushy tail swished around from time to time.

The wrrrring of the descending elevator continued on and on until it just abruptly stopped. The fox immediately opened fire as soon as the door opened, letting off short and methodic bursts with the gun in full auto. The high speed hollow point rounds punctured the SWATbot armor in small points, broke up, then exited leaving fist sized holes in their backs. SWATbot after SWATbot fell, most of them while they were still in the elevator. A few made it out of the elevator but didn't make it far.

Matt tried to concentrate as hard as he could amidst all the sounds of gun fire and hunks of metal slamming to the floor. A few streams of laser fire flew past his head but Matt didn't even flinch. He was too busy for it was the bottom of the ninth with two strikes, two outs, and five more rungs to go.

Lucinda aimed one more time and the gun sputtered its last few rounds. The SWATbot fell forward with a crash, revealing three large holes in its back with oil slowly oozing out of them like blood seeping from a wound.

The elevator door began to close again. However, it was stopped when it closed on the head of a SWATbot. It then opened and tried to close again...and again, and again until it just suddenly slammed shut, crushing the SWATbot's head. The elevator then began to ascend.

Lucinda stood up confidently and reloaded the riffle. She then turned around. "How's it goin' over there?"

"Almost done," Matt replied beginning to cut through the last rung.

Lucinda began to turn around, happy with what she herd, when her extremely sensitive ears began to pick up the faint and barely audible sound of servo motors wrrring in front of her.

The SWATbot that she thought she had just killed was not quite dead. The fox saw the arm move and the small wrist mounted laser pop out. She tried to react instinctively but it was too late. The SWATbot fired its weapon fulfilling the last of its deadly deeds. The bright red beam impacted the fox right in the meat of the shoulder, grazing the collar bone, and passing right through the other side.

Matt had just finished cutting through the last rung when he heard Lucinda scream. He turned around and dropped the cutting torch in time to catch the fox as she fell. Matt cradled her in his arms and gently laid her down. Tears of searing pain wet her rusty cheek fur turning it a dark maroon color. She gasped, shut her eyes, and cried out in agony.

Matt went into a sort of panic mode. He turned around and noticed sparks flying off the top of the table. A laser blast streaked by and almost hit him in the head.

Matt went into a sudden flash back. He was standing in what looked like horribly devastated air field. To his right was his friend Mike. The human looked a lot older than he was standing there in camouflage holding an M-16. He always wore his nasty looking, greasy, sandy blond hair at shoulder length. He also grew an amazing amount of stubble on his face for a fifteen year old. But like Matt, his stone cold statement hid any trace of youth.

Off to his left was the burning remains of an F-16 fighter plane. Dead, mutilated human bodies littered the ground and the air reeked of burned flesh and gasoline exhaust.

Standing in front of Matt was Cdr. Rick Holcomb: Matt's wartime keeper and mentor. The stern man looked regal and very charismatic standing there in his army fatigues. He was a fairly short man though his body was heavy set and muscular, as was his face. Somebody once said that he sounded uncannily like Judge Wapner of an old television program called "The Peoples Court."

"Listen up boys and listen good," he began, pausing to put on a very serious look. "The first rule of war is to always kill the bad guys first, then bury your dead. You never want to be caught playing Mother Teressa when one of these bug eyed fuckers tries to crawl up your ass."

Another laser blast hit the table and sent more sparks flying. Matt's attention was suddenly brought back to reality and he shook the flash back from his head. He took one more look at the distressed vixen then jumped up and pulled the two enormous pistols from his hip holsters. He began to search for the offending SWATbot and found it when the robots arm began to search out its new target. Matt was bent on not letting history repeat itself and he began to shoot.

Lucinda’s ears began to ring from the thunder like sound of the twin guns echoing off of the walls. The ringing hurt so bad that she tried to cover her ears; completely forgetting about her injured arm. She cried out in agony again as the piercing pain shut through her destroyed shoulder socket and collar bone.

Matt turned his attention away from the SWATbot for just a split second to see what was wrong with his vixen friend; stupid mistake. Three shots of the SWATbots laser went off and hit Matt square in the chest. Luckily, his power armor absorbed the energy from each blast and converted it into harmless heat. A little warmer now, but unscathed, Matt raised one of the pistols and took one shot hitting the SWATbot square in the forehead, silencing it for forever. He then turned his attention back to Lucinda. He reached into a small utility compartment in his left legging. From it he produced a two inch long, very skinny metal syringe. "This may make you real dizzy for a few seconds but once it passes you’ll be feeling just fine. Once it passes," he said sticking the needle into her good shoulder. She protested at first and began to struggle.

Matt grabbed her firmly and injected the fluid inside the syringe. "Just trust me," he said withdrawing the syringe.

Immediately, Lucinda's eyes glazed over. Her vision went out of focus and completely psychedelic. Light passed by slowly in vibrant streams and time began to slowly fade away. The colors became so bright that they began to speak to her. "Lucinda...Lucinda, come with us and play," they called out to her. Louder and louder still, they kept on calling to her.

"Hey!", Matt called out shaking the fox's good shoulder. Her eyes were so glazed over that she looked dead. "Hey, come on... snap out of it!" He shook her again.

That was when her head cleared up and she let out a jerky shiver. She blinked a few times and her eyes cleared up. She shook her head a few times then suddenly stood up.

"Woa...easy there champ. How do you feel now?"

Lucinda smiled happily, moving her bad arm in a circular motion. "I feel great! Look, it doesn't hurt at all any more!"

"Wow! Good…it worked better than I thought it would. Now lets get the hell outta here!" Matt gave the grating a good stomp with his right boot and it fell off making a loud crash when it his the ground below. "All right, in you go," he said pointing into the hole.

Without saying a thing, Lucinda jumped through the hole and grunted when she hit the bottom about seven feet down. It was very dark but her extremely sensitive eyes allowed her to see well enough. She was standing in a huge sewer pipe, about seven feet tall. The walls appeared to be concrete and looked relatively new. There was a tiny stream of brackish sludge that flowed down the middle of the pipe. "Hey! Catch this!" Matt called in from above. A small flashlight dropped in from above and she caught it. "Got it!" She turned it on and pointed it in front of her…then behind her. Finding nothing, she relaxed a bit.

Matt reloaded both pistols and then holstered them. "Hey! Stand by, I’m gonna pass this guy down to you!" "Okay!" he heard her call from below. The human walked up to the unconscious cat and dragged it over to the hole. Carefully, he began to pass the cat down to Lucinda until he saw her arms wrap around its chest.

"All right, I got him."

"’k, I’m lettin’ go," Matt replied.

"Got it."

Matt then let go and Lucinda draped the unconscious tabby across her good shoulder. "You start going. I’ll be down in a sec."

"Why?" asked the fox, concerned.

"I need to fix up a going away present for the bad guys. It wont take long."

Lucinda smiled. "Cool, so…which way?"

"Uuuh…" Matt thought a command and an auto map appeared in the middle of his vision. He scrolled through the map briefly and found the way. He pointed to the right. "That way."

"Got it. See you in a few." And with that Lucinda began the journey out of hell.

Matt walked over to a table and pulled his backpack off. He set it on the floor, flipped the top open and pulled out a small but very heavy box that took up most of the space inside the backpack. He sat the box down on the table then put the backpack back on. On the top face of the box was a small control panel mounted beneath a large yellow and black radiation trefoil. Matt scrolled around with the auto map. ‘Hmmm… one, one point five, uhh…another minute to get out…thirty seconds to find cover…okay, three minutes,’ Matt thought to himself as he punched in a code on the control panel and then entered three minutes. He then locked out the controls and hit the start button. Taking a deep breath he ran for the hole, jumped into the sewer and began to bolt for freedom. He saw Lucinda briskly walking up ahead. "Go! Run! Now!" he called out as he passed her.

Lucinda began to speed up. She was having such an excessive energy rush that it wasn’t hard to run faster; even with the cat and riffle on her shoulders. "What the heck did you leave behind for them?" she asked as soon as she caught up with him.

Matt half smiled. "About half a kilogram…<pant>…of enriched Plutonium wrapped in a…<pant>…Thermite trigger.

Lucinda glanced over at Matt, confused.

"It’s a ten kiloton nuclear bomb…<pant>

Lucinda’s eyes widened and she began to run faster. "Gosh! We’ll be blown to bits!"

"Not if…<pant>…we get out of here in time."

"How much longer ‘til it goes off?" asked the fox obviously very concerned.

They stopped at what appeared to be the end of the line. In front of them was a small grating which the tiny stream of sludge trickled into. There was also a severely rusted out latter that went about seven feet up to what appeared to be a manhole. Matt began to climb the latter. "Huh?"

"HOW MUCH TIME BEFORE THE STUPID BOMB GOES OFF!!" she yelled jumping up and down making splashes in the muck stream.

Matt began to push at the man hole which was mounted on some sort of hinge spring that was making it considerably difficult to open. "Uhh…SHIT! I forgot to set my watch timer."

"YOU WHAT!"

Matt got the best of the manhole and began to climb out.

"HOW COULD YOU NOT KNOW HOW LONG UNTIL YOUR BOMB GOES OFF!!" screamed Lucinda, ecstatic.

Matt began to get annoyed. "I don’t fuckin’ know…I just forgot! Just forget about it and hand that guy up to me, will ya!"

Lucinda complied without saying a word and quickly passed the cat up to Matt who hauled it up to the surface.

 

"I want you to spread out quickly this time. Don’t let them catch you in the elevator. The surveillance camera was damaged in the last fight so they could be any where for all we know. Don’t fail me this time!" said Robotnik speaking into a communicator in his chair staring at the array of screens in the command center. They all combined into a single image that showed a platoon of SWATbots.

A figure suddenly burst through the door to the command center. It was a tall humanoid with an odd looking and unnatural looking baize colored skin tone. His head was completely bald and very shiny and he wore a thin, black hair goatee. The uniform that he wore was identical to Snively’s except sized for someone much larger. He quickly walked past Robotnik and swatted Snively away from the control panel. "Out of the way pipsqueak, I’m in charge now," he said in a powerful, deep, and somewhat metallic voice.

Robotnik frowned. "Excuse me Commander?"

The figure hardly paid attention to the doctor. "Can it, sir! It’s my lab therefore I have jurisdiction here. Squads alpha and bravo, open the elevator and fan out on my command. Let nothing moving survive." He pushed another button on the panel. "Strike teams omega through phi, surround the area. Shoot any threat on the spot."

"Your insolence as of late disturbs me Packbell. But…it is your lab. Very well. Do what you will."

"I’m just simply succeeding where you have failed…sir," replied the android.

All Robotnik could do was let out a deeply throated growl.

"Alpha and bravo, ready…GO!" shouted the commander arranging the array of screens to show what each SWATbot was seeing. "GO! GO! FAN OUT! UNDER THE TABLES CHECK UNDER THE TABLES! SEARCH THE ROOMS!" Something caught Packbell’s electronic eye. "Unit alpha three, go back to that table over there. What’s that object sitting on the table?"

The screen showed the bomb on the table moving closer and closer. "OBJECT UNKNOWN, SIR," said the SWATbot moving closer still to the object. Packbell noted the trefoil and the control panel. "Move closer to that panel." The panel came closer enough for Packbell to read. The characters in the display were foreign and Packbell couldn’t read them but there appeared to be fewer and fewer of them as the seconds passed.

Packbell’s eyes widened. "IT’S A TRAP! GET OUT NOW!"

The last character disappeared and all of the screens suddenly turned white for a split second, then turned to static.

 

Matt draped the cat over his shoulder. "I got ‘em. Now hurry and get up here." He began to head for a large pile of rocks just in front of a small patch of forest.

Lucinda began to climb the latter when there was this sudden low rumble. She looked behind her and saw a bright light way back in the tunnel that was steadily getting brighter. "AAAA!!" she screamed as she bolted up the latter. When she reached the top she shut the manhole cover and ran for the rock pile which she climbed up and jumped down on the other side. She then laid flat and covered her head with her hands.

Matt peaked out from behind the rock pile when he heard the rumble. All of the sudden, the manhole blew off the pipe and a huge jet of flame roared into the sky for a few seconds. He heard the manhole crash behind them about a hundred yards into the forest. A few seconds later there was another rumble, a louder one. A massive land slide was falling off the side of the mountain. The top of the mountain began to crumble inward until it formed a sort of crater.

Lucinda uncovered her head and peaked out. "Is it over now?"

"Yea," replied Matt. He glanced at the instrument pad attached to his fore arm and looked disturbed. "Rad levels are starting to sky rocket though. Time to call for a taxi." He "thought" a command and then looked at Lucinda, then at the tabby. "Fuck!"

"What now?"

"We’ve got a new problem. The ‘Star Fox’ only holds two, and we’ve got three here."

A slick looking fighter suddenly speed up and stopped right above Matt and Lucinda.

"LOOK OUT!" Lucinda cried out, pointing her gun upward.

Matt grabbed the barrel of the gun and pointed it at the ground. He looked the fox in the eyes. "That…is the ‘Star Fox’…out taxi. Well actually, yours and his."

The craft slowly descended and landed on three "feet" that came out of the belly.

"I don’t know how to fly."

"It will fly itself."

Lucinda looked at Matt, concerned. "What about you?"

"I’ll start out on foot. Once the Fox drops you off in a safe place it will come back for me."

 

"You found them, good. Don’t shoot them yet. Matter of fact, stun them, and bring them back here. I want them alive," said Packbell turning away from the array of screens. "I’m done here, sir. In a moment I will have other business to attend to." And with that, the commander, briskly took leave of the command center.

Robotnik could hear the android yelling when it left the room. "MY LAB!!! THEY…WILL…PAY!!" The old man growled deeply for a second then looked over at his nephew. "Don’t just stand there, Snively. Take charge!"

The tiny man snapped to attention and saluted respectfully. "Yes, sir!"

Robotnik got up out of chair very slowly and stretched. "I think that I’ll invite myself to this little business session of Packbells. It should prove rather…amusing. Besides, I want to find out why an Overlander would be helping the rodents."

"Yes sir," Snively replied again.

 

"I can’t just let you stay here by your self. This place is dangerous. Besides, you saved my life, and I owe you," said Lucinda as Matt began to strap the tabby into the ‘Star Fox’.

Matt climbed off of the plane. "Look. You’re injured, I’m not. You need to get out of here." He pointed to the craft. "Now get in the fucking plane, please."

A mental alarm went off in Matt’s head. He glanced at the motion tracker that floated in the left side of his vision. Five objects were moving in and fast. "Get in NOW!"

A laser blast separated the two and five hover units roared overhead.

Matt got up and ran over to the ‘Star Fox’. He opened a panel in the side and pulled out an Mk-3 laser.

All but one of the hover units landed and SWATbots began to pour out in hordes.

Matt shut the panel and ran over to Lucinda who was just getting up. He input a mental command and the canopy on the plane shut. "Okay. You win." The craft levitated and shot away at tremendous speed. The other hover unit attempted to follow but was obviously too slow.

Matt and Lucinda raised their guns to their shoulders and began to fire on the onslaught of robots. Blasts of strange purple energy began flying at them and they began to back up towards the forest. The robots kept coming closer and closer.

Lucinda had just finished off her seventh SWAT when one of the blasts of purple energy caught her square in the chest. It didn’t seem to do any damage to her but she froze up and collapsed, unconscious.

"NNNOOOO!!!" Matt cried out as he used his laser to cut off the head of the SWATbot that shot her. He then cut a gash in the next SWAT and it dropped. The next on lost its left leg and the next one got its torso cut in half. He had taken at least a dozen blasts of energy by now but they didn’t seem to do anything to the alien armor. Matt felt a cold metallic arm wrap around his throat and squeeze. Instinctively, he dropped the laser and grabbed the SWATbot head that was behind him. <"Input command: increase adrenlene 60%"> Matt’s eyes went wide and his muscles bulged. He gripped the head and with Herculean strength pulled the robot up over his head and slammed it on the ground in front of him. Unfortunately, the robots grip didn’t let up and Matt went tumbling over with it. "Die…<choke>" He pulled one of the pistols out of its holster and put it against the SWATbot’s belly. "Mother…<ghasp>…fuc..ker.

"BLAM! BLAM! BA-BLAMBLAMBLAM!!!"

The grip on Matt’s neck loosened up and he wriggled away from the Robot’s arm. He turned his head, sitting there on his knees trying to catch his breath, and he saw a SWATbot about to tackle him. He put the robot down with a swift shot to the head. Then, just as he began to get up, he felt the cold barrel of a gun touch his neck. But before he could do anything he felt a shock of pain shoot through his whole body. Every thing turned bright red. "No! I can’t…loose…like this…" Matt thought to himself as everything turned black and silent. He tried to do something but he couldn’t even feel his own body.

Matt then felt himself fade away into nothingness.