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," is owned, copy written and was created by 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, I love E-mail so 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 second 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!

DESCENT

By Matt Butner

The sounds of explosions and the smell of fire fill the air. Its so hot and uncomfortably humid. The sun shins so brightly it’s hard to see. The dead lay sprawled in the streets. Some of them with their throats cut. Others with smoldering holes in their bodies. No, the ships. Too many of them. God…there everywhere! Killing everyone. The ET’s in the tin foil suits are coming out of them with weapons. The sun is so hot it burns. One of the tiny alien men approaches. A ball of green light fires from its weapon. PAIN! OH GOD! IT BURNS! The house…no…not this again! Oh god! Its on fire…Mothers screaming… "Mom!" Oh god! The roof collapsed! The alien raises its weapon again and fires another green blast. "NOOOO!"

Blackness…

Matt flew out of his rack and fell over onto the floor with a dull thump of flesh on hard, and…oh…burrr…very cold metal. He stayed sprawled, flat on the dull gray deck for but a second, then suddenly flipped himself on his back. Screaming, like some kind of terrified child he kicked his legs into the air and flipped himself back onto his feet, kung-fu style. He stood in a fighting style posture and began to survey his surroundings as if trying to find some sort of evil. He was breathing heavily and sweat dripped from every part of his seventy four inch tall, fare skinned body. It dripped from his head with its high and tight hair cut, down his neck, along a rather painful looking four inch long scar on his left breast, in-between the mountainous ripples in his stomach, and ultimately to his sweat soaked cammo pants. "Where are you!?", he screamed. There was no answer. He calmed down a bit and put away the fighting stance, allowing his bulging muscles to relax.

The space he was in was quite small. There was a single rack, that was just a little bit too small to fit his enormous human body, on one wall, and a metal foldout desk that was already open on the other. A fluorescent like light came from the inside of the desk though there didn’t seem to be a source. In fact, the whole room was illuminated with bright fluorescent light that just seemed to emanate from out of thin air. At the opposite end of the space was a mirror with a small silver basin under it.

Matt walked up to the basin still shaking a little. He pushed a button on the top of the short faucet and a small stream of water came out. Matt splashed some onto his face and then stared into the mirror watching the water drip from his chin. "Goddamn dreams."

"That was the fifth one in the last three days Matt," said a voice from out of nowhere.

Matt jumped, startled. "Dammit HICS! Can’t you beep of make some sort of subtle noise before you just speak up from out of the blue like that. You scare the shit out of me every time you do it."

"I will correct the problem immediately," replied the voice. It was an artificial males voice but it seemed to have a twist of emotional detail to it like a sort of up-beat-happy-to-oblige kind of cheerfulness.

"Thank you," Matt replied back. "And how did you know that I have had five nightmares in the last three days?"

"I monitor your body when you are asleep."

"Why? Come on HICS what the heck is so interesting about a sleeping human body." Matt asked making a spiteful face into the mirror. He had finally learned not to direct his attention to anything in particular since the invisible entity HICS was really everywhere at once.

"Oh believe me, it is an absolutely beautiful thing. So many things happening at once. Chemical reactions, absorption of nutrients, etc, etc. It’s absolutely fascinating! You make for a great study specimen; great data intake."

Matt let out a deep laugh.

"Just put yourself in my place," HICS continued. "Imagine for a moment, if you will, being finished and put on line just two weeks ago okay. It took me three seconds to download and process all the instructions that are necessary to run all my systems…"

"Wait a minute!" Matt interrupted, with his mouth agape and his eyebrows arched in disbelief. "You mean to tell me that it took you three seconds to learn every little detail about this ship…" he placed right hand across his chest and attempted to look regal. "The Mammalian Commonwealth Vessel, FFA-571: ‘Viego’, one of the most advanced battle platforms that exists in the known galaxy? Come on man. I just don’t believe it." Matt took a couple of steps to his bunk. He pushed a small button on the side frame just beneath the mattress and a drawer opened out. "What does ‘Viego’ mean anyway?" Inside there were several neatly folded stacks of white tank tops. Matt pulled one out and slipped it on.

"Isn’t it in your language data base? Oh, sorry. Silly me. If it were in your data base you would understand it. Well, since we’re speaking English allow me to translate."

Matt rolled his eyes as he listened to the voice babble on and on.

"The word Viego translates to, Omnipotent, if I’m not mistaking.

Matt raised an eye brow.

"Do you like it?"

"Sounds geeky, but sounds powerful at the same time." He nodded his head in acknowledgement. "Yea. I guess I do like it. But you strayed me away from my original question. What’s so great about a sleeping human being? What’s the point of monitoring me?

"The point, is that machine language is predictable, organized, and just…well…plain I guess. The basic emotions that I am programmed with are far too predictable."

"So what does that have to do with you observing me while I’m dreaming?" Matt asked smiling wickedly.

"By learning the various reactions that your body goes through…oh…hold that thought. We are about seven minutes away from Mobius."

"Have you dropped out of hyperspace?" Matt’s face lit up.

"Not yet."

"Cool. Open the observation dome’s blast shield. I like to watch this part."

"As you wish," HICS replied gloomily.

Matt walked over to the side of the compartment, just adjacent to the rack, and pushed a button on what appeared to be a door way; and it was for it slid open to the left with the faint sound of electric motors "wrrrrring" behind the walls. He walked out into a tiny hall that was sort of claustrophobic looking. It was circular, and just big enough to fit Matt. The walls were a clean white plastic like substance and so was the floor. It was brightly lit by apparently the same invisible light source that Matt’s berthing was lit by.

As he walked through the hall, he could just barely hear the "wrrrring" of another electric motor, a large one running in the background. He briskly walked about twenty yards and ran into another door. He opened it and walked into what appeared to be a sort of intersection. It was made from the same plastic like substance and was no less brightly lit, but it was cubicle in shape. On all six sides there was a door. Each door had a control panel. He pushed the button on the panel that was on the low overhead. The door suddenly slid open and small chrome colored latter silently retracted from inside the door. Matt climbed up the latter which was remarkably more sturdy then it looked; it didn’t wiggle around at all and stayed perfectly stable.

He climbed through about four feet of tubing that was similar to the passage way he just came from. It ended in another space that looked like some sort of glass dome. A dull gray metallic frame covered about three feet of the hemispherical space, but the rest was a glass like material. Matt came up through what looked like a sort of man hole at one end of the room. The center had a comfortable looking leather chair with several straps coming out of it. The chair sat in-between three panels each with complex arrays of buttons and screens. The right arm rest had a control stick sticking out of it, and the left arm rest accommodated a lever. The whole setup looked like a strange cross between a cockpit and a television control studio.

Matt walked past the front of the little control center and put his hands on the glass with a great big smile. What he saw was truly remarkable: it was an endless red haze of what looked like glowing ionic gasses. The haze was every where, yet it seemed to be so far away at the same time. But just ahead, was a hole, in the haze. It lead out into what looked like a black void, but as it came nearer, little white specks could be seen in it. It became closer and closer, and closer. And then, they passed through it, into the black void of space. Matt looked behind him and saw the, red haze, though it was a mere hole that they had just passed through. "Hyperspace is truly one of the coolest things I have ever seen"

"Look to your starboard," the computer replied.

Matt turned to his right and gasped at the sight of their big, blue destination from orbit. "My God….it looks just like Earth!"

"Well, Mobius does share surprising similarities to you’re home planet. Like for instance, the mass, oooop….hold on a sec…I’m picking up a disturbance on the surface."

Matt pulled himself away from the glass and sat down in the control chair. "Put it on screen 1." A small screen on the left hand panel lit up with the tops of a bunch of buildings. A targeting reticule boxed around several little moving objects that Matt couldn’t make out.

"Magnify."

The image suddenly went into a series of large multicolored pixels. Then the pixels began to get smaller and smaller very quickly until the image seemed to electronically boost it’s resolution to focus. In less than a second Matt finally understood what he was looking at: it was a horde of aircraft that chased a small almost bluish figure. The aircraft continuously pummeled the figure with streaks of bluish laser fire that just barely missed with each shot.

"HICS, zoom in on that figure that’s running away from those fighters."

Once again, the screen electronically zoomed in then boosted it’s resolution. Matt could see the figure clearly now. It was somewhat humanoid with two obvious arms and legs that seemed to twirl beneath it because it ran so fast. It also had a set of sharp quills that ran down it’s back.

Matt’s heart sunk. "Please don’t tell me that that’s who I’m thinking it is."

A screen below the one Matt was staring into lit up with an image of Sonic that rotated such that you could see his whole body. A profile began to scroll down the side and HICS began to read it. "Name: Sonic Hedgehog. Age: 17. Height……"

"I know who it is HICS." Matt interrupted going silent for a moment. "He’s in trouble and we have to rescue him." Matt jumped out of the chair and headed for the hole in the deck that lead into the rest of the ship. "Secure the Dome." Outside the glass, A metallic cover began to come together on both the front and the back and ultimately locked together at the top, the same way an eye lid closes over an eye ball. Matt leapt into the entrance/exit tube, stepped on the first few rungs of the latter then jumped the rest of the way. "Take us down HICS and set battle condition red." Matt ordered as he walked down the main P-way.

The lights suddenly turned red and there was a slight vibration as the ship dipped into the thick Mobian atmosphere. "This is so exciting." HICS marveled. "My first ground assault…SMASHING!"

Matt entered another room that was to the left. Inside was a gun collector’s paradise. The compartment was filled, bulkhead to bulkhead, with guns; some exotic, and some a little more familiar looking. He walked to the end of the room and strapped a futuristic looking armor vest to his body, as well as some leggings and covers for his arms. "This heat resistant armor had better work or this might turn out to be a bad day." Said Matt as he strapped on the last legging.

"They have been thoroughly tested both in the lab and in the…oop…the main particle guns just came on line and I just finish loading the and missile launchers. And you will be happy to know that I am trailing close behind Mr. Hedgehog at a comfortable altitude of 213 meters. Would you like me to arm?" HICS asked cheerfully.

"Arm everything," Matt replied with a wicked smile as he unbolted his weapon from a rack. It was a jet black in color, short and simple looking rifle. It had a pistol grip in front of the trigger, a hand grip behind the barrel, and a scope that ended in what looked like a small TV monitor. Beneath the gun rack was a shelf with what looked like a battery charger full of what looked like over sized video camera batteries. Matt pulled one off the charger and inserted it into a perfectly sized hole in the butt of the riftle. He then grabbed six more and filled the provided holders on his armor.

"Aren’t you forgetting about something." HICS asked.

"Uuuuh…am I?" Matt asked back looking confused.

"Oh, I forgot…this is you’re first time using the power armor. Well, aside from the instant tactical computer link, smart gun link, and motion tracker….It has an interface."

Matt smiled. "Are you talking about my kind of interface." He grabbed a small pistol off of another rack, loaded it and slipped it into a holster on the right side of his hip. He then grabbed a couple more magazines and placed them in a perfectly sized compartment in his left legging.

"This interface is all about you Matt." HICS replied chuckling.

"Where’s it at?"

"Left side, top of the pack."

Matt reached around his left side and began to fumble around.

"Two centimeters to the left." The computer assisted.

Matt moved his hand to the left and pulled a small head phone like cable out of the pack. He then grabbed the back of his neck with his other hand and inserted the jack into what looked like a headphone port on the back of his neck. His vision suddenly fuzzed and went a little dark. "HICS, this thing ‘aint got power yet!"

"It’s thought processor is active. No need to hit switches. You’re only a thought away."

"Allrighty." Matt "thought" the commands he needed and suddenly in mid air appeared the sentence "ACCESSING INTERFACE…." In green letters. His vision went staticy for a second and then back to normal. Suddenly some strange things happened. First, a strange image that looked like a gridded radar screen appeared in the upper left of his vision. Right below it, was the sentence "NO WEAPON" in bright red letters. In the center was a small circle with cross hairs in the middle. Up at the very top was a strip of tick marks and heading numbers. The strange thing was, that all these images stayed in place, no matter where Matt moved his head. "This is way too cool HICS."

"You ain’t seen nothing yet. Turn on the laser."

Matt flicked the rocker switch on the stock of the gun. When he did, the image that said "NO WEAPON" changed to "Mk3 LASER RIFLE TYPE A." And under that appeared "60 sec" "AAAWWW! This is outstanding!"

"You can even….WOA! uuh…Matt, you uhh, might want to take a look at this."

A screen on the bulkhead to Matt’s left came to life suddenly. Matt looked at it for a half a second then bolted out of the armory. "Open the aft hatch HICS, and cover me. I only hope I’m not too late."

Matt saw the large door opening to the dim light outside. With out hesitation he ran through the red lit passage way and jumped out. The drop was not very far, only about 10 feet so the landing didn’t hurt too much. He looked right in front of him and gasped. He saw Sonic, laying on the ground, face in the dirt in the middle of an intersection. All around were these tank things and robot things. The robots looked humanoid, sort of. They were tall, a little more than six feet tall and had dome shaped heads with spikes on the top and a single red slit for and eye: SWATbots. One of them stood over Sonic and raised it’s arm.

"<CHRIST! HICS GET THAT THING OFF HIM BEFORE HE GETS EXECUTED!>" Matt "thought" hoping that the power armor would transmit his message. "<Acknowledged.>" came the reply that he wanted to hear.

A small ball of green light shot from right above him. It exploded right in the center of the SWATbot’s chest ripping it’s body in half and throwing the pieces back several yards. Matt looked up and his ship, made itself known. The ship was actually pretty small; just a little bit bigger than a 747. Actually, it looked a lot like an over sized fighter plane. It’s wings were arranged in a diamond shaped pattern that terminated at the aft. It was sleek, streamlined, and had a stealthy look to it. What kept it in the air was a mystery. It hovered perfectly still only emitting a barely audible hum and no wind. The strange thing was that it just seemed to appear out of nowhere. One second there was nothing there, and the next, this ship just materializes from thin air.

The SWATbots suddenly pointed their guns at Matt.

"<Uuuuh…HICS, I uh, think we *gulp* got their attention>"

And then it came. Every thing robotic in the area that had a gun fired on Matt, all at the same time. Matt didn’t even have time to think. He just shielded his face with his arms and waited for the pain. It never came. He felt just fine actually although the explosions of death and destruction that the SWATbots and other war vehicles were putting out sounded muffled. Matt opened his eyes. The ship had maneuvered itself to a position that put the center of its keel right above Matt’s head. All around them was a greenish haze that completely deflected the onslaught of weapons fire.

"<Way ta go HICS!>" Matt yelled in this mind breathing a sigh of relief.

"<Thank you.>" the computer replied. "<Shall I open fire now?>"

Matt nodded his head with an evil smirk on his face. "<Be my guest.>"

The green haze went away. "<You might want to duck.>"

"Shit!" Matt hit the deck just as all hell broke loose right above his head. He just laid still, instinctively covering his head with his hands.

The Viego dealt devastation back in a gruesome way. On all sides of the intersection, SWATbots crumpled to the ground, their torsos separated from the rest of their bodies. It was like as if an invisible sword was being swept through the air to cut them in half. It also fired small streams of green balls of light at the tanks, tearing them to partly melted looking hunks of metal. The STEALTHbots and hover units fell to the ground by the dozens with their hulls split perfectly in half. In less than twenty seconds the battle was over leaving Matt, his ship, Sonic, and a ton of destroyed machinery in a nice quiet part of Robitropolis.

Matt slung the rifle over his shoulder and ran over to Sonic thinking the worst. He rolled the limp hedgehog over and listened for breath. Sonic was still breathing but very quietly. Matt got his hands covered in blood though he didn’t seem to mind. He tried to pick up the hedgehog but Sonic squirmed violently.

"[Wait…can’t go…yet]" the hedgehog groaned in perfect Mobian.

Matt laid him back on the ground. "What did you just say?"

Sonic gasped with his eyes closed. "[Need…ta get…AARRG *coff*]"

"<What the heck is he saying HICS?>"

"<Don’t expect him to understand English Matt. You’re on another planet remember. Shift you language database over to Mobian if you want to understand him.>"

"<Oh yea. Duuuuh! I’m just a freekin idiot.>" He mentally input the commands to switch languages and then he tried again. "What was that?" He asked as he tried to pick Sonic up.

The hedgehog struggled and tried to kick himself away. "Noooo…can’t go yet."

"Why not?" Matt asked trying not to further injure Sonic as the hedgehog kicked away.

"Need…transistor," Sonic wheezed.

"Where? What transistor."

"In…SWATbots…head…" Sonic struggled to regain his breath. "Need it…for…uncles ring machine…"

Matt walked over to the SWATbot that tried to take Sonic out. "You mean, in the heads of these things?"

Sonic opened his large, black eyes and looked toward Matt. His vision was blurry and it went in and out of focus. But he could see enough. His eyes closed again. "Yea…in the head."

Matt knelt down over the destroyed robot and began examining the head.

<Matt we’ve got more fighters coming. Their about five miles away and closing fast.>

<Gotcha,> Matt replied mentally. "How do I get inside this thing?"

Sonic cringed. "Panel…in the back."

Matt gripped the head and began to turn it. It took some fighting but eventually he turned it enough to see the small square access panel in the back. He drew a k-bar from his left boot and began prying at the panel with the tip of the blade.

<Two miles Matt,> came HICS again.

<I know! I know!>

Something gave and the panel popped off. Matt reached inside.

<One mile.>

"What’s it look like."

Sonic moaned and coughed. "Big, black and round…three prongs." Sonic moaned pitifully and began to whimper form the pain. "It…aaaahhh…h..haaasss…*ghasp*…writ…iiinggg…unhhh…eeee…sss..c…thr…three…x."

<900 yards and closing real fast Matt. Im moving to intercept..>

Matt fumbled around inside the head frantically. He felt a large roundish object inside that stood out among all the other components.

A bright, white ball of light flew over head. Matt tracked it and watch it hit another hover unit. The explosion was so tremendous that it not only completely destroyed the hover unit, but it also blew the roof’s off of the buildings near by.

Matt yanked the object out of the head. It was all black and cylindrical , sort of like a three inch long capacitor except it had three prongs on the bottom. He spunn the component around in his hands until writing came up. It was odd writing. Sort of like a combination between Arabic and Japanese, but somehow he understood it. The letters were EC-3X "I got it!" he yelled putting the object in a pocket on his right leg. He then ran over to Sonic.

The Viego quickly flew over head and up the street. Matt looked down the street and saw an awful lot of hover units heading right toward them. The small ship fired more blasts of white light and more hover units fell.

"Look out!" Sonic groaned.

Matt swung around toward the opposite end of the street. Coming from the other side, in an attempt to flank them, was another hover unit. Matt raised the rifle and sighted the small craft in the scope which was actually a small television screen. The hand grip on the front of the gun had a sort of rocker switch on it and Matt toggled the forward button. The image of the hover unit in the screen zoomed in.

The hover unit suddenly stopped it’s approach and hovered about fifty feet off the ground. "YOU WILL LOWER YOUR WEAPON AND SURRENDER BY ORDER OF DOCTOR ROBOTNIK," bellowed the most bone chilling, raspy, robotic voice Matt ever heard.

The image on Matt’s scope showed a red dot on the piloting SWATbot’s forehead. "Fuck you," he called out as he pulled the trigger. A faint but solid red beam fired from the gun and melted right through the SWATbot’s head. Matt let up as the craft suddenly went into a spin and slammed right into what looked like a roofless grocery store.

Two more hover units came down the street to the left. No time to aim. Matt fired at the one to the right in half second bursts as he tried to zoom out enough to get a good aim on the craft. The blasts hit the craft but only ripped small cuts into the hull with out hitting any thing important.

A blue beam fired from the hover unit. Matt instinctively dove to the right but he was too late. His shoulder stung with searing heat like as if somebody touched a hot iron to his shoulder. "<COMMAND: INCREASE ADRENELEN 30%.>" he "thought". His command appeared out in front of him for a second and then disappeared. As soon as the message disappeared, the pain in Matt’s shoulder instantly went away and he began to shake a little, although he was feeling pretty darn good at the moment. Amazingly, the blast from the hover unit did very little damage to the shoulder plate of the strange alien armor. There was a slight burn mark at the point the blast contacted the small plate, as well as a huge increase in temperature that made the plate scalding hot to the touch. Although he was suffering from a nasty first degree burn, the armor saved his arm from being burned clean away from its socket.

He raised the laser back up and shot at the craft when it flew by, ripping a thin gash along its entire flank. He must of hit something important when the beam cut across the rear of the craft because a thick plume of smoke billowed out. The hover unit went into a sort of hover and landed, roughly but intact. Matt carefully trained his aim on the spiral shaped door as it opened.

A SWATbot quickly jumped out and fired its arm blaster hitting Matt square in the chest but it only burned a little. Matt hardly noticed it. But by then Matt had ripped a gash in the SWATbot that ran from its crotch all the way up to its head. It fell against the door way to the downed and still smoking hover unit, blocking it off. A second SWATbot began kicking its brother out of the way and quickly jumped out.

The ammo read out that always floated at the bottom of Matt’s vision now read zero. No time to reload. Matt dropped the laser and drew a small pistol from a hip holster. He puled the slide back, let it slam forward, aimed, and fired. "BAPBAPBAPBAPBAPBAP!!!" The bullets hit the robot making sparks as they punctured the tough metal. The SWATbot collapsed, fell to it’s knees, then fell on its face.

Matt began to search for the other hover unit. It was only a few yards away from Sonic. A red dot appeared on the Hedgehog’s stomach and ran up his chest and stopped on his fore head. Matt raised the gun and started pulling the trigger really fast. Nothing happened! The slide was all the way back and a small stream of smoke poured from the breech. Empty! "Shit!"

WHAM! The Viego suddenly came in, silently, from the right at a pretty high speed. It had its nose pointed toward the sky and slammed into the hover unit with its belly. The small ship flew down the street for about 100 yards and then just suddenly stopped launching the battered hover unit several yards. The craft then fell, exploding and breaking up as it rolled along the broken and pot-holed pavement.

Without much thought, Matt holstered the pistol, slung the rifle over his shoulder, and walked up to Sonic. "I got your transistor buddy. Now lets get you out of here," he said as he cradled the three and a half foot tall hedgehog in his arms and turned around. "<Time to go HICS. Now!>

"<On my way.>"

The ship pulled right up to Matt and descended enough to allow Matt to climb up the aft brow.

 

Snively thought quickly about what he should do. He thought about running for it. Robotnik was going to beat him to death for this. He took one more glance at his uncle. Robotnik was staring at the screens blankly and emotionlessly. Snively then turned back around and watched the screens. All but one of them were filled with static. The one in the middle was still displaying a picture of the scene of carnage. Snively watched the human figure carry Sonic away into his ship. The ship then ascended back into the sky and then seemed to just disappear into thin air.

Ever so slowly Robotnik eased out of his chair and walked toward Snively, showing no statement on his face whatsoever.

The tiny bald man backed up against the control console and stared up at his uncle, wide eyed and quivering. To his great surprise Robotnik just walked past him very slowly. He then spoke with a very calm and collected voice. "Take charge Snively. I’ll be in my quarters."

"Y…yes sir." Snively replied staring at his uncle with confusion as the roundish man exited the room through a large sliding metal door.

 

"Get us the hell out of here HICS!" Matt yelled as he cleared the brow. The ship began to vibrate very gently beneath his feet and gravity began to shift upward.

"Sorry about the gravity Matt but the grav generators don’t work very well in a gravitational field."

"That’s okay," said Matt smiling as he leaned against the rear hatch that he had just climbed up. "Nice save HICS. You did good out there."

"Really?"

"Yea. I couldn’t have done it with out you."

The floor leveled out and the flight went smooth.

"So tell me HICS...which one of these compartments is the infirmary?" Matt asked as he began to walk down the p-way.

The computer entity began to chuckle.

Matt stopped dead in his tracks. "HICS, I don't have time to play around right now so tell me what I wan't to hear."

"I'm afraid I can't do that."

"Oh don't tell me..."

"I don't have one."

"What the hell do you mean you don’t have one? How can you not have a sick bay?"

"I’m just a prototype Matt. My creators didn’t intend me to go into actual combat. Not like this." The computer replied.

Matt took a deep breath. "HICS THE LEADER OF THE MOBIAN RESISTANCE IS DYING IN MY ARMS!"

"I could take us back to his village."

Matt calmed down a bit. "Yea...good...make it happen" He looked back at the hedgehog in his arms. Sonic was still breathing but barely. He was beginning to shake a little and Matt could feel the coldness in the hedgehog's skin underneath the coarse bluish fur.

 

"Awww, come now princess…zere’ ees nozing to fear. Sonique. E’ knows what E’s doing. E’ my not be az breeleeante as moi but e’s very fast." Said Antoine trying to reassure a very worried Sally. "Ze zwatboot can’t catch eem, Robotnique can’t catch eem, nozing can catch eem. Zat is why e’ always weens, yes-no." The uniformed fox smiled.

Sally didn't seem to share Antoines optimistic attitude. She wore an extremely gloomy face and just seemed to mope around as the two of them walked in-between a couple of huts in the middle of the village. Sally stopped and rubbed her forehead. "I know Antoine but I just can't get rid of this feeling like..."

"Like vut my princess?" Antoine asked the distraught princess with great concern, staring deeply into worried blue eyes.

"Like..." She paused for a moment with her mouth hanging open like as if she was trying to catch the words out of mid air. "...like something's gone terribly wrong."

The fox placed a reassuring hand on the princess’s right shoulder. "Do not worry your majesty. For I am steel ‘ere to protect you."

Sally smiled with great amusement and giggled as she smooched Antoine on the left cheek "You're such a sweety sometimes."

Antoine smiled and just seemed to melt into the ground with love. He walked out in front of Sally. "Ooooh! Heh…oooo…aaa…my princess! You might not happen to ‘ave onothere one of zose, would you? Hmmm?" He asked staring at Sally, eye lids flashing passionately.

There was a sudden rattling in the trees overhead causing the various birds that roosted in them to go flying erratically. Sally looked upward and found the source of commotion. A patch of trees were bending under the weight of something that just wasn’t there. The top of one of the larger sequoias snapped off and crashed to the ground missing a hut by a matter of a few yards. They kept bending more and more until they all just suddenly snapped back into position.

Something then caught Sally's eye. It looked like the mirage one sees on a desert road but in mid air. The trees that she was looking at were wavy and distorted. And then they were gone blocked out by the image of what had to be the biggest fighter vessel ever made.

Antoine shrieked. "WAAAA! OH MY!" His pupils shrunk up. "NOOO! ZE ZWATBOTS! ZE ‘AVE FOUND US!! WE VILL BE TOTURED!! OOOO!! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!" He than ran away hysterically.

The screams of terrified citizens could be heard as the strange craft landed (without actually touching the ground) right in the middle of town. And then the rear hatch opened and Matt ran out the back with Sonic still in his arms.

Sally was in total shock. Her heart sank into her feet and her eyes filled with tears at the sight of her lover covered in blood and limp. She ran toward Matt with all that she was worth.

"Where's the infirmary?" Matt yelled with the look of urgency in his eyes when Sally reached him.

"YOU KILLED HIM YOU BASTARD! YOU'RE GONNA NEED MORE THAN AN INFERMERY WHEN I’M DONE WITH YOU!" Sally screamed.

The six foot tall human got right up into the three and a half foot tall princesses face. "Look, I don't have time to FUCK around so are you going to help me or do I have to get really pissed off?"

Sally just stared at him with anger fear and total confusion in her eyes.

Sonic moaned and hacked up a large wad of blood. He began to convulse slightly and his breathing went from shallow breaths to ragged gurgles.

Matt became desperate and he wanted to shoot Sally for not helping him. "YA HEAR THAT? HE'S DYING IN MY ARMS! PLEASE, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD TAKE ME TO THE INFERMERY!"

 

{"…Oh Faust!" Solee exclaimed as she wrapped hear arms around her lover.}

{"I won’t ever leave you again my dear. Never! I am here for you to hold me for all eternity!"}

{And it was so, that the two raccoons came together in matrimony the very next week…never to leave each others arms again}

{THE END}

Bookshire sniffled as he put the ripped and raggedy looking book down on the tiny wooden stand next to his reclined leather covered easy chair. He gently wiped the tears from his eyes and just sat there for a moment smiling contently. He then slowly eased himself out of his chair and carefully returned the book onto the packed bookshelf that covered an entire wall of his tiny hexagonal living room.

BANG BANG BANG!!! Went the door.

That sounds urgent, the raccoon thought to himself. He grabbed the tiny cane that sat next to the bookshelf and began to hobble out of the den. "I’ll be there in just a second." He yelled.

The banging came again only this time it was louder.

"Just a moment! I’m not the young kit I used to be"

More banging.

Bookshire finally reached the door and opened it. And like the wind of a hurricane Sally burst in with Matt and Sonic close behind. "What on Mobius!" He exclaimed, starring up at Matt who painfully banged his head on the doorway to the tiny house. And then he noticed Sonic. "GOOD GODDESS! This way…QUICKLY!" he hallared pointing toward a closed door.

Sally opened the door and lead Matt down to the infirmary which was about six or seven stairs down.

Matt had to duck the whole way down to keep from banging his head on the extremely low ceiling, but he finally made it. The room looked like an all purpose examination ward/operating room/recovery room. At one end was an old fashioned sink with a handle pump. Immediately above that was a wood and glass cabinet filled with all sorts of medicine bottles. Below the sink was a closed wooden cupboard with no glass window. No more than a few feet from the sink was a metal table with a large light above it. Next to the table were some electronic devices of various kinds mounted on stands with rollers, as well as some I-V stands. At the other end of the room were five beds. They were tiny, child sized to Matt, but neatly made.

"Quickly! Lay him out on the operating table!" The middle aged raccoon called out as he hobbled down the steps.

Matt complied and gently laid the hedgehog on the table. Matt squeezed the hedgehogs left hand and stroked his fuzzy forehead. "Don’t you die on me now buddy. We made it this far."

Bookshire reached into the cabinet and pulled out what looked like a small tool box. He opened it and pulled out a small flashlight and began to examine the hedgehog. "What did he get shot with?" the raccoon asked checking for pupil dilation in Sonic’s eyes.

"A laser mounted on the arm of some sort of bipedal combat robot. There was a lot of em there but I took care of that. It’s no wonder he got shot. I mean, he was out…"

"Son, I have treated more laser wounds from SWATbots in my days than I care to remember." Said Bookshire cutting Matt off. "So believe me when I say that this is no laser wound."

"Well it sure as heck looked like a laser blast to me."

"<It could have been a cold particle accelerator gun.>" HICS suddenly spoke in Matts mind.

"<A what?>"

"<A cold particle gun, it shoots chemically ionized non metallic slugs via an acceleration matrix. It works just like any slug thrower except the ammunition is non metallic and cheap. The Orions invented them as a ‘bloodier’ alternative to plasma weaponry.">

"<Oh.>" Matt shuddered at the thought that Sonic might have been shot by a weapon made by his greatest enemy. Hey, maybe it was a cold particle gun."

Bookshire and Sally both stared at Matt.

"It shoots ionized slugs out at high speeds but it acts like a slug thrower."

Sally’s eyes went wide and Bookshire went back to what he was doing.

Matt then noticed something that he never really noticed before: the strong smell of copper. He looked down at his armor and it was covered in the dying hedgehogs blood. His hands felt sticky. He looked at them and they were coated with bluish fur than stuck in the dried, crusty blood. He put a face of disgust on and looked as if he was going to be sick.

"Dammit! What the hell kind of weapon does this." Bookshire exclaimed as he hobbled over to the cabinet above the sink. He fumbled around inside it and pulled out a small brown bottle.

"What’s wrong…" Sally asked as her cheek fur began to mat down.

"There’s too much bleeding. His right lung is collapsed and he’s beginning to drown in his own blood." The raccoon replied, injecting a yellowish fluid into the hedgehogs right arm. "I might be able to stop it with this but he’s lost too much blood."

Sally covered her mouth with both hands and inhaled deeply.

Bookshire hurried over to the corner of the room and wheeled a complex device over to Sonic. From it he unhooked a small breathing mask and slipped it over Sonic’s face. A pair of bellows on the top of the machine began pumping up and down when the raccoon flipped on the power switch to it.

"So what’s this thing for anyway?" Matt asked holding the transistor out in front of him.

Sally turned around to see what the human was talking about.

"He kept talking about a transistor. I guess this is it." Matt shrugged his shoulders. "This little part must be pretty important for him to risk his life like he did."

Sonic’s eyes shot open.

"I wonder what it’s for." The human twisted the part around in his fingers, closely inspecting it.

"S…Sal..y." The hedgehog weakly groaned.

The squirrel princess immediately ran to the bed side and knelt down by her lover. "Yes Sonic. I’m here. What is it?" She held his left hand and gentily squeezed it.

"R..rimblmf..uhh…"

"What? Sonic I can’t understand." She put her ear to his mouth.

"Unh…r..rinnggg…<pant>…please…" The hedgehog’s eyes closed.

Sally was confused at first. ‘Ring? What does that mean?’ And then it hit her like a ton of bricks. "He wants a power ring!" Immediately she grabbed the transistor from Matt’s hand and ran out of the infirmary. She ran out of Bookshires house leaving the door open and ran all the way over to Rotor’s hut which was all the way on the other side of the village. She ran like she did before when Sonic left her to go on his hunt for the transistor that would restore the ring machine; she ran like she was being chased by a demon. When she got to Rotor’s place she began banging on his door. "ROTOR!! GET OUT HERE AND GET READY TO SWIM!!"

The door opened and the walrus appeared. He looked groggy and rubbed both eyes. "What? Did you say something about swimming?"

"Yes! Look I got the transistor right here!" She grabbed his left arm and began pulling. "Now come on."

"Wait…Sally. What’s the rush?"

"Sonic’s in trouble. He needs a ring now! I’ll explain later. Now lets go!" She began pulling his arm again.

"But Sally, there’s no guarantee that it will spit out a ring when I install that transistor." He shrugged his shoulders. "I mean…sure, in theory it should. It went kaput in the middle of making one. But that still doesn’t mean that…"

"We don’t have time to worry about that right now. This is about life and death. Now for the last time…let’s go!"

The walrus gave in a complied and they both hurried over to the ring grotto. When they arrived at the waters edge, beneath the plat form that stuck out over the grotto, Rotor asked "So, you got it?"

"Yea. Here." She handed the transistor to Rotor.

"Thanks. Be back in a jiff," Rotor replied taking the transistor, carefully, in his hands and then diving into the cold water. Well…he didn’t really dive, it was more like a cannon ball. His pudgy body caused a huge plume of water to fly on shore, completely soaking Sally.

Rotor surfaced, blew some water out of his mouth and looked embarrassed when he saw Sally standing there, dripping from head to toe, with her hands on her hips. "Heh, sorry about that."

"Just get down there and fix it!"

Rotor waved. "Right." He then disappeared under the water.

Sally found her self pacing back and fourth on the shore line of the grotto like Sonic whenever the hedgehog got impatient. Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth she paced for what seemed like and eternity though it was only a few minutes before Rotor’s head popped back above the surface.

"Here, catch!" he called out as he tossed a golden ring over to her, like as if it were a Frisbee.

She turned around and caught the ring out of mid air and cradled it in her arms like as it it were an infant child. Her face lit up with a smile and she took off at top speed, heading for the infirmary.

 

"BEEEEEEEEEE…." The breathing device that Bookshir had hooked up to Sonic let out a constant, steady tone. A flat-line!

Bookshire turned to Matt. "Quick! Over there in the corner. Wheel that machine over here. Hurry! Hurry!"

Matt complied and hunch walked over to the corner. The object in question looked like a dot matrix printer with a pair of small electric irons sitting on to of it. He began to wheel it toward the raccoon doctor. "What’s wrong?" He asked knowing very well what was happening.

"He’s gone into cardiac arrest."

Sally suddenly burst in and knelt down beside Sonic. Without hesitation she pulled the glove off his left hand and curled the limp fingers around the ring. Immediately the ring began to glow; faintly at first, then steadily brighter. Sonic’s eyes suddenly shot open and Sally felt his hand clench tightly around the ring. There was a flash of light given off from the ring and then there appeared to be an explosion. Matt, Bookshire and Sally shielded their eyes as blinding wisps of energy spun around the hedgehogs body, like electrons around an atom. When the light died away, the three unshielded their eyes and saw Sonic laying there, tightly gripping the faintly glowing ring, with his eyes closed and a big smile spread across his face. The heart monitor let out a steady pulse tone. Bookshire walked over to the hedgehog and put a stethoscope to his blood stained chest and listened. He then looked up at Sally, a look of shock across his face. "I just don’t believe it. His pulse is regular…and…and so is his breathing." He inspected the wound. "Heh…it looks like the bleeding stopped too."

"I knew it would work," said Sally stroking the hedgehog’s head.

Bookshire nodded. "Well, that may be princess but those rings don’t last forever. All this did was buy us some time." Bookshire cleared his throat. "If you don’t mind Sally, I would like some time alone to patc him back up and see if we can’t save him."

Sally nodded. "Yes, of course doctor." She looked at Matt with an uncertain frown. "You, follow me please."

Matt shrugged his shoulders and complied. They exited Bookshire’s hut and headed for Sally’s.

Once they reached their destination Sally opened the door and politely gestured for Matt to enter. He complied and once again was forced to hunch walk inside the small hut. She then entered, shut the door and sat down at the small table. She motioned for him to sit down but then embarrassingly withdrew her invitation when she realized that he would crush the tiny chair if he tried to sit in it.

"I assume that you’re the one in charge?" asked Matt.

"Yes. I am Princess Sally Acorn," replied the princess.

A data file, sent down from HICS suddenly appeared in front of Matt’s vision and in a split second, he learned exactly who this person in front of him was. "<Thanks HICS.>" Matt bowed. "Your majesty. I uh…apologize for making such a rude entry into the village but uh…the hedgehog was hurt pretty bad, you know, so I was kind of in a frenzy."

Sally smiled. "Don’t worry about it. Thank you for saving him by the way. We owe you dearly uh…"

"Matt Foxworthy,"

"Yes, well, we owe you dearly now uh, Matt."

Matt began to rub his chin. "Hmmm, well in that case could I ask a favor?"

"Name it," said Sally nodding.

"Well. Obviously I’m not from around here. I come from a planet quite a ways away from this one. I’m in search of a friend. He uh…his ship came under attack a few weeks ago and was subsequently abandoned. I began a search and picked uh his distress signal and found that it originated from this planet.

"Ah yes you’re talking about the pod that crashed in Robotropolis a few weeks ago."

Matt became very anxious. "Yes. Do you know anything about it?"

"I’m afraid I don’t have very pleasant news to tell you. About two weeks after the crash, an informant told me that he witnessed a human, I’m assuming your friend, involved in a fire fight with the SWATbots. He put up a good fight for a while but was shot and subsequently taken to Area-51. That’s Packbell’s worst laboratory."

Matt smeared his hand down his face and looked quite annoyed.

"I’m sorry," Sally said softly.

"Yea, okay…whatever. I don’t care who this Packbell guy is, just tell me how to get to this Area-51 place."

Sally pulled Nicole out of her boot and opened the oversized palm top computer up. "You got a computer?" she asked.

"Yea. I got one in my backpack. It’s all ready to receive."

"Okay. Nicole."

The computer beeped. "YES SALLY."

"Up load all pertinant data on area fifty one. Send it via radio signal."

"UP LOADING SALLY……………………..UP LOAD COMPLETE."

"You got it?" Sally asked.

"Yea," replied Matt when the sentence <UP LOAD COMPLETE> appeared out in front of his field of vission. He then began to walk out of the hut.

"Wait. What will you do now?" asked Sally trying to stop Matt from leaving.

"I’m going to find my friend."

"What will you do if you find him?"

"I’m gonna leave this place."

"What if you don’t find him?"

Matt’s statement turned cold. "I’m gonna nuke the shit out of this place until I feel better."

Sally didn’t much like that last statement. She looked flustered as the human began to help himself out the door. He stopped half way out the door. "Oh yea. Can I ask you another favor, princess?"

"What?"

"Can I park my ship here for the night. It needs to regenerate its fuel supply."

Sally seemed reluctant to answer. "Just for the night, I guess."

"Thank you, your majesty." He then exited the hut, gently shut the door and walked to his ship. Sally watched him through a window. She saw him enter the aft brow of the ship. It then ascended about twenty feet or so, very slowly, then stopped in a dead hover. A hole opened in the bottom the ship and a small fighter exited. It was triangular in shape and very flat. There were two pods on the each wing that were attached to a "hump" that ran along the entire centerline of the craft. The bubble shaped cocpit was mounted on the back and there was a small gun turret mounted on the bottom of the craft.

The tiney craft flew into the canopy of trees, carefully maneuvered its way out, and then was gone. The ship then descended slowly, and came to rest on three "legs" that served as landing gear.

 

Later on that night.

"How does it feel now?" Bookshire asked Sonic disposing of a small syringe.

"I feel greeeeaaaat." The hedgehog had a silly smile on his face and his eyes hung half way open. "Hey man. Why didn’t you tell my you had this stuff sooner?"

Bookshire frowned. "Xenophalonine is a narcotic to be used for medical purposes only. Not for the pleasure of young men like yourself."

Sonic’s eyes began to spin. "Weeeeee…I’m dizzy."

There was a knock at the door. Bookshire grabbed his cane and began to hobble out of the infirmary. "I’m going to go answer that. You just stay put."

Sonic began to point to the ceiling. "Woa…look at all the chili dogs floating in da air. Mmmmmm…I can just eat them all. Yum, yum yum yum. Weeeee…"

Bookshire began to laugh as he exited the infirmary. He opened the front door of his hut to find Sally standing there. "Oh. Hello princess. Please, come on in." He let her in a then closed the door. "So. What happened to our visitor?"

Sally shrugged her shoulders. "He left?"

"Oh. Where’d he go?" asked Bookshire curiously.

"Are fifty one."

Bookshire looked confused. "Was he looking for that human that crashed in Robitropolis a few weeks back?"

Sally nodded her head. "Mm-hm. That was a friend of his."

Bookshire looked concerned. "Oh dear. That’s too bad."

"Yea I know," replied Sally. "I was just about to tell him that no body makes it out of area fifty one alive but he was already walking out the door before I could tell him."

Bookshire shook his head. "Yet another tragedy on our planet."

Sally nodded. "Yep. Well enough of that. How’s Sonic?"

"He’s doing remarkably well, actually."

Sally smiled, relieved. "Great!"

"Well. Considering his condition, it’s impossible for him to be alive. He’s lost so much blood that his blood pressure is barely readable. And the lower half of his left lung has been burned pretty severely. But that ring is working wonders for him. His lung is healing at a stunning rate and all of his vital signs are stable. He should be all right as long as its power holds out. He was in a lot of pain earlier though so I had to drug him up a little."

"How is he now?" Sally asked.

"He’s conscious if you want to talk to him."

"Yes, please."

They began to walk down into the infirmary. "I have to warn you though Sally he’s a little bit whacked out right now from the drugs."

Sally just nodded a reply.

When the entered the infirmary, Sonic caught eye of Sally and he smiled. "Wuzzup hot chick. How’s about you come on over her and give your ole’ hedgehog pal a big kiss on the lips," he said in a drunken slur.

Sally smiled, walked over to Sonic and gave him exactly what he wanted. When her lips parted from his, he stared at he, eyes wide open. The ring in his hand began to glow a little brighter. "Woa…Sal…that was…way, way past cool! Hey, you got another one of those for me? Hmmm." He flapped his eyes at her.

Sally giggled. "Maybe later. If you’re good."

"Oh. Believe Sal…I won’t just be good…"

"You’ll be way past good, right?" Sally interrupted.

Sonic stuck a fist out and Sally butted it with hers. "No body knows me better than you do babe."

"That’s ‘cause nobody loves you more than I do, babe."

Sonic was speechless. They just stared at each other for a moment, holding hands with big smiles on their faces. Then Sonic finally broke the silence. "So hey, what happened to the dude that saved my hide. I wanted to say thanks."

Sally’s eyes went wide and she looked blown away; completely surprised. "Oh my gosh! Sonic actually wanting to thank some body for coming to his rescue? There’s a first."

Sonic gave Sally a dirty smirk.

"Bookshire what in the world did you give him?"

"It’s great stuff Sal. You should try some."

Sally smiled plainly. "That’s nice Sonic but I think that we should both try and get some rest instead."

Sonic nodded in agreement as he began to yawn. "Yea. You’re right Sal."

Sally leaned down and whispered into the hedgehogs ear. "Just promise me you’ll get better."

"I promise Sal," Sonic whispered back.

Sally then gently kissed Sonic on the forehead and began to walk out of the infirmary with Bookshire hobbling close behind. She sighed a very deep and heavy sigh. "Ahhhh…I’m so tired."

Bookshire nodded in total agreement. "Mmmm, yes. Go home. Sleep."

"Yea. I will." A sudden thought crossed her mind. "Oh. Hey, have you seen Tails? It’s getting late and I haven’t seen him all day. I’m starting to get a little worried."

 

The End.