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 were 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!

 

Escape From Robotropolis.

By Matt Butner

0603 Mobius Standard Time

Knothole Village

The sun finally rose above the horizon of the Great Forest, signifying the beginning of a new day. As the minutes passed, the entire forest seemed to come to life. A sparrow chirped loudly as it stretched its wings in preparation for the morning food hunt. A squirrel chased another up a tree here. A pair of deer crossed the center of town there. An orchestra of cicadas buzzed their noisy melody under a log over there.

Across town inside a large, well kept hut, another sound could be herd. "Toss, turn, toss-turn-toss." Princess Sally was not sleeping well at all. She tossed and turned in her huge plush looking bed, fighting desperately fall into deep sleep. Ah, but alas, whatever was beating the sleep out of her finally prevailed, and reluctantly, she sat up in bed and rubbed the side of her face with one groggy eye barely held open. "Mmmmph….Nicole," she moaned.

"Yes, Sally," the computer beeped from an equipment cluttered table across the hut.

"What…<yawn>…time is it?"

"0605 Sally."

"Arrrg!" Sally growled, flopping back down.

"What is the matter, Sally?" the computer asked attempting a vital scan on the princess. However, it was prevented from doing so by a thick book titled "Advanced Electronics. By Nimitz Wilchester" that was siting in the way.

Sally sat back up and threw her legs over the side of the bed. "I went to bed at two in the morning and didn’t sleep a bit of it."

"Understood. That is quite unfortunate." Mused the computer, taking a Pico second to calculate some simple math."

Sally got up and stretched, making her back pop several times as she did. "You’re telling me!"

The computer piped up again. "No, princess. You don’t under stand."

"Don’t understand what Nicole?"

"Because you have slept exactly 4.32 hours in the last four days."

Sally yawned and rubbed her neck. "Please, don’t remind me."

"Princess, I recommend that you visit Doctor Bookshire and acquire a sedative. Need I remind you of the effects of sleep depravation?"

Sally looked over at Nicole with a hint of irritation on her face.

"The first of these effects is irritability. The second is restlessness and the inability to focus. The third is insanity."

"Nicole…"

"The fourth and final effect is death."

"Nicole!"

"Yes, Sally?"

The princess pulled her blue vest from the back of a chair and began to put it on. "I’m well aware of the effects of sleep depravation, thank you."

"You’re welcome Sally."

The princess began to put on both boots. "Now then. Since I can’t sleep, I may as well pay Sonic a visit. I don’t think he’s sleeping much either, being bed ridden and all. I know Sonic and it must be like torture for him, just laying there, not being able to run around like he does." Sally noted a quiet acknowledging beep from Nicole. She let out a slight chuckle. "Hmph…at least the place has been quiet for once." Said the princess, gently picking up her computer and placing it in the appropriate boot holster.

 

"One sheep. Two sheep. Three sheep. Four sheep. Six sh… no…wait, seven…uh, no…arrrg. Okay, try again. One sheep. Two sheep. Five…uh…MAN! I ain’t never gonna get this right!" exclaimed, Sonic. He was laying on a makeshift wheel bed in a far corner of Doctor Bookshire’s medical facility. A heart monitor sat on a wheel stand next to him, beeping faintly with each life giving pulse of the hedgehogs weakened heart. An I.V. stand sat on the other side and drip-drip-drip-dripped it’s supply of fluid that would keep Sonic hydrated. Wrapped across the hedgehogs chest was a large gauze bandage that had a large splotch of blood that was still wet and shiny, in the center of it. In his right hand was the golden ring, still glowing ever so slightly, that was keeping him alive in his detrimental condition.

"Where the heck did Doc get this stupid Idea, anyway?" Sonic sighed deep and frustrated. "Okay, one more time. One sheep. Two sheep. Thr…"

"What on Mobius are you doing, Sonic?"

"Huh? Who’s that?" The hedgehog looked towards the doorway. His vision went blurry for a second from the drugs that he was on but it cleared up when he stopped moving his head. And there, he saw the beautiful form of Princess Sally, getting bigger as she walked closer and closer. Sonic drunkenly slapped his left hand on his forehead and smiled. "Ahhh…just what the doctor ordered. Thank you, so much for coming by."

"No problem," said Sally pulling up a chair and sitting down next to Sonic. "So, how are we feeling today?"

Sonic moaned. "Terrible! These drugs keep making my head spin and I can’t fall asleep."

"I haven’t been able to sleep at all either. That’s why I came by."

Sonic nodded. "I can tell, Sal. You look like a wreck."

"Yea, I feel like one too. I think this war is starting to take its toll on us all," replied the squirrel gently touching Sonic’s bandage just a couple of inches away from the blood splotch. "Does it hurt?"

"Yea but it’s not so bad as long as the drugs don’t wear off. But when they do I get this mondo bad headache every time," Sonic replied still holding his head. "And then Doc has to give me about half a bottle of aspirin. I think I’m on my fifth bottle now."

The hedgehog and the squirrel both laughed.

"Heh, and you know how much that stuff upsets my stomach."

Sally giggled again. "Yea, you are in pretty bad shape aren’t you."

Sonic gave her a silly look. "You’re tellin’ me!"

Sally took that moment to change the tone of the conversation a little. "Well, besides all that, I just can’t believe how well you’re doing."

"Doc says I’ll be on my feet in a week or two," replied the hedgehog nodding.

Sally’s face lit up with a smile that was full of relief. She leaned over to kiss the hedgehog on the forehead. "Give that to Uncle Chuck for me next time you see him."

Sonic lifted his other hand, which had a fresh, glowing power ring in it. He studied it for a moment, swinging it in the air like as if it were a toy airplane. He then looked back at the princess and smiled at her. "You’ve got it Sal!"

Sally began to get out of her seat and she stretched as she did so. "Well, it’s past six in the morning and I’m going to go have some breakfast."

"Mmm…speaking of which, I sure could use a chili dog right now."

Sally began to laugh. "Sonic…you’ve got a hole in your chest. I think you should work on fixing that before you start eating rich foods like that."

"Yea right. But it would be a lot better than the good-for-you pea soup lookin’ slop that Doc’s gonna feed me." Sonic stuck his tongue out. "Yuck!"

The princess giggled. "I’m sure it is pretty nasty. But, it will help you get better so you’d better eat it. Okay…for me?"

Sonic nodded and pointed at Sally. "Any thing for you."

Sally rubbed her fore head against his, feeling his course, almost bristly fur gently scratching against her skin. "I love you Sonic."

Sonic reached over and stroked the back of her head with his free hand. "I love you too Sal."

And with that Sally waved goodbye and left the infirmary. She gently ran her fingers through her head fur, brushing it back, as she walked up the steps that lead down to the infirmary. She past Bookshire on her way out and waved goodbye to him too, feeling too gloomy to say anything. She was too busy thinking about Sonic and his condition. Having their star quarterback laid out like some sort of broken toy would leave the Freedom Fighters vulnerable. Sally figured that they would have to cancel any mission plans that they had on hold for a while until Sonic got better. That would afford Robotnik ample time to recover what losses he had taken as well as build up more schemes that would put all of their lives in danger; and Sally knew, that was something that none of the Freedom Fighters could afford at this point. Besides, Sally found herself growing more intimately attached to Sonic these past few months and was naturally concerned about Sonic, as a friend. And, to make matters worse, there is now a nuclear weapon toating alien human jerking about the planet in a hopeless search for a friend that was probably dead by now. AND…as if all of that wasn’t bad enough, Tails was missing!

Sally looked like a terrible shipwreck at this point. She hadn’t had any sleep in what seemed like forever, though she had tried. ‘What am I going to do now?’ she asked her self mentally as she walked through the door to Bookshire’s hut. Yawning very loudly, she gently shut the door and headed for Dulcy’s hut.

Sally tried to think positively when it was finally decided that it was pointless to try. She had finally come to terms with the fact that this was the way that she was going to feel until Sonic was fixed up and running around causing mischief like he always does. So, Sally just did what she always did whenever she was feeling this way: she focused on work. Now, the first order of business for the day is to…

"SALLY!"

‘Oh! Now what?’ the princess asked herself mentally turning toward the voice that was calling to her.

It was Rotor. The walrus was running, er… more like waddling quickly across the bridge that lead to the center of town, waving at Sally as he did. It looked as if something had spooked him, and he was quite out of breath. "SALLY! SOMETHING’S HAPPENED!" he yelled over to her.

"Great! Just great!" the princess muttered bitterly under her breath as she reluctantly began to run over towards Rotor. "What is it?" She called out.

"You’ve got to see this for yourself," he replied when Sally reached him. "Now come on!"

Sally said no more, and just followed the walrus. They crossed over the bridge and ran into the middle of town, past the great oak, across the land bridge that split the Great River in two and to a small clearing where their "alien" visitor had parked his space ship. Only now, sitting next to the ship was a tiny fighter craft of similar shape and construction though a fraction of the size. There was a crowd of some twenty people surrounding the craft, marveling at it when they arrived.

A little child, a mouse with white fur ran out from the crowd to touch the craft. But, mere seconds before the child reached the forward landing strut, its father ran out and pulled it away. "Dani! No!" the taller, gray furred mouse called out as he pulled his son away. "Don’t touch it! It’s dangerous!"

"But Daddy," the smaller mouse complained. "I saw mister Rotor climb onto it just a couple of minutes ago. I just wanna touch it, that’s all."

The older mouse nodded and smiled. "I know son, I know. But Rotor knows what he’s doing. We don’t know if this thing has any security systems on it now do we?"

"No," the little mouse replied shaking his head.

"That’s right, Dani. And I wouldn’t want to see a single hair on your little head get harmed; not by Robotnik, or outer space visitors."

"Yes, daddy."

The older one knelt down. "Now. How ‘bout we g’wan home and get some nice hot chocolate."

The little one smiled bright as the sun and began to clap happily. "Okay, Daddy!"

"Okay!" The older one then hefted his son onto his shoulders and they both headed for their hut.

"Okay, folks! Shows over!" Rotor called out as he began to barge his way through the crowd with the princess in tow. "Everybody, just g’wan home. Nothing left to see here. We have this under control."

The crowed quieted down and just stared at Rotor for a second, then began to break up and leave. All but two people remained in the end: Bunnie and Antoine, who seemed to be carrying what looked like a Mobian cat in a stretcher. "My princess," Antoine called out. "Zer ees a mensaging inside por vouis."

"A what?" the squirrel asked as she began to inspect what was in the stretcher. It looked Mobian, male, feline of the tabby color. It was unconscious and completely unclothed.

"I said, zer ees a mensage por vouis, my princess," repeated the fox. "Inside zee plane."

Sally churned the Antoine babble around in her head for a second and then seemed to understand. "Oh, you mean there’s a message inside."

Antoine looked annoyed. "Yes, zat ees vut I said," he muttered.

"But for me?" Sally questioned pointing to her self.

"Oui, oui my princess, por vouis."

"And who is this?"

"We found ‘em inside, Sally girl," said Bunnie. "Ah, ain’t gotta clue as ta who in the hoo-haw he is or whut the heck happened to ‘em. But we’re on our way ta Doc’s wit’ ‘em right now."

"Okay," said Sally as she began to walk up to the plane. "I, uh…guess I’ll read my message."

"Over here Sally," Rotor called out pointing to the side of the plane. "There’s a ladder on this side."

Sally walked up to Rotor and began to climb the ladder. The ladder was designed for a six foot tall human, not for a three and a half foot tall Mobian, and was mighty difficult to climb. But Sally managed, eventually and climbed into the cockpit. There were three screens in the center of the main console arranged in a triangle. They were all blank except for the one on the top, which flashed a message that read, "For Princess Sally. Touch screen to play message."

Sally pondered for a moment what would happen if she did touch the screen. What if this was a trap? Nervously, she looked to the left…then to the right…and then thought ‘oh, what the heck,’ and touched the screen. The letters on the screen were replaced with some foreign characters that she couldn’t read that flashed by in a small string. Then the screen just turned a flat blue color.

Suddenly, a somewhat familiar voice came up on a set of speakers behind the princess. "Princess. Look, I’m sorry if I’ve been any trouble or an inconvenience to your people by being here and I have nothing but sympathy for what’s going on. Unfortunately, I didn’t find my friend but the maps that you provided to me proved invaluable. I did however find two individuals, one of which you found in the plane, who seem to be relatively unharmed. Unfortunately, we’ve run into a spot of trouble with a small army of robots, so I couldn’t get the other individual away. I’m sorry to say that we are seconds from one hell of a fire fight and our chances of survival don’t look promising."

"Those strange characters that you saw flash by briefly on the screen before this message started was a Code Terminal program which was transmitted to my ship as soon as you touched the screen. It programmed my ship to relinquish command and ownership to you in the event that I am killed. May it serve you well. Good luck to you and your people. I wish I could help more." Then there was silence, and the screen went blank.

All Sally could do was stare blankly. The message seemed so confusing, and yet she understood its contents perfectly. It was a little creepy; like listening to some body writing their will as their dying. A part of her felt sort of sorry for the strange visitor who she hardly knew. The whole situation was pretty rotten. All he wanted to do was find a lost friend. And instead, he comes to Mobius and gets killed. Sad… Oh, well. A larger, more bitter part of Sally began to take over. She was sick and tired of seeing people die in the middle of a kingdom that was rightfully hers. It was sickening to her. Absolutely SICKENING! But, alas, the contents of that message would have to wait ‘til later. After all, Tails was missing, and Sally refused to place a member of her "family" on hold for anyone.

"Sally!" Rotor called from below.

The princess stuck a leg over the cockpit and began to climb out of the plane.

"Hey! What’d you see in there?"

Sally didn’t utter a word. She just climbed down the ladder. Her face was sort of grim and ere looking. She didn’t even acknowledge Rotor when she reached the ground. She just began to walk away.

‘What the heck is the matter,’ Rotor thought to himself as he began to follow. "Hey…uh, Sally. What’s going on?"

"I’ve got work to do," was the princesses only reply, in the most bitter tone Rotor had ever herd her use.

 

 

1142 Mobius Standard time

Interrogation room, Robotniks command fortress, Robotropolis.

"They are MINE!" Packbell raged, looking like he was about to strike Robotnik. He pointed to Matt. "He destroyed my lab, and that alone makes him mine. As for her…" He pointed to Lucinda. "You gave her to me." Matt and Lucinda were both chained to the wall by their arms and legs. They both hung limp with their heads down, unconscious. Matt had apparently been stripped of his power armor and weapons, because he was dressed in camo-pants and a camouflage green tank top.

"Well if you had dealt with her more swiftly then maybe she wouldn’t have escaped."

Packbell shook his right fist at his master. "YOU’RE STEELING MY PROPERTY FROM ME!!"

Robotnik clenched his teeth. "I grow tired of this discussion and quite frankly commander, I grow tired of your lack of respect."

"Go to hell…oh…siirr."

"GET OUT! NOW!" roared the simian pointing to the door.

Packbell gave Robotnik one last dirty look then turned away and exited the room.

Robotnik watched the android exit and hmmmmd to himself, deep in thought. He then looked at the two SWATbot guards that stood next to the door to the room. "Leave us," he ordered. The SWATbots both snapped to attention and then promptly exited the room.

Matt began to stir. His head slowly lifted and he moaned.

Robotnik turned to face him and he smiled, very wickedly. "Aaaaahhh…I see that the guest of honor has awaken." He walked up to Matt.

Matt’s eyes opened and when his vision focused, he found himself starring at Robotnik who was laughing very slowly. He cringed and threw his head to one side, making his neck pop. "Well this is some real happy horse shit, now isn’t it? And who might you be?"

"Allow me to introduce myself. I am…" The Doctor bowed regally. "…Robotnik. And welcome to my great city, Robotropolis."

Matt pondered the name for a moment and his eyebrows arched. "You’re the dude that screwed this place all to hell right?"

Robotnik made himself look innocent. "Me? Heavens no. The rodents have polluted you’re mind. They’re the ones who are evil. They are trying destroy the planet."

Matt became clearly agitated. "Fuck you. I’m not that stupid. Look, lets dispense with the ‘hi how are ya’ bullshit and get down to business. What do you want from me?"

"Very well. I want to know why you are helping the rodents."

Matt still kept a serious face. "I’m here to help no one. I’m just simply looking for a friend."

"Yes but you helped rescue Sonic," growled Robotnik balling his fists. "I want to know why?"

Matt thought for a moment. "I don’t know….why the hell do you care?

"Because we Overlanders hate their kind. You know that."

"Look buddy…I don’t hate them and I’m no Overlander or what ever you call it."

Robotnik looked annoyed. "Of course you’re an Overlander. You’re human are you not?"

"Yes but I’m not even from this planet so how the fuck should I know?"

Robotnik raised an eyebrow. "Not from this planet eh? Well…where are you from then?" he asked mocking Matt obviously not believing him.

"I’m from a planet much like this one where the only intelligent people are humans like you and me," Matt replied calming down a little. He then added under his breath, "Only not everybody’s so sinister."

"I see," Robotnik replied pulling out a small data pad and punched something into it. He watched data scroll down it for a moment then looked up at Matt, surprised. "You mean to tell me that you are from Earth?"

"That’s exactly what I’m saying."

Robotnik let loose a very wicked smile and chuckled very, very slowly. It was done in such an evil way that it sent shivers down Matt’s back. "Oh, this is good. This is very good. It’s a shame I never got to visit your home planet. I so wanted to, but then my dear friends had to go and ransack it."

Matt’s eyes went wide and he suddenly looked very weak. His left cheek began to twitch uncontrollably and he balled his fists. "You mean to tell me…that you’re friends with…" He swallowed very hard. "The Orions?"

"Yes, my friends. They give me all kinds of wonderful new technology you know."

Matt roared with absolute rage. He began to strain against the chains and looked like as if he might actually break through them.

Robotnik moved even closer to Matt. He tilted his head. "Oh, did I hit a soft spot. I’m terribly sorry."

"YOU FOOL! Those things don’t make friends! THEY KILL!!! They’ll come in here like they did with my people and they’ll wipe everything out! EVERY THING!"

"Come now. Don’t be silly. They would never think of hurting me. I supply them with many natural resources you know."

Matt struggled against the chains again. "AAAAGGH! ANY FRIEND OF THOSE HEINOUS FUCKS IS AN ENEMY OF MINE!"

"My you have a way with words. If only I could make you see the bigger picture of what’s happening here. My people, the overlanders, once had a vision, a goal, that they alone would rule the world. But they were stupid and foolish," growled the doctor, a hint of fire in his eye. "But I saw their mistakes before they even made them. Soon this planet will belong to me and my empire." The human extended an obese arm to Matt. "I offer you a chance to be part of that empire. We could rule the world together as overlanders, as…brothers."

Matt just snickered and began to laugh.

"Come now, brother. Won’t you take my hand? It’s the only way; your only way."

Matt regained control of himself a little. "You must think I’m a complete idiot. I mean, just listen to yourself, to what you’re saying. It’s crazy! I mean…"

"Does this mean that you won’t join me?"

Matt chuckled rhetorically. "What the f…of course I’m not going to join you. Look, we’ve got places for guys like you back home. They’re called mental institutions." Matt could hear a deep growl coming from Robotniks throat. It was exactly the sound he wanted to hear. "Look, let me put it simply. You are a complete fucking psycho, while I’m a righteous son-of-a-bitch. You are the bringer of death and pain, while I’m…the bringer of light. So, here’s my offer. You let me out of these chains and I’ll break your fucking neck. Hell, I’ll even dismantle your entire empire and free this planet for no extra charge. How does that sound?"

Your defiance is just as pathetic as the rodent rebellion," stated Robotnik, suddenly growing very impatient.

Matt just simply waved him off. "Oh spare me."

"I grow tired of this pointless conversation." He walked up to Matt, close enough to touch him and he pulled out a device that looked like an electric shaver. "Now you are going to tell me where your ship and all of its weaponry is. And then you’re going to tell me the location of Knotthole village."

"Go fuck yourself…" Matt growled.

Robotnik suddenly shoved the shaver against the side of Matt’s neck and pushed a button on the side. Matt received the shock of his life. His body convulsed uncontrollably and he found that he couldn’t breathe. The evil doctor withdrew his torture device. "Are you going to talk now?"

Matt gasped and a bead of sweat rolled down his face. "Go ta hell!"

"I rather hoped you’d say that," the evil doctor said shoving the shocker back against Matt’s throat. "Are you sure you’re not going to talk?"

"Shut up and shock me," Matt growled.

Without hesitating a second, Robotnik pushed the button and pushed the shocker even harder into Matt’s neck. Again, the human convulsed uncontrollably, and his ability to breathe stopped. Robotnik didn’t let up as quickly this time. He shocked Matt for a good twenty seconds before withdrawing the device. By the time he let up, Matt’s vision had blanked out to a red haze, which slowly began to clear up.

Robotnik backed away and began to laugh. "Oh, this is so much fun."

Matt gasped and coughed in an attempt to catch what little breath he could get. A huge string of spittle drooled from his mouth and his body still continued to violently convulse. His eyes were bloodshot from the tears which rolled down his cheeks. They barely hung open now. He could barely even feel his body. All he could feel were the stinging ‘pins and needles’ that flooded like a waterfall, from his neck down.

"Oh, this is simply wonderful. Oh, dear…look at you my son. You look terrible!" Robotnik exclaimed. "Just tell me what I want to hear. It’s so easy and painless. We could dispense with all this torture and you would be free to go."

"Seems that you’ve still got a knack for torture Julian," came a familiar voice. "After all this time. I thought you didn’t like to do this sort of thing any more."

Robotnik looked to his right and saw Lucinda, staring at him very coldly. "Ah, my dear Lucinda. You never told me why you ran away. After all the good work you did for me and all those months that I trusted in you….and this is the pay I get?"

Lucinda smiled plainly. "Good work? Ha! That’s a joke. Killing people seems more like dirty work to me, not good work. Do you always have others do your dirty work for you Julian? Oh, wait…don’t answer that. Everybody already knows that you do.

Robotnik growled and approached the vixen. "Yes, well…you still didn’t answer my question.

Lucinda gritted her teeth. "We had a deal, and you broke it!" she snarled.

Robotnik put his natural right hand on her left leg. He then slowly ran his hand up her thigh, waist, up her jump suit and in-between her breasts. He suddenly removed his hand and looked disgusted. "I never liked you natural anyway. You would be much better as a robot. Yes…much, much better."

"Go to hell!" she snapped, spitting in his face.

Robotnik wiped the spit off of his face. "You BITCH!" "WHACK!" he backhanded her on the side of the face with his robotic hand.

The fox groaned and began to cry pitifully as the white fur on the bottom of her muzzle became stained red with blood.

Matt saw the evil human backhand the fox and a lump began to form in his throat. His head began to spinn a little from the absolute anger he was feeling and he began to push against the chains with what strength he had left.

The evil doctor grabbed the poor vixen by the muzzle with his robotic hand. "You foul beast! You will learn some respect once I roboticize you! Yes…you will be obedient and respectful." He slammed her head against the backboard. "Do you understand me?" He slammed her head again. "DO YOU?"

Matt watched the evil doctor slam the poor vixens head into her backboard. He began to get more and more desperate as the seconds passed. There wouldn’t be any "Roboticization" or what ever he called it, he was going to beat her to death. ‘This is useless pushing against these chains,’ Matt thought to himself. ‘I need more power.’ He accessed his neural processor. <Input command: Increase adrenaline level…100%> Matt’s vision suddenly flashed to red. His muscles began to bulge; so tight that they looked like they would burst! His vision came back but the word WARNING, in bright red letters flashed in the middle of his field of view.

Robotnik slammed Lucinda’s head against the backboard one more time and then he let go. "Or, perhaps I shouldn’t even wait to roboticize you," he said drawing a laser pistol from his hip holster.

Matt strained as hard as he could and "CLINK!" his left leg broke its chain.

Robotnik grabbed Lucinda by her golden hair and yanked her head back. He then poked the muzzle of the laser into her white, fuzzy throat.

"CLINK!" Matt broke the chain holding his right leg down.

"No, I think I’ll just kill you, right here and now," Robotnik growled.

Lucinda cried out. "No…<gasp>…please! Don’t…kill me. I’m sorry…I’ll never run away again!" She closed her pretty blue eyes. "Just…<swallow>…please…don’t kill me."

Matt strained as hard as he could with his left arm and the chain links began to bend and stretch.

"Oh, no! It’s too late for that, you ugly rodent! You made a fool of me once and for that, you shall die," he growled gritting his teeth. "I’m going to open your head up and spill the contents of your brain all over this wall! And then I’m going to roboticize your friend there and find the location of Knotthole village and finish off all of the remaining freedom fighters, just like I did with your pathetic village. How do you like that?"

Lucinda began to whimper pitifully.

"CLINK!" Matt got the best of the chain holding his left arm. He immediately began pulling on the last chain. He prayed to God that he wouldn’t be too late.

"And now my dear girl…" Robotnik withdrew the laser from her neck and put it up to her head. "…you die.’

Robotnik was suddenly distracted by the sound of boots hitting the ground to his left. But, before he could react, Matt’s right fist was already flying through the air, and with the strength of ten men he laid Robotnik out with a very, very heavy downward hook to the jaw. Robotnik just laid there, half conscious with blood pouring profusely from his jaw. He was horribly confused and wanted terribly to know what just happened.

Matt, now blood red in the face with fury, straddled the doctor and grabbed his head. He then proceeded to slam it on the floor. "How does it feel mother fucker? HUH? HOW THE FUCK DOES IT FEEL!!!???" He then noticed the laser laying on the floor. He picked it up, grabbed the evil doctor by his throat, and stuck the barrel of the gun down Robotnik’s mouth. "SOMEBODIES GOING TO GET THEIR MOTHER FUCKIN’ HEAD BLOWN OFF!!" Matt roared as he began to pull the trigger.

"MATT! RUN!!" Lucinda yelled.

Without hesitation, Matt let off of the trigger at about half way to the firing position, withdrew the gun from Robotniks mouth, and bolted as fast as he could. He looked to his left and saw that a SWATbot had just entered the room. It raised a riffle to its shoulder and began to fire. "ZAP! ZAP! ZAP!" Each shot came closer to hitting Matt and sent brilliant orange sparks flying in the air, when they hit the wall that Matt ran opposite to. With no time to spare, Matt leapt into the air and dove behind a large control panel that looked like it would make good cover.

The robot slowly walked toward the control panel, firing a steady volley of shots in an effort to keep Matt pinned. Matt found himself running on auto pilot which the dangerous levels of adrenaline in his body provided for him. Without thinking, he crawled out the side of the panel, drew the laser and fired. One! Two! Three, Four, Five, shots later, the robot fell with a great crash. Matt then grabbed its riffle and ran over to Lucinda.

The fox stared at Matt with her head tilted, unable to believe what just happened. "How…how did you do that?"

Matt held his right hand out in front of him. It shook uncontrollably, almost nervous like. He stared at it for a few seconds, studying it curiously. He then looked over at Lucinda. "Adrenaline can do some crazy things to your body." He then set the guns down and walked over to the fox and began pulling on her arm chains. He strained and groaned, and the chains began to stretch and come apart at the seams until they just simply snapped. Matt took a breather for a second smiled up at Lucinda. She smiled back, happily. Matt then began yanking on the leg chains. A few seconds later he got the best of the chains and Lucinda was free. "The rifle’s yours," he said picking up the laser pistol and began walking over to the door.

"No, wait!" the fox called out as she picked up the riffle.

Matt stopped and looked over at her.

Lucinda put the riffle to her shoulder and blasted out the door control panel.

"What the hell are you doin’?" Matt asked looking confused.

"Trust me. You don’t want to go out there. Right no there’s a whole regiment of SWATbots waiting to come in."

"BANG! BANG! BANG!" Something very hard slammed into the door and three fist shaped dents appeared in it.

Matt shrugged his shoulders. "So, where to now?"

Lucinda rubbed her chin and took some of the blood on her muzzle with it. She shook her head when she saw the blood. "Uuh…" She looked around and then ran over to a ventilation duct cover that was at about waist level. "Here we go," she said blasting the screws off of the cover.

"Looks awfully cramped. I don’t know if I’ll fit in there."

Lucinda looked over at Matt. "Got any better ideas?"

A shower of sparks began to fly off the side of the door and Matt could see the blue flame of a cutting torch melting through the tough metal. He began to walk backwards towards Lucinda, still starring at the flame which steadily made its way around the door. "Not any more. Lets go."

 

‘Where the heck is everybody? No hover bots. No SWATbots. Not even a spy orb. This is too weird. Gotta be careful. Gee, I sure hope I’m not walking into a trap.’

Tails found himself walking alongside one of the larger abandoned buildings in Robitropolis, about a mile from the the command center. He levitated himself off the ground and flew up to the top of the building which looked like an old warehouse. When he reached the roof he sat down and pulled off his backpack. The little fox then unzipped it and produced a pair of high tech binoculars. He scanned the sky for air craft. He found nothing: nothing but the thick ‘crud layer’ that blackened the sky. He tried to listen for Sonic running as he scanned downward but heard nothing but the dull whine of the factory behind him. "Weird…" He scanned further downward toward the street level. He found nothing unusual until he scanned further to his right. "What the heck happened over there?" the fox asked out loud as he zoomed in on a particular intersection.

 

"Weee! Hahahaha!! Aaaah, this is delightful," Snively cheered as he sat in Robotnik’s massive chair, making it spin back and forth. He then straightened it out and worked the set of controls on the right hand side of the chair. The array of screens which covered the wall of the command center in front of him all combined to form one large screen. Snively found himself looking through the eyes of a SPYORB which showed the backs of several SWATbots. The SWATbot in the front was using a cutting torch to cut through a very large door. It took time but eventually the robot worked the torch all the way around the door and the partially molten slab of metal fell with such a ruckus. The SWATbots rushed in and fanned out in a strategic pattern. They all then stopped, riffles raised to their metal shoulders, surveying the area. The SPYORB floated silently to the top of the room, giving Snively a birds eye view of the place. It was empty, vacated of it’s prisoners. Snively slammed his hands on the massive arm rests of the gargantuan chair. "No, no, no! They can’t just disappear! Find them!" the tiny man barked.

"OVER HERE, SIR," droned one of the SWATbots.

Snively worked a set of controls on the chair and he "flew" the SPYORB over the SWATbot. The robot was pointing at a ventilation duct. The SWATbot picked up the grating and Snively could clearly see the burned out holes where the locking bolts used to be. The little human wasted no time and spoke into a small communication port that was to his right. "Security alert! Intruders in the building! Secure all entrances and exits!" A two tone alarm went off shortly there after. Snively then began to withdraw the SPYORB when something caught his eye; it looked like…no, it couldn’t be. He jerked the controls and the orb closed in on what caught his eye. What he saw brought a huge smile to his face. It was Robotnik, laying flat on the floor, looking quite dead with a large trail of blood running from his mouth.

The little man slid out of the chair and shouted for absolute joy. "YEEESSS!!!!" He ran around the room for a moment, shouting and whooping about, and then he returned to the chair and climbed back in. "WWWAAAHA, HA, HA!!! YEA! Now, that the "Big Round Guy" is gone, I’m in charge! Now I’m the king of Robotropolis!" A sudden thought came to his mind. "No, wait…it’s not Robotropolis any more. I’m re-naming this city, Snivopolis! Ha, ha, ha, ha, oohhh how very delightful indeed!"

Just then, Robotnik stirred and slowly began to get up. He shook his head trying to clear out all of the cobwebs. He then reached into a boot holster and pulled out another laser pistol.

Snively had been too busy laughing away with tears in his eyes to notice the evil doctor get up. The last thing he saw before the screens in front of him turned to static was Robotnik, roaring with vengeance and furious anger, and pointing his gun right into the camera.

 

Tails landed, about a few hundred yards away from his destination, feeling somewhat out of breath. The high levels of pollution present in the big city weren't doing the poor kid's body a bit of good. A wave of fatigue began to cast its dark shadow over the little fox and made poor Tails feel a little sick inside.

Tails covered his muzzle sneezed. When he looked up he found the front half of a hover unit laying on the ground before him. He slowly walked past the wreckage and cautiously took a look around.

The ground before the kit fox was littered with destroyed machinery and robotic parts. There were dozens of SWATbots, most of which were split perfectly in half. There were also several broken hulls of downed hover units, as well as the chewed up remains of a row of hover tanks. Tails climbed up one of the dead hover tanks, the main turret of which had been completely melted, and could see into the massive intersection. The other three sides of the intersection were littered with destroyed robots and other battle machinery, just like the one Tails was on.

Tails jumped off of the hover tank and landed on the cracked and worn asphalt with a grunt.

"Wowwieee! This is awesome!" Tails said out loud wondering if Sonic did this. He began to spin around, getting a good look at the whole area as he slowly made his way to the center of the intersection. He kept on spinning, until..."SQUISH!" his left foot stepped in something wet and slightly sticky. He looked down and found that he had stepped into a puddle of Crimson. Something from the puddle began to set off his sensitive fox nose. It was the smell of something…familiar and dear to him. He just, for some reason, couldn’t put his nose on what it was. In the center were several broken "thorn" like things. He picked on of them up. It was bluish in color and thick but flexible, like a fingernail. It was like a quill of some sort. He raised the quill to his nose and smelled. It smelled like…like Sonic! The quill…it belonged to…and the puddle of red… The quill slipped from his hand and fell silently, bouncing once before coming to a rest. Tails began to back up. His chin began to quiver and his legs felt weak, so he sat down. ‘I’m too late,’ he thought to himself as a single tear ran down his left cheek fur and fell to the ground making a darker colored spot on the pavement.

"SONIC!" he called out, hearing only the echo of his voice off of the tall buildings as his only reply. "Sonic…" The little fox’s shoulders heaved and his tails laid flat and still as he cried silently in his hands.

The poor little guy was so confused. He didn’t know what to think. Or maybe it was the other way around; he knew exactly what to think, but just didn’t want to face it. But at any rate, his ten year old brain was over loaded and he began to feel very "little" and alone amongst all of those cursed buildings. He was scared right now, really scared. Loosing a friend was not easy and all he wanted at that point was to be held by someone.

Like snapping out of a trance, Tails suddenly pulled his hands away from his face, got up and began to run away. Once he passed the row of destroyed tanks, he leapt into the air, curled his tails and rocketed away at top speed. He knew that it would be a dangerous flight home but he didn’t really care. He was too caught up in his own mental anguish to be concerned with that at the moment. Perhaps that’s why he didn’t hear the steady warble of a siren behind him getting steadily louder, and louder. The little fox finally heard it and began to look behind him. But before he even got that far, something grabbed hold and whipped him away in another direction. "AAAA!!! SONIC!!! HELP ME!!!" Crying out for help that would never come was all he could do in the end as the hover bot flew the helpless fox to the command center.

It really sucks being little.

 

"Are you sure you know where you’re going?" Matt asked Lucinda. His arms were beginning to tire in the horribly cramped air conditioning duct and he was beginning to loose patience with the whole situation.

Lucinda on the other hand was beginning to loose patience with Matt. "For the twentieth time, yes!"

"Man what I give for a floor map of this place," Matt replied wiping the sweat from his forehead. "So where are we going anyway? Outta here I hope."

"Nope, someplace better."

Matt snorted. "I could think of a million other places that I would rather be. This someplace had better be good."

Lucinda giggled. "You sure do whine a lot for an Overlander."

"There’s that Overlander word again. What the fuck does it mean anyway?"

"Like you don’t know! You’re an Overlander, silly," she replied laughing.

"No…I don’t know," Matt replied matter-of-factly.

Lucinda turned around. "Are you serious?"

"Yes!"

"Okay. Where have you been for the last fifteen years?"

"Someplace far away from here," Matt said getting depressed because she was making him think of Earth again.

"Okay…how far?"

Matt thought for a moment. "I think it’s something like 1500 light years away."

Lucinda stopped. "WHAT?!"

"I’m from a planet called Earth, okay."

The fox looked back and gave Matt a very dirty look. "You must think I was born yesterday!"

"I’m fuckin’ serious!"

Lucinda continued ahead and began shaking her head.

"Hey! Don’t you shake your fucking head at me! I may be a lot of things but I’m no liar."

"Okay, okay. Fine. I’ll believe you," Lucinda said as she turned left at a T-junction. "So…"

"So what?" Matt turned left at the T-junction too.

"So…tell me about your home."

Matt smiled and shook his head. "I don’t know…it’s kind of a depressing story."

Lucinda snorted. "Can’t be any worse than mine."

"OUCH! DAMMIT!" Matt exclaimed.

"What?"

"Shit! I just cut my fucking shoulder on a that corner."

"Oooo! Be careful. Some of these ducts were newly constructed. Watch yourself." She stopped and turned around. "How bad is it."

"Uh…not too deep, just big." Matt was holding his right shoulder with his left hand. A little bit of blood ran down the side and was already beginning to dry out on his fore arm. He motioned for Lucinda to continue foreword. "I’ll live. It just stings like mother, that’s all," he said leaving a couple of red hand prints on the floor of the duct as he moved on. "So…lets see…what could I tell you about Earth?"

"What was it like? I mean, I can’t imagine what it must be like on another planet. Whenever I think of other planets with people on them I think of futuristic cities with tall shinny spires and geodesic domes and stuff like that."

Matt laughed. "He, he, he…no it wasn’t like that at all. Hell, you guys are probably four or five centuries ahead of us in technology."

"Really?"

"Well, it was only about, oh…forty some odd years ago when we launched the first man in space."

The duct began to bend around to the right as they passed a vent. Matt took a quick peak through the grating but found nothing but an empty hall way.

"Wow. That’s interesting. So were all the people there like you or were there other types of people?"

"Nope. Just humans," Matt replied

"Oh, that’s interesting. So…what was it like, I mean…living there."

Matt thought for a minute. "Well, it wasn’t much different from this place I guess. There were many cities, big ones. The planet was pretty over populated but there was still a lot of unpopulated land. Some of it was quite beautiful, actually. But it still wasn’t much different from here.

"As for the people who lived in the cities, like myself…well…they pretty much lived in a normal routine. They lived in houses in smaller suburbs of the larger cities. They woke up every morning, drove to their jobs in land going vehicles called cars, they made their salaries for the day and then went home. Well…I guess that’s how most of the world worked anyway. You see, the planet was divided into many, many different countries each with their own governments. Some were poor and others were rich. I was lucky enough to have been born and raised in the most powerful country."

"What was it called," Lucinda asked.

"We were called The United States of America. Some people also called us The Land of the Free. You see, we had the most stable and free form of government."

Lucinda stopped at another T-junction and began to descend into a part of the duct network that went strait down. "That’s very interesting, Matt. Hey, be careful about this part ‘cause it gets tricky here. Use your back and legs to keep you up and just take your time going down. You don’t want to fall down this thing, trust me." She climbed into the hole and began to very slowly descend, always keeping her back pinned to the wall to keep herself from falling.

"Gotchya," said Matt as he too climbed into the hole and began the painful descent to the bottom.

After a couple of minutes of struggling, Lucinda spoke up again. "So…how did you end up here?"

"That is a really long and depressing story," said Matt.

Lucinda chuckled as she carefully moved down another couple of feet. "At the rate we’re going, we’ve got plenty of time. Trust me."

Matt smiled and shook his head. "Well, okay. If you really want to hear it, then okay." He sighed, deep in thought. "Shit, lets see here…uh…where should I start? Well, I grew up in a modest home on the west coast of the continent. My city, Arcadia, was situated in the southern end of the state of California, about an hours drive from the beech. My dad worked for a small company that made a special database program for computers and he mostly worked out of the house doing call up tech-support. My mom was a nurse at the local hospital."

"Uh…I guess I lived the normal life of a California teenager. You know: get up, go to school, come home and do your homework, go hang out with friends, eat dinner, and go to bed. Yea, that was pretty much the first seventeen years of my life. It was pretty cool I guess. Well that all changed one day when these little space ships just stared coming from out of nowhere. Man, these things destroyed everything. They didn’t bother with mass destruction weapons or anything like that. They just staged a massive all out conventional attack on us."

"Why?" Lucinda asked looking up at Matt.

"Don’t know. It was totally unprovoked. They came in so fast that not a single part of the world had a chance to react. Well, I heard that we actually lit off a couple of nukes at one of their destroyer ships in space, but we may as well have been throwing sticks at them. They just shot all of our missiles down before they even got close."

"I was lucky I guess. Our town became target practice for a squadron of their fighters. Our house was hit and turned into a fiery blaze, but I managed to jump through my bedroom window right before it collapsed. Mom and Dad…" Matt swallowed and fought hard to keep tears from falling. He remembered a vow he had made a long time ago to never cry again. "Mom and Dad were still in the house when it collapsed.

Lucinda gasped. "That’s terrible! So what happened next?"

"I ran and hid and ran some more. The next few weeks after that were spent in hiding, pretty much. I ended up sleeping in another persons house which was one of the few that were still standing. I spent my days living in fear. The aliens came by frequently in small air patrols and I swore that I wouldn’t last a week with out getting caught. I made bi-weekly trips to the local supermarket which was still standing. Those were the most nerve wrecking. That supermarket, Vons was the name of it, ended up screwing me over in the end."

"How’s that?" Lucinda asked taking another step down.

Matt chuckled. "Well. I was going to the market one day, I think it was about seven AM, and I saw this funky lookin’ alien fighter/transport thing parked in front." Matt began to chuckle again. "So…being the young hero that I was, I decided to check it out, and aboard I want."

"Was there anything inside?" Lucinda asked becoming more and more curious.

"Not really," Matt answered. "I guess they were all in the supermarket. So anyway, the inside of the ship looked sort of like the inside of a bus. It had five seats on each wall, all of which were facing each other and an armory mounted on the starboard wall. So, thinking I was cool, I grabbed a needo, futuristic riffle and went up forward. There I found a sort of cockpit. It looked a lot like the front cabin on an American jet airliner. You know, it had two seats, a large control panel with all sorts of flight instruments and a flight yoke. Heh, so I figured ‘hey, why not take this thing for a joy ride,’ right? Well, that was all fine and dandy until I heard the door to Vons slam shut. So I thought, holy shit, here’s my chance to kick some ass, and I ran down the entry ramp and found three of them walking out of the store. We just sort of stared at each other for a minute like as if they were confused. It was like ‘How the hell did this guy get in our ship,’ know what I’m sain’."

Lucinda stopped and looked up at Matt. "What did they look like?"

Matt chuckled. "Hoo, man! I tell you, those Orions are butt-ass ugly."

"Orions?" the fox asked.

"Yea, their from some planet in the Orion cluster."

"Oh."

"But man, are these things hideous. They normally wear these tin foil suits because they are the only sentient beings in the galaxy that don’t breathe oxygen. Our atmosphere burns them like acid. They breath a sort of mixture of Methane and sulfuric gasses and that stuff wreaks of fart gas. Yuck!"

"But what did they look like?" asked the vixen looking up again.

"Underneath, they were sort of like a human, almost. Except they have clammy, veiny light gray skin. They have very large heads that are kind of shaped like light bulbs. They have no real noses or lips to speak of and two very large bug eyes."

"That doesn’t sound too bad," Lucinda piped up.

Matt smirked. "Trust me. They’re ugly. Oh yea, and cruel too. They have little respect for other life but their own. They have this belief that they are the master race and are morally responsible for the ethnic cleansing of the galaxy. They will stop at nothing until they are the last ones standing."

Lucinda gasped. "That’s terrible! So what happened at the super market?"

"Oh yea, the supermarket. Well, we just sort of stood there and stared at each other, neither of us really wanted to do anything. I don’t know if it was out of fear or confusion but we just held our ground for what seemed like hours. And then there was this feeling." Matt paused and didn’t speak for a moment.

Lucinda looked up and saw that Matt looked disturbed. His face was contorted and he looked…angry. "What kind of feeling?

"Hatred," he snarled in such a sudden and evil way that it startled the vixen. "Pure and unrefined hatred." He spoke in a cold and sinister voice. "I…had never felt it before. I was never a hateful or angry person. Hell, I used to feel bad if I had to swat a mosquito. I used to cover my mouth up if a single word of profanity even attempted to slip out; and even that was a rarity. But there was this booming voice in my head that was screaming at me ‘pull the fucking trigger.’"

"So what did you do?"

"I aimed and pulled the trigger. That weapon of theirs was very powerful. It shot some sort of plasma charge and blew fist sized holes in their bodies. But, it felt so good to watch their crumbled up bodies fall dead to the ground. It was sort of the same feeling that you get after taking a really big shit, only better."

Lucinda looked up at Matt and gave him a quirky look.

He closed his eyes and very quietly said, "I felt almost whole again. But their were still too many holes to fill. And ever since then, killing was the only relief I could get."

The vixen was starting to get freaked out. Her liking of Matt was beginning to decrease and she was afraid. But, her curiosity got the best of her. "So what happened after that?"

Matt shook his head and he seemed to come back to reality. "Oh yea. After I dispatched those three I went inside to see if anybody else was home. One of them tried to snipe me from behind an isle. But, he wasn’t a very good shot. I opened up on him and he want running. I chased him around the isles for a minute then blew his left leg clean away.

Lucinda looked up and grimaced.

"Yea it was pretty cool," Matt said smiling. "So, I started to walk up to this guy. I wanted to see what they looked like underneath, right. Well that was totally stupid ‘cause I let down my guard as I walked up to the thing."

"Oh, no," Lucinda shuddered. "I can already see where this is going."

"Yup! The last one was waiting for me on top of one of the isles. He got the drop on me when I walked by.

"What did he do?"

"Well, I was pretty darn lucky that he didn’t just blow my fuckin’ head off. I thank the good Lord for that every day. No, he dropped down on me from above. I dropped the riffle and fell to the floor with this thing on top of me. It all just happened so damn fast that there wasn’t really anything that I could do about it. So he proceeded to pull out this mean friggin’ shiny knife and plopped it in my chest. Wham!"

Lucinda kind of jumped. "Oh my gosh!"

"Yea, I’ll tell you what. Getting stabbed in the chest with a large serrated knife, hurts! I mean it really, really, hurts! Check this out." Matt untucked his tank top and pulled it half way off revealing the massive scar on his left breast.

The fox looked up at Matt and winced when she saw the scar.

Matt tucked his shirt back in and they both continued moving down the duct. "Yea that shit really hurt. I couldn’t breathe and seemed to just lay there in agonizing pain for what seemed like forever, until the Calvary arrived. Seems that there were some survivors left in the city and they just happened to be passing by when I was attacked. I couldn’t really see what was going on because I was too dizzy from lack of oxygen I guess. All I knew was that the alien suddenly pulled his knife out of me and started to run. There were gunshots and he just fell over. He struggled for a moment to get up but never made it. Somebody, a human, walked up and put a few more rounds in the thing with a hand gun to finish it off. That was when everything went black." Matt paused to wipe the sweat from his forehead. "It’s hot as hell in here, for an air duct! I feel like I’m wearing a fur coat in the middle of a bad summer smog day in L.A."

"Yea, your right," Lucinda agreed. Something in the back of her mind had been taking mental note of a gradual temperature increase. A sudden thought hit her like a highway bug smashing against the windshield of a car. "You know what?"

"What?" Matt asked feeling more and more uncomfortable as the seconds passed.

"I think they’re kicking on the facilities heating system. I guess they’re on to our little escape plan."

"Fucking great!" the human growled as his hands began to slip on the sides of the duct due to sweat build up.

 

Snively was generally displeased with how the day was going. Shivers of paranoia ran up is back like the vibrations of a guitar string. Robotnik was still alive and was…for a lack of better words, really, really pissed off! Snively was going to loose his head for this. Of course, what happened in the interrogation room was not his fault. But in the war against the Freedom Fighters, that the two simians waged, everything was Snively’s fault.

Actually, Snively had handled things quite well, he mused. He had taken all the appropriate immediate actions, that his uncle would have wanted him to take, in order to combat this "casualty." The tiny man had put the alert out, shut and locked all entry and exit points into the mighty fortress, and he even activated the sites heating system to max power in order to drive the escaped prisoners out of the massive system of ducts. He had done everything that could be done about the situation, short of sending in SWATbots after the offenders, which probably would have been futile. But still…Robotnik had his way of venting his anger. It usually involved Snively getting tossed around or thrown into a wall or something of the sort. But what made Snively shiver even more was that he knew his fuming uncle was on his way up to the command room at that very moment. Yup! He was a dead man for sure.

Bah! Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. He handled the situation well and maybe he would get "pardoned" for that. "Compose yourself man!" he thought to himself, slicking back what little hair he still had. "Act professional and cool." He climbed out of the massive green chair and took his normal place in front of the tall array of screens. He put his arms behind his back and stood up tall and proud. "Yes. Cool, calm and collected. Professional but above all else, respectful!"

The door to the huge room burst open like the floodgates of and overflowing dam, and the bloody mouthed tornado of fury that was Snively’s uncle burst in. "SNIVELY!!!!!"

Snively flattened himself against the array of panels and shrieked like a mouse that just got caught by a big, fat Tom cat. All nerve instantly left him. "Y, y, yes, s…sir…?"

Snively felt that he was about to burst into tears as the foaming Robotnik thundered toward him. "Status report…Snively," he growled.

"P…prisoners a…are c..currently unlocated i..in the a..air ducts, s..sir."

Robotnik bared his claws and was about to grab the tiny bald headed man but restrained himself. "Un-located?" he asked quietly looking like a pot of water that was one degree Feranheight from boiling over.

Snively lost the capacity for coherent speech. He just stared up into glowing red eyes with his quivering mouth hanging wide open.

"FIND THEM!!!" The larger man roared in an ear shattering tone.

Snively jumped and turned around. "Yes sir…" he squeaked as he began to search for the offenders with what little he had available to him.

Robotnik felt calmed a little and turned to leave Snively to his task. "It’s so hard to find good help these days," he whined as he plopped himself down on his "throne." "I trust that you have done more than it appears, to help this situation?"

Snively remembered how well he had handled the situation and managed to compose himself a little. He turned around, standing erect and proud. "Oh, yes sir! All exit and entry points are secured, and all SWATbots are on full alert."

"Is that all?"

Snively smiled wickedly. "Oh, no sir. I took the liberty to activate all heaters to maximum temperature. Our prey will be immerging very soon, sir."

Robotnik mused this over in his mind. Actually, Snively had done quite well. He now felt far more calm and ready to solve this problem rationally. "Uuuuh…hmph. Very well Snively. Good work. Carry on."

Snively now felt far less nervous. The stress drained from him like floods after a long Monsoon. "Oh, yes sir!" he obediently replied with great pride as he turned to his task.

Robotnik sat back in his chair and began to relax a little. That was until the nagging pain in his jaw began to hit him like so many construction workers in his mouth. He rubbed the side of his jaw with his natural hand and when he pulled it away he noticed that it was covered completely in blood. He then took note of the large trail of the substance that ran down the middle of his jumpsuit. Actually, he was bleeding quite profusely, and it sort of alarmed him as he took full note of the problem. It was probably a busted molar or possibly gum damage. Regardless, he realized that he was probably going to loose a tooth, and that meant days of oral agony. Curse those two!

He slid out of his chair and began to walk toward the exit to the control room. "Take charge, Snively. I’ll be over in medical tending to my wounds."

Snively generally agreed taking note of Robotnik’s less than favorable condition. "Oh, very good, sir," he stated with his long nose held high in the air, like an overly paid butler. A sudden thought came to him just as Robotnik began to exit the room. "Sir?"

Robotnik turned around, preoccupied with trying to wipe the blood from his chin. "Snively?"

Snively still stood professionally and proud. "What would you like me to do with the prisoners when I catch them, sir?"

No pondering was required to figure this one out. Lucinda had totally embarrassed him by spitting on him. And that human…ooohhh!! How dare him strike the ruler of Mobius! After all, Robotnik was a king…no, he was a god! If there was one thing that Robotnik hated the most about life it would be disrespect. Well…actually that was second to the hedgehog of course. But he really hated being disrespected. And he had a double dose of pure liquid "Diss" slammed down his throat today. The choice was simple. "Kill them!"

Snively shrieked again, totally unprepared for his reply. He was confused. "But sir! I thought you wanted…"

"No, Snively," Robotnik said shaking his head. "Those two are a nuisance, and I want them out of sight and out of mind. And I want it done as soon as possible." Robotnik hardened his already stern look. "Is that clear, Snively?"

Snively jumped. "Oh…yes sir! Crystal clear, sir!"

And with that, Robotnik exited the control room and headed for the medical facility where he would find sanctuary in large amounts of Codeine and other pain killers.

Snively’s muscles all relaxed at once and his legs almost buckled from underneath. He wiped the perfuse sweat from his forehead and let the steam vent from his collar like an over pressurized boiler. Oh…but did the fates ever shine on him today, he thought to himself. He thought that he was a dead man for sure. It was totally amazing! Robotnik didn’t even throw him. Heh…for that matter, he didn’t even make any kind of physical contact whatsoever! Some days just turn for the better sometimes, he guessed.

He was suddenly interrupted by the "whooshing" sound of the door to the room opening up again. He turned around, half-fearful, thinking that it was his uncle returning to grab something that he had forgotten. But instead he found two SWATbots in the doorway dragging something small and fuzzy.

"PRISONER CAPTURED, SIR," droned the SWATbot to the left.

Snively hated the raspy, over distorted voices of those things. Ugg! Why couldn’t Uncle Julian have programmed these things with a somewhat more pleasant voice, he wondered as he approached his new quarry. He gasped when he saw who it was. He found himself looking into the eyes of a little kit fox, no more than say…eleven or so. It had an abundance of fluffy ochre fur and not just one, but two tails. Snively’s heart began to race. This was that fox that had befriended the hedgehog…what was his name? Oh yes…Tails. Hmph. A strange but fitting name the tinny man mused to himself. He stared into the fox’s scared eyes and it broke a small section of his half-evil heart. Unlike his uncle, he had a conscience: a little voice that told him what was right and wrong. It hurt a small part of him to do this sort of thing. This child was so young and innocent and, for a lack of better words…cute. But, he realized that his whole existance relied upon doing what Uncle Julian would want him to do; Even if it meant tormenting this little one. He did what he had to do to keep his position in life. After all, it was his job and he just simply learned to accept it after a while. Besides, this little one held something that was more valuable to Snively than a ten ton Block of Pure gold. This little fox knew how to get to Knotthole! Snively knew that he would be very well rewarded for finding such information.

So, Snively set to work. Now how can I manipulate this child into telling me what I want to hear he wondered?

Tail’s eyes suddenly arched and he somehow freed his right hand. "You’re not gonna get away with this, Snootly!" the little fox swore, swinging his right index finger at Snively’s nose like a fencing sword.

Snively wined and backed away, putting his nose at a safe distance. "Quiet, you little twerp!" he demanded as the right hand SWATbot again managed to secure the fox’s hand.

"What did you do to Sonic you meenie?!" the fox growled.

Ah…the little fox just opened himself up to me. He doesn’t know that the miserable hedgehog was rescued. Snively achieved a somewhat grave but stern look. "I’m sorry but I’m afraid that Sonic is no longer with us. I’m sure that you’ve seen the pool of blood in the middle of Sector five, quadrant twenty three." The man smiled vilely. "It’s all that’s left of your friend now."

Tails just couldn’t believe it. A tightening pain began to build up in his chest as the surreal reality began to hit home. His eyes went wide and his jaw hung open.

Snively just bided his time and let the painful emotions sink into the fox like a serrated blade. That would leave the child the most vulnerable.

Tails just couldn’t help it any more. Sonic was…g..gone! His face crinkled up like a piece of paper and he cried; not heavily or loud like, but very, very bitterly.

Snively was beginning to feel like a complete asshole. If it weren’t for the fact that he was a pure atheist, he would be cowering in fear that he might be struck down by lightning for his sins. But he hid his internal emotions well. He only hoped that this would end soon so he could go on to better and less emotional things, like finding the escaped prisoners. "Oh, spare me all the drama and just tell me where Knotthole is."

Tails eyes opened and his emotions turned from bitterness to pure rage. His chest heaved in and out and he looked like he would boil over any second now. "No!" he growled.

Snively hardened himself. "Tell me where Knotthole is!" He raised his right hand and prepared to bare down on Tails. "NOW!"

Tails flinched down at first but then brought all of his courage that he had up to bat. Standing very tall and tuff with his furr standing on end, he said, very quietly, "I’m not tellin’ ya nothin’. So go ahead and hit me. Jerk!" in the deepest growl that he could make.

That wasn’t the response the Snively wanted to hear. This little one was strong and it was making the tiny human a little angry. He raised his hand higher into the air and looked like he was but a fox’s hair from smacking Tails very hard across the face.

The little fox played the bluff and didn’t even flinch. He just raised his lips a little and bared his pearly white canines.

"WACK!" Snively was so angry with the kid that he brought the full force of his anger down on the left side of Tail’s face.

Poor Tails winced and sort of lost his balance dizzy from the impact. But the primal rage had gotten the best of him and he fought back the urge to cry from pain. He forced himself to stand up strait and pierced into Snively’s eyes with his own, like daggers, while still showing his canines and growling a deeper throated growl than he thought he could make.

Snively’s tactics were obviously defeated. He backed up a little and forced himself to become a bit more rational. "I admire your strength little one."

Tails snarled. "STUFF IT, SLIMELY!"

Snively just smiled. "A freedom fighter to the end, eh? Hmph!" He got right into Tails’s face. "It’s too bad that you will have to learn the hard way that children should not fight wars that were meant for big boys." He pointed to the door. "Take him to the Roboticizer! And inform me when you’re finished."

 

 

"So what you’re saying, basically, is that these people somehow managed to patch up your near fatal wound but not only that, they in-docked you into a freedom fighter group on your world that was lead by a Navy, uh…guy?"

"SEAL. Navy SEAL. And yep, that’s exactly how it happened. Of course, that was all over the period of a few months though. I had to heal up a little before I would be able to move to their home base. I was glad that it all happened though ‘cause I found Mike. We were best friends since junior high school as I explained before and I was just glad to see somebody that I knew." Matt cracked a smile. "He was always there by my bedside while I was still healing; always telling me that I was going to pull through and get better. And he was right ‘cause here I am.

Lucinda grinned and looked up. "That’s nice. You two must have been very close friends. And that is why you are here, right? To find your friend."

"Yup," he replied almost falling as his sweaty hands slipped on the sides of the duct. By now his once olive green tank top was completely soaked and now a darker shade of avocado green. "But we’ll get to how I got here in a minute." He wiped the perfuse sweat forehead for about the one hundredth time. "Phew…God <pant>, how much further. I’m dyin’ in here."

Lucinda wasn’t in much better shape. She was beginning to feel a little light headed and started to worry that she might fall. "We just need to go down fifteen more meters and then go left for about forty.

That didn’t sound too bad. "Okay."

"So. Go on with the story."

"Oh yea. Umb…well we stayed with that group for about the next two years. Our little base moved around a lot. One moment we were hear and the next, we were there. We never stayed in one place for very long ‘cause that meant that the "Skags" wouldn’t ever find us."

"Skags?" the fox asked curiously.

"That’s what we called the Orions. I don’t know who or when people started calling them that but I eventually found me sayng it."

Lucinda nodded. "Oh. So, uh…what did you guys do while you were with this group?"

"Well, Commander Holcomb, who was our leader as I mentioned before, took those of us who were young and able bodied and lead us on a sort of guerrilla war against the damn Skags. It was brutal. I made a lot of friends in that time and watched a lot of them die. But, we did manage to liberate five concentration camps and we blew up…uh, I can’t remember how many factories of theirs."

"Concentration Camps?" The fox asked as she climbed out of the vertical duct and into yet another T-junction. She then turned left.

"Yea. The fuckin’ Skags were taking the people that they didn’t kill in the initial attack and put them in these death camps where either they were used as slaves or just simply burned alive in massive incinerators. What sucked was that for every one of those things that we trashed, two more popped up. By about the end of our stand, there were so many skags on the planet that you could just look up and see the massive destroyer ships floating up there in space. It just wasn’t fair at all." Matt reached the T-junction and was greatly relieved to not be in constant danger of falling. He looked past Lucinda and could see the the vent that they would exit through just ahead of them.

"So how does all of this play up to now?" asked the fox.

Sweat was now dripping from Matt’s head like an ugly Florida rainstorm. His head pounded and all he could think about now was how much he desired a cigarette. "In the end, we were doomed. I later found out a little bit more about how the Orions function as a whole. They have this huge planet crushing ship, about the size of a small moon or satellite. They pick the weakest planets that they can find in the galaxy; i.e., those that don’t have highly advanced technology, like earth. We were doomed from the start. Eventually the Skag population on earth grew to over five million. That was in just two years! Scouts were being captured more and more. It seemed impossible to go much farther than the confines of our hiding spot at the time without being captured or obliterated. It was as if we were in the only unoccupied territory with the Skags all around us and slowly closing in"

Lucinda busted out the vent cover with the back of the riffle and jumped through. She entered into what looked like a massive armory. It was a room with roughly the dimensions of a basketball gym that was filled, wall to wall, with shelves; like some kind of wear house. Her sensitive ears perked up suddenly. Metallic foot steps…to the left! She spun around. A SWATbot heard her jump through and left its post at the front door of the room to investigate. As soon as it turned the corner of the far aisle towards the front it meet its doom. Lucinda heard it coming before it even got a chance to aim, and shot it about six or seven times with the laser riffle. The now discombobulated robot fell strait back, arcs of electricity shooting from the holes in its chest, as it went.

Matt saw Lucinda jump through the vent before he could make any suggestions on stealthyness. That began to worry him, especially considering the position that they were in. Stealth would be the key to success. But he began to worry even more when he heard the sounds of laser fire and something metallic banging on the ground. Clumsily he stuck his feet through the vent, then his head, and he slid down, scraping his back on some sharp metal as he went. He groaned, but managed to keep quiet by biting down on his top lip.

"All clear!" he heard the fox call out as she came out from the other end of one of the aisles.

Matt just nodded as he surveyed the room. It looked like some sort of warehouse. What could be so important about this place, Matt wondered, that the crazy fox would wish to skip out on escaping to come in hear for? Oh well. He inspected the industrial sized rack that was closest to him. It stood about eight feet tall and had five shelves on it, all of which were covered with a plastic tarp. He lifted the tarp and found…guns! Lots of em too. "What is this place?" Matt asked lifting up another tarp and finding a shelf full of laser riffles.

"This is the main armory for the command center. This is where Robotnik keeps most of his small arms." Lucinda picked up another laser riffle, just like the one she was carrying. "Now we can blast our way out of here in style."

Matt nodded, smiling. "Not bad. So do you think that my stuff will be in here."

Lucinda pointed to the far end of the room. "Don’t know. But the research, repair and development lab is over there. We can take a look in there if you want."

"Can’t hurt," Matt replied lifting up another tarp. His eyes suddenly went wide, like as if he had seen a ghost. He picked up one of the guns that resided on the shelf. It was a fat, bulky, and ultra futuristic looking handgun. It was about fourteen inches in length, six inches tall, and jet-black in color. "Sonofabitch!" he exclaimed, studying the weapon, like a scientist that just discovered a new specimen.

"What is it?" she asked walking up to Matt.

Matt pointed to some odd hieroglyphics etched into the side of the weapon. "This is a common side arm carried by Skag officers in the battle field."

Lucinda arched her eyes and looked confused. "Okay, but what would it be doing here?"

"Robotnik mentioned something while you were out. He mentioned that he was in cahoots with them and this confirms it."

"But why would he want to work with them?"

Matt shook his head in the negative. "I don’t know, but he’s fuckin’ up by doin’ it." He then stuck the gun in his back pocket and pulled five objects off of the shelves that looked like small video camera batteries that apparently held the ammunition for the weapon.

"You’re just going to keep that?" asked the fox, curiously. "Isn’t that sort of like sleeping with the enemy?"

Matt began to walk toward the far end of the room. "Are you kidding? They may be a bunch of crazy shitheads, but the skags make some of the most sought after weaponry in the galaxy." He pulled the weapon out again. "Do you know what this is?"

The fox shook her head, as she followed Matt toward the far end of the armory.

"This is a phased plasma gun in the eight hundred watt range. I can shoot a basket ball sized hole in your chest, with this thing, at five hundred yards."

Lucinda looked surprised. "Wow! That’s nasty!"

"Yes it is. Besides," Matt said smiling evilly as he put the gun back in his pocket. "Think about the poetic justice in killing the enemy with his own gun."

The fox looked over at Matt with an ‘Oh please,’ kind of look.

Matt reached a small sliding metal door at the far end of the room. "This place got any security measures protecting it?"

The fox shook her head. "Amazingly, there’s no surveillance in here. And the only thing that’s alarmed is on the main door, which is that way," she said pointing back towards the way they came. "Other than that, we can move around in here, unnoticed."

"Cool," Matt replied, toggling the button that was on the door’s control panel. The door opened with a hiss and the two of them walked inside the new room. It looked like some sort of workshop. Three sides of it had a workbench coming out of the wall and the door side wall sported a large dry erase board with all sorts of schematics and designs scribed on it. The center of the shop had a large square worktable in it that was cluttered with tiny circuit cards, soldering irons and other tools. Matt immediately noticed his gear on the far side workbench. "There it is!" he called out walking over to it. He looked it over. Neatly spread across the bench was his pack, chest plate, arm and shoulder plates, leggings, helmet, Mk5 railgun, both Mk3 rail guns, various ammunition magazines, two EMP grenades, his helmet, and cutting torch. "Oh…thank god," he said picking up the helmet. Matt turned it over and pulled out the pack of cigarettes. "Relief is here at last," he said pulling a cigarette out and placing it between his lips. "Want one?" he asked the fox pointing the pack at her.

"What is it?" the fox asked.

"It’s a cigarette. Take one, it’ll help you relax."

Lucinda pulled one out of the pack and placed it between her lips, just like Matt did.

Matt took the cutting torch and lit is cigarette. He then brought the torch over to Lucinda, still lit, and applied the flame to her cigarette. He then took a deep drag of the aromatic smoke and blew it out in a large billowy cloud. The nicotine like chemical began rushing through his veins and it significantly took the "edge" off of things.

"It smells pretty," the fox commented holding the incense smelling object in her had, studying it. "What do I do with it?"

Matt took another drag and blew the smoke out through his nose. "Just take a drag of smoke into your mouth and inhale it."

The fox did as she was instructed and inhaled the smoke. Immediately, her throat began to sting with the worst burning sensation ever and she began to cough and gag. Without any extra thought on her part, she threw the disgusting object on the floor and stamped it out with great malice.

Matt began laughing hysterically and the now nauseous fox. "Heh, pretty disgusting, aren’t they?"

"Terrible," the fox wheezed, eyes watering. "Why do you do this? It must be terrible for your body!"

Matt nodded. "Yea these are pretty bad for you. They don’t cause lung cancer though, like the ones we smoked back on earth did. But they are pretty bad for you. Once you start though, you get addicted and it’s pretty hard to quit.

Lucinda made a grim face. "Yuck!"

Matt just smiled and took another drag. He then placed the cig’ between his lips and began to strap on the leggings.

"So what’s so special about this stuff anyway?" the fox asked running her fingers across the smooth plastic like backpack.

Matt looked at her like as if her question is obvious. "You’re kidding right?"

Lucinda just shrugged her shoulders.

Matt finished strapping on the light plastic like vest and he gripped the backpack. "In here is a Mk85 portable FTL wide beam signal transmitter."

The fox gave the human a silly look. "So what?"

"So what? Lady, this thing is going to save our lives. It’s got a radio in it. I can call in the Viego and we’ll be out of here in a flash," Matt said snapping his fingers. "Here. Help me put this on."

Lucinda grabbed the pack while Matt slipped his arms through the shoulder straps. "The Viego?"

Matt nodded as he buckled the waist strap. "Mmm-hm…that’s my ship."

"Oh."

Matt reached behind the pack and pulled out the data cord and plugged it into his neck.

Lucinda grimaced. "That’s so gross."

Matt just ignored her and slipped on the head set. "Okay, hold on a sec and I’ll call up our taxi." He accessed his neural processor and input the proper thought command to energize the transmitter.

"No wait!" Lucinda warned.

"What?"

"If you transmit in here, Robotnik will pick up the signals and he’ll get a fix on our position!"

Matt smiled. "It’s okay. I assure you, Robotnik doesn’t even have the technology to build a modern space faring vehicle. And if he can’t do that then he certainly can’t send or receive FTL signals."

"What’s…FTL stand for?"

"Faster Than Light Speed," Matt answered.

"Oh. Well, are you sure that he doesn’t have this technology?" the fox asked still looking cautious.

"I promise. Now hang on." He accessed the transmitter and spoke into the headset. "Yo HICS, you on line?"

There was a brief pause and then the computer came in over the comm. "Affirmative Matt. I am fully operational."

"We need a pick up ASAP HICS. You got that. Just pick me up at the coordinates of this signal."

"Affirmative Matt. However, you did place me in re-fuel mode and thus the propulsion plant is shut down and significantly cooled down as well."

Matt looked annoyed, like the boss that’s about to yell at the inept worker. "What the hell are you saying HICS?"

"I must perform a normal propulsion plant startup which will take approximately twenty minutes in addition to the two minutes and twenty six seconds that it will take to reach your position at maximum speed. I do hope that this is acceptable, Matt."

Matt opened his mouth and was about to yell but he somehow restrained himself. "No HICS. This is not acceptable. We are about to be up to our FUCKIN’ heads in robots. We’re not going to last five minutes, so please tell me what I want to hear HICS."

"Matt," the fox spoke up.

Matt turned his head sharply. "WHAT?!"

"Tell your ship to take it’s time."

Matt cracked a fake smile. "You’re kiddin’ right?"

"I’m kiddin’ wrong." She put her hands on his shoulders and looked deep into his eyes. "We have a great opportunity to do something of great importance here and we can’t just let the chance go to waste." She stared even deeper into his eyes. "Trust me."

Matt could see the pleading look in her eyes though he really wanted out of Robotropolis. He opened his mouth and was going to protest but for whatever reason, nothing came out. He just backed away and nodded in the affirmative.

"Matt? Are you there?"

"Yea, yea, HICS. Hey, listen. I’ve had a sudden change in plans. Go ahead and perform that normal start up and get over to the city. I want you to remain cloaked until I send you a signal. You got that?"

"Affirmative Matt."

"Good. Matt out." And with that he closed the comm channel. He then turned to the fox. "Okay. Would you mind telling me what the hell you’re planning?"

"Just play along," she said as she left the workshop.

"Why me?" Matt asked standing there alone. "Why the hell did it have to be me?" He picked up one of the handguns and ejected the magazine to see if it was fully loaded. It was. "I hate my life." He checked the other gun and holstered them both. He then picked up the riffle and again ejected the magazine to check for proper ammo loading. "I should have just theft that damn fox in her cell." He reinserted the magazine and shouldered the riffle. "Stuck on a world full of aliens…" he said as he loaded the rest of the gear in his utility belt. "…and the only humans a complete psycho." He slipped the helmet on his head and buckled the strap. "And here I am…talking to myself." He took another drag off of his cigarette. "Hmmm…maybe I’m just going crazy."

Lucinda suddenly burst in the workshop with a small box in her arms. It was full of little calculator like devices with small gray canisters attached to the back of them. She also wore a very large laser riffle on her back. Two of the Orion pistols were in holsters, which were affixed to the new belt that she had found. She also wore a bandoleer that was full of small grenade like devices. She set the box down on one of the workbenches. "Here. These are timed Thermite charges. Robotniks best. Stuff as many of them in your pockets as you can," said the fox as she began to stuff some of the charges into her prison jumpsuit.

Matt cracked a smirk, like the little child that just got hold of daddy’s gun. "Heh, and what are you planning to blow up? Hmm?"

"You spoke of poetic justice before. Well, were going to trash Robotniks Roboticizer with his own weaponry."

"What’s a Roboticizer?" Matt asked packing his fifth charge into a hidden compartment behind his left legging.

"It’s a machine that turns people into mindless robotic slaves."

Matt looked surprised. "WHAT? What do you mean, robotic slaves."

"I’ll explain when we get there. Grab a couple more of those and let’s go."

 

 

1302 Mobius Standard time.

High above the Great Forest.

"See anything yet, Sally," Dulcy asked as she turned right, trailing above the dividing line between the Great Forest and the Great Meadow.

Sally scanned a patch of forest to the left with a set of binoculars and found nothing. "No, not yet. Where could he be?"

"I don’t know Sally but we’ve practically covered the whole forest. What now?" the Dragon replied.

Sally sighed. "Go back to Knotthole I guess. I’m starting to get worried that he got caught by a SWATbot patrol."

Dulcy came up with an idea as she turned again and set a course for home. "I think we should get a message to Uncle Chuck. If SWATbots got him then Chuckie will know something about it."

"Skip the message. Lets go home and pick up Bunnie. We’ll go to Robotropolis personally and try to figure out what’s going on. I think that I’ll also send Rotor and Antoine up in the hover unit to continue the search using heat sensors. Maybe they’ll find something while we’re away."

"That’s a good plan Sally," said the Dragon looking behind her. She saw the distraught princess sitting there in the saddle with her arms wrapped around her chest looking to the side at nothing in particular. "Awww. Don’t worry Sally. We’ll find Tails."

Sally took note of the kind gesture and she managed to smile a little. "I sure hope so Dulcy. It’s bad enough that Robotnik has laid out Sonic…I just can’t imagine what I’ll do if he gets his evil claws on my baby."

Dulcy caught her landing area out of the corner of her eye and adjusted her course as necessary. "Going down, Sally!"

The princess gripped the saddle hard anticipating the impending crash as the dragon took a steep dive toward the one and only clearing that was anywhere near Knotthole. "Take it easy Dulcy!"

The dragon continued the steep dive. "Don’t worry. This is gonna be the one. I can feel it!"

Sallys stomach shot into her throat as she watched the ground approach at an alarming rate. "That’s great Dulcy! So how come I can’t?!" Dulcy still didn’t alter her descent. "Dulcy! Pull up!"

The dragon finally got the message and began to pull up but her rate of descent was too fast for her small wings to compensate for. She ended up pile driving herself into the ground and slid for quite a distance on her belly before abruptly coming to a stop by bashing her face into a tree.

Sally opened her eyes after a minute and looked around. They were in the clearing and were no longer moving. She pinched herself to make sure she wasn’t dead before jumping off of the dragons’ back. Sally ran over to the dragons head which was facing upward with her chin resting painfully on the side of the tree. "Dulcy! Speak to me!"

Dulcy’s head spun and she was terribly confused and didn’t know what was going on. All she heard was her mother’s voice saying, "Speak to me!" "Hhhoooo I’m home ma…" she slurred while her head still spun.

Sally put her left hand over her heart and breathed a great sigh of relief. "Phew…good you can still speak." She put her arms around the dragon’s head. "Can you move Dulcy?"

"Oh sure Ma, I move all the time," the dragon replied still in a drunken slur.

‘Yea she’s fine,’ Sally thought to herself as she backed away. "Come on Dulcy, we don’t have much time to spare. We need to get going!"

The dragon suddenly snapped out of her stupor and managed to get up. "Okay, Sally." She dusted herself off and followed the princess as she headed towards the village.

Just as the princess and dragon started to cross the bridge that lead into the village, Bunnie came running up holding a small piece of crinkled up paper out in front of her. "<pant>…Sally girl, thank mah lucky stars yew finally came back!"

"What’s wrong Bunnie?"

Bunnie pointed to the paper. "Message from Uncle Chuck."

Sally’s heart sunk. She cupped her hands over her mouth. "Oh, no! Did he…"

Bunnie shook her head in the negative and put her natural hand on her friend’s shoulder. "No Sally, this ain’t about Tails. Here, read it ova."

Sally read the message over.

Newcomer and accomplice captured. Escaped somewhere inside Cmd Ctr. Currently unlocated. Cmd center locked down tight. Recommend you pay me a visit.

--Unc--

"When did this come in, Bunnie?" asked the princess as she began briskly walking toward the war room.

"Just a few minutes ago, Sally girl," replied the rabbit.

"Okay. It seems that Uncle Chuck hasn’t heard anything about Tails yet."

"Did y’all find anything while yew was searchin’ for little honey. Maybe a shoe, or backpack or somethin’" asked the rabbit.

Sally bowed her head. "No. We didn’t find a thing."

Bunnie gave the princess a reassuring hug from behind. "We’ll find ‘em Sally girl."

Bunnie’s kind gesture was well noted but there was nothing that could cheer up Sally at that moment. "I hope you’re right Bunnie. I sure hope you’re right."

A moment passed as they headed into the town center, and Bunnie spoke up again. "So what’re y’all gonna do now, Sally girl?"

"I’ll explain once we get to the war room. We need to get every body together for this one," she replied, walking into the open walled plaza that was known as the War Room. She walked all the way to the back and pulled on a rope that was hanging down from the ceiling. "GONG, GONG, GONG!" She sounded the bell and then took her place at the large table and waited for the others to get there. It didn’t take long for Rotor to arrive and Dr. Bookshire came hobbling over shortly there after, followed by a very groggy Antoine. They all took their respective places at the table as well. Dulcy simply sat on the floor off to the side, as she would probably crush the small wooden chairs that the others sat in if she tried to sit in one.

Sally wasted no time and got right down to business. "I have called you all here in the light of the resent disappearance of Tails. Now, I’m just going to make this short and simple, so here’s the plan. Antoine and Rotor, you guys take the hover unit and continue the search in the forest. Maybe you’ll have better luck using heat sensors."

Rotor nodded and Antoine just simply yawned.

Sally then looked over at Bookshire. "Doc…you stand by. Although…" Again, Sally bowed her head. "…I pray that I’m wrong, we may need your services in the near future.
The Doc nodded. "Understood Sally. I’ll have everything ready to go."

"Good," replied Sally as she turned to Bunnie. "Bunnie, you’re with me and Dulcy. The three of us will go to Robotropolis and see what Uncle Chuck’s message was about." She paused for a minute and looked around at everybody. "Are there any questions?"

Antoine piped up. "Oui, oui, my princess! I am ‘aving zee questoine. Your eyes my princess…zey are to being like zee beautiful sunset over zee ocean."

Dulcy sneaked up behind the fox. "CAN IT ANTOINE!!!"

"WWAAAA!!" the fox shrieked jumping out of his chair just like he always does when somebody sneaks up on him. He turned around and found himself staring down a set of dragon nostrils that had a nose ring going through them. Dulcy was none too happy at that moment. Antoine got a clue for once and figured that it probably would be wise to do what he was told at that moment. "Oui, oui, Ducky, I can be doing zat."

"That’s better," the dragon growled.

"Well," the princess continued eyeing Antoine. "If there are no REAL questions, then I think that we should all get started." She looked around and saw that nobody, especially Antoine, was about to speak up. She stood up and smiled. "All right everybody. Let’s do it to it!"

The whole group gathered around in a circle to give the traditional Freedom Fighter hand shake and then parted to perform their tasks, except for Sally who walked up to the doctor who was very slowly hobbling his way back to his hut. The middle aged raccoon had been looking extra worn out these past few months, like and old hammer that had been used to build five generations of houses for the royal family. More and more strands of silver seemed to be replacing his once abundant dark gray head fur, and his already lame legs seemed to be getting weaker as the years went by. Sally had been noticing his degrading condition as well. He had been taking more naps throughout the day than usual, which was certainly unusual for Bookshire, as he was usually occupied with computer work when he wasn’t busy with his medical patients. Sally took note at that vary moment, how much more the raccoon was depending on his cane to walk. He was only thirty-eight after all; age shouldn’t have been catching up with him that fast. Perhaps, Sally thought to herself, it was the war that was doing this. Wars sometimes do strange things to people.

"Bookshire," the princess called out when she was about ten feet away. Something had been bothering her about something that had happened about seven hours ago and she needed answers.

The raccoon stopped and turned around to face the princess. He leaned hard to the left, on his cane, and smiled at the princess, the same way her father used to smile at her when she was young. "What’s the matter Sally?"

"Before I leave, I just wanted to ask you about our new friend."

"You mean the Tabby that came in on the human’s fighter craft?" He shrugged his shoulder. "I, uh, don’t know. What can I say? He’s out cold and been that way for quite a while. What irks me is that he was knocked out by a reduced amount of Prozakon III."

Sally looked at him weird. "What’s that?"

"It’s a tranquilizer used to knock out large wild animals, like Elephants and such. It’s horribly toxic to people though. No wonder he’s been out for so long. There’s no telling if he’ll even come out of it at all."

"Well I sure hope he does. Nobody’s ever made it out of Area-51 before and I want to question him to see what kind of horrible things Packbell has came up with," replied Sally, a slight chill running down her bones as she pondered what was inside the horror house in question. "It gives me the creeps to think about what lurks in that place. But we must find out, for our safety."

The doctor nodded. "I totally agree with you princess. It would give us a strong tactical advantage to know exactly what they’ve got in store for us." He cleared his throat. "I’ll keep monitoring our friend and do my best to pull him out of his little predicament."

"Thanks Doc. I appreciate your help. Now excuse me, I have to get going to Robotropolis now."

"Have a safe Journey, your majesty," said the doctor smiling.

"Thank you," the princess replied, smiling back. She then parted and began to walk toward Dulcey’s hut when Bunnie came running up carrying a small piece of paper.

"Sally!" she called out waving the paper. "Anotha message from Uncle Chuck!"

"Another one?" Sally asked, surprised, taking the paper from Bunnie. She unrolled it carefully and began to read. "GET OVER HERE NOW! --Unc--" was all it said.

"What’s it say, Sally girl?" Bunnie asked, trying to get a peak at the note.

"Uncle chuck needs to see us NOW. Come on. Let’s go find Dulcy."

1320 Mobius Standard Time

Deep inside the Command Center, Robitropolis

"PSSSHTUNK!" the door to the armory shot open and Matt jumped out, pointing his gun down one side of the severely rusted out and poorly maintained corridor, and down the other side. He found nothing. It was quiet, except for the rhythmic sound of a squeaking vent fan, echoing in the distance. Finding himself satisfied with his surroundings, Matt nodded toward the door leading into the warehouse and Lucinda came creeping out and placed her back against Matt's. They just stood there for a moment, like two back to back warrior statues, ready to take down absolutely anything that the big city could throw at them. They both seemed to be reluctant to move, like as if they were unable to accept their great fortune to be stuck in such a tactically friendly part of the command center.

Matt eventually became the one to ease the tension. He relaxed a bit, lowering his gun and standing up straight, instead of at a near crouch. "They have no idea where we are right now, don't they."

Lucinda now sensed the complete lack of danger and she too lowered her gun and eased up. "It certainly looks that way."

Matt sort of smirked. "How ironic. Here we are, stuck on the lion's back and he has no idea that we're even there."

The fox turned her head to the left a little and ran her black furred hands through her long reddish head fur. To any other Mobian male, of the land mammal type, Lucinda would have been maddeningly attractive; a regular "hotty." The fact that Matt was totally alien to Mobius was the only exception to the rule. He had enough respect for these people to be able to consider them people. But they were still animals; intelligent animals, but alien animals none the less. But still…there was something about that fox that…well…oh never mind. He took note of her fixing her hair and then got down to the important business at hand.; like for instance, how the hell they were going to get out of the predicament that they were in. Matt turned toward her and gave her a very stern, down to business look. "Okay, what's the plan," he asked.

"I'll explain on the way, just follow me," said the fox as she turned around and began to walk down the right side of the corridor.

"How come you know so much about this place?" asked Matt, being cautious to not sound untrusting.

"It's a long story. I'll explain later," she replied.

Matt looked disappointed. That wasn't the answer that he wanted to hear. Oh well, what ever.

"Okay, I don't know if you know much about what's going on around here, so I'll do my best to explain. You know that guy you punched?"

"Yea, his name was Robotnik, I think. Right?"

"That's right. And do you know what he's doing here?" asked the fox.

Matt shrugged his shoulders. "Well, all I really know is that he staged a coup a while back and has been trying to exterminate everybody so that he can be the sole ruler of the world."

"Not just exterminate..," Lucinda stated matter-of-factly. "...but roboticize."

"Yea, yea, turning people into robots. You mentioned that earlier."

"Well," Lucinda continued. "It just so happens that the Roboticizer, as Robotnik calls it, sits just a few floors above us."

Matt looked disappointed as his question of what was that damn fox planning still went unanswered. "So what the hell does that have to do with us?"

Lucinda pulled one of the bombs from a pocket. "What do you think these are for?"

The realization hit Matt like a pallet of bricks and he looked sort of surprised. "Oh..." he just stated simply, his statement slowly turning from surprise to glee. "...cool. Sounds like fun. Mike 'aint here so I guess I don't have anything else better to do. What the hell. Let's go for it!"

"That's exactly what I was thinking," replied the fox nodding in agreement.

The duo walked silently down the rest of the corridor until they came to the end that turned out to be an elevator. Matt felt the natural energy rush from the imminent fight shoot chills up his spine like ripples through a small pond. It began to sour his stomach though as the stress he put on his body from the earlier burst of adrenaline began to overcome him and he craved a cigarette. He was actually considering pulling one out when an electronic alarm went off in his head. It was the motion tracker. He stopped suddenly and called up a display. A large translucent circle with range rings, showing all motion for a hundred meters appeared in the middle of his view. There was a very tiny blip behind them at 48.3 meters and closing very slowly. Matt grabbed hold of Lucinda’s fuzzy right arm tightly.

The fox stopped. "What?" she asked looking at Matt with a silly grin on her face.

Matt's face was stone cold and serious. "...sshhh...somethin's behind us," he whispered very quietly.

Lucinda too froze up. "What is it?" She began to turn around.

Matt gripped her even harder. "Sssh! Keep still," he whispered again. "Let me handle this." He then took a deep breath, swung around, and raised the rifle to his shoulder and "BANG!" fired off one shot. Something clacked on the ground behind them with the sound of breaking plastic.

Lucinda jumped when she heard the shot and she too swung around. She felt Matt let go of her arm suddenly and he began to walk away. "What was it?" she asked following him.

"I don’t know but I’m gonna find out," the human answered. He backtracked about fifty meters and found the "what is it?" that was following them. He stared at it for a moment, investigating it. To him it looked like some sort of camera mounted inside a football.

Lucinda strolled up behind Matt carrying her gun across her shoulders. She took one quick look at the object on the ground and immediately jumped. "Great! Just great!" She then turned around and headed for the elevator door.

"What? What is it?" Matt asked.

She didn’t even look behind. "It’s a STEALTHorb. If Robotnik didn’t know where we were before, he knows now." She pushed the button on the elevator control panel and the door opened with a hiss. "Come on. We don’t have much time."

 

1325 Mobius Standard Time.

Uncle Chucks Hideout, Robotropolis.

"AARRG!!" Sally was not happy at all. She paced back and forth in the middle of Uncle Chuck’s garbage heap hideout, balling and unbarring her fists. "Goddess help Robotnik! If he lays a finger on my baby, I’ll…I’ll…I don’t know what I’ll do but it will be bad."

Uncle chuck sat not to far away from the princess in front of a table full of some sort of computerized equipment. A thin fiber optic data cable ran from the equipment to a port in the center of his chest. He stared blankly, like as if watching something from out of mid air. "I’m sorry Sally. But that data just came in a couple of minutes ago, so we still have time."

"Yes but not much," replied the princess. "Come on guys, let’s go."

"Sally wait," beckoned uncle Chuck as the others began to leave the hideout. "You guys need a plan, and I can help with that. But first there’s something that I want to show you." He sat back down in the chair and began fooling with some of the equipment on the desk. There was a T.V. monitor in the middle of the electronic mess that displayed static at first then turned to a paused image of a large open room. Robotnik stood in the center and looked like he was in mid step; walking to the opposite wall. Mounted on the opposite wall was a solid board to which Matt and some unrecognized Mobian of the fox variety was mounted.

Sally looked astonished at the image, and seemed to sort of jump. "They caught him!"

Uncle Chuck nodded. "Yes, but just watch." He hit a button on one of the machines and the images began to play before them.

Robotnik growled and approached the vixen chained to the wall. "Yes, well…you still didn’t answer my question.

"We had a deal, and you broke it!" she growled.

Robotnik put his natural right hand on her left leg. He then slowly ran his hand up her thigh, waist, up her thin, muscular, and fuzzy stomach and then up in-between her breasts. He suddenly removed his hand and looked disgusted. "I never liked you natural anyway. You would be much better as a robot. Yes…much, much better."

"Go to hell!" she snapped, spitting in his face.

Robotnik wiped the spit off of his face. "You BITCH!" "WHACK!" he backhanded her on the side of the face with his robotic hand.

Bunnie and Sally both jumped in fright. "Lamb sakes! Don’t he know it ain’t polite to hit a woman?" asked the rabbit.

The fox groaned and began to cry pitifully, as the white fur on the bottom of her muzzle became stained red with blood.

Matt began to push against the chains, seemingly with all of his strength. They bowed out and stretch slightly but held with resilience.

The evil doctor grabbed the poor vixen by the muzzle with his robotic hand. "You foul beast! You will learn some respect once I roboticize you! Yes…you will be obedient and respectful." He slammed her head against the backboard. "Do you understand me?" He slammed her head again. "DO YOU?"

Sally grimaced. "What an animal."

Robotnik slammed the fox’s head against the backboard one more time and then he let go. "Or, perhaps I shouldn’t even wait to roboticize you," he said drawing a laser pistol from his hip holster.

Bunnie gasped and covered her mouth.

Matt continued to strain harder and harder and the chains began to stretch like rubber bands until suddenly, "CLINK!" His left leg broke its chain.

Robotnik grabbed the fox by her red hair and yanked her head back. He then poked the muzzle of the laser into her white, fuzzy throat.

"CLINK!" Matt broke the chain holding his right leg down.

"No, I think I’ll just kill you, right here and now," Robotnik growled.

The vixen cried out. "No…<gasp>…please! Don’t…kill me. I’m sorry…I’ll never run away again!" She closed her pretty blue eyes. "Just…<swallow>…please…don’t kill me."

Matt strained as hard as he could with his left arm and the chain links began to bend and stretch.

"Oh, no! It’s too late for that, you ugly rodent! You made a fool of me once and for that, you shall die," he growled gritting his teeth. "I’m going to open your head up and spill the contents of your brain all over this wall! And then I’m going to roboticize your friend there and find the location of Knotthole village and finish off all of the remaining freedom fighters, just like I did with your pathetic village. How do you like that?"

Sally began shaking her head and just looked away from the scene.

The vixen began to whimper pitifully.

"CLINK!" Matt got the best of the chain holding his left arm. He immediately began pulling on the last chain. It two began to stretch like a rubber band until it just snapped.

"Mah, he sho is strong, ain’t he," commented Bunnie, marveling at the human’s strength.

Matt dropped to the floor.

"And now my dear girl…" Robotnik withdrew the laser from her neck and put it up to her head. "…you die.’

It looked like that would be it for the vixen but just in time Matt snuck up behind the doctor and distracted him. He turned half around to face the other human, but, before he could react, Matt’s right fist was already flying through the air, and with the strength of ten men he laid Robotnik out with a very, very heavy downward hook to the jaw. Robotnik just laid there, half conscious with blood pouring profusely from his jaw.

Matt, now blood red in the face with furry, straddled the doctor and grabbed his head. He then proceeded to slam it on the floor. "How does it feel mother fucker? HUH? HOW THE FUCK DOES IT FEEL!!!???" He then picked up the laser laying on the floor and grabbed the evil doctor by his throat, and stuck the barrel of the gun down Robotnik’s mouth. "SOMEBODIES GOING TO GET THEIR MOTHER FUCKIN’ HEAD BLOWN OFF!!" Matt roared as he began to pull the trigger.

"MATT! RUN!!" the fox yelled.

Matt suddenly disappeared off camera. There was considerable sounds of commotion: the "clomp, clomp" of boots, something shattering in the back ground, the "clang-clanging" of SWATbot feet hitting bare metal, as well as some laser fire. Several stray laser blasts could be seen streaking into the field of the camera. That was when the picture suddenly went to static.

"So what happened?" asked Sally.

Uncle Chuck shrugged his shoulders. "I guess a stray shot must have hit the camera."

Sally half smiled and shook her head. "No, no. I mean…what happened to them?"

The cyber hedgehog nodded. "Oh, right. I listened to one of the bugs in the command center and it seems that they escaped through an air vent and are still unallocated."

Sally shrugged her shoulders. "Okay, that’s fine." She sighed deeply. "Look, I don’t want to sound selfish, but those two will have to wait. Tails is our primary concern here. Everything else comes second."

"Yes of course," agreed Charles, nodding.

"So, what’s the plan?" asked the princess.

Sir Charles pulled out a rolled up map that was lying in a basket full of others and he began to unravel it. "The first thing that we’ve gotta do is…" He suddenly stopped in mid sentence and the map slipped from his plasteel fingers. He stared at the wall adjacent to the girls like as if he was in a trance.

Sally looked concerned. "Uncle Chuck? What’s wrong?"

Without even looking at the others, the hedgehog simple raised a finger, as if to silence them. "Just a second. I’m getting a live data feed." He reached over to the equipment and flipped a few switches, still without looking. The screen jumped and jittered like as if the channels were being changed. "You’ve got to see this for yourselves," he said, this time addressing the two girls.

Sally and Bunnie watched the screen intently as it changed to a live feed of the command center. They both saw Snively standing there looking red in the face, obviously upset about something. He was violently shaking his index finger at the nose of a little two tailed fox. It was Tails! Sally gasped.

"I’m not tellin’ ya nothin’. So go ahead and hit me. Jerk!" the little kid roared in a rather angry growl.

In response Snively raised his hand high into the air and looked like his was about to strike Tails across the face.

Tails responded to that by showing even more of his pearly white canines.

"He had better not or so help me…" Sally threatened

"WACK!" Snively suddenly belted the kid across the face.

Sally and Bunnie both cried out and grabbed hold of each other.

Poor Tails winced and sort of lost his balance. He looked quite dizzy from the impact. But his strength seemed to hold true. He didn’t cry or give up fighting. He continued to bear his teeth and growl.

Snively backed up and seemed to calm down a bit, the red flushing from his face. "I admire your strength little one."

Tails snarled. "STUFF IT, SLIMELY!"

Snively just smiled. "A freedom fighter to the end, eh? Hmph!" He got right into Tails’s face. "It’s too bad that you will have to learn the hard way that children should not fight wars that were ment for big boys." He pointed to the door. "Take him to the Roboticizer! And inform me when you’re finished."

"Turn it off, I’ve seen enough!" begged Sally.

Uncle Chuck complied and he shut off the monitor and disconnected the link from his chest. He looked as if he had enough for the three of them.

"It’l be awright Sally girl. We’ll get ‘im back. Promise," Bunnie cooed, gently stroking Sally’s back as the princess cried softly on her shoulder.

Uncle Chuck sighed and shook his head looking down at his scored, dirty plasteel feet. "You know, I haven’t felt tired in a long time."

Sally lifted her head off of Bunnie’s shoulder and sniffled.

Uncle Chuck sort of smiled and half laughed. "Being a robot I don’t really feel much of anything. Pain, warm, cold, fatigue, pins-n-needles in the arm after it falls asleep, it was all gone after I was roboticized. But you know what? I’m tired. And by the looks of it, the both of you are too. We’re all strung out. We’re tired of everything. Tired of the war. Tired of seeing our loved ones being destroyed. I want to rest for a while and I know the two of you do too. But there’s one thing that we’ve gotta do before we rest." He picked up the maps that he dropped on the floor and spread them out across a table. "Let’s get Tails the heck outta that place."

 

1330 Mobius Standard Time

Deep inside the Command Center, Robotropolis

Matt checked his wristwatch. 1330 Mobius Standard time. He then pulled the old magazine out of his gun and began loading a new one in. "You ready?" he asked slamming the fresh clip home.

Lucinda just nodded plainly, trying not to show any kind of emotion. Deep down inside the fox knew that she wasn't ready. She wasn't ignorant to the fact that their position had been compromised. Hell...Robotnik was probably watching them right now through some hidden camera, she figured. She knew that there was going to be an unwelcoming party waiting for them when the elevator doors opened and it wasn't going to be pretty. And, on top of all that, her bad shoulder was starting to throb again. The stuff that Matt gave her must have been wearing off a little. It didn't hurt so bad as to warrant complaint; now was not the time or place for that she figured. But she just hoped that it wouldn't get any worse.

All in all, the fox was just plain scared. Here she had been rescued from certain death, and now she found herself back in the meat grinder again. She just wanted to be anywhere else but where she was. But, she knew what she had to do. She was going to kick Robotnik in the balls, right where it hurt the most, for all the things that he did. If she died doing this, it wouldn't be in vein. She was still scared though.

Matt began to study the elevator. It was a shiny metal box about ten feet long by ten feet wide and almost just as tall. The door had a three-foot long lip on each side and there was a control panel on the right side. The floor was made of solid metal with non-skid arranged in a repeated diamond pattern. Lighting came from three fluorescent lighting fixtures in the ceiling. Matt pounded on the left-hand lip of the door. It was perfectly solid and didn't feel hallow. "These lips," he said pounding on his side again. "They're very solid and will provide good cover to start off with," he continued as he put his back flush against the lip on his side.

Lucinda imitated Matt as best as she could, trying not to squish her fluffy tail into the wall too much. "What's the plan? Do we let them come in one at a time and shoot?"

Matt shook his head and pulled a small, white, egg looking device from a pocket. "No. Assuming that there is a welcoming wagon waiting for us, they should start shooting as soon as the doors open, right?"

The fox nodded. "Right."

"Well," Matt continued. "When they stop shooting to come inside and see if we're dead, I'm gonna toss this at them," he said holding up the egg device. There was a sudden deceleration in the elevator and Matt squished himself further into the door lip. "What's that for," asked Lucinda peering at the egg curiously.

Matt coughed over his shoulder. "Never mind."

The elevator door began to open and immediately a volley of laser fire made the elevator shimmer and scorched the opposite wall with black marks. Matt and Lucinda both hunkered down even more, trying to distance themselves from the hot sparks that were flying off of the door lips. Once the door was fully opened the laser blasts stopped and the sound of metal on metal could be heard clanging its way toward the elevator.

Without wasting any time, Matt leaned around and tossed the egg out the door. He then made his body go flush with the wall again.

There was a sudden flash of blue electric light, like the kind that you get off of an arc welder. It lasted for just a brief second and then was gone. The lights in the overhead suddenly exploded and the sounds of hallow metal crashing to the ground could be heard. Shortly there after everything went quiet.

Matt and Lucinda just stayed put for a moment, listening in the darkened silence. Matt motioned for the fox to stay put and she nodded. The human then peaked around the elevator door for just a quick look; nothing to the right. There were a bunch of seemingly non-functional SWATbots laying all over the floor. He peaked out to the left. There was a SWATbot standing right there! It opened fire. ZAP-ZAP! A shower of sparks rained past Matt's face as he ducked back behind the door. Red in the face with aggravation, the human suddenly threw himself through the door, performed a summersault landing, and was back on his knees again with weapon drawn in an instant. There were five shots fired from Matt's gun, all in rapid succession. Chunks of metal and splotches of oil flew from the robot's back. The SWATbot then dropped to its knees and fell flat on its face.

Matt got up and was about to breathe a sigh of relief when a door at the far left end of the corridor just suddenly flew open and a pack of SWATbots poured through. Wasting no time he began firing short controlled bursts into the group. One...two, then three SWATbots fell to the ground before the group began to open fire. Most of the shots went astray but a few caught Matt in the armor. But that didn't stop the man; he just kept on shooting. Four, five...six more robots fell before Matt's gun stopped rattling. The human was about to reload but he was absorbing more and more laser fire and the armor was beginning to seer his skin. So, instead of reloading, he just dropped to the floor and rolled back into the elevator.

The whole ordeal seemed to flash by so quickly it seemed like a muttled confusion to Lucinda. But it didn't take long for her to acclimate and she caught on quickly to what was happening. Taking a deep breath, she poked her body through the elevator door and fired at the first SWATbot she found. Her weapon fired a bright red beam that hit the robot square in the chest, sending sparks flying everywhere. The robot began to flop and twitch as it stood there; electrical arcs shooting out of the new hole in the robot's chest. The SWATbot then fell to the ground and stopped moving.

Behind Lucinda, Matt was beginning to sweat profusely. The strange, alien armor wasn't burning his skin anymore but it was quite hot. He figured he had been shot over a dozen times, as he began to re-load his gun. Not a single shot had penetrated. A feeling of virtual invincibility overcame him and he began too get even more excited.

Lucinda was beginning to get a little worried. The pack of robots was closing in and their shots were getting more and more accurate. The fox almost got her nose blown off a couple of times already. She was able to take pot shots occasionally but was pinned down for the most part.

Matt stood up and took note of the difficulty that the fox was having. So, he just calmly stepped out into the corridor and started blasting at the group with a solid stream of bullets. He was able to draw the attention from Lucinda to himself.

Lucinda picked up on what Matt was doing and she stuck her whole body out and began to saturate the group with a solid stream of laser fire.

Ten more SWATbots had fallen before the now much smaller group of robots began to fall back. That was when Matts gun ran out. Frustrated and spitting curses at the weapon, Matt threw it to the floor and whipped out the strange alien weapon that he took from the warehouse. He pointed it at a SWATbot and pulled the trigger. There was a loud electrical snap and a green ball of light shot from the weapon. Upon impact, the blast sent the robot flying back several feet. Matt fired again, and again. SWATbots fell left and right to the combined weapons fire of the human and vixen. Arms, legs and even heads flew as Matt and Lucinda quickly dispatched the remaining robots. When the last one fell Matt fell to his knees, armor visibly steaming.

"You all right?" the vixen asked dumping a dead battery brick from her weapon and shoving a new one in.

Matt nodded. His armor was burning hot again but that wasn't the problem. He was being over come by fatigue like a sandcastle at a beach getting overcome by a wave. It was weird. One moment he was fine...the next, everything got real dizzy and he couldn't stand anymore. Something was wrong. He accessed his neural processor and began to perform a diagnostic on his body. He found the problem: dangerous levels of Lactic and Pyruvic acid in his body. He looked up these chemicals in the database stored in his brain and found that these are chemicals produced as byproducts of strenuous exercise and anaerobic respiration. That's odd, he thought. He queried his processor asking why the levels had gotten so high. The results came in plain and simple: intake of hazardous levels of adrenaline. So that's it, he thought. I'm getting adrenaline poisoning. The wave of dizziness ceased.

"Hey...you sure you're okay?" asked the vixen looking concerned.

Matt regained his balance. "Yea, I'm fine," he said starting to feel normal. "I'm just a little tired, that's all. So, which way?"

Lucinda pointed to the right. "This way. It's not far."

"Okay. Lets hurry. The sooner we get out of here the better." said Matt.

"Agreed," said the fox nodding.

A sudden wave of dizziness hit Matt in the head and he groaned.

Lucinda turned around and looked at him funny. "You sure you're okay?"

"Fine," Matt replied shrugging his shoulders. He was lying of course. He queried his processor real quick as they walked to their destination. He looked up the effects of adrenaline poisoning. The results of the query were grim: dizziness, extreme fatigue, severe nausea, frequent fainting spells, and death.

 

1340 Mobius Standard Time

Outside the Command Center, Robitropolis

"<ALL SECURE,> " said SWATbot T1360A to SWATbot T1369R in an encoded radio message. T1369R, who was standing its watch in front of door 32A: which was an entrance to the command center nearer to the ground. T1369R just nodded in reply and T1360A continued on its patrol route. It began to load various search routes into its random access memory as it turned the corner off to the right. T1369R kept an electronic eye en its counterpart until the other SWATbot disappeared around the corner. T1369R then began to turn its head and resume its lonely watch in front of a door that was very seldom used. Nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary at that moment; that is until the silence was broken by the sound of hollow metal crashing to the ground. T1369R turned its head toward the corner again and suddenly the corner belched up a long bright jet of flame.

T1369R jumped, startled. It suddenly armed itself, popping its laser blaster from out of the inside of its arm. It sent a radio message away using an encoded channel. "<ATTENTION COMMAND. DISTURBANCE IN SECTOR 38, QUADRANT 1. REQUEST BACKUP.>" The SWATbot then ran for the source of the flame jet. The last thing that the SWATbot would see before it went off line were the pair of scaly green hands that hoisted it up into the air and bashed it into the opposing wall.

Dulcy giggled silently as she dusted her hands off. "All clear guys." She motioned toward a small, dark crevice in a corner, and from out of it popped Sally, Bunnie and Uncle Chuck.

"Nicely done Dulcey!" exclaimed Sally.

"Yea, sugar-dragon...nice job," piped in Bunnie kicking the burned and blackened remains of the first SWATbot. "These here hoo-yaws didn't even know what they had commin' to 'em."

Dulcey just shrugged her shoulders. "Thanks guys. S'no big deal really. Heh...I just wish that I would have been a little more quiet about it though." The dragon shuddered a little. "I bet you this place is going to be crawling with nasties any minuet now."

"More like seconds," Uncle Chuck Interjected. "I hate to interrupt the celebration but I've gotta get you girls inside. Now!"

The others nodded and followed Chuck as he ran over to the huge door that lead inside the command center. The cyber-hedgehog then opened an access panel in his belly and pulled out a fiber optic cable. He plugged the cable into an access panel. "Now, when this door opens you girls get inside. Make sure that you stick to the plan. I don't want you two getting caught in there." The door flew open with a metallic slam and Uncle Cluck disconnected himself from the panel. "Just give me a call when you're done and Dulcey and I will pick you up. Any questions?" The girls shook their heads. "Okay. Now git on in there. Oh...and good luck." And with that Uncle Chuck hit a big red button on the panel and the door slammed shut.

Dulcey suddenly cocked her head toward the sky. "Chuckie! I hear sirens coming!"

"That's our queue ta get outta here!" yelled the cyber-hog as he jumped onto the dragon's back.

"Hold on tight Chuckie! I'll get us to your place in no time." With that said, Dulcey leaped into the sky like a bolt of lightning and was gone from the scene almost instantly.

 

"Let go of me you stupid hunk of junk!" Tails threatened, thrashing and kicking at the two SWATbots that were hauling him away to the roboticizer. The little fox’s head was swirling with fright and anger. What to do, what to do. He couldn’t think of any way to get out of this situation. All he could do was thrash and kick and spit threats at the SWATbots that just stared blankly ahead and didn’t seem to be paying any attention at all. They stopped suddenly and Tails looked up. There was a massive door before them. Tails just stared at it silently as the SWATbot to his right spoke the code word silently to the door’s hidden control panel.

"ALPHA, BRAVO, CHARLIE. ZERO-ZERO, NINER."

The door suddenly unlocked itself with a slam that made Tails jump and it slowly slid open. The room was huge, big enough to hold a basket ball game inside. At the back of the room was a huge array of machinery. However, there was one in the middle that stood out amongst all the rest. It as a tall glass tube, big enough to fit a full sized human inside, mounted in between two boxes. Tails had never actually seen it in real life before but he knew what it was as soon as he saw it. "NNNNOOOOO!!!" he screamed, thrashing around some more. "LET ME GO, RIGHT NOW!!"

The robots still didn’t respond. They just continued to do their mindless duty with out regret or remorse. They didn’t even look at the little fox. They just stared blankly like they always do.

Tails looked behind him and saw the door starting to close until it slammed shut. He looked ahead of him. Time began to slow down and every thing began to go in slow motion for the fox. The tube approached very slowly. Closer and closer it came, with every breath that he took. Thoughts swirled through the kid’s head. What was he to do? He tried squirming again but the SWATbots held him too tight. He tried taunting them again. It was sort of weird hearing his own voice come out so slowly. Of course the robots still didn’t listen.

Several lights around the huge machine came on and the tube began to open. The machine began to warm up and it sounded a little like a jet plane preparing for take off.

There was nothing left to do and Tails knew it. The anguish began to hit Tails hard, right in the chest. He began to cry again and his vision blurred with tears. "Please let me go…" he whimpered still struggling to break free.

The SWATbot to the left looked down at the fox. "THE SUBJECT MUST BE SUBDUED. USE MINIMAL FORCE NECESSARY," it droned lifting it’s free fist in the air.

Tails took a deep breath and began to shut his eyes as the fist began to come down in slow motion. "WHAP!" Everything went to stars and Tails lost all feeling in his body for a moment. When he came to he found himself laying on his left side, surrounded by glass. He knew he was done. There was nothing left to think or do and he felt himself give up the struggle. He just closed his eyes and hoped that it wouldn’t hurt too badly.

 

"Where’s the control panel?" Matt asked his companion, staring at the huge sliding door in front of him.

"There is none. It’s voice activated," answered the vixen.

"Shit. Were gonna have to blast our way in." Matt pulled a couple of the bombs, that they stole from the where house, from his pockets. He attached two of them to the far sides of the door, one on the top and one on the bottom.

Lucinda was busy too placing her bombs on the side of the door. "Hey. I’ve gotta warn you. There’s two laser turrets in there, one mounted on both sides of the room. They’re pretty heavily armored so we might have some problems with them."

Matt finished affixing a bomb to the bottom of the door. "I wouldn’t worry about them. Put a bomb on the middle there," he said pointing to the center of the door where the two halves locked together.

Lucinda complied and attached a bomb where instructed. "So what’s the game plan."

"Okay. Here’s the deal. You can probably run faster than I can and I’ve got the armor. So… I’ll play the distraction and divert the turrets. I’ll take care of them, okay, which means I go in first. As soon as I start taking fire, you run in, hard and fast, and take care of what ever else is in there. Got it?"

The fox nodded. "Yea. I think so."

"Okay. Just don’t get shot. Run as fast as you can." Matt took a deep breath and then got a look on his face like he just forgot something. "Oh…how do we set the bombs off?"

The vixen pulled what looked like a T.V. remote control from one of her jumpsuit pockets. "They can be time detonated or remote detonated."

"Cool," said Matt looking down the left side of the corridor. He began rubbing his chin, and pulled off his helmet. He then pulled out two yellow foam capsules and a cigarette. He lit the cigarette, placed it between his lips and replaced the helmet. "Okay," he continued, blowing smoke from his mouth as he talked. "Just follow me." He then walked about thirty meters down the corridor and stopped. "This should be good. Just crouch down right here," he said pointing to the ground.

Lucinda shrugged her shoulders and complied. "What are you doing?"

"We need cover, and that’s what my armor’s gonna do for us. Now…don’t take this personally, I’m not trying anything funny here," he said crouching behind the vixen, placing his body over hers. He then put one foam capsule in each ear, and checked to see that his helmet was firmly secured.

"Wait. What about the shock wave. We’ll be blown down the corridor," said the vixen looking behind her.

"I’ve got magnetic boots," Matt replied pushing a button on each boot. He felt his feet get forcefully sucked to the ground. "They’ll keep us secured, trust me. Now give me the detonator and cover your ears."

The vixen complied and gave Matt the detonator and covered both ears. "Just don’t let me go, please."

Matt wrapped both arms around the fox’s belly and held on tight. "You ready?"

"Yea!" Lucinda yelled covering her ears even harder.

"Okay, here we go." Matt pushed the button.

"BA-BOOM!" There was a deafening roar followed by a sudden hurricane force wind. The shock concussion felt like a bag of concrete being taken to the head for both of them. Something hit Matt in the back very painfully and Lucinda felt like he was about to fall over on top of her. Then, just as suddenly as the explosion went off, a noisy alarm sounded and a flurry of red lights lit up the corridor. A series of ceiling sprinklers were set off and both of them were instantly soaked. Matt got up first and threw his now soggy cigarette on the ground.

Lucinda got up and suddenly got astonished. "Oh my gosh! Does it hurt?"

"Does what hurt?" he asked pulling the earplugs from his ears and discarding them carelessly.

The fox looked at the human grimly. "There’s a piece of re-bar stuck in you’re back."

"Really?" Matt reached behind and felt the thick bar and pulled it from his backpack. "Humph…so that’s what hit me," he said shrugging his shoulders and dropped the bar on the ground. "Come on. Lets do this. Hand me one of those plasma guns."

Lucinda handed Matt another plasma gun as the duo walked up to the now completely destroyed door. The two halves had been blown together like bread on a sandwich and were now laying on the floor of the corridor; one on top of the other. Matt just simply stepped over the door pieces and walked right in, calm as a sleeping dog. He sighted the right hand turret almost immediately and blew the rotateable strut that secured it to the wall to smithereens. The heavy weapon fell to the ground and bounced a couple of times making a metallic ruckus.

Lucinda charged in and bolted past Matt with all the speed she could muster. She stopped dead in her tracks when she sighted the first SWATbot. Raising her weapon to her shoulder she blasted the robot with a beam of pure photon energy from the crotch all the way up to the head. She then resumed her run and took cover behind a large control panel.

Matt attempted to spin around and sight the other turret but there was too much smoke from the recent explosion for him to see well. A beam of red light shot off from the right side of the wall and hit Matt in the small of the back. The heat was intense and he was forced to his knees. Another blast was fired and he was hit again in virtually the same spot. The armor began to smoke and Matt let out a scream of pure agony.

Lucinda took note of Matt’s poor situation and decided to help him. She took aim on the turret and fired a long blast. Sparks flew from the thick plating on the weapon but the armor held true. The turret quickly spun around with the sound of electronic servomotors, took aim on the fox and fired. The blast shot right through the control panel and missed Lucinda’s bad shoulders by just a couple of inches. The weapon fired again and singed the fur from the tip of her right ear. She got the point and began crawling along the back of the panel, laser fire suddenly coming through the panel from behind her all the way.

Matt rolled over, still in pain, and noticed that the turret was no longer after him but it was blasting a large control panel in the center of the room to pieces. He figured that Lucinda must be pinned down behind it. Taking aim on the weapon with both plasma guns, he fired two quick shots. The first shot blasted the barrel of the weapon to pieces. The second shot tore a big, smoldering hole in the side of the weapon. It stopped firing promptly.

Lucinda kept on crawling. Her heart suddenly sunk when she came to the end of the panel. "<Nowhere left to go!>" she thought to herself coming to a stop with her back against the wall. A shower of sparks exploded above her right shoulder, but this one wasn’t from a beam coming through the panel. There was an approaching SWATbot to the right. Its arm blaster was out and raised. Without aiming, she fired a beam that hit the robot right in the eye sensor. Unable to see, the robot spun around on its feet shooting wildly into the air. Lucinda fired again, hitting the robot in the lower torso. The robot continued to spin, sputtering sparks from its belly, until it collapsed and stopped moving. Lucinda breathed a sigh of relief and took a look around. A TECHbot was rolling back and forth around the base of the roboticizer, performing its maintenance routine. Another TECHbot was working a set of dials on the right hand wall. Neither robot seemed to be bothered by the presence of the two intruders. They just kept mindlessly performing their menial tasks. "You okay over there?" she called out to Matt, peaking over the control panel.

Matt was fanning his armor off which was sitting on the floor, smoking. "Yea, I’m fine. A little burned but fine. Phew! This thing’s hotter than hell!"

Lucinda sat back down and sighed, relived that that was over. She then gathered her wits and got back up. "I’ll start rigging this control panel, you start rigging the roboticizer."

Matt strapped his armor back on which wasn’t too hot any more. His burned back was still quite tender and irritable though. He then headed up to the huge machine, tossing a bomb in the air as he went. "Any particular way I should plant these?" he asked.

"Lucinda shrugged her shoulders. "No. Just put enough of them on there so that it blows up."

Matt pulled out another bomb when he reached the front of the machine. He placed the first one right on the front, just below the base of the tube then pondered where he was going to place the other three that he was carrying. That was when he noticed something moving inside. He took a closer look and met the teary eyed gaze of a tiny two tailed fox cub. "Uh-oh…" he groaned surprised and not knowing what to say.

"What?" Lucinda asked having problems getting a bomb to stick to the back of the control panel.

Matt still wasn’t sure what to say. This machine didn’t look at all what he thought it would look like and seeing this being stuck inside the glass tube like that sort of gave him the creeps. "Uh…there’s somebody in here."

The stubborn bomb slipped from the vixen’s hands. "What!" She ran over to the machine fearing that she would meet the gaze of a mindless robot that was once a person. She reached the machine and looked inside. She met the gaze of a little fox that was say…ten years old. The child was shaking something fierce and his cheek fur was soaking wet with tears. "Ohhh! He’s so cute!" Lucinda cried out pressing her hands against the glass. "The poor thing must be traumatized! Are you okay honey?" she asked. The little fox nodded. "Okay, were gonna get you out, just stay put." She ran back over to the control panel. "We got here just in time. Now, where’s the tube control," she asked scanning the panel. "Oh, here it is," said the vixen pushing the appropriate button. Nothing happened. She pushed it again. The machine still didn’t respond. That was when she realized that the control panel was riddled with holes. "Oh of course this thing isn’t gonna work what it’s been blown to bits," she groaned frustrated.

Matt rolled his eyes and pulled out his cutting torch. "I got it. You just keep rigging that panel."

"Okay," the vixen replied sticking another bomb to the top of the panel. This one actually stuck.

Matt knelt down and looked into the cub’s eyes. "Okay kiddo. I’m gonna cut through this glass and get you out. Just keep your head down okay."

"Okay…" Tails groaned in a shaky voice, flattening his tiny ears on his head.

Matt then got up and began to cut a line around the tube that was just above Tail’s head. He concentrated and took his time, trying to cut as strait a line as he possibly could.

Tails sat up and crossed his legs. He looked quite uncomfortable and couldn’t seem to sit still. "Um…excuse me, uh…sir?"

"The name’s Matt. What’s your name, kid?" Matt asked still cutting the glass.

"Uh…I’m Tails."

Matt finished one circle and began cutting another one that was as high up as could reach. "Nice to meet ya Tails. So, what’s on your mind kid?"

Tails shifted his legs uncomfortably. "Um…I gotta go to the bathroom. Real bad!"

Matt stopped cutting just long enough to let out a chuckle then resumed his task. "I’ll get you out as fast as I can Tails, then you can go."

Lucinda walked up to Matt. "How’s it goin?"

"May arms are getting tired, how are you?"

"Well, I got the control panel rigged and some of the auxiliary machinery rigged too. I’m out of bombs though except for this one that won’t stick."

Matt stopped cutting for a moment and pulled the three bombs from his leg holsters. "Here. Plant these around the base of this thing," he said handing the bombs to Lucinda. He then continued cutting. "When I’m done cutting this thing I’m gonna let Tails here out so he can take a leak and then were out of here. I hope you know the nearest exit from this loony bin

Lucinda planted a bomb forty five degrees from the one Matt planted. "Don’t worry, I’ll get us out quick."

"Good," Matt replied. "‘Cause I’m seriously ready to get the fuck outta here. This place gives me the creeps." He finished the second circle. "Okay Lucinda, stand back for a second. Tails, cover your head for a second and shut your eyes.

The little fox complied and ducked way low.

Matt pocketed the cutter and placed both hands on the cut piece. With all of his strength he pushed. The piece crunched a little then slid right out and shattered all over the ground. Matt then climbed onto the base of the machine and reached inside. "Okay Tails, let’s go."

The little fox reached up and grabbed the human’s hands.

"Watch the edges kid, they’re real sharp," Matt warned as he pulled Tails to freedom.

The cub immediately climbed further up Matt’s arms and clung tightly to his shoulders "Thank you…" he cried in Matt’s ear.

Matt didn’t know what to say so he just hugged the kid back. "It’s okay Tails. We weren’t just going to leave you in there." He then peeled the fox from him and set the kid down on his feet and pet him on the head. "Now, you go take care of business and we’ll get out of here."

"Go pee on the floor?" Tails asked looking confused.

"I’m sorry kid but we don’t have time to find a bathroom. Just go in that corner over there. We won’t look I promise. Just make it quick, okay."

"Okay," the cub replied as he happily ran off to the far corner of the room and promply began to relieve himself.

Lucinda walked up to Matt carrying the bomb that wouldn’t stick in her hands.

"The kid’s cute," said Matt turning toward the vixen. "You done?"

"Yea. This one won’t stick though." She suddenly winced and grabbed her bad shoulder.

"Shoulder bugging you?"

"Yea. I’ll live though"

"Good," Matt replied. "I’ll go ahead and carry the kid then. You stay in front. And hey…lets make this quick okay. The sooner we get out the better. I have a feeling that this place is gonna get real unsafe any moment now."

Lucinda gave Matt a real sincere gaze. "Look, thanks for helping me with this. I just couldn’t go without…"

Matt cut her off. "Don’t sweat it. Lets just concentrate on getting…" His eyes went wide. "Shit!"

Lucinda turned around and saw SWATbots pouring in by the dozen through the broken door.

"Gimme that," Matt growled pulling the un-sticky bomb from Lucinda’s hands. He then set the timer for a three-second delay and chucked it. He then grabbed the vixen and dropped to the floor. "BA-BLAM!" All he saw was a bright fireball and SWATbot parts flying every which way. He kept his head down until the very last piece of flying debris fell to the ground. He then got up and carefully surveyed the area while dusting himself off. There was not a single moving SWATbot left, just random debris scattered all over the entrance to the room. "Tails!" he called out to the little fox who was cowering on the ground. "Pinch it off little buddy, we’re leavin."

The now relieved little fox was happy to hear those words and ran right up to Matt. "Okay. I’m ready."

"Good," Said Matt pocketing one of the plasma guns and hoisting Tails into his free arm. "Lucinda…lead the way, please."

"With pleasure," replied the vixen, approaching the hole that was once a door. She carefully peeked around both sides. "The coast is clear," she whispered, heading to the left. They ran all the way down the corridor, which gradually twisted to the right, until they found a service elevator. That was when the sound of metal footsteps clanging from down the hall could be heard. "We’d better hurry."

"It’s commin’. Better get out of the way. There’s probably nasties in there," said Lucinda stepping to the side of the elevator door.

Matt set Tails down and gently pushed him against the wall. "Stay put." He looked at the vixen. "Remember. Let them shoot first. Then when they stop, we jump in."

The fox nodded and gave her weapon a last second check. A polite little bell sounded and the elevator door opened. Nothing happened. Lucinda looked at Matt and shrugged her shoulders.

Matt just nodded and motioned for her to go in side. They both just calmly stepped in and blasted the two SWATbots that were standing inside. Matt then peeked around the corner. "Okay Tails. Lets go."

Tails happily ran inside the elevator and almost jumped when he saw the dead, smoking robots laying on the floor. "Woa!"

Lucinda hit the down arrow button on the elevator controls and the door closed. "We’re almost there."

"Good. The sooner we get out of here the better." He pulled out the remote detonator for the bombs. "Hey guys. Hold on to me tight. I’m gonna blow the bombs."

"No, wait! Not while we’re in an elevator!" the vixen called out.

It was too late. Matt had already pushed the button.

 

Bunnie and Sally jumped into a crevice of the wall just in time to avoid a ten foot tall MECHbot rolling its way down the passage way. "It’s clear!" Sally signaled and the two of them slid out of their hiding spot and continued down the path that would take them to the Roboticizer. They turned to the right and continued strait down. The passageway was clear, thank goodness, and they could see the elevator door at the end.

Sally suddenly stopped and signaled for Bunnie to do the same. "Do you hear that."

"Hear what, Sally girl?"

"That rumbling noise. It sounds almost like…"

"KKKRRRAAASSSSHHHH!!!!" The ceiling suddenly caved on on top of them both.

Sally was thrown back several feet from the force of the cave in. When she came back to her senses she got up and coughed the dust out of her lungs. "Bunnie, are you <KOFF> okay?" she called out trying to find her way through the thick dust and smoke. There was no answer but a faint moan. "Bunnie!" Sally finally managed to find her way through the smoke and found her companion laying on the floor with her legs buried under the enormous pile of rubble. "Bunnie! Speak to me!" Sally cried, kneeling down next to her friend.

"Oooh…mah head feels like it wus jest hit by a ton of concrete…" the rabbit moaned.

"It was bunnie," the princess replied, trying to dig out the rabbits legs from underneath the rubble. "Can you move, Bunnie?"

"I'm fine, sugar, 'cept mah legs are still stuck."

The princess continued to dig, faster and faster, as there was a large fire rapidly building strength near by. "Don't worry Bunnie I'll get you out of here soon enough."

"That's good sugar. Mah left leg's out," said the rabbit pulling her left leg to the side and rolling half way over. "I’ll help." The rabbit gripped a large piece of concrete from her right leg with her mighty robotic arm and tossed it aside. "That’s it. I’m free!" she said, getting up. "Phew! That was a close one sugar! Now what in the hoo-haw is goin’…"

The princess shoved a hand over Bunnie’s mouth. "Ssshh! I hear voices," she whispered. "Listen."

"Yea, real good one. You just had to blow the bombs while we were in the elevator didn’t you," said one voice. It was female.

"Well…we made it. Didn’t we?" said another. This one was male.

"Yes but we’re lucky to be in one piece, no thanks to you. It’s a good thing that that elevator doesn’t go to the sub levels or we’d be digging ourselves out of the ground right now," retorted the female.

Some of the rubble from the cave in began to slide out and down the pile. Sally and Bunnie began to jump.

"And you say I whine a lot," said the male. "Oop! I think I’m through to the other side. Hang on a sec."

More rubble was punched through the pile and a hand suddenly punched through. All Sally and Bunnie could do was stare at each other, dumbfounded.

Matt stuck his head through the hole he had created in the cave in and surveyed the area. He caught eye of the princess almost immediately. "Oh! Hello, princess. Fancy seeing you here," he said, managing to crawl through the hole and roll over onto his feet. "So. What the hell are you doing in the middle of psycho central?"

The princess was taken completely by storm and didn’t quite know what to say. "Uh…well…I’m looking for somebody. What are you doing here? I thought that you were at area fifty-one."

"Matt. Is there somebody over there with you?" asked the female voice.

Matt turned towards the hole. "Yea it’s okay. These people are friendly. Come on out." He turned back and faced the princess. "We ran into a spot of trouble back at area fifty one. Robotnik managed to capture us and take us here. But as you can see I, somehow, managed to find my way out. Oh, and as far as AREA-51 is concerned… I wouldn’t worry about it any more. There’s nothing left of it but a smoldering radioactive hole."

Sally and Bunnie glanced at each other, astonished.

Matt cleared his throat. "So. This, somebody, that you are looking for…does he happen to be a little kid fox about this tall?" he asked holding his right hand just above his right shin.

Sally’s eyes shot wide open. "Yes! Tails! Did you find him?"

"Yea you’re in luck. He’s with us," Matt replied walking up to the cave in. Tails had emerged from the hole and he helped the little fox down.

"Tails!" Sally cried holding her arms wide open.

"Sally!" cried the cub running up to and into his serrogant aunts arms.

The princess squeezed the little cub tightly. "Oh, honey! I thought…oh never mind what I thought. Are you okay?"

"I’m a little beat up, but okay," replied the fox.

"Come on. I’ll help you," said Matt helping Lucinda through the hole. "That’s it. You got it."

Lucinda set her feet on the ground and dusted herself off. "Phew…I thought we’d never dig ourselves out of that." She suddenly caught eye of the princess and dropped to her knees. "Princess Sally." She bowed her head. "Your majesty!"

Sally walked up to the vixen and took hold of her right hand. "Please. I’m no queen. I’m just sally."

Lucinda stood back up and shook the princess’s hand. "I so wanted to meet your family. I am Lucinda Re of the Kenji-Vulpaca Tribe. We were friends and sworn allies to the House of Acorn. My father was Sujorn Osaka Re. He was a friend of your fathers."

A smile came to Sally’s face. "Daddy used to tell me of the stories of the great tribe of master fighters and his teacher Master Re. He held your father in high regards. I’m so glad to meet you," said Sally shaking Lucinda’s hand back.

"Lady’s. I’m sorry to break this up but we really gotta go," said Matt motioning toward the other end of the passage way.

Lucinda let go of Sally’s arm. "He’s right, your majesty. Let’s save the reminiscing for when we’re in a safer place."

Sally nodded. "Agreed. Come on honey," she ordered taking Tails by the hand. "I sure hope Dulcy gets here safely when we give Uncle chuck the call."

"You and me both, sugar," said Bunnie trying to fix the mess that her hair was in.

"Who’s Dulcy?" asked Matt.

"She’s our ride outta here," the princess replied.

Matt’s forehead crinkled with confusion. "Ride? What do you mean ride?"

"She’s a dragon, sugar. She’s gonna fly us outta hear," answered Bunnie.

Matt sort of chuckled. "Wow. Dragons huh?" He began to laugh. "This planet just has more and more surprises around every corner."

Bunnie and Sally just looked at each other, confused.

The group finally stopped at the door that lead outside. Matt pulled a small electronic device that looked like a pocket calculator and attached it to the door control panel. "I’ll get this door open in a minute."

Lucinda piped up. "Uh…Princess Sally? About this dragon friend of yours. How big of a dragon are we talking about here. I mean, can she carry us all?"

Sally took careful note of that question and began to study her companions. She didn’t need to focus on Matt much. It was common sense that just simply by being an overlander meant that you were enormous compared to most Mobians. She glanced over at Lucinda and took note of her superior size as well. Just the two of them would be enough to fully load down Dulcy. She then looked over at Bunnie who was shaking her head in the negative. "Hmph. You’ve got a point there.

"Open sesame," chanted Matt as the huge door suddenly "CLUNKED" as it unlocked and began to slowly roll open. He placed the little electronic lock pick back in the appropriate holster on his left shoulder and walked outside. "So princess, it seems that your ride will be a little over burdened with us all piled on top of her right?"

Sally closed her eyes and nodded. "Yea it seems like that’s the case."

Matt just smiled. "Well, no worries. We’ll just take my ride."

"Yo ride?" asked Bunnie.

Matt just pointed upward in reply. The five of them looked upward and saw nothing at first but the black, mucky, Robotropolis sky. Then, just like that a huge, shiny piece of metal appeared out of thin air and began to descend on top of them. "That’s my ride."

"Wowie! You got a spaceship?" Tails asked, astonished.

"Yep. That’s right kid."

"You’re just full of surprises, aren’t you," Lucinda marveled.

"I try not to leave home unprepared," Matt replied. The ship descended and then came to a dead hover about ten feet off the ground. The hover was perfect as the ship didn’t wobble or move around at all. There was a faintly audible hum, like a noisy power line and a slight wind blowing off the bottom of the ship, though the five of them really felt nothing. It was sort of odd and mysterious.

"All aboard, guys," said Matt, climbing onto the ramp that lowered it self from the bottom-aft end of the ship. He then bent over and helped the others up the ramp. Once everybody was in, he ordered HICS to close the ramp and to cloak the ship. "Now. Every body follow me to the control room. HICS, take us back to that village. And keep us under the speed of sound. I don’t want anyone tracking us on a super sonic radar signature."

"Under stood, Matt. Be advised that we have bogies coming from all directions. Do you want me to engage?"

Matt shook his head. "No. I want us to get away clean."

"Very well, Matt. We’re underway now. We’ll be arriving at our destination in approximately seven minutes," the computer beeped. The deck of the ship began to vibrate slightly and there was a slight up angle that could be felt.

"Thank you, HICS," said Matt stopping at the door to the main intersection. A wave of faintness suddenly began swirling around his head. A message in bright red letters flashed in front of his vision. It read: "WARNING!!! BODY SHUT DOWN IMMINANT!!! SEEK MEDICAL ATTENTION IMMEDIATELY!!! WARNING!!!" He managed to muster his strength though and pushed the button to open the door to the intersection. He walked into the cubical with the mobians in tow and opened the other door that was in front of him. He stepped through it and brought the others into the command and control center of the ship. It was actually fairly large. In the immediate front of the room was a flight suite, similar to the one on the observation deck. Except this one had a large screen in the front that displayed the sky that was in front of the ship. The port and starboard bulkheads of the circular room was covered with more control panels that performed various functions. Matt sat in the seat of the flight suite, and spun the chair around.

"Sally girl, this is amasin’" marveled Bunnie, surveying her surroundings.

"It certainly is," Sally replied, nodding in agreement. "So uh…Matt…" She began rubbing her temples. "I uh…don’t quite know how to ask this…" she struggled. "But, do you think that you could uh…well…join us maybe?"

Matt just smiled and sort of laughed.

"I’m sorry," the princess apologized. "I came on a little too suddenly with that one didn’t I."

Matt was still chuckling. "No, no, princess. Actually, I’m honored that you would ask me to join the fight." He became lost in thought for a second. "Eh…I don’t know. We’ll talk about that some other time." He began rubbing his fore head and was slouching in his seat further and further.

"Is something the matter?"

"Well…I have a problem" Matt smiled. "Heh. I’m sure that the last thing you wanna hear are my problems. But…uh…mine’s pretty serious and I’m gonna need your help."

"Oh?"

"Yea. You see, my body has been modified with quite a few uh…implants, which are intended for tactical purposes. One of these such implants is a modification to my adrenal glands which, when the situation warrants, allow me to send an instantaneous dose of adrenaline through my body on demand." Matt’s head spun with dizziness and his body went numb with exhaustion. There was a slight tightening in his chest and his right arm began to bother him. "Well, what I’m getting at is that, while I was back there, I had to take a rather large dose of adrenaline to get myself out of a sticky situation."

"How large?" asked Sally.

"A toxic level," Matt replied. A new message suddenly appeared in his vision. "WARNING!!! BIOLOGICAL SYSTEMS SHUTDOWN IN PROGRESS!!! WARNING!!!" "In other words, I have severe adrenaline poisoning. My best guess tells me that if I don’t get medical attention within the next thirty minutes I’m going to die."

Lucinda had been surveying the control room when she heard the word "die." "What did you just say?" Sally and Bunnie both gasped.

"I hope that your infirmary is open for business today." Matt suddenly lost all feeling in his body. "HICS?"

"Yes Matt?"

"When we arrive at the village…" He strained to take a deep breath then continued. "I want you land in the same spot that you did before and power down. Leave the aft brow open and allow full access to anybody that wants to come aboard." That was when his vision blanked out to a bright red haze. "Princess? I hope you’ve got somebody…who’s real strong…that can…carry…me…" Every thing went black and silent.

 

 

Three Days Later

1032 Mobius Standard Time

Princess Sally’s Hut, Knotthole Village

"…and that was when father did a reversed twist, picked the king up and tossed him with one hand all the way to the opposite wall of the dojo," said Lucinda laughing. "He just wouldn’t give up."

Sally laughed too. "Daddy was very persistent I’ll tell you that."

"Yes, well, I thought you dad was gonna get mad for hurting a member of the royal family. I was so scared that I could hardly bare to watch. But your father just got right back up and prepared for another go at it. And you know what? He was smiling the whole time."

"So what happened next," Sally asked.

Lucinda took another sip of the freshly squeezed lemonade that the princess made for her. "Well, I guess father decided that he had enough so he just congratulated your father on a job well done. So they shook hands and that was it for that days lesson."

Sally laughed. "Daddy never told me about that part. Oh but he Always looked forward to going to Kenji to spend his summers; especially during the Great War. I never understood why he never took me though. You know what? I sure wouldn’t mind going over there some day though."

Lucinda suddenly went on a downer and she bowed her head. "I’m sorry Sally but there really isn’t much left of it now." She raised her head and her eyes became glossed over. "Robotnik burned it to the ground for the most part."

Sally frowned. "I’m sorry Lucinda for bringing that up. I didn’t mean to."

Lucinda cracked a half smile. "That’s okay Sally. I try to put it behind me but it’s still so hard to deal with."

"Oh of course it is, Lucinda. We’ve all been there. So, if you don’t mind me asking, what did Robotnik do with you after he attacked the village.

Lucinda shook her head. "I’m sorry Sally but I would mind. Robotnik did some things to me that I really don’t want to talk about."

"Of course not. I’m sorry Lucinda I won’t bring it up again." She stood up and so did the vixen.

"Don’t worry about it Sally."

"Lucinda. I’m so glad to have met you. And, what ever you decide to do from here I hope that we will always be friends."

Lucinda smiled softly. "Sally we were always friends. And I’m staying right here, right by your side, to help you fight Robotnik.

The two embraced a friends embrace. "Thank you Lucinda. This is the way our fathers would want things to be…I’m sure of it."

The girls broke their embrace. "Your right Sally they would."

"So, how’s the arm?" the princess asked touching the bandage on the fox’s shoulder.

"Doctor Bookshire fixed it up right as rain. Luckily the blast missed my shoulder socket by just a hair. There was only a small amount of bone loss to my collarbone and some superficial muscle damage. But Bookshir managed to fix the hole in my collarbone with an artificial bone sealant and patched me back up. It should be healed up an a few weeks he said."

Sally smiled. "Oh, that’s good news. I’m just glad that there’s no perminant…"

The door suddenly flew open and Antoine burst inside. "Excusing moi, my princess."

"Yes Antoine? What is it?"

Antoine looked a little out of breath. "Ah. Monsure Bookshire weeshes to be seeing you."

"Is it urgent?"

Antoine nodded in the affirmative. "Oui, my princess. Eee wanted to seeing you as soon a it is possible."

Sally grabbed Nicole off the workbench and put the computer in her boot holster. "I’m sorry Lucinda but duty calls." And with that she began to follow Antoine outside.

"Wait, Sally!" Lucinda called out. "Let me come along too. If you don’t mind of course."

Sally motioned for the vixen to come along. "Of course you can come along, Lucinda."

The vixen ran outside, shut the door behind her gently, and ran to catch up with the others.

"So what’s going on Antoine," asked the princess.

"I’m not sure, my princess. But eet seems as though our tabby friend has woken up."

"The tabby!" Sally gasped. "Can he talk? Has Bookshire been able to get any information out of him?"

Antoine shook his head in the negative. "Zat ees ze problem, my princess. You see, when ee awoke zees morning ee became very violent and confused. I vas walking by when I heard all zee commoshion. So I went eenside to see vut vas to be going on. Monsure Bookshire had ees hands full with zees creature. Zat vas when ee summoned me to be getting you."

"Interesting. Well, we’ll have to see what’s going on. The poor thing is probably in shock from whatever Packbell did to him."

"I should know about that better than all of us," Lucinda piped.

"But princess. Zat eesen’t all," informed Antoine.

"Oh?"

"Oui! Zees tabby. Eee was speeking een ze most peculure language. I could not understanding a word zat ee said."

The princess nodded. "That is interesting. He must be from one of the outer continents. It’s a good thing that I brought Nicole with me. She can translate for us." That was when the trio reached the door to Bookshire’s hut. The yelling and screaming was definitely audible from the outside though voices and words still couldn’t be made out. Sally opened the door and the three of them burst in.

"I told you! Please, for goddess sakes just lie still!" they heard Bookshire yell.

They heard another voice cry out. "{GET THE FUCK OFF ME YOU ANIMAL! WHAT THE FUCK’S GOING ON HERE!} it cried in a strange language.

Sally just looked at the other two. "We’d better get down there, fast!" So they ran down the stairs and burst through the doors to the infirmary. Antoine was right. Bookshire had hold of the tabby’s right arm and was struggling with all his might to keep the cat from thrashing around. "Well don’t just stand there! One of you help me!" the doctor yelled.

"You two, go help him hold that guy," Sally commanded to Lucinda and Antoine. "I’ll try to translate.

Lucinda and Antoine complied and walked over to the Doctor. Antoine grabbed the cat’s right leg and Lucinda secured its left arm. When they grabbed hold the cat almost freaked out. "{LET GO OF ME! WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINGS WANT FROM ME!}"

Sally pulled Nicole from her boot holster and open the computer up. "Nicole, can you translate his language?"

The computer beeped and churned. "I’m sorry Sally. His language does not match any known Mobian languages in my database.

"{I’m gonna ask you one more time…let go!}" the tabby commanded in its language that was still so foreign to the others.

Sally slapped her forehead. "Great! What the heck are we gonna do with him if we can’t even communicate."

"He’s asking you to let him go," said a voice that was off in the corner. All heads turned in that direction and they saw that it was Matt. He cringed as he struggled to push himself up in bed a little more. "He’s speaking in my native tongue."

Sally gave Matt a cross eyed look. "But how could that be?"

"I…AARRGG…don’t know," Matt replied, struggling to swing his legs over the side of the pair of tiny beds that he was laying on. "But I intend to find out. Why don’t you guys just let him go. You’re making him crazy, holding him down like that."

Bookshire, Antoine and Lucinda complied and backed away.

The cat sat up and pointed at the doctor. "{Yea, that’s right! You’d better let me go you dumb raccoon! I’m gonna kick your ass first you dumb piece of shit!}" He then vividly displayed both middle fingers to the middle aged raccoon.

"What did he just say?" asked Bookshire.

Matt cracked a smirk. "He said thank you."

"Oh. You’re welcome, sir," Bookshire replied bowing.

"{Shut the fuck up!}" the tabby taunted.

Matt tried and failed to get to his feet. "Lucinda <pant>… could you help me up, please?"

"Of course," said the vixen walking over to the human’s bedside. Gently, she wrapped his right arm around her shoulders and hoisted him up.

"How’s the arm," Matt whispered to the vixen.

Lucinda smiled. "It’s doing a lot better now. Thanks for asking. How are you?"

"I’ve had better days," he groaned struggling with each footstep.

"You should know," the vixen whispered. "That you were having a heart attack when we finally got you down here."

Matt’s left eyebrow shot up. "Oh…that’s just wonderful." He finally reached the tabby’s bed. "{What’s your name, friend?} asked Matt.

The tabby stared Matt up and down. "{Y…you’re human…hey…what the fuck’s going on, man? This place is crazy! I need to get the hell outta here. PLEASE! You gotta help me!}"

"{Just calm down. You’re in a safe place,}" said Matt trying to settle the creature’s nerves. He motioned to the others. "{These people are here to help you.}"

The tabby settled down in his bed and began to relax a little. "{Okay…alright…I just don’t know where I am, and, I’m just a little scared. That’s all.}"

"{It’s okay. Like I said, we’re here to help. I just need to ask you. Who are you? Where do you come from? And where did you learn to speak such perfect English?"}

"{Where did I learn to speak English?}" the tabby mocked. "{Are you delusional? That’s what everybody speaks where we’re from. How long have you been stranded on this crazy plannet anyway?}"

Matts eyes widened a little and his muscles bulged a little.

"{Why are you giving me that look. You’re from Earth, right?"}

Matt tensed up more and he began to tremble. Lucinda felt it. "What’s wrong? What did he say," she asked.

"I don’t know. He’s talking crazy and not making any sense." "{What are you talking about?}" he asked the tabby. "{Are you trying to say that you’re from Earth?}"

The cat snorted. "{Am I…of course I’m from Earth! What the hell do you think! I’m not like these talking animals here,}" he said pointing at the others. "{I’m just as human as you are. Look. You’re talking crazy and it’s starting to scare me. But you look really familiar so I gotta ask you something. Have you ever heard of a guy, named Matt Foxworthy, ‘cause you really look like him. He was a friend of mine.}"

Lucinda felt Matt tense up hard and his legs began to nock. "Matt. Are you alright. Do you need to sit down?"

Matt didn’t answer her. He tried to speak to the cat but his lips were trembling like an earthquake. "{M…Mike? Is t…that you?}"

The cat grinned and his eyes went wide. "{MATT! HOLY SHIT! I…I thought you’d died back on Earth. Holy shit, dude! How’ve you been? Oh my god! It’s great to see you, man!}"

Matt’s legs suddenly buckled and collapsed from underneath him. He went down and almost took Lucinda with him. "Matt!" the Vixen cried out, obviously very concerned. He just pushed her away and managed to support himself sitting. He just stared the cat, up and down, hyperventilating.

"{Dude! Are you okay, man? You look like shit!}" said the cat.

Matt just continued to stare with his jaw on the floor and his chest heaving in and out.

The tabby began to get nervous. "{Matt? Why are you lookin’ at me like that. Is something wrong?}"

Matt managed to gather enough composure to speak. "{Nnn…no. Mike…you’re just fine…everything’s gonna be okay.}"

The cat really began to get nervous. He shook his head. "{No. There’s something wrong. I can see it in your eyes. Something’s very wrong.}" He too began to hyperventilate as he felt his face with his hands. Something was not right. Things didn’t feel right. His face and hands felt…different. He looked at his hands. There were only four, fat, stubby fingers on each hand which had thick pads on the palms and creamy fur on backs of them. His arms were covered with orange and white striped fur. His eyes shot wide open as he put his hands on his head. He ran across his head fur and found the two pointed ears which were now on top instead of on the side. "{W…wh…what’s going on! What’s happening!}"

Matt managed to get to his knees and he grabbed hold of his friend’s hands. "{Mike…listen to me. Everything’s fine. You’re gonna be okay.}"

"{What’s happening to me Matt? WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED?!}"

"Somebody fuckin’ sedate him! NOW!" Matt commanded.

Doctor Bookshire hobbled to his medicine cabinet as quickly as his lame legs would carry him. He opened it up and produced the correct bottle of fluid and a syringe.

"{Mike! Just calm the fuck down. You’re okay.}"

The cat’s eyes filled with tears and he grabbed Matt’s head. "{Matt…help…me…I’m all fucked up man! You gotta do something!}" he cried.

The doctor filled the syringe and pushed on the plunger until a tiny amount of fluid squirted through the needle. He then hobbled over to the unsuspecting cat’s bedside and quickly shoved the needle in his arm.

"{GET OFF ME!}" the cat shrieked, back handing the raccoon in the chest and knocking him down.

Matt grabbed hold of the cat’s arm and held it down in an effort to keep him from getting out of his bed. "HELP ME!" he commanded the others. Sally, Lucinda and Antoine complied and held the cat down. He spit curses in English at them and thrashed around wildly. But the four of them managed keep him down. A few seconds passed and he began to thrash a lot less. His breathing slowed and his tear filled, horrified eyes turned toward Matt. "{Matt…}" he whispered. "{…help…me…}" Mike then closed his eyes and passed out. His muscles relaxed and went dead.

Matt fell back on his butt and he just stared ahead, silently.

"What’s going on Matt?" asked Sally kneeling down beside him.

All the human could do was just bury his head between his knees and he began to weep.

Lucinda knelt down next to the human and began to rub his back. "Matt? What’s the matter?"

"Oh god…what the fuck did they do to him," Matt cried from between his knees.

Sally touched Matt’s left leg, very gently. "Matt. Who is that guy. I heard him say your name."

Matt stared up at Sally. His face was read and his eyes were bloodshot and full of terror. "That was the guy that I’ve been searching for." His face crinkled up. "My friend…Mike."