Knuckles the Echidna, Sonic the Hedgehog, and all other related characters are the property of SEGA, DiC, and Archie Comics.

Lola Salamander, Isis Snow-Leopard, Dana Gecko, Jara Lizard, Sara Salamander, Tommy Salamander, Kira Salamander, Kevin Leopard, Nichelle Snow-Leopard, Jonny Snow, Zaharra Snow, Adam Leopardo, Thomas Leopardo, and Barry Bird are the property of Katrice Georges. These characters are not to be used without asking permission.

(Note: This story takes place during Sonic the Hedgehog issues #72-75)

CHOICES (Knothole)

After saying good-bye to the Freedom Fighters, Rotor goes to his Bathysphere. Along with some food, he takes smoke pellets, tools, and his new Party Hearty Rock 'n' Roller, which is not as big as the original, but has the same abilities. As Rotor drives off toward the arctic, he vows to find his family no matter how long it takes or what dangers await him.

The next day on Mount Nieve, in a northern region of Mobius not far away from Walrus Island, a loud rumble is heard. The ground begins to shake and an avalanche cascades down the mountain. The rabbits, goats, foxes, and bison all flee to their homes to avoid the deadly snow. Surprisingly, for many this is their first experience with an avalanche.
"What's happening, grandfather? We never have avalanches?!" a young goat asks.
"It's the return of Iceopolis, my dear."
"What's that?"
"Look right there."
The old goat points up the mountain where a city begins to emerge from the shadows. It's a magnificent city with tall buildings radiating with power from chaos emeralds and power rings. The city rivals the splendor of Mobotropolis (before Robotnik) and Echidnaopolis.
"Wow!!!" the goat exclaims as she gazes at Iceopolis.

At the city limits of Iceopolis, Isis is admiring Iceopolis' new surroundings. She is joined by her father, Zaharra, and Adam. They are all riding snow cycles.
"Look at this place, guys. It's so beautiful. Look at the snow-covered trees and...Hey! There's a bird! I've never seen a real live bird before."
"Of course not. This is your first time on Mobius--" Kevin begins.
"--and it could be dangerous because we don't know what's been going on. Dad, you, mom, Uncle Jonny, and Mr. Leopardo have been telling me this for weeks now. Don't worry, I can take care of myself," Isis interjects.
"And we're going with her," Adam says, "With me and Zaharra, Isis will be fine."
"All right, just be careful. I don't want anything to happen to you, Isis, especially since you are our next Empress," Kevin states.
"We'll be fine. Remember, I have my boomerang with me. See you later, Dad!" Isis shouts as she and her two friends zoom away from the city in their cycles to explore the mountains.

In outer space, Robotnik Mach 2 watches an approaching shuttle with much amusement.
"So...the Freedom Fighters have finally noticed my satellites. Good. My revenge will finally be accomplished. Swatbots! Prepare for intruders. Shadowbots! Contact my squadron near...Mobotropolis. Tell them to attack...NOW!!! Robotropolis will rise again."

Meanwhile, Rotor has reached Walrus Island and found Sealia and Augustus.
"Sealia! Augustus! Hi, do you remember me?" Rotor asks.
"Of course mon ami," Sealia responds, "How is everything?"
"Well, Mobotropolis is still a mess, but it's getting better. I have to find my family though. This way I can reverse what Robotnik did to them and everything will be as I've wanted it to be ever since Robotnik took over. Do you still have the remote I gave you?"
"Yeah! I'll get it. Stay for breakfast, Rotor. We're going to eat soon and it had to be a long trip," Augustus states.
"But I can't stay. I need to find my family as soon as possible."
"Rotor, please say you'll stay for breakfast. We don't get many visitors here."
"Oh...all right. I'll stay, Sealia."

After a meal that consisted of many kinds of fish, Rotor quickly departs with his remote signal tracer. Rotor notices that the signal is stationary and hopes that his family is still on the glacier. Rotor follows the signal but he realizes that the glacier hit the shore and the walruses are gone. All around him are snow-capped mountains with plenty of vegetation. The problem is the signal was emitted from the glacier, not the walruses. Rotor has no idea where his family and the walruses could have gone.
"Oh man. This is going to be a lot harder than I hoped," Rotor murmurs to himself as he starts looking for clues. "No footprints or any sign of someone travelling by here. I'll just start searching. Any direction is as good as another at this point."

On Robo-Robotnik's space platform, Robotnik Mach 2 has the Freedom Fighters trapped in his egg-cell and is moving toward the next phase of his plans.
"Snively...are the walruses de-programmed, yet?" Robotnik Mach 2 asks bending down into Snively's face.
"Ahh...ahh...yes, sir...I-I-I took out Ro-Ro-Robotnik's 'Must Destroy Rotor' command."
"Egg-cellent. Are my Shadowbots roboticizing them now?"
"uhhh...no...sir...I--"
"What?! What do you mean 'no'?!"
"I-I-I hadn't got-gotten around to giving the order, sir."
"I understand. You're already trying to plot against me. Oh well, it was inevitable. Give the command now."
"Y-y-yes, sir." Snively turns on the communication link with the Shadowbots in a factory in the arctic. "Shadowbots, precede with the roboticization process alpha."
"Acknowledged. Roboticization-alpha-will-commence-now," a Shadow bot responds and communication is cut-off.
"Once we arrive in Robotropolis, you will be roboticized," Robotnik Mach 2 says with delight to Snively's horror. Robotnik Mach 2 leaves to check on the Robians boarding his escape shuttle.

In Iceopolis, Empress Nichelle is pacing the throne room of Snow Palace. She stops as Mr. Thomas Leopardo, Duke Jonny, and her husband enter the room.
"Where are they?" Empress Nichelle asks no one in particular.
"Who knows, but it's getting late," Thomas, Adam's uncle, declares. "Iceopolis returns to the Cat Zone in a little more than a hour."
"I think we better go searching for them. Everyone else has returned."
"I agree with Jonny," Kevin replies.
"No!" Nichelle commands, "Isis has to learn about responsibility on her own. If we always bail her out, then she'll never learn. I trust them to come back before Iceopolis goes back."


While Rotor searches for his family, Isis, Zaharra, and Adam are travelling at blazing speeds through a mountain near a shore.
"Hey! Look up ahead, guys!" Isis yells over the cycles' engines, "It looks like there's a building not far from here."
"Actually, it looks more like a factory. See the smoke stacks," Adam mentions.
"I wonder what's inside."
"Isis! We're supposed to just explore the area, not go rushing into some sort of crazy adventure," Zaharra protests, "Besides, Iceopolis will return to it's zone in one hour."
"Oh, it'll just be a minute, Zaharra. Besides, do I ever do anything that would get us into trouble?"
"Puh-lease!!! If you weren't the Princess, we'd always end up in trouble," Adam says.
"Is your name 'Zaharra'?!"
"Let's just go. I rather do something silly than listen to you two bicker," Zaharra states as she revs up her cycle and zooms away toward the factory.
"Zaharra! Wait up!!" Adam and Isis shout out as they start to follow her.

As Rotor treks toward the mountains, he notices a building that he knows must be a factory. Rotor wonders what a factory would be doing in the mountains and begins to walk carefully toward it. He doesn't see any cameras and decides to look through a window.
"I don't believe it," Rotor whispers to himself. He sees walruses inside prison cells, strange Swatbots, and a machine that he knows can only be a roboticizer. "Who could be behind this? Robotnik and Snively are both dead. What kind of bots are these anyway?" Rotor continues looking through the window until he spots his mother and Skeeter. Skeeter sees Rotor as well and begins to wave.
"Rotor!" Skeeter says to his mother. The Shadowbots, who were ready to start roboticizing, look toward Skeeter and then shift their gaze toward the window.
Rotor thinks to himself, "uh-oh," as he tries to duck out of sight. However, the Shadowbots caught a glimpse of him and open fire.

"I don't know if we should be doing this you two."
"Zaharra, you can be such a scaredy-cat sometimes. It's just a factory, not the headquarters of some evil sicko."
"As if you're some expert on Mobius!"
"Then go back home! I didn't drag you here, Adam! And, Zaharra, if you don't want to go either, then leave! I'm going to--"
BOOM!!
"What was that?"
"I don't know, Adam, but it came from the factory and I'm gonna find out what it was!" Isis takes off for the factory with her boomerang in her hands. Adam and Zaharra are shocked at first, but then they follow.

The Shadowbots' laser blasts destroyed the window and part of the wall. Fortunately, Rotor was able to get down and was only scratched by some of the flying debris.
"That was too close," Rotor murmurs to himself as he crawls by the wall of the factory so that the Shadowbots can't see him. Unfortunately, five Shadowbots go through the hole they created and see him.
"Priority-two-Capture-Freedom-Fighters! Surrender-Freedom-Fighter!" Rotor ignores their command as he stands up and quickly grabs his Party-Hearty Rock 'n' Roller from his backpack.
"No way!" Rotor fires his gun and takes out two Shadowbots. The other three return fire, which Rotor ducks. But his is soon surrounded as five more Shadowbots join the fray.
"Repeat-surrender-Freedom-Fighter!"
Before Rotor can respond, a boomerang decapitates a Shadowbot.
"Hey! Over here! Bet you can't get me!" Rotor and the Shadowbots look and see a female snow leopard, who catches the boomerang, on a snow cycle.
"Unknown-target. Shadowbots-7-and-20. Capture-new-target."
Before the Shadowbots can attack again, four more Shadowbots are destroyed by laser fire. This time from two snow cycles, one with a male snow leopard driver and another with another female snow leopard driver. The Shadowbots are confused and Rotor uses the distraction to enter the factory.
"Not good," Rotor thinks as fifteen Shadowbots start to head toward him.
"Surrender-Freedom-Fighter!"
"Not in this lifetime!" One Shadowbot opens fire, but Rotor dodges it as he scans the room. Rotor sees the controls for the roboticizer and blasts the controls. The roboticizer catches on fire and two Shadowbots hurry to put on the fire.
"Rotor get out of here! They'll capture you!" Rotor's mother cries out.
"I'm not leaving you here!" Rotor wasn't about to leave despite the pleadings of his mother. Rotor takes out two Shadowbots, but he gets nicked in the arm by a laser from a Shadowbot, which causes him to drop his gun.
"Hi-yah!" Isis shouts as she flings her boomerang and cuts the heads off of two Shadowbots. Adam and Zaharra fire the lasers from their snow cycles and destroy four more, while Isis catches her boomerang.
"Capture-intruders!"
"Capture this!" Isis yells as she lets her boomerang fly, while Zaharra and Adam shoot the Shadowbots. Rotor picks up his Party-Hearty Rock 'n' Roller and fires at the two Shadowbots that were repairing the roboticizer. It doesn't take long until all the Shadowbots are totally annihilated.

"I don't know who you guys are, but thanks! I definitely couldn't have saved my family without your help. My name is Rotor," Rotor says as his mother addresses the laser wound on his arm.
"Well, my name is Isis and these are my friends Zaharra, who's also my cousin, and Adam," Isis says as she and Rotor shake hands with Rotor's free arm.
"What do you mean by saving your family?" Adam asks, "What was going on here?"
"I don't know who's responsible, but someone used these 'Shadowbots' to capture the walruses and was going to turn them into mindless robots. Haven't you heard of Robotnik?"
"We don't know anything about Mobius and we don't have time. Iceopolis is returning in less than 30 minutes. We have to leave now!" Zaharra exclaims.
"Oh, we can wait a minute. Who's Robotnik?" Isis inquires.
"A tyrant who took over Mobius and roboticized almost everyone he could. Mostly because of Sonic, the Freedom Fighters defeated Robotnik several months ago and reclaimed Mobotropolis."
"Robotnik's back, Rotor!" Skeeter says, "It was him who captured us and he had Snively break the mind control so that we could become robians, too."
"That can't be possible. How could Robotnik be back?"
"I'm sorry, but we can't stay to help you figure it out. We have to go back home now. Right, Isis?" Adam states.
"I guess you're right. We don't want to left behind. Bye, Rotor!" Isis says as she, Zaharra, and Adam rev up their snow cycles and head toward Iceopolis.

"Why do you look so pensive, Isis?" Zaharra inquires a few minutes after the trio took off for Iceopolis.
"I'm just deciding whether or not I should challenge you guys to a race home."
"That's the kind of adventure that I'm always up for. Ready to eat my snow?"
"I don't think so, Adam. Isis always wins these races."
"I'll give you two a 30 second head start. Now will you agree to it?"
"Okay, and Adam?"
"What?"
"Prepare to eat MY snow!" Zaharra zooms off toward Iceopolis.
"Hey! No fair!" Adam shouts as he tries to catch up and Isis begins counting seconds.

At the factory, twenty-five minutes have passed. Rotor's mother and Skeeter have just told him what has happened to them for the past several months, including how they were captured and the plans that they overheard Robotnik talk about.
"What are you going to do now, Rotor?"
"Well, if Robotnik really is back, then the Freedom Fighters are going to need me, Mom. I have to go back to Knothole. I'll check there, just in case Robotnik's invasion succeeded."
"Knothole is too dangerous for us. We can't go with you, Rotor."
"But Robotnik can get you here, too, Mom. I know! Stay with Sealia and Augustus!"
"Who are they?"
"They're two Arctic Freedom Fighters that I know. In fact, I'm sure that all of the walruses can stay with the Arctic Freedom Fighters. You'll be much safer this way than on your own. Right now Sealia and Augustus are on Walrus Island. I'll tell you how to get there from here and then head for Knothole."
"But, Rotor, something might happen to you on your way to Knothole. It's a long way from here and Robotnik is going to know that something happened here soon if he doesn't already," Skeeter claims.
"Don't worry, he won't be alone," a voice says.

Meanwhile, at Iceopolis, Nichelle, Kevin, Jonny, and Thomas are waiting at the city limits for their children.
"There's only one minute until Iceopolis returns, Nichelle. I knew we should've..."
"Wait, Jonny! Listen! Those are snow cycle engines. Here they come," Thomas says.
Moments later Adam enters Iceopolis and is followed closely by Zaharra.
"Ha-ha! I won! I won!"
"Next time, I'll win."
"Do you two realize how close you cut it? And where's Isis?" Nichelle inquires.
"She was right behind us. Isis gave us a head start and..." Adam starts.
"Oh, no!"
"What is it, Zaharra?" Kevin says anxiously, "What happened to Isis?"
"It's a long story, but I know that Isis has decided to stay on Mobius."
That's the last thing that any of them say on Mobius as Mount Nieve rumbles again causing another avalanche as Iceopolis disappears into its zone.

"Isis! What are you doing here?" a surprised Rotor asks.
"I decided that it's more important for me to be here than it's for me to be Iceopolis. This Robotnik is obviously a huge threat to Mobius. Iceopolis will return in another twenty years. I'm going to do my best to make sure that there is a Mobius for Iceopolis to come back to. As for travelling, my snow cycle can turn into a jet-ski. I won't be a burden. So, ready for another Freedom Fighter?"
"We can always use another Freedom Fighter." Rotor, Skeeter, and their mother share a huge bear hug. "I love you, Mom. I love you, Skeeter."
"Same here, Boomer," Skeeter replies.
"I love you, too, Rotor. Be careful."
"I will," Rotor says and then turns to Isis, "Let's go to Knothole."