BLOODLINES

                        A Sonic the Hedgehog Story

                            by Daniel J. Drazen


Pause for bourgeois legalities: "Sonic the Hedgehog" and most
other characters and situations in the following story are
copyrighted trademarks of Sega Incorporated, Archie Comics and/or
DIC Productions.  Permission to reproduce this specific material
is granted by the author, provided you don't try and make a buck
off of it.  I may be a grown-up cartoon fan, but I also know my
way around Title 17 (the Copyright Law) of the U.S. Code.
(c)1995, Daniel J. Drazen.


                                 Chapter 1


     There was a thick fog that morning, and that was good news
as far as Bunnie was concerned.  While it made it harder for her
to spot any incoming SWAT-bots, it made it harder for them to
spot her as well.
     She reached the base of the tree where a lookout post had
been set up: little more than a platform that ringed the trunk of
the tree about 30 feet up off the ground.  Using a rope ladder,
she climbed to the top and began her several hours of sentry
duty.
     If the day had been clear, she could have seen, about a
hundred feet from where she was, the spot where the forest met
the Great Plain.  Far down along the southern horizon could be
seen a hazy spot.  This had once been Mobotropolis, the capitol
city of the planet Mobius.  Now it was called Robotropolis, a
dark testament to the evil genius of the planet's overlord, Dr.
Ivo Robotnik.
     Bunnie couldn't clearly remember the details of that day a
decade ago when the once-beautiful world had fallen into
Robotnik's hands.  She herself had only been a child at the time,
and the episode had the haziness of a half-remembered bad dream. 
That was why she enjoyed the fog: it was easy to pretend, if only
for a moment, that nothing had ever gone wrong.  That
Mobotropolis was not now a choking, blighted factory instead of a
garden city, or that most of its inhabitants hadn't been
roboticized, turned into living machines that live only to serve
at Robotnik's twisted pleasure.  To imagine that she could simply
toss aside her role as a member of the Knothole freedom fighters
and live a real life once more.
     But there was no forgetting for Bunnie.  She was reminded of
her life every time she looked at her left arm, or at either of
her legs.  For she had been partially roboticized herself.  Her
limbs were clad with metal and shot through with transistors and
relays and other hardware.  It had earned her the name "Bunnie
Rabbot," and although the other freedom fighters meant well when
they gave her the name, there were time she sincerely hated that
name.  Wondering when she'd ever be whole again, she reached into
her pack, took out a range finder, began scanning the horizon...
     ...and found herself looking at a SWAT-bot not three feet in
front of her.  Gasping, she lowered the range-finder, and could
barely make out in the fog one of Robotnik's hover units level
with the platform, silently hanging in the air.
     "HALT, FREEDOM FIGHTER!"  the bot ordered in its mechanical
monotone.  "YOU ARE UNDER..."
     The SWAT-bot never got a chance to finish the sentence, as
its head suddenly flew away from its body.  Someone or something
was standing behind it, holding a large tree branch in its right
hand.  The fog was still too dense for Bunnie to make it out
clearly, but in a moment, another SWAT-bot could be seen leaving
the hover unit and approaching the shadowy figure from behind.
     Sensing the SWAT-bot's presence, the figure spun around and
delivered a solid punch to the SWAT-bot's midsection.  Bunnie
could see the bot crumble to the platform.
     The platform!  Bunnie could sense other SWAT-bots leaving
the hover unit and stepping onto the platform, and it was more
weight than the platform was meant to hold.  The figure grabbed
Bunnie by the hand as the platform gave way beneath her.  A
second later, the two of them were dangling from a rope that had
apparently been tied to a branch higher up the tree.  But the
sudden stop caused the strange figure to lose its grip on Bunnie,
and she resumed falling.
     Bunnie made a grab for the rope ladder and missed.  There
was one chance now: sensing that a tree branch was just below
her, she tried righting herself so that her robotic legs would
bear the brunt of the impact.  They did, but they also snapped
the branch in two.  Her descent was slowed, but she continued to
fall to the ground with such force that she lost consciousness on
impact.

     "Are you all right?"
     As Bunnie slowly came to, the first thing she was aware of
was the voice.  It managed to cut through the pounding of her
head.  She was glad to recognize the voice as that of her friend
and fellow freedom fighter, Sally.
     "Yeah, Ah'm OK, Sal.  Or Ah will be as soon as they stop
playin' them drums."
     Her head was beginning to clear as she felt someone helping
her to her feet.  She opened her eyes.
     At first she thought that her landing was still affecting
her senses.  The figure before her didn't look like Sally at all.
It wore a long, tattered cape the color of a dead leaf.
Clustered near the shoulders on either side were small metallic
buttons, badges and insignia of some sort; they appeared to have
been sprinkled on in random fashion.  The figure also wore a head
scarf of the same color, with a veil covering the rest of the
face and permitting room only for the eyes.
     "Sally, girl, what the hoo-ha you doin' in that get-up?"
     Then Bunnie looked at the right hand of the figure, the hand
that had helped her to her feet.  It gleamed with the same
sickening metallic gleam as her own left hand and arm and her two
legs.  It was a robot hand.
     "Oh mah stars, you're not...Mmmmmph!"
     Instantly the figure clamped her hand against Bunnie's mouth
to silence her, pinning her back to a tree at the same time. 
Bunnie could sense that her feet were no longer touching the
ground; whoever this creature was, she was incredibly strong. 
She could see the eyes of the stranger narrowing.
     "You called me 'Sally' just now, didn't you?"
     Bunnie nodded.  What was going on here?  The stranger's
voice sounded just like Sally's!
     "The next time you see this 'Sally' I want you to give her
this."  With her free hand, she reached up and pulled one of the
metal pins from her cloak.  "If this means anything to her, have
her meet me tomorrow night at the foot of Dragonsnest at
moonrise.  Alone."
     The cloaked figure dropped the pin to the ground, then took
her hand away from Bunnie's mouth.  In the second it took Bunnie
to look for the pin, pick it up and look up, the mysterious
figure had melted into the forest.
     Bunnie picked herself up off the forest floor.  The fog was
beginning to lift enough for her to survey the damage.  The
remnants of the platform, and of five SWAT-bots lay around her,
and there was no telling how many there might still be on what
was left of the lookout platform above her.  The heads were
missing from two of them, robot arms had been detatched from
their bodies and lay scattered on the ground.  The hover unit was
nowhere to be seen.  Bunnie walked over to one fallen bot and
studied the hole in its chest.  She clenched her own robotic hand
into a fist and inserted it into the hole; it was almost a
perfect fit.
     This was crazy, Bunnie thought.  She may have learned some
martial arts techniques but she'd never thought to try taking on
a SWAT-bot in hand-to-hand combat.  Whoever had done this was
either incredibly brave or incredibly foolish.
     It was then that Bunnie remembered the strange figure, the
one who sounded so much like Sally but obviously wasn't.  But
then again...she looked at the pin the stranger had left with
her.  It looked like some sort of a brooch, and there was
something familiar about the design...
     "Yo, Bunnie!"
     "Over here, Sonic!"
     Before it occurred to Bunnie that things had gotten
interesting the last time she thought she recognized a voice,
Sonic the Hedgehog ran up to her.  "You OK, Bunnie?" he asked.
     "Ah guess so.  Had me a little trouble with some SWAT-bots,
but...."
     "Whoa, check it out!" he said as he picked up a SWAT-bot's
severed head.  "Man, you've been kickin' some serious bot butt!"
     "Thanks, Sugarhog, but it wasn't me."
     "Huh?"
     "Tell you later.  Right now we gotta get back to Knothole."

----------------------------------------------------------------------

                                 Chapter 2


     "And when Ah looked up, she'd just vanished!  Gave me the
creeps!"
     Bunnie was recounting her experience to the group that was
gathered inside a primitive but comfortable hut set in the hidden
village known as Knothole.  Sally, once heir-apparent to the
throne of Mobius; Sonic, leader of the group more by virtue of
his daring and speed than for any strategic brilliance; Rotor,
skilled with anything mechanical or electronic; Antoine, whose
clinging to the old traditions and protocols of the Mobian court
was almost his only personality trait; and Tails, a child in
comparison to the others but eager to please and absolutely
devoted to Sonic.  Though none of them had come of age
chronologically, they had all assumed the more-than-grown-up role
of resistance fighters.  For this group was the very heart of the
Knothole freedom fighters, dedicated to the overthrow of
Robotnik and the restoration of Mobius and its citizens.
     "I am to be feeling creepuscular my very self!" said
Antoine, huddled in the warmth of the hut.
     "Sal," Sonic asked, "you ever seen anyone dressed like
that?"
     Sally addressed the palmtop computer she held in her hand.  
     "Nicole, did you get that description?"
     "AFFIRMATIVE, SALLY."
     "Project holographic image."
     Immediately a shimmering likeness of the strange figure
could be seen floating in mid-air.
     "That's her, Sally-girl!  She looked just like that."
     "Nicole, identify."
     "DESCRIPTION OF CLOTHING IS CONSISTENT WITH THAT OF THE
WESTERN NOMADS."
     "Who the heck are the Nomads?" Sonic asked.
     "FORMERLY A WARRIOR RACE, THE NOMADS HAVE CONFINED
THEMSELVES TO THE WESTERN DESERTS FOR THE LAST TWO CENTURIES,
MIGRATING BETWEEN TRADE CITIES.  HISTORICALLY, THEY HAVE NEVER
ACKNOWLEDGED THE ROYAL HOUSE, AND BY TREATY THEY HAVE BEEN LEFT
ALONE."
     "Yeah, yeah," Sonic said impatiently, "but whose side are
they on?"
     "INSUFFICIENT DATA."
     "Thanks a lot, Nicole!"
     "Well, Ah don't think this one was workin' for Robotnik,
Sugarhog.  You saw what she did to those SWAT-bots."
     "That's right, Sonic.  And she could have captured Bunnie
easily, but she didn't."  Sally paused.  "And what was that about
a pin?"
     Bunnie produced the metal pin.  "She said to give it to you,
and if it meant anything you were supposed to meet her tomorrow
night at Dragonsnest at moonrise.  By yourself."
     Sally studied the pin for a second.
     "Seems to be a brooch of some sort, with...oh my gosh!"
     "What is it?" several voices asked at once.
     "This pin has the coat of arms of the House of Acorn on it.
This is the royal coat of arms!"
     Everyone crowded around.  "You sure about this, Sal?" Sonic
asked.
     "Yes.  There are...differences in the way it's reproduced
here, though.  I've never seen these variations before; I don't
know if they mean anything."
     "Allowing me, my Princess," Antoine said formally.  "I
happen to have learn-ed all zere is to be knowing about heraldry
and similar protocols."
     "Snooze-time, guys," Sonic said in a stage whisper.  Tails
giggled.
     "I was herding zat!  But I will never mind your fun-
making."
     "C'mon, Sal!  Let Nicole figure it out!"
     "Relax, Sonic.  What have we got to lose?"
     "About an hour?"
     But Antoine never heard the last remark, as he was intently
studying the brooch.  After a minute of studying and thinking and
"Hmmm"-ing, he seemed to realize something that caused him to
react with alarm.
     "Sacre bleu cheeze!  Zis is encreable!  Fantastique!  It is
even, how you say, spooky!"
     "What is it?"  Sally asked urgently.
     "To be beginning with, note ze shape of ze shield, zat it
is a circular."
     "That's 'circle,' Antoine."
     "Zat is what I am just saying, a circular.  However, your
father's coat of arms has ze six-sided shield, how you say, ze
hexagondola."
     Sally wasn't even about to try.  "OK, so the shield is a
different shape.  Anything else?"
     "Oui.  Note ze crown at ze top.  It has only ze two layers
whereas your father's coat of arms has ze crown with troi
layers."
     "Big deal!" Sonic chimed in.  "So whoever made this was a
lousy forger."
     "Sonic, please!  I think Antoine is going somewhere with
this!"
     "I most certainly am.  Based on zese characteristics, zis
pin by law could only have been worn by one personage: by ze
Queen!"
     "The Queen!?"
     "Exactement."
     It was uncomfortably silent in the hut as Sally took the
brooch back from Antoine and stared at it.  She looked up, and
everyone could see that her face had lost some of its color.
     "This belonged to...my mother?"
     Sally didn't so much put the brooch down as she let it fall
from her hand to a nearby table.  As if in a trance, she walked
to a nearby window, leaned on the sill, and stared silently
outward.  Sonic walked over to her.
     "Sal, you OK?"  It was an agonizingly long time before she
answered, speaking to no one in particular:
     "Of all the questions I ever asked my father, there was one
he'd never answer.  He...he never told me anything about my
mother.  I don't even know what she looked like.  There were
people in my life who were like a mother to me: Rosie my nanny,
my mentor Julayla.  But so many times I'd look out of my window
and see other children with their...."  She paused, putting a
hand to her eyes.  "I'm sorry; I forgot how much it hurt."
     "Aunt Sally," Tails asked hesitantly, "maybe Nicole knows
something about her."
     Sally smiled.  "Thanks, honey, but I've tried."
     "And what happened?" Sonic asked.
     Sally once again spoke to the computer.
     "Nicole, access royal archives."
     "ROYAL ARCHIVES ONLINE, SALLY."
     "Please display all information about...about my mother." 
There was a tense second of waiting.
     "ALL INFORMATION PERTAINING TO THE LAST QUEEN OF MOBIUS HAS
BEEN PLACED UNDER A LEVEL 7 SECURITY BLOCK.  ACCESS DENIED."
     "Yo, Rotor.  How serious is this level 7 block?"
     "Extremely.  All I've been able to determine is that it's a
very complex numeric code.  I've never gotten very far in
cracking it.  Even Robotnik doesn't use anything more complex
than a level 5."
     "So now what, Sal?"
     "Well, it'll take me a day and a night of travelling to get
to Dragonsnest from here, so I'd better start getting ready."
     "Hey, cool it, Sal.  I can get you there in a Sonic second!"
     "I know you can, Sonic, but you're not going to.  I'm going
alone."
     "Say what!?  Sal, this could be a trap!"
     "I know that, Sonic, but if I have a chance to...you
understand why I'm doing this, don't you?"
     "Bunnie, can't you talk her out of this?"
     "Sonic, if Sally can find out somethin' about her ma, Ah
think she should go for it."
     "But you said yourself you had a weird feeling about this
character."
     "Ah still do.  But she doesn't feel dangerous, if you know
what Ah mean."
     "Sonic, there's nothing more to talk about.  I'm going to
Dragonsnest and I'm going alone."
     "C'mon, Sal, you're going to need back-up!"
     "ALONE, Sonic!"

----------------------------------------------------------------------

                                 Chapter 3


     "I wish Sonic was here."
     Sally took her cloak and wrapped it tighter against herself
as she sat closer to the small fire she had built.  The wind was
picking up in the bottom of the canyon.
     Above her, growing from the floor of the canyon like some
improbable stone plant, loomed Dragonsnest.  It had been the
center of dragon civilization on Mobius centuries before, but the
number of dragons had been in decline even before Robotnik's
takeover, and the few dragons who had evaded capture were in
hiding.
     Sally and Sonic had agreed to a compromise: Sonic would
transport her close to Dragonsnest and then leave.  Which he did
with obvious reluctance.  Sally had no idea who or what was
waiting for her, but it was clear she had to meet it alone.  No
matter how much she disliked the prospect.
     She leaned her back against the stone tower, listening for
any sound that might come her way.  It was not fear, however,
that caused her to wish for Sonic's company.  It was loneliness,
a loneliness made even more profound in a deserted stone canyon,
waiting for moonrise.  
     Thirty feet away, hidden in the darkness, a small figure
crouched behind a massive boulder.  It was Sonic.  Sally may have
told him to go back to Knothole, he told himself, but she didn't
say anything about not doubling back at the first opportunity to
keep an eye on her.  Besides, someone had to make sure that the
Knothole freedom fighters didn't lose the brains of the outfit. 
Satisfied that what he thought he'd heard was just the wind,
Sonic continued his vigil.
     OK, he told himself, maybe he'd feel the same way if someone
came up to him and told him he had a chance of finding his own
mother.  Like *that* had a chance of happening!  For as far back
as he could remember he'd been an orphan, living with his Uncle
Chuck.  Until the day Robotnik took over Mobius and he went to
live in Knothole.  Still, why was Sally doing this by herself?
Sally's usually way cautious, Sonic told himself, but sometimes
she could be so...
     Sonic's thoughts were interrupted as someone or something
grabbed him from behind.  Sonic wasn't used to being lost in
thought, but the figure had crept up on him absolutely
undetected.  The figure then hauled Sonic to a standing position
while Sonic felt the tip of some kind of knife being pressed
against his throat.
     "Is this your idea of following instructions?" the stranger
called out to Sally...in Sally's voice!
     "What are you...No!"
     "You were told to come alone!"
     "I didn't know he was following me, I swear!"
     "Hold it right there," the stranger said, for Sally had
begun running toward them and was now about ten feet away.  "You
know this busybody?"
     "His name's Sonic.  He's my friend...."
     "Looks like you've picked a friend who couldn't be trusted."
     "That's not true!  I've trusted him with my life more times
than I can count.  We fight together against Robotnik."
     "I'm not interested in your little war."  The figure paused.
There was no way to read her thoughts, for her face was once
again hidden behind a veil.  "So you trust this fool with your
life.  Let's see how far that trust extends."
     With that, the figure took the knife away from Sonic's
throat, and with the other hand produced a coiled length of rope
from under her cloak.  She tossed it to Sally, who caught it
before it hit the ground.
     "If you're truly familiar with royal customs, you know how
to put someone under protection."
     Sally didn't say anything to the stranger.  Instead, she
deftly tied one end of the rope into a slip knot and placed her
head through the loop.  She handed the other end to the stranger,
then gave Sonic the center section of the rope to hold.  All the
time she kept her eyes on the stranger.
     "I'm impressed," the stranger said.  "You've remembered
something that has long been forgotten.  I accept your offer,"
she said as she let the rope drop.  Sally then took the loop from
around her neck.
     The stranger coiled up the rope and replaced it under her
cloak.  Then, taking a half-burned log from the fire and using it
as a torch, she led Sonic and Sally into Dragonsnest.
     "Yo, Sal, what was that all about?" Sonic whispered.
     "It's an ancient rite that I learned about.  The royal
family of Mobius had the right to intervene and show mercy to
someone who might have committed a crime.  That ceremony with the
rope was my way of saying that I'm willing to be held accountable
for your actions."
     "What do you mean, 'accountable'?"
     "If you transgress, you go free and she has the right to
kill me."
     "Say what!?"
     "No talking!" the stranger called out.  "And that means no
questions as well.  You'll have your answers soon enough,
anyway."
     Most dragons prefer to nest in the open, yet the ancient
tower was shot through with interior nurseries and storerooms. 
It was to one of these that the stranger led Sonic and Sally.
     The room was more like a barren cave.  Several ancient
dragon's egg shells lay in a corner, lit by a low fire in the
center of the room.  In another corner, Sally could see the dim
outline of someone laying on a straw mat.  The person's breathing
was steady but mechanical, as if a machine were doing the
breathing for them. 
     The stranger threw her log torch on the fire.  It flared up,
and both Sally and Sonic gasped in alarm.  The figure on the mat
was mostly robot--only her head and right arm had been spared.
     "Who is that?" Sally asked in a shocked whisper.
     "Our mother."
     "OUR mother?"
     The figure undid her face veil and slipped her cloak hood
off her head.  Neither Sonic nor Sally could believe it.  The
figure looked exactly like Sally.  There was, however, something
in the darkness of the eyes, the hard set of the mouth.  This was
a person who had seen too much too soon.
     "We are twin sisters, you and I.  My name is Sandy.  And
SHE...she was once Queen Alicia of Mobius."
     "But...but what's she doing here?"
     "She's dying."

----------------------------------------------------------------------

                                 Chapter 4


     Sally had, from her earliest days, been groomed as the
successor to the throne of Mobius by her father.  In her had been
cultivated the arts and virtues of leadership.  It was now that
they would be put to the test.
     "Sandy, she can't stay here.  Whatever's wrong with her, she
may have a chance if we can get her to Knothole."
     "But she can't endure hard travel, and that's what faces us
in crossing the Great Plain.  We'd need about five days to get to
Knothole on foot."  As Sandy spoke these last words, she gave
Sally a look that told her what she was afraid to ask: Sandy
didn't think that their mother had five days left.
     "Sonic, you've got to get back to Knothole.  Tell Dulcy to
get here as fast as she can."
     "You sure about this, Sal?"
     "Sonic, there's no other way!"
     "Wait; who's Dulcy?"
     "I'll tell you later, Sandy.  Then you've got to get a
message to Uncle Chuck; have him come to Knothole at once.  He's
the only one who has the kind of knowledge we need.  We'll also
need a place for her to stay; we can use my hut."
     The hedgehog's usual bravado was gone; the situation was
way too serious.  With a simple "Hang in there, Sal," he was on
his way.
     Only after Sonic had left on his errands did Sally cross to
the shadowy figure and kneel beside her.  Sandy did the same and
touched the figure on the shoulder.
     "Mother," Sandy said softly, "Mother, she's here."
     The figure slowly turned her head toward them.  The face was
sunken, pale and etched with pain.  Whatever disease she was
fighting against had already exacted a terrible price, and would
soon demand payment in full.  Yet Sally could plainly see her own
face in that of the one lying before her.  And even now, so close
to death, Sally could see a hint of what had once been great
beauty in the face of the sufferer.  Sally had never thought of
herself as beautiful--even if she were to admit it, it wouldn't
have been seemly to do so--but she could see it in this person,
whoever she was.  The possibility that this frail sufferer could
indeed be her mother was now impossible to ignore.
     The figure slowly opened her eyes and looked at Sally.  It
seemed that it took her a while to focus her gaze.  Then, she
slowly reached up and caressed Sally's cheek.  Tears began to
well up in her eyes, and the corners of the parched mouth turned
upward.
     "Sally...my lost child..." was all she could manage in a
congested whisper of a voice.
     Sally started to call her "Mother," choked on the word, then
collapsed on the figure's metallic breast, pouring out the sorrow
she had carried for so many years.  It was some minutes before
Sally could pull herself together enough to speak: "I never knew
what happened to you.  I thought...I didn't know WHAT to think!"
     "We were supposed to have been killed," Sandy said, her
voice full of controlled rage, "and we would have been if
Robotnik had had his way."
     "But what happened to you?  And how did you ever find me?"
     "I'll leave the first question for now--it's too long a
story.  As for finding you, we almost didn't.
     "It was about three months ago that the Nomads we were
travelling with brought in a stranger: someone from the East who
seemed too eager to purchase weapons that the Nomads had their
eye on.  I overheard the conversation between the Nomad chiefs
and this stranger who called himself 'Dirk.'"
     "I know a Dirk!  He's the leader of the Eastern band of
freedom fighters."
     "That's what he admitted, after some questioning and after
swearing the Nomad elders to secrecy.  Even then I don't think I
would have been interested until he spoke of a 'Princess Sally'
who was leading another group of fighters.
     "Mother had spoken of you often, so I knew the name.  She
told me how we had been separated after we had been born, and how
she and I had to leave Mobotropolis.  On a chance, I cornered
Dirk after he'd left the elders.  I kept my veil in place so he
couldn't have known why I was so interested in this 'Princess
Sally.'  I could only learn from him that you lived in the Great
Forest, in some hidden place called Knothole.  Then I let him go.
     "At that time, Mother's health was beginning to seriously
deteriorate.  When I told her what I had learned from Dirk, it
was as if she'd been given a new life.  She had to see if you
were still alive, so we abandoned the Nomads and began travelling
to the Great Forest.  We stopped frequently and made as good time
as possible.  Finally, Mother became so weak that I feared to
take her any further; that's when we arrived here.  I vowed I'd
find you and bring you to Mother.
     "I arrived at the Great Forest not knowing where to begin,
and then I spied your watchtower.  I thought I'd hide myself
until someone showed up, then I'd follow them back to Knothole.
The first one to show up...well, I was surprised to find someone
else who was...."
     "What?"
     In answer, Sandy rose and tossed aside her cloak.  Her right
arm, from her shoulder to her fingertips, had been roboticized.
"Robotnik did this to me when I was four years old.  I'll always
remember the look on his face when he did it--the joy he took
from reducing a living being to some kind of machine.  You saw
what he did to Mother--he changed her piece by piece.  It was
painful, and it took months.  He called it 'science;' I call it
torture!"
     Sally was stunned, not so much by Sandy's roboticized arm as
by the hatred with which she spoke.  "You...you must have seen
Bunnie," she managed to say.
     "I guess that was her name.  Anyway, I also saw one of
Robotnik's crafts pull up next to her on the platform.  I didn't
hear the craft until it was too late; he must be using some kind
of silencer on the engine."
     "Never mind that; what happened?  Bunnie tells me you
started fighting the SWAT-bots single-handed."
     "The only worthwhile things I learned from my years with the
Nomads were their ancient fighting techniques.  That's one of the
reasons Robotnik has managed to leave the Nomads alone all these
years, and how we've stayed hidden from them.  I made short work
of the bots--it's easy if you know how," she added as an aside. 
"Then I waited for Bunnie to come to, for she'd fallen and was
unconscious.  When she called me by your name, I knew I had found
you."
     "Hey, Sally!  You in here?" someone called out from the
corridor.
     "In here, Dulcy!" Sally answered.
     "You never did say who this Dulcy is."
     "She's our ticket back to Knothole, and..."
     "Hi!"
     Sandy turned and found herself looking into the face of a
dragon.  An adolescent dragon, to be sure, but it was still
something she hadn't counted on seeing.  Sandy immediately drew a
curved Nomad knife from its sheath.
     "Hey, hold it!" Dulcy protested.  "I'm on your side!"
     "Sandy, this is Dulcy.  She's going to fly us back to
Knothole."
     "You've made friends with a dragon?"
     "Pleased to meet ya!" Dulcy said as she extended a claw. 
Sandy replaced the knife, turned and walked back to where Queen
Alicia lay.
     "Is that your Ma?" Dulcy asked.
     "Yes, and that's my twin sister, Sandy."
     "Oh, wow, I didn't know you had a twin sister!"
     "Neither did I, until tonight."
     "Oh, yeah.  Well, we better get going."
     Sally and Sandy carefully bundled up their mother, then
placed her inside the pouch on Dulcy's abdomen.
     "You're going to be OK, ma'am," Dulcy said as she was tucked
in, then she spoke to the girls: "You two can saddle up once we
get outside, the ceilings are too low in here."
     Leaving the fire to die out on its own, they made their way
out onto one of the open ledges that served as nesting sites.
Sally had only just shown Sandy how to sit in the two-seated
saddle on Dulcy's back when the dragon stepped off of the ledge
and began falling.  Before anyone could say anything, Dulcy had
spread her wings and caught an updraft from the canyon.  A few
seconds later Dragonsnest was just a fading blur on the horizon
behind them.
     "Hey, Sandy!" Dulcy called back.  "You're doing pretty good!
You ever ridden a dragon before?"
     "I've never even SEEN a dragon before!"  It was obvious from
her tone that she'd rather be doing anything else at the moment.
     "Look!" Sally called out.  "That's the edge of the Great
Forest up ahead!  We'll be in Knothole before long."
     Actually, this wasn't the part of the journey that Sally was
looking forward to, for she knew what Sandy and her mother didn't
know: that Dulcy's landings needed a lot of work.  That was the
strongest argument against using Dulcy to carry the Queen to
Knothole, but the alternatives weren't any better.
     Soon they were skimming over the trees.  After several
minutes, Sally pointed out some lights fluttering through the
foliage below, then a fire-lit clearing where Dulcy would land. 
Sally braced herself for one of Dulcy's usual clumsy landings.
She began reproaching herself for the plan but stopped when Dulcy
said: "We're here!"  Sally hadn't felt a thing.
     Sliding off of the saddle on Dulcy's back, Sally and Sandy
lifted their mother from Dulcy's pouch and placed her onto a
makeshift stretcher.  Bunnie and Rotor then bore the stretcher to
Sally's hut.
     "Dulcy," Sally said as she turned back to speak with the
dragon, "that landing was...."
     "Hey, I just hope your Ma's gonna be OK."
     "Thanks," she said quietly, then ran to catch up with the
others.
     Inside Sally's hut, lights were lit, the bed had been turned
down, and water was heating in a nearby fireplace.  The stretcher
was placed near the bed and Sally and Sandy began putting their
mother into the bed.  Bunnie and Rotor helped, but Bunnie's
attention was mainly on Sandy.
     "Oh mah stars, you ARE twins!"
     "Sandy," Sally began, "this is...."
     "We met," both Sandy and Bunnie managed to say in unison.
     "Rotor, could you tell everyone to keep their distance until
the Queen...until Mother has had a chance to rest?  I don't think
a lot of people crowding around will do her any good."
     "Sure, Sally.  And maybe I'd better tell...."
     Rotor was interrupted by the crashing sound of crockery
hitting the floor.  All eyes turned to the doorway.  There stood
Rosie, Sally's old nanny.  She looked at Queen Alicia with wide
eyes, then those eyes rolled upward and she went into a dead
faint.  Sally and Bunnie helped her up off the floor and seated
her in a nearby chair.
     "She looked like she'd seen a ghost!" Bunnie said.
     "She probably thought she did," Sandy added.  "Mother once
told me that only a handful of people in the palace knew that
twins had been born, and they'd all been sworn to secrecy."
     "Well, the secret was safe with Rosie. She never said
anything about my having a twin sister."
     Just then, from outside the hut there was a sound like the
sound barrier being seriously tested.  A moment later, Sonic
entered the hut.
     Someone followed him inside, someone whose body shone with a
metallic gleam in the hut's candlelight.  This was Sonic's uncle,
Sir Charles Hedgehog, once one of the leading scientific minds of
Mobius.  He was also one of the first to have been roboticized,
and it was only by a perseverance that managed to awaken some
spark of his old self that Sonic had been able to free his Uncle
Chuck's mind from Robotnik's control.  Now Uncle Chuck, as
everyone in Knothole called him, used his roboticized form to his
advantage and lived the life of a spy in Robotropolis, keeping
the Knothole freedom fighters informed of developments.
     But Sandy had no knowledge of these things yet.  At the
first sight of Uncle Chuck, she immediately reached for her
knife.
     "No!" Sally said, "he's on our side."
     "First a dragon, now a robot.  You've made quite an
interesting assortment of friends!"
     As for Uncle Chuck, he stood in the doorway transfixed as he
recognized the figure in Sally's bed.  Then, without a word, he
crossed over to the side of the bed and dropped to one knee,
bowing his head.
     "I am at your service, my Queen," he said softly.  He raised
his head and looked into her face.  "I...I never thought I'd see
this day!"
     "My days...may be few," the Queen managed to whisper.
     "Don't talk like that, Mother!" Sally said.  "Uncle Chuck is
going to do everything he can to help."
     "And the most helpful thing we can do is to let the Queen
rest," Uncle Chuck added.  "Everyone except the princesses, go
back to bed; I want to talk to them.  And to Rosie, once she
wakes up."


     The residents of Knothole were up and about even earlier
than usual the next morning.  Mostly, though, they were clustered
near Sally's hut discussing the events of the night just ended. 
In obedience to Uncle Chuck's order, the freedom fighters stayed
outside the hut.  However, as a spontaneous gesture, they began
leaving flowers, fruit, personal items and other objects near the
door and on the porch.  It was clear that their loyalty to the
Queen had not dimmed.
     Inside, Uncle Chuck had spoken with Sandy, trying to learn
all she knew about how she and her mother had come to be
partially roboticized.  He studied both the Queen and Sandy for
some time.
     "This is an older design," he told Sally and Sandy, "not
like the one Robotnik is using now.  He must have used a
prototype of the roboticizer on you and your mother, Sandy."
     "Somehow," Sandy added bitterly, "I don't appreciate the
fact that we were test subjects."
     As for Rosie, she almost went into hysterics when she came
to.  Uncle Chuck was able to calm her, so that she could tell her
own story:
     "I've not seen the two princesses together since I helped
bring them both into the world.  And no sooner had I done so that
this official-looking swine in a uniform walks into the room. 
There were two police robots with him, there were, and what he
says were orders from the King.  He says the Queen and the
second-born daughter were to be moved that night to the capitol
of the Southern Provinces, while the first-born was to stay with
the King in Mobotropolis.  'Security concerns,' he says!  I
didn't believe him for a second, but the King said to let them
go.  Then he swears me to secrecy not to say that two babies were
born that night.  I didn't understand why, but I obeyed my King,
I did!"
     "And that's why you fainted when you saw Mother and Sandy?"
Sally asked.
     "No, I...well, it was the last I'd heard of them until we
received reports that the Southern capitol had been bombed in the
Great War.  The reports all spoke of there being no survivors
so...."
     "So you thought we'd been killed," Sandy said.  "And we
almost were, too."
     "If only it hadn't been for that war...." Sally added.
     "I've got news for you, Sally.  The Great War ended two
years after we were born."
     The Knothole dwellers looked at Sandy, stunned.
     "Mother and I weren't able to learn that until later, when
we'd talk with other refugees we met on the caravans: the other
side had sued for peace repeatedly.  Those reports were never
carried back to Mobotropolis, which continued sending military
bots to the staging area in the south.  From there, they were
being dispatched to conquer neutral territories all over Mobius. 
Only when they were all under martial law and under the control
of the bots did War Minister Julian move against
Mobotropolis...."
     "...calling himself Ivo Robotnik," Sally said.  "I can see
it all now; why couldn't we have seen it coming?"
     "Well," Uncle Chuck said softly, "never mind the past.
We've got work to do."
     Using a diagnostic program resident in Nicole, he was able
to take readings on Queen Alicia's roboticized parts as well as
her internal organs and systems.  He also had Rosie gather
together a great number of bowls to be sterilized by placing them
in boiling water.
     "Why?" Sally asked.
     "I'm going to need blood samples.  I'm also going to need
paper."
     Uncle Chuck examined a number of Sally's books, found
several with suitable paper, then enlisted Tails to carefully cut
along the margins with a pair of scissors to make paper strips.
     Then it was time to take blood samples.  Sonic, Sally, Rotor
and Bunnie were more than willing to help, even though it meant
nothing so taxing as each of them placing about a dozen drops of
their blood in a bowl.  Antoine was more reluctant, but his
initial reluctance melted as he saw the first few drops of
Bunnie's sample dripping into a bowl, and he promptly fainted. 
Uncle Chuck found it much easier to get the sample from the
unconscious fox.
     "This is a good look for Ant," was Sonic's observation.
Finally, the samples were ready and labelled.
     "I don't suppose you have any of the Queen's medical records
on file," Uncle Chuck asked Sally.
     "I don't know.  Nicole has access to the royal archives but
there's some kind of a security block on them."
     "Level 7?"
     "How did you know!?"
     "Don't worry about it, Sally.  I'm going to need some of
that paper now, Tails."
     Cutting a small strip from the paper, Uncle Chuck dipped one
end of it into the sample of Sally's blood.
     "Nicole," Uncle Chuck ordered, "access royal archives."
     "ROYAL ARCHIVES ONLINE."
     "Sally, is there a small opening near the top of Nicole's
casing?"
     "Yes; I've wondered what that was."
     "If I'm right, it's a biosample access port.  Would you open
it, please?"
     Sally did so, and Uncle Chuck slid the bloodied paper strip
into it.  A few seconds later:
     "GENETIC PATTERN CONFIRMED.  LEVEL 7 SECURITY BLOCK HAS BEEN
REMOVED."
     "So THAT'S why I could never get anywhere trying to crack a
level 7 block!" Rotor said.  "It's not based on alphanumerics at
all."
     "That's right, Rotor.  A level 7 is based on genetic
sequence pattern recognition.  I didn't know whose pattern was
used, the King's or the Queen's, but I guessed that Sally's
blood would have enough of either of her parents to match.  Now,
I've got tests to run.  Sally, may I have use of Nicole?"
     "Of course, Uncle Chuck.  Sandy and I have...business...to
take care of."

----------------------------------------------------------------------

                                 Chapter 5


     Silently, the two sisters walked past the curious crowds of
freedom fighters who had gathered about the hut.  "Please," Sally
said to them, "this is something we have to do alone.  You
understand."  The freedom fighters murmurred in assent and let
them pass.
     Sally led her sister, in silence, to a small clearing.  Just
beyond, barely visible through the brush, was a pool of water. 
Beneath this was the source of the power rings that gave Sonic
the added velocity he needed at times.
     But that was the farthest thing from the minds of the two
sisters as they entered the clearing.  Before them was a mound of
earth, at one end of which a simple stone of memory had been
placed.  It was the only such mound in the clearing.
     "My mentor, Julayla," Sally said simply.  "She was a good
teacher; I didn't appreciate until much later that she was also a
good friend."
     "You were right, this *is* a good place.  We'd better
begin."
     The two began tearing at the grass, uprooting it and
removing dirt by the handfulls.  As they worked, they talked.
     "Did Mother ever say why we were split up, Sandy?"
     "It wasn't her idea, or Father's from what she could tell.
He was talked into it by Karack, governor of the Southern
Provinces.  He was that 'swine' that Rosie mentioned.  Because
the South took so much punishment during the Great War, leaving
Mobotropolis relatively untouched for most of the fighting, and
because Karack passed himself off as a militarty genius, Father
apparently trusted his judgment.  Maybe if Father had been more
of a skeptic all this never would have happened.
     "Anyway, Karack reasoned with Father that the royal family
needed to be split up for 'security reasons.'  He must have
convinced Father that, if the royal family stayed together, we
could all be wiped out in a single attack.  So Father approved of
the plan.
     "At first, Mother told me, it wasn't such a hardship to be
separated from Father.  I suppose looking after an infant took
much of her time.  But she said she also wrote many letters to
Father.  I don't think any of them ever reached Father, or if
they did, they were altered to say what Karack wanted them to
say.
     "So long as Karack could present himself as a successful
governor in a combat zone, he had Father's ear.  That made it all
the easier when Karack brought his protege to court with a
petition that he be installed in the War Ministry: Julian."
     "So this Karack and Robotnik were on the same side all
along?"
     "Apparently.  It's hard to say who thought he was in control
of whom.  Karack must have been sure he had Julian on a short
leash; we've seen what Julian was capable of doing.
     "I was four years old when the experiments began.  Mother
began to be sick a lot; I'm not certain but I think Julian was
arranging to have someone taint her food so she'd have to be
taken someplace for treatments.  All I knew was that someone
would come to take her away, they'd lock me in my room, and
nobody would let me out no matter how much I pounded on the door
or screamed.  Only when she was back in her room would they let
me out."
     "You sound as if you were being held prisoner."
     "We were; there's no other way to explain it."
     "And Father never suspected anything?"
     "Apparently not; Karack must have let a couple of letters
get through--enough to put his mind at ease.  So he had no way of
knowing what was happening to us.
     "One day, Mother was brought back in and I was let into her
room.  She was unconscious, and when I tried to move her, the
covering slipped off her bed, where she'd been placed.  I...I
can't begin to describe what I felt when I saw what they'd done
to her left foot.  I thought they'd chopped off her real one and
put a metal one in its place.  I was panicked and screaming when
two bots came into the room.  They took me to a laboratory of
some sort.  After that everything was a blur except for
Julian...and that look on his face!  I woke up back in the room
where Mother and I were being held.  My right hand had been
roboticized.  The forearm and upper arm came later on two
different occasions.
     "From that time on we were treated as prisoners, without
even the pretense of civilized treatment.  From our window we
could see shipments of bots coming in, as Julian prepared for
some kind of assault.
     "Then the day came when Julian had us brought to the throne
room.  He said he was going to 'tie together some loose ends.' 
The first one he took care of was Karack."
     "Let me guess: Robotnik had him roboticized."
     "Robotnik knew all along what kind of petty opportunist he
was up against in Karack.  He would have done Karack a favor by
roboticizing him.  After he was done, Robotnik didn't leave
enough of Karack to pour into one of your boots.  He made Mother
and I watch what happened--I still wake up screaming sometimes,
thinking about it.  Then he ordered us returned to our room."
     "So how did you ever escape?"
     "It wasn't easy.  We were under surveillance every minute of
every day.  Ironically, it was Robotnik who made our escape
possible.
     "The residents of the capitol thought they were safe because
of Karack's dealings with Robotnik, but they were wrong.  With
Karack out of the way, Robotnik had no more use for the city.  He
brought in SWAT-bots and began destroying the whole place.
     "I don't have any clear memories of what happened, but
Mother told me that we were being escorted down a hallway by a
couple of Karack's guards when the palace was rocked by some kind
of explosion--we could never learn exactly what had happened. 
Anyway, in that one moment, the guards panicked and fled, more
worried about saving their own lives than watching us.  That was
all the chance Mother needed.
     "Mother had been born in the Southern Provinces and had
wintered in the palace as a child.  So she knew every inch of the
place, including tunnels and passages nobody was supposed to know
about. She opened one of these and we went inside.  That was the
first time I heard the sound of SWAT-bots.  They were coming down
the hallway, then I could hear the sound of their footsteps
fading as they headed off in the direction of our room.  I'm sure
they were under orders to execute us.
     "We moved along the corridor.  It was darker than night in
there, but Mother held me and whispered that I should be very
quiet.  I could only feel myself being carried onward and
downward, down what felt like a descending pathway.
     "No sooner had we reached what felt like the botton of the
path and a stretch of level tunnel than the ground above us
began shaking violently.  I remember screaming, then dirt raining
down on top of me.  Next thing I knew, I was outside of the city,
in the moonlight.
     "Mother told me later what had happened: bombs had been
placed in select areas of the city and the palace, with the
military bots--now called SWATbots--holding the people captive in
several predetermined locations.  Robotnik apparently got away
after giving the order for the SWATbots to detonate the bombs.
That's how the palace, the capitol and the people were destroyed.
It didn't matter to Robotnik that he lost a number of his
SWATbots--maybe he thought it would look more like a military
strike that way.  Maybe half a dozen Mobians survived the blast
through some twist of fate or other.  Mother and I survived only
because we were underground.
     "We came up through an opening that led to the outskirts of
the city; the city itself appeared to be deserted except for the
bodies.  We were too much in shock at the time to know what to do
or where to go.  We found a house that was still relatively
intact and fell asleep.  
     "The next morning we woke to find ourselves surrounded by
Nomads--apparently they'd come to scavenge the city or what was
left of it.  Because Mother still had some of her jewels with
her, including a brooch studded with gems that was a wedding
present from Father--that's the one I gave Bunnie to show to 
you--and because Mother knew a great deal about the Nomads'
language and customs, we bargained our way onto the caravan.  And
we travelled with the Nomads from that day forward, hiding our
identities when SWATbot patrols came around.  When we heard that
Mobotropolis had been taken and the populace roboticized, it
seemed pointless to go back anyway.  We got used to that life,
but it cost us dearly: we lost all hope that things would ever be
as they were.  And then we ran into Dirk and heard about you.
     "I think that's it," she said as she wiped the dirt from her
hands.
     "So do I.  Let's go."
     Sally and Sandy left the clearing, their task accomplished. 
Sally still had hopes that Uncle Chuck might find a way to
miraculously cure their mother.  In the meantime, they had acted
in accordance with Mobian custom: they had, with their bare
hands, dug their mother's grave.
     They returned to Knothole just as Uncle Chuck stepped out of
Sally's hut.  Sally, despite the physical and emotional
exhaustion she felt, ran toward him.
     "Any news, Uncle Chuck?"
     "Yes, but I'm afraid it's not good."

----------------------------------------------------------------------

                                 Chapter 6


     Sandy and Sally followed Uncle Chuck into the hut.  Sonic
and Bunnie were inside already, and Rotor and Antoine were busy
bringing items into the hut from the porch.  A small mountain of
flowers was growing near the foot of the bed.
     "It was Bunnie's idea," Uncle Chuck said.  "Now that we have
a better idea of what's happening to your mother, Bunnie thought
she might appreciate seeing some of the things left for her." 
Indeed, Queen Alicia, though still weak and pale, was genuinely
touched by the tributes left for her.
     "What IS happening to her, Uncle Chuck?" Sally asked.  Uncle
Chuck paused.
     "Before I explain, you have to understand I only invented
the roboticizer to enable older folks to live longer lives; I
certainly never meant for them to cheat death."
     "What does that have to do with it?" Sandy asked
impatiently.
     "I actually had the basic process worked out a year before I
finally rejected it--and a year before Robotnik began using it
for his own purposes.  I spent almost that whole year working on
one aspect of the process: bioscreening."
     "Bioscreening?"  Sally asked.  "What's that?"
     "A roboticized body isn't entirely mechanical.  What the
roboticization process does is to reconstruct mechanical analogs
to some of the failed body systems, such as wasted limbs, and use
other systems that are still functioning without replacing them. 
The heart continues to function, serving as an electric motor
once it's been adapted; the brain continues to function as well,
though it appears that the penetration of the brain by the
mechanical components had a lot to do with destroying a person's
will.  That's why I ultimately gave up on the notion of
roboticization.
     "But the body of someone who's been roboticized becomes like
any other machine: it performs mechanical functions and those
functions produce waste products.  I found that the early
roboticizing process produced many unwanted elements, and unless
they were dealt with...."
     "Unless they were dealt with," Rotor spoke up, "they'd have
nowhere to go except back into the body!"
     "That's right.   And...and that's what's killing the Queen."
     It suddenly became very quiet inside the hut.
     "Robotnik must have used an earlier version of the process;
either that, or he simply removed the bioscreening capabilities
from a later design.  Either way,..."
     "Never mind all that!" Sandy snapped.  "Exactly what's
killing our mother?"
     "It's...there are so many things," Uncle Chuck sighed. 
"She's suffering from irregular heart rhythms caused by
electrical interference, her lungs are full of tumors caused by
toxins, her liver has been poisoned by heavy metals...there's
just too much...."
     Sandy turned on her heels, hurled a chair across the hut,
and before the last splinter fell to the floor she was gone. 
Sally rose to follow her.
     "Better let her be, Sally girl," Bunnie said softly.
     "You stay, too, Bunnie.  This is your problem as well." 
Uncle Chuck's words rooted Bunnie to the spot.  
     "You and Sandy are in the same position as the Queen, though
not to the same extent.  The blood samples I took from both of
you confirm it: you're being affected by the same thing that's
affecting the Queen."
     "Is there a..." Bunnie started to ask.
     "A cure?  If caught early enough, yes.  The technology to
detoxify your body is readily available.  Unfortunately, so long
as you're part-robot, you'll only wind up 're-infecting'
yourself, as it were.  Unless you were deroboticized, it would
only be a matter of time before your body started breaking down
from the stress."
     "And Mother?" Sally asked.  Uncle Chuck shook his head
slightly.
     "Uncle Chuck," Sonic asked, "are you saying that anyone
who's been roboticized is going to go through this?"
     "That's about the size of it, Sonic."
     "No way!  I mean, YOU were roboticized yourself and you're
not...."
     Whatever else Sonic had to say died on his lips.  Uncle
Chuck looked at his nephew with robotic eyes, eyes that still
showed a great deal of pain.
     "Sonie, I didn't want to say anything because I didn't fully
understand what was going on and I didn't want to scare you, but
I've felt myself starting to slow down lately.  Not a lot, but
enough to notice.  At first I thought it was just my age catching
up to me, but...."
     "No!"
     "Sonie, listen to me!  I had Nicole run a model of the
progression of this...this disease or whatever you want to call
it.  Based on what she said, and after analyzing my own blood
sample, I've still got about three more good years left in me
before...."
     "Oh, Uncle Chuck, no," Sally whispered.  She walked up to
him and put her arms around him.  Then she asked, "What about the
others?"
     "Nicole estimates that within five years..."  He couldn't
finish the sentence.  Rotor grabbed a chair and Uncle Chuck sat
down heavily.  "Within five years, anywhere from a third to one
half of the roboticized Mobians will be dead or dying.  Inside of
ten years, nobody who was fully roboticized will be left."  The
silence in the hut deepened.
     "What have I done?" Uncle Chuck wailed, burying his face in
his hands, "what have I done?"
     It was the faintest of whispers that caught his attention. 
The Queen was calling his name.  He approached Queen Alicia and
knelt next to her bed.  The Queen placed her hand on his own.
     "It's not...your fault.  This...is Julian's evil.  It is
not...your fault."
     Bunnie turned and left the hut in a daze.  She wandered out
toward the river that ran next to Knothole, and the bridge that
spanned it.  She could see someone standing at the middle of the
bridge, looking down at the flowing water.  It was Sandy.  Bunnie
walked over to her.
     "You OK, Sandy?" she asked.  Sandy didn't say anything for a
minute, until she drew back her cloak.
     "You see this scar tissue, just where the robot arm ends?"
     "Uh huh."
     "One day, when I must have been about eight years old, I
felt that the Nomad children had called me 'monster hand' for the
last time.  I snuck a knife out of one of the tents, took it with
me to a secluded spot, and started cutting my arm off.  I bit my
lip raw trying not to scream out from the pain.  I never finished
the job; I passed out from loss of blood, and that's how they
found me.  They told me I almost died that day; I told them I
wished I had."
     She turned.  "Bunnie, I don't know how you manage to keep
from killing yourself."
     Bunnie didn't answer, because she didn't have an answer. 
Mercifully, she was spared from having to answer the question,
for Tails walked up to her.  He looked unusually sullen.
     "Somethin' the matter, honey?" Bunnie asked.
     "I just don't know why everyone's acting so strange, Aunt
Bunnie.  I mean, I know that it's sad that the Queen's gonna die,
but how come everybody's so weirded out about it?  It's...."
     "Scary, right?"
     "Yeah," he said in a near-whisper, glad that someone else
could talk about the feeling he wasn't about to admit himself.
     Bunnie thought for a few seconds.  "Maybe Ah can explain it.
You remember what happened last winter, when Sonic had to stay
with Antoine until he could get his place rebuilt after Dulcy
landed on it?"
     "Yeah!" Tails laughed.  "Antoine really got bent out of
shape!  You could hear him yelling at Sonic all over Knothole."
     "That's 'cuz Antoine got used to livin' a certain way, and
when he had to get used to Sonic's way of livin', he couldn't
handle it."
     "But what's that got to do with the way everyone's been
acting?"
     "Well, honey, we all of us get used to life, and when we're
reminded that we're all gonna have to stop livin' one day, then
it's our turn to get bent out of shape.  See what Ah mean?"
     "I think so.  Thanks, Aunt Bunnie."  He smiled, kissed
Bunnie on the cheek, and was off.
     "Why 'Aunt Bunnie?'" Sandy asked.
     "Oh, that's jes' what he calls me, same as he calls Sally
'Aunt Sally.'"  Bunnie paused.  "Y'know, Sandy, that may be the
answer to your question."
     "What is?"
     "Well, you can see we're not like any fancy kinda army here.
It feels more like...like a family.  After all, we all lost our
real families when Robotnik took over and roboticized 'em.  We
don't have any kin of our own left, so we have to be kin to each
other.  Ah think that's what keeps us going."
     "I see.  Well, maybe I'll find something to keep *me*
going."
     "Ah hope so."
     "You'll excuse me, I'm going for a walk."
     Sandy walked to the end of the bridge, then turned and began
walking along the bank of the river.  She studied the bank
intently, as if looking for something.  Occasionally she would
reach into the water and pull out a small stone from the river
bed.  The first few stones she tossed back into the water.
Finally, she found one that suited some purpose of hers.  Sitting
on the riverbank, she pulled out her knife and slowly and
methodically began running the stone against the blade.  She
didn't stop until the blade was as sharp as a scalpel.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

                                 Chapter 7


     It was difficult to say whether any day in Robotropolis was
a "good day."  It was difficult enough to tell if it was day at
all.  A pall of pollution perpetually hung over the city,
produced by Robotnik's various factories and generators.  To
fight against this darkness, lights blazed continually across the
city.  The result was that the city knew neither day nor night in
the accepted sense; instead, it existed in a sick, perpetual
twilight.
     No, it wasn't easy to say whether any day was a good day in
Robotropolis, but for one of its two human inhabitants, it was
shaping up to be a very bad day indeed.
     It had started out well enough for Snively, nephew of Dr.
Robotnik and now his longsuffering lackey.  The day before had
been the day to test a new development: a "whisper technology"
filter that could be retrofitted to Robotnik's hover units.  With
the filters in place, the hover units would be almost completely
silent.  With this advantage, it was thought that Robotnik could
get the drop on the Knothole freedom fighters once and for all.
Even Robotnik's arch-nemesis, Sonic the Hedgehog, would be caught
completely off guard.
     That was Snively's hope, and it appeared that that hope
would be realized.  The onboard camera recorded the hover unit's
approach to the Great Forest where, somewhere, the freedom
fighters had their hiding place.  Luckily, there was a fog that
morning, so Snively let the hover unit come in on instruments. 
And in another stroke of good fortune, a recent reconaissance
photo showed something like a lookout post in the area.  And most
fortunate of all, that morning one of the Knothole freedom
fighters--the files showed that her name was Bunnie--was filmed
on infrared climbing onto the platform, completely unaware of the
hover unit.
     This was too much of a temptation to pass up.  Snively
ordered that the hover unit with its compliment of eight SWATbots
should pull up to the platform, take Bunnie prisoner and return
to base.  This would be a crowning moment: a successful test of
the hover technology would be sweet enough, but the capture of
one of the Knothole renegades would be even sweeter.  Snively
watched with mounting glee as he switched to the outboard camera,
recording the first SWATbot's moves to apprehend Bunnie.
     And then something went very, very wrong.
     The next thing Snively knew, all eight SWATbots had left the
ship but none had returned.  He set all cameras to record what
was happening and watched the monitors as best he could.  It was
apparent that the weight of the SWATbots had collapsed a portion
of the platform, but that only accounted for some of the eight
bots going offline.  Something had happened to the others,
something that was so unplanned for and that happened so fast
that it served to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
     When Snively realized that all eight SWATbots were offline,
he quickly scanned the forest floor.  There was not enough room
for the hover unit to maneuver and with the fog he wasn't able to
see as much as he'd wanted to.  He thought he recorded an image
of Bunnie on the ground, either unconscious or dead, but the fog
made positive identification hopeless.  There was nothing left to
do but to manually recall the empty hover unit and examine the
film.
     Snively had just finished doing so and, still not quite
believing what he had seen, was on his way to report the news to
Dr. Robotnik.  This was not, he said to himself, going to be a
good day.
     At the threshold of Robotnik's briefing room he paused to
make sure his clothes were in order.  No point compounding
ineptitude with shabbiness.  He stepped inside.
     "I've read your preliminary report," Robotnik said in a low
rumble of a voice, which came out as a kind of growl.  "Why did
you fail me?"
     "It wasn't quite a failure, Sir.  The whisper technology on
the hover unit worked beyond all expectations of...."
     "I don't care about the whisper technology on the hover
unit; I want to know what happened to my SWATbots!!"
     "Y-yes, Sir.  Beginning analysis of surveillance film, Sir."
     The image from the film filled a large screen at one end of
the room.  The image was a little grainy and monochrome, but it
clearly showed Bunnie climbing the rope ladder, unaware of the
hover unit not far from her.
     At the sight of her, Robotnik clenched the fist of his own
roboticized left arm.  He didn't like any of the freedom
fighters, least of all the hedgehog, but the sight of Bunnie
particularly vexed him.  She represented unfinished business.  He
*hated* unfinished business.
     The film rolled on, the camera drawing closer and closer to
the unsuspecting Bunnie.  There was a jump in the film as the
outboard camera clicked in.  They could see the first SWATbot
advancing towards Bunnie.
     There was a blur as someone or something dropped down behind
the bot.  The shadowy figure could then be seen holding a tree
branch and swinging it at the bot.  The SWATbot's head came away
from its body cleanly.
     Then a second SWATbot stepped into the camera, obscuring the
sight of the figure.  But not for long; the figure was soon
visible again, through a hole punched into the bot's midsection. 
The bot then crumbled.
     Other bots filled the camera's field of vision, though most
of them dropped out of the picture as the platform section they
were standing on gave way beneath their collective weight.  The
shadowy figure, on the other hand, appeared to be dangling from a
rope around its waist.  It seemed to make a grab at someone,
Bunnie probably, but could not hold on.  The image was lighted by
a SWATbot blast, and the figure swung out of camera range.
     The camera followed her with an unsteady movement.  By the
time it settled on her, there were two SWATbots standing in front
of her and two more in pieces at her feet.  Maybe three seconds
had passed.
     Robotnik studied the view screen, his brow furrowing above
his dark eyes.  Suddenly he sat upright.  The figure on the
screen had shed her cape, but had left her veil and headdress in
place.  
     "Snively!  Freeze that image!!"
     Rushing to the controls, Snively halted the action on
screen.  The figure was a blur, but some things could be made
out: it wore a belt from which hung a number of objects, only a
few of them recognizable to Robotnik.  She also wore boots, which
were little better than yards of rags wrapped around her feet.  
     And then there was that right arm.  Even on the surveillance
film it was clear to tell that it was a robot arm.
     "Snively!  Enhance the view of that arm!"
     "Right away, Sir."  He adjusted the controls and the image
was blown up to twice its size.
     "Larger, Snively!"
     "But Sir, we're starting to lose resolution as it is."
     Robotnik studied the image for a few silent seconds.
     "Never mind, then," he said with a casual air that stunned
Snively.  "Continue showing the film."
     "Y-yes Sir." Bewildered, Snively complied.
     It only took another five seconds for the figure to disable
the last two bots: the first bot had one of its legs torn off,
and the other crumpled after a maneuver that caused both Robotnik
and Snively to wince in pain.  Then she was gone.  The last
minute of the film was only surveillance of a foggy, and
apparently empty, forest.  Snively hated to see the film end, for
he knew that the wrath of Robotnik was sure to follow.
     "Snively," Robotnik said calmly, "continue surveillance on
that part of the Great Forest and inform me if anyone comes to
rebuild that platform.  You may go."
     Stunned, Snively was not about to question his good fortune.
 "Very good, Sir," he said snappily, and left.  Amazed at having
survived the briefing in one piece, Snively thought that maybe
this was going to be a good day after all!
     Inside the conference room, Robotnik spent the next half-
hour playing and replaying the film.  At the end of that time he
was certain of what he had seen.  
     "So," he mused, "it would appear that the little princess is
back, and in one piece."  He began to consider how best to deal
with this unfinished business.  He *hated* unfinished business!

----------------------------------------------------------------------

                                 Chapter 8


     He wasn't sure how he had gotten there, but Sonic found
himself heading toward Robotropolis at full speed.  Above him,
the sky had grown darker than it had ever been, with the clouds
swirling around in no particular direction, like water boiling in
a pot.
     Jamming past the buildings, he noticed out of the corner of
his eye that they seemed older than he'd remembered, and on the
verge of falling apart.  "Ol' Buttnik's really letting the place
go to seed!  Well, after today it'll be all over."
     Sonic turned a corner and screeched to a halt.  There was
Robotnik, standing alone in the middle of the street.  Not a bot
anywhere in sight.
     "This is it, Robuttnik!  It's game over for you!"
     But Robotnik didn't seem very concerned about Sonic.  Nor
did he seem to notice the wind whipping down the streets, or the
mad tempest in the sky.  And when he spoke, his voice was distant
and cold as a stone:
     "You don't understand, hedgehog.  You can't win.  Nobody
wins.  We all lose."
     In that instant, a change came over Robotnik.  Starting
with his feet, it was as if every molecule in his body suddenly
came unglued.  He began to disintegrate, fragmenting into
thousands of particles that were caught by the wind and
scattered.  The last to go was Robotnik's face, with a look of
hopelessness that Sonic had never seen before.
     But then Sonic had something new to think about.  For as he
looked about him, every building in Robotropolis began to fly
apart in a similar manner.  Even the ground beneath his sneakers
dissolved into a black, seemingly-endless nothing.  In a cold
panic, Sonic turned and raced back to Knothole, trying to put as
much distance as possible between himself and the approaching
nothingness behind him.
     He reached Knothole, but he was too late.  The sky above him
was the same swirling madness.  In the wind and gloom he could
see Sally silently sinking into the ground beneath her.  He had
to do something.  He raced over to her, grabbed for her hand, and
felt it melt away in his own as if it were ice.  Then he watched
as the last of Sally, her eyes silently pleading for help,
slipped into dust.
     Then the last trace of Mobius disappeared.  Sonic was
surrounded by a formless darkness.  He felt himself falling--not
falling down or in any particular direction, just falling.  And
he knew he would fall forever and ever.
     "NO!"
     With a start, Sonic awoke from his dream.  He was shaken,
sweating and exhausted.  This wasn't your usual one-chilidog-too-
many nightmare!
     Then he heard it, the sound coming from a nearby hut, one
with lights inside.  A voice...Sally's voice...trying to scream
out the word "No" over and over, repeatedly hindered by her own
sobs.
     Sonic saw his Uncle Chuck standing at the window, looking
out.  He got out of bed and walked over to him.  Sonic bowed his
head and felt his eyes filling with tears, as he also felt Uncle
Chuck's hand resting on his shoulder.
     "It's over, Sonie," was all he could say.  "It's over."


     In a better and more peaceful time, the death of the Queen
of Mobius would have been a solemn state occasion.  The sparkling
white buildings of the city would have been dotted with black
banners.  A large canopy would have been erected in the palace
gardens.  Beneath it would have rested the handcarved wooden
casket of the Queen, covered by an elegant white pall embroidered
with the name of the deceased and the symbol of her family's
house--in the case of Queen Alicia, the House of Twin Trees. 
There it would remain for a day and a night as mourners from
every corner of Mobius and from every walk of life would file by
to pay their last respects.  Then the casket would be carried by
mourning family members into the Great Hall of the palace. 
There, a massed choir would sing the "Return," the traditional
Mobian requiem, in the seven-part harmony reserved for the
occasion.  Finally, the pall would slowly be raised to the
ceiling of the Great Hall, where it would hang as a banner from
that day forward, while the body of the Queen would have been
laid to rest in the royal burial chamber beneath the palace.
     But there was no more palace, no more city, no world as it
once had been.  Still, the Queen was dead.
     As dawn broke over Knothole, it was clear that nobody was
asleep.  Everyone knew what had happened during the night and
they were now outdoors in the cold of the early sunshine,
waiting.
     Inside Sally's hut, she and her sister had spent the evening
preparing their mother's body for burial.  Mobian custom dictated
that only the family perform this rite, so as to put no barrier
between them and their grief.  Even if it meant breaking down in
tears every few minutes, tradition compelled them to perform the
task.
     Once the body had been washed, it was wrapped tight in the
bedsheet.  Sally held her mother's cold face in her hands and
kissed it one last time before it was covered.  Shorter strips of
linen were used to tie the sheet together at the ankles, knees,
waist, below the shoulders, and across the forehead.
     Sally and Sandy each had in their possession a bakhat, a
long black band of cloth wound many times about the waist in such
a way that the ends could be tossed over either shoulder.  For
ten days after the burial of a family member, mourners were to
wear the bakhat at all times.  With this article tied in place,
the two sisters took hold of the body and placed it on the litter
that had been used to bring the Queen into the hut.  Someone had
left a quilted comforter on the porch, and this was draped over
the body; this was the most fitting pall they could find.  Then
the two sister began to bear the body to its final resting place.
     Outside, they passed the Knothole freedom fighters, gathered
silently in two rows to watch the body pass by.  As the
sisters walked past, the mourners formed a line behind the body,
moving in solemn procession.  Rotor stood with cap in hand and
with his head bowed.  Sonic saw Tails standing next to him and
looking up at the hedgehog with pleading eyes.  Sonic guessed at
Tails' unasked question and gently said: "Hey, it's cool to cry." 
And as Tails did so, Sonic did something he hadn't done since
Tails was a cub: he picked up the heartbroken fox and cradled him
in his arms.
     As Sally and Sandy neared the grave site, there was a
rustling of the bushes nearby.  They parted, and into the
clearing stepped Lupe' and the other members of the Wolf Pack
freedom fighters.  As they did so, they each dropped to one knee
as the body passed by.  Bunnie smiled, glad that her message to
Lupe' had reached her in time and that the Wolf Pack had been
able to come.
     At the grave, the ceremony continued in silence.  Sally and
Sandy each unwould the bakhat from around their waist and slid it
under the body.  With these they lowered the body of Queen Alicia
into the ground, thus recalling the ritual item's origin.
     There was nothing more for Sally and Sandy to do.  Custom
dictated that theirs was not the task of filling in the grave.
That was left to the others who, one handful of dirt at a time,
solemnly buried their Queen.  As they did, many of them came over
to Sally and embraced her.  The Wolf Pack let out a mourning
howl.  And Antoine, wearing his finest dress uniform, stood
saluting at the graveside, his body at rigid attention except
that his shoulders heaved with sobs and his face was contorted
with grief.  He was torn between duty and emotion, and Sonic
later said it made him look ridiculous.  "Ah know," Bunnie said,
"and that's what made it so sweet."  Few noticed it at the time,
but there was a calmness about Sandy, a serenity that was not at
all reassuring.


     Bunnie was taking a big chance, but she quietly rapped on
the door of Sally's hut.
     Nothing had been seen of Sally or Sandy since the burial
earlier that morning, for custom dictated that the family go into
seclusion for a day and a night.  Still, Bunnie felt she had to
talk to someone, and could think of no one better than her best
friend.  When there was no answer, she slowly opened the door.
     Sally lay in her bed, still wearing her vest and boots in
addition to the black bakhat.  That Sally would have gone to bed
with her clothes on was unusual enough.  She was half-curled in a
fetal position, and her face was still streaked from tears
recently shed.  She breathed in the steady rhythms of sleep. 
Nicole sat on the nightstand next to her, open and with one light
blinking.
     There was no point in waking her up, Bunnie thought.  The
physical and emotional exhaustion of the last few days had
finally caught up with her.  Bunnie gingerly started to pick up
Nicole to shut the case.
     "DO YOU WISH TO CONTINUE?"
     "Shhh!" Bunnie whispered.  Nicole repeated the question at
half-volume.
     "What was she doin'?"
     "SALLY HAD REQUESTED A PLAYBACK OF ORAL HISTORY FROM THE
ROYAL ARCHIVES: QUEEN ALICIA'S DESCRIPTION OF HER CHILDHOOD IN
THE SOUTHERN PROVINCES.  DO YOU WISH TO CONTINUE?"
     "That's OK, Nicole.  Just...uh...just mark the spot and
she'll get back to it."
     Bunnie shut the lid and was about to set Nicole down on the
table when she noticed a piece of paper stuck to the back of the
door.  It was written in an alphabet that was foreign to her.  It
was then that it occured to her to look around the hut again.
     Sandy was nowhere to be seen.
     Taking the paper down from where it had been tacked up, she
quietly left the hut and the still-sleeping Sally.
     Bunnie wondered what to do with the letter.  She couldn't
show it to Uncle Chuck because Dulcy had taken him back to
Robotropolis a short time ago.  He said he'd wanted to get back
and search Robotnik's computers to see if there was any more
information they could yield on deroboticizing technology.  Sonic
hadn't wanted to see his uncle go back to living in Robotnik's
shadow, but Uncle Chuck was firm: "Sonic, we're not just fighting
against Robotnik anymore: we're fighting against time."
     A shadow passed over Bunnie and she looked up.  It was
Dulcy, getting ready to land.  That meant anything could happen.
Then Bunnie noticed that Sonic was seated on a nearby tree stump,
his chin resting on his hands.  He appeared to be in Dulcy's
landing path, but was too depressed to notice. 
     Before Bunnie could say anything, Dulcy hit the ground and
skidded to a halt just inches away from Sonic's sneakers.  The
hedgehog didn't move.
     "Hey, Dulc," he said listlessly.
     "Hey, Sonic.  I got Uncle Chuck back OK."
     "Yeah, swell."
     "Hey, Sonic," Bunnie called out now that it was safe to walk
toward him, "you seen Sandy anywhere?"
     "Isn't she with Sal?"
     "Nuh-uh.  Sal's all by herself.  But Ah DID find this," she
said as she produced the handwritten note.  Sonic studied it for
a second.
     "I give; what's it say?"
     "How the hoo-ha should Ah know?"
     "Hey, maybe Nicole can read this."
     "Oh mah stars, Ah completely forgot!  Ah've still got her."
She gave the handheld computer to Sonic, with whom Nicole was
on "speaking terms."
     "Yo, Nicole!  Front and center!"
     "SONIC...WHAT UP?"
     "Can you read this?"  He held the note up close to Nicole.
     "SCANNING NOW."  A second later, a torrent of consonants was
coming out of Nicole's speaker.
     "Yikes!  Nicole, you flip a chip or what!?"
     "SORRY...MY MAIN HEDGEHOG...YOU SAID TO READ THE LETTER, AND
IT'S WRITTEN IN THE LANGUAGE OF THE NOMADS."
     "Well, then just give me a translation; something *I* can
relate to."
     "YOU GOT IT."  There was a pause of several seconds.
     "'YO, SAL.  IT'S PAYBACK TIME.  I'M TAKING ROBOTNIK DOWN,
AND SINCE I'VE GOT NOTHING LEFT TO LOSE, I'M GOING DOWN WITH
HIM.  I'M OUT OF HERE...FOREVER.'"

----------------------------------------------------------------------

                                 Chapter 9


     "She WHAT!?"
     As soon as Sonic and Bunnie had heard the translation, they
headed for Sally's hut.  At first she was still too wrapped up in
her grief to respond; when they burst into her hut she simply
said: "Please, just leave me alone."  But when they told her of
Sandy's disappearance and of the note she had left behind, Sally
was on her feet in a second.
     "This is terrible!  How long ago did she leave?"
     "Ah don't know, Sally, and neither does anyone else.  She's
as quiet as Sonic is quick."
     "That means she's got a head start.  We still might be able
to catch her."
     "Forget it, Sal," Sonic said, "she doesn't want to get
caught."
     But Sally wasn't listening.  Instead she was writing a quick
note, inserting it into one of the mechanical carrier pidgeons
Rotor had designed, and was programming it to fly to Uncle
Chuck's hideout in Robotropolis.
     "You think she means it?" Bunnie asked.
     "Of course she does.  Look at the bottom of the letter.  You
see that smudge where her signature would be?  She made that with
a drop of her own blood.  I don't know much about the Nomads, but
I DO know they're firm believers in blood-vengeance!  She blames
Robotnik for our mother's death and she's going after him.  We've
got to stop her!"
     "Whoa!  Time out!" Sonic yelled.  "Since when are we in the
business of saving Robuttnik's butt?"
     "Believe me, that's not the point!"
     "Then I'm missing something here!"
     "Sonic, I had to watch my mother die and I couldn't do a
thing about it.  I am NOT going to sit around here while my
sister commits suicide!  Now come on!"
     Without another word, Sally raced out the door.  Sonic had
never seen her so worked up before, but he was even more
surprised when Bunnie said, half-aloud and with a broad grin on
her face: "Welcome back, Sally-girl!"
     "Say what?"
     "Tell you later, Sugarhog."


     It took a couple of minutes of waiting for Dulcy's head to
clear after her latest landing.  Once she understood what was
happening, though, she was winging her way back to Robotropolis
with Sonic, Sally and Bunnie on board.  All the while they were
flying, they scanned the open country for any sign of Sandy.  At
one point, Sally ordered Dulcy to land.  Even before Dulcy had
touched down Sally had lept off of Dulcy's back, rolled on the
ground to cushion the landing, sprang to her feet, and ran toward
a small bush.  There was a piece of torn cloth on it, from
Sandy's cloak.  They were heading in the right direction.  No
sooner had the others picked themselves up from Dulcy's landing
than Sally was urging the dragon to get back in the air again.
     In a little while they touched down at a garbage dump
outside of Robotropolis.  This was a common rendezvous point for
the freedom fighters on their various missions.  As soon as they
were on the ground, Sally had Nicole in hand.
     "Nicole!  Display the three most likely routes between the
dump and Robotnik's headquarters!"
     Instantly, a shimmering hologram map of the city floated
before them.
     "OK, Bunnie will take the southern route, Sonic will take
the northern route, and I'll go up the middle.  We'll meet at
Uncle Chuck's; maybe he'll have heard something."
     "What if we find her?" Bunnie asked.
     "Get her to Uncle Chuck's; I don't care how.  Dulcy, you
retrace our path and look for her again; I want to make sure we
didn't pass her on the way here."
     With that, Sally ran off, leaving the other freedom fighters
standing in the garbage dump.
     "You want to tell me what that 'Welcome back' thing was
about?" Sonic asked Bunnie.
     "Oh, that!  Well, Sally ain't been herself lately, what with
her ma dyin' and all.  I was just glad to get the old Sally
back."
     "Me, too!  Good luck, Bunnie; gotta juice!"
     "Good luck Sugarhog!"
     With that, Sonic tore off on his appointed route, Dulcy took
to the air once more, and Bunnie started on her way.
     Bunnie was never keen about coming to Robotropolis, no
matter how important the missions.  The city had changed so much
under Robotnik that it was nothing but a gigantic threat.
     After ten minutes of walking, Bunnie attempted to get her
bearings.  This had been the oldest part of town before Robotnik
blighted everything.  The buildings were low and the structures
square.  Bunnie dimly remembered that the building where she was
sheltering herself had been the old Klein Bottle Works. 
Cautiously she rounded a corner.
     Looking to her right, she froze: the unmistakable shape of a
SWAT-bot lurked in a shadow.  She wondered whether to make a run
for it.  Yet the SWATbot didn't move after several seconds. 
Emboldened, and fervently hoping that it wasn't equipped with a
motion sensor, Bunnie edged toward it.
     Once she got closer, Bunnie could see the hole punched into
its chest.  She could also see another SWATbot lying on the
ground in three pieces.
     "Yep," Bunnie thought to herself, "this is Sandy's calling
card, all right!"
     She looked down the street.  There was something else in the
shadows further along.  Cautiously moving toward it, she saw
another fallen SWATbot.
     "Oo-wee!  This is just like followin' a trail of bread
crumbs!"
     On she went, hiding in shadows and tracing a trail of fallen
SWATbots.  She thought she'd counted seven wrecked bots--and who
knows how many before she picked up Sandy's trail--when she
turned a corner.  There wasn't a SWATbot to be seen, not even the
smallest part.
     "Uh-oh!  Ran out of bread crumbs."
     Suddenly she thought she could hear a hover unit
approaching.  That meant more bots!  She quickly ducked into an
alleyway.  Bunnie was so intent on wondering what to do next, she
didn't notice the metallic hand inching out of the shadows behind
her and getting closer and closer.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

                                Chapter 10


     "Bunnie, what are you doing here?"
     Bunnie hadn't had time to think before she felt herself
being grabbed by the scruff of the neck and being pushed up
against a wall.  But she breathed a sigh of relief when she
recognized the harsh whisper as belonging to Sandy.
     "Ah'm here because Sally's tryin' to keep your hide in one
piece!"
     "My hide isn't any of her business.  Or yours!"
     But there was no time to argue the point, because they both
heard the ominous warble of a siren.  That meant SWATbots were on
the way.  They started down the alley but only got halfway when
they saw the end of the alley blocked off by three SWATbots. 
Turning around, they saw three more closing in from where they
had entered.  The two quickly ducked into what appeared to be a
deserted loading dock.
     "You got any ideas?" Bunnie asked.
     "We're going to have to take them on hand-to-hand."
     "And just how the hoo-ha are we supposed to do that?"
     "SWATbots only have an advantage because of those arm-
mounted blasters of theirs.  They aren't built or programmed for
close-quarter fighting.  They only have enough armour to shield
them from blaster fire.  Once you're in close, you have the
advantage because you've got their strength and they don't have
your intelligence.  Can you kick with those legs?"
     "Uh-huh.  Why?"
     "Aim for the hip.  The seam should pop like a bubble."
     "Yeah, right," Bunnie thought to herself.  "Now the only
problem is gettin' close enough to those SWATbots to spit in
their eye!"
     With mechanical tread, the two ranks of SWATbots closed in
on the darkened loading dock.  "SURRENDER, FREEDOM FIGHTERS!" one
of them droned, "BY ORDER OF ROBOTNIK."
     Closer and closer they drew.  They stopped short of the dock
and began scanning the area.
     It was empty.
     They moved into the shadow of the dock for a closer look. 
They continued to visually sweep the loading dock area, as they
were not programmed to look up at the ceiling area first, in case
a couple of freedom fighters were hanging just out of sight from
a ledge.
     "Now!"
     Bunnie and Sandy dropped down on the two closest bots.  On
the way down, Sandy grabbed a bot by the neck, and the head came
away as cleanly as a grape from a stem.  Tossing the head aside,
she then punched the next nearest bot in the chest, and it
crumbled in a shower of sparks.  As soon as Bunnie hit the
ground, she managed to get off a spin-kick that struck a bot
where its hip would have been.  Bunnie had never practiced this
maneuver and although she landed on her tail she was still in one
piece.  Which was more than could be said for the SWATbot.
     "Great move, Bunnie!  But work on your landings."
     But Bunnie didn't have time to think about that because she
found herself looking up at a SWATbot training its blaster right
between her eyes.  Before the SWATbot could get off a shot,
Sandy dropped to the ground and rolled directly underneath it. 
Looking up between its legs, she jammed her fist through the
bot's crotch and into its pelvis, then seemed to fish around for
something.  With a quick yank, she pulled out a thick support rod
and some wiring which she tossed aside.  The SWATbot shuddered
for an instant, then collapsed in a heap.  "Ah don't blame him!"
Bunnie thought.  That left two bots standing.
     "Duck behind one!" Sandy called out.  "They won't target
each other!"
     Bunnie did so, and while the bot swung around to re-
establish the target on Bunnie, she used her own robotic arm to
punch a hole in the bot.  It was incredibly easy...and it was
also a rush!
     Then she saw the last standing SWATbot drawing a bead on
Sandy.  Emboldened by her victories, she ran to the bot and
grabbed it by the arm.  The instant she did so, Sandy grabbed the
other arm.
     "Make a wish!"
     The two arms of the bot came away cleanly.  Its head spun
and it sputtered sparks for a second before going offline.
     "All right!" Bunnie shouted.  Sandy, however, was in no mood
to high-five her partner, for she saw that the alley had been
blockaded again by another half-dozen SWAT-bots.  The two ducked
back into the shadows to wait for them.  A minute later they were
still waiting.  The SWATbots weren't advancing.
     "Why do Ah have a bad feelin' 'bout this?"
     Bunnie didn't have to wait long, for almost instantly, the
door to the loading dock swung open and the two were drawn into
the darkness of the building by an irresistable force.  They
hurtled through the darkness, finally coming to rest with a bone-
jarring thud against a huge metallic surface: a plate magnet.  It
held them fast by their roboticized parts.
     "Ladies, so nice of you to drop in."
     Bunnie and Sandy looked up.  In an observation room near the
ceiling of the chamber stood Robotnik.  He leaned into a
microphone.
     "Snively, restrain the prisoners.  And wait until the magnet
has powered down."
     The lights came up in the room--little more than a storeroom
with pipes and conduits running along the ceiling--and Snively
walked over to a nearby control panel.  Pulling down on a large
lever, Sandy and Bunnie could hear the hum of the electromagnet
begin to diminish.  Even before it loosed their grip on them,
Snively was approaching them with a blaster in one hand and two
sets of shackles in the other.  They were bound with their hands
behind their backs and frisked for weapons.  Snively took two
knives from Sandy: her curved Nomad blade and a second, longer,
straight-edged knife.
     "My, my," Robotnik said as he entered the room, "didn't your
mother ever teach you that little girls shouldn't play with sharp
objects?  By the way, how is your mother?"
     "If I wasn't wearing these restraints," Sandy spat back,
"I'd arrange a face-to-face meeting!"
     "I see; my sympathies," he said with absolutely no trace of
sincerity.
     "You'll be in need of sympathy yourself one of these days:
that robotic arm of yours is killing you."
     "Oh, no.  We get along quite nicely."
     "It's the truth!  It's slowly poisoning you!"
     "And you want to put me out of my impending misery.  How
thoughtful.  No, I have other plans.  Snively, prepare the
roboticizer."
     "At once, Sir."  
     Just as Snively was leaving the room, Sally and Bunnie heard
the tramp of SWATbots.  The six that had been cordoning off the
alley had followed them down the tunnel, and the door to the room
had shut behind them.
     "As you so ably demonstrated just now, my SWAT-bots are
somewhat lacking in your fighting expertise.  But you, Princess
Sandy, will make an excellent commander of my forces, once you
have been totally roboticized so as to answer to my bidding.  I
can use someone who knows the fighting skills of the Nomads.  And
just think of the irony: the army that finally destroys the
Knothole freedom fighters will be led by Princess Sally's own
sister!
     "And as for you," he said as he turned his attention to
Bunnie, "you won't be roboticized just yet--not until you've told
me everything I want to know about Knothole."
     "In your dreams, Robotnik!"
     "Do you know what I dream of, my dear?  Ways of extracting
information from reluctant forest folk such as yourself.  You
WILL tell me what I want to know.  And I can assure you that the
method I will use to learn what I want to know from you will be
slower and more painful than necessary."

----------------------------------------------------------------------

                                Chapter 11


     "You need to work on your party manners, Robuttnik!"
     Robotnik turned around.  Standing just behind the rank of
SWATbots at his back, as if he'd materialized out of thin air,
stood Sonic.
     "Sugarhog!"
     "Business before pleasure, I'm afraid: GET THAT HEDGEHOG!!!"
     In an instant, the Chase was on.  Sonic never really
admitted it to anyone but this was not only what he was best at,
but what he lived for.  Running for running's sake was a rush,
but to pour it on as fast as he could while staying one
split-second ahead of Robotnik's SWATbots--he never tired of it. 
     Of course, he never took risks without a reason...at least,
that's what he told Sally whenever she'd scold him for his
reckless conduct.  Even now his dashing about the chamber had a
purpose.  It kept Robotnik and his SWATbots from focusing their
attention on a service duct near the ceiling.  It was the duct by
which he had entered the room.  And it was from this duct that a
long strip of black cloth now hung down.  It was Sally's bakhat,
and Sally was rappelling down it to the floor of the room.  In a
second, she was undoing the restraints on Sandy and Bunnie.
     "How'd you find us, Sally-girl?"
     "Uncle Chuck picked up a dispatch call for SWATbot
reinforcements.  Now come on," she urged, "we've got to get out
of here!"
     But once Sandy was freed from the restraint, she shoved
Sally to the side, drew a third knife that had been concealed in
her boot, and ran straight for Robotnik.
     But one of the SWATbots had detected her sudden movement. 
It only took the bot a second to lock onto Sandy and fire.  The
blast hit her in her right arm.  Crying out in pain, she fell to
the floor.
     "SANDY!!"
     Sally and Bunnie dashed to Sandy's side while Sonic got
right in the SWATbot's face.
     "Hey, that's no way to treat a lady!"
     The taunt worked; the SWATbot's attention was back on Sonic
and away from Sandy, who was being helped up to a kneeling
position.
     "My arm!" she gasped.  "Can't move it.  Blast must have
shorted it out."
     "Can you stand?" Sally asked.
     "Don't think so.  Feels like it weighs a ton!"
     "That's it, Sandy-girl.  You are out of the game!"
     And with that, Bunnie used her own robotic arm to toss Sandy
over her shoulder like a sack.  With the helpless Sandy in tow,
Bunnie and Sally headed for the bakhat and began climbing, while
Sonic continued to use a combination of speed and taunts to keep
Robotnik and his SWATbots occupied.  So consuming was Robotnik's
hatred for Sonic that he had no idea that his other prisoners
were escaping.  Finally, Sonic came to ground at the far end of
the room, away from the magnet.
     "Man, you're slowin' down, Robobreath!  Want me to be your
personal trainer?"
     "Hedgehog, you've been a nuisance for far too long.  It
isn't worth it for me to roboticize you."
     "Never would've figured you for the compassionate type."
     "So I've decided that I'm just going to have to kill you."
     "Whoa, right the first time!"
     The half dozen SWATbots all drew a bead on Sonic as Robotnic
stepped behind them.  "Any last requests, rodent?"
     For about two seconds, Sonic seemed nonplussed.  That was
all the time he needed to sum up the situation.  From where he
stood, he could see that Bunnie and Sandy were now safely inside
the conduit.  He could also see Sally just inside the duct,
holding onto the bakhat as if ready to give it a pull.  Sonic
followed it down to where Sally had apparently tied it off, and
the old hedgehog smirk was back in place.
     "Yeah, I got a request: smile for the camera!"
     With that, Sally gave a pull on the bakhat...which she had
tied to the power switch of the electromagnet.  It started to hum
to life.
     "NOO!!!"
     It only took a second for the magnet to warm up and begin
pulling Robotnik toward it.  In that one second Sonic had gone
into a Sonic spin, skittered up the wall and across the ceiling,
entered the duct, and was exchanging a high-five with Sally just
as Robotnik slammed into the magnet.  Followed by a half-dozen
SWATbots.
     "Snively!!  Cut off the power!!  Get me out of here!!!"
     But by the time Robotnik had been freed, Sonic and the
others had safely disappeared down the miles of ducts and
conduits of Robotropolis.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

                                Chapter 12


[Note: this chapter contains material which some readers may find
offensive.  If you download this material, you are free to delete
any objectionable portions, so long as you maintain the narrative
flow]


     "OK, try it again."
     A silent tension filled the air inside Sally's hut.  Sandy
was seated at a table, her right arm the subject of intense work.
Rotor had studied it for some time and was trying to get it
functioning again.  After half a dozen adjustment it continued to
lay there, unresponsive to Sandy's attempts at movement.  Now
Rotor had tried totally replacing what appeared to be a shorted-
out motivator located on the forearm.  Sally and Sonic held their
breath.
     For a second, nothing happened.  Then, in a single smooth
motion, Sandy's fingers curled up into a fist and just as
effortlessly uncurled.
     "Yes!" Sonic yelled.
     "Great job, Rotor!"
     "Thanks, Sally, but looks like the upper arm motivator is
going to need replacement as well.  I think I have one in the
storeroom."
     "Not the storeroom!" Sonic wailed.
     "Sonic," Sally said, "go help Rotor look for one."
     "But Sal, if he opens that door I'll be up to my hips in
chips!"
     "Sonic," Sally said deliberately, "go help Rotor!"
     "OK, OK," Sonic said as he followed Rotor out the door. 
     Sally closed it behind them, then turned to face her sister.
"What did you think you were doing?"  she demanded.
     "You know what I was doing, and you can't stop me from
trying again!"
     "Well, I can try!"
     "Can you honestly say that you wouldn't do the same thing if
you were in my position?"
     "Can you...."  Sally stopped.  For a second her attention
was no longer on Sandy.  It was as if she had seen something
before her eyes, something that had disappeared as soon as it had
come into her field of vision.  She turned back to Sandy.  Her
voice was subdued.
     "I...I just remembered of Mother's last words to you.  How
she called you by name and said: 'You are free now to choose your
own path.'  Then she held your hand and said goodbye.
     "Sandy, it was wrong of me to try to stop you.  I'm sorry. 
I won't try it again if you're bent on vengeance against
Robotnik.  But you have to understand that our fight against him
has never been about revenge.  It's been about restoring our
families, our world.  It...I'm sorry, Sandy; I hope you
understand."  With that, she turned away.
     "Sally?"
     Sally turned.  For the first time, Sally saw tears in
Sandy's eyes; Sandy had not even cried at the death of their
mother.
     "I just remembered Mother's last words to you," Sandy said. 
"How she called you by name and said: 'You have understanding,
and you have friends.'  Then she held your hand and said goodbye.
     "Sally, I...I'm sorry I didn't recognize that understanding
sooner.  I owe you a debt I can never repay."
     "What do you mean?"
     "When the possibility arose that you might still be alive, I
didn't want to believe it.  I tried to talk Mother out of
travelling to Knothole to see you.  Even as we made our way here
I secretly hoped it all would have been a lie.  But if we'd never
looked for you, then Mother would have gone to her grave
somewhere in the deserts of Nomad country with a question in her
heart, and the sands would have buried her stone of memory inside
of two days.  Instead, she died with her heart at peace,
surrounded by the love and loyalty that a Queen deserves."
     Sally smiled at the same time tears rolled down her cheeks.
     "You have done more for her than anyone could have hoped
for, Sally.  I am your servant."
     "No," she said gently, "you're my sister."  Sally put her
arms around Sandy, who did the best she could with the one arm
that functioned.  A minute later, Sonic and Rotor re-entered the
hut.
     "Got it, Sally!  It's just take a minute to install."
     "Yeah," Sonic griped, "and I'll be picking computer chips
out of my quills for a week!"
     "So," Rotor went on, making idle conversation, "you gonna
stay around here, Sandy?"
     Sally held her breath.
     "No, Rotor.  I've been thinking about it and I've made up my
mind.  I'll be travelling to the East.  I was thinking of hooking
up with Dirk and the Eastern freedom fighters.  I think I can
teach them something about fighting SWATbots."
     Sally breathed a sigh of relief.  "That's wonderful, isn't
it, Sonic?"
     "Yeah, but...."
     "But what?"
     "Why'd she have to tell Robuttnik about his arm?  Why should
we do him any favors?"
     "Who knows, Sonic?  Maybe he'll return the favor some day."
     "I don't get it, Sal."
     "So what else is new?"
     "Hey!"
     "Look, Sonic, if Robotnik knows that he's being poisoned by
his own robotic arm, sooner or later he'll reach the same
conclusion that Uncle Chuck did: that the only effective
treatment involves deroboticizing it."
     "So?"
     "So maybe he'll begin working on a deroboticizer of his own,
and when he's got it perfected...."
     "Then we use it against him by undoing all the people he's
roboticized!  Hey, I guess that's way past cool after all!"
     "What can I say?  Being way past cool runs in the family."


     "Are you gonna be all right, Sandy?"
     Sandy and Bunnie stood at the eastern edge of the Great
Forest.  It was sundown, and the sky to the east was darkening to
a smooth indigo while streaks of fire still lit the western sky. 
Sandy had taken leave of Knothole, but Bunnie had insisted on
escorting Sandy to the edge of the woods.
     "I'll be fine, Bunnie.  I learned how to navigate using the
stars from the Nomads."
     "That's nice," Bunnie said as she leaned against a tree with
her arms crossed before her, "but that's not what Ah meant."
     "I know," Sandy said quietly as she looked at her
roboticized right arm, fully functional once more.  "Don't worry
about me, Bunnie; I won't try anything stupid against Robotnik...
or myself."
     "Ah'm glad to hear it," Bunnie said as she took Sandy's
hands in her own.  After several seconds she hadn't let go.
     "Is there any chance of your coming East some time?" Sandy
asked.
     "No; mostly Ah'll be right here in Knothole."  Several more
seconds passed, and still Bunnie hadn't let go.
     "Bunnie...there's something...something I've wanted to...but
I don't...."
     "Then Ah will."
     Bunnie then embraced Sandy and kissed her.  She kissed her
hard, on the mouth.  Sandy was caught off-guard, but only for a
second.  She then returned both the kiss and the embrace.  They
seemed to go on forever.  When their lips parted with a quiet,
moist sound, three stars were already visible in the sky
overhead.
     "You take care of yourself now, Sandy, y'hear?"
     And for the first time, Bunnie saw Sandy smile--a smile that
a second later was hidden behind a Nomad's veil.  Sandy took her
bearings from the sky and started out silently toward the
darkening East.  Bunnie sighed, turned and began walking through
the Great Forest to the West, back toward Knothole.

                                  THE END