CAPTURE THE FLAG

                        A Sonic the Hedgehog story

                            by Daniel J. Drazen


Pause for bourgeois legalities: "Sonic the Hedgehog" and 
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, unless you try and make a buck off of
it, in which case drop me a line at drazen@andrews.edu first.  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

     The sun was setting on the Great Forest.  They knew they
didn't have much time left.  
     Sonic the Hedgehog didn't like all this sneaking around. 
The direct approach had always worked for him...well, almost
always...and he preferred it to stealth.  But he knew that the
objective would soon be in sight.
     A short distance away, hidden from him, Sally lay in
waiting.  For her, there was only one objective: stop Sonic at
all costs!
     Rotor and Bunnie were nearby as well, paused and waiting
for some cue.
     At the moment, Antoine was lost.
     "Why am I always to be given such unuseful directions?" he
thought to himself. "If I was not knowing for better or for
worse, I would be saying to myself that I am trying to be
avoided!"
     The light began to fail as night closed in.  The others
would have to act soon, he knew, and he intended to be in on the
action.  But it didn't help if he was lost.
     Not daring to call out and give himself away, Antoine began
slowly backing up.  There was a hint of an autumn chill in the
early evening air and the floor of the Great Forest already had a
few dead leaves which, if stepped on, could give away Antoine's
position.  As he moved back, he brushed against the trunk of a
young tree.  It bent just enough to release a branch that had
fallen from another tree overhead.  The groundfall struck just
next to Antoine.
     "Help!  Help!  It is the invasion!  We are doom-ed!"
     Out of sheer terror, Antoine ran.  It didn't matter to him
at the moment just where he was running to.  He darted straight
ahead and plunged through a bush.  As he did so, he fell to the
ground.  In his fall, he grabbed at something--a small square of
red cloth tied to a stick.
     "Antoine!" Sally yelled.
     He looked at the object in his hand.
     "I have done it?  Yes!  Yes!  I am *triomphant*!"
     "Aw, man!" Sonic groaned.  The others began to come out of
hiding.
     "Bunnie!" Sally snapped, "you were supposed to go for it!"
     "No way, Sal!"
     "Yes, way!"
     "You said Ah was supposed to run interference for you!"
     "I said ROTOR was supposed to run interference!"
     "I thought I was supposed to be guarding the flag!"
     "Some kind of guarding, if you let Antoine get it!"
     "Now waiting a minute!  Princess or non,...."
     And soon everyone was talking at once and the scene looked
like an argument among a group of ten-year-olds.
     Which was only fitting, since they WERE a group of ten-year-
olds.


                                 Chapter 2


     Few Mobians had ever heard of Knothole, and fewer still knew
its precise location.  That knowledge had been reserved for a
handful of members of the King's court.
     The idea of an alternate command post had occurred to 
King Acorn and several of his advisors during the Great War, at a
time when there was a very real threat to the safety of
Mobotropolis.  Yet with the easing of that threat, the King
appeared to lose interest in the concept.  The truth, however,
was something else again.
     He began to conceive of the proposed royal redoubt in the
peacetime role of a retreat--a protected place where he, his
family and selected members of the court could go to get a
different perspective on things or simply to relax.  Taking only
a few into his confidence, he suggested modifications in the
already-secret project.
     While the King was to be credited with the location of the
site (which he had stumbled upon in the Great Forest in his
youth while exploring), it was Sir Charles Hedgehog who had
planned the site as a base of operations, and then modified the
plans for more peaceful purposes once the tide of battle had
turned.  Truth to tell, the layout and planning of Knothole was
more to Charles's taste than the war-work that had kept him busy
and that had earned him his knighthood.
     Knothole had many things going for it even before the first
pieces of timber were joined together.  Located deep in the Great
Forest in a slight depression, it was amply covered by foliage so
as to be virtually invisible from the air.  There were several
small clearings within walking distance that could act as landing
sites for hover units.  There was farmable land close by (equally
well camouflaged) and a river ran along the site.  Access to it
through the Great Forest was almost impossible unless one was
aware of the network of trails and paths that would take one to
it.  To bring any ground vehicle to the site was impossible; it
could only be reached on foot.
     This, as much as Charles's own aesthetics, dictated that the
design for Knothole be one of rustic simplicity.  As much of the
material as possible would come from the Great Forest itself,
with some items brought to the sight (in secret) from the city. 
Work had progressed to the point where a half-dozen huts of
various sizes were finished as the Great War drew to a close.
     But then there was a new development to cope with: one that
called himself "Robotnik."
     Before his own capture, Charles had managed to arrange that
a handful of children and two adults be secreted in Knothole. 
The two adults were women, staff members of the royal household. 
Rosie, nanny for the Princess Sally Alicia, was an obvious
choice.  Sally was, after all, heir to the Mobian throne and was
a natural candidate to be hidden away in Knothole.
     The other adult had been recently retained to be Sally's
tutor: an older feline named Julayla.  She was reserved and, to
those who didn't know her, somewhat intimidating.  What was
intimidating was, in fact, her patience and circumspection. 
Unlike the open and affable Rosie, Julayla seemed at times to be
playing a perpetual chess game--sizing up moves, reviewing and
plotting strategy, seeking an overview of the situation.  She let
few have access to her mind and heart; eventually only Princess
Sally would have that distinction, and she found Julayla to be as
kind as she was wise, as tender as she was shrewd, as empathetic
as she was observant.  This complex character served as a balance
to the simple straightforwardness of Rosie.
     Not that Sally or any of the other children (who were all
friends of hers) could appreciate any of this when they first
arrived in Knothole as refugees.  For they had just seen their
families and their world destroyed.
     They were a diverse group of children, all of them about 5
years old.  Yet at first they reacted to their new situation in
the same way.  It began with a reluctance to talk about what had
happened.  The pain of watching the arrival of the SWATbots, of
seeing parents, relatives and friends being captured and turned
into soulless mechanical caricatures of what they had once been,
was too much for their young minds.  The children pushed the
scenes from their consciousness by day, only to have the memories
trouble their dreams at night.  In the beginning, the woods
around Knothole were filled in the evening with the sound of
screaming as one or another of the children found themselves
haunted by their dreams.
     As the children realized that Knothole had become for them a
safe place where Robotnik's SWATbots weren't going to intrude,
they began to display differing styles of adapting.  Rotor, a
young walrus, was thought at first to be the most serious
potential troublemaker.  He seemed most at ease when he was
destroying things.  It drove Rosie to distraction, but Julayla
counselled patience.  That patience was rewarded when, during one
trying stretch when Rotor had spent three straight days taking
things apart, he methodically made the rounds of the demolished
objects and put them all back together in less than a day's time.
In some cases, they worked better than before.  Julayla explained
that Rotor's mechanical aptitude was part of his way of coping
with the situation: demonstrating some form of mastery over a
world gone mad.  She encouraged him in his interest in things
mechanical and electronic.
     It was a different matter when dealing with Bunnie, a close
friend of Sally's and the only other girl among the children.  A
child of the southern provinces, she had no use for the
formalities and mannerisms of the royal court.  If she didn't
care for your company, she'd just as soon make a face at you than
politely tolerate you.  Yet this also gave her a free-and-easy
happiness that was delightful to behold.  She was extremely
conscious of the natural world around her, and especially so of
her own body.  The women did the best they could with Bunnie,
hoping against hope that she would grow out of some of her more
excessive behaviors by the time she began to mature.  It was with
Bunnie in mind that Rosie and Julayla declared the hut where the
two girls slept to be Off Limits to the boys.
     If Bunnie was hard to deal with because she had not been
exposed to court manners, Antoine was even harder to deal with
because he had.  The young fox was the son of a minister in the
King's diplomatic service; as a result, he had virtually from
birth been exposed to the ways of the court.  In Knothole, he
clung to those ways with a fierce tenacity, as if he had
personally been charged with safeguarding those habits and
customs even if there was no royalty.  Yet if he was loyal to
those traditions, he was also so convinced of the rightness of
his loyalty that nobody could tell him anything.  It could be
almost impossible to correct him.  In time he even refused to
correct his speech--an atrocious mangling of the language by
someone who was not a native speaker.  He would back down when he
had to, but only to the grown-ups; he stubbornly held his own
against the other children and, despite taking his share of lumps
as a result, refused to yield.  Julayla wondered if there were
any way to sift through the chaff of arrogance to isolate the
loyalty beneath.
     Of all the children, perhaps the easiest to understand was
Charles's nephew, Sonic Hedgehog, and that made him all the more
exasperating to deal with.  He was very straightforward in his
approach to life.  Unfortunately, in his quest for the immediate,
he would sooner take a shortcut than not.  It showed in his
schoolwork, for all the children had to spend their mornings in
Knothole's dining hall, which doubled as a classroom where
Julayla did the best she could with improvised materials. 
It was hard to say whose patience was put to the test more during
these sessions, Sonic's or Julayla's.  Somehow, Sonic needed a
steadying influence, and he found it in, oddly enough, a new
arrival to Knothole.
     It was when Sonic was about 7 years old that he disappeared
from Knothole one day.  This in itself was not unusual; he was
prone to making himself scarce when he didn't care for what was
happening.  Yet it was almost dusk when he returned without any
explanation as to where he had been, without apology, and with a
small child in tow.
     It was a fox cub, little more than a toddler.  Yet this fox
cub had not one, but two, tails.  Nobody knew how he could have
been born with two tails; the consensus was that he had been *in
utero* when Robotnik's systematic destruction of the planet and
his crash program of industrialization had begun to poison the
air and sky of Mobius.  The only other clue to his identity was
the name "Miles Prower" written on the inside of one of his
shoes.  
     Sonic finally admitted what had happened: on a surreptitious
journey back to Mobotropolis, he had seen a fox couple, husband
and wife, hide the cub inside a dumpster just before being
apprehended by SWATbots.  Sonic had waited until they had been
taken away, then retrieved the cub.  Sonic never admitted it in
so many words--it would not have been cool for him to do so--but
it was clear to everyone that Sonic's heart had gone out to the
little cub from the first.
     "Tails," as the fox cub came to be called, grew into an
active and happy child, apparently unscarred by any memory of
being orphaned.  He was doted on by Rosie, and treated like a
plaything on occasion by the girls.  Yet his own attentions were
on Sonic.  As he grew older he was constantly shadowing the young
hedgehog, copying his speech and his mannerisms devotedly.  The
women worried that Sonic's ego was getting quite big enough,
thank you, without Tails' hero worship.
     But of all the children, Julayla was at the moment most
concerned about Princess Sally.  She was developing in a
natural, unstudied way.  She had a sharp intellect made sharper
by study, yet she was not bookish; physically, she was strong and
agile, and at an age when she might have been physically awkward
she carried herself with grace.
     But something was beginning to change, and the change was
worrying Julayla.  She could not yet sense what exactly, but it
was becoming clear to her that a part of Sally--a very vital
part--was dying.




                                 Chapter 3
     

     The day's activities had been routine.  The children had
either awakened before dawn on their own or else were gotten out
of bed by Rosie.  They slept two to a hut: Sally and Bunnie in
one hut, Antoine and Rotor in another, and Sonic and Tails (by
mutual insistence) in a third.  Rosie and Julayla knew that, when
the children were a little bit older and stronger -- probably in
the coming spring -- work would have to begin on additional huts to
encourage independent living and to prevent personality clashes. 
Rotor was especially eager to set up housekeeping on his own,
though the fastidious Antoine would have balked at the use of the
word "housekeeping" in the same sentence as Rotor's name.  It
seemed the one thing of which Rotor was incapable.  Spare parts and
unrecognizable electronic components littered his half of the hut
and drove Antoine to distraction.
     The children then went to have breakfast in the largest of
the huts in Knothole: a general purpose building that served as
both a mess hall and a classroom.  Bunnie tended to arrive last,
usually because she couldn't decide which color ribbons to use to
do up her ears.
     After the breakfast dishes were cleared away, it was time
for the children's schooling.  At ten years of age, they were
literate enough in the Mobian language, except for Antoine,
though his grasp of the planet's history was almost as complete
as Sally's.  Sally and Rotor were more adept at mathematics than
the others, and there was no question that Rotor outshone the
others in mechanics.  Bunnie worked to keep up with the others,
finding botany to be her easiest subject.  Sonic tended to lose
interest in just about everything after the first hour of
instruction.  Though Tails would spend some time in the classroom
in the mornings, he was basically playing school.
     By the time noon rolled around, Julayla would signal the end
of class.  From there, the children would tend to their chores,
for Knothole still required a fair amount of maintenance.  The
huts and the bridge across the river had to be maintained, and
that meant carpentry.  Rotor was able to fashion tools for some
of the tasks.  The vegetable gardens that helped sustain them
also needed tending.
     It was at this point that Sonic tended to make himself
scarce.  Not that he was lazy; as with his schoolwork, he simply
got bored easily.  But if Tails wanted to "help," Sonic would pull
his share of the load without complaint.  However Sonic might feel
about a particular task, he seemed to want to set a good example
for the adoring cub.
     Sally, however, would sometimes spend the afternoon in
Julayla's hut.  There they would review old volumes of Mobian
letters and lore that Julayla had managed to save during the
invasion, and the gaps in Sally's knowledge of the history of the
House of Acorn would be filled in.
     As evening approached, everyone gathered in the main hut for
the second meal of the day.  Then before bedtime, there would be
play outdoors (weather permitting).  Lately, this had meant
dividing up to play Capture the Flag, a game of which Sally never
seemed to tire.  Yet lately it seemed that nothing went right
when they played the game.  No matter what team configuration
they formed, something would happen to bring the game to a
premature halt.  Either Sonic would ignore strategy and make some
rash move that would give away his position, or else Bunnie would
refuse to try sneaking through foliage for fear of ruining her
ears, or else Antoine would find something new to complain about,
or else Tails (who was too young to take part in the game) would
give away Sonic's position by ignoring everyone else and walking
up to the hiding place of his older idol.
     But this afternoon, with a slight nip in the air and the
wind sounding through the trees, Sally seemed more than just lost
in thought as she looked at the blank piece of paper on the table
before her.
     "Your first question," Julayla said.  "What happened on this
date in the year 2275?" 
     Sally said nothing and wrote nothing.
     "Did you hear me, Princess?" 
     "I'm sorry, Julayla.  It's just that...oh, what's the point?" 
She let the pencil she was holding fall to the table.  Julayla
rose from her chair and seated herself on the bench where Sally
was seated.  She knew better than to say anything right away.
     "Julayla, why am I doing this?" Sally eventually asked. 
"This would all make sense if I were going to rule Mobius one
day.  But it doesn't make sense."
     There was a pause.  "What happened?" Julayla finally asked.
     "Last night, when I was in bed, I closed my eyes and tried
to remember what my old room looked like.  But I couldn't.  I
couldn't even remember the color!"  She looked at Julayla, her
eyes beginning to fill with tears.  "I'm forgetting it, Julayla! 
I'm forgetting it all!"
     Sally threw her arms around Julayla and began to cry. 
Julayla said nothing and simply held her close.  After a couple
of minutes, Sally was able to regain her composure.
     "I'm sorry," Sally sniffled.
     "Don't ever apologize for caring too deeply, Princess.  You
may go now, if you want to."
     "Thanks."
     "And tell the other children that there will be no class
tomorrow."



                                 Chapter 4


     Sonic drew the shades of the hut and looked to see that the
door was bolted.  "OK, Tails, nobody can see in.  You ready?"
     "Uh huh."
     "Go for it!"
     Tails closed his eyes and his two tails began moving in a
circular motion.  Nothing else happened for a second.  But then
Tails began slowly rising off the floor.
     "Doin' good, big guy!" Sonic said.  "Keep it up."
     Tails looked rather awkward with his legs dangling beneath him
and his rump in line with his head.  But he continued to slowly
gain altitude.  He managed to get halfway to the hut's ceiling
when, exhausted by the effort, he let himself fall into Sonic's
outstretched arms. 
     "Way to go, Tails!"
     "How far did I get?"
     "About halfway up.  You're getting better each time."
     "Cool!  When are we gonna show the others?"
     "Pretty soon.  But it's our secret until then, OK?"
     "OK.  Sonic?"
     "Yeah?"
     "How come you didn't finish your supper?"
     "I don't know; I guess I'm just tired of having the same
stuff all the time.  And I was thinking about how Uncle Chuck
used to make chili dogs.  They were great," he added as he unbolted the
door.
     "What's a chili dog?"
     "Oh yeah, I guess you never had one.  Man, are YOU missing
out!"
     "So, how did he make 'em?"
     "Well, you know what a hot dog is, right?"
     "Uh huh."
     "And you know what chili is?"
     "No."
     "Oh, right.  Well, it's sorta like a real spicy bean stew."
     "Eeeew!  Doesn't sound so good to me!"
     "Well, trust me on this one: it tastes a lot better than it
sounds!"
     Just then there was a knock at the cabin door.  That meant
one of the grown-ups doing a bed-check.  Sure enough, a second
later the door opened and Julayla looked inside.  "Is everything
all right?" she asked.
     "Uh huh," Tails replied.
     "Those aren't proper words, Miles," Julayla said.  She never
missed an opportunity to correct Tails' speech, just as she could
never bring herself to call Tails by his nickname.  She felt
nicknames to be improper, especially nicknames that were so...so
anatomical!
     "Sorry.  Everything's OK.  G'night!"
     "Good night Miles.  Good night, Sonic."
     She waited until the two boys were in their respective beds.
She then extinguished the candle that burned on a nightstand
close to the door.  Once she closed the door, however, that was
no guarantee that Sonic and Tails would go to sleep.  In fact,
most nights it was their cue to continue talking.
     "Where did Uncle Chuck live?" Tails asked in the darkness.
     "In Mobotropolis; in the city."
     "Where in the city?"
     "In a house, a place bigger than this one.  And not too far
from a park with a really neat playground.  I'll show you," Sonic
said as he pulled a flashlight from under his bed and turned it on. 
He then got out of bed and walked to a small table and chair in the
room.  He took a scrap of paper and a short pencil.
     "OK, let's say Knothole is here.  This is the Great Forest
and it comes out to just about here.  Right here's the park and
the playground in the park.  And there's a block of houses over
here.  And...THIS one, from the end, that's where Uncle Chuck's
house is."
     "Cool!  Can you show me where it is for real some day?"
     "You can count on it, big guy."
     Sonic turned out the flashlight and the two found their way
back to their beds.  "Man, this is nothing like living with Uncle
Chuck!"
     "What was it like?"
     "In some ways it was kinda fun.  It was just the two of us,
nobody else.  He worked a lot, and that was kind of a drag, but
we still spent a lot of time together.  Maybe that's why he made
chili dogs: they were real easy and it was just for the two of us.
     "I guess the worst part was cooking the chili, 'cause it
always took forever!  He had to get the spices mixed just right,
and he always used to sweat that part.  But that was cool, too,
'cause that's when Uncle Chuck and me, we'd just talk to each
other while it cooked.  Kinda like you and me are doing now."
     "What'ja talk about?"
     "Just about anything.  And Uncle Chuck never talked to me
like he was a grown-up and I was a kid--the way the grown-ups
around here do.  I think that's one of the things I miss most about
Uncle Chuck.
     "He tried talking to me about his brother a couple of times,
about the kind of life he led and stuff, but I guess I wasn't
paying all that much attention back then.  Now I wish I had. 
'Cause now I know he was talking about...about my Dad.  Only I
didn't know it and Uncle Chuck didn't want to come out and say
it."
     Sonic was about to go on, but he stopped.  Across the
darkened room he could hear the steady rhythm of Tails breathing. 
Sonic smiled.  "Sweet dreams, little bro," he whispered.




                                 Chapter 5

     It was just before dawn when Sally was roused from a
dreamless sleep by a knock at the cabin door.  "Who is it?" she
asked.
     "Get your cloak, Princess."  It was Julayla.
     Sally got out of bed, felt around the side of her bed for
her boots, slowly pulled them on, then walked across the hut to a
wardrobe.  Fumbling through, she found the heavy hooded cloak
that belonged to her.  She draped it over her shoulders gladly,
for the morning was cold.
     "Whuh the hoo-ha's goin' on, Sally?" Bunnie asked in a
sleepy slur of words.
     "Julayla wants me for something.  I wonder what?"
     "Homsanomuh," Bunnie mumbled as she drifted back to sleep.
     Sally stepped out of the hut, slowly closing the door behind
her.  Julayla was already dressed in a long cloak of her own. 
Without a word, she began walking to the edge of the clearing, with
Sally following close behind.
     Ordinarily, Sally wouldn't have hesitated to ask Julayla a
hundred questions: Why get up so early?  Where were they going? 
Did she bring provisions?  But there was something about
Julayla's demeanor that morning which forbade questioning --
which forbade conversation altogether.
     The two walked on for several hours.  Breakfast was taken on
the run, as Julayla and Sally ate berries and other edibles they
found along the way.  This was nothing new to Sally, for Julayla
had taught her survival skills already.
     At last, after several hours, they had circled back to a
large meadow about ten minutes walk from Knothole.  Julayla sat
down on a fallen tree trunk, and Sally sat down next to her.
     "What is this place?" Julayla asked.
     "Well," Sally began, not really sure just what Julayla was
asking, "it's a meadow.  We usually come here to play Capture the
Flag."
     "Why?"
     "I guess because it's so open.  See, if the flag were placed
at that small sapling there, or over by that stone, you'd have a
hard time getting to it without being seen."
     "Princess, when you play this game, what is it you're
after?"
     "We try to capture the flag that's held by the other team."
     "No, Princess; what is it you're REALLY after?"
     "I don't understand."
     Julayla said nothing.  She leaned back slightly and studied
a few small clouds overhead in the sky.  Sally looked too, not
knowing what she was looking at.
     "There," Julayla said at length.  "That cloud toward the
northern horizon."
     "I see it."
     "Do you see the face in it?"
     "No, I don't.  Whose face do you mean?"
     "You never met him," Julayla said as she turned to look at
Sally.  "More years ago than I care to recount, when I was only a
little older than you are now and living in our village far to
the East, I loved a boy.  Juleric, his name was.  He never sought
my heart, but I gave mine to him gladly."
     Sally listened in rapt attention.  The thought of Julayla as
a young girl in love was one she'd never entertained before.
     "He could have claimed the heart of any girl in the village.
When he chose another, it was devastating.  Yet I knew that I
would always love him, and that I would still see his face even
when he was gone."
     "You saw his face in the cloud, then?"
     "Yes.  But only because I carry his face with me.  In my
heart."  The two were silent for a short time.
     "Princess Sally, you miss your home.  I think we all
do.  And yet you still have that home."
     "I do?  Where?"
     Julayla didn't answer the question.  She just looked at
Sally and waited for the Princess to answer her own question.
     "But Julayla, what good is a memory?"
     "That I cannot answer.  You yourself will discover the
answer.  When it is time."
     "Time for what?"
     Julayla didn't answer.  Instead, she rose to her feet.
     "You must remember.  Remember everything and anything.  You
said you were worried because you could not remember your old
room, even its color.  Then remember the shape of the door or
window.  Remember the sounds you heard every day in that room. 
It will return.  And once it returns, you will understand what a
memory is good for.
     "That is your assignment: to stay here and remember.  Come
back to Knothole when you are finished, whenever that may be."  And
without another word, Julayla walked away.
     "This is ridiculous!" Sally thought.  "There's no way this
can help me!  Why should I even bother?"  Indeed, she spent the
first 20 minutes or so studiously and angrily avoiding her
"assignment."  She circled the meadow, looked at the clouds in
the sky, tried and failed to count the number of trees
surrounding the meadow, then finally as the sun climbed to its
midday height she sat at the foot of the willow.
     "This is stupid!" she said out loud.  "Remember this! 
Remember that!  It's all a bunch of..."  She was so disgusted she
was at a loss for words, but she finally came up with a phrase:
"It's all a bunch of...of moonshine on water!"
     Sally gasped.  Her eyes went wide.  She hadn't heard those
words spoken since...since she was a girl.  She had said them
while watching the delicate willow branches as they swayed in the
breeze, branches as fine as...as hair!
     Suddenly it all flooded over her.  She was young again; she
must have been only three.  She was seated on someone's lap,
looking at her own reflection in a mirror as that someone brushed
Sally's hair after her bath.  That someone was singing a song, a
lullaby, about night and the moonshine on water.
     And Sally was remembering.  She remembered that she was in
the nursery, only now she could see it all.  She saw everything
with absolute clarity and conviction.  She remembered every
sound, every scent, every color.  But most of all, she remembered
how good it felt at that very moment, to sit without a stitch of
clothing on someone's lap watching yourself in a mirror having
your hair brushed by someone singing a simple song.
     Sally's reaction was simple and straightforward: for the next
forty minutes, on and off, she cried her eyes out.  The memory had
created a joy in her she had not felt in a long time; the
realization that that joy was now lost to her was too much to bear.
     Finally, worn out from crying, she looked across the meadow
from beneath the tree.  "Anything and everything," Julayla had
said.  What else was there?
     Then she looked at the meadow itself.  It was familiar, but
in a way Sally couldn't describe.  It looked like...like the
palace garden in Mobotropolis!
     Was this what Julayla was driving at?  Had she chosen this
meadow because it was a good game field, or because of the memory
it evoked, a memory unidentified until now?
     This was getting to be too much.  Sally quickly walked away
from the willow and stepped into the Great Forest.  She took one
quick look back over her shoulder at the willow, then turned.
     And now she saw something that almost stopped her heart. 
She looked up at the trunks and branches of the trees as they
interlaced to form the protective shield that kept Knothole
hidden.  Only now it looked less and less like a covering of tree
branches and more and more like a ceiling.  The ceiling of the
Throne Room at the Palace.  And before her she thought she could
see an aged tree trunk shift into the ornate throne of the Acorn
kings.  And seated on the throne....
     "Daddy?" she heard herself say in a half-whisper.
     "What's wrong, my dear?"
     "Daddy, I...I don't know what's happening to me.  And I'm
scared."
     "I know.  I wish I could calm your fear but it's not within my
power."
     "What IS happening to me?"
     "You're growing up, my dear.  I only wish I really WAS here
to see it."  And he smiled THAT smile, the one he gave when there
was a joke that only two could share.
     "But I'm not ready yet!"
     "I know.  But there's nobody to assume the throne as Regent
until you come of age, and you no longer have the luxury of
waiting.  Whether you're ready or not, whether you like it or not,
this old throne is yours.  If you're ready to take it back.  THAT
is the point, Sally."


     When Sally awoke, it was with eyes red and swollen from crying.
She was at the base of an old tree stump, its wood long rotted with
decay.  She looked around.  The light was failing.  The sun was
low in the sky; almost night!  How long had she been asleep?  She
gathered her cloak about her and began running back toward
Knothole.
     Despite all the emotions that had overwhelmed her that day,
Sally felt no fatigue.  In fact, remembering what she had gone
through buoyed her up as nothing had before.  She had to tell
someone!
     She ran into the center of Knothole.  There appeared to be
no activity of any kind.  She quickly walked to the cabin she
shared with Bunnie.  "Bunnie?" she called out as she opened the
door.
     No sooner had Sally entered the hut than the door slammed
shut behind her.  Sally turned, and could see Bunnie in the dim
light.
     "Bunnie, I've got to tell you what...."
     But before she could say anything else, Bunnie placed her
hand across Sally's mouth as if to silence her.  Sally simply
batted it away.
     "Bunnie, what's your problem?"
     "Tails is missing, THAT'S mah problem!"



                                 Chapter 6


     As Sally's eyes became adjusted to the dark, she could see
that Sonic, Rotor and Antoine were in the room with them.  It was
a major infraction for ANY of the boys to be in the girls' hut
after curfew, but that fact seemed to pale in comparison to
Bunnie's news.  "When did it happen?" Sally asked.
     "We don't know.  Last anyone saw of Tails, he was sittin'
next to Sonic at dinner.  He left the table and never came back. 
Whenever Rosie or Julayla asked about him we told them that he
was with someone else who wasn't there at the time--Sonic or Rotor
or someone.  I think we managed to fool them through bedcheck,
but we still don't know what happened to the little darlin'!"
     "I even took a quick dip in the river," Rotor added.  "At
least we know he didn't fall in."
     "Sonic, did you say anything to Tails that might have gotten
him mad or...?"
     "No way, Sal!  I was just, you know, talking to him."  
     "What did you say, exactly?"
     "Not much, just the usual, like how I was getting tired of
the same old thing over and over for meals and how much I missed
Uncle Chuck's chili dogs and...oh boy."
     "Sonique, what is meaning this 'oh boy'?"
     "Well...."  
     "Sonic, what are you trying to say?"
     "It's probably nothing, Sal, but...well, last night I was
talking to him about Uncle Chuck's chili dogs and how he used to
make 'em and...."
     "Sonic, please!  I don't want to hear any more about chili
dogs!  Besides, it's not like Tails knows the way to Uncle
Chuck's."
     "Well...."  And so Sonic told the others of their conversation the
night before.
     "Sonic, you didn't!  Why would you tell Tails where Uncle
Chuck's house used to be?"
     "How'd I know he'd go looking for it?"
     "He's four years old!!  Four-year-olds do things like that! 
Smart move, Sonic!  He's probably lost somewhere in the Great
Forest right now."
     "He is not.  I...."
     "There's more?"
     "I...sort of kind of drew him a map."
     "And he's got it?"
     "I can't find it anywhere; he MUST have taken it with him."
     "Perfect!  You gave him directions to get to Robotnik!  And
if Tails get caught by any SWATbots, they'll have directions to
get to us!"
     "Relax!  I'll just go get him."
     "Sonic, you can't just go walking back to Robotropolis
and...."
     "Who says I can't?"
     It looked like the two of them were two seconds away from a
fight.  That would REALLY have brought out the grown-ups. 
Instead, Sally lowered her voice.  But while she spoke calmly,
she continued to look Sonic in the eye.  "What is it, really?"
     "I..." Sonic hesitated.  "Well, it's just that I promised
Rosie that I'd look after Tails all day today.  And...and I
promised her I wouldn't let her down.
     "Look, Sal, we both know the grown-ups think I'm a loser,
some kind of screw-up.  Just 'cause I don't do well in school or
I don't help out as much as they say I'm supposed to.  I WANTED
to show them I was good at SOMETHING, but...."  Sonic turned away
from her and the rest of the children.
     "It's OK," Sally said in a whisper, placing her hand on his
shoulder.  "We'll look for him together.  All of us."
     "Sal, you weren't even here when...."
     "That doesn't make any difference, Sonic.  I don't want to
see anything happen to him, either."
     "But Princess," Antoine asked with a tremor in his voice,
"for the all of us to be going to that terrible place...."
     "Fine.  We'll only take volunteers, then.  All those who
care about Tails, raise your hand.  OK, it's unanimous.  Get your
cloaks--we're leaving."




                                 Chapter 7

     There had once been only a narrow wooded strip between the
place where the Great Forest and the city of Mobotropolis met. 
Only a portion of the strip remained; the rest had been cleared and
just beyond that clearing were acres of garbage.  The children
stood in the shadows of the trees at the edge of the wood.  Ahead
of them the once-beautiful city of Mobotropolis was lit by electric
lamps that cut unnaturally through the polluted air.
     "Sally, girl, this is just awful!" Bunnie whispered.
     "I know, Bunnie.  Robotnik's ruined the whole city."
     "I'm talkin' 'bout my ears--the stuff in the air's makin'
'em wilt!"
     "They'll be OK, Bunnie, but Tails is what matters now."
     "How come it's so warm, Sally?" Rotor asked.  "It was cooler
in the forest."
     "All the pollution in the air must be trapping the heat from
the city.  We'd better leave our cloaks here; besides, they might
get in the way.  OK, Sonic, how do we get to Uncle Chuck's?"
     "How should I know?"
     "You said you knew the way!"
     "Sal, look around!  Too much has changed!  I always used to
know my way to Uncle Chuck's from the playground in the park. 
I'd climb to the top of the slide in the park, and I could see
Uncle Chuck's house from there.  With all this garbage here I don't
think I can even FIND the park!"
     "We can and we will, Sonic.  For Tails' sake.  Now come on,
we've got to try and find it."
     The children walked cautiously over and around mountains of
refuse for about ten minutes.  Finally, Sally stopped.
     "What's up, Sal?"
     "I don't know where we are, Sonic.  I thought we'd be in the
park's playground by now, but I don't see it anywhere."
     "You mean we're lost?"
     "Not yet, Bunnie; I just need to get my bearings somehow. 
Just give me a minute to think."
     "What if we ain't got a minute, Sally-girl?  Them SWATbots
could be on their way here right now!"
     But Sally was already studying the landscape.  She started
to walk toward the city, hesitated, then looked to her feet. 
Kneeling, she began to clear away the debris.  The others gather
round her.
     "What's up, Sal?" Sonic asked.
     "This pipe, with what looks like some kind of clamps on it. 
I think I should know what this is."
     "What're you talkin' about?"
     "Julayla told me to remember, even the smallest things about
Mobotropolis.  Help me clear off this pipe."
     The children did.  Soon, the top of the pipe was exposed.
     "Hmmm.  There are six clamps of some kind.  That could also
mean...Oh my gosh!"
     "Sal, what is it?"
     "Sonic, don't you see what this is?" Sally asked excitedly.
     "Uh...."
     "This pipe...it's the top of the swing set!"
     "Come again?"
     "The swing set!  Remember how it had three swings on it. 
That meant it had six chains holding the seats.  These clamps
must be the ones that held the chains in place!"
     "I was gonna say that."
     "Then the park...." Rotor began.
     "Exactly.  We've been right all along.  The park is here,
under all this garbage."
     The children were silent for a moment.
     "Man, this is the pits!" Rotor said.  "It's bad enough
Robotnik had to roboticize everybody, but then he buries the
playground under tons of garbage!"
     Bunnie started crying: "I want to go home!"
     "Bunnie," Sally said gently but firmly as she grabbed her
friend by the shoulders, "you ARE home.  This city, this whole
world, used to BE our home!  And one of these days we're going to
take it back!"
     "Really?" she sniffled.
     "Really.  But right now we've got work to do.  Now if this
is the swing set, then the slide should be somewhere over there!"
     Sally ran off to her left, the others following closely. 
She began scratching at the garbage heap again.
     "What're we lookin' for, Sally-girl?"
     "The top of the slide: two curving metal tubes."  The others
began scrounging as well.  In less than a minute:
     "Found 'em!"
     Rotor had indeed found the handrails of the disused slide. 
Sally dug some more until she uncovered the well-worn metal plate
that was the top of the slide.
     "OK, Sonic.  Stand here and close your eyes."
     "Then what?"
     "Then see if you can see Uncle Chuck's house."
     "With my eyes closed?"
     "In your mind, with your heart, your imagination!  Now come
on, we don't have all night!"
     Sonic was taller than he had been the last time he was on
the slide, and he had to bend his knees slightly to take hold of
the railings.  Once he did, however, it all flooded over him.  He
no sooner closed his eyes and held onto the railing than he
gasped, opened his eyes, raised his arm and pointed ahead of him.
     "That's the way to Uncle Chuck's."
     Ahead of them, just beyond where the trash stopped, was a
block of modest homes, homes long deserted.  Some of them were
already partially buried by the garbage.  "Which one is it?"
Sally asked.
     "That one: fourth from the corner, facing the next street."
     "Great work, Sonic!  Let's go."  The children began walking
toward the houses.
     "Sal, it was like I really COULD see it!  That was way past
cool!  But what if Tails isn't there?"
     That was the one thing Sally hadn't allowed herself to think
about.   "Let's just search your Uncle Chuck's house first," was
all she said.
     
     



                                 Chapter 8


     The modest house which had once been the home and workshop
of Sir Charles Hedgehog was deserted.  Unlike the other houses,
it showed signs of having been thoroughly ransacked.  The door
appeared to have been torn off its hinges, and almost every window
had been smashed.  Ducking down an alley, the children made their
way to the small workshop attached to the back of the house.
     The inside of the workshop resembled the garbage dump the
children had just left.  Papers and components littered the floor. 
Dust and grit lay heavy on smashed glass and scattered pieces of
paper.  
     "Oh my gosh," Sally whispered, "this place looks like someone
fought a war in here!"
     "It is looking like the SWATbots, they destructioned
everything."
     "Looks like they haven't been back since.  Maybe they'll leave
us in peace while we look for...Are you OK, Sonic?"
     "Back off!  It's just...dusty in here, that's all."
     It WAS dusty inside the workshop, but Sally didn't see any
of the others rubbing their eyes the way she saw Sonic rubbing
his.  She backed off.
     "What is your planning, Princess?"
     "We can't call out for Tails; the SWATbots might hear us. 
Look at the floor and see if you can find any footprints; it so
dusty in here he's bound to have left some if he came this way."
     "Got it, Sal.  Rotor, you and me will check out the store
room."
     Sonic and Rotor made their way to a room just off the
workshop.  It may have been a storeroom but it was no mere closet;
it was at least half the size of the workshop.  Mechanical
components lay just about everywhere.
     "Oh, wow!  Look at this capacitor unit!  Sonic, your Uncle
Chuck had some great stuff!!"
     "This is all junk, Rotor!"
     "Not after I get through with it.  I gotta take this back
with us!"
     "That stuff hasn't worked in who knows how long."
     "C'mon, Sonic.  I've fixed TOASTERS that were in worse shape
than this!"
     "Worry about your toasters later, man, right now we gotta
look for Tails!"
     "OK, Sonic, OK.  But why do I get the feeling I've seen THIS
thing before?"  Rotor wondered out loud as he looked at a large
box-like mechanism in the center of the room.
     "Because it is looking like every other contraptionation you
have builded in our hut," Antoine said pointedly.  He had found no
trace of Tails and had gone to the store room to tell Rotor and
Sonic.  Sally and Bunnie were right behind him.
     "I don't think so, Ant.  There's just something...."  At a
loss for words, Rotor tapped the side of the machine.  Immediately,
there was another sound, one that brought all other sound and
movement to a halt:
     "Sonic?  Where are you?"
     It was Tails.
     "Yeah, it's me!  Where are you, big guy?"
     "I felled in here.  I can't find my way out."
     "Hang on, honey," Sally said, as she felt her heart start
beating again, "we'll find the door.  How did you get in there?"
     "I finded the place just like Sonic's map said, but I
couldn't find where the chili dogs were.  So I opened the door
and looked in here, but it closed and I can't open it.  I guess I
felled asleep."
     "OK, Tails, where was the door?"
     "On this side."
     "Tap on the side for me."
     In a second the others heard Tails tapping on the casing.  
     "Rotor, can you get inside there?"
     "Give me a second to...wait, I think this is an access
plate.  If I can find where to push..."
     The top of the plate moved in toward the inside of the
machine.  The foot of the plate was apparently hinged, and a
spring at the top was what must have trapped Tails inside and
prevented him from opening it.
     "You OK, Tails?" Sonic asked.
     "Uh-huh.  But I can't get out."
     "Tails," Sally called to him, "you'll have to move away from
the plate."
     "The what?"
     "The...the thing that Rotor's pushing on."
     "It's too tight!"
     "Tails, you have to try!"
     "I can't hold this open by myself.  The spring's too tight!  Antoine,
get over here and lean."
     "Sonic, can you reach around them and pull Tails out of
there?"
     "I'll try, Sal."
     Rotor and Antoine pressed against the access plate.  It
gave, but at the same time they heard a small yelp from inside
the machine.
     "You OK, Tails?" Sonic called out.
     "The door bit me!"
     "Stand to the side of the door, honey," Sally called to him,
"as far as you can go."
     After a second, Rotor and Antoine resumed pushing.  Then, in
the room's dim light, Sally made out a shape emerging from the
machine: a waving hand.
     "I see you, Tails!  Hang in there.  Sonic, grab on!"
     It took about a minute more of pushing and fidgeting, of
grabbing and having to let go, but eventually Tails was out of
the machine with Sonic's arms around him.  Freed of his prison, he
started to whimper.
     "Hey, everything's cool, big guy.  We got you out of there."
     "He must have leaned against that access plate just enough
to fall inside," Sally guessed.  She then cradled the cub's face
in her hands.  "But I'm just so glad we found...."  She paused.
     "What's up, Sal?"
     "Tails, where's the map Sonic gave you last night?"
     "Right here," he said, holding up a crumpled piece of paper.
     "Tails, honey, we have to get rid of it right now."
     "But it's mine!  Sonic made it for me!"
     "Better do what she says, little bro, or else Robotnik might
find it.  For me, OK?" Sonic added as Tails showed signs of
hesitation.
     "Well, OK," Tails said as he handed Sally the paper.
     "Now let's burn this before....  Oh no."
     "Now what?"
     "Sonic, this isn't your map.  Tails must have dropped it
inside the machine and picked this up instead."
     "But what is it?"
     "I don't know; it's too dark to read.  Rotor and Antoine,
see if you can feel around for that map inside the machine.  The
rest of us will be in the kitchen; maybe we can find some matches
in there."
     "Here we are going against," Antoine sighed.
     While Rotor and Antoine once more did battle with the access
plate, the others followed Sonic into the kitchen of Uncle
Chuck's house.  The room appeared orderly, though dusty.
     "Looks like they didn't bother searching this room," Sally
observed.  "Robotnik must have figured that the good stuff was in
the workshop."
     "Yeah, well he never tasted one of Uncle Chuck's...."
     "Sonic, DON'T say it!"
     "What's the matter, you don't like chili dogs?"
     "No, it's just that I haven't had anything to eat since
breakfast and I'm starving!"
     "Well, somethin' 'round here's killin' MAH appetite!" Bunnie
said, her nose wrinkling.  "What in the hoo-ha IS that?"
     "Got the map, Sonic!" Rotor said as he walked into the
kitchen.  Antoine followed close behind, muttering and brushing
the dirt from his coat.
     "Hey, Sal, I found a candle and some matches in this
drawer."
     "Don't light it yet, Sonic!  Make sure the window shades are
down; we don't want to be seen."  After a few seconds of pulling
down what was left of the shades, Sally dared to light the
candle.
     "OK, here's the map.  First things first, we'd better burn
this.  What's that other piece of paper, Sonic?"
     There was a long pause.
     "I don't know, but it's got Uncle Chuck's writing on it." 
Sonic handed the paper to Sally.
     "Looks like random notes:
     COOLANT PROBLEM SOLVED
     SECURE POWER SOURCE
     EXTRA ONIONS."
     "'Extra onions?'" Rotor asked.
     "Yeah, that's how Uncle Chuck liked his chil...his you-know-
whats: with extra onions."
     "THAT'S what Ah'm smellin'!"
     "What, Bunnie?"
     The children did a quick search of the kitchen and located
several bins, one of which was labeled ONIONS.  Sally opened it.
     "EEEEEEEEEWW!  Close it, Sally girl!"  Immediately Sally 
replaced the lid.
     "Man, I didn't know ANYTHING could smell THAT bad!"
     "We've got to get rid of those things; they're rotten!"
     Using a ruler from the workshop, Sally scooped out the
remains of a couple of thoroughly rotted onions.  She pitched
them out of a broken window.
     "Well," Sonic said, "that takes care of the bad ones.  At
least the other onions in the bin looked OK."
     "Sonic," Sally asked, "when's the last time you heard of
onions staying fresh for five years?"
     The children looked at each other in silence, then started
grabbing at the onions in the bin.
     "Sacre bleu cheeze.  They are the *plastique*!"
     "I don't get it, Sal.  Why would Uncle Chuck keep plastic
onions in this bin?"
     "Maybe there's something about the bin itself.  Help me
empty it."
     In a matter of seconds the children had dumped all the
plastic onions onto the floor.
     "Now what, Sal?"
     "Let me think."  She spent several seconds looking into the
empty bin.  She then opened the bin next to it, one marked
POTATOES.  It was empty as well.
     "Looks like we struck out, Sal."
     "Not yet.  Let me try something."
     Sally reached into the onion bin until her palm rested flat
on the bottom.  The top of the bin went just past her elbow. 
When she tried the same thing with the potato bin, however, the
top of the bin came up almost to her armpit.
     "I knew it!  This bin must have a false bottom!  Can you get
me a knife?"  Sonic opened a drawer and produced a long kitchen
knife.  Sally began using it on the edge of the bottom of the
bin.  It slid between the bottom and the side wall easily, and
Sally worked the bottom of the bin loose.
     The children backed away in awe.  Underneath the false
bottom lay a large yellow, faceted stone, about as big as Sally's
head.  It appeared to glow from within.
     "Oh my gosh!  This looks like a power stone."
     "A what?"
     "A power stone.  It's a source of tremendous energy.  Looks
like this was where Uncle Chuck kept it hidden.  That may be what
Uncle Chuck's note meant by 'SECURE POWER SOURCE.'  If Robotnik
had gotten hold of this...."
     "So what do we do, take it back to Knothole?"
     "You know, Sally," Rotor said, "I think that stone will fit
into the top of that machine in the storeroom."
     "Rotor, this is no time to experiment; we've got to get out
of here!"
     "But what if that contraption was something important?  What
if it was something that could be used against Robotnik?"
     "Like what?"
     "Like...I don't know; we have to turn it on."
     "Look, we'll see if the stone fits; then we'll HAVE to
leave!"
     The stone, though sizable, was surprisingly light in weight.
Rotor carried it back into the storeroom, with the others following
him.
     "Why are you giving to him this indulgence?" Antoine
whispered to Sally.
     "I don't know; just a feeling I have.  I think this thing IS
important, somehow."
     Rotor guessed correctly that an aperture near the top of the
machine would accommodate the stone.  After fitting it in, Rotor
didn't even bother saying anything to Sally, but simply turned on
what appeared to be the power switch.
     At first nothing happened.  Then a low humming filled the
air.  Suddenly, there was a brilliant flash as a metallic ring,
shining like gold and light, shot up from the top of the machine,
ricochetted off the ceiling, and landed with a clang at Sonic's
feet.  Rotor reached over and turned off the power switch.  At
the same time something else fell to the ground, something that
had been ejected from the machine just behind the ring.  Sally
picked it up.
     "Sonic, it's an envelope.  With your name on it!"
     "Were you hearing that?" Antoine whispered.
     "Come on, 'Twan, let's go see if this house is haunted,"
Bunnie teased.
     "That is not a thing of which to be funny."
     "Maybe you two had better check it out; see if anyone's
coming."  Antoine and Bunnie reluctantly left the room.
     "Be careful!" Sally whispered after them.
     "What's this thing?" Tails asked as he reached for the ring.
     "Don't touch that, Tails!" Sally cautioned.  "We don't know
WHAT it is yet."
     "Awwww."
     "Come on, honey, let's see where Antoine and Bunnie went
to," Sally said as she guided Tails out of the room.
     Sonic opened the envelope and looked at the letter inside by the
light of the power stone.  "Hey, Rotor, this is from Uncle Chuck!"
     "Uh, right.  Maybe I'd better see what the others are
doing," Rotor said as he walked out of the room, figuring that
Sonic would want to read the letter in private.  Sonic began to
read:

     "SONIE,
          IF YOU ARE READING THIS, YOU'VE DISCOVERED SOMETHING I
     WAS WORKING ON FOR YOU BUT WASN'T GOING TO TELL YOU ABOUT
     UNTIL YOU HAD COME OF AGE.  I SUPPOSE I SHOULD BE CROSS AT
     YOU FOR FINDING THIS, BUT I KNOW HOW UNSTOPPABLE YOU CAN BE.
          THIS DEVICE HARNESSES ENERGY FROM A POWER STONE AND
     CONVERTS IT INTO A PORTABLE FORM; I CALL IT A 'POWER RING.' 
     THESE RINGS ARE USELESS TO ANYBODY BUT YOU; THE OUTER CASING
     CAN RECOGNIZE YOUR GENETIC CODE JUST BY COMING IN CONTACT
     WITH YOUR SKIN.  I DON'T KNOW WHAT EFFECT THE RINGS WILL
     HAVE ON YOU; I HOPE IT WILL BE SOMETHING BENEFICIAL.
          AS PUNISHMENT FOR FINDING THIS MACHINE AHEAD OF TIME,
     YOU OWE ME 100 CHILI DOGS -- YOU KNOW HOW I LIKE 'EM.
                                        LOVE,
                                        UNCLE CHUCK."

     "Yeah," Sonic thought as he wiped away the tears that had
built up, "with extra onions."
     Sonic looked at the ring at his feet.  It gave off a strange
glow but didn't look all that remarkable.  He bent down to pick
it up.
     As soon as he did, he felt something -- almost like a wave
of some sort -- shoot through him.  It was as if something inside
the power ring had found its way into every cell of his body at
once.  It was a sensation he'd never felt before, and it was
wonderful.
     "Cool!"  He had to show this to the others.  Holding onto
the ring, he walked through to where the others had gone.  He
then noticed that the front door was open.  Through the door, he
could see Sally and Tails with their backs to him.  They appeared
to be standing on the sidewalk in front of the house.  He stepped
through the door into the night.
     "Hey, guys!  Check this...."
     He stopped.  He could now see that the others stood huddled
in a small group on the sidewalk, surrounded by four SWATbots
with blasters at the ready.  Sonic could sense another SWATbot
just behind him.



                                 Chapter 9


     "Sonic!" Sally screamed.  "Run!"
     And run he did.  Holding onto the mysterious ring, he found
himself running as he'd never run before.  He was travelling at a
fast that went "way past fast"--that was the only way he could
describe it later on.  The scenery around him was an indistinct
blur of colors.  Nothing looked normal, but it didn't make any
difference to Sonic.  He was incapable of feeling any fear.  And
there was no word at all to describe the exhilaration, the rush,
the joy he felt as he ran.  It was all of that and more.  He had
to tell somebody!  Without thinking, he turned and raced back the
way he had come.
     He returned to the spot he had left but the others weren't
there.  They were about a hundred yards up the street, sprawled
on the ground.  They were covered with dust and their hairs were
going in every direction.
     "Hey!  What happened?"
     "You are what has been happened!" Antoine sputtered.  "You
and your silly showing-off type behavior."
     "Say what?  What's he talking about, Sal?"
     "You mean you don't know?"
     "Know about what?"
     "Sonic, something happened when you ran away.  There was
this explosion and it was as if...I don't know how to describe
it...as if you were pulling the air around us after you!  It
knocked us all off our feet!  I've never felt anything like it,
not even during the worst storm!"
     "And check THIS out!" Rotor added as he examined the pieces
of what had been at least one of the SWATbots.  "These bots got
tossed around like they were nothing.  They hit walls and
lampposts and BAM!, started flying to pieces."
     "But what happened?" Sonic repeated.
     "Antoine was right the first time," Sally said in a voice
filled with awe, "YOU happened!  I don't know how you did it, but
your speed saved our lives."
     "Oui, but we are not being back in the woods yet!  What if
there are more of these terrible things on the approach?"
     Just then, they heard in the distance the warble of a siren.
That meant more SWATbots were on the way.
     "Come on!  We've got to get out of here."
     "But Uncle Chuck's..."
     "Uncle Chuck's will be the first place they look for us,
Sonic.  We'll hide in one of those row houses."
     The children ran to the end of the block, where several old
row houses stood.  The doors had fallen off long ago and the
windows were just empty rectangles.  They dashed into what had
once been someone's living room.  Sally instructed them to lay
down on the floor in the shadows of the room.  Colored lights
from a SWATbot hover unit shone through the window spaces and
danced on the bare walls.
     "Now what, Sal?" Sonic asked.
     "Wait here," Sally whispered.  I'm going to check it out."
     Sally slowly crawled toward the front door, inching along
through the dust.  Tails began to shiver with fear, but Sonic
held onto his hand.  At the doorway, Sally peered around the
corner of the doorway and down the street.  She knew that she
presented such a low profile that it would be difficult to see
her.
     "How bad is it, Sal?" Sonic whispered.  For a moment, Sally
didn't say anything.
     "It's bad, Sonic.  And it just got worse."


     "Snively!" Dr. Robotnik bellowed as he strode out of his
hover unit.  This brought his nephew and lackey out right behind
him.  "What is this place?  It looks familiar."
     "This used to be the workshop of Sir Charles Hedgehog."
     "Ah, yes.  I've sometimes thought that this place hadn't
yielded up all its secrets.  And where are the SWATbots who are
supposed to be patrolling this sector?"
     "It appears that something happened to them just before they
went offline," he said as he began picking up some of the bot
debris.  "I can retrieve their black boxes if you like, and...."
     "Don't waste my time with that!  Something happened to those
SWATbots, and it happened to them here.  Bring in the SWATbots
from the adjoining two sectors: I want a house-by-house search of
this street!"
     "At once, Sir!" Snively said before disappearing back into
the hover unit.



                                Chapter 10


     "We're dead!" Bunnie began to whimper.
     "Stop it, Bunnie!" Sally whispered, for she had rejoined the
others.  "We can get out of this."
     "You got a plan?" Sonic asked.
     "As a matter of fact, I do.  The Willow Tree Diversion."
     "Time out, Sal!" Sonic whispered.  "This ain't no game!"
     "Sonic, that's what I wanted to tell you!  Look out the
window."
     Sonic edged toward the window, keeping to the shadows of the
room.  Sally stayed next to him.
     "Isn't the street from here to Uncle Chuck's workshop about
the same size as the southern meadow?"
     "Yeah, sort of."
     "And the door is exactly where the willow tree stands."
     "Hey, yeah!  And that mailbox is about where the old stump
is!"
     "That's what Julayla was trying to show me: that I've been
rebuilding Mobotropolis all along, carrying it in my mind.  Even
when we were playing Capture The Flag, it was our way of
practicing to take Mobotropolis back.  And now that we're here,
we just have to remember how we practiced it."
     "You think this'll work, Sal?" Rotor asked.
     "With one or two modifications, it should work perfectly. 
Sonic, check to see if the alley behind these houses is clear. 
Bunnie and Antoine, you'll be running the play."
     "Can I help too, Aunt Sally?"
     "You bet, Tails!" Sonic said.
     "Sonic, he's too young to be taking chances like that!"
     "News flash, Sal: we're ALL too young!  Besides, we've been
working on a little...surprise."

     "Ah, here come my SWATbots now," Robotnik said as two hover
units landed.  Their doors opened and two SWATbots emerged from
each craft.
     "Snively!"
     "Yes, sir."
     "Deploy the SWATbots along both sides of this street, two to
a block.  Have them search every...."
     Robotnik's instructions were interrupted as he looked down
what he thought was a deserted street.  Something moved.  It
was small, about the size of a young fox, and it moved fast.  It
darted out of a doorway and then darted into another one just a
few feet down the street.
     "Did you see that, Snively?"
     "Yes, sir."
     "Then send the SWATbots after it!"
     "At once, sir."
     But before Snively could do so, another figure -- this one
more like a young rabbit -- emerged from yet another doorway in
the same block of row houses.  Once more, it ran a short distance
before ducking into yet another doorway.
     "I'm...awaiting your orders, sir," Snively said with some
nervousness.
     "There appears to be more than one intruder, and they're
moving away from Sir Charles's house.  It could be..."
     Robotnik let his sentence go unfinished as the first figure 
emerged from a doorway.
     "Never mind strategy; AFTER THAT INTRUDER!"  Robotnik,
Snively and the SWATbots began to give chase on foot.
     The figure disappeared into the shadows of yet one more
doorway.  As Robotnik approached, still another figure emerged
from the last doorway.  Robotnik's eyebrows shot up in surprise. 
It was a young hedgehog, perhaps about ten years old.  The child
strode to the middle of the street, put his hands on his hips and
addressed Robotnik: "Hold it right there, Buttnik!"
     "That's 'ROBOTNIK', you impudent brat!"
     "That's what I said, 'RoBUTTnik!'"
     "I know you," he said slowly, "you're that nephew of Sir
Charles Hedgehog, the one who got away from me.  I remember you
VERY well," he said as he massaged his roboticized left arm, a
painful reminder of their first encounter.  "Where have you been
hiding?"
     "That's for me to know and you to find out.  NOT!"
     "Why you fresh-mouthed upstart!"
     "Hey, if you want a piece of me, come and get me!"
     Robotnik drew closer to the young hedgehog, who made a point
of crossing his arms and whistling nothing in particular.  He
showed no fear, and this infuriated Robotnik all the more. 
Robotnik could have been more apprehensive, but suddenly all he
could think of was settling an old score by getting his hands on
the boy.
     Robotnik wasn't ten feet from Sonic when the hedgehog yelled
out "NOW!"  Sonic looked up and Robotnik followed his gaze.
     Something was hovering in the air about 30 feet above them,
something small and tawny-colored.  It dropped a bright object
which Sonic caught in a jump.  The next thing Robotnik knew, the
air around him was swirling around and he was knocked off his
feet.  Looking to where Sonic had been, he saw that Sonic had
moved, in less than a second, the length of a city block.
     "Hey, slow poke!" Sonic taunted.  "What's the matter, time
for your beauty sleep?  You NEED one, fella!"
     Speechless with surprise and anger, Robotnik picked himself
off the ground.  Snively was doing the same.  The SWATbots that
were with them, though, lay in pieces nearby.  Robotnik
scrambled back to his hover unit.  "Get that hedgehog now,
Snively!"
     "But Sir...."
     "NO BUTS!  I want him and that ring he's carrying!"
     With Robotnik on board, Snively took off after Sonic in the
hover unit as Sonic began to lead them a merry chase.  No matter
how fast Snively drove the hovercraft, the hedgehog on foot was
always just a little bit faster.  Robotnik didn't know how the
boy did it, and he didn't care; he would have his answers when
Sonic was caught.
     Robotnik also didn't know that the moment the hover unit
left the scene, Sally and Rotor emerged from their hiding place
in one of the row houses and ran back into Uncle Chuck's
workshop.
     "Perfect, Sally!  The Willow Tree Diversion never worked
better!"
     "Let's just hope Sonic can keep from getting caught.  Now,
help me remove the power stone from this unit.  Then we can meet
the others back at the garbage dump."  She placed her hand on the
outside of the machine, then yelped and drew her hand away
quickly.
     "That hatch is red hot!  Looks like Sonic's Uncle Chuck
didn't have his coolant problem solved after all."
     "No, he DID solve it!" Rotor said with sudden realization. 
"Now I know where I've seen this before: at the bottom of the
pool back in Knothole.  He must have built a water-cooled version
and installed it in Knothole before Robotnik took over.  This must
be his prototype!" 
     "But how do we get the power stone out so we can get it back
to Knothole?"
     "The best way is to turn the machine back on.  It'll probably
overheat, malfunction and shut itself down."
     "Won't that harm the crystal?"
     "No, you don't have to worry about that."
     "Great!" Sally said as she threw the power switch on the
machine.
     "What you DO have to worry about," Rotor added, "is the
possibility of this unit exploding."
     "WHAT!?"
     "Some of those old components have gotten pretty unstable
over the years; they could act as bombs if the unit overheats."
     "Rotor, how bad could it be?"
     "The worst that can happen is it'll take out a block or two."
     "A block or...!"  Sally reached for the power switch. 
"Rotor!  The switch is jammed; I can't shut it off!!"



                                Chapter 11

     "Don't lose him, Snively!  I must have him!!"
     "Easy for you to say," Snively muttered under his breath,
"you're not driving."
     Sonic was moving with a speed and agility he had never known
before.  Somehow, though, it all seemed so natural -- as if he
had been born to do the impossible.
     Sonic was able to keep up a grueling pace and not feel any
fatigue.  He zigged and zagged down streets and up alleys,
doubled back and slipped under conduits and bridges.  He didn't
want to slow down, not only because it might have meant his
capture, but also because it felt so good to run.
     Snively, however, managed to stay on the young hedgehog's
trail.  He took some corners a little too sharply and he and
Robotnik got knocked about in the process.  Robotnik, however,
kept his attention on the blue blur visible ahead of them.
     "Whoa, this looks interesting," Sonic thought as he found
himself heading down a side street which turned into a dead end. 
An enormous skyscraper marked the end of the street.
     "We have him now, Snively!  He's got nowhere else to go!"
     "Nowhere except up, Sir.  Look!"
     Sure enough, Sonic wasn't about to let a little thing like a
building stand in his way.  He was on a roll and he just kept on
rolling.  He was running up the side of the building, propelled
by momentum.  Snively put the hover unit into a climb in the nick
of time.
     "After him, after him!  If that ring can enable him to do
THAT...."
     Sonic was halfway up the building when he looked over his
shoulder.  Robotnik was keeping pace.  "Man, this is getting
boring!" he thought.
     In the blink of an eye, Sonic reversed directions and was
running down the side of the building.  He blew Robotnik a
raspberry as he passed the hover unit.  Snively quickly turned it
around.
     "We're gaining, Snively!"
     Indeed, they were closing in on Sonic.  They were almost on
top of him.
     It was then, about fifty feet from the ground, that Sonic
decided that he had better stop coasting and do some serious
running.  He pounded ahead, reached the ground and streaked away.
The hover unit, however, was in virtual free fall.
     "Pull up, Snively!  PULL UP!!"
     Snively worked the controls, but the underside of the hover
unit scraped the street.  That was enough to sent the hover unit
tumbling with all the aerodynamics of a stone skipping across a
pond.  By the time the hover unit came to rest its shell was
pocked and torn, its windows were smashed, and its contents badly
shaken.
     "Snively," Robotnik panted.
     "Y-yes, Sir?"
     "I have decided that I am going to make it one of the
supreme goals of my life to GET THAT HEDGEHOG!"
     Snively rolled his eyes.  This did NOT sound like a
worthwhile job description.


     Sonic raced back to the dump, where the others were gathered
at their pre-arranged rendezvous point: the excavated remains of
the slide.  "Man, you shoulda seen ol' Buttnik eat my dust!  I
was..."
     "Sonic, not now!" Sally cut him off.  "Get down!"  It was
only then that Sonic noticed that the others were lying prone on
the ground.
     "Nap time already?" 
     "Sonic, Rotor thinks that that ring unit is going to blow
up!"
     "Say what?"
     "It's overheating and going unstable," Rotor added.  I
couldn't get the power stone out and..."
     "You mean that stone thingie is still in there?"
     "Of course, we...."
     "Chill, guys."  And before anyone could say or do anything,
Sonic took off toward Uncle Chuck's.
     "What are we to be doing?"
     "What CAN we do, Antoine?" Sally asked.  "Sonic's gotten too
fast for...."
     Anything else Sally might have said was drowned out by a
deafening roar as the power ring unit exploded.  In moments, the
home of Sir Charles Hedgehog was engulfed in flames.  The
children stared at it silently.
     "Sonic?" Tails said in a hesitant voice.
     "That's my name, don't wear it out!"
     The children turned.  There standing behind them, the power
stone on the ground at his feet, was Sonic.  Tails yelped and
threw his arms around Sonic's neck.
     "Sonic!?  How did you...?"
     "No biggie, Sal.  I just yanked it out of there real fast. 
And from now on, "fast" is my middle name!"
     "This is what I was to be saying," Antoine sputtered, "about
your unresponsibility and your utter fuelishness and your...."
     Antoine never got to finish his sentence as Sally touched
him on the shoulder.  For now they could all see that Sonic's
demeanor had changed.  He might have been careless when it came
to putting his life on the line, but it was a more subdued Sonic
who watched his Uncle Chuck's house -- the only home he had ever
known before Knothole -- being consumed by fire.  They watched
for several silent seconds.
     "Come on," Sonic said quietly.  "Let's go home."

     The children were subdued and apprehensive as they entered
the Great Forest.  But the farther they made their way, the
louder and more animatedly they talked about what they had just
done.  All except Tails who quickly succumbed to fatigue.  Sonic
carried the cub in his arms the rest of the way back to Knothole.
     They also speculated as to what would happen to them if
Rosie or Julayla ever found out.  They each thought that they
would be severely punished if either of the grown-ups found out
about their experience, but they also all agreed that any
punishment would be totally worth it.
     It was about two hours before dawn as the children neared
Knothole.  As they recognized that they were getting closer to
Knothole, the children fell silent.  Their luck had held in that
they were able to get away undetected.  If they could just get
back and into bed before Rosie or Julayla learned of it, they
would be home free.
     They edged toward the clearing.  So far, so good: there were
no lights on in any of the cabins.  The children all made their
way into the nearest cabin, which was Sonic's and Tails'.
     "How's Tails doing, Sonic?" Sally whispered.
     "The big guy's still asleep."
     "Good."
     "Ah can't see a thing, Sal.  Think we can take a chance on
lightin' a candle?"
     No sooner had she whispered these words than there was a
hiss and a burst of light as someone at the far end of the room
struck a match.  The children froze as its light momentarily
dimmed, then the light grew stronger as someone had lit a candle
with it.  That someone was Julayla.  She calmly blew out the
match; the children each caught the smell of burnt sulfur. 
Julayla stood up.
     "Julayla, I..." Sally began.  Julayla raised her hand.
     "There'll be time enough for talk in the morning," she said
quietly, as she took the sleeping Tails in her arms and began
putting him to bed.  Rotor, Antoine and the girls silently
drifted away.  Sonic wanted to say something to Julayla, but
couldn't.  Julayla didn't say anything to Sonic as she let the
cabin.  That silent reproach hurt Sonic almost as much as
watching his old home go up in flames.




                                Chapter 12

     Despite the early hour at which the children had gone to
bed, nobody slept in that morning.  They all gathered in front of
the dining hall but didn't go in, except for Tails.  He was as
buoyant as ever as he raced from his hut.  He even flew half
the distance to the dining hall, since he figured that the secret
was out.
     "Well, SOMEONE's in a good mood," Bunnie observed gloomily.
     "What to you think they'll do to us?" Rotor asked.
     "I don't know," Sally said.
     "Maybe it won't be so bad," Sonic suggested.
     "Right, Sonic," Sally shot back, "we only broke every rule
in the book and then some!  Well, let's get this over with," she
added as she walked toward the door.
     As they entered the dining hall, Tails was already seated at
a table with Julayla.  Rotor volunteered to walk as close to
their table as possible, in order to hear what was being said. 
He heard Tails happily recounting the events of the previous
evening in one long run-on sentence:
     "...and then Sonic seen us when he came outside and Sally
said for him to run so he runned away but real real fast and...."
     "So, how is it?" Bunnie asked.
     "It's bad, guys," Rotor said as he sat down at the table
with the others.  "I was listening to Tails just now.  He's
telling Julayla everything that happened last night."
     "How's Julayla taking it?" Sally asked.
     "Tails was making all kinds of grammatical errors, but
Julayla didn't even stop and correct him once!"  He put his head
in his hands.  "That's it: we're toast!"
     "How are you to be thinking of food at the time like this?"
     Sally was in no mood to say anything to Antoine just then,
because they saw Julayla walking toward them.
     "Miles has told me what happened last night.  Does anyone
wish to add anything?"
     "I do," Sally said, her head bowed.  "We should have trusted
you, and told you and Rosie that Tails was missing."
     "But Sal," Sonic immediately said, "they'd have grounded us
and we wouldn't have gotten Tails back."
     "Perhaps, perhaps not," Julayla said calmly.  "But now
you'll never know, will you?"
     This was enough to overwhelm Sonic's attempt at argument. 
While he and the other children contemplated this reply, Julayla
went to the side cupboard where the school supplies were kept. 
She returned with paper and writing instruments.  Sonic and the
others anticipated that they'd each have to write something long
and chastening one hundred times.  Just for starters.  As the
children passed the materials around to each other, Julayla began
unfolding large old documents: they were maps of Mobotropolis.   
     "I want each of you to study the maps that I've spread out
on the table.  Write out any changes in the city that you
noticed last night.  Be as detailed as possible.  You'll probably
want to compare notes with each other."
     "What kind of crazy punishment is THIS?" Sonic whispered to
Sally.
     "This is not your punishment, Sonic.  You've already brought
a very severe punishment upon yourselves.  Until yesterday,
Robotnik had probably forgotten all about you; today, he knows
better and you've given him a reason to look for you.  Yesterday
you were children playing a game; as of today, you are in a war. 
There is no worse punishment that I or anyone else could possibly
inflict."
     The children looked at each other silently.  Bunnie looked
at Sally and silently mouthed the word "war."
     "It'll be OK, Bunnie, as long as we work together," she said
softly.  Then, in a louder voice she spoke to the others, "OK,
where did the trash heap begin?  We know that it covered all of
the playground where this park used to be...."
     "Sally," Julayla added, "your afternoon lessons will be held
in my hut."
    

     The children waited with anticipation around the pool just
outside Knothole.  Everyone, that is, except Rotor, who was
somewhere under the water.
     With the exception of Rotor, none of the children
particularly cared for the water.  They could swim if they had
to, but there were more at home on the land.  Especially Sonic,
who couldn't swim a stroke.
     Rotor suddenly broke the surface, getting a breath of air. 
The others shook the water from themselves.
     "Stone's in, everybody!  The machine started right up!  If
it's the same as the machine in Uncle Chuck's workshop it should
be producing a power ring any time now."
     As the other children gathered as close to the edge of the
pool as they dared, Julayla touched Sally on the shoulder.  The
two of them moved away from the group and walked toward Julayla's
hut.
     Once inside, Julayla began writing something on a scrap of
paper which she then handed to Sally.
     "Commit this to memory.  When you have done so, burn it. 
Leave no trace."
     "Why?  What is this?"
     "It is a list of four settlements of refugees from
Mobotropolis located in various parts of the Great Forest.  These
aren't their true locations: only the locations of drop sites
where we leave the messages by which we communicate with each
other.  We wanted to keep from jeopardizing all of the
settlements, so we devised this system.  It's a good thing we
did; one settlement, Birchwood, was discovered by SWATbots the
other day and its inhabitants scattered."
     "There are others!?  But why...?"
     "Why were you not told?  None knew of the existence of the
other camps except for one member of each, and even they did not
know the precise location of the others."
     "But what were they doing?"
     "Surviving.  Living in hiding.  Living in fear.  And
waiting."
     "Waiting for what?"
     "Waiting for WHOM is more like it.  They have no one to
guide them, no one to formulate strategy and carry it out.  I
knew that the day would come when there would be a sign, a sign
that we can begin to hope again.  A sign that the time had come
to begin resisting Robotnik.  Your raid on Robotropolis last
night was reckless and uncoordinated, but it was also the sign
that I and the others had been waiting for.  It was the sign that
we finally have a leader amongst us."
     Julayla walked over to Sally and placed her hands on the
girl's shoulders.  Things got very still and cold inside the hut.
     Suddenly they heard the sound of cheering outside.  The
machinery at the bottom of the pool had indeed produced a power
ring.  With ring in hand, Sonic was tearing up the turf of
Knothole.  He was just a blur as he streaked around and between
the buildings.  And as he ran, the other children began chanting
his name: "So-NIC!  So-NIC!  So-NIC!  So-NIC!"
     Sally and Julayla watched Sonic's dashing about.  Then Sally
spoke, with a startling bitterness in her voice: "Yes, you've got
your leader...." She said no more, choked back a sob, then ran
from the hut.  She ran across Sonic's path, and the sight managed
to bring the hedgehog to a halt.
     "Chill, guys," he said to the others, "I'll be right back."
     Sonic walked around the corner of a hut.  He saw Sally
seated on a log, her face buried in her hands and her shoulders
heaving.  He quietly sat down a little way from her.
     Sally stopped crying and tried to adopt a formal appearance.
"Tired of your adoring fans already?" she asked sarcastically.
     "Hey, Sal, you got too much class for that kind of a cheap
shot."
     "I'm sorry," she sniffled.  "I...I guess I'm just scared."
     "Scared of what?"     
     "Sonic, everything's changed now!  Julayla expects me to
start acting like some kind of leader...and I don't know if I
can."
     "What're you talking about, Sal?  We found Tails, got Uncle
Chuck's power ring machine working, AND got in and out of
Robotropolis in one piece!  And we did it as a team, thanks to
you.  All I did was run fast.  You're a GREAT leader!"
     "But will the other Mobians feel that way?"
     "Say what?"  So Sally told Sonic about the other camps
hidden in the Great Forest.
     "Sonic we're talking about grown-ups here!  Even if I am the
heir to the throne, I'm still just a kid.  Do you really think
any grown-up would take orders from a ten-year-old girl?"
     "I would."
     Sonic said it so simply and sincerely that it surprised both
of them.  For several moments all the two of them could do was
look at each other.  For Sonic, it was as if he were looking at
someone he'd never known before.  His hand slowly reached over
and took hold of hers...
     Suddenly the stillness of the moment was broken by a chorus
of hoots and whistles.  Bunnie, Rotor, Antoine and Tails were
looking at them from around the corner of one of the huts.  
     "Aw, man!  Knock it off, you guys!"
     Sonic's face grew bright red, and Sally adopted that studied
indifference which children sometimes mistake for maturity.  And
then the other four children began a traditional Mobian chant. 
It was a chant that further embarrassed Sonic and annoyed Sally,
though there was a secret part of her that was glad to hear it. 
It began:
     "Sonic and Sally sittin' in a tree...."


                                  THE END