Thirst by -- Joseph DeLaCroix This story is based on characters created by Service and Games (SEGA), and on characters created by Archie Comic Publications, Inc. Any resemblance to actual characters are not coincidental. ;) Joseph, Bahb, and all other independent creations of Joseph DeLaCroix are the copyrighted property of JoCo Inc. Commander Packbell, Bookshire Draftwood, and Sandra Nightweaver are the copyrighted property of David Pistone. All rights reserved. Etc. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Timeline: A couple of days later. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Knothole was in better sprits than was its norm. The news about the progress on the deroboticizer had gradually tricked from the ears of Sally to the mouths of the commoners, and had given morale to a previously morose and dismal group of people. The rumors varied wildly from section to section of Knothole. Some said it would be ready in time for the spring rains. Others thought along the lines of next fall's brisk frost. The overly optimistic believed it would be ready by the end of the week, but they were few and scattered around the settlement. Everyone had an opinion...and they also had something helpful; hope. Needless to say, for a few days Joseph and Sandra had had little privacy. Herds of roboticized citizens whacked on the front portal of the Dome, demanding to be deroboticized to Bahb and any SpyGlobe they came across. Sandra could not take her morning walk without being hounded by people asking how Joseph was doing. Joseph didn't dare poke his head out from his lab...but that was his usual behavior anyway. However, the stoicness of his resistance to leak out a whit of information finally lead to everyone settling down and going home, allowing Sandra and Joe to live in peace. This was quite a relief to Joseph, who thought of it as only another nuisance. But Sandra had enjoyed her new fame, even though it lasted only a short time. It was nice to be seen as a powerful vixen, rather than just a dangerous one. It made the typically infamous, dangerous, and quite suspicious Sandra Nightweaver into a famous, kind, and nearly saintly vixen; who kept her mate, the future "Savior of Mobius" (as some had started to call him) from going insane from fighting Science and Time Itself for the Greater Common Good. (Instinctively, Joseph hated this. He wasn't anyone's savior, Sandra wasn't an angel (and he'd despise it if she ever became one), and the "Greater Common Good" was just another name for his pulsing, rotting soul. He wanted to do his job and be left alone. Didn't people see that was what he wanted?!) She played in the spotlight, for the fleeting period it was on them both. Joseph tightened his coat and hid behind the curtain. She used it mercilessly to achieve a sort of delayed revenge against the people who had, only days ago, looked down their snouts at her as a common thief, or as some sort of golddigging hussy. Joseph felt like it was crushing him, and was beginning to think infamy was the way to go. However, it had ended soon after it began, and soon things were back to some sort of normal. Joseph watched the progress of Bahb's work, Sandra used the Dome's observation and information facilities, and they both thought about each other as they did their various tasks. Meanwhile, Joseph was beginning to notice a sort of listlessness settling over him; a sluggish ennui started to form that he had not experienced in the past. He didn't want to get up in the morning any more. He didn't feel as spry and verile as he once was. It took greater and greater efforts to complete his daily exercises...as if the 300 years he had spent in cryogenic storage was finally starting to catch up with him. He knew it wasn't his mind that was malfunctioning...his internal diagnostics and external ones by Bahb had registered no mental or psychological defects. He yearned not for TLC; Sandra was always there with a smile and a kind ear for him. Physical scans had detected a lower red blood cell count, but he had jacked up the production of the corpuscles to compensate. But he *still* felt lousy, and that bothered him a lot. Finally, he just chose to ignore the tiredness and mild depression, and just forced himself to cheer up. His long mission would soon be accomplished. He had a female who loved him, or at least liked him a lot. The Dome was finally to his liking, Packbell was almost weak enough to be finished off, and progress had begun on a antidote of sorts for "dimentional displacement syndrome". Mobius was headed for better times, in his opinion, and that only could mean better news in regards to his personal standing on it. But he felt weaker than he had in months. Eventually, Sandra would start to notice his weakness. Maybe this would make her dislike him, believing that he was starting to not love her as much. Perhaps someone new, like some red-type with more fight in him than brains would come along and steal her away from the weakened, nerdy fox. Then, he'd just lay in bed one night, close his eyes, and decide not to wake up again-- He snarled mentally. He was starting to become fearful of other possible suitors entering the equation and stealing Sandra away. This was a development that displeased him. He knew he was superior in every way from the average Mobian fox; taller, smarter, stronger, faster, and equally skilled in a dojo as in a laboratory. But he was no professional warrior. Battles were not his *thing*. Sure, he could fight, but he'd rather work on making artificial life than artifically ending it. Sighing, Joseph went from monitor to monitor, tweaking things uselessly. She wouldn't leave him because of some mild physical problem. It defied all he knew about her, emotionally and logically. She'd be concerned, she'd want to help him, but she certainly wouldn't up and leave him because of some stupid spell of depression. Honestly, he mumbled to himself, was he that paranoid? Throughly annoyed with his foolish behavior, he went higher up in the complex to view some intergalactic news. Joseph liked to watch the news from other worlds, because it gave him a reason to remain on Mobius; compared to other worlds, Mobius was a paradise. Sandra was sitting in the easy chair when he arrived, idly flicking through the nearly infinite amount of channels with a control stick. She smiled when he saw him, masking her concern for his welfare. "Hey, you." She winked seductively at him, and scooted over to the side of the chair. "Take a load off." Joseph gladly complied, taking up the majority of the chair with his bulk, and allowed Sandra to plop down on his lap. Gently taking the control stick from Sandra, he flicked to the all-purpose news channel. "...and the Jh'onar vanquished the Gh'bre, 12 to 10. And now, the headlines." Some crystalline theme music played as the image switched to a bluish backdrop, with a desk in front of it. A Keldy'rianish looking announcer, dressed in a serious looking business suit, sat behind it. "Greetings to you from the INS of the Union of Allied Worlds, located on the fifth moon of Centranus." Zoom to a closer view of the announcer, with a small vid-window popping up to the upper left of the perception. "During the elapsed solar cycle of Centranus, the following major news items occurred:" A menu popped up on the scrren, blocking the view. A list of solar systems popped up, and a request to select one or more to get news items on was given. Joseph highlighted and hit . The image returned to that of the announcer. "Today in the INS headlines, the universe's first commercial subspace jumpship was unveiled today on Ve'holk. The ship, dubbed the "Freedom", will be operated by its owners, the Ba'a'alth'xae species of the Dog Nebulae, on a pay-per-cargo basis." "Also in the intergalactic headlines, the main database of Keld'yrian knowledge has been yet again broken into by unknown forces, which downloaded the approximate sum of their knowledge as of the current date. Keld'yrian officials are baffled as to the identity of the perpetrators, who left no trace of their infiltration besides a cryptic message left on the main menu of the system, which, when translated into Galacticspeak, reads, 'if you can't beat them...'. The Union of Allied Worlds has no record of what this phrase might refer to, but INS will immediately report to you, the viewer, any leads they may have. Details will be transmitted as they are recieved." The announcer paused for effect, and then continued. "And also occurring within the time parameters of the Centranus day, the 1,000,000,000,000th anniversary of the invention of the FTL drive was celebrated on the quite ancient and grand world of Equa'a'atus today, with the usual pyrotechnic displays and triggered volcanic eruptions climaxing the day's festivities." Another snappy pause. "In less joyful news, hundreds of innocent crew members of the shipping frigate "Zu'tha" were killed today in a lightning pirate raid by the mysterious "Lost Ones". Their cargo, an experimental shield generator, was lost to the ruthless rapscallions, who left only the ship's garbage untouched. The Unions's armada is continuing the search for their ship, and the reward for information leading to their capture and summary execution now stands at 125 million creds." A shorter pause. "The star NSTD-324 in the Ribos cluster went nova today. The usual measurements were taken, readjusting the number of monitored novas in recorded Union history to 7,942,102,001. Bids for the collection of the star's core have begun." "The long-standing conflict between the Dh'gno and the S'foph'l exploded into war again over the 5 light-year wide neutral zone between their two territories. Deaths have already broken the million mark, with uncounted property damage still being tabulated." "Finally, the Union Bureau of Regulations released its annual census of unaligned worlds today, revealing that approximately 450 worlds with sentinent life have not joined the Union alliance as of last solar year's completion. Among those worlds, 425 have not evolved lifeforms with the ability to think and reason on a Stone Age level, twenty lack an industrial level of technology, and four have not discovered FTL drive and the principles behind subspace communication yet." He paused, and the music for a special report fired up. "However, the one world that has not joined a side yet is somewhat of a enigma. It has the available technology, yet, for some reason, does not make contact. Many have come to explore and research this world, yet none ever succeed in getting it to join either side. Why? Our on-the-spot reporter Alpha Du'lee found out a few months ago in this special report." Sandra rose a brow. "Hey now." Joseph needed no other inspiration. "Bahb, begin retroactively recording this transmission from time co-ordinate 09:45." Bahb beeped, and the transmission continued. The scene morphed from the newsroom to the middle of the Great Unknown. A female anthropromorphic feline stood in the middle of the scene, clad in the female version of the announcer's attire. While it complimented her curves to some extent, it masked them beneath a mantle of respectability. "This is Alpha Du'lee, INS news. I stand here in the middle of the great waste referred to by the natives of this world as "The Great Unknown". My report begins here not out of simple artistic whim, but out of necessity." She paused, coughing and looking around. "This world, according to some brief research done by myself and my recorder-wrangler, has been drastically altered since the last census done by the UOAW 25 solar years ago. The old monarchy has been overthrown, and a leader named "Snively" has somehow usurped power." "Old tape," Sandra said. "Bahb, why didn't you inform me of the landing of this female on Mobius?" << "You said you were not to be disturbed at the time." >> "And what time was that?" << "Approximately 7 lunar cycles ago." >> Joseph mused. "Near the end of Snively's reign..." << "I believe the excuse you were using at the time was that you were observing the mating habits of ground squirr--" >> Joseph calmly stated, "Quiet, Bahb. You're smothering the audio." Sandra looked at Joseph with a bemused expression, but said nothing about her feelings about yet another example of Joseph's severe voyeurism. Later, she thought, later. The reporter continued. "This...being has apparently been responsible for the cyborgization of approximately 75% of the population of this world, the other 25% of which are either in hiding, dead, or otherwise out of his grasp. His army of roving--" A pause, as the sounds of machinery grow closer. Her eyes go wide as she breaks into a sprint toward the camera. "Dammit, R'hde, move!" The transmission ceases abruptly. A second later, the transmission resumed. Her voice is the only thing that crosses the void for a moment, until a picture of her near a projection of Mobius appears on the viewer. A frazzled female voice continues the narrative. "Alpha Du'lee here. My recorder-wrangler has been terminated by a group of black-tinted robotic humanoid creatures--" "SWATBots," Joseph interjected. "--who also damaged my recording equipment. They have not found the ship, luckily, which is relaying this transmission to the INS via remote relay. It is cloaked, so it will be safe for the next 120 solar cycles, unless something damages the cloak itself." She took several quick breaths. "I have ran to the Great Forest, where it is said a group of "terrorists" live. Hopefully, they can somehow assist me in sneaking by the robotic guards." The audio cuts out, and then resumes. The voice of the reporter is very quiet and frightened-sounding. "I have failed in finding the terrorists, but have instead stowed away on some sort of `SWATBot' ship which is heading back to the Great Unknown. I hope to destroy them by using this device's automatic destruct, stealing this ship, and going back to mine. I will write a full report on my experience later. This is Alpha Du'lee, INS news, signing off." The scene cuts back to that of the newsroom. "Miss Du'lee was never heard from again. We can only assume that her death was caused by the strange devices on the planet's surface. After a UOAW investigation of her transmissions, they have ruled the planet off-limits until formal contact, initiated by the planet itself, has been established." Hope turned to shock to horror to despair all at once back in the Dome, where Sandra and Joseph sat, crushed. "Damn," Joseph muttered, "So much for foreign aid." "And that is the news. Now over to spor--" Joseph turned the viewer off, disgusted. "That wasn't useful." Sandra laid back against him. "It's a long time past, anyway." Joseph pulled himself out from under Sandra, returning to his old funk in seconds. "It still stinks completely." Sandra frowned and stroked her tail, which had fallen asleep. "Well, I guess you and Vision will have to be the foreign aid then, won't you?" "I s'ppose so. I think I will go meditate on this now." Sandra blinked. "Uh, okay. I'll see you in a few hours, then." Yawning, Joseph waved and departed down the shaft. Sandra frowned when Joseph left. He'd seemed so cold and distant lately. Was it her? Had Joseph come down with some sort of alien virus? Or was it something else? She grimaced and hugged a pillow close to her. This change in his behavior was frightening and displeasing to her. He was gradually beginning to stop showing any physical acts of affection toward her, besides the "act" itself. He was less talkative and more moody, and his apathetic attitude was becoming more and more obvious. She blinked back totally irrational tears. She needed someone to tell her what was wrong, so she could somehow get Joseph to be happy again. But who? - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - "You want me to do what?" Doc had been mindlessly collecting specimens to study in his lab when Sandra had snuck up behind him, and struck up a conversation. Unaccustomed to seeing her without Joseph, Doc was easily obliged into continuing the conversation out of sheer scientific curiousity. However, an element of it surprised him. "I need you to find out what is wrong with Joseph. He's been acting...funny." Doc ruffled his headfur in a manner reminiscent of the Terran character of Doc Brown, from the `Back to the Future' series of movies, as was his custom. In fact, most of his mannerisms and behavior mimicked Doc Brown's behavior in a disturbingly uncanny way. "But why are you asking me? Joseph's more than capable of doing his own diagnostics." "I think whatever's wrong with him is affecting his judgement." Doc hrmed. "That bad, eh? Well, I'll just have to be the judge of that." She took him to the Dome, brought him through the various levels, and took him to Joseph's idling body. They worked quickly, so not to disturb him from his deep meditation. A few scans of him were all they needed, and they got them with no incident. Fluidly, Doc teleported back to Haven, taking Sandra with him. Doc fed the results of the scan into a computer, which mulled over the facts quickly enough to determine the problem... *** PROCESSING DATA*** Subject: Joseph Scans by: Doc, Sandra Nightweaver Scenerio: Possible contamination of subject with an illness that affect energy levels, psychological state. Results of scans: Subject's nervous system and brain, a mimetic polyalloy, is intact and unharmed. Excretory system is intact and unharmed. Nanite boosted immune system is intact and unharmed. Reproductive system has been sterilized by subject's choice until further notice, but is otherwise intact. Enhanced sketal system is intact and unharmed. Circulatory system...damaged. Synopsis: The cells of the subject's body require more oxygen than the blood cells can realistically produce on their own. Despite the increase in production, they still cannot keep up with the demand for oxygen. Solution: Short-term -- weekly influx of non-artificial, living blood; artificial blood, while mostly effective, will only stabilize the condition. The production of the blood should come from a person in an "excited" state, so to have the most effect. Long-term -- a transfer into another host body with augmented circulatory system, or into that of a synthetic shell. *** ANALYSIS COMPLETE *** - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - "So, Doc, what this report is telling me is that Joseph's an unwitting *vampire*?" Doc frowned. "Unfortunately, yes. His body requires fresh doses of oxygenated blood on a weekly basis, or else it will die around him." Sandra wiped at her eyes. "This is awful!" Doc attempted to comfort her. "Yes, yes, I know...but he can escape it, eventually. He just needs to switch bodies." "But he put so much *work* into the one he's gotten. This'll really bother him now..." Doc coughed. "Well, it could be worse. It could have driven him psychotic by now, and his body could have so agitated his mind as to finally clue him in on what he needs...which would, of course, really be bad." "He would be, after all, the perfect predator." - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Sandra teleported home a few moments later to give Joseph the news. She was nervous, but she hoped and prayed to any god that was listening that he was still alright. She entered their bedroom, expecting to see Joseph sitting cross-legged on the bed, deep within a zauzen trance, as she and Doc had left him. However, he was not there. The room had been disturbed considerably. The bedsheets were knocked onto the floor, the mattress torn and beaten around, and his clothing in a ragged, torn pile on the ground. Oh no. She froze, listening for breathing or any other Josephish sound. Nothing. Her heart beat loudly, nearly deafening her with its rapid pounding. Her blood rushed through her head with the speed of quicksilver, making Sandra feel like all she was was one big bag of O negative. And to Joseph, she thought, that's all she was. She rushed back toward the pad, starting to detect movement out of the side of her eye. She broke into a run, and lept onto the pad. The motion swept behind her. She was too afraid to look. She smashed her fist into the up switch, sending the pad rocketing away into the ceiling. The motion behind her withdrew momentarily from surprise, but immediately made it known that she would not escape so easily. A hiss escaped from its metal-fanged mouth, the silver that made up its nervous system choosing to become a boon to his circulatory. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Sandra ran instinctively up the three flights of stairs that seperated the residental level of the Dome from the other parts. She knew whatever Joseph had become was chasing her...toying with her...allowing her to keep running, until her blood was agitated to his satisfaction. She started crying as she ran, her mind overloaded from shock. If she retained full control of her mind, this would be the most humiliatng thing she had ever experienced. She'd let her guard down, and was running away, crying like a kit, from someone she knew was mentally unstable at the time...yet, she had gone to get him unarmed. She felt more helpless than she ever had before, a feeling she resolved to never experience again. Her mind raced as she bolted through the Dome. She knew this wasn't Joseph...not anymore. This was not the fox she so cared for, respected, and would bear kits for. This was some sort of disease forcing his body to do these things. But Sandra wasn't, or couldn't, act on her thoughts. She only ran, ran fast and hard, to get away from the beast that chased her. She shot through the trap door at the top of the stairs, and quickly threw a chair over it to attempt to slow Joseph down. It only gave him something else to destroy. He blasted through the trap door just as Sandra was able to ascend to the next level, the computer core. As she ran to the next stepdisk, she looked around for something to throw or drop on the ground, anything at all that might slow Joseph down. Finding nothing, she contented herself with jumping on the next stepdisk. As it started to rise, Joseph seemed to burst out of the lower regions of Hell and leap up to grab her. Luckily for Sandra, he did not make it completely on the stepdisk, but was able to grab onto it as it rose. The stepdisk daemon inside Bahb quickly made the disk stop, and caused it to begin to descend. Sandra panicked as the fox began to pull his way onto the stepdisk. She kicked and hit him in the head, trying to phase him enough so she could get away. "GET AWAY FROM ME!!" she screamed fruitlessly at the fox, who was making progress despite her efforts to the contrary. Sandra lept off the stepdisk as Joseph took it over, causing it to rise again. As she landed unevenly on the ground, injuring her leg, Joseph was pulled into the emerald level against his will. His roars of rage resounded through the computer core until the stepdisk hit its destination. He surfaced in the emerald core angrily. He repeatedly jumped up and down to try and force the stepdisk down, but to no avail. As he did so, the emerald began to notice Joseph's psychotic state. It had a intelligence of sorts, and remembered how well Joseph had treated it in the past...taking it away from the dark city, caring for it, talking to it, giving it attention...and so, somehow caring about him, it chose to take action. As Joseph raged and pounded against the portal, the emerald hit him with a gentle, calming amber beam. At first, it did nothing. The emerald jacked up its output. Nothing. It focused its energy into a tight beam, and hit the fox dead on with a hard bolt of amber energy. He stumbled and fell to the ground, unconscious. Its mission accomplished, the emerald powered down, waiting for the next opportunity to manifest its power. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Meanwhile, elsewhere on the planet... - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - The cool blue pools of water glistened in the daylight, as Knuckles the Echidna, protector of the Floating Island, returned home again. The gulls cried their welcome to him as he raced across the water, lept onto the side of the island, and climbed up to its surface. He took a few deep breaths. Sighing happily, he stretched on the beach. He was home, where he belonged. No more wandering around the world and over the sea for him. This is where he needed to be, and this is where he'd stay. Walking toward the emerald caves, he gathered up the emeralds and took them back to the main emerald complex near the center of the island. The chamber had been repaired, as he suspected, and all it required was the reinstallation of the Chaos Emeralds to return all to what it had been before. He put the emeralds in the correct arrangement around the larger, green Master Chaos Emerald. As they reattuned themselves to the Chaos Chamber, the island itself seemed to relax. Knuckles himself felt more contented and safe, and he knew the island was still strong despite his long absence. After making sure all was right, he closed the chamber back up and went back outside. He felt young and strong, and his mind was clear of doubt. The Chaos Emeralds were safe again. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - In a darker section of Mobius, inside the large Command Center, two vaguely humanoid creatures spent considerably different existances. In the highest level, Commander Packbell, an android with a bad attitude and a decidedly evil bent, lorded over an empire spanning most of Mobius. Armies of SWATBots fell into line at his command, people lived or died at his decree, and all was sinister and evil, polluted and decadent. He bargained with aliens over the fate of the world while planning to doublecross them all and walk away with all the spoils of war. Packbell, to sum it all up, wanted to rule the universe. In the basement of the complex, a different sort of person lived. Snively, the nephew of the deceased Doctor Julian Ivo Robotnik (the original conqueror of the world) and a wannabe dictator, had far less power at the moment and certainly smaller plans. He lived in the lowest part of the complex, an abandoned, rotting garbage incinerator. He killed and ate the vermin that skulked in from outside, and hid from the SWATBots he used to command. He'd faked his own death after a lightning raid from the Freedom Fighters, and had been living in fear of everyone ever since. He didn't want to rule the world any more. He just wanted to live in peace. A nice, clean jail cell--even in Ironlock--looked like heaven compared to his continued existance down here. The slightest noise sent him dashing into the darkest, most filthy part of the dead incinerator, praying it was a Freedom Fighter with intent to kill, rather than Packbell. Oh, how horribly Packbell had treated him! Uncle Robotnik was hard, cruel at times, but he was never as evil or sadistic as Packbell was. Robotnik allowed him to eat, gave him a decent place to stay, and gave him a bit of power over Robotropolis. Packbell had not only knocked him out of the throne, but had taken away all of his power and made him a glorified robot. Worker-Bots had it better than he. They felt no pain. Under Packbell's control, that was all he ever felt. He growled, angrily shaking his fists toward the ceiling. He would have his revenge! He would get Packbell, destroy him, and take back what he had rightfully stole! Even though he had no echidna to help him, no SWATBots to aid his cause, he would defeat him! - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Joseph moaned on the ground, coming to an hour or so later from the emerald's weird ray. His body felt sore, like he was coming off a bad hangover or high. He rolled onto his back... ...and noticed Sandra standing above him, plasma cannon trained right between his eyes. "Don't make another move," she snapped, glaring at him angrily and fingering the trigger. Joseph was confused. "Sandra?" "You just lie right there, you maniac." Surprisedly, he exclaimed, "What? What are you talking about?" "You can't fool me, Joseph. I drop my guard, and then you jump up and suck me dry." She looked at him with more fear than hate. "I think not." "I don't understand." Sandra's eyes tightened. "Don't give me that bullshit. You tried to kill me." Joseph looked at her blankly. "Huh?" Sandra started to soften a bit. "You don't remember?" Joseph closed his eyes, trying to think back. "It's fuzzy..." She allowed the cannon to lower a few degrees. "I went down to the bedroom to tell you something, and you--" Joseph curled into a fetal position, packing into a tight ball. Obviously, she noted, it had hit him. As he sobbed about how sorry he was, she put the cannon down and held him close. She knew that he was back, for now, and that his actions were not that of premeditation. Yet, she kept the cannon in reach, in case another episode began while he was crying on the floor. But Sandra did her best at reassuring Joseph. She tried to let her long- repressed maternal instincts do most of the work, but this was a field she wasnot usually called upon to enter. Perhaps that would be different one day...but not for a while. The hulking orange mass kept tightly packed near the abnormally maternal Sandra Nightweaver, as she hugged him and told Joseph that everything was going to be alright, and she didn't hold his past actions against him, and so on and so forth. Meanwhile, she was busy trying to conjure a way to tell Joseph about his formerally dormant vampirism without frightening him, or herself, too much. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Snively lurked through the trash, cursing Packbell and crawling through the gutters around the city, looking for a meal. Unbeknownst to him, the spacecraft that had descended through the clouds many times and had the people on it who had spoken to Robotnik and Packbell, now landed again outside the control center. The boarding stairs descended from it, and the usual greasy red-types scurried out from it, carrying a large box. They put the box down on the ground, and ran back inside the craft. A few moments later, the familiar red-orange fox walked out of the craft, and ascended the stairs of the building once more... - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Packbell was expecting his "friend" this time, and had cleaned the place up to something more tolorable for an organic's taste. John walked in as per usual, looking clinically calm. "Hello, Packbell," he said, "I see you've actually cleaned this place up a bit. Good." He looked around the room. "Let me guess...you've taken even more losses, haven't you? He gave Packbell no opportunity to reply. "Oh, that's just lovely, Packbell. Keep it up." The sarcasm was thick enough to support a train. "I haven't had the firepower or the..." "Oh, be quiet. For Goddess' sake, even Ivo kept the place in better condition than you do, tinkertoy. He could have gotten the complex back to at least 45% efficiency by now." He waved his hand around irritatedly. "Just look at the filth that you live in! What are you, some sort of vermin?" "But..." "Shut up! If it wasn't for those crazed governmental bureocrats in the UOAW government, I'd tacnuke this place now and be DONE with you! But noooo, I gotta buy it off of you for face value." He sneered at Packbell. "Even though it's worth one TENTH of it NOW!" he exclaimed, lying through his teeth. "I..." He stomped out of the room. "Clean up your act, Packbell! You're only going to see me 6 more times before the final offer is given! Heed my words! Displease me again, and I'll be sure yr new-found wealth is promptly taken away from you!" - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - The fox stomped out of the command center, madder than a rusted roboticized rat on Monday. He kicked through piles of garbage, cursing in a foreign language as he did so. However, one particularly good kick made him drop something out of his pockets. It was a small device, probably suited for palmtop usage. It bounced out of his coat-pocket and into a gutter, where it disappeared into the darkness. Even more irritated, the fox just decided to let it lay in the festering storm sewer, leaving it for whatever rat might try to gnaw on it. He marched up the stairs, shouted some commands, and made the ship fly off into the night. However, no rat was ever able to get the device. A human hand caressed the smooth alien device, taking it from the sludge it laid in, and wiping it off carefully. Opening the device, Snively discovered a thumb-controller and a holographic screen. It twittered upon activation, and made an attempt to verbalize with its new owner, already learning his language... << "Chonni'ae 17932-G Unit Ready." >> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Joseph recovered quickly from his severe awful feeling he had gotten when he had realized what he had tried to do, and patched things up with Sandra similar to the conditions they had been before. However, things were still uneasy when Sandra explained to Joseph what was wrong with him. He sat down on the ground, and put his head in his hands. "You mean that I'll keep doing that until I get...blood?" Sandra made a affirmative groan, sitting down beside Joseph. "Doc said if you grow a new body, or return to an android one, that you can stop doing that forever...can you do that?" He sighed. "Not right now...I've dedicated all of Bahb's resources to making deroboticizer software. If I were to take some away from Bahb to make a new body, it could throw everything off-kilter." Sandra frowned. "So you're stuck like this." Joseph sniffed. "Yes." She hugged him. "Joseph, no matter what happens..." But she couldn't produce the three words that finished that thought. So, she made up new ones, that sounded a bit less loving. "...I'll always be here." "Thank you. But maybe you should leave until I resolve this problem." "No, I can't do that!" The sharpness of her voice rapidly receded. "It would be unfair to let you suffer alone here. I'd rather stay and help." "How could you help?" Without saying a word, she pried Joseph's mouth open and stuck part of her neck inside his mouth. "I'll share." Joseph rapidly withdrew his muzzle, shocked. "NO!" Sandra looked at him. "Joseph, look. I'd rather have a pint taken out of me now, when you're lucid...rather than having a gallon removed later, when you're a raging maniac. Besides, you need fox-blood. If not me, who? Some dumb Knothole vixen who walks across your path at night? Tails? Antoine?!" She smiled weakly. "I'm the only one who would willingly give up blood for you, Joseph. And you don't even need to take much. Only a pint or so, once a week." "But..." "But nothing. Until we can get you a new body, this is the least undesirable of your options." She paused. "Unless you'd like to stalk foxes at night and drain them, of course." Joseph looked concerned. "If something goes wrong..." "We'll just do it the way they used to when they had blood-drives. A quick transfusion procedure. I'll fill a bag, you get a straw." Joseph grimaced. "But taking in another's *blood*..." "It's my blood, Joseph. I'm clean." She smiled lustfully. "Hell, I've got more of you in me than anyone else would, anyway. I hope." Joseph was not amused. "Yes, you do. But I don't like it." "That's good. I'd hope this wasn't something that came naturally." A long, long pause. "Fine. I'll begin construction of the machine. Go get yourself ripped. I don't want to have to do this again for a week." Sandra nodded, and quietly went off somewhere to exercise. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - After Joseph had knocked together a blood transfer device, and replicated some plastic bags to store the stuff in, he called Sandra from whereever she had gone via her communicator. She bounded in a moment or two later, dabbing some sweat off her brow. "Okay," she panted, "I'm ready." "You are *sure* you want to do this?" "Yes, Joseph. Let's just get it over with." Joseph nodded, and gently picked her up. Putting her upon a comfortable chair, he fluidly took out the needle that took the blood, and popped it into her arm. She barely felt the prick as the device began to slowly siphon off her red, very oxygenated blood. As the device twittered away, Joseph sat down on the other side of the device and held her free hand. He spoke calmly and gently to her, explaining in great detail what the machine did and how it worked. He gave her no opportunity to be nervous about what was happening, if she was bothered by it to begin with. After a quarter-hour had passed, the machine stopped taking blood. Joseph quickly took out the needle, dabbed some disinfectant on Sandra's arm, and sealed the small wound with a medical device. The bag was properly prepared within the device, and was gently produced by the machine after being sealed. Joseph held the bag of blood in his hand for a moment. He looked over at Sandra. "I don't think you want to see this," he said. "I'd rather stay. I want to see how you'd do this." "It's scary," he said, in actuality being more frightened of Sandra being there watching than any actual mechanical procedure. "How do you know?" "It just is," said he, looking for a throughly frightening way to explain it so he could get her to leave. Sandra looked at him with contempt. "I want to know what to expect." He sighed. He couldn't make Sandra do anything she didn't want to do. "Fine." He instinctively extended a single silver tendril from his right index finger. With a series of mental commands, he bent the spike into a question-mark-shaped tube. The needle poked into the bag with no difficulty, allowing none of it to escape. An opening was created at the tip of the spike, and some suction was produced from it. The bag began to drain quickly. As it did, an euphoric reaction passed through Joseph's body, similar to that of a sexual orgasm. He felt like his body was glowing as the spike took the blood, and sent it all over his body. But just as Joseph was about to really get off, the bag ran out of blood. The spike closed up and retracted almost automatically, which probably would have bothered a non-wasted Joseph. Joseph let the empty bag fall to the ground, stunned from the lingering sensations of ecstasy that dribbled through his body. It played havoc with his visual and auditory systems, and gave him weird flashbacks of mixtures of past events. He stood there like a statue, completely ignoring Sandra's alarmed looks and shouts. But this too passed, and Joseph returned to his `normal' state. Taking a deep breath, he rolled his head around on his neck, and walked over to Sandra. "It worked," said he, "I feel a lot better." Sandra pulled herself to her feet, and gave Joseph a hug. "Good," she grinned, and rubbed his shoulder blades. "You scared me for a minute there, when ou were just standing there all stoned. What happened?" Joseph smiled toothily. "I know why you don't see many unhappy vampires in books now." Sandra shuddered involentarily, her fur prickling up on the back of her neck. "You're not getting any more for a week." "I know," he said, "and you're in no danger of getting bitten for a good while." He paused. "It's not really addicting, as such...I know a healthy substitiute for the buzz I get, anyway." He winked, and embraced her warmly. Sandra calmed down a bit, her fur returning to a limp state. She smiled and kissed Joseph gently. "Now I have my good old handsome fox back. All to myself." He smirked. "Not entirely. Science calls me at times...but now, I have given that mistress its due attention. Now it is time to show gratitude to you for my rescue from madness." He kissed her gently on the ears. "After all, you probably just saved Mobius." She smiled. "Then reward me," she whispered, "but get me some juice and cookies first." She met Joseph's inquisitive look with a smirk. "Hey, I just gave a pint of blood, after all." They laughed quietly, and went up to the kitchen.