"Powerdown" by Adrian Tymes [Legal disclaimer: This story is based on characters created by SEGA and Archie Comic Publications, Inc., Bookshire Draftwood and Commander Packbell by David Pistone, and "Postcards From Mobius" #2 by Richard Ray Roberts. Permission is granted by the author to freely distribute this story, so long as: a: no recompense of financial value is received or given by the person who distributes the story, and b: the distributed copy is identical to the story as originally authored. In other words, don't sell it, and don't alter it. The griffins in this story are my own creations. If you wish to write a story including or referring to the griffins as presented below, or the events in this story, please contact me in advance - I would like to know who uses them. Copyright (c) 1996, all rights reserved, et cetera.] ****** Time: A day after "Tails the Necromancer" ****** Tails sped through the Great Forest, flying as fast as he could. He usually only reached this speed when following Sonic, or when he ventured off by himself. Nothing but Sonic had sucessfully chased him for long, until now. He turned to look behind him, and was relieved to see Kenal not far behind. "C'mon, Kenal, you can do it. Tuck your wings in a little more." Kenal did as instructed, increasing his velocity to just under Tails'. After his lack of speed had allowed Tails to humiliate him at air tag, he'd asked Tails to teach him how to fly faster. Tails had agreed, partly to have something to do since Sonic refused to play with him. "Any more and I'll drop like a rock." Kenal flapped his wings as Tails had shown him: tilted backwards enough to provide more thrust than lift, followed by a quick re-tilting to minimize air drag while bringing them forward again, letting aerodynamics keep him aloft. "How do you stop, anyway?" "Simple. You..." Sally, Dulcy, and Rotor appeared on the ground ahead. Sally waved to the pair to land, interrupting Tails' instruction. Tails quickly decelerated. "You what?" Kenal saw Tails slow down just before they collided. The resulting bundle of fur and feathers dove into Sally, who unwittingly acted as a landing pad after being knocked off her feet. Tails pulled himself out of the pile. "Maybe you should ask Dulcy to teach you how to fly." Sally stood up and dusted herself off. "You've already got her landings down, I see. Everyone alright?" "I'm ok." "Yes, ma'am. Sorry about that." "Just don't do it again, Kenal. At least, not when you visit." "Visit?" Tails stopped picking dirt out of his fur. "What do you mean? He's living with us, isn't he?" "Not anymore. I've decided that it's time for him to return to Home." "But he could help us against Packbell. Why does he have to go?" "It's not like that, Tails. Kenal..." "He's got a point," Dulcy interrupted. She lightly ran a finger down Kenal's back as if petting him. "With Kenal gone, there'd only be three of us who can fly." "Now look, Dulcy. I know you'd like to keep him around, but please understand this is for his own good." "Umm, Sally?" "Not you too, Rotor." Sally looked around, sighed, and rolled her eyes. "Ok, ok, he can stay." "Yipee!" Tails high-fived Kenal as Sally held her head. Dulcy exhaled a puff of steam in triumph. "Now that that's over with, let's get on with this mission." Tails started up his tails in anticipation. "Mission? I get to go on a mission?" In one fluid motion, Sally plucked Nicole from her boot, opened the computer, and called up a hologram of Robotropolis with two red dots added. "Packbell's left a few holes in his defenses, but they'll close soon. We've got to strike while they're there. Only the fastest of us can get through, and that means you, me, Dulcy, and Sonic. Sonic's already on his way. I didn't want you to come, Tails, but you and Dulcy are the only ones who can get to this target in time." Sally pointed to the rightmost dot, which was on top of a tall building. "I could come too. Tails was just showing me how to speed up." "You need practice, Kenal." Tails's tails spun faster. "Maybe next time. On 3?" Sally nodded. "1...2..." The only evidence that Sally, Dulcy, and Tails had not just teleported away was the sound of Dulcy's *crack*, and a brief, strong pulse of wind that swept Kenal off his feet, onto a small tree branch which stuck out underneath his abdomen to support him. Rotor, having had years of experience with Sonic and Tails, was noticeably unaffected by the breeze. "You know, Kenal, you could just ride their wind to Robotropolis, with your wings. If you don't, then I'd like to ask you a favor." Kenal rolled off the branch to land on his feet. "Ask away. I'm not going anywhere for a while." "Do you know the formula for Chemical Fear?" "That was one of the memories Snively gave me. But I thought C-Fear was banned here?" "It is. I haven't been able to find any references to its composition, but I thought I might be able to modify it into something that could affect Packbell." "No luck. C-Fear was designed for biological systems, and if you haven't noticed, Packbell ain't biological." "I'd like to have the formula around anyway, just in case it comes in handy someday." "Knowledge for its own sake, huh? Sure, why not. But don't tell anyone I gave it to you, or we'll both be in trouble." "You got it." ****** By this time, Robotropolis was in chaos again. Sonic had been randomly disabling SWATbots left and right, despite their best attempts to stop him. Sally ran up, admiring the scene, as Dulcy's shadow passed by. Sonic didn't even slow down. "What took you so long?" "We had to find Tails to tell him about this." Two robots ran into each other chasing Sonic. "Don't tell me he's here too?" Sally picked up the robots' rifles and emptied their magazines into a nearby power plant. "He's taking care of the eastern target. It'll be a piece of cake for him, but I've asked Dulcy to watch just in case." Pieces of SWATbots fell as Sonic buzzsawed through them. "C'mon, Sal, you know I..." Ice covered Sally's reply. "Stop it!" Sonic skidded to a halt just in time for a falling hoverbot, which had intended to land on him, to miss. Sally leapt over the hoverbot to take out its emerging driver with a flying kick. "I know that he attacked you. I know that it was his magic making him do it. I know that you've been hostile towards him ever since for no good reason. And, I know that you know." In his mind, Sonic knew it. In his heart, he wasn't so sure. "Grow up - OW!" Sally doubled over, clutching her knees. With no more targets nearby, Sonic ran to Sally. "You ok, Sal? This is no time for the scenic route." "I can't move my legs." Pain was evident in Sally's eyes. Dulcy came almost as quickly as Sonic whistled. Together, they picked Sally up and put her in Dulcy's pouch. "Get her back to Knothole now!" "See ya there." Dulcy blew a cloud of flame over Sonic's head, into a SWATbot that neither Sonic nor Sally had seen. After seeing the remains of Dulcy's target, Sonic flashed her a thumbs up. "Way past." Dulcy shrugged. "When you're hot, you're hot." Sonic took off, leaving a fire trail behind him. Sally giggled as she watched him go. "And that hedgehog is hot." ****** "That's it?" Rotor sounded astonished, probably because he was. "That's it. Simple, isn't it?" Kenal glanced around Rotor's lab to make sure that no one else could see the formula for Chemical Fear displayed on Rotor's computer. "I'll say. Fiendishly simple. This looks like something Robotnik might have come up with." "Actually, a human did invent it. For all I know, he could've been one of Robotnik's ancestors." "This works on every species, you say?" "Every species that can feel fear. There's not that much difference between most intelligent species, aside from body shape and skin cover. By the time you get down to the part of the brain where C-Fear acts, you can't tell one Mobian from another." "I can see why they banned it." Rotor typed in a few commands. "Whatcha doing?" "Setting my synthesizer to create a sample of this and its antidote." "I didn't know C-Fear had an antidote." "It doesn't, at least not yet. I've got a program that can create an antidote for any biological chemical, given the original's formula and effects. We'll need to test it to make sure it works. But who can we test it on?" Kenal was about to answer when Dulcy skidded by. "Didn't they just leave?" "That was fast." "Something must be wrong. Let's check it out." ****** Rotor and Kenal followed Dulcy as she slid to Bookshire's hut. Bookshire limped to the doorway. "Well, even if you can't land on your feet, at least you end up at the right place." After slurring, "Thanks, ma," Dulcy passed out from her landing. Sally crawled out of Dulcy's pouch, still unable to unbend her knees. "Sally?" One look at Sally's crawl was all Bookshire needed. "Rotor! Kenal! Help me get her inside." Rotor had to do most of the work, since Bookshire could only lend one hand, the other needed for his cane, and Kenal could only lift Sally's arms and head. Once inside, Bookshire took Nicole from Sally's boot, opened it, and held it near Sally's legs. "Nicole: medical scan." "SCANNING...LEG MUSCLES OVER-STRAINED. RECOMMEND AVERA CREAM." Rotor quickly grabbed a jar with the recommended ointment from a nearby shelf, and spread it on Sally's legs. Sally sucked in her breath as the cream sent tingles down her legs. "Ohhhh, th-thank you. I feel better already." As if to prove it, she flexed her legs slightly before wincing again. "Not too quickly, Sally. This stuff takes a while to work." Kenal observed from the windowsill. "So how'd you injure your muscles? You had Sonic's running power. He never does that, even with all the load he puts on them." "MAGICAL ANOMALY DETECTED: DEEP POWER STONES DEPLETED," Nicole interjected out of the blue. "What's a power stone?" "Deep Power Stone, " Bookshire answered. "They had the power of ten thousand power rings. Sonic and Sally used them to defeat Robotnik, after which the stones became part of them. Most of their power went into Sally, to boost her speed to Sonic's level. I think they used up the rest of the stones' power in the victory celebration." "What'd they do, run it off?" "Any contact between Sonic and Sally caused fireworks, which apparently took power from the stones. They kissed at the celebration, and they were still kissing when I went to sleep. I've been told the fireworks lasted until two in the morning." Bookshire's story was making Sally blush so brightly, it could be seen through her fur. "I don't know what happened, but the next day, Sonic was back to normal and there were no more fireworks. We didn't know until now whether Sally could keep running as fast as Sonic forever. Now that the stones have used up their power, I guess it's back to walking for her." "Well," Kenal contemplated, "I can think of one way she could run again. She wouldn't want to use it, though." "What is it?" "The absorption spell Tails used on me. If Sally were to use it on Sonic, she'd probably gain his speed. Of course, she'd have to learn that spell and kill Sonic to do so, which is why she wouldn't want to use it." Bookshire gave Kenal a partly amused, mostly concerned look before turning to Sally. "I thought you were going to have him removed from Knothole." "I was. Would you believe that certain warped individuals actually want him to stay here?" Rotor folded his arms and frowned. "Hey..." Bookshire looked from Rotor to Sally, back to Rotor, then back to Sally. "I don't want to know. I don't know what I don't want to know, but whatever it is, I don't want to know." Sonic abruptly burst through the doorway. "Yo guys, what's up?" "Sonic!" Sally and Sonic exchanged their usual hand sign. "How you doin', Sal? You gonna live?" Rotor dabbed some more cream on Sally's legs. "She's fine, Sonic. The Deep Power Stones finally used up their power, so she damaged her muscles when she tried to keep running." "Ouch. I guess she won't be racing me again." Sally propped herself up on the bed. "The important thing is, what are you doing back so soon? Surely you haven't already taken out that manufacturing plant." "Surely I have. It was mondo wierd. Once you left, I couldn't find anything except workerbots. Not a manufactured 'bot in sight. I juiced over to the plant and shut it down. It'll be a while before Packbell makes another 'bot there." "If Tails suceeded, it'll be a while before Packbell makes another 'bot again, period. He's only got two - now one - plant left on-line." Kenal noticed motion outside. "Speaking of Tails, here he comes." "Gotta jam. See ya." The wind of Sonic's departure exactly countered that of Tails' arrival. This did not go unnoticed by Tails, who arrived looking backwards to see where Sonic went. "What's his problem? You'd think Sonic was deliberately avoiding Tails or something." Upon hearing Kenal's comment, Bookshire regarded him again, rolled his eyes, and shook his head. The tears in Tails' eyes showed that Kenal's thought had crossed his mind. "Come here, Tails. I'm sure that's not true." Sally hugged Tails, trying to comfort him, but not having much sucess. "Now, how'd your part of the mission go?" It took Tails a few seconds to choke back his tears enough for him to speak. "Fine. You were right, it was easy. I took the bomb you gave me, planted it, and detonated it from a safe distance, just like you said. No SWATbots or anything got in my way." "No SWATbots. You're kidding." "Uh-uh. The only robots I saw were workerbots." "Hmm...Rotor, when you get a chance, could you run an inventory on Packbell's forces? This doesn't seem right." "Tails, take this and put it on Aunt Sally's legs, would you?" Rotor handed the avera jar to Tails, then headed back to his lab. ****** "Roteur! What is being ze meaning of zis?" Rotor was not to happy to find Antoine nosing around his lab. Antoine was even less happy to have found Rotor's chemical synthesizer processing a job labelled "Chemical Fear". "Back off, Antoine. What are you doing here, anyway?" "I came to ask about ze automateic polisheur. Since you were not being here, I decided to wait. While I was waiting, I took ze looksy around, and found zis!" "Look, I got the formula from Kenal. It's not like I was going to use it on any of you guys." "Zat is not ze point! Ze point is that making of ze Chemical Fear is ban-ned, yet you were making it." Antoine's voice suddenly changed from righteous anger to simple curiosity. "Why?" "I thought I could use it for one of my inventions, maybe adapt it for use against Packbell." "A good reason. I shall help, if I may." "You'd help? But it's illegal. Sally would never let us get away with it if she found out." "True, but, in zis case, ze ends are worth the means." "That's, 'the ends justify the means', Antoine." "Not in zis case. Ze means, zey are still unjustified. However, if it means getting rid of Packbell, it is ze lessar of two weasles, no?" "No - er, yes. It is the lesser evil. There's not much you can do, though, except maybe test the samples." "Very well. But I want to be notified if you make any more of...why are there being two bottles?" "One of them's the antidote. It'll be a few hours before there's enough in either bottle to test." Rotor yawned. "And I'll be asleep by then. Come by tomorrow. Right now, I just want to get Sally's search query running and get to bed early so I can get up in time for the dawn watch." "What ees ze Princess searching for?" "Huh? Oh, she wants me to run an inventory of Packbell's forces now that we've taken his last manufacturing plants off-line. I've run this process so many times on my computer that I cooked up a program to do it for me. It runs Cryptosmasher to get access to Packbell's records, searches for the appropriate files, and copies them back here. Packbell keeps moving the files around, so it has to search all of his records to find them. That's what takes so long." Rotor chuckled. "You'd think he'd try something different from Robotnik." "I see. Good luck, mon ami. See you tomorrow." Antoine waved as he left. Rotor smirked as he sat down. "Luck has nothing to do with it," he muttered. "Even Sonic could do this. Of course, he'd probably find a way to do it with style..." He shrugged. "...but I'll take slow and steady." ****** The next morning, as Rotor watched dawn break from the lookout tower, a form crept around the shadows of his lab. As stealthy as an assassin, it moved swiftly towards Rotor's synthesizer, already familiar with every surface hidden by the dying night. It typed a few commands, stopping the synthesizer, then grabbed one of the bottles containing the night's work. The unknown entity walked away as quietly as it had entered, leaving no other indication of its theft. ****** A beeping from Nicole woke Bookshire. "Huh? Wha...oh, I guess I forgot to return it." Bookshire rose, grabbed his cane, and limped over to where he'd left the minicomputer. "Well, let's see what's got you so excited. Nicole: explain reason for beeping." "MEDICAL SCAN DATA ANALYSIS COMPLETE. POSSIBLE SERIOUS CONDITION DETECTED IN SALLY ACORN: HORMONAL LEVELS INDICATIVE OF PROBABLE ADDICTION." "Addiction? To what?" "ENDORPHINS USUALLY ASSOCIATED WITH LEVELS OF PHYSICAL ACTIVITY ENABLED BY MAGICAL ENERGY FROM DEEP POWER STONES. ALSO KNOWN AS 'RUNNER'S HIGH'." "'Runner's high'? You mean, she was addicted to running?" "AFFIRMATIVE. SIMILAR CONDITION EXISTS IN SONIC HEDGEHOG, ALTHOUGH FREQUENT APPLICATION OF REMEDY PREVENTS DELETERIOUS EFFECTS." Bookshire stifled a laugh remembering all the times Sonic had complained when something prevented him from running. He'd thought that Sonic merely wanted yet another chance to show off. "Nicole: list probable results of this condition." "TEMPORARY EFFECTS: MILD DEPRESSION AND STRONG DESIRE FOR RETURN TO PREVIOUS STATE. PERMANENT EFFECTS: NONE. TEMPORARY EFFECTS SHOULD LAST FOR UP TO THREE DAYS." "Her desire won't mean much since the Deep Power Stones are gone forever, right?" "NEGATIVE. HIGH PROBABILITY THAT SALLY ACORN WILL ATTEMPT TO USE ALTERNATE METHOD OF INCREASING SPEED. MAGICAL ENERGY NOT REQUIRED TO SATISFY ADDICTION." "Alternate method? No, don't tell me, Nicole. I think I'd rather be surprised to see how she makes up for the stones." That said, Bookshire set off to return Nicole to its owner. ****** Sally answered the door when Bookshire knocked. "What brings you by so early?" "You left this at my place last night." Bookshire handed the minicomputer over. "I also wanted to see how your legs were doing. I see you can walk, any pain?" "Nope, they're fine. I think you guys put a little too much of that stuff on them; I woke up to find powder all over the lower half of my bed where it flaked off. So what's the prognosis?" "You're going to live. You might be a little depressed for a few days - side effect of the Stones' wearing off - but Nicole says you'll find a way to build your speed back up. That will be something to see. Oh, and Princess?" "Yes?" "I thought the way Sonic carried you back to your hut last night was especially romantic." "Y'all should've seen it from this end, sugah." Sally's hutmate, Bunnie, giggled from somewhere inside the hut. "Hooh-we." Sally tensed and smiled. "Stop it, you two. You're embarassing me." She walked past Bookshire. "Where y'all goin', Sal?" "To find Sonic." After waiting a few seconds to make sure Sally was out of hearing range, Bunnie asked, "Tell me the truth, Booky. Are we embarassin' her, or is she doin' it to herself?" Bookshire shrugged. "Who knows? She and Sonic are even worse than you and Rotor." He ducked a pillow thrown from inside, then hobbled away quickly before Bunnie could find another. ****** Antoine was waiting for Rotor when he returned from the lookout post. "I have already starteid the experiment, Roteur." "What? Oh, the C-Fear. You already took the sample?" "Oui. Your synzesis program had already stopped, so I drank from ze bottle you left out." "I left both bottles out. And I didn't stop the program." Rotor hurried back to his lab. Antoine was in close pursuit. "No? There was only one bottle there." Not much had changed in Rotor's synthesizer, except that one of the bottles was missing. Rotor quickly checked over his machine. "Someone's stolen the C-Fear!" "Sacre blue! Zis is terrible. Who would do such a thing?" "I don't know, Ant, but until we can stop it from happening again, I'm erasing C-Fear's formula from my computers. That stuff's too powerful to risk it falling into the wrong hands. Not to mention that we wouldn't be too popular if anyone found out we were making it." Rotor's hands flew over the machine's keyboard. "But what did I drink, eef not ze Fear-see?" "C-Fear, Antoine. You drank its antidote. Since there's no dote for the antidote, you shouldn't feel a thing." Rotor sighed as he finished typing. "C'mon, even if the stuff's already been used, we've at least got to get the bottle back so it can't be traced to us." "Oui. But where do we start looking?" "Let's ask around and see if anyone's seen the bottle. Whoever did this might have moved the C-Fear to another container. If so, they'd have no use for the bottle, and might have just dropped it." Just then, Rotor's computer's display erupted in a string of text, followed by a long column of zeros. "Roteur? I think ze inventory has fenished." Rotor turned back to his computer's screen. "About time. That's more impor-" Antoine blinked. "Roteur?" "This is impossible. No way!" "What ees it?" Rotor pointed to one of the zeros. "This is the number of SWATbots in Robotropolis." He pointed to another. "This is hoverbots." Another. "Stealth bots." Another, and another, and another. "Packbell is completely out of robots, aside from his workerbots." "Completely out? You mean, he ees defenseless?" "Completely." "Tres cool! Now we can shut him down and reclaim Mobotropolis." "You know who's going to want the honors." "Everyone." "Yeah. But more than anyone else, Sonic's the one to do it." "Oui. I shall tell him, and let him tell once he has suceeded." "I'll start looking for that bottle. Sonic will probably be done before I can find it, though." "As they say, let's do it to it." ****** Bunnie was retrieving her pillow when Kenal swooped around a corner. "Incoming!" Kenal still had not figured out how to slow down at his new speed. Bunnie calmly held up her pillow directly in Kenal's flight path. Kenal impacted the soft surface, which was held firm by Bunnie's robotic strength. When he opened his eyes, he was standing on the pillow, which was supported by Bunnie's metal arm. His claws had instinctively extended into the pillow to help him keep a grip. "Thanks, Bunnie. Is Sally around?" "She just left to talk to sugar-hog. Why?" "I wanted to ask her about her visit to the griffins' old Home last year." "Ah went with her on that trip. Y'all could ask me." "That's right, you did. Ok, first question: what did you read, and could you understand it?" "Ah didn't read too much, since all the writin' was in glyphs. Nicole came up with a translation, tho, and Sally piped everythin' she could through it. Ah think it read everything." Kenal's eyes bluged. "EVERYthing? There's a few pieces - the spells - that can't be translated into Mobian. This language just doesn't have the words for the thoughts that those spells require." "If you say so. But Nicole sure didn't seem to have any trouble translatin'." "But that means Nicole would have those spells on record. I'd better ask Sally to wipe them from Nicole's memory before anyone else learns them." Kenal pulled against the pillow, but his paws would not budge. "Bunnie, could you help me get my claws out of this thing? They seem to be stuck." Bunnie grinned. "Sure. But first, y'all remember when yuh gave that C-Fear to Sally?" "Yeah. I apologized for that; she forgave me." "Ah'll forgive yuh too. Tomorrow." Still holding the pillow with her robot arm, Bunnie flipped it over so that Kenal was upside down behind her. She whistled a soft tune as she walked back into her hut. "This is not funny, Bunnie. Bunnie? BUNNIE?!?" Bunnie set Kenal down next to Rotor's missing bottle. ****** Sally didn't even have to speak when she got to Sonic's hut. Her eyes told Sonic everything he needed to know. "Don't bother, I know what you want to say. After I thought about it last night, I realized you're right. I have been kind of crappy to Tails lately. I'll make it up to him right now, if you'll step aside." Sally marched towards Sonic, her face unchanged. "What, that ain't good enough? Ok, I'm sorry, I was wrong to ever doubt you. Better?" When Sally reached Sonic, she threw her arms around him. "Thought so." He closed his eyes and prepared for her inevitable kiss. "Stop it right zaire!" "Antoine, your timing is past lousy." Sonic opened his eyes to see Sally's right arm extended upwards. His eyes followed the arm to a knife poised right above his heart. Jumping free of her near-fatal embrace, he slowly backed away. "What're you doing, Sal?" "Getting my speed back." Sally's voice was cold and distant, as if under the control of something else. Antoine ran forward and grabbed the knife from her hand. Sally blinked, then gasped. "What AM I doing?" She ran out the door. Antoine turned to follow, but Sonic held him back. "Let me go, hedgehog." "No way. I don't know what's wrong with Sal this time, but she needs to chill out before we can do anything." Antoine relaxed. "Too true, mon ami. But perhaps we can fix ze broken spirit by taking out Packbell, no?" "You're making less sense than usual, Ant. We can't strike at Packbell while he's got all those SWATbots around." "Roteur just checked Packbell's files. He has no SWATbots left." "You're kidding, right?" "I am kidding, wrong. All he has left are workerbots. Zat is what I came here to tell you." "Even without his robots, I may need some help. Packbell can copy his mind to other robots. Who knows what he's got for his main body. You up for it, Ant?" "Oui. Ze sooner, ze better." Sonic replied by grabbing a power ring, activating it, and zooming to Robotropolis with Antoine in tow. ****** Rotor had asked Tails to help him search for a missing bottle. They were just about to ask Sally if she'd seen it when everyone saw the power ring's flash and heard Sonic's sonic boom. "Where's he going?" Sally looked to Sonic's hut, then hung her head. "I chased him away," she cried. "No you didn't," Rotor corrected. "He's gone to take out Packbell." "Packbell? With all his guardbots?" "No guardbots. No nothing. I just completed the inventory; Packbell's out of warriors. I sent Antoine to tell Sonic before the news spread." "Amd now Sonic's..." "...rather predictable." Rotor smiled as Tails' ears perked up. "Do you hear what I hear?" "What do you hear?" "A rumbling of some kind. I'll check it out." Tails flew to the top of Knothole's enclosed space, then carefully seperated a couple of leaves to peek between them. Rotor put his hand to his ear. "I do hear something. It sounds like... engines?" Tails dove back to Sally, engaging his tails just in time to avoid hitting the ground. "Hoverbots! Lots of 'em, heading to Robotropolis!" A series of passing shadows confirmed Tails' assessment. "Packbell's bringing reinforcements. So that's why he let his forces get so low." "Don't worry, Sonic can take care of 'em." Sally demurred, "I wish I could be so optimistic, Tails. We've got to get him out of there fast, and with all these hoverbots in the way, Dulcy can't fly us there." "I'll go. I can get there faster than they can." "He'll need a power ring." Tails pulled the article from his backpack. "Sonic never picked up last night's ring, so I did it for him." "And Tails...?" "Yes, Aunt Sally?" "Take me with you, please." ****** Unused to having a rider, Tails was slowed down enough that Sonic was over his head in robots before Tails was halfway through the Great Forest. Sonic fought with his usual excellence, but Antoine fought better. With the C-Fear antidote removing his usual cowardliness, Antoine led 'bot after 'bot into cunning, spur-of-the-moment traps. Seeing this, Sonic started to put more and more faith into Antoine, needing someone to believe in after Tails and Sally seemed to reject him. Then the antidote wore off. Backed up against a wall by yet another horde of robots, Sonic whispered to Antoine, "So what do we do now?" Antoine screamed in panic and charged. "SUBJECT IDENTIFIED. TARGET VALUE: INSIGNIFICANT." The mob, not having seen Antoine's recent antics, parted to allow Antoine to run by, then closed to prevent Sonic from following. To Sonic, it looked as if Antoine had just turned him in. Packbell's voice came from a speaker. "So, hedgehog, your friend has run out on you. Surrender or die." Packbell expected Sonic to resist and be crushed by the sheer volume of metal arrayed against him, so his programs went into the robotic equivalent of shock when Sonic, with one final look towards the Great Forest, raised his arms and froze. ****** Snively was rather pleased with his computer virus. It had corrupted all of Robotropolis, making every camera and robot ignore him. Even the reinforcements had been corrupted the instant they linked to Robotropolis's comnet. It was as if he wasn't even there. Packbell had proven resistant to the virus, so Snively couldn't easily usurp him as planned, but at least Snively no longer had to hide. But now, Snively had forgotten about all that as he saw Packbell's new prisoner. How Packbell had captured Sonic was unimportant. What was important was that Sonic did not seem to be resisting as two SWATbots prodded him forward. After following the procession to an otherwise-empty prison block, then waiting for the guards to confine Sonic and assume a lookout stance, Snively walked up to the door of Sonic's cell. "What on Mobius are you doing?" His usual ego shattered by his friends' actions, Sonic listlessly raised his head. "Snively? But you're dead. I guess that means I am, too." "What are you blabbering about, hedgehog?" Snively turned off Sonic's guards, then opened his cell. "We're ghosts. You must've been sent to show me what happens, now that I'm gone." "So why do I have to open this door, then?" Snively grabbed Sonic and dragged him through the doorway backwards. "I guess these must be sprit guards or somethin'." Sonic turned around so he could walk, arm still in Snively's grip. "Just get us to the city's edge." As Sonic complied, Snively was pleased to see on a nearby monitor that his virus made Robotropolis' ignorance extend to his new transport, as long as Sonic carried Snively. ****** Packbell, whose sense of identity kept him in a copy of his original body after all, finally managed to extricate himself from the logical paradox. Knowing Sonic as well as he did, he found it inconceivable that the hedgehog would surrender. He'd tossed Sonic into a holding cell while failing to figure out why. Eventually, he chalked it up to one of the unknowable mysteries, and sent orders to have Sonic roboticized. "IMPOSSIBLE. SONIC HEDGEHOG NOT CURRENTLY IN CUSTODY." "What?!? But I just captured him!" "SONIC HEDGEHOG NOT CURRENTLY IN CUSTODY." "Show me how he escaped." A surveillance camera's record popped onto the screen in front of Packbell. With Snively edited out of the picture, it only showed the guardbots appearing to spontaneously deactivate, followed by the door opening. Sonic merely talked to himself, although the camera had not recorded his words. Suddenly, he just dissapeared. "He teleports now? I loathe...no, I despise...no, I really, really..." Packbell hooked his voice up to Robotropolis' PA system, setting the volume to full. "I! HATE! THAT! HEDGEHOG!!!" ****** At the edge of Robotropolis, a few trees fell over from the vibrations of Packbell's announcement. "At least we know he's ok." Tails dashed past a tree just before it completed its fall. "But where is he?" Sally held on as she had to Sonic, mentally noting that Tails seemed to be just as reckless with passengers. A familiar blue blur streaked by some distance away. "Right there!" Tails changed course to intercept. ****** "So, hedgehog, I ask again. What on Mobius were you doing surrendering to Packbell? You could have easily escaped back to your friends at Knothole." "I had nothing to go back to. First Tails, then Sally...even Antoine turned on me in the end. They were my friends when I fought for them." Sonic sighed. "There's no reason for me to keep fighting anymore. At least it's over with now." "No it isn't. Look!" Sonic followed Snively's pointing, to see Tails carrying Sally close behind. "They can see me?" "Of course they can. Don't tell them I got you out, promise?" "I promise. But why?" When he got no answer, Sonic turned his head back to his empty arms and stopped. Snively had dissapeared into a bush as Sonic passed to avoid being seen by the others. "Sonic! You're ok!" Seeing his former friends at close range, Sonic backed away from them. "Right now, yeah. Whatever you two are gonna do, just do it and get it over with." "What do you mean? We're here to get you back to Knothole." "So the others can join in?" He imitated Antoine's voice while defiantly looking away. "Please, have merci." Sally took one step forward, but stopped when Sonic assumed a fighting stance. Tails produced his power ring, almost wishing that he hadn't given up his magic and its telepathy. Inspiration came in a second. He cast his absorption spell on the power ring, removing its material casing. The white, glowing, sheer power inside was left naked to the wind as Tails suddenly flew towards Sonic, who grabbed the ring in an attempt to throw Tails. Both froze the instant Sonic touched it. "Tails? What did you do?" Sally hesitantly stepped forward, then impulsively grabbed the ring. As she did, she understood: Tails had used his magic to turn the ring into a telepathic link. He was now sending thoughts of pure friendship, worship, and love to Sonic, so Sally joined in. "Whoa...you guys really do care about me." "We always have, Sonic. Tails, let go." As soon as he obeyed Sally's command, Tails' mind was unlinked from Sally's and Sonic's. The remaining pair exchanged the thoughts of lovers as Sally bent towards Sonic. Just as she reached him, the ring exploded in a burst of power. "Sonic? So that's how you do it." "Do what, Sal?" "Run so fast." Just before the ring faded to nothing, Sally used the link to copy Sonic's muscle memory to herself. "And if I'm right..." Sally burst away, then ran back, her old speed restored. "Past cool! But there's one thing that bothers me." "I'm afraid to ask." "If you've got my speed, who's faster?" "Only one way to find out." "On 3?" "1...2..." Tails smiled to himself as he followed Sonic and Sally, racing back to Knothole. Of course, Sonic won that race. He's the fastest thing alive.