BLOODLINES
A Sonic the Hedgehog story
by Daniel J. Drazen
Chapter 9
"She WHAT!?"
As soon as Sonic and Bunnie had heard the translation, they
headed for Sally's hut. At first she was still too wrapped up in
her grief to respond; when they burst into her hut she simply
said: "Please, just leave me alone." But when they told her of
Sandy's disappearance and of the note she had left behind, Sally
was on her feet in a second.
"This is terrible! How long ago did she leave?"
"Ah don't know, Sally, and neither does anyone else. She's
as quiet as Sonic is quick."
"That means she's got a head start. We still might be able
to catch her."
"Forget it, Sal," Sonic said, "she doesn't want to get
caught."
But Sally wasn't listening. Instead she was writing a quick
note, inserting it into one of the mechanical carrier pidgeons
Rotor had designed, and was programming it to fly to Uncle
Chuck's hideout in Robotropolis.
"You think she means it?" Bunnie asked.
"Of course she does. Look at the bottom of the letter. You
see that smudge where her signature would be? She made that with
a drop of her own blood. I don't know much about the Nomads, but
I DO know they're firm believers in blood-vengeance! She blames
Robotnik for our mother's death and she's going after him. We've
got to stop her!"
"Whoa! Time out!" Sonic yelled. "Since when are we in the
business of saving Robuttnik's butt?"
"Believe me, that's not the point!"
"Then I'm missing something here!"
"Sonic, I had to watch my mother die and I couldn't do a
thing about it. I am NOT going to sit around here while my
sister commits suicide! Now come on!"
Without another word, Sally raced out the door. Sonic had
never seen her so worked up before, but he was even more
surprised when Bunnie said, half-aloud and with a broad grin on
her face: "Welcome back, Sally-girl!"
"Say what?"
"Tell you later, Sugarhog."
It took a couple of minutes of waiting for Dulcy's head to
clear after her latest landing. Once she understood what was
happening, though, she was winging her way back to Robotropolis
with Sonic, Sally and Bunnie on board. All the while they were
flying, they scanned the open country for any sign of Sandy. At
one point, Sally ordered Dulcy to land. Even before Dulcy had
touched down Sally had lept off of Dulcy's back, rolled on the
ground to cushion the landing, sprang to her feet, and ran toward
a small bush. There was a piece of torn cloth on it, from
Sandy's cloak. They were heading in the right direction. No
sooner had the others picked themselves up from Dulcy's landing
than Sally was urging the dragon to get back in the air again.
In a little while they touched down at a garbage dump
outside of Robotropolis. This was a common rendezvous point for
the freedom fighters on their various missions. As soon as they
were on the ground, Sally had Nicole in hand.
"Nicole! Display the three most likely routes between the
dump and Robotnik's headquarters!"
Instantly, a shimmering hologram map of the city floated
before them.
"OK, Bunnie will take the southern route, Sonic will take
the northern route, and I'll go up the middle. We'll meet at
Uncle Chuck's; maybe he'll have heard something."
"What if we find her?" Bunnie asked.
"Get her to Uncle Chuck's; I don't care how. Dulcy, you
retrace our path and look for her again; I want to make sure we
didn't pass her on the way here."
With that, Sally ran off, leaving the other freedom fighters
standing in the garbage dump.
"You want to tell me what that 'Welcome back' thing was
about?" Sonic asked Bunnie.
"Oh, that! Well, Sally ain't been herself lately, what with
her ma dyin' and all. I was just glad to get the old Sally
back."
"Me, too! Good luck, Bunnie; gotta juice!"
"Good luck Sugarhog!"
With that, Sonic tore off on his appointed route, Dulcy took
to the air once more, and Bunnie started on her way.
Bunnie was never keen about coming to Robotropolis, no
matter how important the missions. The city had changed so much
under Robotnik that it was nothing but a gigantic threat.
After ten minutes of walking, Bunnie attempted to get her
bearings. This had been the oldest part of town before Robotnik
blighted everything. The buildings were low and the structures
square. Bunnie dimly remembered that the building where she was
sheltering herself had been the old Klein Bottle Works.
Cautiously she rounded a corner.
Looking to her right, she froze: the unmistakable shape of a
SWAT-bot lurked in a shadow. She wondered whether to make a run
for it. Yet the SWATbot didn't move after several seconds.
Emboldened, and fervently hoping that it wasn't equipped with a
motion sensor, Bunnie edged toward it.
Once she got closer, Bunnie could see the hole punched into
its chest. She could also see another SWATbot lying on the
ground in three pieces.
"Yep," Bunnie thought to herself, "this is Sandy's calling
card, all right!"
She looked down the street. There was something else in the
shadows further along. Cautiously moving toward it, she saw
another fallen SWATbot.
"Oo-wee! This is just like followin' a trail of bread
crumbs!"
On she went, hiding in shadows and tracing a trail of fallen
SWATbots. She thought she'd counted seven wrecked bots--and who
knows how many before she picked up Sandy's trail--when she
turned a corner. There wasn't a SWATbot to be seen, not even the
smallest part.
"Uh-oh! Ran out of bread crumbs."
Suddenly she thought she could hear a hover unit
approaching. That meant more bots! She quickly ducked into an
alleyway. Bunnie was so intent on wondering what to do next, she
didn't notice the metallic hand inching out of the shadows behind
her and getting closer and closer.
to be continued
Received on Tue Mar 28 1995 - 08:12:14 PST
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.3.0
: Thu Mar 19 2015 - 12:17:02 PDT