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!!"
Received on Wed Sep 20 1995 - 16:46:34 PDT
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