_Sonic the Hedgehog_ "Mirror Image":  Part 2 by Shawn Wolski

The author will accept questions and comments via e-mail at the
following address: n5una@mail.utexas.edu

Sonic the Hedgehog and other associated characters are based on
the creations of Service and Games (Sega), Archie Comic
Publications, and the _Sonic the Hedgehog_ cartoons (Saturday
morning issue) created by DiC and Sega of America.  Additional
characters that appear are the original creations of their
respective authors:  David Pistone, Holly-Beth Vixie Kraft,
Shawn Wolski.

Some of the references in the story are somewhat "Star Trek"
oriented to varying degrees, so in the event that Paramount has
a copyright on subjects displayed here, the author refers the
reader to _Star Trek:  The Next Generation Technical Manual_,
written by Rick Sternbach and Michael Okuda.  Technology in this
work is either a direct translation in some cases, or
adaptations made by the author that are based on the technology
from the source indicated.

This work is protected under various copyright laws.  The author
grants his permission for free distribution, under the premise
that the work retains its original format.  No other utilization
of the following work, monetary or otherwise, is permitted. 
Copyrighted by Shawn Wolski, (c) 1995.


	David considered his options as the laser slowly (by his
timebase, anyway) approached their position on the ground.  His
first thought was to dislocate himself and Dulcy by utilizing
his warp drive.  The idea died as soon as it was created, due to
the fact that his warp drive required two seconds (in real-time)
to prestart and engage.  Another option was to fire at the laser
beam with his phaser.  The only problem was, the laser had too
wide of a dispersion radius, and only part of the energy would
be deflected.  His final choice was to block the laser with his
graviton shields.
	33 microseconds and 100 meters from the laser emitter later,
the beam struck a 1.26 MW graviton shield.  The spatual
distortion spread throughout the shield as Cerenkov radiation,
the familiar blue flash that was also seen when David engaged
and disengaged his warp drive.  The two Freedom Fighters were
safe from their deadly technological adversary for now.
	Not content to allow the laser array to continue firing in
order to disable the protective barrier, David decided to make a
lethal retort of his own.  After locating the laser's power
supply and targeting it, he balled his paws into fists and
raised his right arm.  Immediatedly after extending his index
finger, he resonated his phaser frequency to match that of his
shields and fired a 30 kW phaser beam.  33 microseconds later,
the laser array was converting into a stream of superheated
metallic and gabbro vapor.
	"Alright!" Dulcy cheered, elated at the fact of being saved
from near-death for the second time that day.
	"We're not secure yet," her comrade returned, locating other
nearby laser arrays and dispensing with them accordingly.  After
their immediate threat had been eliminated, he said, "I believe
now would be a suitable time to depart."
	The dragon nodded in total agreement.  "Music to my ears,
David!  Hop on, we're getting out of here!"
	As the vulpine executed his associate's suggestions, his
sensors detected a new threat flying from a remote location in
the Dark Mountain region.  Hover Units, and not the standard
Robotropolis grade either.  These were new supersonic designs,
predatory and fast.  David looked at Dulcy with a measure of
intense concern.  His companion stared at him for a second,
matching his gaze and appending her stare with bafflement. 
Saying nothing, David pointed to three red dots rising over the
horizon, their forms resolving into their dangerous aeroframes
as they flew closer.
	The dragon's head turned toward the indicated direction.  Her
sharp eyes spotted the Hover Units, and quickly darted over
them, gaging what she and her friend were up against.  After
widening her eyes and quickly cocking her head backward with a
jolting motion with horror, Dulcy abruptly kicked herself away
from the ground.  With a flurry of flapping wings and a very
powerful propulsive force from the snapping of a long dragon
tail against air, the pair shot away from their new adversaries.
	Knowing that Dulcy's upper velocity limit would never approach
that of the Hover Units, David released his leghold on his
associate's back and grasped onto her harness with an almost
unrestrained strength.  After uncovering the protective slits
from his impulse drive exhaust ports and covering himself and
the dragon in a shield to avoid injury by fight stresses, the
vulpine immediately began accelerating toward a valley in the
Dark Mountains fringe area.
	The Hover Units followed, openning fire on their prey.  David
did not return fire, but increased his shield power to safely
dissapate the laser energy, as well as compensate for
aerodynamic stresses caused by their velocity.  In an effort to
draw the pilots' attention to their targets and away from the
sensors mapping the valley, he increased his velocity gradually,
forcing the Hover Units to draw more power from the fusion power
supplies.  The predators continued firing, apparently unaware of
the fact that the valley ended with a large gabbro cliff 400
kilometers into the distance ahead.
	Satisfied that he and Dulcy had the pilots' complete attention,
part of the fox's mind reviewed a set of complex calculations
and other data.  Pushing himself lightly away from his comrade,
he rapidly flew into position.  A ring of intense blue light
formed around his tails as they rotated.
	Three seconds from the cliff face, David's shield began to
become distorted from its spherical form and the graviton energy
elevated into the higher energy states.  He directed himself and
the dragon to an orientation parallel to the cliff.  At the time
of one second away from when the Freedom Fighter pair would
otherwise have an intimate knowledge of what the chemical
composition of gabbro was, they were propelled into the
"otherspace" region, leaving a blinding flash of blue light
behind them.
	The Hover Units, not equiped with warp drive or the accelerated
time-reaction circuitry necessary to avoid the cliff, were not
so fortunate.  A gargantuan thermonuclear explosion erupted from
the cliff, converting much of it and the immediate area into
plasma.  The multipule lethal energies spread out at various
rates:  the radiation (both electromagnetic and nuclear), and
the blast wave.  Understandably, no physical evidence of the
Hover Units themselves survived.
	From a safe distance high in Mobius' atmosphere, David and
Dulcy viewed the spectacle, noting that there were now three
less of the advanced vehicles to be of any threat to a Freedom
Fighter in the future.  However, the problem still remained
prominent, not being erased by the loss of the technology.  It
retained importance, more so now than ever.
	"Whoa," Dulcy breathed out with relief as she saw the cloud
slowly expand into the sky and along the ground, "I'm glad
THAT'S over with."  She directed her vision toward the black and
gray fox hovering beside her.  "Is it, David?" she inquired,
still feeling somewhat shaken by the incidents involved near the
fringe of the Dark Mountain area.
	To her dismay, David shook his head as if to say "no".  "I
regret to inform you otherwise, Dulcy.  I believe that we will
be seeing more from those particular Hover Unit models in the
near future.  Not to mention that the attack was no accident."
	"But who would do such a thing?" the dragon demanded.
	David cringed visibly at the thought of reporting the
information to his female comrade, and turned his head away. 
Around his muzzle, the gray fur began to look a little grayer
than usual.  The data was so petrifying in its fearful nature
that even David was signifigantly affected by it.  Dulcy
examined her close friend with concern bordering on despair. 
This was the first time that she had ever seen David react in
that fasion, and she didn't care for the possible reasons that
might explain why he did.  As she considered the possibilities
herself, she began to vaguely comprehend why.
	After regaining a degree of his composure,  he slowly spat out,
"It seems...that the reports...of...  Packbell's death...were
greatly exagerated."  He returned his gaze toward Dulcy, and saw
that she regarded him with undivided attention and understanding.
	"But..." the dragon asked, knowing that David wouldn't be able
to answer the question either, "how could that be?  We all
thought that he went down with the Doomsday Project."
	"I can't answer that any better than you can.  But the point is
moot now, because Packbell is still alive.  As for the rest of
it..." he trailed off, informing Dulcy of exactly what his
sensors detected.
	Dulcy quivered with dread after the compuorganic vulpine had
finished relaying the data to her.  "You know, the Dark
Mountains is the perfect place for Packbell to hang out. 
Matches his personality."  She glared intensely toward the
general direction of the Dark Mountains.  "There's something
else you might want to know, David."
	The fox looked at the dragon in a questioning way, not needing
to ask verbally.
	"You might not know about the 'other side' of Dark Mountains,"
she continued, "since you probably concentrated more on the
geological part, knowing you."  She gave him a small grin, then
quickly reverted to a serious and frightful demeanor.  "That
place is the symbol of horror and the 'dark side' to every
culture on Mobius.  Even the very clouds around it seem to have
an evil in them.  They block out nearly all the light and cover
the entire area with darkness, as if they help the mountains and
protect them from every good thing from entering.  There's many
theories why this part of Mobius is still evil.  Some say that
it's where an animal or something else died, and it became a bad
sprit.  Others say that its a naturally evil place, something
that formed when the good forces on Mobius weren't looking. 
Whatever the reason, there's something there, and it has killed.
 Many have ventured in, but only one, a dragon, has come out. 
He came out...in pieces."
	With that final statement, David felt a wave of terror and
sickness wash over him.  His gray fur around his muzzle began to
seem MUCH grayer than usual, the underlying skin visibly
displaying the wordless message of how he felt about this new
element in his otherwise "sterile" knowledge of the oldest known
area on Mobius.  A peculiar feeling began threatening an uprise
in his stomach and throat, and he slowly rubbed his neck in
response, as if forcing it to remain in its place.  As if the
very information was intent on sending him to his death for
penalty of intruding into evil incarnate, his tails began to
falter in their rotation, giving gravity more opprotunity to act.
	Dulcy noticed the effects her monolouge had on her companion,
knowing that he had considered everything that she had said in
detail.  Gently grasping onto the vulpine, she held him close to
her.  "It's OK, David.  I'm still here, and I'm not going to let
the evil take you."  When that failed to quiet his horror, she
softly sang to him to calm him down.
	As the music gradually took its effect on David, he felt his
strength and inner resolve return.  "Look at me, Dulcy," he
dicated when he could speak again.  "I'm usually the one who is
notorious for looking at the logical and scientific aspect of
the universe.  Now, for me to react in this way when presented
with this...fokelore, for lack of a more accurate term, I...I
have behaived unfavorably."  He averted his gaze from his
friend, deeply embarrassed and at a loss for words.
	The dragon lightly stroked his head in a gesture of love and
understanding.  "I know, David.  But this could mean
something...that you've become more alive than you realize. 
This is the first time you've shown fear about something, I
mean, REALLY shown fear.  I mean the kind of fear that makes
even the best of us freeze, the kind that leaves you standing
there without a way to fight back.  Packbell and the Dark
Mountains has a way of doing that to us."
	The fox responded seriously, "Then, in that event, I have been
educated.  All of my technology...couldn't even begin to
compensate for the debilitating terror I felt."  He looked back
toward Dulcy, a renewed determination present in his eyes. 
"Everything else that has been occuring at Knothole does have a
degree of importance, but this should be our most IMMEDIATE
concern.  From what I project, Packbell could attack very soon,
I would say within the next three days.  Considering his
apparent readiness, he is near the point of what could easily be
a full-scale invasion in a limited amount of time."
	Dulcy nodded as she reviewed the information that her comrade
gave to her about the base deep inside the Dark Mountains.  But
she felt as if there was something missing in his speech,
something he needed to say.  Watching David closely, she gently
urged him on, encouragingly.
	"There's more to this...and I don't believe you will care for
the possibility any more than I do.  We were wrong about
Packbell.  We could be facing a similar situation with Snively,
or even Robotnik.  If that is the case, then Packbell may not be
our sole concern."  After a minute of consideration, he said,
"My long-range sensor array will be upgraded to allow for
detecting specific objects.  If they are anywhere on Mobius, I
WILL locate them."  Looking toward the general location of the
Dark Mountains, he continued, "This way we will be able to avoid
any future unfavorable circumstances, such as..."  He pointed to
where he was looking, no further explanation required to
illustrate his point.  "I regret to inform you, Dulcy, but I
believe the situation demands that we postpone the landing
instruction for now."
	His associate groaned derisively, but nodded in understanding. 
As the dragon pondered the events of the past morning, she
wondered how she would perform at Knothole after executing only
one practice landing.  She didn't have much time to think about
it, for six seconds later they shot into FTL space.

* * *

	While the two Freedom Fighters were airborne and revising
mission plans, a non-flight capable android paced the floor
inside his Command and Control Center of the Dark Mountains
base, contemplating what had transpired over the climatic
minutes involving the intruders.  He considered possibilities
there were that would allow a mere eleven year-old fox and
adolesent dragon to destroy the security technology in part of
the perimeter, not to mention outwit his Hover Unit pilots in
the valley.  After deep thought and situation analysis, his mood
only darkened further.  There was no logical explanation for how
an organic fox and dragon could perform those feats with any
reasonable degree of safety.  Unless...
	'What if,' Packbell thought to himself, 'one of them is NOT
organic?  An android like myself...or another form of artificial
life that could...'  He paused as his positronic matrix accessed
the image data that he saw from the security video displays. 
His eyes narrowed as he tried to resolve this new puzzle in his
mind.  'Yes,' he continued, 'that would explain everything. 
That would explain why he was able to deflect the laser, fire an
energy weapon at the laser arrays, and outfly three of my Hover
Units.  Now, what about the sensors...'
	Turning to the main computer, he ordered, "Computer, replay
data from the time the intruders were first sighted, to their
escape.  Show sensor and video downloads."
	The computer quietly complied with the demands Packbell made to
it.  Within less than a few seconds, the video display showed
the information taken from both the camera units and passive
electromagnetic detection grids.  The android thought over the
data, annotating something he saw at the beginning and end of
the scan.
	'Interesting,' he thought, 'there's plenty of IR radiation,
plus other indicators, from the dragon.  As for that black and
gray two-tailed fox...nothing.  No clue that he's there.  He's
invisible to every scan except the visible light detectors, and
that means I would have to know where to look for him.  Plus he
has some other technology:  shields, an energy weapon, and some
unknown type of propulsion that creates a blue light emission
when engaged.'  He considered the problem further, then when no
answer was forthcomming, he thought about who could have been
responsible for creating such an advanced artificial intelegence
such as that fox.
	"Draftwood," he muttered to himself, and his anger index rose
as every millisecond passed.  "That raccoon has been more
detrimental to my plans than I can calculate, but this time,
he's really broken his previous limits."  The android stood by
his command chair, unconsciously balling his hands into fists
and exposing his palms repeatedly in frustration.  "If I ever
get a hold of you...you and your puppet will be destroyed. 
That's a promise, Draftwood..."
	After his last statement, he froze in place, reconsidering his
threat.  An evil grin slowly slid across his face as his
tactical knowledge resolved an alternate method of dealing with
Bookshire's innovative toy.  The more he thought about it, the
more he liked it.
	"No," he said to himself with determination.  "I'll persuade
that vulpine to join forces with me, and bring Mobius down,
groveling at my feet!  He would be a powerful ally, if he can be
turned from his concerns of the Freedom Fighters."
	He started chuckling, which gradually graded into an evil
laughter which echoed throughout the base.  For now, his losses
seemed trivial, for he had found someone who would more than
compensate for them.  What the vulpine had to offer would no
doubt surpass everything in what Packbell considered to be
ultramodern technology, and it was imperative that he got his
hands on the tactical systems soon.  While he laughed, he
concocked a plan to snare the fox and convert him to his evil
influence.  On a whim, after he had calmed down to a significant
degree, he asked the computer about information involving
advanced modes of propulsion...

* * *

	As David and Dulcy traveled through the featureless void of
warp space, multiple systems integrated their functions in a
coordinated effort to maintain the required safety standards. 
His navigational deflector plowed a controlled ridge of
gravitons hundreds of kilometers ahead, sweeping any potential
objects that would otherwise endanger the welfare of the two
Freedom Fighters.  Beta graviton density sensors and graviton
emitters moderated the dispersal of the graviton warp field, and
prevented any unfavorable interactions with the planet's
gravitational forces.  Internal structural reinforcement and
inertial compensation fields stabolized the induced stresses on
his body.
	However, out of all this and more, David only paid as much
attention to the operations of the systems as a Terran elephant
would give to a speck of dust.  His primary concern was vested
in the refinement of his long-range sensor array, and his
nanites worked hard at their labors to give the vulpine the
configuration he needed.  The resolution increased over time,
giving him more and more data from the array.  He stopped
overseeing the download results when something very large,
metallic, and unpleasent appeared in the image translators.
	At first, the black and gray fox was shocked with denial, but
there was no mistaking what he had detected.  David directed
himself and Dulcy down to six meters above ground level, fifty
kilometers away from the refined mass of metal he noticed in the
scans.  He gradually bled the graviton warp field down to
minimize the threat of detection, then flew into an area
approximately three kilometers from the target to show his
dragon comrade what he had found.
	Dulcy gasped in disbelief and rubbed her eyes, to try and wipe
the gargantuan nightmare of a hallucination away.  It was still
there.
	Robotropolis.
	The dragon turned to face her vulpine friend. 
"David...that's...IMPOSSIBLE.  How could...I mean, how is
it...?"  She said nothing further, feeling as if her tounge was
somehow secured to her teeth.
	"One word, Dulcy," the fox said, breaking the silence,
"Snively."
	His associate stared at him, as if in hope that what he had
said was nothing more than a cruel excuse for a joke.  The stare
he returned was in confirmation...of the other, more undesired
truth.
	After running a complete sensor sweep of the confines of the
city, he noticed a particular area, about the size of a city
block, had a kind of stealthy aspect to him.  He then
concentrated his scans in an attempt to gain more information. 
None was forthcomming.  The compuorganic vulpine glared in the
general direction of the suspect area, unselfconsiously curling
his index finger in and out from his paw as he stared.  His
tails dropped perpendicular to his body and began to swish from
side to side, making his anger and frustration that much more
apparent.
	Noticing David's change from perturbation to anger, Dulcy
asked, "What's wrong?"
	"There's a sensor dampening field in the city," he replied,
"and I'm concerned about what could be under that field.  Every
type of probe I've utilized so far has proven useless.  The only
way..."
	A significantly long and uncomfortable pause followed.  Both
dragon and fox considered the option left open, but neither of
the two were very enthousastic about the prospect.  A decision
had to be made...
	And the one in command made it.  "Dulcy," David commanded,
"wait here.  I'm going into the city limits to investigate."  He
opened the dragon's ruck sack and searched through it, his paws
attempting to locate the device he knew his comrade would need. 
After finding it, he pulled the device from the ruck sack and
handed it to her.  "This is a transceiver," he explained.  "It
should keep us in contact with each other, although I am unable
to gurantee its effectiveness when I enter the area surrounded
by the dampening field.  Regardless of whatever happens, if you
don't hear anything from me in the next twenty minutes, assume
the worst and return to Knothole immediately."
	His female comrade nodded in understanding, but that didn't
hide the concerned look visible in her muzzle and eyes.
	"I know.  I don't care for the potential outcome any more than
you do...but one of us has to return to Knothole if something
goes wrong."
	A sigh from the dragon, indicating her reluctance to let her
associate take the risks.  "Just one thing, David," she
admonished, "you're NOT expendable, by anyone's interpretation."
	The fox nodded in understanding, then hugged his friend
supportingly for about half a minute.  He then rushed off into
the distance, his stealth characteristics making him
undetectable against the background of rocks almost immediately.
	Dulcy crossed her fingers and marked time, waiting and hoping
that her friend would return safetly.

	On his approach to Robotropolis, David noticed that the air
gradually became more and more poluted as the distance between
himself and the city decreased.  He cringed a little at the
stench and engaged his air filtration systems.  The metallic
nightmare loomed closer and closer, a contrast to the Great
Forest microcosm that the vulpine knew and loved.  Anger
threatened to well up in his mind as he looked the monster
straight in the eyes...
	'No...' he thought to himself, 'I have a mission to perform,
and that's what I will concentrate on.  Regardless of my
personal feelings, I'm not allowing them to gain control of my
judgement faculties.'  After spending a few microseconds
repeating the mantra to his more emotional side, the threat of
blinding anger subsided, and he continued forward to begin his
investigation.  Managing to find an area that wasn't being
patrolled by SWATBots or other forms of security monitoring, he
sped toward the city limits and beyond.
	And groaned inwardly at what he saw.  Structures stood as
manevolent metallic spires against the perpetual black and red
sky, towering over him and seeming to build to infinity.  The
black and dark gray colors contrasted with the more familiar and
softer organic greens and browns of David's home.  There were
some green and brown spots on the ground, spreading off into the
distance, but it didn't take a mass spectrometer and organic
analysis to notice that those spots were not rich with life. 
Lightning and some acidic rain poured down from the tortured
sky, as if the biosphere was fighting in vain against the
metallic beast it covered.  In short, not exactly a place to
have an enjoyable vacation, let alone take residence in.
	David slowly and unknowingly backed himself to a wall, the only
thought in his mind being directed by a primal urge to escape
from the evil claws and teeth of the monster.  On contact with
the cold metallic wall, he leaped with a combination of fright
and surprise.  Having enough sense of mind to keep quiet, he
came close to shreeking, but drove that impulse away in time. 
Leaning against the wall, he closed his eyes, and breathed in
and out slowly, in an effort to control his quaking nerves. 
After doing so and berating himself for his inexcusable
behaivor, he turned to the cormer of the building to close the
distance to the area of the sensor dampening field.
	He froze in his position when he heard a noise.  It was fairly
far off, 300 meters away...but in the general vicinity of his
target.  Footsteps...not the slow and measured gait of a
SWATBot, but something less predictable and off any measure of
perfect timing.  Other noises appeared, the metallic and
measured clanks on the ground indicating SWATBots, and an
unidentified type of vehicle.  Deciding to take a new route to
see what the dampening field covered, David located a ladder and
scaled his way up to the top level of the building.  Racing
toward his target, he leaped across the gaps between the
structures until he came close enough to his destination to
observe the events.
	A brief flash filled his field of view and an unpleasent
disorientation on the verge of being nausiating spread like a
wave over his sensor array.  The fox cringed with the effort to
maintain command of his senses, putting a paw over his neck in
blind hope to quell the sickening feeling.  Failing at that, he
engaged his shields, forcing the sickness away.  When his head
cleared again, he realized what had happened:  a malfunction in
the containment field of the sensor dampening energy generator
caused the radius of the steathy dome to expand, and (literally)
hit him in the face.
	'Looks as if I will require consideration of more shielding in
the future,' David thought to himself.  'I'm going to be fairly
useful if I can't even function properly.'  An inward
half-hearted chuckle at the blatent sarcasm in the personal
remark, then he returned his undivided attention to the task at
hand.  'That sensor dampening field is pretty odd...not
conformant to anything we thought was current Robotropolis
technology.  Subspace signatures all over the spectrum, plus
some variations in RF phasing...which would explain why I
couldn't detect anything outside the field.  Even SWATBots would
require heavy shielding just to be able to function here.  Where
Snively obtained technology like that is anyone's guess.'
	Directing his gaze downward, he saw what he had heard a minute
before.  The source of the noises came from Snively, a pair of
SWATBot guards, and a small vehicle with tank-like tracks on the
bottom.  On the vehicle itself was a metallic cylinder,
containing something for certain, but what was another matter
all together.
	"What is our current condition?" Snively asked in his nasal
voice to the guards.
	"We will be well prepared, sir," the metallic grating of voice
synthesis responded.  "New power station energy cores under
gamma test procedures, interconnects to the main power grids
expected to be completed at 2200 hours tomorrow.  Advanced
Technology Center currently in service, HoverUnit upgrades
available within the next two days.  Current numbers at present:
 10,000 SWATBots, 1100 WorkerBots, 1600 HoverUnits with an equal
number of-"
	A quick sweep of Snively's finger across his neck indicated his
desire for silence.  "Good...we can stage an attack within this
week now...and regain the control we had before."  Snively
stared off into space in a peculair fassion, letting an evil
grin contort his face.  "Oh...if only you were here,
Julian...but you're not, and I am."  Holding the smile while
looking directly at the guards, he commanded, "Take the
experiment to the Alpha Quadrant power plant site.  I want it to
start receiving power the second the power plant is available,
so that we can begin our assalt in the next four days."
	"Yes, sir," came the compliance from the guards as they
saluted.  The guards then entered the vehicle and drove off to
the power plant, taking the unidentified device with them.
	Watching the vehicle depart with a measure of grim
satisfaction, Snively turned and walked into the building where
the dampening field generator was located.  He thought to
himself, 'We'll see how good those Freedom Fighters are when I
put them to work in the cold weather.  That should slow the
hedgehog down considerably.'
	David watched from his vantage point, a grim look warping his
muzzle.  'That's all I need to know,' he thought.  'Time to
return to Dulcy and Knothole...this is a very precarious
situation we have, indeed.'
	The sound of metal striking metal interrupted his thoughts. His
eyes went wide with fear as he realized what that sound was:  a
small squad of SWATBots slowly climbing up a stairwell. 
Regaining his thoughts again, he took stock of his situation. 
There was no place to hide on the roof of the structure, and
every direction around him had an equal risk for his detection. 
For aside from the SWATBots scaling the steps to the roof, there
was also a large circle of HoverUnits...and he was at the center
of a circle that was gradually closing in on itself.
	'How in the...oh yes.  They must have found a hole in the
sensor dampening field.  And my shield created a pretty sizable
hole.  And if they're here...that means they are shielded, and
using optical sensors only.'  Casting a glare to his offenders
around him, he drew power to his phasers and warp drive.  The
compuorganic vulpine waited until he could see his airborne
assailants in the visible light spectrum, then waited for a
period of time longer so that he could be absolutely certain he
could properly disable or destroy them.  Turning toward a
HoverUnit group, he openned fire on them.  The results sent the
group of HoverUnits on a new course:  to impact with the ground.
	Directing his attention to the other HoverUnit groups, he
opened fire on them as well, converting them to useless
conglomerates of plastic, glass, electronics, and metal.  He
quickly looked around again, searching for more targets.  He was
rewarded by the approach of a large circle of HoverUnits, which
flew into his vicinity, their laser emitters discharging lethal
beams of light.  The vulpine's shield was able to take the full
force of the firepower, but for him to remain in the area too
much longer would increase the odds against his favor. 
Apparently, the SWATBot troops and HoverUnit pilots knew that as
well as he did.
	In the tense situation, David half-heard a door open about
twenty meters behind him.  Narrowing his eyes and glacing over
his right shoulder long enough to see what he was up against, he
uncovered the graviton warp field emitters on his tails.  The
blue light from his tails gradually intensified as the beta
graviton field density increased.  Considering what he was up
against, he performed some recalculations on the field volume.
	'If they all want me to surrender, I will give them what they
want...only not in the way they expect.'  Checking his internal
chronometer, his calculated that his warp engagement would
happen in ten seconds.  He turned his body around, looking at
the SWATBot squad with a bold defiant glare on his face.
	"Freeze, prisoner!  You are under arrest!" the SWATBot squad
leader demanded, pointing its laser rifle at the intruder.  It
stepped forward, giving David the hint of not to try anything
foolish.
	The commander was rewarded with a retort from the fox. 
"Correction:  YOU are under arrest."  With that response came a
somewhat more powerful one, as a sphere of blue light formed
over the roof of the building, then reshaped into a wide streak
as David flew off into warp space.  

	At her position three kilometers outside the Robotropolis city
limits, Dulcy continued marking time and waited.  She began to
worry when her wrist chronometer begain counting pass the point
of nineteen minutes, thinking that something had happened to her
vulpine friend.  Lacking anything better to do for that last
minute, she rubbed her footpaws into the ground, displacing dirt
and pebbles as she did so.
	'Come on, David,' she privately urged her companion.  'Don't
make me go without-'
	An interruption in her thoughts as she noticed something in her
peripheral vision.  A band of blue light erupted from
Robotropolis, leaving an array of colors behind as the beta
graviton energy gradually weakened and vanished.  Her eyes
narrowed reflexively to filter out the light as the band came
closer and closer.  A few seconds later, the blue streak
exploded into a large blue flash about 100 meters ahead of her,
and she saw a black and gray form fly down toward her location.
	When David landed beside her, she picked him up and hugged him
tightly to her chest.  "Oh David, it's so good to see you again.
 I was getting worried."
	The fox smiled, returning the embrace to his dragon comrade. 
"I nearly thought I wouldn't return here alive, but I did." 
Remembering that his departure to their vantage point was
visible, he said in a more serious tone, "It's imperative that
we leave immediately.  You more than likely saw how I escaped
from Robotropolis, and I wouldn't be surprised if the security
network did as well."
	As if on que, a group of ten HoverUnits flew out of
Robotropolis.  Directly toward the two Freedom Fighters.
	David glared at the arrivals, his mind running through every
possible action to take.  Making the decision, he enveloped
himself and Dulcy in a warp field and darted off two seconds
later to the safer regions of Mobius, specifically Knothole.
	Thwarted of their prey, the HoverUnits changed course and
returned to their flight docks without incident.  The fate of
the pilots, however, would not be so plesant.

* * *

	Bookshire walked unhurriedly toward David's and Tails' hut, his
pace belying what his mind was running through.  A mixture of
concern, confusion, and a minor degree of frustration warped his
mouth.  His thoughts were on a certain fox that he and Rotor had
created just a few months before.
	'I'm happy to see that David got as far as he has in this short
period of time,' his personal deliberatory side said.  'He
became a close and caring brother to Tails, and I'm sure that
Tails feels the same way about him.  He's a good friend to
nearly everyone in Knothole, last I've heard.  Sonic and Sally
officially made him a Freedom Figher Commander last month, and
I'm still a bit surprised he turned down Sonic's offer to become
THE commander for Knothole.  I suppose he'd rather work with us;
rather than over us.'  A slight private chuckle echoed through
his mind, then returned to the more serious demeanor. 
'Yet...something still worries me...what does he feel about ME?'
	His unbalanced gait continued, until he paced up the steps to
the hut and gave the door four short taps.  In the back of his
mind he heard a series of quick propelling stomps on the floor
ahead of him, which was rather unusual comming from the
inhabitants of the hut...unless something was wrong.  A few
short breaths came from the area right behind the door, then the
door nearly flew off its hinges as it opened inward.
	Seeing the perturbed vulpine standing before him, Bookshire
asked kindly, "What's wrong, Tails?"
	Tails panted a bit more before he managed to speak.  When he
had enough of a breath to do so, he dictated in a severely
concerned tone, "Bookshire...David's transponder...I just lost
the signal.  One second it was there, then it was gone! 
Something bad's happened to him, and I don't know what!"
	The raccoon carefully stooped down, being especially cautious
of his injured leg.  He rubbed a comforting paw on Tails'
headfur, looking as calmly as he could into the frightened fox's
eyes.  "Show me what panel the transponder data is uploaded
to...maybe I can help."
	Tails nodded and led Bookshire over to the touchpad panel in
question.  The raccoon promptly scanned over it, looking for a
key or sequence of keys that would allow access to the greater
volume of data that was transmitted along with the transponder
signal.  After a few seconds, he located the required key and
lightly tapped it once.  He then searched through the data
history downloads, looking for a clue as to what caused the
sudden break in the signal.
	"Aha," he said, finding the suspect time, location, and
information.  "David was caught somewhere in a sensor dampening
field.  According to this, he went to investigate something at
these coordinates..." he said, pointing the indicator out to
Tails, "...and a malfunction of the confinement beam in the
generator caused the field radius to expand is suspected. 
Something about these coordinates though...seem very familiar,
yet I can't put a finger on where right now."
	"Is..is...he going to be...alright?" the perturbed fox
stammered.
	Bookshire shook his head, uncertainty in his eyes.  "I honestly
can't say...the only form of heavy protection that David has
right now is his graviton shield.  As long as that's active, he
should be relatively safe.  That of course depends on where he
is...blast!  If I could only remember where..."
	A few minutes of silence passed, and both companions became
more and more distressed by the second.  No further response
from the transponder came.  With a grim look on the raccoon's
muzzle, he reached toward a communications panel to call Sally.
	Something flashed in his peripheral vision, a small white point
on the transponder data panel.  Pulling his paw away from the
communications panel while he looked down for a better view of
the download screen, Bookshire smiled in relief.  Tails looked
at his raccoon friend with puzzlement written over his
face...then down at the transponder downloads.  A smile
gradually spread across his face as well.
	"Alright!" the fox cheered, jumping up into the air a few
times.  "He's out!"
	The raccoon smiled deeply, still keeping his eyes on the data. 
"Hhmm...he's in warp space, and heading toward a particular
location...now he's stopped near Dulcy."  Twenty seconds passed,
then he said, "They're both in warp space now, evading a
HoverUnit group...and heading toward Knothole...should be here
any second.  Come on Tails, let's go see them."

	Looking over the meadow and sky from the Knothole border, Sally
glanced at her wrist chronometer worriedly.  'It's been about an
hour and fifteen minutes since David and Dulcy left,' she
thought.  'Didn't think it would take THAT long for them to run
a scan and practice landings...unless something went wrong.'
	Scanning the sky again, a pinprick of light caught her eye.  A
second later, it exploded into a blue flash, which gradually
faded into a small black speck.  As it grew, Sally saw that it
was David and Dulcy on their return home.  Others noticed the
flash as well, and the assembly crowded around Sally to watch.
	Tense seconds passed on the ground as the airborne pair flew
closer.  Expecting Dulcy's usual landing, the group prepared for
the ground-wrenching crash.  Dulcy flew in closer and
closer...and made a perfect touchdown.
	Sally ran over to give congratulations to Dulcy, but noticed a
concerned look on her friends faces.  "What's wrong?"
	"Sally...we've got a problem...big problem."  David answered.