The Envoy

            A silhouette passed from shadow to shadow in the murk of Robotropolis smog. But the silhouette's stealth wasn't perfect; the clank of footsteps was audible even over the city's background noise. Besides, a shadow with that many spikes belonged to a fairly unique animal.

            Uncle Chuck magnified his view of the building and felt sudden dismay. Swatbots were guarding enough of the entrance points that he couldn't approach effectively. He saw one possible entrance, but it was risky.

            Uncle Chuck tried to think it through, he really did. In the end, though, he decided to go for it.

            Before he could get close, a Swatbot turned a searchlight in his direction. "Freeze, intruder," it called. Uncle Chuck was already on his way out. The only clear view the Swatbot got was of some fleeing spines—something that was hardly uncommon in Robotropolis.

            By the time Uncle Chuck got back to his supposed job, he was already composing his message to Sally about how he'd botched his snooping. He stopped midway, smiled to himself. "Ah, no reason to blame myself. I'm just not Sonic. It's not like I'm getting old," he thought wryly, "but I'm not my nephew. And security isn't exactly loosening."

            He paused on that thought. "Odd about that. Even Robotnik can't rebuild all the Swatbots he loses when we keep shutting down his factories. I've gotta ask Sally about that—it doesn't add up."

            Sally, Rotor, Sonic, and Tails sat in Knothole's main hall. Sonic and Tails helped themselves to chilidogs while Rotor and Sally puzzled over Nicole's holograms.

            "Well, Sally, it's true that power plants in the middle of Robotropolis power more vital buildings than plants on the edge," Rotor said, "but there's also more overlap. The grid in the center is more flexible, with plants able to take over each other's duties. We'd slow some stuff by taking down one of those generators, but everything would still be going. But power plants on the edge are entirely responsible for their own areas. If a sector loses its plant, there's total blackout. It's a big deal to reroute power."

            "That's a good point," said Sally, nodding. "Okay, it's the edge, then. That'll also let us get out quicker. But which area to hit?"

            "Okay, Tails," said Sonic, paying more attention to the chili dogs than he was to Sally, "race ya!"

            "A race? With all these chili dogs here? Nuh-uh, I wanna eat!"

            "That's what I meant, big guy! We race to see who can scarf more!"

            "Cool!"

            "On your marks…" Sonic and Tails eyed each other, not breaking eye contact, and let their hands stray to the edge of the platter. "Get set…" the tension built between the two as they poised to attack the platter. "EAT!"

            Chili dogs vanished with flabbergasting speed. In seconds, all that remained of the pile of dogs were a few specks of chili.

            "I win," said Sonic. He held out two dogs, then shoved them down his throat. Then he and Tails gave a one-two belch, blowing chili smell into the air. "Nice try, Tails."

            "I woulda beat you if you wouldn't hold them in your hands before you eat 'em," Tails protested.

            "Nah. You just don't have as big an appetite as me. Being a hedgehog and a Freedom Fighter is hard work."

            "I'm a Freedom Fighter too. That's why I've gotta eat so much."

            "Still, that was a pretty good buncha dogs, right Tails?"

            "Uh-huh!"

            "How can you even taste them?" asked Sally, wiping off a bit of chili that had hit her table.

            "I can taste 'em, Sal. No prob!"

            "Come over here, Tails," said Sally, as if to get the kit away from Sonic's influence. "Now I want you to look here, Tails. This is the building we want to approach. We don't know all of its security, since Uncle Chuck couldn't quite get to it, but we tried our best." She showed him the hologram. "What path do we take to get in?"

            Tails studied the diagram. "Umm… Sonic could get in this way," Tails said, using his fingers to draw a crazy path, weaving in and out of the sentries' range.

            Sally smiled benignly. "Let's not plan for Sonic, okay Tails?" Besides, she thought to herself, even Sonic couldn't follow that plan.

            Tails brought his finger to his mouth, as if to chew his nail, then said, "Can I see the ventilation, Aunt Sally?"

            "Nicole, ventilation system view, please."

            "Accessing…" The projection shimmered anew, and the vent view appeared.

            Tails studied this diagram, too. "It's easy," he said. "Come in through this alley, wait until the hover unit passes, go here behind it, then get into this vent and you're in."

            Sally beamed with pride. "Very good, Tails, but not quite the best. If we go this way," she drew with her finger, "we can get in this way."

            "But that vent's higher up."

            "Can't be more than a meter," said Sonic, taking a sudden interest in the planning. "No problem for us, right Sal?"

            "Right. And this way, we can stay farther away from these sentries here. Besides, we can get to more places from this vent than the other one. But that was good, Tails, you're getting better at this."

            "Good job, big guy. Like I told you, Sal, he can do anything."

            "Not 'anything', Sonic. He's still learning."

            "Didn't we used to make it up as we went?"

            "Rotor," said Sally, hastily changing the subject. "What's the best way to shut this plant down?"

            Sonic and Tails exchanged winks.

            A figure moved sleepily through the forest, stumbling every now and again. Its head drooped, its back stooped. It shook its head, as if to clear it, and tried to keep moving.

            The figure heard something approaching. The instant after that, a blur blew past it. The figure fell to the ground in the vacuum of the blur's passage.

            Now considerably more awake, the figure got to its feet. It didn't know if the blur had been leaving home or returning, so it guessed. At a slow trot, the figure moved down the direction the blur had come.

            The sound of sirens made Sally jump. She angrily pulled out her communicator. "Sonic, you weren't supposed to…"

            "It wasn't my idea, Sal!"

            Perfect, she thought. "Alright then, follow the plan, you'll just have to run around longer. Rotor!"

            Now Rotor's voice carried over the communicator. "Yeah, Sally?"

            "Hurry up, Robotnik found Sonic."

            "We're already done here."

            Sally paused for a second. "Rotor, you are amazing!"

            She could almost hear him blush. "I just do my job, Sally."

            "Now get out of here and be careful."

            "Gotcha."

            "Nicole, you might know that we're running out of time."

            As she said this, the door opened. "Thank you, Nicole." Sally walked in and was hit by a blaze of heat so intense she had to quickly vacate the room. Her chest heaved as she tried to cool down. "Nicole, we're going to have to make this quick." The heat was fast escaping into the room Sally was in.

             Nicole helpfully said, "The place we identified is only the best. Any spot in the piping will accomplish our goal."

            "Okay then, let's try this again." Sally turned into the room. She only got a second to look, since the heat forced her to close her eyes. "Nicole!"

            Nicole's laser shot out, soon powering up to full strength, drilling a neat hole in the pipe. "Done, Sally."

            Sally jumped out of the heat and tried to find her way out of the area. "Close the door, Nicole," she rasped. Her lungs burned from breathing the heated air.

            As the door closed behind her, Sally continued making her way out of the building. She raced down some stairs. She thought to herself, "At the bottom of the stairs, which way do I go?" She was so busy thinking about her path that she didn't see the Swatbots until she was almost on top of them. Fortunately, her reaction time was better than theirs. Sally transferred all her momentum into a flying kick to a Swatbot's chest.

            She connected, driving the bot backwards. Since they were on stairs, however, the Swatbot took some time before it landed. Sally's motion, too, continued. She fell head over heels through the air until she came to a turn in the stairs. Her sense of gravity had vanished as the world swirled; now it returned full force as she made an undignified landing on her tail.

            "Oww!" she moaned, then scrambled out of the way as the remaining Swatbot leaned over the railing. Blaster shots pelted the stairs around Sally, but she came to another turn and was out of the bot's line of sight.

            Sally continued to rub her bum from the soreness even as she made her escape.

            Rotor was already waiting for her when she arrived in the junk heaps. "Come on," he said, running to Dulcy. "We've gotta hurry."

            "Climb on, Sally," said Dulcy.

            Sally hesitated for a second, her sore rear reminding her of its presence. Then she heard the sirens, made up her mind, and hopped into the saddle—wishing instantly that she'd chosen a more gentle method of getting onto the dragon's back.

            Even as Dulcy lifted off, Sonic arrived at the rendezvous point. He gave them a big thumbs-up, then headed for home. Dulcy followed.

            Sonic was humming to himself as he tore down the path to Knothole. He knew this path so well, he could do it in his sleep! He knew it like the back of his paw, like—what th—

            Some lump was in the middle of the path!

            Sonic was the not-so-happy recipient of a free flying lesson. Sonic rolled, so his landing didn't hurt him that much, but it scraped him up and made him mighty aggravated at whoever had been stupid enough to drop a log in the middle of the path. He walked back to the log to get it out of his way—no sense tripping over it twice—but noticed that, for a log, it was very oddly shaped.

            It stirred, and Sonic knew that this was no log—some animal was sprawled out on the path.

            Sonic walked to it, nudged a little to try and wake it. It didn't work. Sonic was stumped—he wanted to help somehow, but he wasn't sure what to do. Finally he decided to bring the animal back to Knothole. He reached around its body, trying to turn it over, then grimaced and quickly shifted his grip. Well, he knew for a fact that it was female.

            Whoever she was, she was heavy. Sonic could barely lift her, but it was easy enough once he started running. There wasn't enough light to tell even what species the animal was, but Sonic felt strange—who was this person, anyway?

            Sally resisted the urge to rub her backside from the pain Dulcy's landing had caused her. Bouncing around in the saddle with a bruised butt had not been fun.

            Instead, she headed for the main hall. Rotor followed on her heels. But as they approached, they saw that a crowd had assembled. "What's all this about?" she asked Rotor.

            "I can't guess," he said.

            As they got closer, they caught a glimpse of Bunnie at the door, saying to everybody, "Now y'all go back to bed. There ain't nothin' to see here, and if there is, we'll tell you t'morrow. Now scat!" The crowd showed no intention of dispersing, so Bunnie got louder. "Ah told y'all to go to bed! No one's comin' in here to see anything tonight, so ya might as well catch some shut-eye 'fore tomorrow. No one's comin' in here—oops, 'cept Sally. But no one ELSE is comin'!"

            "That's right," said Sally, ascending the stairs to be next to Bunnie. "I'm sure everything will be worked out by tomorrow. Now please, back to bed everyone."

            The crowd finally began to eke away. Sally turned to Bunnie. "Okay, what is actually in here?"

            "Some stranger that Sonic found on his way home. Ah don't think she's from around these parts."

            Sally, Bunnie, and Rotor went inside, where Sonic had put the stranger on a table. As they came in, an acrid smell hit their noses. "What is that?" Sally said, covering her nose.

            Sonic wiggled his nose to show that he smelled it, too. "Antoine. He says it'll wake her up—'dead ze-waken' is what he said."

            "I believe it," Sally replied. "Now let's have a look at this stranger you found." The stranger wore a cloak of sorts over a dark, full-body sweatsuit—obviously, her dress was designed for concealment. Sally noticed backpack straps, but it wasn't like she could find what was in the backpack—and she wasn't sure she wanted to. Her facial features didn't help identify her species (which, Sally reflected, might not have been so relevant in any event); strictly speaking, they were common to any number of rodents. However, on this individual, they were smooth and appealing. She looked several years older than Sally or any of her friends.

            "Do we know anything about her?"

            "Nada," said Sonic. "She was already out when I found her—and I found her, well, sort of by accident."

            "By accident?"

            Sonic hesitated. "Well… how was I supposed to see her, anyway? She was in the middle of the path!"

            "Sonic, you tripped on her, didn't you?" Sonic didn't answer, he only folded his arms in front of him and sat down in a huff. "It's okay, Sonic. I wasn't much more impressive tonight either."

            "Whaddya mean, Sal?"

            "I took down a Swatbot and landed on my tail."
            Sonic's eyes widened, then he exploded into laughter. "What is so funny?" said Sally, irritated. But Sonic just kept on laughing. "Hey, I didn't laugh at your embarrassment, Sonic!"

            "Yeah, but… but yours is more… funny!" he managed.

            About that time, Antoine came in carrying a pot. A hazy steam spewed out of it like some foul concoction waiting for someone stupid enough to consume it. "Aah… eet eez here, my preencess!"

            The smell was stronger now; Sally and the others were once more forced to cover their noses. "What is it, Antoine?"

            "Zat is ze secrecy of moi, preencess.  Howevair, zis guest shall 'ave some right now!" He set down the pot and drew out a big ladle of his brew. Even the small amount in the ladle gave off enough steam to obscure the liquid. Antoine carefully ladled a few drops onto the stranger's lips—and a drop or two down her throat.

            The stranger shot upright, hacking and coughing. Everyone jumped in surprise. Sally was the first to try and recover. "Antoine, you can put that away now," she said. Antoine set it on a nearby table. Sally sized up the stranger, who was still recovering from her nasty shock. Sally waited for her to calm, then spoke. "Hello. My name is Sally. What's yours?"

            "What?" asked the stranger. Sally repeated herself, and this time the stranger understood. She reached out to join Sally's extended paw. "Sophia."

            Sally nodded. Might as well make introductions complete, she thought. "This is Sonic," she said. Sonic waved his finger and looked proud. Sally rolled her eyes. "This is Rotor, that's Bunnie, and that's Antoine."

            Antoine raised the ladle to his lips. "I no am seeing why zis is so repugnable to you. To me, eet eez magnifique!"

            To everyone's surprise, Sophia asked him, "Can I have some more?"

            He stood in shock for a moment, then rushed forward with the pot. "Ah, oui, oui! Zut alors, at last someone who reely enjoins good food!"

            The Freedom Fighters were in too much shock to adequately respond. Sophia looked around at their stunned faces. "Well," she said, "when you've been living off of little more than wild mushrooms, you get so you can eat anything."

            "I'd stick with the mushrooms," Sonic said.

            Sally walked Sophia around Knothole, showing her proudly what the Freedom Fighters had built. She didn't see any reason to show everything, of course; after all, the windmill generators were awfully far away and awfully dull, right?

            One thing that bothered Sally, however, was how well everyone was treating Sophia. Silly of course, she chided herself, but it was discomfiting when animals walking by would just smile for no reason, offer help with things, just because she was a new female to Knothole. Well, Sally thought, it's better than the alternative, which is having nobody like her.

            "This is the guest hut. If you're staying, you're welcome to it."

            "Thank you, Sally," Sophia said. She shook her head with a smile. "I can't remember how long it's been since I slept in a bed above ground. Either I slept on the ground, or slept in a bed underground. This is pretty new."

            "Well, hopefully, you'll have plenty of time to enjoy it. I want to hear about where you came from, too."

            "I'm sure you would, but right now, I've been traveling for days. I need a rest."

            Sally nodded. "Alright. See you tomorrow!"

            Time ticked past ever so slowly for Sophia. By the time the last lights of Knothole were out, she was drooping off herself. Even with her mind so muddled, she could still think enough to dig into her backpack.

            Sophia swallowed and her head began to clear. She'd headed west to come towards Knothole, she remembered, so she had to go east.

            She slipped on her garments to help her avoid watchful eyes and slipped out of her hut.

To be continued…