Dingo ambled between the sterile steel tables, making certain not to touch anything. He'd never been fond of laboratories – he could still feel the pain of being torn into, injected, scrutinized. He shook his head to drown out the screams of a young pup being experimentd on in his brain, and paced carefully through, pausing every once in a while to examine something sparkly or shiny or moving.

He was reaching out to touch a black and yellow rose when Sleet called out, "Dingo, you imbecile, don't touch that!"

Dingo jerked his hand away just as the rose reached out, snapping its petals angrily and showing off sharp teeth-like thorns previously hidden away. He yelped and bolted toward the sound of Sleet's voice, huddling into himself once he reached the Wolf and glancing over his shoulder.

"Blimey, what was that?"

"That," Sleet growled, not prying his attention away from the three tiny vials of clear liquid before him, "was what is known as a nex rose – the Rose of Death." He carefully picked up an eyedropper filled with violet liquid from what looked to be an inkbottle and placed a single drop in each vial – the liquid within instantly turning a bright acid green. A grin bared his fangs and his eyes lit up with a cruelty that Dingo hadn't seen in a long time as he purred, "Perfect."

"Uh, Sleet?" Dingo spoke. "What's in the bottles?"

"This, my dull-witted acquaintance, is pure insanity." Sleet replaced the dropper and carefully picked up one of the vials, reaching for a small dart. As he began to insert the vial into the dart, he continued to explain. "This was obtained from a girl in an asylum somewhere in the north – very expensive. It nearly killed her to extract her madness, you know."

Dingo began rubbing his hands together. Suddenly he was very nervous standing next to a grinning Sleet. "And, uh, what are you plannin' on doin' with that?"

"What else do you expect, you fool?" One dart was completed and he moved on to the next. "Robotnik wants those Hedgehogs out of the way by any means possible – be it death, exile, or even madness. And now, we have one dart for each of them."

"Oh," was all Dingo could say. He was glad that, for once, he wasn't going to be the guinnipig this time 'round. He watched quietly as Sleet cautiously aligned the top of the vial and the point of that dart just right so that the contents would be pushed through upon moment of contact. So intent were both canines in their scrutiny, that neither noticed the soft scraping noises slowly approaching them.

Dingo was so immersed in watching Sleet that he only noticed the Rose of Death when it bit him in the calf hard. The dog yelped and leaped into the air, knocking both Sleet and the table on accident, the nex rose still clamped onto Dingo's bleeding leg.

Sleet could only watch in horror as the two undarted vials and the inkbottle of madness flew up and then down, smashing into the ground with a spray of green and violet liquid and glass. His jaw was slack and he didn't even notice Dingo dancing around behind him, ramming into different tables and knocking over other experiments, trying to pry the Rose of Death off of him.

It's over, his mind was telling him. Robotnik spent hundreds of thousands on that and it's gone – all gone now. We're going to die. Slowly and painfully, he's going to kill us until we're dead.

Dingo finally wrenched the deranged plant off his leg and chucked it across the lab, breathing and bleeding heavily. Warily, he looked up at Sleet, who was still staring blankly into the space ahead of him.

"Uhh, Sleet?" he called tentatively. Emotionless eyes slowly looked up at him. Dingo opened his mouth to say something, when Sleet gave an animalistic howl and threw himself at the bigger Dog.

"You moron! You idiot! You mooncalf! You imbecile!" He snatched Dingo's lower fangs and began to shake his head roughly. "You've murdered us both! We're going to die and it's all you fault!" Sleet let go of Dingo to clutch at his head. "All of it – all the madness – is gone!"

Dingo looked fearfully from the Wolf to the table. Meekly he pointed and said, "There's still the dart left."

"That's only one! One out of an entire ounce's worth! That's not going to stop those Hedge–" A look of cunning suddenly crossed Sleet's face. "Yes. If we take out even one, those Hedgehogs will stop – they'll want to take care of the downed one. You can always count on family to do something so incredibly stupid like that." His usual cold, calculating look replaced his features as he snatched up the last dart. "Come on, dingbat, we have Hedgehogs to hunt."

Manic held his breath and flattened himself against the grimy, blackened wall of a SWATbot factory he was currently hiding behind as a CamBot flew by, the electronic lens zooming in on random piles of junk. A small blue light blinked on the underside of it, showing that it was one of the newer heat-sensing models.

And that was exactly what he was here to take out.

He reached into his fannypack to pull out a small mess of wires and magnets. Peering out from his hiding spot, he took careful aim and hurled the magbomb, grinning as it connected with the CamBot. There was a dying shriek as the machine crashed into the ground, completely shorted out.

From a pocket on his vest, he pulled out a small walkie-talkie. The device hissed near-silently as he searched out the required frequency. Finally, he brought it to his lips and hissed into it, "CamBot's out – you're free to go, man."

"Gotcha," Sonic's voice crackled back. Manic quickly replaced the walkie-talkie and watched as a streak of blue rushed by him to hide behind a building further ahead. He then rushed out, running back to where Sonic had come from. He could see the van from where he was already, and he knew that Sonia was behind the wheel, waiting for him so that they could take off immediately.

It was as he made his way close enough to make out Sonia's pink fur that he felt a small prick in the side of his neck. He stumbled in surprise and cursed, grabbing at his neck. He couldn't feel anything, but it couldn't have been a mosquito – there were no bugs of any kind left in Robotropolis.

He blinked as his vision suddenly started to swirl. His legs became as heavy as lead and he stumbled, collapsing against the road and scraping his knees. He heard the van open up and Sonia's voice calling, but it all seemed so very far away.

She was running towards him, he knew, but he couldn't focus on her. Instead, he could only see a lanky female Rabbit rushing away behind the van, metallic legs clanking on the road as she yelled in a thickly-accented voice, "Oh, mah stahs, oh mah whiskahs! Ah'm late! Ya'll'd better hurry, Alice – or the Queen'll have our heads!"

Then, he was falling.

Tails: -stares at Angel- …

Angel: -stares at Tails- …

Tails: -stares some more- … -bursts into tears- I thought you were gone forever!

Angel: -grins- Nope! I just took a break 'cause the Sonic section was filling up with sh-tty fics. But I bought Sonic Underground on DVD, so I'm back!

Tails: -sobbing- I wish you would die!

Angel: -picks up Amy's Pico Pico Hammer- Ah, I've missed this thing… -smacks Tails into a wall-

Tails: Damn you… -passes out-

Angel: -still swinging Hammer gleefully- Well, I guess I have to say it – I own nothing mentioned here, nothing at all. So, till next time!