Their dawn trek through the catacombs of Knothole's abandoned tunnels brought the group through underground stations and soon into the high-tech city of Monopole. Sally had NICOLE download the maps for the underground tunnels being developed by the underground alliance project – adding in the abandoned passageways from the Great War, allowing the team to easily pass straight through into the city's sewer systems. That was likely the alliance's plan; a plan never fully realised by the Mobian army, as a truce between the two parties was called before they were given a chance – but it would've allowed the armies to completely take over Overlander cities just from their Sewer network. It was to be their game-changing move and now it was hers.

"Ah've never seen such an empty city before," Bunnie said as she scanned around their surroundings. "What do you make of it Rotor? This here stuff should be up your alley."

"It's pretty strange," Rotor said, hauling himself out of their entryway "On a regular day, Monopole's streets would be teaming with overlanders and mobians alike. You'd hear the cars flying above – one of the few cities where they're legal, buzzing and humming around." He was looking up with a somewhat disappointed expression on his face. He quickly took a glance at the shadowed surroundings and shivered "This quiet, frankly…just gives me the creeps."

Antoine wasn't doing much better. "Oh; we are going to be spotted!" he yelped.

"Hush, Antoine." Bunnie wafted her hand at him behind her as she followed closely behind Sally. "We don't know what's out there."

Antoine trembled, chattering his teeth on his fingers. "Oh, I…kn-know what's out there. Ze robots with ze big, laser eyes," he made a great eye shape with his hands over his face to describe their impending peril, "zat will 'pew-pew' us!"

"Antoine…" the Walrus in front of him groaned. The gritting of his teeth told the coyote to be silent, but he carried on anyway.

"Non!" His eyes widened in horror and his voice heightened in pitch, "they take us to Robotnik who then melts us in ze boiling oil so zat we, are being turned into ze fu-el for his robots!"

The team whisked around, giving the coyote a penetrating "SSHHH!"

After the shaking her head at him, Sally slowly peered around the wall. "Okay guys, we're in the clear so far. NICOLE's brought us pretty close to the Kintobor Tech Lab where Robotnik's bound to be. We just need to sneak on over and find a way inside."

"Well if this is his main base, why isn't there a bunch of guards waiting to fry us?" Rotor asked.

"Robotnik's concentrating his forces on conquering other city states and fighting off GUN opposition. NICOLE was able to tap into GUN's satellite data-stream and retrieve their data on the city; it turns out his base's defences are poor. I doubt he suspected anyone to get into the city; thus he focused his resources on keeping people out."

"Astounding work NICOLE, so I guess this is going to be a piece of cake."

NICOLE bleeped "I advise caution; Robotnik still has scout robots, labelled 'SwatBots' that monitor the city's streets and skyline. They are stationed to monitor the activity of the city's captive residents. There is insufficient data on their methods against threats to their master."

"So we don't know what Robotnik's keepin' them for?" Bunnie asked.

"Negative," The little device responded "Data Insufficient"

"Whatever it is Bunnie, we know it can't be good." Sally peered back around the corner, darting back as a spotlight motioned past. "Get down!" She leapt back into the alley's shadows. A box-shaped bot flew high above them, shining a blinding white light upon the streets. A low, humming sound followed, vibrating the walls of the alley.

Antoine shuddered with fear, his teeth chattering. "Um, pardon my interrupting my princess, um, but how are we getting to ze base with those things up there?"

"And that's just the air-scouring models," Rotor added "If those things took out GUN's forces with ease; I'd hate to see what they'd do to us."

"Don't worry," Sally said calmly, "We just have to be careful." She pointed ahead of them "Whilst it's still dark out; we dash to the shadows behind buildings. Slow and steady."

"But if we take it slow, we'll never make it before we lose our cover," Rotor pointed out.

"We'll take it slow, but do it with haste."

"Even if that did make sense," Bunnie said, "What about gettin' up to that there bridge to the base?" Bunnie said, pointing in the direction of the base. "It's gotta be several stories up."

"We'll think of that when we cross it." Sally turned back to the handheld computer "NICOLE, activate proximity sensors; make sure we don't run into any of those SwatBots without knowing."

"Activating, Sally."

Sally looked over at her team "Okay, are we ready Freedom Fighters?"

Antoine looked down to the floor, rubbing his arm nervously. Rotor looked up to the skies, spotting a number of flying SwatBots. They gave no answer.

Bunnie rolled her eyes at the pair. "Ah'm with ya, all the way Sally-girl." She put her robotic hand out in front of her "We're gonna stop this Robotnik and prove what us Freedom Fighters are all about."

Sally smiled back, putting her hand atop Bunnie's "Thanks Bunnie." They turned back over to the pair behind them.

Rotor immediately came and put his hand in too "Of course I'm in. Let's stick it to Robotnik!"

Antoine shook his head and stuck it up proudly; attempting to simulate himself swallowing his own fear. "I am ready too, my princess and friends." He put his hand in too.

"Go Freedom Fighters!" They cheered softly, raising their hands into the air.

They then all turned a look to Antoine, who still had his hand at the centre; a confused expression plastered across his muzzle. "Oh, zat is what we do? Heheh, whoops." He raised his hand finally, and cheered out in response "Woohoo, Freedom Fighters." He blushed.

Sally ran out to the first alley she could see. It was dark out; the sun had barely poked out over the horizon. She peered around the sides, and beckoned the others. First Bunnie. Then Rotor. Finally Antoine. No SwatBots yet.

The next alley was a little further out. She took a glance at NICOLE's screen, before running out towards the next part.

NICOLE bleeped.

A SwatBot appeared around the corner, its spotlight creeping towards her. Without hesitation, she leapt into a roll; tumbling into the alley, before pressing herself up against the wall. Her heart pounded as the bot hovered low, past her spot.

"You okay there Sally-girl?" Bunnie called out softly.

"I'm fine." Sally then gestured them over. "Quickly!"

As the last arrived at their spot, Sally was about to sprint to the next one when Rotor pulled her back. "What's wrong?" She asked.

"The street lights," he said.

"What about them? They're off and there's no bots around."

"It's a very efficient city, those are proximity sensor lights; they only turn on in the dark when they detect movement, because in a city full of flying cars, only people would be around down here." He read on their faces that this may not have been the time for the 'history lesson' he so wished to do, and swiftly returned to the point "If those SwatBots are as advanced as I think they are; any change of light will attract them over here to inspect."

"I see."

"If we had come later on, we wouldn't have this problem…" Rotor said.

"But we wouldn't have had nearly the same level of cover if we did. We're just going to have to make do."

"If I may, my princess, but perhaps we could split up from here?" Antoine suggested.

"Hey, Sally-girl – that ain't too bad an idea there. I think Sugah-Twan's on to somethin'," Bunnie said "We all know what we have to do and where to go, so we won't be slowing each other down."

"It's not part of the plan!" Sally replied. "We stick together now and we split up on the bridge – that way we watch each other's for a longer period of time before the moment that we have to split up."

"You're bein' stubborn Sal. It's a good idea; ah say it makes the plan better. We spend less time messin' 'round on where we're all meant to be once we get to that bridge, because we'll all just go straight there. What's your problem?"

"The problem is if we deviate from the plan, Bunnie, we don't know what could happen? We planned out everything, so nothing could possibly-"

BLEEP-BLEEP.

The group quickly pressed against the wall as another bot swept the nearby area.

"That was a little too close." Rotor gasped "Thank goodness for NICOLE."

NICOLE responded "I suggest that you make haste with your mission. Daybreak will occur in exactly thirty-two minutes and eighteen seconds."

Bunnie directed her attention back to the chipmunk girl "Quit bein' so stubborn Sal; just admit that someone made an improvement on your idea. We can even draw away the SwatBots this way!"

"All of the gear is in Rotor's bag; how're we to split that up?!" Sally snarled.

Bunnie growled back in return "Now you're just making up excuses!"

"Guys, Guys!" Rotor waved his hands around, trying to bring their minds back to where they were. "Look Sally, in all fairness we don't all need all of the equipment. You just need NICOLE and your communicator, I just need my device and Antoine's only talking us through the activity at the base's entrance. We didn't even need the extra stuff."

Bunnie shook her head and made a gesture at him "Now you've gone and made the 'unnecessary' comment…"

"Fine! Fine. You win; we'll deviate from the plan," Sally said through her gritted teeth. But she calmed quickly afterwards. "But everyone knows what they're doing, right?" Bunnie was somewhat impressed and calmed down herself.

"Qui, my princess; I am ze look-out from all ze dangers. I will let you know if I see anything suspicious," Antoine saluted.

"Bunnie and I will infiltrate the centre of the base in search of Robotnik's source of power. When we do, we short it out with a couple of my little friends here" Rotor said, displaying one of his inventions.

Sally took a deep breath and exhaled hard. "Alright. But you won't have NICOLE's sensors to warn you of SwatBots."

Bunnie dashed over and gave her a warm hug "You be careful too." Sally smiled and hugged her back.

And with that, they all went their separate ways.

Antoine climbed to the top of a tower to keep watch over the base. He had a pair of binoculars and a communicator. "Zoot, it is quite chilly up 'ere," he shuddered as he reached the top. "I wish I brought some warmer clothes."

He scanned his surroundings. His elevation was somewhere along the middle of the skyscrapers that populated the landscape. Not quite the clear view that one would usually want, but for Antoine it was far more than high enough. Um, so let's see; nothing over there, a few creepy SwatBots over there but I think they are leaving and nothing over there." Everything seemed calm and clear. Just as he liked it. A spark of the sun's rays peered through the myriads of buildings; he may even get an enjoyable view of the sunrise.

With a wicked smile and a tussle of his whiskers, Antoine gave out a laid-back remark "This is going to be, as Rotor would say, 'Cake'!"

Bunnie and Rotor made their way inside. Splitting off from Sally, who made her way up the base, they attempted to trek down.

"Everything is, how you say, A-okay from looking up here," Antoine's voice sounded from the communicator.

"Thanks Antoine. You keep yourself safe up there, ya hear?" Bunnie relayed back.

"Wow, Robotnik's pretty cocky; I don't even see any evidence of security in his own base!" Rotor laughed.

"That may be so, sugah. But don't be so cocky yourself; he's supposed to be a genius, remember? We should be careful, he could have traps."

"We've been walking through here for a while now. There's not even a single cleaning bot here!"

"The floor's so clean though; somethin's up." Bunnie wrapped herself up in her arms. The quiet gave her chills. "I ain't too fond of it."

"Relax Bunnie, living with Sally all these years has made you almost as uptight as she is."

"Ah ain't uptight, Rotor," she snapped in response, a hand firmly placed on her hip. "And lower yer voice", she whispered, after noticing that she herself had also been yelling. "Ah'm just bein' careful is all. My moves and yer gadgets ain't gonna save us here, ah fear…"

"Just take a minute to look around you Bunnie. There's nothing here, not a sound."

"That's what ah'm afraid of." They came to an enormous room where the floor ended in a balcony that encircled a great pit in the centre. Within this opening was a great case, containing a bright red energy orb pumping power rays through gargantuan tubes and cables. The wires stretched out all over the room like wild vines.

"I-Is that what ah think it is? Already?" Bunnie said in shock.

"Like I've been saying Bunnie" Rotor smiled, whipping out his device. "It's all gonna be 'cake'".

Sally ran through the maze of hallways, trying to find the main control room. As with Bunnie and Rotor, she hadn't seen any form of security measures. No cameras, no guards, tripwires or even any kind of trap. There was nothing. Something felt wrong though.

"Antoine; what's your status? Over."

"Salut, mon prince-" there was the sudden sounds of crackles in the signal as her coyote companion attempted to respond. "Everyth…up here! How…" More cackling made it near impossible to decipher him any further.

"Antoine? You're breaking up. Can you hear me?"

"Qui…*crackle*ca-*whistle*hear m-*fizz*". No good. It sounded like he could hear her, but not the other way around.

Sally turned to her only source of security "NICOLE, have your scanners picked up anything?"

"Interference detected; unable to detect any form of security cameras, sensors or robot signals. Kintobor Tech: Monopole HQ floor plan location unknown."

"Interference…" Sally stopped running for a moment. Looking up, she found a sign above a doorway saying 'Control Room'. "Maybe I don't need a map; it's almost like he's inviting me in. I suppose he doesn't know too much about strategies."

"System updates detected. Sally, requesting permission to initiate system reboot to install necessary updates."

Sally looked puzzled. "Updates? Did Dr Ellidy send over some upgrades to your programming?" She glanced back down the hallway. "Permission granted NICOLE. You update; it might even help us to get past the blocked signal. Besides, with the way things have been going so far, I think I know a saying Rotor would be making right about now. A dumb saying, but relevant all the same." She hurried down the hall.

Antoine was beginning to get bored alone on his rooftop. All of the bots carried on their circular paths; nothing seemed to change. His guard down, Antoine drew circles on the metallic floor with a loose piece of metal plating.

The sun emerged further above the horizon. Its rays became dappled through the now glistening metallic structures. Antoine smiled with a feeling as warms as the rays themselves "Well, at least I get to be seeing ze sunrise. C'est magnifique." Little did he realise the bot leading off into a different course in the distance.

Bunnie and Rotor made their way down the narrow path towards the behemoth of a power source. He pulled out many of his orb-shaped devices from earlier and began studying the energy container.

"Ah've been meaning to ask you, Rotor," Bunnie said, "But, what is that thing there anyhow?"

He held one up into the fluorescent blue lighting, twirling the shiny white orb around with a proud smile, as if admiring himself through the device. "I don't have a name for it yet, but it's essentially a compact yet powerful, electromagnetic pulse bomb."

Bunnie quickly took a step back "B-Bomb?! Boomer? Are you serious?"

"Don't call me that," Rotor frowned, waving her off "It's an E-M-P bomb – it doesn't actually explode. All it will do is short-circuit the electronics in this base; that's why we're here at the centre; we set it off next to the base's power source and then everything's fried." He drew up an expression on his face that looked like a mischievous child that was about to pull off the prank of a lifetime. "It'll take Robotnik hours to fix, but with Sally up there – it'll be hours he doesn't have!" he joined Bunnie in a hi-five.

"That's great Rotor!" Her face then returned to being puzzled "But uh, why aren't ya doin' it then?"

He darted his attention back to the core "Uhh, well, I need to find a safe spot to rest it first…"

"Whaddya mean, safe?" Bunnie crossed her arms and frowned. "Ah thought you said this thing didn't explode?"

"Well it…shouldn't. I've not tested it yet, I basically only finished it yesterday, when you brought me those sandwiches."

Bunnie fanned herself nervously "Aw Rotor, you're done gonna blow us to high heaven."

"I'm not gonna blow us to 'high heaven'. I just need to rest it on something here; we'll take a few steps back and it should all be good."

"Well, can ya hurry it up a bit? This place gives me the creeps. You'd think a base like this wouldn't be so quiet…"

Sally neared the end of the halls; she was getting nearer to the control room. Despite the time she had spent traversing the labyrinth of a base, she had yet to come across any security measures of any form. Growing uneasy now, she glanced over at NICOLE's screen in search of some kind of salvation. An explanation. Something – anything that would break this eerie silence. The spinning update wheel was still present.

"Must be quite an update. C'mon NICOLE, I need you to broadcast this to everyone…"

Sally stopped dead in her tracks. A voice. It was faint, but she could tell it was nearby. Cautiously, she followed the sounds.

The path brought her to a dark room. As she crept closer, the voice grew clearer. Only to raise the tension.

"Dr Kintobor, is no more…" it said.

The haunting voice wrapped around her like a winter's chill. It dragged her closer.

The room was full of monitors, barely lighting up the room at all. The shadows closed in all around her, grasping at her feet.

"I have made the life-changing upgrades to Metropolis, therefore it is mine to take hold of; my Grand Metropolis…"

There! She spotted a large chair in the middle of the room. Blood red, the screens it was facing actually made it look darker than it was.

She slowly drew down her bag, dragging it carefully across the floor.

The voice grew ever clearer. It looked as if someone was still sat there.

Her heart thumped; the sound of a hammer striking a tree.

Her hand emerged from the rucksack, joined by a rope.

The beating of her heart had grown so intense that it was starting to hurt.

Tip-toe, tip-toe. She closed in on the chair. She licked her lips, readying her hands. She shuddered slightly. Eyes opened wide.

"They will not give these cities to me; therefore I'm going to take them..."

She spun the chair around, thrusting her arms forward as she roared "Your reign of tyranny is…over?"

"WELCOME TO ROBOTROPOLIS!"

A laughing, metal Robotnik figure greeted her. She should've known; it was just a recording of his big reveal back in the Grand Metropolis a month ago. The head of the figure bobbed up and down on a spring as if mocking the girl who had fallen for its prank. The smile plastered on its face didn't help the situation at all.

A horrifying thought suddenly ran down her spine. Wait. This was recorded, waiting in this chair. It took her less than a second to figure out what was going to happen next.

Oh my gosh; it's a trap – they know we're here! Sally turned to run back into the hallway. SLAM! The same sound her heart seemed to have made, as the door shut on its own.

"Leaving so soon, princess?" A voice called out from the shadows beside the door. Sally quivered, her eyes widened as she stepped back. A short, bald, young man sporting a large, pointed, nose emerged from the darkness upon her. "You must be tired from your long trip up from the entrance" he cackled.

"Y-You're not Robotnik." She was hunched over, cowering beneath the overlander, despite him not being much taller than her.

"So perceptive…" he sneered.

Sally desperately shook her computer companion but to no avail as the device continued to instead display a loading wheel. "C'Mon NICOLE, I need you to warn the others!"

"Such an adorable little contraption you have there, but my uncle is a genius beyond the comprehension of even the entire globe and supplied me with the means I needed to block out your computer's sensors!"

Sally attempted to change her look of despair, to a victorious smirk "Oh yeah, well it's too late! Even as we speak, my team is about to cut your entire base's power supply. Even with Robotnik not here, this is only number one of our streak of victories!" She battled the beginning of a tremble in her lips in order to sustain her look of confidence.

The overlander laughed and pointed at the now worried again chipmunk. "HaHA! Bold words for someone not in control" he said, clicking his fingers over to the screens. Instantly they blinked on, showcasing Sally's friends in peril as a multitude of SwatBots swarmed them! "Behold your so-called 'victory'."

She spun around in shock and horror at the images flashing up upon the monitors all around.

"System Restored." NICOLE had returned. "WARNING! Multiple camera systems and SwatBots detected! Abort Mission! Abort Mission!"

The sound of her friends crying out for help flooded NICOLE's comms.

Antoine backed away, on top of the tower; edging nearer and nearer to a lethal drop. "Heheheh. Uh, bonjour monsieur robot; my are you one, eh, good looking robot. Now I am sure that your boss, ze doctor Robotnik, does not like ze intruders bothering him. So, I am going on my way now, up-up and away from here," he laughed nervously "and you will never see moi again, and everything will be – AGHH!" he yelped as the bots revealed baton-like protrusions sparking with high voltages. "My Princess! Rotor! Bunnie! Where are you being?" He yelped yet again as he barely evaded another strike from the electrified batons. "I have been calling you for twenty minutes!"

Bunnie and Rotor were trapped behind hundreds of SwatBot attackers. Bunnie tried to fend them off, but for every one she smashed, three more had taken its place. "Rotor! Ah, think we need to cut down that power now! I don't know how much more of this I can – Oof! - take!"

"I've got no choice then. FIRE!" he clicked the trigger sending out a massive wave of energy; instantly knocking out the bots. The power was out. Even the monitors in the room that Sally watched from switched off.

Unfortunately there was another side effect…

Bunnie screamed in absolute agony as her cybernetics fizzed and sparked. Her body crunched forward. It threw her back as she cried out once again. Sally broke out into tears as she heard her friend's deathly shrieks. "Th-This…isn't…happening…"

"BUNNIE!" Rotor yelled as the rabbot dropped to the floor "Oh my gosh! What have I done?" He ran to her side as her body began violently convulsing "How could I have missed this?! What have I done?!" Tears welled up in his eyes as he held her. "Bunnie! I'm so sorry!"

All of a sudden, the power returned and the SwatBots returned to their feet. Rotor looked up in horror as the bots marched towards them. "No!" he yelled, scrambling himself and Bunnie backwards on the narrow walkway "Th-That's impossible!"

The images on the monitors returned also. "No! Please, leave them alone." Sally pleaded.

"It appears that your 'brilliant' plan has failed, princess." The overlander cackled.

"Please, let them go." She was on her knees now, pulling on his green trousers."

With a look of disgust on his face, he shoved the girl off of his person with his boot. "They were caught trying to resist my uncle's revolution." He walked towards the girl, who was trying to pick herself off the cold, metallic floor. "Surely, you remember what my uncle said about 'resistors', princess?" he replied, lifting up the tape recorder; a crazed grin on his face as he clicked the play button.

The words struck the girl's very being "Those who resist…face death".

"You've failed princess! Guess you should've listened to Mommy and Daddy before coming out here, now we're going to use you to wrap it all up!" Sally dropped to the floor hearing this. "In fact, I'm glad your little computer is back on. I believe you wanted to film this for all of Mobius to see, right? Well I hope that Mobius is ready for a show! BAHAHAHAHA!"

Tears poured from the girls eyes "Please! No, you – you can't do this!"

"All right boys, let's clean up! Let them know never to mess with the name Robotnik! GAHAHAHAHAH!"

A sound like thunder roared over his comms, ceasing his laughter immediately.

"What was that?" he said. "What was THAT?"

A bot responded over a signal, "SwatBot units surrounding Mobian Coyote terminated."

"What?! How?" He spun to look at the monitors surrounding that area. Sally, dried her eyes as she looked at the overlander's fearful expression.

"All units at power core level terminated."

Another sound, like thunder, followed.

"What's going on here?!" Snively's eyes grew wide with fear. "What is it?!" He began to hear the explosions in person; not through the radio, but with his own ears. It was close, and coming in fast. "Eh…Eh…Err I want every unit to protect the control room. You hear me?! Save Me!"

Sally looked up to the door, pushing herself up to stand.

"All units in control room proximity terminated."

"No-NO!" Snively flailed his arms around and tried to run.

The steel door burst off the wall; forming a door-shaped imprint on the other side of the room. Both the overlander and the squirrel froze in place.

Gale force winds encircled the two. Objects were flung across the room. The pair was torn between shielding their ears from the jet-level roar of the wind and grabbing onto something solid instead, so as not to be tossed around the room.

As quickly as it began, it stopped. Before them stood a blue hedgehog, his back facing towards them.

"Th-the blue blur?" Sally uttered again in amazement.

The hedgehog swung around. "Whoah! What happened to your hair? Did I do that?" he laughed.

Still in shock, the overlander unconsciously caressed his bald, apart from three long hair strands, head before snapping into a fit of rage "It's a medical condition you filthy rodent! How dare you break into my facility and mock me!"

The hedgehog continued to tease him, having no fear of the current situation at all "Oh! Heheh; and with a nose like that too, I know I'd be grumpy!"

'How's he so fearless?' Sally thought. 'This overlander controls all sorts of powerful weapons and he tells jokes!'

Snively growled. "Oh yeah? Well let's see if you're still making jokes with laser holes through your corpse!" he screamed. "Fire all lasers at the blue one!"

Sally gasped. "Look Out!"

The hedgehog turned to the turrets that opened up on the ceiling. Lasers ricochet off the walls and floor, but he was even faster.

Squirreling his way around them, he stopped every second to make another joke. "Yawn", "C'mon, a piece of cheese could dodge that" and "Oh! I think you singed my tail! Oh wait, no you didn't!"

"Hold still. Hold Still!" Snively whined.

The hedgehog leapt into the air, rolling into a high-speed ball and decimating the laser turrets where they stood. Before anyone could react, he rushed on over to the startled chipmunk, lifting her into his arms.

"What are you doing?" she asked as he rested a hand behind her head.

"Relax; it's just to prevent whiplash" he chuckled. "Hey Nosy!" he turned his attention to the flustered overlander "Apparently you've got another twenty-five seconds until this place blows up!"

Both Sally and Snively's eyes shot open "B-Blows up?!"

"Yup; see ya!" And after a dastardly wicked grin, he rushed off at a speed so fast, that after-images were left behind.

"AGH! Activate Escape pod! Activate Escape Pod!" Snively banged against the walls.

As the building collapsed, the overlander looked upon the ruins in a hover pod. "Defeated…Oh, Uncle Ivo won't like this one bit." He grimaced over the sight for a few short moments, stroking his eggplant-shaped head. "No matter; I'll get the princess of Knothole yet! It's only a set-back! I just need to retrieve some reinforcement, and this Blue Blur won't get in my way again."

The blue hedgehog came to a sliding halt, releasing the princess back onto semi-solid land "There you go mi-lady!" he bowed playfully.

She was still unable to walk in a straight line and her head continued to spin. "I…think…I'm going to…throw up…"

She snapped out of it when she saw that all her friends had been gathered to that spot. "Oh no, Bunnie!" she called out as she ran to the rabbot's side. "What happened to her?"

Rotor, guilt-ridden, shook his head violently "I-I-I should've known better! The blast messed with her cybernetics; I made a miscalculation! The signal wasn't fine-tuned enough. I should've tested it, I should've-"

"It's okay Rotor, there's a lot of 'Should'ves' that could've happened back there, but what's important now is that we've got to help Bunnie. Look at her fur already…" Bunnie's fur had begun to pale, her fingers continued to twitch. "…we're running out of time, we're losing her!"

"We need to be getting her back to Knothole!" Antoine said, attempting to hurry them back to where they entered the city.

The blue hedgehog stepped in "Knothole?! That place is way too far away for you guys to carry her. I'll run her to a doctor."

"But sir," Sally pleaded "This is Robotnik territory; none of the residents have left their homes."

"Well, is there a way to slow things down on your way there?"

"We'll need a high level of constant energy; it should regulate her cybernetic functions for a while, albeit, with the damage she's sustained it'll only be at a lower level – but it'll be enough," Rotor said, "But I'm not sure where we co-"

"Like a power ring?" the hedgehog jumped. "Got it!" He whistled out into the wind "Yo, Tails! Over here! We need ya!"

A yellow fox with a pair of bushy tails rotating like helicopter blades flew down from above. He dragged a brown sack on the floor as he ran over. The rest of the group, in this dire time, barely responded to the new face before them.

The older hedgehog retrieved a glowing, gold ring from the sack. This wasn't your typical piece of jewellery; the ring was large enough to fit around one's wrists with little risk of getting stuck.

Rotor took the ring, wonder filling his eyes as he placed it gently upon her chest. Immediately, her colour returned.

"S-Sally-girl…" the rabbot slit open her eyes for a moment "Who's the hedge-hunk over there?" before closing them once again.

"I…I think she's stable for now," Rotor said. "But we need to get her back to Knothole quickly, and we may need more of those, 'rings' for the journey."

"Knothole?" the fox repeated.

Sally led them back to the tunnels as the group hurried their friend back to Knothole for medical help as the overlord's nephew plotted his next move.