"Fascinating creature, isn't he?" Robotnik said, almost admiringly, fingers working furiously at the keyboard. "Bit of a moron, though."

Secretly, Amy agreed. "I can't believe you've pitted him against us like that!" she spat, glaring at the overweight overlander with the utmost contempt.

"And I can't believe how easily he fell for it," Robotnik simpered in repsonse, his eyes twinkling in delight. "I guess 'brains' wasn't apart of the job description." He cocked his head to one side as he pulled up survelliance footage of Knuckles making his way into the forest. "Hrm, slight change of plans: it appears that the bots are about to overtake him." He minimized the window and pulled up another one in its stead, this one which was trained upon Sonic shimmying his way up a palm tree as Tails hoevered overhead. Amy's breath caught again as she laid eyes on her boyfriend once again.

"Do you see any sign of her, Tails?" came Sonic's voice, tinny and distant over the airwaves.

The little kitsune was sheilding his gaze against the sun as he stared out into the distance. "No," he said, frowning.

Sonic's eyebrows furrowed as he swung himself up onto the highest branch of the tree, also peering out into the distance. "Damn," he said finally, squinting over the tops of the trees in the distance. His eyes suddenly narrowed. "Hey, Tails, what's that?"

"What's what?"

"That thing. Coming towards us right now..." His eyes widened as recogonition registered. "Tails, its one of Ro-butt-nik's bots! DUCK!" The blue hedgehog threw himself sideways out of the tree. Both Tails and Amy gasped in unision as Sonic tackled him rugby-style to the ground, just in the nick of time; not a second later, the mechanical monstrosity pierced the air in which the kit had formerly been occupying.

"Whoa!"

"Damn! Just barely missed him!" Robotnik said, stamping one enormous clown-foot in frustration. "Oh well, there's more than one way to skin a hedgehog!" He said, perking up as suddenly the robot twisted in midair, suddenly jettisoning flames out of the front of him like a flamethrower. Sonic rolled sideways, taking Tails with him as the trees behind them were immediately torched. Not to be deterred, the robot shot out a second column moments thereafter, this time causing some of the grass around them to ignite.

"Whoa!" Sonic cried in susprise, leaping to his feet and striking an appropriate battle stance. Tails fell in step beside him. "You know, I'm not really a fan of barbeque, personally." He danced to one side, yanking Tails with him as they narrowly avoided being struck with an another explosion of fire. "No? Didn't like that one? I swear, you bots have no sense of humor." He dodged a third burst, glancing behind him as a nearby tree went completely up in flames. As both Sonic and Amy jointly took in his surroundings, they saw that the majority of the forest around him was either already ablaze or in immediate danger of becoming so. "Alright, this is gettin' out of hand," Sonic said, looking a little alarmed at how quickly the situation was escalating. "Time to kick some tin-can ass!" He cried, tucking his feet up underneath him as he came down the metal plating of the robot's head in a Sonic-spin.

Amy watched nervously as Sonic and Tails battled the pyrotechnical baddie. As the seconds wore on, however, it became clear that it was a one-sided fight. Almost as quickly as it began, it ended, leaving the robot in pieces and Sonic and Tails as the undisputed victors. Robotnik looked sorely dissapointed.

"Blast, another narrow escape," Robotnik said, snapping his fingers in dismay.

"Narrow? Looks like they made pretty short work of that 'bot to me," Amy said, folding her arms across her chest as she smirked. The weight that seemed to have impressed itself on her heart was suddenly lifted; she felt positively giddy, seeing Sonic thwart the badguys yet again.

There was thrashing in the nearby foliage that had not yet caught fire. Both Sonic and Tails whirled around at the source of the noise, and Amy felt a flicker of panic as Knuckles crashed through the trees. Standing face-to-face with Sonic and Tails, with a blazing forest serving as a backdrop behind them, Knuckles seemed momentairly stunned. Then his face contorted up into an ugly, twisted shape as he seemed to come loose from the webs of his confusion. The echidna was litterally shaking with rage, and Amy was suddenly very, very afraid for Sonic's safety - much moreso than she had been when he was going toe-to-toe with Robotnik's latest minion.

"You did this, didn't you?" If looks could kill, Knuckles would have struck Sonic dead with a dastardly stare that would have put Medusa's to shame.

"What?" Sonic said, taking a step back as the echidna advanced. "What? No! This - this was Robotnik's work!"

"How - how dare you -" he sputtered. The scarlet creature seemed beyond words - and, staring in the madness of his face, beyond reason -

"Oh ho!" Robotnik cried, cackling in peverse delight as Amy continued to stare at the screen in rapt attention, torn between shock and terror. "This has gone better than I could have ever hoped! Sonic's really in for it now!"

"Sonic!" Amy warned harshly, without avail; the hedgehog couldn't hear, and the echidna was surprisingly fast and agile for his enormous stature. He struck out with a lightning-fast swipe, seizing the hedgehog by the throat and suddenly hoisting him into the air.

"Let him go!" Tails said, immediately hurling himself into the other creature in an attempt to free Sonic from his clutches. The echidna's stance was rigid and unmoving, his grip unyielding; Sonic tried in vain to use his own hands to pry the scarlet animal's fingers loose without any sort of real success.

"Sonic!" Amy cried out again, this time in anguish; she felt the harsh sting of tears in her eyes. Meanwhile, the hedgehog's face was slowly turning purple as his windpipe was deliberately crushed.

"You're disgusting," Knuckles spat, as Tails continued to beat his fists uselessly into his shoulder. "There are hundreds of creatures who call this forest home--"

"I'm t-telling you--" Sonic gurgled. "It w-wasn't me--"

"Will you stop that?" Knuckles snarled venemously, suddenly kicking out sideways. His foot made contact with the soft plush of Tails' stomach, knocking the wind out of the kit as he was sent hurtling backwards and away from him.

"T-Tails!" Sonic croaked as Tails yelped in pain, struggling harder now against his assailant's vice-like grip.

"I'm about to teach you a very important lesson, hedgehog," Knuckles growled hatefully, finally releasing his hold on the cobalt hero's throat. The hedgehog collapsed in a heap before the other creature, sucking in great gasps of air as oxygen was allowed to fully return to his lungs. Sonic wasn't listening; he was already half-crawling, half-dragging himself along the ground to where Tails lay curled into a ball several feet away. "And you know what that is?" When Sonic didn't immediately respond, Knuckles seized the hedgehog by a fistful of spines and forcibly dragged him away from his wounded companion.

"Hey!"

"Don't you ever, ever fuck with my island," Knuckles said quietly, in a voice so barely audible that both Amy Rose and Robotnik had to strain to hear it. Sonic froze as Knuckles' grip noticeably tightened, a look not unlike fear seizing his features. There was a beat in which no one spoke, and in which Amy couldn't breathe - and then suddenly Knuckles pulled Sonic around into a spin, gaining momentum as he twisted in circles before suddenly releasing his hold on the other male's quills and sending him hurtling straight into the survelliance camera following them. There was a crash and then Amy and Robotnik lost their live feed completely as connection was severed. The survelliance camera, Amy figured, had been destroyed upon impact.

They continued to stare at the static for some time, as if unable to fully comprehend what had just happened.

"Wow," Robotnik said, apparently as stunned by the show of brutality as Amy was. "That was pretty... fierce."

As Amy was struck with the magnitude of the situation, she came to a decision. "Alright, Robotnik," she said, whirling upon the technological tyrant with a determined glint in her eye. "Let me out of here. I'm going to find Sonic."

"Like hell you are," Robotnik scoffed, looking almost amused by the demand. "You think I'm just going to let you waltz out there into the wilderness to try and throw a wrench in my plans? You're my prisoner, girl!"

"I don't think you understand," Amy said blackly, her eyes narrowing to slits. "That was not request." She got to her feet.

Robotnik mirrored her movements, his own stature considerably taller and larger than her own. "I'm sorry," he said, his voice challenging, "were you getting a smart mouth with me, you insolent little bra--"

He never got to finish, as Amy's booted-heel came rocketting up inbetween his legs. The doctor's eyes bulged as he gave a strangled yelp, hands immediately moving to cradle his damaged jewels as he crumpled like a deck of cards onto one side.

"And there's more where that comes from," Amy said visciously, glaring down upon him like some sort of wrathful goddess, "if you don't tell me how to open these doors - " her gaze flickered over to the entrance Robotnik had originally sealed after Knuckles' exit - "now."

"O-over... there..." the doctor whispered, blinking back tears of pain as the little pink hedgehog trotted over to the panel on the lift.

"K-keycode is 1217..." he rasped as Amy quickly inputted the numbers. "L-leave... d-do whatever you want... just p-please... don't hit me again."

"Thanks, doc," Amy all but snarled as the doors receded back into the walls with a faint whoosh, leaving a clear path ahead. "Appreciate it." And she immediately set off down the halls in search of Sonic, determined to be reunited with her loved-one and make sure that everything was okay.