Still don't have anything new to say. Only got a couple of weeks to go till vacation time. Until then please enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not own any Sonic characters

Hours passed and it felt like an eternity. Sure enough, once the sun began to peek over the horizon both Sonic and Sally had felt a great sense of relief hit them. They had spent the rest of the night hidden away in a hollowed out pit under a tree. The roots had kept them hidden from view as Harvester's minions, their friends, had searched the forest for them. Once dawn had arrived, they pulled out and returned to Knothole. With the forest clear of the hunters, they still had to worry about where they were going to go. They couldn't return home and they knew that Harvester himself was still out there somewhere. Just waiting for his chance to enslave them.

They had slept in shifts through the night. Sally would sleep for a few hours while Sonic sat watch and then Sally would keep watch while Sonic got some rest himself. They did this all the while they were hiding from sight. They were relieved once the light of day came and they could see better.

Once both of them were awake Sonic turned to Sally and asked, "Any idea where we can go Sal? We can't go back to Knothole and any other Freedom Fighters are too far out to get to without being seen by the others."

Sally groaned and said, "That's a good question Sonic. The only one I can think of is Uncle Chuck. But it's very likely Robotnik has stepped up his patrols after what we did yesterday."

Sonic shrugged and said, "After everything that happened in Knothole we might not have a choice."

Sonic groaned and added, "This is so messed up."

They waited a little while more for it to light up a little more before the two of them dared to venture out. The day itself looked like any other day in the forest. What little life lived out in the Great Forest were certainly lively today. The birds and the bugs were out and about. The birds sang and the bugs buzzed as they went by just like any other day. It seemed so serene and normal. But they remained aware of what they were leaving behind them. A village full of friends that they needed to save from an evil man. One that may even be worse than Robotnik himself despite them wanting to consider otherwise.

They marched on back towards Robotropolis. How ironic that the place they always attacked and where one of their biggest enemies lived was now becoming their sanctuary from Harvester. All that they to worry about there though was staying out of sight from Robotnik and his forces, a task easier said than done.

As they went however they became aware of a flapping sound in the sky. One that sounded awfully familiar. They looked up and they saw their friend Dulcy flying up in the sky above them. They were about to wave her down, but then they recalled just how overrun the village was last night and realized that Dulcy might be against them now as well. Deciding to play it safe, they started to climb up one of the nearby trees and hid from sight. As they hid among the branches, they could hear Dulcy flying around above.

They waited for her to leave but before long, Nicole started making some buzzing noises and Sally had to pull her out.

Sally observed Nicole and said, "Did you find something Nicole?"

Nicole buzzed a little bit and said, "Affirmative Sally. I have detected another energy signal in the area. In close proximity to your location."

Sonic placed a hand to his forehead, growled and said, "Not now. Why did one of those things have to appear when we have company?"

Sally shushed him and said, "We can deal with it later Sonic. For now let's just try to remain out of sight."

Sonic's stomach growled and Sally said, "And keep your stomach down. It'll attract attention to us."

Sonic shushed his stomach, but then their nerves began to run high as they heard what they dreaded. Dulcy was descending towards the ground and was circling right above them. They climbed higher into the thicker branches and watched as Dulcy landed on the ground in front of the tree. Riding on her back was the one that they hated the most.

Harvester climbed off of Dulcy's back and stood up straight, his jacket billowing in the light wind that was blowing. The difference this time is that he no longer wore a goofy looking skull mask and this time he was wearing a burlap sack that completely covered his head. Almost like one of the scarecrows that the farmers put out in their fields. He reached into one of Dulcy's saddlebags and pulled out a hatchet, must have been one of Mr Scroggins tools. Harvester stood and peered around, at one point he even looked at the tree that Sonic and Sally sat in. He looked up into the branches and the two of them ducked behind them as best they could. They could take on Harvester with no problems, but Dulcy was another matter. She was stronger and more powerful than the two of them and not to mention she was their friend. It's a fight they wouldn't be able to win due to physical and emotional problems.

Havester growled a little and then he yelled out, "What's the matter? Too scared to fight me? Are you afraid to face my power and my might? Or could it be the dragon? Too afraid to face her cause she might overwhelm ya? Or could it be because she's your friend and you don't want to harm her?"

Sonic was trying his best to not yell back at him knowing that right now he was openly taunting them. But then again that's probably what Harvester wanted. He wanted them to yell back at him, cause it would reveal their current location to him. Sonic bit down on his tongue to prevent himself from calling the guy out.

'Curse you Harvester,' Sonic said in his head.

Down below, Harvester began to laugh and said, "That's it isn't it? You care about your friend too much that you can't bring yourself to harm her after harming the boy. Your emotions and personal feelings prevent you from doing so. Well let me tell you this, your emotions make you weak. It prevents you from doing what needs to be done. I gave feelings and emotions up a long long time ago. My own family found that out the hard way and I loved them. I don't care a thing for you or your petty little friends. They're just puppets to me and I will gladly do away with them if the situation calls for it. Show me your hiding location and I will spare their lives."

That made Sonic and Sally's blood run cold. Was he threatening the lives of their friends? Would he willingly kill his slaves just to drag them out of hiding? Well if the guy was willing to kill his own family then anything was possible. But then again, he had lied to Sally before and chances were that he was lying once again just to drag them out of hiding.

After a few more minutes of looking around peering into a lot of the trees around him, Harvester finally shrugged and walked back over to Dulcy.

"I guess they're not here. We'll go deeper into the forest and give it a few more looks before we head back. I want to be back in Knothole before the sun goes down," he said.

Dulcy looked at him and asked, "Were you serious about destroying some of us?"

Harvester nodded and said, "Of course I was. I'll anyone and anything to achieve my goals. That's not a problem is it?"

Dulcy shook her head and said, "Of course not. I was just about it curious is all."

Harvester laughed lightly and was just about to climb onto Dulcy when they paused as they heard a hissing sound near them. Harvester looked to one side and there stood a humanoid creature with a squid like creature for it's head. It's entire body was covered with a moist amphibian like skin that shined from the moistness and it wore no clothes. It's two bulging eyes looked at Harvester and it raised it's arms and moved slowly towards him craving a meal. The tentacles parted to reveal a beak like mouth.

Harvester merely took his hatchet back out and approached the thing. As he allowed the thing to almost grab his shoulder, he took the hatchet and swung it hard. Both Sally and Sonic had to look away before the small ax made contact. After all was said and done, Harvester stood over the slain creature as some purple goop dripped off of the hatchet.

Dulcy watched this asked, "I take you're not allied with those things?"

Harvester turned back to her and looked straight at her with an glint of anger in his eyes.

"Why would I be allied with these useless sacks of flesh? I'm the only one that actually has intelligence. I'm talking real intelligence. That robot thing that they killed was an exception, but it had an artificial intelligence. It couldn't think on it's own and was created for the purpose of using it. And look where it got her. It got her taken apart, replaced and now dead. These things are nothing to me," he said and cleaned off the hatchet.

Sally checked Nicole really quickly. Just as she suspected, the thing that Harvester had just killed was indeed one of the creatures that had popped up the past couple of days. She guessed that she should be glad that he took care of some of the dirty work, but it also troubled her that he may be the hardest one of them to defeat. There was no doubt in Sally's mind that Harvester was one of those things. Her suspicions were confirmed by the energy signal that followed him and from the things he had told her during their multiple encounters.

Harvester remounted Dulcy and said, "Let's move out. The sooner we get this done, the sooner we get back. We start our raid on Robotropolis tonight."

Dulcy nodded and said, "Yes master."

She kicked off of the ground and in no time they were back in the sky and they began flying deeper into the forest and were soon out of sight. Sonic and Sally waited until they were sure that the two were gone before climbing down from the tree. As soon as they were down, Sally cast a quick look at the fallen creature and pitied it. It wasn't bad, it was just whatever it was. Still though, one less danger in the forest. But what she couldn't get out of her head was what Harvester had mentioned. They were going to do a raid into Robotropolis tonight? And with many non combatants too? This was a bloodbath waiting to happen and she would not stand for it. They had to get to Uncle Chuck now or they risked loosing everything that they had been fighting most of their lives for.

"Come on Sonic. We need to get to Uncle Chuck before it gets dark," Sally said.

Realizing why Sally was so anxious, Sonic nodded in agreement. He picked her up and the two of them began speeding in the direction of Robotropolis.

Back in Knothole in Sally's hut, Tails stirred and began shaking his head from the pain he had endured from being knocked out. He couldn't see or hear very well for the moment, but that was to be expected if he was just waking up from troubled sleep. But as he began to sit up, he could hear a bunch of jumbled words and none of them were making any sense to him. This combined with a hurting head was making him feel really confused.

He walked over to the sink in the kitchen area and as he turned on the water, some of it splashed all over his face and caused him to shriek a little bit. He wiped the water away and all at once, the jumbled words stopped and his vision cleared up. He looked around at the empty hut and noticed nothing out of the ordinary. But something did feel off.

"Huh? Where is everybody? What happened?" he asked himself.

He looked outside to see the other residents moving rather strangely. They'd take a few steps forward, look around and then take a few more steps and then they would repeat the process. He ducked away and wondered what was going on around here. He went over to Sally's bed and sat down on it wondering what was up. But as he lied his head down, the memories came rushing back all at once. He remembered Harvester in the room, the darkness as he lost his sight, Harvester talking to him in his mind. He remembered the same strange behavior the night before.

"Everyone is being controlled," he said quietly as realization hit him.

He let out a squeak and knew that he wasn't safe there anymore. He had to get out and try to find Sonic and Sally. But where could he go? There was no telling where they went and it would be almost impossible to find them after a whole night. But he couldn't stay there. So what could he do?

He thought back to what had knocked him out of his trance like state. What had caused it? He remembered Sally being forced to knock him out and then he had splashed himself with water and then he was pulled out of it completely. Could it have been being knocked on the head or being splashed water? Or could it have been both combined?

"Tails? Are you awake yet?" came Bunnie's voice.

Tails froze as he heard her voice. Knowing full well how the other villagers were, she was likely taken over as well. He was just about to slip back into his room and sneak out his window. But as he thought about it, he realized that if he was fast enough he could fix Bunnie's mind as well. That is if his theory was correct, but he figured that now would be the best time to test that theory. Silently he crept back over to the kitchen area and grabbed a frying pan from one of the cabinets and quickly filled a cup with water.

After she knocked a couple more times, Bunnie opened the door and wandered inside.

"Hmm... he's not out on the floor anymore. He must be awake by now," she said as she noticed the empty spot on the ground.

She walked in some more and Tails could see the red glow in her eyes. He decided that now would be the right time to act. He quickly rushed behind Bunnie and smacked her across the back of the head. The impact caused her to hit the ground with a grunt and before she could shake off the pain, she looked up just in time to see Tails splash the water in her face. She coughed and began wiping the water away from her face and the red glow of her eyes vanished completely.

Bunnie coughed some more and said, "Sugar Tails why did you just do that to me?"

Tails began feeling relief fall over him and asked, "Bunnie? Are you... you?"

Bunnie wrung out her ears and said, "Course I am. Who else would I be?"

Tails smiled gratefully and wrapped his arms around Bunnie in hug which she returned in a confused manner.

"Do you remember anything before what happened just now?" he asked her.

Bunnie shrugged and said, "Well I was going to see Antoine. I remember hearing him scream and I went to check in on him. And then hands and then voices. Lots of voices saying different things. And then you splashing me."

She began puzzling the situation and said, "Something bad happened didn't it?"

Tails nodded and explained everything to her. He explained the late night meeting with Harvester and being stricken blind. He finished it with an explanation of last nights events. What little he could remember that is. After he was finished Bunnie groaned and sat down on the bed.

"I can't believe that that happened. I'm usually so careful about things like this," she said.

Tails sat down next to her and said, "It's not your fault Aunt Bunnie. You were tricked and so was Aunt Sally. We need to find her and Sonic."

Bunnie nodded in agreement and knew that they had to leave now and quickly and come back for the others later. They crept back to the hut door and made their way outside, they came across a group of three villagers who immediatley stopped them in their tracks.

"Halt. Where are the two of you off to?" asked one of the villagers.

Bunnie gulped and said, "We were supposed to patrol the outer perimeter. Keep a lookout for any intruders getting too close."

The other two pondered for a moment before shrugging.

"Alright get right back to it you two," the first one said and then the three of them left them alone.

Both Bunnie and Tails sighed in relief and made their way to the edge of the village. They got into the pulley elevator and pulled themselves up to the top of the cliff and then they made a run for it. When they were far enough away from the village, Tails twisted his twin tails together and allowed himself to fly into the air. He grabbed Bunnie by the hands and then they were off.

"But what about the others? We can't leave them behind," Tails asked her as they flew through the woods.

Bunnie looked back in the direction of the village and said, "We can't do anything for them right now. We'll have to come back for them later."

Tails sighed and realized she was right. They had to focus on their own safety if they wished to save the others.

"So where to?" Tails asked.

Bunnie looked straight ahead and said, "First things first, we find Sonic and Sally."

That'll do for now. Bunnie and Tails are cured of what ailed them, if you know what I mean, and now they're going to look for Sonic and Sally. Will they find them before it's too late? We'll see soon enough.

Any comments or concerns? Feel free to ask. Or if anyone has any advice, be sure to let me know.