"Want to hurry it up Manic." said Sonia looking around nervously.
"Yo chill sis. I almost got it." replied Manic.
"Well hurry up anyway. I hate being in one place too long around here."
Manic and Sonia were currently in Robotropolis. They were standing in a small alleyway behind a large building. A large metal panel had been removed from the wall and Manic was peering at the computer terminal inside. There scout for today was to find out anything about Robotnik's latest escapades and also any planned schemes he had. Sonia was glancing one way down the street and then the other way. She had a very unhealthy dislike of Robotropolis and she hated to be stuck in one place too long. Robotnik's forces were everywhere but since they had rescued Sally the fear of a surprise drop in from one of there friends had decreased slightly. Sonic was still out there though and this scared her. He was by far the strongest one of the lot and she had run into him before on a mission. She had spent several days in the hospital ward recovering afterwards.
"Got it!" said Manic triumphantly.
"Great. Now get the information we need and lets motor!" replied Sonia.
"I hear you sis. Downloading now."
Manic quickly inserted a small disc into the console. Lines of information started to flash past the screen as the information was downloaded to the disk. A few seconds later it stopped and Manic removed the disk.
"Ok sis let's get out of….."
"Halt intruders!" came a computerized voice.
Manic and Sonia spun to see a large group of swatbots heading towards them.
"Medallions!" said Sonia quickly as she touched hers.
Sonia quickly grabbed her keyboard as it appeared. The power of their medallions was slightly reduced as Sonic medallion was not present but it was still more than enough. At least Sonic hadn't been wearing it when he had been captured. She folded the end down and rolled to the side firing. One swatbot exploded on the spot. She looked up as she saw Manic launching a volley of laser fire at a small group. They all exploded. Sonia fired again hitting another bot. The remaining bots opened fire forcing Sonia to roll behind a large pile of metal. It was then that she heard Manic knocking out a very load drumbeat. It was so loud she had to cover her ears. Suddenly there was an air piercing whine and a gigantic explosion. Chunks of debris fell around Sonia. She got up to see Manic leaping of his drumset. The shattered remains of over a dozen swatbots lay scattered around the place.
"Nice eh sis." said Manic as his drumset vanished.
"Yeah. Now we have to get out of here. That explosion will have alerted every swatbot in the area." replied Sonia.
"I get that. Let's move."
Manic quickly opened a drain cover in the floor.
"Oooh sewers!" moaned Sonia as she jumped down followed by Manic.
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Lavender woke with a start. She gripped the bedsheets and took a few deep breaths. It couldn't be. Not the dream again! Lavender whimpered softly and then tried to compose herself. The sun was streaming in the window. It must have been late morning already. As Lavender sat still the feeling she had had the previous day returned to her. She found herself totally overwhelmed by it. She had to find out what it was. She slid out of the bed, dressed quickly and hurried out of the door.
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Bunnie helped Chalk out of the medical hut. Chalk had started complaining as soon as she had woken up that morning. She was demanding to be released. After a bit of an argument and a few hard stares Chalk had finally been cleared. She was still pretty wobbly and a bit unsure on her feet but otherwise she looked pretty fine. She was still wrapped up in a few bandages but her sparkling personality hadn't been grazed in the slightest. T2, Petya and Sally waited for them outside. Sally smiled as Chalk emerged.
"Glad to see you back on your feet." said T2.
"They don't feel like my feet yet." said Chalk.
"If ah were you sugah I'd get back into bed." said Bunnie catching Chalk as she stumbled slightly.
"No way. I'm fine." replied Chalk gruffly.
"Can't really argue with that." said Petya.
Chalk nodded at her.
"Too right." she said.
Sally walked over to her and put an arm on her shoulder.
"I'll take it from here Bunnie." she said.
"You sure Sally girl?" asked Bunnie letting go of Chalk.
"Sure. I want to talk to Chalk anyway." replied Sally.
T2, Petya and Bunnie watched as Sally and Chalk moved off slowly.
"She's a resilient person our Chalk." said T2.
"Resilient is a bit mild. Tough as one of Sonia's muffins would be a bit closer." said Petya.
"Don't let her hear you saying that or…." started Bunnie.
"….or there will be hell to pay!" finished another voice.
They turned to see Sonia and Manic walking towards them.
"If you don't like my cooking go jump off a bridge!" grumbled Sonia.
"Sorry Sonia." said Petya.
Sonia nodded at her.
"Did you get it?" asked T2 getting down to serious business.
"Yep." said Manic holding up a small disc.
"Excellent. Come on. We have to find out what this disk contains." said T2 grabbing the disk and turning round.
Everyone followed him into a nearby hut. Bunnie was the last one to enter and she couldn't help noticing a small spray of small stars flowing off Lavender's tails as she shot past the hut at a run. If she hadn't been busy with business she would have stopped and asked her what the hurry was.
Inside the hut were a few computers and various other pieces of machinery. T2 plugged the disk into a computer and turned to Manic.
"Did you scan this for tracker signals or security codes?" he said.
"No." replied Manic, "There wasn't time."
T2 nodded and turned back to the computer.
"Then I'll have to go in and debug it before we open the files." he said.
"Careful T2." said Petya.
T2 nodded as he put a small set of electrodes on his head. He slipped his left hand holding the Power Stone into a glove and closed his eyes. When he opened them he was standing on a strange looking blue floor. Green lines shot across it. Large building like structure rose above him to such a height that he couldn't see the top. He had done this before. He was in the file structure of the disk itself. Robotnik had encoded all his top secret data with internal tracking systems. He used then…or tried to use them to locate Knotlake. If a file containing an unchallenged tracker file was present on a disk when the data was opened it automatically send out a signal giving its precise location. Robotnik had hoped that this would allow him to find Knotlake. He was wrong of course and he usually just used the system to protect his data now more than anything.
T2 looked around himself. Everything seemed quiet. Just then several shadows appeared around T2. He quickly jumped to the side as several large explosive mines hit the ground causing a rippling electric field. Part of the field caught T2's leg flipping him over. He rolled and got up quickly. He turned round to see a huge data protection bot had dropped in on him. The bot was shaped like a giant four-legged spider. It had a large electric gun mounted on the bottom and several mine launchers on the side. The gun swung towards T2 and fired. A huge crackling beam of electricity shot towards him. He jumped and rolled to the side. He twisted his tails and flew to the side. The bots were pretty stupid and if he could get it to fire again….the bot did just that. It fired and rotated its gun to follow T2 carving off one of its own legs as it swung the beam round. The robot fell to the floor. T2 quickly leaped forwards and landed on the bot. He opened a small panel in its top and thrust his hand into the opening. The Deep Power Stone in his hand glowed and the bot whined. Seconds later it disintegrated into a stream of data and then vanished from view. T2 closed his eyes again.
He opened then to see he was back in the hut. He took off the glove and electrodes and steeped back. It was a bit tiring what he had just done. The other looked at him.
"I did it. The tracking system is down." he said.
"Good job T2." said Sonia.
T2 had turned back to the computer.
"Computer, run sweeper program and then open the files." he said.
The computer beeped and a few seconds later a list of files came up. T2 pressed his finger on a few of them.
"Right what we got? Status report, troop numbers…….what's this?" said T2.
"What is it sugah?" said Bunnie looking over his shoulder.
"We got a personal log entry from Robotnik himself." said T2.
"Really?!" said Manic surprise.
"Whatever it is it must be important." said Sonia, "We haven't had one of those in a long time."
"Computer, crack access codes and open file number 14739."
The computer beeped and the file opened.
"It looks like Robotnik is furious at our rescue of Sally." said T2, "What?!"
"What is it?" asked Manic.
"Listen to this." said T2, "……not only that but now Tails has gone missing. He is not responding to any signals. If those Freedom Fighters have done it again…..idle threat."
"Tails?!" said Bunnie totally shocked.
"But we never rescued him." said Manic.
"What's going on?" said Sonia.
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Lavender stopped running for a moment. She blinked and looked around.
"How did I get here?" she said to herself.
She was standing on the edge of the Great Forest looking out over the barren plains that lead towards Robotropolis. She shook her head. The feeling was still there but for some reason she couldn't tell where it was coming from. The last thing she remembered was waking up in bed. She took a few steps forward and suddenly stopped. Suddenly a large blue blur caught her eye. Panic suddenly set in and she turned to flee. She tried to shapeshift but couldn't. Suddenly she found herself flying towards a tree.
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Links and Tails walked along under the shade of the trees. They didn't need it really. The sky was full of clouds and the suns heat was virtually nonexistent. They stopped and sat down.
"It's hopeless." said Tails, "Knotlake is too well hidden for anyone to just find it."
Links just stared at a tree. There were a few moments of silence.
"I mean we don't even know a rough location. How are we supposed to just stumble onto it?" said Tails.
Suddenly Links' head shot up and he looked to the side.
"There's someone there!" he said.
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Sally held Chalk's hand as they walked along. Chalk had wanted to get out of the village and she and Sally had made there way down to the forest at the foot of the mountain.
"It's good to be out of bed." said Chalk, "I hate doing nothing."
Sally nodded at her.
"Especially when there is so much work to do." continued Chalk.
They stopped for a moment next to a large bush. Sally sighed and was about to speak when she heard something. Chalk saw her expression change.
"Sally? What is it?" she said.
"Do you hear that?" replied Sally.
Chalk listened. She could hear voices coming from nearby. She listened closely.
"…….Knotlake is too well hidden for anyone to just find it." said a familiar voice.
Chalk was stunned. It couldn't be. Sally seemed to be thinking the same thing. They moved closer to the bush and looked through it. On the other side a few meters away sat a blue fox and next to him a metal fox with two tails. They were both stunned. The metal fox spoke.
"I mean we don't even know a rough location. How are we supposed to just stumble onto it?" he said.
"T…T…..Ta……TAILS?!" said Sally to herself.
Suddenly the blue fox leapt up of his seat.
"There's someone there!" he said.
He spun towards the bush Sally and Chalk were hiding in and leapt towards it. He spun his staff forward in front of him. Sally and Chalk stumbled backwards out of the bush. Chalk lost her footing and fell over backwards. The fox cleared the bush and landed in a straddle across the middle of her. He dug his staff down so the two blades came down on either side of Chalk's neck.
"CHALK!" cried Sally.
"SALLY HELP!" cried Chalk.
"What are you doing?!" said the fox glaring at Chalk.
Chalk struggled but she was still a bit weak and couldn't get free. Sally leapt forwards at the fox. The fox quickly flung his arm forward. A huge gust of powerful wind swept the feet out from under her and she landed with a thud on her stomach. Suddenly she felt a cold sensation around her legs. She looked over to see that they were encased in ice sticking her to the ground. The whole thing had taken only a few short seconds. Just then the bush rustled and the metal fox barged his way through. He stopped dead. His jaw dropped.
"Sally?! Chalk?!" he said.
"You know these people?" said the blue fox.
"Yes Links." replied the metal fox.
"Tails?" said Sally, "Tails is that you?"
"They seem to know you too." said the blue fox.
"Let them go Links." urged the metal fox.
Links didn't move for a moment and then rose up from his position over Chalk. He pulled his staff out of the ground and spun away. He swept an arm towards Sally and she felt the ice around her legs melt. She scrambled to her feet and raced to Chalk's side. She helped her to her feet.
"Tails?" said Chalk still slightly shaken.
The fox looked at them. They both knew immediately.
"TAILS!" cried Chalk as she brushed off Sally and stumbled over to him.
She threw her arms around him and rubbed her head on his shoulder. It was then that Chalk really noticed Tails body. She pulled away from him and stumbled backwards. Sally caught her.
"What's going on?" said Chalk rather nervously.
"And who's this?" said Sally equally nervous.
"This is Links. He's my uncle." said Tails.
"Your uncle!" said Sally totally astounded.
Links grunted at them.
"What's going on?" said Chalk again.
Tails slowly explained about how Links had rescued him and returned his mind.
"I don't believe. It's just a trick!" said Chalk, "That's not possible."
"There is one way to be sure." said Sally.
"How?" asked Chalk looking at Tails slightly suspiciously.
Sally looked at Links. He looked back at her in return. He didn't even blink.
"Links." said Sally rather nervously.
"Yeeees." replied Links.
"Can I…..can I see that blue gem?"
"Sally what are you doing?" said Chalk.
"I've used the Deep Power Stones before. There power is identical to power rings. If what Tails said is true and this is pure ring substance then I will know." said Sally turning back to Links, "Can I touch it?"
Links glanced sideways at Tails who nodded at him. Slowly Links lowered his staff and pointed the end of it towards Sally. Slowly Sally reached forwards with her hand. As it neared the blue gem she felt a tingling sensation in her hand. It got stronger and she felt it moving up her arm. Suddenly her arm started to glow purple. Sally quickly pulled her arm away and stared at the gem. Links smiled slightly.
"It's true." said Sally, "The last time that happened was back during Doomsday."
Chalk was just looking at Tails and Links.
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Lavender woke up and shook her head. She was lying on a metal floor in a fairly dark room. She pushed her hands out and propped herself up. She felt rather dizzy from when she had hit the tree. She looked around and yelped. She was sitting in a prison cell in what must be Robotnik's head quarters. Blinding fear shook her mind. She didn't know what to do. She wished she could just shapeshift into a small speck of dust and vanish. But she couldn't. It was then that she heard footsteps coming up the corridor. Lavender found herself scrambling to the back of the cell. The footsteps grew louder and eventually the large form of Robotnik came into view. He looked down at the small kitsune cowering in the corner.
"Well hello there." said Robotnik.
Lavender just whimpered softly. She was terrified.
"I have always wanted to meet you. I have heard a lot about you little guardian."
Lavender whimpered again.
"I have always wondered what would happen if I was to robotisise you. The power of all of Mobius' magical powers at my finger tips. Well we will find out very soon."
Robotnik gave a small laugh and walked off. Lavender curled harder into the corner of the cell.