I Decided to put this one up a little early, that way people can read it over the weekend when they have free time, especially when school is starting up for some (already started for me). So, without delay, here is the next chapter.
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"Dulcy.... DULCY!" Sally shouted trying to get the dragon to wake up.
To which came her typical half dazed response. "Come on ma... only 5 more minutes."
"Sonic's whistling usually snaps her out of it." Rotor states, packing up tools that he felt the Lower Mobians wouldn't have, or might need. He would leave the rest of the junk items in his closet for Robotnik to keep, it was kind of an aching feeling leaving his old workshop, when it became Dulcy's bedroom he had no clue. She tended to just zonk out in random locations from time to time.
Sally shook her head in response to the walrus. "I told him to try and slow the army down to give us more time."
Rotor nods. "We'll need it, for now I think I can use some of these hover cars I scavenged to help in the evacuation, it won't be able to carry many passengers, they might be more useful for shoving supplies in." He stated shoving some of his miscellaneous items into one of them. "But we'll need people to pilot each one, and we're probably gonna need escorts, these things have no weapons."
Sally nods, "But hurry we don't have much time..." She said as she whistled.
The greenish dragon was up in a jolt. She shook her head rapidly left and right, shaking the sleep out of her eyes. "Sally? What is it?"
"Dulcy, we have to hurry, we're under attack, go outside and look for Bunnie, she has something you can do to help." Sally said, her voice obviously one of concern.
"Alright Sally, I'm off." The dragon said, moving quickly out the door.
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Sonic meanwhile was busy distracting the approaching army. Sally was right though, it was far too large to stop, to attack them would mean being trampled by the stampede, even if he were to just show his face there would be millions of laser blasts directed at him, and even if their chances of hitting him were one in a million, it all evened out.
The best strategy he could come up with was cutting down trees to obscure the path inbound. Usually, the hedgehog wouldn't go to such extremes to stop the bad guys, but he figured the trees would all be burned down anyway, so he might as well use him while they were there. It did kind of pain him however every time he sliced through one, sending it crashing into the path. It would delay them, but not by much, they would blast them aside with their lasers, but as Sonic knew, every second is precious.
It pained him to leave the young Tails behind, he had done it so much, he tried his best to bring him along on any mission he could, and he knew the kid had talent to handle these hostile situations. However, even he felt this one was far too dangerous for an 11 year old to handle. He wanted him to see his 12th, which was less then a month away. He wished it could be in Knothole as well, but obviously that was one dream he could not keep. Instead Tails was going to help Sally with her plan to remove the ring generator from the pool. He was disappointed, but Sonic and Selim reassured him. Though for some reason the older fox's comforts were more effective, he felt himself become slightly angered. He'd helped the kit since he was about four years old, almost a decade now. A decade of endless fighting, almost the kit's whole life time, he wished he could let Tails see brighter days then these, and he felt that dream too, slipping. The hedgehog snapped out of his thoughts as he heard the clangs coming closer and lasers fire, he had to have his full concentration.
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The six hover units were out near the living quarters, and the Freedom Fighters were quickly placing their belongings into those units. "Come on y'all hurry your little ol' behinds, bring only necessities, anything fragile y'all should carry." Bunnie shouted directing traffic; they were keeping the sixth one empty. Sally was going to use that one as a decoy in order to lure the Swatbots away from the real getaway; Sonic would drive it; since he could easily lose the pursuers once they were all safe.
The young Tails was a little upset, as was Dulcy on where they were running to, though Lower Mobius was a good hiding spot for them, their was a lack of sky. Dulcy said she would go with Sonic and then try and cover his escape. She would then return home, she had claustrophobia and couldn't be in all those underground caverns without going insane. The squirrel wished there was more time for a formal goodbye to the dragon, but things were happening too quickly. The young fox's case was similar, he couldn't have anymore 'free flights', since they were going underground. They would tow the Tornado behind one of the hovercars, because if it were airborne it'd be easy to see where they were running to.
They made sure Grif knew they were coming and he gladly agreed to help, he and Sally never did get along well after what he did, though if Sonic forgave him, so could she. Though she didn't appreciate being used to get to the ring stone, he was still pretty gentlemanly, something Sonic notably lacked. Not that the hedgehog didn't have his strong points over the goat, the blue one was far bolder.
Selim was drenched, not that he wasn't already, getting that contraption out of the lake it had been sunk in since Sir Charles placed it there to keep it a secret from everyone but himself was no simple feat. He had to hand it to that hedgehog, he had a head on his shoulders, but now more then ever he was worried for him. The letter never happened, neither did Sonic going back to the Junk Yard, or the secret meeting, or the attack on Knothole preceding Sonic and Sally's death. He had made a difference alright, and they started to become apparent with that letter, and it made him suspicious on whether it was actually sent by Chuck or not. Best not concern himself or the others with this now though, they had more pressing concerns, like their own survival.
"Alright Dulcy pull!" Bunnie's voice called through the rain, a freedom fighter standing near the rabbot as to apply oil whenever one of her joints got stuck due to the water.
"I'm on it!" The Dragon said as she pulled up, tugging hard, the contraption was stuck pretty well.
The older vulpine wished they would hurry up, when he was underwater the vibrating earth could be heard as it shook violently under the Swatbots' footsteps. "Hurry up ladies, or we're going to be sitting ducks."
With that Dulcy gave it one last shot, 'cracking the whip' and shooting upward the contraption finally gave up its grip on the bottom, the rest was easy as the soot and muddy bottom soil was actually what had held the machine to the bottom. With a large splash the machine was dangling by the rope, water pouring out the bottom quickly.
The rope creaked threatening to break as the green dragon struggled to keep the load up as it seemed to get heavier as it left the water. Bunnie stood underneath it, "Now lower it sugar, nice and easy."
The dragon strained as she lowered the contraption into Bunnie's raised arms. When it was about to come in contact a sudden red beam came out of nowhere through the trees it whizzed right under the dragon almost hitting the rope. It caused the dragon to jump a bit. "Incoming!"
Before the dragon jumped up, looking in the direction the blast came in, Selim used his wrist laser to cut the rope. With a clang sound the machine landed in Bunnie's hands putting most of the weight on her robotic one. "My stars... go easy on me." She whined as she got herself balanced.
Selim apologized and looked off in the direction where the shot came from. "We don't have much time before they're here..." He looked to the ground. "This is all my fault..."
"Sugar," She said with a little strain due to the giant luggage she was carrying. "I think it was bound to happen on o' these days. We come close many a' time, now help me out hun, I'm gonna be a fish in a barrel, I'm gonna need someone to cover my little ol' behind."
Dulcy looks down and nods, "I'm going back to Sally and tell her you guys are all set." With that she flew up and started to make her way, when she looked off in the direction the shot had come from. "You're right; they are close, say you got two more minutes at the most." She sees a blue blur come away from the crowd and rush back to Knothole, she immediately knew who it was, and now Dulcy knew they had even less time.
Selim flew up and grabbed a hold of the machine, easing Bunnie's load a bit, providing a little lift. "Alright we gotta run back to Knothole." The rabbot sighs a bit as she could hold the largish machine with more ease. "Thanks sugar. Now let's get on back."
The two ran off quickly through the brush but careful not to fall, Dulcy followed behind and kept an eye on them from above. She took one last look at the ring pool, it had already looked more foreboding, strangely rippling at nothing at random locations, like it was about to boil.
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Back in Knothole it looked chaotic, but luckily for Sally it was an ordered chaos. Everything was packed and ready; Sonic would probably be even impressed at their speed. For good measure, she set up the old catapults, and anyone who wanted to stay behind and keep the enemy busy could. Many were proud to, but she limited it to those that were trained in fighting, while the important people like Dr. Quack, Rotor, and their other technical experts would be with the convoy. She was gonna go with the convoy as well, not because she wanted to, but because all the other freedom fighters wanted her to. She knew it was probably for the best. Though in a way she felt like Antoine, who to no surprise, was also going with the convoy.
A rushing sound was herd, and Sally instantly knew Sonic was back, though she knew this couldn't be good news. The hedgehog stopped in front of Sally, "Sal, they're coming, I can't stop them, and I can't hold them any longer." He said.
Then came three more figures, the princess smiled, they got it out. Selim and Bunnie quickly moved to one of the hover trucks they had left open for the machine to go in and they put it in carefully, but quickly, both were tired so Dulcy helped where she could while Sally came up to the three.
Bunnie gasped lightly and wiped her brow. "Now all we gotta do is get the who-ha outta here." She said catching her breath. Selim nodded, Sally looked at the ground. "Some volunteered to stay behind and cover the escape."
Selim looked up and saw the catapults loaded, a new batch of metal eating ballons were created since the new batch of those strange plants they got from the Great Jungle came into harvest, though like the Doomsday there was only a limited supply, maybe thirty or so. "I'm going to stay with them." Selim said, "I feel that this is my fault."
Sally nodded, "Alright Selim, I'll leave you in charge here, just have them pull out before you get overrun, we destroyed any vital data and taken all the essential equipment. All that is here for them to have is a bunch of empty buildings. Knothole is beyond saving, let's live to fight another day."
The vulpine nods in response, Bunnie then piped in. "Can I stay Sally-girl?" She said, "I feel as if I could help."
To that Sally shook her head, "Bunnie, we need you with us right now, we placed a big boulder in front of the hole in the pipeline, remember? We need you to move it again."
The rabbot nodded and looked to Selim worriedly, "Be careful sugar, give 'em hell."
The fox nodded, "I will."
There was a silence when their plans were set into action, Sonic got in the empty convoy truck and let all the others go ahead. He was gonna wait till the Swatheads broke through the line of defenses. He talked to Selim before closing the door, "Listen Slim, we need ya to try and cover the tracks of the convoy while you retreat, send some my way to make it look like I'm goin' the escape route, this is my little bud's plan so you better not let it fail."
Selim nodded in response. "All right Sonic, lets do it to it."
Sonic stopped for a second and gave the fox an odd stare, and the older Tails realized his mistake. He tried to cover his tracks, "I heard Sally say it before, and it was pretty catchy, something wrong?"
The hedgehog shook his head. "Nothing, you should get juicin' the Swatbots will-"
As if right on cue, as the rest of the convoy was leaving Knothole a red beam flew over the two of their heads and smashed into a tree, it immediately caught fire. Selim looked over to the woods as Sonic shut the door of the hover truck and had to grudgingly wait. The Swatbots came out of the forest behind them which glowed red in the dark sky, aflame. They were here, and now everything was on the line.
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The next chapter will be here in two weeks so that would be the 7/17/2004 right? The Friday after next anyway is when I'll post it. The chapters will come on a bi-weekly basis from now on unless otherwise noted. Thanks for all the support thus far.