Chaos: Hi again! Next chapter...no comment.

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When Sonic awoke again, he was lying on his side on a metal floor. He moaned quietly, trying to calm his spinning head. "Sonic? Are you awake?" Tails' voice cut into his head like a knife.

He groaned and put his hands over his ears. He felt like he had the worst hangover in the world, and had yet to remember exactly what had happened. "Sonic, please..." There was a pleading note in Tails' voice this time.

Forming words took most of his energy. "Whassup?"

"Sonic, you have to get up, please! It's Robotnik, he's got us!"

"Go'way, I'm tired."

"SONIC!"

The shout was agony to his head, and he curled up more. Got by Robotnik? His eyes jammed open, his senses coming to him for the first time. He uncurled and rolled towards Tails' voice.

His head spun dizzyingly afterwards, and he winced unconsciously. When he looked again, he saw Tails, chained to the wall by his wrists. He looked like he was trying not to cry. "What...happened?"

"You remember, Mecha was in my house and he shot you." Sonic sat up, trying not to be sick. Whatever was in that dart was not good for him. He shuffled backwards until he met the wall, and tried to push himself up.

Several times he slipped and collapsed again, and once he nearly passed out. Infuriated by his weakness, he finally managed to stand, trembling so much that he nearly fell again.

Summoning all his remaining strength, he pushed himself along the wall to Tails, and slammed one fist onto the catch-release button. The chains unclicked and Tails dropped to the ground, nearly falling after so long in the air.

"How long...have we been here?" he asked, wishing he had some water. Tails was rubbing his chafed wrists distractedly, and muttered,

"Dunno, I couldn't see my watch. Metal carried you and pushed me all through the night, then dumped us in here. Maybe...six hours?" Sonic groaned, and looked around the cell. It was very different to what he had suspected.

The four walls were all metal, with one heavy-duty door. Steel, maybe. In the low ceiling were several strip lights, embedded in the metal and impossible to break. No natural light entered the room, making it impossible to distinguish between night and day.

Sonic slid down into a sitting position, energy spent. For a long while they both sat there. It was impossible to tell how much time was passing, except for Tails' digital watch, which didn't show PM or AM.

Then the door clicked as a lock was turned, and opened. Sonic and Tails jumped up as Metal Sonic entered the room. His digital eyes lit on Sonic first. "Awake already, Ssssonic? And untied your friend too. You should be punished."

Sonic growled. "Just try it, Mecha!" He knew he wasn't fooling him...he could barely walk. The robot's eyes flashed in amusement, and he advanced with claws ready. At the last second, he spun round and grabbed Tails.

The fox yelled in surprise as Mecha turned him upside-down and locked his ankles in the chains. "Try this way, fox." he said, almost gleefully, as Tails struggled. Then Sonic bashed into him.

He easily knocked away the angry hedgehog, whose legs gave out. He dropped to the floor on his back, and Mecha towered over him again. He started to struggle up, and the robot kicked him.

He let out a quiet gasp as the breath was knocked out of him, along with his strength. Mecha pulled him up by both wrists and then pushed him out of the room, slamming the door and leaving Tails alone.

Sonic was pushed and kicked all the way down several corridors. Left, right, left, left, right again, he lost count and gave up struggling. Finally Mecha hauled him to his feet and pushed open a door.

Inside, Robotnik was sitting in a comfy swivel chair. He leaned back and grinned under his moustache. "Well, well, well. Hello, Sonic. How pleasant to see you again." Then he burst out laughing; moustache twitching and giving the impression that he had a squirrel perched on his face.

Sonic scowled sullenly and said nothing.

"Aren't you going to greet me?"

Still he said nothing.

"Mecha, make him bow." The robot kicked him to the ground and then forced him to kneel before the mad doctor.

"Now, Sonic. Say, 'Robotnik, I am your servant'." Sonic gritted his teeth and said nothing, staring at Robotnik unblinkingly.

"Say it!" Sonic curled his lip in mockery.

Robotnik lost his temper. He signalled to Metal Sonic, who kicked Sonic onto the floor and started to punch him repeatedly. When he had finally finished Sonic lifted his bruised face and resumed staring at the doctor, eyes burning in defiance.

"You can't make me do anything, Egghead."

Robotnik had calmed down surprisingly fast. He grinned confidently, and said, "We will see about that. Behold!" he pointed to the other side of the room, where a large machine stood. In the centre stood a large tube, empty.

"I call it the Robotizer!"

With a small hiss, the tube slid up, and Sonic was pushed inside. Just as quickly, the tube slid down again. Sonic pulled himself up, feeling the first traces of fear. Robotizer?

Above his head, a small disk started to glow brightly. Through the distorted glass, he saw Tails being dragged in by Mecha, probably to witness the spectacle. The entire tube was starting to glow now, surrounding Sonic with light.

He instinctively pulled himself out of the disk's path and pounded on the glass, just as the light grew too bright to see through and an odd tingling filled him. At first it was just like mild pins and needles, then got worse until his fur was crackling with static.

He shut his eyes and tried not to scream.