The hedgehog looked down in silence. He was never good at breaking bad news, and this was by far the worst news he ever had to deliver. Sonic remained silent for a bit as he contemplated how to tell Sally. He was hoping he'd have more to rehearse.

"Well you see…"

"Where is he Sonic?" she asked with a little more authority.

Sonic looked down and sighed again. She was going to find out eventually. "He's gone Sal…" he choked out. "I'm sorry…"

Bunny gasped. "Oh my stars…"

Sally's eyes wavered a bit as the words hit her. "W-what do you mean he's gone?" She asked, her voice sounding as wavy as the fear in her pupils, she seemed like she was about to break apart.

"Snively took him… I tried to stop him but…" the hedgehog looked defeated and ashamed.

There was sort of a collective sigh over the group as Sonic answered the princess's question. Sally looked annoyed as she glared at Sonic. "I thought you meant that he died. Don't scare me like that!"

Sonic jumps a bit. "Well geez, I kinda felt responsible so I just had a hard time saying how bad I messed up."

The princess nods in understanding. "You tried though, right? The important thing is that he's alive, and we can still get him back…" she stated putting her hand on the hedgehog's shoulder.

Bunnie tilted her head as she thought about what the hedgehog said earlier. "Wait… Snively?" she asked. "Where did he all come from? We hadn't seen nothin' of him in awhile."

Rotor gave a nod. "He disappeared ever since Doomsday. I thought he had bought it."

Sonic shook his head looking down "Buttnik's the one that bought it…"

When he said this everyone jumped a bit, except for Knuckles and the hedgehog himself. They could hardly believe their ears.

"Sonic have y'all gone and bumped your little ol' sugar-hog head? Don't ya remember the Death Egg?"

Knuckles crossed his arms in front of his chest as he watched the sun move overhead. "Listen… a lot has happened, but we got to move quickly. Every second Tails is in the enemy hands, he's in danger."

The hedgehog turned his head toward the guardian. "You mean you're gonna help?"

With a hmph, the echidna gave a nod. "Let's just say I'm going to make sure you don't screw up again."

Sonic looked down, and after a moment of being silent he looked back up. "Thanks Knux."

After another pause in the conversation the mechanic walrus decided to speak up. "Well everyone, get in, we'll get back to Lower Mobius in a Sonic second."

The hedgehog couldn't help but let out a laugh, limping a bit as he walked to the opening in the tank. "That's my line Rote… anyways, where'd you get the treds?"

Sally giggled as she followed everyone into the vehicle. "We'll explain on the way Sonic…"

The inside of the tank was spacious, but a little muggy since there weren't many vents. Sighing as he sat down the hedgehog was at thankful that the seats were nicely cushioned. With a flip of a few switches the tank was off, the cabin reverberated as it made its way back to Lower Mobius. Though there weren't many windows the inside was well lit with amber light and computer councils that lined the walls, showing what was occurring outside at all angles..

"Man, where did you pick this up?" the hedgehog asked again.

"Well we wanted it to be a surprise Sonic. Rotor and Tails worked on it all last week." Sally explained.

Sonic looked down. "I wondered what they were up to…" he mumbled. He usually would have beamed with pride, knowing his bud had helped make such a cool machine. But all he could think about was how empty it was in here without the kit's face grinning, showing off his gadget.

Facing away from the hedgehog and unable to see him sulking in thought, the others continued to have their conversations.

"Well, Sally supplied the schematics…" Rotor stated with a nod. "She was so good at drafting."

The princess looked over to the mechanic. "Let's just say I got it out of a little red book," she said solemnly.

Sonic looked up and frowned. He knew what she meant by 'red book'. It was the only trace of Selim that had remained after he had vanished, and that was his Freedom Fighter journal. The book was filled to the brim with schematics and data that the older fox had gathered over the years of his life. The mention of the log only reminded Sonic of his friend further.

"You gotta show me that book sometime." Rotor smiled with a curious gleam in his eyes.

Sally shook her head. "It was destroyed with Knothole. I did save some of the schematics on Nicole though."

Sonic shook his head. This was only half true. The book was very much intact, but Sally did most of the data into Nicole though for safe keeping. Even though Selim was gone, the princess said that the fox's identity should still be kept a secret. Something about time being fragile, and needed to stay balanced. Thinking about all this time continuum stuff just made the blue hero's head hurt.

There was a good deal of silence, besides the roar of the engine, for awhile before Bunnie recalled something. "Oh! I plum nearly forgot to ask y'all. What were ya sayin' 'bout Snively back there?"

Snapping back to reality Sonic looked up and amongst the other Freedom Fighters. "Oh, yeah! You see guys, what we thought before was right. Robuttnik did disappear after the attack on the Doomsday Project."

Sally nods as she thinks to herself. "So how do you explain the Floating Island incident? And the Death Egg?"

"That's what I'm sayin' Sal! It was all a ploy; we were all played as fools. Snively made replicas of Buttnik. We all thought the fat guy was behind it all, but we were wrong…"

"My Stars…" Bunnie said looking down.

Rotor gave a nod. "It was strange how Robotnik became so clever all of a sudden. Usually his plans weren't so monstrous and sadistic, but after Doomsday…"

As the walrus's voice drifted off the others just let out a nod in unison. They already knew what he was going to say. After that short peaceful hiatus, 'Robotnk's' attacks became much more aggressive, using massive weapons and powerful gems. The doctor's tactics seemed to change, and he seemed to fight more intelligently. With this new revelation it all made more sense.

"We have to have to have a meeting when we get back. So much has happened. And now we have to come up with a plan to rescue Tails." Sally said.

Sonic's impatience rose to the surface. "We don't have time Sal. He's in trouble! As soon as we're back in Lower Mobius I'm goin' after him."

The princess looks toward the hedgehog. "Listen Sonic, if you were Snively right now what would you be doing?"

With a scratch of the head he shrugged, his voice showing more annoyance. "I'm not Sniffs, Sal. I don't know what he's thinking."

Nodding the ground squirrel puts a hand on the hedgehog's shoulder. "Which is why you wouldn't make a good leader, you got to think like your enemy sometimes. You see, Snively knows as well as I do that Tails is your best friend. So if I were him, I would use that as an advantage. Using Tails as bait to lure you into a trap… you see? He's not going to let you just limp in and take your friend back, you should heal up first."

Sonic found the last statement somewhat insulting, crossing his arms over his chest. Normally he could deal with Sally's sarcasm, but right now he just was angry at himself and everything. "Fine…"

"They're back, Grif!" A boar called out to the goat, who was watching the security screens.

"Yep, that's them alright, open the doors and let them in Dirk." The leader of Lower Mobius said getting up from his chair and walking out into the main village.

As the sealed pipe opened up, the tank rolled into the village causing everything around to tremble lightly as it slowed to a halt. Everyone had started to gather around, news of something going wrong on the mission had spread quickly, and now many found themselves curious.

The doors of the massive vehicle lowered as Grif had made his way on the scene to welcome them back, pushing his way past the small crowd. Rotor was the first to step out, and he was surprised as he gazed upon the mass of Mobians that had gathered.

"I should make the engine run much more quietly…" the walrus mumbled as made his way to the ground. The rest of the Freedom Fighters followed right behind the mechanic. Knuckles was the last one to come out behind Sonic. The hedgehog could only look down at his feet as he shuffled out into the village.

Everyone looked to the vehicle, expecting one more form to emerge. But after a few seconds of silence Grif asked Sally the question that was plaguing the group's mind. "Where's Tails?"

The princess looked about. She wasn't about to tell the whole village that he had been kidnapped. Acting as nonchalant as possible she replied. "He's working on the Tornado, they had engine trouble on the way back. He said he's going to be awhile before it's fixed."

Grif could guess Sally wasn't being fully honest. If this were the case then why did Sonic act so down?

Dirk sifted through the crowd, breaking them apart slowly. Soon most of the onlookers went about their business, but a few stuck around. One of them was a kangaroo Mobian, who approached Sonic, noticing he was limping. "Good day, looks like you got roughed up a bit."

"Ya…" the hedgehog dully replied looking to Roy. It took awhile for the hero to remember the ex-Downunda resident's name. The marsupial kept himself busy over the past few weeks. It was mainly because since Quack had passed away they needed a new person to study medicine. Since Roy's mother was a doctor back when he was little, and she taught him some things about it, which meant the kangaroo knew more about the subject then the rest of them did. He was no Quack though, and he knew it. He had been reading for awhile, and still had a very long way to go.

As Roy looked at the hedgehog's wound he smiled. "Ain't so bad, we'll have 'er fixed up in a jiff."

Bunnie was standing nearby. "It's the emotional scars that'll be hard ta fix."

The roo didn't know what she was talking about, so he just shrugged. "Bein' a doc is hard enough. I can't be a head doc, the mind confuses me too much. Specially with loons like that 'Botnik bloke."

The area was now quiet as most of the denizens had moved away. Seeing this Sally decided it was safe enough to tell Grif, Roy and the others present about the meeting.

"So yer tellin' me we're puttin' the debotize' thing on hold?" Roy asked.

Sally smacked her forehead. She forgot that she was originally going to have Jerome derobotisized when Sonic and Tails got back. The princess gave a nod. "We'll have to do it tonight… Rotor still has bugs to work out in the machine anyway, right?" She turns to the walrus.

With a nod the mechanic thought aloud. "Ya, I should probably get to work on that…"

"After the meeting Rotor. Let's get off the streets everyone."

As the princess said those words everyone headed toward the new war room. Sonic looked down, hoping his little bro was safe.

Tails felt a cold air around him. He couldn't see anything as he was blindfolded. He felt himself tied to a pole of some sort. Suddenly the vision impairment was removed and the fox could see that the area around him was an earthy brown in color and rocky in texture. Tracks lined the floor and disappeared down the tunnel in both directions. They were obviously in an underground mine of some sort, but where he did not know.

Snively's laugh echoed down the hollow caverns causing the young fox to look about trying to see where the devious human was.

Deciding to respond to the hideously shrill laugh the fox asked the question that was plaguing his mind. "Why are we here?" His voice echoed.

The short person walked in front of the tied up young one and smiled. "Well I guess since you won't be able to tell them, it wouldn't hurt to let you know my little scheme." Snively smiles deviously and pulls out a little mechanical chip from his pocket. "Our scanners found this sewn into one of your shoes…"

What is it?"

"It's a tracer…" he chuckles in response. "I thought you had knowledge in technology like myself when I saw you reprogram the reactor at Drood Hedge, but I forgot you're just a twerp."

Tails frowned at the chuckling human. "Shut up Snively… you won't get away with this! Sonic's going to follow that signal here and wipe that smile off your face."

"Hmm… maybe you're not as stupid as I thought. You see that's exactly what I want. Look around you."

As Tails looks around he notices boxes of what seemed to be explosives lining the walls, hidden in the shadows. With a snap of Snively's fingers the kit suddenly himself gagged with a cloth. The fox felt a chill run over him as he realized what Snively was planning.

Throwing the chip into an abandoned mine cart, the human laughed. "You see, once I coax him in the right direction, he'll come blindly to his resting sight."

Tails struggled against his binds and his cries were muffled by the gag. A spybot came down and pointed toward Snivley and his prisoner. "That's it, look powerless for the camera." He smiles, giving a nod, ready to broadcast to all Mobian frequencies. Calling the hedgehog out to meet his demise.

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One more update before the month winter break. I'm actually not sure when I'm going to post the next chapter. Final week make it hectic on my schedual, so it will December 16th at the latest.