Well, I'm not dead. Just busy for the past 12 years. Jeez, didn't realized I was gone that long, and I never finished this arc.

Well, I'm back. Hopefully to finish this novel, and maybe work on the next, unsure. But hell, I'm just two, now one chapter away from finishing this. Might as well.

Please review this chapter.

Disclaimer: I own nothing of the Sonic franchise or characters. Just still having fun.

Hunter Becomes Hunted

"Anything new–"

Charles' hand rose from the console, cutting off St. John's question. From where the Commander stood, his arms crossed and staring at the back of the old Hedgehog, Chuck had the aurora of a hermit engaged deeply with fixing his own trinkets, Nicole's main screen his lamp. Yet, no reply came, leaving Geoffrey to sigh audibly to himself. Something at least, Sir Charles, for the love of the King.

An electronic chirp sprouted from the panel, making Uncle Chuck dart his head to the left.

"Charles," came Nicole's quickened voice, making St. John's ears twitch, "the new solutions you have calculated into the data have matched."

Geoffrey held himself from running up to the console. Does she have to wait a bloody pause!?

"And?" Charles asked in leu of St. John.

"––I have Shadow coming through––"

The door to Freedom HQ slide open, bursting in the heavier light from the lobby. Tightening his fist, St. John braced for what his heart was beating so hard was a coming ambush; one that the doubts in his mind was whisper he wasn't going to win.

But Shadow wasn't running fast enough to take him down. And from the look on his face, it was if he was running away from something hunting him!

"Commander!" he shouted in a laboring voice.

St. John straightened as Shadow stopped close enough to feel his warm breath. The hedgehog could read the commander's face. "Your King and Princess are in danger."

Geoffrey swallowed, clutching his fist tight. It seemed for more than a second before Shadow's words sunk in.

"How?"

Shadow took a quick breath. "There are two robots that are like Espio. They can cloak and blend in like they aren't there."

"Are they here now?"

"Yes. They–they killed a little girl on the outskirts–"

St. John turned to the screen. "Alert the garrison."

"It may be too late. The Guardians are making their way there–"

"Guardians?" St. John spit out, turning back to Shadow.

"Locke and Aleutian. It was how me, Rouge and Espio returned."

St. John turned once again to look over Charles' shoulder. "You said we had a match?"

Nicole returned. "Shadow has confirmed what the match was. They are after the Royal Family.

The last word was Acorn. Target: Acorn!"

St. John moved to the communications console. He picked up a headset and keyed up the microphone on it. I hope they are listening and close.

Standing at attention for four hours was very laboring to joints and muscles, especially the knees. They both knew it was for show, but it looked good behind the two large wooden doors leading into the castle. They fussed by bending their knees every so slightly. But one quick glace by the racoon over to the leopard to his right told him it was okay to relax just a bit. When he did, he check his watch that was tucked high up on his arm under his sleeve.

"Twenty minutes till show time," he said.

"And to no one but us to see the changing."

The racoon nodded. "What you want to do after?" he asked in a quiet voice.

"Not pizza," was the reply. They both chuckled as the shift their spears in theirs hands some.

The evening was starting to spread over the grounds. The dark green of the grass and hedges began to darken, but the sun light was still bright. The birds were chirping still, gathering their last bit of day before they went off to their nests. With their songs was slight rhythm like light foot steps on the stone.

In fact the Racoon's ears twitched as it seemed to grow louder, like some one was coming. He shifted his footing–

His spear jumped out of his hand. He lurched back quickly, looking to his right to see the leopard's spear was also out of his hand, hoovering before them. They both exchanged quizzical looks as their weapons hoovered–

The spears turned their tips and were rammed through both their chests, launching them to the wall of the castle and breaking through the cracks of the mortar. They both twitched and struggled to gasp for breath and scream. But it felt to both of them that their mouths were being covered by something metallic. The leopard swung out his arm out in front of him and connected to something hard and cold. He broke his hand, but the pain of the spear impaled into his chest numbed it.

In seconds they both sunk their heads, lifeless, violet blood oozing from their spears down over their uniforms, and behind them on the stone wall. Their spears kept them upright, their bodies never falling to the ground.

And beside them, the wooden doors they guarded to castle keep slowly opened.

Espio and Rouge crashed through the open doors to the small hospital, each taking an arm of the girl Chamaeleon.

"Doctor Quack!" shouted Espio.

A nurse stuck her head out from a room to their right. "He's not here." She quickly ran up to them, her face becoming alarmed after seeing the girl in his arms. "What's going on?"

"She's in shock and she's lost a lot of blood. We found her barley alive at a facility in the Badlands."

The nurse met the three of them and immediately placed his fingers on the girls throat, searching for a pulse. Another nurse appeared for a moment came with a gurney.

"She's faint,' she replied.

Both nurses helped Espio and Rouge lay her on the gurney.

"She's going to need blood, but I don't think I have her type," she said, looking to Espio. "And we have a mass casualty flight coming in from the Plains."

Espio looked on. "I can give, but our blood is slow to take out."

The nurse nodded to him. "Time to stick a needle in you."

"You have to be kidding me!" Knuckles shouted through the headset. He turned to Rotor. "How far."

"Tell St. John we are thirty minutes out."

Knuckles gruffed and repeated what Rotor said, adding, "Where's my father?"

"With Aleutian. They may make it there before the garrison," came the Aussie.

"Okay, get over there and help. Do something!"

"We are. Knothole out!"

And the link went silent. Knuckles turned and went through the hatch through the fuselage. Sonic was sitting with a small child, making faces. "Hey, we've got a serious issue."

Sonic turned over his shoulder, "Geeze, Red, don't scare the kid."

"We have something to be scared about if we don't make it back in time," Knuckles replied heavily.

Sonic's smiling face molded from happiness that soon matched Knuckles look of horror.

He was afraid that his pace was going to be too fast for his dad, but Aleutian was pleasently surprised his father was right on his heals.

His arm's swung quick, his right hand firmly grasping his pistol. He could see the palace doors in front of him, nearly two-hundred yards. As they closed, his pace quickened as he noticed the doors were open. For a glimpse between his stride and his breathing he thought he saw the palace guards at their post. He was about to breath in a small sign of relief before he stopped suddenly mere yards from the entrance.

"Dear Aurora!" he gasped.

A Racoon and a Leopard hung lifeless with their spears through their chest.

Locke stepped in front of him, rose his arms and with a quick motion called on the master Emerald and waved his hands like a come on. The spears dislodge from the stone wall and shot out of the two Mobian's chest. Their bodies slumped to the ground in the pools of their blood.

Locke and Aleutian exchanged firm, grim glances. The bots were inside, hunting.

Aleutian stepped past his father and moved to the edge of the right open door. With a quick breath and firm focus, he swept inside, pivoting to the right with his pistol high, his hands firm on the grip, his thumbs up and forward the slide. He shoved the door open with shoulder, his pistol following his eyes, almost like cutting a pie to his left. With nothing in sight, he, with a blur, swung left. No threats.

Locke followed, looking forward to a large staircase that lead to the upper castle with passageways at the foot of the stairs, and above.

"What's your plan?" he asked Aleutian, looking to him.

Aleutian eyes darted, his head turning slightly. He placed his hand on the door and closed his eyes. He let his vision extend out from him, tracing the very top of the wood floor and roved over it. He felt like he was a fast running mouse looking for a morsel. But his vision never turned dark, or collide with something as it faded from its limit of range from his being.

He turned to his father. "I'm going to have to use my vision to trace over the floor and find a foot. From their I can travel through their bodies and look for their week point."

"Which is?" Locke asked, his voice hurried.

Aleutian focused his stare. "Their eyes."

Locke nodded. "What do you need from me?"

Aleutian didn't look at him but moved forward. "Just you."

She sat uneasy, looking at herself in the mirror. Princess Sally was about to pick up her brush from her vanity when a slight knock came from her door. She turned her gaze to the sound, and with as sigh quick sigh, said, "Come in."

The door's latch turned and with it the door opened. A pink hedgehog head peered in to Sally's spacious room. "You wanted to see me?" asked Amy with a shyness Sally felt was more of a mask.

"Come in, Amy," she replied evenly. "Close the door, please."

The young hedgehog did as she was asked, entering the room, her Pinko hammer in tow. After closing the door she walked to where Sally was sitting. The princess rose to greet her.

"Amy. I know you wanted to go with Hershey and Rotor, but we needed you here."

A fast huff from Amy brought a quizzical frown from Sally. Amy could see herself from the Princess's mirror and adjusted her slightly slouching stance straighter, placing her hands behind her back with her hammer. "Sally, I want to be more part of the Freedom Fighters."

"Girl, you are."

"But not when they go without me."

Sally crossed her arms. She knew this was coming; why she asked Amy to come see her in the first place. But she hadn't really thought of what to tell her. She confessed though, to herself she didn't want to patronize Amy with "You aren't ready" talk. She was to a big degree. But the horrors that the young girl would see. Those things Sally wasn't ready, again, to explain to her. She did it with Tails, in part with Sonic. But with Amy, there was something...

The door to the hallway slowly opened. She didn't hear the latch, but the slow opening with the creak of the hinges drew her attention to it.

Saved by the breeze for a few moments.

"Amy, I thought I asked you to close the door?"

The young girl's gaze drifted behind her. "I did," she replied, her voice almost asking a questions to herself.

Sally didn't say a thing as Amy turned and walked back to shut the door. She began to take a deep breath–

Amy stopped suddenly, almost like she walked into a wall not more than a few feet from the threshold. She backed up one step, catching her balance before she almost feel backwards.

Sally was about to step forward, her right hand coming up. Amy just stood there for a mere second.

The pink hedgehog was thrown to wall sideways, the force so hard it shook the floor when her body smashed into the wall. Sally's eyes couldn't follow Amy's rightward jolt fast enough. The hammer wasn't immune either, falling from the girl's hand when her head snapped over...hard.

Sally's heart started pounding through her chest just as fast as her right hand could move to her vanity table for the only thing her mind was shouting to grab for a weapon: her hairbrush.

But she forgot she wasn't right there, instead swatting the empty air.

Then something cold, like a naked void, crept to her right side. Her eyes tried to follow the it, but nothing was there.

Locke's psyche snapped on like a light switch in a dark room. Danger. He stopped dead, closing his eyes. The question of what room on the second floor that they were on was the feeling in. Then it was gone. But they were close!

Aleutian stopped behind him, his pistol leveling to the front.

"Dad?" he said in a hushed tone.

Coldness. Forward. Open–

"Open door!" he bared out, thrusting his glove hand forward toward an open to their left. It was five doors down! "It's in there–"

Behind. Blade. Tip!

"Aleutian...we're too late!"

Sally thought to swing. She thought to dash forward. But she wasn't Sonic on both of those fronts.

She forced her mind to just move a finger, a toe on her left foot–!

A cold sensation touched her left arm, her eyes darting sympathetically without her head turning. She gasped a quick breath.

"SALLY, DON'T MOVE!"

Her eyes flashed forward to the door. Nothing. But she swore the voice was Knuckles. But it was deeper, older.

"It's right behind her, son!"

Locke's voice boomed in Aleutian's head like he was shouting in his ear. He called out to the princess on the other side of the wall. "Sally, stay absolutely still."

"Knuckles?"

A quick glance to his dad on his left, both with their backs against the wall close to the open room.

"Wrong brother," Locke replied, firmly.

"Here we go," Aleutian began to his father.

Locke turned towards the door.

Aleutian placed his left hand on his father's corresponding shoulder, and pushed him around and through the door, stopping in the threshold.

Sally's eyes widen when not only Locke, but Aleutian appeared in the door. But something was completely off. Aleutian was behind his father, his left hand on the his shoulder, his right aiming his silenced pistol at her! She stopped breathing for a mere beat. Had Knuckle's bother snapped? Was he about to kill her with the same gun she witness him kill Blackjack with–

Aleutian closed his eyes, propelling his inner sight through his father. Over his body, over his boots, his sight found the floor, tracing it like that same hungry mouse searching for the last crumb on Mobius. He shot it straight towards Sally, between her stance. Stop. Nothing. Still seeing the floor. He concentrated harder.

Shift right.

Nothing!

"Locke!" Sally stammered out, fear leaking with it.

The elder Echidna looked straight at her. "Sally, freeze!" he begged with a commanding voice.

She was about to protest, to take one step–

Something began to push into the side of her neck. Her eyes darted right. Empty, but cold space. She swallowed. The pressure began to stab further passed her fur, into her skin.

There!

Aleutian's sight became black, but with pulsing red and green lights. He found the Combot's foot. A fuzzy black string. Wires. He began rotating his sight up, like he had shrunk himself and was looking up. Hints of joints, servos, actuators. He could barley see them with the LED lights inside the bot.

He traced them up. Traveling as fast as his connection and sight could go. The pressure of time was creeping harder through his chest.

Stay calm!

He grabbed at Locke's shoulder hard, focusing inward.

Locke bit down, his balacing compromised slightly. Heat...fire. His shoulder was the point, his body being eaten with it.

"Aleutian...son, you're burning me up!" he hissed, his eyes wide but staring straight at Sally.

Her face was mauled with fear—

—She never felt so much of it. What was going on. Locke looked like he was in pain. Aleutian's pistol floated slightly in his hand, over his father shoulder. But his eyes were closed.

Light!

It wasn't very bright, almost a blue hue, but it was brighter than the LEDs he was using to trace the body on the inside. He just hoped the Combot didn't move. He hoped Sally didn't move. He prayed his father could just stand still just a little longer—

With a quick flash, it felt, he was staring at himself. He could see his head peering downwards, his father locked in his grip.

And his pistol. He moved his hand right, but the barrel moved left. It was the wrong way. He jabbed his hand right, the barrel corresponding left.

His sight shifted. The bot moved. Slightly.

"Son...now!"

He arched his wrist down, the barrel lifting.

His finger slipped onto the trigger. He added a pound of pressure!

The barrel was black. He was facing straight down it.

And so was the bot!

"Aleutian!"

More pressure. Her skin felt it was braking. Her eyes this time moving right, her head locked. Sally felt a tear coming—

It was just like a tap to feel a pulse, and it was all that it took to pull the trigger rearward.

For a the very slip second from the sear breaking, the hammer striking the firing pin, to punching and igniting the primer, and powder burning, the nine millimeter bullet launched through the rifling, stabilizing through the air as it spun, sailing through the twenty-one feet void between them and Sally.

It struck with a thwack through the Combot's right eye, deflecting to the right to make a one half-circle trip around the armored skull until the copper jacked lead bullet smashed through it's weak CPU brain.

And like a switch, without fanfare from a spark or a jolt, the bot instantly appeared with a suddenness of a heartbeat, its right arm posed at Sally's neck with a long blade piercing her!

The Combot collapsed on the ground where it stood with a thud from its collapsing knees, to its torso falling on backwards, its blade slighting cutting Sally's neck as it fell.

Aleutian let go of his father when his sight went black. The sound of the shot never left the room, saved for the slide opening and closing, and a casing hitting the floor.

Locke breathed in, the heat dissipating from his body when Aleutian released him, but not his shoulder.

Sally's hand went up to her neck when the stinging pain finally inched in to her psyche. She pulled it away. Blood. When she looked behind her, her wide eyes falling on the Combot's lifeless hulk, she finally took a long pull of air.

"Oh my Goddess–"

Aleutian ran up to her, placing his left hand on her shoulder, grabbing it and her, and began walking her back to the front door, his pistol aimed at the downed Combot. No movement came.

Now he was able to breath.

"What the hell is going on!?" Sally began, then her eyes shifted to Amy. The Hedgehog was still a clump on the floor.

"Amy!"

Locke was kneeling down by the Hedgehog, rolling her on her back, his hand caressing her face.

"Amy. Speak to us," he said.

Aleutian placed his pistol on top of Sally's dresser and went to aid his father.

Sally just stood and looked on. Her eyes first at Amy, then the dead Combot. Warmth trickled down her neck to her shoulder. She wiped at it. More blood. How bad was she hurt?

A slight moan filled the air.

"Amy. Come on, little one," said Locke, his voice stressed.

Another moan.

"She's coming around," said Aleutian.

Sally's eyes met with the black gun on her dresser.

It was an impulse she never felt before. It was phantom command from her that placed her hand on the gun, gripped it, and with a stalking march, went up the Combot. She pulled the trigger once. The gun jumped in her hand, the slide rocking when it ejected a spent casing before closing on a new round. The bullet struck the armored hulk, but bounced off. But she didn't care. Another yank of the trigger and another bullet hitting the bot.

Two more pulls, two more casing ejecting, her eyes alight with anger. Not from her pain, but Amy's!

She screamed with another pull, then another, then—

A white gloved hand went over the slide when she pulled the trigger. The bullet missed the bot and went through the floor. She reflexively pulled the trigger again, but nothing happened. Her eyes lifted from the Combat, still filled with anger when they met the scared face of Aleutian.

He didn't have to say it as his blue eyes were.

No!

"Sally." He placed his other hand on her's holding his pistol. "Sally, no!"

There was a moment of time that silence filled the room, but only briefly.

"Don't go down that path I just came from," Aleutian whispered.

She said nothing, her eyes still locked with his.

"What's going on?" she finally asked, her voice dry.

"Eggman has some new Combats," Aleutian began. A quick look to the hulk of metal on the floor. "These can cloak."

"The mission St. John had sent Shadow, Epsio and Rouge on?" she let out.

This time Locke answered, his face slightly looking away from Amy. "They found it, along with us."

Sally hissed at the pain from her neck.

"You're bleeding, Sally," Aleutian stated.

"I ain't got time." She eyed Aleutian further. "How many of these–things are there?" she asked with a bite.

Aleutian brought his left hand to the bottom of his pistol. "I only saw two open spots were the rest were awaiting their program," he began, his index finger pushing down on the paddle below the trigger-guard that released the magazine. "Eggman had a male and female Chamaeleon hooked up to a machine."

Three rounds left.

"We think they are using their blood as part of their cloaking," Locke said.

Aleutian slipped his spare magazine from his wrist pouch into his pistol, secured the ejected one back in the pouch. With a very quick but brutal motion with his left hand over the top of the slide, he power stroked the slide back. An empty casing flew out, but a fresh round chambering when the spring returned the slide into battery.

"If it came for me," Sally said, looking to Aleutian.

Amy rose to a sitting posture, her shoulder supporting her on the wall. She began to whimper. Locke kneeled closer to her.

"Here child. Take it easy."

"Amy," came the Princess, walking past Aleutian.

"Sally," came the younger Guardian.

"Amy, I'm, so sorry."

"She's got a concussion," came Locke. He looked to Sally when she came and knelt beside. He saw the blood trickling from her neck. It wasn't profuse, but it was very noticeable.

"Sally?"

They both ignored Aleutian.

Locke held his gaze at Sally. "Your highness, you need to take her and yourself to medical and alert the rest of command–"

"Sally!?"

The firm, but demanding tone brought both of their eyes to Aleutian. His stare back at them sent a minor shiver up Sally's spine. It was one of alarm, but it also held with it a twinge for a lust to kill. And his voice conveyed it.

"Where is your brother?"