Part 2
Altered State

Bunnie had been standing waiting patiently by the back of the building. She couldn't see Sonic or Sally, but she could hear their voices over the radio system. She waited patiently as the two discussed the problem. No matter what the outcome was, she'd follow whatever order she was given. She secretly hoped they would continue though. She wanted to rescue Yardley. While she waited she hopped up and down, punching the air, practicing some martial arts moves to bide her time and to stay focused. She was tense as hell, and it helped her to unwind. Truth be told she was a little nervous being here on her own, and…
There was a clanking sound behind her. She turned, and found herself face to face with a Swatbot. She started to scream, but it raised it's fist and brought the back of it's hand across her face, knocking her over, sending her flying, sending the entire world black.

Brief noise. Wind. Steam. The sound of something mechanical. Bunnie opens her eyes to a world that hangs upside down. She can't move her arms or her legs, but she feels the world spinning. Her vision focuses, and she sees the floor moving beneath her. She is being carried. Carried by a mechanical being. A Swatbot. A stinking, oily, mechanical Swatbot. She wants to pound her fists on its amour but she can't raise her arms. A quick glance reveals they aren't bound in anyway way, nor are her legs. Butthat doesn't change the horrifying fact she can't move them. Was she paralyzed? The Swatbot had only smacked her… It had felt like she'd been smashed in the face with a brick. The sudden weightlessness as her body is thrown into the air… She lands hard, her body hitting the ground with a crunch, her shoulder grazing, bruising. But the ground starts to move, and she realizes it's not the ground at all. Some kind of conveyor belt. She finds herself being pulled into something. Something dark. Something sinister. Something metal.
There's wind. Something breathing against her fur, pushing it up, blowing it in her face. And then the world is plunged into darkness. The door has been shut. She screams. No one can hear her. Her watch has been broken. The LCD screen is shattered, bits of glass in her fur. A blue light starts to beep. Another one starts to flash. Then there's a hum, and a large green neon light, a circle shape, turns on above her body. Her entire length is bathed in the warm light as the conveyor belt stops. She looks around nervously, whimpering. A giant claw descends slowly from the roof. It stops inches from her face, it's needle-like fingers glancing over her frightened face. It comes down hard, wrapping it's claws around her skull, holding her head tight. Suddenly her arms find their strength and she raises her hands to her face, clutching the steel phalanges and tugging at them. She can't remove it. Two more come down and restrain her arms. She feebly twitches her legs, whimpering as they too succumb to the restraints. Something is humming. She thinks it's the machinery, but it's not. She realizes slowly it's too human to be a machine. Someone is humming. Someone is laughing. Someone finds her situation amusing. In all it's perversity, she laughs too. A short, hysterical giggle that emanates from her throat, croaking out between sobs. She laughs one bitter word.
"Robotnik."
"My my my," says the voice. It's low octaves echo within the space of the small, claustrophobic coffin. "Seems we've caught ourselves a rat in our trap."
"The only rat here is you Robotnik." Her voice is small and weak, barely audible above the metallic hum. But it's there.
"Rest assured dear Bunnie, that though you can't see me, I can very clearly see you. You won't die alone, dear one."
"I aint the one that's gonna die Robotnik."
A circular, metallic cup lowers from the roof of the machine. From within it's center a needle appears. It looks sharp.
"Your right Bunnie. Your absolutely right."
The needle comes down to rest above Bunnie's stomach.
"You're not going to die."
The needle comes down fast, shredding through her skin, into her flesh. She screams.
"Yet."
And then everything lights up like a Mobius Christmas tree... Yellow rings line the walls, and the green glow above her intensifies as the air around her cools down. But her body heats up. Something inside her is boiling. What starts off as an uncomfortable tingle becomes an intolerable spasm as she feels the liquid inside her body become super heated. Water, blood, everything. It heats up, raising fast. She tries to gargle but her dry throat is parched of moisture and she finds herself coughing. And then the needles start to stab her. They puncture her fast, like someone using a typewriter, writing the story of their lives. The two needles by her legs repeatedly stab her lower limbs. Two more make a start on her arms. Soon she's covered in puncture marks, but there's no blood. It's too dry. It starts to clot. But it doesn't matter, because it's about to be replaced. The needles retract, and a long arm descends. At its base is what looks like a metallic orb. A singular optic lens is affixed to it. It hovers above her legs, and starts to revolve. A light shines down on her, and the pain of the needles is forgotten as tiny micro bots, billions of them, hidden within the light photons, chart a course down the energy beam and into her flesh, pervading the entrances made by the needles. They plummet through her body like a skydiver through clouds, tiny super-heated rockets blasting through fur, flesh, muscle and bone, entering the marrow and locking on to her DNA, rebuilding her from the inside out. The lens of the optic eyeball spreads out, covering her entire legs. The fur parts as the metal below destroys her skin, the flesh and muscle is transformed into synthetic alloy. It feels as though someone is constantly hammering her legs with a sledgehammer, relentlessly pounding away without pause. It feels like her legs have been torn into a thousand pieces, like a sun has exploded inside her. It stops, and the needle moves onto her arm. The needle comes down, the eye rotates, and it starts over again. Bunnie's screams are loud, but the sound of the humming, the whir of the machine, and the laughter of the dictator are louder. She can barely hear herself as her arm is torn from it's socket, the bone ripped from the joint as it disintegrates, the newly formed man-made muscles instantly being bonded together by wires and steel bonds.
She wishes to die. She pleads to the air around her to suffocate her. But instead there is only the whirring of the gears. The awful whirring of the gears. Then she hears it. At first it sounds like just another gear amongst many, that same horrible whirring sound. But she realizes it's different. Whether or not she just wants to believe it's different is of no consequence. To her ravaged ears it's different. That's all that matters.
And then the light appears. The new whirring sound rips into the room, as does a brilliant, blinding white light, tearing into the very shell of the machine and for a second, just a split second, there is a hint of blue amongst the green. And something else. A large shape. But by then Bunnie's vision was clouding over. She could no longer feel anything, had no idea what had been done to her. All she knew was that she had been ripped apart, and that nothing could save her.
The blue light talked to her. It called her name. But she didn't care. All she wanted was to touch the white light. To go home. She reaches to it. Asks one last time to end it all. To take her home.

Sonic's feet had never hit the ground harder. He'd never run so fast. Around him the world was a watercolor painting, it's features smeared across a landscape that barely existed as he ran between worlds. He couldn't feel the rain on his face. He couldn't hear the thunder as it cracked overhead, or the foul taste of blood in his mouth. In his mind only one thing existed.
Gotta run…
He could barely feel the fragile, broken creature he held in his arms as he ran. Could barely feel the cold stint of metal as the limbs touched his fur. Or her ragged breathe that barely touched his chest, despite her lips being inches from it.
Gotta keep movin'. Gotta get her back…
There was no time left for either of them. No time left at all. He just had to get her back.
Back to Knothole…