Knuckles and Sonic sped through the forest side by side, not talking at this supersonic speed because their words would get carried away. They thought, though.
Knuckles was thinking about the quest that the Emeralds had sent him on. He was to find one that ‘had a powerful heart’ and could ‘race the wind’. The second obviously referred to Sonic’s speed, and the first probably referred to his force of will. He consulted the emeralds, and they told him that the one he was looking for was very near. He asked what he should do and they said duck.
Duck?
Because that was the only answer that he had EVER gotten from the Emeralds without having to solve a riddle, he grabbed Sonic and threw both of them to the ground, just in time to avoid being nailed by a black blur roughly in the shape of Sonic when he was spinning. Confused, he stood up and saw that Sonic was still on the ground, so he realized that this must be another hedgehog, and not a friendly one, so he did the smart thing and punched it.
His fist struck metal, and three spikes jabbed out and pierced his glove.
Oww.
Now he was mad.
He feinted a punch at the robot, then swung hard with his left. His fist connected, and sent the black robot spinning. He then jumped onto a nearby tree branch, swinging up into the higher branches of the tree. He peered down, and saw that Sonic had engaged the robot, and was spinning circles around it. Knuckles jumped down onto the robot, knocking it to the forest floor, as Sonic abruptly switched paths and barreled full speed into it. Unfortunately, that meant he barreled full speed into Knuckles. Double oww.
Knuckles was hurled back full force into the tree that he had just vacated, Sonic’s sharp spines leaving millions of small cuts in his chest and…front. He pried himself up, using the emerald of healing to heal his wounds and his headache. Sonic looked just as surprised as he was, but Knuckles waved off apologies and turned to the ‘bot.
It was gone.
Knuckles turned to Sonic. "What now?" he asked.
"We’ve got to tell Sal about this." Sonic looked around at the spot that the robot had vacated. No burn marks, no crushed leaves. Eerie. It was as if it had just turned invisible. He probed at the spot with his foot to check. Nope. Gone. "She’ll figure this out." Knuckles nodded his agreement, and they ran back to the secret entrance to Knothole.
Neither of them noticed the dark shadow that crept out of the bush and followed them silently at their own supersonic pace.
Sally helped Daniel into the extra bed in Rotor’s hut. She didn’t know why she felt an attraction to this sandy-brown hedgehog, but she didn’t want to leave his side. Maybe it was because he had been the first to talk to her, maybe it was his leadership skills, but maybe it was something else…
"So how did you recognize me?" She asked him, to keep his mind off of his sickness.
He smiled. "I was one of the court technicians. I helped Sir Charles, once, but mostly did computer programming." He chuckled. "It looks like I’ll find my niche here."
Sally looked around the room. The desks were covered with pieces of computer equipment and disks. She smiled. "Yeah, Rotor’ll be glad to have another techno-wiz around the place." She patted him on the shoulder. "I’m going to go see how the others are doing."
Just then, Rotor came in. "Hey, Sally, I just finished that block-transmissions barrier!"
Sally’s face lit up. "Great!" Rotor hefted his laptop and punched a few buttons. The screen showed a satellite dish and a bunch of complex coding. Daniel called out to let him see.
Rotor sat next to the bed-ridden Hedgehog. "I don’t believe we’ve been formally introduced," he said, rubbing his whiskered chin. "I’m Rotor."
Daniel looked up from the computer. "I’m Daniel. This," he gestured to the screen, "Is amazing."
"Why, thanks!" Said Rotor.
"Yeah. Say, could I type on this?" Asked Daniel.
"Umm…"
"If you’re worried that I’m a rookie programmer who’s going to mess you up, let me tell you. I helped program Tenshire."
"Wow," said Rotor, "go right ahead."
As Daniel typed, Sally leaned over to Rotor. "What’s Tenshire?" she whispered into his ear.
"You know those VR programs that came out a year or two before the coup? Well, Tenshire was the only one that didn’t have any of the bugs. And it was programmed longhand."8
"Wow," agreed Sally.
Daniel passed the laptop back to Rotor. "Just encode your messages, and put in the encode factors in the space where it says // Insert encoding code here."
"Uh, gee. Thanks, Daniel." Rotor stared dumbfounded at the screen. "I’ll, go put the code in now." As he waked out, Sally could hear him mutter "Better coding then I’ve EVER done in my life!"
Sally smiled at the prone hedgehog. "I think you’ve made an impression."
Rotor Walrus turned out of the bedroom of the small hut and walked up to a workbench. Centering one of the many objects on the desk, he connected his laptop to it and sent the file into the CPU for the device. When it was done loading, he flipped a switch on the silver cylinder, and it sprouted attachments, legs, and other wires. He then affixed a satellite dish-like object to the top, and flicked it on. And not a moment too soon. A sonic boom echoed in his head as a blue hedgehog and a red echidna skidded into the workshop. Unbeknownst to them, a black shape was just outside, and tried to call Robotropolis.
It got a blast of static loud enough to wake the dead.
Before Sonic had time to greet Rotor, he heard the blast coming from right outside. He yelped, spun outside, and saw the robot on the ground. "It’s that stupid robot!" he yelled, "The one that won’t stay dead!" And without wasting any more time on conversation, he jumped at the ‘bot. The ‘bot had the same idea, and they tore at each other in midair. They both dropped to the ground, and started circling each other, faster and faster, until both yelled and charged each other.
It was at this time that Aris, who was watching, decided to use her magic saliva to deroboticize the robot. Immediately, the nano-robots in her spit set to work deroboticizing.
Nanitie designation: 74932684320648392693269
Order: Transform circuits, metal, into flesh, blood, cells
Working. . . . . . . . ………….!!!!!
Error: No DNA structure for cell basis. No data.
Gathering DNA […………………………..]
DNA gathered. Data: Host Species: Sentient Hedgehog. Gender: Female. Cell Structure: 6%$ Y&[missing] &*UY[missing] T&*E&V& [missing] G*T&(B(T(GHUIG(&T(B(&(HUILH(Y(HL(Y(*LH(TYG& [missing] [missing] [missing] [missing] [missing] [missing] [missing] [missing] [missing] [missing] [missing] [missing] [missing] [missing] [missing] [missing] [missing] [missing] [missing] [missing] [missing] [missing] [missing] [missing] [missing] [missing] [missing] [missing] [missing] [missing] [missing] [missing] [missing] [missing] [missing] [missing] [missing] [missing] [missing] [missing] [missing] [missing] [missing]
Searching for replacement cell structure or donor:
Working: >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>>Finished.
Match found: Data: Species: Sentient Hedgehog. Gender: Male.
Gathering missing data for host: >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>>Finished.
Transforming host: >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>>Finished.
Sonic screamed.
Author's notes: