BLOODLINES

                        A Sonic the Hedgehog Story

                            by Daniel J. Drazen


Pause for bourgeois legalities: "Sonic the Hedgehog" and most
other characters and situations in the following story are
copyrighted trademarks of Sega Incorporated, Archie Comics and/or
DIC Productions.  Permission to reproduce this specific material
is granted by the author, provided you don't try and make a buck
off of it.  I may be a grown-up cartoon fan, but I also know my
way around Title 17 (the Copyright Law) of the U.S. Code.
(c)1995, Daniel J. Drazen.


                                 Chapter 7


     It was difficult to say whether any day in Robotropolis was
a "good day."  It was difficult enough to tell if it was day at
all.  A pall of pollution perpetually hung over the city,
produced by Robotnik's various factories and generators.  To
fight against this darkness, lights blazed continually across the
city.  The result was that the city knew neither day nor night in
the accepted sense; instead, it existed in a sick, perpetual
twilight.
     No, it wasn't easy to say whether any day was a good day in
Robotropolis, but for one of its two human inhabitants, it was
shaping up to be a very bad day indeed.
     It had started out well enough for Snively, nephew of Dr.
Robotnik and now his longsuffering lackey.  The day before had
been the day to test a new development: a "whisper technology"
filter that could be retrofitted to Robotnik's hover units.  With
the filters in place, the hover units would be almost completely
silent.  With this advantage, it was thought that Robotnik could
get the drop on the Knothole freedom fighters once and for all.
Even Robotnik's arch-nemesis, Sonic the Hedgehog, would be caught
completely off guard.
     That was Snively's hope, and it appeared that that hope
would be realized.  The onboard camera recorded the hover unit's
approach to the Great Forest where, somewhere, the freedom
fighters had their hiding place.  Luckily, there was a fog that
morning, so Snively let the hover unit come in on instruments. 
And in another stroke of good fortune, a recent reconaissance
photo showed something like a lookout post in the area.  And most
fortunate of all, that morning one of the Knothole freedom
fighters--the files showed that her name was Bunnie--was filmed
on infrared climbing onto the platform, completely unaware of the
hover unit.
     This was too much of a temptation to pass up.  Snively
ordered that the hover unit with its compliment of eight SWATbots
should pull up to the platform, take Bunnie prisoner and return
to base.  This would be a crowning moment: a successful test of
the hover technology would be sweet enough, but the capture of
one of the Knothole renegades would be even sweeter.  Snively
watched with mounting glee as he switched to the outboard camera,
recording the first SWATbot's moves to apprehend Bunnie.
     And then something went very, very wrong.
     The next thing Snively knew, all eight SWATbots had left the
ship but none had returned.  He set all cameras to record what
was happening and watched the monitors as best he could.  It was
apparent that the weight of the SWATbots had collapsed a portion
of the platform, but that only accounted for some of the eight
bots going offline.  Something had happened to the others,
something that was so unplanned for and that happened so fast
that it served to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
     When Snively realized that all eight SWATbots were offline,
he quickly scanned the forest floor.  There was not enough room
for the hover unit to maneuver and with the fog he wasn't able to
see as much as he'd wanted to.  He thought he recorded an image
of Bunnie on the ground, either unconscious or dead, but the fog
made positive identification hopeless.  There was nothing left to
do but to manually recall the empty hover unit and examine the
film.
     Snively had just finished doing so and, still not quite
believing what he had seen, was on his way to report the news to
Dr. Robotnik.  This was not, he said to himself, going to be a
good day.
     At the threshold of Robotnik's briefing room he paused to
make sure his clothes were in order.  No point compounding
ineptitude with shabbiness.  He stepped inside.
     "I've read your preliminary report," Robotnik said in a low
rumble of a voice, which came out as a kind of growl.  "Why did
you fail me?"
     "It wasn't quite a failure, Sir.  The whisper technology on
the hover unit worked beyond all expectations of...."
     "I don't care about the whisper technology on the hover
unit; I want to know what happened to my SWATbots!!"
     "Y-yes, Sir.  Beginning analysis of surveillance film, Sir."
     The image from the film filled a large screen at one end of
the room.  The image was a little grainy and monochrome, but it
clearly showed Bunnie climbing the rope ladder, unaware of the
hover unit not far from her.
     At the sight of her, Robotnik clenched the fist of his own
roboticized left arm.  He didn't like any of the freedom
fighters, least of all the hedgehog, but the sight of Bunnie
particularly vexed him.  She represented unfinished business.  He
*hated* unfinished business.
     The film rolled on, the camera drawing closer and closer to
the unsuspecting Bunnie.  There was a jump in the film as the
outboard camera clicked in.  They could see the first SWATbot
advancing towards Bunnie.
     There was a blur as someone or something dropped down behind
the bot.  The shadowy figure could then be seen holding a tree
branch and swinging it at the bot.  The SWATbot's head came away
from its body cleanly.
     Then a second SWATbot stepped into the camera, obscuring the
sight of the figure.  But not for long; the figure was soon
visible again, through a hole punched into the bot's midsection. 
The bot then crumbled.
     Other bots filled the camera's field of vision, though most
of them dropped out of the picture as the platform section they
were standing on gave way beneath their collective weight.  The
shadowy figure, on the other hand, appeared to be dangling from a
rope around its waist.  It seemed to make a grab at someone,
Bunnie probably, but could not hold on.  The image was lighted by
a SWATbot blast, and the figure swung out of camera range.
     The camera followed her with an unsteady movement.  By the
time it settled on her, there were two SWATbots standing in front
of her and two more in pieces at her feet.  Maybe three seconds
had passed.
     Robotnik studied the view screen, his brow furrowing above
his dark eyes.  Suddenly he sat upright.  The figure on the
screen had shed her cape, but had left her veil and headdress in
place.  
     "Snively!  Freeze that image!!"
     Rushing to the controls, Snively halted the action on
screen.  The figure was a blur, but some things could be made
out: it wore a belt from which hung a number of objects, only a
few of them recognizable to Robotnik.  She also wore boots, which
were little better than yards of rags wrapped around her feet.  
     And then there was that right arm.  Even on the surveillance
film it was clear to tell that it was a robot arm.
     "Snively!  Enhance the view of that arm!"
     "Right away, Sir."  He adjusted the controls and the image
was blown up to twice its size.
     "Larger, Snively!"
     "But Sir, we're starting to lose resolution as it is."
     Robotnik studied the image for a few silent seconds.
     "Never mind, then," he said with a casual air that stunned
Snively.  "Continue showing the film."
     "Y-yes Sir." Bewildered, Snively complied.
     It only took another five seconds for the figure to disable
the last two bots: the first bot had one of its legs torn off,
and the other crumpled after a maneuver that caused both Robotnik
and Snively to wince in pain.  Then she was gone.  The last
minute of the film was only surveillance of a foggy, and
apparently empty, forest.  Snively hated to see the film end, for
he knew that the wrath of Robotnik was sure to follow.
     "Snively," Robotnik said calmly, "continue surveillance on
that part of the Great Forest and inform me if anyone comes to
rebuild that platform.  You may go."
     Stunned, Snively was not about to question his good fortune.
 "Very good, Sir," he said snappily, and left.  Amazed at having
survived the briefing in one piece, Snively thought that maybe
this was going to be a good day after all!
     Inside the conference room, Robotnik spent the next half-
hour playing and replaying the film.  At the end of that time he
was certain of what he had seen.  
     "So," he mused, "it would appear that the little princess is
back, and in one piece."  He began to consider how best to deal
with this unfinished business.  He *hated* unfinished business!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

                                 Chapter 8


     He wasn't sure how he had gotten there, but Sonic found
himself heading toward Robotropolis at full speed.  Above him,
the sky had grown darker than it had ever been, with the clouds
swirling around in no particular direction, like water boiling in
a pot.
     Jamming past the buildings, he noticed out of the corner of
his eye that they seemed older than he'd remembered, and on the
verge of falling apart.  "Ol' Buttnik's really letting the place
go to seed!  Well, after today it'll be all over."
     Sonic turned a corner and screeched to a halt.  There was
Robotnik, standing alone in the middle of the street.  Not a bot
anywhere in sight.
     "This is it, Robuttnik!  It's game over for you!"
     But Robotnik didn't seem very concerned about Sonic.  Nor
did he seem to notice the wind whipping down the streets, or the
mad tempest in the sky.  And when he spoke, his voice was distant
and cold as a stone:
     "You don't understand, hedgehog.  You can't win.  Nobody
wins.  We all lose."
     In that instant, a change came over Robotnik.  Starting
with his feet, it was as if every molecule in his body suddenly
came unglued.  He began to disintegrate, fragmenting into
thousands of particles that were caught by the wind and
scattered.  The last to go was Robotnik's face, with a look of
hopelessness that Sonic had never seen before.
     But then Sonic had something new to think about.  For as he
looked about him, every building in Robotropolis began to fly
apart in a similar manner.  Even the ground beneath his sneakers
dissolved into a black, seemingly-endless nothing.  In a cold
panic, Sonic turned and raced back to Knothole, trying to put as
much distance as possible between himself and the approaching
nothingness behind him.
     He reached Knothole, but he was too late.  The sky above him
was the same swirling madness.  In the wind and gloom he could
see Sally silently sinking into the ground beneath her.  He had
to do something.  He raced over to her, grabbed for her hand, and
felt it melt away in his own as if it were ice.  Then he watched
as the last of Sally, her eyes silently pleading for help,
slipped into dust.
     Then the last trace of Mobius disappeared.  Sonic was
surrounded by a formless darkness.  He felt himself falling--not
falling down or in any particular direction, just falling.  And
he knew he would fall forever and ever.
     "NO!"
     With a start, Sonic awoke from his dream.  He was shaken,
sweating and exhausted.  This wasn't your usual one-chilidog-too-
many nightmare!
     Then he heard it, the sound coming from a nearby hut, one
with lights inside.  A voice...Sally's voice...trying to scream
out the word "No" over and over, repeatedly hindered by her own
sobs.
     Sonic saw his Uncle Chuck standing at the window, looking
out.  He got out of bed and walked over to him.  Sonic bowed his
head and felt his eyes filling with tears, as he also felt Uncle
Chuck's hand resting on his shoulder.
     "It's over, Sonie," was all he could say.  "It's over."


     In a better and more peaceful time, the death of the Queen
of Mobius would have been a solemn state occasion.  The sparkling
white buildings of the city would have been dotted with black
banners.  A large canopy would have been erected in the palace
gardens.  Beneath it would have rested the handcarved wooden
casket of the Queen, covered by an elegant white pall embroidered
with the name of the deceased and the symbol of her family's
house--in the case of Queen Alicia, the House of Twin Trees. 
There it would remain for a day and a night as mourners from
every corner of Mobius and from every walk of life would file by
to pay their last respects.  Then the casket would be carried by
mourning family members into the Great Hall of the palace. 
There, a massed choir would sing the "Return," the traditional
Mobian requiem, in the seven-part harmony reserved for the
occasion.  Finally, the pall would slowly be raised to the
ceiling of the Great Hall, where it would hang as a banner from
that day forward, while the body of the Queen would have been
laid to rest in the royal burial chamber beneath the palace.
     But there was no more palace, no more city, no world as it
once had been.  Still, the Queen was dead.
     As dawn broke over Knothole, it was clear that nobody was
asleep.  Everyone knew what had happened during the night and
they were now outdoors in the cold of the early sunshine,
waiting.
     Inside Sally's hut, she and her sister had spent the evening
preparing their mother's body for burial.  Mobian custom dictated
that only the family perform this rite, so as to put no barrier
between them and their grief.  Even if it meant breaking down in
tears every few minutes, tradition compelled them to perform the
task.
     Once the body had been washed, it was wrapped tight in the
bedsheet.  Sally held her mother's cold face in her hands and
kissed it one last time before it was covered.  Shorter strips of
linen were used to tie the sheet together at the ankles, knees,
waist, below the shoulders, and across the forehead.
     Sally and Sandy each had in their possession a bakhat, a
long black band of cloth wound many times about the waist in such
a way that the ends could be tossed over either shoulder.  For
ten days after the burial of a family member, mourners were to
wear the bakhat at all times.  With this article tied in place,
the two sisters took hold of the body and placed it on the litter
that had been used to bring the Queen into the hut.  Someone had
left a quilted comforter on the porch, and this was draped over
the body; this was the most fitting pall they could find.  Then
the two sister began to bear the body to its final resting place.
     Outside, they passed the Knothole freedom fighters, gathered
silently in two rows to watch the body pass by.  As the
sisters walked past, the mourners formed a line behind the body,
moving in solemn procession.  Rotor stood with cap in hand and
with his head bowed.  Sonic saw Tails standing next to him and
looking up at the hedgehog with pleading eyes.  Sonic guessed at
Tails' unasked question and gently said: "Hey, it's cool to cry." 
And as Tails did so, Sonic did something he hadn't done since
Tails was a cub: he picked up the heartbroken fox and cradled him
in his arms.
     As Sally and Sandy neared the grave site, there was a
rustling of the bushes nearby.  They parted, and into the
clearing stepped Lupe' and the other members of the Wolf Pack
freedom fighters.  As they did so, they each dropped to one knee
as the body passed by.  Bunnie smiled, glad that her message to
Lupe' had reached her in time and that the Wolf Pack had been
able to come.
     At the grave, the ceremony continued in silence.  Sally and
Sandy each unwould the bakhat from around their waist and slid it
under the body.  With these they lowered the body of Queen Alicia
into the ground, thus recalling the ritual item's origin.
     There was nothing more for Sally and Sandy to do.  Custom
dictated that theirs was not the task of filling in the grave.
That was left to the others who, one handful of dirt at a time,
solemnly buried their Queen.  As they did, many of them came over
to Sally and embraced her.  The Wolf Pack let out a mourning
howl.  And Antoine, wearing his finest dress uniform, stood
saluting at the graveside, his body at rigid attention except
that his shoulders heaved with sobs and his face was contorted
with grief.  He was torn between duty and emotion, and Sonic
later said it made him look ridiculous.  "Ah know," Bunnie said,
"and that's what made it so sweet."  Few noticed it at the time,
but there was a calmness about Sandy, a serenity that was not at
all reassuring.


     Bunnie was taking a big chance, but she quietly rapped on
the door of Sally's hut.
     Nothing had been seen of Sally or Sandy since the burial
earlier that morning, for custom dictated that the family go into
seclusion for a day and a night.  Still, Bunnie felt she had to
talk to someone, and could think of no one better than her best
friend.  When there was no answer, she slowly opened the door.
     Sally lay in her bed, still wearing her vest and boots in
addition to the black bakhat.  That Sally would have gone to bed
with her clothes on was unusual enough.  She was half-curled in a
fetal position, and her face was still streaked from tears
recently shed.  She breathed in the steady rhythms of sleep. 
Nicole sat on the nightstand next to her, open and with one light
blinking.
     There was no point in waking her up, Bunnie thought.  The
physical and emotional exhaustion of the last few days had
finally caught up with her.  Bunnie gingerly started to pick up
Nicole to shut the case.
     "DO YOU WISH TO CONTINUE?"
     "Shhh!" Bunnie whispered.  Nicole repeated the question at
half-volume.
     "What was she doin'?"
     "SALLY HAD REQUESTED A PLAYBACK OF ORAL HISTORY FROM THE
ROYAL ARCHIVES: QUEEN ALICIA'S DESCRIPTION OF HER CHILDHOOD IN
THE SOUTHERN PROVINCES.  DO YOU WISH TO CONTINUE?"
     "That's OK, Nicole.  Just...uh...just mark the spot and
she'll get back to it."
     Bunnie shut the lid and was about to set Nicole down on the
table when she noticed a piece of paper stuck to the back of the
door.  It was written in an alphabet that was foreign to her.  It
was then that it occured to her to look around the hut again.
     Sandy was nowhere to be seen.
     Taking the paper down from where it had been tacked up, she
quietly left the hut and the still-sleeping Sally.
     Bunnie wondered what to do with the letter.  She couldn't
show it to Uncle Chuck because Dulcy had taken him back to
Robotropolis a short time ago.  He said he'd wanted to get back
and search Robotnik's computers to see if there was any more
information they could yield on deroboticizing technology.  Sonic
hadn't wanted to see his uncle go back to living in Robotnik's
shadow, but Uncle Chuck was firm: "Sonic, we're not just fighting
against Robotnik anymore: we're fighting against time."
     A shadow passed over Bunnie and she looked up.  It was
Dulcy, getting ready to land.  That meant anything could happen.
Then Bunnie noticed that Sonic was seated on a nearby tree stump,
his chin resting on his hands.  He appeared to be in Dulcy's
landing path, but was too depressed to notice. 
     Before Bunnie could say anything, Dulcy hit the ground and
skidded to a halt just inches away from Sonic's sneakers.  The
hedgehog didn't move.
     "Hey, Dulc," he said listlessly.
     "Hey, Sonic.  I got Uncle Chuck back OK."
     "Yeah, swell."
     "Hey, Sonic," Bunnie called out now that it was safe to walk
toward him, "you seen Sandy anywhere?"
     "Isn't she with Sal?"
     "Nuh-uh.  Sal's all by herself.  But Ah DID find this," she
said as she produced the handwritten note.  Sonic studied it for
a second.
     "I give; what's it say?"
     "How the hoo-ha should Ah know?"
     "Hey, maybe Nicole can read this."
     "Oh mah stars, Ah completely forgot!  Ah've still got her."
She gave the handheld computer to Sonic, with whom Nicole was
on "speaking terms."
     "Yo, Nicole!  Front and center!"
     "SONIC...WHAT UP?"
     "Can you read this?"  He held the note up close to Nicole.
     "SCANNING NOW."  A second later, a torrent of consonants was
coming out of Nicole's speaker.
     "Yikes!  Nicole, you flip a chip or what!?"
     "SORRY...MY MAIN HEDGEHOG...YOU SAID TO READ THE LETTER, AND
IT'S WRITTEN IN THE LANGUAGE OF THE NOMADS."
     "Well, then just give me a translation; something *I* can
relate to."
     "YOU GOT IT."  There was a pause of several seconds.
     "'YO, SAL.  IT'S PAYBACK TIME.  I'M TAKING ROBOTNIK DOWN,
AND SINCE I'VE GOT NOTHING LEFT TO LOSE, I'M GOING DOWN WITH
HIM.  I'M OUT OF HERE...FOREVER.'"

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

                                 Chapter 9


     "She WHAT!?"
     As soon as Sonic and Bunnie had heard the translation, they
headed for Sally's hut.  At first she was still too wrapped up in
her grief to respond; when they burst into her hut she simply
said: "Please, just leave me alone."  But when they told her of
Sandy's disappearance and of the note she had left behind, Sally
was on her feet in a second.
     "This is terrible!  How long ago did she leave?"
     "Ah don't know, Sally, and neither does anyone else.  She's
as quiet as Sonic is quick."
     "That means she's got a head start.  We still might be able
to catch her."
     "Forget it, Sal," Sonic said, "she doesn't want to get
caught."
     But Sally wasn't listening.  Instead she was writing a quick
note, inserting it into one of the mechanical carrier pidgeons
Rotor had designed, and was programming it to fly to Uncle
Chuck's hideout in Robotropolis.
     "You think she means it?" Bunnie asked.
     "Of course she does.  Look at the bottom of the letter.  You
see that smudge where her signature would be?  She made that with
a drop of her own blood.  I don't know much about the Nomads, but
I DO know they're firm believers in blood-vengeance!  She blames
Robotnik for our mother's death and she's going after him.  We've
got to stop her!"
     "Whoa!  Time out!" Sonic yelled.  "Since when are we in the
business of saving Robuttnik's butt?"
     "Believe me, that's not the point!"
     "Then I'm missing something here!"
     "Sonic, I had to watch my mother die and I couldn't do a
thing about it.  I am NOT going to sit around here while my
sister commits suicide!  Now come on!"
     Without another word, Sally raced out the door.  Sonic had
never seen her so worked up before, but he was even more
surprised when Bunnie said, half-aloud and with a broad grin on
her face: "Welcome back, Sally-girl!"
     "Say what?"
     "Tell you later, Sugarhog."


     It took a couple of minutes of waiting for Dulcy's head to
clear after her latest landing.  Once she understood what was
happening, though, she was winging her way back to Robotropolis
with Sonic, Sally and Bunnie on board.  All the while they were
flying, they scanned the open country for any sign of Sandy.  At
one point, Sally ordered Dulcy to land.  Even before Dulcy had
touched down Sally had lept off of Dulcy's back, rolled on the
ground to cushion the landing, sprang to her feet, and ran toward
a small bush.  There was a piece of torn cloth on it, from
Sandy's cloak.  They were heading in the right direction.  No
sooner had the others picked themselves up from Dulcy's landing
than Sally was urging the dragon to get back in the air again.
     In a little while they touched down at a garbage dump
outside of Robotropolis.  This was a common rendezvous point for
the freedom fighters on their various missions.  As soon as they
were on the ground, Sally had Nicole in hand.
     "Nicole!  Display the three most likely routes between the
dump and Robotnik's headquarters!"
     Instantly, a shimmering hologram map of the city floated
before them.
     "OK, Bunnie will take the southern route, Sonic will take
the northern route, and I'll go up the middle.  We'll meet at
Uncle Chuck's; maybe he'll have heard something."
     "What if we find her?" Bunnie asked.
     "Get her to Uncle Chuck's; I don't care how.  Dulcy, you
retrace our path and look for her again; I want to make sure we
didn't pass her on the way here."
     With that, Sally ran off, leaving the other freedom fighters
standing in the garbage dump.
     "You want to tell me what that 'Welcome back' thing was
about?" Sonic asked Bunnie.
     "Oh, that!  Well, Sally ain't been herself lately, what with
her ma dyin' and all.  I was just glad to get the old Sally
back."
     "Me, too!  Good luck, Bunnie; gotta juice!"
     "Good luck Sugarhog!"
     With that, Sonic tore off on his appointed route, Dulcy took
to the air once more, and Bunnie started on her way.
     Bunnie was never keen about coming to Robotropolis, no
matter how important the missions.  The city had changed so much
under Robotnik that it was nothing but a gigantic threat.
     After ten minutes of walking, Bunnie attempted to get her
bearings.  This had been the oldest part of town before Robotnik
blighted everything.  The buildings were low and the structures
square.  Bunnie dimly remembered that the building where she was
sheltering herself had been the old Klein Bottle Works. 
Cautiously she rounded a corner.
     Looking to her right, she froze: the unmistakable shape of a
SWAT-bot lurked in a shadow.  She wondered whether to make a run
for it.  Yet the SWATbot didn't move after several seconds. 
Emboldened, and fervently hoping that it wasn't equipped with a
motion sensor, Bunnie edged toward it.
     Once she got closer, Bunnie could see the hole punched into
its chest.  She could also see another SWATbot lying on the
ground in three pieces.
     "Yep," Bunnie thought to herself, "this is Sandy's calling
card, all right!"
     She looked down the street.  There was something else in the
shadows further along.  Cautiously moving toward it, she saw
another fallen SWATbot.
     "Oo-wee!  This is just like followin' a trail of bread
crumbs!"
     On she went, hiding in shadows and tracing a trail of fallen
SWATbots.  She thought she'd counted seven wrecked bots--and who
knows how many before she picked up Sandy's trail--when she
turned a corner.  There wasn't a SWATbot to be seen, not even the
smallest part.
     "Uh-oh!  Ran out of bread crumbs."
     Suddenly she thought she could hear a hover unit
approaching.  That meant more bots!  She quickly ducked into an
alleyway.  Bunnie was so intent on wondering what to do next, she
didn't notice the metallic hand inching out of the shadows behind
her and getting closer and closer.


To be continued...