Transition.                     

	by Kevin Heller, was written somewheres about march of 1997, put 
aside and taken up again somewheres about February 1998, put aside yet 
again and resumed about September 2, 1998.

	Time Line Reference note: The narration of this story takes place
about 1 year after the fall of Robotnik; the story depicted therein takes
place a few months after the arrival of LaCroix.

	By the way, a special thanks to Eric Goodwin for allowing use of
his Character, Sir Kain.

	Arthur, (the main Character of this story) was created and is
owned by Kevin Heller of AKH System Software Inc. This story is "TXTWare" 
and can be freely distributed amongst all your friends, provided it is not
altered in any way from its original format (which even means spelling 
mistakes. How do you know I didn't INTEND to spell a word wrong?).

All characters depicted herein are the creation and property of SEGA and/or
Archie Publications and/or DIC with the exception of the following:

Bookshire: created and owned by David Pistone.
Sir Kain: created and owned by Eric Goodwin.
Arthur McClellan: created and owned by Kevin Heller.
Laura Vix: created and owned by Kevin Heller.
Robert Vix: created and owned by Kevin Heller.
Jessica Vix: created and owned by Kevin Heller.
Assault-Bot: created and owned by Kevin Heller.

and the following characters which are mentioned, but not used:

Joseph LaCroix: created and owned by Joseph DeLaCroix.

	These aforementioned characters are not owned or endorsed by
SEGA in any way, shape or form, which is unfortunate, because if they were,
SEGA could be making oodles of money to help pay off the debt they owe Atari
after they sued them. Heck, maybe they could even go back to those nice
plastic boxes...

Super Soaker is a trademarked name by Larami Corp.

Questions? Comments? Send them to: AXH174@EMAIL.PSU.EDU
Homepage: "www.personal.psu.edu/axh174"

This is typed on 100% pure DOS 6.22 editor "cyberpaper." and is 100% ZIPable
and Deletable with no harm to the environment.



For those of you who are asking, NO. Arthur, the main character, is not me.



12/20/98 9:50 P.M.

        One final note. This story's first revision was completed 4 days after
David Pistone's (Bookshire) decision to no longer accept Fan-Fiction from
new authors. Mr. Pistone gave me permission to use his character, Bookshire,
back in March of 1997, but college and work kept me from the story for a
while and, for me, his announcement was somewhat of a set-back since I had
always enjoyed dropping into his place and had wanted to submit a story for
a while. Discouraged as I was, I accepted this news and wrote up this final
draft. Keeping in time with the permission obligation I made to him for use
of his character, I proceed to contact him for his opinion on how Bookshire
was used and for permission to post this story elsewhere. After two months of
searching old links and broken e-mail addresses, I managed to corner him in
an AOL I.M. box on the above date. He seemed somewhat disgruntled, extremely 
busy and promptly told me to "scat." I have decided to post this story anyway.
             



On with the show...

Earth: 2000 A.D.

	Along the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania, there exists a small
patch of ether-real peacefulness that many inhabitants of the area tend to
flock to in order to escape the burdens of their everyday lives. An area  
of green grass and beautiful trees, it was a safe haven for all from the
congestion of the city and was even an area of blossoming romance for some.
It was to this area that Arthur sped in order to soak up the relaxation that 
would accompany this much needed weekend.                                  

       The whine of the engine grew too loud and Arthur depressed the clutch 
as he shifted into a higher gear. The whining changed to the wonderful hum of 
fourth gear and he raced along the road to the entrance. With the ease that 
comes only to Senior College students, Arthur downshifted, swung the car 
into an empty slot and hopped out with his backpack toward a spot under
a tree that usually agreed with him. 

	Two weeks, he thought. Two weeks and there would be no more need
for instructors, books, dorms or late-night/early morning papers. He would
graduate from Penn State University a computer Engineer, grab himself a
respectable job, a respectable apartment, and maybe find himself a respectable
girl. He would no longer need to fear Chad and his wake-up-call Super Soaker
battles that determined whose portion of the Dorm's stockpile of bagels was
whose.

	Arthur leaned back against the tree and pulled a copy of William
Shakespeare's HAMLET from his pack. Light reading? Hardly, but he had found
it was one of maybe two books that would hold his attention as much as Isaac
Asimov's FOUNDATION TRILOGY, a copy of which was also in his pack. He loved
Hamlet, a prince's struggle to come to terms with a shattered perception of
his world. Arthur opened the play and soon found himself engrossed in it, so 
much so that it was with a start that he realized that night was almost upon
him, that everyone in the park had left, and his hunger had made its presence
known. 

	Not a problem.

	He rummaged through his backpack and searched for the candy bar that
had somehow eluded him since his "morning munchies" period early that day. 
Arthur looked up at the horizon as his hand shifted past the Super Soaker in
his pack, his only line of defense for his bagels and against Chad. The sunset
was spectacular. The clouds in the sky being transformed into a myriad of 
purple and yellow hues. His hand stopped rummaging and he stared at the sight.
The wind was almost non-existent, the sound of the river was comforting, and
the noise of cars had died away. Blissful, peaceful serenity; the only words
capable of describing the feeling Arthur felt inside at that moment. 

	The feeling was slowly replaced by one of slight apprehension. 
Something, Arthur's intuition told him, was not right. The scene before him
was peaceful, peaceful in that it was quiet. Too quiet. There existed a 
certain feeling that Arthur could only explain as "the calm before the 
storm." The wind was completely gone, and any evidence of animal life from
the forms of sound or their actual presence had disappeared. Arthur was 
disturbed, greatly. He quickly zipped up his backpack and swung it over his
shoulder as he rose from the ground. His mind began to sort through possible
reasons for the lack of noise as he began to make his way to his car.

	He had always heard of stories where the animal life in an area had
just vanished and some sort of semi-cataclysmic event occurring just after. 
Arthur ruled out the possibility of volcanic activity, Harrisburg had been 
subject to many forces, but never volcanoes. All the more reason to expect
it now, though. He gritted his teeth and picked up the pace to his car. 
Seismic activity was another he ruled out. Harrisburg didn't exist on a 
fault line and if it did he would have left the minute he found out. He 
thought another moment. Perhaps a flash flood? It didn't make any difference,
he was getting out of here. 

	He rounded the corner of the path that led to his car and was 
suddenly thrown to the ground by a gale force wind the seemed to contain
the anger of Mother Earth herself. Arthur raised his head to see the parking
lot engulfed by an almost blinding yellow light. His car was nowhere in sight
and neither was the parking lot itself anymore.

	This was not good.

	Arthur struggled to his feet only to be thrown down again as the wind
picked up and managed to uproot a small tree. It flew through the air and 
tumbled like a cheap paper tube into the yellow light. Good lord! What was 
happening?! The asphalt of the parking lot seemed to melt under the power of
the yellow light and be sucked inward as well. He looked down to see 
the Earth fly away from him, and with an extremely sick sense of doom, he 
realized that it was HE that was flying away from the Earth. The yellow light 
consumed his vision as well as himself and all five of his senses burned.

	His last thoughts, oddly enough, were of adding large, dimensional 
portal like, yellow lights to his list of semi-cataclysmic events.

	*****

	Consciousness was the surface and he was, with effort, slowly 
floating towards it. The intense pain constantly bombarded him inside his
head, pushing him back relentlessly and forcing him to try harder to surface
which, in the end, only caused more pain. Strings of energy periodically came 
together and formed coherent thought. They passed in and out forming strange
images and scenarios; dark skies, brown, dead plains, strange creatures. 
Somehow, he knew they were aware of him, aware that he was a rational being.
A caring nature seemed to surround them and while he could not even begin
to pass judgment on their intentions because of his current state, he sensed
that everything would be fine. He let go and submitted to their care. The 
image faded and whatever thought that had formed in his mind faded away as
the pounding in his head mounted. Eventually, his senses cleared and his 
head felt cool. Surfacing seemed easily within grasp. He floated up and he 
could feel his mind coming alive. With a small effort he pushed through the
surface and found that staying afloat required a bit more concentration than
he was ready for. The pounding returned and he let out a moan. 

	A moan. 

	He heard it. Consciousness had returned. He could think and react.
Thoughts flooded to him: the drive, the parking lot, the... whatever...
something. He couldn't quite place his finger on it. It hung on the fringes 
of his world. Another moan. What was... he was... HE WAS...

	Arthur opened his eyes and found himself staring at what appeared to 
be a wood beam, oak perhaps. It joined with another and, if he moved his eyes
slightly, another not far away. What the? Where...

	Was he under a table?

	Arthur stretched out his arm into what he perceived to be the upward
direction. His arm hit nothing. He suddenly remembered something as though
this particular something could easily be forgotten. Focus man! Focus! The 
picture cleared. It was a ceiling. A wood ceiling? He certainly wasn't in 
the nurse's office on campus, that room had an ugly drop ceiling.

	"Ah, I see you are awake." 

	The voice was calm and reassuring. A kind voice, yet with authority.

	Another moan.

	"You've been out for a good twelve hours. Don't move too quickly.
You've suffered a mild concussion among..." a pause "...other phenomena."

	The pounding in Arthur's head had died down and he could move his
head to explore his surroundings without much pain. Still, he couldn't see
who was speaking to him.

	"Are you feeling sick? Dizzy?"

	"No." he managed. "Just... a headache." Arthur rubbed his head.

	"That's good. It means your healing." There was a shuffle. "I feel
somewhat... privileged to have you as my patient. I don't get many humans in
here."

	Ha! Arthur thought, medical humor. Gotta love it. The pounding in his
head subsided, but only for a moment. It returned once again and Arthur was 
not at all happy to feel it.

	"Do you..." he clenched his teeth for a moment and, to his surprise,
the pounding went and left only a dull remnant of itself. "... have any
Tylenol?" No sense in letting the pounding come back. Get it while it's down.

	"Tylenol?" The voice questioned. "I'm sorry I don't quite understand
what it is you are asking for."

	Too late. The pounding returned.

	"You know," Arthur said through thin lips, "pain killer." His teeth 
clamped down on each other.

	"Oh!" The voice echoed the synonym of 'eureka.' "Acetaminophen, 
commonly called 'Aspirin' around here, though Aspirin is entirely different.

	Was there sarcasm in that statement?

	"I'm sure Dr. Quack has some." 

	Now there's a name. The pounding leveled off somewhat.

	"He usually keeps it in the cabinet." There were the sounds of cabinet
doors opening and the shuffling of what could only be medicine bottles. With a
pop and a rattle the voice followed saying, "There we are, two aspirin." The
sound of running water was heard. "All right, then. Two Aspirin and a tall 
glass of water. That should help kill the pain in your head."

	Arthur took the aspirin from the hand that presented them to him and
easily downed the two tablets with the water. Despite the fact the pain was
rapidly diminishing on its own accord, he showed no sign of regret in making
sure it would never return to this mortal plane. He let out a sigh accompanied
by a 'thank you' when his mind clicked into high gear.

	In one swift movement Arthur had knocked whatever it was he had been
resting on out from underneath him and retreated to the small corner of the 
room he was in.

	Hand? That was NO hand. 

	Arthur stared at the... thing in front of him. It looked like... like
... like something he didn't want to admit he was seeing. He shut his eyes 
from the abomination, something he could easily do since the movement from 
his table to the floor was not at all good for his head. 

	"Hey, hey!" the thing said. "Don't do that! You might hurt yourself
and that means I'll have to take care of you AND clean up any mess you make."        
It approached him.

	Arthur scrambled as far into the corner as he could get and stuttered,
"Who are you??"

	"I'm your Doctor, Bookshire." Bookshire answered without any 
hesitation. "Now come, what has gotten into you? You act as though-"

	"You're a... you're a..." 

	"A raccoon."

	"Yes, that's what you ARE." Arthur replied in a somewhat awed voice.
This experience was definitely not fitting any of the proper channels in his
brain. "You ARE a raccoon." He saw it, it just wouldn't click.

	"Look, let me help you up and we can talk about whatever it is that
is bothering you." Bookshire advanced again.

	Arthur threw his index finger up right into Bookshire path. 
Bookshire stopped his movement. Arthur breathed deeply between words as he
said, "Look, Chad...I SWEAR... I did NOT egg... your car. And, you... can keep
the Bagels." Yes. That clicked in his mind. Chad, you moron, only you would
find it funny to play a joke like this on someone who had just been in an 
accident...whatever kind of accident it was he had been in. He breathed deeply
again. "Just take off the mask... and tell me what happened to me."

	Bookshire looked on him with a puzzled expression. "Chad?" He shook 
his head and muttered something that sounded like, "Sally think about this..."

	Seeing that Chad (please, God, let it be Chad) made no recognition 
of anything he had just said, the little niche in his mind that had held the
situation suddenly spat it out and Arthur found himself trying to understand
his surroundings again. 

	"As far as your friend, Chad, goes I have no idea of his whereabouts."
Bookshire put his arm under Arthur and helped him up to a chair. Arthur made
no attempt to push him away as he stared off past him, his brow furrowed. "And
furthermore," Bookshire continued, "what happened to you has yet to be made 
entirely clear to myself as well. As far as I know, Sonic found you huddled
over your back pack, " he motioned to the pack lying on a the floor next to
what had been his table, only it was a bed and it was still overturned, 
"unconscious and sweating profusely."

	Sonic? Arthur thought for a moment. Who would name their son/daughter
Sonic? It was probably a surname.

	"At any rate, you were brought here to be put under me and my 
associate's care. And a good thing too, you might well have died from 
dehydration." 

	The door across the room opened and a duck wearing a generic white
medical jacket entered.

	Arthur reared his head in the opposite direction of the door and 
coughed down bile at the site of a five to six foot, fully erect, bipedal 
walking duck. The duck did not seem to notice.

	"Ah, there you are, Bookshire." the duck said.

	Bookshire nodded. "Dr. Quack."

	"I see our patient is up and... somewhat about. How is he doing?"

	"Disoriented." Bookshire replied as Dr. Quack walked over and took a 
good look at Arthur. 

	"Not surprising. Does he remember anything? A case like his can 
sometimes result in temporary amnesia. Does he know who he is?"

	"Arthur." Arthur interrupted, his mind still racing to find a solution
to the dilemma at hand.

	"Yes." Bookshire answered.

	Dr. Quack bit down on a lollipop and shot a glance at Bookshire. 
"Trainees." He muttered.

	"Ha! I have just as many hours as you do, Quackman." Bookshire 
grinned a hearty grin. 

	"Sure thing, Bookstore." Dr. Quack snickered back.

	A dream. Yeah, that was it. He was having one of those pre-final exam
stress scenarios wherein incomprehensible and sometimes morbid phenomena, 
otherwise known as hallucinations and dreams, occurred. The situation found
itself another niche to fall into. This would all end eventually. He would
wake up from this nightmare and into another one that he could deal with. 
After all, final exams were nightmarish, but at least you new where they came
from. This scene before him, now where does stuff like this come from? It 
comes from the dark reaches of minds like Jeff Minter's who create psychedelic
light shows and video games. People like him Arthur appreciated only because
the man who owned that type of mind could deal with it. Better to leave it
the mind of the psychedelic than to push it on everyone else. So how was it 
that he was now experiencing one of those crazed mind's products? 

	"I just got back from talking with Princess Sally. She would like to
speak with him as soon as he is able." Dr. Quack commented to Bookshire.

	Maybe this was a seldom heard of side affect to pre-final exam stress
that he had never heard about. After all, who would want to recount such a
dream to another and risk them thinking you mad? Also, there wasn't any
guarantee that one would remember something like this afterwards. After all,
the mind had defenses against harmful memories. Yes, that sounded perfectly
reasonable. A unknown side affect to pre-final exam stress. Come, Arthur 
thought, let me explore this little known scenario. Maybe I could incorporate
some of it into a thesis on one of my exams... He felt calm returning. Hello
old friend.

	"I think I'm in good enough condition to see her." Whoever this 
Princess was. This should prove to be interesting.

	Bookshire looked at Arthur and then at Dr. Quack. Dr. Quack looked
back. "Well," Bookshire said, "I don't have a problem with it. He seems 
capable, but that doesn't mean he is. Still, if he thinks he can talk,
let him. I have other patients to tend to." Dr. Bookshire walked towards 
the door. "Just make sure that they post a guard with him, we don't know 
anything about him."

	"I'm a Penn State student, I like Bagels and Ice Hockey and while
I'm hard on the outside, I'm real soft on the inside." 

	Bookshire paused and looked at Arthur while Dr. Quack let out a laugh.
After a moment, he exited saying, "I'll see you later, Quackman." Dr. Quack
nodded as the laugh wore off. 

	Arthur stood up as Dr. Quack said, "Well, um... Arthur. Princess Sally
will see you now. So if you'll follow me..." He held his arm in the direction
of the door.

	Arthur paused and looked at the floor. Stooping, he swung his pack
over his shoulder. He then followed Dr. Quack out the door, but paused as
Dr. Quack slowed. 

	"One more thing, don't let Dr. Bookshire get to you. He's not usually 
that moody, only in the presence of someone so much more skilled than he is." 
Dr. Quack laughed hard and loud.

	*****

From the journal entries of Sally Alicia Acorn:

	I still look back upon that day and remark on how something good
entered our lives just when we needed it the most. Of course, at the time 
none of us knew just how good a friend Arthur would become to us all. 
There were those, such as myself, who would come to see him as something much
more than a friend. In those dark and trying times of the Julian War, a war 
which began with the "Day of Mourning" eleven years earlier when my dear father
had been usurped, it was always helpful to have a different point of view on 
situations. Just as Sir Kain had always been a good a valuable source of 
advice, so Arthur too would become. Their different social background and 
culture allowed them eyes that one such as myself, who grew up in a world 
where storm clouds were always just upon the horizon, could never have. But,
I'm getting ahead of myself and digressing from the subject at hand.

	Arthur came into my study that day sure of himself and with an air
of what I can only describe to be haughtiness. Almost as though he was 
saying to the world "I am Arthur, superhero, show me what you've got!" With
this first impression, I was almost sure that he was a spy sent by 
Dr. Robotnik. After all, humans rarely mingled with our kind and it was the
"Great War" that had resulted from years of discontent and distrust from both 
our parties. Most of the humans had joined with Dr. Robotnik in an effort to 
restore what has often been referred to as "equality." What a strange equality
it was where countless men, women, and children were hunted down and enslaved?
You can understand my immediate distrust. Thank goodness I no longer have such 
apprehensions about others. A person should always be judged by character, as
my mentor, Julayla, used to say. It is a good bit of advice. As our talk 
together progressed, I began to realize something was amiss with the 
situation. As I related the story of the "Day of Mourning" to him and 
recounted how Julian had become Dr. Robotnik, he began to grow increasingly
despondent. In fact, his remarks indicated that he was surprised we were in
the midst of a war, a surprise that I believed to be genuine given what
happened next. It was as if the weight of a thousand Kilograms had be thrust
upon him. I literally saw in his eyes the moment when the reality of his
situation hit him. With a moan he collapsed to the floor and began sobbing
and mumbling incoherently. 

	Eventually, I learned that he was an innocent victim of one of
Dr. Robotnik's twisted experiments. For some time, Dr. Robotnik had been
building dimensional shifting technology to create a "slip gate" that would 
allow him instant and unchallenged access to our sanctuary, Knothole. Little
did the Doctor know, but his experiments had opened up a few gates either on
other worlds, or in other dimensions. (The true nature of these "slip gates," 
as Arthur would later coin, is still undetermined and I'm afraid I don't know
the specifics. Although, Arthur believes that they allow access to areas in 
the same space and not different dimensions, if that lends any help. Quite 
honestly, I must remember to take the matter up with Bookshire someday...) 
These anomalies had allowed both Arthur and Sir Kain passage to our Mobius. 
At first, I was puzzled why another one of these slip gates had appeared. 
After all, it was Sir Kain's selfless acts that caused the destruction of 
these gates. Apparently they must have transcended time as well. 

	Ah, yes. Sir Kain. A gentleman's gentleman. His story is not unlike
that of Arthur's. As it was, Sir Kain had been a human before his journey
through a slip gate. However, upon his arrival here, his form was changed to
that of a black cat, and a rather handsome cat at that. On more than one
occasion he has caught the eye of Hershey. I had strongly recommended to her
not to get involved; Kain was still new to our world. Why Arthur remained in
his form of a human is quite a puzzle and one that may never be solved.
Perhaps it has to do something with the "Heart" of ones self. Kain was very
fond of pet cats of his before coming here. Arthur seemed to agree more with
the company of others rather than on pets. But the whole "Heart" scenario has
no basis in science, but keeping with Julayla's wisdom, I shall not purge the
thought. Where was I? Oh! Kain, yes. Kain has developed quite an acute sense
of the sword and wields one well, a skill that he has benefited from on more
that one occasion.

	*****

	Dawn appeared over the tree line of Knothole and immediately brought
that ever so subtle change in the air of sleeping to wakefulness. The dew 
began its traditional migration to the very tips of each blade of grass and 
then evaporated with the release of the smell of the morning. The shadows 
began to retreat as the sun rose higher. 

	Princess Sally Acorn breathed the smells in as she leisurely strolled
across the field to the house of Laura Vix. She held her boots under one arm
as she slowly scrunched her toes and felt the tenderness of each grass blade
slip between them. Pausing for a moment, she placed her boots down and 
spread her arms wide to grasp every ray of light she could. The warmth against
her fur loosened the muscles in her back beyond mere relaxation and she let
out a long, audible sigh. Such moments of peace were so precious, and it was
with much reluctance that she returned to the task at hand. Just before 
reaching the steps leading up to the porch, she replaced the boots on her feet 
and made to knock on the door. There was a small shuffle from within and the 
door creaked open. 

	"Princess Sally! What a pleasure! I wasn't expecting you! Please, if 
you haven't eaten breakfast yet, would you join us?" A golden furred Fox held 
the door open for Sally as she walked in.

	"Thank you," replied Sally. "I've already eaten, but I suppose I could
join you for a drink of your wonderful tea."

	Laura smiled and shut the door behind them. She led Sally into a 
small, well lighted kitchen and prepared a space for her at the round, wooden
table. After seeing Sally seated, she prepared a large cup of tea for her and
placed it in front of her. Sally took a fair size sip of it.

	"Hmmm. That's still the best I've ever had."  

	Laura smiled as she sat herself down across from her. "Oh, Sally, you
hardly allow me to be humble when you drink my tea!"

	Sally laughed. 

	"Well I can't help it if it is!"

	Here Laura let out a laugh just as there came a poorly synthesized 
"Way past!" from the other room. 

	Laura called out "Jess? Jess is that you?" The door opened to reveal a
young, about six years old, female fox. In one had she clutched a plastic 
figure of Dr. Robotnik, in the other, a small action figure of Sonic the 
Hedgehog. She squeezed her had around it in apparent surprise at seeing 
Princess Sally in her mother's kitchen. It let out a poorly synthesized 
"Nothing like a Chilly dog." 
	
	"Jess, come say hi to Sally." 

	Jessica timidly approached as she always did the Princess and 
politely curtsied. "Hello Princess Sally, it's nice to see you again."

	"And it's nice to see you too Jessica." Sally saw the little kit's
shyness and asked "So what incredible adventures have you and Sonic had 
today?" She motioned towards the figures in Jessica's clutched hands.

	She held the Sonic figure out to Sally and it let out a garbled
"This is too easy." 

"Sonic's been helping me stop Robuttnik." she said.

	"Way past!" The Sonic figure sqaurbled seemingly all on its own. The 
toy obviously had many hours of freedom fighting logged. 

	Jessica looked at it and said. "Sonic's cool." She looked down then 
and uttered. "But you probably already knew that." 

	Sally laughed. "Thank you for reminding me though, I almost forgot."
Jessica smiled at this while Sally patted her on the back. "You can go back
to helping Sonic save the world now." 

	Jessica smiled and blurted out, "Thank you Princess Sally. Come on,
Sonic, we have to stop Buttnick!" She turned and ran back to the other room, 
leaving the door open. Sally watched her go and frowned as she saw the pile of
untouched SWATbot figures laying in a corner, but put on a smile as Jessica
voiced "Sorry." for leaving the door open and slowly closed it.

	Sally looked concernedly at Laura and Laura's smile faded as she 
realized what Sally had seen. There was an awkward moment of silence.

	"She's still frightened to death of what happened to her father isn't 
she?" Sally said breaking the silence.

        Laura nodded her head. "What happened to Robert still wakes her 
sometimes at night." Laura sighed sorrowfully. "It still wakes me too." She
let a out a small sob.

	Sally looked down. She was the one that sent him on that mission. 
She new some burdens could never be lifted. Laura, she new, had forgiven her,
saying it wasn't her fault. Sally wasn't too sure Jessica had, and Sally new 
she was still having trouble forgiving herself. 

	Laura waved a hand and straightened up. "That's not what you're here
to talk about, though, is it?" 

	Sally was brought back from her revere. "No, no it's not." She 
composed herself. "I came to talk about your new neighbor."

	"Oh?" Laura said surprised. 

	"Have you met him yet?"

	"Well, no. I know it's been two weeks, but well, you know I'm nervous
about overworlders."

	"I'm not quite sure you could call him that."

	"Well, humans then. Couldn't you have set him up next to Kain? They're
probably one in the same."

	"Well, I thought about it, but you know Kain has been out scouting for
the past few weeks and won't be back for another few days. I know there's
a certain amount of difficulty you must be having, but you're one of the 
nicest people I know, and I want him to know that WE are nice people. Just
think how this must be for him. You remember Kain's first few weeks."

	"Yes... I know." Laura seemed a bit withdrawn.

	"He's really a nice person, but right now I think I'm the only one
he really trusts and I want to show him that we all can be trusted."

	Laura shuffled her feet as the sound of a falling metal can was heard
from next door. Sally's brow furrowed, but Laura just shook her head and said
"There he goes again." 
	
	"Excuse me?" Sally asked.

	"He's shooting down those metal cans of his again with his water
pistol. He's been doing that a lot recently."

	Sally looked out the window and made out a figure setting up some cans
on a fence and then walked a fair distance away from them and proceeded
to knock them down with a stream of water. She watched it for a moment and
was struck with a sudden curiosity. 

	"Laura, now would be a good time to meet him and I'll go with you so
you won't have to worry about anything."

	"Well... ok, I guess." 

	Laura made to go to the door when Sally said "And bring that wooden 
box with the 'Iago' label on it."
	     
	*****

	Dawn appeared over the tree line of Knothole and immediately brought
that ever so subtle change in the air of sleeping to wakefulness. The dew 
began its traditional migration to the very tips of each blade of grass and 
then evaporated with the release of the smell of the morning. The shadows 
began to retreat as the sun rose higher. 

	Sun light broke through Arthur's window. Had he been asleep, it might
have aggravated him to get up and shut it. However Arthur had been up for a
good hour or so already. He was currently staring fixedly at a chalkboard in
front of him. On it, there was a single equation:

	Engineer = looser

	Arthur pondered it. It was sort of strange for him to write it, after
all, he was an engineer, but there was no sense of guilt at having, for lack 
of a better phrase, "betrayed his own." 

	It had been about two weeks since he had first arrived here and in 
that time he had tried to assimilate what was happening in this new world. He 
had learned most of the important events from Sally, who was the only one he
himself trusted so far. Walking to and from her house was always an
experience; people would shy away from him or talk in hushed voices and point 
fingers. And for what reason? Well, he found that out the first of many 
visits. Apparently some great general, whose name always managed to escape
Arthur, took the natural tension between humans, called "Overworlders," and
Mobians, the "furry animals" walking about, and escalated it into a harsh
bloodbath. Feelings had never been too well off between the two groups then or
since and since he was in all respects human (even if he was from another
world/time/dimension) he was simply the brunt of their distrust. Arthur didn't
blame them, he was finding it hard to naturally trust them as well. Something 
about putting one's trust in a five foot bipedal animal that could argue
philosophy just didn't sit too well with him. He wished he could just wake up 
from a dream and find this Anthropomorphic waste hole never existed.

	He turned his attention back to the equation that was on the
Blackboard and studied it again. Simple letters, simple operation. And yet it
meant so much more.... 

	He could only take so much of Sally's talks at a time. Sooner rather 
than later, his head would begin to hurt with the ever growing feeling that he
was going to have accept his presence in this world, and that he wasn't
getting home. Sally had talked with him about that as well. Apparently he 
wasn't the first victim of this trans-dimensional phenomenon. A good friend of
hers, a cat by the name of Kain, had also been part of the unfortunate group
he was now a member of. She explained to him that if it were not for his act
of destroying the portal generator they might not be having a conversation.
Some information as to the nature of the portal had been salvaged, but too
little and too obscure to provide any real hope of ever designing their own
with the intent of sending him back. Wouldn't it just figure? Arthur had
always suspected that the universe naturally fought against engineers; this
little escapade was just the latest piece of evidence to support that claim.

	Arthur took a bite out of what he assumed was a type of granola bar
and stared at the chalkboard. Engineer equal looser, it was certainly true.
He'd been here two weeks and he was feeling completely and utterly useless.
He didn't know who he was anymore! He was supposed to be an engineer! He was
supposed to be able to design and build elaborate devices to make the world
a more fun place! And now here he was in a world with a technology that
happen to be a couple of generations ahead of everything he new and he could
do nothing. Wonderful. So he just sat in this hut and ran through everything
in his mind time and time again, hoping a solution would appear that somehow
he had missed and everything would be all right. That wasn't going to happen,
all of his dreams and hopes for the future had been suddenly ripped from him
and he was powerless to do anything about it; just like he was powerless to
do anything here. He felt like a pinball right as it exits the ramp and
realizes things are not going to be good. He threw the chalk at the board and
it shattered into a myriad of fragments; a big white blotch just above "=" 
the only evidence of the attack.

	He stared off, unfocused. What was he supposed to do now?

	Arthur shook himself from contemplation of his empty future and
finished off the granola bar. He walked across the main room of his home and
over toward the sink picking up his Super Soaker along the way. He washed
down the granola bar with some water and then began to fill the gun's reservoir.
He had to get his mind on something else. If he continued thinking like this
day after day he was only going to sink deeper and deeper into depression. He
tried to tell himself that he was only experiencing cultural shock, just like
his first few months at college, and the only way to get over it was to fight
back against it or make it part of his personality. The second one was more
preferable, since no one got angry with you for that. He screwed the bottle
onto the washer hole and picked up a bag of empty soup cans and walked out
onto the front porch. It would be best if he occupied his mind with something
else and shooting cans off a fence would do nicely, especially since it also
allowed a release for his frustrations.

	Arthur crossed his small yard and began to set up the cans along an
old wooden fence that separated his yard from the larger backyard of his
neighbor's. With all twelve cans in place, he walked half way back, about
7 yards, to his house and took up a squatting stance. Twelve little cans, all
in a row, who was the first to go? He finished pumping up the pressure and
took aim. He gently depressed the trigger and a rather sharp jolt
resulted sending a slick, single, short stream of water sailing towards can
number 2. It hit dead on and sent the precariously balanced can off the back
of the fence. Poor, Paul. He'll never get on Arthur's nerves again. Arthur
pumped the gun three or four times more, ensuring a quick jolt would come
again. As far as he could figure, the jolt was the result of the sudden
breakage of the corrosion build up in the gun's hosing. Seems that good old
Penn State water wasn't exactly the best water in the world. A second stream
flew off and he began to voice the downfall of the cans: "So long, Ricardo.
Bye Bye Bill Gates. (This can seemed to recoil and fly farther than the
others which gave Arthur some satisfaction) Ouch! Sorry, Doctor. Goodbye,
Chad, ALL the bagels are now mine!" Arthur paused a moment at the last remark.
Boy! Could he go for a bagel now! He would talk with Sally about whether or
not it would be possible to make some if nobody new what they were.

	Arthur shifted his position and took up aim again when he was aware of
someone else's presence. He slowly looked over his shoulder and saw a glossy,
golden-furred fox a yard or so behind him. It was a female, judging from the
striking feminine features of her body. She had both hands clasped behind
her back and was slowly rocking on her heels. She wore a very charming smile
and seemed to be watching him attentively. He managed a weak smile back,
more so from the oddity of the encounter rather than from his natural distrust,
and said "Ah. Hi."

	She continued smiling back and replied "Hi! I'm your neighbor, Laura
Vix." She paused a moment, seemed a bit confused and then said "Oh. Don't
mind me. I was just watching you knock down those cans. You're quite good with
your aim."

	Arthur said nothing, but merely threw another weak smile, turned back
and squeezed off another round. Can number 6 fell leaving half left. Gritting
his teeth, Arthur slowly lowered his gun. She was still there. WHAT was she 
doing? What person comes out of their house after you've lived next to them 
for two weeks, introduces themselves and seems to be content with your 
marksmanship with a water pistol?

	"I'm sorry I've never come around before," Laura said, "I've heard
some rumors about you and-" She paused, scolding herself. No! NO! Don't say
that! You'll upset him! It was too late though, and she could only continue
her phrase. "-and I don't like it when others do that, so I came to say hi."
Great! She really bungled this! Oh, jeeze. What would Sally say? Laura bit
her lip as she noticed Arthur was still looking at her. "Rumors...aren't
usually... true." She managed.

	Arthur's features softened and he said, "I appreciate your honesty."
No reason not to be disrespectful. After all, it was clear that she was more
nervous of him that he was of her. She had gotten his curiosity now too.
"What rumors?" he asked.

	Laura paused a bit, not sure whether or not what some people were
saying would upset him. "Well... some say you're just as bad as all the other
humans, but not all humans are bad... just a few that give everyone a bad
name. And some say you're a spy here to roboticize us."

	Arthur laughed. Laura looked surprised.

	"Good. Let them think that. That way I won't get pummeled by a 
million people wondering what my world is like." Having people asking him
about his world would be akin to asking what color the sky is elsewhere in
the world.

	Laura looked shocked. He was ok with this? Her brows furrowed. "And
you're ok with that?"

	Arthur shrugged his shoulders. "I can't make others believe what they
don't want to." He tried that before at college, the engineering department
hadn't believe he could make things more efficient. 

	"Well, just to let you know, I don't listen to those rumors. I
believe it much better to judge people by their actions rather than by their 
appearance." Laura paused, "Um, not to intrude, but I AM curious about
your world."

	DOH!

	Laura continued "I talked with Sir Kain on numerous occasions and had
described it very much like Mobius."

	Arthur sighed. "Then what do you need to ask me for?"

	Laura was taken back a little. That was a silly question, though. A
moment's pause and then she asked "Well, do you like it here?"

	Arthur stared off. He never really addressed that question. He had
been so preoccupied with home he never really LOOKED around here. "Well,"
he thought, "The air is fresher here." Come to think of it, the air was
most definitely fresher here. He had been on campus way too long....

	Laura seemed to inspect the air. "Well, it's not as fresh as it
used to be. Before Robotroplolis, I mean." She cleared her throat. "Well,
how about the people?"

	"I've only met a few people. Sonic, Sally, you, and a few others. 
Sally is awfully nice, Sonic is a little bit excessive."

	Laura let out a chuckle. Arthur chewed his lower lip, then turned and
began to take aim again. He stopped when Laura coughed for attention. Turning
around, he found that Laura had taken a box out from behind her back and was
holding it out to him. It was a finely polished oak, or the equivalent
thereof, and the label read "Iago."  He eyed it suspiciously, not really
certain if it was a gift or not.

	"I've seen you shooting at those cans for the past couple of days
now," Laura said interceding Arthur's thoughts, "and I'm actually quite
curious how good a marksman you are."

	Laura lifted the lid open and revealed a red felt interior. Sunken
into it was a small firearm of some sort. Arthur didn't see any barrel so it
wasn't the equivalent of a six-shot side arm. The shape of it also seemed to
rule out the possibility of a clip loading mechanism; there was no ejection
slit nor a handle straight enough. It appeared to be a cross between an old
Peacemaker and one of those toy disk shooters. There was also a small,
shiny, cylinder, about one and a half times wider than the width of the
nozzle, set into the red felt next to the gun. A label on it read: "XLC24
Voltage supply." Upon closer inspection, he discovered that this small cylinder
just might fit inside the squared off portion of the gun where a barrel would
normally go. He had a sudden realization.

	"Is this...?" Arthur asked raising his eyes to meet Laura's, "Is this
a... laser gun?"

	Laura laughed hard at the remark. "Heaven's, no! Nothing that
powerful! It's a low powered hunting arm; for shooting small game. It's one
of the original Iago 40's, an antique, and well crafted. It used to be... my
husband's. He always enjoyed small game hunting with his friends." She paused
and seemed to look into the distance, but the look faded as soon as it
appeared. "Anyway, I wanted to see how well you could use it."

	Arthur took the gun out of its felt enclosure and, under Laura's
direction, slid open the side compartment and placed the cylinder inside. The
power supply gave the pistol a well balanced play in his hand. The metal
casing felt used, but durable, and the wooden handle with its intricately
carved surface gripped his palm nicely. During his inspection, Arthur took
time to handle the antique with care, much to Laura's satisfaction. Under
Laura's urging, he took up a stance similar to the one he used for his Soaker,
but not exactly the same since the pistol was much lighter than his water gun.
Taking aim, Arthur squeezed the trigger to get a test shot off at the fence.
An orange, half inch, bolt flew from the barrel and with straight-line
accuracy hit its intended target. The gun made a low whine, much like a
flashbulb charging, only this whined down instead of up. He was impressed;
there was virtually no recoil. He wouldn't have to compensate. After the test
shot, he fired a perfect hit on the sixth can and sent it flying. Laura
applauded. The pistol was incredible. Arthur decided to test the limits of it.
He stood up, walked three yard further back, and let off five successive
shots. Each one hit its intended target.

	"Spectacular!" Laura cried.

	The sound of slow, rhythmic clapping was heard from behind the two.
Laura leisurely turned toward the sound, but Arthur whirled from surprise. He
didn't know someone else was watching. Who-? He stopped when he saw the figure
and lowered the pistol from its instinctive ready position. He shook his head
with a smile saying:

	 "So how often do you sneak around into other's yards?"

	 "Impressive." Sally said still leaning against the side of
Arthur's house and still clapping. After a moment she held her hand out and
shook Arthur's. "You're a crack shot."

	Arthur instinctively shook his head no. A crack shot? Who are you
trying to kid, Sally? "I've got no special talent like that. Everyone in my
dorm room can shoot like that." Well, almost. What he didn't tell her was
that he did in fact shoot better than the others, with the possible exception
of Chad. But a crack shot? No way. The only reason he could shoot as well as
he did was because of constantly having to defend his bagels from his rivals.

	Sally shook her head and so did Laura.

	"No, you definitely have some talent." Sally said.

	Arthur continued to shake his head.

	"I must insist," Laura said, "you are a good shot."

	 Ok, so maybe he did shoot well. So what? What was he going to do,
shoot a hole in the space-time continuum and go home? Sally opened her mouth
to speak and Arthur got the feeling he was about to find out.

	"Laura, why don't the three of us have some of your tea?" She motioned
toward Laura's house and the three of them started off. Along the way,
Laura replaced the antique Iago 42-C in its case and delicately closed the
polished, wooden lid.
		  
	The table was set before them and Sally and Arthur graciously accepted
some of Laura's tea. Laura seated herself and drank a sip followed almost
immediately by Sally. Arthur inspected the tea closely, almost as though he
expected it to be rigged with explosives.

	He was supposed to drink tea? Engineers drank coffee, not tea. He
could hear Chad already, "Hey, Picard! How's you tea, Earl Grey, hot?" He
noticed Sally and Laura staring expectantly at him. Still, it smelled rather
good. And who knows? Maybe Picard was right in drinking all that tea. Arthur
took a sip and his taste buds overflowed with joy. This tea of Laura's was
darn good! He took another, larger sip. Arthur didn't know about other
engineers, but he was now, definitely a tea man. Coffee didn't taste anything
like this. This stuff was good.

	The three of them made light conversation for a while. Laura, Arthur
found out, was a local seamstress and was very adept at her craft. She made
the costumes for all of the plays that a group of thesbians would put on.
All of the actors always gave her high applause as all of her costumes were
always historically accurate, right down to the type of stitches used during
the period, and they were always durable. She even offered to make a suite for
Arthur, one that would be more stylishly acceptable as opposed to his blue
jeans; an offer which he readily accepted once finding out the pants would be
as tough as his jeans. Her needlecraft had started out as a hobby. Before the
coup, she was actually a math teacher at a school in the city of Ravendale,
three hours North of Mobotropolis. She found out, though, that needlecraft
was more to her liking, and that good prices for some items could be had.
Arthur found this all very fascinating, but what he found more fascinating was 
that almost no mention of Laura's husband had been made; he had managed to
pick up his name: Robert. This lack of discussion about Robert intrigued him
very much and he was going to ask Sally about it later on. Soon, Arthur felt
the mood of Sally's conversational tone shift and he new that whatever
business she had with him was about to start. 

	Apparently, Laura felt it too and said "I'd better check on Jessica." 
as she got up. "You don't mind do you?"

	Sally answered "No, that's all right. She's such a sweet little kit, 
tell her we said hi." 

	Arthur didn't say anything and was suddenly content with counting the
number of rings in the wooden table's design. 

	Laura left and a moment of silence followed while Sally folded her
hands in front of her and looked intently at Arthur. Sally took several
breaths and cleared her throat in an attempt to draw Arthur's attention. It
almost worked. 

	After a few more seconds of silence, Sally said, "Well, Arthur, that's
some aim you've-"

	"I know what you're going to ask, Sally." Arthur cut off, "and
the answer is no. This isn't my war. I don't want any part of it." He put
an edge of "that's final" in it.

	Awkward silence followed as Sally considered her next statement. 

	"Arthur, I understand what you're going through. After the day of
mourning, I was as confused as a newborn kit. I must have cried my eyes out
off and on for three weeks. Julayla told me I had to be strong, if not for
myself than at least for the others. I didn't listen to her, how could I?
My entire world was shattered, but in the midst of all that there were a few
brave souls that fought to give us, to give ME, the right to feel safe in this
new world. I can see the same potential to do the same for others now in you.
Please consider that."

	Arthur had stringently avoided eye contact with her and replied "Sally,
you've got the wrong guy if you think I can give that kind of hope to others.
I'm just an engineer caught up in this crazy situation that the universe has
thrown at me obviously as some vast practical joke."

	"That is not true." she countered.

	"Isn't it?" Arthur challenged.

	"Certainly not! You're more than just some wayward engineer. You've
got some guts, Arthur, and I don't mean the kind that makes you stand in the
middle of a battle field; I mean the kind that makes you take a look at the
world around you and gives you the strength to fight for understanding of it.
Look at all the remarks you make, 'Some vast practical joke!' Even they are
filled with defiance at what has happened to you! You have that spirit,
Arthur! I'm asking you to consider helping us; we could use someone like you."

	Arthur defiantly shook his head and was becoming increasingly
agitated at where Sally was taking this. "So what if I cry out against it?!
I'm merely angry with what has happened!"

	"Don't you dare tell me that's all it is! I've seen that spirit in
your conversations with me over that past few weeks, I've seen it in the way
you wave to those that would otherwise condemn you and I've seen it in the
way you knocked those cans down!" Sally lowered her voice. "And I saw it
in Sir Kain's eyes."

	Arthur clenched his teeth. "I'm not Sir Kain." How many ways did he
have to explain he was not interested and that she was off her rocker? And
why did everyone insist on comparing him to some guy he hasn't met? So what
if this Kain was doing fine job for the rebellion?!

	"No, you're not." Sally said calmly. "But the two of you are alike
in so many ways." She shifted her weight in the chair. "In the end, it is
your decision, but please consider helping us."

	He was NOT about to march off and get himself killed. All he wanted
was to get out; to get home! He looked her directly in the eye. "I'm not
interested."

	Sally gave a small sigh, but shook her head compliantly. "I
understand. You know where to find me, though, if you ever get tired of your
cabin."

	Tired of my cabin?! You mean the cabin where I sit and ponder what
has happened to me? You mean the cabin where I do nothing because here I CAN
do nothing, because here I AM nothing?!

	Arthur's temper broke. He jumped from his chair.

	"What do you know about my problems?!"

	Sally was absolutely shocked.

	"You profess to know about my problems?" Arthur continued. "You don't
have an inkling about what I'm going through! I fought long and hard to make
my dreams come true! I had it made, Sally! I had the job lined up, I had the
degree coming, and I even had the car! The only thing missing was the girl!
Then life throws me a curve ball and I find myself in a life or death
struggle and you come here and ask me to put my life on the line for it?! Me!
A bystander!"

	Sally jumped from her seat now as well. She had had enough of his
indignation.

	"You're on a very thin line, mister!"  Arthur receded a step. Sally
now continued on the offensive. "What about my dreams? What about everyone
else's?! Do you think we wanted what happened to us?! Life threw us a curve ball
too, but we're fighting back! Do you think it's easy for me to come in here
and ask you to put your life on the line? Do you?!"

	Arthur didn't answer.

	"If you think it's easy, let me tell you it's not! I have nightmares
about recruiting new freedom fighters! It's THEIR lives and MY decisions. Do
you have any idea how much that burden weighs upon me? Don't talk to me
about how I don't understand your problems, Arthur, because I have many 
more that are in far excess of yours."

	Arthur, now on the defense, managed a feeble sentence. "You don't want
me, Sally. Find some other crack-shot, spirited fellow."

	The change in Sally was dramatic. Her anger faded almost instantly and
she took a sharp breath in. Her mouth quivered and her eyes darted down, but
not before Arthur saw the glassy, distant look in them. She sank into the
chair.

	It was then that Arthur knew. It all came together in one vivid
picture in his mind. The spirit she claimed he had, the old Iago pistol, the
hope she was trying to get him to give to others, it all fell into place like
a puzzle, and at the center of it was Laura's husband, Robert. It was HIS
antique Iago! That was why there was no discussion about him; He was the other
crack-shot, spirited fellow! Sally must have recruited Robert just like she
was trying to recruit him now! That decision and whatever happened to him as
a result still haunted her. Oh, God! This wasn't about him!

	Arthur gripped the table.

	"Sally. Robert, what happened to him?" He asked sternly.

	Sally looked away.

	"Sally...!"

	"I don't have anything more to say."

	"Sal-"

	"Please! Leave me be."

	Arthur slowly walked towards the door, keeping his eyes on Sally. She
made no move. He opened the door and stepped just outside.

	Still no movement from her. He shut the door.

	The tears streaked down her face.

	Back in his cabin, Arthur looked at the equation on the blackboard
one last time before hanging his head and slowly letting his hand slide across
the lettering, smearing it. 

		       
	*****


From the journal entries of Sally Alicia Acorn:

	I must admit it was wrong of me to push Arthur in that direction and
that it was wrong of me to try to use him like that to try to make amends.
Robert was unlike any other person I had ever met. He was as unique as Julayla
or Sonic and it was my fault that he was no longer among us. I know and
understand the strain and the risks that come with my position and I 
accept that responsibility, but his death haunted me like Julaya's did.
That man made Laura the happiest woman on Mobius and if anyone ever contends
to that they'll have to answer to me. I just couldn't accept the loss. I felt
that somehow I had to do something to re-light the candle that went out. 
Arthur seemed a perfect way to do it. He was, and still is, a high spirited
individual; he had great potential and made good on it as we know. Giving
him the chance to make a new name for himself would not only have helped 
us, but himself as well. I knew he was suffering an identity crisis, the
depth of which I didn't understand until after reading the "To be or not to
be" soliloquy from a copy of his literature entitled "Hamlet," which I had
had the opportunity to read. Unfortunately, it was after the fact of my 
offer. I realized too late that this was a trouble that only he could work 
through; something for which I am still sorry. Fortunately, Arthur forgave me
and I am happy for that. For a while, he and I were not on the best of terms.

	Sir Kain arrived home later that day with the rest of the scout party.
My happiness that they had all returned home safely was soon replaced by one
of dread. The information he and his team brought back revealed that the 
heavily fortified research facility that had produced such monstrosities as 
the "Combot" and the data plans for an advanced "strike troop" slip-gate 
complex was operational again. This time, there were rumors of a powerful new
SWATbot called the Assault-bot. The worst thing about this was that it had 
been in the attack on this facility to destroy it that we had lost Robert. For
me, it was a time of extreme anxiety. It was as if, Arthur would say, 'the 
universe was playing as vast practical joke on me.' I don't recall how much
sleep I lost.

	Sir Kain was flabbergasted while at the same time extremely sorry that
another human from his world had found his way here to Mobius. Sir Kain and
Arthur became fast friends and for the first couple of weeks were inseparable. 
To this day they still spend a good amount of time together.


	*****


	Arthur planted his feet firmly on the ground an equal distance apart
and placed the iron rod in front of him. Kain made a few fake "coughing"
noises and Arthur shot a "quiet, you." at him. Kain shrugged his shoulders
and made as if to say "what do you want me to do about it?" Arthur turned
his attention back to the rod and rocked on his feet a little. Loosening his
back, Arthur swung the rod over his shoulders and then back down in a 
graceful arc. 

	"Good shot, sir!" Kain said in his best "snub" British voice.

	"Thank you, Jeeves." Arthur said using the stereotypical servant's 
name in a like wise snub voice.

	The two watched the ball fly through the air.

	"Uh-oh" said Arthur.

	"Oh, Yes!" Kain joyously replied. 

	The ball landed amongst a small cluster of old SWATbot heads. Arthur
rubbed his eyes and sighed.

	"Looks like you're in the SWATbot trap again, Arthur."

	Arthur merely shook his head and started picking off imaginary pieces
of lint from his new suit, almost as if the very thought of his ball in the
SWATbot trap yet again was so very trivial.

	"Mind if I play through this time instead of waiting for you to dig
yourself out?" Kain mocked.

	"Why don't you help me?" Arthur mocked back, but Kain only laughed.
Arthur walked over to the SWATbot trap and carefully evaluated the situation
while Kain walked on ahead towards the hole.

	"You know," Kain said, "we really need more holes on this course. Two
just doesn't cut it."

	Arthur, realizing the situation was critical, said, "What we really
need is a real set of golf clubs. Or at least a real sand-wedge." He unscrewed
the head of his makeshift golf club and screwed on another, very large, head.
Kain seemed somewhat amused.

	"Why? With that thing you could hit the ball from here to
Robotropolis."

	"Oh, go on and play through!" Arthur hollered to Kain. Kain laughed
yet again and even Arthur let out a chuckle at his situation.

	Arthur planted his feet firmly on the ground between two SWATbots
heads, ran his hand through his cropped blonde hair, and looked around. The 
makeshift golf course they had made had two holes. The first was behind his 
house, the second one, this one, was a good distance away from the town 
meeting house. He looked at the wooden meeting house and saw Sally pacing 
around it on the thin deck that ran its length. She paused, leaning against 
the railing of the deck intent on something that was being projected by 
Nicole's screen.

	Nicole. Now there was an interesting piece of computer technology. A
portable computer smaller than a laptop with advanced AI, holographic
projection imaging systems, and enough space and memory to store then entire
library of congress, Nicole was never far from Sally's side. It-she, as Sally
insisted on calling her, was definitely not an IBM PC-Compatible or a
Macintosh. Arthur often wondered whether or not something of the same caliber
might have been made back home if not for the capitalism of software
marketing.

	Sally looked up from what she was intent on and made eye contact for
a moment with Arthur before turning back to Nicole. Arthur let out a sigh.
It had been almost a week since she had tried to convince him of joining the
small band of freedom fighters and Arthur was feeling sorry for what had
transpired, but whenever he tried to approach her on it she was always too
busy. Since that day, he had spent a lot of time dwelling on the situation and
he had come to the conclusion that he really couldn't blame her for her
actions. At least he had had some sort of safe childhood; from what he
understood, that had not been the case for the majority of the freedom
fighters. All she wanted to do was to give that immeasurable gift of security
to others. She had every right to approach him. He hadn't realized until it
was too late that he was a form of hope to her; one that was now most dim.
Hope was a rare commodity, but, blast it, this wasn't his war! And yet...

	Arthur had spent some time with Laura since then too, but had never
brought up the subject of Robert or Sally's reaction. He had decided to let
that go and not risk making things worse. Laura's tea was very appealing and
he had begun a habit of having breakfast with her and her daughter, Jessica.
True to her word, Laura had taken measurements and made a suite for him. His
suit, if you could call it that for it was more like a uniform and nowhere
near what he associated the word "suit" with, was two pieces, both of which
were made of some form of material that was neither too hot nor too cold, much
like silk. The pants were tough and durable with fair sized pockets. There
were the standard front pockets with the right one having a smaller, inner
"key" pocket and there were the usual rear pockets. The pants also had large
thigh pockets with velcro straps to keep them shut and the right leg had an
over-lapping leaf the whole way around his calf to hold little tid-bits. This
was also velcroed shut. The shirt was black, just like the pants, but had
white highlights around the two vest pockets, around the joint where the long
sleeves could be removed and along the front separation. This front separation
ran the length of his torso starting from the left hip, running straight up to
the left breast, and then diagonally over to the right shoulder. It was along
this line that the shirt was opened. Both the pockets and the separation were
held tight with velcro as well. The semi-thick parts could be inverted to
expose their white interiors for hot days, he just had to make sure that he
got all the stuff out of his pockets. Dusk was approaching and it was a bit
chilly this time around so Arthur had the black showing to absorb any stray
rays of light. The suit made his figure look more filled out and stronger than
it actually was and the slightly padded shoulders gave him a noble bearing.

	"So you found yourself here from falling through a slip-gate, too?"
Arthur voiced to Kain.

	"A what? OH! Yes, we've been through that, and why do you insist on
calling it a 'slip-gate?'" Kain asked rising from his hunched putting 
position. His black cat body seemed to respond to every command with a poetry 
all its own. The simple, red, fur-lined vest he wore to guard against the 
chill only accentuated his broad shoulders. 

	"It rolls off the tongue better than 'strange inter-dimensional
yellow thingie whose origins are unknown.'"

	"Ha ha. I think someone played one too many 3-d games when they should
have been studying."

	"I don't know what you're talking about, Mr. R.P.G."                    
	
	"Plop!" Kain shouted as his golf ball suddenly found a small hole
very interesting. "That's it for me. Say, we haven't decided on par for this
hole yet. What do you think we should make it?"

	"How about the number of strokes it takes me to get out of this trap?"

       Sally looked up momentarily too view Arthur and Kain a second time.
She let out a small sigh, not from the fun they were having, but from her
reluctant determination to keep Arthur away. She knew he had wanted to see her
on several occasions about their argument, presumably to apologize. But she
also new that he'd want an explanation for her actions, and that involved
explaining what had happened to Robert, something she just couldn't deal with
right now, not with the severity of the next mission. Sally shook her head at
her own thoughts and returned her eyes to Nicole just as a number of SWATbot
heads flew into the air with a disgruntled cry.

	"Nicole, redisplay topographical data map for research facility."
Nicole verbally replied and a map of a the facility displayed into the air in
true 3-d. Sally chewed her lower lip and shook her head after a moment. "No,
that's not going to do." She proceeded to walk inside the meeting house and
sit down at a the single large, rectangular table. "Nicole, display
topographical data map for the research facility and the area around it for up
to 2 Kilometers." The requested information was displayed. The problem with
this whole mission was getting IN. Not necessarily into the facility, but
into it without being detected within the area. The facility would swarm with
SWATbots and automatic laser turrents if anyone was detected inside the
Kilometer radius of the facility's natural defense, a crater. Sir Kain and
his scout team had had to view the crater at a distance, except on the last
night where one of the team members had found a way down inside it undetected.
She was trying to use that path as the means for the entry, but was
discouraged since the mission team would surely be detected at some point and
the way in did not leave much for a way out in that occurrence. And what of the
mission team? Who would go this time? Who wouldn't make it back?

	Sally moaned and set Nicole down.

	"Nicole, just turn it off."

	Nicole complied and Sally took a look at some of the various maps and
reports that littered the table in front of her. She began to stack them up in
an orderly fashion. First the preliminary surveys followed by the tactical and
the recovered data, and finally the personal reports of each scout member.
When she came upon the last report, the report of the team member that made it
in, she set it aside and began to go over again. It was from an individual who
was new to the entire freedom fighter outfit. Young and lively, the raccoon was
proving to be a valued member and his report was certainly just as valuable.
Something called the "Assault-bot" was having it's final trial runs being
done. He had even managed to get a statistical overview of expected
performance along with some photos of the prototype and it did not look fun.

	Would he make it back if sent?

	Sally shook her head furiously. This whole thing with Robert was
crazy! Everyone on the team new the risks and accepted them. They fought for
the better future and would gladly die for it if they new their loved ones
would know peace.

	But would she let them gladly die?

	Augh! She had never had this problem before. She new there would be
days like this, she had already had many. So why was this one so different?
Why was she getting sick to the stomach thinking about anyone else even
remotely getting hurt? Silly questions, really. She new why. She just didn't
understand why she couldn't deal with it.

	The door opened and Bunny Rabbot walked in, something Sally was
grateful for since talking with her friend would allow a few minutes respite
from the dilemma at hand.

	"Hi-y'all shugah!"

	"Hi, Bunny."

	Bunny took one look at and Sally and frowned. "Sally girl, I do
declair, you have been spending wah too much time ovah the maps again."

	Sally sighed. "Oh, Bunny, I know. But this is extremely important.
If this new Assault-bot lives up to the claims then we could be in serious
trouble." Instinctively, she reached for a map of the area.

	Bunny quickly pulled it out of her hands and sternly said "Sally, ya
look like ya've been throu the washer ringer. When was the last taim you
relaxed?"

	"Well-"

	"I thaut so!" Bunny put her hands on her hips in a reprimanding
fashion. "Ya'all got to get out an do somethan! It ain't gonna do anyone any
good if ya'll wrung out."

	Sally admitted defeat. "I suppose you're right."

	Bunny hugged Sally and patted her on the back.

	"Thair's a good girl. Ya'll feel a lot better for it. Why don't you
go talk to Kain? He's alwahs got somethin fun up his sleeve." She paused a
moment before proceeding. "Ya know, I never noticed before, but Kain has got
the KEE-UTEST nose."

	"Bunny!" Sally exclaimed when Bunny gave a little wink. "What exactly
are you saying?"

	Bunny gave an innocent look back. "A girl can flirt cain't she?"

	There was a moments pause before the two of them broke into hysterical
laughter.

	"Why, yes. I suppose a girl can. I don't THINK there's any harm in
that." Sally passed a slightly mischievous look to Bunny before they both
laughed again. After the laughter died, Sally shook her head.

	Bunny smiled. "Well, why don't ya go talk to Arthur then? Ya used to
love the stories he'd tell, even if they were kinda strainge."

	"Well, he and I aren't exactly on the best of terms right now."

	Bunny's ears drooped noticeably. "Ah, Sally girl. I'm sorry, but some
people just ain't cut out ta be faihters."

	"I know, Bunny. I guessed I pushed him too hard."

	"Ai'h wouldn't worry none much, Sal. He's reasonable, he'll come
around an undastand. Now let's go watch the sun set."

	The two walked out of the town meeting house and sat on the chairs
outside. It wasn't that Sally was afraid Arthur wouldn't come around, she was
afraid she wouldn't. Why couldn't she get over this mission irking her so
much? Was it because she still-

	Sally looked at Bunny as the sun turned her fur and the world around
them into a golden hue.

	Would Bunny make it back?

	What of Sir Kain? He seemed to be off in his own little world at the
moment, a vibrant, youthful energy in his eyes. Would he come back?

	Would Sonic?

	Sally closed her eyes and sighed.

	"All right, Kain!" Arthur was heard to yell. "Par for that hole is
is officially 24 strokes!"

	"Fine, it's all the more points for me! I can do it in 2!" Kain
laughed back.        

	Sally made a decision.


	*****


	Dusk was coming and the chill in the air seemed to roll over the
grassy fields in leaps and bounds joyful that it had finally been let free
and that autumn would soon be upon the world. It would hide in the lengthening
shadows of the trees and huts and sneak around in colors being shed by the
sun.

	Eventually, it found its way under the door jam of Arthur's cabin, but
even with his suit jacked unvelcroed with only an undershirt beneath, he bade
it no welcome or even acknowledged it existence. Arthur was once again
pondering his position in the world, and the cold air only seemed to be a
trivial consequence of his predicament. It merged into the background of all
things on Mobius and was placed on the back shelf of Arthur's mind. Step by
step, he replayed the entire sequence of events in his mind. The parking lot,
the first glimpses of Dr. Bookshire and Dr. Quack., his fight with Sally, but
there was nothing there that he hadn't seen before. No solution to the joke.
At the moment, he had even lost interest in who this Robert Vix fellow was.

	Something called out from the dim recesses of the back shelf.

	"Hellooo!" A sound that could only be that of Sonic the Hedgehog
speeding through Knothole came with it. "I'm coming, Sal!"

	Arthur grunted and automatically began to write upon the side of the
chalkboard that had the smeared "Engineer" equation. His hand flew across the
the board, which was not surprising; by now he had this proof memorized.
First, the length of the leg, then the average distance of the stride, but
that was only the beginning! He had even found equations to describe the
necessary oxygen consumption; he had to derive a few, but they worked well
everywhere else. Next came the actual strength of organic matter under basic
conditions. Faster and faster he wrote and without warning the chalk snapped
and flew across the room.

	"Yo! Sal! I'm waiiitiiing!" Again that peculiar sound that only Sonic
made.

	Arthur licked his lips and stared at the stub of chalk in his hand. It
didn't matter, he was finished with the equations. Had he made a mistake? No,
there was no way he could have. This was all basic kinematics and organic
chemistry. Here before him was mathematical proof of the improba- nay, the
impossibility of the existence of a creature whose top speed could break the
sound barrier.

	"Fine, Sal! I bet I know where!" The sound faded into the distance.

	And yet the creature existed.

	The smudged "Engineer = looser" mocked him silently.

	Arthur let out a wail and attacked the board with the eraser sending
chalk dust to every corner of the main room. After the attack, Arthur stared
off for a while. Somehow that blasted smudged equation remained.

	There came a knock at the door, sturring Arthur out of his mindless
contemplation. Arthur furrowed his brow.

	"Yes?"

	"Arthur?" Kain called through the door.

	"Well who else would it be?" Arthur didn't move.

	"Well?" Kain asked after a slight pause.

	"Well what?"

	"Well, can I come IN?"

	Arthur suddenly became unstuck from the floor and flipped the
chalkboard to the other side revealing a logic circuit that was supposed to be
an alarm clock that would play Pac-Man for a wake up call. He then opened the
door. Kain walked in.

	"Have you seen Sally?" He asked.

	Arthur thought a moment. "No. Not since our golf game the day before
yesterday."

	Kain seemed a bit perturbed to hear this. "Well do you know where she
went?"

	Arthur thought another moment. "No. Why don't you ask that LaCroix 
fellow? He seems to have a handle on where everyone is, what with his hidden
cameras and all..."  Kain grew increasingly fidgety. "You know, I met him the
other day," Arthur continued "he did not seem at all happy to see me. Maybe
it had something to do with getting past his-"

	Kain erupted. "Arthur! This is serious!"

	Arthur blinked. "What do you want? I haven't seen her!"

	"Exactly! No one has for the past two days!"

	Arthur seemed as though he had been smacked across the face. The news
thoroughly forced the awful joke from his mind. "Are you serious?"

	"Yes!"

	Instinctively, Arthur wanted to raddle of questions while he secured
his velcro jacket shut, but realized that usually meant a lot of wasted time
co-oberating what was known and what was not. Instead he said to Kain "Tell
me everything you know." Arthur walked out of his cabin and proceeded towards
Sally's intent on seeing for himself.

	"I was on my way to her cabin" Kain began, "to discuss the attack
plans for the research facility when Sonic stopped me and asked if I had seen
her. I said no and was wondering why he had asked. That's when I learned that
she hasn't been seen since our golf game."

	The two of them crossed the peak of a hill and proceeded downward
toward the main conglomeration of buildings in Knothole.

	"At first," Kain continued, "I was skeptical, Sally has been known to
shut herself away in her cabin at times to rethink the finalized plans of a
mission, but Sonic assured me she was not in her cabin and, by the looks of
things, had not been there for a day."

	"And what of Nicole?" Arthur asked.

	"She's not in Sally's cabin. Which means she's with Sally, wherever
she is."

	"Can you track Nicole?"

	Kain seemed amused. "Track her?! We're not the FBI. Nicole has no bug
on her."

	"I'm just asking."

	"Anyhow, Sonic told me that he had asked around and no one knew where
she was and had assumed she was in her cabin."

	"Well, we're here so let's check under the bed." Arthur joked to help
lighten the mood.

	The two of them came up to the steps of Sally's cabin and proceeded
inside the open door. Inside, they found Sonic impatiently tapping his foot
while Bunny and Rotor discussed what they knew. The three of them looked
expectantly at the new arrivals.

	"Sorry, guys." Kain said. "Arthur and I don't know where she's gone
either."

	Sonic stomped his foot hard against the floor while Arthur inspected
a pile of maps and papers on the main room's table. "Man! This is so totally
bogus!" Sonic griped. "Where IS she?" Just as quick as he himself was, Sonic's
griping turned to concerned agitation. "It's not like her to do this."

       Bunny sympathized with Sonic. "I agree. This just aihn't like her at
all!" 

      "Well she just couldn't have disappeared." Rotor declared. "She has to
have gone somewhere."

	"Are these the plans for that research facility I've been hearing
about?" Arthur asked.

	The other four seemed startled at the question. Sonic was, of course,
the first to recover. "Of course they are! And what are you concerned with
those for?"

	"Doesn't look like a walk in the park." Arthur bit his lower lip in
usual frustration. Something suspicious....

	"'Doesn't look like a walk in the park'" Sonic mocked. "What are you
doing? We're concerned with Sally here!"

	Arthur ignored Sonic and, to satisfy his own curiosity, proceeded into
the bedroom and check under the bed; he needed a moment's silence as well. 

	"Sonic," Bunny scolded. "that's not nice."

	"I'm sorry." Sonic began tapping his foot at a racing speed. "But this
dillying around isn't solving anything!"

	Arthur came back from the bedroom. "Sonic's right. Where else might
she have gone to 'get away from the world?'"

	The five stood in thought. Suddenly, Sonic snapped his fingers. "The
Chapel!"

	"Of course!" Bunny chimed in. "She often spends time in the Chapel
before a tough assignment!"

	Rotor proceeded to the door. "You guys check out the Chapel, I'm going
to start rounding up the core group of freedom fighters in case she's not
there."

	Sonic turned to Kain, Arthur and Bunny. "You three check there, I'm
going to help Rotor. I've got a feeling she won't be there; she'd of heard me
calling." With that, he sped off.

	Arthur pressed his lips together. "That guy has got to slow down." If
only for the sake of physics.

	"Come on." Bunny and Kain said. Arthur followed a pace or two behind,
lost in thought.

	The three entered the large stone Chapel located at the dead center of
Knothole. The Chapel was the only building in the village that was not made of
wood. It's stained glass windows painted rainbows of light upon the deeply
polished oak pews; the angle of the sinking sun lighting the entire sanctuary
in a colored warmth. The footfalls of the three companions reverberated
countless times in the old stone arches above them.

	"Sally girl!" Bunny called out. "Are you here?" Her echo was the only
answer as the three reached the Altar at the front.

	Kain shook his head. "She's not here."

	A worried expression crossed Bunny's face. "I was sure she'd be here."
	
	"We'll have to go find Rotor and Sonic and see if anyone knows
anything." Arthur put in.

	Kain and Bunny reluctantly agreed and two of the three were off and
out the main door; Arthur slowed his pace near the end of the pews, compelled
by something at the back of his brain to stop. He turned and slowly walked
back up to the front altar and sat down on the polished front pew. An ethereal
silence took hold of the old Chapel and something stirred inside of Arthur.
Five years. He hadn't been inside a Church in five years. There was something
so- so.... The silence was almost deafening; his breathing the only sound.
Slowly, another sound mixed with his.

	A hymn of soft praise floated toward the front from the rear balcony,
but Arthur was too dumbstruck to turn and see the Choir. The majestic voices
rose and fell in soft silken patterns with the reverberating qualities of the
Chapel enhancing them. He was taken back to distant memories of his Church
back home, before all this craziness, before his college career. Things had
seemed so much simpler then. The hymns and voices of praise had been
different, but not the feelings. And slowly, in a new light, he began to
examine the events again.

	"Hello." A voice said as a hand was laid on Arthur's shoulder. Arthur
jerked instantly from his revere and was so startled he pushed himself down
the entire length of the pew. The owner of the voice, a light brown fox with a
leather jacket, flashed a warming grin and chuckled. "I didn't mean to startle
you." He said and sat down next to Arthur. "You're that new guy, Arthur,
Right?"

	Arthur managed a weak shake of the head yes as he continued to examine
the fox. There was a large insignia on the left shoulder of his jacket with
the letters "R.L.E." inscribed in ancient English font. The fabric also seemed
to be torn over the left breast. 
						   
	"Thought so." The medium voice said; it held a certain amount of
tenderness. The fox looked at Arthur and noticed his gaze upon the torn
fabric. "Eh? This?" His finger pocked a clean hole through to his fur. "Oh,
that was just a little accident I had." He smiled a knowing smile which
accompanied his two ears perking up erratically. After a small sigh and brief
examination of the Chapel, he asked "So. Do you come in here often?"

	"N-no." Arthur stammered, still unsure who this mysterious person who
had come out of nowhere was. "I haven't been in a Church in five years."

	The fox shook his head and made a slight scowling sound. "Oh, now
that's not good for the soul!" He pounded on his chest twice with his left
hand. "Well then, what has brought you here to the Lord's house tonight?"

	"Um. I was looking for Sally."

	"Princess Sally?" the fox seemed amused, but then grew concerned and
took a quick look around. After a moment, the amused look returned along with
some slight twitching of his ears. "Well, she doesn't seem to be here."

	Arthur nodded in agreement and said "That would appear to be the
case." Who was this guy? Did he know where Sally was? Did Sonic know that
this strange guy might know where Sally was?

	The fox crossed one leg over the other and placed his hands inside his
jacket pockets. He sighed. "Ahh. There's just something so wonderful about
this old Chapel. That's why I continue to come here. Don't you agree that it's
nice?"

	The strange feeling came over Arthur again. "Yes. There certainly is
something about this place. It's so-"

	"Peaceful?"

	"Familiar."

	The fox contemplated this for a moment and then said "Well, I would
imagine that God is the same everywhere. Here, there, your home." He removed
one hand from its pocket and waved it around the air in front of him. 

	"My home?" Arthur sighed. "I'm not sure where home is anymore. It's
like some sort of dream." Nothing really made sense anymore, this conversation
included.

	"Well, I would imagine that this is your home now."

	Arthur laughed. "You would?"

	"Of course. You've got friends here that care about you."

	"Like who?"

	"Like your neighbor, Kain and Sally." The fox took another look
around. "Only she doesn't seem to be here at the moment."

	Arthur's face grew grim. "Yeah. MY home. Why in all the unexplainable
twists life throws you did God throw me across time or space or... something
else, and drop me here on this mixed up war torn rock?"

	The fox nodded in sympathetic understanding and was silent.

	"And Sally my friend? Well you can say that, but I don't really
count her as such. I'm just making associates until I can get out of here." 

	The fox's ears perked again. "Well of course she's your friend, and
you are obviously hers. Why else did you come running out here to find her?"

	"That's-" Arthur cut himself off because he knew the fox was right.
Blast it! He just didn't want to admit he was getting very comfortable with
things here, even if they were kind of strange. He just wanted to get home,
right?

	The fox shifted in his seat. "You know, Arthur. God gives each of us
a unique and special gift. It might be understanding of mathematics or the
ability to be a good friend, or even speed."

	"Like Sonic, right?" Arthur said sarcastically. What did this have to
do with him?

	"Ha! Yeah, like Sonic. He's quite a character isn't he?"

	"He shouldn't be able to go that fast."

	"Well, things work a bit differently here than where your from, I
guess."

	A pause.

	"Well," Arthur said, "What's all that got to do with me?"

	The fox shrugged his shoulders. "The Lord works in mysterious ways.
Maybe God saw it fit to bring you here because there's something only you can
accomplish. At some point in everyone's life, God calls them to use their
talents. To answer the call or not to answer the call is the question."

	"Yes, but-"  Something clicked about that last statement. Arthur took
a deep breath as he had a sudden realization. He looked wide eyed at the fox,
whose ears were once again perked up. "To be or not to be, that is the
question."

	"Well I suppose you could interpret it that way, but what I-"

	"No! You don't understand!" Arthur shook his head. "God, I'm such a
fool!"

	"Lord, what fools we mortals be." The fox said this as if this should
be blatantly obvious to anyone who ever sat down and gave a moments thought
about the grander scheme of things.

	"Exactly!" Arthur held his head in his hands. It was he who had been
in fault ever since he got here! His one-track mind had been so intent upon
getting home and finding that single solution that would make everything
click that he had been blinded to what he should have been doing from the
start. He'd been unable to get the puchline of the joke! With this revelation
things began to fall into place and an understanding of his place came upon
him. Sally wasn't to blame for that argument at all. It was all his fault.
Like Hamlet, he had completely ignored the proper course of action until it
was too late. Only maybe....

	"The question, though," The fox cautioned, "is a serious one, with
much responsibility. It can only be made by one's self."

	Arthur chewed his lower lip, then pulled a piece of paper out of the
pew rack behind him along with a pencil from his small overlapping leg sleeve.
He clicked the end to bring the led out and then scribbled something down on
the paper. The fox looked curiously at it.

	"2B#!2B=" It read.

	"What's that?" The fox asked.

	"It's 'To be or not to be' written in programmable logic device source
code. The statement can be expressed as Boolean algebra."

	"Which means what?"

	"Simple logic expressions, like 'not,' the exclamation point, means
'opposite' of whatever the input is and 'or,' the-"

	"I know THAT. What's the point of writing it that way?"

	"It means Hamlet never did the math. If he did, maybe things would
have been different, and maybe things can be different now."

	"Ah." The fox nodded understanding. "Who's Hamlet?"

	"Someone who at this point is probably more respectable than myself."

	"Well, what's the answer?"

	Arthur paused a moment. "It's one."

	"One?"

	"Yes, no matter what the input for '2B' is, the output will ALWAYS be
one. Which is-"

	"The binary bit for 'true.'" The fox finished.

	Arthur stared at the fox as a grave expression came across the fox's
face. "I think you know what happened to Sally, Arthur. You knew when you saw
the maps on the table."

	"God, I hope I'm wrong." Arthur said, still amazed at the revelation.
It would certainly be like sally to do so if she did go. But how did the fox
know-

	"You know what you must do. Why do you delay?"

	Arthur looked at the floor and reflected. "Fear."

	"The toughest fear you have already overcome. You have looked and seen
your true self. Remember your gifts."

	"What happened to Robert Vix?" Arthur asked, he had a sneaky
suspicion that Robert played into Sally's actions again.

	The fox sighed. "That name is so very familiar to me, but I fear the
only one who can tell you exactly what happened is Sally. Suffice it to say,
he gave his life during the attack on a research facility so that she might
live, but that is not the sole reason she is motivated by his memory."

	Arthur shook his head and looked up. "Who are you-?"

	The room was empty. There was no fox and no choir and Arthur had a
very disturbing feeling that it always had been that way. He ran like
lightning from the Chapel; breath coming in gasps and sweat upon is face.

	Arthur made his way through the short distance from the Chapel to the
town square where a group of Mobians larger than just the core group of
fighters had gathered. He stopped at the outer edge still gasping for air. He
had no idea what had just happened, and his mind would not yet allow him to
replay the events. Whatever IT was, was irrelevant right now. He had a clear
understanding of the things that had pressed him for over a month, and he saw
that a time for action had come. He shook noticeably, for he new he could not
let his friend do this and he knew somehow he had to help. Yes, his friend.
It was the first time he had associated the word with Sally and as he looked
around him, he found that it didn't apply just to her. Jeeze! If he was right
about where she had gone it would be on the order of something Chad would do
and Sally didn't have Chad's fortune to be cursed with the luck of the gods!

	"May I have your attention, please?" Bookshire called over the small
crowd. Almost at once the incessant chatter died. "You've been called here
because a most peculiar circumstance has arisen and your skills may be needed,
but let us hope that need shall not arise."

	Arthur took a step back from the crowd, intent on making his way back
to Sally's cabin to see if he could prove his suspicions, when he noticed
someone picking his- no, her way through the mass. Her eyes darted from face
to face as she slowly made her way towards the rear.

	"Bookshire, get to the point." someone up front said. "Why are we all
here at this hour?" The dwindling light made it impossible to see who it was.

	"Friends, Princess Sally is missing, and has been for the past 48
hours." A sharp gasp came from many in the group along with compressed brows.
Murmuring sprang up. "Please!" Bookshire called. "Please calm down. Now before
any hasty action arises, let us first see if anyone here has seen her. Does
anyone here know where she has gone?"

	Arthur clamped down on his tongue. Silently he began to move away
from the crowd, his black uniform merging with the increasing shadows. A
female figure stepped from the back of the crowd and just caught site of him.
She ran up and around to Arthur's front.

	"Laura!" Arthur said in a hushed shout. The look on her face was one
of consternation.

	"I-I think I know where she's gone, Arthur. I also think you know
too." She and Arthur began to walk slowly towards Sally's cabin. "I heard the
argument you had with her that morning the other week; I know you understand 
to some degree how much Robert meant to her."

	Arthur nodded. "I'm sorry about that. I wasn't thinking."

	Laura waved the apology away. "There's no way you could have known.
The research facility was where-"

	"Yes, I know."

	"I think she's gone back there to-"

	"Make amends?"

	"Face her fear." Laura corrected. "She's gone by herself to make sure
no one is lost there again."

	"Only she doesn't have much of a chance."

	"Sally is very resourceful, but even so, she would have been back by
now." Laura conceded.

	The two of them walked into the main room of Sally's cabin and looked
at maps on the main table. Arthur felt like asking specifically what had
happened at the facility and why Robert meant so much, but that was for
another time. At the moment it was meaningless.

	Laura swallowed hard. "I hope she's all right. Poor little girl."

	Arthur studied the maps for a few minutes. How would she do this? The
facility was smack dab in the middle of bedlam. There were countless places
where- Arthur looked more closely- laser turrents?! There were countless
places for laser turrents?! Weren't those things as fast as Gattling guns?
Arthur shook his head. He was getting ahead of himself.

	"How can we know she went there?" Arthur asked still looking down at
the maps.

	"Because," Bookshire said, "There are three remote charges missing."

	Arthur jerked his head up and saw Sir Kain, Sonic and Bookshire just
inside the door. "How long have you been there?" He asked. He was beginning to
get frustrated with people just sneaking up on him! Was that some art they
practiced?

	"Long enough to know that the suspicion you two had was the same
as mine."

	Arthur looked at Kain as the black cat spoke. "I figured you must
have known something when you lagged back at the Chapel and the way you snuck
away from the meeting. I advised Bookshire to follow."

	"I came along for the ride!" Sonic added.

	Arthur turned to Bookshire. "But how did you know-"

	"Because, I'm a doctor. I can tell when my patients are deeply upset.
Robert may have saved Sally's life, but she was not unscathed." Bookshire
closed his eyes in reflection. "I heard and understood about his death even
before Laura."

	Laura looked at the floor.

	"I can't believe this, though!" Sonic harped. "This is nothing like
Sally. This is-" Sonic hung his head. "This is so like her I should have
seen it coming a mile away. I wasn't fast enough! And for me, that's just
embarrassing."

	There was silence as time passed.

	"Well," Arthur said, "someone's going to have to go in there and get
get her out."

	Sonic jumped to the occasion. "Well of course! One major Sonic
break-out coming right up! Here I-" Sonic stopped as he realized Arthur had
talked completely over his monologue.

	"I'll need a gun of some sort, like that hunting pistol, Laura. So-"

	Laura spoke up at the mention of her name. "Don't worry, I have just
the thing." She made her way out of the cabin.

	Sonic stood opened mouthed and then laughed. "You? You're going?
Hahahhhah! Didn't you hear me? I can bust her out!"
		
	"And how would YOU get out?" Bookshire asked. "That place is tough
enough without you there. Can you imagine the stuff Robotnik will use once he
finds out you ARE there? What if that Assault-Bot is up and running?"

	"I can take it!"

	Bookshire laid a hand on Sonic's shoulder. "Sonic, this isn't what you
should be doing. Sally went in there and hasn't come back. We can't afford the
risk of you going in alone and not coming back either."

	Bookshire's words quelled Sonic's impatience. "Awwww! Ok.
Butwhateveryou'regoingtodo,doitfast!" he blurted.

	Kain walked over to Arthur, who was over the maps with a magnifying
lens that had been on the table.

	"Arthur!" He said through clenched fangs. "What in the name of Acorn
are you doing?!"

	Arthur didn't look up. "I'm formulating an attack plan. What's it look
like I'm doing?"

	Kain's jaw dropped. "What? Just like that? You're now 'Arthur the
General?' Have you gone mad or were you always this way?"

	"Don't patronize me, Kain. I've nearly soiled my pants twice thinking
about this, but our friend is in there somewhere and we owe it to her as her
friends to get her out. Now you were on the scouting team for this, where
would they take her when captured?"

	"IF captured." Kain corrected. "Normally they just shoot."

	"Yeah, but this is Sally, and from what I've heard about this
Robo-kinky fellow he likes to savor the moment. Odds are he'll want her alive,
right?"

	"Well, yes." Kain said giving in. "Most likely they'll take her to
this building here, if they've kept it the same way from the first attack." He
pointed to a small bunker a quarter kilometer from the facility's main
entrance. "But getting her out won't destroy the facility, in fact, getting
her out might get you killed since everything within 5 minutes flying distance
will come to stop you. You can get in easily through this passage here, like
we did, but getting out is nearly impossible."

	Arthur chewed his lower lip as he scanned the map. Great, getting in
was going to be easy, but traps usually were, and this was a dooesy of a trap.
What on Earth could they- Eh? What was this?

	"What's this?" Arthur asked pointing at a small block 1.5 kilometers
away from the facility.

	Kain looked closer. "It's a dam. It supplies the power to the
facility. Why?"

	"Well, if we nuke it, the water flow should flood the crater."

	"Drowning everyone in it."  Kain said.

	"But not before we juice!" Sonic cried. "Wonderful! Spectacular,
Arthur! It should buy enough time!"

	"But that won't destroy the facility." Kain interceded.

	"Then we'll have to get Sally, plant the mines and time your
demolition just right!" Sonic exclaimed.

	"Yeah, don't be so pessimistic, Kain." Arthur said slapping Kain on
the back.

	Bookshire gave a sigh. "Great, we have a hyperactive hedgehog, a 
'spectacular' human who wants to die and a pessimistic cat to save the
Princess of the Realm."

	"Don't forget me!" Bunny said just entering the cabin. "Ya'll aihn't
gonna have all the fun!"

	Bookshire shook his head. "I'll get the remote charges."

	Kain was shaking his head. "Whoa, I'm not going in there. I've fought
a number of battles, but this is out of my league."

	Arthur looked up at Kain. "Kain, you know this place better than the
others, we need you."

	Kain continued to shake his head. "I'm sorry."

	"Eric." Arthur said, using Kain's human name for the first time,
"Sally needs you. I need you to help ME blow this dam to kingdom-come."

	Kain continued shaking his head no, but gave in saying "Alright." A
pause, then "Arthur, why do you want to get us all killed?"

	Arthur also paused before saying. "Thank you." After another moment
he said "I'll take that question rhetorically, and yes, I've always been this
mad."

	Kain rubbed his eyes. "Isn't this just peachy-keen? I must be crazy."

	Just then, Laura returned with a pistol and holster. She handed it to
Arthur saying "This was Robert's Iago 'Enforcer.' It was his when he was on
the police force back in our hometown before we moved to Ravendale. They gave
it to him when he transferred. I think he would have wanted you to use it."

	Arthur accepted the gun and held it to get a feel for it. As with the
hunting pistol, it was perfectly balanced. The gun's hard metal casing spoke
of durability and the etched metal sides clung to the skin of the palm. It
looked more like what Arthur imagined a laser pistol to look like; it
resembled a light gun for a video game system in shape and size, but the main
body was slightly larger to accommodate the electronics. Whoever this Iago
person was, he definitely had good taste. Satisfied, Arthur slipped the pistol
back into its holster and fastened it to his right leg.

	"It has an extremely fast recharge rate and a near bottomless power
cell." Laura added as Bookshire returned with a backpack.

	"There's six mines there. More than enough to blow the whole crater."
Bookshire stated.

	"That's three for each group of two." Kain said, gripping the hilt of
his sheathed sword which he had instinctively donned at the first sign of
trouble. The sword was a gift to him by his rights of passage into Knighthood,
a day that would be forever vivid in his mind. He recalled the pride with
which Sally had knighted him and with that image his hesitation turned to
adamant duty. HE was a knight of the realm. "I'll carry them." he said
looking at Arthur. 

	Bunny stared at Arthur while taking the rest of the mines. "Arthur,
you're going?"

	"Yes." Arthur replied sternly.

	Bunny didn't want to mess with that.

	"Well, let's juice!" Sonic cried.

	"Sonic," Bunny said, "you won't be able to carry all of us. We'll have
to make use of one of the landspeeders."

	Sonic let out a very audible grunt, but didn't object.

	The four left the cabin with Bookshire wishing them the best of luck.

	As the four proceeded to a landspeeder, Bunny asked Arthur "Are ya
sure ya know what ya're doin?"

	"No." Arthur replied sternly.

	Bunny really didn't want to mess with that.


	*****


	Dampness. Cold Dampness. Why was it so cold? A shiver ran down Sally's
back as she shifted on what felt like wet grass. As Sally opened her eyes, she
found to her surprise that it was wet grass she was on. The sky above her,
overcast and dreary, and the humid air spoke of recent rain and more to come.
As she sat up, her head pounded and the damp, chilly air seemed to seep into
her spine and cause it to twist and contort. She promptly fell to the ground
with a sharp cry of pain. After the pain subsided, she began to rise again,
slower this time and with much care. The hill she sat on had low lying patches
of fog scattered about it and as the distance grew it became a wall. She
sniffed the air and a sharp, ash-like taste formed in her mouth and stung her
nostrils. She recognized that smell; she would never forget it the whole of
her life. But a day like this she had only experienced once in her life; the
day that followed the Day of Mourning. There had been a sudden flow of cold
air and it had rained and thundered that whole night. The morning dew brought
with it the ashy taste of destruction.

	Oh, Lord, what a horrible day.

	Somewhere off in the distance the sound of a crying child was heard.
Sally strained her ears and managed to make out its direction. Slowly, she got
to her feet and began to trod towards it. Out of the fog, the outlines of
cabins began to form and eventually the cabins themselves. Sally let out a
gasp. This wasn't possible! She was in Knothole! But how? She made her way
toward the sound of the crying child and a sensation of dread came over her
for it was coming from the direction of her own cabin. Cautiously, she
approached the front porch.

	Julayla!

	"Julayla," the little Princess sobbed, "I want to go home to daddy!
Where's daddy?"

	But this was impossible!

	Julayla held the little princess inside her warm fur-lined robe and
gently rocked back and forth in her chair.

	"I'm sorry, little Princess, we can't go back yet. Your father will
let us know when it will be safe for all of us to return."

	A tear formed at the corner of Sally's eye. The smaller version of
herself had no inkling of what was really going on. Her father would never
send word.

	"It's cold. I don't like it here." The little Princess shook her head,
her long locke of red hair, frizzled by the dampness, swaying.

	"I know, child. Have courage. Soon it will be safe."
	 
	Sally raised her hand, reaching for them, and cried out "Julayla!"

	"Yes, child?"

	Sally spun around to face the voice that came from behind. A quiver
was on the edge of her voice when she asked "J-Julayla? How-?"

	Julayla looked at Sally quizzically. "What are you doing here, child?"

	Sally looked around her. "I-I don't even know where this is. How can
we be talking to each other?"

	Julayla waved her hand. "Child, what are you doing HERE."

	Sally, confused by the events, didn't answer. Julayla looked at Sally
with the same endearing look that she always did her pupil.

	"Why did you come to this place alone, Sally?"

	"You mean... the research facility?"

	Julayla nodded.

	"T-to stop the new Assault-Bot and make sure that the facility is
knocked out for good."

	Julayla rubbed her chin as she walked around to Sally's other side.
"So I see. Why YOU?"

	Sally hung her head. "Oh, Julayla. I never could hide anything from
you." She fumbled with her hands. Julayla looked at her expectantly. Sally
tried not to feel the stern gaze, but failed as she always did with her
mentor. "You know I couldn't put anyone else in the line of fire for this!"
she cried. 

	"Hush!"

	Sally promptly did.

	"Sally, doing this is a grave risk! Not only to yourself, but others."

	"You've always told me to be strong for others."

	"Strong, not foolish."

	Sally bit her lip and kept quiet. It was obviously time for another
lesson from Julayla.

	"Others see you as their strength, Sally. You're their hope. Running
off and doing something so foolish as this would destroy it."

	"And what of my hope?" Sally asked. Frankly, she felt cheated for
having to be the strong one with no one for her to fully lean on. Did anyone
on the team have the slightest idea just how futile this war could be?

	"You're hope?"

	"Yes. My hope."

	Julayla smiled. "So that is what has brought you here."

	"Mr. Vix! So good of you to come!" Julayla said as she continued to
rock the distraut princess.

	Sally blinked as she was suddenly alone again. A scene she knew so
well unfolded before her.

	A light brown fox shook his jacket to knock some of the dew from it
as he climbed the steps to the porch. "Well, I had to thank you. Thank you
for warning me and my wife and for taking us with you."
						
	Julayla nodded. "Think nothing of it. We travel every path only once,
we should all do our best to help where we can."

	"I-I'm sorry."

	"Whatever for?"

	"Well, it just seems like the thing to say. I wish there was some way
I could have done more. If only we could have warned the others."

	"You risked your life to hold them off for as long as you did."

	Robert shook his head, but didn't say anything.

	"Mr. Vix-"

	"The name's Robert. Please, call me Robert. Everyone else does. Only
my teachers ever called me Mr. Vix."

	Julayla considered the statement a moment and then said, "Mr. Vix, you
may be with the Ravendale Law Enforcement, but that doesn't make you any less 
mortal than the rest of us. We're all thankful for your efforts. Please, don't
blame yourself."

	Robert smiled at the insistent use of "Mr. Vix" and replied "Ok,
teach."

	Julayla stopped her rocking and gently set the little Princess down
on the porch beside her; she looked up shyly at Robert. Robert, seeing her
tear strained eyes and hurting look, quickly snapped to attention in an
effort to make her smile.

	"My-my word! Please forgive me! I had no idea the Princess of the
Realm was here!" The little princess stared at him. "Why, if I had known I
would not have forgotten my lollipops!" A giggle defied the sour look on the
princess' face. "I am yours to command!"

	Another giggle escaped, this time from Julayla.

	"You're tall. Pick me up!" the little princess commanded. In one swift
move she was sitting on Robert's shoulder. "Look, Julayla! I'm as tall as
you!"

	"Sally, you've grown up so fast!" Julayla said with a gasp.

	The princess smiled, but it soon faded as she remembered what had
happened the day before. "Robert," she asked turning to him, "when will daddy
come and get us?"

	Robert set the princess down and said "I'm sure it will be soon. He's
a pretty tough guy, I wouldn't be surprised if he came by tomorrow night."

	"Really?"

	"You bet. And if he doesn't, I'll have to give him a stern talking to
for leaving us out here like this!"

	This time the little princess laughed out loud.

	Sally shook her head and rubbed her eyes. "But he didn't come that
night, or any other." Julayla was standing before Sally again watching her
intently.

	"It was tough for all of us." Julayla said. "I can't claim to know
what you went through."

	Sally looked at Julayla intently. "H-he was like a father to me during
the first two years."

	Julayla nodded. "I remember how upset and frightened you were when he
joined the resistance."

	"He was one of the first."

	Julayla paced around Sally. "And a form of hope?"

	A tear trickled down Sally's cheek. "Y-yes. It felt safe knowing he
was out there, even though I was scared he wouldn't come back."

	"Sometimes the best thing someone can be is a good listener. Tell me
what troubles you, child."

	Sally shook her head. "He left the resistance after he found out
Laura was to have Jessica. He was so happy. All of Knothole seemed happy. I
was happy he wasn't out on the field anymore...."

	"And...?"

	"I was the one that convinced him to come back and help us. It had
been five years after Jessica's birth and it was ME that convinced him to-to
leave them." Sally broke down and cried. "Don't you see? It's my fault that
Jessica has no father! It's my fault! I destroyed my own hope and hers!"
Julayla laid a hand on Sally's shoulder. "That's why I came here alone! I
had to do this myself! I can't let it happen again, not here not anywhere! 
									 
	The world around her was suddenly black.

	"And now the meaning of the lesson, child." Julayla's voice seemed
to echo from everywhere. "Just as Robert inspired hope in you, You inspire
hope in your friends. Let their hope be yours. They are there for you.
Remember that some fears are best fought not alone, but with friends."

	Sally fought against the blackness, fought to have a few more
moments with her mentor, but her eyes flew open and she found herself
strapped by her arms and legs to a metal table. The pain in her spine and
head returned in full force and made her clench her teeth. What had just
happened? A dream? The pain began to ebb. How did she get here? She had made
it inside the crater, but- but... she never made it to the facility! Oh-no!
She had been hit by- something. The Assault-Bot?

	She lay there for quite sometime contemplating the experience of her
dream. The lesson portrayed in it was not a new one to her. It was almost
word-for-word the same as she had heard it the first time those many years
ago. Somehow, in all the jumbled mess of her emotions, she had forgotten it.
Robert had been an inspiration to her, both as a fighter and as a role model.
During the early days of the coup, he had been a valuable and experienced
fighter, but it was the gentle side of him that Sally remembered most. He
always made her laugh and the joy that had brought would always be with her.
With the lesson renewed, it became clear to Sally that what Julayla had
taught in her wisdom was meant to protect and guide her. What was she doing
here alone? How did she ever expect to accomplish this without help? It was
time for her friends to once again be her strength. 
										      
	Her eyes began to dart around the sickly metal room to find some
means of escape. Her belongings, food, water, the remote charges, and Nicole
were no longer in her possession, so using them was out of the question. She
would have to find them before leaving. There was nothing in the room that
she could see that might be helpful in her escape. The walls were of rusted
aluminum, presumably with six foot concrete supports behind them. The sheer
non-descript boredom the walls induced seemed to force her eyes forward
toward a monitor. Her eyes stopped as the viewscreen powered to life. The
image of Dr. Robotnik filled it. His creased brow and toothy grin always
added new dimensions to the cure for insomnia; mostly related to the fear
approach.

	"Ah." he slithered between a grim smile. "You've finally regained
consciousness. I hope my Assault-Bot didn't hurt you too much."

	So that monstrosity that had attacked her was the Assault-Bot. "What
do you want Robotnik?" Sally asked.

	"Your friends, my dear. And they're on their way."

Sally averted her eyes realizing she had inadvertently created a fine
trap for her friends.

	"An interesting diversion you created by first coming in here alone,
but surely you knew such a plan was futile. What did you ever hope to
achieve?" The Dr. stopped and mused over Sally's 'strategy' for a moment and
then said "The hedgehog will work his way down here and find you, but the two
of you won't be leaving here alive. And if you have any hope of your friends
shutting down the power from the dam's controls, I've sent my Assault-Bot up
there. You didn't even see it coming, will they?"

	Sally's jaw dropped. The dam? Who was up there? Why was someone up
there? This was not good. She had to get out of here and help!

	Robotnik laughed deeply at her struggle in the straps. "Why do you
look surprised? Things not going your way?" He laughed heartily.

	Sally shot a look of contempt. "Funny, from the look of past
encounters, things have always gone our way."

	Robotnik shook his head and continued to laugh. "No, princess, not
this time. This time, I-have-WON." The screen faded out with howling evil.

	Sally continued to struggle as her mind and thoughts clouded. It was
happening again. No! Not again!

	'Let them be your hope.'  The thought jumped into her head.

	Sally steadied her breathing and began to examine her restraints more
closely... and hoped.


	******


	Arthur crawled silently along the top edge of the dam. "Oh, God."
he moaned. "What a horrible night to have a curse."

	Kain crawled up beside him and handed him one of two pairs of night-
sensitive binoculars. "What are you going on about?"

	"My momentary lapse of reasoning." The adrenaline from his Chapel
experience had worn off halfway to the dam. Now he was crawling along the edge
of a road that ran across a dam in an effort to knock out security cameras and
SWATbots. Why? For someone named Sally. Although, right now, disavowing any
knowledge of her existence seemed fun. Arthur took a look at Kain and was
fairly certain he wouldn't think so.

	"There's a SWATbot, up there in the tower. See it?"

	Arthur looked through the binoculars towards the tower. "Yeah. I see
him. Remind me again what ones they are."

	"They're the ones that are like stormtroopers only with slightly
better aim."

	Arthur nodded. "And the big tank ones you talked about?"

	"Com-Bots."

	"I don't want to fight any of them."

	Kain crawled forward a little. "Neither do I. Do you think you can
hit him from here?"

	"Probably, but the gun makes a bit of noise."

	"Oddly, it hasn't attracted attention yet."

	Arthur took aim and released a sharp, bright blue bolt toward the
tower. It hit the SWATbot in the chest and blasted it out of the tower and off
the dam side. Arthur looked at Kain as the cat pulled a roughly scribbled map
from his back pack. "How much further to the entry hatch?"

	"It's on the other side of the dam. Two more towers to go."

	The two of them began crawling forward again, Kain's black fur and
Arthur's black uniform making them one with the shadows.

	Arthur mused over this latest experience. Aside from the reality of
getting hit meant getting hurt bad, things were rather boring. These SWATbots,
which were suppose to be trouble, were slower than many competitors in the
dorms. Maybe his reaction time was just superior, or maybe something was up.
If something like this was happening back home he would be fairly certain Chad
was somewhere getting ready to shove both barrels of his gun down the back of
Arthur's pants and pulling the trigger. Chad and his little tricks had been
successful against Arthur enough that the back of his mind began to crawl when
Chad was just about to unleash another volley of terror. His mind wasn't
crawling, did that mean that everything was ok?

	Chad, why aren't YOU up here?

	Kain halted his movement and signaled for Arthur to come up next to
him. Arthur slithered up beside him saying "What's up?"

	"There's no one in the next tower." he said, his voice on edge.

	Arthur wasn't quite sure what the problem with this was. "So?"

	"So where'd he go?" Kain rolled to the other side of the road and
peered around with his goggles. Arthur did likewise with his goggles on his
side. "I see him!" Kain whispered. "It's the two of them. One is coming down
each side." Arthur instinctively readied his gun and Kain his sword. "On my
mark... NOW!"

	Two black clad figures morphed from the shadows into what little light
there was. In synchronous movements a laser bolt tore through the middle of one
SWATbot's visor while a flashing metal blade severed the head of the other.
Just as quickly as the figures had emerged, they also melted away.

	"Oh, we are good." Arthur whispered feeling confident about this
mission for the first time.

	Kain stood up and Arthur followed suite. "The hatch is just at the end
of the road." he said beginning to jog the remaining distance. "It's a service
and maintenance hole that leads to the dam's control room. If we plant a
charge at this end and one at the other the whole dam should go in a nice
flaming ball."

	"Good." Arthur said jogging alongside Kain. "Once we plant them we
have to wait for Sonic's signal."

	The two reached the maintenance hatch and Kain proceeded to hot-wire
the locks. Pulling the shielding off of each unit and cross-circuiting 
elements, Kain soon had each of the four bolts withdrawn. Arthur was happy to
see that at least some of the elements were akin to ones he remembered and he
was fairly confident that, given time, he could have hot-wired it too. Once
he got back he was going to the local library and pulling out every book on
basic circuits. 

	Kain lifted the hatch and crawled down the small ladder inside. He
dropped off it and landed on the floor of a well lit hallway three feet below.
Arthur dropped down beside him. The hallway seemed to run the length of the
dam. This was going to be easier than expected, this service hall was a
blessing. Kain pulled a remote charge from his pack and handed it to Arthur.
"Your crazy death-trap mission. Care to do the honors?"

	Arthur took the circular charge and removed the backing from it. He
then placed it against the wall below the ladder, the charge's sticky backing
securely holding it. Lastly, he inputted a sequence on the numeric keypad and
pressed two red buttons beside the LCD screen simultaneously, just like Kain
had shown him on the trip. The charge gave a little beep and the LCD turned
to a red "Armed."

	"That's one." Kain said and began to cautiously walk down the hall.
"Better call the others and let them know our progress."

	Arthur pulled a compact, yet bulky in its own right, walkie-talkie
from his left velcroed thigh pocket and closed the "Transmit" contact. "Space
Marine to Deep Blue, come in." Arthur said using their code names and hugging
the wall.

	"This is Deep Blue. What's up with your end?" Sonic asked.

	"Avatar and I are inside and one star has been born. Proceeding to
other end of dam."

	"Way past! Energizer and I are inside the detention block, will
signal when time to juice. Over and outta here."

	Arthur repocketed the talkie and slowly moved up the wall opposite of
Kain. Arthur with blaster in hand, Kain with melee weapon readied, the two
reached the end of the hall which opened into a catwalk hanging above the
main control room. The catwalk extended to the other side where the service
hall restarted. There was a ladder leading from the center of the walk to the
floor below. The spacious room was well lit with white light and had a
montage of computer monitors and terminals around it. There wasn't a single
soul to be found.

	"This is ridiculous." Kain said. "Nothing has ever been this easy."

	 "Kain, this is not good." Something had to be up.

	The doors to either end of the service hall fell shut with a
resounding bang.

	"Tell me about it."

	The back of Arthur's brain began to crawl and worm. "Run!" Arthur
instinctively cried.

	Kain and Arthur bolted from their standing position just as something
shot up through the catwalk in front of them. It tore the metal mesh from the
wall and sent one end collapsing to the floor with Kain and Arthur clinging to
it like scared children to their mother. The force of the walk hitting the
floor sent Arthur spinning away from Kain who, using his claws, had managed
to keep his grasp.

	Arthur slammed up against a terminal desk and gasped for air as he
watched in morbid fascination as the mechanical figure that had torn through
the walk took aim at Kain. "Kain!" he managed to cry. Kain flipped himself off
the walk and landed without so much as a grunt on the floor below as the
blaster bolt the robot fired tore through his previous position. The robot
took no respite and immediately fired off more rounds. Kain jumped, twisted,
and leaped his way out of every one, his cat agility and body performing far
better than a human's could.

	Kain came to rest behind a terminal desk of his own as Arthur crawled
behind his. Arthur leaned his head out to get a good look at the robot. It
was at least eight feet tall and fully articulate. It's body was moving in
some type of poetry all its own, not like the clunky movements of the
SWATbots. Massive shoulders and chest and built up arms and thighs gave it the
appearance of an armored knight.

	"Arthur!" Kain shouted. "It's an Assault-Bot!"

	"Well, Duuuuhhh!" Arthur shouted back.

	"Watch it! It's porting one mean laser cannon!"

	Arthur looked upon it again and saw a huge rifle mounted along one
of its arms. Not noticing Arthur for the moment, he ducked out and fired
five quick rounds at the Assault-Bot's head. Each one hit and rebounded off
hitting the wall behind it. Arthur cried several explicative at this and then
several more as he saw the other arm of the bot swing up and an attachment
swing out from the forearm. Arthur ran like the wind and ducked behind the
main computer console's semi-circular concrete support slab. His former
hiding place exploded as a missile flew from the forearm attachment.

	"Kain!" Arthur gasped. "Why didn't you tell me it had missiles! And
why didn't you tell me it was shielded against laser fire?!"

	The Assault-Bot's feet began to glow as it slowly repulsed itself from
the floor. The bot then began to 'skate' around toward Kain with incredible
agility and released another missile. Kain quickly joined Arthur behind the
main terminal.

	Swallowing air hard, Kain looked at Arthur. "How about 'because I
didn't know?'"

	Two laser bolts teased them by boring holes into the concrete floor
just a few inches away.

       "Got any ideas, Mr. Death-trap? I'm all out and we don't have much
time to live." Kain's mind was racing, but was coming up without solutions.

	Arthur muttered an explicative under his breath.




	Sonic raced down the rusty corridor with Bunny clinging wildly to him.
Mounted motion sensitive laser cannons snapped to attention and began to spit
red rain down towards the oncoming invaders. Sonic shifted into high gear and
literally tore his way through the floor mounted cannons while Bunny used her
robotic arm to dislodge the ceiling mounted ones. The two reached the end of
the hall unscathed.

	On the floor was a small brown back pack. Bunny reached for and opened
it. Inside was Sally's food.

	"This is bogus! We know fat man is leading us into a trap!" Sonic
whined for the umpteenth time.

	"Of course it is! But there is nothing we can do since Sally is
obviously at the center of it and that's where ware headed!" Bunny replied
for the umpteenth time as well.

	 The two had been following clues to Sally's whereabouts since they
jumped from the landspeeder as it passed the crater. Just outside the
detention blocks, they had found her water bottles bundled together by one of
her back pack straps. They followed the corridor it lay in, fought some
SWATbots and ended up discovering one of her (now defused) charges. The call
they then received from Arthur and Kain regarding their mission status
forced them to speed up for they knew the two couldn't remain at the dam
undetected forever. The two remaining defused charges had led them to Sally's
backpack with her food. There was only one other provision yet to obtain,
Nicole. The room beyond them most likely held it, but what forces waited to
thwart them?

	The ceiling was high above them and the walls here were of laid
concrete slabs. Four huge iron pillars supported the weight of the ceiling
and managed to conveniently draw the eyes towards a pedestal that rested in
the center. On it lay Sally's computer, Nicole. Sonic gritted his teeth as
he saw what guarded it, a Com-Bot. There was no way it could not have seen
them, but it stood motionless regardless.

"Boy, Robuttnik is really playing the sucker." he muttered.

	"He may be, but taking that thaing out ain't gonna be a picnic."

	Picnic? It wasn't going to be any picnic for Robuttnik if he harmed
Sally in any way. Sonic shook his fists. "I'm coming Sal!"

	In the blink of an eye Sonic was racing toward the pedestal at top
speed. The Com-Bot immediately began firing its wrist cannons and started
toward Sonic. Grabbing his knees and flying through the air in a tight ball,
Sonic managed to avoid the blast and rebound off the pedestal into another
direction.

	Bunny utilized the diversion by shooting her robotic arm out to one
of the two nearer iron pillars and swinging herself over to the pedestal
faster than she could have run. She quickly pocketed Nicole and took cover
behind another pillar.

	"Sonic!" she yelled. "I think it maight be time for one o' ya
little ol presents!"

	Sonic spun around the Com-bot and grinned. "Got your drift, Bunny!"

	Bunny ran for the hallway upon Sonic's understanding.

	Timing his moves just right, Sonic waited until one of the wrist
blasters had fired and thrust a grenade directly into the barrel opening.
The explosion resulting from the Com-Bot's next round tore it to pieces,
blasted a 5 meter deep whole in the floor and sent a shock-wave out that
ripped the pillars from their foundations. It also sent Sonic into a dive
that flung him down half the corridor.

	Bunny ran to him and helped him up saying "I meant one o' ya smaller
little ol presents."

	Sonic shook his head. "That was the smaller one."

	Now Bunny shook hers.

	"Come on!" Sonic blurted in his usual impatient way. "Sal's got to
be through that other door!"

	The two ran up to the steel door that was opposite the entry hall.
Without so much as a moments hesitation, Sonic cut the door of its hinges with
Nicole's laser. The door fell outward and hit the stone floor with a dull
ringing.

	"Sonic!" Sally yelled unhooking the last of four straps that held her
to the table.

	"Sally!" Sonic joyously replied as Sally tumbled off the table and
into his arms. He held her close and tight. "Oh, Sally! What were you doing?!
Why on Mobius did you have to do this?!"

	Sally held onto Sonic saying "I'm sorry, Sonic."

	"Sorry? That's it? Sally you nearly gave me a heart attack!"

	Sally just whispered into Sonic's ear "I knew you'd come." and kissed
him gently on the forehead.

	"Ahd hate to break up such a sweet moment, but we are still in hot
wahter!" Bunny exclaimed.

	Sally immediately extricated herself from Sonic's arms and said "The
dam. Who on Mobius is up on the dam?"

	"Arthur and Kain." answered Sonic.

	Sally's jaw dropped in a very unlady-like manner. "What the blazes are
they doing?! Arthur isn't combat ready!"

	Sonic put his hands up in defense. "Hey! This whole stunt was Arthur's
idea. He's going to blow up the dam to flood this crater to draw the attention
of anyone who may be looking for us."

	Sally was about to shake her fist defiantly and instantly put both
Arthur and Kain on crop duty for a month, but stopped as she realized that
such a plan might work. Why hadn't she thought it up? Wait a minute- "Sonic!
Robotnik sent an Assault-Bot up there! They don't have a chance!"

	Sonic slapped his forehead and cried "Oh-Man! What are we suppose to
do now?!"

	"We go up there and help them!" exclaimed Sally.

	"But we're suppose to plant the remote charges in the facility!"

	"It can wait!"

	"But how are we suppose to get up there?! They're suppose to create
the diversion!"

	Now Sally's fist shook defiantly. "We have to try."

	Sonic shook his head. "Ya ever have one of those days? Come on! Let's
juice!"

	Sally and Bunny gripped Sonic as he sped back through corridors. They
were approaching the exit to the detention block when Bunny took the liberty
to contact Arthur and Kain via the walkie-talkie. She never got a message off.
The three came to a complete stop just outside the entrance and simply stared.
They were surrounded. SWATbots, Com-Bots and Egg-Bots were positioned in a
semi-circle and all had guns pointed at the party of freedom fighters. At the
center of the small army stood Dr. Robotnik, a vile smile on his thin lips.

	"Welcome." he said simply. 

	Bunny closed the contact on the walkie-talkie; she had to let Arthur
and Kain know what was going on. Somehow they might be able to get bye the
Assault-Bot and come to their aid. The usual bantering Sonic and Robotnik
partook in would be overheard and clue the two in.

Sonic folded his arms and looked at Robotnik expectantly. "Well it's
about time you got here, but what's with all the help? We don't have any
bags. You could have shown us to our rooms yourself."

Dr. Robotnik smiled. "Oh, no, hedgehog. We're just a bit upset about
your unpaid balance."

	He sapped his fingers and three Com-Bots thrust up out of the ground
and locked the arms of the three freedom fighters behind them. Bunny's hold
on the walkie-talkie wasn't quite secure anymore. It began to slip from her
grasp.

	"Hey!" Sonic struggled within the Com-Bot's grasp. "Don't damage the
merchandise! I'm a valued customer!"

Dr. Robotnik completely ignored him and proceeded to look Princess Sally
in the eye as the Com-Bot's forced the three to their knees. "Well, my
Princess," he said, "It doesn't look like thins are going your way this time."
Robotnik stood up straight and took in a breath of contentment. "Well, your
highness," his voice was filled with contemptible sarcasm. "where have we
seen this little seen before?" He let out a putrid chuckle.

	Sally's brow furrowed together as she stared on in defiance.

	Robotnik answered for her. "Why, I do believe it was the last time
you filthy rodents tried to harm my research facility. Oh, say, about a year
ago." He peered down at Sally and then gripped her by her blue vest, pulling
her up to his height while the Com-Bot tried to hold her down. Sally let out
a sharp cry at the pain in her joints. "I believe I was about to rid myself
of you when one of your friends, a fox as I recall, jumped into the line of
fire." The Doctor threw her down and rubbed his chin with a hum. "Poor fellow,
it tore right through his heart. Poor fool."

	Sally let out a muffled sob.

	Dr. Robotnik's smile broadened to its maximum. "Only this time you
won't be able to escape with his diversion or anyone else's. Since all of your
companions that matter are held just as you."

	"Yeah? You just wait!" Sonic squirmed.

	Robotnik laughed. "Referring to your friends in the dam? Don't place
any hope in them. In addition to the Assault-Bot up there, I've sent an entire
division of Com-Bots up to the road. They won't be leaving alive, and neither
are you."

	The walkie-talkie slipped from Bunny's grip and clunked to the ground.
Dr. Robotnik glared.




	"Shut up!" Arthur shouted at Kain as the two rolled to one end of the
curved concrete support, the end away from the Assault-Bot. "Let me think
about this!"

	Kain halted his complaint of how Arthur dragged him into this as the
Assault-Bot whisked three inches above the floor to the other side of the
room and seemed to consider the best and most efficient means of termination
of its prey.

	Arthur snapped his fingers. "It's ray shielded, right?"

	"Yeah?! So wha-"

	"That's the key! It has to be!"

	The bot skated to the couple's side of the room and considered.

	"Talk fast, Arthur!" Kain's muscles tensed at the sight of the
Assault-Bot.

	"How? How?" Arthur began to hit his head with his palm. "That's it!
It can only deflect light energy! Like energy from a blaster bolt. If it
was deflecting all energy it wouldn't be able to physically interact with its
environment. It would fall to the floor instead of skating!" Maybe.

	"So what?!"

	"So I can't hit it with my blaster, but you should still be able to
hit with your sword!"

	Kain looked dumbfoundedly at Arthur. The sword mightier than the
blaster? Couldn't be right. "Arthur that's looney!"

	"We're going to die anyway! Why not find out before we go?"

	Kain's eyes darted as the Assault-Bot reopened it's missile launcher.
"What's your plan?"

	"I'll be the diversion!" Without consultation on the part of Kain,
Arthur jumped out from behind the console and took the Assault-Bot by
surprise. Arthur aimed for the launcher and hit the loaded missile dead center.
The explosion tore the arm from its socket and set the bot reeling. Kain leapt
onto the terminal and then toward the bot, his strong leg muscles giving him
an incredible range. He swung his sword in a graceful arc whose path took the
sword from one side of the neck to the other.

	The Assault-Bot sputtered and fell to the floor, silent.

	The room was silent as well.

	Arthur looked at Kain and with the joy of exhausted relief cried
"Yes! We are invincible!"

	Kain looked at his sword. Mightier than the blaster? Wait until the
people that used to mock him for carrying it heard this!

	The two stood there for a moment, not quite sure what it was they
were supposed to be doing. Arthur was the first to recover. "We better plant
the other charge." he said.

	Kain nodded his head as the walkie-talkie in Arthur's pocket crackled
to life. "Well it's about time you got here, but what's with all the help?
We don't have any bags. You could have shown us to our rooms yourself."
Arthur pulled the device from its holster and stared at it dumbfoundedly.
"Oh, no, hedgehog. We're just a bit upset about your unpaid balance."

	Kain's lips pressed together in distress. "On, no! That's Robotnik!
Something must have happened!"

	Arthur shook his head. "This can't be happening. Why must the
universe always work against the common good of the engineer?!"

	Kain hushed him quiet as the conversation continued. "Why, I do
believe it was the last time you filthy rodents tried to harm my research
facility. Oh, say, about a year ago. I believe I was about to rid myself
of you when one of your friends, a fox as I recall, jumped into the line of
fire."

	"Robert." Arthur said lowly. Kain nodded.
	 
	"Poor fellow, it tore right through his heart." There was the humming
of a dark dirge. "Poor fool."

	Arthur began shaking the walkie-talkie. "Do you have any idea how
much that explains you filthy jerk!"

	"Stop it! We need to hear this and figure out where they are!" Kain's
words stopped the shaking.

	The voice of Dr. Robotnik continued, "Referring to your friends in
the dam? Don't place any hope in them. In addition to the Assault-Bot up
there, I've sent an entire division of Com-Bots up to the road."

	Both Arthur and Kain shot startled looks at the other.

	"They won't be leaving alive, and neither are you." The voice ended
with a click and a clang.

	His grip tightening on the walkie-talkie, Arthur began to shake it
furiously again. "What? No! How are we suppose to know where you are now?!"
Kain tried to calm him down. "Speak to me!" Arthur wailed as the unit was
torn from his grasp by Kain.

	"Will you relax! That's not going to help!" Arthur took a few breaths
and agreed. "Right now we have to figure a way out of here with that platoon
up there." 
	
	Both Arthur and Kain looked down upon the functionless Assault-Bot and
danced their eyes across the three cyclic barrels of the arm cannon.

	"Is that thing...?" Arthur asked.

	"Self contained and therefore removable?" Kain finished. He hunched
over the fallen robot and examined the gun closely. Normally he abhorred guns,
another reason he carried a sword, but desperate times called for desperate
measures. "It is!" he cried.

	"Good. Let's get it off and-"

	"Use it for a diversion."

	Arthur looked at Kain questioningly. "A diversion? Why not blast
them?"

	"An entire division of Com-Bots? No way. If we're lucky the gun will
buy us time to make a break for the speeder. Then we can get the rest by
blowing the dam." He tossed the two remaining charges to Arthur. "Set them in
here, two should do the job of one at the other end."

	Arthur reached into the back pack and set one of the mines, but left
it inside and threw the pack behind the terminal. "Done." he said as the
walkie-talkie that Kain had set beside himself came alive again. Arthur
whisked it away.

	"Hello? Freedom fighters?" the voice of Dr. Robotnik asked.

	Arthur made no move to reply.

	"Tut tut. Too bad. I guess your friends are gone, Princess. But don't
worry. You'll be meeting them soon. Assault-Bot! Come forth!"

	Kain stared at Arthur. "Jeeze-Louise! He's gonna kill them right now!
Arthur, don't act like a idiot! Buy us some time!" He fumbled more frantically
with the bolts securing the cannon.

	Arthur's mouth wavered a second on how to provide sufficient
distraction for both Robotnik and another one of those bloody Assault-Bots,
but then it came to him. He brought the mike end to his mouth.

	"'O, that this too too solid flesh would melt, Thaw, and resolve
itself into dew!'"

	 Kain's eyebrow rose and his movements slowed at Arthur's
quotation, a tad curious how Robotnik would react to such a dialect, but
quickly returned to his task at hand.

	"'O how weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable Seem to me all the uses
of this world!'" Arthur let off the contact and waited for a response to come.

	"I beg your pardon?" Dr. Robotnik asked. "No matter. It would appear
that you are still alive, but whether you are sane still remains a question.
Have a run in with my Assault-Bot did you? Are you cowering in a corner and
mumbling incoherently to me, little freedom fighter?"

	Kain swung his arm in a circle indicating to Arthur to keep up his
diversion.

	"'In what particular thought to work I know not; But, in the gross
and scope of my opinion, This bodes some strange eruption to our state.'"

	The cannon fell from its mount and Kain swept it up in his arms.
Turning to Arthur he motioned for them to head back to the entrance and for
him to keep his quotations from 'Hamlet' going.

	"Truly you are in a sad state of affairs, my friend." The Doctor
replied. "I wonder how long before you expire. Nonetheless, I must go. You
draw me from my business of rapidly burying your friends out here in the
crater."

	Kain's eye's lit up. "Let's book it!" he mouthed. Arthur nodded as
they began a brisk jog up the now ramp-like cat-walk and down the corridor.

	"'Stay! speak, speak! I charge thee, speak!'"

	"Well then, you do have some wits about you. Perhaps you were not
whacked as hard as I first thought."

	"'And yet, methinks there be a method in his madness.'" Yes, there
most definitely was method in this madness.

	The group reached the end of the hall and Kain signaled Arthur to
release the connection while Dr. Robotnik rattled on about how unfortunate
it was that he couldn't have Arthur's babbling mind to amuse him forever.

	"There's only one way that division could be, Arthur. Right in front
of our path. There's a rock wall at this end so they can't be anywhere else."
Arthur nodded as Kain handed him the Cannon. Blast, it was heavy. "You'll
have to fire while we run like a lunatics."

	"Do you think it will work?"

	Kain was silent. "Arthur," he said clasping the human's hand, "Let's
make it work, for Sally."

	Arthur pulled Kain near and patted him roughly on the back. "You
stupid cat!" he said. "Why do you want to get us all killed?" Kain laughed
hard at Arthur's mock.

	They climbed just to the entrance and prepared themselves. Arthur was
the first out with a sharp war cry as the three cyclic barrels of the cannon
took their turns at spewing rapid red death. Kain leaped out of the hatch and
ran directly behind Arthur, swinging his sword at any wrist lasers of surviving
Com-Bots. The barrels tore through the opposition directly in front of them
without any retaliation. By the time the Surviving Com-Bots had organized a
counterattack, the two freedom fighters had broke through the blockade.
Living on pure adrenaline, Arthur and Kain ran for the speeder at the other
end of the dam.

	Dr. Robotnik must have heard the laser fire and commotion for the
walkie-talkie suddenly sputtered to life. His voice was no longer one of
amused contentment, but of sudden awareness; the awareness that his Assault-
Bot had not performed its intended duty. "What are you doing?!" the Doctor
demanded.

	"'Buzz! Buzz!'"

	The two landed in the speeder and Arthur punched the power cells to
full as Kain readied the remote charge detonator. The speeder leapt forward
in anticipation of the dam's destruction.

	"You're the overlander! Who are you?!" Vile rage poured from the
walkie-talkie

	Arthur leaned the mike to his mouth and said one final phrase. "From
one Engineer to another, Doctor Robotnik. If you can build it, I can break
it."

	Kain leaned both thumbs down into the rubber coated detonator switch.
						  
	For a brief moment, the night was as day.

	The sound was deafening. Arthur let out a scream, but it was only
felt, not heard.        

	In the crater, the explosion blinded the optic sensors of the entire
robot unit. Sonic broke free of his restraints and used his speed to knock
the others free as well. Though partially blinded himself, he found both
Sally and Bunny and sped at warp speed out of the crater.

	Dr. Robotnik, realizing what was going to be coming down into the
crater in a few moments fled with his hover unit. The oncoming tidal wave
smashed the robots to pieces against the rock walls.

	Dr. Robotnik's only utterance, "An Engineer?"


	******


From the Journal entries of Sally Alicia Acorn:

	I don't remember quite how long it was that Arthur and Kain were
partially deaf, perhaps a few hours. Dr. Quack and Dr. Bookshire both assured
me that their hearing would return and be as good as new in a short time. You
can bet that both of them made the best of their partial hearing loss by
twisting all of our phrases into jokes that only the two of them understood
and insisting that they heard us say them.

	The destruction of the dam flooded the crater and destroyed all of
Dr. Robotnik's strike force, but it did not destroy or even harm the facility.
I didn't feel any regret at this. We all had made it out alive and my hope
in my friends had been reaffirmed, that in itself was enough to be thankful
for. Despite the facility's survival, I no longer felt that Robert's death
had been in vain. With Julayla's lesson renewed, I came to realize that the
hope he inspired in myself and others, was a hope that one day the Kingdom of
Acorn would be restored and we could all breathe a sigh of peaceful relief. By
putting himself in the line of fire, Robert showed us that the fight was worth
the sacrifices we all made. Looking at the firm resolve in the eyes of those
around me, including Arthur's, I could see it was true, and the war didn't
seem so impossible after that. 

	Dr. Robotnik, however, made no effort to drain the water level in the
crater to recover the facility which was evidence that the Assault-Bot had
been completed and was now being produced. The confirmation came towards the
end of the war when they began to emerge in a great number. At that time,
Arthur had established himself as a respectable freedom fighter and, along
with Sir Kain and Dr. Bookshire, implemented a unique plan to not only stop
Assault-Bot production, but to wipe out any that were already active.
Ironically, the seed for the plan had been planted by Arthur's "arch-nemesis,"
Joseph LeCroix. Apparently in one of their "intellectual" bouting matches, in
the midst of their usual insult swapping, LeCroix made a remarked about
Arthur's "incompatibility" on Mobius. However this line triggered the line of
thought leading to Arthur's plan I'm still not entirely sure of. I often
warned Arthur to stay away from LeCriox since all he wanted was to be left
alone, but somehow Arthur always found a way to annoy him. At least one good
thing came from their bickering.

	The tri-barrel laser cannon that Arthur and Kain salvaged from the
Assault-Bot was turned over for inspection, despite Arthur's protests that
it should be mounted on the hood one of the land speeders. Its back-
engineering led to a better understanding of the Assault-Bot's armament and
power systems capabilities. This knowledge would prove to be invaluable in
assessing the finished Assault-Bot's capabilities.

	In conclusion, I believe that Arthur and Sir Kain would be the best
possible choices for the dilemma that now faces me. While they are certainly
not the best fighters, their teamwork, their determination, their luck and,
their most important attribute, their uniqueness has convinced me that they
are the most suited for solving the problem at hand. Tomorrow, I shall tell
father that I believe them to be the best course of action. Tonight, however,
tonight is for celebration of our victory over Dr. Robotnik; a time to enjoy
the company of friends.

	End log entry.


	      

	Sally set Nicole down and stood in front of the full-height mirror
in her bedroom. She adjusted the sparkling diamond necklace that looped down
to her bust and admired its complementation of her flowing white gown. The
top clung almost devilishly to her curves while the lower portion flowed in
graceful arcs down to her ankles producing a stunning appearance.

	Nicole spoke aloud. "Then you have reached a conclusion, Sally?"

	Sally turned and studied her figure from a different perspective.

	"Yes." she said. "I feel that Arthur and Sir Kain are the most logical
choices."

	"Should not Sonic or Geoffry St. John be informed and even selected
for the task?"

	Sally shook her head. "Sonic and Geoffrey would both have fits if
they learned of our situation. Besides, the two of them are too well known;
Arthur and Sir Kain are not."

	"Do you feel that they are truly capable of succeeding?"

	Sally smiled. "After what I've just recounted to you, I'd be a fool
not to have some hope in them." She voraciously attacked a wrinkle in the
fabric of her gown. "And that is enough of that, Nicole. Tonight, I just want
to leave my cares behind and enjoy myself."

	Nicole was silent a moment before speaking up again. "I am curious
about something, Sally."

	"Hmm?"

	"Knowing how Arthur has reacted to situations he deems extremely
foolish, I am interested in knowing what his response to you after our return
from the research facility was."

	Sally laughed.


	******


	The sun had been up for a good number of hours now and today it
brought with it a vibrant warmth. Not too hot, but not too cold either. Today,
the rays of the sun thought it would be quite fun to cling to anything they
managed to hit and in doing so impart their jovial heat. These light rays,
streaming through the window and impacting upon a black uniform, gave Arthur
the feeling of being alive, something he had not felt in over a month. After
the crazy time the night before, it was a welcomed reprieve.

	Arthur traced the "Engineer=Looser" equation to bring back its
original distinctness and vibrance. After an unsuccessful attempt at removing
the sharp chalk mark from above the equation, he decided to continue it down
and across the equal sign and even add a few more letters on the
chalkboard.

	"Engineer!=Looser; 2B#!2B=1 for all E of life."

	Feeling satisfied with his work, he boxed it and labeled it "Arthur's
Theorem." If he was lucky, maybe he could get it published. He put the chalk
down and flipped the board back to his radio/Pac-Man alarm clock.

	So he was still stuck here, but somehow that didn't seem so bad. He
had learned the value he placed in his new found friends and would help them
when needed, which meant he was going to need some training. Kain would know
what to do. The new purpose he felt would help too. For now, there was nothing
he could do to get home. He missed his friends deeply, even Chad, and he was
feeling a certain amount of anxiety in his choice to help fight. What an
incredible change of lifestyles; going from passive student to an active
member of a fighting group. He would cope, though. When things are crazy you
can either fight back or make them part of your personality, so he would
choose the latter and make the best of his situation.

	There were a few good things about his predicament. For one, he didn't
have to deal with any water gun battles over bagels. That accursed stress over
his final exam was gone. He didn't have to pay back his college debts....

	There came a knock at the door and Arthur opened it in reply.

	"Hello." Sally said. "Do you mind if I come in?"

	Arthur swallowed hard and waved his arm aside. "Sure. Have a seat."
He watched her walk in, but she preferred not to sit. He wasn't quite sure
what to make of her visit, he hadn't been able to talk to her last night with
the two good Doctors climbing all over him so he didn't know whether or not
she approved of his actions regarding the dam. Well, if she didn't that was
ok... because he really didn't approve of hers at the facility.

	"Felling better?" Sally asked as she surveyed the room. This was the
first time she had been in here since Arthur had moved in. The room seemed to
have an organized clutter about it, back pack on one chair with text books
stacked on the table next to it, water gun parts laying in the sink.

	"Uh, yes, actually, I am." Arthur answered scratching his head. "The
ringing in my ears has finally stopped."

	"That's good." she said rubbing her arm from the awkwardness of the
situation. From what she had heard it was Arthur that had first figured out
where and why she had gone off to, which meant he understood her feelings
about Robert as well as her actions regarding the facility and pressuring him
to join the freedom fighters. Where could she begin to bring a certain amount
of closure to things? "I see you've decided to take up some light reading."
Sally held up one of the text books.

	"Well, if I'm going to be stuck here, might as well get aquatinted with
the bits and pieces of your technology that I don't understand."

	"'The Winter Solstice?' Doesn't sound like fundamental wave theory
to me."

	"Well, technology and your customs. I met Bookshire's sister at the
library and she insisted upon that one, along with several romance novels."

	Sally chuckled. "She means well."  There was an awkward silence and
Sally's eyes started to roam again. They came to rest upon Robert's Iago
"Enforcer" which was hung on a hook. "I see Laura loaned you Robert's gun last
night."

	"Actually, I talked with her when I got back. It's now my 'Enforcer.'"

	Sally's brow furrowed. "YOUR 'Enforcer?' Then you've decided-"

	"To help? Someone has to keep you from running off again." Arthur had
meant it as sarcasm, but when he saw the look in Sally's eyes he knew he had
struck a nerve. "He was a good man, Robert, wasn't he?"

	"The best."

	"What was he like?"

	Sally sighed in remembrance. "He was always on the lookout for a good
time, but he was also so serious. He was very kind, intelligent, and caring."

	"He was a good friend."

	Sally nodded her head.

	Arthur scratched his head again. "Look, Sally, I'm not real good at
these forgiveness things. I spent the whole of my college career either
goofing off or trying to goof off. Heat-to-heart talks were never encouraged."
He extended his hand. "What I'm trying to say is, I'm sorry for lashing out
at you when you asked me to join. Things weren't clear in my head."

	Sally clasped her hand around the extended one and said "Well, you
weren't the only one to blame. I'm sorry, and thank you for helping us."

	"Friends then?"

	"Friends." Sally gave the hand a good shake.

	Arthur threw his other arm around Sally, gave her a hug and whispered
in her ear. "You realize that, as your friend, it's my job to inform you that
if you ever pull a stunt like the one you did last night again I'll kill you
myself."

	Sally smiled and said. "And you have to realize that, if you're going
to be a part of the team, I'm your superior officer and I can have you
imprisoned for such threats."

	The two laughed heartily and broke the embrace.

	"There's something I'm curious about, though," Sally continued "that
strange dialect you used last night sounded like renaissance English. What
was that all about?"

	Arthur picked up two small books that were stacked by the library text 
books and handed one to Sally. "It's about William Shakespeare's Hamlet. Very
interesting story. You should read it."

	Sally opened the text to a bookmarked page. "'To be or not to be, that
is the question.' Hmm. Sounds like a universal truth."

	Arthur smiled as he led himself and Sally out of the cabin.

	"You don't mind if I borrow this do you? It would be interesting to
read a literary work of your world."

	"Be my guest. I've had enough of the Prince of Denmark for a while."

	"Thank you." Sally looked around her. "Where are we going?"

	"To a small ethereal spot under a tree that usually agrees with me."

	"And the purpose?"

	"To enjoy a nice spot of Laura's tea, some company and a good book."
he held up the second book he had taken from the table. "Care to join?"

	"I'd be delighted."

	The two came to rest under a tree, joining the ranks of Laura, Jessica
and Kain. They all sat themselves down on chairs around a wooden pick-nick
table and Laura gave everyone a cup of tea. Kain looked at it skeptically.

	"Ok, Arthur," Kain said, "I'll try anything once, and what's the book
you brought with you to read? Not Hamlet I hope. I had enough of that last
night."

	Arthur took a sip of his tea to wash down a toasted cracker that had
also been placed on the table. "It's called 'The Foundation Trilogy.' By
Isaac Asimov."

	"Ah-ha. I've heard of this. It's suppose to be very good." Kain said.

	"What's it about?" Sally asked.

	"When you come down to it?" Arthur asked as he opened the book to
the first page. "'Hari Seldon:'" he began.
	



						  
				   THE END.         
	

Note from the author:


	I'd just like to take this time and say a few things. First off, I'd 
like to say that this is my first fan-fiction and, as a result, has may of the
stereotypical elements that accompany a Sonic fan-fic first. The idea of
a human arriving on Mobius has been done before so I didn't want to really
be redundant, but it was the only way to get the specific type of character I
wanted on Mobius. Some of things I did do and want to do within the universe
could not and cannot be accomplished with a character of Mobian origin, he
simply wouldn't have the background I needed. Also, if you read this and
thought it was absolutely the worst piece of trash you've ever read,
I'm sorry for putting this all the way down here so you didn't have a chance
to see that this story was a fan-fic first and leave. My deepest apologies to
anyone whom I may have offended.

	There were a lot of things that I wanted to do, but as the characters
developed some of those things just didn't fit. Arthur was suppose to buy
the entire Kingdom of Acorn for 5 American dollars and then comment to Kain
how good the exchange rates were, but the story just went off another way and
the need never arose.

	In conclusion, I'd just like to say that I hope you had some amusement
reading this fan-fiction as I had some amusing times writing it. I'd also
like to send a special thanks to Eric Goodwin and David Pistone for having the
courage to entrust their characters in my hands for a short while. I hope that
I may have helped to further them in some way.