The following short story is based on characters created and/or
copyrighted by SEGA! Enterprises, DiC Productions, Archie Comic
Publishers, Fleetway Comic Publishers, and the Taki Corporation.  All
other characters were created and copyrighted by Roland Lowery.
	The author gives permission to distribute this work freely as long
as it remains intact and unaltered, and the transfer of monetary units is
not involved.
	Questions, comments, suggestions, complaints?  Send them to me at
<rlowery@taurus.oursc.k12.ar.us>.  I enjoy hearing from people who can
spell.

	Chaotic Multiverse Tale #9

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Quote for the day:

	Hobbes:  "I have a question.  Why don't we get younger as we go
back in time, and disappear as we pass the day we were born?"
	Calvin:  "I'd explain it, but there's a lot of math."
	Hobbes:  "I thought you got a 'D' in math."

				-Calvin and Hobbes, by Bill Watterson
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------


	Heroes of War (Part 5 - Heroes Saga)
		by Roland Lowery


	IN THE dense jungles of the Floating Island, which hovered some
three thousand feet above sea level, hundreds of animals stirred uneasily.
Their peace had been broken well over an hour ago by the sudden appearance
of a group of other, stranger animals.
	These new animals were unlike anything seen before on the island.
Their skins were not covered with fur, nor were they scaley or wet.  They
were dry and shone in the sun with a brilliance that no other animal could
hope to accomplish.  Their bodies were silvery gray, and their wide,
uniocular eyes glowed a dull red.
	In their hands they held long sticks that were made of the same
material as their bodies.  The sticks would suddenly unleash a crimson
light that would destroy all that got in its way, including a large
gathering of evolved animals that called themselves Mobians.
	The lesser evolved animals could not understand this.  For
centuries, their kind had been sheltered by the Guardians of this island,
a race of evolved echidnas who had, over the years, dwindled in number.
The animals had never been subject to such treatment as they were now.
	Many of the smarter animals were retreating to the edges of the 
island, where there was less fighting now that the large shapes that
carried the gray animals onto the island had stopped landing.  The few
that remained in the jungles, forests, and on the few mountains on the 
island were treated to a sight even stranger than the gray animals and the
bewildering confrontation that was going on.
	This sight was a blue object that moved through the trees at such
a speed that even the swiftest gazelle would have not been able to keep up
with it.  The jungle, forest, and mountain creatures all hung on tight as
the blur sped by as it inched bit by bit from the "western" side of the
island to the "eastern" side.
	Every nook, every cranny, every cave, crevice, hole, burrow, 
everything that could be used as a hiding spot was searched by the blur.  
Within mere minutes, it would have covered almost the entire island.
	It WOULD have, had it not found its objective.
	Or rather, had it's objective not found IT.

	Sonic T. Hedgehog, the blue blur, found himself flying through 
the air.  Something had caught his leg as he had been running, sending 
him careening towards a tree trunk.
	He twisted his body in the air in an attempt to start up a Sonic 
Spin, but he realized that it would be too late.  Instead, he continued 
to twist around, this time into a position where he would take the least 
force to his vulnerable spots.
	He hit the tree with a resounding thud.  He thought he heard
something break, and hoped that it was something on the tree and not
something on himself.  After rolling down the trunk, he came to a stop at
the roots.  he looked around blearily to find what had tripped him, but
could see nothing.
	Everything blurred out around the edges, but he struggled to stay
conscious.  The last thing he could afford to do right then was pass out.
He struggled to stand up, but felt a hand on his shoulder as it pushed
him back to the ground.
	"Ssssh," said a voice.  "You just go on t'sleep and I'll take
care of everything else."
	"Who . . . are . . . ?" Sonic mumbled just before a searing pain
hit him in the shoulder.  He succumbed to the blackness without a fight.

	"Nicole."
	"Yes, Sally?" chirped the palm-top computer.
	"Locate Sonic, Knuckles, and Archimedes."
	"Searching . . . . . . . unable to comply.  Subjects are out of 
sensor range."
	"So, where did they go?" asked Espio.
	"Sonic departed west," replied Nicole.  "Knuckles and Archimedes 
disappeared."
	"'Disappeared'?" said Mighty.  "'Disappeared' where?"
	"Unable to reply.  Insufficient data."
	"What do we do then?" asked Tails.
	"Unable to reply.  Insufficient data."

	Though the Freedom Fighters and Chaotix had no idea where Knuckles
T. Echidna and Archimedes Fire Ant were, Snively and Doctor Ivo Robotnik
were very certain of their location.
	"The engine room, sir," said Snively.  "Visual now."
	On the main screen in the operations center of the Death Egg,
Knuckles appeared.  He and Archy were standing in between two large
machines, looking back and forth and arguing.
	Robotnik ground his teeth.  How did they get past his defenses and
all the way into the engine room?
	No matter.  However they got onto the flying fortress, they would 
only be leaving one way:  in many pieces and shoved through a garbage
chute.  Robotnik opened a commlink.
	"Robotnik to Mecha-Sonic."
	"Mecha-Sonic here," the robotic voice droned.
	"Mecha-Sonic, never mind coming up to ops.  Instead, I want you 
to go down to the engine room and get rid of a few pests.  Do you think 
you can handle that?"
	"Affirmative.  Mecha-Sonic out."
	The fat doctor closed the commlink from his end, and decided to go
about some more evil chuckling before turning his full attention to the
battle  on the island below.

	"How much do YOU know about the Death Egg?"
	"Probably more than you, pup!"
	"Would'ja quit calling me that?"
	"I will when you start acting like a grown up!"
	"What're you talking about?  I'm a pup just because I don't want
to go the way you arbitrarily chose?"
	"Instead you want to go the way YOU arbitrarily chose?"
	"I didn't choose it arbitrarily!  I hear some sort of electrical
current running off to the right . . . and now, there's some sort of metal
clanking, too.  I say we go that way."
	Archimedes' face clouded up.  "I believe I know what the source of
the metal clanking is, Knuckles.  Turn around slowly.  Don't make any
sudden moves."
	Knuckles did as Archy instructed.  Stalking through the aisle in 
the machinary was a blue robot.  In the dim light, the echidna could just 
make out a few features on the robot that looked vaugely familiar.  As the
robot got closer, Knuckles' good eye grew wide.
	"Archy?"
	"Yes?" said the ant.
	"That's Mecha-Sonic."
	Archy rubbed his chin.  "You mean the robot that attacked back
when you first formed the Chaotix?"
	Knuckles began to back away from the slowly advancing mecha.  He
picked up Archimedes and placed the fire ant on his shoulder.  "Not . . .
exactly.  Hold on, I want to see what this new peeper can do."
	The echidna put all of his concentration on the electronic eye he
had recieved at Knothole Village.  Slowly, he saw the light level in the
eye go up to where he could see in the gloomy engine room as if it were
covered in twilight.  In this slightly brighter light, he could see-
	"Uh-oh," he breathed.  "This model does not appear to be any 
friendlier than the last."
	Archimedes' head shot up to look at Knuckles'.  "What do you mean,
'THIS model' and 'any FRIENDLIER'?"
	"What I mean is, HANG ON!"
	Knuckles suddenly jumped into a glide through a side aisle, Archy
hanging from his shoulder.  Through the spot that they had occupied just
a few seconds before, a mini-missile flew.  It continued on its course and
hit a wall, exploding on impact.  The whole engine room vibrated.

	"Sir!" cried Snively.  "Missile impact in sector E-3!"  He looked
up from his console with a worried expression on his face.
	"Track the trajectory of the missile," Robotnik said calmly.
	Snively opened his mouth as if to say something more, but decided
it was more prudent to close it and turn back to his console.  A few
seconds later, he looked up again, this time with an astonished
expression.
	"Sir," he said unbelievingly, "the missile came from INSIDE the Egg!"
	The doctor yawned.  "Of course it did, you nitwit.  That was
Mecha-Sonic."
	"But, sir, he could destroy all the machinary!  We stand a chance
of crashing if we don't have enough engines running the hover pads on the
underbelly of the Egg!"
	"I realize the consequences, SNIVELY," Robotnik said with a steely
glare fixed on his assisstant.  "I told Mecha-Sonic and the rest of the
'bots that all intruders on the Egg are to be purged with EXTREME
prejudice.  Understood?"
	Snively gulped and nodded.  "Y-yes, sir.  Crystal clear."
	He turned back to his console again and wiped some sweat from his
brow.  A small, blinking light caught his attention.
	"SIR!" he practically screamed.  "Nack has the hedgehog!"  
	"Excellent," breathed Robotnik.  "Everything is falling into place,
it would seem.  All we have to do now is wait for the rest of the little
pests to give up or be destroyed, and victory will at long last be mine. 
If my heart wasn't mechanical, Snively, I do believe that it would be
thumping rapidly from all the excitement!"

	Everything is blurry on the moon, thought Sonic.  Well, BOTH
moons, really.  But then, they're made of purple cheese anyway, and I
don't really like purple cheese.
	"Whur yu shertoop?  Donwan har but pirp cheece."
	Sonic opened his eyes.
	Ugh, he thought.  Everything's blurry on Mobius, too.  Best sleep
it off.
	Sonic giggled at the thought of sleeping off a blurry planet.
	"If yu don shertoop, llll ba ferched tu du simtin kut massie tu yu."
	Sonic shook his head to try and clear it.  "What'd you . . .
say?" he asked.
	"I SAID," a loud, nasal voice hit his ears, "WOULD YOU SHUT UP?  I
don't want to hear about purple cheese!  If you DON'T shut up, I'll be
forced to do something quite messy to you!"
	Sonic tried to put his hands to his ears to block out the
shouting, but found that he couldn't move his hands.  The shouter had
already moved away anyway.
	The world slowly came into focus.  Sonic found himself sitting
between two tall trees.  Plastic strings were tied tight around his arms
behind his back.  In front of him sat the shouter, a puple furred Mobian
weasel.  The weasel had his back turned to the hedgehog.  He was crouched
over some sort of strange looking hover-cycle.  Tools were strewn all
across the ground.
	"What happened?" Sonic asked.  He was immediately sorry that he
had stepped out of the blurry world he had been in.  Pain hit him in his
forehead and travelled down the length of his body.
	"You hit a tree," the weasel said simply.  He didn't look up from 
his cycle as he spoke.
	"Damn," cursed Sonic, "it sure feels like it!"
	"Yes, I suspect that you'll have quite a few bruises within the 
next hour or so."
	"So, how did I hit the tree?"  He struggled through the pain that
ran across his face as he talked.  He needed some answers.
	"You tripped on my invisible wire."  The weasel spared a glance
over his shoulder to look at Sonic.  "Do you remember what I said about
shutting up?"
	Sonic struggled to get comfortable in his sitting position . . .
as comfortable as he was able to get wedged between two trees.  "Humour
me, all right?" he said.
	The weasel sighed and turned back to his work.  "At least you
aren't mumbling about purple cheese anymore.  Go ahead, talk away."
	"What is that you're working on there?"
	"It's what most Northwestern Quadrant Mobians call a 'speed
bike'.  I'm sure you're familiar with the term."
	"Yah," said Sonic.  The Freedom Fighters normally used speed 
bikes to get back and forth from one village to another, or from the 
villages to Robotnik's installations.  Sonic never used them, personally, 
for obvious reasons.
	"Over in the Northeastern Quadrant, most notably the Janap
Territories, they have a slightly more powerful version of a speed bike.
This, basically, is a speed bike hull with the more powerful engine in
it.  Many of the Janaps think I'm crazy for riding around in it.  They're
probably right.  I call it an ion sled, because it's powered by negatively
charged ions instead of water like most speed bikes."
	"Uh huh.  So, what about the 'sled' part?"
	The weasel looked back over his shoulder.  "I like the sound of
'sled'."  He resumed his work.
	"What's wrong with it now?"
	"That's what I'm trying to find out."
	"It's a pretty nice machine . . . NACK."
	This time the weasel didn't merely glance around.  He stood up 
and turned around fully to face Sonic.  His eyes glinted as he pushed his 
bent-brimmed hat back off of his brow.  "How did you know my name?" he 
demanded.

	Knuckles and Archimedes' original plan was shot, almost literaly.
	The plan had been simple.  Teleport into the Death Egg's engine
room (which they did) and destroy the main engine (which they didn't).
	The plan HAD been simple.
	But Mecha-Sonic persisted in hunting them down.  The two of them
ducked and weaved and bobbed amongst the machinary, but somehow the evil
mecha found them again and again.
	"I have a question," said Knuckles as he dodged a laser blast.
	"Yes?" replied Archimedes, who was still clinging to the 
echidna's shoulder and his own hat.
	"WHY DON'T YOU TELEPORT US OUT OF HERE?"
	"A nice idea, in theory, Knuckles," the fire ant said, "but I'm
afraid that it would only serve as a minor distraction for Mecha-Sonic,
and it would get us no nearer to our objective of crashing this
monstrosity."
	Knuckles ducked and rolled as Mecha-Sonic banged a fist on the
floor where he had been standing.  Knuckles was suprised at the mecha's
apparent speed.  Unlike his predecesor, who currently lay in pieces on an
operating table back at Knothole Village, this Mecha-Sonic was streamlined
rather than angular.
	"Any better ideas?" the echidna asked.
	Archimedes seemed to think about it for a second, then said,
"Engage him in witty repartee whilst banging his head in?"
	Knux rolled his good eye.  "A nice idea, in theory," he said, 
mocking Archimedes, "but he doesn't seem in the mood for chatting," he 
ducked another laser blast, "or getting his head banged in!  At least 
he's doing more damage to the machines than he is to u-"
	Knuckles was interrupted by Robotnik's voice booming through the 
room.  Mecha-Sonic stopped his assault to listen.
	"Mecha-Sonic," Robotnik said, "forget the trespassers for now.  I
want you to go down the island and clear the Zoot Chute for me.  Scanners
are reading some of the most pesky of the Mobian rebels down there.  I
want them brought back alive if possible.  Understood?"
	"Affirmative, Dr. Robotnik," Mecha-Sonic droned.  Repulsor jets
built into his feet propelled him into the air.
	"You ain't goin' NOwhere!" Knuckles cried.  He made a futile grab
for the mecha's legs.
	"Negative, echidna.  I am, as my organic double is fond of saying,
'outta here'."  Mecha-Sonic turned and flew across the vast room, exiting
through a large door in the wall.  The door closed as soon as the mecha
was through.
	Knuckles was confused.  "So . . . what?  Fat boy is just going to 
let us run loose in one of the most vital part of his flying fortress?  He
doesn't even send some SWATbots or ComBots to take us on?"
	"Negative," said a voice from the shadows that lay in the aisles
between the machinary.  "Mecha-Sonic is not the only unit capable of
dispatching intruders."
	Knuckles turned towards the voice.  Once again, he turned up the
light sensitivity in his electronic eye.  Almost immediately, he wished he
hadn't.
	"Priority Three:  Knuckles T. Echidna and unknown intruder A," said
Mecha-Knuckles, "prepare to be kicked off the Death Egg like the stowaways
you are."

	Rotor Walrus frowned at his hand-held scanner.  Since the fighting
began almost half and hour ago, nothing had come out of the Death Egg.
Now, though, he was reading an extremely fast object that was small,
compact, and headed straight for the Zoot Chute.
	Of all the places we had to decided to guard, he thought.  Out
loud, he yelled, "INCOMING!"
	Immediately, the Freedom Fighters and Chaotix that were gathered
at the chute jumped for the surrounding trees.
	"What is it, Rotor?" yelled Sally.
	"I don't know, Princess," Rotor yelled back, "but my best guess is
that it's some sort of missile!"
	"NO!" Mighty bellowed.  "If a missile hits the Zoot Chute, it'll
collapse the Chaos Chamber!  The emerald won't be able to hold the island
up!"  He backtracked, then ran out of the forest and up to the chute itself.
	The others stopped running.  Sally cursed.
	"Bunnie, Espio, Charmy!" she called out.  "Go stop him before he 
gets himself killed!"
	"We're on it, Princess!" Espio yelled back as he switched to
stealth mode and turned around with the other two.
	When they reached the clearing around the Zoot Chute, they found 
Mighty standing there defiantly, waiting for the projectile from the 
Death Egg to appear.  They ran up to him.
	"We gotta get outta heah, shugah!" Bunnie exclaimed.  "That 
thingamajigger's gonna hit any second now, an' it ain't gonna explode 
with any less force if'n yoah standin' in front'a it!"
	"You don't understand," said Mighty, determination in his voice.  
"I'm gonna punch whatever it is before it hits the ground!"
	"What?!" yelled Charmy.  "That won't accomplish anything, Mighty!
You'll just get blown up, too!  If it IS a missile, it'll explode no
matter WHAT it hits - the ground or your fist!"
	"I'd rather die than see the island go down!"
	"Then yuh give us no choice, honey," said Bunnie, "but t'do 
THIS!"  She shoved on the armadillo's chest with her cybernetic arm.  He 
would've been able to keep his balance had not Espio, still invisible,
been crouched down beneath him.  Mighty fell over the chameleon and landed
flat on his back.
	"You get his legs," Charmy said to Bunnie, "me and Esp'll get 
his arms."
	Before they could grab him, however, Mighty cried "Look!" and 
pointed up at the sky.  The three of them followed Mighty's finger.  
There, flying through the sky at them was, not a missile, but 
Mecha-Sonic, who was slowing himself down with his repulsor jets so he 
could land.
	The Mecha-Sonic that stood before them was a lot sleeker than 
those previously employed by Robotnik.  The mecha's head wasn't as wide 
as before.  His torso was V-shaped and looked like it was covered in some 
sort of body armor.  His forearms were not thin and spindly like the 
previous model, but flared out from the elbow joint in a conical shape 
with an oval base.  His fingers were not sharp prongs, but triple 
jointed, long, thin, tapered, and exact projections.  His legs looked 
like hydraulic jacks that had been raided from some heavy construction 
vehicles.
	Every piece fit perfectly in and on the well oiled machine.  It 
was evident that Robotnik must have spent more than a couple of years 
perfecting this precise machine.
	If Sonic had been there, he would have noted the many 
similarities to the Mecha-Sonic that gave his future self a permenant 
black eye and an everlasting migrane in the first fight between the two 
that Mecha-Sonic had won.
	"Priority Two:  Freedom Fighters," the metal hedgehog droned.  He 
lifted his arm.  The flared forearm slid around on a swivel until the 
wider part of the oval was facing upward.  The four Mobians got to see 
here was Knuckles and Archimedes had been unable to see in the gloominess 
of the Death Egg.  They saw sections of the mecha's forearm slide open, 
and missile launchers and laser blasters slide out.
	"SCATTER!" Bunnie yelled.

	"Oh," said Sonic, "you'd be suprised at what I know."
	"Oh, really?" replied Nack.
	"Yah, really!" said Sonic.  "Fer instance, I know that you were 
hired by Robuttnik.  I know that you are supposed to nab the Chaos 
Emerald that holds this island up so as it'll fall.  I know that  you 
were trying to sneak in from the side of the island opposite of all 
the fighting."  Anger creeped into Sonic's voice.  "I know that you were 
ready to betray other Mobians in exchange for Robuttnik's promises!  I 
know that you are ready to turn ME in for some extra whatever it is 
Blubber Bolts offered you!  I KNOW THAT YOU DID NOT TIE MY FEET UP!"
	Sonic jumped up and began to spin his legs which, indeed, Nack 
had left untied.  Just as he started to rev up, however, he felt all of 
the muscles in his legs seize up.  They froze in place, and he fell over 
in a heap.  Through the wall of pain that was rushing up through his 
lower body, he saw Nack lean over him.
	"I wouldn't try that again if I were you," the weasel said.
	"That," Sonic wheezed, "was definitely . . . NOT way past . . .
cool!"
	Nack stuck out his tongue, crossed his eyes, and went "Duh-ee!" 
right in Sonic's face.
	"What . . . happened?" the hedgehog asked.
	"Inside the cuffs of your shoes are small restraining devices.  
When you activated your speed, they channeled your energy to directly 
counteract said speed.  In effect, it undid your speed.  They do it 
rather violently, too, don't they?  The locking up of your muscles and 
such was caused by electricity pumped into your legs from the devices.  
Not at all nescessary, but a nice little bonus, anyway.  Sort of an 
incentive for not trying to speed out of here.
	"I could have, of course, just tied your legs up with rope," Nack 
continued, "but what would the fun in that be?  Besides, they were a free 
gift from the doctor.  I got 'em just before I left the Death Egg, just 
in case I met you.  Which, of course, I did."
	"Why are you doing this?" Sonic asked.  "Why would even a 
freakazoid like you want to betray Mobius?"
	Nack stared at him coldly.  "Unlike you, hedgehog," he said, "I 
am not a 'Freedom Fighter'.  I'm not a Robotnik sympathizer, either.  
What I am, is a bounty hunter.  I make my living tracking down pakages 
for whoever will pay the bounty.  It doesn't matter whether the package is
a living, breathing Mobian, or a glowing green rock.  They pay, I get.  I 
am not worried with you and your petty squabbles with my current employer.
I do not care if you live or die.  I don't care about this island or your
war or anything else except how I may profit from it all.  As far as I'm
concerned, you are nothing more than extra bit of bounty I can squeeze
from Dr. Robotnik.
	"Of course, you were ALSO supposed to be a challenge from what the
Doc told me.  You let your friends down, Sonic.  But, what's worse, you
let your enemies down, too."
	Sonic jumped at the words.  The words from his dream . . .
	"Now, if you'll excuse me," the weasel continued as he stood up,
"I have to get back to my work.  When you so rudely interrupted me, I was
about to find out what made the hole in the side of my sled and stopped my
engine.  Don't go anywhere."
	With that, Nack turned his back on Sonic and leaned over his ion 
sled.  Sonic rolled on his side and winced as pain shot through his legs.
	That was a good sign, at least.  The feeling was coming back.  
Another good sign was that, through the pain, Sonic felt a pair of hands 
unclasping the small devices on his ankles.  He looked behind him, but 
all he could see was the hands sticking out from behind the two trees he 
had been sitting up against earlier.
	One of the hands had a puple glove on.  Mounted on the glove was a 
small crossbow and a row of clasps that held the bolts for it.  The other 
hand was covered with black fur.
	Soon, the hedgehog's ankles were free.  He watched Nack as the 
hands worked on undoing the plastic ties on his wrists.  The bounty hunter 
was groping down in the engine of the sled.  He seemed to find whatever it 
was he had been looking for, grasped it firmly, and yanked it hard.  He 
stood up, back still turned to Sonic, and said, "Hey, hedgehog, whadda ya 
make of this?"
	He turned around, holding a small crossbow bolt in his hand.  As 
soon as he saw that Sonic was free and standing up, he dropped the bolt, 
grabbed a pistol from his gun belt, and aimed it at Sonic, all in one 
fluid motion and with such speed that the Freedom Fighter was taken aback.
	"Ah!  Ah!" exclaimed Nack when he saw Sonic start to run off.  
"I'm just as fast a tracker with this gun as you are a runner!  Take one 
step and you're a crispy critter!  This is an ion pistol, similar in 
design as the engine in the sled, except that the ions are directed to a 
different place, and that place will be directly between your eyes if you 
move so much as an inch!"
	Sonic put his hands up slowly, and smiled.  "Whatever you say," 
he said nonchalantly, then shrugged.
	Nack became suspicious.  "What're you smiling about?  Huh?  And 
how did you get free, anyway?  And- URK!"
	The weasel suddenly fell backwards.  He fired a shot, but the blue 
stream of super-charged ions went wild and only disentegrated a few 
leaves.  He sat back up, a crossbow bolt sticking out of his shoulder.
	With a comic look of suprise on his face, Nack fell back again, 
unconscious.
	Sonic put his hands back down, then ran to the weasel.  He checked 
for a pulse, found one, and then pulled the arrow out of Nack's shoulder.
It hadn't gone in very deep, and Sonic guessed that the shooter hadn't
planned it to.  On the tip, mingled with the blood, was traces of a green
fluid.
	"Knockout juice," said an accented voice.  "He'll be out fer about
five minutes.  Long enough for us ter tie him up."
	Sonic's head snapped up in the direction of the voice.  Standing 
there was a male Mobian skunk wearing a purple beret, purple utility 
strap, and the glove that Sonic had seen before.
	"Ya didn't hafta SHOOT him!" Sonic said.
	"The name's Geoffry St. John," the skunk said, ignoring Sonic's 
statement.  "Yer will want to remember that when yer tell people who 
rescued yer."
	"Riiiight," replied Sonic.  "Look, 'Geof', just who are you and 
what are you doing here?"
	St. John took the ties that had been on Sonic and started to tie 
Nack up before answering.  "I am the leader of a rebel force that was 
created shortly before the war with Robotnik.  Lately, we've been over in 
the far east, tracking down a few criminals.  Nack is the last of them."
	"Criminal?" said Sonic.  "What's his crime?"
	"Treason," St. John replied, "among other things.  Even before 
Robotnik came, he had quite a list of criminal activities.  Why do yer 
want ter know?"
	Sonic crossed his arms.  "Sometimes it's good to know who you're 
dealing with, Geof."
	The double meaning of the his statement wasn't lost on St. John.  
He looked up from the knot he was tying and said, "Yer don't believe me, 
do yer?"
	"All I can say is that I ain't ever heard of any 'rebel force' 
before.  Just how long did you stay in the far east, Geof?"
	The skunk's faced darkened.  "Don't call me that again."
	"What?  'Geof'?  You got a problem with it, Geof?"
	St. John was about to make another remark, but just then Nack 
started stirring.
	"Damn," said the skunk.  "He's fighting off the juice somehow!"  
He hastily finished binding Nack's arms with the platic ties, then told 
Sonic to grab the bounty hunter's legs.
	"Why should I?" Sonic asked defiantly.
	"Look, now is NOT the time for this!  Grab his legs and hold them 
before he decides ter do anything untoward with them, like kick one of us!"
	Sonic grudgingly complied, and just in time.  Nack's eyes 
fluttered open and focused on St. John.
	"I was wondering," the weasel said, "when one of you purple 
bereted idiots would catch up with me here."  He smiled.  "Where's the
rest of your goon squad?"
	"My men are off helping the Freedom Fighters fight," St. John 
said.  He then turned to Sonic.  "We're going to have to carry him 
someplace safe.  Who is in charge of your branch of the FF?"
	Sonic stood Nack up, then said, "That would be Sal.  I'm gonna 
trust you.  For now.  Now," he held out the hand that wasn't gripping 
Nack's upper arm, "hang on and I'll get us there."
	St. John took Sonic's hand as he arced an eyebrow, then suddenly
found himself caught in a whirlwind of speed.

	Knuckles was getting tired.
	He had a great amount of stamina, to be sure, but even he would 
tire out after almost half an hour of dodging crazy mechas.  He and Archy 
had found a small hollow in the middle of one of the machines in the 
engine room.  Knuckles squeezed into it and rested while Archimedes 
watched out for Mecha-Knuckles.
	"We HAVE to get out of here!" Knuckles said between heavy breaths.
	"Not until we've crashed the Death Egg," said Archimedes.
	"We can't crash it unless we get past that stupid 'bot!"
	Before Archimedes could answer, a shudder ran through the Death
Egg.  Knuckles could feel it all the way down to his bones.  His
electronic eye fuzzed over for a second.
	He looked down at Archy and said, "What was-

	-that, Snively?" Robotnik asked.
	"The engines, sir," the doctor's assisstant replied.  "They've
taken too much damage from the mechas."
	Robotnik growled.  "They SHOULD have been able to DESTROY that
accursed ant-eater by now!"  He slammed his fist on the armrest of his
command chair, then began drumming his fingers.
	"Snively," he finally said, "I had wanted to get as many live 
Mobians as I could out of this, but it appears that if something is not 
done now, the Egg will go down."
	"What do you have in mind, doctor?"
	"Start up the main roboticizer, Snively.  If I can't take the 
Floating Island by brute strength . . . I'll just have to cheat a little."

	"WARNING!  WARNING!  MAIN ROBOTICIZER UNIT IS POWERING UP!  
COMPLETE ROBOTICIZATION OF ALL LIFE FORMS ON THE FLOATING ISLAND WILL 
OCCUR IN FIVE MINUTES!"
	The speaker turned off, cutting off the computer's voice.  
Knuckles and Archimedes looked at each other with looks of horror.
	"Quick, Knuckles!" said Archimedes.  "We have to take out the 
main engine NOW!"
	Before the fire ant had even finished the sentence, Knuckles had 
scooped him up and was out among the aisles again.  He moved stealthily 
along, trying to move towards the center of the room.
	Not stealthily enough.
	"Priority Three:  Knuckles T. Echidna!"
	Knuckles ducked and jumped as he ran, dodging sharp metal spikes 
that were shooting out of Mecha-Knuckles' hands.

	While Knuckles was going for broke, Bunnie and Mighty were doing 
the same.  Espio and Charmy had gone to find the others, so the two 
powerhouses were left to hold Mecha-Sonic off from the Zoot Chute and the 
Chaos Emerald that lay at the end of it.
	"Calculating odds for sucess in one-on-two fight with organic 
designates:  Bunnie E. Rabbot and Mighty M. Armadillo," Mecha-Sonic 
droned as he picked Mighty up and threw him face first into the ground.
	The armadillo skidded for a few feet, then pushed himself back up 
to a standing position.  "Great," he said under his breath, "not only is 
he kicking my and the rabbit's butts, but he knows my name, too!"
	Bunnie did a Bunnie Hop over the mecha's head, then slammed 
backwards into his back with her metal elbow.  Mecha-Sonic curled into a 
ball and rolled with the punch, then used his repulsor jets return the 
backwards elbow hit to the suprised rabbit.
	"Odds calculated," he said.  "87.95%."
	"That you're going to lose?" Mighty asked as he threw a punch.
	Mecha-Sonic easily grabbed the armadillo's hand in mid-air.  "No,"
he said.  "That I'm going to WIN."  He spun Mighty like a top, then
delivered a punch that sent the Mobian flying.
	Bunnie, who had just recovered from the elbow to the gut, was 
startled by the mecha's use of the pronoun "I".  Normally, he would say 
"this unit", like the SWAT and ComBots.  Not only was Robotnik making them 
stronger, he was making them more self-aware as well.
	It didn't really matter if he said that breakfast was ready and 
he had prepared the toast at the moment, because he had turned his 
attention back to Bunnie.
	She dropped into a simple martial arts stance that Sally had 
taught her, then advanced with a punch to Mecha-Sonic's head.  He easily 
deflected it, then crouched down and sweepkicked at her legs.
	She jumped up to avoid getting tripped.  When she landed, she 
assumed the Dragon stance, a more advanced stance than before.  She had 
first wanted to see what his martial arts abilities were.  Unfortunatly, 
is seemed that Robotnik had programmed him with some martial arts moves 
of his own, because he moved into the Crane stance.
	Bunnie should have had the advantage at this point, because the 
Crane stance demanded that the fighter stand on only one leg, thus making 
it impossible for them to move without hopping.  Mecha-Sonic, however, 
had no problems with this, because he set the repulsor jet in the leg on 
the ground to hover.
	The two of them circled around for a few seconds, trying to find
a break in the other's defense.  Bunnie's stance was more of an offensive
posture, but Mecha-Sonic knew that she would be able to attack and
possibly injure him if he attacked first.  Mecha-Sonic's defensive stance
kept Bunnie from attacking for basically the same reasons.
	Plus, there was the armadillo to consider.  He had stood up and 
was attempting to clear his head before attacking, which would take only 
a few more seconds.  Bunnie had seen this, and was just stalling for time.
	Mecha-Sonic calculated the trajectory, and when his circling 
brought his back to Mighty, who was now running towards them, he popped a 
laser out of its compartment in his outstretched arm.  It turned 
backwards, zeroed in on the Mobian . . .
	. . . had a blue blur enter its sights, and fired on empty air.  
Mecha-Sonic, suddenly distracted, became the victim of a sudden, 
massively damaging kick to the chest from Bunnie.  His repulsor jet
hadn't shut off when she hit him, and it pushed him faster as he flew
backwards.  The tree he hit nearly broke in two.  He fell to the
ground, then slumped forward as his lights went off.
	"Am I the number one hedgehog, or what?" asked a familiar voice.
	Bunnie turned to Sonic and hugged him.  "Shugah-hog!" she
exclaimed.  "Where the hoo-hah did y'all go?  Yuh had th'rest'a us worried
sick!"
	"I hadda make a stop or two on the way over," Sonic said.  "I got 
stopped by a convict bounty hunter by the name of Nack, then met a rebel 
leader named Geof, then found Ant, Vector, and the big guy lookin' for 
me, then ran up on Sally and Rotor, who had just run up on Mighty and 
Espio themselves.  They're all waitin' for us back in the forest."
	"What're we waiting around here for, then?" asked Mighty.  "Let's 
get back with them, and then figure out a way to stop the Death Egg!"

	"ONE MINUTE TO COMPLETE ROBOTICIZATION OF ALL LIFE FORMS ON THE 
FLOATING ISLAND!" the computer declared.
	"Which one is it?  Which one is it?" Knuckles chanted to himself 
as he dodged Mecha-Knuckles' shots.  "Y'know, Archy, it probably would 
have helped if you or my father had trained me to fight evil robotic 
versions of myself!"
	"Yah, yah, it's OUR fault now, huh?" Archimedes mumbled to 
himself.  "KNUCKLES!  Here!"
	The echidna slowed down and looked in the direction the fire ant 
was pointing.  At first, all he saw was an engine like all the other 
engines in the room.  It wasn't until they were past it, however, that he 
realized that a large tube in the center of that engine had the words 
"Main Turbine" emblazoned across it.  He ducked into one of the side 
aisles, followed closely by Mecha-Knuckles, then into the aisle running 
back the way he came, but on the other side of the engine with the main 
turbine.
	"So, what do we do?" he asked.  "With HIM on my back, I can't 
get at the main engine or turbine or whatever it is!"
	"Don't you remember anything I or your father taught you?" Archy
shot back.  "Though he didn't and I haven't covered evil robotic clones,
you still learned the general rules with dealing with an enemy!"
	"Would you just- . . . oh, yah!" Knuckles said as he passed by 
the main engine again.  "'Use your enemy's strength against him'!"
	He suddenly turned around and ran AT Mecha-Knuckles.  The mecha 
sent a volley of sharp blades in the echidna's direction.  At the last 
second, Knuckles jumped up and over the blades, which were as wide as his 
head.  They flew on until they hit the main engine, a few sticking into 
the metal, others moving with such speed and force that they sliced 
through the casing, then the turbine itself.
	A horrible wrenching noise filled the room.  Mecha-Knuckles, 
realizing his mistake, simply stood there . . . his second mistake.
	Knuckles glided into him as fast as was possible in the limited 
space.  They crashed into one of the engine towers.  A pipe was sticking 
out of the mecha's chest, and his lights had gone out.
	A shudder went through the Death Egg again, but it continued for 
a full ten seconds this time.  Suddenly, it seemed like gravity was trying
to reverse itself, because Knuckles felt himself being pulled upward
towards the ceiling.
	"NOW can we teleport out of here?" he asked Archy.
	"Already working on it!" the fire ant replied.

	"WHAT IS GOING ON, SNIVELY?" Robotnik bellowed.
	Snively tugged at his collar and wiped the sweat from his brow.  
"Um, er, uh," he said.  "It would, ah, appear, sir, that we are, ah . . .
falling . . . "  The last word came out as little more than a squeak.
	"Are we going to hit the island?" the doctor asked.
	Snively looked at his console, which was blinking on and off.  As 
best he could, he checked their trajectory.  "No, sir," he replied.  "It 
would appear that . . . that we're going into the ocean.  Ah, impact in, 
uh, in two minutes!"
	"Then, Snively," Robotnik said in an icy voice just before 
bursting into another fit of yelling, "WHAT ARE WE STILL DOING *HERE*?"
	"Eep!  Er . . . ah . . . transport two is ready for departure!"
	The evil dictator quickly grabbed his whiney assisstant and ran 
as quickly as he could out the door and for transport two.

	The core Freedom Fighters, the Chaotix - including Knuckles and 
Archimedes, who had teleported in a few minutes ago - Geoffry St. John and 
Nack T. Weasel all watched as the Death Egg tilted in the air.  With the 
main engine sliced up, all of the smaller engines were burning out from 
the strain put on them.
	As the oval shape turned against the bright, blue sky, only one of
the Mobians watching the scene was able to express his feeling at the
moment accurately.
	"So much for my bounty," Nack sighed.

	As the egg fell into the sea, the SWAT and ComBots that were 
fighting on the island all began to retreat.  The few that had survived 
the battle clambered into their hoverpods and flew off, following the 
escape pod that ejected from the egg earlier to Robotropolis.
	Soon after the Death Egg finally sank beneath the waves of the 
ocean that the Floating Island was currently hovering over, all of the 
Mobians, save for those mercifully few injured or dead, gathered together 
around the Zoot Chute and celebrated their victory.
	Food and drink were provided the by jungles and forests.  Music
was provided by Vector's CD player.  The dance floor was the clearing 
surrounding the Zoot Chute.  The decorations were giant flowers from the 
jungles.
	Though the victory party was rather impromptu and improvised,
everyone enjoyed it as if it were a gala ball.  And why shouldn't they? 
They had saved the Floating Island from crashing into the ground,
immobilized Robotnik's flying fortress, stopped the evil doctor from
obtaining a Chaos Emerald, and took from his hands an interdimensional
machine.
	Sonic and Knuckles partied especially hard, since they knew that 
they had done more than this.  They had saved the future from the horrible
fate they had seen.
	Even Nack joined in, in his own way.  St. John had confinscated 
his gun belt and bag o' tricks, so the skunk felt that it was safe to free
the weasel's hands.  He told his men to keep a close watch on the bounty
hunter, however.  Nack, under close supervision, sat back and sipped a cup
of coconut milk while watching everyone else party.
	Time flew by.  The hundreds of Mobians congregated around the Zoot 
Chute and in the surrounding forest found that it had quickly become
night.  Their party continued, the two full moons and the stars blanketing
them with ample light.
	And it wasn't until the stars came out that one of the Freedom 
Fighters noticed that something was amiss.
	"Where th'hoo-hah did Mecha-Sonic go?" Bunnie asked.

	"Are you sure he was here?" asked Sally.  They were standing at 
the tree that the mecha had been smashed up against.  Most of the partying
had stopped, and there were a few search groups being organized to look
around for the missing mecha.
	"Yes, Sally Girl!" Bunnie confirmed.  "Ah kicked him in th'chest, 
and he flew inta this heah tree!"
	"I was here, Sal," said Sonic, "and I saw it."
	"Me, too," said Mighty.  "He was trashed!  Unless someone picked 
him up and dragged him off, he stood up and walked off on his own.  I 
seriously doubt it, tho', 'cause he was a wreck after Bunnie got 'im."
	"What would anyone want with a 'bot that wasn't any good as a 
'bot?" asked Espio.
	As everyone stood in thought, a sudden sound filled the air.  They
all looked in the direction of the sound.  Standing there was Nack, who
had been bound again when Mecha-Sonic turned up missing, laughing his head
off.
	St. John walked up to him, grabbed his arm, shook him, and asked, 
"What're YER laughing at?"
	Amidst his sharp, barking laughter, Nack managed to say, "You
idiots don't know ANYthing about the new mecha-bots, do ya?  They're
tougher ta kill than THAT!"
	"What're you talkin' about?" asked Knuckles.
	"They have these internal systems," Nack chuckled, "and they're 
able to slowly repair even the WORST damage done to them, short of 
severing a limb or atomizing them!"
	Suddenly, a dull thump vibrated through the air, followed by the 
distant sound of of splashing water.  Knuckles quickly scrambled to the 
edge of the isalnd, which was only a few yards away, and peered down.
	What he saw caused him to jump backwards and yell, "GET BACK!"
	No one had to be told twice.  Within seconds, a large space was 
cleared out between the Mobians and the edge of the island.  Some of them,
though, had enough sense to stay around the entrance to the Zoot Chute.
	A large object whooshed by the edge and continued to shoot up 
into the air.  Everyone watched as the object stopped its ascent far up 
in the sky, seperated into two objects, and began to descend.
	As the objects started to land, it became obvious as to what they 
were.  They touched ground and immediately jumped into a brief speech in 
unison.
	"PRIORITY ONE:  SONIC T. HEDGEHOG!  PRIORITY TWO:  FREEDOM 
FIGHTERS!  PRIORITY THREE:  KNUCKLES T. ECHIDNA!  PRIORITY FOUR:  SALLY 
A. ACORN!  SURRENDER AND PREPARE TO BE ROBOTICIZED!"
	Mecha-Sonic's chest was still a little caved in, but not as much 
as before.  It was obvious where the hole in Mecha-Knuckles' chest had
been, even though it had been closed up and hastily patched.  Though both
looked like they had been through enough to destroy a whole army of
SWATbots, they still stood there, pointing wrist lasers at the Mobians.
	Sonic laughed.  "Yah, right!"
	"Odds of survival in a fight against the combined forces of the 
Knothole Freedom Fighters, the Chaotix Freedom Fighters, and the Rebel 
Freedom Fighters-" droned Mecha-Sonic.
	With silent precision, the two mechas ejected hand coils, simlilar
to the ones that the ComBots used.  Before anyone could react, Mecha-Sonic
had grabbed Sally, and Mecha-Knuckles had Nack.
	Mecha-Sonic turned a wrist laser on the Princess, holding her in 
a hostage position.  Mecha-Knuckles popped a pair of sharp blades from 
the back of his hand and severed the ties binding Nack.
	"-93.47% and rising," Mecha-Knuckles finished for his compatiriot 
mecha.
	"Aaaah," said Nack as he rubbed his wrists.  "Now," he said to 
the mechas, "all I need is my gun belt and bag o' tricks from the skunk 
over there."  He jerked a thumb at St. John.
	Mecha-Sonic turned to St. John, pushed his wrist laser closer to 
Sally's face, and said, "You will hand over the requested objects, or the 
Princess will die."
	"Don't do it!" Sally yelled.  "He'll take me and roboticize me if 
you DON'T give him the guns!"
	When St. John had first seen the Princess in the forest, after the
windy ride with Sonic, he knew immediately that he had fallen in love.
This kind of thing had happened to him often, but this time he knew it was
for real, especially now that he saw Sally in trouble.  He had an
overwhelming urge to spare her life, no matter the cost.
	With great reluctance, he unlooped Nack's belt from his own.  As 
he walked forward, he said with a heavy voice, "I'm sorry, Princess.  One 
of my duties is to see that you come to no immediate harm."  He looked out 
at the rest of the crowd.  With a glance and a silent signal, he made sure
that his men knew to not fire at the machines or Nack.  He handed the belt
over to the bounty hunter, who immediately put it on and unholstered his
guns.
	Nack aimed his ion pistol between St. John's eyes.  "That was a 
rather stupid move on your part, rebel," he said.

	"What do we do?" Sonic whispered to Knuckles.
	"I don't know," the echidna whispered back.  "But I think I know 
someone who does."  He turned his head slightly to the side and said, 
"Archimedes."
	The fire ant appeared on Knuckles' shoulder.  "Yes, Knuckles?"
	"You got any ideas?"
	Archimedes absentmindedly scratched one of his mandibles as he 
thought.  "Maybe," he finally said.
	"Great!" Sonic said.  "What is it?"
	Archy scowled.  "I say 'MAYBE'!  I don't know if it'll work, but 
if you can, lure them down into the Chaos Chamber."
	Rotor, who had been standing close and heard the conversation, 
said, "I don't think that's going to be a problem, guys.  They're heading 
for the chute now!"
	Sure enough, a second later they heard Nack calling Knuckles' 
name.  The Guardian motioned for Sonic to follow, then walked out of the 
crowd and up to Nack, who shifted his gun from St. John to them.
	"We need you to go through the chute first," the bounty hunter 
announced, "to turn off whatever defenses ya got down there."  He glanced 
at Sonic.  "The hedgehog stays."
	Knuckles shook his head and glared at Nack with his good eye.  
"If HE doesn't go, *I* don't go," he said.
	"You're wasting time, Guardian," Nack said as his eyes narrowed.  
"Unless you want yourself, or the hedgehog, or the Princess to die right
now, I suggest you get your butt down there."
	Both Sonic and Knuckles crossed their arms.  "If you want to kill 
us, Nack," Knuckles said, "go ahead.  Then you can brave the defenses of
the Zoot Chute yourself, or send one of the walking junk heaps there to 
get incenerated in your stead."
	"Recommended course of action:  Allow Priority One:  Sonic T. 
Hedgehog to accompany Priority Three:  Knuckles T. Echidna into the Chaos 
Chamber," said Mecha-Knuckles.
	Nack grumbled for a second, but finally said, "Alright!  Just . . 
. hurry it up!" he growled.
	As they moved towards the chute, the Mobians surrounding it parted
for them to pass.  Knuckles hit the hidden trigger for the door to the
chute with his foot, then jumped in.
	Sonic took a long look around him at the Freedom Fighters,
Chaotix, and Rebels, stared sadly at the captive Sally for a second, then 
followed Knux.
	"You," said Nack to Mecha-Knuckles.  "Stay up here.  You and the 
tin hedgehog here keep in constant contact.  If anything funny happens up 
here or down there, start shooting.  You hear that?" he asked, raising 
his voice so all of the gathered Mobians could hear him.  "If one of you
peeps so much as turns around to try and leave, this mecha-'bot will sense
it and start firing into the crowd!  In other words . . . DON'T move!"
	He jumped into the chute, followed by Mecha-Sonic.
	The door to the chute closed.

	"Oof!" grunted Sonic as he hit the multi-colored floor of the
Chaos Chamber, butt-first.  "Jeez, I'm still a little sore from the tree!"
He walked up beside Knuckles, who was staring at the Chaos Emerald on its
pedestal.  "So, whadda we do?" he asked the echidna.
	Knuckles continued to stare forward.  Since Sonic was on his 
left, the side with the electronic eye, he couldn't see that the 
Guardian's good eye was wide, his pupil constricted.
	"Yo, Knux!"  Sonic clicked his fingers.  "C'mon, man, they're
going to be here any second now!  Don't zone out on us!"
	Knuckles turned his head towards Sonic.  The hedgehog gasped when
he saw the haunted look on the other's face.
	"In-in-in-in-" the echidna stuttered.
	Sonic heard the faint sounds of Nack cluttering down the chute.
He grabbed Knuckles by the shoulders and shook him.  "C'mon, snap out of
it!  If you have something to say, spit it out!"
	"In-in-in . . . "  Knuckles' eye suddenly focused on Sonic.  "In 
thy faith . . . "
	Sonic's jaw dropped.  "No way . . . "  The dream!  It was the 
dream that he had been in just as they had returned from the future!  He
struggled to remember the rest.  "Uh . . . 'In thy faith' . . . 'In thy
faith' . . . "
	Nack fell from the chamber's ceiling and landed square on his 
backside.  He stood up and immediately pulled his guns, aimed them at 
Sonic and Knuckles, then moved to the side as Mecha-Sonic gently floated 
down on his repulsor jets.
	"Sonic!" Sally cried out from the mecha's arms.  "Don't help them!"
	Sonic's memory suddenly restored itself.  "'In thy faith,'" he
said, "'thou shalt be healed for all time!'"
	"'And thy loyalty shalt be rewarded immeasurably,'" Knuckles 
finished.  He placed his hand on the Chaos Emerald, and held his other 
arm out towards Nack, Mecha-Sonic, and Sally.
	Before Nack was able to ask, "What the hell is this?", a green 
light travelled up Knuckles' arm, through his body, and out the other 
arm.  The blast of light hit Nack's guns, causing all of the ammo in them 
to spill out, then bent around Sally, engulfing Mecha-Sonic.  From there, 
it shot up the Zoot Chute and caught Mecha-Knuckles as well.
	Mecha-Sonic dropped Sally, who hit the ground and rolled away.  
He let out a metallic screech as he gradually turned into a blue colored 
puddle of metal slag.  From the sound that drifted down through the Zoot 
Chute, it was a safe bet that the same thing was happening to
Mecha-Knuckles.  Nack found that his guns, gun belt, and bag o' tricks 
had all ended up in Knuckles' hands after the green light subsided.
	"Um . . . " said the weasel.  "I don't suppose there's any way we 
could, ah, negotiate, is there?"
	Knuckles, Sonic, and Sally all shook their heads.
	Nack sighed.  "Didn't think so.  Should I put up my hands, or-"
	He was interrupted by Knuckles' sudden screaming fit.  He dropped 
all of Nack's equipment and fell to the floor, holding his head.
	Sally was at his side in a second, flipping him over and opening 
Nicole.  "Nicole, scan Knuckles for any anomaly!"
	Sonic held the echidna down to keep him from hurting Sally or 
himself in his wild thrashing.  He looked up at the Princess and asked, 
"What is it, Sal?"
	Sally shook her head and mumbled, "I don't believe it . . . "  
She quickly snapped out of her stupor and reached down to Knuckles' 
head.  "Hold him steady, Sonic!" she said.
	"I'm trying, I'm trying!" Sonic yelled.
	Sally grabbed Knuckles' hands and pulled them away from his eyes, 
then firmly grasped his electronic left eye, twisted it, and pulled it 
out of the socket.  The wires that had previously been connected to 
Knuckles' optic nerves came out with untied ends.  Underneath it all was 
a just fading green light, exactly the same shade of green as the Chaos 
Emerald.
	After the glow was gone, Knuckles stopped screaming.  He looked 
up at Sonic, blinked, blinked again, then shoved the hedgehog off of him 
and stood up.
	As he dusted himself off, he noticed Sonic and Sally were staring 
at him.  "What?" he asked.  "Did I grow a third eye or something?"
	Sonic's jaw just moved up and down, no sound coming out.
	"Actually . . . Knuckles," said Sally, searching for the words, 
"I . . . I think . . . you did!"  She held up the electronic eye she had 
just pulled from his head.
	Knuckles started, then reached up with a hand.  "OW!" he yelled 
when he poked himself in the left eye.  "Ow ow ow ow ow!"  After the pain 
had subsided, he looked up with his now-red eye.  "How . . . ?"
	A puff of blue smoke deposited Archimedes on his shoulder.  "Ah, 
my boy," he said, "it worked!  I, ah, knew it would!"
	"But, how did he get his eye back?" Sonic asked.
	"All of the island's Guardians have an intrinsic link with the 
Chaos Emerald," Archy explained.  "It can do many things, including 
destroying 'bots and healing hard-headed echidnas.  Let's go topside, 
shall we?"
	"Alright," said Sally, "but first we have to get Na-"  She turned 
around to find that the bounty hunter and his equipment were both gone.
	"I wouldn't worry about it TOO much, Princess," said the fire 
ant.  "He's not going to be getting to far.  Now, hold on tight!"
	They disappeared in a puff of blue smoke.

	"This-"
	Nack pulled the suction cup on his hand off of the wall of the 
Zoot Chute, reached up, and suctioned it higher up.
	"-sucks!"
	While the two Freedom Fighters had been helping Knuckles, Nack 
had taken the opportunity to take his gear, including the suction cups he 
was now wearing on his hands and knees, and climb up the Zoot Chute.  His 
plan was to-
	Well, he didn't really have a plan.  With the mechas and Robotnik
gone, Nack was pretty much up the Eternal River without a paddle, or even
a boat.  He was playing it by ear at the moment.
	He finally reached the trap door of the chute, and gently pushed 
it open a crack so that he could see out.  Suddenly, the door shot open, 
and he was roughly grabbed and thrown to the ground.
	He tried to stand up, but found St. John's crossbow glove shoved 
in his face.
	"No negotiation?" he asked simply.
	"No," said St. John.

	The victory party, which had been so rudely interrupted before, 
began anew.  It carried on until far past midnight.  Finally, it was time
for each group to leave for their respective homes.
	St. John and his Rebel Troops, as per Princess Sally's request, 
handed Nack over to the Freedom Fighters for a good long stay in the 
Knothole Jail.  St. John informed them that he and his men would 
establish a rebel camp deep in the Great Forest, and would always be on 
call when the need arose.
	Knuckles and the Chaotix waved good-bye to the Freedom Fighters' 
and Rebels' planes as they left the island.  As the others went off to 
other business, the Guardian stood at the island's edge and stared at the 
electronic eye that Rotor had left him as a souvinier.
	"Problems, lad?" Archimedes asked from the echidna's shoulder.
	Knux sighed.  "Not really, Archy," he said.  "I was just wondering
about the future."
	"Ah," the fire ant said knowingly.  "You're wondering about the 
dark future you and Sonic saw."
	Knuckles was confused.  "How did you know about that?"
	"I know about many things, pup.  You don't think that a simple 
ripple in the time-stream was going to escape my notice, did you?"  He 
smiled, then sighed.  "I know what you two saw, and . . . "  He paused, 
trying to collect his thoughts.  " . . . and while what you saw will no 
longer come to pass, I think that it will still directly effect an 
upcoming event."
	"What event?" Knuckles asked.
	Archimedes shook his head.  "Some things I cannot tell you.  You 
know that.  But . . . in this case, it's best not to say anything without
knowing for sure, first."
	"What?  Why?"
	"Because anything I told you would effect the outcome of the
event, if it does occur, and not for the better.  I know you are curious, 
but sometimes you just have to do what you're told."  And so do I, he 
amended silently.
	Knuckles grumbled, not satisfied with the answer, but he knew
enough not to push any further.
	They both stared out at the rising sun, wondering what this new 
day would bring - happiness or sorrow, love or pain, gain or loss.  Though
they no longer knew what the future would bring, they knew that the future
was safe.
	For now.

	THE END

		Roland Lowery
			<rlowery@taurus.oursc.k12.ar.us>