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.
	Comments, questions, suggestions, complaints?  Send them to me at
<rlowery@taurus.oursc.k12.ar.us>.  I enjoy hearing from people who can
spell.

	Chaotic Multiverse Tale #10

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Quote for the day:

	"But, what are you going to do to my animals?"
		"That's not really the question, Mr. Hammond . . .
			The question is, what are they going to do to us?"

				-Michael Crichton, Jurassic Park
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------


	The Screamers
		by Roland Lowery


	DEEP DOWN beneath the Mobian soil, something moved.  The movement
was faint at first, but it grew in power as the dirt moved to the side.
	As it dug its way out, it became aware of itself and its
surroundings.  Its memories were still cloudy, but it knew that it had to
get to the surface.
	The thing emerged into a subterranean cavity that stretched for
miles in every direction.  It saw that its brethren were also digging
their way up.
	Then, it leapt into the air, letting loose a scream that
reverberated throughout the cavern, and it was echoed by its brethren,
five thousand plus strong.

	Oblivious to the danger below - and just about everything else,
too - Sonic T. Hedgehog furiously sped through the Great Forest to his
first ojective.
	Knothole Village.
	With a practiced ease that would make an acrobat green with envy,
he weaved his way up to the top of a tree and looked around from his new
vantage point.  A wall of sandbags stood in his way, stretching all the
way around the village.  A small group of guards stood sentinel behind the
wall, prepared for any attack.
	Any attack, that is, except for a straight Super Figure Eight
blast through their ranks.  Sandbags and guards flew everywhere.
	"Tough luck, amigos!" Sonic yelled over his shoulder as he ran on
between the huts further on into the village.  His next objective was
within sight, but he was unable to reach it before Bunnie Elizabeth Rabbot
stepped in the way, grabbed him, and tossed him backwards.
	Sonic landed lightly on his feet and stared at his new adversary.
	"Sorry, shugah, but you ain't gettin' any farther th'n this," she
said.
	He stood and dusted himself off.  "Well, Bun, it looks like you
got me.  Unless . . . "  He stuck his arms out at his sides and started to
spin in a circle.  After a moment, he began to lift into the air, using
his arms like propellor blades.  He altered his angle and quickly flew
over the incredulous Bunnie.  " . . . unless I used one of my new tricks!"
he said when he landed on the other side.
	He left Bunnie in a cloud of dust.  Just ahead, he saw the hut he
was looking for.  At the door was Geoffrey St. John with his glove
crossbow cocked and loaded.
	"Step down, Sonic!" said the skunk.  "I don't want to use this on
you!"
	"I would looooooove to see you try, stinky."
	A crossbow bolt flew through the space that Sonic had just
occupied.
	"Huh?" muttered St. John.  "Where'd he go?"  He looked left,
right, up-
	-but not down.  Sonic sprung up from his crouch right under St.
John's nose and nailed the aforementioned appendage.  The skunk flew into
the door of the hut.
	Bunnie, who had just caught up, jumped on Sonic from behind.  The
two of them tumbled into the hut and over St. John.
	"Ack!  Hey!" St. John tried to yell.  "G-get offa me!"
	they quickly obliged and stood up.  Hedghog and robbot entered
into a sparring match.  Sonic was forced to jump back out of Bunnie's
reach.  If she got a hold on him, the chances were that he would have a
hard time of getting away.
	Watching dispassionatly from her seat was Princess Sally Alicia 
Acorn.  She watched as St. John stood up and tried to get a clear shot at
the hedgehog intruder.
	"Dammit, luv!" he yelled.  "Yer in m'way!"
	"Sorry, shugah, but Ah'm kinda busy at th'moment!" Bunnie yelled
back.
	"Eh?" cried Antoine Guy DeCoolette, who had just entered.  "Oh!"
he said, and pulled his sword from it's sheath.  "'Ave at vous, 'edge'og!"
	Bunnie on her own was tough, and now with Antoine blindly flailing
away, Sonic was forced to come up with a better plan than merely dodging.
He ducked under Bunnie's arm and ran straight for Sally.
	The Princess held completely still until the last second.  Just as
Sonic reached for her, she jumped up and over the speeding hedgehog,
causing him to crash into the now-vacant chair.
	"What th- hey!  No fair!" cried Sonic.  He quickly untangled
himself from the chair just in time to dodge St. John's next crossbow
bolt.
	After ducking the arrow, Sonic twirled and hurled the chair at
Bunnie, forcing her back a few feet.  He caught St. John in the act of
reloading and used a rope from his packpack to hang the skunk upside down
from the hut's rafters.
	Antoine was slightly harder to deal with.  He was still busily
slicing through the air with his sword.  Sonic waited for an opening, then
grabbed Antoine by the shirt and threw him at Bunnie.
	Bunnie, who had just recovered from the thrown chair, looked up
just in time to catch Antoine, but the force was too much for her
cybernetic limbs to hold.  The two of them flew threw the hut's wall and
landed on the ground outside.
	"Sacre Bleu!" exclaimed the dizzy Antoine.
	St. John was already unknotting the rope on his ankle and Bunnie
was trying to shove Antoine off of herself.  Sonic, seeing this, decided
to end it quickly.  He jumped towards the Princess, intending to grab her.
	His arms closed on empty air.  Sally's arms, however, clasped down
on Sonic's arms and throat from behind.
	Sonic gagged and choked, and tried to free his arms, but to no
avail.  "Let . . . go . . . " he gasped.
	"Or what?" dared Sally.
	"Or . . . this . . . "
	He ran through the hole in the wall, carrying Sally along with
him.  Bunnie made a few futile grabs in their direction.
	Knothole Village gave way to the Great Forest.  Small branches hit
Sally in the face, but she hung on with all her might.  Sonic, dizzy from
air deficiency and unbalanced without the use of his arms, was having a
hard time dodging the trees.
	Sally noticed that Sonic was slowing down.  Eventually, he was
forced down to a hard run, a jog, a walk, and finally he fell over and
passed out.
	The Princess let him go.  She stood up and wiped her forehead.
She was unhappy to see some blood mingled in with the sweat on her hand.
After wiping it off on her vest, she leaned down to check Sonic's pulse.
	"Boo," said Sonic as he grabbed her wrist.
	"Wha-?" exclaimed Sally.
	"Wha's wrong, Sal?" asked Sonic.  "Don't'cha think a hedgehog c'n
play possum?"  His voice was a little scratchy from the earlier choking.
	The two of them circled around, Sally's right wrist in Sonic's
left hand, looking like two reluctant dancers.
	Sonic tried a few prefunctory advances, but Sally easily fended
them off.  They continued circling each other, only making grunting sounds
of exertion.
	Sally tried to use leverage to pull Sonic off of his feet, but
Sonic had too much experience in keeping his balance at speeds in excess
of 500 MPH.  Keeping it while moving in slow circles was hardly a problem.
	At least, it wouldn't have been if he hadn't tripped.
	He had been watching his feet and the ground below so that he
wouldn't, but something popped up out of the ground and startled him, then
tripped him.
	Sally was on him in a Sonic Second.  She held him flat on his back
as she delivered a quick chop to his chest, then a light touch to his
forehead.
	"Hey, no fair!" Sonic complained.  "I tripped!"
	"Perfectly fair, wise guy," said Sally as she helped him up.  "You
should have been watching your step!"
	Sonic dusted himself off and said, "I was.  This . . . thing here
popped straight up outta the ground."  He kicked in the object's direction
and started grumbling under his breath.
	"Oh, admit it," said Sally, "you lost.  Maybe now you won't be Mr.
high and mighty anymore."
	Sonic waved his hand at her disdainfully.  "I still say I could
take all'a Knothole on and win.  I would'a tagged ya, too, if it wasn't
for THAT thing."
	"Oh, puh-leeze."  Sally rolled her eyes.  "Oh, all right, what did
you trip on?"
	Sonic pointed at a dirt covered object sticking a few inches out
of the ground.  It looked like a perfectly ordinary stick.
	Until Sally touched it, that is.  Some of the dirt fell off when
she grabbed it.  Light glinted off of metal.
	"What the-?  What is that?" asked Sonic.
	"I don't know.  Help me dig it up."
	It took Sonic all of three seconds to unearth the metal object.
Sally looked at it closely.  It stuck a chord in her memory, but she
didn't know why.
	"Let's get this back to Knothole, Sonic.  I want Nicole to check
it out."

	The main part of the thing was a tube with gizmos on the in and
outside.  One end of the tube was open, the other terminated in three long
prongs.  One of these prongs was what Sonic had tripped on.
	On the "bottom" of the tube were smaller, jointed versions of the
three inch long prongs.  Tails, upon seeing them, thought they looked like
legs.
	"So ya think this might be a 'bot of some kind, big guy?" asked
Sonic.
	"Maybe," said Tails.  "And not a nice one, either.  Those things
look like fingers."  He pointed at the prongs.  "It could grab ya and then
drag ya off."
	"No," said Rotor.  "No, it looks too small to drag anything off
larger than a cat.  Maybe it's a prosthetic hand of some sort?"
	"What about the li'l ol' hole in th'middle of them fingers?" asked
Bunnie.
	"Could'a had an injection needle in it, luv," suggested St. John.
"The bloke would grab yer and inject yer wi' some kind of drug."
	"Did eet 'ave to be ze weapon?" asked Antoine.  "Ma'be eet es ze
farming tool?"
	"I have an idea," said Sally.  Everyone looked at her expectantly.
	"What?" asked Sonic.
	Sally held up Nicole.  "We COULD just ask Nicole."
	Everyone in the hut "oh"ed, almost in unison.  Sally placed the
foot long object on a small table that was placed under an array of
sensors.  She plugged her palm top computer, Nicole, into the larger
computer's housing.
	"Nicole."
	"Working, Sally," said Nicole.
	"Nicole, scan the object on the table.  Discern any possible uses
for such a device."
	"Scanning . . . . . . . unable to comply.  Object is missing vital
components."
	"Like what?" asked Sonic.
	"A biological unit."
	Everyone in the computer hut shifted uncomfortably.  Maybe the
object was the arm of a robotisized Mobian?
	Sally asked, "What kind of biological unit, Nicole?"
	"Unable to reply," the mini-computer repeated.  "Insufficient
data."
	"Just give me what you DO have."
	Nicole prjected a holographic image of a hideously shaped shadow.
"The biological unit would appear in the projected shape, with an error
factor of 34.70%."
	The image was bumpy and had the basic form of a snake.  Three
long, crooked "fingers" sprouted off of the "head".  The other end tapered
off into nothingness, presumably because Nicole did not know the structure
outside the object.
	"So, those prongs are hollow?" asked St. John.
	"Affirmative," replied Nicole.
	"Does it HAVE to have somethin' alive in it?" asked Sonic.  "Maybe
the inside just rusted out or something."
	"Negative.  There are several connections inside the casing meant
to be used in conjunction with a biological specimen."
	"Is it a c- a cy- " Tails stumbled over the word, "a cyborg, or is
it roboticized?"
	Nicole replied, "Negative on roboticization possiblity, based on
current knowledge.  The roboticization process was officialy created
eleven years ago by Sir Charles Hedgehog.  Only Dr. Ivo Robotnik retains
the knowledge of accomplishing the process.  Barring anyone having
developed the process earlier and/or Robotnik having developed time
travel, this object was not a roboticized biological unit."
	"How d'ya figure, Nicole?"  asked Bunnie.
	"The metal has not been worked on or taken care of for 500 to
1,000 years."
	Everyone gasped at this news.  "But," protested Sally, "the metal
is hardly rusted!"
	"The object is made of a rare alloy that is extremely rust and
tarnish resistant," said Nicole.  "It deteriorates at 1/10,000 the rate of
iron."
	Bunnie laughed and patted her metal arm.  "AH sho' could use
some'a that!"
	Rotor stepped forward and said, "Sally, I'd like to take this
thing and run some tests on it."
	Sally sighed.  "All right, it's all yours.  We probably won't find
out much more about it anyway.  Quite an enigma . . . "
	"Well," said Geoffrey St. John, "if that's all, I'm off.  Thank
you for a nice little exercise and mystery, but I've work to do elsewhere.
G'day."  He nodded to everyone and walked out.
	Rotor lugged the object onto his shoulder and walked out.  One by
one, everyone filed out except for Sally.  She stayed behind quite a
while, trying to figure out why the object was so familiar to her, and why
it scared her so much.

	On down the path, St. john stashed the sucker tipped arrows he had
been using during the mock war with Sonic and reloaded his glove crossbow
with real bolts.
	Today had been rather embarrasing.  When he had heard about
Sonic's boast about being able to take on everyone in Knothole Village,
St. John couldn't refuse joining in.  He wanted the chance to turn that
hedgehog on his head in front of the Princess so bad . . .
	But he had ended up hanging from the roof instead.
	Oh, well.  At least Sally had tagged Sonic instead of vice versa.
It had been pretty close in the end, according to them, but Sally had won.
St. John took a little comfort from that.
	Something ahead on the path moved, triggering the skunk's tuned
senses.  He readied his crossbow and crept into the bushes by the path's
side.  The movement may have been made by a common forest animal, but St.
John always like to make sure.
	He stealthily moved forward until he was a few feet from where the
movement had been.  He inched bit by bit until he was close enough to see -
	 - a hole.  He surveyed it and guessed that it was a burrow for an
armadillo or rabbit.
	As he looked at the hole, he heared a bird screeching off in the
distance.  The screech was high-pitched, short, and metallic.
	Metallic? thought St. John.  That can't be right.  The sound was
getting closer, too.  He turned around and found the sorce of the screech,
as well as the hole.
	It burst out of the ground and aimed for him.  He shot an arrow as
he ducked out of the way.  The arrow merely glanced off the thing's metal
hide, but ducking saved St. John's life.  The thing hit the ground and
burrowed in.
	St. John couldn't believe what he had just seen.  He had to go
back to Knothole and tell them that they wouldn't have to worry about
guessing what the object they had found earlier was.  They now had a
chance to see one live and close up.

	Just fifteen minutes after St. John had left, the screaming began.
It was faint and distant at first, and it sounded like birds screeching.
Soon, though, it got closer and closer.  They surrounded the village and
sounded more distinctly like a large group of people screaming.
	"What th'hoo-hah is makin' that awful racket?" yelled Bunnie over
the noise.
	"I dunno," Sonic yelled back.  "I'll go check on it.  Be right
back!"  He ran off to the edge of the forest, and ran right into St. John.
	"Wha-?  Geof?  What's goin' on?"
	"Don't know," said St. John as he picked himself up.  "There's
these strange little machines, and they look just like YER strange little
machine."  He turned to the sounds and amended, "'Cept these things are in
MUCH better shape."
	"How are they makin' that noise?"
	"Don't know.  I only got a good enough look at the one that
attacked me to tell that it was like that thing you unearthed."
	"C'mon, then.  We gotta tell Sal."  Sonic grabbed St. John by the
wrist and sped off to find Sally.

	"They've stopped advancing," said Sally.
	"Li'l whutevers-they-is," said Bunnie.  "Sonic should be back any
second now."  She looked around for the blur that would accompany the
hedgehog's approach.  "He went off ta find 'em and' come back t'tell us-"
	"-what they are?  I'll TELL ya what they are," said Sonic.  He had
appeared almost magically in front of them.  He threw the cyborg shell to
the ground.  "THIS is what they are.  Just a lot more lively an' a lot
less friendly."  He jerked his thumb at St. John and said, "One of 'em
almost took Geof's head off.  Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to do the
hero thing and catch one alive."
	Before anyone could respond, Sonic was off in a flash.
	"Dammit," cursed Sally.  "Bunnie, go after him."
	"Sho' nuff."  Bunnie ran off, hoping to catch up with Sonic before
he got too far ahead.
	Sally then turned to St. John and said, "Welcome back."
	St. John shook his head.  "I don't think it's too great ter BE
back, luv."

	Rotor didn't know what to make of Sonic's cryptic statement when
he had come for the cyborg shell.
	"Gotta borrow this, Rote, important business," he had said, then
he had grabbed the shell and ran off.  Rotor barely had enough time to
notice that St. John was with him.
	Now, without his attention on the metal object, Rotor heard the
screams.  At first, he thought they were the screams of Knothole citizens,
but he finally heard the distinct metallic quality, like someone screaming
into a tin can.
	What is that? he wondered.
	He didn't have long to wonder.  One of the screaming machines flew
into his hut through the window.  It hit the floor and stared to scurry
around.
	Rotor, not realizing just how much danger he might be in, didn't
run away or attack.  After the initial shock, he started to study the
thing from a distance.
	It looked similar to the shell Sonic had just run out with, but
with a silvery finish.  On the top was a contraption as large as the main
body.  Rotor guessed that it was some sort of propulsion system, possibly
the source of the screaming sound.
	Tails had been right in guessing that the hinged prongs were used
as legs.  The longer prongs were on a circular swivel, able to swing full
cirle either way, and hinged on the base.  Rotor watched as it opened and
closed the three finger-like prongs convulsively.
	Rotor's suspicions were finally raised when he noticed the long
reptilian tail protruding from the back and the small saw blade coming out
the other side.
	The thing seemed to "see" him, and it turned in his direction.
The saw blade started spinning, revealing it as the source of the hideous
scream.  The jets fired up and propelled the thing at Rotor's face.
	The walrus was just fast enough to hold up his chair in the
cyborg's way.  It thunked into the wood and began to chew through it
furiously.
	He dropped the chair and ran out of the hut in search of a much
larger chair to defend himself with, preferably one that had laser
attachments and a few grenades strapped onto it.

	Sonic was looking down from a tree at a small clearing.  In the
clearing, a dozen of the cyborgs were jumping around, screaming with their
saw blades and seemingly conversing in high-pitched chittering voices.
	They appeared to be playing out mock wars.  They would fly up
against one another and attecmpt to grapple each other to the ground.
They would shut off their saw blade a second before they made contact.
	Sonic wished that he knew what they were saying.  He sat there and
watched the things for a second or two when it occured to him that Nicole
could probably translate for him.

	Bunnie was pushed down by the sudden rush of air accompanying a
speeding blue blur.

	Sonic came to a full stop in front of Sally and St. John.
	"'Scuseme,c'nIborrowNicole?"  Sonic's words ran together, making
it hard for Sally to understand him.
	She stuttered, "Huh-what?"
	"I think he wants yer computer, luv," St. John whispered in her
ear.
	"Oh!"  She pulled Nicole from her pocket.  "Here."
	Sonic grabbed Nicole, said, "Thankyou.Say,didIleavethishere?",
grabbed the cyborg shell, and ran off.
	"Sometimes," snorted Sally, "I wish he had the decency to say
'good-bye' before he runs off."

	Bunnie had just dusted herself off when Sonic rushed by once more,
knocking her off balance again.  She grabbed for something to hold herself
up with, and inadvertantly clamped down on Sonic's arm.
	Before she could figure out what was going on, they were up in a
tree, looking down on the screaming cyborgs.
	"Shugah?  What's goin' on?" she asked.
	"'Mcheckin'somethin',Bun," Sonic said rapidly."Nicole,scan
creatures'n'translatespeech."
	"Unable to comply," said Nicole.
	"Whynot?"
	"Unable to understand order."
	"Wh-oh."  Sonic cleared his throat.  "Sorry, Nicole.  I want you
to see if you can translate those things' language."
	"Working . . . determining linguistic parameters . . . physical
definition . . . tele-interference not detected . . . verbal variables . .
. "  She went on for two minutes.  Finally, "Scan completed.  Screamer
language can be translated with 25.78% error margin, and dropping."
	"'Screamuh' language?" said Bunnie.  "Where did yuh get that name
from, Nicole?"
	"It is the name that the cyborg units use to refer to themselves."
	"Sounds appropriate," said Sonic.  "Nicole, can you sort out any
plans of what they're gonna do?"
	"Scanning . . . affirmative."

	"Yer looked worried, luv.  What's the matter?"
	Sally looked up at St. John and said, "It's nothing, really, but .
. . I can't shake the feeling that I've seen these things before.  I don't
know where, or under what circumstances, but the feeling's still there."
	"Ah, who knows, Princess.  Maybe it's just nerves.  Or maybe it's
. . . duck."
	Sally was confused.  "Duck?"
	"Yes," said St. John.  "Duck."  He pushed her to the gound and
fell in place bside her.
	The Screamer, realizing that it was spotted, decided not to worry
about stealth.  It started up its saw blade and twirled its forwad prongs
as it landed on the other side of Sally and St. John.  It burrowed under
the ground where the two Mobians couldn't follow its progress.
	"Now run," said St. John as he pulled the Princess into a standing
position.  She didn't need to be told twice.
	She asked, "Was that-"
	"Yes."
	"And it just flew over-"
	"Yes."
	"And we could've-"
	"Yes."

	Nack T. Weasel, infamous bounty hunter and current prisoner of the
Knothole Village Freedom Fighters, was generally unconcerned at the
distant noises off in the forest.
	"Yo, jailer," he called out from behind his bars.  "D'ya think I
could get some grub in here?"
	The guard turned to him.  "What are you, an idiot?" he asked, wide
eyed.  "Listen to all of that!  How can you think of food right now?"
	Nack counted off his answers on his fingers.  "One, what I AM is
hungry.  Two, I am listening.  And three, because I'm hungry."
	The guard grumbled, but threw a dill pickle in a plastic sandwich
bag to Nack.  "Here," he said, "that's all I've got."
	Nack extracted the pickle and munched on it.
	The distant screeching noise was getting closer.  Nack estimated
it to be about half a mile away.  As it got closer, he began to notice
some strange qualities to it.
	The guard probably didn't notice any of it, but Nack's fine tuned
bounty hunter senses picked the strangeness out automatically.  The
screeching was more of a scream, and it was metallic.  Nack was also able
to pick out at least twenty different pitches at any one time, meaning
there was about twenty screaming something-or-others out there.
	As the noise got closer, Nack also heard an intermittent
chittering sound and the ring and scrape of metal hitting and rubbing
against metal.  There was the sound of metal htting wood and dirt and the
constant screaming.
	Finally, Nack's interest was piqued.  He finished his pickle,
stood up on his cot, and looked out the barred window.  What he saw
chilled his blood.
	Instead of twenty, there seemed to be at lest two HUNDRED of the
something-or-others.  They were jumping all around and advancing on the
jailhoue.
	One of the Screamers landed lightly on the wall, directly lined up
with the guard.  Before Nack was able to say anything, the Screamer had
dug all the way through the concrete wall and was schewing into the
guard's side.  His scream mingled in with the cyborgs'.
	Nack had seen a few gruesome sights as a bounty hunter, so he
didn't turn from the guard's mangled body.  It was a very prudent move, in
fact.  The Screamer finished the guard off, then turned its bloody prongs
toward Nack.
	It jumped up and clamped onto the bars of the cell door.  Up close
- closer than the weasel liked, as a matter of fact - Nack could see the
super sharp edges on the forward prongs.  It spun the prongs, cutting
through the metal bars, and jumped at Nack.
	The weasel moved with adrenaline speed that would've rivaled a
certain hedgehog.  He snapped his arm up and grabbed the Screamer in
mid-flight.  It clamped down on his forearm with its legs, eliciting a
scream of pain from Nack.
	In a haze of pain and anger, Nack reached over with his good left
arm, grabbed the Screamer's tail, and jerked it out of the cyborg shell.
	The shell went into a seizure, and Nack felt the pain in his right
arm increase before the thing let go and clattered to the floor.  The
organic body was still writhing, but Nack fixed that by cracking it up
against the wall.

	Sally and St. John met up with Rotor five minutes after the
Screamer attacked them.  They hid among some bushes along the edge of the
village.
	"One of those - those THINGS! - tried to take my head off!"
exclaimed Rotor.
	"Join the club," was St. John's grim reply.
	"What do we do now?" Rotor asked.
	"There's not much we can do," said Sally.  "Past the laser guns
the guards carry, and a few explosives, we don't have much that would be
of any use against these things."
	"Explosives?" said St. John.  "what kind of explosives?"
	Sally made a quick metal inventory, then said, "A few demolitions
charges, a pound of plastique explosive, some C-4, and a crate of
defensive grenades."
	"How many timers or primers?"
	"Um . . . twenty timers, I think."
	Rotor had a confused look on his face.  "When did we get plastique
and C-4?" he asked.  The demolitions charges and defensive grenades, he
remembered, were from raids on Robotropolis, but Robotnik didn't use
plastique and he guarded his C-4 very carefully.
	"Knothole was built and stocked expecting the worst.  That
included the need to defend it or even blow it up, if needed.  Dad stocked
it with some explosives."
	"Where are they?" asked St. John.
	"The demo charges and grenades are in the weapons hut, along with
a few laser rifles.  The plastique and C-4 are in a secret cache under the
prison," said Sally.
	"Good," said St. John.  "We'll stop and get rifles fer each of us
and some grenades, then we'll head fer the prison."
	Sally was suddenly concerned.  "What about Sonic and Bunnie?"
	"What about 'em, luv?  They're not children, y'know.  They can
take care of themselves."

	Sonic kicked the attacking Screamer to the side, where Bunnie
caught and smashed it in her cybernetic hand.
	Sonic said, "One down-"
	"-Five thousand, two hun'red, and seventy-eight t'go!" finished
Bunnie.
	The Screamers were fast, but not as fast as Sonic.  He was able to
slap away each one that came near him.  He was runing along with Bunnie
back to Knothole.  He couldn't speed the rest of the way, for the chance
of hitting a Screamer in mid-flight was too high to risk it.
	Bunnie, too, was forced to slow down.  She wasn't as fast as Sonic
and couldn't just slap every one of the Screamers away while runing full
out.  Fortunatly, the little cyborgs were unable to cut into her metal
parts, leaving only her right side and head vulnerable.
	Finally, they reached Knothole, but not the Knothole they had
left.  There were holes everywhere in the ground, many of the nearby huts
were totalled, and every once in a while a Freedom Fighter's scream would
mingle in the with the killer cyborgs'.
	Suddenly, laser fire filled the air, followed by the soft thump of
an explosion.  Sonic pointed to their left and they moved off in that
direction.
	They found Sally, Rotor, and St. John standing in the middle of a
large group of Screamers.  The cyborgs were milling around on the ground a
respectful distance away from the three Mobians.
	Sonic and Bunine watched as St. John took a grenade from a bag,
pulled the pin, and lobbed it at the Screamers on their far side.  The
cyborgs scattered, alternately flying away on their jump jets or digging
into the ground with their forward prongs.
	A few of the other Screamers jumped at the Mobians, but were
quickly cut down by the laser rifles.
	As the holes in the circle filled up quickly, too quickly to allow
Sally, Rotor, or St. John to escape, Bunnie wondered aloud, "Ah wonder why
they don' jus' dig under the ground and come up on 'em from un'erneath?"
	"Don't give 'em any ideas, Bun," whispered Sonic.  "Speakin' of
ideas, tho', you want to see how I was going to capture a live Screamer?
A little modified, of course, considering the situation."
	He pulled the empty cyborg shell from his packpack and tossed it
out among the live Screamers and screamed out with a scream remarkably
similar to theirs.
	The cyborgs, confused and suprised, went into total chaos.  Sonic
ran out into their midst, plucked one from the air, and trew it to Bunnie,
who promptly smashed it.  Sonic then grabbed his friends and back to
Bunnie's side.
	"Thanks, mate," said St. John.
	"No prob, Geof.  Going our way?"
	"If you mean the prison," said Sally, "then yes."
	"Wha's there?" asked Bunnie.
	"I'll explain on the way, but first you two are going to need
guns.  Let's go."

	After picking the lock of his cell with the dead cyborg's prong,
Nack searched the cabinets for his guns.  The guard's laser pistol,
unfortunatly, had been chewed up with the rest of him.
	"There ya are, my beauties," Nack said upon finding his pistol
belt, avec pistols.  He hastily strapped it on and headed for the door.
	And ran into Sonic T. Hedgehog and his crew.  Nack snapped his
guns up and out, then reholstered them just as fast when he found himself
staring down the barrels of four laser rifles and the laser attachment on
Bunnie's arm.
	"Hey," he said, "I give!"
	"Back up," Sonic ordered.  Nack obeyed without a word.  "Bun,
Rote, guard the door.  Sal, Geof, get the explosives.  I'll hold Mr.
Breakout here."
	St. John appeared to be on the verge of saying something, but
Sally nudged him.  They walked to a cabinet in the corner and moved it to
the side.  Underneath was the trap door to the weapon's cache.
	"You wouldn't use that on me," Nack said to Sonic.  "Using guns
isn't in your nature, especially not to hurt other people."
	"Desparate times call for deparate measures, Nack," Sonic replied.
"Besides, would you rather have Geof over there to guard you?"
	"Hmm.  Good point."
	Sally and St. John emerged from the basement a minute later
lugging backpack and satchels of explosives.
	Nack watched all of this with indifference.  He didn't care what
these losers did as long as HE made it out alive.
	Unless . . . unless he could turn a profit from it.  That, after
all, was what Nack lived for.
	With an evil smile on his face, Nack turned his gaze back to Sonic
and said, "You people look like you need a little help.  I could provide
that . . . for a small fee, of course."
	Sonic rammed Nack against the jail cell's bars and shoved the
rifle barrel in his face.  "The only thing you're gonna get," he snarled,
"is this gun shoved up your-"
	"Sonic, don't!" shouted Sally.
	He turned to her and said, "Why not?  He's had it in fer us ever
since we met him!"
	"Just doin' what Robotnik paid me ta do, hedgehog," said Nack.
	"Oh, balls," Sonic snorted.  "I oughta-"
	"I said DON'T," Sally said more forcefully.  "He's right.  We may
need his help.  But-"
	"See?" said Nack smugly.
	"-BUT," Sally continuted, "that doesn't mean we'll pay you
anything or even let you go free.  If you go out there alone, those things
will kill you.  Staying with us is you best chance and currently your only
choice."
	Nack mulled it over.  "Point," he said.  "So, where do I sign up
and where do we start?"
	"We start," said Sally, "with these."  She threw a portable short
wave radio to Sonic.  "I don't plan on splitting up, but if we have to,
these'll come in handy."
	Sonic turned on his radio and started saying "Testing 1, 2, 3."
Sally turned her radio on and Sonic's voice came out.
	All of a sudden, all of the Screamers that had congregated outside
let out one mighty screech that vibrated the metal bars inside.  They
started to chew through the walls and they jumped up to the windows.
	"Turn 'em off!  Turn 'em off!" yelled Sonic as he shut down his
radio.  Everyone dropped the radios and ran out of the building into the
forest, shooting Screamers down all the way.
	When they were finally clear, Sonic said, "Well, so much for that.
Why do ya think the radios made 'em do that?"
	"The Screamers must be able to hear the radio waves," suggested
Rotor. "They could follow any radio signature they pick up.  That must be
how they found the village.  They sensed the radio projections we put out
and came for us."
	"Why did't they go hit Robotnik first then?" asked St. John.
"He's got to be puttin' out tons of radio waves every day."
	"There's a reason alright," said Sonic, "but let's not get into it
right now.  We hafta see if we can get back to the village first.  We'll
worry about that later."
	"Wait a minute," said Rotor, "what about him?"  He pointed at
Nack.
	"Right," said Sally.  "He can't see the way to Knothole.  We need
a blindfold."
	St. John stepped forward.  "I've got a better idea, luv."
	The next thing, and last thing, Nack saw was St. John's fist, up
close and personal.

	He awoke in a haze, in confusion, and in the forest.  At first he
thought that his ears were ringing, but he realized eventually that it was
the screeching of the - what did the walrus call them?  The Screamers?
	"Whur's . . . g'n' on?" he mumbled.
	"Nack's up," whispered Sonic.
	Nack shook his head to clear it, then looked around.  In front of
him laid Knothole Village.  At least, what was left of it.
	Very few huts were still standing, and those that were had hundred
of Screamers surrounding them.  Nack guessed that Freedom Fighters filled
the standing huts, and his guess was confirmed by laser fire erupting from
a window.
	"Great," said the weasel.  "So whadda we do?"
	Sally replied, "You are a sneak and a thief-"
	"Thanks."
	"-so you're going for the demolition charges."
	"Sounds super."

	Nack slinked along the debris without making a sound.  Earlier, he
had found that his gas gun was useless against the cyborgs, so he was
holding his ion pistol in front of him.  That, and the few grenades the
Freedom Fighters had given him, was the only protection he had.
	I should just leave them to rot, thought Nack.  But what would be
the point?  If the Screamers won, they'd come after me.  Personally, I'd
much rather have Sonic and his crew.
	The weapons hut was right where the Princess had told him it would
be.  It was still standing, meaning someone was inside.  Unfortunatly, it
also meant that at least a hundred Screamers encircled it.
	Nack was hiding behind a sink.  He had found that the cyborgs had
only torn down the huts' walls and left the insides of each one intact.
It was probably a tatic to flush the Mobians out, take away their hiding
places.
	They woulda spotted me by now, thought Nack, if all their
attention wasn't on the remaining hts.
	Not sure what to do, he decided on a direct approach.  He pulled a
pin on one of the grenades, popped the clip, and threw it over the sink.
The explosion was small - as all defensive grenade explosions were - but
effective nonetheless.  The Screamers went into a frenzy.  Holding his ion
pistol out and firing at Screamers randomly, Nack cleared his way into the
weapons hut.
	Inside, he once again faced the business ends of of a group of
laser rifles.
	"Jeez," he said breathlessly, "you Freedom Fighters sure ain't a
welcome wagon of joy, are ya?"
	Suddenly, a familiar voice cut the air.  "Shoot 'eem!  Eet ees ze
Nack ze Weasels!  'E 'as escapeded!"
	"Negatory on that, Antoine," said Nack.  "I ALMOST escapeded."  He
told a quick run-down of the event as he knew them up to that point.
	Antoine pushed his way through the gun toting - and gun pointing -
Mobians, poked Nack in the chest, and said, "'Ow do we know you are not
be-eng ze liair, liair, ze pants on ze fiair?"
	"If I WAS going to escape, don't you think I woulda been miles
away by now instead of here, talking to YOUR ugly face?"
	Some of the Freedom Fighters, convinced, lowered their rifles.
Antoine, however, was not so ready to give up.
	"Whair is ze proof, eh?  I must voit ze proof."  He crossed his
arms over his chest.
	Nack sighed.  "All right.  If I show you proof that I mean you no
harm, will you let me have the demo charges from this hut?"
	"Oui."
	"N'goooooood."  Before anyone could react, Nack unholstered his
gun, pointed it in Antoine's face, and fired.  Gas poured out of the
barrel.  Antoine swooned and hit the floor snoring.
	"This," Nack said, holding the gun up for all to see, "is a gas
gun that expells harmless knockout gas.  This," he unholstered and
presented his other pistol, "is an ion gun that is capable of
disentergrating just about anything."  He proved it by blasting a Screamer
through the window.  "If I meant any one of you harm, I would've already
opened up with it.  Especially on HIM."  He pointed at the prostrate
Antoine.

	"Here ya go."  Nack threw the bag of demo charges at Princess
Sally's feet.  "Ya mind telling me waht you're going to use 'em for?"
	"Earlier today," said Sonic, "before they attacked, me, Bunnie,
and Nicole watched a group of them and translated their speech."
	"You mean that awful screaming?"  Nack screwed his face up.
	"Naw," said Bunnie.  "They make this weird ol' chitterin' sound,
lahke monkeys."
	"We found out that they come from this huge underground cave
directly under the Great Forest," continued Sonic.  "That's why they hit
us first.  We were right above them."
	"How deep are they?" asked Nack.
	"According to Nicole's deep ultrasound readings, at least three
miles," answered Sally.
	"So how's that going to help?" Nack demanded.  "We can't dig down
three miles in just a few minutes, let along a few days or weeks!  We'll
need at LEAST that long!"
	"I won't," said Sonic.
	"Oh, yah, hedgehog?  How?"
	Sonic pulled six Power Rings from his backpack.  "I've been saving
up.  I'll dig down with my Sonic Spin using a ring a mile.  Three down,
three up."
	Nack was confused.  "I thought Power rings could only be used as a
shield, or a throwing weapon at the most."
	"It's different fer me," Sonic said.  "I can use 'em to
temporarily boost my speed, too."
	"Well, whadda WE do while your gone?"
	"What CAN we do, Nack?" said St. John.  "We wait."

	Sonic jumped up, activated a Power Ring, and spun into the ground.
He had done this sort of thing before, but with the power of the rings he
could go ten times faster than normal.
	He covered the first mile in five minutes.  The ring extended the
time he could hold his breath as well, but he still had to stop in a
cavern for a few minutes to rest before continuing.  The entire trip took
half an hour in all with his breaks.  He finally emerged into the
Screamer's cavern.
	He slipped on a pair of thermographic goggles and looke aroudn.
He almost cried out in fear.
	In the center of the cavern, only a hundred yards away, was the
largest Screamer Sonic has seen so far.  He couldn't see the details, but
he could tell that it was at least twenty feet tall.  It's forward prongs
were five in number and seven feet in length.  About forty tails or
tentacles writhed around the semi-cylindrical body.
	Sonic saw some kind of blanket on the ground around the large
Screamer.  It glowed red with heat and moved in waves.
	Suddenly, the hedgehog realized that the "blanket" was Screamers
squeezed up together, prong to tail, side to side, all of them facing the
over-sized cyborg in the center.  The "blanket" ended just a few yards
from Sonic's feet.
	This had to be done fast.  He wished he could use one of his
rings, but he had only enough to get back to the surface.
	Stone pillars ringed the cavern, seeminly holding up the ceiling.
Sonic had plastique on half of them by the time the Screamers reacted.
The smaller ones started jumping in his direction as the large one fired
up its saw blade.
	The noise was deafening inside the cavern, but Sonic continued
plastering explosive everywhere.
	He had dodged at least a thousand Screamers by the time he was
done with the plastique.  He then started pulling out and arming the
demolition charges.  The charges were about as long as Sonic's forearm and
twice as wide.  there was a light on one end of each cylinder and two
switches, one red and one black, on the other end.
	The black switch armed each individual explosive, the red switch
would activate all of the armed charges' thirty second timers.
	Though the charges wouldn't have done much damage on their own
before, the Freedom Fighters had replaced the original low explosive
inside with the much more volitile C-4.  Sonic dispersed each charge
widely, knowing that positioning them would take up time that he didn't
have.
	As he passed each plastique bomb, he set its timer.  He noticed
some of the Screamers had disarmed some of the timers and a few of the C-4
charges, but they wouldn't make it to all of them in time.
	Thinking of which, thought Sonic, it's time for me to go!  He
flicked the red switch on his last demo charge, arming the other charges,
then turned to leave.
	The largest Screamer had different ideas.  It scrambled forward
with suprising speed and grabbed the hedgehog's leg with a tentacle.
	"IDON'THAVETIMEFORTHIS!" Sonic screamed.  He reached into his
backpack and pulled out -
	- something.    It might've been plastique or some leftover C-4,
but Sonic was moving too fast to care.  He stuck in a timer, set it for
five seconds, and threw the blob into the gap around the saw blade of the
large Screamer.  There was a brief flash in the cyborg shell, then it blew
apart.
	The large cyborg let out a scream that was unaided by its saw
blade.
	Now untethered, Sonic activated a Power Ring and flew upward into
the cavern's ceiling as the C-4 and plastique exploded in unison.

	Three miles above, the ground shook.
	"Whut the-?!" exclaimed Bunnie.
	Rotor pointed to the village and yelled, "Look!  The Screamers!"
	The small cyborgs were all burying under the ground as quickly as
they could, leaving behind hundreds of small holes.
	"Would yer look at that," said St. John.  "They're actually
leaving!"
	"Sonic did it!" Nack yelled.  "The bastard actually did it!"
	The Mobians let out a cheer and ran out into the village.

	"Those damn things are smart," said Sonic an hour later.  "They
were diffusing the bombs while I was arming them!"
	All of the core Freedom Fighters - including Antoine, who had
woken up a few minutes ago, and Tails, who had stayed up in the air and in
trees where the Screamers couldn't reach - and Nack Weasel were sitting at
a table in the now open-roofed mess hall.  They would've met at the War
Room as usual, but the Screamers had torn it down.
	"They had to be, didn't they?" asked Nack.  "They made those
cyborg skins, didn't they?"
	"Jus' because Ah got metal limbs, shugah," said Bunnie, "does that
mean AH made 'em?  Those thing's could'a gotten those shells from Robotnik
or someone else."
	Rotor shook his head and said, "I wish I had a live one to study
up close."
	"Believe me, Rote," said Sonic, "you don't REALLY want that."
	"What if the little blighters come back again?" asked St. John.
	Sally, who had been silent thus far, said, "They won't."
	"How d'ya know, Aunt Sally?" asked Tails.
	Sally sighed.  "I recognize the Screamers now, and I know they
won't be back . . . at least not for now."
	Everyone at the table gasped.
	Sonic stood up.  "You can't be serious, Sal!"
	"I am, Sonic.  My father told me about them when I was very young,
as a scary bedtime story.  He said they came from outer space, from a
planet called Chakris 4."
	A snort came from Nack.
	"BUT," the Princess continued, "I later found out the truth.  I
used my hacking skills and broke into the Royal Archives and found out the
reality behind my father's story.  I had just been looking aorund when I
stumbled upon it.  The Screamers DID come from outer space, in a way.  I
you think of the Floating Island as outer space, that is.
	"It seems that, years ago, an insane scientist named Dimitri
somehow took control of the then high-tech echidna robotic population.
Using workbots, he enslaved the echidna civilization.
	"He created the Screamers so he could take over the entire world.
Fortunatly, he was stopped.  The Screamers dug underground, supposedly
never to be seen again.  My guess is theat they went into suspended
animation and waited to come back up.
	"They must have risen back to the surface because they sensed the
disturbance we created on the Floating Island not too long ago in the
fight for the island's emerald.  They probably wanted to test out whoever
could make such a disturbance, and they first people they happened upon
was us.  It was just bad luck that father decided to build Knothole over
the burial spot for the Screamers.
	"But now, facing defeat once again, they have gone back
underground and are hibernating until they can find a new leader to
replace the one Sonic blew up.  If they have to fit the requirements the
old one did, I'm sure we won't see them again for a very, very long time."
	"But, how did you find out about them in the Royal Archives?"
asked St. John.  "How did the files get there?"
	"Back during the Great War, my father would visit the Floating
Island in secret every once in a while," said Sally.  "I didn't find out
until recently.  He must have stumbled upon some of the ancient echidnas'
files and recorded them into the Royal Archives.  Nicole had been the
computer that ran all the other computers in the kingdom back then, but
she didn't have access to the Royal Archives until she was being put into
the palm-top mini-computer she is now.  She tried to record all of them,
but she didn't.  That's why she didn't recognize the Screamer for what it
was when she scanned it, she had been unable to get that file in time."
	"Why deed ze old Sreamair shell show up just before we waire
attackeded?" Antoine asked.
	"That I don't know," said Sally.  "It was almost as if someone
placed it there for us to find.  Who knows?"
	"Ah'm jus' glad the things're gone," said Bunnie.
	"Me, too," said Nack, "and speaking of 'gone' . . . "  He stood
up and would've left had he not felt a rush of wind around him.
	"Not without these, weasel," said Sonic, hefting Nack's gunbelt.
Standing beside him was St. John, who was aiming his crossbow directly
between Nack's eyes.
	"Don't worry, Nack," said Sally.  "Because of your help, I'm
shortening your prison stay to just two more years."
	Nack snarled.  "Thanks EVER so much, Princess.  Oh, well," he
sighed, "that's what I get for being a hero."

	After everyone else had left, Sally slumped in her seat.  She
looked around at the semi-trashed mess hall and wondered if any of them
could tell she had been lying about certain parts.
	For one thing, she had always known about her father's trips to
the Floating Island, and sometimes she even accompanied him.  She had
been sworn to secrecy on the whole thing, though.  She had only told
enough to keep the oath and give enough information to satisfy everyone
else at the same time.
	Second, she had noticed that some strange beneficiary had been
helping the Freedom Fighters for quite some time now.  Sometimes they'd
be able to intercept messages coming from and going into Robotropolis that
normally they would not have been able to catch.  Sometimes an object,
like the cyborg shell, would show up in the right time at the right place
as either an aid or a warning.  Sometimes Sally would even see some
shadowy figure off in the distance, someone who seemed to watch them and
follow them.  She didn't tell anyone about it, because she wanted to make
sure that she wasn't just seeing things or have anyone thing she was going
crazy.
	Sally sighed again.  Instead of having all their questions
answered by the Screamers' defeat, more were raised.  For example, why
didn't the cyborgs just dig up under the ground to attack their prey?  Why
did they have to fly in the air to do it?  And why exactly did they
resurface?  It was true, they could've sensed the disturbance on the
Floating Island, but how did they?  Why had they been cyborgs at all?  Why
couldn't they be fully machines?  When were they going to pop up next, and
what new suprises would they have?
	Sally, for one, had no answers to these questions.
	She stood up, looked around, and walked out of the mess hall,
ready to start organizing the remaining Freedom Fighters in order to
rebuild her village.

	THE END

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