BLOODLINES

                        A Sonic the Hedgehog Story

                            by Daniel J. Drazen


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


                                Chapter 10


     "Bunnie, what are you doing here?"
     Bunnie hadn't had time to think before she felt herself
being grabbed by the scruff of the neck and being pushed up
against a wall.  But she breathed a sigh of relief when she
recognized the harsh whisper as belonging to Sandy.
     "Ah'm here because Sally's tryin' to keep your hide in one
piece!"
     "My hide isn't any of her business.  Or yours!"
     But there was no time to argue the point, because they both
heard the ominous warble of a siren.  That meant SWATbots were on
the way.  They started down the alley but only got halfway when
they saw the end of the alley blocked off by three SWATbots. 
Turning around, they saw three more closing in from where they
had entered.  The two quickly ducked into what appeared to be a
deserted loading dock.
     "You got any ideas?" Bunnie asked.
     "We're going to have to take them on hand-to-hand."
     "And just how the hoo-ha are we supposed to do that?"
     "SWATbots only have an advantage because of those arm-
mounted blasters of theirs.  They aren't built or programmed for
close-quarter fighting.  They only have enough armour to shield
them from blaster fire.  Once you're in close, you have the
advantage because you've got their strength and they don't have
your intelligence.  Can you kick with those legs?"
     "Uh-huh.  Why?"
     "Aim for the hip.  The seam should pop like a bubble."
     "Yeah, right," Bunnie thought to herself.  "Now the only
problem is gettin' close enough to those SWATbots to spit in
their eye!"
     With mechanical tread, the two ranks of SWATbots closed in
on the darkened loading dock.  "SURRENDER, FREEDOM FIGHTERS!" one
of them droned, "BY ORDER OF ROBOTNIK."
     Closer and closer they drew.  They stopped short of the dock
and began scanning the area.
     It was empty.
     They moved into the shadow of the dock for a closer look. 
They continued to visually sweep the loading dock area, as they
were not programmed to look up at the ceiling area first, in case
a couple of freedom fighters were hanging just out of sight from
a ledge.
     "Now!"
     Bunnie and Sandy dropped down on the two closest bots.  On
the way down, Sandy grabbed a bot by the neck, and the head came
away as cleanly as a grape from a stem.  Tossing the head aside,
she then punched the next nearest bot in the chest, and it
crumbled in a shower of sparks.  As soon as Bunnie hit the
ground, she managed to get off a spin-kick that struck a bot
where its hip would have been.  Bunnie had never practiced this
maneuver and although she landed on her tail she was still in one
piece.  Which was more than could be said for the SWATbot.
     "Great move, Bunnie!  But work on your landings."
     But Bunnie didn't have time to think about that because she
found herself looking up at a SWATbot training its blaster right
between her eyes.  Before the SWATbot could get off a shot,
Sandy dropped to the ground and rolled directly underneath it. 
Looking up between its legs, she jammed her fist through the
bot's crotch and into its pelvis, then seemed to fish around for
something.  With a quick yank, she pulled out a thick support rod
and some wiring which she tossed aside.  The SWATbot shuddered
for an instant, then collapsed in a heap.  "Ah don't blame him!"
Bunnie thought.  That left two bots standing.
     "Duck behind one!" Sandy called out.  "They won't target
each other!"
     Bunnie did so, and while the bot swung around to re-
establish the target on Bunnie, she used her own robotic arm to
punch a hole in the bot.  It was incredibly easy...and it was
also a rush!
     Then she saw the last standing SWATbot drawing a bead on
Sandy.  Emboldened by her victories, she ran to the bot and
grabbed it by the arm.  The instant she did so, Sandy grabbed the
other arm.
     "Make a wish!"
     The two arms of the bot came away cleanly.  Its head spun
and it sputtered sparks for a second before going offline.
     "All right!" Bunnie shouted.  Sandy, however, was in no mood
to high-five her partner, for she saw that the alley had been
blockaded again by another half-dozen SWAT-bots.  The two ducked
back into the shadows to wait for them.  A minute later they were
still waiting.  The SWATbots weren't advancing.
     "Why do Ah have a bad feelin' 'bout this?"
     Bunnie didn't have to wait long, for almost instantly, the
door to the loading dock swung open and the two were drawn into
the darkness of the building by an irresistable force.  They
hurtled through the darkness, finally coming to rest with a bone-
jarring thud against a huge metallic surface: a plate magnet.  It
held them fast by their roboticized parts.
     "Ladies, so nice of you to drop in."
     Bunnie and Sandy looked up.  In an observation room near the
ceiling of the chamber stood Robotnik.  He leaned into a
microphone.
     "Snively, restrain the prisoners.  And wait until the magnet
has powered down."
     The lights came up in the room--little more than a storeroom
with pipes and conduits running along the ceiling--and Snively
walked over to a nearby control panel.  Pulling down on a large
lever, Sandy and Bunnie could hear the hum of the electromagnet
begin to diminish.  Even before it loosed their grip on them,
Snively was approaching them with a blaster in one hand and two
sets of shackles in the other.  They were bound with their hands
behind their backs and frisked for weapons.  Snively took two
knives from Sandy: her curved Nomad blade and a second, longer,
straight-edged knife.
     "My, my," Robotnik said as he entered the room, "didn't your
mother ever teach you that little girls shouldn't play with sharp
objects?  By the way, how is your mother?"
     "If I wasn't wearing these restraints," Sandy spat back,
"I'd arrange a face-to-face meeting!"
     "I see; my sympathies," he said with absolutely no trace of
sincerity.
     "You'll be in need of sympathy yourself one of these days:
that robotic arm of yours is killing you."
     "Oh, no.  We get along quite nicely."
     "It's the truth!  It's slowly poisoning you!"
     "And you want to put me out of my impending misery.  How
thoughtful.  No, I have other plans.  Snively, prepare the
roboticizer."
     "At once, Sir."  
     Just as Snively was leaving the room, Sally and Bunnie heard
the tramp of SWATbots.  The six that had been cordoning off the
alley had followed them down the tunnel, and the door to the room
had shut behind them.
     "As you so ably demonstrated just now, my SWAT-bots are
somewhat lacking in your fighting expertise.  But you, Princess
Sandy, will make an excellent commander of my forces, once you
have been totally roboticized so as to answer to my bidding.  I
can use someone who knows the fighting skills of the Nomads.  And
just think of the irony: the army that finally destroys the
Knothole freedom fighters will be led by Princess Sally's own
sister!
     "And as for you," he said as he turned his attention to
Bunnie, "you won't be roboticized just yet--not until you've told
me everything I want to know about Knothole."
     "In your dreams, Robotnik!"
     "Do you know what I dream of, my dear?  Ways of extracting
information from reluctant forest folk such as yourself.  You
WILL tell me what I want to know.  And I can assure you that the
method I will use to learn what I want to know from you will be
slower and more painful than necessary."

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

                                Chapter 11


     "You need to work on your party manners, Robuttnik!"
     Robotnik turned around.  Standing just behind the rank of
SWATbots at his back, as if he'd materialized out of thin air,
stood Sonic.
     "Sugarhog!"
     "Business before pleasure, I'm afraid: GET THAT HEDGEHOG!!!"
     In an instant, the Chase was on.  Sonic never really
admitted it to anyone but this was not only what he was best at,
but what he lived for.  Running for running's sake was a rush,
but to pour it on as fast as he could while staying one
split-second ahead of Robotnik's SWATbots--he never tired of it. 
     Of course, he never took risks without a reason...at least,
that's what he told Sally whenever she'd scold him for his
reckless conduct.  Even now his dashing about the chamber had a
purpose.  It kept Robotnik and his SWATbots from focusing their
attention on a service duct near the ceiling.  It was the duct by
which he had entered the room.  And it was from this duct that a
long strip of black cloth now hung down.  It was Sally's bakhat,
and Sally was rappelling down it to the floor of the room.  In a
second, she was undoing the restraints on Sandy and Bunnie.
     "How'd you find us, Sally-girl?"
     "Uncle Chuck picked up a dispatch call for SWATbot
reinforcements.  Now come on," she urged, "we've got to get out
of here!"
     But once Sandy was freed from the restraint, she shoved
Sally to the side, drew a third knife that had been concealed in
her boot, and ran straight for Robotnik.
     But one of the SWATbots had detected her sudden movement. 
It only took the bot a second to lock onto Sandy and fire.  The
blast hit her in her right arm.  Crying out in pain, she fell to
the floor.
     "SANDY!!"
     Sally and Bunnie dashed to Sandy's side while Sonic got
right in the SWATbot's face.
     "Hey, that's no way to treat a lady!"
     The taunt worked; the SWATbot's attention was back on Sonic
and away from Sandy, who was being helped up to a kneeling
position.
     "My arm!" she gasped.  "Can't move it.  Blast must have
shorted it out."
     "Can you stand?" Sally asked.
     "Don't think so.  Feels like it weighs a ton!"
     "That's it, Sandy-girl.  You are out of the game!"
     And with that, Bunnie used her own robotic arm to toss Sandy
over her shoulder like a sack.  With the helpless Sandy in tow,
Bunnie and Sally headed for the bakhat and began climbing, while
Sonic continued to use a combination of speed and taunts to keep
Robotnik and his SWATbots occupied.  So consuming was Robotnik's
hatred for Sonic that he had no idea that his other prisoners
were escaping.  Finally, Sonic came to ground at the far end of
the room, away from the magnet.
     "Man, you're slowin' down, Robobreath!  Want me to be your
personal trainer?"
     "Hedgehog, you've been a nuisance for far too long.  It
isn't worth it for me to roboticize you."
     "Never would've figured you for the compassionate type."
     "So I've decided that I'm just going to have to kill you."
     "Whoa, right the first time!"
     The half dozen SWATbots all drew a bead on Sonic as Robotnic
stepped behind them.  "Any last requests, rodent?"
     For about two seconds, Sonic seemed nonplussed.  That was
all the time he needed to sum up the situation.  From where he
stood, he could see that Bunnie and Sandy were now safely inside
the conduit.  He could also see Sally just inside the duct,
holding onto the bakhat as if ready to give it a pull.  Sonic
followed it down to where Sally had apparently tied it off, and
the old hedgehog smirk was back in place.
     "Yeah, I got a request: smile for the camera!"
     With that, Sally gave a pull on the bakhat...which she had
tied to the power switch of the electromagnet.  It started to hum
to life.
     "NOO!!!"
     It only took a second for the magnet to warm up and begin
pulling Robotnik toward it.  In that one second Sonic had gone
into a Sonic spin, skittered up the wall and across the ceiling,
entered the duct, and was exchanging a high-five with Sally just
as Robotnik slammed into the magnet.  Followed by a half-dozen
SWATbots.
     "Snively!!  Cut off the power!!  Get me out of here!!!"
     But by the time Robotnik had been freed, Sonic and the
others had safely disappeared down the miles of ducts and
conduits of Robotropolis.

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

                                Chapter 12


[Note: this chapter contains material which some readers may find
offensive.  If you download this material, you are free to delete
any objectionable portions, so long as you maintain the narrative
flow]


     "OK, try it again."
     A silent tension filled the air inside Sally's hut.  Sandy
was seated at a table, her right arm the subject of intense work.
Rotor had studied it for some time and was trying to get it
functioning again.  After half a dozen adjustment it continued to
lay there, unresponsive to Sandy's attempts at movement.  Now
Rotor had tried totally replacing what appeared to be a shorted-
out motivator located on the forearm.  Sally and Sonic held their
breath.
     For a second, nothing happened.  Then, in a single smooth
motion, Sandy's fingers curled up into a fist and just as
effortlessly uncurled.
     "Yes!" Sonic yelled.
     "Great job, Rotor!"
     "Thanks, Sally, but looks like the upper arm motivator is
going to need replacement as well.  I think I have one in the
storeroom."
     "Not the storeroom!" Sonic wailed.
     "Sonic," Sally said, "go help Rotor look for one."
     "But Sal, if he opens that door I'll be up to my hips in
chips!"
     "Sonic," Sally said deliberately, "go help Rotor!"
     "OK, OK," Sonic said as he followed Rotor out the door. 
     Sally closed it behind them, then turned to face her sister.
"What did you think you were doing?"  she demanded.
     "You know what I was doing, and you can't stop me from
trying again!"
     "Well, I can try!"
     "Can you honestly say that you wouldn't do the same thing if
you were in my position?"
     "Can you...."  Sally stopped.  For a second her attention
was no longer on Sandy.  It was as if she had seen something
before her eyes, something that had disappeared as soon as it had
come into her field of vision.  She turned back to Sandy.  Her
voice was subdued.
     "I...I just remembered of Mother's last words to you.  How
she called you by name and said: 'You are free now to choose your
own path.'  Then she held your hand and said goodbye.
     "Sandy, it was wrong of me to try to stop you.  I'm sorry. 
I won't try it again if you're bent on vengeance against
Robotnik.  But you have to understand that our fight against him
has never been about revenge.  It's been about restoring our
families, our world.  It...I'm sorry, Sandy; I hope you
understand."  With that, she turned away.
     "Sally?"
     Sally turned.  For the first time, Sally saw tears in
Sandy's eyes; Sandy had not even cried at the death of their
mother.
     "I just remembered Mother's last words to you," Sandy said. 
"How she called you by name and said: 'You have understanding,
and you have friends.'  Then she held your hand and said goodbye.
     "Sally, I...I'm sorry I didn't recognize that understanding
sooner.  I owe you a debt I can never repay."
     "What do you mean?"
     "When the possibility arose that you might still be alive, I
didn't want to believe it.  I tried to talk Mother out of
travelling to Knothole to see you.  Even as we made our way here
I secretly hoped it all would have been a lie.  But if we'd never
looked for you, then Mother would have gone to her grave
somewhere in the deserts of Nomad country with a question in her
heart, and the sands would have buried her stone of memory inside
of two days.  Instead, she died with her heart at peace,
surrounded by the love and loyalty that a Queen deserves."
     Sally smiled at the same time tears rolled down her cheeks.
     "You have done more for her than anyone could have hoped
for, Sally.  I am your servant."
     "No," she said gently, "you're my sister."  Sally put her
arms around Sandy, who did the best she could with the one arm
that functioned.  A minute later, Sonic and Rotor re-entered the
hut.
     "Got it, Sally!  It's just take a minute to install."
     "Yeah," Sonic griped, "and I'll be picking computer chips
out of my quills for a week!"
     "So," Rotor went on, making idle conversation, "you gonna
stay around here, Sandy?"
     Sally held her breath.
     "No, Rotor.  I've been thinking about it and I've made up my
mind.  I'll be travelling to the East.  I was thinking of hooking
up with Dirk and the Eastern freedom fighters.  I think I can
teach them something about fighting SWATbots."
     Sally breathed a sigh of relief.  "That's wonderful, isn't
it, Sonic?"
     "Yeah, but...."
     "But what?"
     "Why'd she have to tell Robuttnik about his arm?  Why should
we do him any favors?"
     "Who knows, Sonic?  Maybe he'll return the favor some day."
     "I don't get it, Sal."
     "So what else is new?"
     "Hey!"
     "Look, Sonic, if Robotnik knows that he's being poisoned by
his own robotic arm, sooner or later he'll reach the same
conclusion that Uncle Chuck did: that the only effective
treatment involves deroboticizing it."
     "So?"
     "So maybe he'll begin working on a deroboticizer of his own,
and when he's got it perfected...."
     "Then we use it against him by undoing all the people he's
roboticized!  Hey, I guess that's way past cool after all!"
     "What can I say?  Being way past cool runs in the family."


     "Are you gonna be all right, Sandy?"
     Sandy and Bunnie stood at the eastern edge of the Great
Forest.  It was sundown, and the sky to the east was darkening to
a smooth indigo while streaks of fire still lit the western sky. 
Sandy had taken leave of Knothole, but Bunnie had insisted on
escorting Sandy to the edge of the woods.
     "I'll be fine, Bunnie.  I learned how to navigate using the
stars from the Nomads."
     "That's nice," Bunnie said as she leaned against a tree with
her arms crossed before her, "but that's not what Ah meant."
     "I know," Sandy said quietly as she looked at her
roboticized right arm, fully functional once more.  "Don't worry
about me, Bunnie; I won't try anything stupid against Robotnik...
or myself."
     "Ah'm glad to hear it," Bunnie said as she took Sandy's
hands in her own.  After several seconds she hadn't let go.
     "Is there any chance of your coming East some time?" Sandy
asked.
     "No; mostly Ah'll be right here in Knothole."  Several more
seconds passed, and still Bunnie hadn't let go.
     "Bunnie...there's something...something I've wanted to...but
I don't...."
     "Then Ah will."
     Bunnie then embraced Sandy and kissed her.  She kissed her
hard, on the mouth.  Sandy was caught off-guard, but only for a
second.  She then returned both the kiss and the embrace.  They
seemed to go on forever.  When their lips parted with a quiet,
moist sound, three stars were already visible in the sky
overhead.
     "You take care of yourself now, Sandy, y'hear?"
     And for the first time, Bunnie saw Sandy smile--a smile that
a second later was hidden behind a Nomad's veil.  Sandy took her
bearings from the sky and started out silently toward the
darkening East.  Bunnie sighed, turned and began walking through
the Great Forest to the West, back toward Knothole.

                                  THE END