FicWad

Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Robotnik and related characters are copyrighted by Sega. Sally and the Freedom Fighters are copyrighted by Archie and Sega. Doctor Shepherd is a minor character copyrighted by NetRaptor, used without permission. Finally, Nintex is copyright to Sonic Lightspeed, not to be used without permission.


In the darkness that covered Robotropolis, the paths seemed endless. Polluted mist hung along the dirty ground, littered with nuts and bolts and bordered by fields of robot parts. Nintex clawed his way along the dirt at ground level, each motion agony, as his broken leg refused to support him. He couldn't stand, and every time the limb caught on something, the pain flared up again. And so he worked his slow way forward, reaching out for the next handhold. He would drag his way forward, and wince as his leg screamed at him to stop. Then Nintex would ignore the signal, gather his strength and throw his other arm forward.

Three hours passed, and the city became a little smaller. Nintex, for the first time in a long while, reached a junction, and halted to consider which way to go. It was a set of crossroads. Every path was identical but for the main city behind him. Robotnik was after him, and Nintex had no idea why he had gone so unnoticed. Since his escape twelve hours ago, he had only seen three groups of active robots, and avoided them by hiding low in the mist.

Breathing hard, Nintex was not really thinking clearly, but decided to move forward. The idea of fooling Robotnik by moving sideways seemed sound at first, but the quicker he was out of this city, the better. He moved his head to look both ways -

And then quickly recoiled! Robots! Five standard SWATbots were heading this way from the left-hand path, and Nintex lifted his vulpine ears and listened to the clanking of metal on itself.

And then their cry: "Intruder! Apprehend!"

Nintex's breathing rate tripled right there, and he looked around in terror for the nearest hiding-place. But if they had seen him, they knew how low he was, and mist alone would be no good.

There was simply nowhere to go, and Nintex couldn't run. In a last-ditch effort, he pulled himself to the borders built of robots, and then dug his way into them. They cascaded on top of him; one landed on his leg, and he screamed into the air. But then he found he was quite firmly encased, and he could just see through the gaps in the metal. The five SWATbots came running round the corner, to gaze around for any sign of activity.

They stopped to stand there, looking around. Nintex listened to his own breathing and watched them search.

And then his hand touched something warm.

The clank attracted the robot's attention. But by the time they had turned their heads, the teleporter unit had grown a dull blue. Then there was a flash of light.

The SWATbots watched as the empty pile of robots collapsed onto itself.


Sonic stared in shock as the teleporter shut off, it's warm blue light fading into the central circle that a grey Mobian fox was now clinging to. Sally knew the plan, and her timing was perfect; the teleporter had fired the minute it was supposed to. But it wasn't Sally who had activated it, and it startled everyone circled around the target co-ordinates, right in the centre of the huts in Knothole.

"How dare you!" Sonic yelled, before he even realised he had opened his mouth.

Nintex was shaking uncontrollably, and he hadn't even heard. All he could see was the trees and sky above him. His leg was hurting so much that he couldn't tell whether he was screaming or not. All he could think about was not to let go of the teleporter; what happened if you fell away half-way through the process? He had no idea that he had already reached his destination. It only occurred to him when the teleporter was gently pulled away from him, and a collie's arms wrapped themselves around him and lifted him off the ground.

Nintex had not been screaming, but he yelled in pain when that someone took him up. In an instant, though, the man seemed to understand, and the pain was relieved again, or as much as could be expected.

Sonic and the others stared as Doctor Shepherd walked away, the fox in arms. He would not have acted any different if Sally were lying there, Sonic noticed.

Suddenly remembering, he grabbed the teleporter from where the doctor had put it down. "I'm going back, I need to check she's okay," he said quickly, and then he had inverted the co-ordinates, set it down on the ground, stepped on it, and vanished with it.

He emerged with the five SWATbots in his face.

His flinch was luckily timed, for all five of them fired at the spot where he had been. He snatched the teleporter from the ground and nearly tripped over the pile of robots that had fallen onto Nintex, regaining his balance just in time to avoid a second set of shots from the SWATbots. Then he was off and running towards Robotropolis.


Sally pushed the button for the fifth and final time. Somewhere beyond her notice, a spybot would pick out Sonic in the distance, clear and long enough that Robotnik's attention would move to that area. She had finished downloading the information about Robotnik's activities into Nicole and furthermore bringing that information terminal to a grinding halt. Now it was time to find the teleporter and get out.

She was late, and she always hated that. Not that it could be helped, but she always hated missing a deadline. This one had been and gone, but still the mission had gone as planned and she had passed in pretty much undetected. Now she made her way through the dark, vile buildings, wondering which way was out.

She reached down to her leg, where Nicole was strapped, when in the distance, she heard a scream.

Instantly she was panicked, but then remembered that it couldn't be Sonic since he was at home, waiting for her. Nevertheless, it made her falter as she listened to the sound of horror and pain.

Then it got worse. Someone /replied/.

From somewhere in a building nearby, Sally could hear, quite clearly, another cry, loud and clear through the polluted air. She winced as it was joined by others, four or five howling screams from somewhere within the dismal city. All answering the other, from the border zones.

Their note droned on and on, and Sally listened to them, petrified. What was going on?

She had to find out. Keeping her back to the wall of the nearest building, she edged towards the sound...


Sonic had heard them too. Only when he had got away from the SWATbots had he noticed the howling. It fit perfectly with the city's dreariness, but even tactless Sonic felt himself shivering. Someone screaming like that must really hurt. Pain so hard it stopped everything else... Sonic found himself on the same level as the Mobian fox - whoever he was - for the first time.

With his speed he was quickly within the city, and the cries were louder here. He listened carefully and decided they were near the refinery area. But then he remembered Sally, and made for where she was designed to end up before heading for the teleporter.

That meant he would have to go towards... the refinery area.


Sally had run out of corners to fear around. The building was right ahead of her, and the sounds were coming from inside.

There was no direct way in - Robotnik would never be that silly - but Sally grabbed a large metal bar and brought it crashing down on the grille over the air duct. With a few hard hits she broke it free, and threw the bar to the side.

It was musty inside, and a little dirty. She had to crawl through, for it was too thin for her otherwise. It wasn't designed for her either; the bends were tight and difficult to navigate around, and she couldn't see a thing, leaving her with an intense claustrophobia.

Finally she made it to the other end, noting with relief that there was no grille on this side. The voices sounded different here; they echoed less, and for the first time she made out the slight digital tone to the screaming. Suddenly she stiffened, realising that she could be heading right into a trap. But the way was clear as far as she could see.

The corridors were unlit, but there were windows, and she was able to make out the shape of the corridors ahead. She considered turning back, but the howling made that decision for her.

The next turn took her past a chamber full of oil, devoid of any machinery, and into a set of prison cells, where she stopped and stared at the occupants...


Sally climbed out of the duct and landed ungracefully on her hands and feet, only to look up and scream at the unexpected sight of Sonic right in front of her.

"Sal!" Sonic immediately yelled, lifting her up. To each other's surprise they found themselves in an embrace, and slowly pulled themselves apart. "You okay? We all panicked back home."

"Ugh," Sally replied, releasing Sonic and trying to look at least a little dignified but too shaken to succeed. "I'm not that late, am I?"

"It's not that," Sonic replied, showing her the teleporter under his arm. "Our escape plan was kind of wrecked for you. Some guy came through instead, shaking like mad, don't even know his name yet 'cause I left to pick you up."

"So you expected him and got me," Sally said.

Sonic looked at her. "No, it's the other way around. You're confused. What's the racket all about?" He pointed to the building.

"Robots," Sally said. "I've never seen anything like it. Five roboticized people, all screaming. Answering someone else out there." She pointed.

"There was another scream?"

"Yeah, it came from that way..." Sally pointed, then realised where she was pointing. "Towards the teleporter. So that might have been your guy. Anyway, the five were shaking the bars of the cells like mad, screaming, thrashing about... I couldn't do anything for them, so I stayed away."

Sonic stared. "Man, no wonder it sounds so awful. C'mon, let's get out of this creephouse."

"No kidding," Sally replied, as Sonic set the teleporter down and activated it.