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Utter silence.

Sir Charles stared at the screen in front of him, disbelieving. It was unprecedented.

Utter silence. Not one news broadcast in the past five days.

"That's not possible," he muttered, scanning the list. "There's got to be a mistake."

"What is it?" Sonic asked, looking at the screen, although he recognised nothing on it.

"Robotnik's never this quiet," Sir Charles explained, keying in a command to make the system check again. "I've been in the power units for the past five days; it's been that long since I had access to the news system. And Robotnik's kept his mouth shut all that time. He hasn't even documented the launch."

The list blanked out, then refilled itself. There were still no new items. Sir Charles shook his head.

"He's gotta be planning something big," he said. "Maybe there's more to this satellite thing than we know." His eyes lit up, literally; the red glow briefly stained the room. "Oh, I forgot to say. It's about the satellite. Robotnik's following a predetermined signal."

Sally gasped. Sonic blinked, missing the point.

"Sonic," Sally explained. "Someone's sending a signal from inside Knothole."

Sonic's mouth opened in an O as he realised what the consequence of that was.

"/Nintex/," they mouthed together.


Sir Charles plugged the tiny black box into a port on the side of his body. The tiny machine had been plugged into the mains all this time, and now it began to send its stored power directly into Sir Charles.

Sonic grimaced as he saw it. Sir Charles noticed.

"I know it's simplistic," he said apologetically, "but if things were nicer, I'dn't be a spy for the doctor. Without using the power units, this is the only way I can stay awake. I can't arouse suspicion, so this way it has to be."

Sonic never bothered to argue any longer about whether Sir Charles should return to Knothole. The conversation never got anywhere on those lines. His uncle was adamant, consistently replying that his best place was here.

Whether or not he actually believed what he was saying, Sonic didn't know. Robotic as he was, Sir Charles was talented at hiding his true feelings.

His roboticization had left his personality intact, to be reinstated after a short time. But so many things had ended for them. Sir Charles didn't eat, drink, or sleep. He worked twenty-two hours a day and spent the rest of the time recharging for his next shift. It was a monotonous, dreary existence.

But Sir Charles kept up at it.

And that, Sonic mused, was dedication - at its finest.


"Let's go," Sir Charles said, pulling the manhole cover open. He slid himself inside, landing on the wet metal below with a dull /clunk/. Sonic winced.

"Down you come, Sonny-boy, Princess," he called. The two of them crawled in after them. It was dark inside.

"Where are we?" Sonic asked. "Is this a sewer?"

"Actually," Sir Charles explained, "it's a very complex network grid. Now, there are only a few robots here, but it's not deserted either. Those that do come down here are given maps of the system and follow those directions without question. Which is perfect, because otherwise they'd crawl into the paths I made myself."

His eyes lit the cylindrically-shaped tunnel, walls covered in ash, grime, and oil. The air held an unpleasant taste of machinery, but Sonic and Sally gritted their teeth and followed him.

His path took them down a smaller tunnel. It was still pitch black, and they were forced to hold each others' shoulders so as not to lose themselves. Sir Charles whispered to them as they walked, his voice echoing deeply in the metallic catacombs.

"Robotnik originally built these tunnels to allow quick access throughout the city. The point was that the best way to get between two points is in a straight line without obstruction, so key nodes in the city were identified and a network of these tunnels built, connecting them. Then Robotnik went on a tangent, and suddenly realised that a skyway system made more sense. The whole idea was put on hold and never returned to."

"Wait a sec," Sally said. "If this place is abandoned, then why do robots still patrol it?"

"Basically because, in a few cases, an underground system does make sense, when the nodes are quickly accessible. Remember, hovercraft can only carry a certain weight, and running objects over the ground can take up far less energy. Robotnik knows when to conserve."

"So you just started digging further into the tunnel system?" Sally asked.

"Well, not quite," he admitted. "My absence would have been clearly noted, and to be honest, I don't have the time or energy for this. But I am the one responsible."

He paused to scan the metal walls of the tunnel, tainted red by the colour of his eyes.

"Go on," Sally prompted.

"Well, let's see," Sir Charles said distractedly, not bothering to hide the fact that he was only half concentrating on his story. "I was working near the disassembly line when I noticed the condemned robots. Burrobots; six of them. One of Robotnik's earliest, and with a very simplistic operating system. I took them off Robotnik's hands, and with a lot of effort, got them to follow my orders."

"Wow," Sonic said. "I didn't think it could be done."

"It can't," Sir Charles replied. "Not any more. Even then it was difficult as heck. And it didn't really work properly; I had to give every order at least twice before they'd stop questioning it. It was immensely frustrating."

"But they dug the tunnel," Sally said, understanding.

"They did. When they were done, I, well, I returned them to the line. I watched them get pulled apart. It was quite satisfying after all the irritation they had caused me. Now these tunnels are the only thing that proves I didn't just make all that up."

"Heh, right," Sonic replied. "And Robotnik never found out?"

"Robotnik didn't even check the disassembly queue - he just calls the robots there and then assumes they get sorted out. And he never actually uses the tunnels. So far, I'm in the clear. Wait."

He paused, staring at some kind of marking on the wall, then started to wipe the grime off it. It was a long column of nine arrows, each one pointing either left or right down the tunnel. The seventh, which Sir Charles put his finger on, pointed right, but there was a small circle beside it.

"That means it's next up," he explained. "The ladder should be pretty near here. Can you see it?"

"I can't see anything," Sonic complained.

"Wait, here it is," Sir Charles replied, as it fell within the glow of his eyes. "Climb up with me, now." He lifted one foot and began to scale the ladder, rising into a vertical shaft, leaving Sonic and Sally in darkness.

"Right," Sonic said, slightly uneasy. "Here we come, then..."

The ladder itself was unpleasant, in that, apart from the darkness, the metal rungs were slippery from oil, and the three were forced to brace themselves on each step to avoid a fall. Sir Charles, without the organic dexterity of the other two, did misstep and come off, but quickly his fall was stopped by Sonic below him, who caught him and then executed an awkward ballet of shifting weight and keeping balance in order to return his uncle to the safety of the ladder.

The shaft continued upwards for some way, and the three of them grew quite tired of the continuous exercise. Finally Sir Charles stopped the climb, listening upwards at whatever was roofing him.

"What is it?" Sally whispered from below them. She could not tell a thing from the two above them.

"Shhh," Sir Charles whispered back. "I thought the building would be abandoned, but for a moment there, I thought I heard something."

They listened to the silence for a long moment. At first there was nothing; then all of a sudden there was a metallic /clank/ing of robot feet - right above Sir Charles' head. He winced, but didn't dare move for fear of making a sound.

The robot slowly clanked away. Sir Charles breathed a heavy sigh of relief, then tensed again. He was right above the exit they were due to use, and there might still be some robots above.

Once again they listened in silence. Now they could hear nothing. Nothing at all.

Sir Charles looked down at Sonic. "Should I go for it?" he asked warily.

"We'd better," Sonic whispered back. "It's not going to help Knothole being stuck in a shaft until we starve. If there're robots, there're robots. We'll survive."

"Yeah," Sir Charles replied, "but I don't want to be caught off-shift. Hey Sonic, will you go check above? Robotnik knows what side you're on."

"Sure," Sonic answered confidently, and Sir Charles leaned warily on one side of the ladder, as Sonic passed on the other, feeling the manhole cover above him. "I'm ready."

Very slowly, very carefully, he lifted the cover up from its grate. Its hinges protested loudly, painfully, the sound echoing through the air and making the three of them wince again. Sonic peered through the gap he had made.

Outside, in his limited vision, he saw a field of SWATbots! He flinched, pulling himself out of their line of sight, waiting for the inevitable cry of, "Intruder! Apprehend!"

It never came.

Slowly, uncertainly, he brought his eyes back to the gap. The robots weren't running towards the manhole, as he had expected. They hadn't even moved. He peered closer.

They were offline. He allowed himself a sigh of relief, and looked around for any sign of movement anywhere. Nothing.

"Phew," he said, lifting the manhole cover all the way up, and pulling himself up. "They're turned off. C'mon, guys, I'll help you out."

"What're turned off?" Sir Charles asked, lifting his head out. His mouth fell open.

"They're turned off," Sonic repeated, helping his uncle scale the edge of the shaft. The ladder ended too low for comfort.

"It's not that," Sir Charles replied. "Think about what's just happened. What are they doing here? I've never seen so many SWATs in one place before. There must be hundreds - thousands! - here. And besides; what're the chances that, of all the buildings Robotnik has, he packs his 'massive squadron' sect in this one? It's meant to be disused, for crying out loud!"

"You're saying he knew we'd be here?" Sally asked, climbing out and replacing the manhole cover quietly.

"No," Sir Charles replied grimly. "Worse. Robotnik doesn't know about the tunnels; I'm sure of it. What I'm saying is that his 'massive squadron' overflows into this room."

Sonic stared at the huge amount of SWATbot around him. "But that means there must be loads of these things."

"Hundreds of thousands," Sir Charles replied. "It's so impossible... it's so impossible that I think it must be true. I think Knothole will be in a lot of trouble if we don't stop that satellite."

Sally looked around her, at the arrays of robots, covering her on all sides, then to the exit at the other side of the room. "Let's get out of here," she said, quite panicked.

The robots made no sign that they noticed them as they walked past them, standing up, packed tightly so as to force the three of them to hold their arms right in to avoid touching them. Sally was whispering to herself; Sonic couldn't tell what, but he could hear the fear in her voice.

They made it to the exit door. One SWATbot was awkwardly positioned right in front of it, but Sir Charles gritted his teeth and edgily pushed it aside. It didn't resist or acknowledge the motion, and soon it was far enough that he could pull the door open and step, blinking, into the sunlight.

"I thought it was raining?" asked Sonic. "Were we down there that long?"

"I don't know," Sir Charles replied, shaking his head anxiously. "Let's get moving."

"Wait," said Sally, also stepping out into the sunlight, and putting one foot on the still-wet dirt track. In front of her stood more of the wrecked hovercraft that Sir Charles had seen earlier.

And inside, more SWATbots. Melted SWATbots.

SWATbots with exposed internals.

It hit her instantly.

It would be too deep in the machinery. We'd have to disassemble it completely, then weld it off.

"Um, Sir Charles," she asked slowly. "You think there'd be any welding tools in these ships?"

"There should be," he replied dubiously. "There normally is. Standard procedure. Why?"

Sally grinned.

It'd be hard work.

But this was personal.

This was how she would save Nicole.