Sonic the Hedgehog© and related characters are a copyright of SEGA
Enterprises LTD. and Archie Comic publications.
	Delphine, Dimitria, Comet, Marco, Ali, Peter, Brass, and Rick are
a copyright of Delphine. 
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				The End of the Beginning
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		The Portal
		Part 2 of Prologue
		-Delphine

	"Let.... go...." Dimitria gasped out. The figure said nothing,
just kept his hands around her neck. She suddenly remembered her legs were
free. She kicked him in the stomach. He cried out in pain, and dropped her
while he fell backwards onto the ground. Dimitria lay on the ground,
gasping. She looked over at him. He was holding his stomach. She tried to
return her breathing to normal. She had stopped wheezing when he got up.
She got up also, and backed away from him towards the entrance of the
cave.  He saw her and jumped to block the entrance. She gasped.
	"You're not getting out of here alive," he said in a low tone.
Dimitria backed up against the wall. She tried to concentrate on
teleporting, but fear engulfed her, and she could not. She saw a shadow
move behind him as he walked towards her. Suddenly he fell on the floor
with a shout of pain. Dimitria looked to see what had happened, and saw
Ali Cat standing there.
	"Ali!" Dimitria shouted.
	"Dimitria! Are you okay?!" Ali said as she ran over to Dimitria.
	"I think so." Dimitria told her. The two of them looked at the
figure on the ground, but found he was no longer on the ground. They saw
him running out of the cave. "We have to warn the rest of the Freedom
Fighters!" Dimitria exclaimed.
	"Let's go!" The two ran out of the caves, not knowing that the
human was going to the demolished Robotropolis.

	Delphine caught up with Vector and Charmy and picked Vector up by
the nape of his neck and Charmy stopped flying forward and turned around.
	"Oh! Ow! Let go!" Vector yelled.
	"No way, homeboy." Delphine said. She quickly flew up about ten
feet in the air. "Say you're sorry." She said.
	"Ow! Okay! I'm sorry! Don't drop me!" Vector yelled. Delphine used
her other hand to get a good grip on his arm. She lowered slowly, too slow
for Vector. When they were about three feet from the ground, she dropped
him. He landed on his feet. She touched down in front of him and grinned.
She had forgotten about Charmy, who was about to attack. He ran for her
head, but she heard him in time and turned to try and grab him. Instead
she knocked him to the ground. She looked down at him, then picked him up
by the base of his wings, bringing him to eye level.
	"If you feel like ever flying again," she said in a low tone,
"then cut it out." His eyes widened, and he nodded. She let him go, and he
caught himself before he landed. Delphine turned to Vector. She was about
to say something when Knuckles, Mighty, Espio, and Archimedes riding on
Knuckles' shoulder came crashing through the undergrowth. Delphine didn't
say anything else, just grinned widely. Knuckles looked at her.
	"What happened?" he said in what he tried to make a commanding
voice.
	"Nothing," Delphine said sweetly.
	"You...." Vector started, but with a look from Delphine he fell
silent. Knuckles turned back and forth between the two of them, trying to
figure out what happened. He shook his head, as if to clear it. 
	"C'mon, you guys. Let's go do something else."
	"How bout we eat lunch?" Mighty said. "I'm starvin." Vector
nodded.
	"Yeah man, it's time to go fill ourselves with food." he said.
Delphine rolled her eyes, to which Knuckles replied by looking up and
sighing. The seven walked out of the clearing.

	Comet found Sonic resting under a tree. She landed about ten feet
away, then snuck up behind him. When she was close enough, she put her
mouth to his ear and whispered,
	"Boo." Sonic screamed and jumped up. Comet backed away, laughing.
He turned and saw her.
	"Not funny," he said with narrowed eyes. He crossed his arms.
	"Aw, chill out Sonic. It was just a little joke," she said with a
smirk. He didn't move.
	"Did you come here for any reason other than to humiliate me?" he
asked.
	"Yeap. Rotor scanned a few stray robotisized citizens, and Sally
wants us to check it out," she told him. Sonic's eyes brightened. He
looked at Comet. 
	"So? What're we waiting for? Let's go find out!" He said. Sonic
leaped onto Comet, and she flew off towards the area.

	When Marco was done showing Tails around, he turned to him.
	"You've seen my home, so let's see yours."
	"Well...." Tails thought about it for a moment, then said "Sure,
why not? I see no harm in it." So Tails and Marco went to the entrance He
took Marco's arm, and flew them up and out. Then he walked towards
Knothole, with Marco following. 

	The human was in the ruins of Robotropolis, looking around.
	 he thought,  He was surprised the sound of an
engine slowing down behind him. He quickly turned, and saw Brass standing
there.
	"You Peter?" Brass asked. The figure nodded. "Good. Come with me."
He walked off, and Peter followed behind. Peter looked around as they were
walking. He was surprised at all the junk and rubble there was around. 
	 His thoughts were
interrupted when Brass stopped and stepped on something embedded in the
ground, which in turn made an opening in the side of what had seemingly
been a garbage pile. The robot stepped down, and Peter followed. When
they got to the bottom, Brass pushed a button which made the opening
close, blocking out what little light there had been in the first place.
Brass then pressed a series buttons which opened another door. Peter
looked inside and saw Snively. "Hey Sniv, how's it goin?" he said as he
jumped past Brass and walked in. Brass walked in as well and closed the
door behind him. Snively turned around.
	"Ah, Peter. How have you been?" Snively asked.	
	"Eh, it's been sorta borin. My planet stinks. No wars at the
moment." Peter said.
	"That may change very soon." Snively said. Peter's eyes lit up. 
	"I hope so," he said.

	Sonic and Comet arrived at the site. They looked around, and saw
the robots through the bushes. They knelt down and looked through.
	"There's seven of them," Comet whispered.
	"Six," Sonic corrected her.
	"Seven!"
	"Six!"
	"Seven!"
	"Six!"
	"SEVEN!" Comet screamed. Sonic shrank back in surprise. Then he
calmed down.
	"You want there to be seven, fine, then there's seven. But in
reality, there's six." Sonic said. He turned to look at the robots, but
they weren't there. "Uh oh."
	"Uh oh? What uh oh?" Comet asked.
	"We were both wrong. There's none."
	"Uh oh." Comet turned around. "Uh, Sonic?"
	"Yeah?" he asked without turning around.
	"You were right. There is only six," she said. Sonic turned
around.
	"Holy shit!" Sonic yelled. In front of them were the six 'bots
that they had been watching moments earlier. Sonic slowly stood up. The
robots stood there, watching him.
	*we have to do something!* Comet told him telepathically.
	 he thought, knowing she wouldn't hear him. He looked
around. He couldn't run because he didn't want to leave Comet on her own.
He noticed that the robots hadn't moved, just stood there watching them.
Sonic thought about his Uncle's theory that the robots were no longer
under Robotnik's control since he was dead.... "Uh.... hi." Sonic said,
not exactly knowing what he was doing.
	"Are you nuts?!" Comet whispered furiously. Sonic didn't answer.
The robots looked at each other, and then one robot stepped forward.
	"Hello," he said. "Could you help us find Princess Sally Acorn and
her Freedom Fighters?" Sonic and Comet looked at each other.
	"We could help you," Comet said, getting to her feet. Comet walked
off towards Knothole. "Follow me," she called back behind her. Sonic shook
his head.
	"I don't believe this," he muttered. He ran after Comet, with the
robots following behind.

	"Comet! Comet, hold on a minute!" Sonic yelled. Comet stopped and
Sonic skidded to a halt, almost bumping into her.
	"What is it now?" she asked.
	"Don't you think we should find out who these robots are first?
And see what they're doing here? Or at least ask Sal first?" Sonic rambled
on. Comet sighed.
	"All right, all right, go to Knothole and ask Sally. But hurry
up." As Sonic left the robots finally caught up.
	"Where's he going so fast?" the lead robot asked.
	"To get permission from the Princess to see if you can enter
Knothole or not." Comet told him. The robots all sat down, waiting. Comet
stood there, watching them.  she thought. 
She shook her head, then looked in the direction Sonic had gone, waiting
for his return.

	Sonic was running towards Knothole at top speed, until he ran into
someone while going around the corner of a path. He was thrown to the
ground by the force of the impact. He sat up, breathing hard because the
wind had been knocked out of him. He looked to see who he had bumped into.
It was Dimitria and Ali. He got up, then walked over to them.
	"Are you guys okay?" he asked. Ali looked up. She had been
kneeling over Dimitria.
	"I'm okay, but she was already weak." Ali said. Dimitria nodded
weakly. She was breathing hard.
	"Sorry," Sonic said with a worried tone. "I wasn't watching were I
was going. I didn't know you guys were there." He paused. "How come she
was already hurt?" he asked. Ali explained what Dimitria had explained to
her while they had been walking towards Knothole. Dimitria sat up.
	"Yes, and I have a feeling he went to Robotropolis."
	"But there's nothing there," Sonic said.
	"There could be," Dimitria contradicted. "A few lucky robots,
independent computers, maybe even Snively survived somehow," she finished.
Sonic shivered. 
	"That's impossible," he told her. "That place blew into a million
pieces." Sonic shook his head. "Nuh uh. No way. Gone, kapoot, no longer
there." 
	"Forget about this!" Ali said. "We need to tell Sally." Ali
turned, then turned back to Sonic. "Just what were you in such a hurry to
do?" Sonic explained the robots as he helped Dimitria up. "Interesting,"
she commented. The three of them entered the secret passage to the secret
village of Knothole. When they arrived at Sally's hut, Sonic knocked on
the door and didn't wait for an answer. He walked right in, calling out
for Sally.
	"Sal! Where'd ya go?" Sally walked out of her bedroom.
	"Sonic! How'd the mission go? Where's Comet?" she asked. Sonic
shook his head. 
	"These two have got something more important." Sonic told her.
Sally looked to Ali and Dimitria.
	"Well?" The two looked at each other, then told Sally everything
that had happened, with more details than the rushed version they had
given Sonic. When they were finished, Sally had a very worried look on her
face. "Oh dear," she said.
	"That's not exactly what I was thinking when this all began,"
Dimitria said. "But you got the 'oh' right." she smiled grimly.
	"What should we do?" Sally asked.
	"This is my fault. I should've gone back. I shouldn't have stayed
here. I should've...."
	"It's not your fault, Ali," Dimitria said. "It's not anyone's
fault. It's just one of those things. We all thought we were safe now with
Robotnik gone. But we were wrong."
	"Were we ever," Ali murmured.

	The next morning, on the Floating Island, Knuckles and Delphine
had finally gotten a few moments to themselves. They did what decent
lovers do.. Then, they got around to talking about going to the mainland
to get away from the Chaotix and their antics.
	"Oh come on, Knuckles. It's not like we have to go to Knothole.
Just go down to Mobius. No big deal. Besides, my hair is still damp."
	"I can't. I have to stay here and defend the island...."
	"From what?" Delphine interrupted. "There's no more Robotnik, The
Dark Legion has disappeared, and the Chaotix can watch it in your absence.
There is nothing wrong with going down there. Just view it as a....
vacation." Delphine finished. Knuckles sighed. He sat down to think about
it for a moment. Delphine heard a beep. It was her communicator. She
turned from him, took it out of her pocket, and turned it on. A miniature
version of Sally popped up on the small screen. "Hey Sal, what is it? I'm
sorta busy."
	"I'm sorry to interrupt, but we're having sort of a crisis down
here." Sally explained what had happened with Dimitria. Then she told
Delphine that when Sonic went back to Comet, they had brought the robots
back. "But it's to much for the derobotisizor to take on such a small
power source. We derobotisized the first three, but the others are still
robots. The machine needs to take a rest, and it's still got a few bugs
in it. Rotor and Chuck are working on it, but you might be able to help."
	"I might be able to find something they had somehow missed,"
Delphine said. She looked over her shoulder at Knuckles, who was waiting
for her to finish. "I'll be down there one way or another. Delphine out."
The screen went blank, and Delphine turned her com off. She turned towards
Knuckles. "Well, it looks like I'll have to go down there anyway." she
sighed. She relayed what Sally had told her. Knuckles sighed.
	"If you hafta go, then...." he sighed again. "I'll round up the
Chaotix." Delphine smiled. The two walked off to find the Chaotix.

	"So she's coming back down?"
	"Yeah, she said she'll be here one way or another." Sally
answered. Sonic nodded.
	"Knuckles'll probably be comin' down with her." Sonic sighed. "Oh
well. I'm gonna go see how Uncle Chuck is doing." He ran off to Rotor's
workshop. When he got there, Charles and Rotor were heavily working to fix
the derobotisizor. Rotor turned and saw Sonic.
	"Hi Sonic."
	"Hey Rotor. How's it goin?"
	"It could be better." Rotor answered. Charles saw them and walked
over.
	"This was much easier when I was a robot," he said wiping his
brow.
	"Don't say that." Sonic said.
	"Sorry." 
	The three robots were standing in the corner. The other three had
been a male raccoon(Keith), a male platypus(Michael) and a female
skunk(Charlene). The three that were still robots were a wolf, a duck, and
a hedgehog. Sex hadn't yet been determined. The robots had no memories
about who they had been until they were derobotisized At least, that's how
it was so far. Sally had followed Sonic to Rotor's workshop, and Sonic
turned and saw her.
	"Hey Sal."
	"Hi Sonic. Hello Rotor, Chuck. How are you getting along?" she
asked.
	"It's better than it was." Charles said. Sally gave a half smile.
She turned to Sonic. 
	"Will you help me find Dimitria and Ali?"
	"Sure Sal. C'mon." He took her arm and ran out of the hut.

	They found the two sitting by the ring pool. Rick was with them.
	"See? I told you we should've gone back. But noooo, we had to stay
here. Just tell me, why did we just have to stay here?" Rick said. He was
looking down at Ali.
	"You didn't have to stay. I wanted to stay because I wanted to and
I don't have to tell you why." Ali said. She knew he wouldn't do anything
if Dimitria was there.
	"She never said that you had to stay along with her. You didn't
have to stay. You didn't need to stay. And you say you didn't want to
stay. So why did you stay?" Dimitria asked him. He opened his mouth, then
closed it. He didn't have a good excuse. At least not one he wanted to
voice.
	"Ahem. Not to interrupt, but it would be nice if you would notice
us." Sonic called out. The three looked up in surprise.
	"I, um, sorry. We didn't see you." Ali said.
	"No matter," Sally said, shaking her head. "I wanted to see if the
two of you were okay."
	"Of course we're okay. The stupid freak didn't come back to kill
us, so we must be okay." Ali said.
	"Ali...." Dimitria started.
	"What?" Ali asked.
	"Wadaya mean, what?" Dimitria growled back.
	"Please! That doesn't matter. I also wanted to tell you that
Delphine will be back soon." Sally interrupted.
	"Will Knuckles be with her?" Ali asked.
	"Probably. Why?" Sally asked. Ali reddened.
	"Oh, nothing. I-- I was just um.... wondering. Yeah, wondering."
Ali stuttered. Ali heard someone coming, and turned her head in the
direction she heard it. She saw Bunnie standing there.
	"I was a wonderin if yah'all would like some lunch," she called
out. The other four turned.
	"Sure Bunnie." Sally said. She turned to everyone else. "Well?"
	"C'mon you guys," Sonic said with a half grin on his face. Let's
go eat." He ran off in the direction of the Knothole CafeŽ.
	"I wonder what he's up to...." Bunnie thought outloud.
	"I have a feeling we're going to find out," Sally said. The two
walked off, laughing with each other. Dimitria and Ali looked at each
other, grinned, got up, and followed them. Rick sat there for a moment,
then got up and followed also.

	"So that's the situation," Snively finished. He sat down, out of
breath.
	"And you want me to help you go to my planet so that you can take
over and find this red silk so that you an come back here and fully take
over this world."
	"Yes," Snively told Peter. "Exactly."
	"Cool. So, what's the plan?" Peter asked.
	"Well, at the moment the caves still aren't guarded. But the
Freedom Fighters will be watching, so we have to keep a low profile when
we travel there. But we will go there. They won't be expecting me. They
think I'm dead. But they might not be surprised for long. So when we
leave, we must hurry. If they catch us, we'll never get there." Snively
said.
	"Yeah, especially after I almost killed that girl," he said. To
himself, "And I would have, if that stupid cat hadn't come along...."
	"Never mind that now. We must see if we're ready. Brass!" he
called out. The robot came from one of the doorways. "Is everything all
set to go?" Snively asked.
	"Yes. We can leave whenever you're ready." Brass told him.
	"Good." Snively turned to Peter. "Are you ready?"
	"Ready? I've been waiting to do something like this for a long
time. Of course I'm ready." Peter answered.
	"Good. Before we go, though, I must show you something." Snively
gestured to Brass, who pressed a combination of buttons on the control
panel, causing a section of the wall to fly up, revealing a glass window.
Peter looked in, and what he saw amazed him, to say the least. Inside he
saw a huge room, about fifty feet by forty feet, and inside were wall to
wall....
	"What are they?" Peter asked.
	"They are called SSACbots."
	"Sacbots?" Peter asked.
	"Yes, spelled with two S's. It stands for Snively's Stealthy
Automated Commando bots." Snively said proudly.
	"Oh." Peter said. "Wait a minute. You said everything was
destroyed in the blast. If that's so, then how...."
	"Everything was destroyed in the blast. Brass here made them from
spare robot parts. There are quite a few of them." 
	"There sure are," Peter said with a grin.
	"These robots will be coming with us. Come on, I'll give you a
close up of how they look." Snively walked down a flight of stairs, with
Peter at his heels. He got off, then walked over to a door. He pushed a
few buttons, and the door opened. The two of them walked in. Peter walked
to the closest robot. He saw rocket boosters, a laser in each hand, infra
red vision, fingers sharp as knives, and some rather large weapons on all
their backs.
	"What're these?" Peter said, pointing to one of the weapons.
	"Those," Snively said, "are rocket cannons. They shoot fireballs
at three-forths the speed of sound."
	"Cool!" Peter exclaimed.
	"Yes, I thought so." Snively looked at his watch. "Well! It's time
to go. Shall we?" Peter grinned evilly.
	"We shall."

	Marco and Tails arrived at the outskirts of Knothole about the
same time Peter was amazed by the robots for the first time.
	"Whew! It took a lot longer getting back than it did leaving."
Tails said.
	"Probably because you were too excited before to notice how far it
was." Marco told him.
	"You're probably right," Tails said, wiping sweat off his brow.
They walked along the path until they came to a very large tree blocking
the path. Tails looked left, then right, then up.  he thought. He turned to Marco. "It looks like we'll
have to turn around, although it'll probably take hours."
	"No problem." Marco said. He furrowed his brow, then with his mind
he reached out and held the fallen tree up about seven feet in the air.
"After you," he said, gesturing towards where the tree had been. Tails
turned.
	"What the--!" Tails exclaimed. He looked back at Marco, then
looked back at where the tree had been. Then he looked up at the tree.
Feeling very confused, he walked under. Marco followed. When they were
both safely on the other side, Marco dropped it, then leaned against the
once again fallen tree, exhausted. 
	"That was definitely not easy...." he murmured to himself.
	"How did you do that?!" Tails exclaimed. Marco looked at him.
	"Le-- levitation," he breathed out. He was breathing hard. Tails
furrowed his brow, then shrugged.
	"Cool," he said. He held out his hand to help Marco up, and Marco
took it. "C'mon, let's get to Knothole." The two walked once again in the
direction that Knothole was at.

	About half an hour later, they ran into Bunnie. 
	"There ya are, sugah! We were startin' tah worry," Bunnie told
him. Tails blushed. Then he remembered that Marco was there.
	"Bunnie, this is Marco. Marco, Bunnie," he said, introducing them.
Marco took Bunnie's hand in this.
	"Pleased to meet you," he said with a slight grin on his face.
Bunnie blushed.
	"Pleasure's all mahn sugah." Bunnie said. Marco kissed her hand.
	"Are you sure?" Bunnie blushed even harder.
	"Um, hellOOOOooooo!" Tails said, getting annoyed.
	"Oh, I, um.... let's go to Knothole," Bunnie stuttered. She tried
to hide her red cheeks.
	"Lead the way," Marco said. Bunnie walked towards Knothole, with
Tails behind her and Marco behind him.

	They arrived in Knothole about the same time that Delphine and
Knuckles did. Knuckles regarded Marco with surprise. Delphine didn't say
anything. She was watching Bunnie.
	"Who's he?" Knuckles asked Tails.
	"I'm Marco. Gotta problem with that?" Marco retorted.
	"Watch it kid." Knuckles growled, clenching his fists.
	"Why? Ya gonna threat me to death?" Marco smirked.
	"You little...."
	"Whoa! Hold it!" Delphine said, stepping between them. She looked
towards Bunnie, who shrugged and looked away. Tails pulled Marco back.
	"That wasn't a good idea," he told him solemnly.
	"Oh? And why not?" Marco said smugly.
	"First of all, you don't even know who he is. Second, he can beat
the daylights out of you without even thinking about it." Tails told him.
Before Marco could say anything, Bunnie cut in.
	"I think yah'all should go see Sally-girl before this get's any
worse."
	"Bout time somebody talked some sense," Delphine said under her
breath. The five of them walked into Knothole. Delphine saw Sonic, Sally
and Ali walking towards Rotor's workshop. "Hey Sal!" Delphine called out.
Sally turned around.
	"There you are!" She exclaimed. The three of them walked up to
them. Sally saw Marco. "Who're you?" she asked.
	"I'm Marco. And who do I have the pleasure of being introduced
to?" he asked.
	"I'm Princess Sally Acorn, only daughter of King Acorn." She
smiled. "But you can call me Sally." She gestured towards Sonic. "This is
Sonic," he gave a small wave. "and this is....," Ali walked up to Marco
before Sally could say anything. 
	"Oh honey, you can call me anything you want," she said, sticking
out her hand. Marco shook it. Delphine groaned.
	"I have a feeling this is going to be a long day," she moaned.

	Hours later, Delphine was in the workshop helping Rotor and
Charles, with Sonic watching. Ali and Bunnie were going the rounds with
each other, trying to see who could impress Marco more. Tails was trying
to keep them away so that he could tell Marco more about Knothole and the
past war. Sally and Knuckles were talking about past happenings. Comet and
Dimitria were walking around, just talking. Somewhere in the Great Forest,
painfully close to The Caves of Eternal Death, were Peter, Snively, Brass,
and three-fourths of the robots. The rest were back in underground
Robotropolis, making more robots. With them they had an exact total of
13,734 robots, counting Brass. 
	Back at Rotor's workshop, Rotor's computer was doing a
preprogrammed scan of the forest. First it started a low beep, then it
started going out of control. Rotor went to check it.
	"No way!" he whispered.
	"What is it?" Charles asked. 
	"You guys, come take a look at this." Rotor told them. Delphine
got up and wiped her hands off with a rag. She had taken her coat off and
dumped it on a chair in the corner.
	"What is it?" she asked as she walked over to the screen.	
	"The computer is detecting two life forms and approximately
thirteen thousand robots. This is impossible! Call Sally!" Sonic nodded,
then left the hut to find Sally.

	Luckily, Sally and Knuckles were already heading back towards the
workshop, so Sonic didn't become suspicious. He told them what the
computer had said, and they followed him back to the workshop. When they
were right outside the hut, they could here the others talking. Ali,
Bunnie, Marco, Tails, Dimitria and Comet had joined them.
	"You should take this path towards the caves..."
	"No." Delphine shook her head, interrupting Rotor. "If we went
that way, they'd see us. We have to go around, like this." She pointed
towards one of the paths.
	"You're right," Charles commented.
	"But that's not the problem! We need to know who will be going."
Ali said.
	"I think me and Marco should go check it out." Tails said.
	"Marco and I." Delphine corrected.
	"Yeah, Marco, Tails and I," Ali said.
	"I don't think Ali should go." Bunnie interrupted. "I think I
should go."
	"I should go," Ali said, "Because I'm responsible for the caves,
and that seems to be where they're going."
		"If you're responsible for the caves, then why aren't you
there?!" Bunnie exploded.
	"You just don't want me to go because...."
	"ENOUGH!" Delphine shouted.
	"We should all wait until Sonic comes back with Sally and _then_
decide." Comet said.
	"Why should we wait for them? We're totally capable of doing that
on our own." Ali said. Delphine sighed.
	"I knew this was going to be a long day." Sally, Sonic and
Knuckles walked into the workshop.
	"You may be capable," Sally said, "but I'm the Princess." Ali
whirled around.
	"Oh, I, um, I mean--" Ali stuttered.
	"Forget it," Sally said with a wave of her hand. She walked over
to the computer and looked at the display. "I think that Bunnie, Tails,
Rotor,  Charles and Delphine should stay here and everyone else should
check it out." 
	"Oh, look, somebody is making sense." Dimitria said. Sally ignored
her. She turned to Knuckles. 
	"Will you come with us?" Knuckles shrugged.
	"Sure, why not?" he said, all too casually for Delphine. Sally,
Sonic, Ali, Knuckles, Marco, and Dimitria all left the workshop. Bunnie
and Comet left to, heading off to their huts. Rotor, Delphine and Charles
went back to the DeRobo (derobotisizor), with Tails and the three robots
watching.

	Three hours later, Sally and her group came upon Peter, Snively
and the robots. They hid in the bushes and watched them.
	"Enough robots?" Sonic asked under his breath. No one answered.
	"I wonder how they expected to get past us without being
detected." Ali whispered.
	"Take a look at all the 'bots," Marco said. "I don't think they
were too worried about what would happen if they were detected."
	"Good point," Ali whispered respectfully.
	"Can we get on with it?" Sonic whispered impatiently.
	"C'mon, let's go head 'em off at the caves." Knuckles said. Sally
nodded, and the six of them tip-toed away from the path and towards the
caves. 
	
	Back at Rotor's workshop, the three had finally finished fixing
the derobotisizor. Delphine gestured towards the duck. 
	"You wanna try it out first?" she asked. The duck shrugged and
walked in. The same thing happened as before. The tube lifted up, and the
duck walked out. It was a girl. She looked at herself, then looked at the
Freedom Fighters. Then she rushed at Rotor and gave him a hug.
	"Thank you," she whispered.
	"Well, I, uh...." Rotor stuttered. Delphine turned to Tails.
	"Can you show her to the guest hut so she can temporarily stay
there until we get one built for her?" she asked him.
	"Sure," Tails said. Delphine walked over to the duck and peeled
her off Rotor.
	"C'mon, he'll show you where you can stay." She pointed towards
Tails. The duck nodded with tears in her eyes. She walked over to Tails
and he lead her out of the hut.
	"By the way, what's your name?" Tails asked her.
	"Cynthia." Delphine looked towards Rotor and Charles.
	"Well, looks like it's working again." She turned to the wolf.
"Care to try?"
	"Are you kidding?" The wolf walked into the chamber. Same thing
happened. Rotor led her (the wolf was a girl-- her name was Samantha) to
the guest quarters. Delphine turned to Charles.
	"Good thing he's the last one," she said, gesturing to the still
robotisized hedgehog.
	"Yes. We're running out of room!" Delphine smiled.
	"Your turn," she said to the robot. He nodded, then stepped into the
machine. As the machine did it's work and he the hedgehog was partially
derobotisized, Charles gasped. "What is it?" Delphine asked.
	"That hedgehog.... I think it's...." He couldn't finish. He just
stared at the tube, his heart racing. Delphine stared at him. Then she
looked at the machine and saw that the process was complete. She walked
over to the control panel and hit the button that controlled the tube. The
front lifted up. The hedgehog walked out.
	 Delphine
couldn't finish her thoughts because Charles at that moment cried out,
	"Jules?!" 
	"Charles?!" 
	"I don't believe this!"
	"Can someone please explain what's going on?" Delphine asked.
Charles turned to her. 
	"Delphine you are not going to believe this but this hedgehog is
my brother!"
	"WHAT?!"

	"Well, well, what do we have here?" Sonic and the team turned.
They were inside the cave, in the room were Peter had first appeared.
	"Uh oh," Dimitria muttered.
	"Crap," Ali said.
	"Shit," Sonic swore.
	"All of the above." Peter said, with his gun posed at the group.
He was grinning like a maniac. Snively was standing behind him on the
left, Brass on the right. All the robots were standing about three feet
behind the two of them.
	"We're not going down without a fight," Sonic growled.
	"You never do," Snively said.
	"As you wish," Peter said.
	"Lemme at 'em," Brass growled. The two groups collided, with Peter
and Snively at the sidelines.
	"While they're busy let's take some of these bots and get outa
here." Peter whispered.
	"Good idea." Snively said. Peter took out a small computer. It
looked like a TV remote, but it was slightly larger than the average
remote, and it had an antennae coming out of the top swirled with
colorful.... things. Peter pressed a few of the buttons. A portal
appeared. Ali saw it.
	"NO! I can't let them get away!" She jumped through the SSACbots
and landed in front of the two, blocking them from the portal.
	"What do you think you are doing, you stupid cat!" Peter shouted.
	"Making sure you don't go through that portal!" Ali leapt at
Peter. The two started rolling around on the floor, scratching, biting,
kicking, punching and swearing. Snively stood off to the side, helpless as
to what to do.
	Meanwhile, the rest of the Freedom Fighters were having a lot of
trouble fighting the new bots. First of all, both Sonic and Knuckles were
preoccupied, doing their best just to dodge the attacks from Brass. Sonic
hadn't had a chance to take out his Power Ring yet, and Knuckles wasn't
having much of a picnic either.
	Marco was a big help, using his levitation whenever he could, but
there were just too many bots. Sally had been thrown against the wall at
least five times, and not being as durable as Sonic, she was becoming weak
and couldn't fight well. Dimitria was using her magic as best she could to
fight off the bots and to keep the others in the fight, but as levitation
for Marco is tiring and as Delphine becomes exhausted when she over uses
her Medallion, Dimitria was tiring out. And the robots were tireless. Only
about ten of the thousands of bots had been destroyed. Some of the robots
weren't even fighting.
	Snively had decided it was time to do something. He took the
rocket canon from a nearby robot. The bots had obviously forgotten that
they had the canons, because they weren't using them. Snively aimed the
rocket canon at the wall that Peter and Ali were near, and fired on low
while saying,
	"Peter, get out of the way!" Peter heard him, and jumped away from
Ali. The fire ball hit the wall, and rocks flew from the wall, covering
Ali in debris. She screamed and screamed, then abruptly stopped. Everyone
stopped fighting. Tense moments later, when the dust had cleared, where
Ali had been there was a pile of rocks. Peter looked at the device in his
hand. In the fight it had become damaged. He dropped it with a cry as it
malfunctioned and sparked. Before anyone could say anything, the portal
became brighter and brighter, and it suddenly engulfed the room. When
everything was once again black, all had disappeared except Ali, who was
unconscious under the pile of rock.

	Rotor and Tails had gone back to the workshop. Jules was
introduced and current events were explained to him, and Charles explained
who Jules was. Rotor had gone to his computer to scan for the group that
had left, but all he could find was a very weak life sign in the caves.
Delphine had decided to go find out what was going on, and Tails, Charles,
and Jules went with her. Rotor, Comet and Bunnie had stayed behind to
watch after Knothole and the villagers. While they were traveling towards
the caves, this was the discussion.
	"So you're Sonic's father?" Delphine asked Jules.
	"Technically, yes. It's hard to explain." He glanced at Tails.
	"Don't worry about the kid. He's not much of a kid anymore."
Delphine said, knowing what he was thinking.
	"Well, I'll try to keep it subtle. Briefly, we couldn't have kids
because of an error on my part. I was.... I couldn't.... you see...." he
reddened.
	"It's okay. I know what you're saying. It happens to the best of
us." Delphine told him, giving him a reassuring smile. He smiled back,
grateful.
	"Well, we got a donor, and they took one of her.... eggs.... and
when it was fertilized, placed it back.... inside." He was having a very
hard time explaining what the problem had been. His face had become a deep
scarlet.
	"So Chuck, what do you think happened at the caves?" Delphine
asked, changing the subject. Jules was grateful. Tails was still confused.
Delphine was grateful. They went on trying to keep up a conversation about
one thing or another until they got there. They walked in. Inside they saw
a very slowly closing planetary portal and a pile of rock. Delphine heard
a moan underneath. She guessed that someone was under there. She quickly
walked over and started picking out rocks and tossing them to the side.
The others took her lead and started helping. In no time they had the pile
cleared and found Ali. Her breath was ragged and her chest was heaving.
Delphine gasped. She shook her friend, trying desperately to wake her up.
	"C'mon, get up!" she murmured. Ali moaned again. Her eyes
fluttered open, then closed again as she groaned.
	"Ow." she muttered.
	"That's puttin it mildly." Delphine said. She looked around at the
others. "What happened?"
	"We came in here, and the robots ambushed us. A human opened a
portal, and I tried to stop him, but I was buried under a pile of rocks. I
don't remember what happened after that." Ali said. She brought her hand
to her head and closed her eyes again, enduring the pain.
	"Are you going to be all right?" Tails asked.
	"Yeah, I'll be fine." She noticed Jules for the first time. "Who's
this?" Charles explained who he was.
	"Excuse me, but >bzzt!< perhaps I >crackle!< could be of some
>veerap!< assistance," said a robotic girl voice. Delphine looked around.
She saw Nicole.
	"Nicole!" she exclaimed. She walked over to where the computer had
been dropped. There was some damage, but nothing seemed too bad. "What
happened?"
	"Well, after Ali >dzzt!< was somewhat terminated, something
>wheep< happened with the device that the unknown >crackle< human was
using. After that there was a >zzt!< flash of brilliant light, and we're
all that's left. Everyone and everything else >kzzrpt!< disappeared."
Nicole finished.
	"Oh, great." Delphine turned to Charles and handed Nicole to him.
"You need to bring her back and fix her." she said. Charles nodded.
Delphine turned to Ali. "Are you up to going to a strange planet you've
never been to to rescue our friends who could be anywhere?" Ali got up,
and smiled at her.
	"Of course I am."
	"Wait, you're not saying you're going on your own?" Charles asked.
	"We have to." Delphine said simply. She turned to Ali. "So we just
jump through this ball of light, and we're there?"
	"Yup." Ali told her. The two turned, and walked to it. Jules put a
hand on Delphine's shoulder. She turned.
	"Bring him back, Delphine. Bring back my son."
	"I will," she said softly. She gave him a swift hug, then turned
back to the portal. "Well Ali, this is it."
	"C'mon, the portal's closin, and we've got friends to save." She
smiled.
	"See ya on the flip side!" The two jumped into the portal. The
three watched as the portal brightened, then quickly disappeared. Then the
cave was dark, and they were gone.

					End of Prologue,
			  but not the end of the story!

    Source: geocities.com/timessquare/dungeon/5221