A quick author's note: Sorry for the delay, folks, classes and other projects are taking up more and more of my time. But it is still getting done, I've gone too far to stop now. It'll just take a little while longer than I expected. Nevertheless, thank you all for your praise so far, and here are the next installments...

***

Hover units raced madly across the smoldering devastation of the Lower Mobius city cavern, heading for whatever exits they could find. Rock crumbled down from the ceiling, alarmingly large cracks were beginning to creep across the walls. The entire chamber groaned bitterly, the weeping sound of an ancient massive structure beginning to destabilize. It echoed across dozens of audio receivers throughout Robotnik's command ship, tandem notes becoming a staccato melody.

Snively was frantically relaying order after order to the surviving hover units still scurrying about the chamber. "All units, fall back to the surface. I repeat, fall back to the surface, now!"

The detonation of the energy crystal had blown away a large section of the cavern, and melted another good portion. Although most of the molten rock had already began to cool the affect of its absence was taking a severe toll on the cave itself. Sensors that had been silently monitoring the chamber's structural integrity had been flashing urgent warning at him for minutes. It wouldn't last for much longer.

The camera monitors painted a grim picture. More hover units were dying by the minute, the effects of severely damaged systems taking their tolls. An unfortunately large number of airships hadn't even heard his orders to retreat, their receiver antennas burnt away in the explosion. They remained obstinately still. But worst of all were the ones with antennas that only partially malfunctioned; one of them had even heard his order as "fall... to the surface," and had obediently done so.

Two of the camera monitors at the top of the field, monitoring units #11 and #24, were relaying images of the rabbit's hover car. Snively had stopped paying attention to them a long time ago. They could take care of themselves. He had to worry about roofs caving in.

The rumble steadily increased by orders of magnitude. Snively thought he detected a minute trembling in the cavern wall itself, but it could have just been camera distortion. Only about half of the remaining squadrons have even begun to flee. "I said get out of there," he hissed in frustration.

When hover unit #11's monitor turned to static in his peripheral vision, his veins froze in a snap of icy cold shock. No, not that, too. Not now. The only thing that could salvage this raid in Robotnik's eyes was killing or capturing the rabbit. 11's audio receiver had just relayed what sounded like the beginning of an explosion before it vanished.

He gasped, looking up just in time to see #24's camera burst into the same snowy static.

On the master tactical display, two dots slowly faded out of existence, leaving only the blip of the rabbit's hover car to move peacefully away.

Snively felt a large, gloved hand grab him roughly by the back of his shirt, lifting him completely out of the chair. Hot, musky air fell across the nape of his neck. The heavy sound of inhaling and exhaling sounded like Robotnik was unsuccessfully trying to control his breathing. He was more than angry.

Snively's frail body was slammed against the front edge of the command ship's bridge, and held against the wall by an iron grip. His uncle's eyes burned a solid red as he leveled a finger at #24's monitor. "You have *one* chance to explain what just happened!"

Snively had only seen the monitors go dead. He had no idea what to say, but knew that even if he did nothing could placate Robotnik now. He just whimpered. His feet kicked helplessly in the open air beneath him. The ground was at least twice his height away.

Robotnik stared at him for a long, terrifying moment, and then let him fall gracelessly to the ground. Snively braced for the rough kick, but it never came. Robotnik stomped heavily back over to his chair, leaving his nephew wheezing for breath on the ground.

"Plot intercept coordinates!" he ordered furiously. "Trace where the car will emerge from the tunnel and get us there! Ready the mortar cannons!"

Snively knew what he would have to say before he even returned to his seat, but he checked the displays anyway, just to look like he was doing something. They only confirmed what he knew. "Sir, the tunnel she's in terminates at a point in the forest over twenty kilometers from our current position. She'll get there long before we even get in range to use the mortar cannons."

Robotnik's fist on the arm of his chair was a thunderbolt echoing throughout the ship. "Just start moving, Snively!"

The rest of the camera monitors blinked suddenly to static as the cavern collapsed on top of the few surviving hover units.

***

Another dull rumbling began to echo throughout the tunnel as the hover car neared the end. Griff seemed to be making a pointed effort to try and ignore it, but he was failing miserably. He kept glancing back behind the car, trying to see out into the pitch darkness. The sounds of Lower Mobius's death throes transmitted well through the metal-walled channel. Bunnie did her best to ignore it, racing the car towards the sunlight just spilling from around the next corner.

When they finally reached the surface, the car sped out through an otherwise innocuous looking pipe in what must've been a water treatment plant decades ago, long before the withering stains of Robotnik's dilapidation had arrived. The abandoned suburban district had once been a part of Mobotropolis, but the forest had reclaimed most of it in the years since the coup. It quickly faded behind them, along with the sounds of the city cavern collapsing. The relief on Griff's face was obvious.

The stark green of the Great Forest was a welcome sight, a sharp contrast to the dirt-brown and metal gray walls of the underground. Bunnie had thought she'd never see it again. The sunlight felt warm, refreshing, something beautifully mundane. The hover car gained altitude slowly, pulling away from the treetops.

"Don't take us too high," Rotor said automatically. "The Robotropolis radar will detect-"

Bunnie gently tapped the side of her right leg.

"Right," he said, "never mind. I guess it doesn't really matter."

Some of the buzz of victory was starting to fade. The adrenaline of the chase had worked its way through her system and was gone. Cold reality was setting in again. The Laurentis nodule was still welded tightly inside of her right leg, it's blaring beacon still leading Robotnik to the hover car. He would be back before long.

She felt weary.

"So where to now?" she asked.

"I guess the rendezvous point is out of the question," Griff said, "and so is Knothole."

"No kiddin'," Bunnie said dryly, gently turning the steering handles.

The hover car thrusters roared in response, pushing the vehicle into a gentle curve. The greenery of the Great Forest became an incline for a moment, centripetal acceleration playing havoc with Bunnie's inner ears. The treetops became a featureless blur, reforming only when she stopped the curve. Just over the horizon, a massive haze of smog loomed directly ahead.

"You already know where you're going," Rotor observed quietly.

Bunnie nodded, hand absently slipping back to her right leg, rubbing over the nearly invisible access panel. Just underneath that metal surface the Laurentis nodule lurked. A device that had serviced her biomechanical components for years, keeping her alive, now threatened her existence. She imagined she could hear the beacon screaming, a relentless high-pitched whine.

"Robotropolis," Griff said.

"If y'all were tellin' the truth about that blade, then Ah don't see that Ah have much of a choice."

"Even if you do manage to snatch the blade - somehow - you'll be paralyzed for life if you remove the nodule," he cautioned. "It's more likely that we'll die just trying to get there. He doesn't exactly leave the door to the roboticizer unlocked."

"We'll find a way to do it," Rotor replied.

"And paralysis is a darn sight better than this beacon," Bunnie said, "as horrible a thought as that is." She swallowed, trying to get rid of the lump in her throat. "And *we* won't find a way to do it. Ah'm goin' alone."

Rotor immediately began to protest. Bunnie just reached over with one hand and clamped it over his jaw.

"No, Rotor, this has been waitin' to happen to me for over two years. Griff's right: Ah probably won't even make it as far as the roboticizer chamber. And when Robotnik kills me that's all he's gonna kill. Ah won't let anyone else die because of this. Ah mean it."

***

Nicole's frenzied beeping was nearly impossible to hear over the rushing noise of the wind. Sally had no idea how long she had been trying to get her attention, she only heard the noise when Dulcy paused the frantic beating of her wings to catch a breath. Careful to keep a solid grip on the dragon's back with one hand, she reached down and slid the computer out of its pocket in her boot.

"THE BEACON IS ON THE MOVE." Nicole had to raise her synthesized voice to be heard above the wind.

"Bunnie's moving?" Sonic asked. "Where to?"

"THE DIRECTION OF HER MOVEMENT ALIGNS WITH ROBOTROPOLIS ITSELF," Nicole reported nonchalantly. "SHE IS MOVING AT A FAST AIRSHIP VELOCITY."

"Airship?" Sally asked. It took a moment for the information to sink in. "Wait a second, Nicole. How fast exactly?"

"SPEED AVERAGES EIGHTY KILOMETERS PER HOUR."

"Oh, no..." The wind-ruffled fur on Sally's face did nothing to hide her crestfallen expression.

"What is it, Sal?"

"I was afraid of this. Sonic, our cargo sleds aren't capable of moving faster than forty kph."

"Which means that she's on a different, faster ship," Sonic put the pieces together. "Sal, do think that Robuttnik could've captured her? And he's taking her back to Robotropolis right now?"

Sally couldn't bring herself to answer. She turned back to the portable computer instead. "Nicole, plot intercept coordinates. Something that'll let us catch up with the beacon before it reaches Robotropolis. It might not be too late to save her."

"COORDINATES PLOTTED."

Sally leaned forward, trying to direct her voice into Dulcy's ear. "Dulcy, I want you to change your direction by about sixty-seven degrees to the right."

Dulcy's head craned back. "Huh? Sixty-seven whats?"

Sally pointed in a rough direction. "That way."

"Ok. No problem." The dragon's two passengers had to tighten their grip as Dulcy followed through with the unnecessary acrobatic stunts that accompanied her every motion. Sally imagined for a moment that she heard the laws of physics breaking with a loud *snap*.

"MORE INFORMATION, PRINCESS. FIVE MINUTES AND SEVENTEEN SECONDS AGO I DETECTED AN UNUSUAL SEISMIC DISTURBANCE."

Sally and Sonic exchanged a glance for a moment. Earthquakes had never been known to visit the Great Forest before.

"One of the things my father always said was that there's no such thing as a coincidence. Speculation, Nicole?"

"I HAVE LITTLE DATA," she said, almost apologetically, "SO THERE ARE A NUMBER OF POSSIBLE EXPLANATIONS. HOWEVER, THERE IS A CORRELATION BETWEEN ONE OF THE POSSIBILITIES AND THE LAURENTIS BEACON SITUATION."

"Go on," Sally prompted.

"THE SEISMIC DISTURBANCE FITS THE PROFILE FOR A LARGE STRUCTURAL COLLAPSE INSIDE THE LOWER MOBIUS CITY CAVERN."

"Oh my gosh!"

Sonic's head immediately snapped around to face forward. "Double-time it, Dulce!"

***

The Great Forest rolled by beneath the windows of the command ship, moving faster and faster as it reached its peak velocity. It still moved far too slowly for Robotnik's liking. The remaining two squadrons of hover units remained in a tight protective formation around it.

Once, just once, Snively would've liked to see a SWATbot be the bearer of bad news. It seemed like they had formed autonomous self-preservation subroutines in the controlling AI programs, because they only seemed to transmit such data when they were sure that Snively was the one would have to relay it to Robotnik.

He stepped forward, holding a number of hard-copy sensor reports in his hands. "Sir?"

"What is it now, Snively?"

Best to start with the least awful news first, and ease the fat man into it, like a hot tub. "The analysis of the hover units' sensor returns just came back from the Robotropolis mainframe, sir. I'm afraid I have some bad news. It's just like we thought, sir, the city's population did stage a massive evacuation of the cavern just before we arrived. The hover units we had down there picked up the thruster signatures of a large number of aircraft, possibly a convoy. We only needed a few more minutes to trace what direction they went, sir."

Robotnik's lips twisted into a snarl, cheek muscles sending his orange mustache into a ridiculous little dance. Snively didn't dare comment.

"Unfortunately the explosion in the cavern completely scrambled every trace of their departure. We might have been able to track the convoy before, sir, but now... we don't even know the general direction they were headed."

"How many airship thrusters did you detect?"

"Quite a number, sir. Apparently the Freedom Fighters are better equipped than we were led to believe."

"That secret is out, now. Order hover units and scoutships to perform aerial reconnaissance of the Great Forest. Tell them to scan for any signs of thruster exhaust in the atmosphere, and then track it. We must find them."

Snively sighed. "I'm afraid that might not work, sir. We lost over three squadrons of hover units in the cavern collapse. That depleted our forces by an order of magnitude. We simply don't have enough ships left in reserve to provide for an effective sweep."

Robotnik turned around, pacing towards the useless array of sensor arrays on the command ship's bridge. His fist clenched, and swung through the air, punching at an invisible foe. "It always works out like that, doesn't it, Snively? Just when our technology ought to provide us with the greatest possible advantage, it always vanishes. Some flaw, something we missed, something exploited, helps the Freedom Fighters stay alive every time! Why does it happen like that?"

"I really don't know, sir, but there's something else. It's the rabbit."

The sudden ferocity of Robotnik's spin to face Snively made him jump. "*What* about her?"

"We're still tracking the Laurentis beacon, sir, she's still in the Great Forest right now, and heading towards Robotropolis."

"Towards my city? Why is she doing that?" Snively shrugged helplessly. "How soon can we get in mortar cannon range?"

Snively tried to stop the trembling in his knees. "That's just the thing, sir. Even though she emerged further away from Robotropolis than our current position places us, the hover car she's in can still outrun us. That hover sled was built for speed. This command ship wasn't."

"What are you saying?"

"I'm saying that the rabbit will beat us to Robotropolis, sir. We won't be able to get even within mortar cannon range until she's virtually upon the city limits. We might be able to intercept her at the city itself, but only if we plot an immediate great-circle route to get us back and strain the command ship's engines to the breaking point."

Robotnik's fist clenched and unclenched. "Even with the beacon in her leg, the rabbit is free and clear?"

"We can't intercept her, our city's remaining air force is still too distant, and we have no resources along the route she's following. Essentially, we can't stop her until she actually reaches Robotropolis. Unless she turns around and heads directly for us, she's got at least a thirty minutes' respite."

"Damn it! Then plot us that great-circle route, Snively, and get us there!"