Author's note:

Hrmm.

I know it's been a long time - several months without an update, actually - but doesn't mean I've given up. I've just shifted my priorities, and now they've shifted back. For the past several months, my energy has been tied up in another novel-length story (that doesn't have much to do with Sonic, unfortunately), and in scriptwriting for an online Sonic fancomic. Now that I've got most of the scripts done, I've been able to redirect energy back to the 'Laurentis Countdown'.

The other novel-length story has really been the focus of my time, lately. It's something I actually started, for no discernible reason, between chapters in the 'Laurentis Countdown'. I don't know why I started to work on that, except that I felt I needed to.

I don't really need to go into the full details, but here's a simplified reason (read: excuse) for the delay: "Impulsiveness plus a paradoxically long attention span equals the 'Laurentis Countdown''s odd update time."

Anyway, I made a promise to finish this in one of my previous updates, and I'll be damned if I don't follow through on that.

Viva Bunnie Rabbot!

-Tristan Palmgren

***

Bunnie gaped up at Robotnik.

"Why, it's been too long, halfbreed. You really should drop in more often." The fat tyrant's fist slammed against the tray holding the Laurentis blade. Then, as if to prove contrast, he slid his palm gently across the roboticizer's control panel, caressing it. "We kept the accommodations just the way you left them."

He was playing with his prey. Bunnie just stared at him. She couldn't do anything else; her mind was still partially immersed in the fog of the stun bolts.

Robotnik studied her unmoving dumbfounded expression.

"Practicing for your future?" he asked, mockingly. "You'll be wearing that expression a lot, very soon. You won't be able to help yourself."

She tried to move. Her metal limbs were responsive enough, but her only organic arm felt as if its muscles had been replaced by thick, stuffy cotton. It moved in the direction she told it, but with nowhere near the strength she thought it should have. She tried to push herself to a sitting position, but instead lost her balance and flopped weakly to the ground. In the core of her identity that remained uninhibited by the heavy stun, she figured that the entire display must have looked quite pathetic.

Predictably, Robotnik enjoyed watching it.

"It'll be easier to keep your balance once this is all over," he said, when the laughter stopped. "I'll be able to control it very efficiently."

"Go," she managed to force her vocal cords into action, "to hell."

"I'll see you there first," he said, pleasantly. "Only I can make absolutely sure that you're living in one." A hand scratched across the layers of flab underneath his chin. "We'll put you in charge of routine roboticizations. How would you like that, hm? You, personally, being the one responsible for overseeing the enslavement of your fellow runaways?"

She shuddered.

Robotnik decided that the time for the order had come at last. He jerked his thumb over his shoulder. "Put her in the roboticizer," he ordered.

Two SWATbots grabbed her by the arms, and began dragging her forward, past the tray that held the Laurentis blade. She tried to struggle, and succeeded in knocking it over. Something clattered noisily on the ground. The 'bots quickly subdued her, though. Her sense of balance was still sporadic after the stun barrage, and her mechanical limbs couldn't get enough distance to build up a damaging velocity. All her effort got her was a hard landing on the floor.

She gasped sharply as she landed; the blow had been hard.

"I never get tired of watching this," Robotnik remarked idly, holding up his hand to indicate for the SWATbots to pause. He bent down to examine her face. "With you, it's even doubly as exciting. Oh, yes, always with that angry, determined expression. You think you're so strong. How's it feel to know that in the end, it was only ever really an act? How's it feel to know, at last, that it's not the truth?"

He was clearly waiting for an answer.

"Maybe this really was inevitable," Bunnie said, "Maybe it's been waitin' to happen for two years. Maybe Ah've just been as good as dead for that long." Her face contorted into the same expression Robotnik had just spoken of. His invoking it had given her the strength to wear it. "Ah don't really care. If Ah've been as good as roboticized since you did this to me, than at least Ah managed to do a lot of fightin' against in you in the mean time. You may have mah life, but it doesn't matter when Ah've saved so many others in the two years left to me."

Robotnik's massive face distorted into a grimace of disgust. But Bunnie wasn't done yet.

"Most importantly," she snarled, "you don't have what really matters, either. You don't have what you were really after. You thought that, when you activated the beacon, you'd get Knothole, too. You didn't, you only got me. I hope you are right, Robotnik. I hope this really was inevitable. If it was, you haven't won anything. I haven't given you *them*. They'll keep fighting you, and they'll *win*!"

Instead of the anger, malice, or simple contempt that she had expected from him, he did the last thing he expected, and cracked a smile. "The day is young, rabbit."

His voice cut like glass slivers, and was cold with foreboding. It sent chills down Bunnie's spine. She swallowed down her dread, and dismissed it. "Don't you get it? You don't have them! I haven't brought them to you! You lost!"

"You haven't brought them to me, *yet*."

"The game's over," Bunnie repeated. "You don't have them."

He shook his head. "At times, I'm almost envious of your innocence. You just don't understand people like I do." He clasped his fist closed around something, and righted the tipped tray. The Laurentis blade wasn't on it. "This isn't over, not until we're *all* together. Like all good games, this one only ends in the final act."

Bunnie didn't understand, but was never going to admit as much.

He proclaimed proudly, "Nothing's over until I say it is!"

Robotnik stood suddenly, decisively, and stalked over to roboticizer control panel, where his frail nephew was frowning at him. "Snively! I believe you have a report to make?"

For the first time, Bunnie noticed the amber warning signs flashing at the edges of her perception. It was an alarm, one associated with a security alert. She shook her head. She had already been subdued, though, those alerts shouldn't still be on. They should have been shut off the moment she was captured. That was just the way the computer worked.

"Yes, sir! The Freedom Fighters have been spotted approaching the castle. The hedgehog is carrying two of them, sir, the princess and the walrus. They're moving towards the castle's front entrance."

Bunnie cried a wordless noise of horror.

"Now you understand, rabbit!" Robotnik yelled triumphantly. "You have brought them to me, just like I knew you would!"

The SWATbots began dragging her towards the roboticizer again. This time, she couldn't resist at all.

"A last-minute rescue, just like last time," he mused. "Too predictable. I didn't even need to check the monitors to see if they were following you. I knew they would. They always do."

"No!" Bunnie didn't shout at him, or anyone who could hear her. All she wanted was for Sonic to turn around, and run as fast as his renowned legs could carry him. She had worked so hard to die alone.

Don't let it happen to them, too!

"Our trap is ready, then, Snively?"

"Completely primed, sir. When they arrive, it'll be ready to activate."

Robotnik's grin grew inhumanly large. Impossibly square-shaped teeth glinted in the light, and reflected the bright red of the flashing security alarm. "They're on our territory now. We have them. Bring it up on the forward monitor. I want to watch."

***

It had once been the corner of an avenue that had spanned the entire city. It still did, in a sense, although explosion craters and other miscellaneous potholes that had collected over a decade made it no longer navigable by anything except foot. This corner had once separated the old castle and the verdant, lush parkland Sally had been so fond of playing in as a child. Robotnik had built a weapons factory over the park after the coup, its construction squashing the grass flat. He hadn't seen its beauty, only an empty lot.

Although the odors of pollution and industrial waste were overpowering, as always, the stink of decaying vegetable matter also tickled Sally's nose. The only remnant of the park's green.

The factory was on their side now, though.

Without it, they would have been completely exposed to Robotnik's security. It's mass concealed them from the view of the cameras. She and Sonic crouched behind a pile of metallic refuse, and surveyed the castle's front entrance.

Four SWATbot guards stood motionlessly in front of it, and no doubt many more waited inside.

Sonic's quills bristled, an occasional spark of gold lightning playing back and forth across them. The power ring's charge had shown no signs of abating.

Sally knew that there would be no jokes cracked now, no snide comments nor cooler-than-thou cracks. Not until his friends were out of danger. He hadn't even complained when Sally had made him stop here, instead of charging straight in, though she maintained no illusions that he would have halted if she weren't there. He glared at the castle's entrance, and looked at Rotor.

"We can get past them, I know it," he asserted. "What do you two say?"

"There's more than just those four, Sonic," Sally hissed. None of them dared speak any louder; the streets carried their voices all too well. "We can't just run past them and hope we don't get shot. We're too far away. They'd have too much warning."

"We've taken risks before. It's a sure thing-"

They didn't have time for this. Sally couldn't pull any punches here. Bluntly, she interrupted, "Are you willing to stake Bunnie's life on it?"

Sonic considered that for a moment, and clamped his mouth shut. He didn't say anything else.

"Sally," Rotor said, "is there any way we could use that rifle to distract them?"

"Took the thought right out of my head, Rotor." She pulled the weapon around her shoulder, and pulled the strap over her arm until it was free. She checked the power cell to make sure it was still fully charged. It was. "We can lure them over here-"

***

"-and have Sonic ambush them once they're close enough." Sally's voice sounded hollow in the audio feed. There was a *click*, and then the person on the vast forward monitor said, "Nicole, give me a tactical analysis."

Bunnie had to admit that Robotnik was capable of learning. He had anticipated all of this to a frightening degree. There were too many traps in the way of her friends now, and they had just stumbled into one of them.

Too many times the Freedom Fighters had used piles of refuse as cover to hide from SWATbot patrols and camera orbs - they were convenient hiding places, and there were too many to clean completely. Robotnik had taken great pleasure in explaining to her how he had planted false piles in opportune places around the city. Her friends had fallen for one the traps.

None of them, not even Nicole, saw the unblinking eye of the hidden camera staring mutely at them.

Bunnie's organic hand tested the borders of the glass cage that kept her inside the roboticizer chamber, occasionally stopping to plead with unheeding friends to turn around while they still could.

"Sir," Snively asked, "should we warn the SWATbots about them? They can't ambush our guards if the guards know they're there, sir."

"I don't expect that it'll make much of a difference in the end," Robotnik sighed. "They'll get through regardless. Besides, it would spoil all the fun if we caught them now."

"Yes, sir."

Robotnik grinned malevolently at Bunnie, at then turned back to the camera view.

"Spoil all the fun."

Although she knew it wouldn't do much good, she opened her left hand, to try and use her artificial strength to break free of the transparent prison. She stopped when she realized that her three metal fingers had unconsciously curled around an object, and had been holding it for some time. Startled, Bunnie glanced down at her hand, and gawked at it.

Clasped in the recesses of her artificial palm, the Laurentis blade stared back at her.

She realized she must have grabbed it in the scuffle, when its tray had been knocked over. She vaguely remembering falling atop of something then. that must have been when she had grabbed it, without realizing it.

Bunnie quickly closed her fist around it again, before Robotnik could spot it. When he did glance back at her again, his gaze met her snarl. He raised an amused eyebrow, but turned back to the monitor.

For what seemed like the first time in her life, she knew something he didn't.

She didn't know how she could use this to her advantage, but she also knew that if she had any chance of saving her friends, it lay in this blade.

***

Sally darted around the corner, and leveled the rifle's barrel at the closest of the four SWATbots. Energy spat out the nozzle.

The civilian laser was weak compared to the military models Robotnik's security robots were outfitted with, but with a true aim, it was still capable of major damage. An azure laser beam splashed against the SWATbot's glowing red visor, shattering it and frying the circuitry in its metal head. It stumbled backwards, and fell to the ground.

Simultaneously, the remaining three SWATbots raised their arms, and took aim with their gauntlet lasers.

But Sally had already ducked back around the junk pile.

The bots' reaction was immediate. All three charged forward as one, racing toward towards the debris she had ducked behind, racing to catch the intruder before she could make a getaway. The sound of their metal boots stamping against the ground echoed across the roadway.

When they were two meters away, Sonic made his move.

If he had attacked from across the street, they might've had enough of a warning to raise and aim their gauntlet lasers. As incredible as his vaunted speed was, at a distance, he was still vulnerable enough to give the SWATbots a shot at victory. At a mere two meters, though, they never stood a chance.

A ball of whirling blue spines barreled into the chest of one bot, pushing it back into another at a significant velocity. They split into pieces before they hit the ground. By the time the remnants had clattered to the road, the third SWATbot was already falling apart.

Yellow energy crackled around the power ring Sonic held as he spun to a halt. The toroid glared with a burning intensity. It seemed as though it had fused to his palm. An occasional spark of lightning fell to the ground.

He held out a gloved hand to Sally. Rotor grabbed a handful of the quills on his back. She slipped her furry palm inside Sonic's glove, and then world became a blur.

She would never get used to taking rides with Sonic, no matter how many times she'd done it before. Whenever he started moving, with her in tow, she felt as though the gee forces were trying their best to smash her spine into the soles of her feet.

Because of that momentary disorientation, it took her a moment to notice that the castle doors were already sliding open in front of them. Inviting them.

No, she decided, an instant later. It wasn't inviting them. There were SWATbots on the other side of the door trying to come through - that was the answer. She just couldn't see them because, well, it was difficult to see anything while moving this fast.

The thought barely had time to finish forming in her synapses before they were through the door. Everything was suddenly brightly lit, a sharp contrast to the gloom of outdoors, but Sally had been prepared for that transition. She threw her head back and forth, doing her best to glance at the room before Sonic could suddenly take them anywhere else. A sharp, hot pain near the front of her eyes was her pupils struggling to dilate.

All she could make out was a flash of gunmetal gray, the color of SWATbots, and then searing red of firing gauntlet lasers.

Sally felt a piece of floor exploded dangerously nearby, but thankfully Sonic had already moved away before any debris or shrapnel could hit them. All around, through the speed-blurred vision that was the penalty of traveling with Sonic, she could see more crimson and azure beams. All different kinds of weapons were firing at them. The air was thick with the whine of discharging lasers, and the resultant explosions.

She gritted her teeth. With her free hand, she swung the rifle around until it was facing outward. Wind knocked the barrel around wildly, and she couldn't see what she was aiming at, but it no longer seemed to matter. She jerked her index finger back into the trigger.

The shot fired into the blur. She never saw if she hit anything, she only kept pulling the trigger.

By the time Sonic finally began slowing, the pulse counter on the rifle told her that she had fired over fifteen shots.

They were already in the upper levels of the castle, moving through corridors. Space was tight, and there were several sharp corners. Fortunately, that meant that it would be harder for any nearby SWATbots to draw a bead on them in time. *Unfortunately*, it also meant that if a bead *was* drawn, there was virtually no room to dodge it. Sonic was slowing to a stop because that's precisely what three SWATbots blocking the corridor in front of them were doing.

Without exchanging words, both Sally and Rotor let go of Sonic. He would be free to spindash through the bots without their weight on him. Sally felt momentum carry her forward through the air. She was flying.

Too fast.

Sonic had miscalculated their approach. They were still coming in fast, but not fast enough to avoid the SWATbots' lasers.

Sally wasn't aware of moving. She wasn't even aware of the burning, jerky sensation that accompanied pure reflex motion. Things just happened.

She miraculously landed on her feet, momentum still carrying her towards the SWATbots. She used that sheer kinetic force to swing around the butt of the laser rifle and ram it straight through the head of the first bot. The rifle's nozzle was facing the second SWATbot, and she pulled the trigger. It crumpled to the ground, just in time for her to see Rotor bowl through the third.

Sonic slid to stop, power ring energy still flowing golden through his muscles. "Nice save, guys," he complimented.

"Don't mention iiitttttttttttttttttttt-" she started to say

And they sped off again.

***

Robotnik paced the length of the throne room, occasionally glancing at the vast forward monitor. A floor-by-floor layout of was displayed prominently across several camera feeds. A glowing blue dot represented the current position of the invading Freedom Fighters.

Bunnie watched with a slack jaw, one hand pressed helplessly against the glass prison of the roboticizer tube, the other keeping the Laurentis blade pressed firmly against her fur. She had concealed it inside the belt of her violet jumpsuit.

"They're getting closer, Snively," he glowered. "I want you to be absolutely sure that the trap is ready to spring."

"Barring actually deploying it right now," the lackey unconsciously allowed a dangerous note of disobedience to creep into his voice, "there's not much more I can do, sir. I've checked and double-checked, and the springs are still ready and coiled."

"We've got *one* chance at this." Robotnik alternated between apprehension and anxious glee. "We've got to get the timing *exactly* correct."

"I'll do my best, s-"

"You'll do it right or not at all!"

Bunnie barely heard the conversation. She just stared at the tactical display, and the blue blip, whispering under her breath for them to run away. Her hand tightened on the handle of the hidden blade.

***

Sonic slowed as they approached the entrance to the roboticization chamber, stopping only to sling a razor-sharp ribbon of power ring energy through the torso of a lone SWATbot. They were charging directly towards the waiting entrance. Voices impeded on the fringes of Sally's hearing, growing quickly louder as they approached.

"Sir, here they come!"

"I can hear them! Snively, get ready-"

They burst into the control room and skidded to a narrow stop just inside the entrance. Everything was in its familiar place. Sally's heart leapt when she saw Bunnie trapped inside the roboticizer's cylindrical glass prison, throwing them a pleading look.

She knew immediately that something was off. With a security breach of this magnitude, the roboticizer chamber should have been overflowing with SWATbots. Instead, aside from Snively and a grinning Robotnik, the room was entirely empty.

Sonic raised the power ring in front of him, letting its power flow his muscles. He growled, leveling it at Robotnik like a weapon.

Everything happened at once.

"Get out of here!" Bunnie cried. Her eyes were fixed on Rotor. "Run, before it's too-"

"Now, Snively!" Robotnik yelled jubilantly.

Something invisible yanked the power ring out of Sonic's hand, and, before any the three Freedom Fighters could react, smashed it against the ground.

Not even with the aid of Nicole's sensors was Sally ever able to find out exactly what material the power rings were comprised of. The only thing she'd ever been able to find out was that the tensile strength of the rings was amazing. They were so completely unlike anything she'd ever seen before that she doubted they could ever be broken.

Yet that was exactly what happened to this one.

Whatever drove it into the ground did so with incredibly force. The power ring splintered and cracked in half, releasing a cascade of golden lightning. The energy abated quickly, and the two halves of the power ring just. died.

Sonic yanked his hand back, yelling a wordless noise of shock.

There was the sound of a door slamming ahead of them, and then again behind them, but Sally could see nothing moving. She started running forward, hoisting the laser rifle and aiming it at the roboticizer control.

She ran abruptly into what felt like a glass wall. Her muzzle hit first, and a sharp crack of pain splintered her senses. She fell awkwardly backwards, landing on her rear end.

"No!" Bunnie screamed.

"Diamond glass barriers in place, sir!" Snively raised his voice, forcing himself to be heard about the sound of Bunnie's horror. "The intruders are trapped!"