Trial By Fire
by K. M. Hollar
_______________________________________________________________________
Sonic and all related characters copyrighted by Sega or Archie Comics.
Sonic Underground copyrighted by DiC. Used without permission.
Packbell copyrighted by Bookshire Draftwood, used without permission.
Slasher and all other fan characters copyrighted by K. M. Hollar.
Spark copyrighted by Ace Castle. Used with permission. Sonotropolis is
not based in any way on the Sonitropolis of "A Sorcerer, a Demon and
Emeralds", by Kefka.
_______________________________________________________________________

One day Sonic awoke in the woods with half his memory missing.
The hedgehog sat up and looked around, blinking. What was he
doing out here? The trees stood around him, their brilliant green
leaves rustling in the breeze. Birds sang all around. The sun glancing
through the canopy was warm on his face and arms.
But it was his own mind that troubled Sonic. He couldn't remember
why he was here, nor where he was. It was as if half his mind had been
wiped clean as a slate. Amnesia? In a slight panic he searched his
mind for other memories and with relief found them intact. He was
Sonic Hedgehog of the Knothole Freedom Fighters. He shuffled his
memories like cards, searching for the most recent thing he could
remember. The war, the chao, Leviathan. He remembered waving goodbye
to the chao, and planning a missions afterwards ... there the
emptiness began.
His head felt strange. Sonic lifted a hand and to his surprise
discovered a long cut across his forehead. He had been asleep so long
it had stopped bleeding. He ran an exploratory hand over his spines
and found them matted with dried blood. How had he cut his head, and
how long had he been unconscious? He searched himself for a clue. He
was wearing a digital wristwatch that still worked, but he lacked
both his silver whistle and his emerald belt. However, he was wearing
a utility belt covered in pouches and pockets. He went through it
and found a fair supply of dried fruit and jerky. In one tiny pocket
he found a gold ring with a round, clear stone set in it. He turned
it this way and that, wondering what it was and why he had it. Had
he proposed to Sally in that gap he couldn't remember? He tucked it back
into is pocket and stood up, brushing off the leaves that clung to his
fur.
He checked his watch for the date and received his first rude
shock. It was November 29th. But the woods around him looked like
early summer, and the sun was too warm. Either the world was wrong or
his watch was. This had to be a joke. But why was his head cut? He
needed to wash the blood out of his hair, he knew he must look a
fright. "I'll go home," he muttered aloud. "Somebody'll know what
happened to me."
The blue hedgehog set out at a fast walk eastward. He couldn't
be far from Knothole. He hoped.
After a few minutes he came upon a stream. He knelt and drank,
then splashed water over his face and hair. He scrubbed and soaked
until he was certain he had washed off the blood, then shook the water
out of his fur. Feeling better, he crossed the stream and walked on.
He had not walked five minutes before he came to a paved road.
He stepped onto it and looked both ways, confused. Where had this road
come from? There were no roads in the Great Forest. Had he been in a
teleporter accident? Was he in his proper time at all? The latter
prospect sickened him. If he was in a different time there was no
telling what might happen. "I wish I could remember," he muttered, and
set off along the road. He would try to locate Robotropolis. It was a
definite landmark, and he could find Knothole in relation to it.
The sun was pleasant on his head, and the woods were quiet as
far as his ears could reach. It was almost noon. Sonic's eyes roamed
his surroundings as he walked, a feeling of foreboding weighing on him.
Maybe he was dreaming. He touched his cut. It sure stung like real
life. If he was dreaming, why was he carrying food with him? Spooked,
he broke into his trademark run and galloped down the road. He wanted
to see something familiar--anything!
He met no cars, which was fortunate, for he was tearing along at
two hundred miles an hour. It wasn't long before he broke free of the
woods and screeched to a halt on the shoulder, where the earth was
soft. Panting, he glanced at a nearby sign, then gazed into the shallow
valley beyond.
The sign said "Sonotropolis City Limit", and beyond it lay
Robotropolis in all its polluted grandeur.
Sonic leaned against the sign for support. "C'mon hedgehog,
wake up," he said, shaking his head. "This isn't real. You're having a
dream, a very intense dream." He looked down at the dismal cityscape
with its aura of brown smog. "Nights, come wake me up!" He waited,
but Nights did not appear.
No, this was reality. Somehow Sonic knew. Perhaps it was the
woody scent of the sign post, or the breathing of the woods, or a
lizard sunning itself on a nearby boulder. This was real. But
Sonotropolis? Maybe he was in another part of the world. Yeah, that was
it, he must be down south somewhere, which would explain the
unseasonable weather. Robotropolis wasn't the only city with pollution.
Feeling a little soothed, he trotted down the hill toward the city,
ignoring a deeper sense that something was very, very wrong.
He came to the junk heaps that ringed the city. At least that
was familiar. Sonic kept going, desperate to see something he knew,
or see someone who could tell him where he was.
He reached the point where the trash heaps ended and the
business district began. There were people. Real people, not robots.
He moved to the sidewalk to avoid the light traffic and stopped the
first person he met, a skinny weasel. "Excuse me," said Sonic.
To his surprise, the weasel bowed. "Hello, I apologize, I didn't
notice you."
"Uh, yeah, whatever," said Sonic in confusion. "Could you, uh,
tell me where I am?"
"Sonotropolis, the capital city," said the weasel, bowing again.
"He's afraid of me," Sonic thought. "Uh, thanks mister," he said
aloud. "You can, you know, go about your business." The weasel bowed
yet again and hurried away.
"This is weird," Sonic muttered. Everyone who passed took off
their hats or bowed to him, and many more rushed by, hoping to avoid
his notice. "This is bizarre!" Sonic thought. The feeling of something
amiss was returning. He was in this weird place and he couldn't
remember how he arrived there. His watch was six months off. His head
was gnashed, but he was carrying food like for a journey. And then
there was that ring. He wished he could remember something.
He pulled out a strip of jerky and chewed it as he walked
along. The salt tasted good. He didn't know when he had last eaten,
but he didn't feel hungry, so it must have been recently.
He was standing at an intersection, wondering which way to go
and licking his fingers, when a familiar sound reached him through
the street noise. A jet engine. He sorted through the cars and people
with the practiced eye of a Freedom Fighter, and spotted Metal Sonic.
The blue robot was flying above the street like a large insect, red
eyes fixed on Sonic, hands dangling, fingers curled into claws.
Sonic ran along the sidewalk, ducking past curious citizens. Metal
Sonic flew unobstructed over the street, engines whining to a higher
pitch as he accelerated. Sonic glanced at him over his shoulder, the
familiarity of the chase wiping away his fear. Mecha hadn't changed.
Sonic was a couple hundred miles from home, that was all.
He ducked through an alley, emerged on the other side and
crossed the street, pelted down the sidewalk and swerved into
another alley. Metal Sonic's engines were fainter, but there was no
use hiding; Mecha would spot him on radar.
By the time he lost the robot, Sonic had blundered into the
dismal suburbs and was surrounded by rotting houses and yards. "Shoot,
lost again," the hedgehog muttered, pulling out another strip of
jerky. This time the salt made him thirsty. "I need a map or something,"
he said, pausing and looking at the neighborhood.
He wandered for two hours, wondering where Mecha had vanished to.
He found a rusty drinking fountain and slaked his thirst, refusing to
wonder if the water table were polluted. Near one o' clock he found
his way into a place where the buildings appeared cared for. A
particular skyscraper caught his attention; a tall white one with a
curious design. Probably the Chamber of Commerce or something similar.
They could tell him where he was.
He stepped into the cool lobby and inhaled the aroma of carpet
and air freshener. It was a long room with chairs along the walls, and
a desk at the far end. Behind it were the ears of a secretary.
"Excuse me."
The secretary was a rabbit with long ears. She was working at a
computer, but turned when he spoke and gave him her bored attention.
"Could you give me a road map?" Sonic inquired. The rabbit didn't
answer. She was staring at him as if she had seen a ghost, and one of
her manicured hands slithered toward the phone.
"I'll take that as a no," Sonic said. He forced a smile he hoped
wasn't too stiff and backed toward the door. "I think I'll be going now."
"If you'll wait a moment, sir, I'll call someone to help you."
Her voice was so calm Sonic wondered if he had imagined the shock on
her face.
He folded his arms, shifted his weight to one foot and waited.
"Really, I just want a map," he told her. She flashed her eyes at him
and whispered into the phone. Sonic's spines prickled. Something was
going on.
Before he could take a step toward the door, a door near the desk
opened, and Sally stepped into the room. She was wearing a purple vest
and boots, which Sonic found odd, as she usually wore blue. "Sal!" he
exclaimed in surprise. "Boy, am I glad to see you!" He would have
mentioned his memory loss, but the look on her face struck him dumb;
it was the rawest hatred he had ever witnessed.
"Are you?" she said, pacing toward him.
Sonic felt he were being stalked by a tigress and backed away.
"Uh, Sally, is everything cool?"
Her lips tightened into a smile, but her cold eyes did not change.
"Come with me, Sonic, and we'll get you some help." Her hand closed on
his arm like iron claws and she led him toward the inner door. Sonic
walked with her, astonished at her strength.
Once the door closed behind them, Sally dropped all semblance of
cordiality and strode down the hall, teeth bared, dragging Sonic. "Who
are you?" she barked.
"I'm Sonic, Sal," said Sonic.
She slapped his face. "Don't ever call me Sal. You're not Sonic.
Tell me your name."
"I'm Sonic, I told you!" Sonic argued, stinging from her slap,
but beginning to fear her. This was not the Sally he knew. "Sonic
Hedgehog."
The squirrel looked at him as if he were long-dead roadkill.
"We'll get the truth out of you yet."
By this time they had reached a pair of elevator doors at the
end of the hall. Sally opened them, wrenched Sonic inside, and pressed
a button for the nineteenth floor.
The ride was long and slow. Sally did not relax her grip on
Sonic's arm, although he was losing the feeling in his fingertips. He
ventured to speak to her twice: once to ask where they were going and
once to ask why she was wearing purple. She told him to shut up each
time. Sonic was certain he could overpower her and escape, but the
Sally he knew would carry a concealed pistol in these situations.
The elevator doors opened with a cheerful 'ting', and Sally led
him into a ritzy apartment. Sonic didn't have time to look around.
Sally guided him across the room, through a door, and into an office.
The office's rear wall had floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking
the city, and behind a king-sized desk was a tall swivel chair,
currently with its back to the room. Sonic had a feeling he wasn't
going to like the occupant of that chair.
Sally released his arm like she was throwing away a dead rat.
As he rubbed life back into it, she said, "I have brought the hedgehog,
sir."
The chair slowly swivelled about, and Sonic was reminded of an
opening crypt. For a second he took in the small figure in the chair; a
blue hedgehog with long spines and green eyes. Then a sense of nightmare
hit him.
It was another Sonic.
The other Sonic stared at him, frowning, eyes sweeping him from
head to toe. Presently he rose, stepped around the desk and approached
the visitor for a closer look.
"Amazing resemblance," said the strange Sonic in Sonic's voice.
"What are you, my twin?"
"I don't think so," said Sonic. "I don't have a twin."
"Neither do I," said the strange Sonic. "Where are you from?"
"I'm a Freedom Fighter from Knothole."
The strange Sonic's mood changed from interest to anger.
"You're with the rebels, then. I should have known. Slasher, come
here."
Sonic's heart gave a leap at the name, but it sank at once.
Slasher rose into view from her bed behind the desk. Her eyes were
cold and wild, as if she had stepped out of the jungle five minutes
before. But her wings were the biggest shock. They were not feathered--
they were black and leathery, like a bat's. She prowled to the strange
hedgehog's side, and he stroked her head as if she were a cat. It
turned Sonic's stomach to see her degraded to the level of a dumb
animal.
The other hedgehog looked Sonic in the eye. "Slasher, kill him."
Slasher moved fast, but Sonic moved faster. The thick window
glass exploded outward under his panicked spindash, and then he was
freefalling from the nineteenth floor. Fortunately he knew how to regain
his feet against the wall and run, moving so fast he defied gravity.
Stopping was tricky, but Sonic managed it by spiraling around the
building until he was low enough to leap off and tear away on the
ground.
He didn't allow himself to think about what he had seen until he
was a safe distance from the skyscraper. He had just seen Sally,
Slasher and himself. The thought staggered him. Was he in the future?
But that made no sense, because he had been sure the other Sonic was
the same age he was. He wasn't certain how he knew, but he knew it as
surely as the other Sonic had known it about him. What if it was a
different dimension?
He slowed to a walk as the woods came into view. The sight of
the trees calmed him, and suddenly he wanted to wander in the forest
forever and never lay eyes on Sonotropolis again.
A jet engine.
He bolted for the treeline without bothering to look for Metal
Sonic. He would be safe if he could reach the woods. The scream of the
engine rose to a whistle, and Sonic sprinted up the hill. Almost
there--another hundred feet--another fifty--
Something red flashed into his range of vision. He swerved, but
the object swerved with him, and a second later he was knocked off
his feet by a dizzying blow. Sonic rolled to a stop and landed on his
hands and knees, the world revolving with bright alien colors.
Something hot trickled down his face.
The unmistakable click of a rifle bolt being drawn back pierced
his senses. Sonic looked up, blinking the blood out of his eyes.
Standing over him with a stun rifle in his fist was Robo Knux, the
echidna mecha bot. His eyes shimmered with green electronic triumph.
A moment later Metal Sonic landed nearby, a sleek, lightly built
hedgehog robot, and looked down at Sonic with cool pleasure. It
occurred to Sonic that he had never seen them looking so clean and
polished.
"Stand up," said Robo Knux. "If you try to escape, you won't
wake up for a long, long time."
Sonic stood up, trying to watch both of them at once. He knew
these robots were ruthless. "Are you going to kill me?"
Mecha and Robo Knux glanced at each other, and Mecha said, "Not
for a while. But if you try to escape, then ..."
They marched him into the forest, which was a surprise, as Sonic
assumed they lived in the city. No one spoke for the duration of their
journey, but he found himself shocked. Mecha and Robo Knux had always
fought like cocks before, but now they worked as a team, to the point
of helping each other along through the trackless woods. Once, when
Sonic stumbled, Metal Sonic helped him up without a word. The maniacal
hatred was gone. The robots were wary of him, but they didn't hate him
in particular.
Sonic was pondering this and nibbling at the corners of the
blank curtain in his mind when a voice called, "Halt! Who goes
there?"
Sonic looked around, but saw no one.
"The Metallix," said Metal Sonic, "and a prisoner."
"Proceed, I'll radio ahead," said the invisible sentry. By the
time Sonic thought to check the treetops, the elevated platform was
out of sight behind them.
They came to a place where the trees drew into a solid wall
ahead of them. "Open," said Robo Knux. The trees wavered and
vanished like a hologram, and there was Knothole village.
The robots marched him through, pretending to ignore the people
who waved to them. Sonic felt odd--all glances that came his way were
cold as ice.
He was led to a large building he thought was the community
hut, but when the door opened, he received a horrible shock. There
stood the cyborg velociraptor Leviathan, his red eyes glowing in his
silver masked face. Sonic fell back against Robo Knux, who gripped his
shoulders and steered him through the door. Leviathan stepped back to
let them enter, his red eyes fixed on Sonic.
"Here is the prisoner, sir," said Metal Sonic. Sonic tore his
eyes away from Leviathan, and with another shock saw Robotnik, seated
in a chair in the corner. He stood up at once and walked forward. He
was sixty pounds lighter than the Robotnik Sonic knew, and had a
full head of red hair. He was wearing the jeans and sweatshirt of an
off-duty Freedom Fighter, and, Sonic thought to himself, looked more
at home than he ever had in Robotropolis.
"Well well," said the doctor, "it looks like you two have finally
succeeded. Did he give you any trouble?" His eyes roamed the robots'
hulls, looking for damage, Sonic guessed.
"No," said Robo Knux. "He has been quite compliant today."
"Odd behavior," came Leviathan's low, oily voice from the rear.
Sonic's flesh crawled--Leviathan sounded like a Mobian.
Robotnik nodded and looked at Sonic. "Bind him, Mecha bots.
Your brother will aid me."
It took Sonic a moment to remember that the cyber raptor was
considered a Mecha bot, and when he looked around again, he was
wearing electronic bindings on his wrists. Metal Sonic and Robo Knux
departed, leaving Sonic with Robotnik and Leviathan.
Sonic spoke first. "I'm not who you think I am."
Robotnik raised an eyebrow. "Really. Who are you, then?"
"I'm Sonic, but I'm not your Sonic." It sounded muddled as he
said it. He tried again. "I mean, I'm a different Sonic. I think I'm
in the wrong universe or something. But I met the Sonic here and I'm
not him. Actually, I am him, but in a different Mobius." It still
didn't make sense. Leviathan and Robotnik exchanged a glance, and
Sonic's heart quailed.
"How many drinks have you had today?" asked Robotnik.
"I don't drink," Sonic replied. "And I'm not drunk, I'm
perfectly sane." He watched the flicker of blue electricity between
the bindings on his wrists. Maybe he WAS insane.
"Why don't you let me ask the questions?" Robotnik asked,
seating himself in his chair. Sonic nodded. Somehow he knew that
this Robotnik wasn't evil, and he was flattening all hope of
obtaining his help.
"Now," said Robotnik, "the fact that you came quietly with the
Metallix is reason to suspect you. Is your beast standing by for a
raid?"
"Beast?" Sonic asked, looking blank.
"Slasher," said the doctor.
Sonic thought of the Slasher he had met, of her wildness and
her dragon-wings. "No," said Sonic. "Your Sonic told her to kill me.
I was running from her when the mechas got me."
Robotnik glanced at Leviathan, who bobbed his steel head.
"Listen," said Sonic urgently, "I can tell you all sorts of
stuff about my world! Like--" He searched his mind for something
unique. "Like the Floating Island! Knuckles Echidna is the guardian.
That's where the Master Emerald is. You have a piece of it in your
collar," he said, turning to Leviathan. To his surprise, the robot
backed away a step, lifting his hands to cover the green gem.
Robotnik was watching him through narrowed eyes. "I don't know
who writes your material. Knuckles, as you so glibly call the Guardian,
lives on the Flying Fortress. He is the leader of the echidna clan.
The only reason our resistance has not fallen is because you have not
won their trust."
Robotnik leaned forward, glaring into Sonic's eyes. "Answer me
this, Hedgehog. What is Deep Sky?"
Sonic stared back, mind racing. It sounded like a codeword, but
it wasn't any of the codewords he knew. "I ... don't know," he said,
hoping he didn't look too stupid.
Again that glance and nod passed between Leviathan and
Robotnik.
"What are you doing?" Sonic asked. "Why do you keep looking at
each other?"
"Leviathan is our lie detector," Robotnik replied. "According
to him you have been telling the truth."
Sonic went limp with relief. "I thought you were going to tell
him to eat me. But you've got to believe me! I'm not Sonic."
"How did you get here, may I ask?" asked the doctor.
Sonic shook his head. "I don't remember. I woke up this morning
in your woods, and it's like my mind was wiped. I can't remember for
like three weeks."
"Selective amnesia," said Leviathan's creepy voice.
"Yes," Robotnik agreed. "Probably has something to do with that
cut on your head. Do you remember a portal of any kind?"
Sonic shook his head, then looked at Robotnik. "What's Deep
Sky?"
Robotnik stood up, took a penknife from his pocket and pressed a
button on Sonic's handcuffs. They switched off and opened. "Have a
seat," he said, motioning to a nearby chair. Sonic obeyed, thankful
to be free.
"I am prepared to believe you are who you claim," said Robotnik,
twirling his mustache with one finger. "This morning at dawn, our
sensors detected an energy pulse not far from highway I-4. We feared
the worst and dispatched the Metallix to investigate. They discovered
nothing. I assume you had already left the area. I believe the energy
pulse was a portal of some kind.
"Now," Robotnik continued, looking Sonic in the eye, "that
brings us to Operation Deep Sky. Dictator Sonic Hedgehog has had it
under construction for some time, and it was only recently our
intelligence breached his security. His plan is to launch a weapon
into orbit--a solar weapon. This satellite would gather and store
solar radiation, and at a command from the ground, fire it in a
concentrated beam at a target."
"An ion cannon," said Sonic.
"Essentially," Robotnik replied. "Now, as it seems you will be
staying with us for a while, you have the option of joining our cause."
"You mean the Freedom Fighters?" Sonic asked, perking up. "That's
what I am in my world! Sure! Could I pose as my evil twin?"
Robotnik smiled for the first time since Sonic had seen him.
"That may certainly be a mission idea. At least, until we can find
a way to send you home."

* * *

A waiting period followed. Several undercover scouts went looking
for the Sonic of their universe, and confirmed he was in his tower at
the same time the other Sonic was under surveillance in Knothole.
They indeed had two Sonics on their hands. A few tests were run on
their visitor to make sure he was not a robot. Sonic had no robot
parts, but his DNA was exactly the same as the Sonic who inhabited
Sonotropolis. He was either a clone or the same Sonic from another
dimension. If he was the latter, he was a valuable tool for future
missions. And the first thing to do was wait for his cut head to heal.
Sonic found life in an alternate dimension pleasant, although not
without its surprises. The first thing that startled him was when Robo
Knux offered to let him stay in the robots' hut. Robotnik and Leviathan,
who appeared to run things, thought this was a good idea. The first
night, Sonic found himself climbing onto a cot as Robo Knux and Metal
Sonic plugged into a generator for overnight recharging. They bade
him goodnight and switched off. Sonic lay in the darkness for a long
time, listening to the throb of the generator and watching the dark
shapes against the wall.
He was awakened the next morning by a gentle shake. He looked
up into the red eyes of Metal Sonic, and nearly had a heart attack.
"Sorry," said Mecha kindly. "I apologize, you are not accustomed
to us. It is time to activate for the day."
It had been some time before Sonic's panicked heart rate
returned to normal.
Another thing he found creepy were the other Freedom Fighters.
There was Snively, Robotnik's nephew, who was the resident computer
whiz.
There were Kardot and Packbell, the androids. Sonic's spines
stood up whenever he saw them. Kardot was a deep brown anteater with
gorgeous looks, but dressed modestly and was rather shy. It was her
efforts that kept the Metallix, as they called themselves, in top
condition. Packbell was a human to all appearances, tall and severe
looking, smartly dressed. He planned tactical assaults on
Sonotropolis.
The list went on. Every nasty person Sonic knew in his world
were Freedom Fighters here. It made him wonder about his friends.
If his alter ego was bent on evil, where was Tails? Why did Knuckles
live on a flying fortress instead of a Floating Island?
He scrapped his supply belt, first digging through it for any
clue as to his location. He came upon the ring again. He held it up
and watched the light play on the stone. It was white in some lights,
but flashed red or blue fire in others. "A moonstone," he thought.
The name had escaped from behind the blank curtain in his mind.
With it came the feeling that the ring was critically important.
He slid it onto his ring finger, then pulled his glove over it. There.
He would have to lose his glove before he could lose the ring.

* * *

One day, after Sonic had lived in alter-Knothole for a week, Dr.
Robotnik took him for a walk.
"I want you to show me where you awoke," said the doctor,
leading the way out of the village.
"Well," said Sonic, "first I found a stream, then I came to a
highway."
"That could be Mina Creek," said Robotnik, looking southward. "I
know where that is, come with me."
The two walked in silence. Sonic twiddled his ring under his
glove and watched his former enemy. Robotnik was wearing sneakers and
a straw hat--something Sonic had never imagined him doing--and seemed
quite at home in the forest. "Funny how he trusts me," Sonic thought.
"My Robotnik wouldn't trust me as far as he could throw me. This is
weird."
Robotnik broke the silence. "Sonic, there's something I need to
ask you."
Sonic shrugged. "Fire away."
"Are Kardot and Leviathan ... alive ... in your world?"
Sonic shook his head. "Nope. We took out Leviathan's stone. One
of my friends killed Kardot himself, although we think our Robo Knux
picked up her pieces. Why?"
"How long ago was this?"
"A month or two, I guess. I don't remember."
Robotnik looked troubled and stroked his mustache. "I was afraid
of that."
"Why?"
The doctor looked down at the hedgehog. "I've studied quantum
theory in my time, and there is an enigma before us. When someone dies
in your world, they die here, and visa versa. Two months ago, Leviathan
and Kardot broke down for no apparent reason. I repaired them both, but
that is because they are robots. This is only a theory, of course."
Sonic was looking at his companion so hard he nearly tripped over
a fallen branch. "You're saying that ... what are you saying?"
"I'm saying," said Robotnik gravely, "that this world is a mirror
of your own. If a person dies in one world, they die in the other. You
are the same Sonic as our enemy."
Sonic blanched. "But why am I evil here? What went wrong?"
"I'm not sure," said Robotnik, ducking under a low hanging limb.
"I think that every decision you have made in your life, your mirror
image has made the opposite."
Sonic thought of some of the choices he had made over the years,
and mentally chose the reverse. His hypothetical life quickly swept in
another direction. He shivered. "What about the chaos emeralds?" he
asked.
Robotnik gave him a sharp glance. "They belong to the monster
of the sea, Perfect Chaos."
Sonic nodded in relief. "At least I don't have to deal with
Super Sonic. So, if I hurt anybody here, it will hurt my friends in my
world?"
"Shh," said Robotnik, holding up a hand. "Listen."
They had reached the edge of the highway. Sonic listened for
cars. The road was empty as far as he could see, and the only sound
was the chirping of birds. "I think it's clear," he whispered.
Robotnik laid a hand on his arm. "No. Wait. Hear it?"
Again Sonic strained his ears. "What am I listening for?"
In response Robotnik pulled him into the bushes and motioned
for him to keep quiet.
Sound burst upon their eardrums--the raucous roar of motorcycle
engines. Sonic lifted his head and saw a three-wheeled cycle roar
past, its rear end a mass of exhaust pipes, its ride a flash of orange
fur and goggles. Behind the first bike came six or seven more, Sonic
guessed, for they passed too quickly to count.
The noise faded into the distance, leaving a haze of exhaust
hanging on the air. "That was the Million Miles gang," said Robotnik.
"They travel this highway all the time. Let's cross."
They dashed across the hot pavement and entered the cool woods
on the far side. Moments later they located the stream, and turned
west. Sonic scanned the trees and ground, looking for landmarks.
"Here," he said, stopping. "I think this is it. I woke up right here."
He nudged the dirt with his toe.
"Okay, stay there," said Robotnik. "I must make some
observations."
Sonic sat down and rested his head on his knees. The sight of
the motorcycle gang had left him with a vague dread. Now he thought
about it and toyed with the memory. Orange fur, the Million Miles gang.
The connection was obvious, and despair hit him like a punch in the
gut. Tails was the leader of a gang. That made three. Sonic was an
evil dictator, Tails was a thug, and Knuckles was a clan leader.
Slasher was a monster, and Sally hated his guts. What else would he
discover here?
Robotnik interrupted his thoughts as he returned, looking
thoughtful. "Time to go back, Sonic," he said. Sonic jumped up and the
two retraced their steps. "I found evidence of the portal," said the
doctor. "As far as I can tell it produced no more radiation than a
teleporter beam, but it was open for a long period. I think I could
duplicate such a portal, but I don't know how to set it. You must
have arrived here by accident."
Sonic nodded, feeling tired. Why were these things so difficult?
Robotnik peered at him. "Feeling tired?"
"Oh no, I'm fine," said Sonic.
"Good," said Robotnik "There is a mission planned for this
afternoon, and I want you to go."
Sonic brightened at once. "Really? Cool!"

* * *

Slasher perched on the topmost pinnacle of the Control Tower,
her feet curled around a little steel knob. She balanced perfectly, her
long tail drooping, wings held open above her back. Her yellow-green
eyes were fixed on the creature in the parking lot, hundreds of feet
below. The griffin was seated on its lion-haunches, staring back. The
two cordially hated each other, but there would be no fighting today.
The Guardian echidna was inside the tower, talking with Sonic on
political business. Slasher knew quite well what that business was.
Sonic wanted the Flying Fortress's alliance, so he could access their
Palace and the power gems within. Neither would agree to the other's
terms. Back and forth they went with never a fair settlement. Slasher
bared her teeth at his griffin, who snapped his beak in return.
The two were so busy watching each other, neither noticed a
hoverbike roar by. On it were two hedgehogs; a live one and a robot
one. They were hiding in plain sight, and no one gave them a second
thought.
Sonic was wearing a trenchcoat, a hat and dark glasses. Metal
Sonic was wearing a set of sweats, which hung oddly loose on his
metal frame, and sunglasses. Sonic had cracked up when he had seen
Mecha's disguise, but he had to admit it worked. Mecha didn't look
like a robot anymore.
They were bound for the rear of the Control Tower, intending to
break in and steal information on the satellite launch. Slasher was
up on the tower, but she wasn't paying attention to them. So far, so
good. Sonic parked the bike, and the two walked to the back doors.
"Let me handle this," he said to Mecha. "I'm an old pro."
"Affirmative," said Mecha, who didn't care one way or the other.
Sonic opened the rear door and entered, Mecha at his elbow. He
was in control. He had walked bold-faced into Robotropolis this way,
and knew how it was pulled off. The room they entered was a dark,
square room stuffed with filing cabinets. Mecha began scanning the
labels on the drawers for a category match, while Sonic stepped
through the interior door.
There was a dog in the next room, working in a cubicle. He
looked up as Sonic entered. "Who are you?" he barked.
"Relax," said Sonic, pulling out an ID card and flashing it
at him. "Master Sonic hired extra security today. Doesn't want
anything to happen to his guest."
The dog shrugged and returned to his work. Sonic chuckled to
himself. His evil self was as spontaneous as he was, and the staff of
his tower was used to it.
He walked back into the room with the filing cabinets to find
Mecha scanning a sheaf of papers as fast as he could rifle through
them. "Bingo," droned Mecha without looking up. A second later he
finished and returned the papers to their file. "Let us depart."
The two stepped outside to find Slasher examining their bike.
"Who are you?" she purred, teeth flashing in a malicious grin. Sonic
felt Mecha glance at him for a plan. Sonic could bluff a secretary,
but he couldn't bluff Slasher, even the evil Slasher. His mouth went
dry.
Mecha guessed there was a problem. He stepped forward and waved
a steel hand. "Get away from our craft, beast."
The velociraptor curled her claws around the handlebars and
grinned.
"I warned you," said Mecha.
With that, the hoverbike exploded.
Slasher was blown into the wall, where she slumped to the
pavement, stunned. Metal Sonic ripped off his disguise and fired up
his jets. "Run, Sonic," he commanded. "Rendezvous at the forest. Run!"
He rocketed skyward.
Sonic hesitated a fraction of a second, looking at the burning
wreckage of the bike and Slasher's crumpled form, wondering if the
good Slasher had fallen over in pain, then bolted, shucking his
disguise as he went.
It was more important that Metal Sonic escape, Sonic thought.
Mecha was carrying the information they needed. Sonic circled the
tower at a lope, setting himself up as a distraction. The parking lot
was empty. He wondered where his evil self was and had a sneaking
desire to see him again. What fun, a mission in the anti-verse!
Sonic heard a sound like a kite rattling in the wind. The next
second knives drove into his back, and he hit the asphalt with a grunt.
A huge shadow fell over him, rough, scaly hands curled around his arms,
and he was yanked upwards.
Sonic's head was driven against his chest by the speed of his
ascent, and all he could do was watch the street fall away. Then the
force leveled off, and he could lift his head. His arms were clenched
in two huge, yellow, scaly feet. The black talons on the ends of the
toes were a foot long. He followed the yellow legs up with his eyes.
White feathers, a narrow head, a cruel, hooked beak, giant beating
wings. He looked over his shoulder and saw the tawny feline
hindquarters, and leather straps looped around its belly. A griffin.
The only griffin he had ever seen had been Elleno, his sister's chao,
and a chao griffin was not a real griffin. He tried to see what the
leather straps fastened to, but the claws on his arms blocked his
view. Probably a saddle. "Please, don't let it be the evil Sonic,"
he thought it desperation. He wondered if he could break free, then
looked at the city, far below his red sneakers. Better not try it.
The beast's flight was swift, and Sonotropolis fell behind them.
They were bound for the ocean. A slow dread formed in Sonic's heart.
"Knuckles," he thought in horror. "I'm doomed!" He drooped in the
griffin's claws. They were curled so tightly he was losing the feeling
in his hands, and his shoulders were aching. If Knuckles was the
leader of the echidna clan, who were warriors ... his heart sank still
further. He would be killed, and he must not harm the evil Knuckles at
all costs, or the good Knuckles, his friend, would suffer.
Sonic watched the ocean pass beneath his dangling feet,
depression settling on his spirit. There was no sound but the steady
whoosh of his captor's wings, and the creak of his own shoulder
joints. What if there was no rider, and he was being carried off for
food? Somehow that was a more cheerful thought than dealing with
echidnas. At least he might have a chance to escape. A thought came to
him. Something in the sense of this world being dangerous, but he
could leave any time. His memory was returning! Oh, if only it would
before he got killed ...
A speck appeared on the horizon. Sonic squinted. Probably the
Floating Island. No, the Flying Fortress, he reminded himself. What
in the world would it look like? He couldn't imagine an echidna-built
craft the size of the island.
They drew nearer. The speck grew into a floating-island shape
that was similar to the one Sonic knew. The only odd thing he could
make out was that the topmost mountain peak was sending off a trailing
column of smoke. Maybe it was an active volcano.
It was not until they had flown into the island's interior and
circled the mountain range that Sonic saw what had changed. The
mountains were not made of earth and stone. They were made of iron.
Great plates of hammered iron, rusted red from years of exposure. It
gave Sonic a queer feeling. What was under that metal? A gigantic
fortress? Of course, that had to be what the name meant.
The griffin swooped downward with a lurch that turned the
hedgehog's stomach. For a wild second he thought they were going to
crash into the treetops. They pulled up so sharply his head snapped
back in whiplash, and the claws at last uncurled.
Sonic dropped three feet to a grassy strip where he sat for a
moment, incapable of lifting his aching arms. The griffin landed a few
feet beyond him and folded its bronze wings. It was as big as an
elephant. Lashed about its girth was a leather saddle, and in it was
Knuckles.
The echidna vaulted from his steed, walked to its head and
removed the bridle. The beast made a chirping sound, then stretched
its stiff forepaws like a vast cat. Only then did Knuckles turn and
look at his prisoner.
The echidna wore white face paint, golden rings in his
dreadlocks, and a shimmering blue stone on a chain around his neck.
On his hands were shovelclaws like his alter ego's, but longer and
razor sharp. His face was set in a frown, as if he were incapable of
smiling.
"Get up," barked the echidna. Sonic did as he was told. His
legs were coming back to life, but his arms would not lift past waist
height. "You know," said the hedgehog, "you look better without all
that makeup."
"You have the tongue of your duplicate," replied Knuckles
without moving. "I will remove it if it troubles me."
Sonic looked the echidna in the eye for a moment. Maybe it wasn't
a good idea to toss around insults--he had forgotten how angry they
made Knuckles. "Why'd you kidnap me?" he asked, flexing his tingling
fingers.
Knuckles bared his teeth in a scornful sneer. "Fun." He turned
with a swish of dreadlocks. "Come with me."
Sonic stayed put. "What if I don't?"
"The torris will get you," replied the echidna without looking
back.
Sonic looked at the griffin, who fixed an orange eye on him. Was
'torris' the echidna word for 'griffin'? He followed Knuckles, and was
dismayed the hear the griffin pad after them. He hoped Metal Sonic
had made it back to Knothole. Maybe they would notice when Sonic didn't
come back.
Knuckles led him to a place in the trees where there was a
metal door in the grass, like a manhole. The echidna hauled it open
with ease, although it must have weighed a hundred pounds. The hole
beneath was pitch black and smelled sour. "Get in," Knuckles commanded
Sonic. Then he called instructions to the griffin in a strange language.
The giant creature paced away into the woods.
Knuckles glanced at Sonic. "Didn't you hear me? Get in!" He
motioned to the hole at their feet.
"What is it, a death pit?" asked Sonic.
"You have the wits of your duplicate, too," growled the echidna.
He grabbed Sonic's arm with tremendous strength and pushed him into
the hole.
Sonic dropped six feet to a damp earthen floor. He moved aside
a few steps, groping for the cold wall. Knuckles dropped in nearby,
then jerked a chain attached to a ring in the wall. The door overhead
slammed shut, plunging the two into total blackness. "Nice well,
Knux," said Sonic.
"You have the tact of your duplicate, as well," came the
echidna's voice from the darkness. "You may call me the Guardian. If
you ever call me Knux again, I'll beat your head in." He sounded
cheerful at the thought.
"Excuse me, mister Guardian," said Sonic sarcastically. "I'm
Sonic's dupe, but that's Sir Sonic to you."
"Hence the reason you're here," said the echidna, still more
sarcastically. "Would you like to stay here all day or actually go
inside?"
"I'd rather stay here," said Sonic, forcing his limp arms to
fold. "You're probably cannibals or something."
"If we were, it would make no difference," said Knuckles's voice.
"It's not considered cannibalism if you eat another species."
"Funny."
"Quite." Sonic felt Knuckles's hand and steel claw-strap close
on his arm. It forced him forward into the darkness.
They walked in silence for several minutes. Sonic kept his head
bowed, imagining he would bash his head into something. But he didn't--
the passage was as tall and smooth as the echidna clan could make it.
Knuckles strode beside him, strong and sure of the way.
They turned a corner and light streamed into the tunnel. It
came from a torch on the wall that burned with hot white light.
Beside it was a stone staircase. Sonic eyed the torch as they passed;
it looked like the ones in Sandopolis, which would stay lit forever
if one pulled the fuel cord at intervals.
The staircase wound its way upward in landings. Sonic found it
boring and tiring. A simple spindash would have saved him the legwork.
After more walking and climbing than Sonic cared to think about,
they came to a cavern that was like a chimney in the rock. Its walls
were riddled with holes. Sonic stared up at it as Knuckles led him
through, and realized the holes were windows. These were echidna
apartments! Above him he could hear a murmur of voices and activity
as the tenants went about their lives. Knuckles goaded him through a
doorway on the far side of this cave and into another maze of passages.
Now they met other echidnas, moving about on business. No one
looked twice at Knuckles, but stared unabashed at the outlander with
him. Sonic stared back, marvelling at how different they were. He had
never seen so many hairstyles and shades of red. A female echidna
passed him, stared for a moment like the rest, then went on her way.
It was not until she was gone that Sonic exclaimed, "Hey, that was
Zephyer!"
"So?" said Knuckles.
"In my world she's robotized," Sonic replied. "I wonder if she's
any different."
His captor guided him up a short flight of steps and to a door
in an alcove. "Now," said Knuckles, waving a fist in his face, "do
as you're told and tell the truth. If you lie I'll kill you." Sonic
raised his eyebrows mockingly and nodded. Knuckles pushed open the door.
The room beyond looked like the center of a geode. The walls and
ceiling were domed, and studded with short, thick, geometric
crystals. The floor was polished amethyst like purple ice--in places
it faded down into fathomless pools. Blue torches burned along the
walls, which caught and refracted their light. In the center of the
room was a low dais, and seated in the middle was a small creature.
A chao, Sonic thought in surprise. Knuckles led him to the foot
of the dais, released him and extended a hand to the chao. It turned
its round head and regarded them. It was the light blue of an average
chao, but its head was elongated in back. Sonic wondered what it's
large form was.
"Grendel greets you," said the chao in a thin voice, looking at
Sonic. "I am the chao of the echidnas, hatched by the torris, raised
by fire. Answer my questions truthfully."
It paused and looked at Sonic, who nodded. "I won't lie."
The chao's eyes narrowed. It shifted positions on the cold seat
and said, "What's your name?"
"Sonic Hedgehog."
"Are you a clone?"
Sonic hesitated. He wasn't a clone in the sense of genetics.
"No."
"Where is your home?"
Another hesitation. "Far away."
The chao fixed him with a piercing stare. "Far like distance,
or far like worlds?"
"Dimensions. Worlds." Sonic waved a hand. "It's out there, but
I can't get back."
The chao looked at him a moment, then reached behind it, lifted
a red gem into view, and popped it into its mouth.
Knuckles moved back, and Sonic shielded his eyes. The chao had
become a creature of brilliant flame, too bright to look at and too
hot to stand near. "Are you certain that is the truth, Sonic?" it
hissed in a crackly whisper.
"Yes!" Sonic said, not daring to look at it. "I'm not lying,
sheesh! I know it's weird, but it's true!"
"Would you stake your life on it?" asked the chao, taking a step
toward him.
Sonic defiantly lowered his arms and faced it, eyes shut.
"Yes. And don't kill me, it's awfully inconvenient." The flames
crackled and licked about the creature for a moment, and Sonic
smelled his fur scorching. Then the heat diminished and the glow died.
Sonic opened his eyes and found himself facing a dark red echidna,
cloaked in orange flames. The eyes glowed like yellow coals. "So you
say," it purred. "You are Sonic from another dimension. I have known
of other worlds for decades. The torris showed me a gate when I was a
hatchling." The flame-creature looked at Knuckles. "You may do with
him as you wish. He is more wholesome than our representative is. I
believe you could trust him." With that, Grendel took the emerald from
his mouth and shrank back into a small chao.

* * *

Metal Sonic sat beside Robotnik as the doctor worked on a laptop
at a table. "I shouldn't have left him," lamented the robot, cradling
his head in his hands. "I thought he would catch up with his speed, but
he didn't ..."
"It's not your fault," said Robo Knux from Robotnik's other side,
where he was watching the computer screen. "If the idiot had to get
himself killed, that's his affair."
"But he's not dead," said Mecha. "His duplicate is alive. He
must have been captured."
Robotnik grunted, preoccupied with the data the robot had
retrieved.
"You would have seen something," said Robo Knux with a shrug.
"But I did," said Mecha, looking up. "The Guardian's griffin
left the area."
"In that case, he's definitely dead," said Robo Knux, turning
back to the computer. "You know what they do to prisoners. They
sacrifice them to those gods of theirs."
"Not if they intend to make use of them," retorted Mecha,
clenching his metal hands. "I don't trust the Guardian. It would be
just like him to come up with some wicked use for Sonic."
"Eh? What?" said Robotnik, returning to earth at last. "What
about the Guardian?"
"I fear he kidnapped our visitor," replied Mecha.
"You know him," said Robo Knux, jerking a thumb in Mecha's
direction. "He's a world-class worrywart."
"You're making good use of your new vernacular chip," commented
the doctor.
"It's totally groovy, dude," agreed Robo Knux.
Metal Sonic looked at him in distaste. "If I had nerves, you
would get on them. Doctor, I am afraid for Sonic's life."
"Sonic will have to wait," said Robotnik, leaning an elbow on
the table. "The satellite launch is tomorrow."
The Metallix straightened. "When?" they asked at once.
"Noon," replied their creator. "It entered the countdown
sequence yesterday."
"What pad?" asked Robo Knux in bewilderment. "I thought I
patrolled them all!"
Robotnik turned to the computer. "It's launching from a
commercial pad just outside the city limits. It's using an experimental
fuel supply, and our prudent Hedgehog ruler didn't want an explosion
in one of his private pads."
Robo Knux slumped in his chair. "I never check that one. What
do we do?"
"I'm turning this information over to Packbell and Snively,"
replied Robotnik, inserting a disk into a slot on the computer's side.
"We'll see what they give us."
"But what about our Sonic?" asked Mecha, rising to his feet. "I
feel responsible for his safety."
Robotnik studied the robot's pointed face for a moment. "Go to
Kardot and have her install your stealth hardware. Go to the Flying
Fortress tonight, under cover of darkness. If you find him, rescue
him. If not, be back here by dawn. I need you for the launch plans."
Mecha saluted in relief. "Yes sir!"
Robo Knux gazed after him as the blue robot dashed from the
room. "Why do you think he likes this new Sonic so much, sir?"
Robotnik popped out the floppy disk and snapped it into a jewel
case. "I believe he has always felt fond of our Sonic, as if he were
a brother. Now he has a duplicate who is on our side, he is free to
make friends. It's an odd thing."
"Why don't I feel like that toward the Guardian?" asked Robo
Knux, looking down at his crimson hull.
"I built you differently," replied Robotnik. "Mecha needs
companionship. You don't."

* * *

Rescue was the farthest thing from Sonic's mind, although he
watched for an opportunity to escape.
After leaving Grendel the fire chao, Knuckles deposited his
prisoner in a stone cell in the ground. Sonic paced about in the dark
like a caged lion, testing the cold walls for weaknesses. If he had
been an echidna the cell would not have contained him long, but he
could not dig. At last the hedgehog settled down to await his doom.
Before long a jug of water and a chunk of mouldy bread were thrown
down. Sonic ate the bread, ignoring the mould. The jug, however, was
a poser. The lid had been screwed on so tight Sonic couldn't open it.
Curse the echidnas and their strong hands! Sonic wrestled with the
lid for an hour, and was at last rewarded as the cap gave under his
furious efforts. However, he was so charged with energy and fury it
was a while before he could drink anything.
Although this provided some amusement, Sonic was almost asleep
two hours later, when his cell trapdoor screeched open. "Sonic
Hedgehog," called Knuckles's voice.
Sonic leaped out as if on springs and was helped to his feet by
Knuckles. There were three echidnas with him, all armed with
crossbows. Knuckles carried a snub-nosed pistol. Sonic eyed their
weapons, then looked at Knuckles. "What's up with this junk, Knu--I
mean, Mister Guardian?"
"Insurance," said the echidna. "Come with us."
They led him up through the fortress at gun and arrow point.
The three bodyguards did not speak. Sonic sneaked looks at them
whenever he could. Their eyes were rimmed with white stripes like
wheel spokes. They wore silver bands around their dreadlocks and
heavy iron spikes on their knuclaws. Their dark eyes glittered with
malice whenever he looked at them. Sonic wondered what they did for
a living, then decided he didn't want to know.
They wound their way through the mountain, up steep spiraling
staircases and winding passages. Periodically they passed a slit
window in the steel outer wall, and Sonic saw the sun was setting. He
must have been in the cell all afternoon. Knuckles seemed to be
watching the sun too, for he stepped up the pace of their march. Sonic
couldn't help but notice the increasing tension of his escorts.
Wherever they were going, it was interesting. He wondered why they
hadn't tied him up.
The temperature of the air began to increase. The higher they
went the warmer it grew, the heat radiating at them from the floor and
walls. Sonic thought of the smoking mountaintop he had seen on his
flight in. It looked like they were going to throw him into the volcano.
Well, he wouldn't let them. He masked his determination with a
relaxed walk, and smiled at Knuckles when the echidna looked at him.
If only he didn't have that gun ... Sonic could outrun bullets, but
not at extremely close range.
They came to a door and stepped out on a thin metal walkway on
the side of the mountain. Sonic looked down with a twist in his
stomach. They were near the top of the highest peak, and there was
nothing on the steel mountain to break your fall for miles. Looking
up, Sonic could see a plume of smoke drifting with the breeze high
above. "Is it too much to ask where we're going?" he asked.
"To see the torris, if you must know," snapped Knuckles. He was
fingering the blue stone about his neck with his free hand. They
walked for a few minutes in silence.
"I thought a torris was a griffin," said Sonic.
One of the guards snorted, and Knuckles cracked a smile. "He
doesn't know what a torram is. Poor uneducated hedgehog."
"It's got you four scared to death," Sonic pointed out.
Knuckles bared his teeth and brandished his pistol. "You would
die of fear if you knew what you were about to see."
Sonic held his tongue after that, all curiosity. The very air
was hot by this time, and there was a smell like hot rock. As they
neared the summit, a red light began to shine on the walkway.
At last they rounded the last corner and came to a wide flat
area. Beyond it, a solid wall of flame licked into the sky. It was
hot, but not particularly fear-inspiring. "What, you going to throw
me in?" Sonic called over the roar of the flames. Knuckles wasn't
listening. The echidna was staring into the fire as if hypnotized, as
were the other three. At once Knuckles bowed, paying homage to the
fire, and the guards did the same. What were they bowing to? The
only one standing, Sonic peered into the fire, but could see nothing
in particular. There didn't seem to be any fuel burning; the fire
simply existed.
Then his insides knotted in terror. The rippling, waving
flames had changed shapes into the figure of a bird, a bird made of
billowing fire. Its form appeared and vanished in the light around
it as it stared at them with brilliant eyes. It was something like
the chao, but more alien, more uncontrollable.
As they stood there, the creature left the fire about it and
paced forward. Its feet did not touch the ground, and were the almost
invisible blue of the base of a candle flame. Its wings were open and
burning yellow, but its eyes were too bright to face. It made a
sound, a hot, spitting sizzle that formed words Sonic could not
understand. Knuckles rose to his feet and replied in the same
language. The guards listened, then moved toward Sonic. One of them
slipped off his steel claws, revealing a strip of rope wrapped
around his fist. They were going to throw him in after all.
Sonic's shoulder caught Knuckles in the small of the back,
flinging him to the ground. The pistol flew from his startled grasp,
and Sonic snatched it up. The bodyguards cocked their crossbows, but
Sonic held the pistol to Knuckles's head. "Go ahead," he said to them.
They exchanged a glance and lay down their arms. The hedgehog was gone
like a shot, straight down the mountain's rough metal side. As one
the guards fled.
"I told you it would not work," said the fire-creature to
Knuckles as he stood up. "You do not understand. He is not to be
used that way."
Knuckles would have said something foul had he been facing
anything but the torris. "Help me find him!" he said.
The fiery bird stared at him, and the fire beyond it was full
of eyes, hot, intelligent, knowing.
Knuckles backed down. He snatched up one of his guard's
abandoned crossbows, then leaped off the mountaintop in a glide. No
one could withstand the torris, they were too powerful. And Sonic
had fled, as if he had known what Knuckles had planned to do to
him.

* * *

Sonic escaped the steel-mountains.
It took him an hour of flat-out running, sometimes along
near-vertical surfaces that his sneakers could barely get a purchase
on. He carried the pistol on one hand. It gave him an advantage over
this people and their menagerie that outsmarted him at every turn.
As the sun sank and evening sprang into the sky, there came a
shrill wail from the torris-peak. It pierced his eardrums and froze
the heart, and Sonic stumbled in mid-stride. It came to him that
the torris were at their most powerful at sunset. At the same time,
he noticed something glowing through his glove. The ring! He had
forgotten it.
He didn't examine it until he had cleared the forbidding steel
walls and gained the tree cover of the lower slopes. Panting, the
hedgehog crawled under a tangled mass of bushes and lay flat, eyes
closed. This was bad. How could he get off the island? Would the
torris get him? What was Knuckles going to do to him? Sonic lifted
his head and pulled off his glove. Beneath it the moonstone ring
glowed like fire, first white, then crimson, then fiery blue. Was it
calling the torris to him?
Time to take stock of his situation. He donned his glove and
opened the pistol's ammunition chamber. There were four bullets
inside. Sonic snapped it shut and assured himself he knew how it
worked. He had eaten that mouldy hunk of bread in the cell, which
was currently sitting in his stomach like a brick. At least he wasn't
hungry.
Sonic stepped into the open and scanned the sky. The flames
atop the mountain looked as if someone had sprayed them with oil, but
they were not pursuing him. However, further off, something dark
was soaring, drifting like a plane. It was a moment before Sonic
realized it was a gliding echidna silhouetted against the sunset. He
shrank into the cover of the trees. Could all the echidnas glide, or
was it Knuckles's peculiar trait? He had better not risk it. He
whirled and set off at a lope through the darkening forest.
He found himself thinking that his survival belt would have
come in handy. Maybe he had been wearing it for just such an occasion.
Something clicked, as if a great hole had been torn in the curtain
in his head. He remembered standing in a place full of dark machinery,
and the echo to Slasher's voice as she told him to put on the belt.
"There's no telling what you might find." Eagerly he probed the hole
for other information. He remembered a whirling, metallic light,
then a stunning explosion in his head. Had he been struck by someone
and thrown into a portal? Who would do such a thing?
The trees parted ahead. Sonic slowed to tiptoe, crept to a
tree and peered around it. It was a meadow of a few acres, covered
in pale grass under the deepening blue sky. Sonic scanned the heavens.
The great inverted bowl was empty but for a few early stars. Maybe
the echidnas were searching another area. Sonic remained where he
was for another five minutes, watching and listening. Nothing
happened. Crickets chirped in the brush around him, and in the
distance frogs croaked in chorus. The air smelled of dew and green
leaves.
Light. Sonic's head jerked around like a frightened animal.
A flicker of light that appeared and went out. Here, there, as if
leaves were bursting into flame at random. Torris! But where were
they? The sparks and flickers were about fifty feet away, but there
was no form, no focus to the fire.
The hedgehog exploded into frenzied flight that rocketed him
across the meadows and into the woods. To his horror, the flickers
appeared in the trees about him, trailing after, and appearing
before, no matter how fast he ran. It was like trying to outrun the
very air.
A foot caught in a curled root and he crashed into a bed of
knobby ferns. Scratched and bleeding, he sat up and nursed his
twisted ankle. "That's what you get for running in strange woods!"
he scolded himself. "You're lucky it isn't broken." His ankle hurt,
but it wasn't bad. He would be able to walk in a few minutes.
Tiny tongues of fire were all about them now, like fireflies.
Sonic watched, half afraid and half defiant. He had never heard of
these things, but they couldn't be good, not if Knuckles had meant to
sacrifice him to them. "Yeah?" he said under his breath. "You don't
scare me." The ring on his finger was again glowing. He covered it
with his other hand.
The flickers and sparkles drew together before him, and there
stood the outline of a lion. It was formed by touches and tongues of
flame here and there, as if it were an invisible creature that set
the air on fire. Its eyes, like the eagle's, were too white-hot to
face. Again Sonic was gripped with a terror so great it was alien. He
wanted to throw up, he wanted to grovel, he wanted it to go away. He
turned his head away and closed his eyes, but he could hear the soft
hiss of the fire. Then the hiss formed into words.
"Why are you here, Sonic Hedgehog?"
"I ... I was kidnapped," Sonic croaked without looking up.
"Why are you in this world?" repeated the voice, if a voice it
could be called. "You do not belong here. You will die. You must
return at once."
"I can't," Sonic whimpered in self-pity. "We don't have a
portal."
"You wear the Stone of Light," said the torram, without
inflection. "Use it at once. Knuckles Echidna came to us to make
you his slave, and if he catches you again he will succeed. Our
power is not the only one available."
Sonic mustered his courage and turned to face the creature.
He felt his insides had turned to mush. There was something in it
bigger and stronger than he was, a power he could not fathom or hope
to control, yet something as clean as fire itself. Something so
clean that the air in comparison burned upon contact, like a stone
that entered the atmosphere of a planet. "Who are you?" he whispered.
"I am a servant of He who holds the seven stars and the seven
lamps," replied the creature. "He who was and is and is to come.
Holy is His name." With this enigmatic statement, the presence of the
torram was removed.
Sonic fled at once.
He knew better now than to run with reckless abandon through
the dark forest, but he could jog along at a good clip. He
assured himself of the presence of his ring and the pistol. The
ring was the Stone of Light? How in the world was he to use it to get
home? Why did weird creatures like the torris have to speak in riddles?
He slowed to circle a fallen tree and came face to face with
Knuckles.
Neither expected to see the other, and whipped out their weapons
at once. "Drop your bow," said Sonic coolly. "Bullets fly a lot faster
than arrows."
"You don't know much about crossbows," replied Knuckles with
the entire Ice Cap range in his voice. "Especially these. The fire
rate may be slower, but they'll kill you just as dead."
The hedgehog and echidna faced each other in the gloom under the
trees, waiting for the other to make the first move. Sonic studied
his enemy's face; the warpaint around his eyes, the polished golden
rings in his deadlocks, the hands that gripped the stock of the
crossbow, the hands that had given Sonic a high five and slapped him
on the back. The dark blue eyes that had smiled at him in a playful
salute. "It's all ready, Sonic. Ready to boldly go where no Hedgehog
has gone before?" His voice shouting, "Watch out for the screwdriver!"
Then the savage explosion as the metal bit slashed into Sonic's
forehead ...
Sonic's hands quivered. If he fired, Knuckles would die in
both worlds. His friend, who had attacked the power couplings to
disconnect the forcefield which was hurling metal objects like
shrapnel. His friend, whose life he had saved on several occasions.
He backed away a step, then another and lowered the pistol.
Knuckles watched him warily, the crossbow still aimed at Sonic's heart.
"I can't hurt you," said Sonic. "You're my friend. I can't do it,
Knux." He flung the pistol into the bushes.
The arrow skipped through Sonic's spines and struck the ground
nearby. "I told you not to call me that," said Knuckles, whipping
out another bolt and locking it back.
Sonic whirled, dove under the fallen tree's trunk, wormed his
way under it on his belly, then leaped to his feet and ran for it.
But he was not quite fast enough.
He staggered and clutched at his chest, and coughed. There was
an arrow in his back--he could feel the cold metal like a massive
splinter lodged between his shoulder blades. He gasped in pain and
looked skyward to see a burning star swoop down toward him. Another
torris come to kill him. He couldn't get his breath. He gagged and
stumbled to his knees, hating the pain, the intrusion of the arrow,
and Knuckles for being a good shot.

* * *

Metal Sonic plunged from the sky, his muffler disengaged and
afterburner roaring. The time for silence was over--what was needed
now was speed! His scanners told him Knuckles was running toward
Sonic, armed with a crossbow. Sonic was down, and sensors indicated
he had been shot.
Mecha swooped into the trees like a giant black bee, his eyes
a murderous red. He flew to meet Knuckles, one hand outstretched,
the steel claws waiting. Knuckles saw him coming and ducked, but
Mecha flipped in midair, sank his claws into the echidna's head, and
electrified his hull. The echidna yelled and slumped to the ground,
unconscious.
The robot swooped toward Sonic, who was sitting on his hands
and knees, wheezing in pain. "Take it out," he begged as Mecha
landed. "Please take it out."
Mecha saw the light glinting on the arrow's shaft sticking out
of Sonic's back. "Keep still," he said, kneeling beside the hedgehog.
He leaned close and performed an x-ray scan. Sonic gripped the robot's
arm with both hands to steady himself.
A moment later Metal Sonic sat back on his heels. "The barbed
tip is small," he said. "I could pull it out, but you will bleed."
"If no arteries are busted, do it," panted Sonic. Mecha looked
at him a moment, expressionless as a robot would be, but with red
eyes dimmed. Then he grasped one of Sonic's hands and reached for the
arrow. Sonic twitched and sucked in his breath through his teeth,
then Mecha presented the arrow to him. "It has a very small head,"
the robot explained. "Otherwise I would not have been able to extract
it."
"Mecha," groaned Sonic, head drooping toward the pine needles,
"I don't care, just get me out of here."
A moment later the robot was soaring over the island, Sonic in
his arms. "It's a pity we are the same size," said Mecha as they
flew. "This will be an uncomfortable journey." Sonic grunted. Mecha
had looped an arm across his chest and was holding him against his
side, out of the way of his engine intake. Sonic could feel blood
trickling through his spines. It felt like it had when he had lay in
the weeds on the other side of the portal, stunned, the cut on his
head oozing.
The last thing he saw was the half moon reflecting on the
ocean, creating a shimmering path to guide them home.

* * *

He awoke to find his face mashed into a pillow, which now had
a great damp patch on it from sleeping with his mouth open. Sonic
lifted his head, closed his mouth and felt a nagging pain in his
back. Gingerly he rolled onto his side. A probing hand encountered
bandages on a small shaved area on his back. All in all, it wasn't
that bad.
It was morning. Sonic lay in bed and watched a breeze stir the
curtains for some time before he realized how quiet it was. He had
never heard Knothole so hushed, except in the face of impending
attack. Curious, he got up and padded to the window. There he
discovered Leviathan's masked raptor face on the other side of the
pane. "What are you doing out there?" Sonic demanded, startled.
"Keeping tabs on you," said the cyborg raptor in his creepy
natural voice. "Dr. Robotnik worried the arrow was poisoned."
"I feel okay," said Sonic, looking around for his shoes.
"Where's Mecha and Robo Knux?"
"On a mission," said Leviathan. "Come and eat breakfast."
Taking a meal with Leviathan was not high on the list of things
Sonic considered 'fun'. Later he thought of that meal with a cold
shudder. Leviathan was not alive in the animal sense, but the sight
of him quietly eating from a plate seemed to reverse that image.
As they finished, Sonic asked, "So what mission did everybody
go on?"
"Today at noon, the ion satellite will launch," replied his
babysitter.
Sonic snapped to attention. "What's the plan?"
Leviathan explained, then rose to clear the table. Sonic was
out the door as soon as he turned his back.
The hedgehog headed for the highway, his belly full and his
spirits optimistic. The sun was shining, the air was warm, the hole
in his back didn't pain him much, and the Stone of Light was still
on his finger. How did it work? He prodded about in the tattered
remains of the memory block for the instructions. Slasher had given
it to him, but the details were hazy. Oh well, it would come to him.
In the meantime he had a plan.
Sonic came to highway I-4 and looked both ways. Empty. He
stepped onto the asphalt and began to walk in the direction of
Sonotropolis, ears on full alert. C'mon, Tails!
He heard the grind of rubber on pavement before he heard the
engines. He stepped off the road and held out a thumb. The lead
bike's rider set the brakes and left two smoking streaks of rubber
as he skidded to a stop, his gang doing the same around him. The
rider of the lead bike was a lithe two-tailed fox. Sonic couldn't
help but notice he had black spike-studded boots instead of red and
white sneakers. The fox flipped off his goggles and looked him over.
"Dude, can I get a ride?" asked Sonic in his best slang. "I
gotta get to the commercial launch pad."
Tails's eyes narrowed. There was something cold and ruthless
in his face. "Why don't you run, hedgie?"
Sonic switched tactics. He was evil, after all. "You take me
where I want to go, kid, or I'll rig your bikes with explosives next
oil change."
"I change my own oil," said Tails, and one of his tails
flicked. "But since I owe you a favor ..." he jerked a thumb at the
back seat of his bike.
Ten seconds later Sonic was seated behind Tails, ears blowing
in the wind. This way he wouldn't hurt his back running. Having an
evil double wasn't so bad after all. Here he was, cruising the anti-
verse in style!
The Million Miles gang travelled faster than Sonic had given
them credit for, and before long they pulled up outside a vast
fenced facility with a mass of tall orange towers in the distance.
Tails eyed Sonic as he dismounted. "Keep your sticky fingers off my
ride, got it? Me and my homies don't appreciate it."
"You got it," said Sonic. He walked toward the gates as Tails
and his gang roared off.
Entry was easy. He walked to the guardhouse and eyeballed the
guard. The guard blanched and waved him through. Sonic entered the
fence, chortling to himself. This was like being Robotnik!
The plan was to take advantage of the experimental fuel supply.
It was a condensed gas that exploded on contact with oxygen. The
smallest air leak would blow the whole thing to kingdom come. Metal
Sonic, the smaller and quicker of the Metallix, would set a single
explosive on one of the rocket's fuel tanks. Robo Knux would cover
for him, and when they had cleared the area, Robotnik would blow it
from their getaway hovercar.
"Hasta lasagna, don't get any on ya," Sonic thought as he
jogged toward the launch station.

* * *

The Sonic native to that world was reclining in an armchair in
the main control tower, a beer in hand, when his watch beeped. He
found a message from Miles Prower, the gang leader. Well well, how
was little Miles doing? He pressed a button and listened to the fox's
voice.
"Heya Sonic, I just picked up your twin and dropped him off at
the launch pad. I thought it was you, but," Tails chuckled nastily,
"he was too nice. Thought I'd warn you, since I owe you a favor."
Sonic rose to his feet and peered out the window. Slasher lifted
her head and watched him from the corner, where she was covered in
bandages. She wouldn't be patrolling for a while. Sonic ignored her.
If that other hedgehog was here, there was trouble afoot. He gulped
the rest of his beer and returned to his chair. He pulled a
dufflebag from under it and extracted a pair of white sneakers with
red straps. Meeting the other hedgehog had been an unsettling
experience. He pondered the idea of an alternate Sonic. His evil twin.
It made the spines on his back stand erect. If it was so, they were
enemies. It had been weird looking at his mirror image, and seeing
his own thoughts and feelings reflected on that face. Half of them.
What does that mean? he thought, tightening one buckle, then the
other. He's only half me? But we were brought into existence at the
same instant--I felt it and he felt it. Are we two parts of the same
person?
He shook his head as he stood up. He was pondering the
mysteries of the universe when his satellite launch was in danger.
He stamped his feet to assure himself that his speed shoes were
seated right, and left the tower.

* * *

"Psst!"
The alien Sonic spotted Robo Knux, hidden behind the buttress
of a tower strut. Sonic peered around to make sure no one was
watching, then dashed to him. The robot yanked him behind the cement
buttress at once. "What do you think you're doing? Our Sonic is here!"
Sonic pulled away and rubbed his back. "Don't haul me around
like that, I think you made it bleed again."
"Sorry," said Robo Knux without an ounce of remorse. "Our plan
was going perfectly. Why must you disrupt it?"
"I wasn't gonna disrupt it," said Sonic. "I was gonna help!
Where's Mecha?"
"He's waiting for the fueling vehicle to leave," said Robo Knux,
exasperated. "And if you want to help, go home."
"Forget it, buddyroe," said Sonic, peering around the cement
block. "I'm a Freedom Fighter, too. I'm gonna circle around and watch."
He was gone in a flash of blue. Robo Knux cursed in useless anger.
Only three feet away, a blue hedgehog in white sneakers leaned
against the other side of the buttress. He had heard every word.

* * *

Metal Sonic stood atop a wide metal beam, watching a massive
vehicle hung with tubes and tanks back away from the rocket's side. He
looked at the clock on the main tower, which displayed the countdown.
Five minutes and thirty-two seconds. Plenty of time.
The robot floated across the interior of the support tower
toward the rocket's slick white side. He landed on the inner struts and
scanned for lifeforms. The area had been cleared. Perfect. He flipped
open a cargo panel on his lower arm and removed the magnetic charge.
One little hole in the fuel tank, and the Freedom Fighters would have
struck another blow against tyranny.
Mecha flew around the rocket's side to the spot where the fuel
tank resided under the ship's skin. He set the charge on the metal
surface, clicked it on, then dove earthward. His job was done.

* * *

Sonic just missed him.
A minute after Metal Sonic left, the hedgehog arrived at the base
of the tower, shaded his eyes and looked up. The charge was invisible
at that distance. "He's not here yet," he thought. He jumped for the
bottom cross-bar of the tower and scrambled up. "I always wanted to
climb one of these," he muttered, walking up a diagonal strut and
jumping to the next one.
"I have, too," said a voice.
Sonic looked toward the ground, already twenty feet below. There
stood his evil twin, with white shoes instead of red. The other Sonic
began to climb after him. "Tell me, where are you going?"
"Up," the good Sonic replied, leaping onto another beam.
"Liar," grunted the evil Sonic, pulling himself up. "You're
looking for your buddy robot."
"What, can you read my mind?" good Sonic called down, gloating
at how much faster he could climb. "I can't read yours, and I'm not
sure I'd want to."
"You don't have to be a mind reader to eavesdrop," called evil
Sonic. "Tell me why you're going to blow up my nice rocket."
"Because you're going to blow up the nice Freedom Fighters,"
good Sonic replied, eyeing the rocket's side. Three more crossbars to
go.
"I'll have you know that both Mecha bots and Doc were
apprehended a few minutes ago."
Good Sonic froze. "How ...?" He recovered. "You're lying. You're
my evil twin."
"What makes you evil, launching a rocket or blowing one up?"
replied the other Sonic.
"I don't have time for a philosophical discussion," good Sonic
shot back. There was the charge. Mecha had come and gone, and he was
trapped atop a skeleton tower with his evil twin in pursuit.
The other Sonic stopped climbing for a moment to peer up at his
enemy. He followed his gaze to the silver square on the rocket's white
hull, and his eyes lit up. "Aha! So there IS an explosive!"
"Yeah?" jeered good Sonic from above. "What are you gonna do
about it? It's gonna blow in three minutes."
Evil Sonic smiled, showing his teeth. "You think I'd come all
the way up here without a plan? I can't believe you're my duplicate."
He swung out, touched his feet to the rocket's steel side, and walked
across it to the charge.
"Cheater!" good Sonic yelled. "No magnets!"
"Who said anything about magnets?" said evil Sonic, folding his
arms. Standing sideways on the rocket, he had to look up to see his
duplicate. "My shoes have built-in anti-gravity. That's why I can travel
so fast." He plucked the charge off the wall, then threw it. Good
Sonic watched as it sailed out of sight. "Jerk!" he spat. Evil Sonic
called him something worse and added a sneer. Infuriated, good Sonic
jumped off the tower and tackled his horizontal enemy.
Several seconds later, a Sonic with white shoes was holding a
Sonic with red shoes by the ankle, dangling fifty feet above the
pavement. "Any last words?" said evil Sonic, grinning.
"Yeah," retorted good Sonic. "We're the same person in two
places. If I die, you die, too."
The other Sonic stopped grinning. He looked toward the countdown
clock and bit his lip.
Hanging upside down, good Sonic fondled his ring for the
thousandth time. If he could teleport away ... then the rocket would
launch. Why did he have to get involved in messes like this? The blood
rushing to his head was making him see spots. He blinked. One of the
spots was still there, the sun glinting on it. "Duck!" he yelled
without thinking.
Evil Sonic jumped sideways in time to avoid Robo Knux. The
crimson robot was flying with one arm outstretched, his entire frame
braced for impact. When his target dodged, Robo Knux slammed into the
rocket's side. His steel claws drove in up to the hilt.
No one said a word for a stunned second. Robo Knux broke the
silence. "Oops."
"Don't pull out!" cried evil Sonic. "How long are your claws?"
Robo Knux held up his free hand. "Eight inches."
The twin Sonics exchanged a horrified glance. The tips of the
robot's claws were inside the fuel tank. When he pulled them out,
air would rush in, and the fuel would explode.
Robo Knux looked at good Sonic. "If it blows, it'll kill him
and we'll be free."
Evil Sonic's eyes widened. "And let you win? Never!"
Good Sonic blinked again. Were those spots or was he seeing
flickers of light? His brain felt like it was shrink-wrapped. He
looked at Robo Knux, then at his evil self, who was Robotnik to
this world.
Robo Knux's green eyes dimmed to black. "I can be rebuilt," he
said.
The choice was horrible. And yet, there might be a way of
escape. The ring on his finger ... all he had to do was rub it.
He tore off his gloves and touched the stone. "Do it," he said
to Robo Knux.
"No!" screamed evil Sonic, and let go of his duplicate's ankle.
In painfully slow motion, as he began to fall, Sonic saw Robo
Knux wrench his claws out of the rocket's side. Fire spurted through
the holes, then the wall split with white fire. For an instant, it
seemed that the fire was an eagle, a lion, a bull, a man, looking at
him with eyes of pure light.
He rubbed the ring.
The shockwave of incinerating heat blasted his body, but it felt
like hands, reaching out to catch him and break his fall, hands of
searing fire.
A wave of refreshing coolness struck him, and the world turned
from orange to silver. He was floating, but he was burned. Ouch, he
was burned. He must not be as dead as he thought.
He struck the ground and knew no more.

* * *

He was lying in bed somewhere. Sonic opened his eyes. His hut.
He was lying in his own bed in the proper Knothole. He tried to move
and realized he was bandaged from head to toe. "Hey," he said weakly
to the empty room. "Is anybody there?"
The door opened and Slasher bounded in. Sonic gasped, then
relaxed as he realized her wings were feathered. "Sonic!" she said.
"How do you feel?"
"Like toast," Sonic replied. "What happened to me?"
"We were hoping you could tell us," said Slasher, looking at
him with one emerald eye. "You got hit on the head by a screwdriver
right as you entered the portal. Then, earlier this morning, the
portal opened and you flew out headfirst. You mind telling me how you
got so burned?"
Sonic's thoughts wandered back to the jumbled images of the
explosion. "The torris," he said. "The torris put me into the portal.
But they burned me when they touched me." He looked at Slasher to
find her staring at him with both eyes. He also noticed that her right
forearm was in a sling. "What happened to you?"
Slasher looked down. "This? Oh, I got it caught in something."
"Ha!" said a voice, and a green hedgehog stepped into the hut.
He had an untidy forelock that dangled in his eyes, and he wore a
medallion around his neck. "Don't let her brush it off, Sonic. She only
saved my bacon with it."
"Get out, Manic," said Slasher, pointing at the door. "He's not
ready to meet you yet."
"You heard me, Sonic," said the stranger as he left.
"Who was that?" asked Sonic, raising an eyebrow.
Slasher bared all her teeth in a smile. "That was Manic. He's
the representative of Spark in this universe I went to."
Sonic sat up, forgetting his burns. "You went to a universe?
Cool! What happened?"
"Strange things," Slasher sighed. "It's a long story. I'll tell
you about it later."
"After I eat," said Sonic. "I'm starved for a chilidog. Oh, call
in Tails, will you? I wouldn't mind seeing Knuckles, too."
Slasher turned to go, then turned back. "What DID happen to you?"
Sonic smiled. "Well Slash, there was another Sonic--an evil
Sonic--and I killed him."

* * *

When Sonic, reeling in pain, stumbled through the portal, Slasher
bounded through it after him.
The portal generators had been hidden in an abandoned warehouse
once occupied by a biotic army called the Black Claw. The Freedom
Fighters stumbled across it and assembled a crew to figure out what it
was. Sonic, Slasher, Knuckles and Rotor were chosen.
It took some time to make sense of the tangled machinery, wires,
conduits and lenses. It used a lot of energy, whatever it was, for a
massive, dusty Tesla coil sat in the corner. Knuckles and Rotor
climbed all over the machinery, shouting their findings. Between them,
they figured out it was a machine to split dimensions.
"I want to go to another dimension!" Sonic clamored, sounding
like a kid who wanted to ride the merry-go-round. "Please, Slasher?
I'll take food and stuff! Please?"
She looked at him with one critical eye. "One word. Interweb."
"Oh come on," said Sonic. "There's probably thousands of
dimensions. Just set this thing to go to every dimension but the
fifth."
"The Interweb resides between the fourth and fifth dimensions,
but that's not the point," replied Slasher. "The point is it's
dangerous. You may not be able to get back."
"We don't even know if it works," called Knuckles. He and Rotor
were trying to make sense of an unlabeled control panel. "There's
probably a reason the biotics never used it."
"Yeah, they were wimps," said Sonic, grinning. "Let's try it on
me! Please?"
"Hedgehogs rush in where angels fear to tread," growled Slasher.
"Fine, but I want you to take something with you."
"All right!" exclaimed the blue hedgehog. "Let me get my supply
belt."
He took off his emerald belt so as not to risk it disrupting the
portal, and took the moonstone ring from Slasher. "Don't lose it," she
warned him. "This ring gives you the ability to jump between worlds.
All you have to do is rub the stone."
"Where'd you get it?" Sonic asked, raising an eyebrow.
Slasher leaned close and lowered her voice. "You remember a
long time ago, when I got back to Mobius using an object I kept
secret?"
Sonic's eyes widened. "You mean this is it? Whoa ..." He tucked
it into his belt reverently.
"Yes," Slasher replied. "If something goes wrong, you'll be able
to come back."
Things began to go wrong as soon as Knuckles and Rotor powered
up the Tesla coil.
First, the control panel didn't work. When Rotor pressed a
button, sparks sprayed onto the floor. "I can't control it!" the walrus
called over the buzz of the coil.
"The portal's opening, anyway!" Knuckles yelled back.
The portal frame was a ring of steel, set every few inches with
glass lenses. Within it, the air was beginning to shimmer and sparkle.
Sonic danced from foot to foot. "When can I go?"
"Hold your horses," said Slasher, arms folded. "It takes time
to power up these things."
They watched as the air within the loop turned into a wavering
silver pool with a dark center. Knuckles walked up and watched, too.
When the image in the air had ceased to change colors, he slapped
Sonic on the back and grinned. "It's ready, Sonic. Ready to boldly
go where no Hedgehog has gone before?"
"You bet!" said Sonic, walking toward the waiting pool of light.
At that moment there came a shrill whine from the equipment,
and the air tingled with electricity. Rotor jumped away from the
machinery as every metal surface snapped with static. "Forcefield!"
he yelled. At once there came a power flux, and every metal object
in the room was yanked toward the Tesla coil. "Watch out for that
screwdriver!" Knuckles yelled as everyone ducked. Sonic looked around
to see whom he was addressing, and the tool slashed across his face.
The hedgehog stumbled backward, blinded by the pain, and fell through
the portal.
Knuckles bolted across the room and smashed his fists into a
pair of power couplings. The forcefield died at once, its power
severed. "Sonic's hurt, I'm going after him!" Slasher roared over the
noise. She leaped through the portal.
"No, don't!" Rotor hollered as she vanished. The walrus looked
at Knuckles. "It's very unstable! She might not go to Sonic's
dimension at all!"

* * *

Slasher's clawed feet struck the pavement. Instantly she was
deafened by the blare of a horn. She sprang sideways with reptilian
speed, and crouched on the sidewalk as the driver of a truck told her
what he thought of her. Slasher hardly noticed him. Her breath
condensed on the air in steam, and the cement underfoot felt like ice.
Stars shown in the sky above like crystal.
A city, she thought. As her dizzy senses righted themselves,
she saw flashing neon signs along the street, cars travelling up and
down, and people walking along the pavement. The cold air smelled of
exhaust, cigarettes and french fries.
Slasher reared up, peering about for Sonic. She didn't see him
anywhere. Maybe he ran off.
The big raptor paced along the sidewalk, head jerking this way
and that. Slasher was not often frightened, as there were few things
on Mobius she respected enough to fear. But this was different--this
was the Unknown, where anything could happen. She hugged her wings to
her body and peered furtively into the lit windows of a store. There
were Mobians inside, and the signs were in New Mobian. At least she
wasn't in the world of a foreign language.
The big raptor arrived at the end of the block unscathed, her
curiosity growing. Was this the Mobius of an alternate dimension?
She rounded the corner and blinked. Just ahead was a vacant lot,
and there was a concert playing. A group of people were standing
about, listening. Slasher flinched. The subwoofer was quite painful,
but she stepped to the back of the small crowd and peered into the
shadows. Her height put her head and shoulders above the rest. Ah,
there were the performers, but oddly enough, they were set up without
lights. The only equipment they had were two battered amplifiers, a
subwoofer, and instruments. From the sound of it, these consisted of
a drumset, a piano and an electric guitar.
The big raptor turned to walk away when the voice of someone she
knew rose above the instruments. She turned back. That was Sonic! Why
was he singing in a band in a strange dimension? That was Sonic for
you, always doing the unexpected. She made him out, playing the guitar
and singing with his heart and soul. "Where did he learn to play the
guitar?" she wondered, suspicious.
The attack came without warning. Slasher's tail was bumped by a
hulking metal shape. She looked around and saw the robots were closing
in.
"Sonic, run!" Slasher shouted. Her voice was drowned in the
music. She filled her lungs and let loose the heart-stopping raptor-
scream Sonic would recognize. The music ground to a stop, heads turned,
people gasped. "Run!" the raptor bellowed. "The robots are here!"
For an instant it occurred to her that these robots might be
friendly and she had made a fool of herself. Then the crowd scattered
with cries of terror. Sonic and the two with him froze as the robots
charged, but Slasher was still there. She hurled herself into two of
the gorilla-like beasts. "Run Sonic, run!" she roared. She was aware
of the three of hedgehogs fleeing for the back of the lot, then a
steel mesh fell over her. She stumbled and went down, snarling. The
robots were all around, at least twenty of them. Three of them wound
a cable around her arms and legs, hogtying her securely inside the
net. Heavy square feet clumped on the cold ground all around, and a
robotic voice announced that the priority hedgehogs had escaped.
Chilly steel hands lifted her by her tied feet and carried her toward
a pod-shaped transport at the curb. They flung her in the back,
climbed in after her, and the pod lurched into motion.
Slasher lifted her head a little. Metal clanked, multicolored
lights flashed, and green, helmeted eyes glared down at her. "Where
am I?" shed asked.
"Robotropolis," replied a robot, "home of our master, Doctor
Robotnik."
Robotropolis? This place was Robotropolis? "Are you ... SWAT-
bots?" she ventured.
"Affirmative," said the entire gang simultaneously.
Slasher was amazed. Was this an alternate dimension, or simply
a different time? There had never been any SWAT-bots that looked like
this. "Where are you taking me?" she growled as the vehicle turned a
corner and she slid against a robot's knee, pinching her wing.
"To the robotizer," a SWAT-bot replied. "You will be punished
for attending a concert. Music is against the law."
"That's a dumb law," said the big raptor, wishing they would
take her out of the net. "It sounds just like Robotnik."
After that Slasher held her tongue. Perhaps if she didn't fight,
the robots would let their guard down. Before long she felt the pod
slow. She figured they were parking at the fortress, or wherever
Robotnik was living. After a moment they stopped. The SWAT-bots flung
the rear doors open, hauled her out by her feet, and carried her
upside down, tail dragging, up a flight of steps toward a lit doorway.
Slasher breathed the familiar smell of central heating, hot
metal and exhaust that seemed to perfume all of Robotnik's bases. She
watched the fortress pass upside down. There were robots galore, but
here and there were a few richly dressed Mobians. Odd combination.
It must be quite late in this world, for there wasn't much activity.
At last they came to a small, cramped room with the all-too-
familiar robotizer set up in the center. A robot that looked like a
garden rake with arms droned, "Remove the prisoner's bindings. Please
place it inside the tube. Have a nice day."
Slasher lay limp as the three SWAT-bot escorts pulled off the
net and untied the cables that bound her forelimbs and hindlimbs
together. The big raptor leaped to her feet. One SWAT-bot crashed
into the control panel, half its head missing. Another clattered to
the floor, its head screwed around backward, and the third stumbled
into the wall, its head gone. Slasher was a quick learner when it
came to robotic weaknesses.
She flashed out of the robotizer room. She didn't like this
universe and she wanted out. She darted down a hall, hit a dead end,
doubled back, took a left turn and found herself in what had once been
a throne room. She didn't remember seeing this. She retraced her steps,
sniffing for a whiff of fresh air that might lead her to a door or
window.
The dinosaur rounded a corner and blundered into Sonic.
She recoiled, teeth bared, before she recognized him. "Chill,"
he whispered. "Look, we've got to get out of here!"
"I'm lost, lead the way," Slasher panted.
Sonic led her through a door, along a back hall, down a flight
of stairs and out into the free, cold night. "Thank you!" she said as
he led her to an iron fence. "Want a ride? And how's your head?"
"Shh," Sonic warned. "We'll talk later. Right now we've got to
juice. They'll be out for blood."
"How do you know so much about this place?" Slasher began, but
was interrupted by a voice whispering hoarsely, "Sonic, where are you?"
"Down here," Sonic called in a loud whisper, "and I've got
that thing that saved us!"
"Thing?" said Slasher.
The iron bars snapped one by one, and a green hedgehog with
giant clippers bent the bars down to form a hole. "Come on, Sonia's in
the van," he said, beckoning. Sonic climbed through the bars. Slasher
eyed the hole--she was too big. Instead she opened her wings and swept
over the fence. Sonic and the other hedgehog stared at her as she
landed. Sonic recovered first. "Where's the van, Manic?"
"Down there," said the green hedgehog, jerking a thumb over
his shoulder, still staring at Slasher.
The three jogged along the street on the outside of the fortress
perimeter fence, and came to a van pulled up on the curb. A pink
hedgehog leaned out the driver's side window. "Get in!" she called,
waving a hand. "They're onto us!"
Manic and Sonic opened the van's rear doors, shoved Slasher in,
jumped in after her, and slammed the doors. At once the tires
screeched under them.
Slasher gathered up her limbs and huddled against the wall in
the darkness, trying not to take up all the space. She heard Manic and
Sonic clamber toward the front, Sonic demanding that Sonia let him
drive. The van stopped, then took off again at ninety miles an hour.
Sonic was driving, all right.
After what seemed like hours of reckless driving, the van slowed,
then stopped. Slasher heard the driver and passenger doors slam, then
the rear doors opened. Blinking, she crawled out and stood, looking
around. Sonic, Manic the green hedgehog, and Sonia, a pink hedgehog
in a purple jumpsuit, were standing in a row, dubious looks on their
faces. The van was parked in a cave, with pipes snaking overhead. The
light was dim, and the air smelled damp and moldy.
Sonic's forehead was unmarked. In addition, he and the other two
wore little plastic shapes on chains around their necks, like some
sort of medallion. "You're not who I'm looking for," she said, turning
and examining the cave for an exit. "Where's Sonic?"
"I AM Sonic," said the blue hedgehog.
The big raptor turned back. "I'm looking for the Sonic of my
world. I'm from a different dimension. My Sonic was injured and fell
through the portal, have you seen him?"
Sonic fingered his medallion, eyeing her wings and claws. "No,
I haven't seen another Sonic ... is that why you saved us?"
Slasher bobbed her head. "I thought you were my Sonic." She sighed,
then held out a three-fingered hand. "I'm Slasher."
Sonic hesitated, then shook her hand. "I'm Sonic, and these are
my brother and sister, Manic and Sonia."
Slasher shook hands with them. "Pleased to meet you." She was
suddenly dead tired. "Is there someplace I could rest for a while?"
"Over here," said Sonia, glancing at her brothers. She led the
velociraptor across the room, through a low tunnel, and into a small
room with a battered mattress on the floor. "It's not much," said Sonia,
looking wistful.
"It's fine," said Slasher, and flopped on the mattress with a
squeal of springs. "Thanks again," she said, lowered her head, sighed
and was asleep at once.

* * *

"I hope she isn't a spy," said Manic.
It was nine o' clock the next morning, but the dim light in the
underground lair of the hedgehogs was the same as at midnight. Slasher
was asleep in the same position they had left her in hours before.
Sonia appeared, her pink spines frazzled, two boxes under one
arm. "Here's the cereal," she told her brothers, setting it on the
table. "Really Manic, can't you pick up something other than Commander
Crunch next time?"
"It was a sale," said the green hedgehog, laying back his ears
and pouring himself a bowlful.
"Did you buy it this time or rip it off?" asked Sonic, pouring
himself a bowl, too.
"Hey," said Manic, jabbing Sonic with a spoon, "I don't ask how
you pull off your speed, you don't ask how I get our food."
"If you can call this food," said Sonia in distaste. "I can't
feed this to that dinosaur, she'll think it's poison!"
"If she's a spy, she won't eat our food, anyway," said Sonic with
his mouth full. "Ask us where mom is, most likely."
Breakfast was over, and the three were bent over a newspaper on
the floor, reading the story of the previous night's exploits, when
Slasher stalked in. None of them noticed her until she had snooped
around the main room, sniffing and peering into the corners. "Hey!"
said Sonic, looking up in surprise. "You up?"
"Yes," said the big raptor, completing her inspection of their
van. "Do you know if Robotnik has a dimension-portal generator
anywhere?"
The three hedgehogs looked at each other. "If he does, we haven't
heard about it," said Sonic. "Why, do you want to go home?"
"The thought had crossed my mind," replied their guest, leaning
over the table and sniffing the boxes of cereal. "Is this Commander
Crunch?"
"Yes, want some?" asked Sonia, rising to her feet and dusting
off her knees.
Slasher hesitated a second, then said, "Okay." She didn't care
for sweets, and loathed super-sugared breakfast cereal, but it was
impolite to scorn the food your host offered. She ate quickly and
without a word.
As she finished, Manic left the room. He returned a few minutes
later with a roll of paper under one arm. "Since we've read Robotnik's
news," he said, laying his armload on the table, "let's take a look
at the resistance news!" The sheets of newsprint he unrolled were
solid text, with no graphics. It looked like a massive classified ad
section. But the interest the hedgehogs showed told Slasher that
these were no mere ads. Slasher bent over the paper with them.
It was no media outlet. The articles were misspelled, typos
abounded and the ink was smudged, but the news was real. The pages
were filled with reports of damage done to Robotnik, printouts of
various shipments and other useful information, and the latest
movements of something called S. and D. Upon asking, Slasher was
informed that this stood for Sleet and Dingo, two of Robotnik's non-
robotic lackeys.
"What about Metal Sonic?" asked Slasher.
Sonic looked at her, one eyebrow cocked. "Who?"
"Oh," said the big raptor, feeling foolish. "In my world he's
a robot we factor into our planning. Nevermind."
"Metal ... Sonic?" the blue hedgehog persisted, all curiosity.
"Am I robotized in your world?"
Slasher didn't want to explain, but Sonic badgered her until
she answered him. The things she told him caught Manic and Sonia's
attention as well.
"So," said Manic, "Metal Sonic is a robot with Sonic's speed,
but his one goal in life is to kill Sonic? That's really interesting."
"Don't get any ideas," snapped Sonia, hands on her hips. "I
know you. You'll get your pals together and hole up in your workshop,
and--"
"Chill," said Manic. "It would be a Metal Manic, not Metal
Sonic. He'd be cool, like me."
"Yeah," said Sonic, catching his brother's enthusiasm. "Welcome
to Downtown Coolsville! Population: us." Sonic whipped off his
medallion, which expanded before their eyes into an electric guitar.
Manic whipped off his as well, which grew into a drumset, and the
pair rocked the room with noise that might have passed as music.
"What's with the band?" asked Slasher of Sonia, who was watching
her brothers with arms folded.
"They always do this to shut me up," she called over the noise.
As she spoke, Sonic nodded and Manic, and the two ripped out a number
called "Don't Leave the Band". Sonia stuck out her tongue at them and
began to clear the table. Slasher, pretending not to mind the head-
splitting bass drum Manic was playing, read the resistance paper.
She learned the three were triplets, and legal heirs to the
throne. Robotnik had usurped the throne, much as he had done to the
Acorns in her home world, and the three lived in hiding. The
whereabouts of their father was unknown, but their mother the Queen
was at large and also living in hiding. Music had been outlawed
because it was well known that the Sonic Underground, as the three
were called, performed on the street to earn their living. They
were considered quite talented. "Whoever said that," thought Slasher,
teeth clenched as Sonic hit a high note on his guitar, "probably
never heard them play." However, she couldn't help feeling sorry for
them. They were in the same position Sally was in her world. Odd
how the same situations existed only a few dimensions away. She
searched for some report of Sonic being injured, but there were none.
Perhaps she was in the wrong dimension after all. Hadn't Rotor said
something about the portal being unstable? She had been able to see
and hear everything for a few seconds after she entered the portal,
as her body evaporated into particles that were reassembled as she
emerged in this world. It had been disorienting.
Sonic and Manic ended their song with an ear-splitting drumroll,
then gave each other a high five as their instruments returned to
medallions. Laughing and talking, they returned to the cleared table
and sat down. Sonia glared at them, but her glare cracked into a
smile. She couldn't stay mat for long. She took her seat as Slasher
asked, "So, what's planned for today?"
"Nothing," said Sonic.
"Yeah," said Manic. "See, when we pull off a stunt like last
night, it's best to lay low a few days. Robotnik's probably got all
his goons looking for us."
Slasher looked at the pipes snaking along the walls and
ceiling. "Where are we, anyway?"
"This is the safehouse," said Sonic with a mysterious grin.
"Until we know you can be trusted, we're not gonna tell you where
it is."
"It's somewhere in Robotropolis," said Sonia.
"That's another thing," said Slasher, resting one elbow on the
table. "Why do you still live in Robotropolis? In my world everybody
has fled because of the robotizer."
"Your Robotnik sounds pretty extreme," muttered Manic, eying
Slasher. "Killer robots, robotizing a whole city ..."
"Here robotization is a punishment," explained Sonia. "If you
can't pay your taxes or break a law. Or if you're royalty."
"Yeah," said Sonic. "There's nothing he'd like better than to
catch us."
"Does he ever execute anybody?" asked Slasher with interest.
The triplets exchanged a glance. "Yeah," said Sonic. "We saw
him do it once. See, Robotnik handles the executions himself. He's
got this hovercraft he uses as a base for all these wicked weapons
and stuff."
"When you see him coming in that ship," added Manic, "you know
either you're gonna die, or somebody standing behind you is."
"You thought my Robotnik was extreme," said Slasher.

* * *

They spent the morning hanging out, practicing on their
various instruments, and, of all things, playing darts. There was a
poster of Robotnik tacked to the wall in the boys' bedroom, and
their favorite pastime was trying to place three darts in his nose.
At noon Sonic went outside to burn some energy, but returned
moments later. "Hey gang, it's snowing!" he called as he darted into his
room and snatched his coat.
"What'll we do about Slasher?" Sonia whispered to her brothers as
they pulled on galoshes. "We can't leave her here!"
"Let's take her," said Manic as he buttoned his trenchcoat. "She
won't know where we are, even if she's not a spy."
"If she's a spy I'll eat my galoshes," said Sonia. "She would
have attacked us by now, or knifed the van's tires, or something."
"You never know," said Sonic. "Spies can be awfully tricky. We
might as well take her with us, no sense leaving her here alone where
she can sabotage our equipment."
Slasher followed the three through the outer door, down a
malodorous sewer pipe, and up through a manhole in a shady back street.
Sure enough, white was sifting down from the sky in a million flakes
and collecting in a fleece on the ground. A snowball fight broke out
at once.
Slasher participated, but her heart was not in it. It was
discouraging having to make friends all over again, and it gave her the
vague feeling she was babysitting. She was stronger than they were,
and impatient to get out and look for a way home. She walked away from
the triplets and peered through the snow, out the street's mouth.
The falling snow provided excellent cover for any sneaking about
they needed to do. The ground was slick, but she was not afraid to fly
in a snowstorm. She sniffed the air, tasting the odors of smoke,
exhaust and raw sewer. This city smelled like Robotropolis had smelled
at the beginning of its decay into a dead, abandoned ghost town. This
city was not quite there, for it has still inhabited by living tenants,
but soon ...
Sonic ran up and looked out at the vacant street. "What're ya
looking at?" His jacket was powdered with the remains of numerous
snowballs.
"The snow," replied Slasher, her breath vaporizing. "We could
sneak back to the fortress and look for a generator. They would have a
hard time seeing us." She lifted a cold foot out of the snow and stood
like a heron, staring into the distance.
"But they'll be looking for us," said Sonic, wadding up a handful
of snow and blowing on it to make it freeze.
"Do you always hide out after a strike?" she asked.
"Yeah," said the blue hedgehog, lobbing the snowball at Manic.
"Well then, they won't expect a second strike."
Sonic looked at her, and grinned. "You might be right! Hey guys!"
he yelled at his siblings. "Slasher wants to go to town! Wanna come?"

* * *

The castle was dismally quiet under the falling snow, as if its
inhabitants disliked adverse weather conditions. SWAT-bots stood here
and there, seeming to sleep under the wreaths of snow collecting on
their heads. Cars passed with a muffled swish in the distance.
"Over there, beyond that fence," whispered Sonic.
He, Manic and Sonia were seated on Slasher's back with a blanket
covering them. From a distance it looked as if Slasher were wearing a
coat, and it kept the snow from collecting on her passengers.
Slasher walked to the chainlink fence and peered through it. "It's
a junkyard," she whispered.
Sonic lifted the edge of the blanket. "I know it's a junkyard, duh!
This is where we'll find out what Egghead's been working on. See any
tarps?"
Slasher squinted. "There's tarps over everything."
"Anything with a tarp on it is important," said Manic, lifting
the blanket a few inches. "Can you get us over the fence?"
Slasher spread her wings and crouched. "Hang on, everybody," she
warned, and sprang skyward.
Everyone hung on until she landed on the inside of the fence,
where Sonia fell off, and Sonic and Manic ended up hanging around
Slasher's neck. "Some riders you are," she said as they picked
themselves up. "Let's get cracking before somebody notices us."
The four began peeking under the snow-covered tarps. Many covered
wild contraptions none of them could put a name to. It occurred to
Slasher that a portal generator might look like anything, if the one
she had used was any example. With a shiver she retrieved the old
blanket from the snow and spread it over her back. It was cold out
here. As she knotted the corners around her neck, she saw something
out of the corner of her eye. She peered up at the outline of the
castle through the haze of falling snow. Were there flickers of light
among the snowflakes, or was she seeing things? She cocked her head
back and forth, looking with one eye, then the other.
"Hsst, Sonic!" she whispered. "Look at this."
The hedgehog jogged up and followed her gaze. "What? That's just
the castle."
"No, look at the snow! It's like it's ... on fire."
Sonic squinted in silence for several seconds. Then he called
in a whisper, "Manic! Sonia! Come here!"
His siblings joined him and gazed up at the snow, too. "Is that
light?" asked Sonia, shading her eyes.
"Maybe it's a charging energy weapon," suggesting Manic,
squinting like his brother. "What's in that wing, Sonic? I've never
been up there."
"I think it's Robotnik's HQ," said Sonic. "I'm not sure, I've
never been up there, either."
A rustle from the tarp-covered object behind them. A second
later the hedgehogs were flat in the snow, the tarp was laid back,
and Slasher was showing Sleet and Dingo her fine collection of fangs.
Sleet was a scrawny grey wolf, and Dingo was a hulking yellow
jackal. Both were dressed in warm clothing, both had guns strapped
to their waists, and both were too surprised at being discovered to
do more than blink.
Manic looked up and understood in an instant. A second later the
bounty hunters had been relieved of their weapons, and Manic was
handing them out to his siblings.
"What's this?" spluttered Sleet, fists clenched. "What right do
you have to assault us, and what the heck is THAT thing?" he added,
pointing at the snarling Slasher.
"That," said Sonic, cocking an air-rifle and pointing it at
them, "is a Freedom Fighter."
"Why were you under that tarp, anyway?" added Manic, unable to
keep from smirking. "Looking for supper?"
"We haven't eaten rats in years," said Dingo.
Sleet stepped on his foot. "We were on a mission, of course," he
hissed, eyes darting from Slasher to the triplets.
Dingo, dancing on one foot, glanced up at the flickering snow,
and his heavy jaw dropped open. "Sleet," he stammered, "they--they're
here!"
Sleet looked up at the fortress, too, and the hatred drained
from his eyes to be replaced by terror. He screeched an impolite word
and bolted for the fence. Dingo followed him at a run.
The four watched as they fled. "Weird," said Sonia, brushing snow
from her coat. "I never saw them act like that."
"I didn't know Sleet cussed," said Manic. "What's up there,
anyhow?"
The hedgehogs exchanged a glance. Slasher smiled fiercely. "Are we
a go for sneaking into the fortress?"

* * *

Something as valuable as a dimension-rift creator was not left
out in the elements where it could rust. It was stored in the large room
Robotnik used as a rec room, a library, and a lab.
He stood before the little machine, stroking his mustache. It
operated with a soft hum, like an expensive Mercedes engine. Set in
the front panelling was a square hole in reality, the size of a handheld
mirror. There was no sense spending cash on a big machine when a small
one would do the job.
A flicker of fire, like a dying match flame, appeared in the air
outside the portal. Robotnik's hand stopped twisting the end of his
mustache. So, they had arrived. It was about time.
A tongue of fire appeared in the air over the generator, no
bigger than a candle-flame. It winked out, but others appeared, here,
there, at random. They filled the room like fireflies, and also some
space beyond the outside wall. These beings had no respect for physical
boundaries.
"Hello," said the doctor. "Welcome to my world."
The sparks drew together and began to burn, highlighting the
features of a human face in orange and yellow. "You have no business
with us," said the fire in a crackling voice. "There is evil here, and
an evil purpose."
Robotnik ignored this. "Are you the Torris of legend?"
"Yes," replied the fire. It had no inflection, rather like a
SWAT-bot's voice, but the fire burned hotter or cooler with the torram's
emotion. At this moment, the fire was leaping into the air like an oil
torch. Robotnik retreated a step from the heat beating on his face.
"Are you all-powerful, as the legends say?"
The torram's eyes flashed like the sun, dazzling the doctor.
"No," snarled his visitor. "We are not all-powerful. We are bestowed
such strength as is needed."
Robotnik pressed on. Their power was so close! If he could only
control it-- "Would you do a little task for me?"
"We will do nothing for you," said the fire. "There is only
hatred and murder in your heart. Do you not know the commandment?" It
pronounced the words one by one. "Thou ... shalt ... not ... kill."
The face vanished into a thousand points of light. "Wait," called
Robotnik, hurrying toward the open portal, through which his invisible
guests were departing. "All I want you to do is find someone for me!
His name is Sonic and--"
A voice spoke out of the air. "We would not help you if there
were assassins at your door. The Lord rebuke you." And they were gone.

* * *

The assassins at the door watched in petrified silence. It was
impossible to discern Robotnik's feelings, but the sight and sound of
the torris struck the hedgehogs and velociraptor with complete terror.
It was a relief to see the fire vanish through the portal.
"Let's get out of here," whispered Sonic.

* * *

The journey on foot back to the safehouse was long, dim and cold.
The four walked in silence, thinking of the torris and how they had
refused to help Robotnik. The snow continued to fall, and was already
two feet deep in places.
Slasher was padding along beside Sonic, who was in the lead,
arms folded and head down. They rounded a corner, and his head jerked
up. Slasher looked around in time to see the hedgehog dart away into
the falling snow. Slasher stopped, and Sonia and Manic walked up
beside her. "Where's he think he's going?" growled Manic, who had a
fair amount of snow accumulated on his quills. "I'm freezing my tail
off."
"Speak for yourself," snorted Slasher, whose body length was
two-thirds tail.
Sonia shivered. "Sometimes he does this. Maybe he saw a SWAT-bot."
She cocked an ear. "Wait, I think he's calling us. Let's go."
The three charged off into the snow, following the hedgehog's
already softening tracks.
They came to an alley where the snow was trampled and garbage
was strewn about, as if a serious battle had taken place. "Oh my gosh,"
said Sonia. She rushed into the alley, calling her brother's name.
Manic bolted after her, yelling for her to come back it wasn't safe.
Slasher rolled her eyes. Sonic wouldn't have a scratch on him,
whatever had happened.
Sonic was unhurt, but tears of rage stood in his eyes as he
ran to meet them, spines standing erect. Speechless, she beckoned to
them and led them to the end of the alley.
There in the shadows, the snow stained maroon, lay two bodies.
The area showed evidence of a violent struggle, for the walls were
dented, the snow had been scraped from the pavement, and black blast-
craters were everywhere. The hedgehogs gazed at the damage in silence,
the snow falling in endless curtains upon the two people who would
never move again.
Sonic stamped his feet and beat the wall with his fists. "Why
them?" he yelled. "Why them?"
Manic moved to the bodies and knelt. He bowed his head, then
looked at Sonia and nodded. Sonia grabbed Slasher's arm. "The Prowers,"
the hedgehog whispered. "They've helped us for years. Years."
Slasher drew a sharp breath, and in her head there flashed a
vision; a fox and a hedgehog, the fox a baby, the hedgehog scarcely
older, holding the fox in his arms, sitting forlornly in the dark,
rocking back and forth.
She pulled away from Sonia and sniffed the snow. The area was
thick with scent, and yes, there were three trails. Two belonged to
the red foxes lying yonder, and the third--
She loped down the alley, her heart filled with sorrow, urgency
and pity. He was here somewhere. Ahead, that dumpster. She lifted the
snowy lid and peered in. Empty. "Miles!" she called, sniffing the
ground again. "Miles, come out, we're not going to hurt you. He's
gone." She listened. No answer. "Miles!" she called again, then
stopped and shook her head. What was she thinking? No kid in his
right mind would approach a velociraptor.
She dashed back, grabbed Sonic's arm and towed him down to the
dumpster. "Call for Miles," she commanded, and backed away.
Sonic looked at her in confusion, the tears still glistening on
his face. "What?"
"Call for Miles!" she ordered. "We've got to find him!"
"Miles?" Sonic ventured, turning in place to look at the dingy
alley. "It's just me, Sonic. I'm so sorry about--about--" His voice
cracked. "Slash, the Prowers don't HAVE kids!"
A sound. Sonic spun on his heel, raced to the dumpster and looked
behind it.
A moment later Manic and Sonia were there, too, exclaimed over
the young fox in Sonic's arms. He couldn't have been older than five.
His fur was greasy from the dumpster's side, his blue eyes were wide
with sheer terror, and he had two tails instead of one. "Where's
mommy?" he whimpered, clinging to Sonic. "Who are you? I want my
mom!"
The three hedgehogs looked at Slasher, their helplessness and
sorrow shining in their eyes. "Let's get him home," she said, untying
the blanket from around her neck, shaking the snow off it and draping
it around the little fox. "It's all right, Miles," she said to the
frightened face turned to her. "You're safe now."

* * *

"That's what Robotnik does to people he doesn't robotize," said
Manic.
Little Miles had eaten three bowls of cereal, drank two mugs of
hot cocoa, and fallen asleep on the couch beside Sonic. None of them
wanted to disturb him by moving him, and were talking in low voices.
"How can that be?" asked Slasher from the floor, where she was
preening her left wing. "When we left the fortress, Robotnik was
still there. Couldn't SWAT-bots have done the job?"
"They could have," said Sonia, holding a cup of cocoa in both
hands. "But they usually aren't so efficient. Did you see the impact
marks? Only a really big machine could do that."
"Yeah," Sonic agreed. "Sleet and Dingo might have done it, too."
"Naw," said Manic, shaking his head. "They aren't killers. They're
more the snoop-and-treasure hunter kind."
"Then what did it?" asked Sonia. "Two Freedom Fighter supporters
are found murdered. The evidence points to Robotnik, but Robotnik was
in the fortress when it happened. What are we supposed to think?"
"If I didn't know better," said Slasher, scratching her lower
jaw with a claw, "I'd say this was a Metal Sonic attack. But there's
no Mecha here."
"What if there is?" asked Manic, eyes lightning up. "We didn't
know about a portal generator, and there was one. What if there's a
robot we don't know about?"
There was a moment of silence. Miles shifted positions on the
couch and slept on.
"If there is," said Sonic quietly, "he'll know."
"What, you're going to ASK him?" asked Sonia, horrified. She
looked at Slasher. "Isn't that psychologically damaging?"
Slasher cocked her head at the fox. "It depends on how much he
saw."
"I wonder why he has two tails," said Sonic, watching as one of
them twitched.
"Maybe that's why we didn't know about him," offered Manic. "He's
a freak, so they kept him secret."
Sonia looked at Slasher and blinked. "How did you know about him?"
Slasher looked at her with one eye. "Need you ask?"
"How parallel are our universes, anyway?" asked Manic, folding
his legs. "Maybe there's a time difference, too."
"I'm not doing any fortune telling, if that's what you mean,"
said Slasher through her feathers. "This world is too different."
All the same, she had an uncomfortable feeling she knew what
robot had murdered Tails's parents.

* * *

Miles didn't awaken until hours later, after they had received
word that the Prowers had been given a quiet burial. It had been
agreed that no one would mention this to their visitor that day.
However, that evening, the fox looked at Sonic over a ham sandwich and
said in perfectly lucid tones, "Mom and Dad are dead, aren't they?"
Sonic looked at his brother and sister, then nodded. The fox
looked at him, dry-eyed. "He was gonna kill me, too, wasn't he?"
Sonic nodded and leaned forward. "Who was it?"
Miles set down his sandwich and looked around. "I can draw him,
I draw good."
Sonia and Manic dashed in opposite directions and returned with
a pencil and paper. They laid them before Miles, who shoved aside his
plate, seized the pencil and began to draw. The hedgehogs and Slasher
peered over his shoulder.
The young fox drew the outline of a hedgehog, gave it a pair of
square arms and feet, then added a pair of dark eye sockets. He looked
at Sonic and handed him the picture. "This is what it looked like,
sort of."
Sonic eyed the picture, secretly surprised at how well Miles
could draw. "What color was this robot?" he asked Miles, keeping an
eye on Slasher.
"Grey," said Miles, scanning the room for a color match. "Almost
the same as those pipes up there."
Slasher flinched and Sonic pounced on her. "Ah ha! You know what
it is!"
"Not exactly," Slasher hedged, backing away a step. "I never met
it, myself ..."
All eyes were on her now.
"Spill," said Manic. "C'mon, Slash ..."
"What's it called?" asked Sonia, a hairbrush frozen in one hand.
"I believe," said Slasher, "that it's called Silver Sonic."
"Cool!" said Sonic, puffing out his chest. "A robot named after
me!"
"No, it's not like that," said Slasher, shifting her wings. "The
Mecha bots are very dangerous. Silver Sonic is Mecha-bot one."
Of all the round eyes in the room, Miles's were the roundest.
"How did you know that?"
"I'm from a different dimension," said Slasher, suddenly weary
of the conversation. How many times did she have to explain it?
Sonic laid down the picture and ruffled the fox's hair. "Thanks
for the info, Tails." Miles grinned.
Manic stood up and stretched. "I'd better pass the word along to
the resistance. Don't wait up for me." The green hedgehog trotted out
of the cave, and in the distance a door clanged.
"Hey sis, backup for me," said Sonic, pulling off his medallion.
Sonia shrugged. "All right. I need to practice anyway. Something
without drums." She pulled off her medallion, too, which changed into
a fancy electric piano.
"Wow!" exclaimed Miles. "How'd you do that?"
Sonic changed his medallion into a guitar slowly, for the fox's
benefit. "Hey Sonia, let's do The Call," he said. "That has a nice
solo in it, and lotsa piano."
"Okay," said Sonia, setting her instruments. Four beats later
they were off, performing the first pretty music Slasher had heard
them play. The piano made a difference, and without drums it was
quite mellow. Miles dragged out a chair from the table and watched
Sonic play, his eyes big with hero-worship.
A little later Manic returned and requested "Freedom Battle", which
was another instrumental with more drums. It wasn't loud at all, and
Slasher wasn't forced to leave the room until Sonic suggested "The
Destination is There", which turned out to be pop that thought it was
heavy metal.
Miles at through all of it, his troubles forgotten.

* * *

Slasher awoke the next morning to a soft, random plucking of
guitar strings. She sat up on her mattress, stretched her six limbs,
then walked into the main room. Sonic was seated on the couch in the
corner. Miles sat beside him, Sonic's guitar in his lap, strumming it.
They looked up as she approached. "Sonic's teaching me to play!"
exclaimed the fox.
Sonic looked sheepish. "He talked me into it. Didn't you, Tails?"
"He calls me Tails," said Miles, grinning. "I like it."
"That's a good name," Slasher agreed, putting on her most serious
look. "It's really cool."
Delighted, Tails continued to strum Sonic's guitar. Slasher
snooped about and located breakfast. Commander Crunch again. It was a
wonder these three survived at all. Maybe that was the secret of Sonic's
speed. She ate it as fast as possible, her mind wandering to every
topic but the food before her. Silver Sonic, the torris, Tails, the
tiny portal she had to somehow fit through ...
She didn't bring up the topic until Manic and Sonia had appeared
and were munching their way through breakfast.
"I'd like to try to go home today."
The hedgehogs and fox looked up. "Do you have to?" asked Sonic.
The raptor nodded. "I can't stay here, it's not my world."
"How will you get through the portal?" asked Manic with his mouth
full.
Slasher considered. "If it works like the one I used to get here,
all I'll have to do is stick my hand through, and it'll suck me in."
If all goes well, she added to herself.
There was silence for a moment, then Sonia spoke up. "There will
have to be a diversion."
"All I have to do is show myself," snickered Sonic. "Robotnik
will be after me with guns blazing."
"Yeah, but we need a plan," said Sonia, frowning. "We have to
time it so Slasher will have enough time to get in and use the portal.
It won't be easy."
"What about that silver dude?" asked Sonic, taking the guitar
from Tails and picking it.
"Aw, he'll be somewhere else," said Manic. "You know how Egghead
uses his robots, bam bam bam, one missions after the other."
"We'll chance it, anyway," said Sonia, spooning the last of the
milk from her bowl. "I don't think we should take Miles."
The fox looked at her in indignation. "Why not?"
"Because yesterday that robot almost killed you," said Sonia,
gazing at him with the sternness of a mother. "It's not healthy."
"But I want to go!" Tails whined. "I can take care of myself!"
"And how old are you?" asked Manic in amusement.
Tails stuck his nose in the air. "I'm almost six."
"Royal children your age have nurses to watch over them," said
Sonia, as if that settled the matter. "Sonic, if we go to the--"
She talked over Tails, who argued that he didn't need a nurse, he
was old enough to go, and he wasn't scared of that robot. Slasher
looked on, chuckling to herself. She had seen many Freedom Fighter
missions in her world planned this same way.
She would not have laughed had she known what was to happen that
day.

* * *

The sun glittered on the snow. Trees and buildings stood out
against it like painted props, and cast deep blue shadows across the
white expanse.
Sonic ran down back streets and alleys, his eyes smarting in the
frosty air, his breath puffing out of his lungs like steam from a
train engine. His heart beat free as a bird's wings--he was going to
have an adventure! Too bad Slasher had to leave, he was beginning to
like her. Oh well, he had found Tails, so he would have something to
remember her by. He had had a funny dream last night--he had dreamed
he was running through a forest, trying to escape those flickers of
fire he had seen yesterday. Then he tripped and fell, and that fire-
creature spoke to him ... although now he had no recollection of what
it had said. He hoped they wouldn't meet the torris again today.
Sonic rounded a corner and slowed to a jog. There was the castle,
blanketed in white, made beautiful in spite of itself. Just think--if
things had gone differently, he would be living there as a prince,
instead of in the basement of the waterworks as an outcast. He couldn't
imagine it, and figured his present life was more interesting than
living in a boring old castle.
He jogged up to one of the SWAT-bots stationed at the palace
entrance, which didn't notice him until he was right in front of it.
He waved a hand in front of its eyes. "Heya Swatty, gone to sleep on
the job again?" Then he was gone in a spray of snow. The chase was
on.

* * *

Two blocks away, a van with tire chains ground toward the
fortress, a green hedgehog in a trenchcoat at the wheel. "I'll let you
out at the back gate," he said to Slasher. "We've already said goodbye
and everything, so ..."
"There's no need to say it again," said Slasher from the back of
the van."
Manic parked the van at the curb across the street from the
castle. He clicked on the radio, leaned his elbows on the steering
wheel, and waited. Behind him, Slasher and Tails waited, too.

* * *

Sonia stood in the shadow beside Robotnik's garage, a two-way
radio in one hand. It was freezing here in the shade, but she could
wait a little before she froze solid.
There was a soft rattle, and the door beside her slid open. The
pink hedgehog flattened herself against the icy wall as Robotnik's
hovercraft flew out, armed on both sides with spinning blades like
wheels, and a laser cannon mounted in front. As the machine of death
roared into the cloudless sky, Sonia said into her radio, "He's out.
Let's go."

* * *

Slasher bounded out of the van and streaked for the back door,
the snow burning her warm feet. This was it, she was going home, this
was the end. The doorknob turned under her claw, and she ducked into
the warm, exhaust-scented darkness of the castle. Down the hall, one
left, up the stairs ... she recited the directions to herself,
bounding up the stairs four at a time, as heads turned and people
gasped at the sight of a huge lizard among them. There was no need to
worry about the three hedgehogs, she was as good as gone. Maybe the
Sonic of her world, the one who was hurt, had made it back. How was she
to know she was going to the correct dimension, anyway? There were
probably controls somewhere--right now she had to get there.
Fourth floor, north wing. Almost there. Panting now, she climbed
the last flight of stairs and jogged along the carpeted hall.
Robotnik's lab was just ahead. She paused outside the ornate double
doors, peered up and down the corridor, and turned the knob.
The door swung open, and Slasher stared into the faceted orange
eyes of Silver Sonic.
The dull steel robot looked at her with indifference and pushed
past her. She stared after him as he stalked down the hall. Without a
doubt he had been summoned for a hedgehog hunt. She closed the lab
doors behind her, shaken. He had looked like Tails's drawing, but his
eyes were solid orange, like a fly's.
The raptor turned to face the portal generator, waiting in the
corner. Could she leave now that she knew that her friends were in
danger?
Troubled, she examined the machine and discovered a lever marked
"power". She flipped it and the generator hummed to life. She eyed the
portal, which was focusing itself. Should she go or stay? Would Sonic
know how to deal with a Mecha-bot? Silver Sonic ... she wished she
could remember him. All she had seen had been some prototype drawings,
and the twisted piece of metal that remained after Sonic finished the
robot off. Sonic never talked about him, as he seemed to think that
Metal Sonic was a bigger threat.
A flicker of light. Slasher looked around and saw that they were
all around her, floating sparkles like fireflies. "On no," she moaned
to the empty room. She must have let them in when she opened the
portal. She shrank toward the door. She had never feared anything like
she feared the presence of the torris. Maybe they would go away ...
It was a futile wish. A great bull flamed into existence between
Slasher and the door, outlined in fiery orange and yellow, its hooves
almost invisible blue. She froze and automatically stared at the floor,
an animal gesture of submission.
To her utter astonishment it spoke to her in the language of a
velociraptor. "Why are you here, Swift of Foot and Sharp of Claw?"
She had not heard her proper name in years. Slasher replied in
the same language. "I wish to return to my home. I'm not supposed to
be here."
"As we have told your friend," replied the torram. "We will guide
you home. But you have not finished your task."
"My ... task?"
"You were not carried here by accident. You have a task here,
and it is not yet finished. The one called Silver Sonic is this moment
planning to ambush your companions. They do not know how to combat a
creature of his kind. This is your task."
So, her worries were confirmed. She drew herself up and tightened
her folded wings. "I accept."

* * *

Sonic flashed down a street, leaping the piles of snow left by a
snowplow. The snow exploded in plumes at his heels. He couldn't outrun
lasers, but he could dodge crosshairs, and he was having a blast. Half
a block behind him flew Robotnik's hovercraft, the laser cannon on the
nose smoking in the chilly air. Robotnik chuckled to himself. He had
the cannon on auto, and was aiming it in Sonic's general direction.
The hedgehog wouldn't expect an ambush, oh no. Once he was captured,
torture would extract from him the locations of his brother and sister,
and the resistance would be stamped out. It was a beautiful plan.

* * *

Sonia ran to the van, a pink and purple blot against the
brilliant white of her surroundings. Manic rolled down his fogged
window. "Heya sis, get in."
She shook her head and leaned against the van, trying to catch
her breath. "Silver Sonic," she gasped. "Silver Sonic just went after
Sonic! I saw him!"
Manic's face turned as green as his hair. "Get in," he said.
"We'll cut him off."
Sonia jumped in the passenger side and Manic threw the van into
gear. Neither noticed little Miles crouched in the back, his eyes wide
with terror.

* * *

Sonic was bored with the chase. He ducked down a side street,
and thereby extended his life expectancy by five minutes. A steel robot
flew into the street he had just left, scanning. Robotnik radioed
Silver Sonic in annoyance to build a new targeting plan. Silver
acknowledged and flew off at once. Robotnik backtracked, hoping to meet
Sonic a block or two over.
Behind them, Slasher skidded into the street on the slick
pavement. Sonic had been here, she could see his tracks. She beat her
wings and took to the air, a more hospitable element than the icy
streets. She would have a better chance of spotting Sonic from above.

* * *

Sonic heard a strange sound. He looked around and nearly jumped
out of his skin--coming after him through the air was a grey hedgehog
with insect eyes, and it was coming fast. Sonic bolted, his light-
hearted attitude chilling to fear. He could believe that thing had
killed Tails's parents.
A second later he glanced back and saw with amazement that the
thing was keeping pace with him. He panicked. His first impulse was to
zigzag, which he did, cutting through alleys and across yards. This
tactic worked on SWAT-bots, but not Silver Sonic. Had Sonic kept his
head, he could have outrun the robot, for Silver could not sustain high
speeds for long. But the robot was highly maneuverable, and matched
Sonic's winding path effortlessly.
The blue hedgehog arrived on a highway. In the distance to the
left, Robotnik's hovercraft appeared. To the right, perhaps three
blocks away, the hedgehogs' van pulled into view. Relief surged into
Sonic's heart, and he tore toward it, throwing mist from his flying
heels. Behind him, Silver Sonic emerged and flew in silent pursuit.
Robotnik saw them and threw on the speed.
Above, Slasher surveyed the scene and scented disaster. She tucked
her wings and dove earthward.

* * *

Tails flung open the van's rear doors and leaped out.
"Miles!" yelled Sonia, jumping after him. "Miles, get back in
that car!"
"Sonia!" yelled Manic, glancing toward Sonic, who was flying down
upon them with Silver Sonic at his heels. Not far behind them was
Robotnik with the blades on the sides of his hovercraft beginning to
turn.
"This is gonna be bad," said Manic, white-knuckling the steering
wheel.

* * *

Tails ran toward the oncoming Sonic with no idea what to do.
Sonic hadn't seen him, as he had eyes only for the van. Tails looked at
the Silver Sonic, who was lifting its arms to point at Sonic's head. It
had done that right before Tails had closed his eyes. When he opened
them, his parents were lying in the snow.
He spun his tails and leaped into Sonic's path, arms outstretched.
Sonic automatically lifted his arms to shield his face. Tails grabbed
his and whisked him upward, his tails whirling like helicopter rotors.
Silver Sonic lost his target. He twisted his head around to
stare up at Sonic and Tails as he passed, jets on full throttle, and
smashed into the side of the van.
Sonia threw herself flat on the asphalt as Robotnik's hovercraft
roared over, the blades a blue. They missed her by a hair.
Slasher saw Sonia and Sonic were safe, but Manic was still in the
van, which would be ripped to ribbons by Robotnik, who was busy
rubbernecking at Sonic and Tails. Her downward rush carried her
between the van and the hovercraft with only yards to spare. Silver
Sonic was standing beside the van, stunned. He looked at her as she
landed, and in a flash she saw the incredible danger she was in.
"Manic!" cried Sonic as Robotnik's hovercraft tore into the van.
He and Tails turned away as there was a terrific screech of metal.
Sonia screamed, and there was a shriek of machinery grinding to a
halt.
Silence.
Sonic and Tails looked.
Somehow the van was intact. As they looked, Manic leaped out,
fell on the pavement, then ran for the sidewalk, his flight instinct
setting in somewhat after the fact. Robotnik's hovercraft was now
resting on the ground, the blade on the left side bent out of shape.
At the last instant, Slasher had lifted Silver Sonic by
adrenaline alone, and shoved him into the gears of the blade.
They found her slumped across the shredded remains of the
robot, her right arm broken and useless.

* * *

There was a blank spot there in Slasher's memory. She didn't
remember a thing until she was standing in Robotnik's lab again,
ready to enter the portal, her arm resting in a makeshift sling. Where
Robotnik was she had no idea, but Manic was there, helping her along.
There were the torris again, waiting. She felt their gaze, and
extended her left hand to the portal.
All she remembered of the journey home was an image of the
torris in one being, a being with wings spread and wings covering
its body, and four faces--a lion, an eagle, a bull and a man. Yet,
it too was a servant of something far more awesome.
She came to in the medical hut in Knothole. She knew it by its
smell; she was home. She opened her eyes and lifted her head. Her
right arm was set in a white cast, and pained her as she moved it.
Standing beside her was Manic and Spark, one grinning, the other
looking like him, but stained and scarred by a hard life. Serena was
there, too, a tomboy Sonia in dark purple. And there, as if to prove
Slasher was in her correct dimension, was Sally.
"Hi Slasher," said Sally, waving. "Can you understand me?"
"Yes," Slasher replied. "Have I been out long?"
"About eight hours," Sally replied, checking her watch. "I have
some good news and bad news."
"The good news is you'll make it," said Manic for her.
"The bad news," said Sally, "is that Sonic hasn't returned."
"Well ... what happened to me?" Slasher ventured. "Did I stop
the blades?"
Manic recounted the adventure for the benefit of all present, of
how Slasher had saved him by jamming Silver Sonic into the gears of the
hovercraft. He seemed to think the world of Slasher now that she had
saved his life. He went on to tell of how Slasher had been in shock,
and drifted at his side as he rushed her through the portal before
Robotnik could get back to the castle. "Sonic wanted to come," added
Manic, "but we figured it wouldn't be safe, seeing as there's a Sonic
here."
No one knew what to do with Manic, seeing as he came from another
dimension and might disrupt their own. Manic wanted to stay in Knothole
until the Sonic native to this dimension returned, and it was fortunate
Slasher regained health in a few day's time. Manic, raised a thief,
had a bad habit of stealing everything that wasn't nailed down.
It was a relief when Slasher, arm resting in a sling, offered to
take Manic to the warehouse that houses the portal. Slasher was worried
it might open and there would be no one to greet Sonic.
Near noon there came a loud sucking sound, and the portal opened
without the machinery powering it. Sonic dropped through headfirst,
struck the panelling beneath the frame and lay still. Slasher and
Manic dashed to him as the portal closed. The blue hedgehog's spines
were smoking, and his skin was red and blistered from extreme head.
The cut on his head was almost healed, but he had a fresh bandage on
his back. The ring on his finger glowed like a red ember. Whatever
had happened to him had been one heck of an adventure.
Slasher flew homeward, Manic steadying his alter-dimension
brother on her back.

* * *

This brings us again to Sonic's waking in his hut, which has been
recounted elsewhere. He made a rapid recovery, and in a few day's time
was introduced to Manic. Sonic and Slasher swapped tales, and nobody
could decide whose story was the weirdest. Both of them had met the
Torris, the creatures of fire with higher interests than Mobius. Sonic
and Slasher agreed that the sight of them scared them to death,
something akin to meeting a ghost or a creature from another planet.
Knuckles was very interested in Sonic's recounting of the Flying
Fortress. After much questioning, he explained that the reason the
torris had probably chosen to live on the topmost peak of the Flying
Fortress was because the mountains were metal, and there was nothing
for them to kindle to flame. He also speculated that alter-Mobius's
hemispheres were reversed, like their own Mobius inverted, which would
explain the early summer weather there.
Sonic and Manic hit it off, and compared the differences in their
worlds. It was with some regret they said goodbye, as Slasher used her
ring to create a portal to send Manic home.
Before he stepped through, the big raptor frisked him and
stripped him of several pounds of small objects. Sheepish, Manic
apologized, and in return was returned many of the things to take to
his world as souvenirs.
"Kick Robotnik a good one for me!" Sonic hollered as Manic walked
toward the portal. "Say hi to Tails! We'll come visit sometime!"
The green hedgehog waved, beaming, and hopped through the portal.

* * *

No one cared what had happened to the dictator Sonic in the alter-
Mobius. Sonic assumed he had been killed, for he himself would have been
if not for the Stone of Light. Maybe Robotnik's theory about the same
life in two worlds was wrong. After all, there was the world Slasher
had entered, which had little bearing on her own world.
Dead or alive, Sonic never wanted to see the alter-Mobius again.
Ever. However, he wouldn't mind seeing his alter self who was a
guitarist and a prince into the bargain. "Maybe next summer," he
thought. "Maybe next summer."

The End