This entire story, characters, and artwork are all protected under copyright law. I (the author) grant permission to distribute this story, but only in it's complete, unaltered form, and never for profit. All other use is prohibited. Sonic, Sally, and related characters are copyrighted by Service and Games, Archie Comics, and DIC Entertainment, except for the following: Bookshire, Sandra Nightweaver, and Packbell: David Pistone SYmechs, Aptiva, Sonac,and Kain: John Macfarlane The Beginning of the End (Part 1: Bookshire's Dellema) A Sonic the Hedgehog story Written by John Macfarlane Historical background: At this time, Packbell has fulfilled his dream of becoming the overlord of Robotnik's empire. Snively the Great had died months earlier in a factory explosion, resulting from "a freedom fighter bombing". At this stage Packbell has begun losing the war against the freedom fighters and begins again with his experiments with the void... The Beginning of the End: Part 1 In the heart of Robotropolis, Packbell observes his latest void experiment. With the addition of temporal modulators SWATbots are being sent into the time stream in order to gather any information which could be used to reveal the location of Knothole village. "It would be so much more simple to catch the spy Sandra Nightweaver," he thought to himself as he watched the experiment through the control room glass,"I could enslave her mind with the robotisizer and force her to reveal Knothole's location to me!" The computers continued evaluating the temporal status, keeping the void stable. Packbell laid his hand on the console and grinned,"Then it would be a simple matter of sending an army of my combat cyborgs to finish them off! And if that fails, then my stock of nucular weapons will make short work of their freedom fighter base!" SWATbots began to return back through the void, carrying pieces of futuristic hardware into the adjoining room. After many had returned the computers began to sound a warning siren. "Portal destabilization in progress." the computer sounded. "Recall all bots from their temporal coordinates!" he demanded. "This is incredible," Bookshire began striking the keys,"The Robotropolis Main Computer Core is going berserk!" "In computer terms what exactly does 'berserk' mean?" Sally asked, moving closer. "The Core is operating at 29,000 teraflops over it's capacity," he said as an image of the core appeared, flickering rapidly,"Packbell must be running one major experiment, every Robotropolis network is being used to handle the information." "Can you tell what the experiment is?" she asked, placing her hand on his shoulder. At that moment the computer in the small hut failed to display any new information, and the computer was stopped. Bookshire sat back in his chair and let out a long sigh. Sally leaned over to him and looked him in the eyes. "Well?" "Well," he took a deep breath and stood up,"I lost the signal from the satellite! Due to the amount of data the core shut all of the satellites down, and I'll never get them back!" he said as he threw his chair down in anger. "Why won't we ever get them back?" she said with a worried tone. "Because once the satellites are rebooted, they'll have a new, upgraded security program, which Packbell probably wrote himself, that I will never be able to crack!" he hollered as he left his hut, slamming the door behind him. Sally could think of nothing to say in response to his speech, and stared between him and the computer, stopped cold. Bookshire angrily made his way through the village, towards the ring pool to calm down. A few of the other freedom fighters noticed his bitter mood, but no one disturbed him. Once he had sat on one of the logs by the pool Sonic and Rotor approached him from behind. "Yo Book," Sonic waved as Bookshire turned around slightly,"You okay?" "We saw you storm out of your hut," Rotor added, "What's wrong?" "Our satellite that linked us to Robotropolis has shut down, and I won't be able to get any more information on Packbell's activities until I hack through a new upgraded security system." he mumbled as he held his head up. "How many SWATbots are unaccounted for?" Packbell slammed his palms on the console as a data chart appeared in front. PORTAL STATUS: COLLAPSED SWATBOTS M.I.A.: 3 VOID COORDINATES: 465.1658, 648.1355, 451.3480 879.4650, 9872.131, 987.3315 92.77634, 654.1328, 137.9465 TEMPORAL POSITIONS (YEARS) -3796.33 410.63 8.34 "Not as bad as I thought," his tension eased, "But that bot stuck 3800 years in the past worries me..." One of the SWATbots, number 4000-R was the bot sent furthest into the future. It walked into the control room carrying a strange black device. "What have you found 4000-R?" he reached for the device. "Device of unknown purpose sirrr." the bot answered. Packbell held the device in his cold hands and examined it with his enhanced sense of vision, scanning it in depth. Inside it was a densely packed compartment of chips and diodes. This black device, shaped into a near-perfect sphere was considered inoperable. It was very old, over a year in the dirt, but it's secrets could be useful because inside was what seemed to be a small crystalline cube, an optical drive...its hard drive. "Access the internal drive and extract whatever you can from it," he commanded, giving it back to the SWATbot, "Computer...give me a damage report on the RMCC and reboot all satellites with the upgraded operating system." "It's cool man," Sonic patted Bookshire on the back,"There's nothing you can't hack into!" Bookshire looked to the ground and smiled, "You know, you're right. I can." Sally sat in the hut and continued to ponder Bookshire's dellema. With Nicole on her lap she stared down at her inanimate companion. She knew that the computer was an important part of Bookshire's identity, and with the satellite situation he might never regain his power to access the city Core again. The computer sounded a rapid series of beeps and began to receive new data. Communications started between Mobius and RSAT-7, a high-level security satellite. The satellites were restarting one-by-one, restructuring the Robotropolis network to a level of complexity that was beyond mortal comprehension. A level of complexity only Packbell himself could possibly compute. The day was quickly turning into night. The sun was seen disappearing over the horizon through a break in the trees, and a swift breeze carried the pools vapors around the village, shrouding it in fog. The only lights now, were coming from inside the huts as all but a few of the freedom fighters laid to rest for the night. The few who didn't were assigned to stand watch for the night a few kilometers away from Knothole. Bookshire was on watch that night, and began to talk to himself in a low voice as the night wind hastened through the leaves of the tree he watched from. "What if Packbell himself wrote the program?" he asked himself, "Computers don't make mistakes, and what'll I do if I can't break through?" His thoughts were disturbed by a form he noticed pass between two layers of the canopy above. He paid it little mind and continued staring into the darkness. Sally walked outside to find Bookshire, and remembered where he was. His watch was up in a few minutes so she waited in the center of the village where each night a small campfire is lit to clear some of the fog. Sally saw Bookshire approach through the edge of the clearing, and welcomed him back with the news before he could even get close to the fire. "The satellites are back up, I'm sure your glad to hear that." she said quietly. "Good, I can start working on the new system tomorrow." he said indifferently. "You seem unusually calm considering how upset you were when you left your hut." she said, holding her mouth. "Well I know I missed some important information earlier when the link was terminated, but we still have to find out what Packbell was up to." During the night, after the dark Robotropolis skies turned darker with the absence of the sun, the city lights brightened to prevent freedom fighter strikes against the power stations and major factories. Packbell stands in Robotnik's war room, glaring at the three large monitors. He though about the SWATbot stuck in the past. He turned his back to the monitors, which were currently displaying temporal stability charts and other statistics and began to contemplate the recourse of his experiment with the void. "That bot had better not cause a temporal rip to form," he spoke aloud, "The universe would be destroyed." One of the buttons on the main war room console flashed brightly in the corner of his eye. It was the results of the experiments performed on the many devices retrieved from the void. "Computer...display testing results." DEVICE: BLACK SPHERE CLASSIFICATION: DATA STORAGE DEVICE CONTENTS: INFORMATION: *CROSS-DIMENSIONAL TRAVEL/COMMUNICATION *TEMORAL PHYSICS DESIGNS: *DIMENSIONAL PORTAL *DIMENSIONAL CANNON ALL OTHER DEVICES DAMAGED OR UNTESTABLE "SWATbot 4000-R will be rewarded greatly for this find," he laughed, "Send him to me!" Later at Knothole, a group of about a dozen freedom fighters stood around the village fire in the surrounding darkness. Sonic and Bookshire were readied to be sent on a mission to Robotropolis. "Sonic, I'm sending you and Bookshire on a recon mission." Sally pointed in the direction of the city. "C'mon Sal, let's just bust in an' trash ol' Packman's experiment!" Sonic protested. "Sonic!" she snapped, "You can't always think with your sneakers, and realize that it's not all about battle!" Before Sonic could get in the last word, Bookshire stepped between them and pushed him back. "Sonic, we have no idea what that huge experiment was about this morning, but I know that it has a lot to do with our survival. We have to find out!" "You don't know how right you are," a calm female voice said from the nearby trees, "Packbell has gotten so far ahead of you that you've already been lapped TWICE!" Sandra Nightweaver stepped out from the shadows of the forest, and showed herself in the light of the fire. She stood arrogantly, knowing she had information vital for their mission: to uncover the purpose of the experiment. Sonic stepped in front of the rest of the present freedom fighters, and faced Sandra only a few feet away. "What do you want spy?!" Sonic grunted. "To give you a warning," her tone deepened, "Packbell is using the void to cross time and space in order to discover any way possible to eliminate you!" "What? Time traveling won't help much, and if he kills someone intentionally then it forms a paradox, and he knows that." Sally laughed at Sandra's nieveity, "He'll destroy the universe that way." "That isn't his plan, he's gathering information! And he already has the power to travel between dimensions with the information he has already gathered!" Sandra pleaded, her tone showing concern. "Why don't you just sell us out an' save him the trouble?" Sonic smirked. "I'm not standing here right now because of profit. Without my help we're ALL doomed." "This sounds like a major problemo guys, we'd better juice for the city." Sandra volunteered to go on the mission as Sonic spoke to the other freedom fighters around him. Sonic and Bookshire soon set out for Robotropolis, accompanied by Sandra, and made it across the dangerous open between the Great Forest and the mechanical city. Sandra directed the two freedom fighters to where the experiment had taken place, and pointed them towards the main experimentation complex deep inside sector C: the central sector of the city. Entering one of the air ducts on the roof they made their way through the maze of narrow tunnels eventually finding the proper control room after an hour of following behind Sandra. After the last SWATbot left the room, Sonic kicked out the vent cover and dropped the ten feet down to the floor. Sandra and Bookshire soon followed after, Bookshire pulling a disk out of his pouch. As he approached the console they all looked down at the void room, shut down, with the inscriptions on the walls and floor, clear of SWATbots and guards. They also saw the adjoining room where the devices were taken to, and then transported to deep security vaults. Bookshire slid the disk half-way into one of the slots when Sandra noticed what he was doing. "What's on the disk Bookshire?" she said as he pointed to it. "The virus to end all viruses," he grinned, ”I’m gonna fry the core from here!" "Whoa man," Sonic stopped him from inserting it farther, "You mean you finished it already?" "Well, not completely..." "Did you even test it, Bookshire?" Sandra questioned. "Well...no, not exactly..." he hesitated. "A virus is no good unless finished. Even if it works at all it won't do nearly as much damage as a complete virus!" Sandra warned. "What if we don't get another chance at this?" his hand shook, "A virus can only be injected through a high-level terminal such as this one." "We've done stuff like this dozens of times, we'll get another chance man, serious!" Sonic reassured him. Hesitantly, Bookshire began to remove the disk. He placed it in his pouch and withdrew another disk, which he quickly inserted into the same drive. He stretched his hands and put them to the keys. "All right," he said taking a deep breath, "Let's see what Packbell’s little experiment was all about." As Bookshire began hacking through the network Sonic stood watching impatiently, tapping his foot on the ground. He looked around to make sure there was nobody watching, and resumed tapping again. He then started pacing as the minutes passed by, each one creating more tension in the room. Sonic looked down into the room again, staring at the inscriptions. "Definitely the void," he mumbled. Sandra stood patiently, monitoring Bookshire's progress with the computer. She didn't look around the room much, she had seen it enough already, after viewing the experiment right above Packbell's head. She brushed her jacket off, covered by dust from the air ducts, and looked up as she heard Bookshire break the silence. "I'm saving the experiment on disk," he said while pressing keys, "But it's triple incrypted. Might take my computer a week to crack it." "Well if your done then let's book, Book." Sonic jumped. "Alright guys, let's get out of here." he said, placing the disk in his pouch. A few moments after the three left, Packbell and a number of SWATbots stepped into the room. The alarm silently alerted Packbell of unauthorized terminal access in the control console. He looked around the room and saw the evidence of an intruder, a few buts of fur, the damaged vent cover. "Freedom fighters have downloaded my results," he mumbled, "But it won't help them at all thanks do my triple encryption! The information is useless except to me!" His concern over the intruders paled in comparison to the prospects of the new experiment he was about to engage in. Using the data from the device that 4000-R found, Packbell opened the void again to retrieve the bot stranded in the distant past. A second bot entered the void to retrieve the first, and for a few minutes Packbell considered the validity of the device's data. However, after a few minutes, both SWATbots exited the void undamaged, sending Packbell into a state of mad laughter. "The data is valid!" he yelled, "I can now discover a way to Knothole and destroy those thorns in my side...the freedom fighters!" SWATbot 4000-R stepped into the control room, saluting him. "You wished to see meee sirrr?" "Yes number 4000-R. I want the plans recovered from the device you discovered built into full-scale, functional prototypes by the end of the week, understood?" "Yesss sirrr," it said as it turned back towards the door, "The end of the week." The following morning the sun cracked through the curtains of Bookshire's hut, soon striking him in the eyes, and forcing him to wake. He ate breakfast with the other freedom fighters and saw the Princess standing near the edge of the pavilion, staring at the sunrise. Sonic approached her and tapped her on the shoulder, causing her to look in his opposite direction. Bookshire watched Sally nudge Sonic away playfully, knowing she had been fooled, as they walked out of sight towards the ring pool. Sandra had stayed in the village that night, but disappeared by morning, leaving a note saying that she would return after finding out more about what Packbell was doing. Bookshire went back to his hut and set his computer to decript the data on the disk he had taken from the mission the night before. A week passed by quickly, with no attacks made on Robotropolis, and no attacks from Packbell. This worried many of the freedom fighters. Just a few weeks ago Packbell had sent scout drones through the forest attempting to find Knothole, but came up short thanks to Sonic and his power rings. But ever since the experi- ment things have stopped, although the computers keep going inside the city after having been quickly repaired. They had good cause to be worried however, because Packbell was ready to try out his new ability to control the void in strange new ways. His army of bots were feverishly preparing his cross-dimensional portal, rapidly nearing completion. With no rest and no breaks the final assembly was drawing nearer. "How long until you finish descrambling that thing Book?" Sonic asked, leaning near the screen. "The computer has gotten two of the three levels of incription deciphered," he replied in a manner to confuse Sonic, "But the levels get progressively more complex." "Say what? Your speaking another language pal." "If we're lucky it'll be finished by tomorrow night." Sonic raced out of his hut and found Sally again. She was using Nicole at the moment to map out the control room where the experiment took place. She related the location of the void room with an ancient holy place, where there was once an ancient church. Legends were told that that exact spot was an intersection of every alternate universe in existence. Sally held her forehead and sighed. "No, it can't be possible," she wondered, "Alternate dimensions?" "Prototypes completed sirrr." number 4000-R saluted. "What?" Packbell sounded surprised as he turned around in Robotnik's old chair, "The computer estimated 40 hours before the prototype would be operable." "Possible Core error remaining from first experiment sirrr." "True, there have been a few remaining glitches I haven't been able to tie down," he said while rubbing his chin, "Follow me to the experimentation complex! Inform Aptiva." Packbell left the war room through one of the many doors, closely followed by number 4000-R. They entered the main transport hanger and were transported via shuttle to Packbell's hovercraft. Once inside the hovercraft the shuttles cleared the launch platform as the vessel powered up its main magnetic drive system. "Number 4000-R, activate therm-optics." he commanded. "Engaging thermal-optical cloaking systemmm sirrr." The craft immediately became invisible inside the hanger, unable of being seen by the naked eye or by thermal or inferred sensors. The hanger was clouded with dust as the massive craft stirred the layer of soot from the ground. It continued through the miles of city skies on it's way to the main experimentation complex inside sector C, passing other craft which somehow knew to stop for the shrouded vessel. After a few minutes the overlord's craft touched down on the landing pad placed on the buildings roof. The vessel decloaked and the door split open like all hovercraft, allowing Packbell to march into the complex under heavy guard. The ship then vanished from sight and sat on the pad, waiting in case of an emergency. Packbell marched through the depths of his complex until at last they reached the control room. The experiment was about to be initiated. Aptiva was already there. "Hello Aptiva, my equal." Packbell placed his hand on her shoulder, "This is most interesting isn't it?" "I find the void a very...powerful force, which is why I have chosen to study it." "So it's ready?" he asked, "The portal, the cannon, and the communicator are all ready?" "Affirmativvve," one bot answered,"Ready to begin testinggg." The equipment began to warm up for the test, not one freedom fighter within miles to botch it up. The Tech-bots managed the controls as the void room became brightly illuminated, causing Packbell himself to shield his eyes. The void opened, in it's normal state, ingesting a few pieces of debris present in the room, but the SWATbots were firmly anchored, and weighed too much from the start to be pulled in against their will. "Testing dimensional portal generatorrr," a bot stated as the void changed it's color from a purple to a bright white. "Send the surveillance orbs into the void," Packbell said without movement, "Transmit at twelve terra's (units of frequency) per second." A surveillance orb was then released, being sucked into the vortex within a few seconds of being let go. Video was beginning to be transmitted through the two sides of the void, utilizing the cross- dimensional communicator, the plans of which were found in the black device recovered by 4000-R. Packbell stared at the blurred images on the screen, becoming tangibly annoyed. "What's wrong with that orb?!" he shouted, denting the wall with his fist. "Interference from dimensional portalll," the bot pointed to the screen, "Recommend immediate shutdown to obtain improved video signalll." Packbell approached the small Tech-bot and stood behind it, looking downward. He looked up at the screen and read the instrumentation on the screen. "Step aside you rolling garbage can!" he ordered. The bot quickly moved out of it's master's way, stopping in the far corner of the room. Packbell examined the numbers closely, paying close attention to the harmonic-field stabilizers and their pattern: :N*L=C C=3.00e10 :H*N=E :FREQUENCY: 8.77e67cm/s :WAVELENGTH: 3.42e-58cm :ENERGY: 5.81e34 joules :EMR: 402.58% ABOVE NORMAL : "You stupid robot!" he shouted,"You have the frequency set too close to that of the spy orb's transmission!" The Techbot quickly left the room and zoomed down the hall in fear of what Packbell would do to him. He looked down at the console again, seeing that the readings were processed through the RMCC. "Another glitch possibly?" he wondered, "Nothing to be concerned about." Packbell altered the frequency of the harmonic stabilizers and the video signal became flawless through the dimensions. All of the bots present watched the signal as it came through the monitors, but only one being in that room could understand the possibilities of what was happening. With the power to travel to different dimensions, but still be on the same world holds many possibilities. He sat for a moment and had a brilliant idea. Calling in all of his field generals from the borders of the Great Forest would give him the ability to redistribute his forces, but he cannot recall them from their posts. Ever since they were deployed, freedom fighter attacks have drastically decreased, showing they were most valuable assets. "Get my field generals on a visual link-up through RSAT-7. Route it to the security office." Packbell ordered as he left the room. He headed down the hallways and into a service elevator, Aptiva directly behind him. The lift was waiting for him before he even reached the shaft. He entered into the lift as it made it's long descent into the depths of the complex, hundreds of feet below the surface. The doors opened with a hiss, and Packbell stepped into the experimentation complex security office. Inside there were ten large monitors, about half the size of the ones installed in the war room. Each monitor was operating, showing a video image of each of his ten field generals. Each general saluted simultaneously, and listened to their master's instructions. "Field generals," he began, "This is a secured channel, so I will not be able to recieve any of your input, you can only listen to what I have to say." Packbell pressed a few keys, scrambling the signal going through RSAT-7. He began to speak to his generals about their deployment, mentioning their platoons of combat cyborgs. The cyborgs were to be divided and one-third of them were to be transported back to Robotropolis for redeployment. The divided cyborgs were soon afterward placed on a large transport and taken back to the city. The two-thirds remaining were left on the outer edge of the Great Forest, where they had been for the past few weeks. Hiding in the treetops and under camouflage tarps, spaced about one-half mile apart, they silently wait for intruders to enter their realm. Without food, or rest, their mechanical bodies and portions of human flesh are corrupt for action, to savagely attack an unexpecting intruder regardless of cold, or darkness, able to see a lifeform from two miles away using their enhanced senses. "Sonic," Sally laughed from the doorway of Bookshire's hut, "What are you doing here with Bookshire?" "He's been standing here for the past two hours asking me 'Is it done yet?' every five minutes!" Bookshire yawned in exhaustion. "So how much longer is it?" Sally stepped into the hut as once again the day turned to night. "I have no idea, you can't get a percentage until you know how far there is to go, and how far along you are," Bookshire leaned back, "You understand?" "I don't, that's for sure." Sonic scratched his head. "It means that you can't tell how long the encryption code is." Sally remarked. "Exactly, but the second code was 40% longer than the first, so if that trend continued to the next level, it should have already been finished by now." The computer continued working relentlessly, decrypting the disk's third level, one character at a time. Tension was mounting as the unknown knowledge drilled into every-one's minds, including Sally's. She hoped her theory of what Packbell's next experiment was going to be was wrong, but she knew that Sandra couldn't have been mistaken. She knew that he was looking for Knothole by using the void to travel through time, and find something capable of destroying them. Sally's thoughts were interrupted by a wave of cheering. "Yes! It's finished Sal!" Sonic slapped his hands together. "The disk is fully descrambled," Bookshire smiled, "I did it!" "What's the experiment about, then?" Sally urged. "I'm accessing the disk now." he said typing the file name into the recall menu. They trio looked at the screen anxiously, seeing the first few lines appear. Shortly after the first few lines the rest of the file came up on the monitor. As they viewed through the file they all became once again concerned. "'Recovered items from void positions...'?" Sally's voice shook. "'Experiment successful'?" Bookshire froze. RESULTS OF VOID EXPERIMENT #TMP392: EXPERIMENT SUCCESSFUL BOTS SENT / RECOVERED: 30/27 SWATBOT RECOVERY: 90% RECOVERED ITEMS FROM VOID POSITIONS: ITEM 1 235.542 ITEM 5 243.98 ITEM 2 54.6541 ITEM 6 651.02 ITEM 3 98.1324 ITEM 7 879.21 ITEM 4 369.541 ITEM 8 123.30 "Bookshire," Sally inquired,"Item seven has the highest position. Find out the results of the experiments performed on the items." *DATA RECOVERED FROM (ONE) ITEM: ITEM 7 DEVICE: BLACK SPHERE CLASSIFICATION: DATA STORAGE DEVICE CONTENTS: INFORMATION: *CROSS-DIMENSIONAL TRAVEL/COMMUNICATION *TEMORAL PHYSICS DESIGNS: *DIMENSIONAL PORTAL *DIMENSIONAL CANNON ALL OTHER DEVICES DAMAGED OR UNTESTABLE "And those are the exact same screens that he saw? We're looking at what he saw last week?!" Sonic pointed to the screen. "He has plans for a dimensional portal?" Sally gasped, "This is terrible!" "The name 'Dimensional Cannon' doesn't strike me too well either." Book added. The Princess sounded the bell for the freedom fighters to meet under the center pavilion of the village. The night's darkness was only broken by a few bright torches on stands spaced widely throughout the pavilion, only three or four. Conversation was a dull roar in Sally's ears as she stepped up to speak at the podium. She looked at the crowd, of which no one knew of the impending peril besides Sonic and Bookshire, and took a deep breath and sighed. "I'm sorry to wake so many of you up this late, but I have some important news." The crowd quieted as they heard that there was news, (which in Knothole was never good to hear) and listened intentively to the Princess speak. "Packbell has some new experiments going on, and what we have to do now is stop him before these experiments doom us." Sally continued on speaking to the silent crowd, who were drawn deeper into the discussion as their tactical plans were laid out before them. Sandra graced the crowd with her presence, and she listened to the plan. Nicole was used to display three-dimensional attack plans and paths, as well as strategic points from which to place uni-sequencer charges at, in order to ensure the destruction of the experimentation complex. Many of the freedom fighters thought that the mission was a lost-cause. To go into the depths of Robotropolis, into sector C and risk battling thousands upon thousands of SWATbots, as well as other security mechs, seemed like suicide. As bad as the SWAT-bots were, the security mechs were a nightmare, boasting massive firepower and the ability to cloak themselves they posed a major threat. Fortun- ately there are only five of these monstrous death machines roaming the city, one for each of the five central sectors. Sonic had the unfortunate accident of meeting up with one, barely escaping with his life a few years ago. During the course of the battle the machine dropped it's cloak and used a powerful weapon to destroy him, but destroyed several buildings instead. It then recloaked, and since that day Sonic had never seen one again, but knows that they could still be out there. "There are infinite dimensions in the universe, and this is only one," Packbell thought to himself, standing back inside the control room to the void, "Then there are an infinite number of Mobius's, one of which might contain a weapon capable of destroying those freedom fighters. If I can go there, and find the right dimension, I could find something useful!" "Make sure you can control what you find Packbell," Aptiva warned, "There are many powerful things in that portal that could destroy the both of us." So far there were no signs of any useful items inside the other dimensions that the surveillance orbs visited. About 3000 orbs had been sent into other dimensions, their video transmissions being observed by the RMCC, determining which dimensions held promise. One orb sent back an image of a broken bot of some kind. It had a monstrous appearance, similar to the five security mechs Packbell has, but there were many more than five in the picture, and were much more fearsome-looking than the security mechs. Packbell leaned forward to the monitor, his sinister grin widening. The orb was hiding partially behind a tree, watching an epic assault by the freedom fighters, who were carrying with them, and using heavy weapons to dispense of these mechs. But these freedom fighters were much different than the ones Packbell was used to. These freedom fighters wore bio-enhancement suits and high-tech sensors as well as their heavy weapons, giving them incredible strength and the ability to see the cloaked mechs. "I want those mechs!" Packbell ordered, "Use the portal to obtain one for study!" "Inadvisable sirrr," one Techbot stated, "Target mech appears too dangerous for capture. In addition, target is sensory, shielded... lock unattainabllle." Packbell, furious at the small bot, grabbed it by it's dome- shaped head and cylindrical body. Crushing it with his bare hands, sparks were sent throughout the room, bouncing off of the floor before cooling and losing their glow. Packbell dropped the crushed bot onto the ground and kicked it away into the wall. He turned towards the remaining Techbots and stared at the void. "No one tells me that I cannot have what I desire! Get me that battle mech!" "Acknowledged sirrr," the bots quickly worked,"Targetinnng." "Are you sure we can control such a thing my equal? Maybe the Techbot held a valid point. It may be too dangerous." Packbell's eyes widened, surprised by the objection, "Aptiva?" "Packbell? What's wrong?" "You...contradicted me?" he spoke in a puzzled tone, "This is the first time you have ever done that, and I'm not sure how to react." The void room filled with light, nearly blinding many of the bots, but this time not affecting Packbell in the slightest. Packbell stepped in and pressed a few buttons raising the room's containment shielding and sending in a pair of combat cyborgs. After the room dimmed back to normal, all that could be seen was a massive battle mech, striking every emotion-lacking machine in the room with a measure of fear. As for Packbell, he began to step out of the control room, fearing for his life. He didn't expect it to be so massive, so powerful, so merciless a machine. The battle mech was still for a few moments, not realizing where it was. The combat cyborgs inside the room did not know what to do or how to attack it should it make any hostile move. The portal was closed behind it, and it's coordinates recorded. The mech stood at a towering 14 feet tall, with a cannon of some kind on it's shoulder, obviously a weapon of mass destruction. It's legs were triple-parted, and if stretched out would probably measure the mech at 20 feet long. On it's back were two extended fins, containing some sort of propulsion system, and close to where it's neck joined it's torso, were two missile ports, protected by cover plates. It looked from side to side, turning it's long, slender head in both directions, then stepping forward. "Where am I?" it asked in a bellowing monotone, "I should be in battle!" "You are here by Packbell's command!" the half-human combat cyborg shouted. "A combat cyborg?" it questioned, "Overlord Packbell? Those things no longer exist! We SYmechs are all that remain of Packbell's great empire!" "SYmech!" Packbell shouted from the end of the void room, "Cyborgs, leave us." The two cyborgs marched out of the room without further question, closing the splitting doors behind them. The SYmech looked at Packbell, and knelt, reducing his height to a mere eight feet. "Packbell, how is this possible? You have been dead for seven years, as has been your empire. How is it you live, and Robotropolis still stands? I see that even Aptiva is alive!" "This is not your true world SYmech. I have pulled you into this alternate dimension, where I must use you to destroy the freedom fighters." "Sir, we are barely able to compete with the freedom fighters in our world. How can I, one SYmech, possibly make a difference?" "How many of you are there?" Packbell asked in a harsh tone. "At last count, there were thirty-six of us remaining. But freedom fighters carry heavy armor and weapons, they are only about 1/100 as powerful as we are with their bio-enhancements, but their armies out-number us greatly!" "Bring the other SYmechs to my dimension, the freedom fighters here are easy targets, except for one in particular--Sonic the Hedgehog!" Packbell growled. "Yes, I have met him in our realm. Sonac is a strong warrior, he has killed many of us in battle!" In the alternate dimension, things seemed to be quite similar, but the technology involved was much more sophisticated, and the freedom fighters more dangerous. In the void room the SYmech pledged allegence to the Packbell empire; in exchange for being resupplied, and was sent back into the dimensional portal to retrieve the rest of his soldiers from the alternate dimension. The portal opened in the alternate Mobius and released the SYmech in front of it. Packbell had the good fortune of snaring the SYmech leader in his portal, and had the leader swear loyalty to him. Through a communication link to the remaining SY's he signaled them to report to him, and withdrawal from their positions. Unfortunately the other mechs were engaged in battle with the alternate freedom fighters, exchanging a great deal of fire near the edge of Mobitropolis, rebuilt years ago after the fall of Packbell's empire. There were wreckages of buildings and vehicles everywhere, and the mechs were pinned down behind a pile of rubble inside the city walls. The signal was relayed to the mechs as they continued their assault. "This is SY Leader, report to nav kappa, 12 kilometers north- northeast!" the leader ordered to his soldiers as they argued. "We can't retreat Leader, their anti-aircraft cannons will destroy us before we can get out of range!" "Give us twenty seconds! We can lay down another wave of devistator fire into their Royal Annex!" "Let them have their world for now! There is another dimension we can escape to, a world where Packbell lives and the freedom fighters are few! This is a mercinary assignment. We will be repaired, rearmed, and returned here later, to complete our primary objective!" "Sonac, get ready to dodge their next devistator sweep, they should be charged in three seconds!" an elderly raccoon yelled through the gunfire. "Gotcha Kain! Everyone get down!" A blinding flash of energy ripped through the air like thunder, striking a central spire in the city. Their target, the Royal Annex, dwellings to the royal family and grand generals of the Mobian order. Much of the building collapsed as the citizens of Mobitropolis stared on in horror, hoping that the members of the monarchy escaped into the attack shelter in time to escape the blast. "Noooo!" Sonac yelled, firing indiscriminately towards the army of fearsome mechanical soldiers. "Pull out now! Meet at nav kappa!" leader spoke harshly. The mechs began to turn and fly off to the north, away from the city to navigation point kappa, just 12 kilometers away. The freedom fighters ceased their fire as the mecha-army began to retreat. After all of the mechs took off, the final one, who had stayed until his shoulder-mounted devistator cannon was ready, yelled to the citizens. "You can have your world, but I promise you that one day we shall return, and reclaim this planet for our fallen master, Packbell!" The final SYmech warrior leapt into the air and sped off blindingly into the sky. Soon afterward they met with their leader, standing by the dimensional portal. They began to enter one at a time, as the freedom fighters were seen heading over the horizon. "What is that ol' thing?" Sonac looked through the binoculars. Kain took the binoculars out of Sonac's hands and watched the SY's disappear one by one. Their many transports came nearer and nearer as the last SY, who swore that they'd be back stood watching. Kain dropped the binoculars out of the transport and yelled to the driver. "Turn around! Turn around, he's about to fire!" The cannon began to power up it's discharge, and released his final blast across the horizon, making a deep trench which caused a few of the transports to capsize, spilling the weapons and soldiers all over the ground. The mech was proud of his final deed, stopping the freedom fighters from arriving, then jumped into the portal. As the portal closed behind him he saw the void room, with the rest of the SYmechs crowded inside. They formed ranks as the leader spoke in front of the company. Packbell clenched his teeth and held his fist before him. Watching the 36 death machines below, all allied to him, he grinned and laughed to himself. Aptiva smiled. "It seems that the mechs WILL follow you, my equal." "Watch out freedom fighters, your days are numbered!" ********************************************************************** What is Packbell's plan? How will these 36 battle mechs help him find the location of Knothole? Will the freedom fighters find out what's happening before it's too late, even with Sandra Nightweaver? Only time will tell the fates of those involved. Read "The Beginning of the End (Part2: The Siege)", and check out the awesome illustrated versions of my stories at: http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/4661/fanfic.htm If you have any questions or comments, (politely) E-mail me at and type RESPONSE as the subject. Don't forget to tell me which story you're responding to. **********************************************************************