Should they, find out what the strange disturbance was, or head for the main Robotroplian complex?

The choice is yours

"Whatever this thing is Sonic," Sandra called. "We should find out about it after we have the cure."

"Dulcy, take us down!" Called Sonic.

Dulcy performed a light dive and saw bright tracers coming up at her as the Robotroplian AA guns began to fire. She reached the floor of the great unknown and skidded to a halt grazing her talons. Apart from that she did not fall over.

("AA" Anti-Aircraft.)

("Tracers" Every fifth shot that the AA guns fires in denoted a tracer. It glows brightly producing radiation that can be easily picked up by the gun. This is so the AA gun knows were the shells are heading and can adjust itself appropriately so the shells will hit their target. An alternative would be to put a transmitter in each shell, this would however be inefficient.)

"Seven out of ten Dulce." Said Sonic.

"Fraggin 'A' Dulcy!" Added Sandra.

Antoine remained silent.

All three disembarked.

"NICOLE, show us the way!" Asked Sonic.

NICOLE projected a holographic arrow for them to follow and the party set off.

Dulcy took off again and climbed to a height above the range of the AAs.

"Hey, Ant, ya awfully quiet!"

"Water falls!" Said Antoine in a dream like state.

"Antoine, get a grip!" Said Sandra.

"Water falls are nice!" Repeated Antoine.

"What the heck did you do to him?" Asked Sonic with a note of irritation.

"I kissed him!" She said plainly.

"What!" Exclaimed Sonic.

"Yes, I know, the tough Sandra who doesn't give a damn about anything or anyone has kissed Antoine because she is in love!" Sandra took a deep breath. "Laugh if you want!"

Sonic said nothing, but gave Sandra a very funny look.

Antoine had begun to regain his composure.

"Errrm, Sandra, where do we errr go from now on, I mean what iz going to be happening." Stuttered Antoine.

"If you mean our relationship Antoine I'd very much like it we could stay together." She looked at Antoine with a sad expression. "If you want to. I know how badly you wanted Sally."

She held Antoine's hand.

"Sally," Thought Antoine. "The reason for wanting her I no longer hate." He looked at Sonic. "I would love to be with you Sandra!"

He said the last sentence with such expression and with such emotion it surprised Sonic and Sandra. Antoine then did an unexpected thing. He pulled Sandra close to him and kissed her. At that moment there was a turning point in Antoine’s life. His arrogance and his own inhibitions were gone. He was no longer a child he was an animal.

NICOLE emitted a series of bleeps,

"I am detecting more gravitational fluctuations." NICOLE stopped and then continued. "Warning incoming projectiles, 3,2,1....."

Suddenly the to the right of them in a clump of half dead trees there was an enormous explosion and a bright glow. The trees and ground were literally pushed 10 meters over from the force of the impact. All three caught the end of the shockwave. Sonic was unaffected, his body used to dealing with incredible stresses ever time he broke the sound barrier. Antoine and Sandra however were knocked back a few meters.

Even before anyone had time to react there was another blast but this one was a long way off and no-one was affected.

"He knows where we are!" Yelled Sandra. "What the heck are those things!"

Sandra heard the familiar hum of an approaching hover ship. She quickly pulled out a plasma rifle from her hip belt. Sandra set the rifle to fire one fast pulse, the standard setting for shield penetration. She cocked it, loading another cell into the gun, placed it against her shoulder and fired. The hover ship took a direct hit, the energy could be seen dispersing over the ship but the impact seemed to have done very little damage.

("Plasma Rifle" Short to medium range weapon firing contained pulses of super heated plasma.)

("Cell" Ammunition unit were plasma is contained within magnetic fields. The cell also contains power for the gun's systems.)

"What in the name of Mobius!" Cried Sandra.

The hover ship began to hover denoting it was about to fire. All three dived into the nearest bush. They crawled through the undergrowth as tracers struck around them.

"Sandra!" Called Antoine, "Highest setting!"

Sandra obeyed and set the rifle to it's highest shield penetrating level, took aim through the undergrowth and fired again. There was a hum and more super heated plasma shot out of the barrel. It hit the hovership on it's aft-hoverblade. The machine fell out of the sky and smashed onto the ground, still active but unable to fly.

"Sandra!" Breathed Sonic. "What in the world made that thing so powerful!"

Sandra pulled out NICOLE from her belt.

"NICOLE, how strong was the inertial dampener on that ship?"

( "Inertial dampener." Device used to absorb the shock of a projectile by rapid movements.)

"The ship was not using an inertia dampener Sandra, the projectile was weakened by passing through a strong gravitational field."

"What!" Interjected Sandra, "Strong enough to weaken 'ten to six' plasma?"

( "Ten to Six" Referring to plasma temperature in Celsius, ten to the power of six. 1000000c)

"Yes Sandra, all remaining energy was channeled off by the energy absorbers."

("Energy absorber" Device designed to convert extra energy into microwaves to prevent system shutdown.)

"Are there any more approaching ones?" Asked Antoine his accent diminishing fast.

"No more in the vicinity Antoine, however the other one jammed itself and I was unable to detect it."

("Jammed" Produced a field that did not allow NICOLE's gravitational sensors to detect it.)

"How strong are the grav-units on that thing?" Asked Sandra.

( "Grav-unit" Device that produces and contains anti-particles in large quantities to allow hover-ships and other such vehicles to fly.)

"50g worth of all round gravitational flux."

(1G= normal force of gravity.)

"Oh lord!" Exclaimed Sandra. "NICOLE can we access the Robotroplian mainframe from that hover ship?"

"Affirmative Sandra!" Answered NICOLE.

"Ok lets get over there!"

"There are more incoming hover-ships Sandra!"

"Noooo, problem I'll keep 'em busy!" Said Sonic.

Sonic zoomed off and all the hover-ships automatically followed him. The hover-ships fired at points infront of Sonic because it would take time for the plasma units to reach their destination. However all their calculating was in vain, Sonic was simply moving about too fast. He realized he was only a few miles from the main wall. Sonic did a tight turn in order to avoid on-coming turret fire. The hover-ships with their strange new abilities were able to move just as fast and cornered in less than a few metres. The shots were landing a lot closer to him so it was obvious the battle computers were learning fast.

Meanwhile Sandra had uplinked NICOLE to the downed hover-ship. Using the identity code contained within it's computer systems NICOLE managed to access the main Robotroplian network and found a recording of the original source code for Sally's message. NICOLE downloaded it.

"Task complete!" Sounded NICOLE. "I have also downloaded files containing information concerning these new grav units."

Sandra unplugged NICOLE and ran out of the wreckage.

Antoine was waiting outside.

There was a crackle over Sandra's intercom.

"Sandra!" Yelled Sonic his voice full of static. "Get these guys off me!"

"I can't Sonic!" Replied Sandra. "I only have a few shots left!"

"NICOLE!" Yelled Antoine. "Make all the hover-ships concentrate their shields on one point, make it on one of the other hover-ships."

"Transmitting virus Antoine..." Answered NICOLE.

"What are you doing Antoine!" Demanded Sandra.

"Just watch!" Said Antoine.

The hover-ships concentrated their shields on one of the larger ones. It's weapons were now ineffective the energy being absorbed by the field. The other hover-ships automatically moved closer so their power output was reduced. The ship that was the target could now not use it's own gravitational units because of the surrounding interference. It fell to the ground and smashed. The other hover ships flew over the wreckage. The gravitational field surrounding the downed vessel was now so strong that the other ships were drawn into it and were either destroyed or suffered incredible damage. The now reduced field worked like a catapult throwing parts of hover-ships hundreds of metres into the air.

Sandra was impressed.

"Antoine!" She called ecstatically, "You FOX!"

There was a deafening boom as Sonic came to a halt beside them.

"Attention!" NICOLE stated. "Reinforcements are arriving, shall I contact Dulcy?"

"Yes NICOLE!" Said Sonic. NICOLE complied and communicated with Dulcy's headset.

"Sandra!" Began Sonic. "How did ya ditch all o' those ships?"

"I didn't Sonic!" Replied Sandra. "Antoine did!"

"You!" Sonic mused. "Well I had a gut feeling that you would come in useful. That's why I let you tag along."

"Sonic!" Snapped Sandra. "Antoine just saved your life, show a little appreciation!"

"Sorry Antoine!" Apologized Sonic. "And, I'm kinda like... ya know all those years I kept telling you to get a life?"

"Yeah!" Replied Antoine.

"I'm ss,o,rrr,y!” Sonic took a deep breath recovering from the effort.

Antoine hugged Sonic who cringed immensely. Antoine then kissed him on both cheeks in French fashion. Sonic pushed Antoine off and stepped back a few metres.

"WHAT THE HECK'YA DOIN'!" Demanded Sonic.

"Getting my revenge!" Replied Antoine.

A moment later much to Sonic's relief Dulcy landed. She skidded to a halt grazing her talons yet again.

"Guys!" Said Dulcy. "There's a lot of metal heading towards you. We had best get moving."

("Metal heading towards you" Idiom meaning "Robotnick’s forces are closing.")

All three scrambled into Dulcy's pouches. Sandra and Antoine yet again shared one. Much to the enjoyment of both.

Dulcy spread out her wings and took off. Yet again tracers flew up at her. Dulcy avoided them and they sped back to Knothole.

Bookshire pace up and down in his hut nervously. Sally's condition had been steadily getting worse and worse. Her brain was now almost totally inactive. In the corner Bunnie was comforting a crying tails.

Suddenly the door burst open and Rotor rushed in.

"Their back!" He yelled.

Dulcy landed in the center on Knothole, she grazed her talons yet again.

"Damn it!" Began Dulcy, suddenly she was over come with frustration. "Every time I try to (Expletive Deleted) land I (Expletive Deleted) screw up! Why the (Expletive Deleted) can't I (Expletive Deleted) land like any other normal (Expletive Deleted) dragon!"

Everybody around the landing area stared hard at her. Small children repeated Dulcy's words gleefully and were nudged by their parents.

"Oh, what the (Expletive Deleted) have I done!" Cried Dulcy. "Forgive me please! All I ever wanted was one decent landing!" Dulcy began to cry.

Rotor ran up