"Pssst! Kat!"
Kat's eyes snapped open at the voice. pushing himself up on his sore arms, Kat wearily sat up. collecting himself, the cougar shoved himself onto his feet. Sonic peered through the bars at the aging feline, noticing how quickly imprisonment had deteriorated the puma. "You alright?" Sonic asked, worry in his voice. Kat, however had more pressing matters on his mind.

"Robotnik's surveillance...picked up Sally." Kat breathed "He know's she and Tristina are heading for the Dark Swamp. you have to save them." "But what about you?" Sonic asked, frowning. "Doesnt matter." Sonic's eyebrows nearly shot into his quill line at this. Sonic was about to object when laser fire barely missed his first row of spines.

he turned, gasping, as Kat laid back down on the bed. "Go, Sonic! Go!" Kat pleaded with the hedgehog. "Not to worry, Kat!" Sonic reassured the cougar as he swiftly dodged laser blasts. "I'll be back!" with that, Sonic burst out of the room...leaving nothing but a plume of dirt and dust behind him. As the swat bots retreated once again, Kat wearily closed his eyes and sighed.

Meanwhile, in the Dark Swamp, Sally, Tristina, and Antione made thier way through slime, muck, and fly infested waters. Towards what, Tristina wasnt sure. but she assumed the Princess knew where she was going. "How much more farther, my Princess?" Antione asked, his voice barely concealing a groan. "We'll know when we get there, Antoine." said Sally patiently, hardly sparing a glance to the Coyote.

Tristina, for her part, had converted her chair to hover mode. The swampy waters had been too thick for her to wheel through. Not to mention she didnt trust the spindly appearance of her chairs mechanical spider legs to handle the muck well. Sally paused for a moment, possibly to consider her direction. Antoine, however, kept going...right into Sally.

yelping, the Coyote launched himself over Tristina's hover chair and into a nearby tree. "Antoine whats wrong?" Sally asked, startled at this. "A thousand pardons, my princess." "Are you alright?" Asked Tristina, looking up. "Your trembling." "Not trembling, madame Tiffany. Ah, s-shivering! Ah yes, I must have catched how you say - Ah-choo, oh a terrible cold! I think we should return to knothole."

"No Antoine" said Sally, frowning as she clenched her fists. "My father is alive. I know it, and I'm going to find him." Tristina smiled slightly after the Princess, admiring her rugged determination. "But, we are having no idea where he is." said Antoine, still atop the tree branch. At this, Sally pulled Nichole from her blue boot and opened the computer.

"Nichole, is there any kind of..." Sally paused a moment, trying to think of a word. "structure" the princess finally blurted out. "...in the dark swamp?" Sally finished. "Searching." Nichole replied. Tristina hovered closer to the princess and watched the tiny computer curiously. "One structure. Ironlock prison. Schematic display." said Nichole, displaying a picture in a bubble of what looked like a crumbling building. the walls (that still stood) to the back were a dark green, and the bricks near the door were a marble white.

"Ironlock prison?!" Sally gasped, gazing at the building. "Oh no...come on, Antoine! Tiff!" said Sally, storming off through the thick green water. "Coming." said Tristina, thrusting her joystick forward. "Princess wait!" Antoine yelped, losing his balance on the tree branch. both girls ignored the coyotes cry as the branch broke and he splashed into the swamp water below.

Sonic the hedgehog arrived on a ledge overlooking the last place he wanted to be. deep greens gave way to murky waters and the same purplish gray sky. long strands of moss hung from the trees, in some cases like curtains. the smell that drifted along the ground was that of putrid decay...as well as disease and every other unpleasantry that existed under the sun. "Oh man," Sonic groaned, frowning. "I hate swamps." with a grunt, the hedgehog slapped at a fly that was buzzing up near his right ear.

"They're full of bugs and junk." he grumbled, rubbing the spot he had just struck. "Juice time!" Sonic declared, lifting one blue leg to take off. Once he was deep in the swamp, Sonic stopped and filled his lungs with air. "Sally!" he called. he then lifted his left hand to his left ear to listen. the only sound that responded was the buzzing of flies.

"Bummer...whoa!" Sonic muttered, glancing at the ground. two pairs of prints stood in the soft, sand like earth. "Yeah, now we're getting somewhere." said Sonic, snapping his fingers and approaching the footprints. As the blue hedgehog zipped off along the trail of his comrades, he never noticed the brown and gray Spy Orb behind him.

Meanwhile, Back in Robotroplis, Snivley excitedly announced his latest findings to his uncle. "Doctor Robotnik, we have the hedgehog. he's in the Dark Swamp." "He's looking for the Princess." said Robotnik, thoughtfully petting the beak of his robotic chicken. "A possible double header." Robotnik added, tapping his chin thoughtfully. smiling, he pointed at his nephew. "Launch a stealth bot." he commanded. "Yes sir." said Snivley, tapping a red button on the control panel.

In the stealth bot hangar, red lights flashed and a siren went off as the deep purple and red jet was shifted into position. the turbines whirred as two launch bay doors slid into the walls of the hangar. with barely a sound, the stealth bot took off in pursuit of its pre-programed enemy.

"Princess, forgive me if this is a sensitive topic," began Tristina as she hovered beside Sally "but...how exactly did Robotnik take over?" Tristina finished, casting a nervous glance at Sally. the Princess's blue eyes stared straight ahead, although Tristina noticed that they were now wet. "I'm sorry." Tristina apologized, quickly turning away from Sally. "I shouldn't have..." "It happened when we were children." Sally interrupted, wiping her eyes.

"we were all 5 when Robotnik took over. The last time I remember seeing my father was before Sonic's Uncle Chuck came and brought me to his lab. Sonic and I would play while Uncle Chuck worked on various experiments." said Sally with a smile. Tristina didn't interrupt, letting the Princess reminisce about her childhood.

"Later on that day, a Nanny-for-hire, Rosie, stopped by. Rosie took care of Rotor, Antoine, and Bunnie. So, Uncle Chuck and Rosie took care of all of us. Suddenly, Rosie activated the tunnel to Knothole while swat bots began barging in neighboring houses. Uncle Chuck stayed behind, saying he had to help the King..." Sally stopped as she closed her eyes and stifled a sob.

"I never saw daddy or Uncle Chuck again." she choked. Tristina put a comforting arm around the Princess' shoulder and gave it a light squeeze. "What about you?" Sally asked as she and Antoine walked and Tristina hovered. "you seem to have adjusted quiet easily to our little group." "When I was a baby, I was found on the beach in a basket made of reeds, grass, and mud." said Tristina, staring at her lap as she spoke.

"The woman who found me, Julia, took me home. She was a poor woman who studied alternate lifestyles and cultures of distant lands. One of the lands she was studying at the time, ironically enough, was Mikanus Island." said Tristina with a smile. "Julia was stern, but she was never cruel to me. I helped her further her research on Mikanus Island, and in return, she taught me what she knew about my peoples 'hacking' ability." Tristina's smile faded slightly as she continued.

"I too was 5 when Robotnik took over. At first, Julia and I hid in a panic room underneath our house. The swat bots came and trashed the place, but never found us." Tristina explained before bowing her head and letting a few tears fall. "We knew we couldn't stay when the swat bots left. So, we waited until nightfall, packed as much food and supplies as we could carry, and ran."

"Where did you go?" Asked Antoine, joining his Princess in listening to Tristina's tale. "Everywhere." said Tristina with a smile. "We traveled all over the Great Forest, although we never found Knothole" admitted Tristina. "We traveled through the Great Plains at night, so as to avoid swat bot patrols. When we arrived at the Great Mountains, we turned around and went through the great plains again." said Tristina with a shrug.

"All the while, Julia taught me how to use my hacking ability to possess spy orbs. At first it was just to make them mimic their normal activities. Then, she taught me to use them to follow people. Once I was skilled enough, Julia took me near Robotropolis for a 'field test'." continued Tristina, using her fingers for air quotation marks at 'field test.'

"She told me to use the Spy Orb to map out small parts of the city, then draw the maps down on paper once I'd released the orb." "Didn't the spy orb know it was possessed?" Sally asked. Tristina smiled and shook her head. "Julia taught me to wipe any memory the orb had of its activity while I possessed it. That way, if anyone got curious, all the records would say was that the orb had been 'offline' for a bit." said Tristina, grinning. Sally's eyes widened at this. turning to Antoine, Sally saw that his face had the same look of wonder.

"We did pretty good for a while. I had nearly all of Robotroplis mapped when..." Tristina stopped as a lump began to form her throat. she looked down at her lap, tears threatening to spill from her eyes. "She tried to protect me." Tristina choked.

"I was 12 when A worker bot had discovered our hideout, and had tried to capture me. Julia beat him back with her staff, then began to struggle with him. she told me to run, and not look back. I ran to a nearby junk pile and hid. I don't know how long I hid there, but I finally worked up the courage to go and look for Julia. When I got back to our hideout, Julia and the worker bot were gone. I never saw Julia again after that." Tristina finished, wiping her eyes on the back of her hand.

"It was then I decided I would fight. I would train to be the best, master my people's 'possession' ability, find you and join you. I did this for 3 years...up until I was captured and half roboticized." Tristina finished with a bitter tone. "I know what its like to lose a loved one...and to have to find your own way." said Sally sadly.

"Worker bots captured our nanny, Rosie, in the great forest when we were kids. We never saw her again either." "How much farther now, my princess?" Antoine asked wearily, his thoughts back on their walking now that Tristina's story had been told. "Any minute, Antoine." said Sally, pushing back a curtain of moss.

Antoine and Tristina followed, only to find Sally (and themselves) face to face with a dilapidated, crumbling fortress. "Sacre-bleu!" Antoine exclaimed. "Is zat..." "Yes," said Sally as the three stared in awe. "Ironlock." as Tristina and Antoine stared in awe at the former stronghold, Sally reached down and retrieved her faithful computer from her boot. Flipping it open Sally pointed it at the building. "Nichole, give me all data on Ironlock." Sally commanded. "Searching Sally." came the response. Almost in seconds, Nichole spoke again. "Built in 1543, abandoned 100 years ago. no other data."

Sonic continued to run, following the footprints of Sally and Antoine. As he ran, though, he sensed someone...or rather something...following him. turning, Sonic noticed the stealth bot. whether it was one of the ones he, Sally, and Tristina had infiltrated was inconsequential. Up above the hedgehog, a red light on the wing of the stealth bot flashed. a sickeningly familiar metallic gray orb with a skinny metal tail pushed off from the stealth bot and rocketed towards him.

"Woah!" Sonic cried. "Hedgehog missile alert, bailing warp 7!" Sonic declared to himself, pushing his speed even faster. As the 'hedgehog missile' continued to persue him, Sonic watched as the Stealth Bot flew past him. circling around, the stealth bot stopped to hover above the trunk of a half rotted hollowed out tree. Sonic stared a moment, then grinned. "Time to dust one stealth bot." Sonic muttered, running towards the tree.

Sonic raced into the hollow tree, running up the inside of its trunk. popping out the top, Sonic landed with a grin on one of the remaining branches. the blue hedgehog's eyes twinkled as the 'hedgehog missile' ignored him completely and instead struck the stealth bot.

As the stealth bot exploded into a ball of flames, and red and black smoke, Sally, Antoine, and Tristina prepared to cross the bridge to Ironlock. "My princess...I am thinking this is not safe..." said Antoine as he and Sally carefully stepped across the pale yellowing planks. "Don't be such a worry wart, Antoine" said Sally with a smile in her voice. the chain holding the bridge gave a groan and the bridge itself began to tremble. Once all was still, Antoine grabbed Sally's arm.

"Are you alright my princess?" Antoine asked. "I'm fine." Sally replied, nodding her head. Tristina cast them a worried glance, then gulped and looked down into the dried up moat below them. "Guys, I'm going into hover mode." Tristina announced, pressing a button which hosted a engraving of wings on her wheelchair arm.

As Tristina's contribution of pressure on the bridge lifted, the planks began rattle dangerously. "Antoine! Sally! Run for it!" Tristina cried, slamming her joystick forward. "Run Princess, Run!" Antoine cried, practically dragging Sally across the failing bridge. As the old chain holding the failing bridge broke, Antoine let out a scream. Tristina turned her chair around to see the pair had grabbed onto the earthy moat ledge.

"Antoine, give me your hand!" Tristina called, reaching down into the empty moat. Antoine obliged, and Tristina pulled him onto solid ground. Tristina and Antoine then worked together to pull Sally onto the other side as well. All three then looked up at the whitish gray stone bricks of Ironlock. "Princess..." said Antoine wearily

"I am hating to be, how you say. Oh, such a worry-worm." said Antoine. "But zis, terrible place," continued Antoine, looking with emphasis at the ruins of Ironlock prision. "Is not so good for our healths, I am thinking this is so." finished Antoine, kissing Sally's hand repeatedly. "We go home, yes?" Antoine asked, and Tristina frowned as she detected a note of pleading in his voice.

"We go home, no, Antoine." said Sally, her voice sympathetic but firm. "If my father is in there," Sally said, pointing into the darkness beyond Ironlocks doors. "I'm going to find him. Is that clear?" Antoine slowly shook his head, then closed his eyes and nodded. "Oui, Oui, my princess. very clear. but-" "No but's, Antoine. now lets go." Sally said with a finality in her voice.

Tristina pressed the button with wings on her wheelchair once again, allowing her wheelchair wheels to return to their proper places. Tristina then grabbed the treaded rubber wheels and pushed herself forward. repeating this motion, Tristina soon caught up with the determined Princess. Antoine, meanwhile, stayed rooted to the spot. "Antoine!" Both women called harshly. the french Coyote let out a squeak of fright, then finally began running towards them.

"Oui, Oui my princess! here I am!" Antoine called as Tristina and Sally continued on into the darkness. Soon, Antoine slowed to a timid walk, his hands clutched together in caution. "I'm right behind you, Princess." Antoine whispered. Tristina bit back a snort as Sally replied "Thats comforting" in a sarcastic tone.