CHAPTER 2:

"Let me be the first, you're ugly, and ya smell funny!" Sonic Hedgehog laughs at his own joke.

"Hedgehog! Priority One!" The Commander 'bot shouts to his companions. The mobians look at each other trying to figure out what the chrome domes meant. Sonic gives them a thumbs up.

"While I distract thes dumb-bots, you guys head for cover!" Almost as if on cue, the 'bots fire at Sonic, however by the time the wrist lasers reach where he was standing he has already moved. "You're too slow!" he calls from on the otherside of the SWATbots. They turn around but again he's moved, and their shots are wasted, well as wasted as a laser bolt can be.

"If you guys were smart as well as you shoot...you guys would still be braindead." Sonic moves in front of the Commander. "Tell you what, I'll stand right here and give you a free shot. Come on, what are you waiting for?" The SWATbots fire, and once again Sonic moves out of the way before the shots hit him. This time the shots blast the Commander 'bot leaving him in pieces.

Sonic repeats the process until there is only one 'bot left standing. Sonic pauses in front of this one as well. "What is it going to be tex?"

"Priority one, capture the Hedgehog!"

"Okay, your funeral." Sonic charges at the mechanicle man. The SWATbot moves it's arms up to block Sonic, but the Hedgehog leaps over it. Sonic then makes a mad dash for the crate of explosives. Grabbing one of the bombs, Sonic then heads back to the 'bot and straps the home-made explosive on the Robot's back just as it finally manages to compute Sonic's attack isn't comming. The Hedgehog isn't finished though. He grabs ahold of the dumb-bot and drags it towards the factory. "Better grab your supplies quickly!" Sonic shouts out to the mobians.

As the Hedgehog blasts off towards the Crab-meat factory, Rotor heads for the opens the door to the store-house. "Hurry guys! Before more 'bots show up!"

"But what about the-" Bunnie starts, but is cut off by Rotor.

"I'm sure he can take care of himself."

"Still I think we should send someone to help him," Sally disagrees, "Perhaps Johnny you could..."

"Already on it Sal" Johnny replies. He grabs some more explosives and heads off after the hedgehog. Rotor pulls out his list.

"First we need to find a way to transport the supplies. Then we need to load it up." Rotor looks around the store-house. He notices a small cart. "That should work."

The Freedom Fighters begin loading the supplies into the cart, "I hope he's okay..." Sally worries aloud.

"Don't worry, Johnny will be back before you know it," Rotor smiles.

"I...of course. Johnny." Sally quickly gets back to work.

"You didn't mean..."

"Why would I be thinking about-"

"Maybe it's my Hedgehog Good Looks," Sonic smirks.

The Freedom Fighters are surprised to see Sonic and Johnny back already. Sonic just smiles. "Need anything else?"

"We need to get these supplies back to Knothole," Rotor explains pushing the cart over to Sonic.

"Knothole? What's Knothole?"

"The Hidden Village we use as our base of-" Rotor starts but then stops. He then shakes his head, "Too risky to talk about here. 'Bots might be listening in.

"If ya'll done, can we get this show on the road?" Bunnie querries of the group.

After what seems like an enternity of sneaking, Sonic finds himself in the Great Forest. Sonic shrugs and turns to his new found friends, "You telling me there is a hidden village here? I hate to break it to ya, but I've run all through these woods and not seen any sign of a village."

"Good. We would hope it wasn't that easy to find," The, well quite frankly attractive, leader of the group, who the others call Sally, boasts.

Sally...

Sonic swears he heard that name before. Now Sally could be a common name, Sonic was no expert, but something keeps nagging at him that he should know this girl. Like he seen her before or something.

Sonic shakes his head to break the train of thought. There'd be time to worry about that later. The Hedgehog had been on his own for a bit now, and he was just happy to have other mobians about. He hadn't been alone for too long but still. He really missed...

He shakes his head again. Best not think of the past.

"Something wrong?" Sally asks.

"Just a little bit of impatience," Sonic lies, "I hate going this slow." Well have a lie. He does hate going this slow. Seriously, pick up the pace! This trip has, what, taken an hour already? Only an hour? Really? It seemed like forever.

More hours seem to pass. At first Sonic thought it was because he was impatient, but he quickly catches on that they were purposely going slow. Well not exactly, but they were taking their time to cover their tracks and hide the route they were taking. In fact, Sonic had gotten so bored with the journey he stopped paying attention to where they were. He might not be able to find this place again.

Eventually the group comes up to a rather large stump. Laying near the stump is what appears to be the tree that once proudly stood on top. Another helpless victim to the man who caused all these problem perhaps?

While Sonic thinks he realizes the group has stopped again. He is about to protest until Rotor, the walrus, lifts up the top of the stump. Sonic moves back to the stump and looks in. A tunnel! Of course! This is why he never found Knothole, it was hidden...in this stump? No way. That's just silly. Was the whole village underground?

"Sonic was it?" Sally addresses him, "You must promise not to tell anyone what you see here. No matter what."

"Sure, no prob."

"I mean it"

"Okay, okay. I promise not to tell anyone. Sheesh."

"It's a matter of life and death for the whole planet."

"Alright! Are you gonna show me or not?"

Satisfied, at least for the moment, Sally hops into the stump. The coyote in the blue military jacket follows. Rotor gestures for Sonic to follow, "Hurry. We're going to take the supplies through the other enterance." Sonic shrugs and complies. Normally he'd ask, but his patience had been worn thin already, and he was itching to see this village.

Inside the stump was a long slide. It was too dark to see if the insides were natural or constructed by hand. Probably to hide the enterance during the night. Sonic let the smooth slide guide him to where ever his destination lies. Heck, it was a pretty fun ride.

Sonic see's a light at the end of the tunnel, "Hope that's not a train." Sonic shakes his head, and hopes no one heard that comment, it was really lame. He pops out into the light and lands in a large pile of staw.

Sally is standing near by and reaches her hand out to him to help him up. "No it's not a train. Welcome to Knothole."