Great Forest- A little 411

[AnT]

The Great Forest...surprisingly a peaceful looking land, despite the fact that its next door close to the Hellish city on the planet, Robotropolis. Never the less, this lush forest represents one of the few hopes on Mobius for its tranquil sights, the green and semi-bright trees, the bright blue skies and such...being something that sticks out like a sore thumb in a apocalyptic planet.

Sadly, despite the pleasant appearance, patrol bots still scouts the land for the village of Knothole, as well as some helpless living people to Robotize. This is why the dragoness, Dulcy, as well as the other flyers behind her, Tekno and Shortfuse, have to fly low, close to the trees.

After that close call in the Great Swamp, Dulcy, Tekno, and Shortfuse managed to pick up the cybernetic lynx, Nicole, as well as the unconscious princess of Mobius, Sally Acorn, and now those two are riding on the dragon, on their way to Knothole.


"Hey Tekno...I know they were the bad guys, but nobody deserves to be Robotiziced and all..."




The canary sighed while keeping her winged arms spread to stay on the air. "We still wouldn't been able to get through all those Swatbots, luv. For some odd reason, those bots seem to be on top of their game now. They're using a six-sided dice for Aurora's sake. Besides, getting the princess out of that ruckus was a first priority."

The Robian kept a steady pace using his rocket feet. "Hmph! I knew those scaly punks were bad news. If that princess-kid could've seen that too, then-"

"You guys were in an alternate dimension. How the bloody hell could she have known?"

Even though such feats were impossible for a bot, Shorty gave a proud look. "Well that's because she didn't have the good ol San Grandian sixth sense."

Tekno shook her head, sighing. Though Shortfuse wasn't joking about the San Grandian sixth sense. Because the city was quite corrupt, and full of muggers, crooks, and the likes, people developed a distrusting attitude, saying that they can smell a bad egg when they see one. Though it seems more like paranoia than an accurate ability...and such a case with Shortfuse is twice as bad.


"Hey Nicole, how's Sally doing?"

[Lans]

"She's ok, just still unconcious from the effects of your gas," Nicole reported. Then something occured to her. "Why do you have sleeping gas in the first place, considering the majority of your enemies are robotic?"

[AnT]

"Robotnik's robots are the big threat in our life, yes, but there are some times when we deal with thugs that hang out in the wastelands outside the city. They usually cause us trouble when we go out in the city."

Shortfuse snorted, "Trouble maybe for you."

"Well not all of us are insanely agressive, Shorty. But yeah, I possess ye little fighting skills to deal with those motorcycle bums. There was also this one time when we had to deal with some slime monster; luckily that thing could breathe."

[Lans]

"Oh," was Nicole's simple response. "Well, do yo have an antidote? It would probably be helpful if we could explain the situation to the Princess as soon as possible."

[Leda]

At that moment, said princess seemed to be coming out of her gas-induced haze. Blinking her eyes heavily, Sally looked around at the blurry forms of those that had gathered around her. "....Wha..?"

[AnT]

Tekno flinched a bit, looking a bit anxious when Sally was starting to wake. "Um...heh, no need for one, luv."

Quickly, she kept fixing her hair, even though she need her winged arms to stay in the air.

"Quick, how's my hair, Shorty?"

The Robian didn't take his eyes off the 'road', "Like shit."

CLANG! And Tekno bashed him on the head with a small tool hammer...even though it didn't dent his armor.

Even though he didn't feel it, it was annoying. "JEEZ!!"

Tekno turned away from him, frowning. "You're lucky I didn't use the remote!"

"Eep!"


Shaking her head at that comedic performance, Dulcy turned, with her long neck, at the princess on her back. "Welcome back, Sally!"

[Lans]

"Greetings, Princess Acorn, it is good to see you're unharmed."

[Leda]

"Ughh...." Sally wearily groaned, tenderly holding her head with one hand. "..I'm not so sure I'm unharmed..." A relentless throbbing, no doubt from the blow she took during the crash, radiated from the point of impact and seemed to infiltrate the entire rest of her body. The princess tentatively touched the back of her head, and winced sharply as the swollen lump she found stung fiercely. The silver lining at least was that it didn't seem to have bled.

The ground squirrel pushed herself upright, but the task was a bit draining, as the sleeping drug still hadn't quite worn off in addition to her injury. "Hnngh... what... happened?"

[AnT]

"Well Sally, let's just say you got on the wrong plane. Hee-hee!"


The green canary hovered over next to Dulcy, bowing before the princess in mid-air. "Ello there, luv. Delighted to meet you; hope you feeling right, after that gas in your lungs. I am Tekno Canary; leader of the Western Freedom Fighters, San Grandia. And I assume you got aquainted with Shortfuse here. I hope he wasn't too much trouble, your highness."


Shortfuse just went 'keh' as he turned away and kept his eye on his flying. Way to suck up, birdy.


And Dulcy just giggled, unable to warn Tekno that Sally hates being called 'your highness' or anything royal-like.

[Lans]

"It doesn't appear to be more than a slight bump," Nicole told Sally as she examined her, "I don't detect any sign of a concussion, Princess."

[Leda]

Rubbing her eyes to help clear up her still fuzzy vision, Sally recovered more fully from her drugging and seemed to really come to her senses -- which was quite a shock when she realized where she was. "Dulcy!!" Sally exclaimed, somewhat in shock. "What are you...?! Wait, so then I'm..."

The ground squirrel quickly surveyed the landscape; no buildings, no ocean, and no aircrafts greeted her. I'm back, she realized. A wave of relief washed over the princess, but it didn't last long. This means that Dr. Finitevus and his assistants are the out-of-place ones now, and that worker bot is still back in his lab...

...Wait a minute.

"What happened to the others I was with?" Sally asked with a bit of urgency in her voice.

[AnT]

Keeping her winged arms hanging in the wind, Tekno gave a nervous chuckle, "Heh heh...umm...yeah them. Well I have some bad news and some worse news for ya, luv. The bad news is that we failed as Freedom Fighters by not rescusing them from the Swatbots. They surprised us and greatly out-numbered us to rescue them too. But the worse news is that those guys weren't really the kind of party you would be hanging with."

"Keh! I could've told her that long ago, if-"

"Shorty, behave!" she warned, overpowering him with a threatening glare. Adjusting herself to a pleasent but nervous look for Sally, "Um...why don't Nicole here tell you about those blokes since she's from their world."



"Oh, and you can trust her. She happens to be the other world version of Nicole...OUR Nicole."

[Leda]

"Well I already-- What??" Sally's attention snapped over to Nicole, her eyes wide for a moment, until the princess let out a breath and raised her hands. "You know what? I'm not even that weirded out anymore; not after my arrival in the other dimension. I just apologize in advance if I start ordering you around just out of habit." The ground squirrel chuckled lightly.

"But in any case... I've been aware for a while that Finitevus probably wasn't someone I would normally want to mingle with; he's courteous enough, but I've been picking up on a sinister side of him that he's been trying to hide from me." Sally's expression grimmed. "But in that situation, what can you do? If you're in the charge of someone that could potentially be dangerous, and yet they aren't outwardly doing so, it's best to play the game by their rules." She paused to steal a glance in Shortfuse's direction. "Despite the commentary of those around you.

"But regardless, we can't just turn our backs on them; we have to try to get them back," the princess announced firmly. "Not only is there a robian trapped back at his lab in the other dimension, but no one deserves to be roboticized -- even if he IS on the villainous side!"

[Lans]

Nicole just sighed with a small smile, "I suppose you're right, Princess, even if it would be a tad less trouble for our world in the long run if he were to be lost over here."

She shrugged, "Well, you're the most familiar with our primary adversary here, what do you suggest we do, Princess?"

[AnT]

"Whooooooaaaa....Sally, look at this!"




What awed Dulcy? Lo and behold...the floating island. They just noticed it when the island came to view after the thick clouds that covered it, parted.




"Man! Is that your place? How the hell you got THAT floating rock hidden from fat-face?...Hey, that rhymed!"

[Leda]

"I'm not sure," Sally reluctantly admitted to the lynx. "I want to go back for them right away, but normally Sonic is a big part of rescues. But that doesn't mean that we're helpless without him." The princess lowered her brow and thought. We may not have Sonic to pose a distraction, but if they were willing, perhaps Tekno or Shortfuse could distract the security. Dulcy could take out the Swatbots guarding the cells, and if she's got the same capabilities as my version, hopefully Nicole could crack the codes and override the systems. But we'd have to hurry, there's probably not much ti--

"Wha?" Sally looked up at Dulcy's call, and was surprised to see Angel Island ahead of them. "...No, this isn't ours," she awkwardly replied to Shortfuse. "The only Floating Island we have is much smaller than this, and Nicole -- my Nicole, that is -- doesn't have any data on a second." On that note, the ground squirrel turned to the lynx at her side. "Would you happen to know anything about this...?"

[Lans]

"It...it would appear to be Angel Island," Nicole said, also a little taken aback by the island's appearance, "Though what it is doing here is beyond me...unless the whole island was somehow shifted over here."

[AnT]

"You got that right, luv." With one arm, she kept herself soaring in the air while she held out a mini-computer with her other. "I'm detecting massive amounts of the same dimensional frequency I've been studying, around that island. And I'm not sure, but the center of the energy flunctuation doesn't appear to be fading like normal."

"Aw man! Does this mean we have to explore some freak of land?"

"I like to. If this center is what I think it is, I can probably use it to figure out this dimensional stitch. But like the princess said, we have a big rescue to do first. I'm sure her party is already dealing with that flying rock. But we do have to move fast; it'll be a matter of time before Robotnik shows interest on that thing, and it seems that rock is over her base."

"Good!" Shortfuse punched his metallic palm. "I rather bash Swat-heads than play explorer."

"Princess, do you have any way to contact your party? No sense of letting them worry bout you without letting them know you're alright."

[Leda]

"I'm afraid not," Sally replied regretably. "Even if I did have my Nicole, there wouldn't be much of a way of contacting anyone else if they're out looking for me. The best I could do would be to send a message to one of Rotor's computers back in Knothole."

The princess clenched her jaw. Which should she do first? This island was definitely going to draw Robotnik's eye, and the fact that it's just a stone's throw away from Knothole compounded the thread. However, if they idled about the island, Finitevus and his assistants could be lost to the roboticizer, and through that she would never recover Jonas. It was going to be a tough call no matter what.

"Well," Sally eventually began again, "let's stop quickly at the island; we're almost there anyway. We can do a quick check for inhabitants, and warn them to be on guard if there are any, but we have to go back to Robotropolis immediately after."

[Lans]

"...That may not be such a good idea, Princess," Nicole interjected, "The guardian, assuming he was home when the island was transported, doesn't exactly welcome visitors even under the best of circumstances."

[AnT]

"And I don't think Robotnik will wait for anyone, luv. He's probably on the verge of preparing the robotizicer this second. I'm sure your party are on their way to warn the inhabitants; just have faith in them."


"And I flew over an ocean, Sally, meaning I'm kind of pooped. It's Robotropolis or bust!"


"And going island hiking is boring!"


"Shorty!"

[Leda]

Sally eyed the group around her sternly. "As the current sovereign of this world, it is my duty to not only check on the inhabitants of that island, but furthermore to alert them to the situation that they are currently in. Everyone in this kingdom is my responsibility, whether it's their home or not. I don't have the luxery of assuming that everything will work out alright."

The princess' focus turned again onto Angel Island. "If you guys don't want to go, then you can simply drop me off, but I HAVE to go. I'm sorry Dulcy, but you're just going to have to push yourself a little harder. Crack the whip if you have to, but I need to get to that island!"

[Lans]

"I figured you'd say that, Princess," Nicole said, "Just pointing out that Knuckles probably won't be thrilled by our arrival."

[AnT]

She wasn't that impressed, though. Sighing, Tekno shook her head. Makes you wonder if she does trust her team, or has a bad habit of lifting all problems on her little shoulders.

"Alright, princess, I'll make it easy for you. You guys go check the island, Shortfuse and I will rescue the crazed criminals. I didn't rescue them back at the swamps, so I'll correct that mistake."


"Oh..." pulling out a strange device that looked like a handheld game with some kind of tube connected by a telephone wire, Tekno tossed it to Sally. "Since the center of the energy readings seems to be contained, at least by theory, that could mean the energy is stable and solid enough to take samples of. That device should take a sample of it; if you have the chance, just connect the tube connection to whatever is containing the dimensional energy, then press the red button. It also tracks the core of the energy, so I suggest you start there; there maybe habitants around there. I need it for study so hopefully I can solve this dimensional rip crisis."

Tekno hovered over Shortfuse and grabbed his shoulders.

"Good luck, and don't worry about us. We'll be back in time for tea. After-burners, Shorty!"


"Aw yeah!!!"

With that, his rocket feet burst, making him blast away through the air, with Tekno hanging on.


"Um......wow."

[Leda]

"Knuckles, huh?" the princess mused. "If he's who I think he is, I'm sure I can handle him."

Sally turned to Tekno and nodded as she was given the device. "I'll do what I can. You guys be careful!!" As the two took off toward Robotropolis, the ground squirrel patted her dragon friend on the back. "Hang in there, Dulcy. We're almost there!"

[Lans]

Nicole just sighed, glad that her digestive system wasn't advanced enough to allow her to feel nausia. "Here we go again."

[AnT]

But Nicole WILL feel such nausia, advanced digestive system or not, because Dulcy is about to unleash her true reckless flying. "Alright, get ready, cause I'm about to shift to the next gear."

She bend her body and lifted her tail...

"CRACK THE WHIP!!!" and like the name says, Dulcy whipped her tail, making her launch at bullet-speed for the island. "Weeeeeeee!!!!"

[Leda]

"HUA-WHOOA!!" Sally could only grunt in shock as the dragon lurched forward, clinging tightly before the wind whipped her off.