Chapter 10


     "Bunnie, what are you doing here?"
     Bunnie hadn't had time to think before she felt herself
being grabbed by the scruff of the neck and being pushed up
against a wall.  But she breathed a sigh of relief when she
recognized the harsh whisper as belonging to Sandy.
     "Ah'm here because Sally's tryin' to keep your hide in one
piece!"
     "My hide isn't any of her business.  Or yours!"
     But there was no time to argue the point, because they both
heard the ominous warble of a siren.  That meant SWATbots were on
the way.  They started down the alley but only got halfway when
they saw the end of the alley blocked off by three SWATbots. 
Turning around, they saw three more closing in from where they
had entered.  The two quickly ducked into what appeared to be a
deserted loading dock.
     "You got any ideas?" Bunnie asked.
     "We're going to have to take them on hand-to-hand."
     "And just how the hoo-ha are we supposed to do that?"
     "SWATbots only have an advantage because of those arm-
mounted blasters of theirs.  They aren't built or programmed for
close-quarter fighting.  They only have enough armour to shield
them from blaster fire.  Once you're in close, you have the
advantage because you've got their strength and they don't have
your intelligence.  Can you kick with those legs?"
     "Uh-huh.  Why?"
     "Aim for the hip.  The seam should pop like a bubble."
     "Yeah, right," Bunnie thought to herself.  "Now the only
problem is gettin' close enough to those SWATbots to spit in
their eye!"
     With mechanical tread, the two ranks of SWATbots closed in
on the darkened loading dock.  "SURRENDER, FREEDOM FIGHTERS!" one
of them droned, "BY ORDER OF ROBOTNIK."
     Closer and closer they drew.  They stopped short of the dock
and began scanning the area.
     It was empty.
     They moved into the shadow of the dock for a closer look. 
They continued to visually sweep the loading dock area, as they
were not programmed to look up at the ceiling area first, in case
a couple of freedom fighters were hanging just out of sight from
a ledge.
     "Now!"
     Bunnie and Sandy dropped down on the two closest bots.  On
the way down, Sandy grabbed a bot by the neck, and the head came
away as cleanly as a grape from a stem.  Tossing the head aside,
she then punched the next nearest bot in the chest, and it
crumbled in a shower of sparks.  As soon as Bunnie hit the
ground, she managed to get off a spin-kick that struck a bot
where its hip would have been.  Bunnie had never practiced this
maneuver and although she landed on her tail she was still in one
piece.  Which was more than could be said for the SWATbot.
     "Great move, Bunnie!  But work on your landings."
     But Bunnie didn't have time to think about that because she
found herself looking up at a SWATbot training its blaster right
between her eyes.  Before the SWATbot could get off a shot,
Sandy dropped to the ground and rolled directly underneath it. 
Looking up between its legs, she jammed her fist through the
bot's crotch and into its pelvis, then seemed to fish around for
something.  With a quick yank, she pulled out a thick support rod
and some wiring which she tossed aside.  The SWATbot shuddered
for an instant, then collapsed in a heap.  "Ah don't blame him!"
Bunnie thought.  That left two bots standing.
     "Duck behind one!" Sandy called out.  "They won't target
each other!"
     Bunnie did so, and while the bot swung around to re-
establish the target on Bunnie, she used her own robotic arm to
punch a hole in the bot.  It was incredibly easy...and it was
also a rush!
     Then she saw the last standing SWATbot drawing a bead on
Sandy.  Emboldened by her victories, she ran to the bot and
grabbed it by the arm.  The instant she did so, Sandy grabbed the
other arm.
     "Make a wish!"
     The two arms of the bot came away cleanly.  Its head spun
and it sputtered sparks for a second before going offline.
     "All right!" Bunnie shouted.  Sandy, however, was in no mood
to high-five her partner, for she saw that the alley had been
blockaded again by another half-dozen SWAT-bots.  The two ducked
back into the shadows to wait for them.  A minute later they were
still waiting.  The SWATbots weren't advancing.
     "Why do Ah have a bad feelin' 'bout this?"
     Bunnie didn't have to wait long, for almost instantly, the
door to the loading dock swung open and the two were drawn into
the darkness of the building by an irresistable force.  They
hurtled through the darkness, finally coming to rest with a bone-
jarring thud against a huge metallic surface: a plate magnet.  It
held them fast by their roboticized parts.
     "Ladies, so nice of you to drop in."
     Bunnie and Sandy looked up.  In an observation room near the
ceiling of the chamber stood Robotnik.  He leaned into a
microphone.
     "Snively, restrain the prisoners.  And wait until the magnet
has powered down."
     The lights came up in the room--little more than a storeroom
with pipes and conduits running along the ceiling--and Snively
walked over to a nearby control panel.  Pulling down on a large
lever, Sandy and Bunnie could hear the hum of the electromagnet
begin to diminish.  Even before it loosed their grip on them,
Snively was approaching them with a blaster in one hand and two
sets of shackles in the other.  They were bound with their hands
behind their backs and frisked for weapons.  Snively took two
knives from Sandy: her curved Nomad blade and a second, longer,
straight-edged knife.
     "My, my," Robotnik said as he entered the room, "didn't your
mother ever teach you that little girls shouldn't play with sharp
objects?  By the way, how is your mother?"
     "If I wasn't wearing these restraints," Sandy spat back,
"I'd arrange a face-to-face meeting!"
     "I see; my sympathies," he said with absolutely no trace of
sincerity.
     "You'll be in need of sympathy yourself one of these days:
that robotic arm of yours is killing you."
     "Oh, no.  We get along quite nicely."
     "It's the truth!  It's slowly poisoning you!"
     "And you want to put me out of my impending misery.  How
thoughtful.  No, I have other plans.  Snively, prepare the
roboticizer."
     "At once, Sir."  
     Just as Snively was leaving the room, Sally and Bunnie heard
the tramp of SWATbots.  The six that had been cordoning off the
alley had followed them down the tunnel, and the door to the room
had shut behind them.
     "As you so ably demonstrated just now, my SWAT-bots are
somewhat lacking in your fighting expertise.  But you, Princess
Sandy, will make an excellent commander of my forces, once you
have been totally roboticized so as to answer to my bidding.  I
can use someone who knows the fighting skills of the Nomads.  And
just think of the irony: the army that finally destroys the
Knothole freedom fighters will be led by Princess Sally's own
sister!
     "And as for you," he said as he turned his attention to
Bunnie, "you won't be roboticized just yet--not until you've told
me everything I want to know about Knothole."
     "In your dreams, Robotnik!"
     "Do you know what I dream of, my dear?  Ways of extracting
information from reluctant forest folk such as yourself.  You
WILL tell me what I want to know.  And I can assure you that the
method I will use to learn what I want to know from you will be
slower and more painful than necessary."