#1 - 'A Dragon By The Tale' "A message from Uncle Chuck!" As the tedious droning of another strategy session with Sally was broken by this exclamation, Sonic opened his eyes and glanced around. Perched on the window was his uncle's messenger beast, cooing softly and rubbing the side of its bill against Sally's hand as she slipped the rolled up note out of its holster. "What's it say, Sal?" he asked, hopping to his feet and wandering over to stare curiously over her shoulder. A brief skim was enough to reassure him that his uncle was fine, and this was just business, so he let his mind wander again, rocking back and forth on his heels. After a few moments went by and Sally still hadn't replied, he grinned impishly and gave her a couple of kisses at the corner of her jaw. "What the...? Sonic, your sense of timing is bizarre, did you know that?" she scolded him predictably, and in response to his challenging grin continued, "Oddly enough, Uncle Chuck found some information I've been hoping to get ahold of for years in one of Robotnik's operation reports." "And that is...?" "The location of the crystal mines!" Sally declared proudly. "Exsqueeze me? I'm... supposed to get excited about this?" Rolling her eyes, his fiancee went into lecture mode. "All of the gemstones and rare crystals for the power couplings, high-bus ROM chips, and the lasers for the swatbots are mined from a single location, dear. It used to be fairly common knowledge, so Nicole was never programmed with it, but there hasn't been anybody to ASK for eleven years. If we can hit these mines, Sonic, we can bring Robotropolis to a grinding halt for weeks!" A short mental translation later, Sonic replied, "And work El Blobbo into a spitting frenzy?" Grinning evilly, Sally nodded. "That too." An hour later he, Sally, and a couple of packloads of timed explosives were loaded on board Dulcy. "We've got to strike fast," Sally had explained to their grumpy steed as they roused her from her mid-day nap, "I don't want to take the chance that Robotnic might have some idea of what information we've intercepted. We've never shown the slightest interest in this site, so unless he comes up with a good reason to defend it, it should be laughably guarded." Dulcy yawned for the fourteenth time, stretching out her wings and bouncing once or twice on her massive haunches to get the measure of her passengers and cargo. "So where'm I headed, anyway?" the dragoness inquired. "To the Great Unknown - and Father Mountain." A small buzzer echoed through the huge metal chamber, drawing Snively's attention to the monitors. Switching frequencies he found a SpyEye on patrol near the edge of the Great Forest, and idly switched off the alarm to peer intently at the tiny shape on the screen. It was definitely a dragon - and rules were very strict about that. "Sir?" "What IS it, Snively?" growled his uncle, not even bothering to look up from his blueprints. Why the old toad bothered putting them on a stand was beyond Snively. Julian's fat belly would do the job just as well. "Dragon spotted in sector fourteen, Sir," he answered respectfully, "headed into the Great Unknown. Do you think it might be headed for the nest?" Robotnic's eyes flicked over to the monitor bank, and he barked, "You idiot, that's the Hedgehog's dragon. He's on some fool training mission again. I assume you didn't take this sort of eventuality into account, so there's no way to get an observer to tell where they land?" "No, Sir," Snively mumbled humbly, smart enough not to mention just who it was that set up the SpyEye patrol patterns in the first place. Glancing up from his feet, he was rather disturbed to find that his uncle hadn't forgotten the matter, and in fact was staring intently at the receding dot on the monitor. "Snively..." Julian beckoned distractedly. "Yes, Sir?" he asked, openly and honestly relieved that his Uncle was too thoughtful to work himself into a rage. He didn't bother to hide it, either - it always salved Julian's ego to know that Snively was terrified of him. "That dragon," his corpulant relative mused, "is a weak link. The Freedom Fighters depend on her far too much for extended travel. I need - to know everything I can about their kind. Go fetch me one, Snively. At once!" Snively nodded, scampering out, trying to look as horrified by this pronouncement as possible. Really, though, although the dragons gave him the creeps - roboticized or not - he was glad for the chance to get away from his uncle for a little while, and the Great Unknown was one of the most beautiful parts of Mobius to him. It was so - bare. Sally leaned forward, gripping the handles on Dulcy's harness as the huge stone face of Father Mountain hove into view. A moment's irritation flashed through her - they'd been here dozens of times in the past eleven years, and never known that on the other side of this landmark was one of Robotnik's most vulnerable targets! Pointing down towards the base she instructed her mount carefully, "Land right over there, Dulcy - the entrance should be on the exact opposite side from the face, and we want to stay out of the view of any guards." "Land - on a mountainside? Are you sure about this, Sally?" the dragoness inquired nervously. Sally sighed, and weighed the odds of being able to get away with false assurances. "No, but we'll give it a try." "It's your funeral." muttered her steed, tilting downwards towards the indicated landing site. Sally steeled herself as the wall of rock began looming closer. Dulcy watched it too, her eyes widening until with a whimper the adolescent dragon turned her head away and cried, "I can't do it, Sally!" Alarmed, the princess grabbed tight hold of the harness knobs and opened her mouth to say something soothing as Dulcy flapped furiously, trying to slow her descent and avoid impacting the massive stone ledge she was headed for. Unfortunately, before Sally could instruct her to veer off to try again, there was a jarring but not particularly forceful thump, and to Dulcy and Sally's mutual surprise, the squirrel princess found her mount sitting on all fours on the shelf, clinging with her forelegs to the wall. "Huh? Wha - AIYEE!" yelped Sonic, woken from his nap by the landing and tumbling backwards off the dragon's back. Doing a neat flip, the hedgehog managed to get his feet against the steep mountainside and began pedaling furiously, his shoes making a loud whirring noise as they ground tractionlessly against the rock, until his descent slowed, stopped, and with a graceful jump reached the ledge beside Dulcy. "Ta-daaaa!" announced her fiancee, bowing, and despite herself Sally grinned and clapped softly. It HAD been an impressive feat of acrobatics on very short notice. "Very good, Sonic." she told him, letting a slight note of condescension creep into her voice, "Now, if you can make just a little more noise, the swatbots will come to us and save us the bother of trying to sneak past them." "You worry too much, Sal," he chided smugly, "Even if they did spot us, I could handle them." "Well, why don't you prove it by going to distract them while I get our shipment into the mines?" "No prob!" crowed her blue boyfriend, giving her a saucy wink before speeding off down to the ground. Sally glanced around the corner just long enough to make sure the guards (there were four of them - she'd have to remember that when they came back out) were responding in typical 'Hedgehog alert' fashion. "Okay, Dulcey, Sonic and I are going down into the mines to collapse them," she explained absently as she slung one of the packs of bombs over her shoulders, "You stay here, and try not to be seen! If we're not out by the sundown, or the time these go off, something's seriously wrong, but don't come in yourself." "No worries on THAT regard," Dulcy muttered back, craning her long neck around to get a glance at the dark hole leading down under the mountain. "Good girl," Sally commended, patting her flank. As she scrambled cautiously down the loose rock face to the sandy ground below, it occured to her that maybe they should bring Tails along to wait with Dulcey next time. They seemed to get along pretty well, and she knew children hated to be left alone to do nothing for long periods of time. Dulcy was about her own age, technically, but dragons were weird. She really seemed much younger. Shelving that thought for another time, the red-headed princess peeked into the mouth of the tunnel, keeping a sharp ear out for any noises that might indicate more robot guards. She sniffed at the pungent atmosphere - the Great Unknown lay along a fault, and from the smell of this place there was volcanic activity lying dormant. The heat would probably be intense down in the mines - they'd just have to sneak as far down as they could before planting the charges. Slipping gratefully into the cover of darkness, she lay her packs down on the bedrock floor and awaited Sonic's arrival. Rocking back and forth on her huge, kangaroo-like heels, Dulcey wondered what was taking Sonic and Sally so long in there. It felt like she'd been waiting here for hours already! This had to be the single most boring mission they'd ever been on. There was nothing to look at, nothing to do but sit around, and not even any trees to nap in. Why this portion of Mobius was referred to as the 'Great Unknown' was quickly becoming apparent to her. It was too BORING for anybody to explore. She crept as stealthily as she could to the edge of the shelf, sneaking a look around the corner again towards the mine entrance. She half expected to see the two of them out front kissing. She'd once gotten Nicole to time one of their kisses at a full three minutes, and they seemed to grab any excuse to go at it. Didn't they know that SOME people were impatient to get back home and resume their naps? Dulcy slapped her tail impatiently against the ledge at the thought, although the four robots stationed at the entrance told her plainly that her riders were still inside getting ready to blow the place to kingdom come. The sharp impact made a noise much louder than she'd expected, and knocked pebbles and a small cloud of sand loose from the ledge. Glancing back worriedly, she didn't notice the rocks begin to move under her own feet until she was already in motion, sliding helplessly down the side of the mountain! "Whoa-oa-oh!" she shouted, flailing her arms and tail and tail as she tried to remain standing. Then it occured to her that she could just fly down. She spread her wings - and spilled out onto the sands, kicking up a dune as she tumbled several wingspans away from the wall. "INTRUDER" blared harsh mechanical voices, and Dulcey winced. Why her? At least they obviously hadn't seen her yet. Maybe - but she could hear the thumping of robotic feet on the sand as the guards prepared to round the corner. Taking a deep and hurried breath, she leaped around it first, landing squarely in front of two of the 'bots. Then she exhaled just SO, forcing the air out as a gout of flame that washed over the first robot. The armour plating was undamaged, of course, but from the strangled croaking noises it was making the heat had damaged something internal. Good enough. Dulcy glanced around for the other two robots even as her tail lashed out to wrap tightly around the second. There they were, staying at the entrance like the good little watch-beasts they were, and drawing a bead on her with their lasers. Twisting her hips, she plucked her ill-fated opponent off the ground, and chucked it as hard as she could towards its companions. A couple of shots buzzed through the air, impacting her unwilling shield, but failed to stop it from crashing into one of the remaining robots and knocking the other aside. Even before it hit, though, Dulcy's powerful hind legs were clawing at the sand, propelling her towards the final robot. Before it could take aim again, she leaped into the air, lifting her feet to crash violently into its chest. Shoving downwards, she raked her claws into the metal plating as she slammed it against the remains of its fellows, and spun around in mid-air to land in the guard stance Bunnie had taught her at the mouth of the cave. Nothing moved. Sighing with relief, Dulcey relaxed enough to puff up with pride. She'd just nailed four swatbots all by herself! Even Bunnie would hesitate to tackle that many. Grinning, she mimed the tail-throw which had so successfully dispatched two of them at once. Then a grating robotic tone declared, "FREEDOM FIGHTER - CAPTURE BY ORDER OF ROBOTNIK!" Whipping around, she forced a blast of cold out with what breath she had, and lashed out as hard as she could with her tail at the mechanical figure looming behind her! Sally leaned against the rock wall, gasping for breath. Beside and a little ahead, Sonic paused too, wiping sweat from his forehead. "I'm glad that's the last one," she panted. "It's an oven down there!" "You ain't kiddin', Sal," Sonic agreed, for once too tired to let his ego do the talking, "I just hope we got those things planted far enough down." "Oh, they'll do the job," she grinned, "and even if they don't bury his mining robots in rubble, they'll collapse all the tunnels between them and the surface. Robotnik will have to start all over again from scratch." Sonic nodded, returning her smirk. Together they rose, adjusting their empty packs and trudging on towards the surface. Too tired to indulge in much speculation, Sally just counted the intersections as Nicole's soft illumination revealed them, and made sure they were headed in the right direction. "FREEDOM FIGHTERS!" blared a voice behind her. Spinning around, Sally found herself facing dwarfed under the towering figure of a roboticized dragon! "DETAIN BY ORDER OF-" It got no farther. Before she could even react, a glowing yellow circle spun lazily over her head and landed around one of its skinny arms. As electricity arced crawled across its metal skin and its words choked off into garbled shrieks, she silently thanked her boyfriend for his quick-thinking response - this wasn't their enemy, and she'd have hated to have had to damage one of Robotnik's innocent victims in order to get away. Slowly, the cybernetic mockery of a dragon rose back up, eyelids clicking faintly as they snapped open and shut over light sensors as to its confusion the occupant of that unfortunate shell found itself under its own control for the first time since it was put through the roboticizer. As it regathered its bearings, Sally looked the metal frame over curiously. It was much thinner than Dulcey or any of the other dragons she'd met - the wings were larger, and the hips were not nearly as exaggeratedly larger than the shoulders. Missing, too, was a pouch. A male, she speculated? "I'm - I'm ME again!" the slightly metallic but unquestionably masculine voice declared in shock. "It's been... I - I don't know..." "I'd say about eleven years, sport." Answered Sonic, stepping up beside her. The dragon nodded, and shuddered, producing a soft rattling noise. "Eleven years in these tunnels..." The wings flared, scraping the walls, and red lights blazed in the his eyes. "Robotnik!" he hissed furiously. Then, just as suddenly, they collapsed against his back, and he asked his rescuers in a worried tone, "Is this permanent?" Sally's faint admiration for his rapid acclimation to his situation mixed with deep regret as she informed him mildly, "I'm sorry, but no. You'll only be free for a little while. Still, you're lucky Sonic and I caught you when you did, because we came here to blow up the - " she choked off, horrified. "The others!" gasped the dragon, swiveling its head back to scan down the corridor it had emerged. "Please, Miss!" he begged, "You've got to stop this! I think we're all down here - those that Robotnik managed to take alive. If you don't spare these mines, my entire race will be wiped out!" Sally glanced over at Sonic. He shook his head grimly. "No way, Sal. You know how long it takes to disarm even one of Rotor's bombs. This whole mountain will fall on us before we've made a dent." "Maybe evacuation?" Sally guessed. Sonic frowned, "I dunno, it's pretty hot down there. I don't think I could get deep enough to get more than one or two to follow me." "I think I can help there," offered the dragon fervently. "As soon as you see the first of us in a tunnel, tell it 'Priority Seventeen' and go to the next one. That's the personal survival priority, and whoever you notify should have enough free will to choose to warn the others before heading after you. It'll give you enough of a headstart to escape capture, too." Sonic regarded the winged robot smugly. "I don't think that's going to be a problem, chromie," he chuckled, "And speakin' of speed, I gotta put it on." "I'll go ahead and get the guards out of the way!" Sally shouted down the tunnel at the rapidly accelerating hedgehog's back. Glancing back up towards the surface, she pondered a strategy for doing so. She was a crack shot with a Swatbot arm laser, and if she could get ahold of one could probably drill the other three before they could get her or her companion. Swatbots were lousy shots, probably because for all his genius Robotnik didn't have the patience for the intricate programming it would take, and Snively didn't have the motivation. A strange noise interrupted her as she prepared to advise her new companion on a plan to remove their opposition. It was a horrible keening sound, disturbing to listen to at some strange level that reminded her of fingernails on a blackboard, and it was echoing up from the direction of the entrance. Wincing, she gestured to the dragon and hurried up the rough-hewn corridor towards the mouth of the tunnel. Blinking against the harshness of the daylight, she found Dulcy sitting in the midst of a scattered heap of robot parts, her head tilted back to the sky and her jaws parted to produce that heart-wrenching wail in a long, continuous cry of agony. Held clutched against her belly was the lifeless head of a roboticized dragon. The neck had been snapped in two, and little crystals of ice clung to the jagged edges. Around her feet lay the rest of the body, shattered into bits and most of it still frozen. "Eleven years a slave in that egg-forsaken hole, and I'm greeted at the exit by a pretty girl," whispered the voice of the dragon beside her. Dumbfounded, Sally was already framing a caustic reply that compared his timing to Sonic's, when it occured to her that the howling had stopped. Dulcey's train of thought had been derailed as severely as her own. "You're..." Dulcey whispered hoarsely. Metal clattered against metal as the mauled head fell from her arms. "My name is Malthius," introduced the mechanized dragon smoothly, reaching over to take one of her hands in his own. "And I see you're a protector. So young, and lovely, with that kind of burden on your shoulders..." he continued sadly. Dulcey nodded mutely. "I'm so sorry for my lack of manners," explained Malthius, "But - it has not been pleasant down there these many years, and after a while I didn't even dare to hope that someone would come rescue me. And I never dreamed..." he trailed off, his frozen expression changing only slightly in what Sally read as a realization of the rather astounding inappropriateness of his flattery at the moment. Dulcey was staring furiously at a patch of ground a few feet to one side, and Sally guessed that if it were possible the dragoness would be blushing. Then a loud whine heralded the arrival of one of Robotnik's armed transports. As it pulled up, Snively frowned into the monitors. The guard compliment was smashed? What was that standing in the - a dragon! Around him his guard escort seemed to come to the same conclusion, and the hoverbots screeched through his communicator, "FREEDOM FIGHTERS SPOTTED. INTERCEPTING TO CAPTURE. He sneered in satisfaction as he held back and toyed with the sights on the transport's turret guns. Down below, the figure in front dived under the cover of an especially large rock jutting out of the sand, while two others withdrew into the mine entrance. For a brief moment he got a good look at one of them. A dragon! Snively's blood ran cold. He'd warned his fool uncle not to take any chances, but the toad had insisted on roboticizing as many as he could get his pudgy hands on, and now the Freedom Fighters had found some way to partially reverse the roboticization process for them! His mind filled with the horrible image of what the full compliment of dragons in that mine could do to the garrison of Robotropolis, Snively stabbed at the external speaker button. "ATTENTION SWATBOTS! OVERRIDE DIRECTIVE - UNITS FOUR, SIX, NINE AND TWELVE, KEEP THE FREEDOM FIGHTERS PINNED. THE REST OF YOU TRAIN YOUR WEAPONS ON THE CAVE MOUTH AND BLAST ANYTHING THAT TRIES TO ESCAPE!" Sonic skidded to a halt behind Sally, and briefly considered some kind of surprise. He dismissed it - from the sounds of Snively's panicked announcement, things had already gotten bad. Snively's mere presence indicated that they were in trouble. Then he was nearly deafened by a challenging, hate-filled bellow. Risking a glance, he saw Dulcey spring out from behind a boulder. Roaring her fury, she ignored the few wild shots released at her by the two robots keeping their blasters trained in her general direction. Snatching them up as if they were little dolls, or old fruit, she smacked them together and tossed them sharply into the stone she had just abandoned. Then, not even waiting to see them fragment, she leaped up and latched all four sets of claws into Snively's command vehicle. "Sonic!" hissed his fiancee. "I know. And in a few minutes, we're going to be up to our ears in hostile robo-drags!" He snatched the ring that still dangled from the arm of their temporary comrade, taking a deep breath and sparing a brief thought for Uncle Chuck as the remaining energy flooded into his body, and the container disintigrated. Outside, eight Swatbots stood with lasers leveled straight at the door he was about to bolt through, while two more tried to pick Dulcey off of the rapidly deteriorating surface of the transport as she vented her rage on it. It was a miracle they hadn't hit yet - and it would be a miracle if he made it out there to save her. "Love you, Sal." he whispered, placing his hand momentarily on her shoulder, and then shucked his doubts aside for the task at hand. He shifted his toes, activating the frictionless feature on his sneaks, and spent a brief moment letting his legs work up a proper speed before releasing it. He blazed out of the entrance, listening proudly to the shots echoing uselessly behind him - and flinched at the hot pain of a laser burn as one of them scored his back. A grazing wound - his quills would look funny for a few days, but no prob. Running priorities through his head, he figured the eight at the entrance would probably continue to ignore him. Snively had them on some kind of priority lock-out. So he curled up into a ball, leaping off his feet and rolling forward to put just the right amount of spin into his jump. Agony stabbed through his back as he bounced off the first robot right where he'd been scored, and was replaced by the unpleasantly sharp thunk of his head against a second mechanical torso. He twisted around and landed deftly on his feet, checking his targets. Both were sliced up and battered fairly bad, so he dismissed them and turned to the transport. Dulcey had done a number on it. The guns were a glob of metallic slag, and there were dents and deep scratches everywhere. Currently she was slamming her tail repeatedly against the wind-shield in an attempt to crack it, and from the way her fingers were digging into the frame, planned to tear the hover vehicle open like a chili dog bag when she did. Sonic crouched, gathering the dregs of the power ring, and vaulted into the air! His fingers closed on an out-cropping, and he swung himself up, crawling over to Dulcey. She was still screaming, the mindless, animal cry of hatred drowning out the more feeble wails of Snively in the cockpit. Sonic didn't know how long it would be until the hoverbots stationed outside the cave entrance turned around and used their guns on the two of them, and didn't want to find out. Unfortunately, the dragoness didn't exactly seem in the mood to listen to reason. "Yo, Dulce!" he shouted at her, not even sure he could make himself heard. "What do you think you're doing?" "What does it look like? I'm getting ready to rip that balding little weasel in half!" she barked back at him, not pausing in her efforts to shatter the rapidly cracking reinforced glass, but at least chilling with the annoying wail. Sonic had to admit it was a pretty good idea, but didn't think now was the time to mention it. "That's great, Dulce," he goaded her skillfully, "But while you're doing that, those swatbutts are gonna be drilling your relatives full of holes!" Dulcey's head swivveled to face the massed warrior machines, even as a final blow staved in the wind-shield, sending shards crashing down around a cowering Snively. Repeating her roar, she gathered her legs up underneath her and sprung off the metal roof towards the remaining metal troops. Snively wasn't idle, either. Racing to the controls of his vessel, he screeched, "Swatbots! Priority zero, activate! Get that dragon!" This declared, he grabbed the throttle and jerked it to one side. A quick hop prevented Sonic's legs from being pulled out from under him, and instead he landed smoothly on the sand, watching Snively's frenzied and wobbly escape for a second before turning to see if there was anything left of the hoverbots for him to help Dulcey with. A loud rumble filled the air, and the ground shivered slightly under Sally's feet as the bombs did their work beneath the stern visage of the oddly-carved mountain. She sighed in relief, smacked her fist against Sonic's in a silent aknowledgement of another hard-won victory for the two of them, and informed her steed gently, "Dulcey, we need to go now - Robotnik will probably be here with half the troops on Mobius any minute now." She decided not to mention her worry that one of the roboticized dragons would spot them and do Robotnik's work for him. "She's right, little Wyrm," Malthius informed Dulcey gravely as the dragoness's hands clenched possessively around his own. Sally wasn't sure what that meant, but he'd been calling her that from the moment the battle was over, and from the signs of recognition on Dulcey's face it seemed to be more than a pet name. "But... I don't...," Dulcey babbled awkwardly. Malthius reached forward to press a metallic wing-tip to her lips, quieting her. "The - treatment is wearing off, Dulcey. It's getting - rapidly harder to retain control. I don't want you to be here when I change back. The - protector instincts are - too strong in you." From the looks of him, Sally didn't think he could keep this up much longer. There was a ragged tone to his voice, and it was getting worse from one second to the next. Dulcey's eyes gleamed brightly as she stared into the other dragon's black and red sensors. No tears came, though, and she turned sharply away from Malthius and came trudging towards the princess and Sonic, mumbling hoarsely, "C'mon, let's go home." Sally slung herself up into the saddle silently, and looked back over her shoulder at their all too brief companion as Dulcey clearly didn't dare to do. He was twitching, his limbs flexing and straightening as he obviously fought off the growing compulsion to try to apprehend them. It was a sobering sight, even without Dulcey's quivering flanks to remind her that the dragoness had formed a strong crush on him. As Sonic's hands fastened around the russet-haired squirrel's waist, Dulcey ran a few steps and pumped her wings, rising into the air and angling towards the Great Forest and Knothole. One of Sonic's arms slid free of Sally's torso, and the hedgehog rubbed his back and the hole in his spike tenderly. "Can't you step on it, Dulce? This thing's killing me." "Sonic Hedgehog!" gasped Sally in shock. "Have you no shame?" "Yeah!" agreed their mount. "You better treat me with a little more respect, hedgehog - I'm gonna be a Wyrm!" At this inscrutable declaration Dulcey burst into ragged peals of laughter, and sped them erratically onwards over the sun-cooked desert sands towards home.