In the soul of a hedgehog

[OctaScratchRock]

Sally felt a vibrating object in her vest. It was NICOLE with a call from Tristina. Sally quickly reached into her vest and pulled out NICOLE, answering the call without a second to spare.

"Tristina?" Asked Sally. "Is this you?"

[tiff15]

without preamble, Tristina began explaining about Robotnik genetically altering a unique strain of mud planning to poison the water supply.

"I'll be happy to give Nichole any files I have on this plan of his, Princess." Tristina finished. "but what are we going to do to protect ourselves from this? by my calculations, this disease would spread like wildfire and affect not only us but all animal life on the planet!"

***
Meanwhile, Robotnik was busy doing damage control of his own. (or rather, Snivley was, and Robotnik was taking the credit) 'WHAT DO YOU MEAN THE HACKER ESCAPED AND SAW THE PLAN??" Robotnik roared, grabbing snivley by the collar of his shirt.

[OctaScratchRock]

"I swear!" said Snively, stuttering. "The camera said she was still locked up!"

Robotnik, as usual, showed no mercy at all.

Meanwhile, Sally requested that Tristina upload all information she had uncovered to NICOLE for analyzing.

"If Robotnik thinks he can poison us," said Sally, "we're just going to have to prove him wrong."

[tiff15]

Tristina bit her lip. she hadn't thought of HOW to upload the files to Nichole when leaving Robotropolis. she had been too focused on leaving. "Princess...to the get the files to Nichole...I'm afraid I must ask permission first." "Tristina, whatever you have to access to transfer the files, I'll do my best to grant you that access."

Tristina gave a weak smile, then looked back at the computer sitting quietly on the wooden table in front of her. "I solemnly swear, Princess, I will not hack Nichole." Tristina said before raising her left hand as her eyes faded from view. "requesting access to storage disk of unit Nichole." Tristina said in monotone voice. on Nichole's screen, lights began to flash. "warning, unauthorized access detected." Nichole announced. "its okay, Nichole. grant Tristina access to storage on holographic disk" said Sally gently "working..." Nichole replied.

after a few moments of silence, Nichole announced. "Files received. display?" "affirmative." said Sally, smiling. as Tristina lowered her hand and her head, a holographic screen appeared in front of Sally with several small paper like projections. as Tristina's eyes faded back in, Sally put her hand over her mouth. "Its just like you said." said Sally as Tristina wheeled to her side. "this could effect all life on mobius." "There must be a loophole we can use." said Tristina thoughtfully, her eyes leaping from one file to the next.

[OctaScratchRock]

"We need you back at Knothole at once!" said Sally, ever worried. "We've got to come up with a plan as quickly as we can, and we need to let everybody know that their drinking water might be toxic!!!"

MEANWHILE

Snively sat on Robotnik's chair, doodling a picture with some old crayons. It was a picture of a gray car.

"Someday, I'll have my revenge...." he muttered.

Suddenly, the door burst open. Robotnik came storming in.

"Don't tell me you're thinking of your blasted PAST again....." said Robotnik.

"Oh----NO!" said Snively, hiding the drawing.

"Good." said Robotnik. "Because I already have OTHER things to be furious about!"

Robotnik pointed at the giant computer screen in his lair. "See this?" he asked. "It's footage of that hacker ESCAPING!!!!"

Snively was already sweating much like a cow at at hamburger joint. "I tried hard!" he pleaded. "I did everything I could have done to try and stop her! She was just too powerful! You can't expect me to be able to just satisfy EVERY mission, including the ones I'm not capable of!"

Robotnik was absolutely furious with Snively's choice of words. He grabbed Snively by the throat, almost choking him to death.

"I can't WHAT?" Robotnik asked in his most menacing tone.

"N-nothing!" Snively said, gasping for air.

"Mmmm.......good." said Robotnik, dropping Snively to the floor.

Robotnik walked out of the room. "She might have gotten away with my plans...." Robotnik thought to himself. "I'd better launch them into action before they have any time to react!"

[tiff15]

Tristina slowed her wheeling to a 'jog' pace as she made her way over Knotholes bridge. As she arrived at the top, she stopped and looked back. "Yo Tiff!" Sonic called smiling...a smile that fell as Tristina held up a hand while she was looking back towards the trees.

Sonic frowned as Tristina lowered her hand and shook her head, muttering "I knew it wouldn't last." "What's up?" Sonic asked, volunteering to push his friend to the large table where the freedom fighters were meeting.

Tristina didn't speak again until Princess Sally was in earshot. "Robotnik knows that I've escaped and that I overheard his plans about the toxic mud. He's moving ahead with his plans ahead of schedule. Princess, if we're going to survive the next 24 hours, I strongly suggest we act as soon as possible. in essence, now."

"what about earlier? you said 'you knew it wouldn't last'" said Sonic. Tristina sighed again. "I set up a dummy loop of me in my cell in hopes that it would cover my escape, and buy Knothole some time. Unfortunately, it expired too soon, and here we are." Tristina explained.

[OctaScratchRock]

Sally looked around the room at everybody.

Rotor was just leaning against a table staring at her, clueless of what to say.

Tails was sitting down on the windowsill, tapping his fingers.

Sally rubbed her hand through her hair. "I doubt there's anything TO do except try to find another source of drinking water." she said. "And I guess we'll need another source of bath water as well."

Deep down, Sally knew those words wouldn't help. In her opinion, though, they were better than standing there and saying nothing blankly.

[tiff15]

Tristina stared down at her lap, frowning. "we cant just give up." she said determinedly, before looking at the Princess. "Princess, may I look at the files again?"

Once Nichole had brought up the files, Tristina examined each one. for a long time, the group sat in silence, only perking up slightly when Tristina switched to a new file and began perusing that one. "Robotnik plans to head to the Great North river to dump the toxic mud." she said at last. "what if I created a encoded knife to seal the hatches which release the virus? also, if Rotor and I work together, we may be able to create a anti toxin to enrich the water. the anti-toxin would attack the virus and neutralize it before it even began to spread!"

The freedom fighters perked up. they had a plan. not just one plan, but two! all eyes fell to Sally. "Princess? thoughts?" Tristina asked.

[OctaScratchRock]

Sally smiled confidently.

"Let's get to it." she said, nodding a little.


-MEANWHILE-


"Don't tell me you're daydreaming about that stupid X3 crash your dad had." said Robotnik.

"No!" said Snively. "I've forgotten about it completely!"

"Good." said Robotnik. "Because we have work to do."

[tiff15]

The following day, Sally and Rotor flew on Dulcy while Bunnie rode on the back of Tristina's wheelchair and Antione clung to Sonic. all were dressed in their thickest coats and parkas to battle the chilly wind of the North.

grouping next to the north river, the freedom fighters discussed their plan.

"Okay, Tiff, when the blimp arrives, throw your knife, then keep Ro 'buttnik and Snotly distracted. Sal and Rote will start dumping the anti toxin stuff along the river. Antione and Bunnie, you guys will hold off any swatbots that start to attack. Dulc, watch Tiffs back and keep the hover units off her. If all goes to plan, chrome dome wont know what hit him!"

"Let's Do it to it!"

the group then hid among the mountains to wait for Robotnik to arrive. Tristina held three glowing transparent knives in her lap, her wheelchair ready to switch to hover mode at a moments notice.

[OctaScratchRock]

Over the hill, Robotnik's convoy spotted the Freedom Fighters incoming.

Robotnik began to think.

"Now, what's my best plan for attack?" he thought. "Do I want to try and flank them or do I want a frontal attack?"

Robotnik studied the area and decided that surrounding them on three sides would be best.

He gave the orders to his SWATbots on the move to attack.

[tiff15]

with a flick of her fingers, Tristina was airborn, her wheelchairs wheels (moved to beneath and behind her wheelchair and transformed into spinning fan blades ). she sensed a hover unit's laser pass her shoulder, but ignored it as Dulcy's icy dragon breath responded in kind.

flying low to not attract Robotnik's attention, Tristina flung the knives with almost laser-like precision, they sank into the funnels that would release the toxin and began to glow blue.

"Snivley!" Robotnik bellowed. "douse them in the mud toxin!"

"I can't sir!" Snivley yelped, frantically pressing buttons. "both the main and emergency release hatches have been sealed."

"sealed?!" Robotnik hissed, "BY WHAT?"

as if to answer, Tristina popped up in her hovering wheelchair, winked, then held up her hand as Robotnik's arm began to glow blue.

"Let's play a game, Ro 'buttnik." Tristina growled, smiling evilly. Robotnik's robotic fist then clenched and swung to connect with the side of his head. "Stop hitting yourself. Stop hitting yourself. Stop hitting yourself." Tristina laughed at each connect.

[OctaScratchRock]

As Robotnik struggled to contain his rage, his army were suffering as well. Sonic charged up a spindash and blasted through three SWATbots in a row. Sally's skills with a laser proved powerful as she kept the robots at a distance.

However, Tristina was so happy and excited beating up Robotnik that she forgot one key detail. The gigantic vats of toxic mud were now beginning to crack. Being sealed had overrun the pressure of the vats, and they were now about to burst!

Tristina was only able to notice when it was too late.

*BOOM*

Sally looked up. The vats had burst open and the toxic goop was flooding everywhere. SWATbots were retreating. Robotnik was genuinely terrified. Of course, he tried not to show it.

[tiff15]

"Okay, time for plan B" Tristina muttered, flicking the control stick and flying down to Sally. "Princess, get everyone out of here! I'll use the blimp to try to create a dam!"

The Princess nodded, then raced over to Sonic. with another flick of her joystick, Tristina flew towards the blimp and waved to Dulcy to get her attention. "Can you freeze as much of that muck as you can to give me time to make a dam with Robuttnik's blimp?" Tristina asked, smiling when the dragon gave her a mock salute then flew towards the leaking tanks. "don't get too close, though!" Tristina warned as she flew towards the cockpit to see Robotnik already scrambling towards his own hovercraft.

shaking her head, Tristina mumbled "coward" and created her signature full light keyboard to begin to hack the blimps controls.

[OctaScratchRock]

Robotnik was already trying to start up his hovercraft. He pressed the starter over and over but it simply did him no good. He started looking around for any signs of damage to the vehicle.

It didn't take him very long to find it; mud was swallowing up the vehicle and had jammed the engines shut.

For the first time in ages, Robotnik genuinely feared for his own life.