FROM TIME TO TIME

                   A Sonic the Hedgehog fanfic

                       by Daniel J. Drazen


PAUSE FOR BOURGEOIS LEGALITIES: This story is copyright (c) 1999 by
the author.  The characters and situations are the property of
Sega, Archie Comic Publications and/or DiC Productions. 
Reproduction and distribution of this fanfic is rabidly encouraged
unless you try ripping me off and taking credit for it yourself. 
All the normal restrictions under U.S. copyright laws (Title 17, U.
S. Code) apply.  A special "Thanks" goes to JDL for writing some
words about hope that found their way into this story.


Time: Following the Archie Comic continuity, somewhere between
"Endgame" and "Brave New World."

=================================================================

     "And Tails steals the puck from Antoine!  He moves up the
center, dodging past Bunnie.  It's just Sonic between him and the
goal.  He shoots.  It's incredible!  He got the puck past Sonic!"
     Wiping the sweat from his brow, Tails shouldered his dirt
hockey stick and listened to the wind moving through the trees of
the Great Forest.  It sounded like cheering.
     Then with a heavy sigh he started walking back toward the
Great Oak Slide which was the entrance to Knothole.  He let both
his tails and his hockey stick drag on the ground behind him.
     Tails never thought he'd admit it, but things just weren't as
much fun as they used to be now that Robotnik was gone.  Sure,
everyone in Knothole had partied heartily when they realized that
it was true.  Tails had never seen so much kissing in his life!
     But almost immediately, Tails noticed that Sally was acting
different.  She busied herself by day sending out scouting parties,
trying to communicate with other Freedom Fighter groups, and making
lists using her handheld computer, Nicole.  And when he'd ask Aunt
Sally when she was doing, she'd say something like: "Tails, honey,
this is when the REAL work begins.  And it won't be easy."
     Tails reached the stump that was the entrance to the Great Oak
Slide, then looked up to get an idea of where the sun was in the
sky.  He figured he'd been off by himself playing dirt hockey for
at least an hour.  Propping his hockey stick against the stump, he
revved up his tails and dived inside to begin his descent to the
subfloor of the Great Forest, where Knothole lay safe and secure.
     As he slipped through the darkness of the slide, he found
himself wondering yet again why he didn't feel any different. 
Knothole, through some quirk of the physical world brought about by
the explosion that ended Robotnik's life, was now three hours ahead
of Robotropolis and the Great Forest.  If you move three hours
ahead or behind in a matter of seconds, Tails told himself, you
should be able to FEEL it.  But he never did.
     Not that he knew what good it did to be three hours ahead,
anyway.  About the only ones who did seem to know were Bunnie and
Antoine, who had been spending more time with each other now than
they ever did during the war against Robotnik.  Two days ago, in
fact, they had watched the sun set in Knothole as they just sat
next to each other saying hardly anything.  And then Bunnie
suggested to Antoine that the two of them go back up the Oak Slide
and watch it all over again!  Tails couldn't understand that,
either; he thought sunsets were kind of boring.
     Emerging from the Slide, he paused.  The sound was the first
thing that got his attention.  It was the kind of sound you heard
in the autumn, when dead leaves blow across dry grass and barren
tree branches creak sadly above.  But this was late spring, Tails
reminded himself, almost summer.  Something was wrong.
     He then noticed someone lying on the ground in front of him. 
It was Rosie, the contents of the wicker basket she had been
carrying spilled out onto the grass, grass which was suddenly
withered and brown.  Tails quickly flew over to her.
     "Are you all right?" he began to ask her.  Then he gasped in
horror.  Rosie's eyes were wide open, but dull and glazed.  Her
mouth hung open as well, as if in a silent cry for help.  She
didn't move.
     "Help!" Tails called out.  "Somebody help!  It's Rosie!!"
     There was no answer, except for the wind.  Looking at her
again, something in Tails made him realize that there was nothing
that he or anyone else could do for her.  She was dead.
     "Sonic!!" Tails called out at the top of his lungs.  It was
the first and only name that came to mind.  But there was no
answer.  Frantically looking around, he saw that the doorway to
Rotor's hut was open.  He flew over there.
     The sight inside turned Tails's blood to ice.  All of the
Knothole Freedom Fighters -- Sonic, Sally, Bunnie, Antoine, Rotor
-- lay on the floor of the hut, as motionless as Rosie.
     Tails was too frightened to cry out; he knew in his young
heart that it was useless, that there was nobody to hear.  He
staggered inside the hut a couple of steps before dropping to the
ground, burying his head in his arms and crying as he had never
cried before.
     Finally he stopped, not because he was no longer sad, but from
sheer exhaustion.  He had no idea what had happened.  He didn't
know what to do.  He didn't know where to go.  He felt as empty and
lifeless as a doll.
     It was only then that he heard it.  It wasn't very loud, but
he heard it:
     "PLEASE RESPOND, SALLY."
     It was a woman's voice, but muffled, coming from somewhere he
couldn't make out.
     "PLEASE RESPOND, SALLY."
     Moving to the center of the hut, closer to where the bodies
lay, he heard it again, still muffled but clearer.  It was a flat
voice, speaking with no particular sense of urgency.
     "PLEASE RESPOND, SALLY."
     Suddenly Tails realized what he was hearing.  Approaching the
prone form of Princess Sally, he forced himself to take hold of her
shoulder and roll her lifeless form onto her side.  And there
underneath her lay Sally's handheld computer, Nicole.
     "PLEASE RESPOND, SALLY.  PLEASE RESPOND, SALLY.  PLEASE
RESPOND, SALLY.  PLEASE RESPOND, SALLY."
     His hand trembling, Tails bent down and picked up Nicole, who
stopped repeating herself.  "Uh..." Tails began, not sure what to
say.
     "PLEASE IDENTIFY YOURSELF," the computer asked in a steady,
unemotional voice.
     "I, uh, I'm Tails."
     "PLEASE RETURN ME TO PRINCESS SALLY."
     "I...I can't!  She...."
     Nicole said nothing.  She just sort of sat there on Tails's
palm, with two of her lights flashing.
     "She's dead!" Tails managed to say, before starting to cry
again.
     "PLEASE STATE CAUSE OF DEATH," Nicole replied flatly.
     "I don't know!"  Tails was clearly anguished.  "Everybody's
dead!  And I don't know how or why!"
     "ANALYSIS REQUIRED.  PLEASE FOLLOW MY INSTRUCTIONS."
     Tails was both baffled and a little upset as Nicole started
giving him instructions.  How can she be so calm about this, he
wondered.  Doesn't she care!?  Then he realized that Nicole
probably wasn't programmed to care.  That didn't make him feel any
better, though.
     Following Nicole's directions, he obtained blood samples from
three of his fallen friends, along with bits of leaves and a couple
of blades of grass from around Knothole.  He inserted these into
Nicole according to the computer's directions, then waited for what
seemed like forever as the computer just sat there and blinked. 
Unable to look at the bodies of his friends any longer, he left her
sitting on a table and started walking out of the hut.
     "ANALYSIS COMPLETE."
     Turning on his heels, Tails dashed back inside and picked up
Nicole.  "What happened?" he asked, almost afraid to hear the
answer.
     "BASED ON AVAILABLE DATA, THE FOLLOWING SCENARIO APPEARS TO
DESCRIBE WHAT HAPPENED: SONIC RETURNED TO KNOTHOLE FROM A
SCAVENGING EXPEDITION TO ROBOTROPOLIS WITH WHAT HE AND EVERYBODY
ELSE THOUGHT TO BE A KEY COMPONENT TO ROTOR'S DEROBOTICIZER. 
FOREGOING THE USUAL TESTING PROCEDURES, IT WAS INSTALLED AND AN
ATTEMPT WAS MADE TO DEROBOTICIZE BUNNIE.  HOWEVER, ACTIVATION OF
THE UNIT CAUSED THE COMPONENT SONIC HAD BROUGHT TO RELEASE A SHORT-
LIVED BUT POWERFUL BIOTOXIN WHICH SPREAD THROUGHOUT KNOTHOLE AND
KILLED ALL INHABITANTS BEFORE DISPERSING.  TRACES OF THE BIOTOXIN
WERE FOUND IN THE PLANT AND CELL TISSUES SUPPLIED FOR ANALYSIS."
     "But what went wrong?"
     "ANALYSIS SUGGESTS THAT RELEASE OF THE BIOTOXIN WAS
INTENTIONAL.  IT IS LIKELY THAT THE COMPONENT WAS DEVISED BY DR.
ROBOTNIK TO RESEMBLE A DEROBOTICIZER COMPONENT, AND THAT SOMEONE
BRINGING IT INTO KNOTHOLE WAS PART OF HIS INTENT."
     "Are...are you certain?"
     "THEORY CANNOT BE CONFIRMED WITHOUT ACCESSING DR. ROBOTNIK'S
CORE COMPUTER MATRIX IN ROBOTROPOLIS.  THERE MAY BE AN ENTRY IN ONE
OF THE WEAPONS FILES THAT WOULD VERIFY THE INFORMATION."
     "What good would that do?" Tails asked as he sat down
dejectedly on the floor.  "Everybody's still dead."  He sniffled,
then wiped his nose on the back of his glove.  "You can't change
that."
     "PERHAPS YOU CAN."
     "Huh?  What are you talking about?"
     "KNOTHOLE CONTINUES TO EXIST IN A TIMESTREAM THAT PRECEDES
ROBOTROPOLIS BY THREE HOURS.  GIVEN THAT THE TIME OF DEATH OCCURRED
41 MINUTES 24 SECONDS AGO, THAT LEAVES A WINDOW OF OVER TWO HOURS
BEFORE THE DEATHS OF EVERYONE IN KNOTHOLE WILL BE CONFIRMED."
     "But you can't change time!  Can you?"
     By way of answer, Nicole projected a holographic image in
front of Tails.  It was Sally.  Tails's heart skipped a beat when
he first saw her, then sank again when he looked over his shoulder
at Sally's lifeless form on the floor.  The image began speaking:

     "Diary entry: It's been two days since Sonic and I tried to
use the Time Stones to go back to the past and stop Robotnik.  We
failed, but I was able to alert Rosie as to what was going to
happen so that she could get away.  And now Rosie is here, and
Sonic and I seem to be the only ones who remember that there was a
time when Rosie DIDN'T live here.  It's all very confusing, but I'm
still glad things worked out the way they did.  I mean, Rosie's
always been like a...."

     The image of Sally was starting to get choked up, but before
she could say anything else the image vanished.  Tails looked at
the empty space where the image had been, then at Nicole.  "You
mean Rosie wasn't supposed to...She would've been...?"
     "AFFIRMATIVE."
     Tails told himself that it was impossible.  Rosie had ALWAYS
been in Knothole!  But he couldn't imagine Saklly saying what she
did if it weren't the truth.  And if Rosie could be saved...
     "We...we gotta DO something!  Where'd they get the Time
Stones?"
     "THE LOCATION OF THE FLOATING ISLAND WHERE THEY FOUND THE TIME
STONES IS UNKNOWN.  BESIDES, IT WOULD TAKE TOO MUCH TIME TO LOCATE. 
SUGGESTED ALTERNATIVE COURSE OF ACTION: LOCATE AND DESTROY THE
COMPONENT BEFORE SONIC CAN BRING IT INTO KNOTHOLE FROM
ROBOTROPOLIS.  FAILURE TO DO SO WILL RESULT IN THE TIMESTREAM
BECOMING UNALTERABLE."


                       *        *        *


     Tails didn't know how he felt about what he was doing.  Part
of him told himself that this was crazy!  But another part knew
that Nicole was telling the truth, and that this was the only
chance he had of bringing his friends back to life.  Still, it
didn't make him feel any better about approaching Robotropolis.
     Even though it appeared to be deserted, Tails didn't just fly
in without taking precautions.  There might be isolated SWAT-bots
or Com-bots on patrol, thoroughly unpredictable and answerable to
no one.  That was why he had always come to the city with Sonic
beside him.
     But this time, there was no Sonic, and he felt utterly alone. 
Even with Nicole as a traveling companion.
     Nicole wasn't much of a conversationalist, Tails realized. 
She never initiated any dialogue except to say that her sensors had
picked up on something, or to tell Tails that there were so many
minutes and so many seconds left to find Sonic and to keep him from
bringing the component into Knothole.
     If Nicole was right, there was a Sonic in Robotropolis
somewhere, and he'd soon find the fatal component.  But Tails had
no idea where it could be.  Or where Sonic could be.  With Robotnik
gone, there were few if any limits on where Sonic could travel now
in the city.  And Tails didn't know where to look.
     Tails touched down just outside Robotnik's headquarters, which
had once been the palace of the Acorn kings until it, like the rest
of the city, had been remade in Robotnik's likeness.  It was still
a formidable, menacing structure, the way a deserted house looks
scary simply BECAUSE it's deserted.  Cautiously, Tails stepped
inside.
     "Now what, Nicole?" Tails whispered, out of sheer habit.
     "I NEED TO INTERFACE WITH THE CORE COMPUTER."
     Looking around, Tails found a port which appeared to be the
same size as Nicole.  He inserted her into the port.
     "Does that work?"
     "ACCESSING.  THIS MAY TAKE A WHILE," Nicole added.
     "That's OK, I'll stay here."
     Tails waited for about a minute, pacing around as Nicole
silently tried to access the files she needed.  He noticed that
even the sound made by his sneakers seemed incredibly loud in the
large, empty room.  He needed to hear something else, needed to
keep his mind off of the image of all those bodies back in
Knothole.  "Uh, Nicole...?"
     "YES?"
     "Would it slow you down if we...you know...talked?"
     "I AM CAPABLE OF MULTITASKING.  WHAT DO YOU WANT TO TALK
ABOUT?"
     "I don't know, I...I only hope this works."
     "CLARIFICATION REQUIRED: WHAT IS 'HOPE'?"
     "What do you mean?"
     "I AM NOT PROGRAMMED TO EXPERIENCE EMOTIONS.  HOPE IS AN
EMOTION.  THEREFORE CLARIFICATION IS REQUIRED."
     "Hope is...uh...well, it when you...I guess I don't know how
to say it."
     Nicole sat silent for a second before speaking again. 
"DOCUMENT ACCESSED FROM INTERNAL FILES.  DISPLAYING NOW."
     Suddenly a holographic image of a piece of paper floated in
the air at eye level with Tails.  It looked as if it had been hand-
written by a child, or someone still learning to write, for some of
the letters were misshapen or not aligned with the rest of the
text.  But it was still legible:

          HOPE is all some of us have anymore hope is what keeps us
     going and hope is the only thing that somepeople have.  If you
     take that away from them it is like saying that they have no
     right to live and what is life without hope and hope alone is
     one of the fewthings that people need to make it in this
     world.

     "Wow!" Tails whispered, before adding: "I remember this!  It
was back when I was learning to write.  Sonic helped me with a lot
of it but the words were all mine!  Guess it sounds pretty silly,
huh?"
     "NEGATIVE, TAILS.  SALLY SCANNED THE DOCUMENT INTO MY MEMORY
AND HAS ACCESSED IT ON A REGULAR BASIS."
     "Really?"
     "WITHIN THE LAST YEAR SHE HAS PLAYED BACK THIS DOCUMENT ON AN
AVERAGE OF ONCE EVERY 5.27 DAYS."
     "Why?"
     "DATA INSUFFICIENT TO DRAW CONCLUSION."
     "You think maybe she thought it was important?"
     "DATA INSUFFICIENT TO...TRANSACTION INTERRUPTED.  FILE
ACCESSED."
     "What?  What does it say?"
     "ACCESSING DOCUMENT LABELED 'DECOY.01' LOCATED IN SUBFILE
LABELED 'VENGEANCE WEAPONS'."
     Instantly the image of the piece of paper was replaced by one
of Dr. Robotnik's nephew and major domo, Snively:

          "As you've ordered, Sir, the biotoxins have been prepared and
     stored in this, a container fashioned to look like the
     biomechanical enhancement modulator on the Roboticizer.  They
     should remain in a dormant state indefinitely, until someone
     sends a current of electricity through it.  Then the biotoxins
     will spread and kill all living things for a circumference of
     200 yards before they become inert and die off.  I'll be
     shelving this decoy in the warehouse right away.  All we need
     is to figure out a way to make the Freedom Fighters take the
     bait."

     Almost immediately Nicole followed this with "ACCESSING
DOCUMENT LABELED 'DECOY.02'" and displayed another image of
Snively:

          "I've placed the decoy modulator in the main warehouse, Bay 3,
     shelf 27.  It will be safe there until after I've finished
     calibrating the Ultimate Annihilator as you ordered."

     Then Nicole fell silent.
     "Nicole, is there anything else?"
     "THERE ARE NO OTHER DOCUMENTS IN THAT FILE."
     "Then we gotta get to the main warehouse!  Do you know how to
get there?"
     "AFFIRMATIVE."
     Revving up his tails, the young fox pulled Nicole from the
computer port and flew off to a building that stood in the very
shadow of Robotnik's headquarters.  "How much longer, Nicole?"
     "ONE HOUR, 2 MINUTES, 17 SECONDS REMAINING," Nicole answered
with no sense of urgency.
     Tails flew into an open doorway that let some light into the
dusty interior of the warehouse; he hopes it would be enough. 
"Where to now, Nicole?" he asked, almost scaring himself as the
sound of his voice echoed through the belly of the building.
     "BAY 3 IS FARTHER ALONG, PAST TWO AISLES.  SHELF 27 IS ROUGHLY
HALFWAY DOWN THE BAY."
     Flying along, Tails watched for any movement out of habit. 
"OK, we've passed two aisles, Nicole.  Now what?"
     "SHELF 27 SHOULD BE ON YOUR LEFT, THE THIRD SHELF UP FROM THE
FLOOR, IN THE THIRD ROW OF SHELVES."
     Tails looked and saw the third row of shelves disappearing
above him.  He settled down on the floor, with the third shelf just
above eye level.  Revving up again, he eased up a few inches,
hovered for a few seconds, then settled back heavily.
     "It's gone," he said in a defeated tone.  "It's not...."
     It then occurred to Tails to look at the floor.  Even in the
dim light he could see a fine coating of dust on the floor.  And in
the dust were sneaker tracks, sneakers with an all-too-familiar
tread.
     "Nicole!  Sonic's been here already!  He's got it!"
     "SUGGEST YOU APPREHEND HIM.  THERE ARE NOW 58 MINUTES 11
SECONDS REMAINING."
     Tails flew out of the warehouse and aimed for the edge of the
city, the edge bordering on the Great Forest.  He guessed he was
still half a mile away when he saw a characteristic plume of dust
disappearing into the forest.
     Even though Sonic had what seemed like an impossible head
start, Tails flew after Sonic, flying faster and harder than he
ever had before.  Soon he was gulping for air and his chest began
to hurt.  He couldn't even hear the air rushing past, only his own
pulse beating in his ears.  On he flew, fighting against time and
pain and his own panic, until he could see Sonic still juicing away
about 400 yards ahead of him, and he was carrying the component. 
Tails tried to call out to him, but he was breathing so hard and so
fast he couldn't say a thing.
     But it seemed to Tails that his efforts were paying off, for
Sonic seemed to be getting closer and closer.  There was a chance,
Tails told himself!  There was a chance after all!  If he could get
close enough to...
     Suddenly, Sonic looked over his shoulder at Tails and with a
sly wink and no apparent effort on his part simply slipped on
ahead.  "Sonic, this is no time for games!" Tails thought to
himself as he fought to make up lost ground.  His lungs were
burning and his eyes were stinging from perspiration and the hand
in which he held Nicole was starting to tremble, but he flew on.
     Next thing Tails knew, he was approaching the entrance to the
Great Oak Slide.  But there was no Sonic!  Was it too late?  Or had
he passed Sonic during a moment when he had been temporarily
blinded and had to wipe his eyes?  He began heading for the stump,
in more of a dead fall than anything else, when Sonic slipped out
from behind a tree and stopped by the stump just a second before
Tails crash-landed into the grass nearby.
     "Good race, kid, but you gotta work on those landings," Sonic
said, apparently oblivious to Tails's state of near-collapse.  "You
been taking lessons from Dulcy?" he added in jest.
     Tails tried to answer, but could only gasp for air.
     "Hey, check it out, little bud.  I found this in ol' Buttnik's
warehouse.  Looks like one of those doodads Rotor says he needs for
the deroboticizer.  Let's head on down and check it out."
     Once more Tails tried to say something, anything, but only
gulped in more air.
     "Here," Sonic said as he took hold of the dirt hockey stick
that was propped up against the stump where Tails had left it,
"better keep this out of the way so nobody trips over it.  Now
let's see," he continued as he turned toward the stump, "what's the
best way to make a grand..."
     THWACK!!!
     Tails realized that he could never recover fast enough to tell
Sonic everything, so there was only one course of action left.  It
had left a crack in the shaft of his dirt hockey stick, but it was
the only thing he could think of.  Sonic stood still for a moment,
then let the component slip from his grasp.  As Tails dived to
catch it just before it hit the ground, Sonic fell forward, into
the stump, and down the Slide.
     "Sorry," Tails managed to whisper after a minute.  Then, he
picked up Nicole.  "How...how..." he managed to say between gulps
of air.
     "PLEASE SPECIFY REQUEST."
     "How...long...."
     "THERE ARE NOW 32 MINUTES 21 SECONDS REMAINING."
     Picking up the unit, and trying to balance both it and Nicole,
Tails took off again.
     
                       *        *        *

     The journey to the Badlands was usually taken at a more
leisurely pace.  The scenery along the way was always interesting,
but the Badlands themselves were even moreso.  It was a field that
churned and boiled with volcanic activity, from the hot water
sulfur springs to the mud pots to the small but dangerously active
volcanoes.
     Tails knew about the volcanoes, for Sonic had warned him often
enough about them, but Tails knew that the only chance of
destroying the component and the biotoxins it contained without
harming anyone would be to drop it in one of the volcanoes and to
get clear.
     He also knew that time was still of the essence.  Just because
he had intercepted Sonic that didn't mean he had undone what Dr.
Robotnik's weapon had done.  He had to be certain.  He had to
destroy it.
     "THERE ARE NOW 4 MINUTES 8 SECONDS REMAINING," Nicole
announced.
     Every muscle in Tails's tails and legs screamed with pain, but
he kept on until he saw what he was looking for: it was a small
volcano, only as tall at the rim as he was, the lava within
churning and bubbling red and black.
     "THERE ARE NOW 3 MINUTES 19 SECONDS REMAINING."
     Tails tried diving for the mouth of the volcano, but the
current of hot air rising from it was enough to send him tumbling. 
He hit the ground but held onto the device, even though it meant
dropping Nicole.
     "THERE ARE NOW 2 MINUTES 57 SECONDS REMAINING," was Nicole's
comment.
     Tails tried to stand but promptly fell back down.  The muscles
in his legs were totally fatigued.  But he wasn't about to give up
now.  Using his arms to drag himself and the component the 12 yards
to the volcano, he managed with the last ounce of his strength to
push it to the rim of the volcano.  There is teetered for a moment,
then fell inward.
     "THERE ARE NOW 29 SECONDS REMAINING."
     Tails looked up.  The end of the component was still visible. 
It hadn't sunk into the lava!  The pure adrenaline of panic forced
Tails to stand.  He could see the component defiantly standing
upended in the lava, like a spoon in a bowl of oatmeal.
     "TWENTY SECONDS.  NINETEEN.  EIGHTEEN."
     A rock!  Tails needed a rock!  That thing HAD to sink!  He saw
a rock the size of a small melon and tried picking it up, but it
slipped from his grasp.
     "THIRTEEN.  TWELVE.  ELEVEN."
     He reached for it and picked it up once more, then clumsily
tossed it toward the volcano as if it were a sack.  It was such a
clumsy throw that he fell over backwards, but the rock found its
mark and landed on the component.
     "SIX.  FIVE.  FOUR."
     At that moment the volcano sent a plume of lava into the air. 
Sonic had told him before that the safest place to be when that
happened was up and away.  Without even thinking he revved up and
took to the air.
     Looking down now on the volcano, he could see only a small
portion of the component still visible above the lava, but it was
now soft and deformed by the heat, heat that was sufficient to have
killed any biotoxin.
     Only now did Tails allow himself the luxury of total
exhaustion.  He didn't land so much as he let his strength give
out, and he splashed down unceremoniously in a hot spring.


                       *        *        *


     Tails flew back to Knothole slowly.  It wasn't just because he
was exhausted and was only slowly regaining his strength.  There
was another reason as well.
     "You think we did it?" Tails asked Nicole.
     "OUTCOME HAS A HIGH DEGREE OF PROBABILITY, BUT REQUIRES
VERIFICATION."
     "That's what I'm afraid of," Tails admitted.  "What if we
didn't do it?"
     "VERIFICATION REQUIRED."
     Tails said nothing until Nicole suddenly spoke up: "I WANT TO
THANK YOU."
     "For what?"
     "I NOW UNDERSTAND WHAT IT IS TO HOPE: IT IS TO ANTICIPATE A
BETTER RESOLUTION TO A SITUATION THAN THE ONE THAT SEEMS MOST
PROBABLE."
     "Is that what hope feels like?"
     "I DID NOT SAY I COULD FEEL HOPE, BUT I NOW UNDERSTAND HOPE."
     "Oh," Tails said, not really sure of the distinction.  But the
guesswork was almost over, for they had arrived back at the stump.
     Tails landed, closed up Nicole,set her down on the ground next
to the stump, then cautiously peered inside.  He knew what he had
seen last time he had taken the Oak Slide, and he wished with all
his heart that he wouldn't see it again.  But what if he HAD
failed?  What if he had tried and...
     "YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!"
     In fright, Tails fell backwards as something raced up the
Slide coming straight for him.  That something flew up into the
air, then came back down and stood in front of him, its blue shape
now decidedly less blurry.
     "Sonic!?"
     "That's my name, don't we..."
     At once, Tails jumped up and hugged Sonic as if his own life
depended on it.
     "Uh...good to see you too, kid."
     "Sonic, you're ali...I mean you're all right!"
     "Sure, everyone's all right.  Except for Sal."
     Tails suddenly felt cold again.  "Aunt Sally?  W...what's
wrong?"
     "THIS is what's wrong," Sonic announced as he scooped Nicole
off the ground and flipped open her screen.  "Yo, Nicole!  You got
your hiney on-liney?"
     "JUICING ON ALL CIRCUITS, MY MAIN HEDGEHOG."
     "Cool," he said before closing her up.  "Bad enough that the
part I brought back from Buttnik's warehouse turned out to be
bogus, but now Sal's freaked because she can't find Nicole
anywhere!  So I thought I'd come up here and check it out.  She
musta dropped it or something.  Here," he said as he tossed Nicole
to Tails, "better juice on down there before Sal starts taking
Knothole apart board by board!"
     Sonic was only a little puzzled as he watched Tails smile the
biggest smile he'd ever seen, then dive into the stump.  His
"YAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" followed him down the slide.
     "Yeah," Sonic thought to himself, "he's a good kid.  I gotta
spend more time with him.  Especially now that Buttnik bought the
big one.  But first I'd like to know where I got this mondo
headache!"

                             THE END