Sonic the Hedgehog and related characters are © SEGA Enterprises, LTD. = and Archie Comics Publications. Nights and related characters are © of SEGA Enterprises LTD. Delphine, Dimitria, and related characters are © Delphine. Myst Island is © Broderband Software, Inc., and Cyan, Inc. Special Thanks to Jared Matte for letting me use him in this story. "He can run, but he can't hide." -- Joe Louis Red Silk, Part Four Problems.... -- Delphine Earth, New York, Thendara, June 28, 4:00 PM EST Heather slinked through the darkening city. Although it was the middle of summer, it was darkening fast. She sniffed the wind. she thought. She liked the dark. She didn't like the sun. Her ancestors had been killed many times because of the sun, and she had deep down feelings about it. She hated it. There, in the shadows of the building, she saw the group. Four humans, a squirrel, a hedgehog, an echidna, a fox, a cat, and two human-like creatures. She morphed into bat form. She didn't like to do it often, but she did it now. She didn't like to do it because she didn't like to think about where the rest of her matter when when she morphed. It went into zero space, or Z- Space. There it turned into anti-matter until she returned to her true form. She knew that it was a one in a billion chance that it would be disrupted, and that she would be stuck as a bat forever, but she didn't like it. She flew over the group. She sent out signals that echoed back and told her what they were doing, what they were holding, and where they were. Bats were almost blind, so, not being a true bat, she became blind in that form, but a bats hearing is extraordinary. It was like turning on a light. She flew up to another building top. She morphed back. She had found out that they were following the signal of a machine. She assumed it was the power that her master wanted so much. But she didn't know how they had gotten a machine capable of doing that. She really didn't. "How do you do that?!" "What?" Dimitria asked. "We're out in the middle of who knows where, and you suddenly remember that you have this. . . . this. . . . thing. . . . that will track down any major power!" Delphine said. "I hadn't needed to use it since I was on Myst Island. . . ." "Where?" Sonic asked. "Don't ask," Delphine groaned. "You probably won't want to know." Sonic gave her a look, then shrugged. "Anyway, this will hopefully help us find the Red Silk. If not, it's either malfunctioning or there's something else here." "What is this, the hell-mouth?" Lisa asked sarcastically. "Close enough," Dimitria murmured. "Stop doing that, you're scaring me," Delphine said. "Sorry." They walked on, following wherever the little beeping light told them to go. The mechanism was sort of small, in a box shape. All there was on it was a screen and eleven unmarked buttons. Dimitria had used them to program it to do whatever it was that it was doing. Heather watched overhead as she waited for the rest of her kind, and the strangers that her kind had allied with. Dimitria stopped in front of a building. The machine was blinking like mad. "This is it, guys. We've found it." "Are you sure?" Marco asked form Ali's side. "Are you questioning the machine that was given to me by T. J., the only male I've met that's even halfway trustworthy?" "Now just a minute...." "No, I'm questioning your intelligence." "Will you shut the $*%^ up?!" Delphine yelled. "I'm sick of your whiny shit with the 'they're not trustworthy' and 'this is stupid' and 'what are we doing' and 'are you sure'!! Just shut the hell up!" "Hey, he's just asking," Ali said defensively. "Yeah." "And what is with _you_?! Always talking this shit-head's side in everything, no matter what he says or does! He snaps his fingers, and you ask him 'how high?'!!" "I think the question is what's your problem?! Ever since you've met him you've treated him like shit!" "Not so! Ever since she's met him she's ignored him! Only recently she's treated him like shit!" Sonic said. Sally glared at him. "Just trying to help," he shrugged. "Excuse me, but I think I can speak for myself," Marco said. "I was just helping," Ali told him. "I don't need _your_ help," Marco said sharply. "See? I told you. This jerk is just like your ass boyfriend Rick, only on a more subtle approach," Delphine said. "I AM NOTHING LIKE RICK!!!!" "OH YEAH, YOU BITCH?!?!?!?!?!" Marco blinked. He had never been called a bitch before. "$*%^ YOU!" With a cry of anger, Delphine swung at him. She hit him in the chest, hard. Sally jumped in the way of the two. Knuckles held Delphine back. "What the hell is wrong with you two?" Sally said angrily. "It ain't 'you two' it's 'him'," Delphine said angrily, tugging away from Knuckles, but not getting anywhere. "Let go of me," she said, dangerously low. "Can't. You don't wanna be arrested for murder, do you?" "As long as he's gone, I won't care." Knuckles' eyes widened, and he tightened his grip on her. "Are you all right?" Ali asked Marco worridly. "I'm. . . . fine. . . . can't. . . . hurt me. . . ." "Looks like she did," Jared said under his breath. He hadn't liked Marco in the first place. "Let go of ME!" Delphine yelled. Knuckles twirled her around. "Look! You have been wired about him ever since we got here! Chill out!" "Oh, leave me alone!" "What is wrong with you?! You've been like this to me since.... since..." He thought for a moment. His throat closed up. "Del, are you...." She looked up into his eyes and saw what he was thinking. "Oh geeze, I'm sorry," she said. She pulled into him, and they hugged each other. "Look. . . . if you're. . . . I mean. . . . if you don't. . . ." "Oh, please don't say that," she said, and hugged him tighter. The only person who noticed was Jared, who watched with pain in his eyes. 4:59 PM EST "You're little friend better be right," Peter said. "She's right. She doesn't make mistakes," Aknar told him. "And your 'leader' better hurry up and get her so we can get going," Peter said impatiently. "Don't be so impatient. He's taking his time. And don't stay anything stupid. If you make him mad, there'll be nothing I can do about it." "Yeah, yeah, whatever. Just hurry up." "What are you so worried about? If this guy is even half as powerful as Aknar says he is, then they haven't got a chance!" Reala said. "I know, I know! I'm just worried that we won't be able to pull this off. What if they get to it first?" "You should have thought about that a long time ago," Snively said. 5:19 PM EST Nights looked around at everyone. They were trying to decided if they should go right in, or plan an ambush, or what. He turned and looked up at the sky. He flew up the side of the building and landed on the tip of the corner. He looked out over the destroyed city. Then he looked up again. The clouds were moving in fairly quickly, and there were no stars. He didn't like that. It reminded him too much of Nightmare. He looked back down at his new friends. He figured that they were his friends. Or at least friendly acquaintances. He looked over the rooftops. He stopped at the one to his right. He thought he saw someone, watching them. He backed off the tip and crouched down. He watched the figure as it moved closer and closer to his side. He watched it step up to the side, and jump over. He stood up quickly. The figure stopped and looked at him, surprised. Nights took the moment to figure out two things: it was female, and she was an enemy. She took the time to figure out two things: he was male, and he was an enemy. "Do you know how happy the Master would be if I killed you?" Heather asked. Nights didn't bat an eye. Heather looked him right in the eye, and quickly looked away. There was no fear in his eyes, no pride, not even anger. He was completely calm. That scared her. "You know of course that I'm going to have to kill you." Nights' expression didn't change. Heather became anxious. "Don't you care that I'm going to kill you?" "Why do you want to kill me?" Nights asked calmly. "Because you are the enemy." "Why?" Heather smiled. She bared her teeth, showing her sharp fangs. "Because you will try to stop my kind from getting the Red Silk. You will try to stop us because you think we are evil." "You are evil." "No, I'm not. Only the people I hurt or want to hurt think I'm evil. I'm not against everyone. Just you." She lunged at Nights. He flew up. She fell over the side. "Look out!" he yelled down. Sonic looked up to see the V'pirian falling towards him. "Get out of the way!" Everyone backed up in time for the V'pirian to land. She instantly jumped back up and faced them. "I can kill all of you," she growled. "No you can't," Devon said. "Do you know how to kill me?" "Sure. You're a vampire, right? Stake through the heart and stuff. Simple." "Anybody got some beef?" Jared asked. "Not vampire. V'pirian," Heather said. "What?" Knuckles asked Jared. "Beef. Since no one has any steak, I thought beef would be good enough." "So we finally find out exactly what you guys are. Now if we only knew what the robots are." "You'll never find out." "Do you actually think you can beat all of us?" Sonic asked. "Yes." "Yeah, right." "As if," Lisa said. "Get a life." "Or lose it." "Or you could just give up." Nights had flown down while they were arguing. "Give up? Yeah, right." Heather leapt through the group and started running. Devon went after her. "Dev! Wait up!" Jared yelled. "No!" Lisa yelled after them. "Damnit!" Sally swore. "Now what do we do?" "We go after them!" Sally said. "By the time we get going they'll be on the other side of the city!" Delphine remarked. "You and Nights take to the air," she said, ignoring the remark, "Sonic, you take Knuckles and look for them on the ground," the two nodded, "and the rest of us will stay here." "What?!" Ali yelled. "I want to help," Lisa said quietly. Sonic, Nights, Knuckles and Delphine all looked at each other, the went off. "I'm sorry," Sally said. "I can't let everyone go. Those guys are the best. They'll find them." "I hope so." "Hope cowboy doesn't get himself it trouble," Delphine murmured. "Cowboy?" Nights asked. "Oh," Delphine laughed. "Just a nickname I gave him." "Really? Do you give everyone nicknames?" "Nope. Just a few." "Who?" "Well, there's Jared, and then Knuckles, and everyone else I just shorten their real name." "What's Knuckles' nickname?" Delphine blushed. "Um. . . . I can't tell you." "Why not?" Delphine looked over at Nights. He was grinning. "Don't make me hurt you." Delphine grinned. "I wonder where they went." Nights looked down. "I don't know," Delphine said, looking down also. She looked straight again. "But we'll find them." "Get back here!" Devon yelled after the V'pirian. "Stop! In the name of. . . . us!" Jared yelled. They chased Heather into a warehouse. She stopped in front of a wall. She turned, and found Devon and Jared directly behind her. "Oops." "Nuh-uh. You're supposed to say whoops, not oops." Devon looked at Jared. "What?!" "You see, when you're in trouble, you say 'whoops'. when you're being sarcastic, you say 'oops." "Uh-huh." "Fine then." Heather said. "Woops." She picked Jared up and threw him into a pile of boxes. "WHOA!!" "Holy shit!" Devon yelled. He turned back to Heather. "You bitch!" He flung himself at her. They fell back onto the ground together. He pushed himself up and kicked her in the head. She rolled away from him, cursing the entire time. He picked up a board and waved it around. She jumped up and bared her teeth at him, transforming into pure V'pirian state. Since it was dark, he couldn't see that. Good thing-- otherwise he would've been too surprised to fight. He swung at her. She tugged it out of his hands and threw it. He stared at his hands, then the direction she had thrown it. Then he was knocked onto his back. Heather knelled down on top of him. "Bet you've always wanted to see a girl in this position." She grinned. He screamed. Jared finally found his way out of the boxes to see Heather bite into Devon's neck. "NO!" He ran over to the two and kicked Heather in the stomach. She fell away from Devon, blood dripping from her mouth. Jared kneeled over Devon. "You all right?" "N-n-n-no." Devon breathed out in wet gasps. He tried to get up, but didn't have enough strength. "Oh damn. Oh shit. Oh $*%^." "I'm-- n-not go-o-oing to mak-k-ke i-it." "I know." "Now I'm supposed to say 'rosebud' or something, right?" 'Something like that, yeah." "How 'bout you tell Lisa that I woulda liked to know her better. She's c-cute." "Yeah, I know." Jared tried to smile, but he couldn't. Devon put his head back down on the ground and closed his eyes. Jared got up and walked away. He picked up a piece of splintered wood and walked over to where Heather was lying. "Bye bitch." He thrust the wood into her heart. She disappeared into a cloud of dust. He kicked around the particles so that they couldn't be put back together. Then he walked away. Back at the building, Lisa gasped. Dimitria looked at her, then nodded. "You know." "Yes." "Is he. . . ." "Probably. Under the circumstances, I can't tell what is real and what isn't anymore." "Then there's a chance that he might still be alive?" Lisa asked hopefully. "There's something like .1% that he's still alive." "Oh." Lisa looked off in the direction her two friends had run off. "I wish it were a larger percentage." "So do I." "There he is," Delphine said. Nights looked down in the direction that she was pointing. He saw Jared. "But where's. . . ." "I dunno. Why don't we go find out?" The two flew down and landed in front of them. He nodded. "Hi guys." "Where's Devon?" Delphine asked. "He--" Jared turned away from them to hide his face. "He-- that stupid piece of shit killed him." Delphine gasped. "Where is she?" Nights asked in a low growl. Jared half smiled. "I wouldn't worry about her any more." Delphine and Nights looked at each other. Jared turned back to them. "C'mon yah'all. Let's get this silk thing and get the hell outa here." "Good idea." Delphine held out her hand. "Have you every flown through the air before?" She grinned. "Not usually, but if it's first class with a movie I haven't seen then it's worth a shot." They grinned at each other. He took her hand. "Stop," Knuckles said. Sonic stopped. "Now what?" "They found him." "Don'tcha mean them?" "Nope, him. She killed Devon." "Great." "That's what I said." Sonic sighed. "C'mon, let's get back." "Here we go again." "Let's juice!" Sonic sped off with Knuckles in tow. "There they are." Ali pointed up. She was hanging onto Marco, despite what had been said before. Sally looked into the direction she had pointed. Nights, Delphine and Jared being held by her, flew down. Sonic and Knuckles arrived seconds later. Lisa walked over to Jared. "Where's Devon?" Jared frowned. "Well, um, you see. . . ." "Oh God!" She burst into tears. Jared pulled her to him and hugged her. "Shhh. It's okay," he said. "He. . . . he told me to tell you that. . . he wished the h-he could've gotten to know you better." She cried against his chest. "Why. . . ." "I'm sorry." After a few minutes, Delphine put a hand on Jared's shoulder. "We've got to get going if we want to piss off the asshole who started this." Lisa pulled away from Jared and wiped away her tears. "Let's go." 5:48 PM EST "It's about time. Can we go now?" "Yes," the Master replied. "Good. If we don't hurry up they'll get to it before we do." Peter said impatiently. "Let's go." Reala said. 5:53 PM EST They split into two groups. Nights, Delphine, Knuckles, Sally and Sonic on one team, Lisa, Jared, Marco, Ali, and Dimitria on the other. The first group would search the second floor, and the second group would search the first floor. Then they would met up on the third floor, and if no one had found it, then they would search the third floor together. They went their separate ways. "I really don't like that guy," Knuckles said. "Neither do I." "Obviously," Nights smirked. Delphine looked at him. "Remember what I said about hurting you?" "Can we stop talkin and start lookin?" Sonic said impatiently. "Yeah, yeah. Okay, where do we start?" "Let's circle around, then search those rooms over there," Sally pointed. Knuckles looked at their surroundings. The whole floor was open, with afew rooms left intact. The first floor had been a series of rooms. This one would be easier to explore. "No prob, Sal." Sonic sped off, circling around the large room. Sally tapped her foot impatiently. Within seconds Sonic was back. "Nope, no silk. Just a bunch of empty boxes." "Let's search those rooms." They walked over to the three rooms. Sonic and Sally went into one, Nights into the second. Knuckles and Delphine went into the third. Sally sighed loudly. "What's the matter?" Sonic asked. "It's just-- I-- arrgg!" "What!?" "I-- I-- I'm sorry." She backed against the wall and lowered herself to the floor. She put a hand to her head. "I o oh at a ooh," she mumbled. "What?" "I don't know what to do! Everyone's depending on me and I just don't know what to do." She started crying. "Sally?" He leaned down in front of her and talked quietly, as if to a frightened child. "It's all right. Nobody knows what to do. We'll figure something out." "I don't. . . ." "Shhh." Sonic pulled her close to him and kissed her forehead. "It's okay." She cried against his chest. "I don't know what to do." Jared kicked a garbage can that was upside down. "This sucks." "No kidding." Lisa said. "I know you two are upset, but we really should start looking," Dimitria said. "Oh yeah, you care about them but not us," Ali said. Dimitria looked at her. "I wouldn't care if you went to Hell and you-know-who $*%^@# you to death." Ali's eyes widened at Dimitria's strong language. Dimitria turned and walked into one of the rooms. Jared and Lisa went into another room. Ali and Marco looked at each other, shrugged, then went into another room, with no plans of looking for the Red Silk. Delphine sighed. "What's up?" Knuckles asked. "Oh, nothing. It's just-- everything's so confusing, with this silk and this bad guy, and all these new people and a whole new breed of bad guys and robots and we're on a strange planet. . . ." "Do you know you're beautiful?" "Do you think I am?" "Yes." He pulled her close. "You know we're not supposed to be doing this." "Oh? And why do you think Sally and Sonic ended up in the same room?" "Sal's not like that. She's a proper young girl. She wouldn't dare think what I-- er, never mind." "What were you going to say?" "Uhhhh-- nothing." "Really?" He kissed her. She wrapped her arms around him. "We're supposed to be looking for silk," she whispered in his ear. "So?" he whispered back. "We are. That's our job." But she made no move to pull away. "Not my job. I'm just here helping. I'm not even here voluntarily." "Would you have come voluntarily?" "Of course. How else am I supposed to protect you from all the bad people out here?" he teased. She pulled her head off his chest and gave him a = look. "I don't need protection from nobody!" "Yes you do. What would you do if no one was there when you got into trouble that you couldn't get out of?" "Smack myself and say I did a Sonic." Knuckles laughed. "But seriously. . . ." "But seriously we should be findin that silk! C'mon!" "Why didn't we just use that thing that Dimitria had?" "Hey, everyone's entitled to a plot hole or two! Seriously, when you get close enough to the power, the thing goes haywire and it's not very reliable anymore." "Oh." Nights looked around the room. He looked anyway. Then he sat down on a box and sighed. "Now I just sit here and wait. . . ." he felt something. He looked up in alarm. He didn't see anyone. "Must've been my imagination. . . ." he thought for a moment. "No, It wasn't. They aren't here yet. They're. . . . coming." He looked around, then glided out of the room to wait for the others. "Stupid piece of shit," Dimitria muttered. She lifted up a box and looked under it. "Nothin," she murmured. "Of course there's nothing!" she yelled at herself. "Lisa knew that! I don't even know what I'm doing anymore!" She cradled her head in her hands. "I need to talk to Del." "Why are we bothering to look down here? There's nothing here." Lisa said. "How do you know that?" Jared asked. "'CAUSE I DO!!" she exploded. Jared shrunk back in surprise. "Sorry. I just. . . . AHHH!" She kicked a box. "Hey, chill out. Don't worry about it. We're the good guys. The good guys always win." "Are you so sure? How do you know we're the good guys? Maybe we just _think_ we're the good guys. I bet forty-five percent of all bad guys think they're good." "Has that been statistically proven?" Jared asked. Lisa grinned. "Are you sure you're all right?" "I'm fine." "No k. . . . uh, heh heh, never mind." "That's all right. I don't need to know what you said. I know what you meant." "You do?" "Uh huh." She kissed him on the cheek. "What the huh?" Lisa just smiled a knowing smile and walked out of the room. Jared put a hand to his cheek. He looked in the direction she had gone, then followed her lead. 7:00 PM EST "There it is." They all looked up at the building. "Good. Now we shall become the rulers of the dimension." The Master said. "Aren't we getting a little ahead of ourselves?" Reala asked. "Are you saying we're not capable? Are you saying I'M not capable?" "No, but. . . ." The Master took Reala by the neck and lifted him up to eye level. "I can do anything I please. Nothing can stop me. Do you understand?" Reala managed a nod. The Master dropped him. Peter knelt down beside the coughing 'maren. "You didn't have to do that," he shouted. "Why not?" "He's one of us, you idiot!" Peter said fiercely. "He's already been through enough. He doesn't need your shit!" "I can do whatever I please. Don't make we angry." Peter stood up. "Why not?! What are you going to do?! I've got robots ten times more powerful than you backing me up!" "More powerful than ME?! WE'LL JUST SEE ABOUT THAT!!" The Master prepared to leap at him when Brass stunned him with a laser. "That's enough of that," the 'bot said, smoke coming out of his gun barrel. "Told you," Peter muttered. He helped Reala up. "C'mon, we don't need these losers. Let's go!" Peter stormed into the building. Reala glided close behind him. Snively shrugged, then ordered the robots to follow him. They left the V'pirians without even a blink. Aknar helped the Master up. "What should we do?" "We are going to get that silk," the Master growled. "No matter how many we must kill, or where we must go, or what we must do. We WILL get that silk." 7:30 PM EST After an extensive search on the first floor, (they were looking for Ali and Marco, not the Red Silk. . . .) Jared, Lisa and the others went to the third floor. The rest were already there waiting for them. "Did you find it?" Sally asked. "Nope," Jared said, shaking his head. "Nothin'." Sally sighed. "Well, I guess it's here. Somewhere." She looked around. They were on the landing. She peered in through the door. All she could see were rooms. Rooms upon rooms upon rooms. She felt a chill and wrapped her arms around herself. The Watcher's Spot, No Date, No Time The Watcher was MAD. It DID NOT LIKE THIS. Alarms were buzzing all over the place, in its pkace and in its head. It adjusted its glowing form to look like a rectangle. It was VERY ANGRY. The air around it was quivering. NO ONE was supposed to get killed by beings form other universes. NO ONE was supposed to die like that under its watch. NO ONE. And not just one, but TWO. It DID NOT LIKE THAT. It did not like the second one that got killed, because she had killed the first one, but it ESPECIALLY didn't like the other, who had killed the second. HE had killed the second one. HE had made the watcher mad. HE was the one to blame. The Watcher knew this, and it planned to do something about it. Earth, New York, Thendara, June 28, 7: 42 PM EST The Freedom Fighters and everyone else had gone to search the third floor. It was just like the third floor, with all the rooms mostly intact, except for one thing. HALF THE WALL WAS GONE. Sonic held off an urge to laugh. HALF THE WALL WAS GONE. They split up into groups. Sally, Sonic Ali and Marco, Lisa, Dimitria and Nights, and Knuckles, Jared and Delphine. They took different sections of the floor and started searching. On the second floor, Peter, Reala, Snively, and all the robots were searching for them. "I still can't get this damn thing to work!" Peter yelled. "I don't get it. Why isn't it working?" Reala asked. "I DON'T KNOW!!!!" Peter exploded. He kicked a trash can. It landed eight feet away. "So-rry!" "Don't sorry me! I saved your life!" "Yeah, right! I could've gotten rid of him, if you hadn't decided to step in then!" "Oh, sure! You where lying on the ground! You couldn't even stand up!" "I'll make sure YOU never stand up again!" Reala yelled, clenching his fists. "Let's just see you try it!" Peter screamed. Reala flew into and head-butted him in the stomach. Peter fell back with an "oof!". "Damnit that wasn't fair!" Peter tried to get up, but Reala pushed him back down with his foot and kept him on the ground. "Fair? There IS no fair." Peter's eyes flickered around nervously. "I uh, heh heh -- okay, joke's over." "Joke? You think this is a joke?" "Get off him now." Brass aimed his laser at Reala's head. Reala grinned and glided up off of Peter. Peter immediately stood up and glared at Reala. "You started it," Reala stated. "I--you-- ARRRRGGG!" Peter swung a Reala, but missed. Reala's eyes narrowed. He swiped his claws at Peter, but Peter leapt back and he only damaged his shirt. With a cry of anger Peter leapt at Reala. The two fell to the ground and started rolling around, punching and scratching. Brass tried to shoot at Reala, but couldn't get a clear shot. "This could take awhile," Snively said. 8:02 PM EST "I don't like this, I don't like this, I don't like this." Dimitria mumbled. "What?" Dimitria looked at Lisa. "Huh? Oh, nothing." Nights looked over at them, then flew higher into the air. He didn't go too high, because the room was small. He didn't like being in small places. He wasn't claustrophobic, but he liked large open spaces so he could fly around and do acrobatics. In here he didn't have any space to do that. "So where do you figure it is?" he asked. "Oh, it's in here somewhere," Dimitria said, looking to her right. Nights grinned. "I was looking for a less generalized answer." Dimitria grinned back. "I don't know exactly what to tell you; it's here. Somewhere." "I see." Nights looked back up and flew ahead of them. Lisa walked off to the left. Dimitria was alone to think to herself. "I hope we find it." Sally said. Sonic took her up in his arms. "We'll find it." "Put me down!" Sally giggled. "Why?" Sonic grinned. Then a serious look came over his face. "Sonic, what. . . ." He kissed her. She wrapped her arms around his neck= and kissed him back. "Where's the popcorn?" Ali asked. Marco laughed. Sonic put Sally down. They looked at each other for a moment. "We'll find it," Sally said. They walked along in silence. Three times Delphine had opened her mouth to say something, then had shaken her head and shut it again. At the moment they were next to the hole. Finally Knuckles got fed up. He threw a piece of cement and said, "Something is going on here and I wanna know what!" Delphine and Jared looked at him in surprise. "What...." "You KNOW what." "Look, if you can't trust me for FIVE minutes. . . ." "You're not the one I don't trust!" Delphine looked at Jared. He just shrugged and looked down. Delphine walked over to Knuckles. "What is. . . ." "Something is going on between you two, and I want to know what!" "Nothing is. . . ." "Don't lie to me." He glared at her. She looked down. "I just kissed him, that's all." "Oh, is that all? Maybe you'd rather be his girlfriend instead, eh? You'd rather hang around with your own kind, huh? Well that's just fine with me, because we're through!" "But-- Fine then! If you can forget everything we've ever done, all the good times we've had over one stinkin' kiss, then you ain't worth crying over!" She twirled around and crossed her arms. Knuckles was about to say something else when they heard laser shots, and the ceiling fell. 8:37 PM EST "All right already! Enough is enough!" Snively pulled the two combatants away from each other. All the robots raised their laser guns and aimed at Reala. "HOLD YOUR FIRE!" The 'bots all lowered their fire arms. "He started it. . . ." Peter started it. "Shut up little bitty baby Smitty, before I finish it." Reala growled. "Enough! I could stand here and act like Robotnik and have you shot. Do you want that?" "Not exactly...." "Good. Let's go." He walked towards the stairs. "Let's take the short way." Peter took one of the rocket canons off one of the SSACbots. He aimed at the ceiling, and fired. End of Part 4 To be continued....