"What a rush!" laughed Sonic as he leaned against a pile of machine parts in the rendevous point in the Robotropolis junkyard. "I must have had at least all the SWATbots Robuttnick has chasing me! At least!"

"How would that be possible, Sonic?" asked Sally, rolling her eyes at the braggadocio of her blue friend.

"Maybe he rented some," grinned Sonic with a shrug. "Whatever, I'm still the fastest thing on two feet, and too hot to handle!"

Antoine sat gasping for breath on a long car seat stuck in a pile of junk, and next to him sat Bunnie Rabbot. Rotor stood nearby, smiling dreamily, caught up in his own thoughts. Sally looked around and frowned in worry.

"Where's Equinus?" she asked, and Rotor's eyes snapped back into focus at the question.

"I'm here," came the voice of the horse, and he pulled himself over a pile of junk, sliding down into the rendevous point, bouncing off the makeshift couch just as Antoine and Bunnie dodged out of his way. "Sorry about that," he said in apology to the fox and rabbit for disturbing them. Equinus then turned to Sally, handing the severed head of the Supervisor 'bot to Rotor, who got a funny grin on his face as he looked the new piece of hardware over.

"I had a little trouble with this new robot type. It called itself a 'Supervisor,' but it got overconfident and I smashed it," said Equinus. "There was a message from a SWATbot on the 'bot's control panel. They said they had a prisoner and were taking him to roboticizing center 2."

"How long ago did you get the message?" asked Sally, her face worried.

"A little less than ten minutes ago, and the message said it would take about thirty before they got to the center," replied Equinus, "so I think we can make it in time if we hurry."

"I wonder who they caught?" asked Bunnie, rhetorically.

"Sonic?"

All five of the assembled Mobians turned suddenly towards the small voice that addressed the blue hedgehog. Peeking out from a rusted-out car was Tails, his eyes big and frightened-looking.

"Big guy!" said Sonic with a smile, "what're you doin' here?"

"I didn't mean for it to happen, Sonic!" started the young twin-tailed fox in a rush of words, his eyes starting to fill with tears. "She wouldn't listen to me and came anyway. She wanted to see you juicin' and I couldn't stop her! There were too many SWATbots around and they saw her."

"Calm down, big guy," said the blue hedgehog, patting Tails on the back comfortingly. "Who'd they catch? Who's 'she'?"

"Fillia! I couldn't beat 'em all myself, so I went to get you!"

"My sister?" gasped Equinus, clutching Tails' arm and bending down to look the fox in the eyes. After a moment he nodded. "It wasn't your fault. She always had a major crush on Sonic, and I don't doubt she would have wanted to see him and me in action." The stallion paused, smirking a little. "I'm her hero, and Sonic is her crush. The chance was too big to miss."

"We don't have time to worry about whose fault it is or why this has happened," said Sally. "We don't even have much time to reach Fillia before they put her in the roboticizer. Equinus, you and Sonic will come with me. Bunnie, you and Rotor wait here with Tails and make sure that you get the whole story of what happened so we can sort it all out later. And Antoine," Sally paused for a moment, regarding the fox who stood at attention before her. "Antoine, you take up the rear guard. Make sure nobody follows us. Now, let's move it!"

With that the teams split up and Bunnie and Rotor were left alone with Tails. Bunnie sat next to the frightened kit and talked soothingly to him, rubbing his back with her flesh arm until he had calmed down. As she did this Rotor rapidly reduced the Supervisor's head to its core components with the tools around his belt, smiling happily all the while. As the walrus inspected the inner workings of the machine Rotor blinked and then looked up, the smile gone.

"Bunnie, Tails," he said hesitantly, "We have to leave now."

"What's wrong, sugar?" asked Bunnie.

"This head has a listening device in it. Someone heard everything we said, and I bet they're on their way right now."

Bunnie gasped and Tails jumped to his feet, both tails lashing in nervous excitement.

"They heard about where Sonic and Sally are going, then!" said Tails, suddenly afraid for his best friend and the one who was as close to a mother as he had. "What're we gonna do?"

"First we're gettin' outta here, sugar-fox," said Bunnie as her sensitive ears picked up the distant sound of SWATbot air cycles. "Then we'll figure somethin' out."

By the time the SWATbots arrived the threesome had vanished, and the robots began to sweep the area, knowing that the Freedom Fighters couldn't have gone far.

Actually, they were quite close, though none of the SWATbots were close enough to hear the shifting of weight inside the old jalopy Tails had been hiding in, mostly covered by a huge pile of junk.

"You know something?" whispered Rotor as he examined the small computer brain of the Supervisor, Bunnie having smashed the rest of it to prevent any further hidden surprises. "Equinus said something about this 'bot that I never heard of before."

"Whatcha mean, Rotor?" asked Tails in an equally hushed whisper.

"Robots don't get overconfident."