A blue streak zipped through the subterranean tunnels of Robotropolis. Sonic the Hedgehog stopped in front of a very old machine.

"C'mon chili dog," He said as he hit the machine. He gave a final grunt of exertion as his fist hit the vending machine again, and a chili dog came out. "Score, now to grab what I came for and get out of here."

Sonic quickly retraced his steps, making sure no 'bot would find his hidden vending machine then came back out onto the surface. He ran to a dumpster behind Robotnik's old HQ, and began to look inside it.

"Maybe there's one in here," Sonic said. He pulled a picture out of his pack and looked at it again. Glancing back in the dumpster he saw what he needed. "Oh yeah, jackpot." He picked it up and noticed a second, apparently newer one, beneath it. "Hmm, better take both. Just in case." Sonic slipped both into his backpack, than carefully made his way out of Robotropolis and back to Knothole.

Sonic set his backpack down on the table in Rotor's lab, and pulled out the two pieces of machinery. "Here, I found two of the things you wanted me to get," Sonic said. "Hey, this wasn't here earlier." Sonic reached out to push a button on the machine.

"Careful Sonic," Rotor said. "I don't think this shiny lookalike is what we need, but the other one will do." Rotor looked at the button on the shiny piece of machinery. "Still, I better see what this is. Put it in the scanner over there." Rotor pointed towards a large machine with a cabinet in the side.

"Woah," Sonic said as he headed towards the machine. "When did we get this hunk o' metal?"

"I just finished it recently," Rotor said. "Most of the stuff in my workshop was repairable after that tree fell on it so it didn't take me that long to set back up."

"So," Sonic started as he closed the cabinet and walked back towards Rotor. "What's it do?"

Rotor pointed at the monitor for the machine then pushed a button. "It scans the interior of the machine, then gives me a layer by layer look of what's inside," he said.

"Coool," Sonic elongated the O's as he watched the machine work.

"Uh oh," Rotor said after the machine had finished.

"What?"

Rotor pointed to a spot on the machine diagnostic, "You see that?"

"Yeah," Sonic said.

"That's a homing device," Rotor said. "Fortunately it hasn't been activated yet, if it had Snively would be here pretty soon and we'd all be in trouble."

"Woah, that coulda gotten ugly," Sonic said. "Want me to take it back?"

"No," Rotor said as he shut off his device and turned back to get the homing device out of the scanner. "I want to take this thing apart first."

"But you've already seen what's inside," Sonic said. "Why take the risk and take it apart?"

Rotor popped the top off the machinery. "Well, you see all I have to do is this and," he snipped a cable. "Presto, now the homing device is non-functional. I want to study it because the machinery around the homing device appears to have nothing to do with the device itself. In fact, it doesn't seem to have anything to do with what this thing is supposed to be at all."

"Ok," Sonic said. "Whatever you say." Sonic spared a glance at his watch. "Woah, chow time. Catch ya later Rote." Sonic turned and sped out the open doorway.

Rotor replaced the top onto the shiny device, then picked up the other device he needed and turned back towards the still incomplete de-roboticizer. Normally both Uncle Chuck and Sally were working with him, but at the moment they were planning on what to do because of the threat posed by Snively. "Whoops," Rotor said. "I need another main circuit board, hey Sonic." Rotor looked around, then remembered where Sonic had gone to, sighed, and went to the store room to get another board.

After Rotor was gone, the strange device sprouted out four mechanical limbs. The pushed down on the ground and lifted the small robot off the ground. First it attempted to send it's current location to its master in Robotropolis. When it failed at this, it moved using careful strides from its long, thin, metal legs. Soon it disappeared from Rotor's shop and headed outside, looking for something, following programming to seek out a strong power source.

Sonic grabbed up the last two chili dogs on his table. A whimper from beneath brought his attention to his dog Muttski. Sonic smirked, "Here boy, you can have one." Sonic handed one of the dogs to Muttski who ate it readily. In one bite Sonic ate his last chili dog. A small burp escaped his lips, and he quickly cleaned up. Then he heard Tails' voice outside.

"Sonic!" Tails was calling. "Sonic, come quick."

Sonic came out the door and ran up to Tails. "Is there a problem?" he asked.

"Yeah," Tails said. "Some robot just entered the ring lake."

"What?!" Sonic said, more of a statement than a question. "C'mon, no wait. You go get my Uncle Chuck, and I'll head towards the lake."

"Got it," Tails said, then he took off towards where Sonic's Uncle was.

Sonic turned towards the ring lake and streaked over the ground. When he got there everything appeared the same, everything except the water. A light mist was falling over it, as if a giant splash had come up from underneath. "Uh oh," Sonic said trying to look into the water. "Could be trouble with the ring machine." He swallowed in air, then dove beneath the surface. He didn't need to go far, even from this distance he could see the machine was destroyed. A single ring was lying beside the wrecked mechanism. Sonic dove down deep and scooped it up in his backpack. Then he came back to the surface where his Uncle and Tails were just arriving.

"Sonic," Chuck said. "What's it look like down below? Did you find the robot Tails was talking about?"

Sonic shook his head, "This is all I found." He showed them the ring. "Your machine is destroyed, and the power gem is gone." The other two gave a gasp of horror. "Looks like I'll just have to fight Snively without my power rings."

"Now hold on a minute there," Sir Charles said. "Let's get the wreckage back to my lab so we can see if it can be repaired."

Sonic nodded, then turned back towards Rotor's lab where he'd been that morning. At the same moment that Sonic was about to enter the workshop, Rotor came out. "Hey Rote," Sonic said. "We need your help."

"And I need yours Sonic," Rotor said. "Did you take that extra device you brought today with you?"

"No, why?" Sonic replied.

"Because it's gone," Rotor said. "No trace of it at all!"

"You mean it can move?" Sonic asked. "If it can it's prolly headed to Snively right now."

"That doesn't matter," Rotor said in a calm tone. "Even if it does get back to Snively it can't give him Knothole's coordinates, I disabled that remember?"

"Yeah," Sonic said. "But I think it has the power gem from the ring machine."

"What?" Rotor said, astonished. "How'd it get that, Sonic?"

"Tails saw a small robot enter the lake then he came for me," Sonic began to open his pack. "When I got there the power rock was gone, the machine was destroyed, and there was one ring lying on the ground next to the machine underwater."

"So you only have one ring left then," Rotor said, thinking.

"Yeah," Sonic said as he put his pack back on. "Uncle Chuck wants to lift the wreckage from the lake and see if he can fix it. That's what I came to get your help for."

"Sure I can help," Rotor said. He pointed behind his workshop. "C'mon around back. I have just what we'll need."

When Sir Charles and Tails reached Sonic and Rotor, the latter two were pushing a giant crane on a wheel chassis.

"Good thinking boy," Chuck said to Rotor. "That will sure come in handy."

"Y-yeah, ugh," Rotor strained against the weight of the contraption. "C-could, one, of, you, help, us." Rotor stopped pushing for a second. "Oh forget it. Could one of you guys go get Bunnie? Tails, could you run and get a cart from my shop to carry the stuff back with?"

He got nods from both parties. Charles turned off towards the main part of Knothole, while Tails turned back towards Rotor's Workshop. Sonic and Rotor continued pushing the contraption towards the lake. Finally Bunnie showed up with Chuck, and Tails came pretty soon as well.

Sonic stopped pushing the crane. "Hey Bunnie. Mind if you help us out a bit?"

"Why I most surely will Sugar-hog," Bunnie walked up to the machine. "Stand a bit back there. All right, c'mon ." She grabbed the crane with her robotic arm and began to push forward. The machine moved instantly, Sonic and Rotor moved forward to assist and they soon had the crane at the lake.

"There ya go," Bunnie said as the got the crane suspended over the lake. "Now what?"

"Sonic, dive down and strap this net over as much of the wreckage as possible," Rotor said.

"Easy enough," Sonic said. He grabbed the net, took a deep breath, then dove beneath the surface of the water. He was at the machine in a few short seconds. In a few more he had the wreckage secured. Then it was just a scant few seconds more to reach the top of the lake again. "All right, bring 'er to the surface."

"Bunnie," Rotor turned towards the crane. "Turn that handle if you don't mind."

"Sure thing," she said. She grabbed the handle then started turning it to haul the wreckage to the surface. It soon broke the surface of the water. Rotor locked the crane handle, then Bunnie turned the crane around so it was suspended above the cart. Rotor unlocked the handle, and Bunnie lowered the wreckage onto the cart. "Here ya are."

"Thanks Bunnie," Uncle Chuck said. "Well done."

"'Preciate it," Sonic said.

"Happy to help," Bunnie said. "Want me to move that there contraption again?

"No," Sir Charles said. "We'll need it when we lower the new ring machine into the lake."

"Why not just leave the new machine where we can get at it when we need it?" Sonic asked.

"Because the idea of a 'lake of rings' is partly a symbol for morale," Chuck said. "Besides, it makes it just that much harder to find. C'mon let's get back to Rotor's workshop and see if we can fix this hunk o' junk."

Sir Charles sat and stared at the ruined pieces of the ring making machine. "Sonic, let me see that ring you got," Sir Charles said.

Sonic handed the backpack over with the ring. "Here ya go Unc," he said.

Charles looked at the ring. His eyes were diagnosing the power readings from it and other things about it. After a few minutes of this, and Sonic tapping his foot while whistling, Uncle Chuck set the ring down. "We're in trouble."

"Why?" Sonic asked.

"Because," Sonic's uncle started. "While the machine is fixable, and I can make it better, without the power gem to run it, there's nothing with which to make the rings. I'd thought about using a ring to power it but the only one we have is underdeveloped, probably not strong enough to power the creation of one ring." Charles paused. "All though I could be wrong." He shook his head as he put the ring back in Sonic's pack. "I do know that it has enough power to give you a boost for a little while."

"Great," Sonic said. "Now I have a nearly juiceless ring, and no way to make more unless I gamble my last ring on the machine or find a new power source."

"Pretty much," Rotor said. "Any extra ideas Chuck?"

"Unfortunately no," Sir Charles frowned.

"What if you just used a power supply from a robot?"

Sonic looked towards the speaker, it was Tails. "Can you do that Unc?"

"Maybe," Sir Charles' eyes brightened. "In fact I'm sure that would work. All we'd need would be the ring and a power supply to channel through the ring. Brilliant idea boy."

"C'mon," Sonic said. "We can load it into that 'botplane Rotor fixed. We can find what we need at the junk yard in Robotown." Rotor and Uncle Chuck looked at the pieces of the broken machine, then started back to work. It would take a while for them to refit the pieces and rig it for the ring instead of the power gem. Sonic chose to leave instead of waiting around in the workshop for the two mechanics to finish their work.

"Sonic!" Sally called out from Rotor's workshop.

In an azure flash Sonic was there. "What's up?"

"Their done," she pointed towards the waiting 'bot plane hovering above the ground. "I came to check on how they were doing. They were just finishing up and loading the machine into the plane so I called for you."

"Woah," Sonic looked towards the large, oval shaped craft with its door open. "Thanks, see ya later Sal."

Sally waved as Sonic leapt into the craft to be taken towards Robotropolis.

"So," Sonic began as he sat down in a chair near Rotor. "That didn't take very long."

"Well the pieces were mostly intact Sonic," Rotor said. "So with a little of my help your Uncle managed to get it working in a relatively short time."

"All right Unc," Sonic said as the ship moved across the sky.

"Rotor's being modest m'boy," Charles said. "If it weren't for him I wouldn't have gotten the device set up to take energy from the ring."

Sonic nodded, then frowned, "I think we got a problem."

"What?" Rotor asked.

"Well, what happened to the power gem?" Sonic looked between the other two. "I mean, c'mon Rote, did that 'bot make off with it for the little bald guy? Was it destroyed? What?"

Chuck watched the navigational data on his screen for a second. "Sonic," he said. "If Snively got the power gem we could be in deep trouble."

"I know," Sonic said, then smiled for a bit. "But if he uses it in a bot I can kill the bot and grab the gem."

"Sonic Sir Charles is serious," Rotor said. "I mean, what if he used it in some super weapon that wasn't a bot? Something that could wipe out the whole Great Forest from his own HQ."

"Man, that could be ugly," Sonic said. "Yours truly can take it out once we learn of it. After all, Uncle Chuck still has his spy bugs hidden all over Robotropolis. Right Unc?"

"Yes I do boy," Chuck said. "Here we are. I'll set us down and make some final adjustments on the machine, you two boys go look for that bot power supply."

"Right Uncle Chuck," Sonic said as he headed out.

"Sure thing Sir Charles," Rotor said, following in Sonic's wake.

The elder hedgehog turned away from his console and towards the re-made ring machine. A small red blip appeared on the console from beneath the smallest of the piles of trash near him.

Sonic zipped back and forth between the piles of trash, searching at each one for a power pack with sufficient juice. He stopped at one when he saw a light blip at the base of the mound. "Dwaoh," he turned and ran straight to it. "Sweet, just what I'm looking for." At the base of the mound, just beneath the light was a bot plane power pack, much stronger than any Swatbot's power pack. He picked it up, and immediately wished he hadn't. "Ohhh, crud." Sonic turned and sped instantly from the spot he'd been standing.

"Hey Unc!" Sonic shouted. "Use this!" He threw the power cell to his Uncle.

"What's the big ru-" Sir Charles stopped in mid sentence. "Oh." Was all he said, then he started wiring in the power cell.

In the instant it took Sonic to reach his Uncle, two things happened. One, Rotor appeared from behind a junk pile, empty handed, and followed by something. Two a third thing leaped up from under the junk pile near the ship, smashing the power cell with a piece of trash.

The things were quick, giant things with mean jaws and laser cannons. The other two monstrosities turned towards Sonic. A hollow, deep, rumbling, bass voice sounded, "Priority one Hedgehog alert, disregard previous orders. Destroy hedgehog." All three turned towards Sonic and simultaneously fired their cannons.

"Sonic they destroyed the power supply!" Uncle chuck shouted above the blast of the lasers. "Our only option is your ring!"

"But I need the ring Uncle Chuck!" Sonic yelled as he evaded another close call. The robots were getting smarter. "Any longer and these robots are gonna figure me out and then I'm done for."

"Without the ring I can't make any more!" Uncle Chuck said. "Risk it now against the bots, or hand me the ring. Both are risky and might lead to destruction. Take your pick!"

Sonic thought hard. The wheels clicking in his brain as the lasers got closer and closer to him. At one instance he saw his chance. He leaped forward, going into a Sonic Spin, and destroyed the bot. Then five more came to replace it. The seven joined together to form a sort of Robotic Hydra. A slithering beast with seven formidable sets of jaws and lasers. Sonic landed from his attack. Then he knew his cause was hopeless. He threw his pack to his Uncle at the last second, right before a set of jaws threatened to clamp around his blue body. Then leaped away.

Sonic's Uncle grabbed the pack and pulled the ring out. He slipped the ring into the slot on the machine which powered up instantly. Amazingly enough, the leftover power from the power gem in the machine's systems allowed not only enough power to generate one ring, but two. Both rings came out of the top of the machine one after the other. Chuck grabbed one and hurled it at Sonic. Sonic reached up and grabbed the oncoming ring. In an instant he was spinning, rocketing all over the place, and ramming straight through the giant hydra.

Rotor shielded his eyes as Sonic landed in front of him and the Robot exploded in a mass of expanding gases that thinned into flaming bits of metal. "Well, I'm glad that's over with," Sonic said, then laughed at the flaming bits on the ground. "Thanks Uncle Chuck."

"You're the one who made the right call Sonny Boy," Sonic's Uncle said. "It was a big risk you took, but worth it."

"Thanks Unc," Sonic said, as they hauled the machine into the 'bot plane. "I don't know how long this power source will last, but we can work with it."

Sonic sat staring at the lake, and the tracks from where the crane had re-lowered the ring creating machine into the lake. A voice piped up behind him.

"Hey Sonic," Tails said. "Whatcha doin?"

"Something I don't do a lot of," Sonic said, as he began to smirk. "Thinking. And you know what?"

"What?" Tails asked.

"My head hurts," Sonic laughed out at his little joke, but then returned to being semi-serious. "Nah, seriously though. I'd thought that with 'Botnik being gone there'd be nothing for a hero to do. But now we have Snively to deal with."

"So?" Tails said, as more of a comment than a question.

"So," Sonic said, turning back to the lake. "I have to deal with him, and he's got the power rock. Oh speaking of which, thanks for giving my Uncle the idea about the power ring. Without you and that smart brain of yours, I probably wouldn't be here."

"Wow," Tails said, astonished that his personal hero and foster brother had admitted something that Tails hadn't even been aware he'd done. "Thanks. And Sonic."

"Yeah?" Sonic said.

"Don't worry about how you'll do against Snively," Tails said. "Even with the power rock, he doesn't stand a chance."

"You know what little bro?" Sonic said, his smirk getting even bigger. "You're right again."

Episode 29- South of the Border

When Snively invades Lower Mobius, it's up to Sonic with the help of a few of the resident's of Lower Mobius to rescue the others and retrieve both pieces of the power stone. Unfortunately, Snively is using the now fully restored gem for his own fiendish purposes. Will Sonic be able to stop this evil in time to rescue the other Mobians of Lower Mobius? And, will he be able to retrieve the Power Gem?