Sonic walked into his hut and picked up his backpack. As he walked out the door he looked up. "Might get a little wet this mission," he said to himself as he headed off to re-group with the other Freedom Fighters. In a short time he was at the rendevous point. "We ready to go Sal?"

She turned towards him. "Yes," she said as she motioned towards the other member of the strike team. "Bunnie's ready to go too."

"Ah shure am," Bunnie said. "Just wait'll I get those new stealth swatbots under my guns."

"All right," Sally said. "One last time. We three will break into the hidden laboratory-"\

"That's not so hidden now," Sonic said. Sally gave him a look of annoyance. "Well, it's the truth."

"Once we're in, we re-program the 'bots, then plant these small charges in each 'bot," she pointed towards the small pile of munitions on the ground. "Once that's done, we get out of there. Whatever that means." She slightly lowered her voice for the last part. "All right, let's move out."

Sonic gave a mock salute then aimed his hands down the path. "Ladies first," he said. Sally gave a small sigh of annoyance as they headed off towards Robotropolis.

The strike team crept carefully forward, thankful for the gathering dark cover of the clouds. "Just a little bit more and we'll be at our entry point," Sally said.

"Hey Sal," Sonic said as he propped himself against the wall. "I'm thankful for the cover they're giving and all but, those clouds look like they could turn nasty at any time."

Sally looked up at the storm clouds. "You're right," she said. "Unfortunately we can't just leave, we have to finish this. We'll have to sprint the last few meters. Sonic, back us up."

"Righto," Sonic said.

Sally and Bunnie crept forward slowly, then took off at a rapid pace. They were nearly at their entry point when something slammed into Bunnie, knocking her down. The hidden enemy lashed out from nowhere and knocked Sally out. In a split second both had been taken out. A split second was all Sonic had needed to juice forward. Not a single word escaped Sonic's lips, he wasn't about to draw the 'bot's attention to himself. He zipped right to where it had been and ran into something hard. He flew backward, barely managing to land on his feet after the ricochet.

"Wha?" Sonic looked at where he'd bounced off from. "There's nothing there!" He reached out a hand to feel the space of air. Something large and hard rammed his hand to the ground painfully. "YEEEOOWW!" Sonic's hand throbbed painfully as he leapt back from the empty area. "Ok, something is there, It's moving fast enough in the dark that I can't see it!" A sound came from behind Sonic, a loud metallic clang. "Oh no." Sonic turned around.

Sonic felt a large metal whip coil around him, pinning his arms in place. A second one instantly grabbed his feet to keep Sonic from running. "Aw crud," Sonic said. "It's not moving fast, this must be one of those not so super secret stealth 'bots that Snively's makin." The coils tightened. "Ungh! Unfortunately It might be a bit harder to blow this one up." Sonic struggled to escape the ever tightening coils. "If-only-I-could-reach-my-power-ring." The sky flashed, and a loud boom rolled through the air. Rain began to fall down on the doomed hero. "Great." Sonic looked forward, trying to see anything in the darkness. A small read light appeared beneath Sonic. Now what? Sonic though as the beam crept up. It glanced up the slowly shrinking silver coils. Sonic looked down again. I can see the 'bot where that light is pointing. Unfortunately that can't help me. The light crept along the coils until it reached the stealth swatbot. Sonic's eyes began to cloud over. I'm losing my vision. Hard to breathe... can't think... blacking out. Can't believe.... I.... lost to..... a crummy bot. Then Sonic blacked out as the coils squeezed even harder.

Another flash of lightning arced downward spearing the bot through the top of his head. The buildup of energy inside the 'bot caused it's cloak to malfunction and shut down. It looked like a large silver swatbot with two coils coming out of the arms. The electrical overload made the swatbot explode, hurtling Sonic through a nearby wall.

"Sally-girl," Bunnie said. "He's wakin up."

"Ohhh," Sonic groaned as he reached for his head. "My achin everything." His hand was slightly swollen and his head still hurt from lack of oxygen. Sonic looked around. "Where are we anyway?"

"Well somehow you flew through that hole in the wall there, the rain woke us up and we ran inside here to get out of it," Sally said. "We found you in here. It looks like another tunnel that wasn't in the Subter File* we got from Ironlock Prison."

"What about the 'bot?" Sonic asked.

Sally shook her head. "Not much left, just some scraps of silver metal. What was it?"

"I think it's one of Snive's new Stealth Swatbots," Sonic said as he got up. He grunted with a slight pain as he got off the ground. "Wonder where it leads to."

"We may as well find out Sugah-hog," Bunnie said. "Not much else we can do until this storm blows itself out."

Sonic stretched a bit as they walked, working out stiffened muscles and trying to move his hand. "Sonic," Sally said as they continued walking down the tunnel. "You never said how you destroyed the swatbot."

"I didn't," Sonic looked at her puzzled expression. "I blacked out from lack of air." He shrugged. "Might have been lightning, or the rain, or something." He peered as far as he could into the darkness. Then he stopped. "That's it, this tunnel is going nowhere. I'm stopping right here." He leaned against a wall with his good hand. Something clicked and the wall panel shifted away, leaving open air for the surprised hedgehog to tumble through. Sonic let out a small grunt of pain as he hit the ground. "Well, at least here's somewhere."

"Sonic," Sally said. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah," he replied. "What's this place?"

Sally looked around the room, feeling along the smooth, cold walls. "Aha," she said suddenly. She flipped a switch and light filled the room. A quick glance told her what she needed to know. "Looks like some sort of library."

"What you mean this room with all the books." Sonic said sarcastically. He moved over to a dusty shelf. Sonic picked up a book. "Aww rats, it's just an old history book." He re-shelved the book and looked at the other books on the shelf. "Man, just look at how much history is in here. Where's the fiction?"

"Sonic," Sally said frustratedly. "History isn't something that should be ignored. It-"

"Yeah I know," Sonic said. "Hey this looks fictional." Sonic picked up a large book. "The Legend of Alvaon?" Sonic read the title aloud. "What's that?"

"What?" Sally said. "Let me see that." She took the book from Sonic and opened it.

"What does that say?" Bunnie asked. "It's not even written in English. Can you read that Sally-girl?"

"No," Sally said as she pulled out Nicole. "But hopefully Nicole can. Nicole?"

"The language is ancient," Nicole chimed out. "But fortunately my data banks contain the necessary data to decipher it."

"All right," Sally said. "Translate and summarize it."

"The text reads," Nicole began. "Long ago, a mighty city existed far in the north. A technologically advanced race. After years of prosperity and fame, their city disappeared. According to the legend, only a person of courage, intelligence, strength, and justice may once again walk the hidden path."

"What in the world does that mean?" Bunnie asked.

"That this city might still exist," Sally said. "And that it may still be findable to someone who knows where to look."

"Hey what's this?" Sonic pointed at a slip of paper that had fallen out of the book. He picked it up and began to read. "Year 3223, having left our greatest treasure--. The page is torn, let me see what's below it. Uhh, 'out to find the lost paradise. '-den Menace on the,' I'm assuming this word is 'path.' 'Face legend.' What's a 'face legend?' It's torn on two sides, looks like it's only a piece of the actual note. Sal, look! The date is just one year before Robotnik took over. The same time that my parents disappeared!"

Sally gasped. "Yes Sonic, but," she paused. "Remember, lots of other peoples' parents disappeared around that same time as well. And that doesn't mean they were looking for this 'Lost City' anyway."

"Yeah," Sonic said. "I know that but." He paused for a second. "Look there's something drawn on the back." He flipped the paper completely, revealing a few small sketches on the reverse side. "Any idea what this could be?"

'It could be a map," Bunnie said. "Or it could just be that the writer of this here note got bored and doodled a bit."

Sonic sighed. "You guys are right," he said. "Still, I'm just gonna keep this piece of note all the same." He put the note in his backpack. I think we better get back to the mission before 'ol Snively finds out about his busted toy."

Sally nodded, "Right."

"Ah sure hope the storm's over," Bunnie said as they turned to leave the library.

"Yeah," Sonic said. "It'd be a major problem if this storm is still raging when we get back out."

The storm had stopped, leaving a wet ground covered in small stones of ice. Sonic picked up a chunk of ice. "It's a good thing we were inside when these started to fall," he said.

"Yeah," Sally said. "C'mon. We might just be able to complete our mission anyway."

After a few more minutes of crawling through small air ducts, they reached their target. Sonic silently dropped down to the ground. "Uh, Sal?" Sonic looked around the empty room. "There's nothing in here."

"Sonic," Sally said somberly. "This is not good. If Snively already unleashed those 'bots, there's no way to stop them. They could destroy the Great Forest without even being seen!"

"Oh my stars," Bunnie said. "That's horrible."

"Yes it is Bunnie," Sally said. "Sonic, when you fought that one stealth swatbot, how did you know where it was?"

"I didn't," Sonic said. "Oh wait, I could see parts of it."

"How?" Bunnie and Sally both asked.

"Someone was shining a light on the 'bot," Sonic said. "A red light."

"They're sensitive to the invisible spectrum of light," Sally said. "Which means that that's Snively's defensive system. Leave the 'bots invisible, and use an infrared light to work on them. All I need is to find an infrared light."

"Infrared?" Sonic asked. "Gotcha." Sonic looked around the large room. "How 'bout we try the light switch over there?"

"Huh?" Sally said. "Sonic that won't work. Why would he have the override to his own security system be just one switch?"

"'Cause he's Snively," Sonic ran over to the other side of the room and pushed the switch up. He ran back towards Sally and Bunnie.

"Nothing's happenin Sugah-hog," Bunnie said.

"I told you it wouldn't be that simple," Sally said. "Now where would I hide-"

A low level humming started from the ceiling. "Wait," Sonic said. "Give it a Sonic second." The three figures stood in silence as the humming reached a solid tone. A light red tinge started to fill the room. Then the overhead lights blared to life, revealing rows upon rows of brand new stealth swatbots. "Bingo ringo. Told ya it was that easy."

"As much as I hate to admit it," Sally said with a slight smile. "You're right. Now, let's go fix these 'bots."

They worked carefully, reprogramming and fitting the droids with explosives. Sally spent the last few minutes after they had finished downloading the stealth technology into Nicole. "We're done," Sally said. "Let's get out of here." They headed towards the exit.

An alarm went off on Snively's control panel. "So, they've come to sabotage one of my factories eh?" Snively said as he turned on the monitor. Sonic, Sally, and Bunnie appeared on the screen, just about to leave a droid factory. "I guess it's time to show them my newest little surprise." Snively laughed as he hit a button on his control board.

Sonic peered through his binoculars towards the stealth swatbot factory. A small red light shone on the other end. A small flash of metal appeared at the light's point. "All right Sal," Sonic said. "They're on the move. Great job."

"Good," Sally said. "Thanks to Nicole hacking the system and playing that video clip, the 'bots should head towards one of the factories." Sally quickly punched a few buttons on Nicole. "All right Nicole, activate."

"Affirmative Sally," Nicole beeped a bit as she sent a small signal to the stealth swatbots.

Sonic watched as the everything remained quiet. "C'mon, do it already," he said, tapping his foot impatiently.

"Sonic," Sally said. "Be patient, we didn't program them to run to the factories."

"Well we should have-" Sonic didn't finish his sentence. The night sky filled with light as the automated factories exploded from within. "Woah, now that's a light show."

"That should cut Snively's production in half or less," Sally looked around. "And that's the end of Snively's Stealth Swatbots."

"Good, now let's get the hoohaw out of here," Bunnie said.

The three members of the strike team hurried back to Knothole as silently as they came.

Sonic sat on a log near the ring lake. Sally crept up near him. Before she could open her mouth Sonic talked first. "Sally," he said. "We're sure that no roboticized Mobians were in there right? Those factories were all automated."

Sally sat down and thought for a second. "We can't ever be truly sure," she said. "We struck at night, and hit the automated factories, but..." She paused for a minute. "There's always a chance someone was doing some late night maintenance on the automated equipment."

"That's what I was afraid of," Sonic said, shaking his head. "Well, we won't be able to do this again."

"Why not?" Sally asked.

"Two reasons," Sonic said. "One, Sniv'll be waiting for us to pull a trick like that again. Two, I wouldn't put it past him to post Mobians inside as part of some psycho war against us. Three, the risk would be too great to try that again."

"You said two reasons," Sally said.

"Yeah so?" Sonic said. "I'm still right." Sonic smiled.

"Yeah I guess," Sally said.

"You guess?" Sonic asked.

"Yeah," she said.

Episode 31- Inhognito

When Snively attacks Sonic with a new weapon, the resulting explosion changes the frequency at which Sonic's body vibrates, making him invisible to the rest of Mobius. Sonic decides to use this problem to his advantage. Will the effect last? Or will Sonic be permanently stuck in an invisible form? Can he stop Snively's new weapon? Or will it destroy the world before Sonic can get at it?

* Subter File: A file containing a map of the underground network of tunnels beneath Robotropolis. Sonic & Sally (along with Antoine) acquired it while searching for her father in Iron-Lock prison. It was left there by her father to help them.