A paper blew up into the air as a sudden breeze blew by. It landed, only to be disturbed again as Sonic ran past it again. "This should be it," Sonic said as he pulled out a set of binoculars. He zoomed in on where his target was supposed to be. "Hmmmm." He sighed and pulled out a map. "Let's see." He stared at the map a second then, started stepping forward. "One... two... three... four... five..." he continued counting all the way to thirteen, then he stopped. "Yep, this should be it." He quickly stood up on his toes and began to spin rapidly. Digging straight down, after a few feet he turned sharply until he hit metal, then he stopped. Sonic put on a pair of night-vision goggles. "Blast, directions must've been off by a bit," he said. Then he noticed a piece of a small panel to his right. "Or that could be it." Sonic shrugged and quickly unburied the panel.

Fortunately, Sonic had buried his trail as he entered, so he replaced the panel and began to sneak along the corridor. "Almost there," he said quietly to himself. "This is easier than a cake walk." He was about to cut loose down the hall when the sound of robots reached his ears. "Uh oh." Sonic looked around him for a place to hide.

The bot came around the corner, a small tech bot. And passed straight on. He didn't see or hear Sonic as Sonic chuckled silently. "Hehehe," Sonic pushed the button on the sides of his sneakers as he flipped back over and dropped to the ground. "Faster than lightning and quieter than a mouse, that's me." Sonic listened carefully. His patience didn't last long; he revved up and juiced down the hallway towards his destination. Sonic looked down at his watch as he headed down the corridor. "Woah, I'm running behind. Sal's set to go in just a few minutes," Sonic smirked. "No problem, just better pick up the pace!" He leaned forward and sped faster down the hall.

Sonic quickly reached the end of the hall. He peeked through a window in the door to make sure he was at the right place. "Yep, ugly 'bots everywhere. This is it," he said. Quickly he pulled out a mirror and started smoothing the quills on the back of his head. The he straightened his socks. "Gotta look my best for this party." Sonic took a step back, then rammed full speed into the doors, reaching the other side of the room before the swatbots were even aware he'd entered. A single bot looked his way, then turned back to his work. "Unreal," Sonic murmured to himself.

He took a few steps towards the machine in the center of the room. A few more. Occasionally a 'bot would look in his direction but they did nothing and continued working. "Hey!" Sonic yelled at the swatbots. "What's the fun of breaking into this top-secret facility if no one cares?" He took a few more, less-cautious, steps towards the machine. A laser blast from a nearby Swatbot landed directly in front of him as he somersaulted backwards. "Okay, that's a bit of action. Now what's going?"

The swatbot who fired at him looked in his direction. "Please stay away from the weapon," he said in his monotone voice. "If you come any closer, the next shot will not be a warning one like the last."

"Finally a response," Sonic said as he shrugged his shoulders. "Hey, any of you 'bots got a personality chip?" None of the swat- or tech-bots moved. "Guess you won't mind if I reduce you guys to slag then." He pulled out a ring and zipped into the nearest Swatbot, ripping it to shreds. Just as he zeroed in on the next bot, a single tech hit a red button on the control board near him. The button read 'PANIC' in big bold letters. The large machine in the middle began to rotate to aim at Sonic. Sonic destroyed the last 'bot quickly then came to a rest near the 'panic' button.

He noticed the machine moving out of the corner of his eye. "Boy, I hope that weapon isn't acti-," Sonic's sentence was cut short as the machine fired. In a reflex maneuver, Sonic brought his hand up in front of him. If not for the ring held in it, the blast would've hit him full force. Instead the ring absorbed the energy and exploded in Sonic's hand, throwing him against the far wall. The straps on the backpack slipped off Sonic, and the pack itself spun off to the side of the room. The blast mixed with the concussion his head received from the hard bulkhead knocked him out.

The door to the chamber opened, and Snively walked in. He glanced around the room, then ran straight towards Sonic. He hit a button on the console and shouted orders into it, "SECURITY!" Snively continued yelling into the comm. "I need security down here now! " He looked around the room. "The Hedgehog must've been here." Snively muttered. All the robots were destroyed, a huge blast mark was on the floor of the room, a Sonic shaped imprint was in the far wall, and fragments of some golden object were all over the place. "Security, get me a clean-up crew and some tech bots to examine a few things!"

Sally paced back and forth, "Oh, where is he?" She looked down at her watch again. "Bunnie! He's twenty minutes overdue. That's late even for Sonic."

"Calm down, Sally girl," Bunnie said. "Sonic'll be back soon. He prolly got caught up in some fight against some swatbots or something. Maybe even found himself some chili-dogs somewhere."

"Oh," Sally muttered. "I wish he'd hurry up. He's startin to get me worried." Sally stopped pacing, and stood. She tapped her foot while she looked at her watch; then looked up at the sky, as if looking for answers.

Sonic sat up, and rubbed his head. "Woah, that blast packed a wallop," he said. He carefully looked around. "Something's not right." Sonic stood slowly, then realized what was wrong. "That big cannon in the middle is gone!" Some bots must've come in and taken it while I was snoozin." He looked around the room. "In fact, everything's been cored out here." He kicked the nearest control panel and it fell into a pile of junk. "What I don't get is why none of the 'bots grabbed me. I mean, I was just lying there." Sonic paused for a sec. His watch beeped and he looked at it. "Woah! I'm late!" He turned towards the door. "Better juice." Sonic revved up then ran back down the hall, straight into a group of Swatbots who were on patrol. He knocked one down before he could stop.

Another 'bot looked in Sonic's direction as the one he knocked down began to get back up. "Heat sensors activated," the 'bot said. "Long strip of heat dissipates quickly. No sign of attacker." The bot brought up his communications. "Master Snively, unusual disturbance in the underground tunnel system, sector 17."

Snively's voice came back, slightly distorted over the conn, "What disturbance? IS the hedgehog back?!"

"Unknown," the Swatbot said, his metallic voice echoing through the hall. "But highly likely as something came through and knocked down unit 44 and we never saw it."

"Well," Snively yelled. "Don't just stay where you are. Fan out and search for him!"

"Roger."

Sonic watched the group of Swatbots head off in different directions, then he sighed and let out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding. "That was weird," he looked around. "Weird, but cool." He continued running towards his exit point. He reached the panel he'd originally used, opened it and got ready to dig through the ground. "I wonder why those 'bots didn't see me when I stopped. Oh well, I'll figure it out later." Sonic leapt up, then spun into the ground where the panel was open. He quickly closed the panel behind him and filled in the ground behind him as he went.

Sonic went out a bit from the pipe, then dug straight up until he reached the surface. "Whew," he said. "Man that's dirty work, nyuck, nyuck." Sonic looked around, then took off running towards the junkyard where, hopefully, Sally and Bunnie were waiting for him.

"Bunnie," Sally said. "If that hedgehog doesn't show up in the next five minutes, we pull out. We've already spent way too much time here."

"All right,' Bunnie said. "Just be sure to leave a note or something that he'll understand for when he finally does show up. It'd be rude to jus-"

"Shh!" Sally quickly said. She listened, then motioned for Bunnie to duck down behind something.

"What is it Sally girl?" Bunnie asked.

"I don't know," she said. "Stay down and we'll find out." They felt a strong breeze blow by, suddenly stopping then the sound of someone's foot tapping.

"Guess they're not here," the strangely familiar voice said. "Must've gone back to Knothole without me. Hope Sally got her part of the mission done. Oh well, here I go!"

Sally peeked up from her hiding spot, she didn't see anyone. "Bunnie, it looks clear," she said. Sally quickly stood up.

"Sure Sal," the voice said. "The coast is clear. I'm standing right here."

"Who said that?" Sally asked looking around quickly. "Where are you?"

"C'mon Sal," the voice said. "It's me Sonic, I'm standing right here, to your right!"

Sally turned, and Bunnie stood up to look. "Where?" Sally asked.

"Right here!" Sonic said. "I'm wavin my hand in your face. There's no way you can't see me."

Sally brought her hand up to her face and felt it hit something solid. "What's going on?"

"I told, you," Sonic said. "Quit playing games, I'm right here." They heard the voice moving around. "C'mon let's head back to Knothole. I'm startin to get a headache here."

"Wait," Sally said. "How do we know this isn't some kind of trick?"

"Uh," Sonic stopped for a moment. "Who else is cool, blue, fast, and good looking all rolled into one?"

"That's Sonic all right," Bunnie said. "All ego." She laughed and Sally joined her for a second.

"All right," Sonic said, an exaggerated pain in his voice. "That hurt. Look, it's me Sonic. I'm standing right here. I'm like three feet away from you two. How can you not see me?"

"Well," Sally said. "If you really are Sonic, then we just can't see you. Tell you what, you go on ahead, and we'll follow. Sonic would know the way to Knothole while a cloaked Swatbot wouldn't."

"Hmm," Sonic said. "Good point, meet you two there!" There was the sound of feet hitting dirt at a rapid pace, then a giant rush of wind, and the voice was gone.

"Well," Bunnie said. "I guess that settles that. Now we can go home."

"I guess so Bunnie," I hope Rotor has an answer to this problem, or Sir Charles."

Sonic ran straight to Knothole. "Weird," he said as he neared the hidden village. "I've been running and I haven't been stopped by a single patrol or checkpoint." He quickly reached the oak stump, then passed it on his way into Knothole. He stopped in the midst of the huts and looked around. "Hmm, no one's here." He looked around then started walking towards his hut. "Tails is probably with Unc." Sonic quickly looked in his hut. "Hello?!" Finding no one, he quickly left and headed towards Rotor's hut. "Yeah, Uncle Chuck is probably with Rotor working on some new 'Sniv-busting device." He sped on over, not noticing the freedom fighter who was just coming out of his hut.

Reaching the hut, Sonic opened the door to Rotor's hut/workshop. "Huh?" Rotor said. Rotor looked at the open door. "Who's there?" The walrus carefully rose and looked around the room. "What's going on here?" He walked over to the door, nearly bumping into Sonic. "Oh well, probably someone's idea of a practical joke." Rotor closed the door and headed back to his worktable. He hummed softly as he worked on some trinket or other.

"Weird," Sonic said softly to himself. "Rotor?" Sonic said, slightly raising his voice.

"Huh?" Rotor said, looking up from the table. "What now?"

"Can you, uh- Can you see me?"

"Tell me who you are first and I'll see," Rotor's voice had a note of irritability in it.

"For crying out loud- It's me, Sonic!"

"All right fine," Rotor turned back to his work. "You just keep on playing your little joke. Tell me if you need anything."

Sonic sighed, then looked over at a mirror. "I can see myself. Why can't anyone else see me?" He sighed, turned to walk out of the hut, and ran into a table. The contents clattered to the ground. Some blue powder fell on top of Sonic.

"All right that's it!" Rotor turned to where the noise of clattering had come from. "You're starting to get on my nerves." He saw some blue powder come up off the floor and start speaking.

"Rotor!" Sonic said. "It's me!" Sonic saw the powder on his gloves, then he got an idea. He grabbed more of it and rubbed it over his face. "Can you see me now?"

"Slightly," Rotor stumbled for his next words. "Uhh, what happened? What's going on?"

"Well I would guess, by the fact that no one can see me, that I'm invisible. But maybe that's just me." Sonic frowned, an image that was slightly marred as some of the powder entered his mouth and he spat it out.

"Oh, here's a towel and some water. You might want to get that stuff out pretty quick."

"Why?" Sonic asked as he washed it off.

"It's slightly acidic and will burn straight through your skin," Rotor said quickly.

Sonic quickly rubbed the rest off, very quickly. "Oh," he said. "C'mon, let's go find my Uncle Chuck. Maybe he can help 'reveal' the truth here." Sonic grabbed Rotor's wrist and sped out the door, Rotor trailed in the air behind him.

"Ya know Sonic," Rotor said as he was pulled along. "This is providing a rather amusing spectacle."

"Whaddya mean?" Sonic asked as he headed off in search of his Uncle.

"I mean," Rotor chuckled a bit as he tried to explain. "It looks like I'm hovering through the air at super sonic speeds."

"Oh," Sonic stopped suddenly, letting Rotor drop to the ground. "I see your point."

Rotor stood back up, "Ahh thank you. Now I think your Uncle is down by the Ring Lake with Tails."

Sally pulled out a remote as she and Bunnie ran from the junkyard. "Hopefully Sonic finished before he got 'sidetracked' or whatever happened." She pressed down on the button, then slid it back into her pack and they kept on running.

"That should take care of 'ol Sniv's new weapon," Bunnie said. "If it didn't, at least it put a big 'ol dent in it."

"I hope so Bunnie," Sally said. "The explosives in Sonic's pack should have done the trick."

Sonic put his hand behind his head, slightly stretching as he walked with Rotor down towards the ring lake. Suddenly, he realized something was wrong. My backpack! Where is it?! Sonic knew his backpack wasn't on his back. He shrugged. I guess it fell off when that laser zapped me.

Sonic sighed. "This is taking too long," he said.

"It could be worse," Rotor said.

"How could anything be worse than having to move so slowly?"

"That explosion you were telling me about could have damaged one of your legs," Rotor chuckled. "Then you'd have to hop everywhere at an even slower pace.

Sonic sighed again. "Even so," he said. "Things could be going a lot faster."

"Don't get all bent out of shape," Rotor pointed towards where they were heading. "See, there's the Ring Lake now."

"Finally. I thought we were never going to get here." They walked in silence for the next few moments as they reached where Sir Charles Hedgehog and Tails.

Rotor spoke up first,"Sir Charles."

"Yes Rotor?" Uncle Chuck said as he looked up from where he'd been doodling on the ground. It was his turn to wait for a ring to appear, so he spent his time talking with Tails and trying to think of a way to reverse the effects of the Roboticizer.

"We have a problem," Sonic said.

"Hey Rotor," Tails said. "That's a good impersonation of Sonic's voice. I didn't even see you move your lips."

"He didn't,Tails," Sonic said. "It's the problem we have."

"Sonic has somehow been turned invisible," Rotor shrugged.

"What happened?" Chuck asked, suddenly more interested.

"Well, I was holding a ring," Sonic began. "Then some mondo-laser gun shot at me. I raised the ring and the blast hit it instead of me. The ring exploded and I konked out. When I woke up everything in the room was gone, and I was like this."

"Would this laser happen to be the one that Snively was building? The super secret one?" Charles asked.

"Yeah," Sonic said. "That's the one."

Sir Charles turned to Tails. "Can you watch the Ring Lake for me? I need to go conduct some tests."

"Sure thing, Uncle Chuck," Tails said.

"Thank you, Tails," Chuck said. "All right boys, lead the way." They turned back and headed off back towards Rotor's workshop.

Sally and Bunnie had made it back to Knothole and were looking for any signs of Sonic. "Maybe he's with Rotor and Sir Charles, " Sally said. "I guess we should check there next." They turned and headed towards Rotor's workshop.

It didn't take them long to reach it, not nearly as long as the trip back from Robotropolis. They opened the door and saw Rotor and Uncle Chuck looking at a monitor. "Hello, Rotor, Sir Charles," Sally said as they entered.

"Oh, hello," Rotor and Chuck said.

"What's going on heyah?" Bunnie asked.

"Well," Rotor started to say, while turning away from the monitor. "You two probably already know. Sonic said he tried to get you to listen to him, but you thought it was all some great game or something."

"What?" Sally said.

Uncle Chuck looked up from the monitor. "I know what happened." He stood up. "Snively's new weapon is a dimensional laser. It opens doorways to a different zone or dimension, like the Void. When it shot the ring, the overload caused the ring to explode. Instead of vaporizing Sonic like it really should have, it changed the frequency at which the molecules in his body vibrate. It's at a rate that keeps him invisible to a normal eye. I've adjusted my optical sensors to detect it, so I can see him."

"So I'm pretty much a super stealth hog?" Sonic asked. Sally and Bunnie both jumped at the sound of his voice."

Uncle Chuck turned around to face Sonic, whom he could now see. "Essentially, yes."

"Well, we don't have to worry about the Dimensional laser anymore," Sally said.

"Why not?' Uncle Chuck asked.

"Well, even if Sonic didn't plant them, the explosives in his pack carried enough charge to take out a fairly large room. We set them off a few minutes after Sonic left us."

Sonic shook his head.

"They're not gonna be able to see that Sonic," Chuck said, slightly laughing.

"Oh yeah, hehe," Sonic chuckled as he explained. "It's not gonna work, Sal. When I woke up the laser was gone. I didn't look for my pack, but it's a pretty safe bet that it was turned invisible too. It probably blew up an empty room." Sonic shrugged, he knew it was a useless gesture, but he did it anyway.

"But then that means," Bunnie began. "We'll have to go back to Robotropolis to destrah that there contraption."

Sonic shook his head, then slapped it as he realized what he was doing again. He sighed, then began, "I'll go and take it out. I can't be seen so I have an advantage."

"Sonic you can't," Rotor said. "You already said the machine blew up your ring. You'll have to wait until you get another one."

Sonic groaned. "No, no more waiting. I'm going out that door now." The door opened.

"Sonic wait!" Rotor yelled.

"Don't worry," Uncle Chuck said. "My nephew hasn't moved an inch yet. Take a good look, that's not Sonic coming through the doorway."

"Here you go, Uncle Chuck," Tails said. "I got my shift relieved right after the ring appeared. I figure you can use it to help Sonic."

"Thank you, Tails," Sir Charles said. He picked up a nearby backpack and put the ring in it. Then he handed it to Sonic. "Take this Sonic."

"Uhh, Unc," Sonic said, holding the pack. "If I put this on, they're gonna be able to see me."

"No they won't," Charles flipped a switch on the flap of the pack. "The material is made out of small reflective crystals that can bend light. When I flip the switch, it arranges the crystals making the bend the light around it. Hit it again and it randomizes them so you can see the pack. I've been working with it, and this is the only useful thing I've made so far." He started to laugh. "Though it does work good for hiding chili-dogs at home." The others joined him as Sonic put the pack on his back.

"All right, guys," Sonic turned towards the door. "I'm ghost." He shrugged again. "Literally." A quick smirk back at his friends, even though they couldn't see it and he was out the door, heading to Robotropolis.

Sonic ran around one corner after the other. He knew where Snively would have taken the laser. "He wants to do the most damage with it," Sonic sped up as he ran. "So why not hook it up to a 'bot plane? That's where he's keeping the laser. Sonic turned another corner. "The main hangar is dead ahead." A smirk spread across his face. "This shouldn't take long."

He ran straight, avoiding barricades until he reached the main hangar. He searched through it until he found what he was a looking for, a large, sealed room. He entered and noticed the same laser cannon, suspended from the ceiling. "Piece of cake!" he said. Then he reached into his pack, and pulled out an explosive. "Good thing Unc had already packed some of these." He slapped one onto the main housing of the laser and left the room. "Time to blow this pop-stand." He pulled out the remote detonator from his pack and hit the button.

A large blast echoed down the halls. Sonic put up the detonator, did a little thumbs up with a smirk, then headed back into the room. He stopped short in front of the slightly blackened cannon. "Ok, maybe it's not as easy as I thought." Sonic said as he looked around the room.

"Hedgehog!" Snively's voice filled the room. "I know you're in there. Show yourself! Don't bother trying to destroy the cannon. It's made of a material that is unbreakable. I have the only amount of it on the entire planet. It's covering that cannon." Snively laughed.

"Sorry Sniv," Sonic said to himself. "By the way Snively. You're laugh is no where near as menacing as ol' Moonhead's was." He lowered his voice again. "You wouldn't be able to see me even if I stood in front of the camera." Sonic looked around. "It's dark in here, time to light things up a bit!" He reach into the pack and pulled out a ring. The hedgehog held it above his head. "Go and glow time." The ring's energy encompassed him, giving him a speed boost.

"Aha!" Snively said. "I can see you Sonic!"

"What?!" Sonic looked at the ring, then at the cannon. "Ah, ring must've reset the frequency of my body or whatever it was that Uncle Chuck said." He looked at the cannon as it turned to aim at him. "Well, can't undo that now." He leapt at the cannon, going into a spin to try to destroy it, then he bounced off it. "Ow," he said as he landed on his feet, at the ready.

"See, Hedgehog," Snively said.

Sonic began bouncing around to evade the cannon as it was charging up.

"Stand still," Snively said. "Blast you! Take this!" Snively pressed a button in his control room, firing the cannon.

It missed Sonic cleanly. "It's a good thing you told me what you were gonna do," Sonic jumped in front of the surveillance camera and smirked at Snively.

"You think you're so smart," Snively laughed again. "Prepare to be trapped forever Hedgehog."

"Huh?" Sonic turned to look at the blast mark. "Uh oh." The Void suddenly flared to life. Sonic had to run full away from it to try and escape. "Ugh, I'm at a standstill." He tried to run harder. "I'm running against a wall, and that thing is between me and the door out of here." He noticed the cannon straining to target him. "Oh yeah, and Snively's gonna fire that thing at me again." He looked at the cannon, saw it straining against the pull of the void. He snapped his fingers. "That's it!" He braced himself, then leapt straight up, and started a horizontal Sonic Spin. He felt himself hit the joint on the ceiling where the armor was weakest. It hurt him, the pull of the Void sucked him straight through the joint, slicing it clean in two. He put his feet against the metal of the cannon and leaped off. Giving him just a few more seconds of leeway to land and start running again.

He didn't need it, as he hit the ground the cannon got sucked into the Void, closing it. Sonic stood up, then looked at where the camera had miraculously been able to stay. "You lose," he said. Then sped out of the room, heading back home with Snively's rants of rage behind him.

"Hey," Sonic said as he left the building, dodging Swatbots and other obstacles. "If you don't like to lose, don't take me on." He laughed to himself as he sped on out and headed back towards Knothole.

Episode 32- There and Back Again

With the creation of a new sensor device, Rotor and Uncle Chuck see a piece of crystal emerge from the Void. When Sonic is sent to check out what the mysterious crystal is, the Void opens and pulls him in. In the crystal confines of the Void, Sonic confronts people from his-not-so-distant past, and an ugly fear that would conquer the world if it happened to escape.