*This is where the Sonic Adventure/Rush story mode come into play.  Both sides WILL be different.  Trying to combine the two result in a confrontation so big it'll jumble the upcoming chapters.  If any questions arise about any mistakes, or issues with the characters involved, please read the Preface on Chapter 1.*

Chapter 9 - Path to the Enemy

	As Frostcat jumped off the rocket, the big firecracker exploded matching the illuminated surroundings.  Nervous at first, he started to walk among the huts of Knothole.  Something appears to be different than he imagined.  The first time he heard about it, Knothole was an all naturally built hideaway with wooden huts and water mills to hide from the clutches of Dr. Robotnik.  Before he was invited by Princess Sally from his home in New Metropolis, the huts and surrounds were all metallic and more technological.  As he looks upon what was suppose to be his new home he sees a mixture of the two styles.  Parts were made from mud, wood, and hay while other parts were built mechanically.  But there are also parts of the hidden village that were damaged or already destroyed.  Is as if time itself has completely warped Knothole.  

     "Hello!" Frost shouted loudly.  "Is anyone around here?!...HELLO!!!"  Suddenly he hears a voice so faint, yet can easily be heard. "HELP! Save us from ze terrible round-ed things!"  Frost skated toward the voice as close as he can and asks "Where are you?"  The voice yelled "Look up-ed!"  As he looks up by the broken bridge that was connected to two trees, he looked at the tree closest to him to find a slightly shaken blond haired Coyote waving his arms about.  "Please get us down from ze...aaahhh!!!" As the frightened imperial want-to-be ducked under a few green Moos that swooped down upon him.  "Come on.  You're not scared of those things are you?" as Frostcat tries to encourage.  It did him no good as he can suddenly hear whimpering from the post atop of the tree.  Frostcat gave a big sigh and measured the height of the post.  //I've never done this so high up.  But here goes nothing!//  

     The ice warrior pulled out his sword and concentrated his power as he is being covered in his blue aura.  The blue flamed feline gathered enough strength as he could while positioning his sword downward and suddenly slammed it straight into the ground.  The moment it struck the dirt the aura disbursed.  He took a quick glance upward toward the post up high and in one strong swing from the ground up, he lifted his sword causing a solid glacier for ground support with strong thick layer of ice shooting upward at the post forming a sliding chute like the secret passageway to the village.  "There, it's safe to come down."  But to no avail he can still here the whimpering from at top.  "Do you at least have a name?" Frost asks.  "A..a..Antoine..." he answered.  Frost tried once again to give the scared coyote some courage by doing the only thing he can.  "Well then..." as he clears his throat.  

     "Yo Ant?  Come on down won't cha?"  The coyote's ears sprung up as the imitative voice sparked something within him. Frost continues his impersonation "Don't worry.  Those green floaty things won't hurt you anymore."  Antoine starts to stand from his cowardly crouched position as starts to look over the railing to see a figure that almost resembles his comrade as he hears "Whatsa matter?  Scared?"  As the heroic imitator finally sees the coyote in was seems to be royal guard uniform, he does the Sonic's signature arm crossover and start taping his right foot saying "I'm wwaaaiiitinnng."  Seeing the posture from above sparked Antoine mind of Sonic.  From all of the cowardly things he's done in the past, to making a name for himself later on, to becoming devoted to the woman he loved, Antoine broke out of his cowardly stupor and instanly took out the three Moos that was attempting to swoop down again with one swipe from his sword.  He then calmly flipped his sword around and placed it back in his side holster.

     "I thank you young one.  Ze area has made terrified and made me into ze coward I once was, no?" Being so bold Antoine walked to the icy slide and spoke "I shall be right down!" as he jumped on the chute standing up in attempt to grind his way down.  Without thinking about the danger the ice made him slip from under his feet, landing his back on the ice chute frailing. "WWWHHHHAAAAAHAHAHAHA!!!"  Frostcat stepped to the side and timed himself to catch the surprised coyote at the bottom of the slide before he crashed into a hut.  "There!  Gotcha." he said at he helps bring Antoine to his feet.  "Whew! Merci beaucoup."  "No problem.  So what happened here?"  Frostcat asks.  "We were trapped up there when ze village..." Antoine was stopped when Frost corrected "Wait a minuite.  We?" when suddenly he hears another voice gradually getting louder. "look ooouuUUUTTTT BELLOOOOOWWW!!!"  The moment Frost looked over at the slide he can only see something big and purple quickly closing in and before he could react, he was knocked along it's path crashing next to a broken wooden hut.

     The worried soilder rushed to the wreckage to check on their condition.  "Ah, Rotor.  Are you alright?" From the dust Rotor answered "Uh....Yeah I'm just fine."  "uugghhh...I'd rather be in that monster than up..." Frost muttered until he was asked by Rotor "Hey pal, are you okay?"  "Yeah.  Luckily the hut softened the blow..."  Rotor slowly felt something move beneath him.  Once the dust parted ways, Rotor finally found the position he was in as the squashed cat finishes "...and my sword preventing your butt from breaking my back!!!" as he tries to lift the big purple walrus off the ground.  Rotor immediately hopped off the feline's body and adjusted his glasses.  "Sorry.  I was inside the tree hoping that the coast was clear."  Frostcat slowly got back up and popped his back. "Ah!...whew...That's alright, I needed that." rotating his arm around to play it off.

     Antoine and Rotor then looked at each other and nodded.  Rotor replied "Thank you for getting us down from there.  By the looks of the ice, I'd say you're Frostcat right?"  "That's right." giving his proud smile.  "I figured as much.  A lot has happened during your journey over here." the walrus replied.  "No kidding.  What happened to Knothole?  These place is in the middle of old, being fixed, and ruined."  As the moments pass, Rotor and Antoine explain their situations against Robotnik who now wants to call himself Eggman, the feud between Sonic's anti rival named Scourge and the destruction Knothole and Robotropolis until the doll spirit abruptly said ~That's it!  Robo-thingy!~  Antoine hopped back and drew his sword pointed directly at Frost.  "Where is zat voice comings from?"  "~Thanks a lot! You've scared them!~" Frost shouted as he looks up at his goggles still on his head.

     The brown jacket walrus placed his hand on the coyote's sword. "Hold on Ant.  Frost, who was that just now."  Frostcat lowered his head and closed his eyes for the moment until the spirit said ~Frost...you have to...~ Frost simply replied "I know."  He slowly took out his cat emblem and formed it into his sweeper.  Antoine took is stance until Rotor pushed his sword to the side.  "It's alright Frost.  What happened?"  Frost then looked upward and pressed the bottom button and shot out the doll's star in his other hand.  He then put the sweeper down and took off his goggles.  "~It's alright.  You can come out~"  To the Freedom Fighter's surprise the star formed itself into a purple mouse doll that can move about.  

     "What is it?" Antoine asks in awe. "It's a doll that a jester stole.  There are four of them and..." and short moment of silence went by when Rotor wondered "...and what?"  It was then when the walrus saw a faint tear came out of the young warrior's eye as he answered. "I've killed one of them...and this is where the spirit lives inside." as he lifts his goggles.  The mouse doll suddenly felt a shift as it hopped on Frost's shoulder.  "...I've taken a life of an innocent, and even when I try to redeem myself, their friends believe that I'm a killer."   Frost shifted his head away and followed "Some freedom fighter I'm turning out to be..."  Rotor simply walked up to Frost and placed his left hand on the feline's free right shoulder.  "Hey, I understand how you must feel, and we're not going to judge you for making a mistake.  Besides, you've managed to save that little guy there.  That's part of what  being a Freedom Fighter is all about right?"  "Y...Yeah, you're right."  Frostcat answered as he was starting to get back to his normal self.  

     Rotor lifted his hand a little bit as a handshake gesture and asks "Well then..." when suddenly he lightly punches the Frost across the face and finishes "...are you going to keep going then?"  Frost quickly faced Rotor while covering his cheek and yelled "Ow! What was that for?!"  The walrus cleverly replied "Come on now...It's the only way to snap out of the rut you were in.  Besides, you wouldn't hit a guy with glasses right?"  Frost was shaking his fist out of anger until he realized Rotor was right.  Frostcat has been secretly putting himself down ever since that accident and was afraid that by telling them what actually happened would make him never set foot in Knothole which only made himself look even more foolish.  He simply folded his arms in a poutty attitude and responded "humph, Touche."  When Antoine broke in a chuckle Rotor and the dolls followed suit making the once lone hero feel better and smile.  Frost suddenly spoke "Now that all of that is covered, ~What are you talking about spirit?~"  The Spirit asks ~Remember the robot city?~  Rotor then asks "How are you talking like that?  And what are they saying?"  "This doll told me about an old robot city that the clown took them too." as he puts on his goggles and placed the now formed doll star back inside his sweeper.  "Clown?"  Antoine repeated until it occurred to him.  "That's right!  Ze clown I saw like zose things hovering around us."

	"You mean you saw him?" the alert cat wondered.  "It was while we went to Knothole in search of you." Rotor said.  "He hovered high above us toward our base and before we knew it, the entire area behind us was covered in darkness."  The walrus continued "Princess Sally gave us direct orders to meet you here in case you haven't received any information on where our new location is being held."  Antoine followed "But when we arrive-ed, parts of ze village was back from ze past.  When we got to one of ze post, this...this..."  Rotor finished "There was a huge dark portal from the ground that shook this place.  Next thing we knew, this thing surrounded the village and then these round things attacked us."  "And all of the comotion probably got Antoine spooked."  Frostcat concluded as Antoine followed the cat's previous poutty attitude. "From all I got, I have reason to believe that the answers lie in Robotropolis.  If the Doll mention an old robot city then that's where I'll go."  "But that place was nuked by G.U.N. a while back." Rotor replied. 

     Frost quickly said "If Knothole came back, then what chance that Robotropolis be back to the way it was?"  The coyote soon followed "Back to ze way it was?...Mon dieu!" turning to Rotor "Do you know what zat means?"  Rotor thought about it and was in shock at his theory. "There's a good chance that Robotnik may be a part of this as well.  And worse still...the Roboticizer may be functional again." The coyote replied "Zut alors! I hope my beloved is alright and out of danger."  Suddenly frost took up his sweeper and started to head outside the village.  "Where are you going?" Rotor asked. "I'm going to save them." Frost said as he continued onward "Hold on.  We're going with you!" the walrus shouted as both him and Antoine followed.  

     "There's no way to do that."  "And why is that?" Rotor asked "Look up.  See that floating orb thing?"  The moment Frost asked that question he jumped high into the air and sucked the orb into his sweeper suspending him in mid-air.  As Rotor and Antoine looked back the hovering kitty explained. " With the ice you guys can't climb up.  And even if you could, there's no way to chuck you guys across those." As he points to one of the caves with the two blue eyes.  They've all watched closely as one of the Moos slowly walked by as a monster's head sprung out of the cave and devoured the Moo in one gulp.  "Sacre bleu!" "Exactly" Frost followed as he drops back to the ground.  Rotor closed his eyes to notice that the young novice has proven his point. "Alright.  As far as I can tell from this spot, Robotropolis is in that direction." As he pointed the way Frost placed the goggles over his eyes. "~Anything?~" ~Yes.  I see a light from high above and a few air lifts to get there.~  "What's up?" the walrus wondered. "There's a way up there.  I'm heading out." Rotor yelled out "Wait!" as he searches his pockets. "Before you go I have to give you something. Based on some strange activity reported from the Secret Service before this happened, Princess Sally ordered me to give you these."  

     Rotor held out from his pockets three golden rings and handed to Frostcat. Shocked, the ice warrior held on to the ring and asked "Power Rings?"  "Yes. Sally said you know what to do with them."  Frostcat then asked "These is Sir Charles invention right?"  The two Freedom Fighters stepped back and asked "How did you know about that?" Frost explained.  "While I was in grade school, there was a class of show and tell.  The teacher explained who made these while it was passed around.  By the time it got to me, let's just say that the class room became an icy playground in the spring."  As he put rings in each jacket and pants pockets, he followed "I'm pretty sure that these will come in handy.  Well, wish me luck."  As he starts his way upward avoiding the caves and climbing his way towards the exit up above.  "Do you think he can do it Rotor?"  The helpful walrus looks onward at Frost's ability to navigate around the dangers using his estranged vacuum and answered "I don't know for sure.  But for right now, he's all we have left."