Some characters are Copyright SEGA and/or DiC Corporations. Warning: This story contains graphic descriptions and adult language. Reader discretion is advised.

The Murder of Queen Katherine Alicia Acorn: 4/19/25

On the morning of April 19, 3225, after almost one year of deathly oppression from the new, proclaimed Imperial "King", Julian Ivo Robotnik, the citizens of the city of Mobitropolis were at the breaking point. Monitored 24 hours a day by Julian's powerful, omnipresent robotic guards, the citizens had no liberties, let alone freedom enough to formulate a rebellion. And yet they held on to the hope that one day a savior would come. That time would come very soon.

At 8:32, when the sun had just finished clearing the horizon, in the Imperial Prison, a member of the royal family, thrown in there minutes after Julian broke through the palace defenses a year ago, Queen Katherine Alicia Acorn, had just finished her early morning exercises in her cell. As she jumped down from the water pipe 5 feet overhead, from which she performed her chin-ups and pectoral exercises, one could see that she was in every way built to be the true leader of the Freedom Fighters, an upstart rebellion begun in the corridors of the prison. She was quite well built, an amazon-type who still managed to retain her feminine beauty. Her upper body was quite powerful, and she often challenged the strongest of the prisoners, Catt Williams, to arm wrestling matches in the commissary. She was a cross-breed, the first in the history of Mobitropolis to attain such a high position. Her blood was that of both a fox father, and a squirrel mother, giving her a unique appearance. She never really had time for her daughter, the princess of Mobitropolis, Sally. To her, Sally was too tech minded, even at 5 years old. Sally would rather spend a whole day in front of a computer than go with her to explore the forest. So be it, but sometimes she wondered where Sally was now, if she was still alive.

She heard the morning release bell, a notice to both wake up and get ready to go to the commissary for breakfast. It had startled Katherine the first few times she heard it, as it was quite loud, but soon she came to love the sound of it, as it was one of the only two times a day the prisoners were allowed out of their cells. Once for "breakfast", a meal that was nothing more than some replicated protein and other gruel. "Dinner" was even worse, being nothing more than the leftovers from breakfast. Despite the taste and appearance, it was just nutritious enough to keep them alive. Just barely. Katherine seemed to thrive on the stuff. Go figure. However, this morning she was going without food, as she had more important matters at hand.

As soon as the guards left for a moment, leaving them standing in line for grub, Kate and two other members of the resistance, the strongman Catt, and a young skunk by the name of Victoria Rodriguez made their move. They ducked out of the line and ran over to an air vent duct that was nearby. Victoria handed them the makeshift laser cutters that she had made in her spare time, gathering parts from the scrapyard where she worked. All said, the plan had taken 7 months to plan and execute, begun almost immediately after they had been imprisoned. Now, as Catt and Katherine slowly melted away the metal plate, Victoria stood as lookout. The bots seemed to be taking their time with whatever it was they were doing, all the better for the group. They had told the other prisoners not to react if they tried to escape, which all of them remembered and said nothing now, even though they saw their only possible chance for freedom mere feet away. Katherine had told them that they would come back for the rest once she joined up with the other patches of resistance scattered throughout the city. A few minutes(which seemed like hours under the blazing heat of the lasers) after they started, the seam met up with the cut at the top of the panel, and Katherine kicked it in. Now was their chance. Katherine ordered the others in first, frantically waving her hand to get them in. Just as she, too, climbed in and pulled the panel to behind her, the guards returned. Luckily, they didn't notice their absence, for the moment.

Once in the tunnel, Catt directed the group the path to follow through the neverending maze of ducts and tunnels. They would have been lost forever in the dark, confusing air system if it hadn't been for Catt. As another of Robotnik's "volunteers", he was forced to do the back-breaking and dangerous work of wiping down the air ducts, some of which were heating ducts. The same tension that Catt felt when he worked the heating ducts he felt now, knowing that at any moment the furnaces could be turned on, shooting searing gas through the tunnels that would have burned all of them to a crisp in seconds. Fortunately, this didn't occur at all while they scurried through, rushing to one of the many outlets at the surface. Only 4 or 5 minutes had passed once they reached the vaned fan that was their way out, and there were still no alarms that went off, ones they could have easily heard in the tunnels. However, they still had a major problem. The fan was turned on, as they feared once they heard its drone from deep within. There simply was no way to slip through the blades in time, for they were rotating too fast, and one mistake would mean that some unfortunate soul would tomorrow be scraping their guts off the walls of the pipe. They discussed using the lasers to melt the motor coils, thereby freezing the engine. But Victoria argued that one had only 15% power left, and the other was getting dangerous to use, as she had no time to put in the proper amount of resistors, and now the case was getting very hot. They decided to use the overloaded one, set to auto. Victoria placed it on the motor casing carefully, and pressed the auto lock switch. The gun fired an intense red beam into the motor, melting the copper coils in an instant. Once the motor stopped, they ran through as fast as they could, knowing the laser would explode at any second. Just as they dove behind some metal waste barrels, it did. The gun exploded violently, blowing the entire fan out of its housing and into the nearby wall. At this moment, Robotnik's alarms were set off.

The brilliant sun met their eyes as the sunrise glinted off of the barrels, blinding them for a moment. Filthy from crawling through the tunnels and exhausted granted, but at least they were alive, at least for the moment. They leaned up against the barrels, panting heavily for a few seconds, attempting to ascertain their position. As Katherine looked around, she could see that Robotnik had made quite a few improvements to the compound. Huge generators were everywhere now, as well as many buildings that looked like pumping stations. All of the structures had been painted a sickly olive green color, the purpose of which Kate didn't grasp. Catt tapped her on the shoulder and yanked his thumb in the direction they were to go next, for all of them knew that security would be there at any moment. They all rushed down a narrow alleyway and into a sewer. From there they travelled through some of the most disgusting, horrid looking(and smelling) water they had ever been in before Catt punched open the manhole cover to the outside. He climbed up and pulled the ladies out before closing the cover with a chunk. They were now free, and the guards would be looking for them in the complex for some time, but now they had to figure out just how to stop Robotnik's military machine, before it was too late.

"Well, I don't know about you guys, but I think we should take out his production facilities first, then worry about retaking the palace. I mean, from the looks of this city, it looks like he's been a busy little beaver retooling his defenses." Katherine argued with Victoria, who had the idea of storming the royal palace, guns blazing, maybe catching Robotnik off guard. Kate, while quite the gung-ho one, was not stupid, and even she knew a full frontal assault would not work. "That's right, Vicky, and considering the crap we faced in the prison, I'd hate to think what would happen if we got captured again..." Catt cut himself short as a figure walked right by the alley way in which they had been discussing their plan. Whoever(or whatever) it was, it seemed to have been following them for about the past half hour, ever since they escaped. "Hey, guys, it's him again. Boy, has he alot of guts following us." Victoria whispered as she peered out of the darkness, into the daylight of what appeared to be the downtown section of Mobitropolis. "How can you be so sure it's a 'he'?" Catt whispered back into her ear. "I dunno, but I'm gonna find out!" Vicky rose her voice to normal as she said this, already walking towards the retreating figure. "Vicky, are you nuts! Get back here! That could be one of Robotnik's guards! Vicky!" Katherine tried to tell her, but she was already out in view. Kate dropped her hands in despair, expecting the worst. Meanwhile, the cloaked figure continued to walk away, knowing full well that she was being followed. Suddenly, Victoria ran up behind the figure and grabbed her around the neck, having no clue who it actually was. Quick as a wink, the figure latched on to her arm and flipped her over her head, throwing Vicky on the ground with a audible "Ooof!" coming from Victoria. This got a cry of "Vicky!!!" as Kate and Catt ran out from their cover. The figure heard them and whipped around, posed in a fighting stance, ready for more. Katherine stopped short, almost having Catt run into her, once they caught a glance of the mysterious figure's face. As soon as she saw them, she reached up and threw back the brown hood covering her face. It was Sonia Hedgehog, Sonic's mother.

"Sonia, what the hell are you doing here? I told you, all the rest of the prisoners were to stay where they were! No exceptions!" Katherine said firmly, more angry than shocked. "Oh, Kathy, you know I couldn' t stay behind while my best friend took off without me! I slipped in behind you guys, a few minutes after you left. The guards came back, so I had to wait until they left again...that's weird, now that I think about it. None of the guards have really been staying around for too long lately. I wonder what they're doing? Anyway, I crawled in after they left and followed you guys here! Cool, huh?" Sonia seemed proud at having accomplished this. "But how the hell did you find your way out? I barely got us outta there alive!" Catt broke in. "Easy. I just followed the hairs you guys left stuck in the walls of the duct." she explained, almost bubbly with excitement now. "Oh, yeah, that did kind of hurt crawling through there. Now I know why." Catt said as he rubbed a bald spot on his leg. "Oh, I can't take it anymore! I'm so glad we made it! I love you, Kathy!" Sonia suddenly broke and ran into Katherine's arms, nuzzling in her fur. "You're the best friend I've ever had! Let's never get separated again!" Sonia said warmly. Kate seemed to accept the young hedgehog well enough, but seemed to be a little annoyed that she wanted to do this in the street. Fortunately, mostly everyone was still asleep. Meanwhile, behind the group, Victoria was just now waking up. She slowly pushed herself up with her left arm, using the right to rub the back of her head, where she knew she had a serious lump. "Ooooooh...what's going on here? Where...where am I? Katherine!...You!!! I'll get you, you bitch!...I...Aaaaaah! It hurts!" Victoria tried to get up, but fell back down in a heap. Kate pried herself away from Sonia's groping touch, and ran over to help Victoria. She knelt down next to her, and pulled out a canteen of water she carried with her. Giving her a sip, Kathy comforted her. "Now you calm down, Vicky, until you get your bearings. We're in the middle of Mobitropolis, remember? We just escaped from the prison. That's okay, just stay right here for a minute." She stood up to find Sonia standing next to her, tapping her foot impatiently. "Well, the poor girl shouldn't have tried to grab me. You never know around here...just who it could be. Could of been anybody!...Look, I'm sorry, but could we go? I can hear the factories firing up, and you know what that means..." she trailed off. Sonia looked away for a moment, and that gave Kate the opportunity she needed. She grabbed Sonia by the collar with both hands and yanked her up to her level, almost 4 inches off the ground. "Look, Sonia. I may have been your friend in prison, because I had no other choice. But if you want to continue to be my friend out here, you're going to give some respect to my other friends. I'm still stronger than you, and no matter how much penjat silat you learn, I'll still be able to snap your neck like a twig. So smarten up and don't make me have to do that, eh?" Kate gave her an intense, threatening glare, then calmly as ever, set her down on her feet. Sonia, remaining focused on Katherine, reached up and flipped her collar down, smoothing it back out. "Okay, Kate, I understand. Maybe I have been a little too glad to see you. Maybe you just don't want to admit you liked it." This last sentence she almost mumbled, but Kate heard it well enough and started towards Sonia. Fortunately(for Sonia), Catt ran over and stepped in between them. "Hey, hey, hey! We don't need this today! We've still got a job to do! This square is going to be bustling with all kinds of traffic in a few minutes, the kind we don't need. So let's pack it up and go someplace where we can get organized, all right?" Kate backed off, hands raised in temporary truce. Sonia put out her hand, for Kate to shake. It took a moment, but she did, and they clasped firmly, putting both of their free hands on top as well. "It's good to have you with us, Sonia." Kate said. "Same here...say, over there! Do you think you can walk?" she spoke over Kate's shoulder. "Sure...I'm pretty much with it now. Sorry I took so long, but I'm no fighter." Victoria stood up shakily, hobbling on one foot and bracing herself against the garage door behind her. "Okay then, let's get the hell outta here! And don't worry, I think I know where we can go where we'll be safe. I go there every so often. The place is called 'Knothole'."

Back at the prison, the prisoners had just finished breakfast, and the guards were coming around to do a routine head count. Used to this from many mornings of the same, all of the inmates quietly stood and lined up against the wall, hoping that the robots would overlook the trio's departure. Halfway down the line, however, the large black guard stopped right next to the inmate that was in the cell next to Katherine. It paused a second, then said in a cold, metallic voice, "Turn around and come with me." The slender creature bowed its head and turned around slowly, keeping his eyes averted from the guard's piercing red stare. He nodded, his brown quills prickling as he started to walk away with the robot, another following behind to ensure he did not try to escape. The commissary's pneumatic door whirred open, and slammed closed behind the three. All the others could do was watch as Andrew Hedgehog was led away, to a fate that they knew all too well. After a minute, they, too, were led out of the room, back to their cells until dinner.

The only sound while Andrew and his guard walked down the dark, narrow corridor was the sound of the metallic feet of the robots, and the chink of Andrew's chains. This was only the first of three halls to walk down to get to the "interrogation" room, more of a torture chamber than anything else. As he walked, Sonic's father thought of the many friends that he knew who had taken this same route before, coming back in a mental shambles that Andrew was never able to shake them out of. Now he was going there, and he knew exactly why. He had guessed that once Sonia told him that she was going after Katherine in the commissary, he was finished. He had warned her that Robotnik had ears everywhere, and one wrong word, especially in the most public place like the commissary was sure to doom anyone. But Sonia was too much a blabber-mouth, in his opinion, to keep such plans inside her. The moment she let that slip, Andrew knew his fate. Just how Robotnik was planning to extract the information about their escape, however, he was in the dark about. He would just have to wait and see.

"So what is this place like, anyway?" Victoria asked as they were about three-quarters of the way to Knothole. "I'll handle that one, Vicky. I've heard of this place before." Kate turned around and said, cutting off Sonia before she could say anything. Sonia then stopped short, while they were in a field near the Great Forest. She turned around, her hands on her hips. "What do you mean, you've heard of it before? I thought I was the only one!" Kate folded her arms, then asked, "Well, haven't we all heard of it? I mean, if things get any worse around here, that's the place we're going to send the children, my Sally especially." Sonia then returned, "Well, how do you know she's not already there? Things might have changed alot since we were put in that hell hole, you know." Catt broke in, "What children? What exactly is this place, Kathy?" Victoria added, "Yeah, that's what I want to know." Katherine looked down, then stated, in a matter of fact voice, "The secret camp known as Knothole was the royal family's last hope that their children could be saved from the tyranny of Julian. It was built as a hideout, to send those children to, if the situation in Mobitropolis ever got any worse. After Julian took over, we wanted to send them there immediately, but the emergency council voted it down. The only thing we could get them to agree to was to split them up, sending them to isolated parts of the city. Almost as soon as that was decided, his troops broke in to the chamber, killing most of the council members outright, and arresting the rest of us, those I guess Julian felt were of high enough rank to save. I never told anyone else about it, because I didn't want Robotnik to hear. But since Sonia was one of our contacts, she knew about the place, and went there occasionally to keep it in shape until we needed it." After she finished, Catt asked, "And the kids?" Kate turned away, for tears were beginning to form in her eyes. "We never heard of them again. We don't know where they are, or if they're...even alive." She began sobbing quietly. Victoria saw this and ran over, putting her arm around Kate's neck. "Don't worry, Kate. I'm sure they're okay. Let's just get over to Knothole, and hey! Maybe they'll be there, waiting for us!" Kate nodded and turned back to the group. "All right, we've got a few minutes until midday, so let's see if we can find anything for lunch in Knothole. Let's go!" They formed up and headed towards the forest, not knowing their destiny, but prepared to face it, whatever it was.

At the "interrogation" room in the prison, Julian Ivo Robotnik had been called up on special order to view Andrew's "extraction procedure". This had turned out to be quite a good day for Dr. Robotnik. Not only had his destroyer's modifications been finished on time, but now he was going to watch the infamous Andrew Hedgehog spill his guts, hopefully literally. Though the escape had darkened his day a bit, he knew that those worms who dared rise up against him would soon be crushed, as would be the hedgehog. He entered the bullet-proof observation room overlooking the chamber and took a seat as Andrew was being led in. This surprised the Doctor, as usually the prisoners had to be dragged in, kicking and screaming. Somehow, it made it more fun that way. On the floor, Andrew was halted by a rifle butt to his stomach, sending him reeling to the floor in pain. He had not seen who had done it, but figured that it couldn't have been a robot, for a shot like that from one of the guards would have impaled him on the gun. The blow seemed to have anger in it, nothing more, for only his wind was gone, and his pride damaged a bit. He remained on the floor for a minute, looking dimly at the tile, until a voice, a human voice, spoke up. "Stand up, you pathetic little shit! On your feet!" It was a voice that Andrew seemed to recognize. He was immediately yanked to his feet by two larger versions of the guards Robotnik used. "Look at me, dammit!" The figure reached out an arm, grabbed Andy by the quills, and pulled his head up to a level position. Andrew then recognized exactly who it was. It was Ridley Schnell, Robotnik's lead henchman, and, Andy knew, one of the cruelest men ever to live. This was not going to be easy. "Ah, I see we have another deviant to deal with. Apparently you have some information about a recent escape from this prison." With that, Ridley twisted Andrew's head around to not only emphasize his point, but to show him the table where they were about to bring him. "You will tell us the plans of your friends, now won't you, dear boy? Or do we have to remove the information from you?" Andy tried to pull Ridley's hands from his quills, but the human was almost a foot taller than him, and must have had 60 pounds weight advantage. There was nothing Andrew could do but remain silent. "No talk? Too bad, I really didn't want to do this again, today. Oh, well...Bring the prisoner over to the persuasion table!!!" He released Andy's quills, ramming his head into the arm of the robot as he did so, adding insult to injury. This elicited a sharp cackle from the observation tower above the chamber, as Robotnik was indeed enjoying this quite a bit. Andrew's self-preservation response now took dominance over his pride, and he attempted desperately to break free of the gigantic monsters on either side of him. It turned out to be entirely futile, and they shoved him on to the metal table, strapping his arms and legs down with tight metal clamps. There was nowhere to go. If Andy could have turned his head, he would have seen Ridley wheeling over a tray filled with numerous very sharp and deadly looking instruments. He could not do this, however, for he felt some sort of field holding his skull in place. Ridley then strapped on two very thick, elbow-length rubber gloves. Andy did see something, though. He saw a large, olive green colored machine being lowered over his body. At a swivel on the bottom was a tapered crystal of some sort, surrounded by metal rings. This portion Ridley had aimed directly at his groin. "Now then, how are we doing today? Feeling fine? Good. No diseases I should know about? Excellent." Ridley was saying all this in a matter of fact way, like he was some sort of actual doctor. This pissed off Andrew to the max, but again, there was nothing he could do about it. "Okay, we're ready to begin! Everyone...Doctor Robotnik, (he bows deeply to his uncle) we are about to witness the transformation of a soulless insect into an enlightened being, similar to ourselves. This will be accomplished by our process of persuasion, a process that has a 100% success rate. So, let's start, shall we?" He clapped his hands together, as if to applaud Andrew for his cooperation. He walked over to Andrew and stood directly over him, looking intensely into his eyes while keeping his hands clasped behind his back. "Now, tell us again, Mr. Hedgehog. How did your group manage to undermine this prison and plan an escape? Do tell us, for it's your final chance." Andrew remained quiet for a moment, then slowly opened his mouth to speak. "Eat shit."

All was quiet in Knothole. The birds were just finishing their morning song, the wind had died down, and even the brooks and streams seemed to be babbling quieter than normal. At around 12:15, though, the little village saw its first visitors in a while. From about 300 yards out, anyone standing in the clearing where the center of Knothole was could hear movement coming from the woods. Such would have been the case today, as the group of Katherine, Victoria, Catt, and Sonia crackled twigs and dry branches underfoot as they entered Knothole. At the main entrance, they stopped dead in their tracks, wholly in horror of what they saw. The entire village of Knothole had been destroyed. All of the thatched huts had caved in, every shelter had been collapsed, even the bridge over the Great River was a mess. The only thing that seemed to be standing was the entrance to the underground bunkers, a concrete fortification that was much tougher than the wood that everything else was made out of. As they walked silently through what appeared to be a ghost town, they noticed pieces of paper and other trash blow by their feet. They continued walking, past the main operations shelters, past the smashed huts, and over to the bunker entrance. "This is unbelievable! Who could have done such a thing?" Victoria broke in. "I'll give you three guesses, and the first two are wrong." Katherine frowned at the sight of so much destruction. "Now wait just a minute. We don't know it was him. This could just have been a storm that did this, or some other natural thing. We haven't exactly been keeping an eye on this place for a while, so this is probably just natural decay." Catt proposed, looking around with a curious glance. Katherine picked up a smashed transmitter and threw it at Catt, who was fortunately ready for it. "Does this look like natural decay to you!" Kate said, disgusted, after she threw it. "Wait a minute, guys! Look at this!" Sonia had been wandering around, picking up pieces of garbage. Now she turned to them, holding up a candy bar wrapper. "Unless Robotnik has gotten one serious sweet tooth over the past year, I don't think it was him that trashed this place." She handed the wrapper over to Kate, who smelled it. "Definitely is recent. The smell of chocolate is still on here. Whoever dropped this has to be near here, somewhere." As she finished saying this, they realized the only place that anyone could survive out here, and they all looked towards the pitch-black, concrete bunker stairwell. WIthout saying another word, they all ran towards it, hoping they weren't too late.

The stairs were covered in wet leaves, ones which caused Victoria to stumble as she ran down as fast as she could. She was about to pitch forward, head over heels, when suddenly an arm shot out from behind her, pulling her back and letting her regain her balance. "Thanks, Sonia." Vicky said, panting from fright. "That's perfectly all right, Vicky. I just wanted to make up for kicking your ass back there." Both smiled at each other, before Kate moved them along. "Okay, okay, this isn't social hour. Let's go. We've gotta check this out." They then hustled down the rest of the stairs, stopping at the bottom, since they were now in complete darkness. "Well, now what, great leader?" Sonia asked Kate sarcastically. "I don't know. Unless we can get some light on the subject, I have no idea where anything is." Kate reached out a hand, trying to feel for some sort of light switch. "I wish I could help you, but I ain't been here for a long time. I used to remember where the corridors were, but now..." Sonia trailed off, confused. Suddenly, there came a cry from the darkness. "Helllllp!!!! Helllp!!!!" It echoed down the corridor to their left. "Oh my god! That sounded like Sally! Hold on honey, mommy's coming!!" Katherine's natural maternal instinct took over, and she bolted down the invisible corridor, followed by the rest. On the way, Catt spoke up. "Are...you...sure..that was...your daughter?" he said between breaths. "I would know my own Sally's voice anywhere! That has to be her!" The cries got louder and louder until, finally, they burst into a small room, adjacent to the corridor. The light hurt their eyes at first, but then they adjusted on the most pitiful sight they'd ever seen. Princess Sally was sitting on a filthy bed, crying, with an unconscious Sonic the Hedgehog in her arms. Every one of the other royal children were huddled in a corner, shivering from the cold. Sally then burst forth with unbelievable agony, "I think Sonic's dead!!!"

"I'm not giving away my friends, no matter what you do to me, fucker!" Andrew spat in Ridley's face. Ridley didn't even move. He just closed his eyes and wiped away the mucous with a swipe of his black, gloved hand. "I was afraid of that. Now I shall be forced to take your confession out of you. Don't say I didn't give you a chance." Ridley backed away from the table, still glaring at Andrew. He dropped his arms, and Andy noticed his eyes flicker briefly over to a spot out of the hedgehog's view. Suddenly, Andy felt an intense and burning pain as something seemed to tear into his leg with all the force of powerful claws. He clenched his teeth as his world seemed to light on fire, each nerve in his leg pulsing in agony. If he could have seen it, he would have passed out right on the spot, for one of those monstrous robots he had seen coming in had just rammed its fist blades into his left leg, severing it at the knee. "You, you fuck! I'll kill you! I'll...!" Andy stammered out, blind with fury. "You'll do nothing of the sort. In fact, since I'm a reasonable man...(he motions for the robot to take another action)..I'll give you your leg back." Andrew's expression of agony turned to one of relief as the robot somehow managed to reattach his leg, bone and all, with no sign it had ever been off at all. "Now then, I've think we've had enough screwing around here. Tell me the escape plan concocted by your pathetic little troop, or the next thing I remove won't get reattached." Ridley put his hand on the lever attached to the olive-green machine. "Yessss? You have something to say?" Ridley was almost drooling in ecstasy over Andrew's suffering. In the observation room, Robotnik pushed himself to his feet and moved over to the window, preparing to savor every moment of the confession. "Tell us...you still have a chance to save your life. Tell us and we will let you go." Ridley seemed almost to be pleading with the young hedgehog. On the table, Andrew closed his eyes, trying to remember all the times his wife had told him to never surrender, and how much his son looked up to him for that. He saw in his son's face a future leader, one who would not ever be corrupted by fear or cowardice. He saw the future of Mobius resting on the response he was about to make. He reopened his eyes and viewed the machine resting over his groin. From the looks of it, he was not going to survive one shot from that thing. Whatever he said, it had to be final. So he took in a very deep breath, twisted his face into the most defiant visage he could manage, and screamed out at the top of his lungs. "Never!!!!!" At that moment, the laser fired, and began pulsing through his body. In a few moments, the lever was released. When the smoke cleared, there was nothing left of the father of the savior of Mobius but a charred corpse, one that still carried his last look of defiance and hatred for Robotnik on its face, a look that Andrew Maurice Hedgehog carried with him to the other side.

In the underground bunker at Knothole, Katherine and her group had just finished cleaning up the children the best that they could. They had taken them up above to wash them in the Great River, for it appeared they hadn't had a bath for weeks. They also gathered what little salvageable food they could find in the wrecked cupboards of the huts, taking it back down into the bunker to prepare it for the kids. It had turned out that Sonic was not dead, but merely suffering from dehydration and malnutrition. He was in quite bad shape, though. It was early afternoon, but you wouldn't know it from the artificial lighting of the bunker's cafeteria, a place where all of the royal children were now seated, eagerly awaiting food. Everyone, that is, except for Sonic and Sally. They were resting on a cot, Sonic snuggled up on Sally's lap, breathing easily. The murmurs of children talking and laughing echoed faintly in the spacious cafeteria, an area that was designed to accomodate over 100 troops. The adults sat over near the kitchen, where Katherine was helping Sonia prepare lunch. Kate never had been much of a stay at home mother, and had used replicators for most of her food, so her experience in the kitchen was, at best, limited. Victoria, meanwhile, was resting her head on Catt's shoulder, slowly drifting off to sleep. "Vicky?" Catt whispered to her. "Ummm...what is it, Catt?" She shifted around a bit. "I was just thinking how strange those kids are. I mean, none of 'em are over 7 years old, and they're acting as if they were already grown up." Victoria returned, "What ever do you mean?" "I mean that they're being quite civilized and kind to one another. I've never seen that in kids that age. Usually they're fighting for a place to sit, or yelling at one another, or crying." She whimpered, "Umm...I don't know why. Maybe they're just real grown up for their age." Catt turned to look at the calm, dignified figures sitting at the table away from them. "Yeah, or maybe they grew up too much too fast, and now there's nothing to believe in." Just as he finished saying that, Sonia called out from the kitchen. "Ready!!!" She went back in and told something to Katherine. Kate then came out carrying a large plate of bread and cheese. Sonia then came out with a pot of what appeared to be some sort of vegetable stew. They brought these dishes over to the table and set them down in the middle. As Kate was spooning up the stew and breaking off bread for each of the kids, Sonia took a small plate of bread and cheese over to Sonic's cot. She knelt down next to the pair and gave the plate to Sally, who took it with a smile and a nod. "So, Sally, how's my little boy doing?" Sally reached over and felt Sonic's forehead. "He's still very hot, Miss. He's not gonna die, is he?" Sonia stroked Sally's long red hair. "No, of course not, Sally. He just needs some food and water. So you see if you can get him to eat some of this, and I'll be right over there if you need me, okay? You think you can do that for me?" Sally nodded again. "Umhum, Miss. He can eat it." Sonia stood up. "Good girl. Now let me go and get him some water. I'll be right back." She turned and started to walk away, when Sally said after her, "Sure he's not gonna die?" Sonia turned and smiled at the young, nervous face. "I promise." As she grabbed a glass from the kitchen and poured some water from a pitcher they had filled from the Great River, she thought of how much Sally seemed to care for Sonic, and she knew that whatever relationship came of it, it would last for all time. Her train of thought was broken up by Katherine as she tapped Sonia on the shoulder. "Hey there, Sonia. I got all the food taken up for our little soldiers in there. Looks like they haven't eaten in days. I would like to know just how in the world this place got like this, so if you don't mind, I'm going to go ask them what happened. Hey, I've got family here, too. Remember that." Sonia finished taking up the water and turned to Kate. "Fine. I have no problem with that. Just make sure you don't scare 'em too much, eh? They're only kids, and you haven't been around ones their age for too long, so be careful." Kate was already heading over, but now stopped and put her hand on the wall. "Oh, yeah, one more thing. How's my daughter holding up? She handling Sonic well?" Sonia came over behind her and whispered to her, "I think she likes him. She hasn't left his side ever since we found them. I think they might hit it off together." Kate grinned. "Aww, that's cute. Let me go see how they're doing. Oh, I'll take that to them." She took the glass from Sonia and started over to the cot.

"Hi there, honey. Is Sonic all right?" Kate sat down next to Sally. "Yeah, mommy. Miss said he won't die. I believe her." "That's right, Sally. You can believe Miss Sonia. She's one of mommy's friends from the resistance." Sally looked a little puzzled. "Mommy, what's 'rasistents'?" Kate laughed a bit at Sally's misinterpretation. "I thought I told you before. Oh, well, it has been a while...The resistance is what mommy calls the big group of people that are helping her stop Julian." Sally frowned at this. "Yeah, now I 'member! He's a bad guy! He killed Miss Peterson!" she shouted. All the kids heard this and turned around to look at her. Sally looked very upset. "That's all right, Sally. Don't mind them. Yeah, that's right, he did kill your teacher, but mommy's gonna stop him. I promise. Okay? Good. Now here, take this water for Sonic. He'll need it when he wakes up." Sally nodded quietly. "Okay, mommy." "Good. Now I'm gonna go and talk to your friends, okay?...I'll talk to you in a bit." With that, Kate stood up and went over to the table where the "little soldiers" were still eating, quite enthusiastically, in fact. She pulled up a wooden stool that was nearby and took a seat at the head of the benches. As she sat there watching them, she noticed all the familiar faces that she'd seen running around the palace, chasing one another, or playing games in the courtyard. Inside, Queen Katherine sighed deeply. They looked so much younger and healthier then. Yes, much more healthy. Now, though, she observed, their stomachs were quite sunken, and their eyes were set back into the sockets, giving the impression that one was looking at 8 skeletons eat, not 8 rosy cheeked kids. Kate just had to ask them what happened. "Um, kids?" The royal children, being quite accustomed to dropping whatever it was they were doing to listen to an adult, immediately put down their spoons and turned their sad little faces towards her. Even though Kate had barely spoken a whisper, these were royal children, and knew how disrespectful it was to ignore a member of high royalty. After a moment, Kate said, "I want to ask you about something. I want to know how all of you, um, got into this...position. I mean, what...what happened here?" They perked up at this and began looking around at each other. "Um, I can tell you, Miss Kathy." A young, brown-furred rabbit by the name of Bunnie spoke up suddenly, nervously rubbing her left arm as she did so. "See, it got real scary. We heard lotsa big noises and stuff around us, and got scared. Then, then the really nice house next to ours got blown up. We tried to run away, but the people in our house didn't let us. So we, we ran away at night time, when they were sleeping, and, um, we came here, just like you told us! But the same thin' happened here. We heard noises from the trees, big ones that hurt my ears. We 'memberd what y'all told us, Miss Kathy! We started beating up the houses and stuff here, so he wouldn't find anythin' to use when he got 'ere. We got real scared then, and ran down here so he wouldn't find us. An' then y'all found us, and we got real happy that you weren't dead too! And that's the honest truth, Miss." The others nodded and 'umhum'd' their approval.

"Well, Miss Bunnie, that's quite a sad story, but what was it that was making all those scary noises? Did any of you see anything?" Kate knew that children's memories often became blanked out after traumatic events, so she wasn't expecting much more from any of them. Her train of thought was interrupted by a shrill, french voice. "I do think I am knowing who it was, Miss Queen. Was zat fatty ugly man Robotnik, me is thinking." Kate turned to the source. It was none other than Antoine D'Coolette, the littlest member of the royal guard, and some would say the most arrogant. Needless to say, if anyone at all was going to speak up, Kate was expecting him to. "I should have figured! Antoine, are you totally sure about it being him?" Antoine puffed himself up as much as he could, and touted, "Zee members of zee royal guard nevar are to be telling zee lies! I saw hees ugly face myself!" Antoine saw the others looking at him weirdly, so he deflated and sat back down. "I meen, yes, my Queen." Kate went over and stooped down to his level. "Thank you so much, Antoine. I know how hard it is for you and your friends to deal with this. You've done a great service to the crown, once again." Antoine brightened up a bit at this, and looked up as Katherine took his little paw in her hand and kissed it gently on the back. "Now you can tell your friends you were kissed by a queen." He chuckled a bit, then put the kissed hand to his lips and kissed it again. "Zank you." Kate was lost for a minute, staring into the little fox's face. She had a brief thought, that this little fox would not be the last of his kind vital to Mobius' fate. In an instant it was gone, and she didn't remember it afterward. She promptly stood up, and announced, "Okay everybody, gather around. We've got ourselves a problem."

"So you're saying that Robotnik found this place already? I can't believe that! This place is all we have left!" Sonia vehemently denied Kate's news. "I'm afraid so. Or that's what the kids are telling me, and I think that we better believe them. Only they know what happened here." Kate addressed the hedgehog, who was showing signs of annoyance at the prospect that anyone, especially Robotnik, could slip past her upkeep crew. Catt leaned over to the disturbed Sonia and whispered to her, "I think you should listen to Katherine, Sonia. She's right. The kids are our only link to this attack. So I recommend you straighten up, right now." Sonia folded her arms and sat back angrily. "So just what in the hell is our situation now? We can't use this place anymore! It's wasted!" she blurted out after a moment's sulking. "Yeah, just what are we going to do now, Kate?" Vicky added. "Well here is the way I see it. We just escaped from prison today, that we know. We also know that Robotnik must have every patrol imaginable hot on our trail by now. Finally, we come to the only hideout of our resistance to find our children near death and frightened. The kids say that Robotnik himself was here, or near here, at some point. They destroyed the village, like we told them to do, to keep it out of enemy hands. So here we are, stuck without necessary supplies, attempting to carry out an act of sabotage on Robotnik's military compound, again, without supplies. We didn't expect the children to be here so early, so now we have to do something about that." She punctuated the "that" with a slap of both hands on her knees. "To tell you the truth, I don't know what else to do myself. I never expected it to be this way." This last sentence was barely audible, more a frustrated mumble than anything else. During the time she was saying all this, the kids had gotten bored and had begun wandering around the hallways of the bunker again, having finished their food. Sally, meanwhile, had drifted off to sleep next to Sonic, who had also woken up earlier to finish his dinner. She had her arm draped casually over him, as did he. The others didn't disturb them when they went to explore.

"Hey, Rotor, what we doin' here? This is sho' nuff scarin' me alot." The small rabbit Bunnie spoke up after they'd gotten pretty far in, having been wandering around for about a half hour. "Don't get scared, Bunnie. I got something really cool to show you. I been working on it for a long time." Rotor, the oldest of the kids at 7 years of age, was remarkably adept at understanding and inventing technology, especially computers and electronics. Surprisingly, though, this child prodigy scored very low on math computations tests. This young walrus now picked up his pace as they neared a large steel door. "C'mon, hurry up! Man, you guys are slow! And here it is!" "And just here is what, Missyer Rotor?" Antoine asked. "C'mon in, I'll show you." Rotor reached up to eye level to grab the bar that locked the door. The others came over and helped him to pull open the heavy door, creaking noisily as it swung open. Once inside, Rotor jumped up and pulled the chain for the light. The powerful shop bulb bathed the whole place in a brilliant white light, blinding the kids for a minute. When they were able to peer between half-shut lids, they gasped at what they saw. For, not six feet away from them was the most awesome looking hover bike they'd ever seen. This was what Rotor had intended them to be surprised about, but there was something more. Behind the bike was an entire wall filled with wooden cases, inscribed in ancient Mobian text, which very few people could read now. The kids gathered around the bike as Rotor stood off to one side, arms crossed. "Hey, Rotor, where'd y'all get the parts for the bike?" Bunnie asked as she stroked the front cowling. "From the junkyard. There's lots of cool parts layin' around there. Built it from scratch." Antoine looked smugly at it and turned away, going to look at the rest of his workshop. He approached one of the strange wooden cases that was partly open. The others didn't notice as Antoine climbed up onto the top to try and look inside. "And juss' what it is that is in here, Missyer Rotor?" he asked as his head was almost halfway inside. "I don't know, Antoine. I never really looked in those boxes before." "Careful, Anty. Don't want y'all to fall in." Bunnie began to walk over, concerned. "Not to be worrying, Bunnie. I am always to being very careful, and I...Ahhhhhhhh!!!!!!!" Before he could finish the sentence, Antoine fell headfirst into the crate. Bunnie ran over to help him out. Peering inside the box herself to see where Antoine was, she didn't see that the entire wall of crates above her head was becoming unstable. Almost too late, Rotor cried out, "Bunnie!!! Look out!!! The whole wall's comin' down! Get out of the way!" Bunnie looked up just in time, and the entire top half of the wall of crates came crashing down heavily on the concrete floor. She would have been killed if she had been hit, but she dived out of the way into Rotor's arms just before one crate hit the floor where she had been standing. Almost immediately after the crates hit the ground, a blaring alarm went off somewhere in the compound. The two stood up and began immediately searching for Antoine. "Antoine? Antoine! You in here somewhere? Say something!" Bunnie heard a muffled groan, found the place it was coming from, and picked a busted crate off of the one Antoine was in. "You okay, Anty? I was thinkin' y'all was dead there." "Yes, Miss Bunnie. I am always very okay and fine. Thanks you." Rotor then noticed the alarm, and tapped Bunnie on the shoulder. "Um, hey, Bunnie? I think we better jam. I hear a siren comin' from somewhere." Bunnie looked up, shocked, then turned back to Antoine. "Well now, look what you've done there, Ant. You all went and set off the alarm." "Hey, Bunnie, look at this." Rotor picked up one of the items that had fallen out of the broken crates. "I think these things are weapons. It's amazing that they didn't explode when they hit the ground." Antoine jumped at this. "Explode!!? Yahhh!!" Bunnie looked over the long barreled rifle-like thing. "I think y'all may be right, Rotor. Let's get on back so we can tell..." Her words were cut off by a faint cry of "Kids! Kids? You down here somewhere? Antoine! Bunnie?" Rotor started towards the door. "C'mon, that sounded like the Queen! Let's go find her! I think somethin's really wrong!" He motioned for the others, who ran out before he, too, ran back down the dark corridor. Meanwhile, only a few hundred feet away, Katherine was still calling out for the children. As she turned to go down another corridor, Catt grabbed her arm. "Hey, Kate, I think I see 'em!" In fact, coming around the corner were three shadowy, short little figures. "Queen! Miss Katherine! We're right here! Here we are, Miss Queen!" they yelled out. Kate immediately ran to them, overjoyed. She threw open her arms and took all three of them in a big hug. "Oh, kids! I'm so glad to see you! We've been looking for you for almost an hour! Where were you?" Rotor spoke up. "It's my fault, Queen. I took them to my workshop to show them my bike." "Your bike? What ever do you mean?" "I've been working on this real cool hover bike for a few months, but then Antoine wanted to look in the boxes on the wall, and they fell on him, and..." "In your workshop? Boxes on the wall? I think I know the room you mean. Can we go see it?" "Sure. We just came from there." Kate stood up and yelled to Catt. "Catt! We're going to check out a room down here! Come with us! It might be our only chance! Well, kids, c'mon! We've gotta hurry! I think Robotnik's found us!!" They all ran back to the workshop, where Kate immediately recognized the room. "Of course! This was our storeroom! As soon as we heard of the coup from our operatives, we sent transports here with all the weapons we could salvage in the royal armory. Some of these are decades old, but I think they still work. Help me out, Catt." Kate and Catt stepped over the broken boxes to a large pile of the same weapons Bunnie had examined. "Yes, yes, these are the same! They're all here! I don't know why I didn't remember this storeroom as soon as we got here. This is exactly what we need." "To be doing what, exactly, Miss Queen?" Antoine asked. "To fight it out with Robotnik. It seems like he's found us, so we have to make a stand here." She cocked the rifle as she said it, making a large "kachunk" sound as the firing mechanism engaged. Almost 100 feet above their heads, the ground begins to rumble as the massive strike force approaches...

BE SURE TO STAY TUNED FOR PART II, AS THE FREEDOM FIGHTERS ARE TAKEN UNAWARE AND ARE FORCED TO DEFEND KNOTHOLE.. THE FINAL SHOWDOWN ENSUES BETWEEN ROBOTNIK AND THE QUEEN, AND THE FATE OF MOBITROPOLIS IS DECIDED.

TO BE CONCLUDED...