Dead Squirrel Walking
 part 1, the Visitation
 
 This Story is Copyright 1997 by Will 'Chaos Omega' Wells.  Do not sell or alter
 this work in any way.  Believe me, I'd notice.
 The characters and concepts herein are the property of Sega, Archie Comics,
 DiC productions, other fanfic writers, and Me. (Used without permission) The
 odd language (ancient Mobian) is not based off of anything.  The phrases 'I stand
 between the candle and the star' and 'I am the gray' are property of M. J. S.  the
 guy who wrote Babylon 5.  Packbell, Sandra, and Bookshire are the property of
 David Pistone.  Joseph is property of De La Crox.  Vision is the property of Pat
 Carson and David is the property of Shawn Wolski.  The description of the
 Mobian funeral is based off of events in Dan Drazen's 'Bloodlines' and 'Mobius
 Apocalypse'.
 
 Author note.  This story was originally ment to be a sequel to End Game.  All I
 had to go on was the cover art, which had been posted on the web.  So, when the
 real story aired, I found that my interpretation and the great Spaz cover had
 NOTHING to do with the story.  (Sonic grabbing desperately at Sally's falling
 form.)  Anyway, after some rehashing, I came up with this.  It takes place over a
 year and a half after Doomsday, and two months before Packbell's fall in De La
 Crox's Apocalypse.  This story is almost totally devoid of comic relief (other
 than extremely black humor).  You have been warned.  Mature Content
 Advisory.  Violence-8, Language-6, Sex-0 (ya right, Sally's Dead!)
 Warning- There is what could be considered a drug reference made in reference
 to some meditative incense.  It is ment as a joke and IS NOT an endorsement for
 drugs.  My apologies to any one that this offends.
 Oh, suggested mood music is 'What Becomes of the Broken Hearted' by Jimmy
 Raffen.  In any case, enjoy.  (If you can.  I'm depressed just writing it.)
 Send any comments or feed back to wellsw@sw.noacsc.ohio.gov   before June
 and at wellsw@ltc.tec.oh.us    after that. 
 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
               Chapter 1- Falling into Fate
 
     "Look out!" Sally yelled, knocking Sonic out of the path of a plasma
 blast.  Sonic hadn't even realized that the bot was still functional.  He jumped
 and spun into it, breaking the SWATbot apart.  The laser rifle flew into the air
 and landed hard, exploding on impact.  The small explosion knocked Sonic
 down and caused Sally to stumble dangerously close to the edge of the balcony. 
 Sonic glanced at his watch, knowing that Packbell's latest ex-weapon could blow
 at any second.  As it happened, it was that second.
 
     The explosion was mostly contained by the shell of the building, but a
 heavy backdraft did escape through the same door they so recently had.  Sally
 screamed as the draft blew her over the edge.  Sonic followed, running strait
 down the side of the wall.  He shot down, passing Sally, and turned back.  He
 ran up and jumped, ready to catch Sally...and missed.
 
     It was one of those one in a thousand slight slips, and it happened at the
 worst possible time.  Now, both he and Sally were in free fall, plunging towards
 the ground.  Sonic fell from such heights on a regular basis, always able to pad
 his decent, but Sally couldn't do that.  He had no wall to run against, he couldn't
 catch up with her.
     "Sally!!!" he called down to her.  She looked up at him.  For a moment,
 their eyes locked.
 
     "Soni-" her last word ended as her body slammed into the piles of
 metallic trash at the bottom.  Sonic landed a second later, doing a knee bend and
 short hop to pad his landing.  Then, he rushed to Sally's side.
 
     There was blood everywhere, most in the region of Sally's head.  Her
 burgundy hair was dark and moist.  Sonic stared a moment at her face, which
 seemed frozen in time, still trying to say '-ic'.  Her leg and back were bent in
 unnatural positions.  Sally was undoubtedly dead.
 
     Tears streamed down Sonic's face as he lifted her body and headed back
 to Knothole.  He couldn't help but notice how soft the back of her head was,
 where her skull had shattered, and how totally limp her body was.  There was
 only one word that described how he felt, and he said it over and over again.
                    ***
 
     "NO!" Sonic awoke screaming.  The blue hedgehog sat up, sweat
 dripping from his face and quills onto the water soaked sheets of his bed.  For a
 moment he had no idea what was real, weather or not the death of his love was
 real or a passing nightmare.  The black funeral banners over his door and
 windows told him quickly enough, however.
 
     For a time, Sonic sobbed to himself.  Since her death, Sonic had spent
 most of his time crying, cursing Packbell, and remembering the horrible sight as
 it played over and over through his mind.  He hadn't left his hut in nearly forty
 eight hours, since Bookshire had taken charge of her body.
 
     His two options on what to do now stood against each other, each with
 advantages and drawbacks.  Option one- revenge.  Sonic could get a weapon and
 go murder Packbell in cold blood.  The problem with that, he might be captured
 and used against his friends.  That left option two- suicide.  He knew of a
 convent cliff with jagged rocks at the bottom.  No knee bend would stop him
 from joining the Princess on the other side.  He could finally see his parents
 again, and Sally's mother, and all the other friends he'd lost over the years.
 
     Slowly, Sonic got up and went out his door.  No one was around, so he
 walked calmly out of the village.  In a few minutes, he reached the cliff.  It was a
 strait fall to the rocks bellow, all he had to do was step off.  Sonic placed one
 foot in mid air and began to shift his weight.
 
     <"I love you, Sonic Hedgehog.  Don't you dare step off!"> whispered a
 voice that Sonic recognized instantly.
 
     "Sal?" he exclaimed, stepping back and looking around, "Sally!?!"
 
     <"Don't you scare me like that."> came the voice again,<"now sit down
 and behave."> Sonic did so, obligingly, and scanned the area, seeing no one.
 
     "Sal?" he asked, quietly, "Are you there?"
 
     <"Hush.  Get some sleep, Sonic."> the voice told him.  Then, without
 warning, Sonic fell fast asleep.
                    ***
 
     "Here he is!" Tails shouted, spotting his blue hero.  Sonic was lying at
 the edge of a cliff, apparently asleep.  Tails flew closer and cringed slightly,
 noting that Sonic wasn't wearing his gloves.  The old scars of hot metal on flesh
 stood out in dull white against the hedgehog's flesh tone skin. (Author Note- this
 is a reference to another story.  If you're really curious, E-mail me.  Otherwise,
 just ignore...it's not important and isn't any part of the plot.)  As the whirling
 noise of Tails' tails stopped, Sonic stirred.
 
     "Sal?" he asked, sitting up suddenly.
 
     "It's just me, Sonic," Tails said, "You need to come back to Knothole. 
 We're all waiting for you to wrap...the...body."  Tails swallowed hard.  Honor
 though it was, Tails was glad that Sonic had to wrap Sally's body solo.  As her
 betroved, and only 'family' available, it was his responsibility alone.
 
     "She told me not to jump," Sonic whispered.  Tails' expression grew
 more concerned.  'Was Sonic hallucinating?' he asked himself mentally.  At that
 moment, Roter and Bunnie arrived.  All together, they stood Sonic up and led
 him back to Knothole.
                    ***
               Chapter 2- A Princess Fallen
 
     A mass of people were gathered there, standing so that only two paths
 existed between them.  The first path led to Sally's hut, and the second led to her
 grave.  Lupe and Wolfpack, Geoffrey St. John and the Underground, Knuckles,
 Vector, Vision, Joseph and Sandra, Amy Rose, and of course the Knothole
 residents, Antoine, Bookshire, Bunnie, Tails, Roter, Uncle Chuck, and the
 de-robotized citizens, and the still robotic citizens, and other freedom fighter
 groups all formed the massive crowd, all waiting for Sonic to perform his duty
 as Sally's fiancee.  He and only he could wrap her body and lay her to rest.
 
     Dark gray clouds hung in the sky above the dark forest.  An equally dark
 rumble came from those same clouds, as if the gods too were morning the
 princess's passage into the Great Beyond.
 
     Sonic walked, dazed, through the crowd and entered Sally's hut.  Alone,
 he went to her side.  Bookshire had set up a stasis field over the body to keep
 Sally from spoiling before she was laid to rest.  Sonic flicked off the mater
 paralyzing beam and reached out to stroke her face.  Someone, probably
 Bookshire, had closed her mouth and eyes, making her look almost peaceful.
 
     Her hair was still slick with fresh feeling blood, a nasty anti-clot side
 effect of the beam someone had told him a long time ago.  It had probably been
 Sally.  Sonic laid his head on her body, which was at room temperature but felt
 cold as ice, and began crying.  A long time later, Sonic began moving again.  He
 wrapped her body, ever so slowly, in the bed cover and tied it off in the proper
 Mobian tradition, just as Sally had done for her mother, several years before.
 
     When Sonic had finished wrapping her, he went to the door and knocked. 
 Moments later, Knuckles and Antoine entered, both wearing bakhats and long
 robes that Knuckles had brought.  Sonic was suprised to see Antoine out of
 uniform, but the robes did seem more appropriate.  Together, the trio lifted Sally
 from the table and carried her to the prepared grave.  Sonic had taken over eight
 hours to wrap her, but nobody had moved or sat down, or it seemed even taken a
 breath since he'd begun.  Everything felt static, stable, unmoving, dead.
 
     The three people who had truly loved Sally lowered her body into the
 deep hole.  Then, Sonic, Knuckles, and Antoine left the grave while the crowd
 filled it in, one handful at a time.
 
     The three Ko-Taki, or 'True Mourners' in ancient Mobian (Sonic,
 Antoine, Knuckles), headed into a small tent that Knuckles had set up.  They
 were to write an apogee to Sally.  Sonic, after lots of persuasion, recounted one
 of his old poems.  After some rewriting and adding a few extra lines, the poem
 was ready.  Antoine named it 'A pom' for a princess', neither Sonic or Knuckles
 bothered correcting his speech.
 
     Finally, Knuckles chiseled it into Sally's grave stone with his bear
 hand-barbs.  They emerged and laid the stone at the foot of the filled in grave.
 
 Sally Alicia, Princess Royal of the House Acorn
     3219-3237
 
 A Pom for a Princess, by Sonic, Antoine, and Knuckles
 
 I'm so fast I burn up the street,
 I'm faster than lightening, faster then heat,
 I'm so fast I can't be beat,
 But one kiss from her could knock me off my feet,
 
 Now she's but a memory, bitter sweet,
 Driving my senses into retreat,
 And suddenly my speed don't seem so neat,
 As Mobius suffers her greatest defeat.
                    ***
 
     For the next several days, the only people Sonic talked to were Knuckles
 and Antoine.  Knuckles was leading them in meditative morning, showing them
 how to fast for days with no ill effects.  Meanwhile, the people of Knothole, and
 Mobius, mourned each in their own way.   
 
     The masses of Knothole visitors headed home, for the most part. 
 Geoffrey St. John stubbornly demanded to be allowed to join the other three, but
 they all said that Geoffrey had no true feelings for Sally.  Vector was waiting for
 Knuckles to finish, as was Amy Rose.  And, a few people were visiting family in
 Knothole.  However, many of the people who had buried Sally were now
 scattered across the entire planet.
 
     Bunnie, Tails, and Vector started planning new missions and taking up
 Sally's administrative slack.  Roter spent much of his time at Bookshire's,
 working on computer skills.  David worked on combat strategy with both afore
 mentioned groups.   Joseph and Sandra seemed to disappear after the burial, but
 for them, being no where to be found was typical.
 
     The three Ko-Taki always wore their cloaks when moving around the
 town, usually on their way to or from meditative sessions in Sally's hut (which
 was off limits to all others), Knuckle's tent, or the power ring pool.  Geoffrey St.
 John tried to join them at the grotto once- he received a Knuckles brand
 punch-out and didn't try again.
 
     A week after Sally's death, Knuckles proclaimed Sonic and Antoine
 trained and headed back to Floating Island to morn in privacy, taking Vector
 with him.  Amy Rose stayed to take up some of the slack while Sonic finished
 morning.  Also, she knew that Sonic would be available once he got over Sally.
 
     Sonic and Antoine, meanwhile, continued their meditative fasting in
 private.
                    ***
               Chapter 3- The Visitations
 
     "Cho-ti Ka Lavna Di Zovan." Sonic murmured. (Ancient Mobian
 Translation: <I am one, Harmonica, with the over-sole>) The herbs that
 Knuckles had given him burned softly in the pot, filling the air with a mild
 tranquilizer.  Sonic sat crossed legged in the center of his room, which had had
 all furniture shoved to the walls.  Sonic was speaking in his best Ancient
 Mobian. (which was about as good as Antoine's regular speech)  
 
     <'Sonic'> came a tiny whisper that caught Sonic's attention like silk on
 barbed wire. <'Can you hear me?'> Her voice was harsh, as if she was shouting,
 and as soft as the wind, but also unmistakable.
 
     "Sal?!" Sonic exclaimed, jumping up and looking around wildly.
 
     <'Sonic, I'm here'> came her voice.
 
     "Where?!" he asked.
 
     <'With you'> she said.  Sonic felt a slight cold on his arm.  There was a
 faint...blur there.  Like streets in the hottest summers, there was just a waiver of
 the image.  Sonic glanced up from his arm to see more distortion in front of him.
 
     "Sally..." Sonic whispered, reaching out to touch the blur.  His hand went
 cold- and then it was gone.  Sonic was sitting on the floor, in the locus position,
 in front of the incense bowl.  He saw that it was burning low.
 
     "What'd Knux put in this stuff?" Sonic asked, rhetorically, "That was a
 major bad trip."  Extremely disturbed, Sonic headed out of his hut and walked to
 the grotto, where a power ring was forming.  Sonic watched it rise from the pool,
 hover a moment, then descend back into the water.  Sonic sat down and went
 back into his locus position.  His mind, however, was anything but a calm blank.
 
     'Was that Sal, or a hallucination from Knuckles' meditation?' Sonic asked
 himself.  He sat there, pondering that, until the power ring generator reissued the
 ring.  As the ring ascended, the air bellow it began to fuzz.  Sonic noticed this
 and looked more closely.  The blur resolved into a pale image of Sally, the ring
 hovering just above her head.
 
     "Eugh??" Sonic squeaked.  Then, as the ring fell, the 'Heavenly Sally'
 vanished.  Sonic jumped up and snagged the ring with a stick, not trusting
 himself to touch it.  Then, abaonding all guise of meditative calm, he juiced back
 to his hut.  Once inside, he placed the ring in the center of the room, shoving the
 incense pot aside.  After sitting, he began to concentrate on the power ring. 
 Slowly, the ring began to glow.
                    ***
 
     Antoine was also in his hut.  His father's uniform was hanging in the
 closet, while he was clothed in his bakhat and the black robe Knuckles had given
 to him.  He too was meditating on the floor before a pot of burning incense.
 
     He had cried all he could before the burial, and in the tent that first day
 with Sonic and Knuckles.  The meditations focused his pain and loss into
 something that he could fight, though he could never defeat it.  Like life itself,
 death was something you always fought but never defeated.  It was the fight that
 was important.
 
     "Cho-Kalleri Vervax Di Locti-va-Yaxich" (Ancient Mobian Translation,
 <I stand between the candle and the star.>) Antoine murmured, actually
 pronouncing it quite well.  Antoine wished Knuckles had stayed longer and
 taught him more.  He opened his eyes for a moment and for no real reason
 glanced at the incense pot.  The smoke was swirling and moving oddly.  Antoine
 wondered if it was supposed to do that.  Then, a shape formed, one that Antoine
 recognized instantly.
 
     "Moi Prinzess!" he exclaimed.  The smoke Sally nodded and moved her
 mouth to talk, but no sound emerged.  She seemed to note this and grew
 frustrated, making a discussed kicking motion with her vaporous lower section.
 
     "Sharads!" Antoine suggested quickly, "Du ze sharads."  Sally looked
 suprised, and smacked her head in a 'why didn't I think of that' motion.
 
     The smoke broke apart, then reformed into a bad picture of Sonic.  Then,
 it became a ring shape and bobbed around in the air.  Finally, the smoke
 reformed into Sally, who looked worse for wear.  She pushed several strands of
 smoke-hair out of her eyes and pointed to her lips.  She mouthed 'Help Sonic' at
 Antoine.
 
     "Ai need tu be helping Sonique with a power ring." Antoine stated, not
 quite understanding.  Smoke Sally nodded and dicipated, the smoke diffusing
 into the rest of the air.  Antoine blinked and slowly stood.
 
     Half of him was terrorized by the experience... and the other part was
 intrigued.  Antoine's instinct for self-preservation fought his sense of loyalty. 
 His cowardly side fought his courageous side.  His candle fought his star.  They,
 in a moment of revelation, he came to both a decision and an understanding.
 
     "Cho-ti Di Viddiv."(AMT- I am the gray) he said, the final meaning
 falling into place.  Inside the battles still raged, but they were under control by a
 greater force, Antoine.  With his new found understanding, he headed out of his
 hut and went to find Sonic.
                    ***
               Chapter 4- Spirit Ring 
     Sweat was running down Sonic's face.  He cleared his mind, focused his
 thoughts, but all he could do was make the ring glow a little.  He was also
 growing continually more frustrated with the prospect.  'Maybe I'm crazy' he
 thought, 'Maybe I should have stepped off that damned cliff.  Maybe that wasn't
 really Sally'.
 
     "Maybe she really is gone!" he shouted into the air, half sobbing on the
 words.
 
     "No, Sonique," came a voice behind him, "Ai tu 'ave zeen her."
 
     "Ant!" Sonic said, jumping up, "What are you doing here?"
 
     "Moi Prinzess sent me tu your side," he said, sitting down on the other
 side of the ring.
 
     "Sally talked to you too?" Sonic asked, hope resounding in his voice.
 
     "Yez.  She told me tu be helping you with your ring."  He tipped his head
 at the power ring on the floor, "Zo, 'ere Ai am."  Sonic nodded and sat down
 again.  Together, they focused their minds on the ring.
 
     "Cho-ti Di Viddiv," Antoine whispered again, reassuring himself.  The
 ring began to glow again as their minds touched it.  Then, slowly, it lifted from
 the floor and ascended into the air.  Then it was about three feet above the
 ground, it stopped and hovered.  "Activate et, Sonique." Antoine hissed, his
 entire form straining to hold the ring aloft.  The Hedgehog, unable to move,
 concentrated harder, imagining that he was about to juice.  The ring glowed
 brighter, and flashed.  Sally's image was projected down from the ring, which
 faded out.  Both Sonic and Antoine sighed loudly, the exertion finally over.
 
     "Sonic?" Sally asked, "Can you hear or see me?"
 
     "Sally!" Sonic cried, jumping up, "You're ba-" he stepped forward to hug
 her and passed through her instead.  "-ck.  What the...?"
 
     "Thanks you two," Sally's image said, "I don't have to shout any more."
 
     "But Sal," Sonic protested, "You're still...still..."
 
     "Street pizza?" Sally suggested, "Ya, I know.  All that ring did was
 charge me up.  Now I can talk and you guys can see me."
 
     "But Sal, what good is that?" Sonic asked.
 
     "Well... I could spy on Packbell.  I can still plan missions and do my
 administrative duties.  Maybe I could even try to get to my father this way... It's
 not like I'm gona crystallize." Sally said.
 
     "But Sal," Sonic said yet again, "What about us... You and me I mean."
 
     "Well, Sonic, I *am* dead..." Sally said with a sigh, "that usually ends a
 relationship.  You can move on..."  Tears showed at the corners of her eyes.
 
     "That ain't gona happen, Sal," promised Sonic, "I'm gona find a way to
 bring you back."
 
     "Not You, us." Antoine interjected, "I vill be commings tu."
 
     "You wana go on a quest, Ant?" Sonic asked, amazed.
 
     "I vill go while my revolution lasts," Antoine replied, "Moi Prinzess said
 'help Sonique', so I am helping."
 
     "Your what?" Sonic asked in reference to 'revolution'.
 
     "My vhat, vhat?" Antoine asked, not understanding what Sonic was
 asking.
 
     "Never mind,"  Sally's ghost interrupted, "Sonic, this is crazy."
 
     "And so is me talking to a ghost." Sonic replied with a smirk.  Sally
 groaned slightly, rolled her eyes, and sighed in acquiescence.  
 
     "I vill be goings to pack." Antoine said, heading out the door.
 
     "Thank you Sonic." Sally said when they were alone, brushing her cold
 lips through his face.
 
     "For what?" Sonic asked with another smirk.
 
     "For not jumping." she replied simply.  Sonic nodded, the smirk fading
 to a sad smile.  Outside, a cold wind rustled the trees.
                    ***
 
     Antoine sighed to himself as he finished the note.  According to it, he
 and Sonic were going on a meditative retreat.  Their real destination, however,
 was Floating Island.  They had to get Knuckles' help since he knew all the old
 legends... and he was the third Ko-Taki.
 
     A few minutes later, three figures, one of which was slightly translucent,
 headed silently out of Knothole.  For the many Knothole citizens who had been
 recently plagued by nightmares, this was a night of peaceful dreaming.
 
                    To Be Continued...
 
 coming soon, Part 2, Cold Affections
 
       
 "They say it is to be
 their Brave New World
 but, a world with out Sally
 is lacking the bravest sole of all."