Fanfic: The Fight for Freedom: An untold tale of the Resistance (IDW/Game universe)

[Mobius_Historian]

Okay, I wanted to explore the idea of what other nations on the planet were doing during eggman's invasion in Sonic forces,without the blue blur himself present. This is a side story set during the events of Sonic Forces, set far away the other side of the planet on an island off the coast of Spagonia. It follows the adventures of a young islander (mobian) prince, who leads his people in the battle to free themselves of the tyranny of the Eggman empire. Contains many familiar faces you know, but not as you remember have guest appearances from the main members of the resistance (Amy, Tails, Knuckles, etc.). Our prologue sets up our location and backstory for our main characters and setting, the body of the story will follow Anyway, here we go!

(Author's note: all phrases and sentences in Spagonian will be followed by an english translation)

Prologue: A Prince's Reflections

Okay, I wanted to explore the idea of what other nations on the planet were doing during eggman's invasion in Sonic forces,without the blue blur himself present. This is a side story set during the events of Sonic Forces, set far away the other side of the planet on an island off the coast of Spagonia. It follows the adventures of a young islander (mobian) prince, who leads his people in the battle to free themselves of the tyranny of the Eggman empire. Contains many familiar faces you know, but not as you remember have guest appearances from the main members of the resistance (Amy, Tails, Knuckles, etc.). Our prologue sets up our location and backstory for our main characters and setting, the body of the story will follow Anyway, here we go!

(Author's note: all phrases and sentences in Spagonian will be followed by an english translation)

Per coloro che non riescono più a ricordare, è mio dovere non dimenticare mai e poi mai.

"For those who can no longer remember, it is my duty to never, ever forget."

This is a task I have long held off on, but I can no longer ignore. It is a task I had long put out of my head, instead turning my attention towards raising my family, and seeing to the needs of my people. But after so many years of peace and prosperity in this land, watching a generation of our nation's youth grow up only knowing war and suffering as something that happens in other lands, I realized I had a duty to put pen to paper (I know, my people can be old-fashioned that way) and tell this story. It is the story of when our beautiful home came under the attack of a deranged madman, who sought to destroy our kingdom... and our way of life. It is the tale of how we resisted, and stood against the tyrant and his forces to take back our homeland. And how, in the end, a spiky blue champion and his friends in the Resistance inspired us to fight on during the darkest of times.

This homeland of which I speak, is the island kingdom of Sabato Mattina- though most nations of earth refer to us as Isle Sabato. We are a kingdom off of the coast of the human continental nation of Spagonia, and share most of our language and culture with them. Ours is a bountiful land, covered in mountains and green rolling hills, dotted with the many villas and vineyards, and ruins of the ancient Spagonian empire dot our landscape, toppled pillars and crumbling aqueducts can be seen everywhere. In the villages and small cities, the citizens walk along ancient brick roads, surrounded by homes and shops built of whitewashed stone and topped with red-tiled roofs. Ah, you should be in town for our giorno di mercato -our market day-,when the open air stalls sell some of the finest food and crafts you will find anywhere in the old world-

Ah, scusa- my apologies, I am beginning to sound like our island's tourist board. If you had not guessed already, we people of Sabato are Islanders- what the humans who live on the continents call animal folk. We are much stronger and faster than humans. And many of us are capable of what could be called superhuman feats, such as curling into a ball, and smashing through solid stone as if it were paper. We islanders have mostly been friends and allies with the humans, with little hate or strife between our two peoples. Humans often come to these islands as tourists, to sample our cuisines, fine wine, and wonderful music. And much like the independent Spagonian city-state of Soleanna on the mainland, we retain our ancient monarchy. Yes, we are ruled by an ancient line of wise kings and queens on Sabato island... a line of which I am a part of.

Forgive me, I should introduce myself. I am crown prince Alfonzo Ghianda, son of king Umbrerto Ghianda, and next in line for the throne. Like my noble father, I am a squirrel, all covered in red fur, except for the brown crop of hair that tops our heads. Besides his age and royal regalia, the only way you can tell the difference between the two of us is my father's long mustache, along with his calmer demeanor and bearing. My mother, passed away from illness long before the time of troubles began, was a brown chipmunk with red auburn hair, a trait she passed onto my little sister, the Princess Salvatrice. Our royal line was founded by a former general of the ancient Spagonian empire, who had been given this island as a gift by the emperor whom he had served so well. The royal house of Ghianda had ruled this kingdom for over a hundred generations, almost always governing our people justly and wisely, serving their needs and wants above our own.

I remember the days of my early youth, a twelve year-old-prince sitting under a tree in the royal palace garden, calmly reading a book, while my sister and the young girls of her court were playing on the other side of the gardens, under the watchful eye of her royal nanny and tutor, Rosa Marmotta. Breaking away of the other girls in colorful dresses, and her overprotective woodchuck nanny, she'd come running over to me, and ask;

"Grande Fratello, vieni a giocare con me!" (Big brother, come play with me!) She begged me, a pleading look in her sparkling blue eyes, arms crossed over the blue gown she always wore.

"Non adesso, Salvatrice. Mi sto divertendo troppo con questo libro!" (Not now, Salvatrice! I am enjoying my book!) I would grumble in reply, my bushy squirrel tail thrashing around in annoyance.

Her pleading would continue, and sometimes I would get up and join them, other times I would stay and read my book. Even those times I would occasionally glance up, and see my sister at play with the children of the Royal court. Salvatrice has always been a very social princess, making friends with every guard and servant in the castle, as well as every citizen in the capital, when we we went for our weekly outings to see the people. The royal court heaped all of it's attention and affection on her, and she was ever the kingdom's little darling. Later in her teens, she was always attending some social event Even to this day, if someone is suffering or in need, Princess Salvatrice Ghianda was always there to help.

I myself, had a much more subdued upbringing. My tutors taught me lessons of the sciences, history, geography, literature, and all of the other things a future king would know. Unlike other royals, my father took time out of his daily schedule to spend time with me, teaching me lessons of politics and statecraft, and how a king should always serve the people justly, and not the other way around- a lesson most islander royals take to heart, but few tyrannical human monarchs throughout history seemed to forget.

"Ricorda, figlio mio, un re deve guidare il suo popolo, non governarlo." (Remember, my son, a king must lead his people, never rule above them.) He told me sternly, as we walked the grounds outside of the palace together. "You must always guarantee your subject's rights and freedoms, over your own."

"Capisco quello che dici, padre." (I understand, father.) I reply respectfully, glancing over in his direction. "Cercherò di ricordare i tuoi insegnamenti." (I shall try to honor your teachings.)

Outside of my tutoring and my father's royal lectures, I was basically left to my own devices. This actually suited me fine, as I lacked my sister's strict schedule, and basically had mostly free time to do as I wished. I wore the same light wardrobe as all the islander boys and men wore around the castle- shoes, gloves, and blue royal jacket with twin shoulder epaulettes- although my father and I also both war a diadem crown as a sign of our royalty. (Also, I wore my jacket open as a sign of how 'cool' I was... Gaia above I was stupid as a teenager.) while my sister and all of the other ladies of court wore full dresses and gowns. (To this day I have never learned why all female islanders on this planet are always fully clothed, and it's been that way since ancient times. No other male seems to know why, and when we ask the women about it, they tell us it's a 'girl thing' and to mind our own business. Very well.)

But my sister and I were not alone in the with all the tutors and guards in the castle- there were some children we were friends with at the royal court. My sister had two particularly close friends in among her ladies in waiting while growing up- the brown Lynx girl, Nicola, who seemed to be really goods with computers ans small handheld gadgets, and Scarlett Rabeau, an orange-furred rabbit girl who served as my sister's hairdresser. Rabeau came from a wealthy rabbit family who lived on an island off the coast of the deep south of the United Federation. she had a deeply twanged accent that betrayed her heritage in that region. Those three were always together everywhere, getting into every sort of trouble when they got into their teens years.

"Scarlett, this is insane!" I once hears Nicola complain, after Nanny Rosa caught them one time trying to sneak a peek into the male guards' shower room. "Why do you keep suggesting this stuff to the princess? You're going to get us exiled, or worse!"

"Aw c'mon, Nicola Girl! Y'all gotta learn ta liver a little bit!" Scarlett protested back. As Rosa dragged the two rebellious teenage girls back to my sister's royal apartments. "The princess never get ta do anything fun, we gotta liven' up her life!".

But my sister's pair of troublemakers weren't the only young people at court- I had two friends of my own, as well; the coyote boy Danton Depardieu, who was the son of one of our royal guards. Danton's mother had come from another island kingdom that spoke French, and so he had a thick accent of his own. He wore a junior version of his father's jacket and saber, as he was training to be a guard himself. Sometimes, Danton and I would slip down to the castle's motor pool, where we would hang out with a muscular teen walrus named Fissaggo, the son of our kingdom's chief engineer. I remember the time the three of us stole one of my father's imported Apatosian sports cars, and took it for a joyride.

"Eh, I am not, how you zay, being ze sure about ziz, mes amis." I remember Danton speaking up nervously. "Are you sure vou knows how to be doing ze driving?"

"Calm down, Danton! We'll be fine!" Our violet-furred walrus friend replied, starting up the engine. "What could possibly go wrong?"

One crashed car, three broken fruit stands, and one maniacal rampage of three teens behind the wheel through the streets of the capital later, and we found out just how wrong things could indeed go. The three of us were grounded for a month, and forced to clean up and repair all of the damage we did. Needless to say, none of us ever tried that stunt again.

Sometimes, my sister and I's friends would spend time with each other in the garden, which mostly consisted of Scarlett and Danton flirting with each other. Nicola would sometimes stare at me when she thought I wasn't looking, then turn away with red cheeks when I turned my head to face her. Even though we were only two years apart, I did not realize what was bothering her at the time, and only much later did I tragically realize what was going on in the lynx girl's mind... and her heart.

We had heard stories of the great foreign hero Sonic the Hedgehog for many years, the epic tales of he and his friends battles with the insane Doctor Ivo 'Eggman" Robotnik and his army of robots. In our teens, we watched on television when he defeated the chaos monster and saved the world from a falling space colony. I actually met Sonic himself once; he came to our Island on a rescue mission. One day, that madman Robotnik kidnapped Salvatrice, along with Scarlett, Fissaggo, and my sister's pet dog, and took them back to his fortress he had built atop the nearby volcanic island, Mount Stromboli. Hearing of our plight, Sonic came flying in on his plane, piloted by his little two tailed fox friend, and dove right into the mouth of the volcano fortress. Fighting his way through a pinball-like maze filled with badniks, Sonic managed to rescue Salvatrice and her friends, and blow Eggman's fortress sky-high.

Sonic returned our friends and my traumatized sister, her fur died pink by all the toxic goo in the volcano fortress, and her royal garb nearly eaten entirely away by acid. My father and I thanked the hero and his fox friend, as the crying Salvatrice was taken away by nanny Rosa to have her fur washed. My father was grateful to the blue hedgehog, and even offered him a knighthood and a position at court, but he respectfully declined. (Though someone told me he later did become a 'knight of the wind' at another royal court, thoguh I don't know the details of that event). The worldwide press referred to the whole event as the 'spinball incident', and it only increased Sonic's fame as a hero. It took months to get that pink gunk out of my sister's hair, and afterward she developed a very strong crush on the 'blue blur', and kept wishing he'd come back to the island to visit her... which he never seemed to have the time to do.

I didn't have it in me to tell her what the rumors said... that his heart already belonged to a pink hedgehog girl with a hammer. Better to let my little sister have her daydreams, while she is still young enough to dream.

A few more years passed, and life at court went on as usual. My sister developed friendships with the other teenage princesses of the world- such as Princess Elise of Soleanna, and Princess Lupe of the wolf pack tribe. I quietly studied and prepared myself, waiting for the day I would one day take the crown. It was an usually rainy day when we received word that sonic had been taken down by the mysterious being known as Infinite, and whisked away to imprisonment on the new death egg. My sister went into hysterics, as Rosa and my father tried to comfort her. It was swiftly over the next few weeks that all of the islands of the earth fell to Eggman's forces, with G.U.N. barely protecting the human nations on the continents. It was upon that dark day, that the egg fleet showed up in the skies over our kingdom... the day our armies fell to and endless hoard of badniks. It was the day Salvatrice and I's father, King Umberto, was exiled to the special zone by Eggman's forces, and the day my sister and I led a bunch of refugees from the capital, deep into hiding in the foro del nodo forest.

This would be the end of our happy royal childhoods... and the beginning of our hellish six-month long struggle to regain our kingdom, and free our people from the Eggman empire. My sister and I would organize the Sabato island branch of the resistance- the Combattenti per la libertà.

This is the story of how our royal family led our people in this heroic fight... in the words of the house of Ghianda's royal motto, facciamolo a essa, meaning 'let's get it done'- or as my sister likes to put it...

...let's do it, to it.

Next: the invasion begins, the fight begins.

Next: the invasion begins, the fight begins.

Edited January 12 by Mobius_Historian

[Mobius_Historian]

Prologue part two: Invasion!

"Alfonzo! Alfonzo! Wake up!" Salvatrice came running into my room in her nightgown, a panicked look on her face. "The Eggman empire is invading!"

I awoke with a start in the middle of the night, my eyes slowly adjusting to the darkness all around me. Throwing off my covers and leaping from my bed, I look at my sister in shock. Remembering the pranks my sibling is known to play on me, I give my little sister a skeptical look.

"Ha ha, very funny, Sal!" I grumble, combing fingers through my hair. "Did Scarlett put you up to this, like she did the time you two tried to shave my tail fur off?"

"No, no this is real, I swear!" The sixteen-year old panicking princess yelled in my ear. "His airships are outside, look!"

I saw the searchlights through the windows, and rushed took look out at the ominous shapes floating in the night skies above. More than thirty warships hovered over the capital, blotting out the stars, and shining their eerie floodlights in every direction. The vessels opened their lower cargo bay doors, dropping hundreds of egg pawns and egg robos down onto the streets below. The robotic troops begin to fire upon our citizens and their shops and homes, and soon there are fleeing islanders, and the entire capital is ablaze.

Sal and I were staring at this dreadful sight in horror, when Nanny Rosa came rushing into the room in a panic.

"There you are, principessa! I've been looking for you everywhere!" She grabbed my sister by the arm, pulling her towards the door. "We've got to get out of the castle, hurry!" Turning back towards me she hastily bowed. "You should ready yourself for battle, mio signore principe, your father and his troops are holding off the badniks in the throne room!"

"Goodbye, big brother!" I heard Sal yell back to me, as the woodchuck nanny pulled her along. "And good luck!"

Nodding, I quickly threw on my jacket, and grab my rapier, and rush to join my father in defense of our people. When I get out into the hallway, I already see the steel forms of motobugs cruelly chasing the panicked servants around. Falling back on the battle training both I and my sister had received, I rushed towards the badniks, curling into a ball and bouncing off of each motobug, smashing almost a dozen of them into pieces. I barely heard the grateful thanks of the remaining servants, as I rushed on towards the throne room.

"Father!" I cried out,as I rushed into the great hall, to see a room of smashed badniks and fallen guards. Only King Umberto was still standing, holding off a swarm of egg fighters armed with the mighty sword of Ghianda. Quickly I was at my father's side, stabbing away at the remaining egg fighters with my blade. Together well fell what is left of the robots in the room, before he turned to me and spoke.

"Alfonzo, I'm glad you're here." He said grimly, a determined look on his face. "We are outmatched and were outfought this day... someone within these walls betrayed us." His eyes narrowed. "I want you to taker your sister- and the rest of the survivors of the royal court- and flee deep into the sanctuary in the nearby forest. You will all be safe there,away from where Eggman can touch you."

"No, father!" I raised my voice protest. "Let the others flee, send me not from your side-!"

"You must go! You and your sister must be ready to lead our people! To see them through the dark times ahead!" Storming over to me, he took my training rapier from me, and thrust the sword of Ghianda into my hands. "They will need you and Salvatrice, to lead the fight to take back our island!"

Looking at the mighty blade in my hand, I stammer out. "But, father..."

"NOW GO! I'll hold them off" He called out, shoving me away as more egg fighters swarmed into the room. "Take the secret exit, and get the survivors to safety!"

Nodding quickly, I took the secret passage behind the throne, and a quick run though the tunnel leads me outside the walls of the capital. I soon join up with the other refugees, where my sister and our friends are leading the refugees away from the city, towards the safety of the great forest. Sal and I used spin dash attacks, to clear away the egg pawns in our way, as we swiftly made our way through the darkness.I could hear the wail of babies as mothers tried to shush them, and the whimper of small children as grandparents tried to comfort them. That was mostly made up our little group of refugees- the very young, and very old. Those fleeing were the ones who couldn't stay behind and help, in the futile attempt to aid our kingdom.

Looking back, I saw our friends- Nicola, Danton, Scarlett, and Fissago- marching among the refugees- and all in shock and disbelief over what had happened. It was strange to see the normally brave and charismatic Danton cower and quake in fear. Or to see the usually quiet and humble Fissago step up, and use his great strength to aid others, like pulling a cart of possessions to aid an elderly couple,or move debris out of the way to clear a path.

But the one that surprised me both was my little sister. Salvatrice showed the full extent of her bravery that day, urging the emotionally broken members our little ragtag group onward with gentle, yet hopeful words. She proved to me that day she was no mere spoiled princess, but instead a freedom fighter, who could stand strong in what was to come. As we reached the edge the edge of the treeline of forest foro del nodo, I watched her handle a crisis with a finesse I could only dream of.

We were just passing under the shadow of the trees, as the remains of our kingdom's air forces fought the buzz bombers and bakiris in the skies above. A stray laser blast hit one of the great oaks, and it came crashing down on Scarlett. We all raced over to her as she cried out, and our walrus friend lifted the tree off of her... and to our horror, we saw that Scarlett's legs and been right arm had been crushed beneath the mighty tree. I gently picked the sobbing rabbit girl up, and carried her with us as we went.

It was a long, arduous trek though the chilly night, but our little train of refugees finally made it to the fallback shelters deep in the island's great forest. Located at the site of our kingdom's ancient capital, this place had been rebuilt to house my father and his court in hiding should our island ever be invaded or conquered by one of the other islander nations. It did not have enough supplies and food to see us through move than three months. Sal and I run a head count, and found there were only about three hundred of us, from the castle and the capital; three hundred, out of a city that had a few thousand citizens. And most of those were either too young or too old to mount any kind of Resistance against Dr Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik.

As I wondered among the barracks in our new 'home' , I saw frightened families trying to find places to live in tiny, overcrowded barracks, and put away the few possessions they still had. I saw the royal doctors, who had escaped the palace busy working in the med bay, tending to the wounded, and trying to save Scarlett the Rabbit's life with some kind of experimental procedure. The first week or so, I wandered around in shock and disbelief, helping the other men with manual labor setting up tents and moving supplies around.

But my sister... Sal quickly got over the shock of losing the only home we had ever known, and took charge, organizing and coordinating our efforts to survive out here. I didn't understand... we had lost everything, our castle, our island, our father... how can she not be in shock and sorrow? How can she just snap to leading our people, and raising their broken spirits? I didn't understand, how can she be smiling and laughing, after all that has happened? Our father could be dead, and she's telling everyone out here everything is going to be okay?

For many, many days of me mechanically going through the motions of helping, my subjecting calling out to me to ask what they should do, and I just stared blankly at them before wandering off somewhere else. It was on the third week, when I finally felt a hard SLAP across my face.

"Alfonzo! Pull it together!" Salvatrice yelled at me, for the first time in her life. "You are the crown prince, and our people need you!"

"How... how can you ask that of me, after all that has happened?" Shaking, I slipped the diadem crown off of my head, and offered it to her. "Here sorellina (little sister), you have shown yourself to be a much more capable ruler than I."

"NO!" Sal almost snarled, grabbing the crown from my hands, and forcefully shoving it back onto my head. "YOU are the crown prince, grande fratello (big brother). You were born into this world to rule our kingdom!" She gestured her hand to all of the refugees around us. "Now man up, fulfill your responsibilities, and LEAD!"

That was the slap I needed, to pull myself out of my stupor, and got snapped me back to reality. Soon, I was in the planning sessions and meetings with Sal, and it wasn't long before the two of us had organized a band of refugees into a small, functioning community. I may have jumped in to help more at the end, but it was my sister's determination and spirit that carried us through those first dark days.

We had survived, but for Sal and I... our plans went far beyond that. Fissago and Nicola had managed to get the facility's dusty old communication system working, and had received messages from the outside world that Sonic's friends had managed to get a resistance going against Eggman's forces. Sal spent a long time talking over the radio with the other cells of the resistance forming around the world. It was then we began to organize, to plan... gathering what few weapons we had, and plotting out strategies to launch a guerilla campaign to take back our homeland. Here we were, a bunch of children and a few old people (I was the oldest of the 'kids', at eighteen summers.) ready to take on the largest evil empire in the world. It was both thrilling... and scary... at the same time.

The core of our group was already beginning to take shape; Salvatrice and I took leadership positions, while Danton put together what would pass for 'security' ion our little refuge here. Fissago took over the motor pool and armory for our vehicles and weapons, while Nicola was working on the communication devices and other tech we could use in the field. Scarlett had shockingly recovered from her injuries, her legs and right arm now covered in an experimental exo-armor they had been developing on the mainland (and they could never replicate again, her doctors told me). And she was eager to get out in the field, and smash up some badniks for what they had done to her.

We discovered other allies among our ranks, as well. A young ram maned Aries, the son of an architect in town, helped us build and maintain a series of slides, passageways and traps to get in and out of our sanctuary unnoticed by Robotnik's forces. A goat named Griff, the son of our kingdom's intelligence agency that served my father, coordinated communication between our resistance, and those still living in the villages and towns the egg army occupied. And a young sungazer lizard named Dulcy, who had been visiting our kingdom with her family at the time of the attack, she had a most valuable ability. When pumped with enough chaos energy from stolen chaos drives, she could turn herself into a small-sized dragon, serving as series firepower on missions in a small, stealthy package.

It was Nicole who came up with the idea for code-names for members of the royal household, to cover our identities in case the wrong person was captured. It was Scarlett supplied the code names, handles that would mask our identities to anyone outside of the organization, so of course they were all in English...and they were all goofy-sounding.

"Ah'll be Bunny Rabbot, and Sal? Y'all cain be Sally Acorn. Danton- y'all cain be Antoine- no hidin' that Frenchie accent o' yours, darlin."She pointed her finger back at our walrus friend. "Fissago? Y'all cain be called Rotor, since ya'll like workin' with gears so much, an' Princey-"

"I will be keeping my own name, thank you very much." I replied, straightening my jacket. "My people need to know I am still alive... and still fighting for them."

" And I shall simply anglicize my name from Nicola to Nicole, though I think I shall stay back at the base, and coordinate our resistance branch's efforts." The Lynx looked over at me thoughtfully, as if seeking my approval. I nodded, and she continued. "In fact, let the outside world this I am some sort of A.I., communicating with all of you through those handheld PDAs Fissa- er, 'Rotor' and I repaired." She tilted her head thoughtfully, putting her headset back on, and turning back to her computer monitor. "Hm, perhaps I could talk in a hollow, computer-like voice to complete the illusion, maybe even look into creating a holo-avatar..."

And so, we schemed and plotted, putting together the plans that would reclaim our home from an egg-shaped monster. Soon,we would learn of the horrors Robotnik would inflict upon our people, and the Eggman empire would feel the vengeance of our Island's branch of the resistance. Soon, the doctor would face the wrath of our Freedom Fighters.

Next: Chapter one- The resistance begins!

Edited January 12 by Mobius_Historian

[Mobius_Historian]

.........

Edited January 6 by Mobius_Historian

[Mobius_Historian]

Author's note; things will start to get familiar here soon; do note that with sonic being held on the death Egg, and Tails off dealing with his trauma over Sonic's capture, two characters have to step forth in this universe to take their place in events. Fortunately, the main game/IDW verse provides two such characters who aren't really busy in the modern gaming era. Hold one to your hats, dear readers, this is where things get... eerily familiar.

Chapter one: Sabotage, and new friends!

Author's note: For reader convenience, all characters shall be referred to by their code names for the remainder of the story, until the island is liberated from Eggman's rule.

The first stages of our little rebellion started simply enough; putting the plans together and making the connections we needed all over the island, and laying out our long term goals. The first attacks were also simple enough; A badnik transport blown up by Rotor and Antoine here, a fuel depot set ablaze by a dragon-form, Dulcy's fire there, and we made Robotnik's first month of trying to establish his forces upon our island a nightmare for him. We little understood what we were doing in those early days, falling back on what little training in black ops and guerilla warfare a few of us had received from our now missing- or dead- parents. But we were able to do a little damage, thanks in part to the fact Eggman's badniks and other robots were not very bright. It took quite some time for that mad scientist to realize there was even a resistance on this island, and by then we were a bit more experienced at what we were doing.

It was a difficult adjustment, in those early days; each of us moving into our own house that Ari and his work teams had built, a bunch of teenagers who were suddenly the only adults who surrounded them were ones servants and subjects who had no authority to give us orders or tell us what to do. Rotor ended up spending all day and night in the armory, throwing together every type of weapon he could think of. While Antoine trained with his saber, and tried to hide his fear. Bunnie would divide her time between using her enhanced strength to help out the maintenance crews lift heavy objects, and styling the hair of every female islander in the resistance camp. Sally tells me she aspires to be a beautician one day, if the world is ever freed from Eggman's iron grip.

"Oh Antione! It was just a little 'ol spider crawlin' up yer leg!" Bunnie scorned the coyote one day, shaking her head at our friend's overreaction. "when are y'all gonna stop bein' such a fraidy dawg?"

"I am sorry, mademoiselle, but ze threat, she could be anywhere!" Antoine exclaimed, biting his claws nervously. "You saw how ze Eggman's forces came out of nowhere and attacked ze palace, who knows when zhey could surprise us again?"

In contrast to Antione's cowardice, was the attempted bravery of our recently arrived new friend, Dulcy. The green Sungazer lizard has been helpful and eager to please, and is very handy helping out with whatever task is needed. Like most sungazer lizards, she is very shy and unsure of herself. I saw her too nervous to walk up and talk to sally and Bunnie about joining them on a girl's sleepover at my sister's hut. And during a small dance we held two months after we set up camp here, I saw her turn away and blush whenever any of the boys asked her to dance. This shy reservedness does not extend to the battlefield, as she will down a few chaos drives, and go full dragon on a badnik hoard. I just wish she's weren't so clumsy in both dragon and islander forms, a trait I've heard sungazer lizards all share.

"Don't worry ma, I'll be okay." She once said dizzily, after flying headfirst into a tree. "When is the world gonna stop spinning around?"

Nicole spent most of her time either in front of the computer monitor, playing her role as a 'holo-lynx', coordinating the assaults of the smaller resistance groups across the island, talking 'girl stuff' with my sister and Bunnie, or sitting quietly beside me while I read my books. I enjoyed the lynx girl's company, and we would often discuss things from the literature and history books I read; she was a very good listener. The resistance urged me to not go directly out into battle and put myself at risk, so I was forced to leave command of many of the field missions to my sister. Nicole's company was a comfort while I was stuck on a makeshift wooden throne they had carved for me while I was stuck at the base.

"Oh mio Dio, mio principe (Oh my goodness, my prince!), you certainly do read a lot!" Nicole once told me during a walk through the nearby woods one evening. "Se tu per favore, I can have some of our agents requisition you some more books from the village and town libraries, the next time they journey out on a mission."

"Grazie, Nicola; thank you." I replied to her with a smile. "I would really appreciate it."

At the time, I thoguht she was a dear friend, trying to keep my spirits up while the others were away on missions. Oh, how little I understood the hearts of islander women at the time...

It was at the beginning of the second month, that our resistance received our first two surprises. the first was the arrival of the Egg Governor that Eggman had chosen to rule over us; which turned out to be his own nephew, Julian Robotnik. Governor Julian arrived on the island with much pomp and fanfare, and as we watched the ceremony on Nicole's monitor, we saw he was trying to make himself seem more important than he really was- all decked out in agreen version of his uncle's jacket and black pants. It turned out the little man was really little more than a coward, bowing and sniveling to his more intimidating uncle like the floor-scraping toady he was. Bunnie suggest the name Snively for him, and so the insult spread through our ranks, and become what the Sabato island's resistance called the little bald human. Yet this annoying twerp would be our primary adversary in the half-year long struggle ahead.

The second miracle that fell into our laps, were two new foreign fighters to our cause. A few days after Snively's arrival, a prisoner transport was passing overhead the great attacked the massive airship with our ground cannons, and managed to bring it down just outside of the treeline. After fighting off the egg pawn guards aboard the vessel, we manged to rescue the ninety-some prisoners Eggman had aboard. As Sally and Antoine were opening the cells and releasing the captured, two egg pawns snuck up behind them, and prepared to strike. Two powerful mobians- a red one and a yellow one- suddenly burst forth from the cell- a red one and a yellow one- and spin dashed into the two badniks, busting them to pieces. After the two strangers rescued my sister and Antoine, our team and the all of the prisoners escaped back into the forest, before Snively's reinforcements could arrive.

After they were all safety back at the resistance base, the he two foreigners introduced themselves; Mighty the Armadillo, and Ray the flying Squirrel. We knew of these two famous but minor heroes, of course. Having first met each other when Eggman captured the two of them and Sonic to run experiments on islanders, they had helped sonic and his friends out on many adventures, and both had even been members of the Chaotix crew early in it's history, during the brief time Knuckles the echidna led the group. The two had been wandering the world since those early days, and had been helping protect a village when Eggman's invasion had begun, and had been captured early on. They were more than eager to join our resistance branch, and help in the fight against tyranny.

"Count me and my little buddy in, we'll help you take down Robotnik's whole operation!" Mighty boasted proudly. "He's been making our lives miserable since for years!"

"Yeah, we'll help you kick that ol' egghead's tail in!" Ray enthusiastically agreed, before stopping to think. "Wait, does he even have a tail...?"

And what a help they were! Mighty's speed (fast, while still far slower than Sonic's) and great strength, coupled with Ray's ability to fly, proved to be a valuable asset against the Eggman empire. I was taken aback by how well they both got along with the other resistance members, each finding their own role to play in our group. Ray became almost like the little brother to everybody, even though he was the same age as Sonic's buddy Tails. Ray's silly antics made everybody laugh at a time laughter was really needed, and on missions the flying squirrel served as the perfect scout and courier. Mighty, meanwhile, became our stoic strong man, peaceful in nature most of the time, but quick to wrath if riled up. I have heard some among us say we would have been better off if Sonic and Tails had been part of our group, and that these two are merely the next best thing. Personally, I am proud to have these two foreign heroes fighting for our cause, and would take them over the blue blur and his friend any day.

And we needed all of the help we could get, as our little rescue mission had finally made Snively aware of our little operation. The little worm doubled down on his efforts to take us down; introducing a new badnik model of his own design, the humanoid S.W.A.T.-bot, and tired every trick in the book to locate our resistance base, and it became sort of a cat-and-mouse game over the next few months. My brave warriors would go on missions to sabotage and damage the eggman empire, and Snively would send his forces to attack us. my sister would lead our brave forces out, and I am still amazed by some of the fantastic tales they brought back.

Some of these adventures were strikes against Eggman's control. First, was was the raid that destroyed the stealth badnik factory, that cost our most elderly resistance member, Cat, his life. One of our teams foiled Snively's underground crystal mining operation, which Eggman's forces were mining a giant crystal for energy. The team rescued Rotor's imprisoned father Tundra, who was being forced to work on the mining equipment down there, and blew the whole mine sky high. We even managed to blow up Eggman's main power generator on the island, in an extraordinary mission led by my sister.

There were many powerful artifacts of relics of this island, hidden away since ancient times, that the Eggman empire tried to steal. And it was our teams of operatives that had had to stop them. Using a plane Rotor cobbled together - nicknamed the assaltatore della libertà (freedom stormer)- Sally took her team high into the mountains of our islands, to the ancient city of Maga. there, she managed to save some ancient texts called the secret scrolls from Snively's grasp. Eggman learned of an ancient human wizard in the forbidden swamp, known as Lazaar, and had Snively send his badnik forces out to steal the wizard's spell book. Our teams had to foil that scheme, as well, and we teamed up with the hermit wizard to reclaim the spell book, and drive Eggman's forces out of the forbidden Zone.

There were also many attempts by Snivley to lure our resistance group out or trap us, of course. And some of his attempts were borderline ridiculous. There was the time he developed an islander-seeking missile, keyed in on our species's DNA. That stupid missile managed to chase Mighty all over the foro del nodo forest, while the other members of the resistance stopped a bunch of badniks that were going to drop a bunch of chemicals, and kill all the plat life in the forest to reveal our hidden location. The team manged to get the missile to hit the toxic chemicals and the badniks, destroying them both. Another incident was when Snivley managed to capture Sally, and sent a robot duplicate in her place to try and discover the location of our base. That blasted android had almost all of us fooled... even me! (to any of Sonic friends, do not ever ask Ray about the 'funny kiss', ever!) But we managed to rescue Sally, and dispose of the evil robot duplicate.

Though all of these insane adventures, there were also quit moments, as well. I watched bunny and Antoine slowly grow closer with one another, as she helped him overcome his fears. I witnessed Dulcy the sungazer grow braver and more confident in herself, being able to help out in tasks where she didn't have to turn into a dragon. Rotor... I felt sorry for my poor friend, as he always felt a little apart from the rest of us. Antione told me he might be working on building a robotic girlfriend named 'Ro-becca' out of badnik scrap we've collected, I really hope it's not true. And Sally... little Salvatrice has been forced to grow up so fast, taking on responsibilities I never would have imagined her dealing with in our old lives. Even Rosa -Rosie the Woodchuck, in Bunnie's crazy naming scheme she's used on all of us- has been shocked by how much her young charge has been standing on her own two feet. We've all been forced to grow up faster than we should have.

The one Mystery that still alluded us at the time, is the mystery of what had happened to Sal and I's father. King Umberto had not been seen since the day of the takeover, and they were rumors swirling that he was either imprisoned by Eggman, or had been brutally executed. Sal and the rest of the royal court still held out hope we could rescue him, but I personally feared the we were all about to get a wake-up call, to just how cruel Eggman could be. Long had I remained back at the base, leading and coordinating, while others fought the good fight for me in my place. But at the third month of our time fighting this war, my opportunity to set foot out onto the field. I would finally experience what my fellow 'freedom fighters' did, every time they went on a mission. At first, I was finally excited to get to go out, and prove myself in battle once more.

Santa madre di Gaia, what was I thinking?

Next: A prince enters the field!

Edited January 6 by Mobius_Historian

[Mobius_Historian]

Chapter two: A prince enters the field!

It was sometime after midnight, when Sally, Bunnie, Antoine, Rotor, and myself made our way towards the place we had heard King Umberto was being held. The others were all silently nervous about the operation, I could tell, but something about the whole thing just wasn't sitting right with me.

"Are you sure about the transmission you received, Sally?" I asked my sister, as we flew through the air on Dulcy's back. "This seems like an awful long way out to imprison a captive monarch."

"Sì, fratello maggiore (yes, bug brother), this is the message we received from the main branch of the resistance on Westside Island." Sally replied, tapping away on her PDA. "According to the intel the Chaotix gathered from an egg base they infiltrated, Snivley is holding our father in prigione di ferro."

Prigione di ferro... Ironlock prison. The gulag built by my ancestors long ago, to hold enemy prisoners from the wars against the battle bird armada and Nocturnus Clan. The prison has been abandoned for over a century, and should be a crumbling ruin by now. It makes no sense why Eggman would hold our father there, instead of a more secure facility. Something did not feel right about this...

"Hey, y'all need ta lay off the talkin' in Spagonian, princey an' Sally girl." Bunnie told us, putting a finger to her lips. "We're goin into enemy territory. An' we need ta maintain our covers."

"Oui, zhat iz ze best way to keep ourselves safe, no?" Antoine agreed. "I just wish ve had some of those weapons ze other branches of ze resistance use,,,, vhat are zhey called again?"

"Wispons, Ant." Rotor answered, tinkering with some small device as we flew along. "I'd love to supply our teams with some sweet hardware like that, but we don't have any Whisps on the island to fuse with them. We'll just have to rely on more old-fashioned means of fighting."

At his words, my hand went to the hilt of my blade, the sword of Ghianda. The blade passed down from the time of the first king of our bloodline, it is said he forged it it is from leftover metal that came out of the earth during Gaia's last great awakening thousands of years ago, and that the sword contains the power of Gaia itself. I have never seen such power from the weapon myself, but I suppose anything is possible. In any case, we needed any weapon or advantage possible, it our brutal war with the Eggman empire.

"Okay, everybody, were flying over the dark swamp now!" Dulcy told us, looking back over her shoulder. "Uh oh, my chaos energy charger is running out, I'm gonna turn back into an islander!" The dragon panicked. "Be sure to hang on tight, it's gonna be a rough landing!"

Dulcy came in for a rough landing, almost crashing to the ground, and sending the five of us tumbling. As we picked ourselves up, Dulcy reverted to her sungazer form, stumbling around kluztily.

"It's okay mom, I'm coming to dinner!" She mumbled dizzily, as Sally and Bunnie helped her back to her feet.

After getting our bearings, the six of us began our long trudge through the dark swamp. Antoine and pulled out or blades, and sliced our way through the tree branches, vines, and foliage. As we waded deeper into the watery slime and filth, the girls and Antoine clearly did not like being out in this foul, mosquito-ridden environment. But though the disgust showed on their faces, no one but the coyote raised a single complaint.

"Ew, ziz is nasty, vith ze bugs and ze dirt!" Antoine whined. "Can't ve just go home, and zend another team out?"

"Aw, Antoine, quit bein' such a baby!" Dulcy grumbled, putting her hand on a slimy tree and grimacing. "It's just a little dirt, you don't hear Sally or Bunnie or I complaining about it!"

"Come on, you guys! Try to hold it together!" Sally sighed, lookign back to her PD. "Nicole, how far on foot to the ruins of ironlock?"

"About two thousand years, Sally. Though it is obscured by the mists." Nicole replied, in her fake 'robotic'- sounding voice. "but be careful, this could still be a trap. The crown prince must be protected."

I rolled my eyes at that statement. Nicole had argued up and down that I should not be out here, risking my own neck with everyone else. Whenever Sally or I asked her why, her face would redden, and she would turn away. Needless to say, she had no good argument, and I was finally out here with my subjects, in as much peril as they were. Still, the others did still seemed to dislike me being out here, but I commended them to let me come along, so they said nothing.

We soon came upon the crumbling prison's walls, and we all spin-dashed our way over the moat with the rotted-away drawbridge. The inside of the prison it was dark, cold, wet, and... empty. Row after row of cobweb filled cells, with noting but the obscene graffiti left on the walls to indicate anyone had ever been here. It was then that the uneasy feeling I had had spread to everyone else present. and from the look on her face, my sister's eagerness to find our father... gave way to fear.

"Guys, this isn't good." Rotor exclaimed, looking around nervously. "If this was where they were keeping the king, why would it look so abandoned?"

"Uh, I don't mean to be worrying anyone else, but..." Antoine whimpered again, his teeth chattering. "But i zink ziz iz ze trap!"

"That is correct, foolish resistance members! It is indeed a trap!" A laughing voice came over the prison's loudspeaker, surprisingly still functioning after over a century. "One that all of you have so foolishly walked into!"

"Why, that's Snivley!" Bunny snarled, clenching her cyber-armor enhanced fist tightly. "Ohhhh, that ornery sidewinder! Why, I oughtta-"

"Foolish little rodents! Do you not realize that your king has been banished to the special zone?" Snively laughed again. "That little piece of information was left for your resistance to find as a trap, and you fools fell right into it!"

Within moments, we were surrounded. Baniks of every shape, size, and description were all around us. Before they could even move, Sally gave the cry to attack, and we were upon them. Antoine ans I slashed and hacked and slashed at the egg knights, cutting them to pieces left and right. Sally popped twin daggers out of her wrist gauntlets, and stabbed away at the motobugs, while Bunnie smashed a bunch of catterkillers with cybernetic punches and kicks. Dulcy and Rotor were bouncing all over the room, spin dashing and destroying the bakiris and batbrain badniks that came flying into the room. We were smashing them by the dozens, slowly making our way through the storm, back towards the entrance. But they came in such overwhelming numbers, that we were starting to wear down.

"Uh oh, I think there's two many of them!" Dulcy cried out in a panic. "I think we're goners!"

It was at that moment, the six of us stepped on an ancient trap door that was hidden in the floor, and were sent hurtling downward. By the sheer chance of stepping on an ancient trap meant to handle escaping prisoners, we were able to get away from Robotnik's trap. But for our little group just trying to escape, it was out of the frying pan, and into the fire. After a long fall, we came crashing down onto a hard dungeon floor in the darkness .

THUD!

"Ow! That was quite a fall! Is everyone okay? Big Brother? Bunnie?"

"Oh my little bunny behind hurts! Yeah, Sally girl, I'm alright! Antoine, how are Y'all?"

"Sacre Bleu, I zink I broke my little baguette! How iz everybody elze?"

"Yeoch, I'm lucky I didn't snap a tusk! Okay here! Dulcy? Alfonze?"

"I'm fine mom, could ya maybe make the room stop spinning?"

"I'm okay, little sister." I finally reply as we all turn our flashlights on. "But I don't think we're alone down here."

"Raaaggghhhhhhhhh!"

We had just fallen into the lowest part of the dungeons, and barely landed on our feet, when we heard an inhuman roar coming from down the tunnel near us. Now, my memories of what followed are a bit blurry, but... I remember a giant, one eyes, tentacled monster emerging from the darkness. I remember us fighting the beast, and ending up everyone else getting trapped in it's tentacles but me. I remember pulling out the sword of Ghainda, it's blade glowing with a red supernatural power I had never seen before. I recall attacking the beast, slashing away at the tentacles, as if in a trance... I recall howling like mad squirrel, driving my blade deep into it's eye socket as it desperately tried to fight back, brutally slamming me with it's tentacles. Finally, I remember standing over the beast's corpse, holding my sword all covered in the monsters purple goo aloft, screaming triumphantly as my tail thrashed about.

After that, I recall only darkness.

The next thing I knew, I awoke on a medical bed in our resistance base's infirmary. Opening my eyes slightly, I could see my sobbing sister holding my one hand, and the crying Nicole holding the other. I was still too weak to move or speak, but I could hear their voices as I slowly returned to consciousness. I couldn't turn my head to see who was talking, but I could make out the individual voices

"Stupida!, I knew it was veramente stupida to let the crown prince go down there! Why did anyone even listen to him when he ordered us to take him along?"

"He iz de crown prince, Rotor! Ve had to listen to him! Ve are just lucky ze Mighty and Ray showed up to save our behinds from certain doom, no?"

"We're just lucky Mighty and Ray brought those chaos drives so I could jack up into a dragon again, and fly us out of there! Otherwise we would have been captured!"

"Yeah, you got us out of there in the nick of time, Dulcy. But are you sure you're okay? Those blasters from the egg airship got your wings pretty bad while we were escaping."

"Aww. I'll be fine! I've taken worse hits!" Her voice stopped for a moment, before growing softer. "Say, Rotor? After we're done here, would you mind going for a little walk? I want to talk to somebody for a bit."

"Yeah, c'mon. let's get out of here." There voices stopped, but the others continued to talk.

"Alfonzo, you fool. Vhy did you get out and risk your own life? Your people, zhey are needing vou."

"Y'all should go easy on him, Antoine honey. He was only tryin ta hailp."

"Yet he almost got himself killed, no? With zhat magic blade of his doing all of ze wooshing around."

"Princey here saved all of our lives, and as he's the actin' monarch, we haid no raight ta question his judgement." I hear her sigh. "C'mon Ant, let's go get something to eat from the canteen."

I hear those two walk off, and then only hear the sobbing of the two women on either side of my hospital bed.

"Oh, fratello maggiore, perché sei dovuto andare a metterti in pericolo?" (Oh, big brother! Why did you have to go and put yourself in harm's way?).

"Alfonzo should have known better, Sally. Don't blame yourself for this."

"B-but Nicole... he was just trying to protect all of us, he-"

"Your brother is the heir. It's his responsibility to worry about his safety, as much as he worries about the rest of us. With your father banished to the special zone, the prince is a living symbol of both the resistance, and the kingdom of Sabato. If he falls, it would be a serious blow to our people."

"Nicole, I've noticed you've been showing a great deal of concern for him, more than just concern for our future king." My sister's voice inquired. "Are you truly concerned out of patriotism, or..."

I never heard the rest of the conversation, as I slipped back into unconsciousness once more. They never realized I had heard snippets of their conversations as they came and left the room, and what they said made me realize what I had to do. They are all far better fighters than I; I am no great hero, ready to rush out and lead every mission. Oh,as a prince I have been trained in the arts of battle and warfare, but I am supposed to be leading my people from a war room, not charging out onto the battlefield like some kind of naive the power of that sword, until I learned to control it...

It was at that moment I decided that things worked best with my sister as the field commander, and I leading from behind the scenes. We each have our roles to play in this freedom fight, and I was now certain where my place is. As soon as I was better, I decided, we would begin to plan away to rescue our father. I would go with my sister and the others to the other occupied islands, to gain allies from the other kingdoms... perhaps to Thunder Plains island, to seek the aid of the wolf pack, yes. And I would also find some way to control the power of this sword.

In the meantime, I need to go and have a serious conversation with a certain she-lynx...

Next: New allies, and the coming of Doomsday!

Edited January 6 by Mobius_Historian

[Mobius_Historian]

Chapter three: New allies, and the coming of Doomsday!

Following the mess at ironlock prison, we stepped up our efforts to do damage to the Eggman Empire. Sally managed to step up her attacks on Eggman's factories and warehouses, which in turn made Eggman and Snively step up their efforts to get rid of us. First, we had a bad turn in luck with Ari, who betrayed Sabato resistance when Snively threatened to execute his father. Ari lured Mighty into a trap, which was a giant spinball-style arena that tried to send them down the cute to the special Zone. In the End, Ray managed to rescue Mighty, and together they sent Ari down the hole. Then, the team managed to fight and blow up some deep-drilling giant snake badniks, who were who were drilling for mineral resources deep on our island. Their digging had awakened a mysterious squid-like islander named Kraken, who lived deep under our island. With his help, we managed to trash all of Robotnik's underground mining operations. The havoc we wreaked on that madman's supplies and resources was significant.

We have also had some... interesting events occur in what little down time we had around the base, il cielo ci aiuti . Some of Dulcy's poor flying managed to wreck Mighty's makeshift house, and he and Antione were forced to be roommates for a few nights. That... ended in total disaster. Rotor finally got his robotic girlfriend working, but she decided she was in love with Antoine, and... high jinks ensued. Rotor scrapped the creepy robot, and is now getting closer to our little Sungazer lizard girl instead. We even took a night to tell some of the younger children and orphans in the camp a ghost story about a headless gopher who rides around on an unintelligent 'normal' bison, looking for his missing head. That tale had the children screaming, and running in every direction for hours, until Rosie was finally able to get them calmed down. And Antione almost got himself killed, when he tried to infiltrate Hynea motorcycle gang allied with Eggman's regime. From what Bunny and Rotor told me, those hyenas were ready to eat him alive when they rescued him. Madre di Gaia,the things I have to put up with with this bunch.

Eventually, after six months had passed, word came through our spy networks that Sonic had been rescued from the death egg in orbit, and the resistance was getting ready to make it's big push against Robotnik's rule. Sensing the tide beginning to turn, I went with my sister, Mighty, Antoine and Dulcy across the great ocean to the Wolf Pack's Island, to forge an alliance with our fellow resistance helped them defeat a giant badnik pod that was spreading poison on their island, before making our way back home. But while working with the wolves were learned a horrifying truth; that Eggman was working on a weapon to wipe out all of us islanders. Unbeknownst to Sonic and the other leaders of the resistance back on Westside isle, Robotnik had been constructing a massive doomsday weapon to wipe all of islanders of the face of the earth. If the main war going on with Eggman's main army and Sonic's friends goes badly for Robotnik, this fallback plan Snively is working on for him will make the blue hedgehog's victory is a costly, hollow one.

As we were still trying to learn details on this deadly weapon, our resistance branch completed two more important victories. First, we learned Snivley had sent a team of excavator badniks to our island's ancient megalithic site, called by English-speaking archeologists drood henge (after a more famous site on the island of Albion). Nicole believed he was looking for the deep power stones, two artifacts almost as powerful as the chaos emeralds, that our ancestors had used in the ancient days. My sister led a team of resistance members (Dulcy, Antione, and Rotor) to retrieve the stones before Robotnik's forces could capture them. Sally's team fought Eggman's forces for the pair of stones, and in the end each side walked away with one of the two rocks.

The other major battle was... myself going against the very lesson I had learned at ironlock prison, and leading the team to rescue my father. After Nicole managed to locate to star posts (the pair of magic poles that serves as a gateway to the special zone) I led Mighty, Ray, and Bunnie on a mission deep into the that bizarre dimension to rescue my father. What I found there... was pure and utter chaos. Tilting mazes, tubed shape running paths, checker floored rooms filled with blue spheres... it was like something out of a mad man's nightmare. We did manage to find my father, but his mind was almost completely shattered by the time we managed to pull him out. But the king was not alone in that maddening voi. We discovered an ancient evil Wizard, known only as Nagus, had apparently been banished there by one of my royal ancestors. My team had to fight off Nagus's army of crystal monsters, but we just barely managed to escape that hellish netherworld.

When our family reunited... madre di gaia it was beyond words. Like our human neighbors in Spagonia, family is very important in our culture, and to be reunited with our father again, after believing he was dead... it almost broke my poor sister. When she saw me helping our worn and weary father into the base.

"P-Papà?" She whimpered, putting her hands to her mouth, tears streaming down her face. Our father looked at her through broken eyes, mentally shattered after the months of torture Nagus had put him through. Not able to hold her emotions in, Sally came rushing up to hug him. "Oh papa, non posso credere che sei davvero tu! Pensavamo di averti perso per sempre!" (Oh father, I thought we had lost you forever!)

"Non piangere, mia piccola principessa, sono qui. Mi siete mancati così tanto tu e tuo fratello." (No, my little princess. It overjoys me to see you and your older brother again!) Our father Sobbed, hugging her back, trying to hold back his own tears. "Né Nagus, né Ibilis, né Dark Gaia in persona avrebbero potuto tenermi lontano da voi due." (Nothing could have kept me away from either of you!)

Rosie then walked up, smiling and crying. "Bentornato tra noi, Re Umberto. Il mio cuore sussulta di gioia al tuo ritorno." (It is good to see you again, King Umberto) Sally nanny bowed and curtsied before our father. "Ho cercato di tenere al sicuro vostra figlia, Vostra Maestà, anche se insiste nel voler intraprendere quelle missioni pericolose." (I tried to keep your daughter safe, your highness, but she has a mind of her own about such things).

My father inclined his head towards her, smiling. "Hai fatto bene il tuo lavoro, Tata Rosa, prendendoti cura della mia piccola principessa Salvatrice." (You did well, Nanny Rosie, in taking care of my little Sally.) He looked around at the rest of those assembled. "As you you all do a worthy job, of trying to free our people! Sabato island is truly blessed, to have such a worthy group of protectors!" Our father raised his arm. "Venite, celebriamo il mio trionfante ritorno a voi, miei fedeli sudditi!" (Let us celebrate my return, my loyal subjects!)

And celebrate his return we did! The music, the lights, the dancing, the food... oh, mia Gaia the food! Spagonian cuisine is called the finest type of meal in the world by many... and having grown up eating it, I can attest it is true. Oh, Pasta Carbonara... Prosciutto di Parma ham...Focaccia bread...Ribollita soup! You have not truly eaten, until you have tasted the Sabato island version of Spagonian cooking! Even the humans from the mainland love our delicious masterpieces! And the wine and food flowed freely, as did the warm hugs and laughter (Ray, Mighty,Dulcy and myself tried to stay away from the wine and overt displays of affection- those three are Anglo islanders, and as for me, blame it on my years away at a University in the United Federation, Anglo culture rubbed off on me- il principe dal cuore freddo, my own subjects call me; the cold-hearted prince.) and a party that lasted well into the night.

But the celebrations were most needed by our resistance members- after so much suffering and sacrifice, they deserved something to celebrate! Antoine and Rotor drank themselves under the table, and my sister, Nicole, and Bunnie got so tired and dizzy from dancing with so many boys, they almost fell over in a heap. Everyone danced and sang and joked and laughed as the hours rolled by, and fond memories of the past- of the years before the Eggman empire invaded, and this nightmare descended upon us all- filled our heads and hearts. Even my father was able to forget the tortures that wretched chimera sorcerer inflicted upon him, being with his two children and his friends once again. We needed that laughter and happiness... for we did not know when, or even if, we would be able to experience it again.

It was not many days after our reunion and grand party, that the time for our final attack had come. Sonic and his friends had entered their final battle against Eggman overseas, and so we decided to launch our final assault on his Doomsday device here on the can I say of our final battle with the Eggman empire? My sister and I led an alliance of both our resistance troops, and our wolf pack allies, against the doomsday device itself, sitting in the open valley where Snivley had constructed it. We faced wave after wave of badnik hordes- egg pawns, swatbots, and everything else Snively could trow at us. We clawed, pounded, hacked, slashed and spin dashed our way through the endless armies of robots,but no matter how many badniks we cut down, they just seemed to keep a sigh, I realized what I had to do. Pulling out the sword of Ghianda, my vision went to red, and I dove at the badnik horde with a fury that surprised even my comrades on the battlefield.

Once again, my memories of the battle become spotty after that, and most of what I know comes from what others have told me.I led the others in a charge forward, like some engaged madman, and together we destroyed nearly all of the badnik army. Mighty and Ray helped my sister fight her way into the very heart of the doomsday machine, to find the second deep power stone was being used to power the device. Joining the to halves of, Mighty and my sister went a form of 'super' smashing all the way through the machine and blowing it into tiny little pieces. It didn't take long for our forces to mop up what was left of Robotnik's troops, and it wasn't long after that we received a radio transmission from the main resistance base; Sonic and his friends had defeated Doctor Eggman, and this world was once again free.

Things went rather fast after that; the surrender of Snively and the pitiful remnant of Robotnik's forces, reclamation of the royal palace, and the capital and other cities starting to rebuild. it was like the end of a brief nightmare for our people, who were grateful the war was behind now us. This whole thing would almost feel just like a dream, had it not been for the places destroyed and lives we lost. As to the others, our father returned to the throne after a period of rest, although my sister and I were there to help guide his now unsteady hand. Mighty and Ray continued on their world-traveling adventures, despite our offers to give them a home and noble titles- I'm really going to miss them. Bunny and Antoine-or rather, Scarlett and Danton- became engaged, and eventually wed; my sister was the maid of honor, and Rotor- er, Fisaggo- was the best man. As for Fissago, he has now taken his father's place as the Royal chief engineer-and a certain female sungazer lizard spends a lot of time down in the motor pool with him.

The outside world took notice of our kingdom's heroic struggle against the Eggman empire, and my sister and I ended up appearing on a lot of talk shows all over the islands. The humans even decided to make a television series about our adventures, though they did make some very ridiculous changes that make zero sense; Replacing Mighty and Ray in the Sabato Island resistance with Sonic and Tails, and putting Salvatrice in a romance with the blue hedgehog. (My sister was particularly annoyed by this, as her crush on sonic fizzled out during the war, and the show's popularity hurt her courtship prospects with other islander princes and dukes). They also made Dulcy into an actual full-time dragon, made Nicole into an actual A.I my sister carries around in a computer, brought Sonic Uncle Dr. Charles hedgehog into the story, when he's never actually even lived in or visited our kingdom, and had him creates these magical artifacts called power rings, along with a myriad of other imaginative fabrications. And to pour salt on the wound, they used resistance's code names as their actual names, and even wrote me out of the story altogether!

Still, I suppose it is good that people will remember our struggle for freedom, that we are not just a footnote in islander history. The battles we fought, the struggles we had, the friends we lost... they will ensure a future of freedom and happiness, even if that future lies far beyond our lifetimes. And so I write this now, to record how I perceived this significant events ,how I remember the struggle that defined a generation of this island's inhabitants. And even now, after so many years, I still think back on those times, and how, despite all of our struggles and efforts,the fight for freedom may never truly be over. We must ever be vigilant, to stand up to the Snivelys and Robotniks of the world, lest they come to enslave us again. That it why I write this chronicle, and remember.

Oh, and what of myself and a certain lynx, you may wonder? Well, I'll ask her when we have dinner here in a few minutes, and I will let you know.

Fino alla prossima volta!

-END-

Edited January 7 by Mobius_Historian

[Mobius_Historian]

Author's note: Okay everyone, the reason I wrote this is not to replace or supplant SATAM, but rather to give my perception of it, back when I first watched it. The Prince is what I, and all other watchers of the show, were; silent observers to the events of the show, who wish we could go along and be part of the adventure more. I also wrote this, to find a way to incorporate the concept of Satam and it's characters into the main game/IDW universe, without comprising the concept too much. Sonic Forces with it's eggamn conquering the world gave the perfect opportunity for that, and I also wanted to create a mobian/islander kingdom with cultural ties to Spagonia. Anyway, I'll be doing more sonic fanfic writing for this fanfic's universe in the future, and perhaps these versions of the SATAM cast will show up in those stories, but not many people have shown an interest in this fanfic or reviewed it, so... only time will tell.

Edited January 7 by Mobius_Historian