BENG! The stone wall was shaking on its foundations. Dust particles that had laid there for a very long time, maybe even centuries long already, flew up and formed a dust cloud. BENG! Again, the wall trembled and a few small stones got loose from the wall, fell to the groud and then bounched away in different directions. BENG! The wall now didn't just tremble, but cracked. The left side showed serious cracks that ran almost to the other side of the wall... A few big stones fell to the ground and fell apart when hitting the ground. BENG! The center of the crack suddenly got slammed into a million pieces... Finally, the sunshine reached this place since centuries ago. A bright column of light reached the inside of what was still unknown. Soon, the sunshine got blocked again and a head appeared before the small opening that was as big as a football.
"One more hit should do it, I think," a voice said, probably from the being that blocked the sunshine. He moved his head away from the opening. BENG! The person had been right. The whole wall fell apart on the ground in pieces under loud noise and the sunshine now totally lit the room. It also lit four persons who were standing before the broken wall. Only silhouettes could be distinguished from the background.
"Ha... piece o' cake!" one of them said... he looked a lot like an echidna, with his dreadlocks-like spikes falling down behind his back. His hands showed two spikes where two of his knuckles would be situated.
"Come on. Let's go. We have no time to waste," said another, resembling a hedgehog. On both sides of his head, two spikes went up, while a fifth spike situated on top of his head seemed to point down, although this couldn't be said with complete certainty.
"Zim... gimme the flashlight," the hedgehog commanded.
One of the other silhouettes, resembling a hedgehog with three short quills going down, grabbed in the pockets of his jeans and pulled out a thing that probably was the desired flashlight.
"Catch," the hedgehog said and threw the flashlight at the other hedgehog, who caught it without effort. A second later, the flashlight was turned on and the hedgehog shone into the room. The hedgehog mumbled something, maybe to remember himself to something, maybe because something came to his thoughts... we'll never know. He walked inside the room and shone around with the flashlight. It was as empty as a room could be, not counting the numerous stones from the wall that had fallen inside the room when it broke. The light danced around the room for a few seconds before stopping at the left corner. The hedgehog growled under his breath and walked at the corner, while he kept his flashlight pointed at that place. When he arrived at the corner, he looked down attentively. He stooped and searched for something in the corner with his flashlight, while he moved his other hand over the ground. Two seconds later, he seemed to have found what he searched for, as he suddenly stopped moving his hand over the ground.
"Found something, Shadow?" the fourth silhouette, resembling a cow with long hair, asked.
Shadow pushed his hand to the ground. CLICK! In the other corner of the room, a part of the wall moved forward and created a gap. The hedgehog called Shadow moved his flashlight at the gap, while the others stared at what was happening. Slowly Shadow walked at the gap, flashlight pointed at it.
"Come on, guys..." the cow said to the other two. She stepped in the room and walked at the gap. The echidna and the hedgehog looked at each other for two seconds and then followed her.
"Everything going as planned, Shadow?" the cow asked.
Shadow gave a slight nod as sign of affirmation, grabbed the piece of wall that had moved from its place and pulled. Slowly the piece of wall moved backwards, which made the gap widen bit by bit, until it was wide enough for a Mobian to go through.
"This used to go automatically," Shadow mumbled, rather to himself then to the ones he accompanied, while sticking the flashlight in the gap to enlighten the room that laid behind the secret entrance. In fact, it wasn't a room... it was a hallway.
"Follow me," Shadow said, before stepping through the gap, in the hallway, flashlight pointed forward, to enlighten their way. His steps made little echoes, as did the steps of the three others that were with him. Again Shadow searched with the flashlight in the hallway, as they proceeded through it. At a certain point, about 2 minutes after they first entered the hallway, Shadow stopped moving the flashlight around the hallway and let the light rest at a steel door. When they reached the door, Shadow tried to open the door and grabbed the doorknob. He pulled, but the door didn't give an inch.
"I know the perfect way to handle this door," the echidna said, stepping forward. A hand grabbed him at the shoulder and he looked over his shoulder where he saw that the cow was responsible for grabbing the body part.
"We don't need power here, Ferdiky," she said, stepping forwards herself and pulling something out of her pocket. This soon proved to be a skeleton-key, which she sticked into the keyhole. Within seconds, she'd picked the lock.
"Here ya go," she said, before opening the door.
Shadow walked through the door, followed by the other hedgehog.
"Show-off," Ferdiky said when he walked past her, through the door.
"Heh, look who's talking," she said, before walking through the door and shutting it. While moving the flashlight around, Shadow revealed this room was quite big and filled with all kinds of electronics and computers. After moving it for a minute or so around the high-tech room, Shadow stopped at a big panel. Above it was a big, black screen.
"There it is," Shadow said. He slowly walked at the screen. Arriving, he looked at the panel for a few seconds. Shadow turned around and looked at his three comrades who followed him to the panel.
"Zimok... hold this while I get the right data files."
With that, Shadow threw the flashlight at the other hedgehog, who was probably named Zimok. Zimok caught it easily and stepped forward, enlightening the panel. Shadow began typing on the panel, that had numerous buttons. First, the screen was turned on. The light of the screen made the flashlight unneeded... nonetheless, Zimok kept shining on the panel, while Shadow typed on the panel. Shadow progressed fast and soon, he'd found the right data files.
"Finally..." Shadow said, following a deep sigh. He pressed a button and a window appeared on the screen. Shadow pressed yet another button and turned around.
"This," Shadow began, "Is the LvdP25061994, abbreviated LP, a revolutionary device. It can look through the eyes of people from long ago... it analyses their thoughts, goes through the minds of the people that had a look at the situation you wanna see and creates a 3D-image of that situation, like a movie. Only, this time, it is like you are in the movie itself. It also stops time while you watch it, so you can watch thousands and thousands years of history, without spilling a second of your time. With this, you will finally find your answers... without me, narrating everything. Last thing I told you was when Sonic and Bunnie came back from the mission from the Great Desert... actually, it is here, where things start to get different. The LP follows my mind and my orders, so you see what I find important... don't go whining if you wanted to see a particular part."
He turned around and pressed the button again. Immediately, the LP began to work and created the beginning of the story.
"King Senotsil!" a voice yelled through the enormous spacecraft. The sound echoed against the metal walls of the ship and finally the sounds waves reached the ears of the addressed person, a squirrel or chipmunk, since he didn't have the long tail squirrels tend to have, which sat behind his desk, writing in a book that looked like a diary. He looked up and saw a hedgehog standing in the doorway.
"What is it, Hyvus?" the king asked.
"A planet..."
"I know there are planets... many of them," the king said, interrupting the hedgehog, he called Hyvus.
"Yeah, I know, Sir... but on this case, our equipment showed us there's life on this planet." An adventurous tone could be heard in his voice as he spoke those words. And those words got the king's attention.
"What did you say, Hyvus? Life?"
"That's exactly right, Sir. And it seems the lifeforms on this planet look exactly like us."
If the previous news didn't already astonish the king, it was this that did it. The pen in the king's hand fell out of the body part and made a 'tock' when landing on the wooden desk.
"How's that possible?" The king asked, more to himself then to Hyvus. "There has to be an explanation for that... are you sure about the results?"
'They double-checked everything, Sir... they didn't believe the instruments at first too... so did I... but it's really true... and what's even more amazing is that the climate and vegetation looks a lot like ours, on Monius."
"That's impossible... your instruments must have some sort of error... no climate is exactly the same as Monius' climate."
"I didn't say it's exactly the same, Sir... but it has a great resemblance to our climate." Hyvus stopped for a moment, considering what he was going to say next.
"Shall we... shall we land, Sir?" he asked, trying not to sound too demanding and begging. Senotsil considered if that was the good thing to do... Hyvus hoped so. He so wanted this... it could be the break-through in his career... Hyvus, the first one to set foot on a planet with living beings, other then theirs... that's what he had become astronaut for, isn't it... he'd studied astronomy, before going in service of the king... and when the king, who was really adventurous, decided he wanted to make a space-trip, he grabbed his chance and proposed to go along... he was allowed... and now he had the chance to become famous...
"Get Sheela, Speed, Jason and Sage, will you, Hyvus."
"Yes, Sir! Right away, Sir!" he said, turning around and walking out of the room.
"This planet is really almost identical to ours and if I wouldn't know better, I'd think this is Monius," Hyvus said, stepping out of the spaceship. Before him a great forest was situated and stretched out as far as he could see. His soles gave a metallic sound when he walked down the three steps of the steel stairs of the spaceship and set foot the planet... with this move, he was the first Monian to set foot on another inhabited planet then Monius. He thought he'd go into history now... how could he know, he'd be forgotten soon... no-one would know him after a few years... maybe he'll be mentioned in some documentary about how it all started... but that's all... his fame would be minor. Hyvus got lost in thought when he stood with both feet on the ground, staring at the gray clouds that gently floated in the air, moving on the rhythm of the wind.
"Hyv... can you move on... we wanna go out of this spaceship too, if you don't mind," a panther said impatiently.
"Eh... sorry, Sage," Hyvus said, stepping aside, so Sage could step out of the spaceship too. Hyvus grinned at Sage sheepishly. Sage ignored him, looked around for some time and then turned to Hyvus again.
"What you just said, a minute ago... how long have you been thinking of that sentence?"
"How... what do you mean... it just popped into my mind."
"Suuuuuure... I know you better, mister I-wanna-be-famous."
Hyvus growled, outmatched by Sages statement... and Sage was completely right... after telling the rest that they were going to land, he went to his room to come up with an original sentence that would look good in the history books... Yes, my dear readers, Hyvus is a weirdo...
"Yer arguin' again, aren't cha? For once, stop it, will ya. It totally ruins the sphere..." an orange fox began.
"Not my fault," Hyvus interrupted. "He began."
"Don't be so childish, Hyv."
The orange fox facepalmed. He stepped aside for a lynx and an arctic fox.
"Isn't the king coming?" Hyvus asked.
The lynx looked at Hyvus, like Hyvus' nose had moved in his ear and said:
"Dude... you sure can ask stupid questions, but this the top, the king of silly questions. OF COURSE NOT!"
"Don't yell, Sheela," a voice said behind her. 'I'm coming with you all.'
They all turned around and looked at the king, standing in the opening...'
"But-but, Sir... it's far too dangerous. You'll get lost... or we get caught by the aliens here..."
"I can defend myself... and I won't let my life lack the fun I could have, just because I'm a king... I'm a Monian, just like you."
That was a solid and very good argument and Sheela couldn't find an answer that fast. Hyvus looked at Sheela in a "you-see-I-was-right" way, which irritated Sheela thoroughly. The king didn't pay much attention to the silent death-glares all around him and walked on... the others, who saw the king leaving, followed him quickly, not wanting to lose the king... They could get lost... or worse... the king could get lost... however... the king wouldn't get in panic after getting lost... he was a very adventurous king and the laser-gun, usually situated in his holster, was a deadly weapon when in his hands. They had witnessed his skills to much to deny it.
Their plan was to just walk and see what they'd encounter... but after walking half an hour they didn't see anything but trees, trees and trees...
"Say, Jason," Sheela said to the white fox," You really sure there are lifeforms on this planet... I have seen not even one!"
"The scan gave us a 99,9% chance that there were lifeforms on this planet."
"Let's hope we don't have that 0,1%, then," Sheela said, kicking a little stone that gave a 'pok' when hitting the treebark, before bouncing away and disappearing between the fallen leaves on the ground.
"Hey! Look at that!" Jason suddenly yelled, pointing at a faint light in the distance. Everyone looked at what Jason was pointing at.
"Finally! The world where decent people live... I've seen enough trees already..." the orange fox said.
"How do you know it's made by living beings?"
"What's it made by then, idiot... Christmas trees, decorated by the grass... c'mon!"
"Well..." Hyvus began.
"Spare yerself some words, dude," Speed said.
"Let's proceed and not talk," the king said wisely.
The two stopped arguing and said at the same time:
"Uh... Yessir!"
The king walked on moving towards the faint light, still careful, not knowing what to expect. When they finally reached the edge of the forest, they stood in awe for what they saw... a complete city... in the middle of the woods...
"Whoa... talk about unexpected appearances," Sage said, looking at the huge city.
'What would the name be of the city?' Hyvus asked.
Speed facepalmed.
"How do you expect us to know!" Speed said matter-of-factly.
"I was just..."
"...wondering? Yeah... you do that a lot... let me give you a very useful tip... try to wonder in your head next time... that's where normal Monians use their brain for, if you have them at all..."
Hyvus was surprised by Speeds reaction... the others, except for the king, who seemed to never hear this kinda conversations anyways, were laughing silently about Speeds reaction. Speed only looked with an angry face... he didn't mean to hurt Hyvus, but he couldn't stand it anymore... Hyvus was taken back by Speeds comment, but shrugged after a few seconds and didn't wanna think about it.
"Who're you?" a voice suddenly came from behind. They all froze in place... and then they all turned around at the same time, as if they were robots... They now looked at a coyote and a rabbit... with two robotic legs and a robotic arm.
"What're ya doin' here... spyin' on the city?" the rabbit demanded. No-one knew how to react to this...
The king cleared his throath and said:
"I'm King Senotsil Squil, ruler of a big country, called Squilinor, on the planet Monius. We landed here a few minutes ago and decided to examine this planet..."
"And what're their names?"
"Why don't you let them introduce themselves."
"Speed the Fox," Speed said.
"Hyvus Haradius," Hyvus said.
"Jason the Fox," Jason said.
"Sheela Flower," Sheela said.
"Sage the Jaguar," Sage said.
They all got silent for about three seconds... the king cleared his throat again, something he seemed to do every time, and said:
"It would be nice and polite if you would provide us your names too."
"Antoine d'Coolette," the coyote said. "And thees ees my wife Bunnie d'Coolette."
Again, it became silent... no-one knew a way to get this conversation going... Bunnie finally started the conversation again.
"Eh... since you were gazing and staring at the city, maybe you would want to see it from the inside."
"That would be very nice," the king answered happily. "Who's the king of this country?"
Bunnie began to walk towards the city, while answering Squils answer.
"Well... this city is the capital city of the Republic of Acorn. It exists of nanites, tiny machines that can't be seen with the naked eye. It's actually the only city of the Republic of Acorn... which is ruled by Elias Acorn at the moment."
"Could I meet him?"
"I think so...'
"It'd be very nice."
"It's a very nice city," Speed said. "Unbelievable this is all made of those eh... what's it called?"
"Nanites."
"Ah, yeah... nanites. Thank you."
"There's the castle... see?"
"I see... it looks beautiful," Sage said.
Bunnie and Antoine lead the rest to the gate... which immediately opened.
"Do they let in everyone like this... aren't there any guards?" Jason said, surprised by the naiveness.
"There're guards... they just can't be seen... an' we know the king personally... very good," Bunnie explained.
"Oh... that explains."
Elias Acorn sat behind his desk, staring at the screen of his computer... mouse in his left hand, the other hand situated above the keyboard, ready to type. He studied the report of the last meeting from Castle Acorn. He scrolled down with the mouse. Aside from the sighs that sometimes escaped Elias' mouth, it was completely silent in the room... which had far to much furniture. A gray pouffe was located next to his desk. A few bookcases stood against the wall... in the middle of the room was a pretty big table, probably for meetings. There has been said more then once, that he had to much furniture, but he liked it this way.
Elias bowed to the screen, as if he wanted to make sure he was reading the sentence right...
"Crap," he mumbled. As if that was a sign, a knock was heard on the door... Elias looked up from the computer screen and moved his eyesight to the door.
"Yeah," he said, as a sign that the who knocked could come in. The door opened slowly and a brown fox stepped two steps in Elias' room.
"Sir, you have visitors."
"Don't you know I never allow visitors at this time?"
"Well... Y'see, Sir. It's kinda urgent. And very special."
"What's his name? Or is it a her?"
"His name is Senotsil Squil, your Highness."
That made him sit right up.
"Squil? I've never heard that surname... at least, it doesn't sound familiar with me. Does he live in New Mobotropolis?"
The guard shook his head.
"It's a strange story, Sir... shall I let them in?"
"Yes... this made me curious."
The guard slightly nodded and left the room. Elias looked back at the computer screen for five full seconds, closed the report and turned the computer off.
"I wasn't interested in that report anyways," he mumbled.
He patiently awaited the unexpected visitors. Not much later, someone knocked on the door.
"Come in," Elias said.
The door opened slowly. The first two to step in were Antoine and Bunnie. They were followed by Senotsil, Speed, Jason, Sheela, Sage and Hyvus.
"King Elias... we 'ave quite a special guest for you," Antoine announced. He stepped aside to give Senotsil room. Aforementioned person stepped forward and stretched out his hand.
"King Senotsil Squil, ruler of the Squilinor Kingdom on planet Monius," Senotsil introduced himself. Elias was quite amazed by these words.
"A king? From another planet?" he thought, while he stretched out his hand, shook Senotsil's and introduced himself.
"King Elias Acorn, ruler of the Republic of Acorn."
After shaking Senotsil's hand, Elias gestured that Senotsil could sit down. Elias turned to one of the two guards that always guarded his door and said:
"Could you please bring in another 7 chairs, so they can sit to?"
"Yessir!" the guard said, walking away to complete his task.
Elias sat down.
"I have to say," Senotsil said," I'm quite impressed when I first saw the city. How did you build all this?"
"Well... that's a really long story..."
"I love stories," Senotsil said a little too enthousiast.
With help from Antoine and Bunnie, the three Mobians gave Senotsil a short history lesson.
"Interesting... an amazing of those freedom fighters. I'd like to meet them personally... is that possible?"
"That is, indeed, possible. You have already met two... I'm sure you can meet the local Freedom Fighters too. But not today. It's already to late. You'll stay here in the palace until you decide to leave, with your agreement."
"That's fine with me."
Four days later, the spacecraft left Mobius... But it wasn't the last time Monius and Mobius interacted. An alliance was soon formed between the Squilinor Kingdom and the Republic of Acorn. However, these interactions hadn't gone undetected... by Dr. Eggman!