Sonic knocked on another door. Maybe Sally was in the main living room or whatever the official, royal term was again. He hadn't checked the library yet.

"Come in."

Sonic's expression immediately brightened and he quickly opened the door. "What's up downstairs?"

The chipmunk straightened up from leaning over something on a table near where she stood and twisted to look at him. "Oh, you're early."

"Not that early," he poked a thumb behind him towards the now closed door. "So who is the Council talking to?"

"Ambassadors from some of the other free mobian kingdoms and republics. The Council is trying to establish stronger alliances with more nations."

Sonic smiled. "The more the merrier," he looked out the window into the garden, "want to go for a walk?"

"Sure," she said as she slid a tablet onto a nearby shelf. "I'm pretty much finished for tonight."

Sonic leaped onto the boulder next to the bricked path in the garden. The boulder's shape was a little odd, it having been carved slightly to give it what was deemed a more aesthetically pleasing look, but Sonic still managed to balance just enough to keep his dramatic pose – one fist resting on his hip, the other fist over his heart. He leaned forward and looked up towards the neighboring rooftops of the Castle. "Hey Sal. Who am I?"

She laughed. "The portrait of my grandfather," she gingerly knocked him off the rock onto the damp grass. "Don't make fun of him," she said with a tinge of annoyance.

He held up his hands defensively with a smile. "I'm just playing." He notice Sally's wandering look. "Aw, come on, Sal. I . . ."

She perked up. "Oh, sorry. I was . . . just thinking."

"About what?" Sonic gingerly tried to hide that he was scraping the mud off the bottom of his shoe onto the side of a smaller boulder near the path. Hopefully nothing noticeable. He knew the gardener and let just say he and the gardener had their differences and the gardener was a very precise man, in his duty and aiming with projectiles.

Blue eyes caught up with green. "I was wondering if you would willing sit down long enough to learn more about the Republic's workings. You now its people but its inner functions are important and greatly affect these people's lives. Remember what I said earlier about understanding the kingdom in order to be effective?"

"What kind of functions?"

"Things like economics, law."

Sonic mumbled a little. "Maybe under a good shade tree. Heh, economics seem more interesting than law. That's usually a lot of weird lingo and double sided crap."

"The 'weird lingo' part can be true, older style 'lingo', but by double sided I think you mean loop holes."

"Yeah, plus those." With a quick step he jumped in front of Sally, snapping his hands behind his back. "But first I have a proposition for you to get out of the way first."

"Like what?"

"Tails, Amy, you and me exploring."

"Exploring what?" The hedgehog shrugged. Sally's light-hearted expression grew more serious.

"It'll be fun! It won't be as dangerous as breaking into Eggman's base but fun, especially with friends. Tails need to get away from the lab for a bit. Just good ol' exploring. Finding cool places. Meeting new people. Eggman is currently not destroying the multiverse," there was a taint of anger in his eyes, the green of his eyes vibrant in the dimmed light. "He's influencing our lives too much."

"Huh?" Sally stared a moment but let it subside. Destroying the multiverse . . . ? "Don't you explore as a pass time?"

"But with friends!" he stressed, smirking.

A smirk played across her own face. "You want to have Knuckles join, too?" she said half-jokingly.

Sonic paused. "Nah. A couple days ago I talked to him and he said he was busy with something. He said it all vague-like. We can always crash in on him. You know, to check on how he and the Chaotix are doing."

Sally chuckled at Knuckles' possible expression if they literally just crashed in.

"Four's a good number for simple exploring, some wiggle room built in. I found a cool cavern a couple weeks ago. Weird rock formations. Cool but weird. Tails had said he wanted to check it out when he had time. Oh, we can bring Nicole's handheld. She can stay linked to Sky Patrol and keep us informed. If anything happens I'll just speed run us where we need to be."

Sally hunched forward slightly as if exhausted. "You have actually been planning this, haven't you?"

"Maybe ~ . . . so what do you think?"

She half-tried to hide her smile with her hand. "Give me tomorrow to tell Father and Mother your plans."

"Right! I'll go tell Tails!"

"Sonic, it isn't defini-," he was gone, ". . . –tive yet," she finished quietly. She let her half raised paw ease back down.

The room grew quiet as the people within the chamber settled to a degree and the tension rose to almost sparking through the air. The king stood. Members of the Council and the delegates followed until everyone in the room was standing.

"Together we are strong. Together we can defeat Eggman – once and for all."

A din of clapping erupted.

The moon swayed higher.