"Princess? Can we take a little break for a moment?" a child's voice said. It was Joël. They'd walked non-stop through the woods, since tomorrow and for a kid, it's already impressive he got this far, without stopping. Sally found it a miracle they hadn't collapsed from fatigue yet.

"I think we well deserve that," Skeeter said, supporting his friend's proposal.

"Already tired," Sally said teasing. "I ain't tired one bit... c'mon... you wanna be a Freedom Fighter, then you gotta prove you are worth being one."

"You ain't tired, Princess?" Skeeter said, his face revealing he was about to say something smart. "Why then ain't you walking in the front of the group, like when we left?"

Sally said nothing... that was a solid point.

"You sure are quite attentive, kid," she said, which caused Skeeter to smile and slightly blush. "Guys, we're stopping here for a while."

"I thought you'd nevair say that, Princess," Antoine immediately commented. He dropped himself on the ground, shoved himself with his back against a tree and vowed to not move an inch from where he sat, until the sun was under.

"See that, kids," Sonic said, pointing with his thumb over his shoulder at Antoine," you're not the only one here that..."

"Oh, keep your stupeed comments for yourself, Sonic," Antoine said angrily, before Sonic could finish his sentence.

"You're totally ruining my joke, Ant," Sonic said, walking at Sally, who was drinking a coffee from a plastic cup. He stooped to pick up a thermos flask on the grass. On the side was written "coffee".

"Have a cup for me?" Sonic asked Sally. Sally, sitting against a tree, looked up at Sonic.

"If you look good, you'll probably find them in the bag right behind you."

Sonic turned around and saw the the desired object.

"Smart," he said to himself. He zipped it open en slid his hand in the bag. Two seconds later, he pulled his hand out again, revealing a whole roll of plastic cups. He picked one and threw the rest in the grass, much to Sally's irritation.

"Bags were made for a purpose, Sonic," she said, admonishingly.

"So does grass..." Sonic said carelessly, filling his plastic cup with the hot, black liquid called coffee.

Sally sighed and grabbed the roll of plastic cups herself and put them in the bag. Just as Sonic wanted to take his first sip of the coffee, a gun shot disturbed the peaceful sphere. A bullet barely hit Sonic and pierced through the cup of coffee Sonic was holding. Everyone was startled and everyone took cover behind a tree.

"Whoa!" Sonic yelled.

Sonic let himself fall to the ground and looked at where he thought the gunner would approximately be. Nothing happened. Only the wind made some sound by rustling the leaves on the ground and in the trees.

"Who's there! Identify yourselves!" Sally yelled, from behind the tree she had been peacefully sitting a few seconds ago.

No answer...

"I hate this," Sonic whispered to himself, glancing into the trees before him.

"Tut tut tut," a voice suddenly came from above. "Always so naïve."

Sonic looked up and saw a very familiar weasel, sitting in the tree right before him.

"Nack!" Sonic said surprised. He hadn't expected Nack to be here. The last time he'd seen him was four months ago...

"You're gonna regret that," Sonic said angrily. He sped up and ran vertically up the tree in mere seconds. But before he reached the branch where the weasel was on, Nack had jumped out of the tree. Two seconds later, Sonic jumped down from the tree again. The other Freedom Fighters had gathered before Nack.

"What are you doing here, Nack," Sonic said. Anger could clearly be heard in his voice. "Last I saw you was when you tried to assassinate my father. What do you want now!"

"Oh, me and my lads are just visiting, Nack said, avoiding the true answer and revealing through this sentence that he was not alone.

"Ah, you brought someone with you... How can someone be that stupid to travel with you... I bet he's even more stupid than you."

"Thank you for the compliments," Nack said sarcastically. He snapped his fingers. This was a sign for three others to appear aside Nack: Bean, Bark and Nic.

"Oh, is there any possibility you could've composed an even worse team?" Sonic said mockingly. The anger in Nack's face satisfied the blue hedgehog... Nack controlled himself and said:
"We aren't here to fight, though," Nack said looking at the reactions of the Freedom Fighters.

Sally didn't look surprised, but inside, she was.

"Why were you assassinating Sonic, then?" Sally said.

"Oh... I was merely testing my accuracy, Princess..." Nack replied, with a smile on his face. He shoved the gun he'd held in his hand all this time in a holster to emphasize his statement.

"This still begs the question why you are here if you don't have the intention to attack us," Sally said.

"Heh... you won't believe your ears, but we're here to lend you a hand with whatever you are doing... for about three years."

That amazed everyone.

"That, Nack, is the most out-off-character-thing I've ever seen someone doing," Sonic said unbelieving.

"Not if we get paid every day for it," Nack replied, surprising the Freedom Fighters once more.

"You get paid for it? Someone's paying you to assist us... in what we're doing?" Sally said.

"Who is this guy?" Tails asked.

"Ever heard of Zonic?" Nack said.

Sonic was surprised once more... will these surprises ever stop?

"He's the one who's paying you?"

"Exactly," Nack confirmed. He grabbed behind his back and when he brought his hand back, he had a small device in his hands.

"Here... click on the button," Nack said, throwing the thing to Sonic. The blue hedgehog caught it, looked at it for a second and then followed Nack's instructions and clicked the button. From the top of the device, a beam of light emerged from a tiny hole. The beam showed a holographic message... from Zonic.

"Greetings, Sonic. Right now, I assume you're standing before Nack, Nic, Bark and Bean with astonished faces. But it is true, I sent them to aid you in whatever you're doing... You'll need them on your mission to Monius. You may not know it yet, but the war ahead of you is more important then you can imagine. I wish you luck. Oh, by the way, this won't be the last help I'll be sending. Zonic out."

The holographic message stopped and the light disappeared. The Freedom Fighters were silent...

"Well... it seems they mean it," Sally said eventually, breaking the silence.

"So," Nack began, "what is this war that guy's talking about?"

And again, Sally started explaining. At the end, Nack pulled his gun and started rubbing it with his hand, as if he was cleaning the dangerous piece of metal. While looking at his own reflection in the metal of the gun, he stated:
"This, Princess, is quite an interesting mission you're talking about." He looked up from his gun and stretched out his hand. Sally took the hand and shook it.

"Maybe it's hard to believe," Nack said, shoving his gun in his holster again, "but I've always wanted to work together with you guys."

"Welcome to the team then," Sally said.

All this time, Bean, Bark and Nic had been silent, but when Sally said that, Bean jumped in the air and yelled:

"YAY! I'M A FREEDOM FIGHTER!"

The rest blinked and looked at the crazy duck.

"Riiiiight," Sonic said. "We gotta move on... we still need to ask Rob's assistance in the war."

They arrived in the Kingdom of Mercia in the afternoon. This place looked medieval. Everything was so peaceful. Amy, being Rob's cousin and having grown up here, now lead the group through the mostly narrow streets of Mercilia, the capital 'city' of the Kingdom of Mercia. Soon, the group could see a castle arising on the horizon. Not much later, they'd arrived at the castle, the home of Rob O' the Hedge, his wife Mari-An and their baby, Jon. They walked through the gate and entered the huge garden that was placed before the castle. The maintenance was very good; the garden looked beautiful. Aside from Sonic and Amy, everyone was looking around, taking in the beauty this garden contained.

"Like it?" Amy said to no-one in particular.

"Sure do," Bunnie replied in awe...

"Wait, till you see the castle from the inside," she said, not able to wait to see the astonished faces of the group when they'd see the inside of the castle. But before they could enter, the group was to a halt by two guards.

"Dost thou have an appointment?" One of the guards asked, looking at every member of the group.

Amy decided she'd be the one to speak:

"I think the king's cousin can go in without appointment, don't you think?"

"Thou are Amy Rose?" the guard said surprised. He'd imagined Amy as muscular and strong... he now looked down at a hedgehog that didn't even come near his expectations. He was new, so he really couldn't know, other then what he heard from everyone in the kingdom, who'd exaggerated her appearance so much, that she was portrayed as some sort of super-woman. Amy got mad at the disbelief of the guards.

"Yes, I am... now let me through!"

For a moment, the guards looked at each other. They suddenly started laughing simultaneously.

"Little girl," the guard said, "thou are quite the comedian. But we do not believe what thou are saying."

That made her furiously. Her Piko Piko Hammer appeared out of nowhere and she firmly held it in her hand, ready to strike.

"Now, I ask it politely only one more time. Let... me... in...!"

"Nuh-uh. Not a chance," the guard said. This started to get irritating.

"Good... your choice."

Before anyone could stop Amy, she swung her hammer and with power, she hit both guards with one sweep. The magic in the hammer threw the guards over a longer distance then a normal hammer would do. The two both came down and fell into the grass. With faces full of pain, the guards looked at Amy, with her hammer.

"Uhm, Amy," Sally said. "I could have said I'm Sally Acorn. It would've worked too."

The guards slowly stood up and wiped the dirt of their uniforms.

"Are you now convinced?" Amy said, looking angrily at the guards and ignoring Sally

"Thou may enter, ma'am," one of the guards said, trying to maintain his polite manners towards this girl.

"Hmph," Amy said, walking at the door. The other followed silently.

When they had all disappeared through the door and the door had fallen back in its place, one of the two guards said:

"Fere, we just wrought the biggest mistake of the month."

"Thou trow we shall be fired?" the other said, shivering at the thought of being fired by the king himself... that'd be a shame.

"She doesn't look very forgiving to me," the first guard replied.

"Let's hope for the best..." the second guard said.

"...and fear the worst," the first guard said, ending the sentence.

Inside, Bean thought he'd walked into heaven. Everywhere were shiny things... gold, silver and other expensive materials were incorporated in things everywhere, from the lamps on the ceiling to the doorknobs. And they were polished daily. Bean jumped from the one object to the other, not knowing which thing he liked the most. Along with all the shiny things, the castle mostly existed of wood and stone. A clerk looked at the group when they passed an opening in the wall, which lead to an big room with multiple chairs... a conference room.

"Sorry," the clerk said, "What are thou doing here?"

Amy replied:
"My name is Amy Rose and I wish to speak my cousin, Rob O' the Hedge."

"Ah, Amy Rose, the tomboy-princess," the clerk said. Yes, in fact, she was a princess, since Rob was king. Immediately after the clerk had said that, he regretted it. Speaking to a princess like that is improper. But to his surprise, Amy started laughing.

"Please," she said with a smile on her face. "Call me Amy... I've never been addressed as princess and I insist it stays like that. Tomboy-princess... do they call me here like that?"

"Well," the clerk said, blushing, "the population is quite proud of thou, prin... uhm, Amy. Thou have got overmany names here. They see thou as some kind of super-woman."

"Oh, tell me something new," Amy said, smiling.

"It's because of a few photos showing thou as a child in this palace, that I wit better."

"Heh," Amy chuckled, "Anyways, could you bring me to my uncle?"

"Yes. Follow me," the clerk said, turning around.

"It's been some time ago I last entered this castle. I don't remember much of it anymore," Amy said, looking around in awe herself, while the clerk lead them to the room Rob O' the Hedge was in... He knocked on the door and waited patiently for someone to reply from the other side of the door. Amy, however, wasn't that patient and was very eager to meet her uncle again. She pushed open the door and stepped inside. At the same time, a voice in the room said:

"Thou may enter."

Rob O' the Hedge, obviously the one saying that, now looked surprised as his cousin stormed in.

"Dear cousin!" he said, surprised, standing up from his desk. Amy ran at him and hugged her uncle. Rob hugged back.

"I'm so happy to see you again," Amy said.

"Likewise," Rob said back. "Who hast thou brought with thou? Oh, I see some well-known faces."

Sonic stepped forwards and stretched his hand for Rob to shake it. Rob accepted the hand with pleasure.

"Long time no see, Rob," Sonic said.

"Sonic, my fere! A pleasure to see thou again!" Rob answered.

And so it went forth. After that, the inevitable question came:

"What is the reason of thee arrival hither?"

An explanation later, Rob replied:

"So... thou beseeches my support in this war, right?"

"That's exactly it," Sally confirmed Rob's thoughts.

"Well," Rob decided, "I accept thee proposal and shall lead my troops myself."

"You... you are going to Monius to?" Amy asked.

Rob smiled.

"That was what I said, dear cousin. I shall be traveling with thee to Monius."