Last of the Fighters

Hello my fellow Mobians. It's been a rather long week, and your calls have been answered. So far we have two or three possible names for "New Knothole" to take on. Thank you all so much for this.

Yeah, Soni-san has a bad habit of overthinking things like this. The name completely stumped her.

Anyways. The person who came up with this name was very thoughtful about what and who this place will be the home of. To quote their reasoning, while the "outside world" wouldn't know very little if anything at all of the homeland of their most well-known hero, within those boundaries that separate the Republic of Acorn and its neighbors from the rest of the world Knothole and the Freedom Fighters as a whole are legendary, a sort of moral idol for generations both old and young to try and live by.

Eggman hater, thank you so much for this name. Your reasoning is sound and we really love this idea. Just hearing the name through our inspiration on the fritz, we actually had to reel it in before we could actually start making the story!

And without further ado, let us begin!

Sonic and Co. are the intellectual property of SEGA and Archie. Only the context within this story belongs to Soni-san.

If I did own any of it, Shadow the Hedgehog wouldn't have so many confusing endings.

Sonic POV:

Pain explodes across my side as Dulcy crashed to the ground, net locking her wing to her side. Wiggling about in an attempt to escape from under her bulk, I looked up just in time to see our attackers land. Dulcy had warned me of several of the threats the Freedom Fighters fought against. Looking at the filthy blood splattered fur, I recognized exactly who our enemies were. Renegades.

"Well look who it is! What'sa couple'a travelers like ya'll doin' out here?" The leader, a scarred lion with a dark coat and a neckerchief masking his muzzle stated, clearly gleeful to have captured some new victims. Dulcy struggled in her binds, snarling and growling more fiercely than I've ever heard from her before. The renegades laughed at her attempts, making me wonder if they were missing something extremely important. An angry dragon, no matter how docile, is a very frightening enemy to have. Believe me, I would know.

"Hey, that firebreathin' lizard just growled at us, Raion! Should we give 'er a lesson in wha' happens when ya cross us?" one of the goons spoke out, effectively giving a name to his leader.

"Nah, no point in teachin' a pet lizard how 'ta play nice. Best be savin' that particular beatin' for her little rider. Kid, we'll give you one warnin' to call that 'lil beasty of yours off. Maybe then we won't kill ya…" he let his threat hang in the air, looking down at me. I snorted, Idiots don't realize who they're calling a beast… should I? Nah…

"Well it wouldn't be the first time some idiot threatened to kill me. I'd appreciate if you mongrels didn't, but we all know how this goes. Let's save the taunts for later and get right to me and my pal Dulcy here kicking your collective flea-bitten butts!" With that, Dulcy took her que to start breathing fire, burning the net trapping us and proceeded to smack several renegades about with her wings and tail.

They really were as stupid as they looked. Several goons charged in blindly in a pincer attack, hoping to pin the "weaker" hedgehog down. A simple sidestep at the last second sent them crashing into each other. Dulcy made quick work of turning the writhing mass of struggling enemies into a living, cursing bowling ball that slammed right into the sides of their transport. I smirked when I heard one of them yell out a warning before promptly becoming sick all over his fellow renegades. Rather amusing, in a disgusting sort of way. Raion snarled as he and I faced off.

"Ya'll ain't no normal traveler, Kid. Who're you?" he growled at me, clearly he isn't completely stupid.

"Oh, me? Nobody important, just a guy visiting his folks really! Maybe knocking a few heads when I get bored. Name's Sonic by the way, not that it really matters." I smirked, playing up on the reputation I had six years ago. Time to see just how much I've been remembered. Judging by how his's eyes bulged, I'd say he's at least heard of me.

"No way. Tha's nothin' but an old rumor a buncha idiots made up to give 'em a reason to keep hopin' for some miracle!" he shouted, throwing a swift uppercut my way. I leaned to the side, easily dodging the strike.

"Well this 'rumor' is real, and he's starting to get bored with you. Really. Not one of you recognized, not only one, but two Freedom Fighters? What kinda bandits are you!?" I swiftly swept his legs from beneath him, using his fall to effectively pin him to the ground. A quick search provided me plenty opportunity to disarm him before he even had a chance to blink.

"Also, for the record, I'm a little out of practice. So excuse me if I'm not quite as 'legendary' as my reputation paints me as. That doesn't mean I can't break your legs faster than you can blink though, I most certainly can. I'm not gonna though, too much effort. Tell me, what were you planning to do to us? Kill us? Send us in for some bounty? Perhaps even slavery… My, that would be a shame, now wouldn't it? After all, how would you possibly expect us not to escape? We Freedom Fighters are near impossible to catch, let alone hold!" I spoke softly, almost it had been Tails coming to wake me up after another nightmare when he was a kit rather than a bloodthirsty vagabond wanting to capture us and sell us into slavery… or worse.

"I-I wasn't gonna do anything t'ya! Honest! I didn't even know you lot were… were 'eroes! I'd bet mah life on it!"

I could smell his fear now, he certainly believe those 'rumors' now didn't he. With a scoff, I let him go. No point in keeping the guy there, not like I could do anything with him. The Freedom Fighters may have started out as rebels that used thievery, deception, and sabotage to protect themselves and the ones they care about, but we weren't murderers. None of us were completely clean, too many wars, but not one member of the group had ever actively and knowingly participated in murder, something I never stood for.

Raion shook himself off before bolting away, off to whatever cesspool he calls a base is. Dulcy gives a casual snarls as he inches past her, reminding him that just because I let him go, doesn't mean she has forgotten what he attempted to do. With a snort, she turned to me.

"Well, are you gonna help me get the rest of these stinking nets off or what?"

With a laugh, I strode forward to help her rid herself from her burdens. Well, the physical ones anyways, can't do anything for any mental or emotional burdens she might have. Thinking back on how I reacted to being attacked, I can't help but have a smidgen of doubt that readjusting back into the life of a rebel would be quite so difficult.

"Now, how is it that the most graceful flyer this side of the pond water got herself and her extremely important passenger shot outta the sky!?" I couldn't help the offhand comment, sheer familiarity was calling for it.

"Excuse me? Since when were you all that!?" she snorted, dismissively.

"I was always "all that," Dulcy. I'm just the only one who saw it!" I grinned, pointing to my chest in my "Superhero" pose.

"Glad you admit to deluding yourself."

"Only as much as you are! Miss 'Look at Me, I'm Flying!'" I countered.

With a rather painful cuff to my ear, one most would note that I didn't dodge, and the coining of the nickname "cheeky cub" we restarted our journey.

With some frustration when we realized those renegades had destroyed my luggage, leaving me with only some rather disgusting looking food, bandages, and a picture I'd kept of Tails' first birthday with me able to be salvaged. Glad that I had left all my more precious souvenirs from the outside world except for this photo back in Tails' Workshop, I hopped back onto Dulcy's back and we flew off, hopeful to arrive at our destination without any more trouble.

Shadow POV:

It's been a week days since Sonic left and not even one iota of a clue has been found about exactly what Knothole is. After going over what we knew, and what we learned, I and the little fox agreed that the mystery of Knothole is what we should focus on first.

The fox sighed as he sat back, clearly needing a break. Finding where that idiot went is taking longer than we expected, but from what little trail he left behind, he traveled to a remote area that had been carefully camouflaged with ivy and vines before meeting up with something or someone with large, clawed feet. After that, the trail runs completely cold. Looking about the area, we found another clue. A carved stone with the phrase "FF forever" written on it with several names.

I had swiftly tasked Tails and the rest of Sonic's friends with research on what Knothole is when we realized that not one of us had so much as an inkling as to whom the names written upon the stone were or what "FF" stood for. Rouge decided to sneak into the files of the only person we know of whose known Sonic before even Tails.

"Nothing! It's like what we're looking for doesn't even exist! Shadow, I'm running out of options, all I'm getting is the basic definitions of what a knothole is! Even the most obscure databases and myths never even heard of this!" Tails groaned, the young genius had been spending days behind that computer, searching for clues.

I myself was getting rather peeved at how little progress my G.U.N. contacts had made. Even that echidna had offered to help with his vast knowledge of mythical or ancient treasures from his time as a treasure hunter. The pink banshee hasn't been much help, mostly swinging that hammer around screaming about what she'll do when she gets her mitts on that moron for running off with no explanation.

"Don't give up. Rouge should be back soon, with some luck, she'll have found something useful from snooping through Dr. Eggman's files." I told him, neither me nor Sonic's little friends trust the doctor any further than he could touch his toes, but he does have a decent enough system for researching strange and obscure places. He found me and the Space Colony Ark of all things after all, and that's not even getting into the many godlike supernatural beings he's managed to either tick off or allow to run out of control with his many failed plans. Settling down, I prepared myself for a long wait.

Lucky us, Rouge wasn't very long, and judging by the flash drive she'd swiped, she'd found at least something interesting. With a flirtatious wink towards me, my partner handed the drive to Tails,

"You lot won't believe what I've found on this thing? Take a look, cutie." The flash drive was ridiculously easy to hack into, revealing a wealth of information regarding several hidden nations that none of us had even heard of. With a glance at each other, Tails opened the first link.

"The Republic of Acorn, formerly the Acorn Kingdom, is said to be the most powerful and influential of the 'hidden lands' and its capital, Knothole, acts as a home base and HQ to the voluntary armed forces group known as Freedom Fighters, whom had delivered them all from a fate known as 'Roboticization' proceeding the usurping of King Maximillian Acorn and the destruction of the former capital of Mobotropolis. These 'Knothole Freedom Fighters' are well known among the citizens of these 'hidden lands' and are most certainly a deadly threat towards any attempts to conquer this strange land. Further investigation has revealed that almost all nations within this strange world has its own faction Freedom Fighters, many of whom are connected to the group mentioned above. Recent discoveries found strange phenomena occurring within the land as well as the virtual disappearance of all living citizens of Knothole. "

Tails paused in his reading, glancing up with a creased brow. He was putting two and two together, and getting six.

"FF, that's short for 'Freedom Fighter.' Why would Sonic know about that though?" he looked to us, clearly confused. We may have learned more about what Knothole and "FF" was, but it doesn't explain the connection Sonic would have to them.

"Try reading another link." He did, clicking on another link, something about a diner. Bringing up a picture of an elderly light blue hedgehog with matching blue eyes and graying mustache and "fuzzy" eyebrows. The coloration was a little too familiar.

"According to this caption, it's Sir Charles Hedgehog. Apparently he developed several revolutionary discoveries involving Ring Energy and its uses, gaining a Knighthood for his achievements. He's also a well-known supporter of the Knothole Freedom Fighters, often seen working alongside them." Rouge answered, clearly impressed.

"Either way, we know where Sonic is heading. There's an address for that diner, right? If we use it we could find the coordinates to Knothole and meet him there." I cut in, trying to get us back on track. Knowing some hedgehog in a far off land is connected to a group of Freedom Fighters that may or may not be connected to Sonic isn't going to help us.

"Yeah, yeah. Oh, here it is." Rouge read off the name "Uncle Chuck's Chili Dogs and Diner" along with its street address and mailing number. More than enough for us to track it. Watch out Sonic, we're coming. As we left to go inform the others, we missed one unassuming link labeled "Fables' Haven."

Oh boy, isn't Shadow gonna eat his words… so what do you all think? Eggman hater, once again, thank you so much for the name "Fables' Haven." Please send any information on your preffered OC to us via PM and we'll talk about what kind of cameo you'd like for him/her.