Insert Title Here

By: Foxfighter

Chapter One: The Siege of Knothole Village

Part Three: Retaliation

It was yet another bright and sunny day.

On this small island, near the center of the vast Emerald Sea, the weather was always calm and pleasant.

The island's white virgin sands were so far away from anything else that one could completely for get all their troubles and cares.

This was what one particular weasel was trying to do at the moment. Outside of his well furnished beach house, he was laying in a hammock tied between two palm trees, rocking back and forth lazily.

He was wearing a red flowery tropical shirt, blue swim trunks, and (strangely enough) heavy combat boots.

He took another sip of his, slightly alcoholic, drink.

"Yep", he thought, "this is the life."

He lay back in the hammock and began to relax.

Finally, after all of those years of hard work, heists, murders, and sleepless nights he had earned enough cash to buy his own little island, where he could come to relax whenever he wanted.

The weasel smiled.

"This place sure beats that musty old cave where my last hideout was."

The weasel lay like this for several hours, listening to the foamy waves crash against the shore and drifting in and out of sleep.

Then, faintly, he thought he heard the sound of someone walking along the beach, which was odd because this was his own personal island paradise.

He looked around, but saw nothing except for a flock of seagulls a little further down the beach.

"Eh… must be the alcohol" He thought, and went back to lazily dozing.

But, the noise just kept getting louder and louder.

"Alright, that does it. I'm goin' to-"he was cut off mid sentence by a fox looking at him face to face.

"Time to get up!" The fox yelled, and flipped the drowsy weasel out of the hammock.

The, now fully awake, weasel crashed to the ground with a heavy thud.

"What the Hell? grunt What do you want!"

The mysterious figure wore a dark cloak that hid his face. It looked a little hot for the weather, but it still gave off a menacing appearance.

"Ah… you look just as the file said you would. Exchange member number 89. I hope you've enjoyed your pathetic little life, because unfortunately for you it's about to end."

"You son of a bitch! Who do you think you are!"

With this the weasel staggered to his feet and kicked the back of his boot against the ground, causing a spring to shoot a knife out of the tip of his boot.

He caught the knife in midair and held it out, away from his body.

The weasel usually didn't use knives, as a rifle was his weapon of choice, but he knew enough to keep himself alive in a bar fight

The mysterious fox smiled, and cracked his neck.

"I'm your undertaker. Death is far too good for the likes of you… but I'm willing to settle with it for now."

The weasel, infuriated and slightly drunk, brought the knife over his head and down towards the fox.

But the fox sidestepped the attack, and caught the weasel off-balance, sweeping his legs out from under him.

The weasel tucked his arms in, and rolled away from his attacker, and got to his feet once again.

He made several jabs at the stranger with the knife, but the fox easily dodged every attack.

"Come on," the stranger said mockingly, "you can surly do better than that!"

The weasel made another desperate jab, but this time the fox grabbed his arm, and twisted the knife from his grip.

This left the stranger open however, and gave the weasel a chance to strike.

"Got you!"

The weasel kicked his other boot against the ground, causing a blade to stick out of the front.

He kicked the stranger in the thigh, right in the vein that runs up the side of it.

The weasel felt a hot sticky substance spurt out of the wound, and the fox had a look of extreme pain on his face.

"One thing they say about me: I'm always prepared!" The weasel gloated.

The fox's face turned from pain, to a smirk.

"Really? Are you prepared for this?"

The stranger pushed the weasel off of him, the wound to his leg seemingly not affecting him at all.

With a grin, the stranger pulled off his cloak revealing himself.

His body was completely made of metal, all except for his head. Oil was the substance dripping out of the wound to his metallic thigh.

The weasel stood there in utter disbelief… how could this have happened… why was he being targeted?

"And now that you've seen me… you die."

The stranger delivered a devastating roundhouse kick to the weasel's head that seemed to shake the very island itself.

"Nic… I'm sorry…" was the last thing that passed through his mind.

The weasel's neck snapped. He collapsed to the ground, completely devoid of life.

The stranger picked up his cloak and smirked as he saw the gentle looking seagulls began to flock to the weasel's body.

He put the cloak back on and grabbed a piece of paper out of one of the pockets.

On this faded piece of paper was a list of names, two hundred to be exact, all of them having worked for or been leaders of the Exchange.

The fox pulled out a red ink pen and his eyes scanned the list until he found what he was looking for.

"Exchange member number 89, Nack the Weasel, or as he was better known: the notorious 'Fang the Sniper'. For his reputation, he sure did go down easy."

He crossed the name off the list.

"A hundred and eleven down, 88 to go."

In his victorious moment, the fox's mind couldn't help but wander to the lingering memory of his father's death.

Had it really only been two years since his life was torn from him?

His father had meant the world to him, and then two years ago he had been mysteriously murdered.

Was this what his father would have wanted him to do?

To exact revenge on his killers?

He mulled it around in his head for a while.

Yes, he concluded.

Yes, if his father were in his place he would do the same thing.

The stranger grabbed the blue gem that hung in the necklace he wore that his father gave him when he was a child.

"Father, if you can hear me now know this: That I your son, Joshua Valni, the prince of the Valni Kingdom, will avenge your death and bring our kingdom back to it's former glory! Of that I promise you."

Boom.

The stranger's head cocked to the side to see a blue blur off in the distance.

He pulled out a pair of binoculars, and looked towards the blur.

It was a hedgehog, with a brown squirrel in his arms, literally defying the laws of physics.

He was running across the surface of the ocean, a large trail of water came crashing down behind him.

The stranger's jaw nearly dropped.

"Hmm… perhaps I haven't seen everything after all…"

……………………………….

The battle for Knothole was in full swing.

The army of Swat-Bot's had made several surges forward, and before the end of the second day they were 80 yards away from the defensive walls surrounding Knothole.

Night had fallen on the decisive battle, but the weary Freedom Fighters could not rest.

They were fighting an enemy that was tireless.

One particular fox was trying to keep the moral of her fellow comrades from deteriorating further. She had covered for some of the other Freedom Fighters who were wounded and needing rest, so she ended up doing the work that four normal Freedom Fighters would.

She was a sure shot, and all of her shots were kills. However, she was running out of ammo fast, and she knew that she couldn't push herself like this for much longer.

"Sandra, Sandra, Sandra… what are you going to do?" she thought as she picked off another Bot.

There was nothing to this, really. Just pop out one of the holes that had been blasted in the wall, fire, and get back in before you got shot.

They were effectively holding back the army, and they would be able to hold out provided that they didn't run out of ammo and the wall held up.

Her mind slowly began to wander to many things. Like what her life before Robotnik, and when she worked for the Exchange for a short time.

And then there were the Freedom Fighters.

She picked off another Bot.

She had never once thought about joining them. She was making it fine on her own, and she would much rather be getting paid to risk her life getting information for her contacts than in fighting mindless robots in Robotropolis.

Sandra did however aid the Freedom Fighters a few times. She had decided not to reveal the location of Knothole to Robotnik, no matter what the cost. While she still took jobs from both sides, she worked with the Freedom Fighters more closely, mainly because she didn't relish the idea of becoming a mindless robot.

Bang another went down.

The Freedom Fighters themselves weren't really a bad group. The arrogant hedgehog did actually have the skills to back up his title of "The Fastest Thing Alive", and the princess… well, Sandra had always believed that having royalty owing you favors was a good thing. She was familiar with a few others, such as the Rabbot girl, or that mongoose Mina.

And then there was the new guy.

Bang and another…

Jordan… was an intriguing person to her. He wasn't even from the same planet as her. Apparently, he came from a planet populated by Overlanders (or humans as he called them) and 'Zoanthropes', a planet named Earth. He told her that the Zone Police had made contact with his planet a few years ago, and that he had decided to join up when they asked for recruits. His first mission had brought him here, to Mobius. Bang He had never mentioned what the mission was, but apparently, the squad he was with ran into some Swat-Bots, and they were all killed except for him. Sonic found him, and brought him back to Knothole. That was the first time she had ever met him, that day in the medical ward. Bang Robotnik had wanted to find out if any from the Zone Police group had survived, and she had told him that none did. Jordan and her had become allies… she would even go as far to consider themselves 'friends'. They constantly sparred together, and they even taught each other their respective martial arts styles…

"GRENADE!"

Sandra snapped out her thoughts to see a grenade land right next to her.

"Oh…crap."

She managed to jump out of the way and avoid anything lethal, but she was still flung through the air by the explosion.

The female fox landed in crumpled up position and lost consciousness.

……….

"Tails… why did you go after Amy like that?"

I look over at my two-tailed friend and see him cringe a little as one of the doctors goes about treating his wounds.

"Well um uh…"

The look on his face, embarrassed and trying to hide it, is priceless.

I laugh a little.

"You've gotta crush on her don't you?"

"No way! Yuck!"

"Ohhhh… touchy subject, huh? Heh heh."

Little eight year old Tails.

He reminds me of myself when I was his age: shy, confused, and an outsider. Those tails of his are his blessing and his curse.

I can definitely relate to that.

"… Don't tell her okay?"

"Hey, your secrets safe with me kid."

Amy Rose is only a little older than Tails, she's eleven, and hasn't been in Knothole much longer that I have. She had heard of Sonic through one of the many story tellers that wander around Mobius these days, and she instantly fell in 'love' with him. She managed to track him down to the Little Planet, and when she first got sight of the legendary cobalt flame, she was hooked on him. She had followed him around for a few days, and ended up getting captured by Metal Sonic. Sonic went across the entire Little Planet, collecting the Time Stones, and eventually facing off with Metal Sonic on the Stardust Speedway. From Amy's description, it was one hell of a battle. Wish I could've seen it. Anyway, Sonic rescued Amy and brought her back to Knothole.

"Doc, am I done here?"

The doctor turns his attention back to me.

"Well, we've got you bandaged up, and your wounds will heal soon… so I guess we can let you go back out th-"

An explosion wracks the building.

I jump out of the bed.

"Damn! That doesn't sound good. I better get out there!"

I duck out of the dining hall, and see the front lines.

So many dead….. God… blood... everywhere…..

We must have lost nearly a fourth of them all.

The Freedom Fighters are a closely nit group, almost like a family. And while I can't say I'm too welcomed in that family, seeing these people die… people who I had known just days before… even those who hated me… makes me feel sick.

The wall is in tatters, and laser fire is beginning to pepper some of the inner buildings.

I can see gigantic war machines moving in as the Swat-Bot army moves back.

This definitely isn't good…..

……………………………..

That's the end of Chapter One Part Three.

I hope you liked this chapter.

Thanks again to Un-Pro, the folks at TKN and everyone who read this thing.

Help me get better: leave a review.

Part four to come.

FF