Chapter 10 King Maximillian Acorn
Upon arriving at the ruins, they noticed that there were an awful lot of guards marching around the perimeter.
"Friends, hang back. I don't want to get you in trouble because of me. I should only be a few minutes." Sally said as she entered the main chambers. The guards kept a suspicious eye on Aaron and Sam.
"Daddy! I can't believe you're really back after all these years! We have so much to catch up on…" Sally exclaimed as she ran up to the King's throne. She stopped short when she set eyes on the King's cold stare.
"Sally, you have disobeyed me one too many times. I warned you not to go around with the hedgehog and you disobeyed me. I warned you to be careful about what you go around doing and you disobeyed me. You have disobeyed me most of your life and now you're hanging around with Overlanders? Wench… bring me my whips." The King said to Rosie who cowered in the corner. Before she could even react, King Acorn pressed a button set into his chair arm and Rosie obediently stood straight up and marched towards the throne. Along the way she passed by a rack of whips, chains and other devices of torture. She grabbed the whips and brought them to the King, then left the room.
"No… daddy! Please don't!" Sally screamed. King Acorn ignored her and proceeded to whip her. With each strike of the whips, Sally cried out in pain. She managed to get to her feet and ran for the door. She made it out the door before she fainted.
Meanwhile on Earth, Robotnik gleefully watched as the robot he had made whipped the Princess.
"Snively, I want you to begin roboticizing the inhabitants of this measly planet. By the time the two planets are completely merged, I want at least half of the population roboticized. Is that clear?" Robotnik ordered.
"Yes, over-weight one. Commencing start-up procedures now!" Snively announced as he brought the machines online.
Upon seeing her, Sam found she could not find the necessary strength to stand up and go over to help Sally. Her vest was torn and streaked with blood and her back was cut up something bad.
"Geez! What the hell'd she say to him in there?" Aaron asked quietly. Sam glared at him and Aaron realized that he had slipped. Just then, St. John happened by.
"Bloody hell! What's going on around here? Who did this?" Geoffrey asked as he dropped to his knees to help the Princess.
"Call me crazy, but I think it was the King." Aaron offered. St. John looked at him as if he had just lost his mind.
"That's gotta be the craziest thing I've ever heard!" Geoffrey said, clearly doubting what he had just been told.
"I say we get her back to the Infirmary and then we debate what happened." Samantha spoke out. They had started towards the Infirmary when St. John's radio beeped.
"Yeah… what is it?"
"Sir, we have the hedgehog in sight. Please advise."
"Where are you? What's he doing?"
"We are five minutes from the old tree stump. It appears he is coming back to Knothole from the city via the old trail."
"I'm on my way. Use a tranquilizer arrow if needed; just don't let him get away." They had arrived at the hut that passed for a hospital. The group with Sally in tow burst through the doors. Rotor was hard at work on one of his computers.
"Rotor, where's the doctor?" Sam asked hurriedly.
"I'll get him. What happened?" Rotor asked as he paged the doctor.
"We're not sure really. We think it might have been the King." Aaron explained.
"Take care of the Princess and keep her safe. Something's not right around here and I intend to get to the bottom of it. And those are orders." St. John ordered as he ran out the door. As he left, the doctor arrived back.
"Now what? What happened to the Princess? Rotor, you gotta figure out how to stop the merging before we lose any more of the forest."
"Here's what I have so far: the only way I can see to reverse it is to open two more portals opposite the existing ones which would then pull the planets apart and everything would go back to normal, hopefully. The only glitch I can see is: where are we going to get two more portals? And, not only that, but how would we open it where we need to?" Rotor explained.
"In the meantime, the doctor would like to know what happened to her? Who did this?" Quentin asked. Aaron answered solemnly,
"I hate to say it but the King did this." Doctor Quack quickly stitched her back up and laid her upon one of the hospital beds. The rest of the night was spent trying to build two more portals and figure out how and where to place them to pull the planets apart.
In the morning, Sam woke up first to the sound of crying coming from somewhere near the center of the village. Samantha got up and got dressed and went to investigate. As she got closer to the Infirmary, the crying grew in volume. She came to the Infirmary and found nothing. She searched around the corners and found the source of the crying. Sally was hiding in the shadows of the building, crying uncontrollably. Samantha slowly approached the Princess and knelt down beside her.
"What's wrong, Princess?" Sally sniffled.
"I was whipped by my own dad! How messed up is that? I… he didn't even seem to know who I was. He even destroyed the vest Julayla gave to me on her deathbed. It can't be fixed or repaired or anything. What am I going to do? He doesn't seem like the dad I once knew… my dad was really nice before the betrayal. And… and…" Sally said before bursting into tears again.
"Sally, I'm sure we have the materials to fix your vest back on Earth and we're working on figuring out what's wrong with the King as we speak. We have the best people working on it as we speak. Come on, it's cold out here and I don't want you to get sick or something. I'll make you something to eat back inside." Sam calmingly said to the Princess. Sally stood up and Sam guided her back into the Infirmary.
At the old tree stump, Geoffrey and his men had managed to capture Sonic. Without saying a word, they dragged him back to Knothole where the King was waiting to sentence him. After wandering aimlessly for a day and a half, Hershey realized she was getting more and more lost as she continued walking. And, as the planet's convergence neared completion, Sonic was brought before the King to receive his sentence.
(End of Chapter 10)