Chapter 11 The sentence

"Sonic, you have been brought here on charges which you have brought against yourself. The charges are as follows: attempted murder of my daughter, obstruction of justice, and ignorance of the law. After carefully reviewing your case, I have come to a final decision. You shall undergo roboticization and thereafter become my personal slave." The King read from the sheet of parchment he held.

"Sire, you know that I would never endanger your daughter's or your lives. Your Majesty, I beg you to reconsider…" Sonic pleaded.

"Save me your pitiful whining… your pleads are only falling on emotionless ears. Your fate has been decided and thus it shall go… for it is what your future ruler, Doctor Robotnik, would have done. This court is adjourned." The King said as the guards escorted Sonic to his holding cell. The few people who were allowed into the court chambers were ushered out by the rest of the guards, leaving just the King and Sally in the courtroom.

"I also have a plan for you, my dear. You will be the one to throw the switch that will roboticize your beloved hedgehog." Said the King coldly. Sally was speechless; nothing had made any sense to her since the arrival of the two humans and this merely compounded the confusion. As she tried to make sense of this and come to terms with what she had seen and what had happened to her, the King and Sally walked back into the dining room in the heart of the palace. Sonic's sentence seemed so bitterly harsh to her even considering what Sonic had done to her and the fact that his whereabouts were unknown the past two days, and she was about to say something to the King to try to affect his judgment when he stopped and turned to her. To her shock and surprise, the King reached up, grabbed his head by his ears, and pulled his head off revealing a robotic face and head underneath.

Sally screamed and ran out of the room before even the robotic King could react. Upon running full speed out of the dining room, she ran into Aaron and Sam.

"Sally, slow down! Where you off to so fast?" Samantha asked.

"No time to explain. I finally figured it out. What we thought was our King is really a robot. We must destroy it before it hands Knothole over to Robotnik. It also wants to roboticize Sonic!" Sally explained as they hurried to Rotor's laboratory.

"Rotor! We need your help! The King isn't really the King and he… it wants to roboticize Sonic and make him a slave for life while handing the village over to Robotnik!" Aaron said as they burst into the lab. Rotor was in the back working on something when they arrived and he came out as soon as Aaron started trying to explain what was going on to him.

"Slow down. I just found out about it and I'm trying to shut it down. Sally and Samantha, I want you to search the Infirmary and try to figure out where the real King is hidden. Go now. I and Aaron will take care of the imposter." Rotor commanded. The two young women immediately left for the Infirmary.

"Rotor, have you checked all of the radio frequencies for any type of transmission or communication?" Aaron suggested right away.

"No, but I can start. Have you come up with any ideas on how to separate the planets?" Rotor asked as he started his computers on a new task.

"Not yet… I'm not even sure it can be done. Wait… is there a way to reverse the polarity of the field that the portal generator creates? Because maybe all we need to do is reverse the polarity of one portal so they repel each other and push themselves apart. Let's just hope the girls find the King before Robotnik can carry out his twisted plans."

As Sam and Sally walked towards the Knothole Infirmary, Sally noticed that there was an army of roboticized Mobians cleaning up the rubble of the former Acorn palace.

"Okay, the target is at twelve o'clock. Let's hurry." Samantha said. They hurried to the Infirmary and began searching. After about ten minutes, they had searched every inch of it and found nothing. They left the Infirmary through the back door and were shocked at what they found. They found the King on his stretcher sitting right inside the forest behind the building. They ran over to where the King was and immediately checked to see if he still had a pulse and was breathing… he was still alive. Sally remembered being told shortly after she was brought back that the Sword of Acorns had been recovered and was currently at Rotor's lab under lock and key. Sally sprinted back to the lab, took the key from Rotor's desk and got the sword then ran back to where the King was.

Sally immediately began passing the sword above the King's body while reciting something in another language. The sword glowed as she spoke and the side of the King's body that had crystallized changed back to flesh and bone. Almost immediately, the King sat straight up and began gasping for air.

Robotnik detected that the real King had been found and instructed the robotic King to self-destruct at the edge of the Great Forest.

"Snively, do we have the hedgehog yet?" The evil genius asked.

"No, your roundness. He is still en route to the fortress. It should be about three more minutes." Snively said.

"Excellent. Excellent!" Doctor Robotnik cackled while he rubbed his hands together in anticipation of completely disabling the Freedom Fighters. He knew that without the hedgehog, they would be unable to touch him. He just hoped that the guards would not hear about the King's recovery before they got to the city.

Meanwhile, Knothole was having trouble of their own.

"Radio Geoffrey! Tell him to bring Sonic back here right now! We're back in business, guys!" Sally happily announced as she brought the King into the lab for the first time in ten long years.

"Dear, there are Overlanders amongst us! What's happened all these years?" A confused King said as he looked over the scene in front of him. Sally took a deep breathe and tried to explain what all had happened the past ten years as fast as possible.

"Father, the day after you were thrown into what had been named the Zone Of Silence, Sonic formed what is called the Freedom Fighters. Since that day we have been trying, unsuccessfully, to overthrow Doctor Ivo Robotnik, formerly Julian Kintobar. With Sonic's speed, my leadership, and Antoine D'coolette's military skills, we are striving to undo the damage he has done. Lately, we have had the added assistance of two Earthly humans; Aaron and Samantha." Sally explained to a still confused King Acorn.

"Then, I guess I should ask how the fight is going. What's this about having someone bring Sonic back? Where's Earth?" The King asked.

"Let me handle this one, Princess. A couple days ago, we suddenly got you back. We're still not sure how or anything, but obviously, you're the real thing. You dropped out of the portal that I had built to try to get you back someday… on your arrival, your body started to crystallize before our eyes. With the assistance of Doctor Quentin Quack, we were able to slow the process down, but not reverse it. Knowing that Robotnik had taken the Sword Of Acorns the day he captured and imprisoned you in the Zone, we set about trying to get it back. We got it back, but there was one problem: Sally nearly got killed when someone who looked like Sonic cut Sally's rope. Fortunately, she had a soft landing, and the only thing that happened was she got the wind knocked out of her. We had had a feeling for the past year that there was a traitor in our midst, we just didn't know who." Rotor explained. Doctor Quack came out from behind a stack of machinery and computers to explain the rest.

"In order to try to catch the traitor, we hatched a scheme. Sally would take some sort of injury that could be fatal if taken just right. Her fall was all we needed to put the plan into effect. She was brought back here and with Rotor's computer knowledge and my medical knowledge, it looked as if she had died on the table. All the time, she was totally fine… just in a state of suspended animation whereas her vitals were slowed to the point that she looked to be dead, when in fact she was still alive. The traitor, who we think was Drago, replaced you with a robotic duplicate that was supposed to hand the village and everyone in it over to Robotnik. Your getting better through the use of the Sword of Acorns foiled his plans. While the robotic King was ruling, he sentenced the real Sonic to be roboticized and thereafter become his slave while he handed everything over to Robotnik." Doctor Quack explained.

"The Humans came from the fact that Aaron had built a very similar portal on his home planet that created a portal at the same time that Sonic accidentally started ours up and fell into it. Unfortunately, with both portals open at the same time, the resulting portals are now merging the two planets. Roughly, we have about ten hours before both planets are merged and even less time until Robotnik completes the roboticization of the inhabitants of both planets." Sally finished.

"Charles, this is Snively. Are you ready on your end?" Snively said into the radio while Robotnik recharged his circuits in his sleep chamber.

"I'm ready when you are. Does Robotnik know?" Uncle Chuck asked. Snively glanced over his shoulder and glanced at the monitors for the Doctor before answering.

"He doesn't suspect a thing. He'll never know what happened! Just be sure you guys get out of the city before it happens." The little bald man said into his wrist-worn communicator.

"You just make sure not to mess the plan up at all. Chuck out." Charles said before turning the radio off. "M'lady, someday we shall figure out how to sure you of whatever it is that you have. I think it is time to alert the King of your presence." Charles quietly said to the body resting in the cryo-tube. He got up and walked out of his bunker and started towards Knothole village. After about half an hour of walking, he arrived at the palace.

"Sir Charles Hedgehog. I am here to request a private audience with His Majesty, King Acorn. This is of dire importance." Without hesitation, the guard escorted him into the King's chamber. Upon entering, the guard left the room leaving Charles and the King alone.

"Sire, I know I look like a robot on the outside and that you don't remember much of anything at all, so please do not worry. I am here under my own free will. Ever since the wars between our kind and the Overlanders ended, I have had your wife, Queen Alicia Acorn, safe in my bunker in a cryo-tube. She is alive, but for some unknown reason, her body is rapidly aging." Charles explained.

"Take me to her."

(End of Chapter 11)