Princess in Plaster
A Sonic the Hedgehog Fan Fiction
by Chronos the Cat
Disclaimer: This story is adapted from the Archie "Sonic the Hedgehog" comic. Portions of this chapter were adapted from issue 42 and the "Sonic Quest" mini-series. Sonic and all related characters are copyright SEGA, which bears no responsibility for this story.
Author's Note: Well, most of the people who answered my question said "continue it at your own pace," so that's what I'll do.
To Alex: Was Geoffrey Secret Service head before the Coup? I'm not entirely sure, but in his first appearance, in issue 20, he did say he was once a part of the Secret Service. ... Have I read Dan Drazen's reviews? Yes, but I haven't read the old ones in a while. ... And why did Sonic let Geoffrey tag along? Because the guilt of what happened to Sally combined with the responsibility of leading the Freedom Fighters has made him act a bit more mature. (Not too mature to argue with him, though!)
To Byron: ... You weren't the only one who found Tails' thoughts about plaster strange... Part of the answer was mentioned by Alex in his review of chapter three: Tails is going through puberty. Beyond that, well... you'd be surprised what can turn some people on...
Chapter Five: Of Metal Eggs and Plaster Shells
"Y'wanted ta see me, luv?" Geoffrey asked, stepping into the hut where Sally awaited him.
Sonic, who as usual wasn't far from her side, cracked, "Well, she certainly didn't want to smell you."
"Maybe she prefers blokes with natural attacks, rather than a natural ability to run away?" Geoffrey shot back.
Sally said urgently, "Guys! Now is not the time. Sonic, if you'd take me to my father? I want to show Geoffrey what's happened."
"Right." Sonic wheeled Sally into the next room, followed by Geoffrey.
Bunnie, Antoine, Tails, and Rotor were all already in the room, where the king lie on a bed.
Geoffrey gasped. "Your majesty! What has happened?"
The right hand side of the Kings body was covered in (or transformed into) green crystal. In a hoarse voice, the king intoned, "S-suh-savacge cyclids! gurgle M-muh-mockingbirds in the wooden water..."
Sally put her hand to her forehead. "As you can see, the King's condition has gotten worse. Dr. Quack was able to temporarily stabilize him but he still remembers nothing! He's disoriented, delusional, and strangest of all, his skin is crystallizing!
"For this and other security reasons, we've not revealed his return to the general populace. We can't risk panic. That's where you come in, Geoffrey.
"We need you to guard the King and maintain this secret. Will you re-assume your position as elite royal guard while we try to restore his health?"
"Without hesitation, your majesty!" He headed out the door. "I shall post myself at the front door. No one shall pass. My lips are sealed."
Looking at the king, Bunnie commented, "Oh, deah -- your daddy's lookin' mighty poorly."
"Yes, Bunnie. Isn't there something you can do, Rotor?"
"Hard to say. King Acorn must have adjusted to the radical atmosphere in the Zone of Silence. Now our air seems to be adversely affecting him."
Tails nodded, and wrote, "Looks looks like he's turning into a chaos emerald!"
Bunnie gasped, and Antoine exclaimed, "Alors!"
Rotor "Hmm"ed.
Sally commented, "We saw no Chaos Emeralds or Magic Rings in the Zone of Silence! I wonder why?"
This gave Sonic an idea.
Sally continued, "We don't have any emeralds handy, but Sonic-- "
Before anyone had even noticed Sonic had left, he raced back in, holding a power ring mounted on board like a prize fish. "Way ahead of you, Sal -- I'll bring in my one billionth magic ring that I had mounted." He held the ring up to the King. "Let's see if it has any effect on the King..."
Light emanated from the king's crystal side, and his living left eye seemed to focus. "unngh-- S-suh-Sally! How stands the Kingdo... om... huhhhrgle..." The light faded, and he collapsed back onto the bed.
Sonic commented, "It seemed to help -- for a moment, anyway!"
Rotor nodded. "Indeed! Magic Rings may hold the key to his majesty's cure! But Sonic's ring is uniquely his own and its' power tuned to him!
"We need new, unused magic rings -- as many as we can find and fast! Only then can we possibly save king acorn!"
Bunnie put her hand on her hip. "How are we-all gonna do that? It takes time to search those dangerous zones and collect magic rings! We could wind up in worse shape than the king!"
Sally shook her head. "Not necessarily, Bunnie. There are places where rings and emeralds can be obtained without entering a zone."
Tails raised an eyebrow, and quickly wrote down, "The 'Lake of Rings'?"
After looking at the note, Sally said, "If you mean the grotto near Robotropolis where Super Sonic and Hyper Knuckles fought, then, yes, that's a possibility. Their battle destroyed an entire Zone – but if Sonic and Knuckles survived its' destruction, some power rings and chaos emeralds might have, as well. It's not for certain, but it's certainly worth looking into. ...Sonic?" She turned to him.
Sonic nodded. "Tails, Bunnie, you're with me," he said, pointing to them.
"Sho' nuff!" Bunnie replied, and Tails saluted.
"Ant, Rote? Keep Sal and the King comfortable, and all of you keep looking for other solutions. ...You too, of course, Sal. We'll be back as soon as we can."
Sally held up her right hand (still the only one she could move). "Wait! ...You might need to swim to search for the rings... And I know that's not your strong suit, Sonic. Maybe you should take Rotor...?"
"That's why I'm bringing Tails. He can swim pretty good. Besides, wouldn't you rather have Rotor here, looking after your father?"
"Yes, but... Tails injury isn't completely healed yet."
"I've checked with Doctor Quack. It's all right for him to get his bandages wet, so long as they're changed afterwards."
"You checked with him, already...?"
"Of course. He's my right hand fox, after all. I've gotta know when he's fit for the field."
Sally was quite surprised. She'd noticed Sonic had been acting more responsible since she'd given him command, but this was beyond her wildest dreams.
"All... all right. Do you want to bring Nicole with you?"
"Nah. She'll be more useful to you."
Sally nodded. "Proceed, then. ...And good luck."
Sonic zoomed in close and gave her a quick kiss, then zoomed to the door. "Right. We'll be back soon." With that, he disappeared out the door, leaving Tails and Bunnie to give a quick salute/goodbye, and follow after him.
... And so, the waiting began...
- -
A while later...
"Nicole – you're our state-of-the-art computer – any luck with my father?"
"Negative, Princess. Insufficient data to analyze the malady or recommend a cure. Skin crystallization now at sixty-eight percent and accelerating."
Just then, Rotor came in.
Sally asked, "Any word from Sonic and the others?"
Rotor shook his head, a worried look on his face. "No... their check-in report is long overdue. There's no response on any of their communicators. I-- I'm getting worried."
Tears welled up in Sally's eyes, and she hung her head.
"Oh, there, there, Sally-- don't cry!" Rotor said, coming over and hugging her softly.
"I can't help it! sob the stress is getting to me! choke Everything we've worked for is coming apart! sniffle Oh, Rotor – Boo-hoo hoo!"
- -
Some time after that...
A brilliant yellow light flashed across the blue sky momentarily, without explanation.
Rotor glanced at Sally. "What was that!"
Sally shrugged her right shoulder.
"I'd better head over to the control center and see what I can find out."
As Rotor rushed to the door, Sally called out, "Wait, take me with you!"
"Sorry, Sally – no time!" he said, running out the door.
Sally's jaw dropped in shock. She'd never held her royal position over the others' heads, so she wasn't completely surprised that Rotor would disobey her. She hadn't phrased that as a royal command, after all. And, now that she thought about it, she realized that he had been right. Still, being brushed aside like that hurt.
In frustration, she dragged the finger-claws of her right hand along the plaster covering her right leg. By the Source, how she hated being so helpless!
As if to make her feelings audible, a loud rumble, like thunder, shook the village. Thunder and lightning? But the sky is clear! Sally scowled. The other obvious possibility was that there had been a large explosion somewhere... She could only hope that that was a good thing.
To her surprise, a few moments later, Antoine walked in.
"My Princess, are you all right? I saw Rotor rush out of here without you... And with so many strange t'ings going on..."
"I... I'm fine, Antoine. Thanks for checking on me. ... Um, if it's not too much to ask, do you suppose you could take me to the control center?"
"Any t'ing for you, my Princess!"
When Antoine wheeled Sally in, Rotor looked up in surprise. "Oh, you're here!" He smiled. "I was just about to go tell you. Good news-- I just heard from Sonic. Apparently, they couldn't contact us because of interference from an airborne battle station of Robotnik's that they encountered. They managed to blow it up though – that was what that flash of light and that rumble were. They also got a small stash of Power Rings."
"That's great to hear, Rotor." Sally said in relief.
And so, the next day...
Sally couldn't believe what she was reading. She had thought things were bad when Sonic and the others had failed to check in – now she was almost glad she hadn't known why until the danger was over.
According to Sonic's report, they had found the Power Ring Grotto to have a metal dome over it. Wanting more info, Sonic had left Tails and Bunnie to keep an eye on the dome, while he headed over to the nearby Mobian Cliffs to see if the local Freedom Fighter unit, led by Carl Condor, knew anything about it.
However, Sonic had been ambushed at the cliffs by Carl, who was now roboticized. Sonic had defeated Carl, but not before Robotnik's new floating battle station, the Death Egg had arrived. Sneaking on board, he met up with Tails and Bunnie, who had boarded it in an attempt to retrieve the power rings from the Grotto, which the Death Egg had taken.
Upon further investigation, it had turned out that the Death Egg had the power to roboticize the entire planet. All it needed was a Chaos Emerald – which Robotnik had intended to take from the Floating Island.
In order to stop Robotnik, they ended up fighting a new, silver version of Sonic's mechanical doppelganger, Mecha Sonic, as well as Robotnik himself, who was in a new "Eggs-o-skeleton" battle suit.
Thanks to some quick thinking on the part of Tails, who thought to re-wire Silver Sonic and use it's body as his own exo-skeleton suit, they were able to send Robotnik running again, and destroy the battle station.
On their way out, they retrieved some power rings, then, as they had learned in the battle that Knuckles had a spare Chaos Emerald, they had stopped by at the Floating Island to see if they could borrow that. Unfortunately, Knuckles had rejected the idea. They had then returned home.
... Sally sighed. Their cause had been on the edge of defeat, and she hadn't even known it. If only she could walk! She would have gone with them... But then again, would she have been any help? Or would she have just gotten in the way. Of all the Freedom Fighters, she was the only one to have gotten injured this way. Even Tails' injury hadn't incapacitated him for long.
She set the report aside, and shook her head. When she finally did get free of this plaster, she didn't know what she would do...
Later...
Sonic, Tails, and Sally were at the table, Sonic and Sally eating chili-dogs. Tails, since his mouth was still too injured for him to eat solid food, was just there to "talk" with the two of them. At the moment, Tails was writing to Sally about the mission the previous day.
"... and so, Sonic thought Knuckles' extra emerald might..."
Just then, Sonic's Uncle Chuck came in the door. "Hello, boys!"
Sonic smiled. "Uncle Chuck! Should've known you were here -- chomp No one else makes chili dogs this good!"
Sally asked with concern, "How's father?"
Chuck put his hand on her shoulder. "Rotor and I used up all the energy in those power rings, but his condition is unchanged."
Sonic said dejectedly, "I guess we failed!"
"Not so, lads! I still think we're correct in attempting to use a magical talisman to cure the king!"
He unrolled a parchment on the table.
Sally added, "And after reviewing these remaining royal doctrines, we believe we've found that cure-- in the form of the magical ... Crown of Acorns!"
Sonic dropped a chili-dog in shock "That's no good! the king was wearing the crown when he was banished -- and we never recovered it!"
"We believe that he may have been wearing a phony crown!"
"Wha...? Get outta town!'
Sally pushed the parchment towards Sonic.
House of Acorn
It is the sworn duty of any sovereign to protect the crown of acorns at all costs, for it is the ancient talisman of power that may be the kingdom's only defense in its darkest hour.
Should the reigning sovereign be in danger of capture or peril of his life, he must ensure the crown's use for future generations, lest the house of acorn fall beyond salvation. As per this royal doctrine, the crown must be transported to a magical dimension for safekeeping know as the Hall of Limbo.
Sonic raised an eyebrow. "That's cool and all... But where is this Hall of Limbo, anyway?"
Chuck shook his head. "The doctrines don't say, but once again i think our answer can be found with magic -- the magic of power rings!
"Remember, Sonic -- power rings can grant knowledge as well as power, knowledge that may help us find the missing crown!"
"You don't say!"
Chuck paused, then headed for the door. "I'm sorry I can't help any further, but it's time for me to get back to my 'undercover job' in Robotropolis before I'm missed! Good luck!"
Before long, Sonic and Tails had headed off on another mission. Their plan was to head into a zone, grab a ring or two, and head back to Knothole. Even as dangerous as Zones were, it shouldn't be too hard to grab just a few rings...
Before long, Sonic and Tails returned.
"How's your father?"
"The same as before," Sally told him. "Did you get the rings?"
Sonic nodded, and pulled out a Power Ring. "Let's see what this can do... Stand back, everybody – it's been a long time since I called on a ring for knowledge."
Golden light flashed from the ring, swirling around Sonic. Then, the ring went out, and Sonic fell to the floor.
"Sonic!" Sally said with concern.
Sonic moaned. "Now I remember why I'd rather use the rings to juice – that hurt my head and my tush!"
Despite her concern over Sonic, Sally's first question was, "So where's the Crown? Did you find the Hall of Limbo?"
"No! But I did learn that the King's royal sword has a magical link to the crown, and it will lead us to it! ... But the riddle within the riddle is – we don't know where the Sword is, either!"
Sally closed her eyes and put her hand to her head, tears quickly forming. "It's hopeless!"
Sonic put his hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry, Sal, we'll find it... somehow."