"Shoo! Shoo! Get away! SHOO!"

Sonia was busy swatting away pesky mosquito's and the like as she and the others made their way through Knothole Forest. It was a sight to be sure. Tall, hulking trees reached to the heavens, their leaves covering up the sky like a canopy and only allowing speckles of sunlight to break through. Small plants and weeds dotted the landscape, and while most of these were benign, Johnny made sure to steer them all away from any bouts of poison ivy. There also wasn't a single beast to be seen, though the occasional bird could still be heard chirping in the distance.

Johnny led the way with a compass from his backpack, eyeing the terrain and laying out wooden markers that were obvious enough for them not to get lost, but obscure enough so that Eggman couldn't tell just where they were supposed to be. As they traipsed on, the light had begun to dim ever more orange as sunset started to spread over the forest.

"Come on, cuz," said Manic. "One little bug isn't gonna kill you."

"You don't know that!", said Sonia. "And besides, they sting like hell! If nothing else, they're annoying, and we'd be better off being done with them and just getting rid of the whole darn species!

"Honestly," said Sonic, "I gotta agree. I don't think they should all be exterminated or anything, but I'd be lying if I said they didn't piss me the heck off."

"You think this is bad," said Johnny, "you should see some of the bugs in the marshes near the Mystic Caves. Those suckers are dynamite, let me tell you."

"With all due respect," said Antione, his legs knocking, "I do not think I wish to know, to being frank."

"Really," said Mina, "I'm more afraid of just being here than anything else. What if we don't get out again? What if Robotnik finds us? What if a bunch of wolves find us and catch us and tear our legs off and—"

Antione promptly let out a yelp of terror like a small child who had just seen his own shadow. As soon as he did, Johnny leaped over to him and placed his hand straight over his mouth, his eyes scanning the forest like a wild animal searching for predators. The coast apparently clear, Johnny took his hand off of Antione, though his countenance was still as grim as could be.

"Do NOT do that again!", he whispered. "Not here, and not now! Don't know what could be lurking around in here, nevermind if Eggman ever tries to go looking for us. Understand?" Antione nodded weakly. His message clear, Johnny slowly backed away from Antione and got back to business as usual.

"Wow!", said Mina. "And he seemed like such a nice guy too."

"He is Mina," said Sally."I think. But he did have a point." She looked at Antione with the look that one can only give when they know the recipient did a very bad thing, and when Antoine chuckled oh so slightly, he knew that he had indeed done a very bad thing.

"Uh, ahem, sorry."

"Don't worry about it Antione," said Sally, deciding it was best to let it go for now. "We're all a bit jittery. And tense. I honestly haven't had a chance to think about…"

Sally's eyes then began to mist up, her thoughts of all that had happened in just the last few hours suddenly rushing to the forefront.

"Hey," said Tails, "you okay Sally?"

"I, I'm fine Tails. I…" Sally tried her best to wipe away the tears from her eyes, but try as they might, they just kept coming. Sonia started to hear Sally's sobbing from the back of the line and realized in an instant that her petty concerns weren't very important.

"Oh God." She hurried over to Sally and gave her a gentle yet fierce hug, almost like a sister. "Come on, come on, let it all out." And Sally did. The whole rest of the group stood still and silent as Sally leaned onto her shoulder, crying like a woman whose life just has been turned topsy-turvy. It wasn't a sob of epic proportions, but it was a good long cry nonetheless. Sonic almost thought of interrupting the two to tell them to break it up and get on with it, but one sharp look from Manic said that this would probably not be a wise move.

After a while, Sally's tears finally started to let up, and she wiped away whatever drops happened to remain. "Thanks, Sonia. I needed that."

"No problem. Besides, you're not the only one worried about their father."

"Come again?

"I hate to interrupt," said Johnny, "but I think I found what we're looking for." He pointed towards a clearing straight ahead of them. It was dry, spacious, and most notable of all, nonflammable. Perfect spot for a campfire.

"Right," said Johnny. "I've got a tent and some basic tools in my backpack here. That said, we're gonna need someone to set the tent, someone to start a fire, and send some people out looking for food."

"I'll handle that," said Sally. "If anyone should be giving the orders, it's me."

"You sure you're up for it Princess?"

"Just call me Sally, please. And thank you, but yes. I think I am."

It wasn't long before Sally gave assignments to one and all. She tasked Johnny and Sonia with finding food on account of Johnny being the only one among them who could tell whether or not something was poisonous, while Sonia had a bit of experience camping and foraging for food herself, even if she was never too fond of it.

She then gave Sonia and Manic the job of setting the tent, and while one may think that the two fastest things alive would be able to set up as something as simple as a tent posthaste, the reality was that neither of them really had to be out in the wilderness for long thanks to their unique modes of transportation. The result was that the both of them didn't know the first thing about how to pitch one. They managed to finally get it in done about half an hour, but only because they were able to cram in three hours worth of trial and error worth at the speed of sound. It was like watching a circus on fast forward, and had a sort of strange ironic beauty all its' own.

Tails, Manic, and Sally were responsible for making the fire, and while Sally didn't know the first thing about it, both Tails and Manic thankfully did. That just left Antione, who agreed in a heartbeat to be the resident chef. Johnny and Sonia soon came back with a number of vegetables, herbs and spices, and even a couple of dead rabbits. ("One good whack with this mace is all it takes," said Johnny.)

Despite his initial reluctance to so much as touch a recently dead unskinned carcass, Antione soon went to work. Taking out a small pot and various utensils from Johnny's pack, he filled the pot with water from a nearby stream, heated it to boiling temperatures, and went to work on making a soup fit for royalty, which considering that one of their present company WAS royalty was fitting. Just about everyone had some bowls and utensils stuffed away in packs and satchels for the road, so without further ado, they all took several spoonfuls and dug in.

"Mmmm!", said Sonic. "Hey, Ant', you really are good for something! This has gotta be the best thing I've ever had this side of chilidogs!"

Antione, tugging at the fur on the neck like a collar, as if on the verge of perspiring. "Well, I would not know about that..."

"He's right you know," said Tails. "This isn't all that bad. It's actually pretty good!"

"Well, in training in the army, we are not usually given, shall we say, the most palatable of cuisines. But it is my opinion that an army that marches on its' stomach needs to be able to keep its' inners within said stomach as well. So if the army is not willing to do this for their soldiers, then I must figure that I must do it for myself if nothing else. And," he said, taking a sip from his bowl, "I must say, I do believe I have succeeded. Magnifique!"

"You should be proud, Antione," said Sally. "You've really outdone yourself."

"I"ll say," said Johnny. "I've been making stews out in places like this for longer than I can count and I've gotta say, I reckon this is the best one I ever had."

"Well, now that we're no longer marching on an empty stomach, as Antione said, that just leaves our first order of business. Where do we go from here?"

"Like I said," said Sonic, "we should just go in and take old Eggface out! Head in, beat the crap out of him, and we can all go do whatever."

"This ain't a game," said Johnny.

"Yeah, cuz," said Manic. "This is serious business. I think. You want to run all of this by us, Princess? Just so we're all on the same page."

"Oh, sorry," said Sally. "I guess I've gotten so caught up in everything going on around me that I haven't bothered to explain much of anything, have I?"

"Don't worry about it," said Johnny. "Just take it from the top."

And so she did. She told every little detail. About how her father, in a bid to improve the Acorn Kingdom's standard of living, made a deal with one Doctor Robotnik to do just that, using his considerable skills to get the kingdom on par with the rest of the world in exchange for access to the kingdom's treasury and resources. Of how she tried to infiltrate Robotnik's base and failed. "And the rest, you already know." She hid her face in her bowl as if in that moment, she couldn't bear to face the others.

"Yikes," said Manic. "Talk about a hostile takeover."

"To be honest," said Sonia, "I kind of suspected this sort of thing would happen."

"Come again?", said Sally.

"Well, I mentioned my father earlier, right? Draco Corniloni, one of the most powerful nobles in the whole kingdom. And one of the richest to boot."

"Corniloni?" said Sally. "But he lives in Mobotropolis." And like a bullet to the brain, it hit her like a brick. "Oh God, he must have still been there when Eggman attacked! I'm so sorry!"

"Uh, yeah, he just got back from a business trip over in Starlight City. Making connections and the like. But please, don't worry about it. I'm sure he'll be okay. And even if he isn't, well, what happens happens."

This, Sally hadn't expected. She knew Sonia cared for her father. She had said so herself, and she could see it in her eyes. And yet, everything else about her, her words, her body language; it all seemed to suggest a woman who honestly could not give a damn.

"Anyway, men like him have connections, so my father already knew about Eggman from the moment he and your father made that deal. And anyone making a deal like that isn't doing it solely for altruistic reasons, if at all. Didn't suspect he'd try to pull something like this though."

Sonic took another heaping helping of stew as he added his own two cents. "Yeah, you ask me, old Buttnik's got scrambled eggs for brains. I mean, no offense, but this place ain't exactly an evil overlord's wet dream."

"No," said Tails, "but it's the perfect place to build a power base. Think about it. He makes a deal with the King to use his treasury and resources in exchange for increasing the kingdom's standard of living. Which he does, but only to bolster his forces and arrange things in his favor, and when he's ready, he takes over the capital in a heartbeat. And now, once he's conquered the rest of the island, he can start issuing surgical strikes on the other islands, taking them over one island at a time and making himself even stronger with each conquest. Then he can move on to Down Undah, and from there, maybe even the boundaries of the Federation! And he'll just keep going from there."

"You're pretty smart for a pipsqueak, aren't you?", said Manic, having another spoonful of stew.

"It's Tails, and I'm twelve. I'm not that much of a pipsqueak."

"Anyway," said Sally, "Tails is right. As much as I hate to admit it, my father's kingdom is the least of our worries. If he takes it over, there's no telling what he'll do next. And I won't let him do what he did here anywhere else. And not with my fathers' kingdom. Do you understand me?" She looked at them all with the blazing yet steely fire of a thousand suns wrapped in ten solid sheets of adamantium. In other words, she meant business. They all nodded in agreement, tugging their furry or quilled collars as though she was giving off the heat of a thousand suns herself.

"That said," she said, "I'm not going to force anyone to do anything they don't want to do. Antione may be a royal guard or at least one in training, but the rest of you are free citizens, and I don't intend on pulling a draft. I couldn't even if I wanted to. Some of you aren't even from here! So instead, I'm going to ask all of you one simple question: Will you help me? Because I need all the help I can get."

All of them except for Antione, whose mind had already been made up, looked around at one another, suddenly faced with the most daunting prospect to ever haunt a living soul: A choice. To be fair, it was a hard thing to ask. They had been dragged into this with no choice but to follow along, but now, they had a chance. A chance to back out now if they so chose. To leave this island, never look back, and hope it all turned out for the best. To abandon this young princess in her hour of need—

"Yeah, why the hell not?" Sonic thrusted his hand into the air like a rocket, making it clear to all concerned just what choice he decided to go with. "Like I said, we go in, bust some heads, break some eggs, and take out old Eggface before he even knew what hit him. Might even be fun!"

"I still don't think it's going to be that simple," said Sally, "but I still appreciate the help. And to be honest, I'm not sure I could do this without you. Against Eggman's robots, we're going to need all the firepower we can muster. Without you, I'm not sure we'd stand a chance."

"Uh, then, I guess I'm in too." Mina slowly rose up off the ground, dusting off her skirt and adjusting her hairpins as she did so. "To be honest, I'm scared. Part of me just wants to look away, to turn my back on all of this and forget any of this ever happened. To not get involved. But I can't. Sonic isn't the only powerhouse you've got. As much I'm scared even to say it, you can count me in too!"

"And me," said Tails. "I may have just met Big Bro yesterday, but if he's willing to help, then so am I. Part of me's scared, sure, but I know at least half of us are. But I'm not going to let anyone suffer on my watch."

"That goes double for me," said Johnny. "I made the mistake of just standing by once. I ain't doing it again. Whatever I can do, count me in."

"Well," said Manic to Sonia, "if both cuz; and Mina are in, then I guess we're in too, aren't we Sonia?"

"Darn tooting! Besides, my father's still trapped somewhere in there. As complicated as it is between us, I'm not going to see Eggman do whatever he wants to him! Or anyone else."

"And of course," said Antione, "wherever you go, I go, Sally. Even if I do not always particularly want to."

Sally was speechless. She tried to say something, anything, to let them all know just how much this meant to her. That she thought they all might up and desert her if they got the chance. Anything at all. But instead, all she could muster was one slow tear running down her cheek and, after what seemed like forever, a soft, simple, "Thank you."

"Hey, don't thank us yet!", said Sonic. "We still gotta kick Buttnick's heiny!"

"Yes." Sally wiped the tear from her cheek as she slowly and steadily got herself together. "Yes we do. But first thing's first. We need to rescue my father. And I think I know how to do it."