Sonic stumbled slightly from being shoved into the office, recovered, and took a look around. The office was a small cave lit by hundreds of fragments of gems that lined the walls and ceiling. At the back was a desk of what Sonic guessed was oak with the familiar looking black symbol on its front. The desk itself had no decorations, just a white crystal stuck inside a lamp like construct, a pencil can, and a knife. Sitting behind the desk was pine martin with sable fur and purple patches of fur. Looking up, he put down his pencil and stood to meet them, leaning heavily on a walking stick with a gold ball on the top.
He was wearing a long, dark green uniform coat that was open, exposing a dark blue vest and dark green pants. The coat had a veritable collection of medals on the right and stripes on the left. On his left shoulder was a patch with a picture of a rusted sword that was dripping blood. On the other was a picture of ten swords crossing each other. He tired look to his face that one gets from seeing too much war and his eyes dark brown eyes had a haunted look to them, as if he had seen years of death. He also wore a dark green peak cap decorated with a small badge with a symbol of a white four pointed star surrounded by three other four pointed stars over what looked like a planet and against a rising sun. The hat always seemed to his one of his eyes.
"So you're Sonic the hedgehog" he said in a warm, young sounding voice that confirmed Sonic's suspicions, "It's nice to finally meet you. I'm General Shroud, commander of the unit you'll be meeting in a moment." He extended his right hand and Sonic shook it, noticing the General's glove had a circle and a series of symbols colored gold on the back. "Now that the formalities are out of the way, Whitefang will escort you to the meeting room. I need to have a word with Riverheart about letting Dash open a portal right into our base!" He said the last words with a snarl, looking terrifying.
Sonic nodded dumbly and followed the white wolf out of the office. "So that's the General huh? What's he like in your opinion?" he asked Whitefang after some time. "He's served the Resistance Army faithfully for a long time, he's trusted" was all the wolf would say, and Sonic could get no more out of him.
Sonic and Whitefang walked for a few minutes before coming to a large door. Whitefang pushed it open, and they walked inside. It was a large room also lit by crystals that gave off a green light. In the back of the room was a raised platform of stone with a chair behind it, and behind that were a series of crystals perfectly arrayed into a large rectangle. In the center of the room was a large circular table with an insignia in the form of ten swords crossing each other. Seated at the table were eight people.
Closest to Sonic was a tiger wearing a desert cloak and a white turban. On his right was a large, black cloak wearing badger with all black fur save a white middle stripe. On his right was an old looking hedgehog with snow-white fur, quills hanging back and wearing a snow white cloak that was clasped at the shoulder by a snowflake shaped blue clasp. Next to him was a human woman that looker about her sixties, judging by her grey hair. She wore a silver-white dress with ribbons coming out of the sleeves and was currently comforting a still slightly weeping Dash, whose chair was next to her.
Next to Dash's empty chair was a female squirrel with chocolate brown fur and wearing a forest green archer's cloak. Strapped to her back was a quiver of arrows and a bow. On her right was another hedgehog with rain cloud grey fur, and wearing a grey suit, overcoat, and fedora along with wire framed- oval glasses. Next to him was a Japanese rhinoceros beetle with a crimson exoskeleton and a Daimyo's kimono. The next two chairs were empty; when Sonic inquired about them Whitefang just looked at him.
"Those would be ours" said Riverheart as he entered the room followed by General Shroud "And as for whom we are, the General will tell you." "Actually" responded said commander, "I have to look over the reports before we begin so you do it." And he walked up to the platform, walking stick tapping away on the stone floor. Riverheart looked a bit miffed but smiled again.
"Understood sir. Well Sonic, it seems I have the pleasure of introducing you to the Tenacious Ten. We are exactly what we look like, ten of the greatest warriors in all the War Torn Lands." The various members, save Dash, nodded to Sonic who gave them the thumbs up. "Nice to meet you" he responded. "I'll let them introduce themselves" Riverheart said and went to his chair. Just as Sonic was about to make his rounds General Shroud cleared his thought. "Ahem, well the formalities are out of way so I'll get to the point." He looked pointedly at Sonic.
"Sonic, is there anything you want to ask before I ask you something?" The blue hedgehog nodded. "Yeah, several questions actually." The pine martin nodded, "Fire away." Sonic leaned against the wall before starting. "Well first, where on Earth are we? I've been all over the planet and I've never heard of the War Torn Lands." The General smiled. "I was wondering when that would be brought up. I'll be blunt; we're on Earth but not on Earth." General Shroud raised his gloved hand to forestall any further questions.
"Let me explain. The War Torn Lands are an alternate dimension that's tied to the Earth. That's how it is we're on Earth and yet not on Earth. So, what's your next question? Be quick about it!" Sonic raised an eyebrow but asked his next question. "How is it that Eggman is here and how can he still be alive?" General Shroud sighed and rubbed his temples. "Oh what a tale I have to tell you there. Okay, I'll start from the beginning. A long time ago he just appeared out of nowhere in a massive warship. He must have done some reconnaissance because he went after Halgaia first.
"Before you ask, Halgaia is… was the greatest fortress in all the War Torn Lands. Never in its history had it ever been conquered completely. Until Eggman that is. He took it using chemical and biological weapons, things we long ago agreed never to use. Once he had Halgaia it was easy enough for him to set himself as de facto ruler of the War Torn Lands. This was approximately fifty thousand years ago. As to how he's been alive for so long, we have no idea. Our best scientists and sages have been pondering that forever."
As Sonic digested this information, Riverheart spoke up. "You're probably wondering why we haven't been able to beat him yet if it's been so long." Sonic nodded and Riverheart began his own explanation. "Well here's the deal. Eggman spends most of his time holed up in Halgaia, which is impossible for us to take at the moment. Take a look." From somewhere under the table he produced a rolled up map which he placed onto the table. Rolling it open he motioned for Sonic to come over.
"Take a gander at this. This is a map of Halgaia and the surrounding area." Bending over Sonic saw a ring of mountains. "Extremely high up" Riverheart explained, "So high no aircraft of any kind can go over them. Not even Eggman has done it. They're also too steep to climb and even if you could, there's no gap or pass to take advantage of, save one." The otter pointed to a small pass facing east. "That's the only way through the mountains. There used to be a fort but it was constantly being destroyed so they just gave up on it. Besides, there are some rather… unpleasant creatures inhabiting the mountains."
Riverheart now pointed to a large patch of green that surrounded the fortress. "This forest is another source of bother. The trees are extremely close together and the roots stick out of the ground all over the place, making it dangerous for someone with an ability like yours to run in there. If that weren't enough, there are Rangers patrolling it." Sonic looked up questioningly. "Rangers? As in forest rangers?" The otter let out an annoyed sigh and slapped the ground with his rudder tail. "No, I mean the blend into the scenery and shoot you between the eyes from a mile or so away with a bow and arrow Ranger. My younger brother, Creekspirit, is one of them.
"The good news is, the Rangers are against Eggman so we don't have to worry about them." Sonic looked up from the map again. "But it can't be that easy right?" Riverheart sighed sadly. "No, it never is. We have to worry about the patrols of robots Eggman put into the forest, and if that weren't enough, there's the power of the forest itself." Again Sonic raised an eyebrow. "The power of the forest" he said skeptically. "I've seen a lot of things before, but a magic forest?"
Now the squirrel glared at him. "Magic forest?" She said angrily. "Magic forest?" She got up and stomped over to the hedgehog. Jabbing him in the chest she practically yelled, "The Halgaia forest isn't magic. It's sacred. It's as old as the War Torn Land itself. Because of this fact, the forest confounds all who enter it, save the Rangers who patrol it. Never, ever call it magic again!" Sonic was so caught off guard, all he could do was put his hands up in a placating gesture.
Fortunate, and surprisingly, Whitefang saved him from further trades by walking up to the squirrel and putting a hand on her shoulder. "Peace, Lyra. Don't waste your fury on him." Lyra whipped around to face the wolf, still angry. Surprisingly, she calmed down after a while. "Of course, thank you Whitefang. I wasn't myself." So saying she walked back to her chair and sat down, acting as if nothing had happened. For a moment, there was just silence, broken by General Shroud tapping his staff on the ground. "Ahem, can we hurry this up? I have a mission to brief some of you for."
Riverheart nodded to his commanding officer and wrapped up the explanation. "The point is Halgaia is too well defended to make a move on until we've destroyed enough of Eggman's bases and factories. That and get help from whoever we can because Eggman can call upon the other fortress all over the War Torn Lands for reinforcements. We hope you'll help us." With that he wrapped up the map and put it back under the table. "There's time for one more question. What'll it be?" Sonic though for awhile, then made his inquiry. "Who's the Cloaked Sorcerer?"
Sonic noted that General Shroud's gloved hand twitched slightly at that question. "We have no idea" the pine martin said. "We know he's not an enemy and thank goodness for that. But he's also not an ally of ours. He's popped up every now and then but before we could get to him he always disappears." The General sighed tiredly and slumped in his seat. "Well now that that's out of the way, I'll ask my question of you, though you no doubt know what it is."
Sonic grinned. "You want me to help you out against Eggman don't you?" When the General nodded Sonic gave him the thumbs up. "You can count on me." General Shroud looked at the hedgehog with the visible eye from under his hat. " I hope so Sonic the Hedgehog. This isn't just some small scale resistance like you did against Dr. Robotnik, this is war in all its ugliness. Tell me Sonic have you ever been in war? A real war?" Sonic shook his head. "I thought so. Well you better get ready, because this war against Dr. Eggman will change you. Forever."