Author Note: Just some small editing, real update today if I have time.
Chapter 15
It was the third day of marching, and the sun was already beginning to sink in the distance.
"Someone approaching." Knuckles said from the front of the column. The word was quickly passed down, and the freedom fighters stopped their march. The lone figure finally reached them and turned out to be a fox, probably around twenty years old. He stopped in front of Knuckles, took a single breath, and started talking.
"Private Duncan Bruce, sir, reporting from Second Regiment. Are you the Mobians we were sent to escort?" Knuckles stopped him with his hand as a whine was heard in the distance. It pitched into a roar as Tails' plane flew over them and to the North. Knuckles pulled out the radio from his pocket and held it to his face.
"Is there an army?" He asked. Tails voice came from the other end.
"Aye. Looking smart too."
"Okay. Loop around us and cover our rear." Knuckles put the radio away and turned his attention back to the soldier, who was still in shock.
"Yes, we're the Mobians."
"You've got a flying machine?" Duncan asked in wonder. Knuckles grunted at him and the fox coughed and stood to attention.
"Right. You're to follow me back to the main group. We're less than a kilo away." Knuckles nodded and yelled to get the freedom fighters walking again. They reached the camp quickly, and Duncan went to fetch the commander. The commander came out, an older fox and took his time to look over Knuckles and the rest of the freedom fighters.
"You're the Mobians?" He finally said.
"Yes." Knuckles said.
"You look the part."
"Why, thank you."
"That wasn't a compliment." Knuckles didn't reply.
"You're sloppy. You're a mob armed with peashooters and wearing those silly capes the Mobians used. You look like a cult." Knuckles breathed deeply for a few seconds before saying.
"These kids have won a battle against the Robotnik's forces." The old fox stared at him.
"Those were the rather cheaply produced Enforcers-"
"The same design that took out the Mobian Royal Guard fifteen years ago, and have a track record of facing down several well armed gangs without taking substantial damage. They were also the design used when the Robotnik cowed the North into licking his boot, something I still can't believe you did." The fox commander was fit to be tied.
"The North did not-"
"Yes, you did, mostly because your arsenal was not fit to handle the robot's armor. Our 'peashooters', on the other hand, were specifically made to penetrate armor. Also, these 'capes' help us stay hidden from the robot's light sensors, and that's important because directly assaulting them is, well… sloppy." The fox stood for a few seconds before straightening himself and forcing out:
"Well, that was certainly an… interesting debate on different styles of warfare, but I do believe that we have yet to formally introduce ourselves. Captain Sabertache at your service." The fox extended his hand.
"Knuckles." The echidna replied, taking the hand and shaking it briskly. The fox raised and eyebrow. "My actual name isn't safe to use." Knuckles replied.
"Ah." Was the captain's hesitant answer. "Well, we have provisions to tide your forces over until we reach Edmund's-Burrow." Turning to the army under his command, the captain started bellowing out orders and regaining his composure.
As the freedom fighters began taking food from the soldiers of the Northern army, Knuckles and Sabertache were heatedly discussing how the two armies would march in unison. Sonic, Sonia, and Manic stood with the rest of the freedom fighters as food was sorted to them, trying to avoid notice.
The soldiers seemed to generally look down on them, not just because they were naturally taller. It reminded them of the fact that they were all around fifteen, but some of the Northern soldiers looked only a few years older.
"Couldn't they look somewhere else?" Manic asked.
"At what?" Sonia replied. "We're the only thing out here."
"They could keep to themselves."
"They probably spent at least three days doing so. Besides you keep looking at them."
"Well… dang it." Sonic snorted and went back to watching the Northern soldiers. He noticed the odd, bulky rifles on their backs, and was forced to speak up.
"What kind of gun are those?"
"A-a new one." Some hedgehog said. Sonic glanced at him. He bit his lip nervously before trying to explain. "My- my dad knew a lot about… guns, and made me learn a bunch too. Those don't look like any design he… showed me."
"Right." Sonic said, and laid back to rest himself.
The next day Tails woke up in his shack, ate a short breakfast, and then went to his plane to start it up. He had originally thought he could land alongside the rest of the rebels, but it had turned out that the wilderness didn't have any ground flat enough to land the plane on.
Today however, he'd have to start going to Edmund's-Burrow to land, just to make the trips shorter. He had been told there would be a place to land, but that also meant he wouldn't have his supplies, or anything he had ever known, with him.
Thus he dutifully stuffed the plane as full as he could with anything he'd thought he'd need, including "Aeronautics of the 1910's", the Pre-Armageddon book that he had used when building his plane. He had been forced to improvise quite a bit for the design, but he thought the results were satisfactory.
On the up-side of his move, the back-up power source was proving itself quite nicely, having easily provided the energy for all the flying he had been doing. He got in and set up, then lifted off.
When the freedom fighter's started the march the next day, they found themselves in front of the Northern soldiers, so that "No one was left behind". They were also made to walk in neat lines so as to "Not get on the captain's bad side, which is also mine".
As they came to a stop on the fourth day, Sonic couldn't restrain himself from talking.
"I thought these guys were professionals? How come we've only gone about as far as we usually did."
"It takes quite a bit of organization to move an army any distance. Frankly, Knuckles' haphazard fashion risked losing people without anyone knowing." Sonia said. Sonic became very quite. "Frankly, it's a surprise that didn't happen." Sonic nodded and leaned back on the ground.
After the battle, he had been psyched to keep fighting the Robotnik, but instead he was on yet another long march. Thankfully it would only be a few more days until they got to Edmund's-Burrow… where he'd have to act like royalty. That would be painful.
"Hey, Sis." He said
"Yeah?" Sonia replied.
"What do you think we're going to talk to the king about?"
"Probably how the war will be run."
"Daah." Manic groaned.
"What?" Sonia asked.
"I do not like thinking about this as a war."
"Well, it is one." Sonic said. "'Botnik's probably going to try and take the North back, and he'd still want us three dead."
"Hey Sleet." Dingo said.
"Yes."
"If the kids went up north, then why are we going down south?" Sleet turned his view away from the Channel's waters to look at his partner and remind him why he was in charge.
"You see, the Robotnik's now in a war with the North, meaning we'd probably be detained if we went that way. And the kids are faced with the same problem."
"What do you mean?"
"They will try to overthrow the Robotnik by going straight to him, but they're army won't be able to absorb the losses of fighting through the Robotnik's forces. Therefore they're next move will be to loop around and take the Robotnik's city from the rear of the country, moving by sea. However, I already told him about that, so he'll have all the ports on Mobius fortified, forcing them either back to the North, but more likely to Thran."
"And we're gonna' catch them there?"
"Probably. Unless, of course, they have a good chance of winning."
"Do you think they do?"
"No. They're what, five hundred kids? That's nowhere near enough to win a war."
By the end of the sixth day, Sonic could see the city of Edmund's-Burrow before him. It was nowhere near the size of Mobius City, but still fairly impressive in its own right. They camped for the night, and woke up the next morning. Knuckles met the freedom fighters as a group, ready to oversee the separation.
"As I said, anyone who wants to leave now may do so. I am sure most of you know enough to get a job, and there will be many with the war that's bound to be starting, but I'll warn you now, you'll be on your own. No one will guide, no one will give you food. Also, you'll have to turn in your gun, your ammo, and your cloak to me."
There was a general nodding of heads. And then a pause. No one moved. Knuckles looked over them, trying to read their expressions. His head flinched back and forth faster and faster, before he finally yelled:
"Will someone leave already?" everyone cringed. Knuckles straightened himself as he saw captain Sabertache walking over.
"What seems to be the problem?"
"I am trying to make sure the people with me are actual soldiers, and not kids who've gotten too caught up in things."
"I think that's best done after you've met with King Robert. This is, after all, his country." Knuckles nodded.
"My men can watch the refugees for now. You and your 'guards' are to come with me to the king." Knuckles nodded slowly again.
"Come on." He told the three, and they followed the captain and his escort.
Two of the soldiers on guard looked at each other nervously as they saw someone running towards them. They sighed as they realized it was the mutant kid they were warned about. The soldiers stepped aside and let Tails walk past.
"Hey, is Sonic here?" He asked randomly.
"No; he just left." A pink hedgehog responded. She tapped the ground next to her and a human. "you can wait with us if you want.'
"Okay." Tails went over and sat down, slightly embarrassed but able to keep thinking that they were both a different species, and much older than him.
"So, where've you been staying?" The human asked.
"Um, at an army base just out of the city."
"Oh. Are they treating you good?"
"Yeah. They gave me a really comfortable bedroll to use and a tent. And the food is excellent." The nearby soldiers quickly covered their mouths and wheezed, leaning over to balance themselves.
"Is the plane okay?"
"Yeah. They had a road all set up for me to land on, and a place for the plane to stay. I was a bit worried about someone breaking in, though, so I decided to keep the power source on me." The hedgehog cocked her eyebrows. She was pretty sure a battery for such a machine would be bigger.
"Really." she said. "Where is it?"
"Oh." Tails replied, ruffling his hand in his pocket. "Right here." He pulled it out and showed them a large, starburst cut emerald.
As they walked up the path to the castle, Sonia couldn't help but talk.
"This formation is apparently the hardened magma from a volcano. The castle itself was built on the ruins of another stone structure that persisted at least up and to the Armageddon, but we don't know whether a nuclear weapon damaged the building, or if one was used on this general area at all."
Sonic at least pretended to listen, while Manic was busy staring wide-eyed at the various gold objects that decorated the king's castle. Knuckles coughed as a set of large door opened in front of them and they were ushered in to what appeared to be a throne room. A fox probably in his twenties was seated on a large chair, on top of what appeared to be a rock. In front of him were three more chairs, all turned to face him.
"You are dismissed, captain." Sabertache nodded and left the room with his soldiers. As the door closed behind him the fox nodded, stood up and bowed to each of the three, while Knuckles stood behind them and to the side. "Prince Sonic, Prince Manic, and Princess Sonia Needleson." Needleson? Sonic thought. Sonia bowed back to him and replied.
"King Robert Wallace." Manic sighed internally. He hadn't known the guy's name. Robert sat down and the three followed suit into the other chairs. Knuckles stayed standing.
"Well, I believe that this is your first time being addressed properly. Am I right?"
"Yeah." Sonic said.
"So, why'd you call us Needleson?" Manic asked, making sure he was not staring at the gold candle holders.
"That's your family name, whether you remember it or not." Robert replied
"Ah."
"Well, enough small talk: We need to get down to business. What your army will be doing next." There was a sudden and extremely fake cough from Knuckles. "If your commander could join the discussion."
"Of course." Sonic said, not knowing what had been restraining Knuckles in the first place. Knuckles nodded and stepped forward to stand next to Sonic's chair.
"First." He said. "We need to figure out who actually is in… their army. Everyone involved with the fight at the theatre was forced to go into your country for refuge. Not all of them are necessarily able or willing to fight. They had to at Knothole, but as of now they are safe."
"Mobius had a volunteer army?" Robert asked. Knuckle nodded his head.
"I see. We actually had quite a few refugees from when the Robotnik first took over, so we do have a bit of a program in place. Most of them are kids, right?"
"Yes." Knuckles said.
"Right. We'll get people to start sorting them out. For now, we need to figure out what you're doing next." Sonic raised an eyebrow as Robert pointed to him.
"I was planning to keep fighting." He said.
"Obviously. But you really won't be much good on the front line."
"What?" Sonic said rather loudly.
"Sonic." Sonia warned. "He means that we'd be better suited fighting somewhere else."
"That and it wouldn't look to good to have a bunch of kids dying right next to his army." Manic said. Robert nodded slowly.
"The problem is, I… can't think of the best place for a small army like yours to go."
"If I may?" Knuckles asked the three, leaving a thin trail of sarcasm in the air.
"Yes." Sonia said, neatly cutting off either of her brothers.
"Thank you. As we speak the Robotnik will be reassigning factories in Mobius to build his war robots, which will be significantly harder to fight than the Enforcers he currently has on hand. I suppose you have some way of dealing with them because of your openness in… reasserting sovereignty."
"Our best scientists perfected the hand-held form of those war machines' guns a few years ago, and they're heavy enough to penetrate the armor. We simply needed a good reason to declare war." Robert replied.
"I see. Still, the longer the war goes the more war machines the Robotnik will produce. Therefore, we should end this quickly before it can escalate too far. We need to stop the Robotnik himself."
"It won't be easy going back the way you came; He'll have it all fortified so my armies can't get to him quickly."
"Then we should take Mobius from the South, where he won't have it fortified. We'll need to take a few ships from here to do so though."
"Well, then. It sounds like a plan. Now, this is all theoretical, but what do you three plan to do once you've got you throne back." All three heirs bit their lips. None of them had thought about actually having to run a country. Manic finally shrugged, and then Knuckles gave him a death glare, stopping whatever he was going to say.
"We'll certainly be reestablishing most of the things the Robotnik removed, but we haven't thought about any particular policy in detail." Sonia finally said.
"Well." Robert said as he stood. "That's all for now." The three stood up and both sides bowed to each other. "It was a pleasure meeting with you."