Inside Sally's own personal training area in the palace; Sally was using her wrist blades against various guards with swords to test her skills, showing her impressive athletics as Nicole was cheering her on. "Okay Tails; what is so important that you dragged me here..." called a voice as Sonic sighed as he was following a smiling Tails into the area and Sonic then noticed Sally with her training as she then noticed them.
"I hope you don't mind but I thought that you could do with a new sparring partner so I thought that I would send Tails to retrieve Sonic." Nicole explained with a smile as Sally raised an eyebrow but beckoned Sonic over who then decided to roll with it and went over and gave Sally a smirk. The guards then went out of the main sparring circle as Sally started charging at Sonic with her blades but he just kept dodging and making taunting faces as he literally ran circles around her.
Soon Sonic ended up having Sally fall into his arms literally as they looked at eachother red in the face as he put her down with Nicole giving a smirk and thumbs up to Tails who gave a nod. "Just like when we met for the first time; I got called to the palace and I was bored while being made to wait; I ended up looking around and I accidentally pushed you off the balcony but caught you as I ran outside." Sonic reminded her and she giggled.
"Yeah you literally swept me off my feet; you have been darn lucky with how patient that Elias and I have been to you since the beginning..." laughed Sally and Sonic laughed along with her as Nicole & Tails laughed along with them. Then came barging in was Antoine causing them to glare at him for the intrusion.
"Pardon me everyone but his highness the King wants everyone gathered in the throne room; saying that it was urgent..." Antoine told them and they blinked and packed everything up so that they could meet up with the King as soon as possible even if Nicole was still upset about this interruption ruining her plan.
They met with Elias who was showing them a tablet and it showed a glitched out video message as they could make out what seemed to be a half robotic white furred Mobian facing the camera as he said:
"I beg of you... I... Been ten years but... One Devil Dog remains... If the Kingdom still stands..."
"I got this message onto the official royal message channel and this unknown channel got through but with a top secret tag and the system allowed it through as though it had been approved but there exists no previous message saved to the system. After I first played it; it almost quickly deleted itself but I got it saved just in time, I have no idea what is going on but I want it investigated." Elias explained looking quite concerned as they were all concerned about this.
"I am pretty sure that a message like this all jumbled is like from an old horror science fiction game or movie..." Sonic commented as Tails asked to see the message Elias gave him the tablet for a minute.
Tails then looked over it and did some hacking into it; "I have been able to pinpoint the source and it seems to be coming from in the air and I had to bypass some cloaking tech that seems to be barely operational. Still I can have the coordinates saved to the Miles Electric and we can take the Tornado to take a look." Tails offered and Elias gave a nod took out the Miles Electric and then sent to coordinates to it.
"Good luck out there team and do be careful please; I don't think that this could be Robotnik's doing so no way of knowing what happened..." Elias sighed looking quite worried as they gave a salute.
"Don't worry Elias; we will be cautious and face it on together." Sally assured her brother as they then began making their way to the Tornado.
Geoffrey was in his hospital bed doing well in his recovery from the experience with Naugus and was being visited by his main teammates and officials from the Secret Service. Dr Quack was checking some notes to make a report to Geoffrey about his recovery; Rouge was there making flirty comments to Geoffrey and he smiled but then there was a noise coming from his jacket. He then took a device from his uniform which was on the seat next to the hospital bed and it was a special alert.
"Oh no..." whispered Geoffrey in panic as he then got up on his feet and grabbed his stuff to put on and ripped off the hospital apron.
"Mr St. John; you are not fully cleared..." protested Dr Quack but Geoffrey pushed him back as he ran out of the hospital room to use a secret tunnel known only to the Secret Service so he could use a personal aircraft. He had no time to lose as he was being chased by Dr Quack, hospital staff and a concerned Rouge.
After a ride they came across the location up in the air and found what seemed to be a beaten down alien ship that was coloured black and red; they busted through and got off. They gulped as they noticed bodies on the ground that were just skeletons there and it didn't look like the place was being well looked after.
Tails was looking scared but Antoine was outright shivering and they heard a snarling noise; they then waited and out came a large bulking dark purple furred Tasmanian Devil Mobian. "New meat... Who are you and have you seen Zachary?" demanded the Tasmanian Devil as Sonic got Tails to go behind him protectively as Sally stepped forward.
"We found an SOS; you see I am Princess Sally of the Kingdom of Acorn and my brother King Elias found a signal and..." Sally explained only for Thrash to yell out a powerful scream with the team shouting in concern for Sally's safety.
"A princess from that accursed kingdom? Monsters and liars; we will all be avenged as I separate your head from your body..." snarled the Devil as Sonic then Spin Dashed him hard in the stomach and sent him back somewhat with him glaring at him. "Impressive; been awhile since I got a good fight..." grinned the Devil as he tired to grab at Sonic giving everyone time to run as Sonic then ran to join them.
They noticed an open door and went through and then it closed after them; "... After so many years I got the computer working enough to send a message and I calculated that it was a 47% chance that it would go through enough to be understood and for someone to be sent to find me. Thrash there is quite a handful and it has been only me and him for a long while." greeted a figure and their eyes widened as they noticed an elderly white furred echidna with his left arm, left side of his face robotic and wearing gold chains.
"You're an Echidna... I thought that they were all gone except for Knuckles when that Albion island returned..." Sonic questioned looking surprised and confused and Zachary grinned.
"Ah yes; my computers did pick up that Albion finally returned after so long gone thanks to the Warp Topaz that those Ixis wizards stole from me. I had hoped to find it again when I could so I could do it myself but right now after taking care of this mess, I should reunite with what of my kind remains." Zachary grinned and they just stared at them.
"I want to ask about Thrash but how are you still alive and a cyborg?" Tails ended up asking looking quite curious as Zachary coughed.
"You see I was the lead of an island of the Echidna Empire that focused on knowledge beyond instead of being warriors; the Emperor allowed us to study and we discovered early science on this planet. Then the invaders from the sky came and waged war against the Order of Ixis; we took heavy casualties and severely injured but the sky demons experimented on us turning us into part robotic expecting to turn us into soldiers. The experiments done to me made me unable to die from aging; we were lucky and used their own technology against them. I used the Warp Topaz that our island discovered to find a dimension that we called the Twilight Zone; I sent my brothers of the 'Dark Legion' as the invaders called us through but Ixis wizards attacked me and stole the Warp Topaz. Eventually I was able to get the last of the invaders' ship intact that I could find to get up in the air; waiting for a chance to find the Topaz again and set about freeing my kind. I was able to pick up on the banishment of the Ixis leader Mogul along with what could be the last of my kind not in the Twilight Zone but I couldn't find the Twilight Zone and I had to focus on keeping up repairs on my ship. You can see that Thrash here has ruined thousands of years of my hard work." explained Zachary as they took all this in.
"Okay... But what about Thrash?" Nicole asked as Zachary looked proud.
"Studying the world down below I found a potential benefactor and he made a deal with me to fund my work as well as give me resources to fix up my ship. I came to Downunda and found a village filled with orphaned Devils; the scientists that my benefactor provided me with offered them sanctuary onto my ship. I was able to experiment with them; creating a new breed of Devil Dogs who became quite feral. Turned on us and eachother; I am the only one of my staff left and Thrash is the last of these Devil Dogs. I have been spending a long time avoiding him on the ship as well as trying to repair things enough to send a distress signal." Zachary explained looking quite proud of himself when talking about his work as they looked horrified at him but soon it turned to glares.
"All in favour of using Zachary as a peace offering to Thrash to let us leave in one piece..." asked Antoine putting up a hand and a glaring Sonic put up his own hand and with much encouragement so did Tails; Nicole looked tempted to go with the boys but Sally put it behind her.
"You really are a piece of work; aren't you Zachary? You experimented on children; do you have any remorse or shame you monster?" Sally asked looking like she was stopping herself from using her wrist blades to slash through his robotic parts.
"I heard you before... Princess Sally brother of King Elias... So did something happen to King Maximillian because he did talk about his children. I am guessing the War ended in your favour after all or is he a puppet king?" Zachary asked with a smirk making them be taken aback.
"What... How did you know about our father? You talked to him?" Sally demanded as Zachary demanded.
"Who do you think that my benefactor was?" Zachary asked as Sally's mouth fell wide open as their eyes went all wide open. "Yes... Seems that the War was going so badly against the humans that your father was desperate; discretely funded my work so I can create the Devil Dogs to use as a disposable army for your Kingom. He was hesitant when I told him about using children from another part of Mobius as test subjects but he accepted it as collateral to save his people." Zachary said as Sally then glared hard at him and slapped him in the face.
"You're... You're lying! I will not tolerate this slander against my father! He had a plan for fight against the United Federation and it was the Chaos Emerad to be found!" Sally snapped into his face but Antoine nodding along.
"If you don't believe me then there is the main computer with the files on it..." smirked Zachary as they were taken aback but there was pounds at the door. Thrash got through as Dr Zachary opened up a secret entrance.
"I will hold them back; follow the mad scientist to hear him out..." Sonic told the others as he then charged at Thrash who could take a hit and they all followed Zachary through the entrance.
"Be careful Sonic!" his team yelled and Sonic gave them a thumbs up.
Nack had used the Warp Topaz to get inside this long downward tomb to get what was to be the 6th Chaos Emerald so that he could present it to Robotnik. All the possible entrances were sealed shut and no explosive could get through but the Warp Topaz would help with it and he hated to think what Robotnik would do if he failed.
He heard about the legends of this tomb being guarded by a massive monstrous chimera and so he was afraid; he came across the main part of the tomb and discovered the chimera itself...
Or rather it's skeleton as it seemed that keeping a chimera down here with no food to guard a treasure indefinitely wasn't the smart idea that it sounded like. He made his way through and smirked as he claimed the Chaos Emerald.
The group found themselves in a lab covered in dried blood with skeletons littering the area and it made them sink; Zachary went to a computer and booted it up with it taking some time and then they heard a thud as Sonic was thrown backward through the hall. "I am okay... I let him get a lucky punch in..." Sonic muttered as Tails and Sally helped him up concerned.
Then they heard the computer booting up and video footage of Zachary leading scientists to experiment on the Tasmanian Devils; unaffected by their terrified and pained screams. It made them sick but there was audio of giving reports to the king. Then a message opened up revealing an older regal looking chipmunk Mobian with a crown, royal jacket and brown moustache. "King Maximillian..." Antoine muttered as Sally was silent pleading for it to be a big joke...
"Zachary... It has been years and still I haven't got satisfactory results for the Devil Dogs... I am tired of this wasted money and making excuses so I can give these messages and make these calls; already bad enough with how much I have to do to cover this up when I have a War to focus on... The risk is becoming too great and every day I waste waiting for a miracle from you is another day that leads up to the humans beating us; I have found a lead to something that could turn the War in our favour... A thousand to once chance in an ancient legend but it still looks like a better solution than waiting for you to deliver on the Devil Dog soldiers that you promised..."
"What... But... No... It can't be..." Sally whispered with tears in her eyes as she took it in while Sonic and Nicole comforted her solemnly; that father she remembered as a benevolent loving king even if stern and took things seriously... He was taking funding these horrific crimes...
"Believe it Princess... I remember us all being promised a better life thanks to the servants of your father; only to be crushed... I remember us all pleading to be let go or to just end us... The rage and desire to destroy that we took out on eachother and what I felt when I realised what I had done to my friends... May the screams of the King's daughter soothe their ghosts..." Thrash questioned as he went ready to attack and the team pushed their feelings aside to defend Sally but she put up a hand to get them to stand down.
"Thrash... Nothing can take back what happened to you all and no apologies will be enough but I promise you that I will do my best to make it right... My brother when I show you... We will let the kingdom and world know off the injustice done to you all and Zachary will face justice..." Sally told Thrash softly and he looked at her as if saying he was humouring her.
"If only your father could see how spineless his daughter became without him to guide her..." scoffed Zachary to glares from everyone.
"Tails; put the Miles Electric into the computer and download all the data..." Sally ordered and Tails nodded as he then plugged the Miles Electric into the computer. They the saw Geoffrey enter the area looking serious; "Geoffrey... How did you get up in here and shouldn't you be recovering..." Sally asked but then Geoffrey put up his crossbow as he spoke in a low voice:
"I would stop what you are doing if I were you..."
Yeah, I decided to take Dr Zachary from the British Fleetway comics and made him related to the Dark Legion. You know that it's funny with how the British comic introduced a cyborg Echidna villain who had connections to the past lore of the Echidnas before Ken Penders started to. Inspiration for reveals in this chapter came from the Suicide Squad movie (and I hope that I don't have to point out that it's the one from the DC Comics movie president) and any Geoffrey fans; don't say that I didn't warn you before because I refuse to back down from my plans that I had from the beginning (reusing plans that I wanted to do for Sonic & the Freedom Fighters).