Prologue part two: Invasion!

"Alfonzo! Alfonzo! Wake up!" Salvatrice came running into my room in her nightgown, a panicked look on her face. "The Eggman empire is invading!"

I awoke with a start in the middle of the night, my eyes slowly adjusting to the darkness all around me. Throwing off my covers and leaping from my bed, I look at my sister in shock. Remembering the pranks my sibling is known to play on me, I give my little sister a skeptical look.

"Ha ha, very funny, Sal!" I grumble, combing fingers through my hair. "Did Scarlett put you up to this, like she did the time you two tried to shave my tail fur off?"

"No, no this is real, I swear!" The sixteen-year old panicking princess yelled in my ear. "His airships are outside, look!"

I saw the searchlights through the windows, and rushed took look out at the ominous shapes floating in the night skies above. More than thirty warships hovered over the capital, blotting out the stars, and shining their eerie floodlights in every direction. The vessels opened their lower cargo bay doors, dropping hundreds of egg pawns and egg robos down onto the streets below. The robotic troops begin to fire upon our citizens and their shops and homes, and soon there are fleeing islanders, and the entire capital is ablaze.

Sal and I were staring at this dreadful sight in horror, when Nanny Rosa came rushing into the room in a panic.

"There you are, principessa! I've been looking for you everywhere!" She grabbed my sister by the arm, pulling her towards the door. "We've got to get out of the castle, hurry!" Turning back towards me she hastily bowed. "You should ready yourself for battle, mio signore principe, your father and his troops are holding off the badniks in the throne room!"

"Goodbye, big brother!" I hear Sal yell back to me, as the woodchuck nanny pulled her along. "And good luck!"

Nodding, I quickly throw on my jacket, and grab my rapier, and rush to join my father in defense of our people. When I get out into the hallway, I already see the steel forms of motobugs cruelly chasing the panicked servants around. Falling back on the battle training both I and my sister had received, I rushed towards the badniks, curling into a ball and bouncing off of each motobug, smashing almost a dozen of them into pieces. I barely hear the grateful thanks of the remaining servants, as I rush on towards the throne room.

"Father!" I cry out,as I rush into the great hall, to see a room of smashed badniks and fallen guards. Only King Umberto is still standing, holding off a swarm of egg fighters armed with the mighty sword of Ghianda. Quickly I am at my father's side, stabbing away at the remaining egg fighters with my blade. Together well fell what is left of the robots in the room, before he turns to me and speaks.

"Alfonzo, I'm glad you're here." He says grimly, a determined look on his face. "We are outmatched and were outfought this day... someone within these walls betrayed us." His eyes narrowed. "I want you to taker your sister- and the rest of the survivors of the royal court- and flee deep into the sanctuary in the nearby forest. You will all be safe there,away from where Eggman can touch you."

"No, father!" I raised my voice protest. "Let the others flee, send me not from your side-!"

"You must go!You and your sister must be ready to lead our people! To see them through the dark times ahead!" Storming over to me, he took my training rapier from me, and thrust the sword of Ghianda into my hands. "They will need you and Salvatrice, to lead the fight to take back our island!"

Looking at the mighty blade in my hand, I stammer out. "But, father..."

"NOW GO! I'll hold them off" He called out, shoving me away as more egg fighters swarmed into the room. "Take the secret exit,and get the survivors to safety!"

Nodding quickly, I take the secret passage behind the throne, and a quick run though the tunnel leads me outside the walls of the capital. I soon join up with the other refugees, where my sister and our friends are leading the refugees away from the city, towards the safety of the great forest. Sal and I used spin dash attacks, to clear away the egg pawns in our way, as we swiftly made our way through the darkness.I could hear the wail of babies as mothers tried to shush them, and the whimper of small children as grandparents tried to comfort them. That was mostly in are group- the very young, and very old. Those who couldn't stay behind and help, in the futile attempt to aid our kingdom.

Looking back, I saw our friends- Nicola, Danton, Scarlett, and Fissago- marching among the refugees- and all in shock and disbelief over what had happened. They It was strange to see the normally brave and charismatic Danton cower and quake in fear, or to see the usually quiet and humble Fissago step up, and use his great strength to aid others, like pulling a cart of possessions to aid an elderly couple,or move debris out of the way to clear a path.

But the one that surprised me both was my showed the full extent of her bravery that day, urging the emotionally broken members our little ragtag group onward with gentle yet hopeful words. She proved to me that day she was no mere spoiled princess, but instead a freedom fighter, who could stand strong in what was to come. As we reached the edge the edge of the treeline of forest foro del nodo, I watched her handle a crisis with finesse I could only dream of.

We were just passing under the shadow of the trees, as the remains of our kingdom's air forces fought the buzz bombers and bakiris in the skies above. A stray laser blast hit one of the great oaks, and it came crashing down on Scarlett. We all raced over to her as she cried out, and Our walrus friend lifted the tree off of her... and to our horror, we saw that Scarlett's legs and been right arm had been crushed beneath the mighty tree. I gently picked the sobbing rabbit girl up, and carried her with us as we went.

It was a long, arduous trek though the chilly night, but our little train of refugees finally made it to the fallback shelters deep in the island's great forest. Located at the site of our kingdom's ancient capital, this place had been rebuilt to house my father and his court in hiding should our island ever be invaded or conquered by one of the other islander nations. It did not have enough supplies and food to see us through move than three months. Sal and I run a head count, and found there were only about three hundred of us, from the castle and the capital; three hundred, out of a city that had a few thousand citizens. And most of those were either too young or too old to mount any kind of Resistance against Dr Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik.

As I wondered among the barracks in our new 'home' , I saw frightened families trying to find places to live in tiny, overcrowded barracks, and put away the few possessions they still had. I saw the royal doctors, who had escaped the palace busy working in the med bay, tending to the wounded, and trying to save Scarlett the Rabbit's life with some kind of experimental procedure. The first week or so, I wandered around in shock and disbelief, helping the other men with manual labor setting up tents and moving supplies around.

But my sister... Sal quickly got over the shock of losing the only home we had ever known, and took charge, organizing and coordinating our efforts to survive out here.I didn't understand... we had lost everything, our castle, our island, our father... how can she not be in shock and sorrow? How can she just snap to leading our people, and raising their broken spirits? I didn't understand, how can she be smiling and laughing, after all that has happened? Our father could be dead, and she's telling everyone out here everything is going to be okay?

For many, many days of me mechanically going through the motions of helping, my subjecting calling out to me to ask what they should do, and I just stared blankly at them before wandering off somewhere else. It was on the third week, when I finally felt a hard SLAP across my face.

"Alfonzo! Pull it together!" Salvatrice yelled at me, for the first time in her life. "You are the crown prince, and our people need you!"

"How... how can you ask that of me, after all that has happened?" Shaking, I slipped the diadem crown off of my head, and offered it to her. "Here sorellina (little sister), you have shown yourself to be a much more capable ruler than I."

"NO!" Sal almost snarled, grabbing the crown from my hands, and forcefully shoving it back onto my head. "YOU are the crown prince, grande fratello (big brother), you were born into this world to rule our kingdom!" She gestured her hand to all of the refugees around us. "Now man up, fulfill your responsibilities, and LEAD!"

That was the slap I needed, to pull myself out of my stupor, and got snapped me back to reality. Soon, I was in the planning sessions and meetings with Sal, and it wasn't long before the two of us had organized a band of refugees into a small, functioning community. I may have jumped in to help more at the end, but it was my sister's determination and spirit that carried us through those first dark days.

We had survived, but for Sal and I... our plans went far beyond that. Fissago and Nicola had managed to get the facility's dusty old communication system working, and had received messages from the outside world that Sonic's friends had managed to get a resistance going against eggman's forces. Sal spent a long time talking over the radio with the other cells of the resistance forming around the world. It was then we began to organize, to plan... gathering what few weapons we had, and plotting out strategies to launch a guerilla campaign to take back our homeland. Here we were, a bunch of children and a few old people (I was the oldest of the 'kids', at eighteen summers.) ready to take on the largest evil empire in the world. It was both thrilling... and scary... at the same time.

The core of our group was already beginning to take shape; Salvatrice and I took leadership positions, while Danton put together what would pass for 'security' ion our little refuge here. Fissago took over the motor pool and armory for our vehicles and weapons, while Nicola was working on the communication devices and other tech we could use in the field. Scarlett had shockingly recovered from her injuries, her legs and right arm now covered in an experimental exo-armor they had been developing on the mainland (and they could never replicate again, her doctors told me). And she was eager to get out in the field, and smash up some badniks for what they had done to her.

We discovered other allies among our ranks, as well. A young ram maned Aries, the son of an architect in town, helped us build and maintain a series of slides, passageways and traps to get in and out of our sanctuary unnoticed by Robotnik's forces. A goat named Griff, the son of our kingdom's intelligence agency that served my father, coordinated communication between our resistance, and those still living in the villages and towns the egg army occupied. And a young Sungazer lizard named Dulcy, who had been visiting our kingdom with her family at the time of the attack, she had a most valuable ability. When pumped with enough chaos energy from stolen chaos drives, she could turn herself into a small-sized dragon, serving as series firepower on missions in a small, stealthy package.

It was Nicole who came up with the idea for code-names for members of the royal household, to cover our identities in case the wrong person was captured. It was Scarlett supplied the code names, handles that would mask our identities to anyone outside of the organization, so of course they were all in English...and they were all goofy-sounding.

"Ah'll be Bunny Rabbot, and Sal? Y'all cain be Sally Acorn. Danton- y'all cain be Antoine- no hidin' that Frenchie accent o' yours, darlin."She pointed her finger back at our walrus friend. "Fissago? Y'all cain be called Rotor, since ya'll like workin' with gears so much, an' Princey-"

"I will be keeping my own name, thank you very much." I replied, straightening my jacket. "My people need to know I am still alive... and still fighting for them."

" And I shall simply anglicize my name from Nicola to Nicole, though I think I shall stay back at the base, and coordinate our resistance branch's efforts." The Lynx looked over at me thoughtfully, as if seeking my approval. I nodded, and she continued. "In fact, let the outside world this I am some sort of A.I., communicating with all of you through those handheld PDAs Fissa- er, 'Rotor' and I repaired." She tilted her head thoughtfully, putting her headset back on, and turning back to her computer monitor. "Hm, perhaps I could talk in a hollow, computer-like voice to complete the illusion, maybe even look into creating a holo-avatar..."

And so, we schemed and plotted, putting together the plans that would reclaim our home from an egg-shaped monster. Soon,we would learn of the horrors Robotnik would inflict upon our people, and the Eggman empire would feel the vengeance of our Island's branch of the resistance. Soon, the doctor would face the wrath of our Freedom Fighters.

Next: Chapter one- The resistance begins!