Author's note; things will start to get familiar here soon; do note that with sonic being held on the death Egg, and Tails off dealing with his trauma over Sonic's capture, two characters have to step forth in this universe to take their place in events. Fortunately, the main game/IDW verse provides two such characters who aren't really busy in the modern gaming era. Hold one to your hats, dear readers, this is where things get... eerily familiar.
Chapter one: Sabotage, and new friends!
Author's note: For reader convenience, all characters shall be referred to by their code names for the remainder of the story, until the island is liberated from Eggman's rule.
The first stages of our little rebellion started simply enough; putting the plans together and making the connections we needed all over the island, and laying out our long term goals. The first attacks were also simple enough; A badnik transport blown up by Rotor and Antoine here, a fuel depot set ablaze by a dragon-form, Dulcy's fire there, and we made Robotnik's first month of trying to establish his forces upon our island a nightmare for him. We little understood what we were doing in those early days, falling back on what little training in black ops and guerilla warfare a few of us had received from our now missing- or dead- parents. But we were able to do a little damage, thanks in part to the fact Eggman's badniks and other robots were not very bright. It took quite some time for that mad scientist to realize there was even a resistance on this island, and by then we were a bit more experienced at what we were doing.
It was a difficult adjustment, in those early days; each of us moving into our own house that Ari and his work teams had built, a bunch of teenagers who were suddenly the only adults who surrounded them were ones servants and subjects who had no authority to give us orders or tell us what to do. Rotor ended up spending all day and night in the armory, throwing together every type of weapon he could think of. While Antoine trained with his saber, and tried to hide his fear. Bunnie would divide her time between using her enhanced strength to help out the maintenance crews lift heavy objects, and styling the hair of every female islander in the resistance camp. Sally tells me she aspires to be a beautician one day, if the world is ever freed from Eggman's iron grip.
"Oh Antione! It was just a little 'ol spider crawlin' up yer leg!" Bunnie scorned the coyote one day, shaking her head at our friend's overreaction. "when are y'all gonna stop bein' such a fraidy dawg?"
"I am sorry, mademoiselle, but ze threat, she could be anywhere!" Antoine exclaimed, biting his claws nervously. "You saw how ze Eggman's forces came out of nowhere and attacked ze palace, who knows when zhey could surprise us again?"
In contrast to Antione's cowardice, was the attempted bravery of our recently arrived new friend, Dulcy. The green Sungazer lizard has been helpful and eager to please, and is very handy helping out with whatever task is needed. Like most sungazer lizards, she is very shy and unsure of herself. I saw her too nervous to walk up and talk to sally and Bunnie about joining them on a girl's sleepover at my sister's hut. And during a small dance we held two months after we set up camp here, I saw her turn away and blush whenever any of the boys asked her to dance. This shy reservedness does not extend to the battlefield, as she will down a few chaos drives, and go full dragon on a badnik hoard. I just wish she's weren't so clumsy in both dragon and islander forms, a trait I've heard sungazer lizards all share.
"Don't worry ma, I'll be okay." She once said dizzily, after flying headfirst into a tree. "When is the world gonna stop spinning around?"
Nicole spent most of her time either in front of the computer monitor, playing her role as a 'holo-lynx', coordinating the assaults of the smaller resistance groups across the island, talking 'girl stuff' with my sister and Bunnie, or sitting quietly beside me while I read my books. I enjoyed the lynx girl's comapny, and we would often discuss things from the literature and history books I read; she was a very good listener. The resistance urged me to not go directly out into battle and put myself at risk, so I was forced to leave command of many of the field missions to my sister. Nicole's company was a comfort while I was stuck on a makeshift wooden throne they had carved for me while I was stuck at the base.
"Oh mio Dio, mio principe (Oh my goodness, my prince!), you certainly do read a lot!" Nicole once told me during a walk through the nearby woods one evening. "Se tu per favore, I can have some of our agents requisition you some more books from the village and town libraries, the next time they journey out on a mission."
"Grazie, Nicola; thank you." I replied to her with a smile. "I would really appreciate it."
At the time, I thoguht she was a dear friend, trying to keep my spirits up while the others were away on missions. Oh, how little I understood the hearts of islander women at the time...
It was at the beginning of the second month, that our resistance received our first two surprises. the first was the arrival of the Egg Governor that Eggman had chosen to rule over us; which turned out to be his own nephew, Julian Robotnik. Governor Julian arrived on the island with much pomp and fanfare, and as we watched the ceremony on Nicole's monitor, we saw he was trying to make himself seem more important than he really was- all decked out in a green version of his uncle's jacket and black pants. It turned out the little man was really little more than a coward, bowing and sniveling to his more intimidating uncle like the floor-scraping toady he was. Bunnie suggest the name Snively for him, and so the insult spread through our ranks, and become what the Sabato island's resistance called the little bald human. Yet this annoying twerp would be our primary adversary in the half-year long struggle ahead.
The second miracle that fell into our laps, were two new foreign fighters to our cause. A few days after Snively's arrival, a prisoner transport was passing overhead the great attacked the massive airship with our ground cannons, and managed to bring it down just outside of the treeline. After fighting off the egg pawn guards aboard the vessel, we manged to rescue the ninety-some prisoners Eggman had aboard. As Sally and Antoine were opening the cells and releasing the captured, two egg pawns snuck up behind them, and prepared to strike. Two powerful mobians- a red one and a yellow one- suddenly burst forth from the cell- a red one and a yellow one- and spin dashed into the two badniks, busting them to pieces. After the two strangers rescued my sister and Antoine, our team and the all of the prisoners escaped back into the forest, before Snively's reinforcements could arrive.
After they were all safety back at the resistance base, the he two foreigners introduced themselves; Mighty the Armadillo, and Ray the flying Squirrel. We knew of these two famous but minor heroes, of course. Having first met each other when Eggman captured the two of them and Sonic to run experiments on islanders, they had helped sonic and his friends out on many adventures, and both had even been members of the Chaotix crew early in it's history, during the brief time Knuckles the echidna led the group. The two had been wandering the world since those early days, and had been helping protect a village when Eggman's invasion had begun, and had been captured early on. They were more than eager to join our resistance branch, and help in the fight against tyranny.
"Count me and my little buddy in, we'll help you take down Robotnik's whole operation!" Mighty boasted proudly. "He's been making our lives miserable since for years!"
"Yeah, we'll help you kick that ol' egghead's tail in!" Ray enthusiastically agreed, before stopping to think. "Wait, does he even have a tail...?"
And what a help they were! Mighty's speed (fast, while still far slower than Sonic's) and great strength, coupled with Ray's ability to fly, proved to be a valuable asset against the Eggman empire. I was taken aback by how well they both got along with the other resistance members, each finding their own role to play in our group. Ray became almost like the little brother to everybody, even though he was the same age as Sonic's buddy Tails. Ray's silly antics made everybody laugh at a time laughter was really needed, and on missions the flying squirrel served as the perfect scout and courier. Mighty, meanwhile, became our stoic strong man, peaceful in nature most of the time, but quick to wrath if riled up. I have heard some among us say we would have been better off if Sonic and Tails had been part of our group, and that these two are merely the next best thing. Personally, I am proud to have these two foreign heroes fighting for our cause, and would take them over the blue blur and his friend any day.
And we needed all of the help we could get, as our little rescue mission had finally made Snively aware of our little operation. The little worm doubled down on his efforts to take us down; introducing a new badnik model of his own design, the humanoid S.W.A.T.-bot, and tired every trick in the book to locate our resistance base, and it became sort of a cat-and-mouse game over the next few months. My brave warriors would go on missions to sabotage and damage the eggman empire, and Snively would send his forces to attack us. my sister would lead our brave forces out, and I am still amazed by some of the fantastic tales they brought back.
Some of these adventures were strikes against Eggman's control. First, was was the raid that destroyed the stealth badnik factory, that cost our most elderly resistance member, Cat, his life. One of our teams foiled Snively's underground crystal mining operation, which Eggman's forces were mining a giant crystal for energy. The team rescued Rotor's imprisoned father Tundra, who was being forced to work on the mining equipment down there, and blew the whole mine sky high. We even managed to blow up Eggman's main power generator on the island, in an extraordinary mission led by my sister.
There were many powerful artifacts of relics of this island, hidden away since ancient times, that the Eggman empire tried to steal. And it was our teams of operatives that had had to stop them. Using a plane Rotor cobbled together - nicknamed the assaltatore della libertà (freedom stormer)- Sally took her team high into the mountains of our islands, to the ancient city of Maga. there, she managed to save some ancient texts called the secret scrolls from Snively's grasp. Eggman learned of an ancient human wizard in the forbidden swamp, known as Lazaar, and had Snively send his badnik forces out to steal the wizard's spell book. Our teams had to foil that scheme, as well, and we teamed up with the hermit wizard to reclaim the spell book, and drive Eggman's forces out of the forbidden Zone.
There were also many attempts by Snivley to lure our resistance group out or trap us, of course. And some of his attempts were borderline ridiculous. There was the time he developed an islander-seeking missile, keyed in on our species's DNA. That stupid missile managed to chase Mighty all over the foro del nodo forest, while the other members of the resistance stopped a bunch of badniks that were going to drop a bunch of chemicals, and kill all the plat life in the forest to reveal our hidden location. The team manged to get the missile to hit the toxic chemicals and the badniks, destroying them both. Another incident was when Snivley managed to capture Sally, and sent a robot duplicate in her place to try and discover the location of our base. That blasted android had almost all of us fooled... even me! (to any of Sonic friends, do not ever ask Ray about the 'funny kiss', ever!) But we managed to rescue Sally, and dispose of the evil robot duplicate.
Though all of these insane adventures, there were also quit moments, as well. I watched bunny and Antoine slowly grow closer with one another, as she helped him overcome his fears. I witnessed Dulcy the sungazer grow braver and more confident in herself, being able to help out in tasks where she didn't have to turn into a dragon. Rotor... I felt sorry for my poor friend, as he always felt a little apart from the rest of us. Antione told me he might be working on building a robotic girlfriend named 'Ro-becca' out of badnik scrap we've collected, I really hope it's not true. And Sally... little Salvatrice has been forced to grow up so fast, taking on responsibilities I never would have imagined her dealing with in our old lives. Even Rosa -Rosie the Woodchuck, in Bunnie's crazy naming scheme she's used on all of us- has been shocked by how much her young charge has been standing on her own two feet. We've all been forced to grow up faster than we should have.
The one Mystery that still alluded us at the time, is the mystery of what had happened to Sal and I's father. King Umberto had not been seen since the day of the takeover, and they were rumors swirling that he was either imprisoned by Eggman, or had been brutally executed. Sal and the rest of the royal court still held out hope we could rescue him, but I personally feared the we were all about to get a wake-up call, to just how cruel Eggman could be. Long had I remained back at the base, leading and coordinating, while others fought the good fight for me in my place. But at the third month of our time fighting this war, my opportunity to set foot out onto the field. I would finally experience what my fellow 'freedom fighters' did, every time they went on a mission. At first, I was finally excited to get to go out, and prove myself in battle once more.
Santa madre di Gaia, what was I thinking?
Next: A prince enters the field!
