Sally Acorn and the New Source

The Catacombs under Mobotropolis were not exactly Sonic’s preferred hideout. Sprawling for miles under the west side of the city, they had originally been the royal tombs, but several hundred years ago rising flood waters had exhumed several other cemeteries outside the city. The bodies had hastily been moved and reburied in a rather macabre fashion, while the dead royals were moved to the current Royal Tombs. Only later had the city grown to the point where entire sections covered the old burial site.

Sonic repressed feeling of dread, as his flashlight highlighted the hollow sockets of hundreds of skulls, lined up in neat rows and patterns along the walls. Whoever had decided to line the walls with bones obviously had been possessed of a very liberal interpretation of the phrase ‘respectful burial.’ The place was creepy, and that was a conclusion coming from someone who had been deep in the depths of Sandopolis.

Up ahead, Antoine and Sally came to a fork in the tunnels.

“Which way now?” Bunnie asked quietly from next to him.

Sally checked with the communicator she had with her from before, and motioned over to the left. They moved as quickly as they could, but also silently. There were Secret Service and Royal Guard patrols, not to mention Police units, in other parts of the labyrinthine Catacombs.

Supposedly, St. John himself had tracked them here, and set up a base somewhere. Learning that, Sonic had been sorely tempted to go out and find the skunk himself, but his loss of powers, and the fact that he knew he had to stick with the others until they could make a plan, kept him in place. Besides, the real problem wasn’t St. John, it was the King.

Sally kept leading them, following the directions sent to her from Nicole. Sonic thought about the mini-computer, and what it now seemed to be capable of. Despite working with Nicole for years, he couldn’t help feeling uncomfortable about ‘her’ now. He didn’t trust the sort of power and influence she now had, having infiltrated so many of the Kingdom’s computer systems, to any robotic intelligence, no matter how friendly.

Sonic was no technophobe, or at least he didn’t think of himself as one, he was just… cautious around this sort of thing. Too many, like Tails and Rotor and Chris, for example, had a blind faith in technology. He’d heard that Nicole had entire automated factories under her control, and that she was producing an army of robots to help them retake the Palace and the Kingdom.

That, especially, made Sonic uneasy.

Deeper into the Catacombs, Sonic noted the rise in moisture, as droplets fell from the ceiling, and ran down neatly arranged skulls like tears. The deeper one went, the more cramped and convoluted the maze seemed to become. What had been wide halls in the first sublevel had gradually turned into twisting tunnels, barely a few feet wide. Sonic’s flashlight started to die out, and he gave it a few hard shakes, recharging the internal batteries. The last thing he needed now was to be stuck in this hellish place in the pitch black darkness.

Ducking low under a stone overhang decorated by twisted mockeries of faces, Sonic saw that Sally had led them into a large alcove. Here, too, the walls were lined with bones, making intricate patterns. An unadorned section near the ceiling and running across three of the walls had a sort of writing, like modern script, but written in a very old style of lettering. On the wall opposite where they entered a stone altar rise out of the ground, flanked by pools of water.

“Alright,” Sally said and turned to face the three of them. “This is the place. Right, Nicole?”

“Correct, Sally,” the communicator responded in a chipper tone. “Sections of the Catacombs were designed by the Alchemicalists Cabal to harness the chaos energies of the deceased, and this is one of the focal points aligned with the planet’s axis. The Order of Ixis used to conduct rituals in these places.”

“What kinds of rituals?” Antoine dared to ask.

NICOLE seemed happy to answer, “According to my documents, the ceremony for these rooms involved restraining the sacrifice, and then removing his or her liver, kidneys, heart and genitals, representing the four humors of the body. Once the humors were removed, the energies of the sacrifice were considered purified and fit for consumption by the Masters of the Order.”

All four mobians paled at the thought of it.

“Had ta ask, didn’t ya, Ant?” Sonic crossed his arms and made a disgusted sound. “So, what now?”

“Just wait a few minutes, if you please,” NICOLE replied. “We made better than expected time getting here.”

Exchanging looks, the four settled down to wait. Bunnie carefully lowered herself to the ground, folding her legs beneath her. Sally also sat, crossing her legs. Sonic preferred to stand, rather than lean against the wall, lined as it was by old bones. Antoine, too, stood for a time, before settling down, his back to the wall close to the entrance.  

“I wonder what’s happened to everyone else,” Sonic thought out loud, looking in Sally’s direction at Nicole.

But the computer didn’t reply.

“After all, you broke us out, so maybe Rush and Uncle Chuck and Rotor are loose, too?” He asked, pressing a bit more.

Nicole didn’t respond, but Sally did. “Sonic? Is there something you’d like to say?”

“I’m just wonderin’ …” he looked away, his arms crossed. “If someone is just stringing things along. Not that I’m ungrateful or anything, cause I know Nicole here saved our asses back there, and it isn’t like I know a lot about all this tech stuff… but if she’s had some of this capability since before the war ended, why hasn’t she used it?”

“He is making a good point,” Antoine agreed, and also crossed his arms as he thought about it. “The timing, eet ees not looking like a coincidence.”

Bunnie shook her head. “Are you sayin’ Nicole set us up, sugah?”

“No…”

“I am,” Sonic interrupted. “Maybe not in a bad way, but this is all a set up, isn’t it? What I want to know: is for what? Why?”

“Sonic,” Sally started to chastise him. “Nicole wouldn’t…”

“No. He’s right,” NICOLE admitted, finally. “I waited because I had to, because I was ordered to. I acted because it was what I was supposed to do. If you were supposed to have been executed, then I don’t think I’d have set you free, even if I did like to approximate our relations as friendship. Don’t forget that I am an AI from the future. It is naive to assume I was not given orders from that time as well.”

The four were silent at this admission.

“Oh my! What a dispirited atmosphere!” a voice came from the entrance, and a second later a vixen emerged. She was reddish in color, with dark blue-black hair, and a jagged pattern to the coloring halfway up her forearms. It took a few seconds, but both Sonic and Sally recognized her, though only the latter remembered her name.

“Belladonna!” Sally snapped her fingers. “You were one of Tails’ assistants and pilots!”

“I suppose I was at that…” She bowed her head politely. “But that was only a cover for my real job, Princess. It is a pleasure you meet all of you. Please. This way.”

She turned, and headed out. The others followed, but instead of ending up in the Catacombs from before, they were in a totally different place, with different architecture. After passing through, Sally looked behind her, as Bunnie came through, and she saw a shimmering field suspended in a monolithic stone archway.

“Zut alors!” Antoine gasped, reaching for the strange stone walls. “Where are we?”

“This is Sandopolis!” Sonic remembered it all too well. “We’re halfway across the world!?”

“Impossible!” Sally couldn’t imagine it. “How…?”

“This is Sandopolis,” Belladonna confirmed. “You were brought here by passing through a sort of tesseract. The effect is similar to the phenomenon of Chaos Control.”

“You did this?” Sally asked.

Belladonna chuckled. “No. You’ll see who I work for in a moment. Follow me, please.”

The Sandopolis Ruins were the same as Sonic remembered, but without the ghosts. They walked over a bridge, a river of sand flowing beneath it, and passed through and under more monolithic halls and arches. The Old Dingo City ruins were some of the oldest and most impressive Sonic had ever seen in his many travels around the world. It was a shame there were so inaccessible, but at least it kept them undisturbed as well.

Past one last arch, and into a large courtyard, they met someone else: an echidna girl with a guardian mark on her chest, just like the one Knuckles had but a little slimmer. The fact that she had a small chaos emerald implanted in her chest, just above the collarbone, did not go unnoticed, nor did the sheer volume of chaos energy that flowed through her. He assumed, instantly, that she had brought them here.

“Princess Sally! Sonic the Hedgehog!” Lara quickly gave them both a quick bow before turning to Bunnie and Antoine, “Bunnie Rabbot and Antoine D’Coolette! It is an honor to meet you! You’re all quite famous where I come from!”

“Well, we have saved the world a couple times,” Sonic replied with his best confident tone.

“Are you the one Nicole mentioned…?” Sally began.

“Oh, no! I’m just another hired hand, I guess,” Lara said with a bashful grin.

“Mah stars!” Bunnie gasped and covered her mouth. “Is that…?”

Almost the same color of the pillar he had been leaning against, Miles came out from behind it, and gave them a little wave. “Hey.”

“Tails?” Sonic and Sally asked in stereo.

Bunnie finished for them. “Is that really you, sugah?”

“I’m real, for the most part,” he answered, with a wayward smile. Tears in her eyes, Sally ran up to him, and embraced him in a crushing hug. He looked a little different from the last time they had seen him, especially his eyes and his height, but his voice, his posture, it brought them all back. Sally rested her forehead on his, and kissed him on the nose, and he chuckled at the gesture.

“It’s been a while since you gave me the Funny Kiss,” he remarked.

Sally nodded, but it was a very small motion. “It was when you left for Station Square.”

“So, where’ve you been the last few months?” Sonic asked, walking up with a sly grin. “Picking up chicks?”

“Among other things,” Tails replied, and took the hedgehog’s hand, giving it a firm shake. “It’s good to see you in person again, Sonic.”

“We had thought, everyone had thought, that you were being deceased!” Antoine had also come forward, hand in hand with Bunnie, who seemed to be wiping away tears with her organic hand.

“Well, I didn’t do much to prove otherwise,” Tails noted Bunnie’s stance, and moved towards her, and out of Sally’s arms. This surprised the Princess, and she watched as the kitsune placed his hand on the other girl’s shoulder.

“Let me take care of this, first. I know it hurts more than you’re letting on.” His index finger moved, and entered the metal of Bunnie’s shoulder. A second later, he pulled it out leaving no damage behind. In fact, almost instantly, Bunnie stood straighter, as she made a few shallow gasps and then took a long breath.

“My word! What… what was…?” She started to ask, but Tails just chuckled.

“I took care of the killswitch. Both of them. I’m sorry I had to install them in the first place, but it was the Law.” He smiled, as Bunnie carefully reached out to hug him, always careful with her strength. It wasn’t strictly an issue this one time, but she didn’t know that, and he briefly hugged her back, when he heard her whispered “thank you.”

Behind him, Sonic smirked and made a loud ‘hmm.’ “So you’re the one behind Nicole, eh?”

“Yes, and no,” Tails extradited himself from Bunnie’s hug, and walked to where Lara and ‘Belladonna’ stood, watching. “Things have become rather complicated for me recently. It is unfortunate, but I can not see any way to keep you out of the mess my life has become. Which is a shame, since I’d hoped to spare you of it and let you live out some semblance of a peaceful life. I think you’ve all earned it.”

“But…” His back was to them, his arms crossed behind his back. “I guess that, too, was just my idealism. I freed you, and you alone, because I wanted to keep this to a minimum. I will also be honest with you, and in as much as I can, treat you fairly and justly.”

“What do ya mean?” Bunnie asked, not understanding what he meant.

“Lara. Fiona. Show them.”

Lara, for her part, just tapped the ruby Emerald in her chest. “This is one of Miles’ Emeralds. His Chaos Emeralds.”

Fiona smiled, and her arms slid out of their sockets, revealing metal and circuitry. Then, her chest parted down the front, and slid out and forward, while parts of her middle torso came forward, and slid down. Nestled among tubes and wires and intricate machinery, rested an aquamarine sapphire gem that glowed with an inner light.

“I have given birth to a new set of Chaos Emeralds, ones I have been hesitant to use. Not out of fear or jealousy, but because they alter the minds of those who are subjected to them. Fiona here, or Belladonna as you may know her, is an android I rebuilt, and she was already completely loyal to me before I empowered her.”

“Lara, here, however… even if she calls it a worthwhile trade, I have stolen something from here I can never repay.” Tails sighed at this, and next to him, Lara offered him a small smile. “My dilemma is thus to help you, but not to change you. I believe, thanks to an… old friend, I have a way to do that.”

Tails, or Miles, held up his right hand.

“Behold!” He yelled, and bits of sand fell from high above. “His Last Work, His Loyalty made Manifest, his Body and Soul! The Spear of Rhadamanthus!”

With a sound like the crack of lightning, something flashed by with incredible speed, striking the kitsune’s gloved hand. A silvery discus of energy coalesced and grew dimmer, forming into a staff, and then one end of it flattened and grew wider. The staff became a mighty glaive, and with a great thunderclap a violet amethyst jewel appeared within the metal blade head.

Slowly, Tails lowered his arm, and rested the blunt end of the spear on the ground. It crackled with energy and power, and Sonic couldn’t help but be in awe of the display. This was not some reckless use of chaos powers, this was a vulgar and obscene display of them, and the hairs on the back of his neck stood on edge as he saw the tight and refined control his old friend, his protégé, had over Chaos Control.

And then he turned, and airily tossed the weapon over towards them.

Sally reached up, almost without thinking, and seized it in midair. For a second, there was a silence and a stillness, and then Sally gasped, as coils of purple and white energy ran down her arm and along her body. Her vest became gold along the edges, and up along her back, the upper parts over the shoulders growing larger, and turning into bronze colored pauldrons, with an elaborate birdlike motif. Cannon vambraces enclosed her forearms, wrapping them in steel embroidered with bright brass. Likewise, an electrum ring formed around her left middle finger. Finally, a circlet of white gold, electrum and amethyst gemstones appeared around her head.

“Wow…” Sally breathed.

“The Sword, the Crown, the Ring. These were the covenant your ancestors had with the Source.” Miles pivoted so his left side was towards them, one eye dull, and the other brilliant like a heart of a star. “I offer you a New Covenant. I ask only for your companionship and your loyalty. I will not change how you feel or how you think. I want friends and comrades, not servants.”

Sally lowered her arm like he had, to rest the end of the Spear on the ground. Except, when she did it, it thundered, and the ground shook. Sand fell from the cavern ceiling, and the stonework at her feet cracked. The kitsune formerly known as Tails chortled, a wide smile on his face.

“Are you with me?”