It was a mid-sunny-day in Mobotropolis at the castle of acorn's courtyard. The courtyard is the most beautiful part of the castle and even the whole country of Heldin; in the middle of the courtyard was a big fountain that had water flowing in it, and just around its base had rare and exotic flowers that were the queen's favorites. There were ten trees in the courtyard that separate. Under one of the trees was a little five-year-old chipmunk mobian; she covered her eyes with her hands while counting backwards from ten because she was playing hide and seek with her friends. The Chipmunk wore a light blue dress and had light blue shoes; she had her dark auburn hair styled into a ponytail. the chipmunk's father was king of the castle which made her the princess.

"3...2...1 ready or not here I come!"

the Chipmunk said eagerly when the she turned around and uncovered her eyes; she saw a blue hedgehog around her size looking at her; he wore red shoes and white gloves

"I found you sonic! now you have to help me find the others!"

sally said pointing at him while looking smug

"wait a sec, Sal!"

The blue hedgehog replied sounding serious rising his hand to make a 'stop' hand signal then he smirked and continued

"you're supposed to tag me first before I help you find the others."

Sally rolled her eyes obviously annoyed with sonic

"that's not how you play hide and seek, sonic. I found you, so you have to help me."

Sonic loved to get on people's nerves, especially sally's, so he continued to tease her

"you only say that because-"

"Don't you dare say It, sonic hedgehog!"

Sally interrupted with a scowl on her face while crossing her arms. Sonic had an impish smile, and he thought to himself if he should continue teasing her or not. Sonic really wanted to push his luck, so he decided to go through with the his idea

"you're. too. slow!"

sally stomped on the ground and yelled

"that does it!"

she than tried to tag sonic, unfortunately for her, sonic was really fast when she tried to tag him he moved fourteen feet away from her in a second, and sonic yelled with glee

"come on, step it up!"

Sally then chased Sonic around the courtyard. Every time sally was about to tag sonic he went fourteen feet away from her, and teased her; as a result, sally was getting more angry by the minute. After ten minutes of chasing Sonic around, Sally got tired and said while standing straight up about to cry

"that's it! I'm done playing this stupid game!"

sally then covered her face with her hands and started to cry. once sonic saw his friend crying, he thought to himself with a look of regret on his face thinking he went a little to far, so he ran up to the right side of sally and apologized

"I'm sorry, Sal! I didn't mean to hurt your-"

"Tag!"

Sally pushed sonic with her right hand almost knocking him off balance while her left hand was still covering her face. when sally uncovered her face completely, she wasn't crying at all, but she was smirking. Sonic was clearly annoyed by Sally's fake tears once he regained his balance he complained to her

"hey! That's cheating!"

"no, it's not! You have super-speed while I, Sally Alicia Acorn, have brains while you don't."

Sally replied annoyed by sonic then she stick her tongue out at him

"alright you two, that's enough."

Said a Ram mobian in his late thirties with a Texan accent; he was sitting on a folding chair that was near the east entrance to the courtyard. the ram mobian wore a dusk black & grey plaid button up shirt, and dark blue jeans.

"But Mr. Ari, Sally's being mean to me!"

Sonic said, pointing at Sally.

"I am not! Sonic started it; he was making fun of me."

Sally said trying to shift all the blame onto sonic. Ari stood-up and said to them in soft but yet stern voice while walking towards the two kids

"okay you two, that's enough. If you can't behave, you two will have to stop playing."

Ari looked at sonic

"sonic, if you can't behave I will tell your uncle chuck that about your bad behavior, alright?"

after hearing this, Sally smirked until Ari continued

"same goes for you, sally. if you can't behave I will tell your father that you misbehaved as well, you understand?"

Ari was trying not to smile from the kids' ridiculous argument during his warnings to the both of them. the reason why Ari warned sonic about telling his uncle that he was misbehaving because sonic lived with his uncle while his parents were serving in the army; however, Sonic's uncle was busy with a meeting with the king, so Ari had to babysit sonic for a bit

"yes, Mr. Ari."

Sonic and sally said at the same time feeling embarrassed.

"Now that we resolved this argument, you two could find the others together."

Ari said with a light smile. After Ari finished his sentence, they heard a sneeze that came from one of the trees that were ten feet away from them; a few seconds later a young coyote mobian who wore a blue smock, a red ascot, and red boots; fell out from the tree to the ground landing on his back. sonic, sally, and Ari looked at the young coyote mobian who fell out of the tree. Ari ran to his aid when he was two feet away from the coyote he asked caring for his well-being; also, knowing that he could get in big trouble with his parents

"Antoine, are you all right!?"

"Oui, monsieur Ari."

The young coyote responded groaning in pain with a heavy French accent. While Antoine was getting up, sonic ran up to him, and said with a smile ignoring the fact that his friend fell six feet onto the ground

"now that we found you Ant, you have to help me, and Sal find the others."

"okay…"

Antoine complained while getting up.

sally glared at sonic for ignoring the fact that Antoine could've been seriously injured, but she kept silent knowing sonic would try to start an argument between the two of them which would end up getting her a long lecture from her father for not acting like a princess. after Antione got up, him, Sonic, and Sally went to find the others who were hiding. while the kids were playing, a Skunk mobian who wore a purple utility belt, and purple boots entered the castle courtyard via through the east entrance to the courtyard so that he could talk to Ari. Ari was busy watching over the kids, so the skunk walked up next to him, and said jokingly trying to surprise his mentor

"so, I guess the best soldier of the king's army is now just your everyday babysitter."

Ari looked at him and knowing that he was trying to surprise him, but failed to do so. Ari rolled his eyes and said

"ha, ha, ha. Real funny Geoffrey, real funny. let's see you trying to run a 'daycare' or in this case a 'weekcare' with all the kids, except one, being hyper active. and for your information I have to take care of the commanders' kids since the commanders are out on border patrol duty; also, I have to take care of the king's daughter while he is in a meeting with general Robotnik and Sir Charles."

Ari and Geoffrey have a of student/teacher relation since Ari trained Geoffrey when Geoffrey was 14, and Geoffrey was now 17 even though they knew each other for three years they were on very good standards. just because they have a student/teacher relations, doesn't mean they wouldn't try to get on each others nerves just for fun. Ari then shot back with a grin knowing that the witty comeback would annoy Geoffrey

"what are you doing here Geoffrey? Are you here to lick the king's boots because I only know one person who is an expert in the art of 'butt-kissing'."

"it's called being a patriot, Ari, and no I am not a 'kiss-butt'."

Geoffrey fired back with a frown in response to Ari's joke knowing he couldn't make a better comeback. Ari knew he struck a nerve in Geoffrey, so he continued

"Patriot? I didn't know patriot was a fancy way of saying boot-licker."

Ari was trying not to laugh from his own jokes, and the fact Geoffrey was starting to look like a angry bull about to charge. Geoffrey turned away from Ari, and took a deep breath to help him cool down since the teasing got to him. Geoffrey was known by his platoon for his loyalty to the king and his temper; especially when his pride is under fire. Once Geoffrey cooled down, he asked Ari with a look of curiosity

"so you're actually wondering what am I doing here?"

"Of course."

Ari answered with a light chuckle

"I mean *chuckles*, I haven't seen you at the work place since we went to that party that was held in honor for 'the heroes who won the great war'. that was like what? a week ago."

Geoffrey looked to the sky for about thirty seconds thinking about how he could possibly phrase his words without upsetting Ari then he looked to the ground, took a deep breath and said

"I was discharged and-"

"what!?"

Ari shouted in shock by the news.

"that's insane! You were one of the best! W-What the heck happened?!"

"the king made a really, really, cra-"

Geoffrey responded, but he interrupted himself to see if Ari's response got the kids' attention; turns, out it did. so Geoffrey continued, but editing his curse word

"-bad deal. Y'know that overweight Human that everyone in the army who knows him on a personal level calls him 'Robuttnik' behind his back?"

"Yeah, I know about Robotnik what about him?"

Ari replied preparing for the worst. Geoffrey continued with a look of disgust

"the King gave Robotnik 90% control over the Royal army, then Robotnik didn't just fired me, but everyone in the same platoon as ours except you, Jules the hedgehog; who is temporarily part of the border patrol, and Sir Charles who is now kings leading inventor rather then working at the communication post. Robotnik replaced us with; Gunner bots, Swatbots, MK. II Swatbots, Sweepers, and worst of all, Hired guns."

Ari then faced palm and said

"Oh my Gaia… Are you Serious!?"

Ari walked back to the folding chair he was sitting at earlier and sat back down on the chair than rubbed his forehead

"this has to be a really bad joke Geoff!"

"I wish it was. Robotnik's latest action is one of the many reasons why I hate humans more then anything."

Geoffrey said looking down at the ground looking frustrated. Ari was very confused about the massive military discharge, so Ari stopped rubbing his forehead and asked

"why didn't Robotnik fired me, Jules, or heck, even Charles?"

"because you, Jules, and Sir. Charles did not look at him in a wrong way, or insult him behind his back. he's a egotistic maniac who is quite a butt-hurt. he thinks that anyone who disagrees with him, or teases him is a potential traitor, so he fired and replaced about 50% of the royal army. adding on to the reason why Robotnik didn't discharge Sir Charles because he is the king's right hand man."

The two veterans stayed silent for a while. Four minutes of silence had passed after the conversation was over between the two vets until they heard Antoine shout with excitement

"found you, Bunnie!"

when they looked at the direction of the sound they saw sonic, sally, and Antoine with a young female rabbit mobian who wore purple overalls, a white shirt, gloves, and bows at the tip of her ears.

"oh man…"

Bunnie complained with her southern accent, turns out, she was hiding behind the one of the flower pots in the garden.

"now we need to find Boomer!"

Sonic said to the group as if any of them had a clue where he was

"so, does anyone know where is Boomer?"

Sonic asked his friends

"Boomer? Who's that?"

Antoine asked scratching his head in confusion

"he means, where's Rotor."

Sally clarified giving sonic a death stare.

"Rotor doesn't want to play right now. for your information, sonic Hedgehog, he doesn't like being called 'Boomer'."

Sally continued about to give sonic a lecture until Bunnie asked.

"why doesn't he want to play with us?"

"because, Rotor is working on something that he brought from his home country."

Ari answered for sally while walking up to the kids. When Ari was in front of the kids he stopped, kneeled down resting his left forearm on his left knee and continued

"also, he's just not in the mood to play hide and seek; that's all."

"why does rotor always have to be building something?"

sonic asked Ari

"why do you like to run a lot, sonic?"

Ari asked sonic knowing the response he was going to get

"umm... because I like to."

sonic answered knowing that Ari already knew why he likes to run

"exactly, just like how Rotor loves to build things."

Ari said in a gentle way

Sonic pretended to ignored Ari then he turned his attention to sally, and asked her

"so… what game do you want to play?"

Sally thought for about thirty seconds then she said

"I got! Let's play freeze tag! Not it!"

"not it!"

sonic and Bunnie said at the same time. After sonic, sally and Bunnie got a fair distance away from Antoine, Antoine looked down at the ground and said with disappointment

"darn it, why am I ze one that's always have to be it?"

Antoine began to chase his friends trying to tag one of them after saying that.

Geoffrey and Ari were watching the kids playing for a bit until Geoffrey turned his attention to Ari and asked.

"so, who's Rotor?"

"He's a five-year-old walrus mobian that's under my legal guardianship."

Ari replied with no emotion while looking up at Geoffrey. Ari stood up, and he begin his walk to the castle courtyard east entrance. when Ari was half way there to his destination, sonic ran up to Ari and asked him

"can you tell Rotor that me, and the others are playing freeze tag? because the game would be much more fun if he joined us."

Ari smiled and said

"sure, sonic."

"thanks."

Sonic then ran ten feet away from Ari in a split second which Antoine tried to use Sonic's conversation with Ari as a way to tag him, but failed to do so.

"seriously?"

Antione said looking annoyed and standing there for a few of seconds. Antoine then try to tag one of his friends after failing to tag sonic. Ari continued his walk, but Geoffrey had questions for Ari, so he ran up next to Ari, then he began to walk once he was right next to Ari. Geoffrey asked Ari walking next to him

"first of all where are you going? and second of all; how did sonic moved that fast?"

"answer for the first question; to check on Rotor, and the answer for the second question; no one knows how sonic got to be that fast."

Ari replied opening the door to the castle courtyard east entrance that lead to the castle's library. the castle library was a lot like any other good library; it held 200 hundred bookshelves, three different stairways to access the balcony, and the middle of the room had a four way crossing area. then Ari continued once they were in the middle of the library.

"the reason why I'm Rotor's legal guardian because his father was kind of rough towards the little guy, emotionally and physically."

"I don't want to butcher your words Ari, but I'm guessing Rotor was abused?"

Geoffrey guessed with disgust while stopping dead in his tracks in the middle of the library. Ari responded while taking a deep breath still walking

"yes. Rotor is the son of Tundra, the leader of the Holoska walrus tribe. Tundra is not a good guy, in fact he is a real jack wagon."

Ari stopped walking and held the door open that lead out of the library, himself edit the swear word since he was trying to set a example for Geoffrey so that Geoffrey would swear less.

"everyone, even sonic's father, Jules, the guy we call the golden retriever; hated Tundra."

Geoffrey then balled his fist, and said with anger while looking at his fist

"if I ever met Tundra, I would break one of his tusks, and shove it up his-"

"Geoffrey."

Ari said frowning at him thinking Geoffrey was going to swear. Geoffrey took a deep breath and said with frustration walking towards the doorway that lead out of the room

"I was going to say up his nose, Ari."

Geoffrey then said under his breath walking past his mentor

"geez... what are you, my mom?"

once Geoffrey walked past Ari, Ari then followed along closing the door behind them. moments later, Ari and Geoffrey were walking towards the engineer room where Rotor was. While walking to their destination, they went through one of the many castle's hallways that lead to the castle library to the engineer room. the floor of the hallway had a red clean carpet on the floor, on the left side of the hallway the walls were painted white, but it had nothing but windows, the wall on the right side of the hallway was same color as the other half; however, it had paintings and photos of the past rulers and heroes of the land. the most recent addition to the wall; was a picture of a group of male mobian soldier in uniform. the mobians in the picture were Ari, Geoffrey, a white tiger, a cobra, a bulldog, two blue hedgehogs; one of them had a big brown mustache while the other one didn't have any facial hair but had brown hair on his head; a brown fox who had an eye patch, another skunk who looked like he was in his forties, a red bird Mobian; finally, a purple wolf/weasel mobian hybrid, posing in the usual military photo position, with all of them having smiles on their faces. both Ari and Geoffrey stopped and looked at the picture.

"huh, Robotnik discharged me and the others and telling the king that we were 'dishonorable', yet the king still thinks highly of us despite of 'Robuttnik'."

Geoffrey commented on the picture while placing his hands on his sides

"I remembered this picture."

Geoffrey said with a small smile; pointing with his right hand at the picture of them

"this is when me, you, and the other guys took that picture before we were deployed in the frontlines a year ago. after we took the picture, we went to get drinks together since this was our very first operation together as a group. it was a way to get to know one another better before we went to the biggest battle of the war."

Geoffrey then chuckled about the good memories that the picture brought back, placing his right hand back to his side

"sadly, me and that stupid wolf weasel, Nack, were and still to do this day too young to get a beer. so, me and Nack went for sodas instead. But, Nack wasn't too happy about the fact he couldn't get a beer, so throughout the night he would try to steal someone else's in our group's drink which ended in failure. he eventually gave up on trying to steal a drink from our group, but tried to steal someone else's drink. turns out the guy he was trying to steal the drink from was a guy that belonged to a biker gang which turned into a big bar fight between the us and the them, *chuckles* I still can't believe you threw their leader out of a window!"

Geoffrey couldn't help but laugh after retailing the story; remembering the look on the motorcycle gang members' faces when they saw their leader getting thrown out of a window.

Ari wasn't paying attention to Geoffrey since he was too busy examining the picture. Ari looked at the soldiers that he knew before the war in the picture, the people he once called his friends. except for Geoffrey and Charles, he either lost complete contact with them, or they were amongst the casualties of the war. Ari than thought out loud

"why did this have to happen..."

Geoffrey's laughter died down, he was confused by Ari's comment, and asked with a weak smile with a shrug

"ummm... Ari, *chuckles* it was a funny memory not a tragic one. you do know that right?"

Ari looked at Geoffrey and said with a depressed look on his face remembering the fallen soldiers

"I mean, why did our platoon have to have so many good men on it just to lose them?"

Ari then gestured to the picture with a opened hand

"look at this photo; the only ones that are standing here today is Charles and Jules hedgehog, Nack, Amadeus the fox or should I say 'Amadeus Prowers', and the two of us while the others never came back home."

Ari walked to the left side of the hallway, putting his right hand on the wall while looking back at Geoffrey

"there was nothing 'great' about 'the Great War', Geoff."

Geoffrey took a good look at the picture and stared at the older skunk mobian that he recognized and said with his joy fading into bitter sorrow

"Ari, I think the people in this picture, the ones who died during the great war, could tell us one last thing; it would be to move on no matter how painful the lose is. just keep looking forward, and only look back on the good memories that they gave us so that we could become better people through the time we spent with them."

Ari turned around and looked at the older skunk in the picture then looked back at Geoffrey with sympathy and said with guilt feeling that it was fault for bring up a horrible memory

"I'm sorry about what happened to your father, Geoff. I tried too-"

"it wasn't your fault. none of us could have saved him from that event."

Geoffrey said trying to sound relaxed but there was a big sign of depression in his voice then he continued.

"L-let's go check on Rotor. shall we?"

Ari knew Geoffrey still couldn't get over his father's death that happened three mouths ago since Geoff and his father were on good standards, so Ari nodded as a sign of agreement. they continued their way down the hallway that lead to the engineer room. When they got to the engineer room's door, Ari opened the door; the first thing they saw in room was a lot of blue prints were laying around all over the place, four bookshelves for each of the corners of the room, in the back part of the room there was only one window that was giving off the light in the entire room, in the center of the room was a chair and table where a purple walrus mobian who was about 5 years old who wore a yellow baseball cap backwards; he was working on a device. Geoffrey walked up to the young walrus and asked in a gentle tone

"hey, kid. what are you doing here?"

The young walrus mobian was scared by Geoffrey. the walrus mobian quickly grabbed his device, and held it close to his chest, and said nervously while stuttering

"I-I'm sorry I-I didn't know t-that I-I wasn't supposed to be in here!"

"Don't worry Rotor, Geoffrey isn't here to hurt you."

Ari try to comfort the young walrus. Rotor looked at Geoffrey to see if Ari was telling the truth. which Geoffrey said with a light smile showing that he was friendly

"Ari's right; I just came in here just to say hi."

"oh, sorry. I thought you were going destroy my invention."

Rotor apologized to Geoffrey while putting the device back onto the table.

"it's, okay."

Geoffrey responded. Geoffrey was upset by the fact that Tundra mistreated his own son, as a result, made him a nervous wreck. prevent himself from thinking about what Tundra did to Rotor, Geoffrey asked him sounding fascinated by the device

"By the way, what are you making Rotor? it looks really cool!"

"it's ummm… it's an alarm clock."

Rotor replied while looking for one of the screws that he dropped when Geoffrey accidently startled him.

"that's awesome! is there anyway I can help you?"

Geoffrey asked Rotor; however, Rotor was so focused on his invention that he didn't notice Geoffrey's response and question.

"I see Rotor loves working on his devices."

Geoffrey said to Ari with a light smile then his face turned to one of curiosity

"but, why did he think I would smash his devices?"

"let's just say it has something to do involving a terrible memory of his father."

Ari told Geoffrey in a hushed tone

"oh..."

Geoffrey responded; understanding that it would be a inappropriate topic to continue talking about Rotor's past with him being in the same room as them. Geoffrey looked at Rotor and thought to himself

"a son should look up and want be like his father, not terrified or relieved to be thousands of miles away from him."

Ari looked at Geoffrey noticing he was looking upset, so Ari asked with concern

"hey, Geoff. you all right?"

Geoffrey wasn't paying attention; Ari than caught on why he was looking upset. Ari then remembered the fact that Geoffrey was fired, so he asked him with confusion

"I don't want to sound rude, but why are you here in the castle? I mean, you have been discharged, right?"

Geoffrey went on alert after hearing Ari's question. then Geoffrey looked around the room, to make sure they were alone and there was no security cameras in the room. he whispered to Ari after he checked for security cameras; as if someone was trying to spy on them

"I came here to pick up my stuff, and to give you this."

Geoffrey handed over a piece of paper. Once Ari got the paper in his hands he opened it, he saw Geoffrey's phone number as well as another phone number, Ari was confused so he asked Geoffrey

"what's this?"

"it's mine and Hershey's contact info in case if Robotnik is up to something. Hershey told me to give you her phone number as well; in case if one of us goes 'missing' the other one could inform you about Robotnik if he actually is plaining something behind the king's back."

Geoffrey said still whispering. Ari took a good look at the phone numbers; debating with himself if Geoffrey was either going crazy, or he was on to something judging by the words that left Geoffrey's mouth.

"normally I would say your paranoid Geoff, but I don't trust Robotnik either, so I will keep this contact info close, alright?"

Ari replied sounding skeptical still examining the phone numbers. When he looked up, Geoffrey was gone as if he disappeared into thin air. Air rolled his eyes and said clearly annoyed

"alright then... pulling off the old disappearing trick cliché. can anyone these days at least say good-bye before leaving?"

Ari looked at rotor and said to him while walking up next to him

"hey buddy, do you want to play with the other kids that are outside?"

"no thanks."

Rotor responded still working on the alarm clock. he sounded more interested on the clock then playing with his friends. Ari then remembered that sonic wanted rotor to join them in a game of freeze tag, so Ari said to Rotor with a gentle tone

"your friend, sonic, wants you to join him and the others in a game of freeze tag outside in the courtyard; sonic said it would be much more fun if you joined them."

Rotor stopped working on his device then looked at Ari and asked

"really?"

"yes really."

Ari replied giving Rotor reassurance. Rotor wasn't really close to his other friends except sonic since him and sonic knew each other longer then he knew the others; in fact, they were each others' first friend. Rotor looked at the clock that he was working on then he looked up at Ari; he did it about five times of the cycle, and he said with a smile

"ok, it will be for a little bit. after all, I don't want to let down my best friend."

Rotor put down the clock on the table, and made his way to the courtyard. Ari chuckled to himself and said while walking towards the courtyard with Rotor ahead of him

"I'm really glad Rotor has a friend like sonic; a friend that can help him learn to open up to others."

eight hours later.

it was now night time in the House of acorn barracks' rest area where the kids that Ari was taking care of were sleeping soundly since the massive military discharge left the barracks empty except the ten beds as well as some other furniture that belong to the barracks, it was suitable place for the kids to sleep in. the barracks rest area was basically a make shift daycare, or as Ari would say 'weekcare'. originally he would've used the guestrooms in the castle, sadly, it was only for the diplomats, and visitors that are of royalty descent can sleep in the castle's guestrooms; however, princess sally was told to sleep in the barracks since her father, the king, was still in a meeting with his right hand men. all the kids were sleeping except for sonic; he was really excited about the fact that his parents are coming home tomorrow from patrol duty; therefore, he couldn't sleep. sonic decided to get out of bed, and walked to the door that lead to the break room of the barracks. sonic opened the door just enough so he could see what was on the other side. sonic saw Ari sitting on the couch that was ten feet away in front of the door where sonic only got the sight of the back Ari's head. Ari was watching the news; he was thinking to himself about what if Geoffrey was right to be paranoid by Robotnik's shear presences until sonic walked up next to the couch and asked him

"Mr. Ari?"

when sonic said that Ari was startled by Sonic's sudden words which he calm down five seconds afterwards and said taking a deep breath

"oh, hey sonic. why are you still awake?"

"because my parents are coming home tomorrow, I can't sleep because I'm really excited."

sonic replied with a smile. sonic than asked

"so, can I watch TV with you?"

Ari thought to himself for a bit then said look back at the TV

"okay, but we're watching the news."

"okay."

sonic answered with a little disappointment since he wanted to watch something else besides the news. sonic walked to the front of the couch, and sat down next to Ari to watch the news with him. the news' stories on that night was about the aftermath of the great war. there was a black cat mobian who wore a red dress was on the news; she was sitting behind the desk holding couple of papers in her hand looking at the camera saying

"good evening everyone, this is tonight with Collie Chang. today marks the second week after the great war. for the people at home who don't know about the great war; the war was between the non-human governments vs the human governments. both sides suffered great losses during the war. the reasons why they fought was that the humans wanted the mobians to be exterminated, but seeing how us, the mobians, are standing here today you could tell the humans lost the war."

"no kidding Sherlock..." Ari said in a sarcastic manner.

the news anchor continued while placing her papers down on the counter "the reason the non-human alliance won was all thanks to General Robotnik, and his robots who beat down the humans in the last battle of the war. that's were the story begins; General Robotnik was given 90% control over the Heldin's military as a reward from the king; however, Robotnik has discharged at least fifty percent of the military and replaced them with robots and mercenaries which is quite shady."

Ari cringed at those words that came out of her mouth.

"also, in the news; Captain Jules Parlouzer and the other commanders' platoons were sent to do border patrol until both human and non-human governments calm down from the war. experts say that it will be at least two months until both sides officially no longer have hostile relations with one another."

the look on Ari's face looked like he just witness a murder; he than looked at sonic to see him looking upset about the news and he said

"dad said he would be home tomorrow..."

sonic looked like he was going to cry, so Ari was about comfort the young blue hedgehog until he heard his phone ringing in his pocket. Ari picked up his phone and answer it while turning off the TV with the remote

"hello?"

"where the bloody heck are you!?"

Geoffrey said franticly

"the heck, are you talking about?"

Ari asked while confused

"are the kids safe!?"

Geoffrey ignored the question still panicked

"yeah, why do you ask?"

"good, I'm tracking your phone right now, whatever you do; do not open the door for anyone! I'll be there in about thirty seconds!"

"Geoff. Your freaking me out! Just tell me what's going-"

before Ari could finish his sentence the door was shot opened by a SWAT-bot armed with a laser rifle. the SWAT-bot took four steps into the building; then the robot said to Ari and sonic while aiming at them

"you're under arrest!"

Ari was in disbelief about the whole situation that was happening before him. Geoffrey was right; Robotnik was planning something all this time, so Ari put hands up in a surrendering way, slowly standing up off of the couch, and asked the robot while trying to buy some time

"what's the charges, SWAT-bot?"

the robot remained still for about twenty seconds making a beeping noise; it was looking for the 'crime' that Ari committed then the SWAT-bot repeated the report it found on Ari

"making illegal interactions with a traitor the sentence is..."

the SWAT then aimed for Ari's head

"..death."

Before the Swat-bot could fire, a cross-bolt hit the robot in the back of its head then it fell face first to the ground.

"Ari, are you alright!?"

Geoffrey shouted while running towards Ari. Geoffrey was wearing his clothes from earlier that day; however, he was armed with a wrist mounted crossbow

"I'm fine; you made it just in time."

Ari replied with sigh of relief. when Geoffrey enter the barracks he turned his attention to sonic then to Ari and asked him with a serious look on his face

"where are the rest of the kids you've been taking care of?"

Ari was about to answer Geoffrey's question until Sally, Bunnie, Antoine, and Rotor ran out of the barracks' sleeping quarters and into the same room that Ari was in.

"what's going on?"

Sally asked with confusion fully awake. sonic then jumped off of the couch, ran up to sally, and said while pointing at the SWAT-Bot that was laying on the ground

"that robot tried to kill Ari!"

before sally could react a black cat mobian ran up to the barracks' doorway, and asked Geoffrey while winded

"is Ari and the kids alright?"

Geoffrey looked at her with a loving smile

"calm down, Hershey. they're all okay; even the old fossil we call Ari."

"this is no time for joking! what the heck is going on here!?"

Ari demanded; still catching his breath from his near death experience. Hershey looked at Ari and said with disappointment

"...were being attacked by our own military robots."

while Hershey was finishing her sentence Ari walked over to the destroyed SWAT-bot and picked up the laser rifle that it dropped. "does anyone know why the robots are attacking us?" Ari asked to make sure if it wasn't the worst case possible, but Geoffrey answered for Hershey looking as if he was about to murder someone

"Robotnik betrayed us! He was using the king all along just so he could takeover the kingdom! he sent robots to mine and Hershey's place to try to exterminate us in our sleep!"

Geoffrey looked at the kids and asked "who's the slowest out of you guys!?" Sonic, Sally, Bunnie, and Rotor pointed at Antoine and said "he is." Antoine was about to complain until Hershey picked him up and ran out of the door; with the others following her. When they got out of the building, there was fire fight between the twenty former Royal army soldiers and one hundred SWAT-bots. there was plasma, laser, and lead bullets flying everywhere, so Ari Looked around for a place to hide from the fire fight. luckily for them, Ari spotted a military transport truck; however, the tires for the truck was flatten by one of the ricochet bullets. so, everyone in Ari's group hid on the side of the truck that was facing away from the battle for cover. While Hershey was trying to calm down the kids, Ari looked at Geoffrey and asked

"Geoffrey? why is there soldiers that were discharged from royal army here?"

Geoffrey looked Ari straight into his eyes and said

"it was the king's orders! the king called my phone before the phone-line got cut; he told me to get all the soldiers together that were still loyal to him, and try to take Robotnik down!"

Before Geoffrey could continue, a female weasel mobian who wore a Black midriff tank-top, black shorts, black boots, and had her hair styled in a ponytail; ran up to Geoffrey and Asked while saluting to him "sir, I request the permission to use the EMP grenades!" "Permission granted, Nic!"

Geoffrey replied. After the weasel heard her commander's orders, she ran back to her position and looked in her backpack for the EMP grenades. Sally asked Ari while crying "what about my Dad? Where's my Dad?" Ari didn't have an answer for sally's question, so he looked at Geoffrey and asked expecting an answer from him immediately "Where is the King, Geoff!?" Geoffrey hesitated to answer sense he was trying to take aim at one of the SWAT-bots, so Ari demanded Geoffrey for answers

"where. Is. The. King!?"

"I don't know, alright! Holy freaking heck! The King gave me one command: make sure the kids that you were taking care of get to safety!"

Geoffrey shouted with a lot of stress; forgetting that their were kids with them. instead lecturing Geoffrey about his language, Ari started to fire at the SWAT-bots. "m-monsieur Geoffrey?" Antoine asked clearly shaken up by the firefight that was going on "what is it?" Geoffrey responded rolling his eyes, and turning his attention to Antoine with annoyed tone in his voice. "w-where i-is sonic?" Antoine asked still shaking in fear. after Geoffrey counted everyone in the group to make sure they were all here. after Geoffrey was done counting everyone in the group, his eyes became wide open realizing that sonic was missing. Geoffrey was looking around for sonic to make sure he wasn't on the battle field until he saw sonic throwing rocks at a SWAT-bot that was walking towards the weasel who received orders from Geoffrey. the weasel was still looking through her bag for an a EMP grenade to throw one at a group of SWAT-bots "hey, you big Jerk! Over here!" sonic shouted as the SWAT-bot turn its attention to him. before the SWAT-bot could do anything, Geoffrey shot the robot with an explosive tipped crossbow bolt in the chest then the robot exploded; the shrapnel went everywhere. luckily for sonic, he wasn't hit by any of the shrapnel. After the robot blew up, Geoffrey ran up to sonic and said to him kneeling down on one knee, putting his hands on sonic's shoulders, and shouted at him with shock

"what the heck were you thinking!? you could've been vaporize!"

"I was trying to help her!"

Sonic replied still in shock from the explosion that was near him while he was pointing at the weasel. Geoffrey then picked up sonic, ran up to Ari and asked him

"do you know any safe place from these homicidal Robots?!"

"yeah, it's an encampment that we call Knothole village!"

Ari replied while firing at the SWAT-bots. by the time Geoffrey picked up sonic there was eighty SWAT-bots left versus the twenty formal soldiers.

"come on, I know I placed the EMP grenades somewhere in this bag."

The weasel thought to herself while she was shuffling through her bag nearly getting shot by the SWAT-bots laser guns "Bingo!" she said to herself when she found the EMP grenades. "Ari! get everyone in your group out of here, now!" after shouting this, she threw a EMP grenade at the remaining SWAT-bots. when the EMP grenade exploded, it fried the remaining robots circuits. after the robots went out of commission, Ari looked at everyone in his group and said "alright, now's our chance! Everyone let's go!" Ari and his group ran through the main gate of the castle. Hershey was still holding Antoine which he felt embarrassed and asked Hershey "excuse me, can you please let me down?" Hershey than responded almost instantly "sorry Antoine, you're the slowest out of our group so the answer is no." when they saw the city, it was left untouched by Robotniks forces. Ari was very confused so he asked Geoffrey what was going on

"hey Geoff, why isn't there any of Robotnik's robots here in the city?"

"because, the rest of Robotnik's legion is coming in about ten minutes. Good thing we got the information from the king before everything went to heck in a hand basket."

Geoffrey answered with pride still holding sonic "not so fast Geoffrey." Hershey said looking above the castle's highest tower with a terrified look on her face. when everyone in the group looked at what Hershey was looking at, they saw a hoard of Gunnerbots flying towards the castle entrance.

"you have got to be kidding me! me and my big freaking mouth"

Geoffrey shouted in anger.

"are we going to be okay?"

sonic asked Geoffrey. Geoffrey was about to answer, but he was interrupted by Ari who was picking up Bunnie and sally saying to him

"we got to make run for it! Geoffrey put down sonic and pick up rotor since sonic could keep up with us adults!"

Geoffrey put sonic down onto the ground then tried to pick up rotor.

"Gaia, you're a heavy one!"

Geoffrey said struggling to pick up Rotor, then slowly running behind Ari. while Geoffrey was running off holding Rotor towards the forest, Sonic was about to run back towards the castle until Ari stopped dead in his tracks, and yelled at him

"where are you going sonic!? Knothole is this way!"

sonic looked back at Ari with tears forming in his eyes and shouted back

"we need to go back to the castle! I need to find my uncle Chuck!"

Ari was about to tell sonic that it was to late to save his uncle, but Geoffrey spoke before Ari could, so he could give sonic a comforting lie.

"Your uncle is already at knothole! were going to meet him there!"

"really? my uncle's there at Knothole?" sonic asked

"I know so." Geoffrey still lying to the young hedgehog

"Pinky swear?"

sonic said with tears streaming down his face. Geoffrey was struggling with himself, wondering if he can pull himself to give the young hedgehog false hope, and risking the kid hating him and have no trust towards him. Geoffrey answered feeling guilty for the words that were about to come out of his mouth

"pinky swear."

sonic nodded then wiped the tears away from his eyes, and said trying to sound calm

"okay."

so, sonic caught up with the group and they headed to the knothole together. the group made a mad dash towards forest where Knothole was located with the gunner bots closing in on them, luckily for the group, when they were near the middle of the city, the Gunner bots got into a fire fight with the soldiers that were making their way to the castle and the soldiers that where at the castle's entrance. the fire fight was then in the city where only mayhem reigned. Ari, Geoffrey, Hershey, and the kids were dodging bullets and explosions that were coming from both sides from the fire fight between the two forces. once they were out of the city, the group were twenty feet away from the forest by the time Robotnik's whole army arrived. while everyone was entering the forest, Geoffrey stopped, looked back at the city and shouted still holding Rotor

"I swear on my life Robotnik! one day You'll pay for this!"

then Geoffrey turned his back to the city, and ran towards the group that were already in the forest to catch up with them leaving the city to burn to ashes.