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Some time has passed

All of Mobius is in Cheers

The King has returned!

"Mr. Crockett did well in his end of the deal," King Acorn addressed the Freedom Fighters. "A broadcasted signal in his cyborg arm provided an excellent homing beacon for guide me back home through a different dimensional passage then The Void, and all I got to show for it was this crystallized left arm, which by now isn't spreading for the rest of me, thank God."

That brought out some laughter from the crowd. Despite the mentioned affliction, the doctors reported the Kin to be in good health and fit to rule, with made everybody happy, especially Sally.

Everyone that is, except one, who was noticeably absent from Acorn's presence.

"I have Davey Crockett to thank most of all. I would like to do that in person, but I don't see him. Does anyone know . . . "

Acorn notices how deathly quiet the room got.

"Where is he? What happened to him? Don't tell me that Robotnik got to him before he saw his mission . . . "

Sonic was characteristically slow in his reply. "You don't know . . . about Davey . . . and Robotnik?"

Acorn showed his royal sternness and demanded he know.

And he immediately wished to God he hadn't.

The lick to the front door to Crockett's hut was jimmied, and King Acorn crept into the pitch blackness inside. Acorn feared that the darkness reflected what is in the poor boy's heart.

Acorn barely had the chance to mouth his thought when that mouth tasted the cold steel of a double barreled shotgun, and he saw the hellfirish blood red cyborg-enhanced eyes burn holes in his mind.

"How very nice for you to come back in my lifetime, Acorn," a voice spat and snarled at him. "It'll give me the sincere pleasure to blow your fucking head off myself."

by now, in the horror over what is happening, someone turned off the lights, and saw this . . . . monster . . . that Acorn sent to Mobius, holding the King high and cramming the would-be assassination weapon further down his throat. Nobody will have the time to save the King from having his brains cover the door he came in from if anyone as much as flinches. That fact was given with absolute certainly by the expression of Crockett's face, and what he next said.

"You sent me to hell, you bastard," Crockett cocked both barrels all the way back, "Not prepare to go there."

After what seemed to be an eternity, Acorn managed to take the barrels out of his mouth, and lean against the weapon in a manner borrowed from a cartoon from Crockett's home world. He looked at Davey not with terror, or pleading for his life, but to Davey's surprise, sorrow over Davey Crockett's condition.

"You looked pissed David. And believe me, you have every right to me. If I were in your shows, I would have pulled that trigger by now. At least that means there's still hope fo--"

"SHUT UP YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE!!!!" Crockett wrapped his cyborg hand around the King's neck and slammed him hard against a wall, his grip tightening as he spewed his bile at the King's face fuzz. "You feel this arm chocking your life out, and afterwards will remove your head for my mantle? It replaced the one shot off because of what happened centuries before I was born. I came here to get away from all that, but just who became of me here. ANSWER ME, DAMN YOU!!"

"ack . . . ullk . . . "

"what was that?"

"chock . . . no . . . I won't . . . guuuuck . . . "

"I can't hear you, Acorn."

"For . . . get it . . . . Crockett . . . . I won't say it. It's not true. You are not Robotnik's Son! You can never be . . Robotnik's Son!"

The look on Davey's face changed at this point, from hostility to surprise. H lessened his hold, but still held Acorn there.

"I know you're angry and hurt over what happened to Julian Kintobor, David. I can understand that it made you troubled, and no doubt bitter. But there's one thing it can't make you, and that's Evil. You are no more Evil than what Julian was, David, before his unfortunate accident that made him that way. There are plenty of Mobians that know of that past and what Robotnik did to your father."

"Yeah, I know what that Bastard did to my father. Betrayed and Murdered him--JUST LIKE DARTH VADER!" He threw Acorn to a chair, and as he landed, a Nicole-like computer fell out of Acorn's jacket.

Acorn continued. "What's more, you have a sacred duty to put honor back to the Kintobor name. I know you won't do it for me, or yourself, but what about the Kintobors. Do it for your Father. That's what I'll be saying in the afterlife after you kill me, David James Kintobor, so go ahead."

"For my father, that's a joke. He left me when I was a child. I probably wouldn't even recognize him if he came up to my face."

But as he turned around, he saw exactly that. He recognized the face from pictures his mother had of him. He was skinnier, and had more hair, and he had on a uniform similar to the one Antonio always wears, over a pocket, there was a name. Julian Kintobor.

Acorn pulled himself up, being all but forgotten by David for that holographic projection. "Before the Accident, David. Your father had the foresight to make a backup copy of his own memories and personality. I took that backup and put him in this palmtop." He clipped the Palmtop, Julian, on Davey's belt and slowly backed away.

"Daddy," David was almost at tears. "is . . is that really you?"

"Hi there, son." Julian brushed some hair from the fox's face. "Care to talk about it?"

"Y-Yeah," David embraced the hologram, which was surprisingly solid, to his delight. "I would like that."

King Acorn managed to leave the hut and close the door behind him before falling down in exhaustion, while everyone else exhaled all at once in relief.