DISCLAIMER: All rights to Sonic and associated properties go their respective owners. I own only the story.

So... here we are. The sequel to a story that took me longer than I thought it would to finish. To be honest, I've really been looking forward to doing this. With the other stuff in between, it's been nice to get my mind off things and focus on getting other stuff done that's been on the back-burner for way too damn long. But now is the time to put pretty much all of my focus into this thing. I've gotten a lot better at seeing some things through lately, and I feel like it's been translating well into my writing. Let's hope that the trend continues. I'll see you at the bottom.

The last time that we left our heroes, they were former police officers turned freelance agents after an accidental botched job on their first night as cops. In the space of a week, Sonic the hedgehog, Shadow the hedgehog, Knuckles the echidna, and Miles "Tails" Prower the fox had proven to not only be more efficient than the regular police, but much more popular. After capturing Nack and bringing him over to Green Hill from Westopolis, the four were given another chance to be cops, but they turned it down, and chose to remain as freelance officers.

That was a year and a half ago. The four had aged a little, wised up a little, but their friendship had only grown more. Besides that, little else had changed. Knuckles and Shade were still together, with the red echidna pocketing something that he kept hidden for now. Shadow was still living with Maria, and was making more of an effort to meet people. Tails and Cosmo had gotten a place together not far from his parents' shop, and it was nice and cosy for them.

Sonic and Amy were taking things slow, as Sonic learned from his previous relationship with Sally that things going too fast was not something he was comfortable with. Given his current job description and that Amy's heart condition was getting better, the blue hedgehog was okay with this. He was also okay with being friends with Sally, and not just because Amy was friends with the squirrel, either. He made an effort, and even helped Sally move in to her new place in Star Light.

At present, the four freelancers were high up in the sky, all in a helicopter which was being driven by Tails, who put the air vehicle on autopilot. When he did, he smiled to himself as the chopper stayed still, a soothing male voice coming through to confirm the action that Tails had just performed.

"I told you guys," Tails spoke, "it was worth the wait to make this."

"So... this is where we're dropping, huh, boys?" Knuckles asked, putting something in his back pocket as he stood.

"You couldn't resist, could you," Shadow said, shaking his head. He looked over to Sonic, who stood at the open door of the helicopter. "Hey. Letting the wind breeze through your fur, huh?"

Sonic chuckled. "It's a good feeling. It's the same one I get when I run." He turned around. "To think, I'm clocking in insane speeds now with the implants."

"What's your record now?" asked Shadow.

"His top was 120 mph," said Tails. "Dude broke the treadmill just to keep up."

Sonic pointed at the fox. "What he said." He looked back out over the door into the night sky. "Man... it's so peaceful up here... I can see why Tails likes flying around so much."

"Hey, Cosmo likes a good romantic date in the clouds," Tails chuckled. "As do I. Just another thing that we have in common." He then heard a beeping noise. "And another thing that we in here have in common is that we're at the drop zone."

Sonic nodded, looking down at his clothes. In fact, he was wearing the same as the others. A long sleeved shirt, finger-less gloves, baggy trousers, combat boots, and all were black. All also had a little piece in the middle of their chests, each with a corresponding colour: blue for Sonic, red for Knuckles, yellow for Tails, and white for Shadow.

"Remember," said Tails. "We have to come in hot from the roof. We have wings with our suits now, yet another big help from Espio, Charmy, and Vector."

"Nanotechnology has really come a long way," Knuckles said.

"And with the mixture of the medicinal paste, it forms its own body armour," Tails added. "That part was me, by the way."

"And we all thank you for it," Sonic smiled. "All right, so, like Tails said, the plan is to drop down onto the roof of the museum. It's heavily guarded because there's a late night auction going on. Dictators, governors, police officials, all possibly corrupt. One of them wants a very specific article."

"What for?" Knuckles asked.

"It's an ancient Roman statue of an urn," Tails said. "The rumour about it is that it holds the souls of fertility gods. People basically want it to improve their chances of having kids."

"That and the fact that, with the new top floor being built, it's a possible front for all sorts of bad stuff," Shadow added.

"I'm going to take a wild stab in the dark and assume that there ain't no fertility gods in that glorified vase," Knuckles said.

"And your stab has hit someone who is now bleeding to death," Sonic smirked. "Congrats."

"Thanks!"

Tails shook his head with a small smile. "Apparently, the statue is a middleman of sorts. There's rumours that it's connected to a drug smuggling gig that could have ties to something in Westopolis."

"The urn is basically a receptacle," said Sonic. "People are putting drugs in it, keeping the lid closed, and using it to deliver said drugs across borders. Because of something within the urn, something likely added after its discovery, the drugs inside can't be detected, and the lid needs a specific key to open it up. Or a lot of explosives."

"Someone put a lot of work into shipping that stuff around," Shadow said. "I'm guessing that what's in that urn isn't your garden variety narcotic, though."

"A lot of people are pointing to Fokus being used," Sonic said. "We had eyes over in Westopolis, but that snake guy moved shop, it seems."

"Beau," Tails said. "Manuel and Lara have moved around too. Drugs, guns, and prostitutes... they could be anywhere now."

"Well, you know what they say when it comes to Rome," Knuckles said, walking to the door of the chopper. He turned around, gave a two-fingered salute, and smiled. "Do as the Romans do." He then fell backwards out of the chopper.

Shadow shook his head. "We did tell him the main plan, right?"

"We did," Sonic smiled. "He knows it."

"Oh, good." The black and red hedgehog walked to the edge. "See you at the bottom."

"Eh, I wouldn't necessarily call it the bottom," Sonic chuckled. He walked over as well, looking down below him to see the faint images of his friends falling. He then stood up, taking a step forward and letting himself free fall downwards.

Tails shook his head. "Ever the showoff... and yet he's my best friend." He turned back around to speak to the helicopter. "Remember, ETA is thirty minutes. If we're not back before then, come in and save us."

"I will," said the chopper's voice. "And remember to have fun, Tails."

"Oh, trust me," the fox smirked, "I always do."

He then jumped backwards too, pointing his body down to move faster and join his friends. They all spread out their arms until they were level with each other, and then nodded, pressing the buttons in their suits. Little black nanobots spread out over their bodies, covering their tactical clothing in pitch black body armour, with vague lines of colour to help tell the difference between who was who, said colours matching the pieces on their chests.

"Remember," Sonic said, "weapons are in a cache on the roof! G.H.P.D. dropped them off for us!"

"What's the plan for force?" Shadow asked.

"Lethal if necessary," Sonic said. "The main plan is to be stealthy for this one. We've got to split up when we get there."

"Guys, the roof is coming up!" Knuckles said, checking something on his wrist.

The others nodded, and they all spread their arms and legs out, allowing the technology of their suits to form wings, slowing their descent dramatically. They all aimed straight down before slowing themselves to land on the roof safely, the wings of the suit vanishing.

They all headed over for the weapons cache, opening it up with a password that was the police department's hallmark, and picked out silenced pistols, with Shadow taking a silenced sniper rifle just in case, as well as taking some grenades which they kept set on stun. Lastly, Tails grabbed some sticky mines.

"As Sonic was saying," the fox spoke, handing the mines out. "we need to split up. There's three generators, one on each main floor, and we need to wipe them out before we do anything else."

"Sneak in, snuff the lights, take the guards out, grab the urn," Knuckles said. "Good thing these babies work like the grenades do."

"True," Tails said, nodding in agreement. "Pretty convenient."

"All right, let's get to work," Shadow said.

The others nodded, and all their suits started to shift again as masks formed to fit their heads thanks to the nanotechnology. Once again, the masks matched the colours of each suit, even having eyes of different colours that acted like night vision goggles.

The four each headed to different sides of the roof, keeping their weapons concealed as they did so. They used a wrist-mounted grappling hook on the edge to abseil down, coming to different parts of a large window where light shone through. They carefully placed some mines on the roofs and scaled back up, the mines themselves vibrating and letting off a small, silent explosion, the glass shattering being the only noise of note.

"Did you hear something?" asked one of the guards.

The other man with him went to one of the pieces of shattered glass, pulling out a shoulder mic. "All units, be advised, we have possible intrud-"

A quick blow to the back of his head knocked him out, and the other guard turned to the source of it. He saw a figure in black and white, but didn't see another figure behind him, wrapping his arms around the guard's neck until he was unconscious.

"All clear up here?" Knuckles asked.

Tails shook his head. "Doesn't look like it. There are guards coming up."

Sonic nodded, throwing a mine down onto the ground. He and the others hid behind cover, the lights of their suits hiding them only temporarily as more guards came up. The guards swept the area, not seeing much of note until one of the flashlights gleamed off something.

The guard nodded in the direction, and all were approaching it when they were all separated suddenly, the mine under their feet knocking them back. Before any of them could get back up, they saw another mine stuck on the ceiling, which fell down and let out a shock powerful enough to knock them all out.

"Good teamwork," Sonic said.

"Hey, just because we're being stealthy doesn't mean we can't be cool," Knuckles shrugged.

"True," Sonic nodded. "All right, let's keep moving."

He led the way forward, the others following behind him. Tails looked around for any power sources that he could find, but shook his head. soon pressing on with the others. They found a stairway that led downstairs, to the third floor.

"Why does this museum have a random fourth floor with nothing on it?" Knuckles asked. "Or is this the new exhibit?"

"From what I heard, it's a recent addition," Tails said. "They're thinking about putting it all up here specifically. Which they're not going to be able to do, with any luck."

"Eh, I was always more into Greek mythology than Roman," said Knuckles. "Also, I thought the plan was to do the generators first?"

"It was, but we needed an opening," Sonic said. "With this being a new section, it was the easiest way to get in. Just happened to be guards here."

"So, the rest of the plan will go as usual?" Shadow asked.

"That's the idea," Sonic said. "Come on, you know by now that our plans have a specific order. We just don't always follow it."

There were more footsteps approaching, and Shadow shook his head. "So, what's the plan now?"

"Just follow my lead..."

The guards were soon upstairs at the floor, although not as many as last time. A small clanking sound was near them, and they looked to see a grenade, which burst into a brilliant ball of light, blinding them all. The sounds of blows landing followed, and the guards were on the ground, unconscious.

"Let's get back to our job," said Sonic, heading down the flight of stairs that the guards kept popping through. The other Mobians followed.

"We have more floors to get through," Knuckles pointed out. "We can't fight them all."

"We're not going to," said Sonic. "We shouldn't have fought this many."

"Well, security is tight for this," Tails said. "Still, even for a museum auction... something's not right..."

They followed the stairs to the next floor down, which was mostly filled with fossils and ancient artefacts from various prehistoric periods. The statue of the T-Rex in the centre stood out the most, with its pose suggesting a proud roar.

"All right, the generator for this floor is at the back of the room," said Tails. "Remember, we just need to take it out. Try not to fight anyone if you can help it."

Sonic looked over the landing where they were. "Doesn't look like there's a lot of guards here."

"I think that most of the guards from this floor are sort of sleeping on the floor above," Knuckles said.

Sonic smiled, pressing a button on the side of his helmet. The room scanned around, feeding information back to him and the others. They saw a little HUD that told them where the guards were, how armed they were, how many, and other important information that they needed.

"All right, there's two doors which lead to staircases here," Sonic said. "They're on the left and right of the room. Shadow, you don't have a clear line to teleport to the generator from here, so we need to get you closer."

"The best route is to get to the bottom of this room. There's a ladder that leads to small platform where there's a hidden generator," said Tails. "But we need a key to open the door." The suit scanned the soldiers again, seeing three on a raised up floor, one of which held a key-card. "And there it is."

"The only one who can reach them is you, fuzzy," Sonic said.

The yellow fox nodded with a smile. "I got this."

He rose up, using his tails to spin himself over to the side of the platform. He took some cover behind an exhibit of some amber stones, and he willed the nanobots that formed his suit to switch his light on and then off again. A few seconds later, he heard footsteps coming over, and he swept up from behind the sound to capture a guard in a choking grip. With one arm on him, muffling the guard's mouth, Tails pulled out his pistol to fire two tranquilliser shots at the other two guards, hitting them both dead on. Tails then hit the guard he was holding in the back of the head, knocking him out too. The guard fell, and the fox found the key-card on his body, flying back over to rejoin the others.

"Here," he said, handing it to Shadow. "It's all on you, now."

The black and red hedgehog nodded, going further down the room, being careful on the stairs to not make a sound. When he saw a clear line of sight to reach the bottom floor, he took it, teleporting to it and whispering.

"All right, I'm down here," he said. "Ladder at the back of the room, right?"

"Right," said Tails. "And about two guards between you and that ladder. Think you can handle it?"

Shadow didn't reply, simply pulling out his silenced sniper rifle. He aimed it over the little bit of cover that he had, seeing the guards circling back and forth past each other before one stopped the other. Shadow saw that they were having a conversation before one pulled out a cigarette packet, handing one to the other guard.

Shadow took a deep breath, aiming the sniper rifle. As the second guard lit up his cigarette, Shadow fired a dart into his neck, causing him to fall down. The other guard dropped his packet, turning to look, only to catch a dart to his chest, also falling down.

"That's them taken care of," Shadow said.

"Good work," Sonic said. "Remember, we can't one and done it when it comes to the generators. We go down, set each charge, then we short them out. It's our best chance to get the urn."

Shadow teleported over to the ladder, going up it and swiping the door with the key-card. It was opened, and a small room was present to him, with an electrical generator inside. Shadow picked out a mine from his pocket it, attaching it to the generator and setting it to activate when ready, heading back to the others soon.

"It's done," Shadow said.

"Two more floors left," Sonic said. "Let's keep going."

The others nodded, going down to the second floor. They took in how much brighter this room was than others, with the darkness of the night that shone through the windows doing its worst work to keep our heroes concealed. Still, considering the room's features, mostly consisting of Chinese and Japanese mythology, the bright lights were a given.

"Huh," Knuckles said. "Dibs on that ruby dragon statue. Looks nice."

"We're not stealing that," Sonic said. "We're not thieves. We're just a group of guys sneaking through a museum to steal an ancient urn."

"So... good thieves?"

"Yeah, let's go with that."

"I just wish they'd pick a culture and stick to it," said Tails. "I like my mythology based on Japan and China, but they don't clash well."

"All right, let's find that generator," Sonic said. His suit scanned the room, detecting not as many guards, but one was on his radio to another, speaking to the others before they split up. "The generator is on this floor. The door's closed again, and two guards are blocking it."

"I'll take out the one on the radio," said Shadow. "See if I can create a distraction."

"Yeah, because your loud nature lends to that," Knuckles quipped.

Shadow shook his head. "While that's happening, whoever gets there first gets the generator."

"Or..." Knuckles turned to Tails, and they both prepared their hands for rock paper scissors. After three beats, Tails won via paper covering rock. "You got lucky."

Tails smiled at that, and Shadow decided to get to work. He went over to find some cover near where the radio guard was, and took a breath. He reached for his pistol and detached the magazine from it, sliding it loudly along the floor next to the guard.

"Huh?" The guard looked down at the clip. "What was that noise?" He turned as another one slid to him, but was only met with a knee straight to his face, crushing his nose in one blow and knocking him out as well.

Shadow picked up his magazines, putting them back in his suit before nodding at Tails as the guards were distracted. Said guards rushed down the stairs, not seeing anything until the light shone upon their unconscious third man. Shadow went to work quickly, firing a dart each for both, knocking them out.

Tails watched for a few moments before attaching his mine to the generator, giving a thumbs-up. "All good?"

"We're good," Shadow nodded.

"All right, next floor down," Sonic said.

The blue hedgehog quickly threw a sticky mine onto the doorway, knowing that more guards would be up. As they came into view, the mine exploded with a shocking flash, blinding the men long enough for Shadow to fire darts at them all to knock them out.

"Dunno who got those guards up here, but smart thinking on the mine," said Knuckles.

"Thanks," Sonic nodded.

They made their way down to the next floor, even taking out a guard on the staircase who was blocking them. As they reached the next room, they noted that it was darker again, a stark contrast to the room above with the bright lights and garish decor.

Sonic ran the scan through, seeing more guards this time around, all armed. "Hmm... this one's got much tighter security."

"Makes sense," Shadow shrugged. "The ground floor is just one more down. That and they've probably noticed some men missing."

"It's already dark down here," said Sonic. "Keep your lights off. Shadow, you hang back and fire from here. Tails, distract them from the air. Me and Knuckles will get more up close with them all."

"Hey, as long as I get to take out the generator, I'm good," Knuckles shrugged.

"That was part of the plan," Sonic said. "We get one each."

"Except for you," Tails pointed out.

"Hey, I get to arrest the ass-hole who's trying to sell the drugs in the first place. I'm fine with that," Sonic smirked. "All right, let's move."

Tails flew up, staying low against the ceiling. He was a black blip against the moon that shone through, and some guards looked up to see him. Tails zipped down to kick one guard in the face, pushing down to knock him out. As other guards were distracted, Shadow took aim with his sniper rifle, firing to knock some of the more further away guards out.

Sonic and Knuckles moved around quickly too, with the former using his speed to slip past one side of the guards, causing some to look the other way as Shadow fired more and Knuckles even got to take some of the guards out himself, using his enhanced strength to knock them out easily.

Soon, the bottom floor was cleared, and Tails landed onto the higher floor, seeing some guards on a staircase. He dropped a mine down as they moved to the bottom of the steps, and when they turned at the sound, the mine activated, knocking the guards over the side and onto the ground.

Sonic checked the stats, smiling. "All right, room's cleared." He turned to Knuckles. "If you wouldn't mind."

The red echidna smiled, walking up to the generator and placing a mine onto it. "Mine in place. That's all of them."

"Great. Now, let's go downstairs and see if we can get our bid in."

Downstairs, meanwhile, was brightly lit, and several rich looking men and women were sat down. Around the entrances and exits, several security guards stood around, watching over the event and looking around for any signs of trouble.

At the front of the room was the urn in question, a beautiful ceramic white piece with carved designs of a war around the outside. The urn was also quite large, and had two round handles on either side, with the lid firmly attached as the auctioneer cleared his throat and spoke.

"Ladies and gentlemen, article 246, an ancient Roman urn," the auctioneer said. "Said to have held the weapons of a great warrior, specifically his sword which decapitated a great beast and granted its wielder immortality. And while it can't do the same for you, it is a fascinating piece, I'm sure you'll agree. The bidding starts at 50,000."

"500!" said one of the bidders.

"Another 500!" said another.

A few other bidders raised their paddles up and bid higher numbers, and one of the guards watching over heard a noise behind him. He went to investigate, only to get a shot to his neck. Another guard, this one closer to the urn, touched a hand to his earpiece, whispering in the auctioneer's ear.

"Sorry," said the auctioneer. "We seem to be having some-"

"Issues?" asked Sonic, walking in. He was still in his suit, with only his face revealed. "I'll admit, I'm usually bored by this kinda stuff, but I'd have to agree with you there."

"What seems to be the meaning of this?" The auctioneer looked either side of him as the guards next to him fell down unconscious, and Sonic pulled a gun on him before speaking.

"Any more guards make a move, and this sack of shit drops like... well, a sack of shit."

"What... what are you doing here?"

"Mr... Lang," Sonic said. "Am I saying that right?"

"But... that's not my name..."

"I know," Sonic smiled. "I should really be facing the right way, shouldn't I?" He turned around. "I'm looking for a Mr. Henry Lang, and his sister named Kitty. See, I happen to have it on good authority that you two are really looking to buy out this here urn because you know what's inside of it."

"I assure you-"

Sonic turned and pointed again at the auctioneer. "Mr. Cottons, I'd really appreciate it if you didn't interrupt me."

A guard moved, but was dropped to the floor with a shot, knocking him out. Cottons looked shocked. "Why are you killing all of these men?"

"They're fine," said Sonic. "The worst that they'll get is a concussion. And maybe some slight dizziness."

"What do you want?" asked Cottons.

"I want to know where the Lang siblings are. Truth be told, I only need the sister."

"What for?"

"Because the sister recently got into trouble with her medical bills after a car accident. She was given an implant that allowed her legs to function again so that she could walk, but she couldn't pay the hospital after. So, she's looking to buy this urn to sell what's inside it. The only trouble is... well, she's also here to get the key that opens that urn." Sonic looked at Cottons. "Do you know where it is?"

"It's on my card here," Cottons said, gesturing to a strap clipped around his neck. It had his card and name on it. "On the other side of this is the key." He turned it to prove it.

"Sir, I need that key," Sonic said. "I need to open that urn. Or, rather, I need to take it with me."

"And if I refuse?"

Sonic smirked, shrugging. "Then I guess that I'll have to take it by force if necessary."

Cottons seemed confused, but then the power to the whole building shut off, with not a light activating. Some of the guards turned on some torches they had on their suits, but said guards were knocked out quickly, leaving the room completely dark as Sonic ran a quick scan with his suit.

"Hmm... interesting..."

"What is?" Cottons asked. He was distracted as he heard a noise. "And what is that?"

"The Lang siblings aren't in this room," said Sonic. "Well, not directly."

"We need the backup generator running!" said the auctioneer.

"Ah, no need," Sonic said. "It's not working."

"What?"

"There's no power in this building. At all." Sonic chuckled. "And it really helps us as well. But we need your help too." He stepped closer to Cottons, the lights on his suit activating. "See, it is true that Lang wants what's in that urn because she knows what's in it. But I get the feeling that you won't give that key up so easily."

"Oh, trust me, I don't even know what's in there," Cottons said, reaching for his pocket. "Just take the key."

Sonic took the key, nodding. "Thank you. But why?"

"Because I have an auction to run, and I just want to do my job."

Sonic smiled. "Well, you must have not gotten the memo about what we do. See, that's red tape stuff, really, and it usually falls in the hands of the cops. But because of what happened, you won't be able to do your job a lot longer."

"How do you figure?"

"Wow, you really haven't done this before, have you?" Sonic asked. "Questions from the police, being asked if you knew what you were transporting, being asked who gave it to you, and who gave it to them, and so on."

"Why don't you just ask me right now?"

"Because that's not our priority." Sonic shrugged. "Oh, and that noise is a plasma cutter cutting a circle around the floor under your urn. I know that the key is bullshit, but it's a nice cover... Mr. Lang."

"I don't... get it..."

Sonic smiled as the power came back to the building, while the urn dropped down onto the ground below the circle. Sonic leaned over to see Vector, Espio, and Charmy having caught it safely, setting it onto the ground and looking up.

"This is it, right?" asked Vector.

"That's the one!" Sonic said. "Good work on the backup generator too! Way to take the initiative!"

"No problem!" said Espio. "We'll get this back to Avery!"

"You okay to finish up here on your own?" Charmy asked.

"We'll be fine!" Sonic called. As the others made their way out, Sonic turned back around to see Cottons taking off his face, revealing a man with Asian ancestry underneath. "Ah, Henry Lang, I presume."

"You had me pegged from the start, didn't you?"

Sonic smirked. "Damn right." He then heard a bathroom door opening and closing, turning to see Kitty Lang leaving it, holding a gun up to aim at Sonic. "And look! The whole family of ass-holes is here!"

"Should I shoot him now?" asked Kitty.

"It'd be nice," said Henry.

Before she could, she was dropped by a shot, a needle in her arm knocking her out. Sonic sighed. "Are you ever not going to be dramatic with that?"

Shadow teleported behind Henry. "What? I thought that I did a good job there."

Tails soon flew down, dropping Knuckles onto the ground as well as both kept their guns on the Lang brother, who had his hands up. "What is the meaning of this?"

"Identity theft, mostly," said Sonic. "You and your sister. It took us a lot of time to get your real names. And because you got found out by the wrong people, you were both looking to take away what was in the urn to sell it and pay off the people you ripped off."

Henry shook his head. "You don't know anything!"

"Nah, he's right," Knuckles said. "We're just freelance agents. We couldn't possibly have access to that kind of data."

"Especially so quickly," Tails added.

"Who ratted me out?"

"The criminal database," said Shadow. "We went through... what was it, 200 names before we got Lang?"

"I think that it was about that number, yeah," Sonic nodded. "And that is... at least 6 decades in prison. By that time, no amount of makeup and fake ID cards can get your sorry asses out of jail."

"Not to mention that the guards here were hired to take out anyone who tried to bid higher than Kitty did," said Tails. "They must have been on the same payroll, right?"

"Well, at least affiliated," Knuckles said. "Petty stuff, mostly. You hired them easily because they would have been more expendable. Attackers, purse snatchers, that kind of thing, I'm guessing."

Henry shook his head. "You... bastards..."

Sonic smiled, turning to face one of the side doors. "And, if I'm right, that means that the good old boys from Green Hill should be bursting through that door in 3... 2..."

The door that they were facing did burst open, as did another behind them, and several Green Hill police officers rushed in, one group collecting the unconscious Lang sister and the other collecting the brother from Sonic, putting a pair of handcuffs on him.

"Hey, guys!" Bunnie said. She walked over, hugging them all together and giggling before releasing it. "Wow, y'all have gotten stronger since last time!"

"Same with you," Sonic said. "Those parts of yours must have been upgraded, huh?"

"Well, that's the handiwork of the Tech Trio, as we like to call them," said Antoine.

"They do mighty fine work," said Knuckles.

"As did you," Avery said, appearing behind the two smaller Mobians. "Another great crackdown."

"Thank you," Sonic said.

"No sir at the end?" Avery chuckled.

"You haven't been our boss for over a year. It'd feel weird to still say it," Sonic chuckled back.

"It's no issue," Avery said. "We'll wrap up here. We have the urn ready to take to the evidence locker back at our base, and we have the criminals ready to go to jail."

"Not to mention that we have to put tape around the museum," said Antoine. "We don't know what else there could be."

"And we have tickets to watch the Green Hill Goliaths take on the Star Light Savages," said Knuckles.

"Don't spoil it for me," said Avery. "I have it set to record tonight."

Knuckles smiled. "All right, we'll let you get back to doing all the hard work."

Avery chuckled. "You did good tonight, like always. See you when I see you."

They all then parted ways, with the guards being picked up as well during their conversation, all being thrown into police cars. They all left the building, watching the other cars leave as Tails reached for his wrist, pressing a button.

"All right, we got done early, so you can come get us," he said.

"Certainly," said the chopper's AI voice.

They all looked up to see the chopper coming down, and all deactivated their suits so that they were back in their normal clothing beforehand. The helicopter landed, and they all climbed in, taking their seats as they took to the skies again.

And here's the first of three! See? What a nice present. This wasn't the plan at the start, but I mulled it over in my mind a lot, and thought... screw it. It'll be enough to tide you over. Anyway, I'll be seeing you real soon for the next two chapters of this. Take care, and stay tuned.