DISCLAIMER: I don't own Sonic or any of its characters. All rights go to SEGA and... eh, you all know the drill by now.
So, here it is! The winner of the poll that I put up, which you might notice has been taken down by the time this chapter is posted, was Cyber Riders, by quite a surprisingly large margin. I honestly wasn't expecting this one to be the top pick, but I'm glad that it happened anyway. I want to say thank you to everyone who voted, even if your choice wasn't the one that got the most votes overall.
Anyhow, this story will be different to my Fast Times series. It will be a lot more comedic, for one thing, and will hopefully have more of a buddy-cop feel to it, and it won't take place in the same universe as Fast Times does, but it might contain some elements from it. For one thing, it takes place in more of a cyberpunk setting, and is a lot more futuristic. It will also have a lot more action and violence. Not necessarily bloody violence, but that could happen.
So, with that said, let's get started! I hope that you all enjoy.
A phone alarm buzzed, having the sound of a rooster cawing out an annoying cock-a-doodle-do which earned ire from the owner of said phone, who sat up, reached over to the phone, and turned it off.
"Five more minutes..." a male voice mumbled gruffly. Sadly, he wasn't going to get those five more minutes. Or even five more seconds, as a rock song played for his ringtone. "Could you get that, babe?" he complained. After receiving no reply for a few moments, he reached his hand to the other side of his bed. "Shade? Baby?"
"I'm in the bathroom, baby!" a feminine voice sounded from across the other end of the room.
Knuckles smiled and reached over to his phone, seeing the picture of a blue hedgehog flashing a peace sign before answering. "Yeah, Knuckles here. What's up, blue?"
"Just making sure that you're awake," Sonic smiled. "You didn't get too hammered last night, did you?"
"Uh... maybe?" Knuckles said, sitting up and rubbing his eyes. "What's the time?"
"It's almost 10:00 am, dude. You've got to get your ass moving. The big meeting is going to start in half an hour."
"Big meeting?" Knuckles moaned. "What are you talking about?"
"Today's our first day, man!" Tails said excitedly, his voice loud enough to be heard through the phone.
"All right, relax, fox boy," Knuckles said, getting out of his bed as the sound of the bathroom flushing was heard. "I'll be on my way soon."
"You'd better hurry up," Sonic warned. "Traffic's been a bitch all morning."
"I'll be there," the echidna slightly growled. "See you when I get there, okay?"
"See you."
With that, both Sonic and Knuckles hung up and the echidna tossed his phone onto his bed as Shade walked out from the bathroom, drying her hands after cleaning them. "Who was it?" she asked.
"That was the guys," Knuckles replied. "Apparently, there's some big meeting going on soon, and I've got to move quick."
"Well, you do know how big today is, right?" Shade said in a concerned tone.
"Yeah, I know," Knuckles said, slightly exasperated. "It's the first day at-" He then froze as his eyes widened. "Oh, fuck..."
He quickly darted around the room to the closet where his clothes were, finding a black pair of boxers settling on a pair of comfortable black jeans, dark grey sneakers, a red tank top, and a brown jacket to go with them, thanking his lucky stars that the Green Hill Police Department uniform wasn't going to be given to him or his friends just yet.
"Let's see," he said, checking around the room. "Wallet... keys... phone... got them all..." He looked concerned. "There is something missing..."
"Maybe your gun?" Shade suggested, now dressed in a black t-shirt with a pink spider design on it and some grey shorts whilst she used a headband to push her hair back.
"No, we're supposed to get new ones," Knuckles said. "We all had to give the ones that we got from the academy back."
Shade pursed her lips in thought. "Coffee in a thermos, maybe? Because I put that on ten minutes ago. You should be fine for your drive up to the station."
"Nah, that's not it either..." Knuckles said. He then grinned and zipped over to her, kissing her lips, causing her to giggle and kiss back.
"Good luck today," Shade spoke. "Go out there and kick some ass."
"You too," her red counterpart replied. "How far along are you at your kickboxing class?"
"Working my way up to a blue belt, so I'm about the halfway point," she giggled.
"You're so lucky that your classes don't start until 1:00 pm," Knuckles said. "Being a cop is hard work."
"Spoke like somebody who isn't truly a cop yet," Shade said.
"Well, I passed the academy with the others, I've fired a gun, I've saved people, and I got drunk celebrating with the girl of my dreams," he smiled. "What could I possibly be missing?"
"How about coming back to your girl in one piece?" she suggested.
He smiled and kissed her lips again. "That I can do easily. I'll be fine, baby."
"Good to hear," she smiled. "Now, go! You've got to move, or you'll be fired before even getting there!"
"Yes, ma'am!" Knuckles replied, sitting up from the bed and walking to the bedroom door before heading to the kitchen to grab his coffee.
Shade stood at the doorway of their bedroom with her arms folded, smiling as she saw him walking over to the front door. "I love you," she said.
"I love you too," he replied, closing the door and sighing. "Ah... well then, let's get started..." He walked over to his car, hopped over into the driver's seat, and turned on the ignition, starting his drive.
At Green Hill Police Station...
Several people were seated around a large, spherical glass table, with some seats still empty. At the back of the room was a large television screen, and sat around the table were several Mobians while a young mongoose with yellow fur, black hair, and wearing a dark grey business suit complete with brown dress shoes, stood in front of the large screen, pointing a remote at it.
"These, ladies and gentlemen, are our newest recruits," he said, pressing a button on the remote to cause four pictures to pop up on screen, with names, bios, and other trivia appearing next to them. "From left to right we have Sonic the hedgehog, Tails the fox, Knuckles the echidna, and Shadow the hedgehog."
"What makes these four so special?" a female lynx asked.
"I'm so glad that you asked, Nicole," said Ash, turning his attention back to the screen. "Let's start with Sonic. 22 years old. Charismatic, a good leader, and passed the obstacle courses in record timing, specifically those pertaining to speed. He was a track and field runner in high school, even earning a chance at the Olympics at one point, but he turned it down to focus on his training at the academy. He's also cocky, brash, and can be arrogant, but considering how well he's done, it's easy to see why he's such a top pick." He pressed the remote again, and it focused on Tails. "Our next entrant, Tails the fox. At only 20 years of age, he's the youngest of the group, but he has intelligence wise beyond his years."
"How can someone that small be that smart?" asked a gruff voice.
Ash turned to see a male gorilla, dressed in old, dark green military attire that had several awards and recommendations over the left breast. "I'm so glad you asked, Simian. To answer your question, think Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking put together."
"That's... pretty impressive," the gorilla said. "But that doesn't change that he's not the strongest fighter."
"With all due respect, sir, I am the one running the presentation," Ash said, getting a bit aggravated. "Of course, he's not the best fighter. But he's the smartest. During our bomb test drill, he was the only one to have both stopped the bomb and rescued the civilians. Others either chose one or the other, either not being smart enough to deactivate the bomb, or not quick enough to save all of the people."
"The bombs were filled with paint and the people were test dummies with wigs and makeup," said a large bear, wearing a fancy black police uniform with the initials G.H.P.D. over the left breast of the suit. Under that were several badges and medals, much like with Simian's suit. "That doesn't make fluffy there a worthy candidate in my book, no matter how well he did."
"How about the fact that he beat your old record to go with it, Commissioner?" Ash said, unable to hide his grin. Yes, Avery was the head honcho of G.H.P.D., but that didn't mean that Ash couldn't have some fun. He shrugged his smirk off and pressed the remote once more. "Anyway, onto the next one: Knuckles the echidna. 23, being just a few months older than Sonic, Knuckles is the best fighter we have. He trained as an amateur boxer, and even had a brief run in some pro fights, finishing with a record of 6-0 before the Academy came calling. And, by the way, he finished all of his fights in the first round, and half of those in the first minute. This would lead to even more success at Green Hill Academy, where he passed every martial arts test we threw at him."
"Finally, we have someone that can actually fight," Simian grinned. "This'll be good..."
"Not as good as our final entry," said Ash, pressing the remote again. "Shadow the hedgehog. The oldest member at 26, we don't know much about him, and he's not the biggest talker. All we know besides his age is that he currently lives with a human woman named Maria, also 26, who looks after him."
"Not to sound racist here," said a female wolf named Lupe, wearing a slightly more feminine variant of the usual Green Hill uniform, "but why would a human be living with a Mobian?"
"Apparently, they're childhood friends. From what I understand, neither of them got on too well with their own, so they fond each other at a young age and haven't looked back since," Ash shrugged.
"How did you get this info? I thought Shadow wasn't the talky type," Simian said.
"Mostly from Maria herself. She wasn't much of a talker either, but she soon eased into it," Ash replied, answering the gorilla's question. "Anyway, back to Shadow. While we don't know much about him, we do know that he did have something of a criminal record during his adolescence, but mostly just for stealing food or money. There was one account of aggravated assault on an officer, but said officer was really not a nice person from what I heard. He didn't like the idea of Mobians and humans being together. After seeing the error of his ways, he got a job and saved up enough to get to Green Hill, and the rest is pretty much history."
"How does he get on with the others?" asked Nicole.
"Not too well. As I mentioned, Maria's been helping Shadow out of his shell, but he distances himself a lot. He's very focused on what he wants to do, and it seems he just wants to get over his old life," the yellow mongoose shrugged. "He met the others at the Academy, and he... well, he tolerates them. I guess that would be the best way to describe it."
"What about his final tests at the academy?" Avery asked.
"Ah, right. I knew I was forgetting something," Ash said, silently thanking his leader. "Truth be told, he aced pretty much everything, much like the others. But also like the others, he had his speciality; shooting. All of his gun related tests are the most accurate I've ever seen. There was even a time during the sniping test where he made what we've dubbed the Zaytsev shot."
Ash then pressed another button on the remote, and the screen popped up, clearly showing a sidelong view where Shadow could just about be seen in the top left with a sniper rifle, and in the bottom right were three crash test dummies. Two were dressed up as criminals, completely with balaclavas and knives, and the third was the victim of said crime, dressed in a wig and a pink sweater, and one of the criminals held her purse. Shadow pulled the trigger on one of the thieves, causing the dummy to fall. The other was attached to a conveyor belt on the ground, and was moving quickly, hiding behind some sheet metal as cover.
"Looks like you missed your shot, Shadow," said a voice over the hedgehog's earpiece.
"Who was that?" asked Simian.
"Sonic," Ash replied.
Instead of replied, Shadow kept his focus on the sheet metal, and saw a small hole in the side of it. He then turned more to his left, seeing another dummy that he had shot earlier, but was still stood up as part of the test. He took a deep breath and fired at the side of the standing dummy's head, hitting the right angle and causing the bullet to zip to its right, sliding through the small hole and hitting the dummy in its left temple.
"Huh. I take that back," Sonic's voice said. "Good job, buddy."
"Thanks," Shadow said.
Ash turned off the recording, the screen bringing up Shadow's picture again. "See? Told you he was good."
"Damn..." said Nicole. "Not just the shot itself, but the distance too..."
"100 feet away," said Ash. "Those final tests are often the most difficult, but he made it look so easy, even on the most difficult shot."
"Is the ricochet normally part of the test?" asked Simian.
"Nope. He was pretty much just showing off with that." Ash then switched off the presentation. "And with that we have," He paused to check his watch. "about five minutes left. They should be here soon."
Outside the department...
Sonic, Shadow, and Tails all waited outside the front of what they were hoping would be their workplace. Shadow sported a black leather jacket over a dark blue polo t-shirt, with blue jeans and black combat boots. Sonic had a teal blue underwear shirt on with white sleeves, and a design of several birds could be seen going diagonally from his left shoulder down to his right hip. He wore this with blue jeans of his own, and black trainers. Tails wore a dark green hoodie with a large orange stripe across the stomach, and had baggy black track pants and white trainers.
The blue hedgehog checked his watch. "Only a few minutes left. We're going to miss it."
Tails nodded. "Let's go inside. At least that way they might believe that we were actually here this whole time."
"It's like I mentioned to Knuckles, traffic's been horrible all morning," Sonic shrugged.
"Something tells me that they aren't going to buy that as an excuse," said Shadow as they walked to the station proper.
"Well, it's the best we've got right now," Sonic replied.
The rest of the walk was silent, and they entered the double doors of the station. Whilst the outside was a polished silver with some blue tinges here and there, with the initials G.H.P.D. glowing a turquoise blue against a black framed sign, the inside was a lot bigger. That same turquoise colour lined the outsides of all the doors, which were all metallic and shining silver, with the pitch black carpet contrasting the bright colours of the interior of the building.
Before they had more chances to look around, a Mobian in the station's uniform took notice of them. "You the new guys?" he asked.
"Yeah, that's us," Sonic replied.
"You'd better get upstairs. You're going to be late."
"We're aware..." Shadow mumbled.
Sonic sighed in apology for his friend. "Which floor?"
"The third. Follow me," he said. "I'll take you to the elevator."
"Thank you so much," said Sonic, looking over the Mobian's profile, noticing his scaly purple skin and the yellow horn protruding from where his nose would be. "You new here too?" the blue hedgehog asked.
"Been working here for about half a year now," the chameleon replied. "Name's Espio."
"Espio..." Tails said. "Oh, yeah! I've heard about you! You're one of the first Mobians to get a cybernetic implant!"
"One of the first successes, anyway," Espio shrugged. "A lot of the guys that came before me didn't do so well."
"So, what does your implant allow you to do?" Sonic asked, curiosity staining his tone.
Espio turned to face Sonic, grinned, then suddenly became invisible before speaking. "I can camouflage myself to become a part of the environment around me. It's very useful for stealth missions."
"I can imagine," Sonic smiled as the elevator stopped. The door opened, and they all walked out.
Espio became visible once more and pointed forwards to a metal door, slightly different in design to others as it had a logo on the front, which appeared to be that of a large brown bear behind a Celtic-style shield, with a star covering both holes on the sides of the shield, and a third one in the middle, and the words "Green Hill" were written over the top of the star, bending over it, and the same happened for the bottom as the words "Police Department" were plainly seen.
"Wow... that logo is so cool..." Tails said.
"There'll be time to gawk later," Espio said. "You'd all better get in there now before Commander Avery flips his shit."
"I thought he was a Commissioner?" Sonic asked.
"Eh, we call him both here. Commander's just easier to say," Espio replied, turning to go back to the elevator.
"Hey," said Sonic, "thanks for the help."
"No problem," Espio replied as the elevator doors closed.
Tails puffed out a worried breath before walking to the door, followed by the others. Instead of having to open the door themselves, it opened automatically, and they walked in to see Ash smiling before speaking.
"And here they are! Right on time," he nodded to the three. "I'm Ash, one of the tech experts at the Station. Joining me are Nicole the lynx, Lupe the wolf, Simian the gorilla, and our Commander, Avery the bear."
The big bear in question stood up, smiling at the trio and walking over. "It's nice to meet the latest graduates of Green Hill Academy." He shook the hands of all three before looking around. "You seem to be one short."
"That would be Knuckles," said Sonic. "He woke up late. Partied too hard last night, apparently, and the traffic's been a nightmare all morning."
"What kind of idiot throws a bash on the night before one of the most important days in his career?" Ash wondered.
"Who indeed..." Shadow muttered.
"Look, he'll be here," said Sonic reassuringly, ignoring his friend's comment. "Just give him a few more minutes. It'll be fine."
Simian then stood up. "I suppose that we should help them find their rooms."
"We get rooms?" asked Tails. "I thought we'd all be squeezed into little cubicles typing on a laptop."
"It's 2216, son. I'd like to think we've move on from how we used to be," Simian chuckled.
"Which floor are our rooms on?" asked Sonic.
"This one," replied Ash. "But you'll need to go to the ground floor to get your IDs from Cosmo and Mina."
"Anything else?" asked Shadow.
"Nope. That's it."
Avery stepped in. "Nicole will go with you to take you to your rooms if you need the help."
"Yay..." Nicole said, not very enthusiastically before standing up and walking over.
Sonic shrugged and nodded at Avery. "Thank you for the help." He then scratched his head. "Weren't we supposed to have a meeting?"
"Well, we would, but it is quite important to have all four of you here," Avery admitted. "So, in the meantime, go find your rooms."
"What about uniforms?" Tails added.
"They'll be sorted later, as will weapons and vehicles," the bear nodded. "I'll save it for the meeting."
Sonic shrugged. "All right then. Um, we'll leave you to it, I guess."
Nicole then spoke. "Let me lead the way."
"After you."
Nicole walked out the door, closely followed by the others as they headed to the elevator before speaking. "You know that part of the reason he's saving the info is for a mission, right?"
"I kinda gathered," Sonic nodded as they entered the elevator. "Any idea what that mission could be?"
"No clue," the lynx shook her head as she pressed the button for the ground floor.
"I'm more surprised that he's giving us a mission on our first day here," Tails said. "I wonder what our weapons will be like..."
"More importantly, I'd wonder if the uniform would fit you," Nicole said, nodding at Tails'... tails.
"Oh, uh... hehe... yeah..." the fox said nervously.
"Are those cybernetic? Or robotic, perhaps?"
"No. I... I was born with them," said Tails as the elevator door opened.
Nicole looked a bit worried. "Sorry if I said something bad."
"It's okay."
Sonic then cut in. "Trust me, Tails has pretty much heard it all when it comes to the twins. He also hates it when I call them the twins."
"I've gotten used to it over the years," Tails smiled.
They then walked over to nearby the front doors of the station, and saw a yellow mongoose with purple hair sat with a green... well, they knew it was a girl, at least. Whoever she was, Tails couldn't take his eyes off of her.
"Hey Nicole!" said the green one.
"Hi there, Cosmo!" replied Nicole, nodding to the mongoose also. "Hi to you too, Mina!"
"Hey," Mina said. "Ooh. Who are these three?"
"These would be our new recruits," Nicole smiled.
"Ah, the Academy grads, huh?" Mina smiled, looking at the black and red hedgehog. "You're Shadow, right? I was the one who set up those training dummies! That ricochet shot that you landed through the steel was amazing!"
Shadow nodded in reply before Sonic spoke. "Sorry about my friend here. He's not the biggest talker."
Nicole then stepped forward. "You got those ID cards ready?"
Cosmo turned to her left, picking out three cards that were coloured titanium white and had the pictures of who they would be going to on the left side while the design of the department's logo could be seen on the left, highlighted in a dark grey as a black bar code could be seen nearer the bottom of the card underneath the logo. The name of the person who would have the card was written vertically along the right side of the main picture, the letters coloured a dim grey.
"Man, these look cool!" said Sonic. "How did you get those pictures of us, though?"
"From the database," said Mina. "A little tweaking here and there, and we just print your face onto the card." She then handed the cards over to Nicole, who gave them to Sonic and Shadow.
"Man, I love technology!" said Sonic, looking to Tails. "What do you think? Impressive, right?"
"Huh?" Tails said as he felt something nudge his hand. He looked down and saw his ID card, taking it from Nicole's hand. "Oh, yes! Yes it is." He smiled at Cosmo. "You did a good job."
"Well, thank you," Cosmo replied, looking away and smiling.
"Um..." said Nicole. "I guess I'll take you up to your rooms, then..."
"Thanks for these," said Sonic. "Oh, while I remember, do you have one made for Knuckles?"
"We do, but why would you need it now?" asked Mina.
"We may as well hold onto it until he gets here," Sonic replied.
"I wonder how far away he is now..." said Tails as they left, heading for the elevator.
"Who knows? Wherever he is, he'd better get here soon."
Meanwhile, just outside the department...
Knuckles had just pulled up in his vehicle, seeing Sonic's own car not too far from the entrance. He immediately drove his car up, parking just a few feet behind his friend's car before getting out of his car and rushing to the building.
'Good thing my GPS was accurate,' Knuckles thought in his head as he ran. 'But the traffic really didn't help...'
He soon made it to the front doors and entered through them, pausing to take a few breaths before smiling as he looked around the building. He let out an appreciative whistle. "Nice digs."
"Knuckles the echidna?" said a female voice.
Knuckles turned to see Cosmo and Mina at a desk. "Oh, hey," he said, before wearing a frown. "Oh, crap... the meeting..."
"Actually, they haven't had it yet," said Mina. "Commander Avery wants to wait for all four of you to be here before he gives you your briefing."
"All of us?" Knuckles asked, checking his watch. "Are the others late?"
"Nope. Just you."
"Dammit..." Knuckles sighed. "Where are they?"
"They're getting checked into their rooms by Nicole upstairs," Cosmo answered. "They have your ID card with them, too."
"Third floor," Mina helpfully added.
"Thanks a lot," the echidna replied, turning to see the elevators.
He gave one more smile to the two girls before waling over to the elevator, pressing the button to call for it and waiting patiently. Soon, the lift doors opened, and he stepped inside them, pressing the button for the third floor and waiting again.
Quicker than he had expected, the elevator doors opened... only for Knuckles to see that someone had pressed the button for the first floor to get on. Knuckles held the elevator for them, smiling.
"Which floor?" Knuckles asked, noting that she was a rabbit and that she wore the signature G.H.P.D. uniform.
"Third, please," they replied, smiling at Knuckles. "Pleasure to meet you. I'm Bunnie."
The echidna smiled. "Knuckles." He then noted that the hand he was shaking was metallic. "Whoa..."
"I know, I know," Bunnie said, her Southern belle lilt smothering her voice. "A lot of people get freaked out by them..."
"Um... what... erm..." Knuckles fumbled his words, not wanting to say anything to offend.
"Ah, it's fine, darlin'," she smiled. "I was actually born this way. Well, not exactly this way. I had a defect where some of my limbs couldn't grow properly, so they gave me robotic replacements instead."
"That's pretty cool," Knuckles admitted. "And sad. I'm sorry, Bunnie."
"Don't feel sorry and sad for little ol' me," Bunnie grinned as the elevator doors opened. "I can take care of myself."
Knuckled grinned as they both stepped out of the elevator. "Do you know where the rooms are?"
"Sure do. Just follow me!"
The echidna smiled, and Bunnie walked ahead of him, allowing him to follow closely behind. While there a few branching corridors, a majority of those led to offices or research rooms. Bunnie led Knuckles to the leftmost part of the floor, where the main room corridors would be.
"It should be along one of these hallways," the rabbit said as they both walked back and forth between them.
Knuckles frowned in exasperation before he heard a voice. "Yo, knucklehead! We're here!"
The red echidna paused just before the third hallway of the six that they'd been walking between, and saw Tails. "I'll be there in a minute!" He quickly turned to Bunnie, offering his hand. "Thanks for the help."
The rabbit looked at his hand before shaking it, and then giggled when she pulled him into a hug, which he returned before letting go. "Any time," she said, turning to her side and cocking her head to her left. "My hallway's a bit further up."
"Well, I hope to see you around," Knuckles said.
It was then that a fox stepped around a hallway, also wearing the G.H.P.D. uniform as he stepped over to Bunnie. "Ah, there you are!" he said happily. "Man, those meetings down at the robotics labs take longer and longer, huh?"
"Antoine! Hey, baby!" she said, jumping into his arms and hugging him before letting go and turning her head. "This here's Knuckles. He's a newbie here at the station. I was just helping him find his room."
Knuckles extended his hand. "Nice to meet you."
Antoine smiled and shook it. "Likewise. So, you're a graduate of Green Hill Academy, huh?" He smiled more. "Impressive. Not a lot of people make it through that with as high grades as you and the others."
"You know about us?" Knuckles asked.
"Antoine's one of the workers at the communications department of the station," said Bunnie. "He gets fed a lot of info. In fact, he helped design some of the sound effects for your courses at the academy."
"Wow, awesome!" Knuckles replied. "The sound effects of those dummies were pretty good."
"Thank you," Antoine smiled. "I even did all the criminal voices myself."
Knuckles was about to speak again, but turned his head to see Sonic walking out. It looked as though the blue hedgehog was about to warn Knuckles once more, but instead he smiled at Bunnie and Antoine.
"Hi there," he said, politely reaching his hand to shake. Antoine did, but Bunnie forewent it and hugged the hedgehog instead. "Oof!" Sonic said, slightly stumbling at the unexpected hug.
"She's a hugger," Antoine shrugged.
"I noticed," Sonic replied through a slightly strained breath as the hug was let go. "It's nice to meet you."
"Sonic, this is Bunnie and Antoine," Knuckles said, introducing them.
"Nice to meet you," Sonic smiled at the two before turning to the echidna. "It's nice to see that you finally got here."
"I'm sorry, man. It's like you said, traffic's been a pain in the neck all day," Knuckles replied with a shrug.
"If y'all need anything, don't hesitate to ask, ya here?" said Bunnie.
"Will do," Sonic smiled. "Thanks for your help in getting big red up here. He'd probably lose his way to the front entrance if you hadn't found him."
"That happened once, and those cookies were very distracting," Knuckles defended.
"It was at a corner store with automatic doors. I don't care how good the cookies were, that's just dumb."
"You're only saying that because you didn't get any cookies..."
The blue hedgehog chuckled and shook his head at his friend. "Come on. Your room's down this way." He then nodded at Bunnie and Antoine. "Thanks again."
"You're welcome," replied Antoine.
Knuckles nodded and smiled at the rabbit and fox combo before joining back with his friend, following him. "I'm so, so sorry..." he said as they began walking.
"It's fine, dude," Sonic said. "It ain't me you need to apologise to, though."
Knuckles breathed out an exhausted sigh. "Still doesn't make me feel any easier. This is not a great way to start my new job."
"And it doesn't make the rest of us look good either," Shadow said from his room, loud enough to be heard. "If you want us all to keep our places here, you'd better buck up."
"Says the guy who got so smashed last night that he back-flipped off of a table," Knuckles smirked.
"At least I landed it. You couldn't even walk before reaching the car."
"You're welcome for the lift, by the way," said Tails from his room.
"Okay, I know that I was late," Knuckles said, "but why the hell are you all picking on me?"
"Because it's fun," the fox shrugged.
"You know that I could put you through a wall, right?"
"Yep. But you won't," Tails chuckled. "You like us all too much."
Knuckles grunted. "Dammit, he's right..."
Sonic smiled before turning serious. "All right, we should all head up to Avery since we're all here."
"Wait, what about my room?" Knuckled asked.
"It's just to the left Tails' room," replied Sonic. "So, the next door down from when you first walk in the corridor." He then handed Knuckles his ID card. "You need this to get in."
"Huh. At least they picked a good picture of me," the red echidna smiled before walking over to the door in question. He inserted his ID card into a small slot in the left side of the door, and a deep, male, robotic voice began speaking.
"Now reading ID card... now checking ID... now accepting..." The door then made a few beeping noises before opening. "Welcome, Knuckles."
"Thanks," Knuckles replied, taking his card back out and walking into his room.
He smiled at the big amount of space there, and saw his bed in the corner of the room just opposite a closet. He looked to his right to see a small kitchenette, and just beyond that was a wooden door which led to a bathroom. He looked back over to the bedroom part and saw a desk with a spinning chair in front of it.
"One thing that the station neglected to mention," said Tails, "was that we had to bring our own stuff here. Since we were all in such a rush, we didn't have much time."
"Eh, we can do it tomorrow," said Sonic, walking to Knuckles. "Like it?"
"Are you kidding? This place looks better than my whole house, and it's three times smaller than that!"
"Good to hear," the blue hedgehog said as he patted his friend's shoulder. "Come on. We should head to the briefing room before Avery sends someone for us."
"Ah, there you all are," said a voice.
Sonic peeked his head to the bottom end of the hallway, seeing Ash. "Oh, hey man. We were just about to get on our way."
The mongoose nodded. "It's just nice to have you all here." He then spotted the red echidna. "Knuckles, I presume?"
"That would be my name, yes."
"It's nice to have you here, is all. Come on."
Knuckles nodded, running a bit to catch up with Ash as he began walking, with the rest of his friends soon joining him as they walked out of the corridor and across the hall to the right side of the third floor, seeing the door to the briefing room.
"Ooh... fancy logo," Knuckles said.
"If you do a good enough job, you might be able to wear that on your uniform soon," Ash smiled. "Maybe even on your skin."
"Sounds good to me."
"Ink?" Sonic asked. "Slow down there, dude. Let's focus on not getting our asses fired first."
Ash chuckled at that as the doors opened, showing off the large meeting room. Ash walked around the table in the middle, taking a seat near the top end of it, while the four newbies stayed where they were for the time being.
Avery, who had his back turned as he was looking over some pictures on the large screen that Ash was using earlier, turned around with a smile. "Ah! So nice to finally have all four of you here."
"So, what have you got for us?" Sonic asked.
Avery smiled and walked around the table to meet them directly, extending his hand towards Knuckles. "First, a handshake for the newest recruit."
Knuckles took it. "I apologise for my lateness, but it truly is an honour to be here, sir."
"Ah, no apologies needed. If you want to make it up to me, you can start by taking a seat." He then looked at the others. "That goes for all of you."
None of them hesitated as they moved to take their seats near the bottom of the table, all remaining close to each other as Avery walked around to the screen again, Ash handing him the remote as he walked around.
"I take it that you all found your rooms okay?" the bear asked.
"Yes sir," Tails answered.
"And I suppose that Nicole has told you that information on your uniforms, weapons, and other information?"
"Also true," Sonic said, then adding. "In fact, she mentioned that the reason that you want all four of us is for a mission."
"It's true. I do have something for you. But it would be extremely remiss if I didn't say this first." Avery paused and smiled, looking over at the four. "Gentlemen... welcome to the Green Hill Police Department."
And there we go! The first chapter of Cyber Riders. I do apologise if this seems a bit short and a slow start, but trust me, it will pick up speed. I hope. You know what else I hope? I hope that you all enjoyed it. As I mentioned at the top, this was the most voted for story on the poll I put up, and I thank everyone for their votes, even if you didn't get what you wanted. I'll see you all in the next one. Take care, and stay tuned.