SonicANIME2010 here with another chapter to Knight of the Night Sky, well last time I left a cliffy, and this chapter shall reveal it, but first an announcement to go through. After this weekend I may have a little hiatus on my fanfictions to spend some time with my grandparents down in Southern California. I'm heading down there with my parents along with my sister because she's going to be flying out to Australia to spend a few months with her finace. After my parents leave, I'll spend a week or two in SoCal and fly back up to Utah. The "hiatus" depends on if I can bring my laptop down there and internet connection. I'll see what happens, but assume the worst. Now that I've got that handled, let's go back to this chapter.


[Non-Administrated Planet #97 "Earth"]
[Uminari City, Japan]
[Midori-ya Café]
[BGM: "Main Menu (theme)" Dissidia: Final Fantasy]

While Sonic and Nanoha were out in the shopping district, tracking the location given to them from backtracing the bug and listening devices, Hayate, Reinforce, Alicia and Fate acted as a support and backup group just in case the duo needed help. They also kept probing the bug in case it held any more information that could be useful. Their probing was interrupted by a transmission call from the Arthra.

"Hai?" Reinforce asked after accepting the call, revealing the source to be Lindy Harlaown from her office, "Admiral?"

"I have something to tell you guys. Where are Sonic and Nanoha?" Lindy asked, "They need to hear this too"

"Shopping district" Alicia answered. "That's where we tracked the signal from the listening equipment."

"Call their devices and patch them into the communication" Lindy ordered.

"Hai!"Fate nodded and started to press a few things on the interface for her Device, "Contacting them now"

Seconds later, Nanoha Takamachi's face appeared on screen as her device accepted the connection.

"Hai?"the young cyborg asked, "What is it? We just found something kinda big, so can this wait?"

"I'm afraid not, Nanoha" Lindy answered with some regret, "You and Sonic need to hear this"

"Hai" Nanoha agreed and called to Sonic in the background, "Sonic-kun! It's Lindy-san"

"Okay" The blue hedgehog in the background turned away from the door. While the landlady, who was also in the background, left it open for him to step away. If anyone was looking, the lady in the background just seemed to take the whole device communication in stride; paying it little mind if anything.

"Sorry for the interruption. I know you both probably found a big development" Lindy quickly apologized, "But while you guys were busy, the long range radar on the Arthra detected a ship that was heading for this world. We checked up on it and it turns out to be a transportation ship used by the Bureau, carrying high-profile executives."

"What are they going to do?" Nanoha asked, "Are they going through with that thing already?"

"We believe so" Lindy answered, "They wouldn't have gone otherwise"

"When will they arrive?" Sonic asked, a little bit unsure about how much time he and Nanoha have to investigate.

"Barring any further delays, the day after tomorrow" the admiral replied, "You have until tomorrow afternoon to finish up. If the investigation is unfinished, file whatever reports you have anyway."

"Hai!" Nanoha agreed, "We did find a lead. The location where we traced the listening equipment came from an apartment complex. Sonic-kun sweet-talked the landlady into showing us the exact room."

"Oy.." Sonic futilely attempted to deny the sweet-talking, but was shot down quick by a playful glare sent to him by Nanoha, "Hai… and we were just about to go inside.."


[OP: "Eternal Blaze" Nana Mizuki]

Sonic: Knight of the Night Sky
Chapter 49
Administration


[Uminari City: South Shopping district]
[No BGM]

The communication feed between the duo of Nanoha and Sonic, as well as the Arthra and backup group was cut to allow the two to check up on the apartment the GUN rented out with no interruption. Nanoha gestured to the landlady as a sign that she and Sonic were ready.

The woman just merely nodded and held the door open for the duo. She didn't know what was going on, and quite frankly, she didn't really want to know. She wasn't stupid; she knew this wasn't her business. She was helpful though because at least the kids were polite, unlike those idiots that had tagged along with the bat she saw in the photo.

Finally the three entered the apartment. As it turned out, the GUN had fully converted the room to a small safe house for their own investigations. There was a computer set up next to the window, a whiteboard with a set of markers. Papers littered all over the place, whoever used the room last, definitely had plans for returning.

"Well we know one thing about these GUN people" Sonic anarked, "They have no sense for tidiness. This place is a mess"

"They are responsible for cleaning up after themselves." The landlady noted, "I'm no maid"

The duo took to different corners to look around the room. Sonic went over to the computer to see if there was something he could do to get information from it. To little success, the computer was password protected and had plenty of security, and the blue hedgehog wasn't exactly the technical genius, so there wasn't much he could do about it.

"Firewall, password protected" Sonic noted as he continued his futile efforts, "There's not much I can do; we'll have to get Alicia or Fate down here. And quick before the GUN comes back"

"Ano, Sonic-kun" Nanoha called to the blue hedgehog, "Look at this"

Nanoha indicated to the hedgehog a white-board with plenty of pictures attached to it by magnets and pins. The pictures were those of everyone that Sonic and Nanoha knew, form Hayate and the Wolkenritter, to their friends at school. The pictures looked to be similar to surveillance and appeared to have quite the distance from the subject to the cameras used.

"Looks like they've been really busy" Sonic noted.

"Look at the uniforms.." Nanoha noted, "That's our spring uniforms. They could only have taken these less than 2 months ago."

"You're right. They don't have any pictures of us training though, I think that's because all of these pictures were taken in public places that are easy to get to" Sonic nodded, then pointed to a picture of just Nanoha in her school uniform. The picture looked to be cropped from the one that had everyone exiting the school. Underneath the picture was Japanese writing and a question mark written by a marker, "If I'm reading this kanji right, this reads out as "Human?"

"Hai" Nanoha nodded with a frown, she would have been impressed by how quick the hedgehog was learning the Japanese written language, but there was a more important matter at hand, "They're wondering if I'm human or not.."

"You look plenty human to me" the landlady said, just standing near the door, "What do they think you are; an alien or something?"

"With these guys, I don't know" Nanoha shrugged, shaking her head. As far as she was concerned, she was born a human and still sees herself as that despite being a cyborg from the operation a year or so back after the Angel Island incident.

"How long have they rented out the place?" Sonic asked

"A few days" the landlady answered, "I haven't collected the first week's rent yet"

"And the pictures were taken over a month ago" Nanoha added, "So they brought the pictures here. Probably starting using this place because it's closer to where we live."

"Hai" Sonic frowned, "I'm just surprised that we didn't notice it bef-"

Both Sonic and Nanoha stopped their conversation when they heard something outside. The duo brought out their devices. Sonic had Freiewind unsheathed while Nanoha shifted her device into its active base form. The landlady just blinked, not knowing what was going on.

"You hear that too, Sonic-kun?" Nanoha asked, suddenly a bit more serious than a few moments ago.

"Hai" Sonic nodded, "Just barely, you've got better hearing than I do"

"What is it?" the landlady asked, only to be softly pushed back out of the doorway "Eh?"

"Stay back, onegai" Nanoha requested nicely, "Someone.. no two people are heading this way."

Sure enough seconds later, two guys wearing GUN uniforms walked right by the door to the apartment. They saw the door was open and quickly drew their weapons. There was a small confrontation but no weapons were fired.

"Shimatta, we've been compromised" one GUN agent cursed, he looked to be the younger of the duo

"We better withdraw. Leave the evidence, we still have it documented" the older of the two stated, "I'll cover our escape."

A flashbang grenade was dropped and detonated. The light was so bight that Sonic and Nanoha had to cover their eyes long enough for the GUN agents to escape. When the light died down both GUN agents were gone.

"Those were the guys that rented the room" the landlady spoke first, "They were usually fawning around the bat-woman, so it's hard not to remember them."

"They're gone.." Sonic frowned, "There goes our chance to ask them personally.."

"Maybe, but we still have plenty of information to sort through here" Nanoha noted, gesturing to the computer and whiteboards, "I'll call the others to see if at least Fate can come here and help with the computer."

"Okay" Sonic nodded and then walked over to the landlady after sheathing his sword, "Ano, can we ask you a favor? Can you make sure this room doesn't get used for the next few days? There's a lot of work"

"Hai, I can do that" the woman answered, "You guys can have the whole place to yourselves, and I won't charge you rent."

"Arigatou gozaimasu!" Sonic bowed in polite thanks, "You don't have to go that far"

"I'm already knee-deep into this mess, probably have been so since those two guys showed up" The woman shrugged, "So what difference does a few more inches make?"

"That could get you hurt" Nanoha said with some concern, "We don't want that"

"I can take care of myself" the landlady playfully showed off her arms, which looked very fit, "I have a black belt in karate and won a few matches in my youth. Thanks for the concern"

The hedgehog and cyborg duo shrugged and walked outside to await the arrival of their friends.


[TSAB Investigative ship Arthra]
[BGM: "The Four Kings" Final Fantasy IV]

Lindy looked over the latest pictures she received from Raising Heart and Freiewind. With years of experience in the Bureau and having her own share of investigations under her belt, it didn't take long for the Admiral to determine that the GUN's been keeping tabs on her young mages. She had some relief for the moment when she found that the GUN had nothing on her mages when they were training.

The admiral took a few moments to think and then came to a quick decision. The Bureau had to be made aware of what she had so far, so she opened a communication feed to her assistant, Amy Limietta.

"Hai, Lindy-san?" Amy inquired, "What's up?"

"Get me the Bedford, tell them to connect me to one of their "high profile" passengers" Lindy ordered, "I want to send them these photos."

"Hai! Standby.. connecting" Limietta stated as her typing was heard in the background, followed by some indiscernible mutterings and words, and finally some excitement, "Okay! I got an Admiral Leone Phils; the Judicial Advisor, will that work?"

"Perfect" Lindy answered, "Connect now please and make sure it's a secure connection. I'm going to send important stuff so it's needed."

"Right away" Amy nodded and did a few more key pressings. In a matter of minutes, a secure connection was up and the middle-aged blonde admiral mentioned was brought up on the interface screen in front of Lindy Harlaown.

"Ah, Admiral Harlaown" Leone acknowledged his very much younger counterpart, "What can I do for you? I assume this is important because you went so far as to get a secure connection."

"It is" Lindy nodded as she started to press a few keys on her interface to bring up and send the recently attained photos, "I'm sending you pictures taken from the devices of two of my mages we had investigate the GUN. We weren't able to get any public interviews yet, so we resorted to using what we had already acquired to compensate."

"Hmm.." the older admiral analyzed them quickly as they came, "From first glance they appear to be surveillance photos taken from a long-range camera. Where did you get these?"

"From an apartment they rented out" Lindy answered, "We had the Testarossa twins patch into some listening equipment we confiscated earlier from a bat-lady who tried to eavesdrop on the interviews the Mid-Childan media had set up for Nanoha."

"And the owner of this apartment?" Leone asked, "What's her take?"

"She appears to be cooperating on her own. The GUN agents apparently didn't make a nice impression on her" the younger admiral answered, "The photos there, Nanoha said they couldn't be less than two months old and they only had the room for less than a few days."

"Which means they already had the photos, they've been running surveillance on your children for a few months it seems" The older gentleman concluded, "One of the photos had a computer in the background, I assume you'll have someone look at that?"

"Hai" Lindy answered, "We'll see what we can find. What are you guys going to do when you get here?"

"Make no mistake, we are heading your way and will arrive within the next few days" the older admiral answered, "What we do and how we do it will be determined on what your people find before our arrival"

"Hai, I understand" Lindy nodded, "We'll continue our work and keep you updated. Have a nice flight"

"It's already been an adventure from the start" Leone chuckled, "I'll tell you more when we arrive. Good luck"

The communication was cut when all the pictures were sent and received. Lindy was relieved to hear that the Bureau's taking a more "play it by ear" approach to their actions, determining on what her mages find out.


[Uminari City]
[Southern Shopping district: Apartment]
[Time: Mid-Afternoon]

The bright afternoon sun shined brightly as the others arrived to join in the investigation. Alicia and Fate immediately went to work on the computer the GUN left behind. Nanoha and Hayate, with the aid of the landlady, went door-to-door, interviewing others who had rented out rooms in the same complex. They were hoping to see if anyone saw anything suspicious about the GUN individuals and Rouge the Bat, they were careful not to drop any specific names.

Sonic and Reinforce looked through the papers and pictures that the GUN had gathered on them. There were definitely more than just pictures that were gathered.

"I think these are statements they got from teachers and staff at our school, Reinfoce-san" Sonic observed.

"They also have got your grade records too" Reinforce Eins added, "Everything from spelling, English, mathematics to athletics"

"Well at least we know that our teachers love us" Sonic noted sheepishly, "Nothing but positive things to say about us"

"You guys work hard at school and try your hardest to succeed" Eins noted, "You should be proud of how well you're succeeding."

"Thank you, Reinfoce-san" Sonic smiled a bit.


[Later that evening]

Soon the others arrived back at the room and Fate and Alicia were making good progress on their work with the computer. At the end of the day, everyone, minus the landlady, who had returned to her office, gathered to summarize what they found.

"The G.U.N doesn't have much on us aside from grades and school stuff, at least that's what their computers show." Alicia noted, "I don't think they even heard about the Bureau"

"The locals around the apartment complex haven't seen much of the bat-lady during the day time" Nanoha noted.

"During the night it's a much different story" Hayate was quick to add, "She's been seen going in and out of the apartment window for a few nights, and every time she returned, she always had a bag with her."

"Anything about the bags?" Eins asked.

"Well one lady, who just so happened to be staying up late watching a movie saw a tear in the bag and something drop" Nanoha answered, "She didn't need to be a genius to tell that there were jewels leaking out from the bag."

"Was she kind enough to part with one?" Sonic asked

"Hai" Hayate answered, holding out a plastic bag with a large green emerald cut into a trapezoid, "Exquisitely cut. Jewelry stores use these for work on bracelets and rings. They are not cheap by at all."

"So a G.U.N spy by day and a jewel thief at night" Sonic summarized.

"And how they allow her to do it is beyond me." Fate sighed.

"Jewel thieves are opportunists" Eins noted, "With the right incentive, they'll do anything. The G.U.N saw something they liked about the bat's skills and wanted to put them to good use."

"What about the computer?" Hayate asked, "Any more leads on that end?"

"They keep tabs on the bat with an ankle bracelet" Alicia replied, "At any moment they can bring up her location."

"Have you tried that yet?" the silver-haired girl asked.

"Hai.." Fate said, "She's flying around Uminari with no fixed location yet."

"We'll wait for her to get to a stable location" Reinforce declared, "Tomorrow we'll track her down and find out what her stance in all this is."

"I doubt she likes the G.U.N using her as a spy in all of this" Hayate thought out loud, "But she'll do anything for jewels nonetheless."

With that said and done, reports were written up and sent to Lindy Harlaown. Everyone agreed that it was a good time to turn in and get a fresh start tomorrow. No one had a clue what the next day in their work would bring, but there was much in store for the next few days.

[To be continued]


[End of main chapter]

[Omake: Typical Dimensional Space Traffic hazards]

Dimensional space travel isn't nearly as easy or as beautiful as it might seem from the point of views of the pilots who use the ships to travel. And the pilots for the Time-Space Administration Transport ship "Bedford", masquerading as a tour ship, was certainly not immune to that.

The main pilot was a woman in her mid-forties, she had just launched her ship and looked to be well on her way to the designation given to her by the passengers. But alas, things don't always work out like that.

"Engines clear, turning is great." The woman sighed, "It's nice to be out on my ship again"

"Ma'am" her female co-pilot called to attention, "We've got other ships in the way."

"Really.." the woman sighed in exasperation, "Great. We can't move.. What's going on.."

"Hang on.." the co-pilot typed a few things and brought out a camera view of what was up ahead, which was, oddly enough.. a traffic accident. Two ships were stuck together and looked like they crashed into one another. The mess of debris was just floating there while some Bureau ships were there cleaning it up, "Found it."

"It's.. a traffic accident" the pilot deadpanned, "REALLY? Who gets into a crash in space?"

"Evidently even dimension space isn't immune" the co-pilot quipped.

Evidently indeed. Really.. if it turns out that the people involved were sending messages and stuff.. Texting and driving is dangerous enough on the road, bring it into space?!

[Ending: "Spiritual Garden" Yukari Tamura]


[End of Chapter 49]

Author's Note: So the G.U.N was investigating Sonic and the mages, but why? To be revealed soon!