Knuckles pursed his lips, blowing out a breath. "You guys... you don't look like you're happy about today."

"Says the one who doesn't have any plans," said Sonic. "What are you going to do all day?"

Knuckles shrugged. "I was thinking of showing Shade my hover-board, actually. Show her some of the new stuff that I got for it. I may as well keep myself busy somehow."

"Will you be here or at your place?" Shadow asked.

"Mine and hers," Knuckles said. "She has a big backyard."

"All right, be sure to lock up," Sonic said. "We've all got big days ahead of us."

"That explains why we were up at 6 in the damn morning," Knuckles said through a heavy yawn. At present, he and Tails were playing a video game, going one on one with Tails getting the advantage. "Dammit! Another stealth kill?"

Tails shrugged. "I told you to watch out for those moving cardboard boxes."

Sonic smiled. "You know, you've got a busy day yourself, fluffy."

Tails nodded. "I know. I've got to hold down the fort while my parents try to solve the mystery of the missing implants."

"And maybe work on adding those hover-board upgrades that Knuckles got to our boards?" Sonic suggested, smiling a bit meekly.

Tails chuckled. "I can try and get the blueprints sorted out. Actually making them will be on another day."

"You going to have Cosmo around with you?" Shadow asked.

"She's got work," Tails said. "Actually, she's going to be helping write a speech for you at your conference."

"That checks out," Knuckles said. "She is charming and adorable, and Shadow isn't exactly a people hedgehog."

Shadow couldn't hide his smile at that. "It's not going to be an easy day for me, so thank you for the giggles. I could do with them."

"I don't know if I've ever heard you giggle," Sonic said. "Your laugh sounds more like an evil cackle, like a wizard who just cursed some poor child to never be able to digest chocolate cake again."

"Oh, come on, I'm not that evil," said Shadow. "I'd only make it for about a week so that they learn their lesson."

"Speaking of teaching, Amy's going to be pretty busy all day," Sonic said. "I'll try and swing by the bar after I've talked to Nack. See if Rosy's working today."

"Then we'll meet you all for a celebratory non-alcoholic beverage after we're all done too," Knuckles said. "I made that sentence sound way more fun than I should have."

"I might take a while," Shadow admitted. "I want to go and see Rouge at work after I've given my speech."

"That's fair," Sonic nodded. "And you, Tails?"

"I'll be too busy working on the blueprint copying. It might take some time, considering that my mum's probably going to be at the conference with my dad. I'll be on my own at the shop."

"Ah. Well, good luck, either way," Knuckles said, looking back to the screen. "Dammit! Seriously? You got me again?"

Tails chuckled. "Got to keep focused, big fella."

Knuckles sighed heavily, dropping the controller. "I suppose we should actually enjoy the time off. But first, breakfast!"

With no complaints from the other three, the red echidna was joined by them in the kitchen as he made some breakfast for them all. Or he would have were he feeling more awake. He decided on some cheesy toast sandwiches with sausages and beans, something simple but still filling. He even held off on the sausages for Tails' food as well, as the two-tailed fox was trying to stick to stick to being vegetarian.

The group had all had their food, and all decided to leave and lock up. They brought their hover-boards with them, but they took Sonic's car to drive them around, the blue hedgehog himself at the wheel of the vehicle. They decided to take Knuckles up to his and Shade's house first. Knuckles was quite fortunate that his fiancee didn't have any classes today, and as he stepped through the door with his hover-board folded and held behind his back, he saw Shade wearing a t-shirt and some black panties... and not a lot else. She was dancing in the kitchen as she made herself a coffee, high energy indie rock blasting from her TV screen. She was singing a bit, and as she turned for a spinning move, she blushed as she spotted Knuckles.

"H-Hi!" She giggled nervously. "Uh... sorry! I didn't know you'd be coming over!"

Knuckles smiled. "I would have called, but I wanted it to be a surprise?"

Shade rushed over, wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him gently. "What brings you here anyway?"

"Oh, uh, well... the other guys are going to be busy today, so I wanted to come and stay with you for the day off." He smiled. "I hope that I didn't catch you at a bad time."

"Not in the least," she whispered into his ear. "So... you're here to alleviate your boredom?"

"And yours," Knuckles said, feeling tingly at her sultry tone of voice. "But something tells me that we're both thinking of different things..."

"Well... how about we get my plans for you out of the way first, then we can get to your plans for me?" Shade winked.

Knuckles put his hover-board next to the couch, lifting Shade up on his shoulder and making her laugh and kick her feet. "To the bedroom with us!"

Back with the other three, they were turning the corner to Tails' parents workshop. They saw a G.H.P.D vehicle waiting outside of the shop too, with some officers that the freelancers recognised who were waiting with Tails' parents until the fox himself and his two hedgehog friends arrived. Sonic pulled up to the front of the shop, keeping the engine running.

"Good luck today, you two," Sonic said to Shadow and Tails.

"Oh, come on, you ruined it by saying those first two words," Tails said. "Now you've jinxed us."

"Oh, don't start that," Sonic shook his head jokingly. "Seriously, you two... you'll be okay."

Tails nodded. "I know. All right, hand over your boards. I'll see what I can get done for them."

Shadow and Sonic nodded, with the latter of the two opening up the boot of his car. Tails reached to pick up their boards, folding them under his arm as Shadow hopped out as well, sharing a fist bump with his blue leader before walking up to Amadeus and Rosemary, Tails in tow following behind the black and red hedgehog.

Amadeus and Rosemary greeted the two, the mother fox speaking first. "Thank you for taking over the shop today," she said.

"Thank you for letting me have it for the day," Tails chuckled. "I hope you don't mind me using some of the stuff here to work on those blueprints."

"It's all good," Amadeus smiled. "Just don't break anything in the lab, okay?"

"I won't," Tails smiled back. He reached up to hug his parents, and they both hugged him back.

Shadow stood back awkwardly, waiting for the hug to end. When it did, he looked over to Amadeus. "You ready?"

The father fox nodded. "Let's head out." He ruffled Tails' hair playfully before walking over to Shadow. "After you."

Shadow nodded, taking a breath as he got back to Sonic's car. The blue hedgehog greeted Tails' parents as they got into the car too, and he looked to Tails, waving to him and getting one back. He pulled out and did a U-turn, playing the "Shave And A Haircut" riff on his car horn before he and his car vanished from Tails' sight.

The yellow fox breathed out a sigh, looking at the spare set of keys he had in his pocket and turned to go into his parents' workshop. "Time to get to work."

Sonic was driving his car back to the Green Hill Police Department, looking back to Amadeus in the back seat with his wife. "So, how are you going to go about today?"

Amadeus sighed. "We'll see what Cosmo's written down for us. Shadow will be doing most of the speaking, but I will be up there with him to cut in if I need to."

Sonic nodded. "And what about you, Mrs. Prower?"

"So polite," Rosemary giggled. "If need be, I will speak as well. Me and my husband share equally in the shop."

"I bet that you two must have fought about that for, like, three seconds," Shadow said playfully.

"Four, actually," Amadeus smirked, getting a light tap on the arm from his wife.

Sonic chuckled. "I'm glad you two have done well with this implant thing. I just wish I knew why what happened happened."

"Well, we'll try to find out," Shadow said. "There's got to be a way."

"Damn right," Sonic said, fist-bumping his friend. "We'll find it."

"Well, you will," Shadow said. "You've got to visit... he who I don't want to name."

"Looking forward to that," Sonic sighed. "I wonder how agreeable he'll be?"

"Probably not very," Shadow said. "Or he may be agreeable enough to suit his needs."

"Maybe," Sonic shrugged. "All right, we're almost there."

A few corner turns later, and the Green Hill Police Department was in sight. Sonic pulled up to the kerb, looking to see that a podium was getting set up, with news reporters starting to file in. Some room had been made in the car park, with a lot of vehicles moved off more to the sides and even on the kerb itself to make more room.

Shadow, Amadeus, and Rosemary exited the car, looking around. "Wow... they really went for it here," Shadow said.

"It's a big deal, after all," Sonic said, still in the car. "Looks like Avery's finishing setting up."

"This is... a much bigger outing than I expected," said Amadeus, his voice shaky.

"This'll be tough," Shadow admitted. "But... we have to do what we came here to do."

Amadeus nodded. "Good luck to us both."

"Good luck to all three of you," Sonic said from the car. "I'd keep saying more positives, but I'd best be off. Got to see about a certain weasel."

"Good luck to you too, man," Shadow said. "Remember, grill him if you need to."

"I will," Sonic said. He patted his steering wheel. "See you guys in a bit."

Shadow waved goodbye as the blue hedgehog's car turned and left, then turned to see the podium. There were more reporters being seated now, notepads, automatic recorders, and microphones all at the ready, with each reporter wearing sharp looking clothing and having some brand of the news network that they work for.

Shadow walked up to Ash, who was adjusting one of the mics on the stand, and the mongoose smiled as he saw Shadow. "Hey, glad that you could make it."

"It's not like I had a choice," Shadow said.

"That's the spirit," Ash said sarcastically. He shuddered under Shadow's glare, and gulped. "Okay, I did deserve that. Today isn't going to be an easy day for you."

"No, it is not," Shadow said. "I'm... I'm sorry. I really just want to get this over with."

Before Ash could respond to that, he spotted Cosmo behind Shadow. "Your speech is here."

The black and red hedgehog turned around to see Cosmo, holding a piece of paper out to him. He took it from her, nodding. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," Cosmo said. "Hey, uh... don't panic too much, okay?"

Shadow nodded again. "I'll try my best."

Avery walked up to them, having been busy situating the last few reporters to arrive, and he shook hands with Shadow, then the Prowers. "Are you all ready?"

"We're as ready as we can be," Amadeus said.

"Good," Avery said. "I'll take it." He cleared his throat, turning around to face the reporters before speaking. "Ladies and gentleman of Green Hill, and some of you from other parts of Mobius, welcome to this press conference. As you're going to hear in greater detail, an incident happened recently, and dependant on the response of your people, it could determine the future of implant manufacturing and testing. I hope and trust that you will ask fair questions of the people about to speak to you today. Thank you for coming." He turned to Shadow. "You're up."

Shadow nodded, stepping up to the podium. "Ladies and gentlemen, uh... well, Avery already said that part." He laughed, sighing nervously. "I am Shadow the hedgehog, and I am a former Green Hill police officer and I'm currently a freelance agent with my three friends. Now, these are things that a lot of you already know, even if you're coming in from other cities. Unfortunately, this press conference hasn't been called for a good reason. While myself and the other freelancers are still hard at work helping to capture criminals, this isn't what that is about." He looked at the speech, appreciating that Cosmo wrote it as honestly as possible. "A couple of nights ago, I went on a private mission to Angel Wing City to interrogate a criminal named Zayd. He was a drug smuggler who had a network of exits and entrances that would allow him to stay one step ahead of us. But we caught up to him in Angel Wing, and after exposing his smuggling ring, he was taken in by the law enforcement there." He looked over the next part that mentioned Zayd's implant, knowing how important that it was to bring it up. "During our first chase of him in Star Light City, we found out that he had an implant which allowed him to fire acid from his hands. Said acid heavily damaged Knuckles' hover-board and also my right leg." He looked to see the last moments of the speech, turning to Amadeus, who gave him a nod. "As a measure of revenge... I set up a meeting with Zayd in Angel Wing City with an officer there to interrogate him. During that interrogation session, he took an officer hostage, almost killing them. I... I used my implant which allows me to teleport, appearing behind him and injecting him with Fokus, which I was using as a bribe. A few moments later, Zayd's implant overloaded, and he... he died."

The reporters let out several gasps, murmuring conversations amongst themselves while Shadow tried to think of something else to say. He looked back and forth as several reporters stood up, recorders in hand, microphones held out, and all scrambling to get the first question in before Shadow stepped back, and Avery stepped forward to address the crowd.

"Please, calm down," Avery said. "I realise that this is a serious issue, but if you could contain yourselves and try to speak one at a time-"

"Could this lead to violence between implanted parties?" a reporter interrupted.

Avery looked over to said reporter. "We don't know," he said. "It was an accident. Self-defence. Shadow had no choice."

"What's to stop more implants like the one that Zayd had being handed out to just anybody?" asked another reporter.

"Please!" Avery said as the reporters started to clamour more. "The implant related questions aren't ones for me to answer. That is why we have Amadeus Prower and his wife Rosemary to help. But I implore you, ask your questions one at a time. Do not speak over each other." He cleared his throat, stepping back to let the two foxes step up, Amadeus approaching the podium first.

"Hello, uh... I am Amadeus Prower, and this is my lovely wife, Rosemary. For a little while now, she and I have been the chief manufacturer of cybernetic implants all cross Mobius. There's a good chance that most of them have the Prower name stamped into them somewhere." He chuckled, trying to ease the tension of the crowd, sighing that it didn't work. "Truth be told... we don't know how Zayd got his hands on that implant. Anything that we've made, across any shops that we have stock in, it's all made for helping others. We'd never make one specifically for the purposes of violence. I mean, if you want a better example, look at Shadow. Look at his friends, one of whom is my own son, Miles. They all suffered a terrible accident, and they almost didn't make it. But our implants helped them to get back onto their feet, and since then, they've been helping Green Hill, Star Light, Angel Wing, any city that they can step foot in now. They're using them as a force for good. We never have and we never will sell our implants for personal gain or malicious intent."

Rosemary stepped forward as her husband finished. "Having said that... this isn't the first case. We've come to understand that there was another person with an implant who was using it for criminal purposes in Aqua Lake. This coincides with a problem that we've had with our shops, which is that some of our implants seem to go missing. It's a small amount so as not to rouse suspicion, but the two locations of the criminals with these implants are so far between... I don't know what to make of it. All that we know is that they're being stolen, and we need to put a stop to it."

Shadow stepped forwards again. "May I?" he gestured.

Rosemary nodded. "By all means."

Shadow nodded back. "Neither Zayd nor the criminal from Aqua Lake know how they got their implants. Both reported that they got them from less than reputable sources, not even knowing the names of those who installed them. I'm afraid that, until we get a report on Zayd's body from Angel Wing, we won't know."

"So, let me get this right," said a reporter, standing up. "A criminal is dead, he had a fake implant that he can't recall where he got it from, and you, someone with a professionally made implant, killed him?" The reporter caught his words. "I apologise. I mean, you self-defenced him to death."

Shadow grunted, shaking his head and not seeing Avery nod his head to some officers to remove the reporter. When Shadow saw what was happening, he turned back to see Avery, nodding silently in thanks towards the Green Hill commander before turning back to the reporters.

"To answer that man's question," Shadow said, "most of that is correct. But I didn't kill him, at least not out of spite or malice. I did it to help someone else who was in danger. I didn't know that the Fokus would have that negative an effect on him, despite knowing that it can affect people with implants more than those without it."

"Have you ever been injected with it?" asked a reporter. "If you haven't, then how would you know the effects?"

Avery stood forward next to Shadow. "We've had coroner reports before about bodies which showed signs of heavy addiction to Fokus. Some did have implants, but only in the early stages before they were tested better."

"Well, it's safe to assume that the freelance officer up there with you has a more advanced version of the implants," the reporter replied.

"You assume correctly," Shadow said.

"This doesn't change the fact that someone in a position of law enforcement committed murder," said a different reporter. "Just because you're a freelancer, you think that you're above the law?"

Shadow shook his head. "I do not think that. I don't believe it for one second. The freelancers are here to help law enforcement, no matter which city we wind up going to. And, no, I didn't commit murder. I was preventing an officer from being killed by a criminal. I didn't know that he was going to die, because nobody's even seen the effects of those types of implants before."

"A man is still dead!" the reporter insisted.

"A bad man who manipulated and sold drugs to others!" said Shadow, raising his own voice. "I mean, come on, you can't seriously be considering the possibility that he was a good person? Because if you are, then I have irrefutable evidence that'll state otherwise. And I will show you if I have to."

"I'm not here to throw out those sorts of accusations, but from where I'm standing, it seems like you did it for a vendetta," the reporter scoffed.

"Well, if you're not here to accuse me, then why are you here? To try and convince people that I'm a killer? Because I'm not, okay." Shadow felt a hand on his shoulder, and he turned to see Amadeus behind him. "The fact is... what happened happened. I can't change that. But if any of you know about implants going missing, or if you know someone who may have an illegal or unauthorised implant, report it to your local authorities."

"Good save!" The reporter spoke up.

"Security!" Avery called. "Get him out of-"

"No," Shadow said. "He... he can stay. Or at least, let me tell him something before you get rid of him." He saw Avery wave the guards off, and the black and red hedgehog sighed. "Yeah, I wanted to get revenge. That guy hurt me bad. He almost killed one of my friends. He was hurting people wherever he went by giving them a fix that they didn't need in the first place. So, yeah, we stopped him in Angel Wing. He was detained there. Realistically, I had nothing to gain from killing him. I just wanted to ask him about his implant. It wasn't supposed to happen the way that it did, but it did." He cleared his throat. "On the day that we caught up to him, in Star Light, he was selling drugs to a human named Mona. She's currently under watch and housebound, and she's been clean since. She probably doesn't even know that Zayd is dead. But do you know how she's going to feel when I tell her? She's going to feel free. That's a debt that she never wanted to pay, and now, she doesn't have to. This doesn't justify my actions in the least, but like everything that the freelancers do, it's to help others. On occasion, people get hurt. I mean, we were fired from being police for a reason. I know what it's like to grow up under shi- uh, less than ideal circumstances. So I wanted to help her, and I'm sorry that someone had to die because of it, even if that person was bad."

"My apologies," the reporter said. "If I may, I'd like to address Mr. and Mrs. Prower now?"

Shadow, suddenly feeling a tear trickle down his cheek, turned to let Amadeus and Rosemary up, the former of the two speaking. "What is it?"

"What will you do now?" the reporter asked. "If your implants go missing like this, anyone could have them."

"It's like we've said," said Rosemary," it's been so small and barely noticeable. In fact, some of those implants weren't even fully forged. That's why we have other shops, because we can't do everything on our own in Green Hill. It may even explain why there's only two known cases."

"That could just mean that there's others that haven't been caught yet," said the reporter.

"Well, I am sorry for that," Amadeus said. "It's difficult to focus on all of the implants that we make when we're designing, I don't know, about 500 a week?" he finished, turning to his wife.

"And that's just at our shop here!" Rosemary nodded.

"Well, what's to stop you from suspecting some people who work for you?" asked the reporter.

"The fact that we have a convoy with us, and some of the good officers from Green Hill will be helping is with our deliveries to make extra sure," Amadeus answered. "And don't worry, as we'll make sure to be triple thorough."

The reporter sighed. "All right, you made your point."

"I'm glad that it didn't take that long," Amadeus said. "Do you have any questions that aren't accusatory or defamatory towards the freelancers?"

"I... I do have one for Shadow," the reporter said.

Amadeus stood out of the way, allowing the black and red hedgehog to step forward and speak. "What is it?"

"Does it hurt when you use your implant?" the reporter asked.

"It used to," Shadow said. "The medicinal paste that's put into the implant helps a lot when it's first put into you, but as you use the ability you get with it, it can cause strain. It still hurts a little bit for me, but not as much as it used to."

The reported nodded. "That's it for now. Thank you."

Shadow nodded back, stepping down. Avery walked up to the podium next. "Are there any further questions? Because if there are, get them out of the way now. We have a busy day ahead." After nobody spoke up for several moments, Avery nodded. "All right, then this press conference is over. Thank you all for coming. Hopefully you can see that Shadow was doing what he did to protect a fellow officer in the law, even if it wasn't in this jurisdiction." He turned to Shadow, his voice away from the microphones to address him more privately. "As far as I'm concerned, Shadow, you did the right thing. It probably doesn't feel like it, and it probably won't for a long time. But trust me, it was."

Shadow nodded again. "Thank you, sir."

Avery smiled softly, turning back to the reporters. "Now, if you have no further questions or nothing better to do, please leave."

The reporters shared some small laughter at that, but they would eventually pack their stuff up, making a move for their respective vehicles and then leaving the premises. The chairs and podium were getting put away as well with the help of several officers, and Shadow looked to Amadeus with a thought on his lips. When the father fox saw the hedgehog wanting to say something but not letting it out, he put a gentle hand on his shoulder.

"What's the problem?" Amadeus asked. "I mean, besides the forceful questions from that one reporter."

"Well, I wanted to ask... weren't you supposed to be on the convoy while me, Avery, and Rosemary ran the conference?"

"That was the plan," Amadeus said. "But we all got up so early. And..." He checked his watch, "we're still half an hour ahead of schedule for deliveries. We could stop and get some lunch as we're moving things around, but with Avery and his convoy around, we may not be able to get a lot of food in our systems."

"I'll pay for some Jade Mountain on the way back," Avery chuckled. "Shadow, thank you for this. I can only hope that the general public won't see the implants as too bad of a thing after your confession."

"All that we have is hope now," Shadow said. "We could always use a little bit more."

"Well, what's your plan now?" asked Avery.

"I didn't think that I'd get this far ahead," Shadow smiled. "I was thinking about swinging by the Emerald Gem to say hi to Rouge. Or by Green Hill Bank to say hi to Maria."

"You really need to pick a woman one day," Rosemary teased, pinching Shadow's cheek. "Such a handsome man."

"All right, save the cheek pinches for the other foxes in your family," Shadow chuckled softly. "Good luck with the convoy."

"We have to go back to our shop anyway," said Amadeus. "You can come along with us, if you'd like?"

"Yeah, let's do it," Shadow said.

"I'll send some cars up with you," Avery said. "Better to get an early start on this."

"Much appreciated," said Rosemary.

The commander nodded at that, and he went into the Green Hill Police Department building, going up to send out the call. As he did, Shadow, Amadeus, and Rosemary all got into the Prowers' car, starting on the drive back to the Mobian foxes' central workshop.

With Tails at his parents' workshop, as the press conference was starting...

"All right, this should be good..." Tails said, stood over a large table. He was sent the blueprints for the upgrades added to Knuckles' board, and the yellow fox had his own board on said table. The table itself was holding up several holographs, and he was using his hands to manipulate the imagery to closer match the blueprint. "All right... I think... that I've got it..."

He pressed a few buttons on the display, and the inputs started to download into his board. Or rather, just the cloaking design did, as he wanted to try and take it one at a time. Even with him being in his parents' workshop, even with some other workers helping him as best as they could, he knew that caution was the most important thing. He was able to ignore the noises of the factory workers in the lower floor, but most of them seemed to enjoy working there, so the noise itself wasn't too bad.

"How's it coming?" asked a worker who walked up the stairs.

"Trying to take it one step at a time," Tails said. "I've got most of the work done. But the problem is, all of our boards are designed so differently. Maybe what worked for Knuckles won't work for the rest of us."

"Yeah, cloaking doesn't even sound like Knuckles' thing," the worker said. "It sounds more like... well, he's on the news right now."

Tails checked the time on his phone. "Oh, crap, you're right."

He turned on the TV, seeing Shadow in the middle of answering several of the questions. It then got to the one reporter who had a more accusatory tone, and while Tails was trying to get work done with the press conference as background noise, he did look up when the questions were being flung at Shadow.

"Wow, what a dick," said the worker next to Tails.

The yellow fox chuckled at that, watching the screen as his friend handled the situation with a surprising amount of ease. "Huh. Considering that those answers probably weren't written for him, he handled that well."

"Did he always have trouble with public speaking?" the worker asked.

"He usually has trouble with public anything," said Tails. "And that other night... that was a harsh deal for him. He's doing well not to cave to the pressure. He even waved off a police officer."

"Huh." The worker turned around. "Oh, crap, I've got to get back to work. You need anything while I'm here?"

Tails turned to the worker, shaking his head. "Nah, I'm good. But thanks." He turned back to the work table. "If you don't mind," he said, cracking his knuckles, "I've got to get back to my own work."

With Knuckles and Shade, halfway through the press conference...

The two echidnas were sweaty and tired, having taken a shower and gotten some food together to calm themselves down. Knuckles was setting up his board in the living room, and Shade was fixing herself up a coffee in the kitchen when she walked out to see him.

"Oh... I'm guessing that this is part of the plan that you had for me earlier," she said.

Knuckles nodded, smiling. "Yep. Got some new stuff put into the board after it was repaired. Want to head out to the garden to see it?"

Shade nodded. "Sounds fun! I like watching you in action, anyway," she winked.

"Babe, you just watched me in 25 minutes of action," Knuckles smirked.

"Well, I didn't want to keep you waiting that long," Shade teased, kissing his cheek and heading out to the garden.

"The cheek of that woman," Knuckles muttered to himself. "God, I'm in love with her." He followed her out to the garden, and as he put his board down to hop onto it, he had an idea. "Babe?"

"Yeah?" Shade asked from a deckchair.

"How about you hop on? See what new tricks this thing can do," Knuckles suggested.

"Ooh... it is fun to do this... but only if you do it with me, okay? You know way more about this thing than I do."

"Not an issue, milady," Knuckles said. He stepped back and let her hop on on front of him, her back turned to him, holding her as the board wobbled a bit. "All right, are you ready?"

Shade nodded, and Knuckles smirked. He put his hands over her eyes from behind, and he shifted his foot slightly to activate the cloak, along with his nano-suit. When he removed his hands, Shade opened her eyes, turning to try and look at Knuckles... only to find that he wasn't there.

"Babe?" Shade asked. "Where'd you go?"

"I'm right in front of you," Knuckles said. He summoned the nano-machines away from his helmet, showing his face beaming at her. "I guess it only works for me, but what do you think? Pretty nifty, eh?"

Shade giggled. "I like it! Wow, that's cool!" She looked down at her feet. "Oh, crap, it's like I'm floating on nothing! Like, I can feel the board, but I can't see it. I feel like I'm flying."

Knuckles smiled. "I feel like that all of the time when I'm around you."

"Aw... you sweetie," Shade grinned. "What else can this bad boy do?"

Knuckles gave another shift of his feet, kicking the side of his board. Shade followed the sound of the kick, and she saw the side parts of the board open up to show a handgun and a knife. Raising her eyes, she pursed her lips and gave an appreciative nod to her fiance.

"Very nice work," she smiled at him.

"Thanks," Knuckles replied. "And... well, that's kind of it. Sonic's has a force-field that stops bullets hitting him, but he got that a while ago."

Shade giggled. "I don't fully get why you would get a cloaking device."

"Yeah... me neither," the red echidna admitted. "Stealth is more Shadow's thing. But I won't complain about having an extra gun in my back pocket. Or in this case, hidden in my hover-board." He snapped his fingers. "Crap, I about forgot! Shadow's press conference!"

Shade face-palmed herself. "I hope that we didn't miss it. It is important."

Knuckles nodded, switching his suit off and folding his board under his arm. "You set the TV up, I'll get us some snacks?"

"Make lunch," Shade suggested. "Or just order in some Jade Mountain."

"Yeah... too lazy to make food," Knuckles said. "Some crazy beautiful woman took the wind out of me earlier."

Shade lightly punched his arm, but rubbed it soothingly and held his hand, picking up her coffee on the way back into the house.

And finally, Sonic was pulling into the Green Hill Penitentiary car park...

The blue hedgehog shook his head, not looking forward to talking with Nack another time. He found a space to park his car, getting out of it and locking it behind him before walking into the penitentiary building, sitting and waiting for his name to be called so that he could go in and visit Nack.

Nack himself outside of his cell, having just had a conversation with the warden. Gerren was behind the purple weasel all of the way, nightstick at the ready in case he needed to use it as he walked Nack down the flight of stairs to go to the meeting room to meet up with Sonic.

As Sonic saw them come into view, he saw them whispering indistinctly to each other, but he couldn't make out what was being said. Sonic sighed and walked into the visitation room, one of many people going in there to converse with someone important in their lives, and he sat across from Nack.

"So... it's good to see you again," Nack said. "It's been quite some time."

"It has been," Sonic said. "I suppose that I should update you on what's happened."

"Be my guest," Nack said.

"Well, we followed the trail that Zayd left us," Sonic said. "Started in Marble Stone to sort out the issue with Alina. One of her men almost got hurt, but we managed to stop any major bloodshed."

"That's a good sign," said Nack. "What did she want form Zayd?"

"His head on a platter," Sonic said. "The reason she placed an order from him was to trap him. I'm guessing that they wanted him gone for good."

"Alina... she's smart like that," Nack said. "Did you take care of her as a problem?"

Sonic reached into his pocket for Alina's knife, still stained with her blood, and her necklace, showing them to Nack. "Taken care of, as promised. Slit to the throat, and she was done."

"Doesn't seem like your style," Nack said.

"You of all people should know that I'm good with knives," Sonic retorted, putting the items back away. "Next up is Star Light."

"Ah, this I'm interested in," Nack said.

"We found a guy named Benson. He was actually waiting on a delivery from Zayd without the plan to, you know, kill him."

"Oh, Benson's small time," Nack said. "I'm not bothered where or who he gets his drugs from as long as it's not from people I actually give a shit about."

"That sounds like you," Sonic nodded. "Anyway, his lead led us to a guy named Merrick, someone we'd been trying to pin down for a while. We finally caught the bastard in Green Hill."

"Ah, not the person you were there for," Nack said. "All right, two for two. Aqua Lake is next, yes?"

"Aqua Lake is indeed next," Sonic said. "We stopped an attack on an apartment block and put away a lot of bad guys. Even stopped an innocent cop from getting framed, which was nice."

Nack smiled. "Is that all?"

Sonic shook his head. "It's not. One of the thugs we caught... he had an implant. Illegal, much like Zayd's."

Nack sat up straight at that. "Oh?"

"So, so glad that that got your interest," Sonic said snidely. "Anyway, we found out that he got it illegally. He wasn't the smartest tool in the box. None of those thugs were. They gave us a lot of information by accident."

"Does this information pertain to how said thug got his implant?" Nack asked.

"That's the thing, it didn't," Sonic said. "He told us that he had an old injury, and he got the implant to help him recover. The cost for an actual, factory made, legalised implant was too much, so he got it on the cheap. He was drugged to hell, so he couldn't remember what the guys who gave him the implant looked like. Him and his cronies were trying to steal money to pay off the debt, but then we got to them."

"As you are want to do," Nack said. "It is a habit that both annoys and endears me. What about Spring Yard?"

"Actually... I'd like to talk more about Zayd..." Sonic said.

The purple weasel smiled, sitting forward. "Do go on. It's always fun to hear about his exploits. What is he up to ever since you captured him?"

"He's dead," Sonic said. Short, straight to the point.

Nack's smile dropped. "Oh. Shit."

"Yeah. Shit." Sonic looked into Nack's eyes. "In fact... do you get to watch a lot of television?"

"Not as much as I'd like," Nack responded. "Why do you ask?"

Sonic turned to a guard, asking if he could turn on the TV. The guard said yes, Sonic thanked him, and the blue hedgehog turned on the TV, flipping over to the news to see Shadow at the press conference in front of Green Hill Police Department, answering any and all questions that were thrown his way.

"During our first chase of him in Star Light City," Shadow said on the television, "we found out that he had an implant which allowed him to fire acid from his hands. Said acid heavily damaged Knuckles' hover-board and also my right leg. As a measure of revenge... I set up a meeting with Zayd in Angel Wing City with an officer there to interrogate him. During that interrogation session, he took an officer hostage, almost killing them. I... I used my implant which allows me to teleport, appearing behind him and injecting him with Fokus, which I was using as a bribe. A few moments later, Zayd's implant overloaded, and he... he died."

Nack was in awe as he watched. "He... Shadow... he killed Zayd?"

"He did not, but I felt like you should know the truth as well." Sonic sighed. "As a rule, I can't stand you, Nack. You may give me good information, yes. But I don't like you. You didn't ask me to, I know that. But I do not want you to lie to me when I ask you this: Do you know anything about these fake implants?"

Nack leaned forward, looking into Sonic's eyes. "No. I don't. I don't know where they're coming from."

"They're not coming from anywhere," Sonic said. "At least, we have reason to believe that they're not. Some might be being stolen from what the Prowers make and reworked to get done quicker. But if it's at the cost of people's lives, innocent or not, you need to tell me the truth."

"I am." Nack clenched his jaw. "I haven't heard about this until with Zayd. Until now, with you."

"Well... what do you think it could be?" Sonic asked.

"Not what. Maybe... who." Nack said. "The Black Market."

Sonic rose an eyebrow. "And who the hell would they be?"

"I don't know," Nack said. "And that isn't me being dismissive. Nobody knows. They're the darkest of dark operations. They deal everything everywhere, and they never leave a trace."

"You've run into them before?" Sonic asked.

"No, but I've heard tell of them during my own deals." The purple weasel shook his head. "This... this is very dangerous. If you're not careful, you could wind up dead before you know it. Do me a favour and do not follow that lead. You won't get a good start, and you're for sure going to get one fucked up ending."

"I will be thinking about it," Sonic said. "You don't think that Jem had any ties to them, do you?"

"I couldn't tell you," Nack said. "Not unless you ask him yourself."

"We didn't get the chance last time we were at Spring Yard," Sonic said. "In fact... you did mention the rumour that he had an implant. Was that rumour that it was legal or not?"

"I just heard he has one," Nack said. "I don't know how or from which side. But it's likely that it was the same as with Zayd and that Aqua Lake punk." He then smiled a bit. "Speaking of which, how did your take-down of Jem go?"

"It went... shockingly easy," Sonic said. "It was strange. The dude terrified us, but we found an opening and managed to get him trapped. I mean, yeah, we had a ton of Spring Yard units helping and forcing them to stand down, but... something feels missing..."

"Well, the only information that I have for you is to suggest that you do and talk to him," Nack said, twiddling his thumbs.

"I think that I will," Sonic said, checking the clock. "I think I've overstayed my usual welcome here, but I do have one more question that I want to ask before I leave."

"Shoot," Nack said.

"Don't tempt me," the blue hedgehog replied. "My stab wound... in my stomach..."

"What about it?" Nack asked.

"When we were doing the Spring Yard job, before we got there, I had to use the bathroom. I threw up blue blood." Sonic saw Nack's posture shift. "Do you know anything about that?"

"I just may," Nack nodded. "You see, during our knife fight, as you were trying to break my door down, I was working on a little concoction. A makeshift Fokus recipe."

Sonic sat back. "What?"

"I coated my knife with it. It didn't use all of the ingredients, so it's not going to have the full effect." Nack smirked. "For example, if I were to tell you to pull your gun out and shoot yourself in the cheek, you wouldn't do it. But, my point is, I stabbed you with that. I knew that it would have some effect, but I didn't anticipate it being so slow acting."

"So... am I poisoned?" Sonic asked. When Nack didn't reply immediately, Sonic slapped the desk and stood up. "What the fuck did you do to me, you shit-bag?"

"I don't know," Nack said. "I gave you a wound that you apparently are just now getting the effects for." He looked to Sonic's clothing, seeing a patch growing on his stomach. "And it looks like it's taking effect again."

Sonic looked down to his shirt, seeing blood pour from his stomach wound. "I knew that I should have gotten this patched up."

"Are you taking anything for the pain?" Nack asked, amused. "Painkillers? Aspirin? Perhaps Viagra?"

"This isn't a fucking joke..." Sonic replied, almost fainting and falling forward, using his hands to grip the table to hold himself up as he looked into Nack's eyes again.

"You know," Nack carried on, "the thing about some poisons is that they can take a while to kick in. A year and a half? That's got to be some sort of record. And it may not even be poison. It might be your body trying to reject it because of your implant. Eh, it's all science stuff that I don't fully understand." He leaned up to Sonic's gaze once more. "Whereas some other poisons are faster, have an immediate impact, and your target is usually dead within..." He checked the clock. "Ah, ten minutes."

Sonic's eyes were screwed shut in a mixture of both concentration and confusion, and he looked up to the clock to see the time. But as he did, alarms started to blare, causing a loud ringing in his head which caused him to cover his ears, the pain in his stomach worsening. He let out a grunt of agony as he fell down, his eyes seeing Nack's hands under the table as the purple weasel slid a small thread needle from under the skin of his wrist, twisting it in his handcuffs to free himself. Before Sonic could focus on anything else, he was picked up onto his feet by Nack.

"We've got a full scale riot in the penitentiary!" said a voice over the broadcast system. "Warden Schneider is dead! I repeat, Warden Schneider is dead! If you all remain in your cells-"

It was cut off with a blood curdling scream, and Nack chuckled darkly. "Right on time."

Sonic looked behind Nack to see the guard from earlier coming down the stairs, and a small smile almost touched his lips. "Looks like... you're fucked..."

Nack turned to see him. "Oh, him? He's with me."

"Wha-"

Sonic was cut off by a punch to the stomach, causing him to gag and almost throw up again before another blow to the back of his head knocked him unconscious. His eyes blacked out as he saw the back of Nack's boots walking away, and the purple weasel turned to face Sonic, giving a small wave goodbye before leaving. Sonic barely registered a voice message on his phone.

"Sonic?!" Tails' voice sounded panicked on the phone. "It's Tails! We're getting word all over the news that a prison break happened at the penitentiary! Please, tell me you're okay! If you can reach the phone, call me back! If not, we'll come get you!"

Sonic reached out weakly for his phone, but his arm fell limp, he spat out some blood, and he closed his eyes for what felt like the final time.

Small aside before I wrap this one up, but I'm keeping my Juri/Vega smut stuff up, but I'm not going to update or edit them in any way. Also... yeah. Not the longest chapter of anything I've ever done, but I wanted to give this one a lot because... this is the start of the third act, as it were. It was also very fun to write, and don't worry, more will be on the way. I'll try and knock out a Beauties Of Remnant chapter too, but I promise nothing. Until then, take care, and stay tuned.