The next morning, Shadow woke up, seeing Rouge resting next to him. He gently put a hand on her cheek, causing her to wake up and look back at him. She smiled gently, leaning her head into his touch and closing her eyes before leaning to kiss him gently. Shadow kissed back briefly, but he soon pulled away.

"I'm... I'm sorry..." Shadow said. "We, uh... we don't have a lot of time to waste today."

Rouge nodded. "We both have a busy schedule." She sat herself up on his lap, allowing him to move back from under her. "And I did promise to tell you about what happened."

Shadow sat up on one end of the couch, nodding. "I won't be going anywhere for a few hours anyway. And while we talk, I could do with some of your famous coffee."

Rouge giggled. "I can do that."

The white bat stood up, going to the kitchen to make some coffee with Shadow. As she made it, she saw him stretching as he woke, and then his phone went off. He answered it, a smile on his face as he had a conversation with Maria on the other end, Rouge catching some of it as she put a coffee in front of him.

"Yeah, today will be busy," Shadow said. "Got to see Sonic later, then we're off to Spring Yard tonight."

Maria nodded, smiling. "Will you have time for a lunch meeting?"

"Ooh... I might," Shadow said. "I could pick something up on the way to the bank for your break."

"I'd appreciate that," Maria said. "But I had better get to work. As had you."

"Stay safe out there," Shadow said.

"I've got my protection," Maria said, looking at the small handgun in her purse. "I'll be fine. You take care too."

"Will do," Shadow said. "See you later."

The two hung up, and Rouge smiled. "I never thought that she of all people would need to use that kind of protection."

"Well, a bunch of criminals escaped a penitentiary," Shadow said. "She usually has security and a gun under her desk at the bank, same as everyone else. She's never had to use one."

"Hopefully she never will," said Rouge, taking a sip of her coffee. "Ah... much better..."

Shadow chuckled, also taking a drink. "Yep... that sure does help. You make the best damn coffee."

Rouge chuckled back, turning to face Shadow. "So... where would you like me to start?"

"At the beginning, would be nice," the black and red hedgehog said, looking back at her.

Rouge nodded. "It all started around the time when you signed up for Green Hill Police Academy. I was not in a good place at the time. I think I got worse. I... I got heavily into drugs. Cocaine especially. And I came to the realisation that doing that wasn't fun. Not because I was doing it alone, and it's not like that's what we did when we were together."

"Wow..." Shadow said. "I mean, I know that you told me about your low point, but you never mentioned drugs before."

"Well... I mean, you were training to be a cop," Rouge said, clearing her throat. "It would have looked bad if you were still associated with me at that point."

"I would have helped you," Shadow said. "You could have told me. I'm sorry if it seemed like I pushed you away to focus more on the academy."

"No, you didn't," Rouge said. "I should have made more of an effort. I got jealous that you were trying to do more and I... I was still just some street punk. I still stole to eat, I still stole money for drugs. It stopped being about surviving and I started being selfish."

"Did you ever overdose?" Shadow asked.

Rouge shook her head. "No, thankfully. I did serve some jail time, though. When I tried to turn my life around after my last stay there, it was hard to find a job with a criminal records, as small as it was. I was tempted to just keep stealing money to serve myself, but then I bumped into Calvin."

"Calvin?" Shadow asked. "Who's that?"

"Calvin is the head of Anti-Light," said Rouge.

"Ah, Anti-Light," Shadow said. "And what is that?"

"It's an anti-terrorist group," said Rouge. "Calvin set it up a few years ago. Nobody's heard of it because it's away from a lot of police databases. That's for a reason. They're a night ops group in particular, and they run a lot of operations in a lot of places. But they're quite secretive and don't want anyone to find them out. Because of that, they're always moving place to place for their main base of operations."

"And what's Calvin's story?" Shadow asked.

Rouge nodded. "Calvin used to be a police captain for Westopolis. After a botched operation which led to a lot of his officers being injured, hell, some were killed, he was boycotted and fired. He even fled the city, not that I blame him." But he still had sway with his power, and he had a decent amount of money. Which is good, because Anti-Light don't make any profits."

"Wait, so your job as a jeweller is a cover?" Shadow asked.

"Not technically," Rouge said. "It is my main job, and I do make money from it. He did help me to get it. Before you ask, there isn't some secret lab or warehouse under my home that leads to a bunch of military of government secrets. In fact, the military and government don't know anything about it."

Shadow nodded, drinking some more of his coffee. "Huh. Calvin seems like a good sort. Please, go on. How did you meet Calvin?"

Rouge smiled. "It was after I stole some food. It was some guy, some unassuming lion. Grey and black fur and all sorts. He was in a local coffee place, and he went to the bathroom. I followed him to the men's room as soon as he set his jeans down, and I stole his wallet from the other cubicle. I wanted to wait until he left, but he had caught me dead on. He just told me to give him the wallet back, and I did. Then he asked me why I stole it, so I told him."

"And why did you steal it?" Shadow asked.

"Well, that morning's stolen sandwich wasn't going to pay for itself," Rouge said. "Then he told me about Anti-Light, what their agenda is, and so on. I spent the years since training in combat, both long-ranged and melee. They weren't constant classes as it isn't technically a job, so I needed something sustainable. Luckily, they were able to draw me up a resume which let me get my job. It looked super legitimate."

"It sounds like a forged identity," Shadow said.

"But it wasn't," Rouge said. "The resume included my prior criminal activity. It was risky hiring a small time crook like me into a jewellery store, sure, but I've never stolen a thing from that place."

"What about the diamonds last night?" asked Shadow.

"Those were fakes," Rouge said. "Someone switched them around with the real jewels we were supposed to get. Luckily, I gave Sally a discount the fake ones and she's going to use them with her kids at class to make bracelets."

"Aw, that sounds sweet," said Shadow. "But yeah, sorry to interrupt. Carry on."

Rouge smiled. "Not much else to say. Calvin helped me to turn my life around. He got me a job, and all of the money I have is from that job, but Anti-Light did help me get my own place."

Shadow nodded. "That's fair." He looked around at the walls. "It's a good looking house. I don't know how much you get paid as it is, but I can't imagine it'd be enough to maintain this."

Rouge nodded. "You're right about that."

The black and red hedgehog leaned back a bit. "I'm still... still having trouble processing a lot of this..." He sighed, rubbing his eyes. "Sally's a part of it too... this Calvin guy... you... is there anyone else?"

"Nobody that you know," said Rouge. "And there's more. So, you remember the first night of you as a cop? When you saved me and the other girls?"

"Yeah?" Shadow raised an eyebrow.

"Well, I was chasing a lead... on the Black Market." Rouge sighed. "Anti-Light's been trying to get at them for years. We thought that Nack was more closely associated with them. I'd been following Amy as a mark for about a week to that point, but she didn't know a lot about them. We met and got to talking, and... well, you know the rest after that."

"I know. I was there for a lot of it," Shadow smiled. "Still... that much happened."

Rouge took a sip of her coffee, nodding. "Yep. That much happened."

"All right, am I missing a lot?" Shadow asked.

"It's more that there's a question that you're not asking," the white bat giggled. "But I'll answer it for you. The Black Market. We know almost nothing about them, but we've been trying to take them down for a long time."

"It's odd that you have such an interest in them," Shadow said.

Rouge reached for Shadow's neck, pulling something from the side of it and showing the bug she'd put on him. "I heard your talk with your friends about it last night."

"When did you put that on me?" Shadow asked.

"Last night. When you found out about... well, you know..." Rouge said. "Just... just in case. If it helps, it wasn't my idea. Someone else requested that I do it."

"It really doesn't," said Shadow, shaking his head. "Has it just gotten to a point where you don't trust me?"

"I do," Rouge said, putting her hand on his. "But... you know how things are now, with all those escapees. I mean, you were basically on orders from Nack." She shook her head, lowering it. "And I never wanted to hurt you this way. I never wanted you to find out. But... now you know..."

Shadow shook his head. "I'm just trying to make heads or tails of this. So, what do you know?"

"I know that you're going to see Sonic and then to see Jem," Rouge said. "I know that it's going to be a rough time for you because of Sonic. He might need his implants replaced, but then there's Judge Ryker... that's going to be a hard one to get around." She reached for his hand again, rubbing her thumb against it. "And trust me, if I had known what Nack was planning, if any of us knew... I would have prevented it. We don't have a wide spanning network of all the police databases in the world, we're not hooked into the technology or spying on the world or anything like that."

"It covers your tracks better," Shadow guessed.

"It certainly doesn't hurt," said Rouge. "We didn't even have an inside man or anything at the penitentiary. But we should have taken that precaution."

"You said you hopped around and changed HQ," Shadow said. "You're probably not set up in Green Hill right now, right?"

"No, we're not," Rouge said. "But we keep in touch with the people we have all around the world. We were just... sort of busy."

"What with?" asked Shadow.

"Well, I'm sure that you've heard about all of those implants going missing," said Rouge. "We've been trying to look into who it might have been."

"Well, you probably guessed that it would be impossible," Shadow replied. "Everyone who got one of those illegal implants said the same story."

"We've been keeping our feelers out for another case to see if it's the same," Rouge said. "That might be going on right now."

Shadow sighed, putting his head in his hands and rubbing his eyes. "It's going to be damn dicey..." His phone then started ringing, and he picked it up to answer it. "Hey..."

"Shadow!" said Knuckles' voice on the other end. "Where are you, man?"

"I'm at Rouge's," Shadow said.

"Well, come back over to the base," Knuckles said. "We're getting ready to meet Sonic."

"Actually, since the hospital is closer to where Rouge lives, you can just pick me up and take me there," Shadow offered.

"Sounds good," Knuckles said. "Is Rouge going to come with us?"

"She'll be busy at work getting the shop back in order," Shadow said to Rouge, who nodded to confirm as much. "I'll just grab a quick breakfast or something while I wait."

"We'll see you when we see you, man," Knuckles said. "Take care."

The two hung up, and Shadow looked at Rouge. "We've got to sort something out in regards to The Black Market. If you know anything at all about it, anything... then you need to tell me."

"I promise, I know as much as you do," Rouge said to Shadow. "If I knew more, I would help."

Shadow looked her in her eyes. "You're certain about that? If you knew anything at all, you'd tell me?"

"Shadow, the most information that we got was from your press conference," Rouge said. "All it did was repeat what we already knew."

"Rouge-"

"I'm telling the truth!" said the white bat, her gaze not breaking or faltering from his. "You believe me... right?"

Shadow sighed, but nodded. "It might be against my better judgement, but I do believe you. It doesn't mean that I trust you, though."

"That's fair..." Rouge said. "Look, um... I..."

The black and red hedgehog looked at her worriedly. "What is it?"

"I'll save it for when you get back from dealing with Jem," Rouge said. "You'll need all the help that you can get today."

"Thanks..." Shadow said, his stomach growling. "Right now, I need something else..."

"I'll make you something to go," Rouge giggled.

Indeed she did just that, making him a couple of breakfast wraps with added veggies. The two waited outside on a nearby bench as they had their breakfast, and Shadow was soon greeted with the sight of a familiar car pulling up. He turned to give Rouge a hug, and she kissed his cheek and smile at his small blush before he left to get into the car.

"You ready to go say hi to our fearless leader?" asked Knuckles.

"Sure am," Shadow said, looking at the back seat to see Tails as the car drove off, seeing the two-tailed fox wave goodbye to Rogue. "How'd the research hunt go last night?"

Tails sighed. "I couldn't find a lot about Nack's guards or The Black Market or any involvement between them. But I found out a lot about the Babylon Rogues."

"What'd you get on them?" Knuckles asked.

"Well, they're led by Jet the hawk. The dude seems pretty mean from his look, but he's actually quite well-respected, especially with police," Tails said.

"Oh yeah? What's his track record with them?" Shadow asked.

"He's pretty pally with whoever he meets up with. They don't go near Westopolis because... well, the less said about their police force, the better," Tails answered. "Other members are his wife, a swallow named Wave, and Storm, an albatross who is Jet's adopted older brother. Wave is the Vice President of the club and Storm is his man at arms, the right hand man who's sort of just under the VP in terms of the totem pole."

"Sounds like some Sons Of Anarchy thing," Knuckles said.

"If you include the loyalty and exclude the involvement in porn, drugs, and guns, then yeah," Tails said.

"In that case, how the hell do they make money to stay afloat?" Shadow asked.

"They're nomadic," said Tails. "They don't stay in one place for too long. They do street races sometimes, but that's often closed off so that it doesn't affect the public too much."

"Anything else?" asked Knuckles. "There's got to be more members than just those, right?"

"Oh, there's about twelve more," Tails smiled. "But they're all birds and they all have the flame tattoos on their arms."

"What about the implants like Jet has?" asked the red echidna.

"That's where it gets interesting," Tails said. "I couldn't find a damn thing about that. Jet might be the only one, or the others might have them. Despite their good relationships with law enforcement, they don't appear much on camera or social media. In fact, that Jet interview that I showed you guys was the first interview that any of them have done for about four months."

"Wow. Well, it's good to see that a group like that is on equal terms with the people they'd usually, you know, not be on equal terms with," Knuckles said.

"Yeah, it'll be fun talking with them when we find them," Shadow said. "Oh, did you guys put the word in to Alec that we'd be stopping by?"

"Yeah, but we're not going to be meeting him directly," said Knuckles. "He'll leave what we need at the station, but he's busy with some of those politics that he hates oh so dearly."

"Ah, because of the whole breakout and illegal implants thing," Shadow guessed. "I see."

"It's out of his hands," Tails shrugged. "We barely got to talk to him. He was in a major rush. And he's the damn head of Spring Yard City. Their judge must be really pissed about this situation."

"Well, yeah, he's got to try and swing the vote about implants," said Knuckles. "Call me crazy, but I think that Judge Preiss might be opposed to having implants. At least in his city."

"Only time will tell," Tails said. "And it's really not going to be a good time..."

"Speaking of not good times," Knuckles said, looking up at the hospital, "we're here."

It didn't take the red echidna too much time to find a parking space in the car park. Alarmingly, but unsurprisingly, he saw quite a few vehicles there bringing people in and out of the hospital. He sighed as he slid the car into the parking space, turning the engine off before leaving the car, being flanked by the others as they went into the hospital.

Tails walked up to the front desk. "Hey, we're here to see Sonic the hedgehog."

The receptionist smiled. "Patient rooms are down the hall on the right."

"How long do we have to wait?" Tails asked.

"Not long. He's free to talk to now," said the receptionist. "He's awake too, which is good."

The trio went to the patient room, seeing Sonic resting in his bed with his eyes open. He had casts over his legs where the surgeries were performed, and his stomach was patched up nicely as well. They saw this as the doctor in the room with Sonic removed the bandages to see the wound closing up nicely, and then said doctor followed Sonic's gaze to see the three waiting outside.

Dr. Aston walked out to the three. "Do you know the patient?"

"We're friends of his," Tails explained. "His fellow freelancers."

"I thought that I recognised you," Aston smiled. "My daughter is a big fan of yours." He looked at Tails. "You in particular. I think that she might have a crush."

"Chicks do dig the fluffy dude," Knuckles said. "But yeah, how's he holding up?"

"Well, his surgeries were successful, but I'm presuming that you know about Sonic's girlfriend and that she might have told you?" Aston asked.

"She did, yeah," Shadow nodded. "Is it really that bad?"

"Well, theoretically, we could have him out of hospital before the week is out," Aston said. "We need to run some physical tests later, but he seems relatively healthy despite the fact that he was poisoned."

"Must have been one hell of a detox," said Shadow.

Aston smiled. "I'll leave you with him. I have other patients to see to, so I'll see you soon."

"Okay, thanks, Dr. Aston," Sonic said from his bed. "Appreciate it."

As the doctor left, Tails reached for Sonic's hand with his, gripping it in a friendly manner. "Hey, man. How are you holding up?"

"I'm hopped up on morphine and I don't have poison in my veins," Sonic said. "I'd feel fresh as a daisy if I could walk."

"Can you?" Knuckles asked.

"Not on my own, for a little while," Sonic said. "The good doctor said that my body won't handle the rejection of the implants well because it was so used to using them."

"I mean, let's face it, it's not the first time you've been unable to handle rejection," Tails chuckled.

"Hey, being playfully mean is my thing," Knuckles said.

"Well, of course it is," Shadow said. "You can't be fluffy and kind."

"I can be one but not the other," Knuckles conceded.

"Yeah, you do need to work on your kindness," Sonic smirked.

"Oh, you think that just because you're in a hospital bed recovering from serious injuries that I won't slap you? Because I will. When you're better."

Sonic laughed, coughing a little bit and letting out a pained gasp. "Ugh... fuck..."

"You good?" Tails asked.

"Just some aftereffects of the poison," Sonic said. "Still... shit. I can't believe that I had to lose my implants."

"Sonic, they could have killed you if they stayed in you any longer," Tails said. "You should consider yourself lucky."

"To have friends like you, I'm very lucky," Sonic smiled gently.

"I think that's the morphine talking..." Knuckles muttered to Shadow, who nodded.

"What was the poisoning from, anyway?" asked Tails. "We never did clear that up, I don't think."

"Oh, that," Sonic said. "Well, you remember when Nack and I had that big knife fight back at Westopolis? Turns out the son of a cunt worked on a half-assed Fokus thing and coated his knife with it. He stabbed me with it during the fight, but apparently it was being kept dormant up until recently."

"Maybe the paste and your implants were holding it back?" Shadow suggested. "But that was a year and a half ago. Christ, I don't even want to imagine what would have happened it the dam broke."

"It didn't feel good on my end either," Sonic said. "Coughing up blood all the time, the constant pain in my stomach, like I was getting stabbed over and over again in the same spot... when I felt it in my legs, I wanted to cut the fucking things off. Especially when the doctors told me what happened to me."

"I should have known that Nack was involved somehow," Tails sighed. "And that does explain why it was going after your implants. It was just one dose over a long period of time, but you said that it wasn't perfect, correct?"

"Yeah," Sonic nodded. "Why?"

"Maybe he messed with the concoction on purpose," Tails said. "I mean, if you have an implant and you take Fokus, it affects them badly after enough usage. Maybe he took a more direct approach using a knife. That would also explain why your body was trying to hold it off for so long."

"Why couldn't it have held on a little longer?" Sonic asked.

"Dude, it was a year and a half going," said Knuckles. "Your body held it off for that long. That's impressive in itself, but you caved eventually. You're only hedgehog, after all."

"It still felt like shit when it fully set in," Sonic said. "Of course, right now, I can't feel much. I can feel my legs, thankfully. But... it does feel like something's missing."

"I could ask my dad to make you something," Tails said.

Sonic rose his eyebrows. "That's not a terrible idea."

"It's an idea with good intentions," said Shadow, "but I don't think that we should move on it until after the judges have made a decision."

"We have to wait a whole week for that decision to be made," Tails said. "In that time, Nack could move Fokus to other countries."

"Well, he just got out of a penitentiary," said Sonic. "There's a good chance that some of his old buddies won't trust him. Especially since he kept sending us on missions to take those guys down in the first place."

"Sonic, are you daft?" asked Tails. "He could have been leading you off of the trail of some of his closest allies."

"I'm sorry," Sonic said, his voice level. "It's kind of hard to think straight when I'm hopped up on pain medication, I almost lost my legs, and I could have fucking died. So excuse me for not thinking straight right now."

Tails closed his eyes, taking a breath. "I'm... I'm sorry too. But I just don't want to wait a week. We need to go after him. We can't do that without you."

"You've done missions without me before," Sonic said. "I've got faith that you can handle it."

"We work best when it's all of us," Knuckles said, standing up for Tails. "And the fluffy guy is right. Maybe we don't need something permanent. Your body could reject it anyway until your legs are fully recovered."

Sonic closed his eyes in frustration. "It's not worth you all losing your jobs. It's not worth Tails' family being put out of business. Those implants have saved lives. I get that we can't just let their fate hang on the edge of a judge's gavel, but if you guys are seriously considering it, then... for fuck's sake, be careful about it."

"Wait, what?" Tails asked.

"If you're going to pull something like that off, it's got to be well planned," Sonic said. "We can't let any higher ups know about this."

"I can't just ask my dad nicely," Tails said. "He'd never say yes to it. He's never been the guy to scoff at authority."

"Or maybe he'd jump at the chance," said Shadow. "He's always been all for helping us. You told your parents about Sonic's situation, right?"

"I did," Tails said. "I mean, I told them that he was in hospital. But I just found out the reasons why with you guys. And it's like you said, Knuckles, Sonic's body might reject the implant."

"Fuck..." Shadow growled. "What are we going to do about this?"

"Whatever your plan is for the day," said Sonic. "I'll be fine, okay? I'll pass through those physical tests with flying colours, mostly blue, then I'll be here for a day or two of rest then it's back to headquarters." He paused for a moment. "What are your plans, anyway?"

"Oh, yeah, we need to go and see Jem at Spring Yard," said Knuckles. "We all came to the agreement that catching him was too easy, and we think that we might have a lead on The Black Market too."

"What is it?" Sonic asked.

"A biker gang," Tails said. "The Babylon Rogues. They're nomadic, but they have a good standing with the communities of the cities."

"They sound like a bunch of real stand-up guys," the blue hedgehog laughed weakly. "Still... good thinking on the Jem situation. Trying to get any information out of him won't be an easy ride."

"Oh, shit, that reminds me," Knuckles said, "we still haven't set up things with Alec."

"You guys should really work on that," Sonic chuckled. "All right, well, don't let me keep you waiting. You boys go on ahead. Try and solve some shit."

"And you focus on getting better," Tails said, reaching for his friend's hand. "Sorry for going off like that. I just... fuck. I just want you to be okay. I don't want to see you like this."

"Dude, I'm fine," Sonic said, clasping Tails' hand with his. "I'm alive, I'm well-medicated, I'm going to get better. And when my body's good enough to tank implants again, we're hopping back on the road to kick some weasel ass."

The two-tailed fox smiled. "Drugs wearing off?"

"They might be... oh... no, there they are..." Sonic's eyes felt dreary. "Okay... I... I sleep need... I mean, I need peels... sleep... you know what I mint..."

Tails smiled as his friend drifted off, turning to the others. "To Spring Yard?"

Shadow nodded. "Yes, but not to the prison yet. We've got to find the Rogues first."

The other two agreed as they all left, exiting the hospital and getting back to Knuckles' car. They set themselves a course for Spring Yard City, managing to peel out of the car park and getting onto the main road, eventually reaching the highway on their way to their destination.

At Little Hill...

Sally Acorn was looking in her back at the gems from last night, also checking to make sure that she had her mace in her main pocket. She left her gun in her car's glove compartment, which was a first for her to bring it anywhere near Little Hill. She looked at the kids in her class, smiling as she brought the gems out of her bag.

"Today, kids, we're going to be doing art with these gems!" said Sally. "These are fake ones, so don't worry about breaking them."

One of the kids raised their hand. "Miss Acorn?"

"Yes?" Sally said.

"What art are we doin'?" he asked.

"Whatever you want," Sally said. "It can be something special, something for someone else, just whatever you can think of."

The kid chuckled. "I remember when Miss Rose made us do something like this with pasta... that was fun."

"Well, this is still glue, so try not to eat it?" Sally smiled.

"We never eated glue in Miss Rose's class!" said a girl, protesting lightly. She then paused. "Sorry, uh... ate? Ate glue?"

"That's correct!" Sally said. "Well done!"

The little girl kicked her feet happily. "But yeah, we never did that! Kevin did, though!"

"That was one time!" said a Mobian lizard. He backed down a bit after a stern glare from Sally. "Okay... it was more than that..."

"That's what I thought," said their teacher. "But seriously, just focus on having fun."

"Yes, Miss Acorn!" the kids said.

Sally chuckled to herself, pulling her phone from her pocket as her kids focused on their class. With Sally's classes, sometimes they were more fun like these, but since her year was above what Amy taught, she did intersperse actual lessons, even enjoying teaching English to her kids too. Still, Sally couldn't hide her sigh at her phone as she started to text the woman she met last night.

"Rouge? You there?" she asked.

A few seconds passed, then Rouge's reply came through. "Yep, I'm here."

Sally nodded. "What did you tell Shadow?"

"The truth..." Rouge said. "All of it. He deserved to know."

Sally closed her eyes, seeing two of her kids fighting over one of the gems. After she diffused the situation, she returned to her phone. "Sorry about that. Kids were fighting."

"Putting those fake gems to good use, I see," Rouge said. "But what do you think? Do you think that we should still go after Shadow?"

"Well, I did say that that was up to you," Sally replied. "Have you tried to get him to lure Jem to us?"

"I would have, but then I remember that we never came up with a good plan to catch him," Rouge said. "We can't do it in Spring Yard. The Babylon Rogues might get hurt in the crossfire."

"Hmm..." Sally thought, typing said thoughts onto her phone. "Maybe somewhere open and empty in Spring Yard. I'm sure it's got somewhere that isn't used."

"I think there's that old sportswear shop that's being renovated," said Rouge. "It'll be a tight window, but I'll see if I can get something out of it."

"Who from Anti-Light do we have available in Spring Yard to help?" Sally asked.

"Let's see... Etienne, Stephens, and Carly... we would have Harold, but he's working over at Angel Wing..." Rouge paused. "I think that's it?"

"Not bad people to have in your corner," said Sally. "You're in safe hands. Oh, did you ever find out where those real gems disappeared to?"

Rouge paused a bit. "I think there's rumblings of something in Scrap Metal City. Which can only mean one thing..."

"Ryu?" Sally guessed.

"Of course it is," said Rouge. "But you'll have to take care of that one on your own, girlfriend. I've got to find a way to get to Shadow before he gets too far in to Spring Yard."

"Sounds good," said Sally. "And here I was thinking that today was going to be an average day of teaching kids to stop sticking their hands together with glue," Sally said. "Oh, no, too late. One of them's busy doing just that. I've got to go."

"Hey, you go teach, teach," Rouge said. "See you around."

Sally sighed, putting her phone away and walking over to the girl who was crying a bit with her hands stuck together. She carefully guided her to the water fountain and sprayed some warm water, which dissolved the glue and separated the hands quickly, causing the girl to giggle and thank Sally before going back to her art.

"Be more careful next time, okay?" Sally said.

"I will, Miss Acorn!" the girl said cheerfully.

Sally smiled. "What are you making?"

"A uni-dragon!" the girl said.

"Ooh, I want to see!"

This one is a bit delayed as I did struggle with an ending, but I got one! So yeah, more of this to come in the near future. I hope and pray that you all enjoyed it. I don't have a lot else to say, just that I hope that you had fun and I'll see you in the next one. Until then, take care, and stay tuned.