Nack looked at the several passed out women on his bed, all naked with satisfied smiles on their faces. The purple weasel couldn't hide his chuckle as he left the room, being careful so as not to wake any of them up. He carefully got dressed and slowly backed out of the room, shutting the door as quietly as he could before looking to see his two guards waiting for him.

"Took you long enough," said one of them.

"Funny, that's what those girls said last night," said Nack.

"Good to see you all dressed up," said the other guard. "Come on. We've got a meeting to get to."

"What time is it?" Nack asked.

"12:30," said the first guard.

"Ah, so I'm ahead of schedule," Nack said. "All right, let's get this one over with."

The two guards nodded, and Nack headed past them down a set of stairs, the two guards following behind him closely. It wasn't long until all of them were on the ground floor, with Nack walking in to the main lunch room where he saw the others conversing as they waited for him. He walked up to his seat and smiled, sitting down at the table as food was brought up.

"Ooh, thank you," Nack said politely to the very naked girl serving the food. "All right, so, catches after yesterday. How'd it go?"

"Got a lot of guns moved up to Scrap Metal," said Manuel. "Oh, shit, I forgot to mention, I've been making more cash lately from my illegal fights. I'm probably going to set up a legit bare knuckle promotion soon."

"Like, actually legit?" asked Nack. "Nothing behind that?"

"I'll still be training guys in the less than legal side of the fight game, but I'll still be pushing guns around too," Manuel said. "We've got a big shipment coming in from Aqua Lake, actually."

"That's what I like to hear," Nack smiled. "Get shit moved, get more back. What grade of weaponry are you up to?"

"Military if I'm lucky," said Manuel. "It's mostly stolen police stuff or just arms dealers. But it's kept us going for this long, so."

"Well, you keep doing the work, my friend," Nack said, turning to Beau. "What about you?"

"Moving product all around the place," Beau replied with an easy smile. "Just moved about 50 keys of heroin to, oddly enough, Aqua Lake. It was hard getting that shit past the police patrol boats. That aside, we're still whipping up Fokus to push out. I found a buyer in Scrap Metal, should get the delivery done by tonight. Tomorrow at the latest."

"Hold off for a day," Nack said. "After Manuel moved the guns up there already, it'd seem too odd to get a shipment of drugs after that too. Might start to rouse suspicions."

"Not to mention that Nack's escape from prison would add more suspicion," said Manuel. "That puts eyes on all of us."

"Almost all of us," said the purple weasel. "I'm guessing that Martin is with Gerren at Westopolis Police Department?"

"He's getting his name and number as we speak," said Lara. "Which could make him a reliable benefactor in pushing things out."

"Things like porn?" Nack asked.

"That is a possibility," said Lara. "I did turn down a deal for some snuff stuff, because that's not what we do. But my girls have been hard at work, pleasing men from here to Green Hill, Star Light, hell, even Aqua Lake and Angel Wing. They've even been getting amateur porn deals, which means more money for us."

"Oh, yeah, I was watching some of their movies last night with them," Nack smirked. "Oh, by the way, thank you for the accommodations."

"No worries, boss," Lara winked at him. "That aside, I have a girl who should be actually arriving in Green Hill soon. As always, she has the necessary protections. Mace, a gun, a condom, even a wire. I've been sending out security with them in case things get a little too rough."

"Smart thinking," Nack said. "Did it happen a lot while I was gone?"

"It didn't happen much," Lara admitted, "but it was still way too often."

"Good thing that you're giving them more security, then," Beau said. "Especially now that we can afford it."

"Hey, with any luck, Gerren will be heading that up soon," said Nack. "He could run it with Martin."

"You should run that by him when they get back," said Manuel. "It sounds like a hell of an idea."

"Two dirty cops, co-running the police in this city," Beau smirked. "I like the sound of that. Gives us leeway to do whatever the fuck that we want, when we want."

"I mean, nobody's stopping you from having a cocaine overdose in public," said Manuel, joking. "It's technically only illegal if you get caught."

"That's fair," Beau admitted. "We've kept a pretty low body count for the most part. I think the only folks to cop it were... well, whoever Nack was aiming Sonic at."

"Oh, they never killed on purpose," said Nack. "Nonlethal force, tasers, tranquilliser darts if needed."

"That puts ass-holes like us in a cell," said Beau. "It doesn't kill us."

Nack chuckled a bit. "True. But you forget, me aiming that idiotic idealist wiped out a lot of the competition. Or at the very least, the ones who really needed to be out of the way."

"Yeah... it did get rough when you were locked up," Manuel admitted. "Dealers were seldom without your say-so, and you couldn't just use your daily prison phone call to check with us how many guns, drugs, or girls were moving."

Lara smiled. "I appreciate you calling my girls girls and not anything else."

Manuel smiled gently. "I mean, I know what they do. And I love what they do, don't get me wrong. But if they're willing to do what I ask to please me, then the least that I could do is show some common courtesy."

"That's just a natural reaction to getting your dick sucked by beautiful women on the daily," said Beau. "I would probably be the same, but I'm giving others a different kind of high. Some would say the best kind."

"They're all equally damaging," Nack said. "Granted, only one of them actually involves bullets."

Manuel shrugged. "I'm just doing what I've got to do."

Nack nodded. "Well, seems like you're all holding up well. I'm just glad that none of you crumbled after I was incarcerated."

"We're stronger than we look," Lara smirked.

"I gathered as much," Nack smiled. "All right, you all have your stuff sorted out. As always, should you need extra protection, just let me know. Oh, and before I forget, thanks to all who refurbished my headquarters. It looks a lot better now."

"I may have had a small say in it," Lara smiled. "You can thank me by paying my girls more."

"As soon as we stabilise a bit better, absolutely," Nack smiled, lifting a drink to clink with hers.

Meanwhile, Gerren was looking around Westopolis Police Department as he waited patiently. Martin had left to talk with the old captain there, who wasn't of much more use than the rest of the cops. It was about half an hour of getting things sorted, but a door opened and it showed the captain, another human, calling Gerren over.

"Here you go," the captain stated simply. "New badge, number, gun, it's all here. We'll tailor your uniform as soon as we get the right measurements for you."

"Well, if it helps, my boobs are natural," said Gerren.

The police captain chuckled. "All right, fair enough. Do what you can to help this shit-hole, yeah?"

"I'll make an attempt," Gerren smiled as the captain turned to head back to his office. Gerren then smiled at Martin. "Thanks for coming out with me to get this done. It means a lot."

"Hell, you're official now," Martin said in a low voice. "Which also means that you need to be careful not to mention all of the, you know, prostitution, gun running, drug smuggling, racketeering, and other shit that Nack's doing."

Gerren rose an eyebrow. "I thought that they'd be fine with that?"

"You would, but even here, not everyone's got what we have," said Martin. "Killer instinct. Some of them will act holier than thou if they find out half of the shit that their fellow officers get up to. That leads to the more angelic ones getting their wings clipped, and they come crashing six feet under."

"It'd make room for more dirty cops, though, right?"

"Again, another good way of thinking, but you might notice that the place feels small?" Martin smiled as they left the building. "There's not a lot of good ones left. We don't trade the dead for new lives that aren't up for it."

"I could take that up," said Gerren. "Start a recruitment drive. Really help Nack and the other bosses get shit pushed around from pillar to post."

"A lot of the cops are already on Nack's payroll," said Martin. "A lot of them don't want out because they know the consequences. But getting more in means more money being taken from his account to help us stay afloat. And it ain't like I can just forge fake identities for everyone without some green of my own to spare. If you do wind up getting that far, you need to be selective."

"Well, if it comes to that, I'll just pick the best of the worst," Gerren chuckled. "Unless you don't trust me fully?"

Martin nodded at that. "There's a difference between earning your keep and keeping what you earn. I like you. Goddamn, I even respect you for helping to bust Nack out. But until you prove otherwise, you're just another dirty cop like ninety percent of the ass-holes back in there, including me."

"Is there a single good soul in this fucking city?" asked Gerren.

"Manuel, in a way," said Martin. "But even he killed to protect his daughters once."

"Shit," said Gerren. "And I'm assuming that that's what caused him to cross paths with Nack?"

"I mean, that's just the stories that I've heard," Martin said with a small shrug. "Beau overdosed and Nack saved him, and the weasel even helped Lara from prostituting herself on the streets."

"Westopolis street meat... no thank you," Gerren shuddered. "Who else is there besides Manuel?"

"There's this one guy on the force. Harvey. He ships Manuel his guns and is actually a pretty solid dude," Martin said. "Met him once. Ridiculously nice guy, especially for someone out of this town."

"Fair enough," Gerren said. "What's your story? I mean, you partake in this city's pleasures, but what did Nack cop you for?"

"I got into a lot of trouble with a lot of people," said Martin. "The dude's got a lot of shit on me, but he's less willing to use it against me as time goes by. As long as I don't try to screw him over, I'm safe."

"I can't think of a man living who tried to screw Nack over and get away with it," said Gerren.

"Hell, I had plenty of chances when he was locked up," said Martin. "Didn't take them, though. I stuck with the others and I managed to get a lot of people out of something bad into something better than bad."

"I can't imagine that it'd be easy forging all that shit," Gerren nodded. "Like you said, you need money to do it." He chuckled. "If you took over the police station, you could probably be in a better position to do it."

"Yeah, well, nobody exactly rises through the ranks to become captain here," said Martin. "There ain't no transfers, no promotions. Usually you get hired if the last captain dies or is close to it."

"All right, how long have you had that guy?" Gerren asked, hooking his thumb.

"Fuck knows," Martin said. "A year? Maybe less than that? I still don't remember his name and he had it spelled out on his office desk."

Gerren chuckled. "It won't matter. A lot of the dirty bastards in there work for Nack in some way, whether they like it or not. May as well be interchangeable, or at the very least expendable."

"I almost hate to admit that you might have a point," said Martin. "But we really should head back out to Nack. Show off your shiny new badge."

"Let's see how much blood I can get on it for my first day," Gerren smirked.

Meanwhile, at Spring Yard...

"Well, we're back here," said Knuckles as the city came into view. "I've let Alec know that we're on the way, and he'll be meeting us up at the police station."

"I just hope that he doesn't blow a gasket," said Tails. "With all of this implant stuff and Ryker's decision coming, it could go pear-shaped."

"You mean tits up," said Shadow.

"That is the version I had in my head, but I prefer to keep it in there," Tails said.

"Got to maintain the facade of being cute and kind, eh?" Knuckles smiled.

"Just get us up to the police station, you big dumb dummy," said Tails, unable to contain his own chuckling.

"Such language," Knuckles shook his head playfully. "I would blame the parents if they weren't so awesome at raising you."

"I'm sure that they would appreciate that," Tails said, looking ahead. "Should be in a few blocks on the left, right?"

"The second one," Shadow said. "It should take us right to the station."

The red echidna nodded, driving up a a bit more before turning left down a different section of the road. They passed by a couple more houses, soon reaching the front of Spring Yard Police Department, which looked similar to most of the other buildings there with its look of solid copper. What set it apart was the fact that it was wider than most of the other buildings close to it, with added brass accents and the department's logo of a coiled spring, also a mixture of different copper shades.

Knuckles found a spot to park his car, and he, Shadow, and Tails all walked into the building, stating their business at the front desk. They sat back and waited for a few minutes before the secretary called them over, telling them to go up to the third floor where Alec's main office was. The trio of freelancers walked up to the main office, hearing what sounded like an angry tirade from the tiger inside before opening the door and entering.

"I don't give a shit!" said Alec down the phone. "They're good lads! They shouldn't be put in front of a judging panel like some bad talent show!" He then paused as he saw the three walk in, holding up an index finger and putting on the most pleasant smile that he could manage before going back to his phone. "Look, you can't bring in Judge Cutler on this! He'll never vote in favour!" More sounds came from the other end. "You... you can't do that! Hey, don't you fuckin- DAMMIT!" He looked at his phone. "Bastards hung up on me!"

"That seemed like a spirit argument," said Tails. "What happened?"

"It was some of the people at Spring Yard Municipal Court," said Alec. "They mentioned that, due to the nature of Nack's recent escape and the recent events surrounding the whole Zayd thing - sorry that that happened, by the way - they could be pushing the trial forward to as soon as two days from now."

"Two days?" Knuckles asked. "We won't have enough time to prepare arguments or anything!"

"Oh, don't act like you prepare any words for anything ever," Tails said.

"That's true," Knuckles said. "At least my proposal to Shade paid off nicely because of it."

"Oh, you never did mention that you were engaged!" Alec smiled. "Congrats to the both of ye!"

"Much appreciated," said Knuckles. "But we should get back to serious mode."

"That's fair," Alec nodded. "Hang on... where's the blue handsome one?"

"He's in hospital after Nack's breakout," said Shadow. "He's stable. He's even talking now, or at least he was this morning."

"Christ..." Alec said. "What happened to the lad?"

"Nack poisoned him, set up a prison riot, Sonic almost got killed by the poison, and soon he'll need new implants to replace his old ones," said Tails. "Which is hard for several reasons, mostly because we can't give out implants during this time and we probably won't be able to again after the judges' call in... seriously, two days?"

"It's just a maybe," said Alec. "But from what I was told, that might become a reality."

Tails nodded. "Fuck... that's not good..." He shook his head. "Anyway, yeah, his body's going to need time to recover. If we still had a week, then he could have that time and even make it to court."

"How's he doing now?" asked the Scottish Mobian.

"He'll be having physical therapy today," said Knuckles. "And we can't give him a new implant immediately. His old ones had to be taken out or... well, because of the poison in his body, it could have killed him."

"This poison... what was it?" asked Alec.

"According to the blue man himself, Nack stabbed him with a knife coated in some messed up version of Fokus," said Tails. "It just took a while to manifest."

"Oh, bloody hell..." Alec shook his head. "It's good that he got help when he did. I'm glad that he's safe."

"We are too," said Knuckles. "We do need to actually get to business now, though."

"Oh, aye, of course," said Alec. "I'm going to assume that it's Jem related, seeing as you didn't mention his name at all during our phone call."

"It is, but it won't be right away," said Tails. "We actually found a lead that could point us in a good direction."

"I do like a good lead," said Alec. "How can I help?"

"Before Nack broke out, he mentioned something about The Black Market to Sonic," said Tails. "Have you heard about them?"

"It'd probably be better to ask Nack himself," said Alec. "I've got no clue. Not heard a damn thing about them."

"Nack doesn't know much either," said Knuckles.

"And you really trust the prick after all that he's done?" Alec asked. "He poisoned Sonic! He almost killed him! He's literally killed people before!"

"Every tip that Nack gave Sonic was to the letter," said Shadow. "He's a goddamn slime-ball, yes, but he never lied to us. He never had reason to."

"Well, you can't just trust his word!" said Alec. "That's probably the reason why he broke out in the first place!"

"Nack's never been the manipulative type," Shadow said. "He only throws people under the bus as he sees necessary, and he has dirt on a lot of people."

"Why the fuck are you defending him?!" Alec asked. "If the breakout didn't happen, we wouldn't be under all of this shit! We can't shift implants for the time being, we can barely help out Green Hill where most of the damage was done... and you're not angry? You don't want to go right after Nack?"

"You don't think we do?" Shadow growled. "The last time that anyone went after Nack willingly was Sonic on his own when he tried to save us. We had little backup, and we barely made it out alive because we were unprepared. We can't just go up and stop Nack as we are, because no other police force will go out to Westopolis willingly, never mind crossing the jurisdiction line." He huffed out a breath. "And besides, after the night with Zayd... I'm the one who's responsible for this judge ruling in the first place. The breakout really doesn't help. As much as I like you, Alec, and I really do, you need to calm down, because I have been in a shitty fucking mood after that night, and we need your help more than anything."

The Scottish tiger gave a nod. "I'm sorry, lad. But you know that I can't just let things like that slide. He hurt you, all of you. He's probably hurting people right now as we speak. I just want the fucker gone."

"We do too," said Knuckles. "And we'll get him gone. But we have to be smart."

Alec nodded. "Fair enough. All right, uh, yeah, sorry about that. So, what do you need?"

"Well, we're not heading straight for Nack," Tails said. "I found some information about The Black Market that pointed us out here."

"What, did Jem break out and not tell anyone about it?" asked Alec. "Considering his implant, that wouldn't surprise me."

"Isn't he still locked up in prison?" asked Knuckles.

"I can only hope so, but he can slip out of our grasp at any point," said Alec. "I've got some of my best men on watch, and I'm good friends with the warden at the penitentiary. But that means that Jem's transition from the holding cells here to the pen might be hindered as it's in a couple of days. I might not be able to oversee it, as I'd have no choice but to attend the meeting."

"Would there be anything that you could do to help sway the decision?" asked Knuckles.

"We'll find out when the day comes," said Alec. "I really should call them when this is over to make sure... that'll be a fun experience."

"Sure sounded fun when we first got here," Knuckles smirked. "But yeah, we really need to talk to Jem, but we're not going to do it right now."

Alec raised an eyebrow. "All right, that's interesting. Please, explain."

"We're here to talk to the Babylon Rogues," said Tails.

"Oh, those guys!" Alec lit up with his expression. "I love them. Jet's a good pal. But why are you here to talk to them? Are they in trouble?"

"We actually didn't hear about them until recently," the two-tailed fox said. "But with all of the rumours of the implants being stolen and being rehashed, it's sort of a personal thing as my family made most of those implants."

"Ah, yeah, I saw the news report with Jet's interview," said Alec. "His circumstances certainly fall in line with the other stuff that I've heard. Which, by the way, sorry, Tails. That's really not a good look at this point in time."

"Maybe not," said Tails. "But Jet could be the exception to the rule. We just need to find him first, get some information out of him before we go after Jem."

"I don't think that he and Jem have ever crossed paths," said Alec. "Mostly because Jet is a smart man."

"If he were smarter, he wouldn't have accepted one of those implants," said Tails offhandedly.

"Well, that's good thinking," said Alec. "Where will you start, though? They could be out of the city. I mean, I like the guys, but there's a good chance that they're on the next highway to the closest city."

"What is the closest city to here?" asked Knuckles.

"I think it's Scrap Metal?" asked Shadow. "In which case, I do not envy Ryu if he tries to screw them over."

"Then you'd better get going in case they leave," said Alec. "Maybe you'll be able to catch up with them in time. I'll try and keep Jem on hold for you until you get back."

"Much appreciated," smiled Knuckles. "And again, thank you for all of your help and sorry to bother you with this."

"No problem. Oh, and I'll check with the judge on when the date's been pushed to as well. Just because I'm assuming it's been cut down doesn't mean that it has been just yet."

Knuckles nodded at that, and he and his fellow freelancers shook hands with the tiger before turning and taking their leave, heading back to the front of the building. They reach the red echidna's car, all hopping in and starting up some music before Shadow looked to the other two as the car got to moving.

"What do we do now?" Shadow asked.

"Head to Morning Brew and see if we can find some clues," said Tails. "Ask around and see if anyone's found anything out about the Babylon Rogues."

Knuckles looked up ahead. "I mean... we could just ask them now."

The other two looked to see where Knuckles was pointing, seeing several motorcycles roaring up and whizzing straight past them. Upon further inspection, Tails saw the symbol on the back of their jackets, a grinning bird's skull with a bloody dagger in its beak. There were two arced patches with writing, one above and one below. They said "Babylon Rogues" and "Motorcycle Club" respectively.

"I've got something that'll help," Tails said, reaching into his pocket. He pulled out a tracker gun, aiming for the rearmost biker and firing, landing a bullet on their wheel. "And that's how we do it. Wonder if they'll be impressed by that one?"

"We'll ask them if we can catch up," Shadow said. "Let's get moving."

Back at Green Hill Hospital...

Dr. Aston finished up checking on another patient before he got back to where Sonic was. He had expected to have to wake the hedgehog up himself, but he was shocked to see Sonic not just awake, but sat up in his hospital bed. It put a smile on the doctor's face as he walked in to see him.

"Well, you appear to be in a good mood," Dr. Aston said.

"I am, and it's not just the drugs this time," said Sonic. "Although they do help."

"Well, you can't take them with you for the time being," said Dr. Aston. He reached for a pair of crutches next to him, handing them over to Sonic. "Have you ever used these before?"

"Once for a sporting injury back in high school," Sonic admitted. "So it's been about a decade since I've had to use them."

"Let's hope that you can find your feet with them again," Dr. Aston said.

"Heh, I see what you did there," Sonic replied.

He then took the crutches from the doctor, moving his body so that it was out of the bed. He reached his arms up to take the crutches, Dr. Aston helping to hold them still as Sonic got the pads under his armpits. He hobbled so that he was slightly balanced on his right leg, which was a bit less damaged, and he used that to walk himself as best as he could over to Aston.

"How do they feel?" asked Dr. Aston.

"You know, it'll take some getting used to," Sonic admitted. "But it wasn't as bad as I thought that it was going to be."

"It's a start," Dr. Aston smiled.

He then led the way for the blue hedgehog down the halls of the hospital, leading to a smaller hallway that ended with a door. There was a rectangular window on said door, and Sonic saw a couple of doctors and several patients in there, with what looked like a teenage kid using a double railing to walk himself back and forth before reaching the end.

"This is the physical therapy part of the hospital," Dr. Aston explained at Sonic's confused look, opening the door and showing more of it off. There was some training equipment, all geared more towards therapy than working out. There were even machines hooked to people as well to test their progress, with doctors helping too.

"A lot of people in here," Sonic noted.

"Well, not everyone can afford an implant to recover," said Dr. Aston. "Or in some cases, they just don't want one. However, to have a patient who used to have an implant be here with us... that is a first."

"That's fair," Sonic nodded. "But look, I don't want any special treatment or anything. And I'm sorry for looking more confused, but this is... this is pretty big stuff."

Dr. Aston chuckled. "Did they not have this back at your high school?"

"Not to this extent," Sonic shook his head. "Hell, I did most of my recoveries at home. Just resting and eating tons of my mum's tomato soup." He sighed, reminiscing. "It was delicious."

Dr. Aston gave a smile at that. "Well, we do not have your mother's soup recipe on tap here," he said somewhat ruefully. "But we do have good technology and good people on deck to help you. If there's anything you don't feel comfortable with or may not be ready for given your current condition, just let me or any of the other doctors know and we'll do what we can to help."

Sonic nodded. "So, where do we start?"

"Wherever you want to start," said Aston.

Over the next hour, Sonic went through all of the tests that he could. He started with walking up and down the railing, holding his balance fairly well but almost keeling over as he reached the end. After that was a treadmill, mostly at slow walking speed for Sonic. He didn't need the railings as much this time around, but his balance was still wobbly from time to time. After that would come physical exercise like lunges and squats, just about ten each, and even an exercise ball as well, with Dr. Aston there to watch over him through it all, taking notes and offering a hand when needed.

After it was all done, Sonic was hobbling back on his crutches, getting taken back to the room that he was staying in as he looked at the doctor. "So, how'd I do?"

Aston smiled gently. "We won't know immediately. We do have to take another x-ray to compare, so we'll probably do that as you're asleep and such. But if I had to give an initial assessment? You seem to be recovering at a normal pace. You did start moving more as the hour went on, which I did note down."

"Maybe some of that medicine's starting to help," Sonic said, looking down at his knees. "The swelling's gone down a bit..."

"Then we're making good time," Dr. Aston said as he heard a punk riff from Sonic's phone.

The blue hedgehog looked at it, seeing Knuckles' name pop up before turning back to Dr. Aston. "Sorry, I should take this."

"Just get back in your bed after and rest," Dr. Aston smiled, turning to leave the room. "Oh, and good job today."

"Thank you!" Sonic said as the doctor left the room. He then answered his phone, smiling. "Knucklehead! How'd it go with Alec?"

"Well, there's two types of news regarding him," said Knuckles. "Which one would you like first?"

"Always start with bad news," said Sonic. "Just gets it out of the way quickly."

"Fair point," Knuckles said. "Well, the bad news is that there's talks that the court case about the implants could be pushed forwards."

"Ooh... that's not good," Sonic said. "How far forwards?"

"Two days," Knuckles answered. "It isn't confirmed yet, but because of the breakout and the rioting right after the incident with you-know-who and you-know-where, it's not looking good."

"Especially for us," Sonic said. "Shit, there's a thought."

"I've told you not to have too many of those," Knuckles said. "They can be dangerous things."

Sonic smiled at that. "Well, we're not police officers or even aligned with any specific city or jurisdiction, technically speaking," he said. "If that's still the case, then would we even be brought in to testify?"

"That is a good question," Knuckles said. "On the one hand, we did used to be cops, and we've helped police forces all over to stop criminals and put them away. But when the court case rolls around, they're not going to be looking at that part. It's probably going to depend on how they see Shadow's actions. Was he someone who was defending someone that night in Angel Wing? Did he really not know that the injection would kill him?"

"You almost sound like you're doubting him," Sonic said.

"I'm not," Knuckles said. "I believe him. And thankfully we're at a gas station for a quick pit stop with Tails and Shadow getting some junk food so they can't hear me."

"All right, fair enough," Sonic said. "May I have the good news please?"

"Well, Alec is going to still provide help, and he will try to testify on our behalf as well as he can," Knuckles said. "He's also got strained a relationship with Judge Cutler, the main guy for it in Spring Yard. Which is, again, rough."

"See, that started good then ended with some shades of doubt," Sonic said, smirking.

"I'm getting there," Knuckles said. "So, we found a trail that could lead us to the Babylon Rogues. And that's not a metaphor either. They passed by us earlier. Tails nailed one of their bikes with a tracking bullet, so we're good to go."

"Better get up on them quickly, then," Sonic said. "Motorbikes are a lot faster than beat-up old lady cars."

"Hey, she's a beat-up old lady car with soul, I'll have you know," Knuckles defended, getting a call coming in. "Shit, it's from Alec. I'd better answer. Catch you in a few."

"See you," Sonic said. He sat on the edge of the hospital bed, about to roll back into it when Knuckles called back. "That was fast."

"It's also more bad news," Knuckles said. "Alec confirmed for us that the judging will be pushed forward. Two days from now."

Sonic screwed his eyes shut. "All right, well... what about us? Did he say anything?"

Knuckles nodded on his end. "He said that freelancers won't be allowed to sit in. We technically operate just outside of the law, and we have no obligation to any jurisdiction. And those are just what the judge said. Alec's language was much more colourful and graphic."

Sonic put his free hand against his head. "Fuck me..."

"It's up to the police captains now," said Knuckles. "We've already got a few in our favour. And the ruling will be in Star Light. It's the safest place and Green Hill is still too much of a hot zone right now."

"All right... Christ, okay..." Sonic sighed. "Thanks for updating me."

"You're welcome. And hey, I'll get you something sugary to make up for it," Knuckles said. "We're swinging by the cafe anyway."

"See you when you get back," Sonic said. "Take care."

"You too, brother," Knuckles said.

Both of them hung up, and Sonic finally laid on his bed, closing his eyes and falling asleep either due to the exhaustion from the exercise room or from the news that he'd just heard. It was probably a mixture of the two.

And that's another one done! As it took me a while, next time will probably be another Beauties Of Remnant chapter, but after that I'll be putting my harems and such on hold as I want to try and get this story finished. And it is damn close to ending. I'll see you all soon for whatever's next. Until then, take care, and stay tuned.