(Authors note: I realize that the connection between Fang and Chaotix is based off the Fleetway plot line, but think of this as sort of an adaptation and continuation of that story.)

S.O.N.I.C GO!

S.O.N.I.C GO!

GO! GO ! GO! GO! LET'S GO!

Episode 2: A Nack for Trouble

"Look at the freak!"

"Two tails, man god sure messed up with the D.NA here."

"Maybe we should simply shoot the thing before it pollutes the gene pool." Tails could hear their snide remarks as they kicked him about and all he could do was yell out in pain. He was covered in bruises and already he was sure he had several broken ribs. He couldn't see the world around him, he'd scrunched his face up, forcing his eyes closed, he didn't want to see their sneering faces or the fists and kicks coming at him. Finally, one of them kicked him aside toward their leader, who towered over the beaten fox with his hands on his hips. He lifted a boot and pressed it against Tails' head, keeping his face to the floor.

"Tell me." He said, kneeling down, increasing the weight he was applying, pressing the foxes face into the ground. "Was it your mother or your father who had the defective chromosome?" The others burst out laughing as Fang the Sniper reached down and picked the fox up by his fur and tossed him back to his boys who snatched him from the air roughly. "Alright Gentlemen, that's enough fun for now. We still have a bounty to earn and I doubt Mr. Blue is going to wait until Friday to head us off. Toss the genetic reject into the box and let's get this show on the road." All Tails saw of the world in that spilt second, through blackened eyes was the inside of a warehouse, the sound of the sea coming in through the large door at the far end. Then all was darkness and they dumped him into the wooden crate and pushed the lid on top.

The desert night was cold than expected, but Shadow could hardly feel the tingle on his skin. He was far too durable to feel the discomfort of the cold, not that he really minded the almost invincible sensation anyway. Besides, he was far too distracted to notice it. "Well this is certainly interesting." Shadow muttered to himself as he looked back over his shoulder, racing along the highway outside the city, travelling through the desert with several armed G.U.N vehicles on his trail. Transport helicopters with a strange, dragon like symbol on their sides racing after him. These were not the militaries standard forces, they knew full well that nothing short of their best would be enough to take him down.

Not that the black hedgehog could think of what he'd done to annoy G.U.N, as far as he was aware, he wasn't being held responsible for that ARK thing. In fact, most of the people had forgotten about that in the wake of Metal Overlord's defeat. It wasn't exactly public redemption, but it was close enough. Probably some vigilantes with stolen weaponry. A smirk crossed the ultimate life-forms race as he skated forward in the soft moonlight, his underside highlighted by the soft pulsating white light from his skates. This could prove fun.

"Target Accelerating sir." The pilot in one of the choppers shot back over his shoulder as the black hedgehog on the road below shot forward with a burst of speed, pulling away from their pursuit with ease. "If he goes any faster, we might not be able to keep up with him."

"You've gotten us far enough. We can take it from here." The bizarre segmented voice replied, a dark shape standing behind him.

Shadow looked back over his shoulder again to see his pursuers disappear as he soured away. His eyes narrowed in disappointment.

"What? Over already?" He shock his head and turned his attention back to the road. A sudden blurred object darted in front of him, blocking his path. Forcing his right foot to the side, he came to a screeching halt, desert sand sent flying from the edge of his shoe.

Whatever was blocking the road looked human, but it's face and most of it's body was hidden behind a thick brown cloak with no descriptive or noteworthy markings. It just stood there, perfectly still like a statue. "Out of my way unless you want to get hurt." Shadow stated, standing up straight narrowing his eyes. The hood figure remained perfectly still, so still in fact it looked like he wasn't even breathing, The moonlight hardly seemed to touch him at all, even though he was standing out the open in the light's path. He wasn't even casting a shadow.

"No. You are going nowhere." A choir of voices announced as without warning at least five other hooded figures, each one identical to the first in everyway. It was like there was more than one of him. "Shadow, end result of the Ultimate life form research project."

"How do you know me?" He asked, trying to keep them all in his line of sight. They didn't answer, remaining quiet, the howl of some distant coyote ringing in the night. "Oh forget this, I said out of my way!" He began marching toward the other cloaked figure that barred his way before, only to find some invisible force smash into him, knocking the black hedgehog off his feet and onto the cold ground.

"You are our property." They all said at once. "You will come with us." Shadow snapped his head up, now very angry.

"I am nobodies property!" He snapped back, already in a fighting stance as he rose to his feet again. These cloaked strangers encircled him, but stayed outside of a four foot radius.

"Be silent." They all said together in one unified voice. "We funded the ultimate Lifeform research project, we we're it's financial backers, we own you." Fuming, Shadow threw an arm forward and fired a Chaos spear attack at one of them and to his astonishment, the attack passed right through him, imploding on the ground a short distance away. Like he hadn't been there at all. Shadow stared in confusion, before gritting his teeth and firing another blast toward another of their number. The same thing happened again. It was like they were ghosts.

"What the hell are you?" He asked, eyes wide. These cloaked phantoms drew in closer with such swift and flawless movement it was like they weren't even walking, more like gliding over the ground.

"We are your owners, you will come with us and do as you are told." Shadow closed his eyes, focusing on that one little point inside his very being and his entire body vanished in a green haze and then reappeared of a lime green mist a safe distance away. What were these things? He asked himself, if he launched an attack it simply passed right through them. They could be only three explanations, one he was loosing his mind, two he was fighting ghosts or three, these guys could change their molecular density allowing solid objects or active energy to pass right through them.

"I don't who you are, what you are or where you're from but you can forget it. I'm not going anywhere!" He replied with a snarl. These phantoms drifted around together in a tight circle, whispering sharply to one another.

"It resists."

"As expected."

"Initiate subjugation plan alpha." Without warning they swept forward like shadows disappearing across a field during sunset. It was like fighting the very darkness itself, Shadow's kicks, punches and energy attack just didn't have any effect, yet they were able to hurt him. Their plan was obviously clear, these constant attack were meant to simply tire him out. Apparently, they did not want him damaged. What annoyed Shadow was that he could tell these…things weren't very strong physically speaking, their blows hardly left any damage. What they relied on was their immunity to his attacks, using that to wear him down.

Eventually, he managed to gain control of this brawl and was narrowly avoiding the nearly invisible swipes using his in-human agility. There was timing involving in all this, these things could turn themselves solid and punch-able but only when they went for an attack. With this in mind, Shadow waited for an opening. They were rare, and when they came they passed too quickly for him to use them to his advantage, but still he waited. He kept his eyes on one of them, waiting patiently for it's time to swing. As it came forward with several others for an attack, Shadow spun around in mid air and fired a chaos Spear directly into the chest it's chest as it raised a arm to strike him. Proving his theory correct,, his attack struck him in full force and the attacker was throw by the sheer magnitude over the ground, landing with a loud thud against the desert sand. The others, seeing this display, quickly hovered backwards as their injured companion pulled himself up with a great deal of effort. His cloak and clothes underneath had been burned away on his chest, revealed a tattoo on his skin. A Chinese dragon with it's entire length wrapped around the chest, it's open mouth towered the neck.

"Unexpected skill level." One of them said.

"Even better than what we hoped for, a perfect vessel." Another replied, barley gesturing to the other one.

"Not now. It is now apparent that we need additional resources for risk free capture."

Shadow took a step forward, narrowing his eyes, fists clenched at his sides.

"Alright, enough." He said sharply, walking toward them, his fingers snapping open, the beginnings of a chaos spear beginning to form between them. "Now I want answers, who are you people and what do you want with me?" They ignored him as the downed phantom shakily began to hover with them, that dragon tattoo still striking out as an important detail.

"Abort Mission." He snapped, almost angrily, a change from it's emotionless droning before.

"Agreed." They others said together and like darkness again they simply vanished, one minute there and the next gone. Shadow stood there staring in confusion at the one who remains, the one who he'd injured. He couldn't see the face behind that cloak, but he could tell the thing was sneering at him.

"Enjoy the reprieve Hedgehog, I assure you it was be brief." With that, like those before him he vanished and Shadow was left alone with questions that were so bizarre he didn't want to hear the answers.

Abandoning their house after the pier gave way and it fell into the river, Chaotix set up shop inside a small, two one-roomed apartment in the downtown district, which was far better accommodation considering their financial situation. With the Chaotix logo painted on the glass of the door and advertising posters placed in police stations throughout the state, business was expected to boom.

"I'm bored." Charmee said out load, lying face down on Vector's desk, his wings slowing down to the swing of the metronome that stood next to a cup with pencils sticking out of it. There hadn't been a single case for over a month. As usual, Vector was on cloud nine, listening to the latest tunes through his headphones, lying back in his chair, nodding his head to the beat. His tail tapping the floor. Their office was small, consisted of a single wooden desk and a ceiling fan, a drawn blind blocked out a window of the right hand side of the room. The wall on the far side with bulletin boards placed on it, wanted posters taken from the police station they'd visited stapled up there. Apart from that and a side room consisting of two beds and a hammock, this was their home. It was, for the moment, all they could afford.

"Well you can help me hand out more ads." Espio dryly announced, coming out of the spare bed room, carrying a pile of papers. Vector had wanted to make up a new policy slogan for them but Espio had forbidden him from so much as saying the (P) word in casual conversation. Charmee looked his way with a bored expression.

"I'll never be that bored." He said and went back to timing his wing beats with the metronome. Espio growled at him.

Without warning there was a sudden knock a the door, it was a relatively quiet knock but somehow Vector managed and he shot an eye open. A dark silhouette was standing just outside, which registered to them simply as a potential customer. Vector quickly turned off his music and sat upright, nearly knocking a ink pot off the desk, an un-natural alertness on his face.

"Don't just sit there, we have money to earn here!" He snapped at Espio suddenly seeing that neither of his partners were moving, grabbed a pen and paper and pretended to look like he was writing something important as Charmee went to open the door. Espio looked down at the pile of paper in his arms, turned, tossed it back through the doorway into the side room and shut the door. Vector looked up favourable, expecting to see some wealthy couple in need of service, instead he got Chris and Amy standing there with a surprised look on their faces to see them so alert. He groaned and slapped the end of his snout. "Oh it's just you. Stand down boys, false alarm."

"Nice to see you to." Chris said dryly as the Chaotix members slumped down, looking as bored as they had a few minutes ago. Amy however wasn't in the mood for small talk.

"We need information guys and we can pay you for your services." Vector shot right back up from his slouch in his famous (Dollars signs in the eyes) pose.

"Well that's better! What's the problem?" It took some time for Chris and Amy to jointly relay to them the story, everything that had happened during Tails' kidnapping and how Sonic was already on his way to meet with his abductor as he requested. Vector just sat there listening with Espio and Charmee at his side. But finally when they got around to describing the kidnapper, the descriptions were obviously painfully familiar to the Chaotix. First shock crossed their faces, then confusion and finally near unrivalled anger. Whatever was on their minds now, money was far from it.

"Fang!" Espio snarled through clenched teeth, visibly shaking in rage. Chris hesitated, not sure answer.

"Yeah, that's what he called himself anyway." He did anyway. Amy scanned Chaotix briefly, noting down the reactions.

"I take it, you know this guy." None of them said anything, they just stayed there, staring angrily into air. "Please, we need to know as much about this guy as we can." Vector looked down at her, in his eyes burned pain, rage and loss.

"Yeah, we know him." He said with a sneer and then thumped the table in front of him angrily, knocking his cup off the edge, the coffee staining the carpet. "It's because of that backstabbing bastard that Mighty is dead." Amy and Chris blinked and gave each other a glance as Vector calmed himself down and sat back down, sighing out load. "We didn't know as Fang, his real name is Nack the Weasel. Back in the day Chaotix had five members, Espio, Myself, Charmee and two others. One was a super strong armadillo by the name of Mighty and the other was a weapons expert called Nack. We'd been through thick and thin together, we trusted each other with our lives. I suppose Nack didn't share all that, looking back now I believe he was more interested in reaping the profits of a job rather than doing a decent job of it.

We'd been on the trail of a nefarious crime lord by the name of Davious for some time when it happened."

A younger Vector glanced out from behind the old warehouse on the docks, the faint moonlight from above filtering down onto the water below. Everything was quiet, not a soul to be seen anywhere. It hadn't been long after the five thousand reward was put on the head of one of the most notorious' crime boss' in the Metropalis city area that Chaotix were on his trail. A tip off had lead them to this abandoned warehouse in the most derelict part of the city, and so far, so good.

"Ok." The Crocodile said quietly, gesturing to his four team mates. Espio the Chameleon, who back then was still a ninja in training, with a white band tied around his arm to show it. Charmee hovered as usual over Vector's shoulder, acting as their reconnaissance man. Another member was an armadillo, with black fur and segmented plates of red armour along his back, two long yellow ears sticking out the sides of his head. He was by fat the strongest member of Chaotix, with strength rivalling that of any Mobian's. Their final member was a purple weasel, an explosives and weapons expert. He'd helped them disarm countless bombs in the past and was a trusted member of their crew. He was Nack the Weasel, a renegade sort brought up in the most run down area of Metropolis city. "It looks quiet out there." Vector added, turning back to them. Davious had been on the run for some time now and the reward on his head was enormous, attracting bounty hunters from across the region. With such determined completion, Vector was desperate to catch Davious alive before someone else did.

"It's quiet." Mighty commented, his voice the deepest of the group despite being the youngest excusing Chamee. "Too quiet." he added, looking past Vector toward the large doors at the front of the warehouse.

"You've been dying to say that since we set out haven't you?" Espio asked with a grin, slapping him on the back.

"Why don't I go first to check it out." Nack asked, stepping out of the shadows, crushing some loose head fur out of his eyes. "I know we normally use Charmee for recon and stuff, but truth be told..." He added, giving the bee a smug grin. "The kid can't handle himself if things get nasty, and it's likely to in there." Charmee blew air out of his nose angrily, his arms straight by his sides.

"I can too!" He said sulking.

"Sorry, but he's right." Espio put in, before giving Nack a grin. "Ok, but don't let anyone see you. Call us if it's all clear." The weasel gave him a thumbs up, before slowly edging his way across the way toward the warehouse doors which were ajar. Vector watched the weasel hesitate at the doors only for a moment, before slipping inside. For a few moments they waited in silence, half expecting to hear screams and shot being fired, instead the silenced endured. Then, Nack stuck his head out, smiling at them.

"Ok, all clear." He called, before disappearing again. Trusting their team mate's judgement, they quickly followed.

"I hope Nack knows what he's doing in there." Mighty commented, reaching for the doors and pushing them open, the metal giving off a reluctant groan and then a loud clank as it clicked into place, leaving the entrance wide open. That's when it happened, blaring lights flipped on and suddenly Chaotix found themselves up in front of a line of Mobians each armed with Rifle. Before they could retreat, some more of these people quickly cut off their escape route from outside, leaving them trapped in a hopeless situation.

"Nack, how could you miss these goons?!" Vector blared, but noticed the Weasel was standing some distance away with his back to them, being ignored by their aggressors. Nack began to laugh softly.

"Oh no Vector, I didn't miss them. I knew they were there alright." He turned to give his team mates a glare, his eyes were filled with a sadistic humour they had never seen in him before, like he had changed his personality completely. "It's just you they're after, not me." Chaotix simply stared at him in confusion. Realization suddenly hit Mighty's face and anger flooded into his features, his fists clenched and eyes narrowed, every part of him burning with hatred.

"Nack, you double crossing…"

"Don't be so hard on your comrade." Announced a voice from the darkness and out of the shadows from behind the spotlights that blared on Chaotix strode a tall mobian Lion, his mane cut sort and he was dressed in a fine sharkskin suit. This was Davious, the mobian they'd been chasing. "His price was extremely high."

"Hey, I have expensive tastes." Nack said lightly with a sadistic smile. "Sorry, really I am. But you know, you don't say no to that much cash."

"But that wasn't the worst of it." Vector continued, sighing out load. He paused, almost reluctantly to continue. "Mighty tried to provide us with a distraction to escape and….." There was a solemn silence, the crocodiles mouth hung open in mid sentence. In his minds ear he could still see the armadillos body sway in mid air as the noise from the shot still hung in the air and then topple backwards, striking the floor with a sickening loud thud, the screams of Espio and Charmee ringing in his ears. Nack smirking at them, his own fingers wrapped around the trigger

"I'm sorry." Amy began, looking down at her shoes, trying not to meet his sorrowful gaze.

"Davious eventually got caught by the cops, but Nack escaped. After that, he changed his name to Fang the Sniper." Vector continued, regaining some composure. "Became a profession assassin, he's been at the top of our hit list for years." He pointed up toward a wanted poster on the boards behind him. The Weasels face stared back down at them with a sneer. "Kidnapping sounds like something he'd do, but if it's Sonic you say he wanted to go somewhere it seems to suggest his real target is your blue friend." Chris nodded with a loud groan.

"That's what we tried to tell him, but…he's Sonic. He wouldn't listen."

"He never listens." Amy added dryly. Vector sighed out load, trying to force all the nasty memories away from him. "He's already heading off to that meeting place to see if he can catch Tails' kidnappers off guard."

"Espio, would you…" Vector blinked, suddenly noting that the chameleon had vanished completely. "Espio?"

A katana in one hand and a Shuriken in the other, Espio leapt from roof top to roof top. Rage, unparalleled, burning within him. He'd been waiting years for this chance, finally he knew where that backstabbing weasel was going to be. Despite their manner, Chaotix did have a code of conduct. They never killed their targets, never. Well, getting thrown out of the gang was going to be worth this. He briefly looked down at the thin, long blade in his hand. He didn't care what morals went out the window with this act, before this day was done, this same sword would have Nack's blood smeared on it.

"I'm coming for you…" He growled through gritted teeth.

Flip Card1:

Name: Espio

Species: Chameleon

Age: 16

Sex: male

Job description: Professional Ninja, second member of the bounty hunting, detective organisation; Chaotix