"I look ridiculous." Knuckles spotted Chris' attempts not to giggle and scowled.
"Yep." Sonic agreed with complete unconcern. "We both look ridiculous. Better ridiculous than shot on sight."
They were both clad in nondescript human clothes, complete with hooded jackets. It wasn't much of a disguise. One good look from the front would be enough to give them away, but it might ward off a couple of casual glances and add a small extra margin of stealth.
Chuck was going to drop them off in the right neighbourhood but they hardly wanted to stand around in plain sight.
He'd offered to take them right to the door, but they'd all agreed it was better if he, Chris and Terry remained unconnected with them as far as possible. Sonic didn't want to put them in danger, and Knuckles, more pragmatically, didn't want to lose their bolthole. In fact it was that argument which finally swayed the three humans who had all been protesting that they wanted to help in spite of any danger.
"Shall we move?" Sonic gestured at the door. Knuckles grumbled something more about the outfits but crossed the room to join him.
It took them a good hour to get from the car to the alleyway which housed the seedy looking offices of the magazine. They'd moved through the shadows along the rooftops and now Knuckles clung to the wall a dozen yards up from the door.
Humans didn't look up much, he realised. Maybe it came from not having any native flying species. Or at least, not any intelligent ones. They also seemed to be sufficiently inured to their technology that aircraft overhead were also ignored. He made a mental note that these were useful things to know.
Right now it was more than useful. Knuckles held his breath trying to remain silent. He didn't think the 'not looking up' characteristic would be enough to prevent someone investigating a noise from above their head. He felt Sonic shift and wished he could shout at him to keep still. They could probably easily subdue the small group who both looked and--even from this distance--smelled drunk, but it might rouse others. Draw attention. All things they didn't need.
The group moved on and Knuckles exhaled. He watched them out of sight then resumed the climb down into the alleyway. He dropped back to the pavement and Sonic let go. They stood in front of the nondescript door and Knuckles' eyes flicked to the number.
"Knock knock, who's there," Sonic sang out.
Knuckles glanced at him irritably and jabbed a finger sharply at the security camera mounted at the top of the jamb.
"Whoever's there already knows we're here." He drew back a fist and delivered a hammerlike blow to the door, and was through it even as it buckled, heedless of whether Sonic followed or not.
He screwed up his eyes against the light and his ears were assailed by the screaming of an alarm and the jabbering of a slender human who was backing away rapidly, quite evidently terrified. Knuckles stalked forward, following him until the human's knees hit a piece of furniture and he went over backwards.
Knuckles kicked the low table aside and in that second caught movement from the corner of his eye. It was a second too late and blackness exploded behind his eyes.
He woke to the muffled sounds of a conversation. An unfamiliar, mildly reproachful voice was saying, "It's not like I don't appreciate the rescue, Frankie, but you couldn't have managed it without bashing his brains out?"
"Yeah, well in case you hadn't noticed, Lee, his pal there didn't have to flatten me either."
"Excuse me?" Sonic's voice this time. "You had just whacked my friend there over the head with a bat. What'd you expect--a bunch of flowers?"
Knuckles opened his eyes, to find himself lying on a long couch. Sonic was sitting at the other end of it between him and the thin human. The other human, the one who had presumably attacked him was sitting in a chair across from the righted table, holding a bag of ice to the back of his head.
"This is becoming a habit, Sonic." Knuckles growled. "Would you care to explain?"
"Remember how we discussed not beating seven shades out of people before finding out whether they're enemies or not?" Sonic said in a mock-chiding tone. "Turns out you're not the only one who could take it to heart."
Knuckles was not amused. "Where's your doctor?" he demanded of the humans.
"We don't know," Lee, the thin one, said. "He never gave us an address. He was afraid the military would come after him."
"They'll have to get in line!"
Sonic interrupted before Knuckles could elaborate. "How did you get the interview then?"
"We--" Lee started then cut short at a sharp glance from Frankie across the table.
Knuckles looked between the two humans trying to figure out what was going on.
"You haven't done it yet!" Sonic said suddenly. "Have you?"
Lee looked miserable. Knuckles pushed himself up off the couch. "Answer him."
"No," he admitted. "He's supposed to come here. He didn't half take some convincing."
Frankie groaned.
"Good." Knuckles sat back. "We'll all follow Sonic's example and make friends while we wait shall we?"
In defiance of the oddness of the situation, Lee had made drinks. Sonic had drunk three hot chocolates on the trot, smacking his lips loudly in appreciation. Knuckles suspected he was doing it just to annoy him. At least they had both been able to shed the ludicrous looking disguises now they were safely inside.
Frankie clattered his spoon against the cup, nervously, then looked at Knuckles.
"So, uh--I don't suppose you want to give us your side of the story, for the mag?"
Knuckles stared at him, momentarily incredulous.
"Yes, all right" he snapped. "Shall I start with the bit where I was electrocuted and shot or skip straight to the part where your interviewee and his friends had me strapped to a table in a laboratory?"
In as far as Knuckles could read human expressions, which wasn't well, Frankie looked downcast by this retort.
"Yeah, Dr Fielding said something like that happened."
"Military," Lee snorted. "Only way they know to handle anything. We've been saying it for years."
Knuckles caught Sonic's eye. In their scouring of the fringe press they'd read a number of the things that these two had 'been saying for years', and most of it was a lot more outlandish. Alien spaceships kidnapping people, secret government plots, conspiracy theories, the lot. Knuckles sincerely doubted anyone would take this latest any more seriously.
"When is this Fielding supposed to turn up?" Knuckles returned to the main point.
"Any time now," Lee assured him. "When the door went, we thought at first it was him, 'til we saw the camera feed." He shifted and grimaced. "Look you're not going to --do-- anything to him are you? I mean--"
"We just want to talk to him," Sonic cut in.
Knuckles raised his eyebrows at the 'we' but didn't correct it. He got up and paced around the room with slow, measured strides, ignoring the twinge in his ribs from the climb and the steady throbbing from his foot.
"So much for protecting our sources," Frankie muttered.
The harsh squawk of the doorbell made everyone turn.
"Take it easy, Knuckles," Sonic came to his feet, a warning tone in his voice.
"I gave you my word, hedgehog, you don't need to interfere." Knuckles stalked to the door without giving Sonic a glance. He flung it open, grabbed the arm of the man waiting there and hauled him inside.
"Have a seat." He shoved Fielding roughly towards one of the armchairs, where he collapsed, wide-eyed. Then he turned to Sonic and the other two humans. "Get out. This is no one else's business."
Sonic hesitated and for a moment Knuckles thought he would refuse. He gritted his teeth. He couldn't do this with spectators. It was humiliating enough that he had to hear it himself. That he couldn't even remember and had to ask.
Good at that though aren't you? a tiny, treacherous corner of his mind put in. Forgetting things you can't handle. Got that one down to a fine art.
He forced himself to meet Sonic's eyes.
"Please," he ground out. Sonic looked slightly startled at that then nodded and waved his hands at the two humans still standing.
"Okay, you two, shift." He looked back at Knuckles. "We'll be in the next room."
Knuckles nodded curtly, hearing the unspoken support.
He stepped back so he was directly in front of the seated Fielding. The man quailed.
"What do you want?"
Knuckles snorted. "To find the scum that brought us here and get home. But short term, what I want from you is to find out how much Whitman knows."
Knuckles paused then forced the words out. "How much I told him."
"Oh," Fielding swallowed. "Most of it didn't make any sense anyway..."
"I don't care. Tell me."
"Well, Whitman already knew about--" Fielding's eyes flicked to the door that Sonic had just exited thorough. "I don't think you told us anything new, except to call him by name. It took us a little while to figure that 'Sonic' was a name--you weren't very coherent."
Fielding plaited his fingers in his lap and didn't look up, so Knuckles' curled lip went unseen.
"He asked about how you got here. You said it was an accident, an experiment. He asked what type of experiment but you kept saying you didn't know. He didn't believe you, he asked me about drugs. I said I didn't know enough about your body chemistry, that it would be dangerous." Fielding looked up briefly. "He didn't care. I thought about-- But-- I used--"
Fielding's rapid recitation stumbled and he stared at his hands.
"I don't care what you thought! Or what you used," Knuckles snapped. "Just tell me what he found out."
"You talked about emeralds," Fielding said, talking quickly again. "You said it shouldn't have worked. Something about them being unstable. It didn't make sense. Whitman kept coming back to it. What did gemstones have to do with anything? We thought it must be a bad reaction to the drug, that you were hallucinating. He asked where it was you'd come from and you started on about an island. Um."
Fielding looked abashed. "An island that floated in the sky you said. He tried to ask the name of your planet, but that's all you'd talk about was this island. He gave up then, started yelling at me that he didn't have time to listen to nonsense. But I'd warned him I didn't know if the drug would work. He told me to find something that would. Then he left. It was that night your friend turned up."
"That's it?" Knuckles said, wary of the relief that threatened to sweep over him. "That's all of it?"
Fielding nodded. "There's something else you should know though. There's--"
The door burst open.
--End part 7---