"Same again?" Sonic asked once they were standing on the rooftop of the apartment block. He pulled open a doorway in a small structure to reveal a set of stairs leading down.

"Through the front door didn't work that well last time," Knuckles pointed out.

Sonic shrugged and grinned. "Practice makes perfect. Coming?"

"I didn't think I had a choice."

Instead of answering Sonic started down the stairs three at a time.

They emerged in a drab corridor. It was currently deserted, probably due to the early hour. Sonic read the number on the first door.

"This floor I think. Must be further along."

Eventually they located the correct door and Sonic banged loudly on it.

Knuckles rolled his eyes. "Subtle."

There was no answer from the apartment.

"How inconsiderate." Knuckles leaned against the wall to wait. "It looks as though he hasn't waited around to be rescued."

"Or they got here already," Sonic said. "I'm going in."

He didn't wait for Knuckles' response before letting fly with a spindash at the door.

The first thing he noticed as he hurtled in was the officer from the newspaper photos standing in the middle of the room. The second was the instantly recognisable sound of weapons being readied. It made no difference that the type of weapon was unfamiliar, the situation was all too much so. He looked from the officer to the soldiers now standing either side of him.

"Well Knux, I guess you were right--he really isn't interested in being rescued." Sonic looked around. "Knuckles?"

"Freeze!" one of the soldiers ordered. "Get your hands up. Don't make any sudden moves."

"Sudden moves?" Sonic said, grinning as he raised his hands. "All my moves are sudden, pal. If I made any really sudden moves, they'd be so sudden that you--"

The window behind the guards shattered. Several of them turned as Knuckles somersaulted in.

"Sorry," Sonic apologised to one of the few guards who hadn't been distracted. "Time for some sudden moves."

If anything the fight was easier than the one at the magazine. This time they'd come expecting trouble.

Once all the soldiers were unconscious, Sonic scrabbled around in the ruins of the apartment for anything worth using as rope to tie them up. Knuckles moved to guard the door, picking glass shards out of his quills as he went.

"Good of you to join us after all," Sonic said, tying up the last of the soldiers. "But I had it covered."

"I saw," Knuckles said. "Clearly you had them surrounded."

"And out-numbered," Sonic added, smirking. " Out-gunned. Out-witted." He stopped and added in a carefully casual tone. "Thanks anyway though."

Knuckles stared at him for long moments apparently searching for some further sign of mockery, but then jerked his head in a single nod.

"You gonna kill me?" The sudden silence was broken by the officer, who addressed himself to Knuckles. "I didn't do anything to you. I treated you okay, didn't I?"

Knuckles glared at him. "You electrocuted me. You locked me up. You handed me over to those--" Words failed him and he hissed in anger. "You can that 'not doing anything'?"

"What was I supposed to do?" The officer wasn't finished. "I didn't know what you were--you were just some crook in a street fight. Once we were back at the station it was my bosses call not mine. You gonna chase him down too?"

The similarity to Sonic's earlier remarks made Knuckles cast a sharp glance in his direction. Sonic raised his hands innocently, and intervened.

"Knuckles." Sonic interrupted. "This isn't what we're here for. Although," he turned. "I have to wonder, if you meant so well, why those guys were here waiting for us."

The man clammed up.

"Look, we're not here to hurt anyone," Sonic said, "What's your name?"

"Ramo," the man said, still watching Knuckles warily. "Sam Ramo."

Sonic had to forgive him his caution. Knuckles was pacing, somewhat lopsidedly, and looked as though he'd like nothing better than to prove Sonic a liar and starting doling out serious injuries all round.

"Knuckles," Sonic said with exaggerated patience. "Tell the nice policeman we're not going to hurt anyone."

Knuckles stopped. "Sonic isn't going to hurt anyone."

"Knuckles!"

The echidna curled his lip. "And neither am I."

Ramo looked understandably unconvinced, but he did move towards the sofa and sit down, though without taking his eyes off Knuckles.

"They said you'd come back. They said you'd try to kill me, that you'd already attacked someone else who found out about you."

"They're liars," Knuckles snarled. "I don't suppose they said--"

Ramo raised his voice to finish over Knuckles' indignation. "They said you were known criminals on your world!"

Sonic gave a bark of laughter. "Well that depends on your point of view."

Knuckles scowled at the levity. "I don't expect they told you where they came by that piece of fiction?" He turned his glare on Sonic. "Or occurred to you to wonder?"

Sonic gave an unhurried shrug. "Unless your general is feeling creative, only one person it could be isn't there?"

"Robotnik."

"Didn't I say he'd turn up sooner or later?"

"And he's working with these humans already." Knuckles said. "Are you still going to tell me they're not all that bad--it's not their fault?"

"Robotnik's a liar! And he's good at playing the nice guy when he's looking for allies." Sonic paused. He knew was going to get himself in deep water again, but he needed Knuckles' cooperation so he pressed on. "You ought to remember that."

Knuckles physically flinched.

"You go too far, hedgehog."

"I'm not going out of my way to insult you, Knuckles," Sonic snapped. "But you were wrong about me then. You can be wrong about these people now. And they can be wrong about Robotnik."

Knuckles face was expressionless again.

"I am here, hedgehog. I am doing what you have asked me. Do not presume to tell me how to feel about it."

Soinc sighed. "Fine." He returned his attention to the more immediate problem and bounded over to one of the soldiers whow as starting to stir.

"Hey you, what's your boss up to huh?"

The man blinked groggily at him. "Simmons, sergeant, serial number one six--"

Sonic cut him off. "Never mind. We'll go and find out for ourselves shall we?"

He turned to Ramo. "Can you get out of town for now? I really don't think these guys had your best interests at heart y'know."

Ramo looked nervously around the ruin of his apartment. "I think you could be right," he said.

Knuckles watched Sonic foraging through the contents of Ramo's kitchen. The man himself had hastily packed a bag and left, a good half an hour ago.

"Why are we still here?" Knuckles demanded. "You realise they're bound to send more soldiers?"

"Not yet," Sonic said. "They don't know they've lost the last lot do they? How long do you reckon they thought it was going to take before we turned up? They won't even be looking yet."

Knuckles considered that a huge, unwarranted assumption, and said so.

Sonic shrugged and bit into a thick sandwich. "I didn't stay I was planning to set up a holiday home here. But even assuming Robotnik is at Whitman's base, that's hundreds of miles away and dinner was too long ago."

Treacherously, Knuckles' stomach rumbled in agreement.

Sonic mercifully either didn't notice or decided to ignore it. Instead he glanced upwards.

"I wonder if this lot had a helicopter too."

Knuckles had found some cereal in a cupboard and was picking half heartedly at it. "We'd have seen it on the roof. Do you even know how to fly one anyway?"

"I can fly the Tornado," Sonic said.

"That's not the same thing."

Sonic shoved the last of his sandwich in his mouth and chewed thoughtfully.

"No," he said eventually. "But it gives me an idea."

---End Part 10---