Sitting around a table in the small bakery they had come to in order to plan their heist, the trio were discussing how to acquire memberships to make their way into the casino. They had all been talking for around ten minutes (Teddy knew how much time had passed because he had been checking his watch the entire time as a way to calm his nerves), but all the ideas that had been formulated were quickly shot down, leaving them stuck without any clue on how to actually complete their mission
"We're wasting time trying to get these memberships," Luna stated. "There's got to be other entrances to that place than the front door, we can just go through there"
"Like a casino would leave any of it's entrances unguarded," Kit remarked without looking up from the manga she was reading
"Well, why don't you make an entrance with that sword of yours?" Luna asked, pointing to Kit's hilted sword
"Ah yes, why don't I cut a hole in the ceiling or wall. It's not like that would draw any attention to us"
"If you're so smart, than why don't you actually come up with an idea instead of reading that stupid book?"
"I am thinking, I'm just reading this as well. I'm capable of multitasking"
While Luna looked angrily at Kit, Teddy sat uncomfortably in his seat, tapping his mechanical fingers on the table and trying to think of an idea of his own. He hated it when people fought, especially his teammates, but the bakery was small and he didn't plan on leaving it, so he just had to sit there for now. Everybody continued to silently think of ideas for a while, until Kit suddenly leapt up from her chair, looking closely at the page her book was on with her hands planted on the table
"No way!" Kit exclaimed
"What is it?" Teddy asked
"This part of the book has an autograph from one of the artists!" Kit explained, pointing to a signature written on an extras page in-between two chapters
"Oh, that's awesome! Can I see?" The bakery employee asked from behind the display counter
"Uh, sure," Kit answered, walking over to the counter while still holding the book open to the signed page
Once Kit had gotten close enough to the employee, they began observing the signature for themselves, but after a few seconds, their look of excitement turned to disappointment
"I hate to be the one to tell you this, but that doesn't look like a real autograph, I'm pretty sure it's a forgery," The employee explained
"What? Aw man," Kit said as she sadly closed the book shut
With her excitement over getting an autographed copy of her favorite manga crushed, Kit dejectedly walked back over to the table she was at, until an idea suddenly popped into her head
"Wait a minute, forgery!" Kit thought out loud in the middle of the store before running back over to the table
"We can get forged memberships for the casino," Kit told Luna and Teddy
"How are we going to get forgeries, though?" Teddy asked. "I don't think any of us could make them"
"No, we're going to get someone else to do it for us, a professional," Kit explained
"Do you know any professional forgers?" Luna inquired
"Well, no, but it can't be that hard to find one," Kit brushed off the question. "Plus, I did think of a plan, just like you told me to!"
Luna groaned at the fact that Kit was actually right, before reluctantly getting up from her chair to join her and Teddy in leaving the bakery
"Fine, I guess we'll try to find a forger," Luna agreed
"Alright, let's get started!"
With a plan somewhat formed, the trio walked out of the bakery and set off to find a forger to make them memberships to the casino. At first they all walked back through the bakery street, which seemed completely normal since it was a rather small area, but then Luna and Teddy noticed that they were also heading back down the street that had the pawn shop on it as well. While Luna was somewhat concerned by the fact that Kit seemed to just be moving backwards, Teddy was confident that her plan would work
"So, where do you think we can find a forger at?" Teddy asked after he had been walking for a few minutes
"We just have to head to a shady part of the city and I'm sure we'll find one eventually," Kit revealed her thinking process
"That makes sense," Teddy replied. "We should be careful when we do end up there, though"
"Yeah, don't worry, I'll know how to stay safe once we end up there," Kit reassured
"I sure hope so," Luna expressed, not looking forward to the trouble she predicted Kit was going to cause
For the first roughly ten minutes of walking, Kit continued to retrace her steps through the city, with Luna and Teddy following closely. Going back through the pawn shop's street full of cheap neon signs, they all eventually ended up in the overgrown part of the city, filled with both the plants in the small park and the ones that had adapted to the harash environment and grew on the buildings
"Oh hey, it's this place again!" Teddy noted, smiling at the sight of all of the flourishing plants
"Yep, although we're not going to be staying here for long," Kit informed Teddy as she scoped out the area around her
"Where are we going to, then?" Teddy asked
"Well, I don't exactly know where we're going, but I came back here because this area was all overgrown," She began explaining. "Because it's overgrown, this area is probably less taken care of and shadier, so it should be easier for us to find a forger here"
While Teddy didn't really agree with the fact that the area having plants made it shady, he did see Kit's logic in, and it did seem like she knew what she was doing so far. After scanning her surroundings for a bit, Kit saw a rather narrow space between two nearby buildings, and began walking over to it. After everybody had made their way through the narrow alley in a single file line, they all saw a part of the city that was much more decrepit looking than the parts they had been in before
"Hey, it looks like my guess was dead on!" Kit remarked upon seeing the area around her. "Now, we just have to find someone here and we'll be able to get those forged memberships in no time"
Everybody was pretty glad that Kit's plan had been working so far, but Teddy felt rather uncomfortable with the place he had just entered, as it immediately felt uncomfortable and hostile. Parts of walls were crumbled, windows were broken leaving only jagged remains, and there were boards applied to some of the entrances to buildings. There were still lots of plants growing through the concrete, but these plants weren't the same ones that he had seen before, these plants were overgrown weeds that had sprouted through years of neglect
"Come on, you've been through worse before," Teddy thought to himself. "You made it through that horrible hallway and lived, you can make it through an old part of the city"
"Hey, keep moving," Luna interrupted Teddy's reassurances. "I thought you were on board with this plan"
"I am," Teddy answered back, quickly catching up to Luna and Kit
While walking around the decayed section of the city, Kit looked all around for anyone who could potentially be useful, making sure to check everywhere that was visible to her. Teddy did the same at first, but he found himself looking at his watch more and more over time instead of where he was supposed to be searching. He told himself it was because he wanted to measure how long the search was taking, but that fell apart when all he was doing was looking at the slowly ticking watch as he walked around
Predictably, not looking where he was walking at all ended up causing Teddy to walk right into a wall, specifically a brick one. Because his arm was further out then the rest of him, he didn't hit his head against the wall, but his arm still got hurt, and he got rather surprised by the impact
"Did you just walk into a wall?" Luna asked in a genuine but disappointed tone
"Yes," Teddy reluctantly answered
"Well, pay attention so we can actually find a forger and get this over with," Luna told Teddy, having gotten over her disbelief about him walking into the wall
Embarrassed about his collision with the wall, Teddy kept his arm with the watch on it to the side, and began actually looking around the area. After a few seconds of seeing nothing but the same run down buildings he had seen when he first entered, he saw a figure in the corner of his eye, quickly turning around to try and get a better look at it. However, when he turned around, he didn't see anyone there
"Hey, there was someone there!" Teddy pointed out
"I don't see anyone," Luna stated after looking around
"I'm sure there's someone here," He insisted
"Well, if there really is somebody around here, then we just all have to look in different directions and one of us is bound to see whoever is here," Kit suggested
"Oh yeah, that sounds like a good idea," Teddy agreed
Luna didn't turn around from where she was facing, but she still kept looking around the area facing her, while Kit and Teddy turned around to face other directions. Despite almost every single part of the area being seen between the three of them, the trio still didn't see the figure that Teddy had seen before even as they were reaching a dead end
"There's nobody here," Luna said after she'd gotten close to a wall blocking her from going any further
"Maybe you're right," Teddy started to doubt himself
After standing around for a few seconds, making sure the area was empty, Teddy decided to once again calm himself down now that he didn't have any more searching to do for the time being (and he wasn't moving). However, when he tried to look at his watch to check the time, he saw nothing but the lime fur of his arm where his watch was just minutes ago
"Huh? Hey, my watch is missing!" Teddy exclaimed
"It is?" Kit asked surprisedly
"Yeah," He confirmed
"Well, we should probably try to find it"
Kit and Teddy both looked at the cracked concrete ground around them trying to see if the watch had fallen off, but after that gave no results, Teddy quickly realized that it had obviously been stolen somehow. While Kit still wasn't able to find the watch, once she turned around to look at an area adjacent to the one she was in, she finally saw someone else standing nearby
"Hey, there's someone over there!" Kit pointed out, already sprinting towards the Mobian she had spotted
Luna and Teddy quickly followed after Kit as she ran over to who she had spotted, who seemed unbothered by the three rushing towards them, allowing the trio to get close enough to talk
"What brings you here?" The random Mobian asked
"We're here because we need to find a forger," Kit explained. "But, my friend's watch also went missing, would you happen to know anything about that?"
"Well, I might know about those things," The random inhabitant of the alley responded. "But, how do I know I can trust all of you?"
"Hmm... Well, I have rings, so I'm willing to pay for the forgery," Kit answered. "How about that?"
The presumed underworld connection took a few seconds to consider the offer Kit had given him, before smiling and seemingly accepting the deal
"Ok, I guess I'll tell you how to get your forgeries," The connection began speaking. "Head to the big white office building, the one that runs an accounting company, and tell 'em you need some help with the payroll for your blacksmithing business. From there, just say what you want, and you're golden"
"We tell them we run a blacksmithing business, to get them to make forgeries," Luna realized, sounding unimpressed
"Hey, it's not just a fun pun! You know how many blacksmithing businesses there actually are in this city?" The connection asked. "Zero! That way, we make sure that nobody who really wants accounting get any forgeries and exposes the whole operation"
"Huh, that is actually pretty smart," Kit commented
"Thank you! Anyways, go ahead and go to that building, and you better get there fast so I know you're not ratting us out to anybody," He told the trio. "I'll be keeping your friend's watch as collateral until you arrive there"
While he was saying this, the connection to the forging ring fished Teddy's watch out of his pocket and held it up by one of it's straps, confirming he was the figure from earlier
"Hey, my watch!" Teddy exclaimed upon seeing it being held up
"Uh uh uh, you'll get it back once you get to the building," The connection explained. "Which you should start doing now, because I'm getting really tired of just standing around here"
"Okay, got it," Kit said as she began walking away along with Luna and Teddy
"Heh, never thought I'd relate so much to someone like that," Luna joked, talking about the connection wanting the trio to head to the building
Kit didn't know where the specific building was, but she figured it wouldn't be an issue since the building was most likely tall enough to see above most of the other buildings. However, after the trio had walked around the city for some time, looking at the horizons for the large office building, but it was more difficult to find than they thought due to every other building in the city being a tall skyscraper. Everybody was beginning to get anxious or annoyed, as the connection had told them to get to the building as fast as possible, and their mission would become a lot harder if the connection decided to not allow them to get the forged memberships
"I hope we can get there soon," Teddy said. "It would really suck if I lost my watch, plus we really need those memberships"
"I'm trying to find it as fast as I can," Kit stated. "It can't take much longer to find, it's a giant skyscraper"
While the trio were still looking at the city horizons, trying to find the white skyscraper, a random passerby noticed them struggling to find the location and walked over to them
"Do you need help getting anywhere?" The passerby asked, waiting expectantly for an answer
Standing in front of a trio, there was a pink hedgehog wearing a red and white outfit that seemed to be a fusion of a shirt and a skirt. Inexplicably, she also had a giant hammer holstered on her back, which bewildered all three of them
"Should we ask her for directions?" Teddy hushedly asked the others
"I don't know, we do need to get there fast, but that giant hammer doesn't exactly make her seem trustworthy," Kit stated
"We can find it by ourselves, we don't need to risk everything by taking directions from some random stranger," Luna gave her input
"Ok then," Kit agreed
While the pink hedgehog was still standing where she was before, watching the trio converse among themselves, Kit finally turned around and spoke to her after making up her mind as to what to do
"No, we're good, thanks," Kit responded to the question that was now about a minute ago
"Oh, ok," The passerby acknowledged as she began walking away
With her offer for help politely declined, the hedgehog began walking away, planning to continue on with her day. However, while she was walking away, in the very corner of her field of view she spotted the radar Kit still had with her. More specifically, she noticed the Eggman logo emblazoned on the back of it, causing her to realize that the three strangers she had just offered help to were working for Eggman
"Hey, I just realized something," The hedgehog said as she walked back over to the trio. "I never asked you where you were all going. I've been looking for something to do today, and I figured that I could just tag along to wherever you were going"
"Oh, we're not going anywhere exciting," Kit improvised an excuse. "We're just going to get some, taxes done"
"Well, I have been planning on doing that too," The passerby insisted
"Can't you just do that online?" She tried to deter the hedgehog
"Can't you?"
Kit and the pink hedgehog stared at each other for a few seconds, both of them knowing exactly what the other was trying to do, before the latter finally decided to break the silence
"Okay, we both clearly know what's going on here, let's drop the acts," The hedgehog sighed. "I don't know what Eggman sent you out to do, but you're not going to get a chance to do it with Amy Rose around!"
Now that she had decided to fight instead of trying to subtly take down the trio, Amy pulled out the almost comically large hammer she had on her back earlier, brandishing it as she prepared to launch the first attack. The trio also began similarly preparing, with Kit drawing her sword and Teddy reluctantly charging up an electrical orb in his palm
Up until this point, Luna had almost forgotten that she was still injured; her hand still hurt constantly, but that had been happening for weeks at this point, so she had gotten used to it. However, now that she was going to be in a fight, she suddenly remembered that she wasn't in a proper condition to do so. Luna didn't care about this though, she was going to fight even if she couldn't do it as well as normal, she wasn't going to be useless
With everybody prepared to fight, Amy attacked first by swinging her hammer at the trio, which they managed to move out of the way of. The trio were all glad that they able to do this, since after the hammer impacted with the ground, it cracked the asphalt of the road and created a small crater
Everybody in the trio looked at the impact of the hammer in surprise for a second before Kit decided to fight back by swinging her sword towards Amy, which she blocked with the head of her hammer. The two pushed their weapons against each other for some time, but Amy eventually pushed the sword onto the pavement, causing it to bounce off of the ground before Kit pulled it back to herself
"This is going to be a bit harder than I thought," Kit said in annoyance
"It would be a lot easier if more than one of us attacked at a time," Luna pointed out
"Oh yeah, I guess that would help out," Kit realized
Because Teddy was still rather hesitant to attack another Mobian like him, especially one that was clearly not trying to kill him, Luna was the next one to try and attack Amy. Kit, trying to follow the advice that Luna had just given her, also began running over to attack. Before Luna got to attack at all though, Amy swung her hammer towards her sideways, nearly knocking Luna over. She managed to keep herself standing after getting hit by the attack by blocking it with her arm and digging her feet into the ground, but one thing that Luna had neglected while defending herself was the fact that the arm she was using to defend herself was the one that her injured hand was attached to
For a few seconds that felt like forever, Luna was completely disoriented from what was going on. She could somewhat see what was around her, but she couldn't focus on any of it, all she could focus on was her hand and the pain that was once again coming from it. After some time, she finally snapped back to everything around her, only to see that she had fallen over onto the ground and Kit was struggling to keep Amy's attacks at bay
"I can't do this forever, hurry up and move out of the way!" Kit told Luna as her grip on her sword slowly slipped
Luna did quickly pull herself off the ground, but instead of running to the side, she ran directly towards Amy. Not seeing this, Kit put all of her energy into one sword shove against the hammer, pushing it back to allow an escape, but leaving Amy completely free to attack again after reorienting herself
While this was all happening, Teddy had been standing in the same place since he had initially ran into Amy along with the others, growing more anxious and conflicted the longer he stood there. He felt terrible just standing by and watching while his friends put themselves in danger, but it was hard to bring himself to attack anyone with his arm. However, when he saw an already hurt Luna approaching Amy, who was ready to attack once again, Teddy quickly reacted out of instinct by tossing an electric orb at Amy
After a quick flight through the air, the crackling sphere of electricity collided with the pink hedgehog, losing its form and discharging its current into her. Momentarily stunned by the shock, Amy fell to the ground and dropped her hammer besides her. Teddy continued to stand where he was, but now out of horror instead of deliberating what to do. For Luna and Kit, Amy falling over seemingly came out of nowhere before they quickly realized that Teddy had caused it
"Thanks for helping us out, Teddy," Kit thanked
He didn't give a response to the gratitude he had received, still processing his action. However, Teddy seemed to be the only one concerned with what happened, as immediately after giving thanks to him, Kit began trying to pick Amy's dropped weapon from off of the ground. Unsurprisingly, the hammer was quite heavy, and as a result Kit wasn't able to pick it up before Amy got off from the ground and grabbed it back for herself
"That's my hammer," Amy said in a serious tone as she fixed her grip back onto her reclaimed weapon
"I know that, I was trying to steal it," Kit half-joked
Kit attempted once more to swing her sword at Amy, but the same result as always happened, and she realized that fighting was not going to work if things continued the way it was going. Meanwhile, Luna had just finished recovering from her injuries enough to move around, and was standing nearby Kit
"Change of plans," Kit told the others after quickly stepping away from Amy. "Let's just lose her and get to where we need to go"
"That sounds like a good idea, but how?" Teddy asked, having calmed himself down. "I'm not sure all of us are in good enough condition to run fast enough"
"Just throw another orb, and we'll be able to get away," Kit explained
"I... don't think I can do that," Teddy responded
While Kit and Teddy were conversing, Amy suddenly began swinging at Kit yet again, which she barely managed to roll out of the way of
"You do know I can hear everything you're saying, right?" Amy said, sounding almost insulted. "Wherever you're trying to run away to, you're not getting there"
"I think we are," Kit replied. "We just need to get a headstart"
After saying this to Amy, Kit turned around to Teddy, who she was standing near, and began talking to him as well
"I know you don't really like fighting, but if we keep doing this, then we're all going to get hurt and we're not going to be able to accomplish our mission," Kit whispered
Teddy paused to think about this for a second before talking to Amy, who was only standing where she was instead of fighting was because she had gotten a little tired and was pretty confident that she'd win
"How much did it hurt when I threw that thing of electricity at you?" Teddy asked Amy, who was getting ready to attack him and his friends after catching her breath
"I mean, it really didn't feel good, but I guess I'm fine right now," She replied, sounding puzzled
Not sure why he had asked this, and wanting to finish things, Amy began approaching the injured trio again. However, while she was in the middle of this, Teddy quickly charged up an orb and threw it, causing Amy to once again drop her hammer onto the ground before falling there herself
"Guess I should have seen that coming," She remarked before getting off the ground and picking up her hammer
While Amy was getting up, the trio had all immediately began running after she'd been knocked down, Kit frantically looking all around her for the office building that the connection was still expecting her to arrive at. Teddy was also trying to look for the building, but after a small amount of time he looked behind him to see how far away Amy was, spotting her around twenty feet away from him and the others. This was a bit concerning to him, since he wasn't sure Luna would be able to outrun Amy, and he felt like attacking a third time would just be downright cruel
"You can't outrun me forever," Amy stated as she slowly but surely caught up to Luna, Kit, and Teddy
After having been searching for a while, Kit finally spotted what must have been the building while still running. She nearly shouted out in excitement that she had finally seen the building she had been looking for the whole time, but managed to catch herself to prevent Amy from figuring this out. Instead, Kit informed Luna and Teddy of this by whispering in between breaths, as she was getting quite tired of running at this point
"I found... the building," She said in a hushed tone while breathing heavily
"That's good, how far away is it?" Teddy asked, slightly louder than Kit was talking
"I'll try to make my way towards it, just keep following me," Kit instructed
"We're still being followed, how are we going to get in without being noticed?" Luna pointed out
Being asked this question, Kit frowned and then turned away to try and think of a solution to the large hole in her plan. Fighting directly wasn't an option, and it seemed that the trio would tire out before Amy, so the only real option was to somehow enter the building without Amy figuring out where they had all gone. Kit and the others were still heading closer to the white office building while she was still figuring out how to get in it, but upon seeing the area the building was in, Kit finally got an idea
"I think I have a plan on what to do," Kit told Luna and Teddy as they all drew closer to the forger's office. "It's kind of dangerous, but it's not like we have many other choices"
"What is it?" Teddy asked
"We're going to have to all split up to distract her, then go into the building one by one," She explained
Upon hearing this, Teddy seemed worried by the plan, while Luna just looked annoyed
"Split up? That seems like it'll make things even more dangerous," Teddy stated nervously
"I know, but even all together we can't fight her," Kit justified her plan. "If you think about it, it's actually safer, becuase she can only attack one of us at a time"
"Huh, I guess that makes sense," He agreed
By the time the conversation about the plan had finished, the trio were getting quite close to the office building. The reason Kit had gotten the idea to get the trio to split up once they got close to the office building was because the streets near the office were very narrow and full of alleys that led to different places, making it the perfect place to split up to lose Amy. As they all first stepped foot into the cramped and alley filled streets, Kit began talking to the trio for presumably the last time before they all got inside of the forger's office
"Three... two... one," She counted down, not bothering to speak quietly this time
The moment Kit said one, Luna and Teddy bolted to the left and right, each heading for the nearest alley, while Kit continued to run straight and tried to find a place to turn. This all happened within the span of only a few seconds, which meant that this was quite confusing and surprising for Amy to see
"You've got to be kidding me," She remarked as she kept running down the street, chasing after Kit, as she was the only one who hadn't disappeared from her view yet
At this point, everybody had been running for minutes straight without any break, and while Luna and Teddy didn't have to run as fast due to them being out of sight, Kit still had to keep going if she wanted to not get pummeled by Amy's hammer. Her lungs and legs were burning, and she could feel herself getting closer to collapsing on the ground, but she was going to keep running until that happened
"I can't run anymore... I don't think I'm going to die if I get caught, but stealing that emerald is going to be a lot harder if I get hurt," Kit began thinking to herself. "At least I know that one of them will be able to get the memberships for me anyways"
Meanwhile, Luna was sneaking through the maze-like series of alleyways throughout the city, being relieved that she could walk at a reasonable pace for once. She had run in the opposite direction that the building was in when she first split off from the others, but she was still slowly making her way there. Teddy was the closest to the office building out of everyone, and was making his way there at a good pace, remaining entirely hidden almost the whole time
While Teddy was getting closer to the office building, he passed by a section of the alley that opened up onto the main street. While he was peering through the opening to see if he could cross through it without being noticed, he saw Kit and Amy briefly pass by, and realized that she hadn't gotten a chance to regain her energy yet. Knowing how tired that he was himself before he was able to stop and catch his breath, Teddy decided to run into the street from the alley opening to cause a distraction and allow Kit to slip away
"Hey, I'm over here!" Teddy shouted, standing still near the alley entrance
Hearing this, Amy decided to turn around to where she had heard the noise from, and began running towards Teddy. After standing there for a few more moments to ensure that she would follow him, Teddy began running as well, while Kit immediately slipped into one of the alley entrances and began getting as deep into the maze-like structure as she could
Now that he had Amy chasing him, Teddy immediately realized that he couldn't keep running towards the building like he had before, or else she would find it. Because of this, his only option was to run away from the building, which was counterproductive to what he needed to do. However, Luna and Kit were both making their way to the office already, and Teddy knew the alleys he was running back through, so he was confident that it would end up working out
"Don't any of you ever give up?" Amy asked, sounding exasperated. "Are you the only employees Eggman has right now?"
Teddy didn't give an answer back, both because he was already using all of his breath to run and because Amy's assumption was correct. However, the last part of her sentence was rather interesting. Did she have reason to expect that Eggman would have other minions?
"You know, it's pretty rude to ignore someone when they're talking to you," Amy told Teddy sarcastically. "I've never met an Eggman goon this quiet before, usually they just never shut up"
Even though it shouldn't have come as a surprise to him, Teddy was still quite shocked to when his suspicions that there were other people who worked under Eggman before him and his friends were immediately confirmed by what Amy had said. While he was taking in this fact and the possible repercussions of it, he still continued running because he was being chased, but he wasn't focusing at all due to using all of his focus to process what he had learned. Predictably, this led to Teddy crashing into a brick wall again, this time much harder. His head slammed into the wall instead of his arm, sending him recoiling to the ground painfully, before eventually turning around to see Amy standing in front of him
"There... were others?" Teddy asked while still laying on the ground, not caring about the fact that he was cornered on the ground
"Uhh, yeah," Amy answered, sounding confused. "How would you even become a minion for him without knowing that?"
Teddy wanted to explain how he had ended up working for Eggman, hoping that it would work out this time because he was by himself. Before he could, though, he remembered what Eggman had said earlier. His robots were surrounding the city, and he said they were there specifically to stop him from escaping. Teddy knew that the robots would attack him if he tried to leave, but would they do the same if he explained his situation? Were they inside of the city as well? Could they hear him right now?
"Why do you look so scared? I'm not that intimidating, am I?" Amy joked after noticing his expression
Ignoring Amy's remark, Teddy continued to contemplate the two choices he had for some more time, ultimately deciding that he couldn't take the risk. Having made up his mind, he stood up to try and leave for the forger's office, but was immediately stopped by Amy blocking his path
"Hey, just because we had a little conversation, that doesn't mean I'm going to let you go," She stated
As Teddy continued to try to walk out of the alley to get back to Luna and Kit, Amy kept blocking him from doing so, starting to get irritated the more that it went on
"Please, just let me through," Teddy requested
"Not a chance," Amy replied, her hand slowly drifting towards her hammer
At this point, Teddy had a horrible realization, and began panicking. He knew that Amy wasn't going to let him through, but he had to get to the office building so he could complete his mission, and Luna and Kit were probably getting worried about him. He didn't want his friends to wander back out and put themselves in danger, so he had to leave quickly, or else everyone would have to go through the chase they had been through earlier all again
"I have to do it. I need to get out of here. You know that it won't actually hurt her," Teddy tried to convince himself
Teddy began charging up electricity in the palm of his robotic arm, the sphere slowly forming and growing until it was ready to toss. He continued to stand there for a few seconds, unable to do anything with the crackling orb, until he spoke to Amy one last time in a desperate attempt to not have to use it
"Please," Teddy begged, his voice close to breaking
"I told you, no," Amy answered firmly
Now he truly had no choice. He had to do it. After a few seconds of complete silence, Teddy threw the built up electricity in his arm towards Amy and began sprinting down the now unguarded alleyway, heading for the office building while she laid on the ground incapacitated. As he navigated the alley to reunite with his friends, he couldn't help but think about what he had just done. In fact, it was all he could think about. Teddy tried to clear his head, but no matter how hard he tried, the thoughts remained
While he knew that Amy hadn't actually been injured, he still felt horrible about attacking her because before he did, they were in a relatively peaceful situation. It wasn't like he was being chased and about to be caught or one of his friends was about to be hurt, he electrocuted her because she was blocking his way. He probably could have done something differently, he thought to himself. There must have been some other way that he could've gotten out of there without hurting somebody, but he didn't choose that option
After some time of running down the alley, Teddy realized that Amy had probably gotten up by now. Maybe she knew where he was and was chasing after him, planning to attack him as payback for what he did. He would deserve that if it did happen. But Teddy didn't know whether he really was being chased, so maybe nothing would ever happen. Maybe he would get away with what he did without any repercussions. However, these things were all just potential outcomes. What Teddy knew was going to happen was him arriving at the office, which he was getting very close to
"I think I'm almost there," Teddy spoke to himself. Keeping up the pace that he had been maintaining the whole time, he took the last few turns throughout the labyrinth of bricks, ending up in an open square area. In front of him, there was the building that him and is friends had been looking for the whole time, standing tall into the skies
While the building did look grand, especially because of it's status as the place that would solve the trio's biggest problem, Teddy couldn't take the time to look at it. Amy was no doubt still chasing him, and his friends were waiting for him inside, so he quickly flung open the doors in front of him and walked into the forger's office
"Oh, thank goodness, you made it," Kit stated upon seeing Teddy. "We were about to go out to make sure you were ok"
Teddy was also happy to see Kit and Luna, but he wasn't able to respond due to hyperventilating both from the running he had done and his encounter with Amy
"Hey, are you okay?" Kit asked, now noticing the state that Teddy was in. "You look really upset, what happened out there?"
"Just a... fight," He explained, trying to compose himself
"Oh, ok. You're not hurt, are you?" She questioned
"No"
Behind Kit and Teddy, Luna was sitting at a desk with three chairs pulled up, an older dog Mobian sitting behind said desk. This was presumably the forger, which was to be expected, but something that Teddy did not expect was seeing the connection from earlier sitting in a chair right next to the presumed forger
"Huh? What is he doing here?" Teddy asked upon seeing the Mobian who stole his watch. "I thought he was just some random guy"
"Well, the thing is, people tend to trust reccomendations more when they get them from a seemingly random guy off the street," The forger's assistant explained
"What does stealing my watch have to do with any of that, though?" He questioned
"So people actually have an incentive to come to the building, obviously"
"Can... I get my watch back then?"
Looking rather annoyed, the assistant reluctantly reached his hand into one of his pockets and pulled Teddy's watch out of it, which he walked over to and grabbed before sitting down in one of the available seats. Kit did the same right after, meaning everybody was finally sat down and ready to get what they came here for
"Ok, what can I do for you three?" The forger asked
"We need help with the payroll for our blacksmithing business," Kit requested
"Ah, I was told by my assistant earlier that you would ask for that," He responded. "Anyways, what specifically do you need made?"
"Three forged memberships to the casino"
"There's a few casinos around here, but I'm assuming you're talking about the most popular one, right? The big and lit up one with the sign?"
"Yeah, that one"
"Okay, it'll be a hundred rings for each membership"
Upon hearing how expensive the forged memberships would be, Kit was quite shocked, and rather annoyed as well. She honestly didn't know how many rings she had left, but she knew that it likely wasn't three hundred or more
"Are you kidding me?" Kit exclaimed
"Do you know how much work it takes to make a forgery?" The forger asked. "Plus, the casino is a pretty high class place. I don't know what you're trying to get in there for, but even through me, it isn't cheap to get in there"
"Ugh, fine," Kit reluctantly agreed, pulling out the bag of rings she had on her. She began counting them up as fast as she could, which was still pretty slow, until the connection interrupted her
"There's two hundred and seventy five in there," He interjected
Annoyed by the fact that she was interrupted, and not trusting the connection's money counting to be accurate at all, she dismissed him as trying to scam her
"Why should I trust you to count how much money we have?" Kit interrogated
"I work for this guy, why would I lie about you not having enough money to buy his work?" The connection pointed out
"Oh, yeah..." She realized
Not having enough rings to purchase something that was crucial for their mission was obviously quite stressful to everyone, including Teddy. Since he had his watch back, he decided to look at it. However, the instant he made this decision in his head, he realized something. His watch that he had just gotten back, and he knew exactly how much it was worth. While the watch was nice, Teddy had only gotten it earlier in the day, so he didn't have that much connection to it
"You can have my watch," Teddy told the connection. "I was told it was worth 50 rings"
"Are you sure?" Kit asked. "That was a nice looking watch"
"Well, yeah, but having a nice little accessory isn't nearly as important compared to what I'm giving it up for," He explained. "It was nice to be able to tell the time on it, but I can live without that"
"Alright then," The connection said, grabbing the watch back from Teddy and attaching it to his own wrist
The forger snatched the watch off of his assistant's wrist, both because he was being rude about getting to keep the watch and because he wasn't the one the trio were paying with it. After tucking the watch deep into one of his own pockets, the forger stood up from his chair behind the desk and took the bag of rings from Kit, who was holding it in front of her
"I appreciate you actually paying me in full," He spoke as he breifly looked inside the bag before putting it away. "Half of the folks who come in here, especially ones similar to you, always try to get a better deal through lies and threats"
"Luckily, he's got me to keep him safe," The assistant stated while arrogantly pointing a thumb towards himself
"Yep. Anyways, I'm going to get to work now, you'll get the product as soon as I'm done," The forger told the trio before walking up a set of stairs in the corner and leaving the room
With the forger gone, the atmosphere in the room quickly became rather awkward, as the whole trio disliked his associate for multiple reasons. He also held the same amount of mild animosity for the three, and because of that, the room was dead silent for a while. As the fake casino memberships continued to be created, Kit read through the rest of her manga book that had brought her to this place, while Teddy and Luna sat uncomfortably. The assistant, however, sat quite comfortably after stealing the forger's chair only a few minutes into his absence
Eventually, once Kit had finished reading, she decided that she didn't want to stay in the room waiting any longer and stood up
"I'm going to go outside for some air," She stated, picking up the closed manga book from the desk. "There's no way that she'll find us as long as we just stay right outside the building"
"Me too," Luna joined in almost immediately afterwards, seemingly wanting to have left the whole time as well
"Are you going as well, Teddy?" Kit asked him
"No," He answered, still paranoid about Amy being nearby
"Ok then," Kit said as her and Luna walked out through the door and into the area outside of the office building
After continuing to sit in the room for a little while longer with only the forger's assistant still present, continuing to try and get rid of his guilt, Teddy decided to talk to the assistant to help out after he realized convincing himself he did what he had to do wasn't going to work
"Hey, you're a criminal, right? " Teddy asked the associate. "Have you done a lot of bad things before?"
"Bad is a subjective term, but many people would describe me with it," He replied. "Anyways, why are you asking me this?" He replied
"Well, to get here, I had to do something that felt really bad," Teddy answered. "I was being chased, and I got cornered, and I had to use my arm to stun her so I could get away"
"Stun her with your arm? Are you trying to say you socked her?" The assistant asked
Upon hearing what the forger's associate had said, Teddy shook his head and laid his robot arm on the desk, before charging up enough electricity in his palm for it to be visible
"No, I used this," Teddy explained
"Whoa, I thought that was just a fancy prosthetic," The assistant stated, almost sounding afraid. "But, even if it was with some weird future taser arm, it's not like you got any other choice but to fight back when you're cornered in an alley. It's just natural"
"But, here's the thing," Teddy continued speaking. "I was being chased at first, but then she didn't actually start attacking me, she just stood there and kept me from leaving. And then I just electrocuted her because I had to leave to get here. There had to have been something I could have done so I didn't have to attack her out of nowhere, I just know it"
"I'm not so sure about that. If she was chasing you before, I'd bet she was dead set on not letting you go away, and no amount of convincing would have changed that"
While he did feel better after hearing what he had been trying to tell himself from another person, he still doubted the last statement because he didn't know whether he would have been caught by Eggman's robots if he explained everything, but he certainly wasn't bringing it up in his conversation with the assistant if he didn't bring it up while talking with Amy
Outside of the building, Kit and Luna were relaxing and enjoying the fresh air, glad to be away from the forger's assistant. It was completely silent except for the sound of a gentle breeze flowing through the constricted alley paths, and later Kit idly tapping the tip of her sword against the concrete
"Stop that," Luna requested, annoyed by the metallic noise
Kit tapped the sword against the ground once more before putting it away in it's sheath, and then after that it was quiet once again. However, just standing around quietly quickly became boring for her, so she tried to start a conversation with Luna to keep things interesting
"So, how are your injuries doing?" Kit asked, as it was the only thing she could think of
Luna didn't give an answer, but that didn't dissuade Kit at all, as she began speaking again right after
"Are they feeling better, worse, still the same?" She continued
No answer was given this time either, but Kit could sense Luna getting irritated. Regardless, talking was the only thing to do, so she kept going
"I certainly hope they feel better, because it looks like you got hit pretty hard out there earlier," Kit remembered. "Luckily, I was there, you probably would have gotten even more hurt if it wasn't for me"
"My injuries are none of your business," Luna finally responded. "Focus on your own things"
"Hey, I'm just trying to be nice," She stated. "If I were you, I would appreciate all the kindness that was given to me. It's a horrible life to lead with nobody there for you"
Things were silent again for some time after this, with the now dying breeze being the sole sound that the two listened to as they stood around. Faint footsteps slowly faded into earshot as well after what felt like forever, but they were coming from inside the building, not from the alleyway. The steps got gradually louder, although they were still almost as quiet as the wind even at their loudest. Once the sound paused for a few moments, there was a click of metal, and one of the double doors into the office building opened
"Hey, the casino memberships are ready," Teddy said, his mechanical arm holding the door open
"Oh, great!" Kit replied, shrugging off the serious atmosphere she had caused
Once Kit and Luna began walking to the open door, Teddy moved so that he was flat against the door to let them in, before going back to his own seat once they had both gotten to their own. In front of all three of them were the freshly minted memberships, as well as the pouch, although it obviously looked much less full now
"They're all ready, go ahead and take them," The Forger instructed. "As you can see, I also gave you your change back. I may be a criminal, but my racket isn't stealing from people"
Kit quickly but carefully grabbed all three of the casino memberships as well as the nearly empty ring bag, giving one to both Luna and Teddy before opening up the sack and putting her own inside along with the twenty five spare rings
"Thanks a lot for this, this is really going to help us out," Kit told the forger
"No problem. What are you using these for, anyways?" He asked
"Uhh, nothing," She responded, deciding it would be a good idea to not tell anyone else about the Chaos Emerald heist that would soon take place
Now that they had gotten what they came to the building to get in the first place, the trio all left through the front door before the forger had time to ask anymore questions, although they took some time to decide whether they should head into the alley or not
"Do any of you hear anything?" Kit asked, talking about any sounds that might indicate that Amy was nearby
"No," Teddy answered
"Nope," Luna also replied
"Ok then"
Mostly confident about Amy being gone, but still being sure to keep aware in case she was still around, the trio quietly walked through the maze of alleyways, planning to head back to the bakery to further plan out the heist on the casino now that they had a way to get in easily. Walking back through the series of alleys went quite smoothly for the most part, as Luna, Kit, and Teddy were all able to remember the path to the outside. However, once they had nearly reached the exit back into the main city, they heard a single footstep
Everybody froze as soon as they heard the sound, and quickly realized that not only was Amy still looking for them, she was also sneaking around to catch them off guard. The single audible footstep was a slip up in this plan, a slip up that the trio could easily make as well. For a while, nobody moved or said anything, as even the smallest of sounds could put everything that they had worked for so far at risk. However, it eventually dawned on the three that standing around doing nothing would also inevitably lead to them getting caught, so they decided the best course of action was to just continue what they had been doing before
Step by step, the trio very carefully made their way out of the brick passageways, peeking around every corner they passed. Everything was completely silent during this, Amy didn't make any more sounds, and neither did Luna, Kit, and Teddy. Even the wind had died out at this point, as if it too was trying to stay hidden. Eventually, they all made it to the point where the main street was visible, and had a choice to make: Either continue along stealthily and risk being discovered if Amy is nearby, or run as fast as possible to get a headstart but give away their position
Kit took no time in making this choice, immediately sprinting into the main street with her renewed energy, forcing Luna and Teddy to follow behind her. Although the main sounds that they could hear now were their own footsteps and the wind blowing against them as the three of them ran as fast as they could with the stamina they had, in the background they were sure an extra set of footsteps could be faintly heard. It's not like anything could be done even if Amy was chasing them, so the trio just ignored it and continued heading back to the bakery
"You couldn't have consulted us before you started running off?" Luna asked in annoyance as she tried to catch up to Kit
"Hey, I thought the idea was that we weren't going to talk until we escaped," Kit responded
"You could have signaled in some other way," She stated
"Well, too late now"
Luna decided to not use up any more breath on talking after this, especially because her and the others were now nearing the bakery street. Because the bakery served as a base for the trio, it would obviously be very bad if they all got seen by Amy there, so Luna decided to check behind her to see if she was still being followed. Looking back, there was nothing there. There was no signs that they were being followed at all. This came as a relief to Luna, as at least for a short period of time, she wouldn't have to run or fight anymore. Everyone would just be able to sit down before they would inevitably have to get the casino heist over with
While the trio's energy all slowly winded down again, so did the distance between them and the bakery. Soon, they had gotten onto the street, and the sight of their temporary home base gave them a brief second wind that allowed them to dash through its glass door and once again feel the breeze of relief that they had felt earlier in the day
"Whew, we made it," Kit sighed in relief as she took a seat at one of the tables
"Yeah, that was pretty close, but we ended up getting the memberships," Teddy happily pointed out
"So, we've gotten everything we need now, right?" Luna asked
"Yep," Kit answered
"When are we going to finally get the Chaos Emerald and get this over with?"
"Soon. It's best if we take a rest before doing something like that"
"I suppose that makes sense"
With that, Luna, Kit, and Teddy all began resting and preparing themselves for what they would soon have to do. Like Luna said, they had everything they needed to get things over with, it was only really a matter of when they were ready. While they knew they had to break into the casino at some point, they were still pretty nervous about it, as they had never done anything like this before. However, the trio had done other nerve wracking and dangerous things before and gotten through them alive, so they all had some level of confidence that when they finally tried to steal the Chaos Emerald, things would work out fine