Knuckles and his friends kept following the police cars, soon reaching the station. As the other cars pulled up front, Knuckles did the same, swinging the car around and fitting perfectly between two police cars.

"Nice park, dude," Sonic said.

"Thanks. I've been practising," said the red echidna as he killed the engine.

"Good to know that the guns work," said Tails, being the first to get out of the car. "I do wish that it was against someone with cybernetics, though."

"What, afraid of a little blood?" Sonic playfully teased.

"Not that. I just wanted to see the electronic effects for myself," Tails shrugged.

"Do you think that any of them had implants or abilities?" Knuckles pondered.

"They didn't seem like it," Sonic answered. "Those humans, however? That's a definite maybe."

"I love it when you're specific," Tails jibed.

"Hear me out," Sonic said as they walked towards the station. "Those humans were wearing coats, gloves, boots... they were keeping themselves well covered, despite the lovely weather we're having. You don't find that a little odd?"

"I think that I see what you're getting at," the yellow fox nodded. "But why would Nack need two enhanced humans to perform a simple drug deal?"

"Maybe he thinks they're expendable," Shadow shrugged.

"What, like Sylvester Stallone?" Knuckles asked, smirking.

"I mean like they're easy to dispose of," the black and red hedgehog replied. "I don't think that Nack even knows that they've got cybernetics."

"It still doesn't answer the question of why he hired them in the first place," Sonic said.

"It's like Shadow said," Tails replied, "he thought the humans were expandable. He probably doesn't even care about if they have abilities or not. He just wants to see his ends met. And, as was explained to us in the briefing room earlier, he has a habit of selling out his friends just to get ahead."

Sonic chuckled. "Remind me to try to talk Avery into promoting you to be a detective."

"Aw, shucks," Tails rolled his eyes.

"I know, I know... I can't get rid of you that easily," Sonic smirked.

The yellow fox smiled back, side-hugging his friend briefly before they reached the elevator, choosing to take it up to the second floor to see Vector about possibly returning their EMP grenades and other stuff.

"Back so soon?" Vector said, spinning around in his chair to turn and face them.

"We're just here to return some stuff," said Sonic, picking the EMP grenades from his pockets, as did the rest of his friends.

"Did you even use any of these?" Vector pondered. "Looks like a full set to me. Either that, or you're so damn good that you didn't even need to use them."

"I used one," Tails said, putting his hand up and shrugging. "It was the only one needed, apparently. Those stun times need to be regulated a bit better."

"Hey, if it keeps the bad guys stunned for long enough, it works," said Vector. "We do need to work more on our bullets, though."

"I've been bringing that up with the tech division," Charmy said, flying in. "We've been thinking that maybe we should collaborate and make something different. Like, the bullet will shock anything even without any cyber parts."

"That sounds like a good idea," Tails smiled. "If you need some help, give me a call. I'd be more than happy to help."

"You can do that?" Vector asked. "I mean, I did read up on your files and such, but..."

"You bet your scaly green butt he can do that," Sonic vouched, placing his hand on the fox's shoulder. "He may be small, but he's incredibly smart. Like, could-build-a-rocket-out-of-scrap-metal smart."

"All right, don't oversell it," Tails smirked, pulling Sonic's hand away. "I could totally do that, though. And I'd probably still have enough parts left over to make a toaster."

Vector chuckled. "Regardless, if you don't think you need the grenades any longer, I'll hold onto them for you."

"Thanks," Knuckles said. "Much appreciated."

"Any time. Now get on up to Avery for your debriefing."

"Yes, Captain Crocodile," Sonic mock saluted.

"How did you know my superhero secret identity?" Vector asked, playing along before waving them away. "Go on. See the big bear."

Sonic chuckled as he and his friends turned around, deciding to exit the armoury and making their way for the stairs, taking them up to the third floor and immediately making their way to the briefing room, entering through and only seeing Avery and Ash in the room.

"Ah, there you all are!" said Avery. "Good to see that your first mission went relatively successfully."

"Yeah... relatively..." Knuckles mumbled, before speaking aloud. "The humans making the deal got away, and we didn't get anything."

"No license plate, no names, no idea of where they're going, no names," Sonic added, listing the things off as he counted them on his left hand. "Unless you've got a bloodhound like sense of smell, we're not going to be finding those bozos any time soon."

"I don't need a good sense of smell," Avery smiled. "Just a good set of surveillance cameras."

"That could be horribly misconstrued as something else if you weren't our commander," Knuckles said.

Avery shrugged that off as he turned to the screen behind him. "Ash, if you would..."

"Yeah, yeah," the mongoose joked as he pressed on the remote, showing an image of a large black truck moving before speaking. "Does this match the vehicle you saw?"

"It's like we said to Espio earlier," Tails said, "it could be any big black truck."

Ash smirked and pressed another button, showing the two humans getting out of the truck before speaking again. "How about now?"

Sonic looked and nodded. "Yeah, I'd say that matches the description."

"Well, it's not just a photo," Avery said, a hint of regret in his voice. "Show them, Ash."

The mongoose sighed and pressed a button, showing a video on the screen of the humans walking around, both briefcases in hand as they walked around to the back of the truck, opening the large door. Despite all the squinting, all that Sonic and the others could see was a few toes of a bare foot, unable to make out the rest.

"They kidnapped somebody?" Sonic asked.

Ash nodded as the video kept playing, and the two humans headed inside the truck, bringing the rest of her out. She was wearing a torn up red sundress, and her hands were tied up on her lap as a white cloth covered her mouth. Sonic took in her profile, seeing that she was a female pink hedgehog, but couldn't make out her eyes as she was blindfolded.

"Who is she?" Tails asked.

"We don't know yet," replied Avery. "But we suspect that she may have been kidnapped fairly recently, not long after they left the Gear Steers."

"Or not long after they got there..." said Sonic.

"What are you getting at?" Knuckles asked.

"Well, maybe Nack needs a little extra incentive to get his product across," replied Sonic. "Maybe Fokus just isn't doing so well on its own, so..."

"What, you're suggesting that Nack asked these dicks to kidnap some girl and sell her off to those other dicks?" the red echidna asked.

"I'm suggesting that he already had her," Sonic said, sitting up. "Maybe drugs aren't the only thing he's trying to sell off."

"A prostitution ring?" Tails said. "Just when I thought I couldn't hate that weasel more..."

"Do we have a lead on where the humans are?" asked Shadow.

"Not an exact one, but the truck was seen just around the Jade Mountain Restaurant," replied Avery.

"You mean that Chinese place?" Tails asked.

"The very same," replied Avery.

"Oh, not there," Knuckles moped. "They make the best ribs there..."

Sonic shook his head. "So, they're operating out of there?"

"It's not definite," Ash shrugged, "but it's the best one we've got so far."

"How do we go about this?" Tails asked. "We can't just show up at their door unannounced and flash our badges at them. That would cause too much of a scene."

"Not to mention that the humans could spot us if they were there," Sonic added. "And the possibility of civilian casualties."

"Well, whatever your choice is, you'd better make it quick," Avery said. "If you don't hurry, they might be out of there before you know it. They might even hop off to somewhere else, which would mean that we wouldn't be able to get to them."

"Yeah... the individual cities are very strict about their police forces," Tails said. "They don't like the forces crossing over into each other's territories."

"Which is odd, because I thought we all wanted the same thing," Knuckles said.

"It's nothing personal. It's just not our jurisdiction," said Avery with a shrug. "Anyway, whenever you're ready, go ahead and see Vector again if you need to, or just go to Jade Mountain. Up to you."

"I got no issue with going straight there," Knuckles shrugged.

"Me neither," Tails replied.

Sonic looked to Shadow. "What about you?"

"Would it make a difference?" Shadow asked. "If all three of you say yes, then there's no point in me trying."

Sonic chuckled. "Then it's unanimous, I think." He stood up, as did the others. "All right, let's get to it."

"Think you might need some backup?" asked Avery.

"Backup would be helpful," said Sonic. "But it depends on who's busy and who's up for it."

"Antoine and Bunnie are pretty much free," Ash said. "I think they're talking to Cosmo and Mina."

"Then let's go say hi," the blue hedgehog said.

All three then exited out of the room, taking the elevator to go down to the ground floor. As expected, there were Bunnie and Antoine speaking with Cosmo and Mina, smiling and even sharing some hot drinks of coffee.

"I hate to break up this lovely little chat you're having," Sonic said, "but we need some help."

"What's up?" Mina asked.

"Avery's got a lead on the humans who got away from us," Knuckles said. "They were last seen outside of Jade Mountain."

"That Chinese place that does the amazing ribs?" Antoine said. "I love those!"

Knuckles smiled. "See? Somebody gets it."

Bunnie shook her head. "We sure don't mind taggin' along with y'all. But what should we do while we're there?"

"We're thinking just surveillance, mostly," Sonic said.

"Ooh, cool," Antoine said. "We get to break out one of our vans."

"The ones with all of the awesome technology in them so it feels like you're in a spy movie?" Tails asked.

"The very same!"

Sonic looked between the two foxes, then smiled at Tails. "You want to go with them in the van, don't you?"

"Yes, please," the fox replied. "I mean, I'm not the best fighter, so... I think I'd be better off just hanging back anyway."

"Don't undersell yourself, dude," Knuckles said. "You're stronger than you get credit for."

It was then that Shadow spoke. "Before we go, I have a quick question, if I may."

"Who for?" Bunnie asked.

"You, oddly," Shadow replied. The robotic rabbit smiled at that, so he continued. "You mentioned how those mechanics at Gear Steers were acting strange when you went to see them. Did you see anything else off base?"

"They were just moving really slowly," replied Bunnie. "Didn't do much, got angry and really paranoid, and their eyes looked mighty red."

Sonic folded his arms. "Huh... I wonder if that's what Fokus does to people..."

"Or it could be marijuana," said Espio, popping his head out of a door.

"How do you know that?" asked Sonic.

"It wasn't me that found it out," the purple chameleon replied with a smile as he stepped out from the door.

Behind him was a large, light purple walrus wearing a lab coat and some surgical gloves on his hands. He took them off and extended a hand forwards to Sonic. "Hello, there. I'm Rotor."

Sonic shook the walrus' hand. "Nice to meet you."

"Rotor's the head of forensics," Espio explained. "He's been here a long time. Probably longer than Avery."

"That's pretty cool," Tails said. "I always thought I'd be a forensic scientist when I was younger."

"If you ever get too old for fieldwork, you know where to find me," Rotor chuckled.

"How'd you know that it was weed those mechanics were on?" Knuckles asked.

"It's part of the program whenever we take in a new inmate," replied Espio. "We take blood samples, and Rotor analyses it with the other eggheads at the lab."

"That's pretty quick, considering that we just brought them in earlier today," Knuckles noted.

"It's amazing how much technology has come so far," Tails replied, before then asking Rotor, "Was there traces of anything else in their blood?"

"Nothing just yet," Rotor replied. "We may need to take another sample just in case, but so far, it's just marijuana."

"Hard to believe that that's still illegal in this day and age," Knuckles said.

"What are you talking about?" Sonic said. "You don't even do any drugs."

"I'm Jamaican, dude," the red echidna replied. "You think I don't know my ganja?"

Sonic chuckled. "Duly noted." He then turned to Rotor. "Anyway, we'd better go. Thanks for the update, though."

"Good luck," the walrus replied.

"See y'all later!" Bunnie said to Rotor and Espio.

And with that, the group turned and headed for the doors to leave the building. As they said they would do, Knuckles, Sonic, and Shadow went to Knuckles' car, and Antoine, Bunnie, and Tails went to the van.

Tails let out a whistle as he saw it. "Nice digs..." he said, noting how similar the design was to the basic cars.

"Yeah, it looks pretty cool," Sonic called as he went to the front passenger seat of Knuckles' car.

"That doesn't count as shotgun if I'm not in the same car as you, dude," the yellow fox replied, chuckling.

"Hey, it's the little victories that count the most," Sonic shrugged.

Tails rolled his eyes, then Antoine spoke. "You ready to see the inside?"

"Um... yeah!"

"Try not to break anything," Bunnie playfully chided as she walked to the van, getting in the front with Antoine.

Tails nodded as he followed them, heading into the back and finding a small seat inside it. He took it and looked around him as several camera screens donned the walls, with control panels, radios, laptops, and other gadgets in front of them.

"Whoa... this is awesome..." he said.

"Try not to drool on anything," Antoine quipped.

"No promises..." Tails replied, still distracted.

A few feet away, Knuckles honked his horn two times. "All right, we're heading out! You guys ready?"

Antoine popped his head out of the van's window. "Ready when you are!"

"Remember, stay a little bit behind us! If we get caught together, then that's it!"

"Will do!"

Knuckles then pulled the car out from its parking space and began driving. After a decent minute and a half head start, the van started up as well, staying at a safe distance away from Knuckles' car.

"Let's hope that this goes well..." said Tails from the back of the van.

"Everything will be fine, cutie!" replied Bunnie. "Don't you worry."

At the Jade Mountain Restaurant...

The two humans just pulled up in the front parking lot of the restaurant, thankful that it was completely empty at this time. The two suitcases they had gotten away with sat in the back of the truck along with their kidnapped victim, who was soundly asleep.

"Do you think that we got caught earlier?" asked one human.

"Doing what?" asked the other.

"Bringing her out of the truck just to knock her out again. We could have just as easily got into the back to do it."

"Eh, she was struggling a lot. We wouldn't have been able to hold her still in the back of the truck," the second one shrugged.

"True. And she was hard to take in the first place. Damn near knocked me out cold with that hammer she was swinging around..."

With that, they killed the engine of the truck, walking around to the back. They saw the hedgehog still unconscious, and the two suitcases next to her. Both humans got into the back, with one grabbing the suitcases, and the other grabbing the hedgehog, picking her up carefully.

"It's a good thing that Nack pretty much owns this place," said the first human. "If he didn't, and the people who worked here saw us hauling this little girl around, then there'd be trouble."

"I still can't believe that he thought it up," replied the other human. "But then again, maybe big cash isn't the only thing that people want. Sometimes, sex sells, and it sells well."

They then shut the truck's back door and locked the car from the outside with the car's keys before turning to go into the restaurant. Even though they knew Nack wasn't much for decor, they knew that he appreciated the lovely Eastern influences of the restaurant, with the waiters and waitresses wearing Chinese inspired clothing, and the Mandarin lettering donning the walls with English translations underneath them.

The two humans carried on as they were. Since there were no customers there at the moment, they didn't have to worry about possibly being caught; everybody that worked there knew about Nack's operation, and they were paid more than enough to keep their mouths shut about it.

They carried on as they were, picking up a small key on the way past. The walked past the bathrooms at the back and found a locked door with the words "Staff only" written in a small plaque just above the door's handle.

They unlocked the door and opened it, walking out to a small staircase. Overall, the main restaurant itself really only had the one floor, with the upstairs usually reserved for those that worked there. But since Nack bought it out, he'd turned it into his own little office.

The two humans made it up the stairs easily, unlocking another door also labelled "Staff only", in the same place above the door handle, and they opened the door, walking inside and seeing a few other doors.

"For such a small set up, Nack's got it pretty good here," said the first human.

"Yeah... his main office just ahead, the bathroom on the left, the kitchen to the left of that, and a bedroom in another room in the office?" The second one smirked. "He's got it pretty easy for sure."

They both shared a brief laugh at that and went to the main door, opening it up with their key and walking in to see Nack turned around in his chair. As soon as he heard the door, the purple weasel turned around, smiling at the humans.

"Ah... good to see that you both made it back in one piece," he said, his eyes travelling over the briefcases. "I take it that the deal didn't go to plan then?"

"Not exactly," the first human shrugged, placing the cases on Nack's desk. "But on the bright side, we keep the money and the drugs. It's a win-win, if you ask me."

"What went south?" Nack asked.

"Cops," replied the second human. "Rookies, at that. We managed to escape before the fighting got too serious, but the mechanics at Gear Steers instantly suspected us of siding with the police. We called the same thing on them, but they denied it."

"And do you believe them?" asked Nack.

"I do."

"What were the rookies like?" the weasel asked.

"They were Mobians," replied the first human. "There were four of them."

"And you managed to escape?" Nack said.

"Well, our truck is huge and black for one thing. We haven't changed the plates yet, but we'll get around to it," replied the second human.

Nack reached into his top desk drawer, pulling out a licence plate and throwing it onto the ground in front of the humans. "You'd better be quick about it."

"Will do," he replied, moving quickly.

"Not just yet," Nack said, standing from his seat and walking around the desk. "What about the girl?" he asked, looking at the hedgehog.

"We didn't get to use her as leverage," said the first human. "As we said, the cops busted the deal pretty early. Plus, considering how accepting the mechanics seemed to be, it seemed like we wouldn't have needed her."

The purple weasel nodded. "Fair point. All right, put her in the big room with the others. But if you lay a finger on her..."

"We haven't hurt her so far," the first human replied. "We only had to knock her out a couple of times with some morphine, and she was out like a light."

With that, the humans went over to the large room that Nack spoke of. They opened the door, seeing the sleeping forms of several other Mobians inside, and they walked in, removed her bonds, then laid her down gently in a bed next to a Mobian bat with white fur.

They walked out, locking the door behind them as they met back up with Nack in his office. "She's sound asleep."

"Good to hear," Nack replied. "So, were there any other troubles with the police?"

"Other than the fact that they beat and locked up the mechanics?" the other human replied. "Not really. We got out without suffering much."

"Yeah. All that you did was unintentionally put a potential client out of business and in jail," Nack responded coldly. "That is, of course, assuming that they got all of them."

"We didn't stay there long enough to find out, but let's say that they did."

Nack shook his head. "Humans..." he muttered under his breath, turning around to face them. "Look, just go and fix your plates on the truck then get to work downstairs, all right? I'll call you if I need anything."

"Should I pull the truck around the back?" asked the first human.

"No need. If the cops don't have a lead on us, then we shouldn't worry," Nack replied.

"I still can't believe that we both got janitor spots," the second human replied, leaning down to pick up the licence plate. "Where are the rest of the guys, anyway?"

"Well, let's just say, to be on the safe side, I had to get a new employee or two."

"That'd help. We could always use some extra hands in the kitchen," replied the first human.

"Just get out of here, will you?" Nack said.

The humans spoke an agreement in unison before turning around and exiting, making their way to the staircase and quickly locking the doors behind them as they reached the restaurant proper.

"I'll head outside to change the plates," said the first human, taking the plate from the other.

"Be careful out there," replied the second. "It might look quiet, but you never know."

"It's coming to nighttime, dude. This place won't be open for much longer."

With that, he exited out of the restaurant, but not before stopping and turning to see the staff in the kitchen. Nack was correct; there were new employees. And, just like the rest of the staff, they were also humans.

He shook his head and walked out of the restaurant, going over to the truck and walking around to the back, opening the doors to grab a toolbox from inside the back of the truck before hopping back out, sitting down in front of the plate and preparing to unscrew it.

"Here goes nothing..." he said to himself.

Half a mile away from Jade Mountain...

Knuckles continued to drive, the GPS in his car indicating that he was closing in on the restaurant. Sonic, meanwhile, turned to check and make sure that the van was still following, before then turning to his left and noticing a highway that led up to a small hill.

"You see that spot?" Sonic asked into the small radio in Knuckles' car.

"We see it," replied Antoine over the radio.

"It'd probably be good if you drove over it. It's not too far from the restaurant, judging by the distance, and it'll keep you covered in the dark."

"All right. We'll hang back and survey the area."

"Roger."

The rest of the drive continued in silence, this time with Shadow looking over the back of Knuckles' car. Since he was in the backseat, it'd be easier for him to tell where the van was. Since it was already five cars and one motorcycle away, it was fairly easy to make out in the dark, and at the right time, the van pulled up onto the highway.

Knuckles smiled and drove the car around to the front parking lot of Jade Mountain, stopping just before entering the lot itself. The only other thing that he saw was a large black truck, catching a sidelong view of it along with seeing a human hopping out from inside the back of the truck, closing the doors to it.

"We've got to stay low... we can't risk getting seen..." Sonic said.

Knuckles nodded, turning the car around and driving past the front a little bit before parking his car up on a curb. He killed the engine and exited the car, closely followed by the others as they sneaked around to the front.

"It's a good thing that the parking lot isn't too big, otherwise getting inside would be a real pain in the ass," Sonic said.

"Something tells me that it won't be too easy either way," replied Knuckles. "We can't just up and walk in there. They'll probably know who we are by now."

"Then let's try not to act so obvious," Shadow said.

"How do you mean?" Sonic asked.

"How about we act like customers?" Shadow suggested. "We tell them we're grabbing a late night snack."

"Good point. Nack wouldn't want to cause too much trouble too early, and that goes double if he knows that we're after him," Sonic said, turning to Shadow. "Good thinking on the plan there, man."

The black and red hedgehog nodded in reply, and they all carried on walking around to reach the restaurant proper. They walked past the doors and looked around, seeing only the people behind the counter.

"I kinda wish we had earpieces..." Sonic said under his breath.

"That part could have gone better, but we were in a rush," said Knuckles, also keeping his voice quiet as they reached the counter, his face turning into a smile. "Hi there."

"Hey," said a female human, walking up to the counter. "The usual?"

"Please," the red echidna replied. "And some extra for my friends here."

The woman nodded, turning and calling out the order to the kitchen. Knuckles chose to wait at the counter whilst Sonic and Shadow found a seat by the window, the streetlights outside being one of the only sources of brightness, the other being cars that passed by.

After a minute or two, Knuckles walked over with three containers and three brown bags. The containers held the ribs in question, and he gave Sonic and Shadow a box each, whilst the bags held thickly cut chips that were already salted, and gave a bag each to Sonic and Shadow.

"So, how long have you been coming here?" asked Sonic as he chomped down a chip.

"Only recently. I started in the last couple of weeks we spend at the Academy," Knuckles replied.

"You came here during your off-time?" Shadow asked.

"Yeah, when I could. Other times, I had to have it delivered in case I missed lunch," Knuckles shrugged.

Sonic then smiled, opening his container. "All right, let's see if these ribs are as good as you say they are."

Shadow opened his own container, copying his blue friend in grabbing a rib from the rack and placing it into his mouth, chewing some of the meat off of it before pulling the rest of the rib away, placing it back in the container.

"So, what do you think?" Knuckles asked.

Sonic nodded appreciatively. "I like it! Sweet and sour sauce already mixed in?" he guessed.

The red echidna nodded. "Yup! It helps give the meat some extra flavour." He then turned to Shadow. "How about you? You like?"

The black and red hedgehog nodded as he picked his rib up once again. "It's really good, I'll admit."

"See? Told ya," Knuckles grinned.

As they conversed, they noticed a door opening near the back of the kitchen, and several of the chefs walked out, with one of them mentioning something about taking a smoke break. As they left, the humans from earlier at the gas station exited the men's bathroom, instantly spotting the Mobians and walking over to them.

"What are you three doing here?" they asked.

"Just grabbing a snack," replied Sonic. "We don't mean to cause any trouble."

"Really?" asked the first human. "Say... where's that little fox friend of yours?"

"Back at the station studying like a good kid," Sonic shrugged.

In reply, one of the humans picked Sonic up by the collar of his shirt and threw him across the room, causing him to land just in front of the counter. Knuckles and Shadow dashed right over, leaning to pick their friend up, standing up with him.

"Don't want to cause trouble, huh?" said another voice. This one came from just behind the counter, so they turned to see the source of it, seeing Nack walk in from the back of the kitchen. "Considering your actions earlier today, it's a little too late for that..."

With that, the humans - those behind the counter included - pulled out guns, pointing them at Sonic, Shadow, and Knuckles. Nack grinned, pulling his own out, as his two lackeys also followed suit, being the closest to the trio of Mobians.

"Well, ain't this great?" Knuckles asked sarcastically with a small gulp.

And that'll do it for another one! I know that this chapter is shorter than the others, but there is a good reason for it. You'll just have to wait for the next chapter to find out. But don't worry! The next chapter will feature plenty of action to keep you all satisfied, I'm sure. Just trust me, okay? As always, take care, stay tuned, and all that jazz. See you then.