"Look, we just came here to grab some food is all," Sonic tried.
"I think we can knock off the bullshit now..." Shadow mumbled.
The blue hedgehog shrugged. "Can't blame a hedgehog for trying."
"What the hell makes you think that you can just waltz in here and enjoy our food?" asked a human from behind the counter.
"Is this a Mobian thing?" Knuckles asked. "I feel like it's a Mobian thing."
"It's a cop thing," Nack replied. "And soon, it'll be a dead cop thing."
"Good one-liner," Sonic smirked. "You been rehearsing?"
Nack walked close to Sonic, staring him down. "You must be the team leader, huh?"
"If you want, I could show you the badge to prove it," Sonic retorted.
"The only people you'll need to prove things to with that badge are the coroners," Nack said, before turning to his men. "Kill them."
As soon as the first bullet was fired, Sonic, Shadow, and Knuckles dived into different directions, each ducking under a table that they flipped over to use as cover. While the tables themselves were a solid steel, they weren't bolted to the floor, so they were easier to move around.
Shadow peeked around from behind his table to see Nack and his two main humans escaping, firing as they left to keep the officers off them. "They're getting away!" Shadow said.
"We'll catch have to up with them later!" Sonic replied. "For now, we have to get out of here! There's too many of them!"
Knuckles popped out of his cover briefly to fire, hitting one of the humans in the chest and causing blood to spurt out. "Now there's one less!" he called.
"I'll put down cover fire!" Shadow said. "You two get out of here. I'll catch up!"
"Be careful, okay?" Sonic said, standing and firing over the counter as he ran.
Knuckles caught up, standing and shooting, managing to hit another human, this time square in the shoulder, causing them to yelp in pain and drop their gun as blood began leaking from their new wound.
The red echidna soon rejoined his blue friend outside the front of the restaurant, and they dashed for Knuckles' car, hopping in as Shadow ran out of the Jade Mountain. Knuckles switched on the ignition and drove close to Shadow, turning the car to its side.
"You'll have to jump in!" the echidna called.
Shadow waited for a few seconds before the right time arose, and he ran and hopped over the back of the car, landing in the seat and ducking as Knuckles put the roof of the convertible vehicle up.
"You know, maybe getting a car with a removable roof wasn't your best idea," Sonic said as they cleared the parking lot.
"I've had this baby for three years, and now you're telling me it was a bad idea?" Knuckles said.
"We weren't getting shot at back then, so it seemed a lot safer," Sonic replied.
Shadow chuckled. "In retrospect, maybe we should have seen this coming."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, three years ago was when we finished college. We joined the academy not long after. In that window of time, Knuckles got the car. As all of us were about to start at Green Hill Academy, not one of us thought that getting shot at would be a problem."
"Plus, it makes getting into the car a lot easier," Knuckles added. "So, where to?"
"We've got to get to Tails and the others in the van," Sonic said. "Let's hope they found a lead on where Nack and his two goons were heading."
Just a moment later, there was the sound of a truck screeching out onto the main road, heading directly in front of Knuckles' car and taking off. Without needing to say anything, the red echidna changed direction to follow it, speeding after it.
"It's times like these that an alarm would make clearing the roads a lot easier," Knuckles said.
Sonic shook his head as he grabbed the car's radio. "Tails, you there?"
"Yeah, we saw. We're coming down from the hill," the fox replied. "I guess there's no point in being sneaky now, huh?"
"You'd think we'd have learned the first time, but no," Sonic chuckled. "All right, stay close to us."
"Is this close enough?" said a voice. Not from the radio, but from next to them. Sonic turned to his left and saw Bunnie, who grinned and waved.
"That's close enough!" Sonic chuckled, speaking into the radio as he waved back.
"I'm going to hop back into the car with you guys!" Tails said.
"Why? I thought you were having fun in the van," Sonic replied.
"I was, but I ain't missing this chase for my life!" the two-tailed fox answered.
"We'd join you," Antoine spoke, "but we need to head back to base to report to Avery. We've got to let him know what's happened, and we need backup, too."
"Fair enough," Sonic said. "You two just be careful, okay?"
Bunnie nodded, then spoke. "There's a small path just up ahead. We'll stop there and drop Tails off, then we'll be on our way."
"You got it."
After a few more seconds, they reached the small path in question, and the van pulled over, allowing Tails to hop out of the back of it as Knuckles stopped his car just short of the path, Shadow opening the side door to let Tails in.
"Driving with the top up?" Tails asked Knuckles as he got in. "On a night such as lovely as this?"
"Eh, we figured that it makes good protection against bullets," the echidna shrugged.
Sonic turned to Bunnie and Antoine as the latter of the two opened his window, standing on the step that led to the van before speaking. "You guys going to be okay on your own for a while?"
"We'll have to be," Sonic shrugged.
"We'll try to be as quick as we can," the coyote stated. "Just be careful, and try not to die on your first night, okay?"
"Trust me, we're trying as hard as we can," Sonic said. "We'll see you later."
"Yeah, hopefully with a crap-ton more cops," Knuckles added.
"Y'all take care of yourselves out there!" Bunnie said, waving from behind Antoine as the coyote shut his van door.
As he started to turn his van around, Knuckles floored his accelerator, beginning to drive quicker. Since there was a decent amount of traffic, he knew that he had to be careful, but he also knew that they wouldn't waste any more time than they had already.
"Anybody see them yet?" Sonic asked.
Tails peeked his head out from his window. "Not yet. It's hard to make out a big black truck when it's almost midnight."
"You couldn't follow a trace in the van?" Knuckles asked.
"We barely picked anything up when I was there," the fox shrugged. "Can't see the plates, can barely make out the faces... we've got no chance."
"Let's hope that we don't have to wait too long to find them," Sonic said.
At that moment, the sight of a bullet pinging against the gravel road next to the blue hedgehog made itself known, and he looked in the rear-view mirror. He pulled out his gun and started rolling down his window.
"Looks like we didn't have to wait long..." he said, turning to Tails. "You still got your gun?"
Tails nods. "Imagine that... a car chase and a shootout, and we're not even past our first day yet."
"Life really does move fast after you finish at the academy," Sonic smirked. "All right, we'll try and keep them off. Knuckles, drive."
"It's what I'm good at!" the echidna replied as he kept going.
Sonic peeked out of his window and saw two cars closing in, both of which had arms holding guns peering out of every one of their windows sans those of the drivers, and they began to fire once more. Sonic ducked his head back in as Shadow took a shot, managing to take out one of the cars' headlights.
"It is really hard to shoot straight when you're driving this fast..." he muttered as he fired again, hitting the front bumper of the car.
"Try to take out their tyres!" Sonic said, aiming low and firing.
"We've got to be careful!" said Tails. "There's some civilians on the road, too!"
"It's not too many, but you're right!" Sonic nodded.
Tails started firing, managing to hit one of the passenger drivers through the window right in his head, causing blood to splatter over the front of it. Frustrated, the driver of said car took his fallen comrade's gun and peeked his head out to fire at Knuckles' car, hitting the side-view mirror on his side.
"Do these guys have no respect for how much went into this car?" Knuckles said.
"I thought you bought it like this?" Sonic replied.
"Three years I've had this thing, dude. A lot of work has gone into it," the echidna sighed.
"We'll get it fixed when we're done being shot at, okay?"
Sonic shook his head after he replied before firing low again, and this time landing, causing the further away of the two opposing cars to stop and attempt to pull over, only to fail and swerve sideways before tripping and sliding forward a few feet before landing on its roof.
"Good shot," Tails said.
"I try," the hedgehog shrugged before he resumed firing. "We got one more to go!"
Shadow kept quiet as he also kept firing, leaning more diagonally and hitting the shooter behind the remaining driver, striking him in the chest and causing blood to spurt out. As his body fell limply, his fellow goon in the backseat with him kicked open the car door, letting the dead one fall out, hitting the ground rolling.
"That was just messed up..." Knuckles noted as he looked back.
"Hey, I just shot him. I didn't turn the fucker into a rag-doll," Shadow replied, shooting more.
"Focus your fire on the driver," Sonic said, shooting at the driver in question.
Knuckles kept his eyes focused on the road when a bullet hit the driver's side window, causing some of the glass to shatter and spill out, with a couple of the shards landing in his arm through the jacket he wore.
"Fuck!" he yelled out.
"You going to be okay?" Tails asked.
"I'll be fine! Just take these pricks out!" Knuckles called, focusing on his driving as he reached his hand over to pick the shards out, blood lightly trickling as he pulled the glass from his arm. "Damn..."
Shadow grunted and focused fire on the driver, focusing as he pulled the trigger. The bullet travelled through the air and hit the front window, causing come glass to crack in front of the driver as the bullet hit him right in the throat, causing him to instantly gurgle and panic. He placed a hand up to the front of his neck as he swerved uncontrollably around before the car met a similar fate to the first one, but instead of flipping over, this one turned into a barricade, crashing instantly.
"That's one problem taken care of," Tails said. "You still got them, Knuckles?"
"I lost visual," the red echidna said, shaking his head.
Shadow panted a bit. "I've got an idea."
"Yeah?" Sonic said. "What do you got for us?"
Shadow smiled. "Pull the car over and turn it around. We're going to do some interrogation."
"But everyone's dead," Tails pointed out.
"Eh, there's bound to be some survivors in that first car, at least," Shadow said.
Knuckles shrugged. "What do you think, Sonic? You're our field leader."
"If Shadow thinks it's a good idea, I say we go for it," the blue hedgehog shrugged.
The red echidna chuckled as he turned the car around. "I'm going to lose so much gas by the time this is all over..."
Then he drove back to the more recent car they'd taken out, stopping just next to it as Tails hopped out of Knuckles' car. He walked over to the side of the enemy car, looking inside and grimacing at the sight and smell of the newly created corpses. He looked in both the backseat and the front seat, placing his fingers on their necks for any pulses, but shook his head.
"I got nothing here," Tails shrugged, getting back into Knuckles' car. "I guess that's what they get for not wearing their seat-belts."
"On to the next one," Sonic said.
Knuckles kept driving along. Luckily, it didn't take long for them to reach the first car they'd taken out. With it being on its back and all, it was a lot easier to spot in the darkness. Knuckles pulled his car over, and all four of them exited.
"Easier with all of us looking," Tails said.
"Yeah..." Shadow replied as he saw a hand twitching. He turned to his friends with a smirk. "Way, way easier." He walked over to the twitching hand and pressed his boot onto it heavily, earning a groan from below.
"Arrrgggh! What the fuck is wrong with you?" the voice, a gruff male one, grunted.
"Looks like we've got our man," Sonic said.
His black and red hedgehog friend smiled and leaned down to grab the human out from his car, dragging him out harshly across the gravel and earning more complaints and groans of pain. Shadow took in the man's appearance, only seeing a face marked crimson with blood, his clothes coloured the same.
"We have a few questions that we'd like to ask you," Sonic said, walking over.
"Fuck you!" the human replied. "Fuck both of you!"
"Dinner first," Shadow said, grabbing the man by the collar and slamming his back hard against the fallen car. "Or at least get me a drink or two."
The male moaned in pain. "Whatever you want from me, you ain't getting it!"
"If that's the case, we'll just have to give you the longer, more painful death," Shadow said.
"What's the difference between that and killing me regularly?" the human asked.
The black and red hedgehog chuckled, reaching a hand back to pull out his gun, pressing the muzzle against the human's head. "The quicker way is me pulling this trigger and splattering your brains all over your car. The longer way is me holding your face against the gravel while my buddy Knuckles drives over the highway."
"I'll do it too," Knuckles nodded. "I don't take too kindly to ass-holes who try to kill me and my friends, or ass-holes that shoot my car."
"So, just ass-holes," Sonic grinned.
"Pretty much."
"I ain't telling you shit!" the human yelled. "Nack's going to have your heads on his wall for this!"
"Eh, I guess every villain's got some psychotic fetish of sorts," replied Shadow as he started carrying the human to Knuckles' car.
"W-What are you doing?!" the human asked, panicking.
"What I said I'd do; give you a long, slow, excruciatingly painful death," Shadow said.
"D-Don't! I'll tell you where they are!"
The black and red hedgehog held the human against Knuckles car, pointing his gun at his head. "Talk."
"They're heading up to Star Light City! Please, you've got to believe me!"
Shadow smiled. "Thank you for your cooperation." He then slammed the bottom of his gun against the man's head, knocking him unconscious.
"Well, Star Light City's not too far away," said Sonic.
"But that place has one of the lowest crime rates in the world," Tails replied. "Why would Nack be heading there?"
"Maybe he wants to increase that crime rate a little bit," Knuckles shrugged. "What better way to corrupt a peaceful city than with hookers and drugs, eh?" He shook his head. "I'll get on the radio to call dispatch in. Come on."
The others followed him into the car, with Sonic hopping back into the front seat as Knuckles got back behind the wheel. Tails and Shadow got in the back, and Knuckles started the car back up and began driving while he grabbed the radio from his dashboard.
"Dispatch, do you copy?" he asked.
"We do indeed," said a voice. "Sup, big red?"
Knuckles smirked. "We need a coroner on Green Hill Highway."
"We'll be there as quick as we can," replied the voice. "Anything else?"
"Yeah. After the cops are done there, tell them they need to catch up with us at Star Light City. That's where Nack and his cronies are heading next."
"Thanks for the help, dude," Knuckles said, putting the radio away.
"Who was that?" Tails asked.
"Charmy, I think," the red echidna shrugged.
"Well, he does handle some of the technological stuff," Tails shrugged. "Makes sense."
"Or he was just closest to the radio at the time," Sonic smirked.
"Also a possibility," Tails said.
Knuckles frowned before speaking. "I just had a thought..."
"That's never a good thing," Shadow teased.
Knuckles ignored that. "My thought is, isn't this a bad idea? Like Tails said earlier, the police forces of the individual cities don't like it when others cross over."
"Like we give a shit," Sonic answered. "Nack was our case first. If Star Light's got an issue with that, then they can take it up with Avery."
"As much as I like him, I don't think he'd be able to protect us if we get caught out," Tails said. "Especially with that call for backup."
"It feels like twice the amount now," Sonic replied. "I wonder if Bunnie and Antoine had as much success asking for help as we did..."
"Who knows?" Knuckles shrugged. "Whatever the case, let's hope they get here in time... we're going to need all the help we can get."
Meanwhile, just entering Star Light City...
"All right, we've lost the cops by now," said a human as he drove the truck.
Nack nodded. "Good." He turned to the back of the truck. "How are the girls doing?"
"They're still out, boss," replied the other human.
The purple weasel smiled. "You know, I never did find out your names."
"And you never will," replied the first human. "Sorry, boss, but we like our anonymity."
"And besides, you don't pay us to talk much," the other replied as they approached a turn past a park, choosing to go left. "So, where do we go now that we're in the city?"
"I've got a warehouse set up by a friend of mine near the pier," replied Nack. "We can hang out there for a while until this shit with the cops dies down."
"What if some of the cops in this city know that we're here?"
"We only had those three idiots following us," Nack said. "It's unlikely that they brought much backup with them."
The human nodded, remaining silent as the drive continued to the warehouse. The garage to the front of it opened, and they drove in, parking the large black truck to the side before stopping and killing the engine.
Unlike most warehouses, this one wasn't as large as most others, as it was once a warehouse/shop combo, where one could buy things for pretty low prices. It had a watchtower in the middle with an elevator and stairs that led up to the crow's nest, and what was a cafe on a high platform with stairs that led up to it was now barren and empty, with most of the perfect white paint chipped, and the metal that held the railings to the side had rusted over time.
"You've got to feel sorry for the poor schmucks who lost their jobs at this place," said the first human.
"I don't. It's what they get for letting Nack by them out," the second human smirked. "And besides, it gives us more room to move around. That Chinese restaurant doesn't have a patch on this place."
Nack turned to face the humans, somewhat thankful that they hadn't moved away from the truck yet. "Did you grab all of the girls?"
"There's only four of them, boss. We got them all."
"Good. Take them to the beds and leave them to sleep." He reached into his seat of the truck and grabbed the briefcases containing the money and Fokus. "We've got work to do."
"Where do we start?"
"We start with hiding for now. We try to find some good contacts in the city," Nack said.
"You might not find much. Star Light's a lot friendlier than most other places when it comes to crime."
"Then let's make it a lot unfriendlier," Nack grinned. "We start with the girls. So, get them to bed."
"All right, fine," said the humans in unison.
They both walked around to the back of the truck, opening the doors up and peeking inside to see the girls sleeping. Along with the pink hedgehog and white bat, they also had a female red fox and a pink-furred echidna with some metallic dreadlocks, as well as her left arm being metallic.
"Hard to believe we've even got an enhanced hooker back here," the first human said as he grabbed the echidna by the feet, carefully pulling her out of the van.
"Hey, there's a lot of stuff on the market when it comes to sex these days," the second human shrugged as he grabbed the echidna's arms, helping the other human drag her in midair to the beds.
"Be careful with her," Nack warned.
"We know, boss. We won't hurt her," one of the humans said.
Just approaching Star Light City...
"That was a lot more far away than I thought it'd be," Sonic said as the car stopped.
"Yeah, well, we're in the city," Knuckles said. "Now we just need to be careful, and we need to find where Nack went."
Tails looked at a nearby park, seeing some people there. "It's a bit late for them to be out here, isn't it?"
Sonic shrugged. "Low crime rate. They've got nothing to worry about." He opened his car door. "Come on. Let's go talk to them."
"How do you think they're going to take to cops from outside their city?" Knuckles asked as he killed the engine.
"Hopefully, with the sense of respect and courtesy that the local authoritative force deserves," Sonic grinned.
"Look at you, using the big words," Tails smirked as he closed his car door, also getting out.
"You're not the only one who reads, nerd," Sonic playfully teased. "All right, let's do this."
They all walked to the park, and saw a Mobian cat with orange fur playing around on his phone. He was wearing a large coat and some baggy jeans as it was cold out, with black boots covering his feet.
"Hello, sir," Sonic said.
The cat stopped his playing, smiling at the blue hedgehog. "Hi. Can I help you?"
Sonic nodded, pulling out his ID badge. "We're with Green Hill Police Department. We need information."
"Green Hill?" The cat chuckled. "You're a long way from home, dude."
"We gathered," Shadow mumbled.
"Well, just as long as you're aware. If Dingo finds out, he'll kick your asses out of the city in a heartbeat," the cat said.
Tails nodded. "We know about him."
"Oh yeah?" The cat looked the fox up and down. "When did you start this whole cop job?"
"This morning," Tails replied seriously.
The cat shook his head. "Ah... young bucks always start thinking that they're invincible..."
"You a cop, too?" Sonic asked.
"I am indeed," the cat replied. "And I've been a cop for a lot longer than this morning."
"Can we get to the point?" Shadow grunted.
"Easy, dude," Knuckles said to the black and red hedgehog.
Sonic sighed and turned to the cat. "We just need to know if you saw a large black truck around."
"I didn't really see anything," the cat said. "It's hard to see something like that in the darkness. All I know is that I heard a vehicle of some sort pass by earlier, and it was moving pretty fast. I couldn't make out what it was, though."
"Got a direction?" Tails asked.
"My best guess would probably be the pier. I remember the tyres screeching, so they could only turn one of two ways, and I know that they sure as heck didn't pass the long road outside the park."
"Thanks for your help," Sonic said. "Sorry if we seem a bit off. Been a long first day."
"If there's anything that you're off for, it's being in the wrong damn city," the cat shook his head. "Go on and get your bad guys."
"Thanks again," Sonic replied.
As they turned around, they saw a police car drive up. Since they were in Star Light City, the car had the main colours of the city's police department: dark green for the main body, with a light yellow stripe going along the side of it. The tyres looked the same as the G.H.P.D. tyres, but the logo was completely different. It had several stars forming a small circle which was inlaid into a pair of crossed swords, with the words "Star Light Police Department" written in a slanted style under the swords.
"I do like that logo," Knuckles whistled as the two cops got out of their car, wearing uniform similar to the ones that G.H.P.D. had, except with the initials S.L.P.D. that ran over the face of a star on contrast to the Green Hill's signature bear. Much like the Green Hill uniform, the logo was over the left breast of the uniform.
Sonic saw the cops, then turned his head to the cat from earlier. "Did you call for them?"
"I did not," the cat replied, standing from his bench and walking over to the cops. "Is something wrong?"
"Yeah, we heard that there's been some disturbance around here not long ago," said the first cop, a male wolf with black fur.
The cat chuckled. "That would have to do with our new friends!" he said, pointing to Sonic as group. "They weren't the cause of the noise, but they're hoping to prevent any more of it."
"I ain't seen you two around these parts much," the other cop drawled, a caiman with brown scales.
"That's because we're not from around these parts," Sonic said, pulling out his badge, as did the other three on his side. "We're from Green Hill."
"They're fresh out of the academy," the cat added.
"If you ain't from around these parts normally, then you have no business being here at all," said the caiman.
"Not this shit again..." Shadow muttered under his breath.
"Look, we're on a case, and it led us here," Sonic said. "We just want to take care of it, then we'll be out of your hair." He turned to the caiman. "Or scales, in your case."
The wolf spoke. "Got a lead?"
"Yeah. Kitty cat here says that they went down to the pier," replied Knuckles.
Sonic then grinned. "Look, I know that it's against the rules for cops to cross over into other jurisdictions, but we could use the help. We've tried catching these guys twice already, and both times we've just fallen short at the last moment."
The wolf shook his head. "Well, different city or not, rookie or not, a cop is a cop."
"You can't be serious?" the cat asked.
"I am serious." The wolf turned to Sonic. "We'll lead the way to the pier. You stay behind us."
"No argument here," the blue hedgehog shrugged.
The Star Light cops got into their car, with the cat joining them, and started it up. They didn't turn the siren on since they didn't want to alert the bad guys of their presence. Behind them, Knuckles started up his own car as his friends joined him.
"Should I cancel that backup call now that we have these guys helping us out?" Knuckles asked.
Sonic shook his head. "Nah. It's quite a drive from Green Hill to Star Light. And besides, if they turn up, they turn up. They'll show soon."
"All right, we're hauling out, boys!" said the caiman from the Star Light car.
"You lead, we'll follow!" Sonic called back.
The police car then started driving forward, turning left towards a wide alleyway. They kept following this path until they reached the pier that the cat was talking about. The pier itself was huge, with many boats tied up to it, all of which were not being used as it was still rather late at night.
The cars continued on the path of the pier until they saw a large warehouse up ahead. They carefully continued to move forward, and instead of parking outside, they stopped and turned to hide their cars behind a large boathouse nearby the entrance of the warehouse.
Both groups got out of their respective cars, and the Star Light police led the way, with Sonic and his crew hanging back as they followed. They made it around to the front door of the warehouse, which was a metal one they had to lift up. Knuckles lifted it with ease, but was careful not to make too much noise. As he held it, the others made it under and went through, with Knuckles following them soon, carefully lowering the door in the hopes of making as little noise as possible.
"That was close..." Knuckles whispered.
Sonic nodded. "No shit," he whispered back, before turning to the wolf. "Want to split up?"
The wolf nodded. "Me and my guys will go around the right and to the back. You guys check out the left side."
"We'll meet back up around the back if we can't find anything," Tails said.
With that, the groups separated, with Sonic leading his group through the left side of the warehouse. As they passed, they caught the two humans leaning against a shelf in the middle of an aisle, with one of them smoking a cigarette. Quickly, Sonic and the others ducked behind the shelf closest to them.
"So, do you think Nack will have to come up with a new plan now that he's in a new city?" one human asked, the one with the smoke in their lips.
"It might take him a while, but he can make it up," the other replied.
"This is different, though. When it came to Green Hill, he had a plan because he knew he was going to get caught back at Marble Stone City. This one is a little bit more impromptu."
"Let's just hope he comes up with something quick. We're the only guys with him right now. We need to watch our backs."
As he said that, Sonic nodded to his group to move, and they pressed on as quietly as they could manage, moving across to the other shelf to hide behind there. Unfortunately, as he was moving the fastest, Sonic's shoe scuffed the floor, emitting an accidental squeaking noise.
"The hell was that?" asked the first human, throwing his cigarette down and crushing it under his boot.
"Fuck..." the blue hedgehog whispered under his breath.
"Who's there?" the human said, pulling his gun out as he moved forward. His friend followed suit.
"Stay back and wait here..." Sonic said, putting his gun behind him in his jeans as he stood up. "When I give the signal, you guys come out and shoot, got it?"
"What the hell are you doing?" Knuckles asked.
Sonic smirked. "Surrendering."
He then sighed and raised his hands up so that they were at level with his head, the palms facing outwards as he stepped out from behind the shelf to reveal himself to the humans, who both held their guns up at him.
"If you don't leave right now, then the next thing you're going to hear is this gun being fired," threatened one of the humans as he pulled the hammer back, cocking his weapon.
"There's no need," Sonic said. "I surrender."
"Prove it." The other human said. "Gun. Now."
Sonic sighed, reaching behind his back to pull the gun from his jeans. He placed it on the floor. "Better?"
"Kick it over here."
"Why don't you come and get it?" Sonic asked. "You're going to kill me anyways, right? What difference does it make?"
"Kick the gun over now!" the human said. "You hear me?"
Sonic nodded. "I heard you. You said... NOW!"
With that, he dove back, allowing Tails, Knuckles, and Shadow to come out from behind the shelf and get in front of Sonic. Before the humans could suspect anything, the three Mobians fired at the humans, hitting them all straight in the chest, causing them to fall back.
"Huh. That was close," Sonic said, walking over to pick his gun up.
"That was a really, really dumb plan," Shadow said.
"Hey, it worked, didn't it?" Sonic shook his head. "Let's try to find Nack."
The others followed as the cobalt hedgehog walked forward, leading the way. As they were walking, however, Shadow noticed something. He stopped in his path, then looked down at the humans that they had felled earlier.
"What are you waiting for?" Knuckles asked, walking over to grab his friend's arm. "We've got to go!"
Shadow held a finger up as he shrugged off the echidna's grip. "Didn't you find it strange that no blood flew from them when we shot them?"
"I hadn't noticed," Knuckles shrugged. "It's pretty dark in here."
"Armour?" Sonic asked.
Before Shadow could reply, he felt something grab his leg. He looked down to see one of the humans pulling and twisting on Shadow's ankle, causing him to fall down. Knuckles tried to move and help his friend, but his own feet were stuck in place.
"These guys sure do have a strong grip!" Knuckles said as he tried to move his feet to no avail.
Sonic started moving over, but Shadow shook his head. "You go on with Tails! We'll take care of these two!"
"You better not die on me!" Sonic replied as he rushed off, Tails following behind.
The humans let go of the Mobians, and stared them down as they engaged in fighting stances. Knuckles focused on his human, dodging a jab that came his way, then defending a lunging hook to his body. As he went to strike back with a kick to the human's torso, he was suddenly rushed and tackled to the ground, the human raining down fists on the echidna's face, which he barely blocked. Even then, they still hurt like hell.
"What does Nack feed you guys?" Knuckles asked as he kept getting hit.
"What's it matter to you?"
The red echidna struggled and reached his hands under his foe's armpits, sitting up and locking their elbows briefly before using the leverage to stand up. Since their faces were so close, Knuckles quickly moved his head back, then snapped it forward, head-butting the human, hitting right on the nose.
The human backed away, wiping some blood from his nose. Between the two, he was much more dazed, although Knuckles' own head throbbed dully from the clash. The human charged forward once more, but was met with a knee directly on the chin, causing him to fall flat on his face and knocking him unconscious.
Knuckles shook his head. "Strong arms, but a glass jaw... I guess you're not as enhanced as we thought you were."
He then turned to see Shadow clinched against the nearest shelf as his opponent landed several hard punches on the black and red hedgehog's body. Knuckles started moving to help his friend, but the rush forward caused the pain of the earlier head-butt to storm in on him.
"Ooh... that doesn't feel good..." he said, holding his noggin.
Shadow, still in trouble, tried something risky. As he was getting punched, he reached his hand down to stop the next fist from connecting before using what little momentum he had to push the human away. He then placed one leg over the humans arm before jumping and spinning around, catching him in an arm-bar. Without mercy, he pulled hard on the arm, causing a popping sound, closely followed by a groan of agony from the human.
"Good work," Knuckles smiled as his friend stood up.
"That arm was hard to snap," Shadow said. "Looks like his enhancements made it a bit tougher."
"Hey, their bones can still break. That's got to be good for something," Knuckles shrugged.
"You think you won just because we're down?" said the human, kneeling up as he held his limp arm. "It ain't over yet..."
Shadow sighed. "As long as your mouth gets shut, I'll consider that a small victory." He then kicked the human hard across the face, knocking him out cold and causing him to fall sleepily to the ground.
"Let's go help the others," said Knuckles.
Sonic and Tails had managed to get a fair distance into the shop, and were hiding behind some shelves they came across. They peeked around, not seeing Nack at the ground level. They started moving closer, then saw the group of Star Light cops coming around from the back.
Without speaking, the wolf gestured to himself and his group to go up to deal with Nack, then pointed at Sonic and Tails to a place that neither could see too well. Regardless, the two nodded, and the plan went on.
Carefully, as the Star Light group made their way up the steps to the cafe where they saw Nack, Sonic and Tails made a beeline for the place the wolf had pointed. Once there, they saw several Mobian girls sleeping.
Sonic looked over the pink hedgehog one, and she started to stir. She slowly opened her eyes, coming directly into contact with Sonic's face. She was about to scream, but the blue hedgehog quickly put a hand over her mouth.
"Shh... we're here to help you..." he said. "My name's Sonic. The fox is Tails. We're with Green Hill Police Department." He then removed his hand, thankful that the female hedgehog didn't take the chance to cry out. He pulled out his badge as proof, then put it back. "We're the good guys. You can trust us." He held a hand to help her up. "What's your name?"
"Amy..." she said. "So, we're in some creepy warehouse in Green Hill?" she asked.
"We're actually in Star Light," Tails pointed out. "But it's a really long story that we don't have time for right now." He then looks over the white bat. "Wait... Rouge?"
Sonic's ears perked up. "Shit, really?"
Tails nodded. "Yep. It's her."
"Who is Rouge?" asked Amy.
"A former friend of one of our cops," Sonic answered.
Amy smiled. "How long have you been doing this?"
"Give us five hours, and it will have officially been an entire day," Tails said as Rouge stirred.
Before the pink hedgehog could speak, Shadow and Knuckles managed to make it over. "Hey. You okay?" Knuckles asked Amy.
"I'm fine."
"Knuckles and Shadow, this is Amy. Amy, Shadow and Knuckles," Sonic introduced.
Shadow nodded in greeting before walking over to Tails, looking and seeing Rouge. "Is that..."
"Yes it is," Tails replied. "You going to be okay rescuing her?"
"I'll live..." Shadow grunted.
With that, the other two woke up. The purple echidna was first, and she shook her head. "What... where am I?"
"You're in a creepy-ass warehouse," Knuckles said. "We're cops, here to save you."
The red fox next to her also arose. As she opened her eyes, she saw Knuckles showing his badge to the purple echidna, whose name the fox herself found out to be Julie-Su. They were both kidnapped after bumping into each other by accident at a fast food place, being captured as they were leaving.
"You okay, Julie-Su?" the fox asked.
The purple echidna nodded. "I'll be fine, Fiona..."
Rouge finally started to wake up. Her eyes cracked open, and she saw Shadow and Tails stood over her. Her weariness turned to delighted shock as she saw the black and red hedgehog, and she sat up.
"Well, well, well... if it ain't my old partner in crime..." she grinned, then seeing Tails. "And fox boy... you've grown so much over the months. How long has it been?"
"We'll have to save the chit-chat for later," Tails said. "Right now, we've got to get you out of here. Backup's on the way."
"Backup?" Rouge said. "Oh, yeah. It feels like yesterday that Shadow was telling me he was signing up for the academy. How'd it go?"
"Well, we've been doing this for about a day now. Surprisingly, it's not too bad," Tails shrugged.
"Much as I'd love to stay behind and talk," Sonic said, "we've got to get a move on."
"Should we help the Star Light guys?" asked Knuckles.
Sonic shook his head. "They're three veteran cops against some Pablo Escobar wannabe. I think we have the advantage."
Shadow then spoke. "How about two of us go up and help, and the others get the girls out of here?"
"Aw, you're leaving me behind?" Rouge smirked.
Sonic grinned. "Not quite. Knuckles, you're with me. Tails, Shadow, you get the ladies out of here. Got it?"
"You're the boss," Tails said, turning to the girls. "Can you all walk okay?"
Amy nodded. "I never thought I'd jump at the chance to be awake this late at night," she chuckled.
"All right, let's get you out of here," Shadow said.
"Want to hold my hand?" Rouge spoke.
Shadow ignored the white bat's teasing, and the group began moving away, being quiet as they made their way back to the entrance of the warehouse, knowing that it was a decent distance away, but moving as quickly as they could.
As they moved, Sonic nodded at Knuckles, and the two went up the stairs to the cafe. They caught up with the cops from Star Light, who were all keeping a low profile, hiding behind a vending machine. Sonic and Knuckles hid in the closest one to them, nodding at the other police in a form of communication.
No other words needed to be spoken, so the two groups moved forward, forming as a unit as they approached Nack, who was on his phone and talking with somebody. He chuckled to himself as he flicked a lighter back and forth in his other hand.
"All right... we'll do the deal in three days. See you then." He then hung up, leaning over to write something in a small notebook. "All right, will whoever is behind me stop what they're doing?"
Sonic and the others all stood up, pointing their guns at Nack as the wolf spoke. "How about you stop what you're doing?"
Nack turned around, holding his hands up. "Nice comeback."
Knuckles grunted. "Look, just drop the phone and come with us, okay? Nobody needs to get hurt."
"What about my men? Did they need to get hurt?" Nack replied.
"They're breathing," Knuckles said. "Although, if I'd had my way, they wouldn't be."
The purple weasel grinned. "Looks like they put some good hurt on you before you beat them."
Sonic then spoke. "This doesn't have to drag on any longer. Drop your shit, and come with us."
Nack sighed and put his hands back down. "Here's the thing about cops," he started, pressing something into his phone. "You all have this sense of moral judgement and code all of the time, but when you have the bad guy cornered, you only give them the option of jail. Doesn't everybody deserve a fair shot?"
"Pushing prostitution, drugs, and selling out your own guys to avoid jail time?" Sonic chuckled. "Yeah. That sounds real fucking fair to me."
Nack chuckled then threw his phone down, and it landed directly between the caiman's feet as it started beeping. "How's this for fair; you have ten seconds before that phone explodes. That's my end of the deal held up, as I told you how much time you have left. In response, you give me a head start." He grinned darkly. "Ready... set... go..."
The phone's beeping rapidly sped up, and Sonic and the others dived away to avoid it, only to find out that it was a smoke bomb. It had a wide radius, and everyone had to keep from choking on the fumes of the smoke before the wolf spoke, his mouth covered.
"You and Knuckles go after him!"
Sonic then heard sirens from outside. "Those better be our guys!"
"We'll find out for you!" the cat said. "Get going!"
Sonic and Knuckles got up and dashed through the smoke, keeping their eyes covered as it started to dwindle down. They searched around for Nack before Knuckles spotted him from over the balcony, seeing him head for the back door.
Sonic and Knuckles ran down the stairs quickly and also went for the back door. They just managed to see Nack turn left as they came out of the door, and they ran after him in the hopes of catching up.
The two rounded the corner and stopped as they heard the sound of an engine. They moved faster still and found their way to the main part of the pier, just in time to see Nack placing the briefcases down before starting up a speedboat.
"Stop, Nack!" Sonic said. "That's enough!"
Nack turned around. "If you're going to stop me, then you'd better get to it!"
Before Sonic and Knuckles could answer, the two humans from earlier ran up behind them, knocking them down before jumping onto the boat with Nack. As the weasel started the boat up, he turned to Sonic.
"You should have taken your shot when you had it!"
With that, the boat zipped across the water quickly. Sonic and Knuckles put their guns back into their pockets as the blue hedgehog put his hands on either side of his head, glaring in anger as he watched the boat take off.
"Fuck..." he groaned.
Knuckles looked around. "Can't we take a boat and follow them?"
"No point," Sonic shrugged. "For one thing, they're too far away now. And for another, Nack likely had that one all planned out so that only he could use it." He then looked over at Knuckles. "So, what'd you find out while fighting those humans?"
"That the implants only got them so far," said the red echidna. "Shadow got one of their arms in a hold and snapped it."
Sonic cocked an eyebrow. "They looked fine to me when they barged past us."
Knuckles shrugged. "I guess maybe the implants patched them up quicker. Maybe that's how they got to here from where we left them so fast..."
"Anything's possible..." Sonic rubbed the back of his neck. "Come on. Let's get back to the entrance."
"Yeah."
The two turned and instead of going through the warehouse, they chose to go around it. It didn't take them long to reach their destination, and the flashing red and blue lights were a dead giveaway of who was around the corner.
"There you guys are," said Avery.
"Commander?" Sonic asked. "What are you doing way out here?"
"Yeah, shouldn't you be back at base?" Knuckles asked. "Or perhaps asleep?"
"I would be, but I did receive some news, and I thought it best to tell you personally," Avery replied.
"Do Tails and Shadow already know?" Sonic asked.
"They do. They didn't like it."
"Something tells me that we won't either," Knuckles muttered.
Avery frowned as he spoke. "Despite your work tonight of not just taking out most of Nack's goons and stopping his operations at the restaurant, but also stopping his plans at the warehouse and rescuing these girls, the fact is that you weren't in your own jurisdiction."
"With all due respect, it was our case regardless of where we were handling it," Sonic said.
The bear nodded, but continued. "You are expected to have a hearing in a few days at the Green Hill Municipal Court regarding your actions tonight."
"We're getting sued?" Knuckles asked.
"Not necessarily. The only real collateral damage that you caused was to the cars of Nack's henchmen, and we can pay that off easily due to how badly conditioned they were anyway. But... this does raise a lot of questions."
"We're sorry," Sonic said. "We were trying to do the right thing."
"I know." Avery placed a hand on Sonic's shoulder. "But you were doing it in the wrong place."
"What about the Star Light cops?" Knuckles asked. "Will they get into any trouble for helping us out?"
"Actually, since they're in their own city, they won't be tried at court."
Knuckles grunted. "Figures..."
"Are the girls okay?" Sonic asked.
"They'll be all right. We asked them some questions, and they all said that they were captured at least in the last day or so," Avery replied.
"Maybe Nack's getting desperate," replied Sonic. "He was in a rush with those briefcases, not to mention how quickly he's been kidnapping women already."
"And trying to push the Fokus," Knuckles added. "So, what's our next move?"
"Go home and get some rest," Avery smiled. "You all have earned it. You had a good first day, all things considered."
"Yeah... I hope Shade's not too pissed at me," the red echidna replied.
"You can find out when you get back to her," Sonic chuckled. He then separated from his friend to walk over to an ambulance where Amy was sat in the backseat, getting checked up on by a paramedic. "Everything okay?"
Amy nodded. "The doctor here's just checking on any traces left of morphine in my system. Apparently, that's what that weasel used to knock me out."
Sonic smiled. "So, you said to Avery that you weren't kidnapped that long ago?"
The pink hedgehog nodded. "Yeah. It was this morning. I was just on my way to the bus stop so that I could take the bus to work."
"What job you got?"
"I'm a kindergarten teacher at Little Hill Nursery School," Amy smiled. "I love seeing those kids each day."
"Sorry that you weren't there for them today," Sonic replied.
"Eh, it's not your fault," Amy smiled. "Thank you for saving me."
Sonic smiled back. "Do you remember anything else?"
The female hedgehog shook her head. "No. I was just leaving the cafe after getting some coffee there, then a few blocks down the line, I got dragged into an alleyway. Next thing I know, I'm waking up in some bed in an enclosed room and hearing somebody talking about selling me..." She shuddered at the thought. "Then, after that, all I remember is waking up in the warehouse."
"Do you have any friends you can stay with?"
"I live with my twin sister, Rosy," Amy said. She then looked down a bit. "Do I have to worry about that weasel any more?"
"His name's Nack," Sonic said. "And, for now, I don't think so. The last I saw of him, he was escaping on a damn speedboat."
"Aw... you saved the damsel in distress, but didn't stop the villain," Amy teased.
"Hey take it easy. It's my first day," Sonic grinned. "Anyway, our boys will take you back home. Have a safe trip, okay?"
"Thank you. And... thanks a lot..." Amy said.
"Don't mention it. Just doing my job. That I've had for one day..."
The admittance of that made Amy giggle a little bit. Sonic couldn't help but laugh back before seeing one of Green Hill's cops get into the front of the car to start driving, as the engine was already running.
Sonic tapped the back of the car as it went off, seeing Amy stick her hand out of the window and wave goodbye. Sonic couldn't help but wave back, and as soon as the car left for the highway, he looked over to see Shadow talking with Rouge.
"So, you're still the same strapping hedgehog as you ever were," the bat said.
Shadow couldn't stifle his grin, but quickly turned back to serious mode. "You okay?"
"I'll be fine, bad boy," Rouge smiled.
"I've got to ask, how do you keep smiling through all this? You do know that Nack was looking to sell your body, right?"
The white bat nodded. "I know. I just guess that I like putting a brave face on things."
"You know, a brave face is the worst bluff someone can make," Shadow said. "I know how tough you are, but you don't have to act like it all the time. And that's coming from me."
Rouge giggled. "I think this is the most you've ever spoken to me."
"Probably because you're not getting me into trouble with the law any more," Shadow grinned.
"It's obvious that you knew I was trouble from the start," Rouge replied. "And the other five or six times."
"Just promise me you'll stay out of trouble on your way back home, okay?"
"Are you taking me back?"
Shadow shook his head. "I'm heading back with Knuckles and the others in his car."
"Then what's the point of getting into trouble with some boring cop?"
The black and red hedgehog rolled his eyes, showing his badge. "I'm a boring cop now, so..." He smiled. "All right, you take care."
"Aw, don't I get a kiss? On the cheek, at least?" She playfully pouted before winking. "See you later, bad boy."
Shadow rolled his eyes as the car went off, taking Rouge with it. Since it started slow, she took the chance to blow a kiss at Shadow before putting her head back in the car, smiling to herself.
"So..." Sonic said as he approached his fellow hedgehog.
"I know." Shadow sighed as his shoulders sagged. "Trust me, I know."
"You didn't get to ask her much about the case, did you?"
"Not a whole lot. I just brought up Nack wanting to sell her out. I didn't ask where she was when she got kidnapped."
"Probably stealing some douche-bag's wallet," said Sonic. "Maybe one of those wallets belonged to one of the humans with Nack?"
"Whatever the answer, I'm sure that we'll find out soon enough."
It was then that Knuckles and Tails walked over, with the latter of the two speaking first. "How'd it go with Rouge and Amy?"
"Pretty well," Sonic nodded. "They took it pretty okay."
"What'd Fiona and Julie-Su say?" Shadow asked.
"Pretty much the same that they told us when we found them in the warehouse. They bumped into each other by accident, were walking out, then got taken."
"There's got to be more reason to Nack's actions than just wanting to sell the girls as hookers," Knuckles said.
"Let's sleep on it for now," Sonic said. "I'm so tired..."
Knuckles grinned, and turned with the others as Avery walked over to them, speaking. "For what it's worth, I think that you all did a good job tonight." He smiled. "And don't worry about Nack; we'll catch that son of a bitch soon enough..."
"Let's hope so," Sonic said. "Well, I guess we'll see you tomorrow, sir."
"I wanted to say that I'm sorry," Avery said. "If it were up to me, we wouldn't have such specific jurisdictions for the cities. Unfortunately, it's not up to me."
"It really doesn't matter that we were doing a good thing?" Tails asked.
"Afraid not..." the bear said. "Anyway, get going. I've kept you for long enough."
The four shook hands with their commander before he went off to a cop car. Knuckles led the way to his car, and Tails called the shotgun seat. After they were all seated, Knuckles started up the car, and his phone rang.
"I'll get it," Tails said. Knuckles handed the two-tailed fox the phone, and he answered it, turning on speaker mode. "Hey, Shade."
"Hi there, Tails," Shade replied.
"So, what are you doing up so late?"
"I... I was worried about Knuckles..."
Tails smiled. "He's fine. We all are."
Shade sighed, relieved. "How'd the first day go?"
"Not too bad," Sonic said from the backseat. "We didn't get injured too much."
"You, maybe," Knuckles said. "I got hit pretty bad, and I got glass stuck in my arm..."
"Shadow got some damage done, too," Tails pointed out.
"Anything else?" Shade asked.
"We managed to stop two possible operations of Nack's," Sonic said. "But he got away from us with a briefcase full of money and another one full of drugs."
"Besides that, it was a pretty good day," Knuckles added with a shrug.
"Well, as long as you're all okay, that's fine." Shade paused. "How much longer will you be?"
"Not too long. We're just now getting to the highway," Shadow said.
"Yeah... our chase led us out to Star Light City," Sonic added. "And, despite doing good work, we're going to be tried for what we did."
Shade sighed. "If I knew a good lawyer, I'd help you all out."
"I don't think we're allowed lawyers. Avery's got us covered," Sonic shrugged.
The orange echidna giggled. "Well, just get back safely, you hear?"
"We will," Knuckles said. "Don't wait up. I love you."
"I love you too," Shade said, hanging up.
"Aw..." Sonic, Shadow, and Tails teased.
"Yeah, yeah," Knuckles grinned. "Don't make those noises. I saw the way Sonic was talking to Amy."
"What?" Sonic smirked. "I got no idea what you're talking about."
"Come on, it's obvious that she likes you," Knuckles said. "Then there's Tails..."
"What, you're picking on me now?" the fox asked.
"We saw you making googly eyes at that Cosmo girl," Sonic said.
"Says the one who's got the hots for the pink lady," Shadow said.
"Hey, I said to knock-"
But the blue hedgehog's sentence was cut off. As they were driving down the highway and laughing about who was crushing on who, they didn't notice the crossing in the highway. They also didn't notice the huge pick-up truck coming at them from the left, its driver apparently not seeing what happened as his vehicle crashed headfirst into Knuckles' car.
So... yeah. I told you all that it'd be a big chapter :P Sorry for the long wait. I just wanted to make it worth it. I hope that you all enjoy it, and I will see you all next time. Take care, and stay tuned.