The clock beeped, and a pair of jade green eyes turned to their left, seeing that it read 7:30 am on the alarm clock. Tiredly, she reached over to turn the clock off before curling back up under her bed, turning to her right again.

As she did, however, she barely saw a pair of green eyes that matched her own looking at her. Doing a double take, Amy opened her eyes and almost jumped out of her skin, scooting back on the bed.

"Dammit, Rosy..." Amy said. "You know you shouldn't scare me like that in the morning!"

Rosy chuckled as she climbed off the bed. "Come on, it's just a harmless morning prank, is all. I wanted to make sure my baby sister is awake."

"Your baby sister by two minutes?" Amy said sleepily.

"The very same!" Rosy then pulled the covers away from Amy, leaving her in her red bra and panties. "Come on, wake up!"

"I'm awake!" Amy said. "I'll be on time for work, anyway."

"What about on time for your prescription?" Rosy replied.

"The pharmacy is on the way there," Amy answered. "It won't take long."

"Well, just as long as you're careful," Rosy said. "You have to remember that I stayed up late, worried sick about my baby sister."

"I remember..." Amy said. "But by the time that I got back, all that you did was smile at me before falling asleep on the couch."

"I was tired..." Rosy pitifully defended.

Amy chuckled and got out of her bed. "You're not the one who was kidnapped by some creep and almost pawned off to some other creep."

"Wait, they tried to what?" Rosy asked.

"They tried to sell me as part of some sex ring," Amy said. "None of them did anything to me. The cops got in their way before they could actually... well, do anything."

"You know, you never mentioned the cops themselves," Rosy replied.

"How about I tell you more about them as you wait outside for me to get dressed?"

The older pink hedgehog pouted briefly before turning around and leaving Amy's bedroom. She closed the door behind her, but kept her back to it as Amy got dressed, looking idly at her nails before speaking.

"So, what were the cops like?"

"They were pretty cool," Amy said. "They were rookies, believe it or not."

"Really?" Rosy asked as she heard her sister rummaging for clothes to wear.

"Yeah." Amy chuckled. "You know, if they hadn't told me that, I would have honestly believed that they were around for a lot longer."

"They were that good, eh?"

"Better than good," Amy said.

Rosy smiled. "Were there any other girls kidnapped?"

"A white bat, a purple echidna with some metal in her hair, and a red fox," Amy replied. "I have no clue who any of them are. Hopefully if I bump into one of them, we could actually become friends."

"Aw... my baby sister is connecting with people," Rosy said, wiping a fake tear from her eye.

"Speaking of connecting, one of the cops was actually pretty cool," Amy said.

"Oh, really? Does he have a name?"

"Sonic," Amy said. "He's a blue hedgehog. I don't know too much about him, but he seems pretty cool."

"I'm sure he does, considering that he saved your life," Rosy replied. "I do wonder how you're going to repay him..."

It was then that Amy opened the door, dressed in a white t-shirt with a pink floral design across the midriff, some skinny blue jeans, and a tan leather jacket in case she needed it. She was just fixing a dark silver digital watch onto her left wrist.

The younger of the two pink hedgehog sisters then spoke. "I already thanked him last night, and not in the way that you're thinking. I just said thanks, we talked, and that was it."

"Oh, you talked? So, he didn't ask you out or anything?" Rosy smiled. "I've heard that there's this Chinese restaurant that makes really good ribs."

"Knock it off," Amy said, shaking her head as she went down the stairs.

Rosy followed her sister. "Hey, we both know it's been a while since you've had a man to look after you."

"I'm not going to take relationship advice from somebody who can't keep a man for longer than a week," Amy retorted.

"That's a little harsh," Rosy said, feigning being hurt. "At least one of those was a week and a half, and you know it. You're only 21, so it's not like you don't have to wait for true love." She then chuckled. "And besides, maybe it's not a relationship you need."

"Oh, not this again..." Amy mumbled under her breath.

"Come on," Rosy said. "A trip to the bar, a hot guy, a crazy night to loosen you up a little. That's all I'm saying."

"And you're saying it knowing what I went through last night," Amy spoke, a bit harsher than she had intended. "I was kidnapped, and drugged, and almost sold off to be somebody's sex slave, and the words that you're saying aren't helping me in the slightest, so could you please let it go?"

Rosy nodded, taking a breath. "All right, I'm sorry."

"Thank you," Amy said.

"One more quick question, though..."

The younger pink hedgehog sighed. "Shoot."

"How cute is this Sonic guy?"

Amy couldn't hide a smirk. "In all honesty, he's kinda cute. Got nice eyes, his fur colour looks pretty cool, and I couldn't tell much from his clothes, but he seemed rather chiselled."

"Does he have any friends?"

"You said one more quick question," Amy said, rolling her eyes.

Rosy shrugged. "Humour me."

"Yeah. A two-tailed fox named Tails, a red echidna named Knuckles, and a black and red hedgehog named Shadow."

"Tails?" asked Rosy. "That's a pretty funny name. I'll bet he's as fluffy as he sounds."

"Yes, because I was aiming for him to sound fluffy," Amy smirked.

Rosy shrugged. "Hey, fluffy is cute. If things don't work with blue boy, maybe you could try his friends out instead."

"And this is where I'm ending this conversation," Amy said, suddenly turning her head when the toaster popped.

Rosy smiled. "I knew you were getting up earlier than normal, so I set you some breakfast up. That reminds me, the coffee should be about ready for you."

The younger hedgehog sister sighed, not able to hide her smile as she walked into the kitchen. "You know, sometimes I have trouble deciding if you're the worst sister ever or the best sister ever."

"It's obvious that I'm the latter of those two examples," Rosy winked as she followed her sister. She went over to the fridge. "Want anything with your toast?"

"Could I have some raspberry jam?" Amy asked.

Rosy grabbed the jar of the substance, opening it and handing it to Amy as the younger hedgehog grabbed a knife from a drawer. She spread the jam on the toast before placing it on a small plate, sitting down at the table.

"Could you sort my coffee out for me?" Amy asked, feeling a bit dumb about forgetting to sort it.

"See?" Rosy asked pointedly as she reached the coffee pot. "Best sister ever."

"You'll fully earn that title if you can remember how I like it," Amy smiled.

Rosy shrugged as she grabbed a thermos to pour the coffee in, speaking out as she made it. "Let's see... just the right amount of milk, one sugar, and some cream to mix it all up."

The younger of the two sisters smiled as her older sister brought the thermos over to her. "You got lucky."

"I've been getting lucky at making your coffee for the last four years," Rosy chuckled. "Now, hurry up and finish your grub, okay? The sooner you get your prescription, the better."

Amy soon finished eating her toast before standing up. "You know, I still don't quite understand how I got the heart condition between us two. Our parents never did anything bad while mum was pregnant with us, and you turned out completely fine."

Rosy shrugged. "I don't really know how to answer it. But as long as you're still alive today, that's all that should matter."

Amy smiled and hugged her sister. "Aw... you really are the best sister ever..." she said.

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Rosy replied as she hugged back, before letting go. "Go get your drugs before your heart beats so fast that it explodes."

Amy nodded, grabbing her coffee on the way out. She quickly grabbed her shoes, which were a pair of dark red slip-on pumps, and then her brown leather bag before opening the door, stepping outside.

"I'll see you later!" Amy called out.

"Have fun at work!" Rosy replied.

And with that, Amy shut the door, smiling to herself. She fished her purse from her bag as she made it over to the bus stop down the road from her house. On cue, the right bus showed up. While it did have a destination for somewhere else, the pharmacy and school she that worked at were on the way there, so she knew that she didn't have to worry.

Soon, the bus reached the desired destination, and Amy hit the stop button. The bus slowed to a stop at the next bus stop, and Amy thanked the driver as she hopped off. She then began walking to the pharmacy, opening the doors and walking in.

"Hey, Amy," said a friendly female voice from behind the counter.

"Hey there, Vanilla," Amy replied, smiling.

"Here for the usual stuff?"

Amy nodded. "Please."

Vanilla went to the back room, searching around the shelves before finding the box she was looking for. She found the medicines labelled diltiazem, verapamil, and metoprolol. She put them in a small paper bag and walked back out to Amy, handing it to her along with a slip of paper and a pen to sign for the prescription.

"All right... all done," Amy said, smiling as she handed the pen and paper back to Vanilla. "Thank you for the help."

Vanilla smiled. "You've been coming here practically your entire life. It's the least I could do."

Amy nodded, grabbing the bag of medication. "I know, and I appreciate it. Anyway, I'd better get to school. Take care."

"You too!" Vanilla replied.

Amy exited the pharmacy before taking a deep breath. She placed her hand over her chest and noted that her heart rate was starting to speed up. Quickly, Amy found a bench to sit down on before grabbing the boxes out of the medicine bag.

"Two of each, once every morning, afternoon, and just before bed..." Amy said, grabbing the coffee thermos from her bag. She opened the boxes of medicine, taking two of each out of each of the packets before placing them in her hand. She took the diltiazem first, swallowing the pills down dry before doing the same with the other two sets of pills.

"Man... tachycardia can be a bitch sometimes..." she said to herself as she stood up.

She then walked down the road from the pharmacy to a crossing. She pressed the button on the traffic pole, and waited patiently for the cars to stop. The traffic was busy this morning, but they did stop, allowing her to pass and cross over.

When she made it to the other side of the road, she moved up and around the corner, following along a dark green painted fence which had a bush going alongside it. It didn't take long for Amy to reach the main gate, entering through it and going into the school.

"Well, it's time to start the day," she smiled to herself.

At Green Hill Hospital...

Just outside the hospital, a police car was pulling up to the front parking lot, not having to search too hard to find a place to park. After they stopped, the inhabitants of the car looked around to see at least one more police car there.

Avery was the first to get out of his car, followed by Simian, Lupe, and finally, Ash. As Avery reached back into the car to grab a big bag out, the others looked over to the other car to see Nicole, Espio, Antoine, and Bunnie exiting from it, the other car having been driven by Espio.

"So, here are the rookies, eh?" Espio said.

"You should have seen them..." replied Bunnie. "I never knew that anyone could look so damaged before."

"It could have been a lot worse," said Antoine. "The people that hit them could still be living, and possibly walking free."

"They were drunk out of their minds, man," said Ash. "The lab results showed that they didn't have any control over their actions at all."

"They didn't show anything else?" asked Lupe.

"Nope. Just the alcohol," replied Ash, shrugging. "Apparently, that's all that it took."

"Regardless, I think that we should go inside now," said Avery.

"Right," Simian added on. "I just hope that they're all okay after last night."

It was then that another car made its way to the parking lot, causing the group to stop and turn around. They saw another police vehicle stop and park itself, and Shade and Maria walked out of the back of the car.

"Ah, I see the cars that we sent reached you," said Antoine.

"They did," Shade smiled. "Thank you very much for your help."

"Yes... we appreciate it..." Maria said softly.

"No problem," replied Avery. "I am commander Avery. It's nice to meet you both, but we can't delay any longer."

"He's right," said Nicole. "We need to go check on our boys."

"No arguments here," Shade said.

Without any further words, they all went through the doors of the hospital, heading straight for the front desk. One of the people working there guided them to the recovery wing, and soon they had reached their destination, seeing the fallen officers in their beds.

Shade didn't waste any time, making a move for Knuckles. She was worried sick about him, and could barely sleep. She made her way past the others, and looked to see Knuckles in his bed, surprise to see that he... sat up.

"Kn-Knuckles?" Shade asked.

The red echidna turned to his girlfriend. "Oh, hey, babe." He reached a hand to rub his head. "How long was I out?"

"About four and a half hours," a doctor replied.

Espio appeared confused. "Aren't you supposed to be bedridden and seriously injured?"

"We all are supposed to be," said Sonic, also sitting up, causing the group to look over at him. "In all honesty, I feel fine. A little throbbing in my legs here and there, but I'm sure that it'll pass."

Maria walked over to Shadow's bed, seeing him not sat up, but blinking his eyes open. He turned to face Maria and smiled, leaning up on his elbows to be greeted by a brief hug from the blonde woman.

"Well... somebody missed me..." Shadow playfully teased.

"You... you're alive..." Maria replied as she pulled back from the hug. "Last night... you... you were..."

"Close to bleeding out," a doctor said, finishing the girl's sentence for her.

Maria nodded. "Yes, that." She then gestured to his chest.

Shadow looked down to see the scar that ran across it, reaching a hand up to touch it. "My... chest... it feels different..."

"So does my spine..." replied Tails, sitting up and rubbing his back. "What the hell happened last night, anyway?"

"A pretty bad car crash," said Simian.

Shade then looked over Knuckles' face. "Your... your face..."

"I know, I know... still as ruggedly handsome as ever..." the echidna replied with a smirk.

"No, it's not that..."

The head doctor then butted in. "That's a result of our new and improved medicinal paste. It heals cuts much faster, reduces pain, nullifies swelling, gets rid of throbbing... pretty much all the good stuff."

"Is that why my back feels weird?" Tails asked.

"Actually, that's for an entirely different reason altogether," the doctor replied.

"Uh-oh..." Knuckles said, not able to hide his gulp.

"I'm the head surgeon here," the doctor said. "And me and my team worked on all four of you at once. After the car crash, you were all badly damaged, but each of you had something that was more damaged than the rest of you. For Tails, it was his spine. For Knuckles, it was his hands. For Shadow, it was his chest. And for Sonic, it was his legs."

"Did anything bad happen during the surgery?" asked Maria, worried.

"There were some close calls," the surgeon said, "but we managed to keep it all under control. Sonic, who was the last person we operated on, was probably the biggest worry when we were patching him up."

Sonic sighed. "While I appreciate the concern, that still doesn't completely answer Tails' question."

The doctor nodded and sighed. "Well, to help along with the surgery, we had to give you all implants..."

"Implants, huh?" Knuckles said. "Shadow's chest still looks flat to me."

The doctor chuckled at that. "That's not exactly what I meant, but good one."

"Thank you."

"What we meant is that we had to insert cybernetic implants inside you all to speed the recovery process along. With all implants, it does depend on how compatible they are with a person, and it's the reason why your more damaged body parts feel different; Shadow's chest, Tails' spine, Knuckles hands, and Sonic's legs."

"So, I'm part robot?" Knuckles asked.

"In the loosest sense of the phrase, but... I suppose so," the doctor said.

"You know, you're taking this surprisingly well," said Shade to her boyfriend.

"I don't know what it is, but I just feel really good," Knuckles shrugged, looking to his friends. "What about you guys?"

"Yeah, I don't feel too bad myself," Sonic said. "I kind of want to put these new legs to use."

"They're the same legs," Ash said. "Just with implants now."

"Eh, same difference," Sonic smiled.

The surgeon then chuckled. "You know, if you want to walk free, then you can."

"Seriously?" Tails asked. "Not to sound like I'm going against you, but doesn't stuff like this usually require a long while of rehabilitation and physiotherapy to help us move around easier?"

The doctor grinned, walking over to remove the IV tube that was connected to Tails. "Stand up and see for yourself."

Reluctantly, Tails carefully moved his legs over the side of the hospital bed, landing on the ground. With a push, he stood straight up. He held his arms out to keep his balance lest he fall over, but then he started to take a couple of steps forward, surprised at how easily his feet were moving.

Sonic smiled. "I guess that answers our question."

The surgeon nodded in response and walked to the other three, unhooking them from their machines before they all stood up, testing their walking ability as Tails did before all four smiled and joined in a group hug in the centre of the room.

"Looks like we're all all right," said Knuckles as the hug stopped.

Sonic smiled. "It's so hard to believe, man. After not even a full day as cops, we almost get killed by the end of it. And then we wake up, and... everything feels fine."

"Yeah, but... you know it's not all fine, right?" said Shadow.

"I forgot, we got the trial soon," Sonic said.

"It's not for two days," said Simian. "There's no need to worry about it right now."

"So, we can go right back to work?" asked Tails.

"Kind of," said Avery. "You are able to go out in the field, but you'll mostly be surveillance for missions."

"How come?" Knuckles asked.

"The court doesn't trust you to run a field op on your own," Simian shrugged. "Their words, I'm afraid."

"I never thought I'd say this," Sonic said, "but fuck the law, man."

Avery chuckled. "That might be the first time I've ever heard a cop say that and quite possibly mean it at the same time."

"So, what do we do now?" asked Tails.

"For now, we just need to head back to the station," said Avery. "But not before you all get changed..."

It was then that the bear opened the large bag that he was carrying. In it were four individual plastic bags containing clothes for the four. Each one was labelled, and the four went behind their curtains to get dressed back up.

After they were all done, they walked out. Sonic was first to walk out, wearing a black tank top with grey around the sleeves and collar, blue jeans, and black boots. Tails was next, wearing a sleeveless red hoodie over a teal blue t-shirt with a robotic design on it, with cargo shorts and white and grey shoes completing his look. Knuckles was next up, wearing a long sleeved black shirt with a dark blue design of an eagle's wing going across the right side to the front of the shirt, and green camouflage jeans with black shoes finished the look. Lastly was Shadow, who wore a dark red button up shirt with the sleeves rolled up to just under his elbows, and he was wearing a white vest under that. To finish it was a simple pair of black lounge pants and some white sports shoes.

"I don't know if I'm more relieved to be wearing my clothes," Knuckles stated, "or a bit crept out that the people I work for literally scoured through my house to get my clothes."

"It was actually me that sorted your clothes out," Shade said. "I just put them in the bag for Avery, as he already had everyone else sorted."

"I did the same for Shadow..." Maria said quietly.

The black and red hedgehog smiled. "Thank you, Maria."

"You're welcome..." the blonde woman replied.

"Well, how about we get back to the police department?" asked Knuckles.

"We have a silver and blue taxi waiting outside for you," Espio chuckled.

"Sweet. Those are my favourite kinds of taxis," the red echidna replied.

"Thank you for helping us, doc," Sonic said. "We quite literally wouldn't be here if not for you."

"It was no issue," the doctor replied. "Just look after yourselves. I'd hate to have to deal with you twice in one week."

"Aw, come on, now. We're not that much trouble, are we?" Sonic grinned. "Take care."

"You too," the doctor said, waving them off.

The group of police officers then moved to leave the hospital, exiting through the entrance doors and finding their way to the police cars. Maria and Shade had to get into a separate one from the others since they were being dropped off back home.

The other police cars there had the officers inside them, and they wasted no time in making a move for the police station. Since Sonic and his friends were in the same car, they started speaking to each other on the way there.

"I just wonder what happened to my own car?" Knuckles asked himself.

"Given the amount of apparent damage done to us from it, I'd say it's pretty badly damaged," Tails shrugged.

Sonic then smiled. "As long as you don't bother with Gear Steers for a repair on it, you should be good."

"Do you think that our station has a car impound?" Knuckles asked.

"That I doubt," Sonic asked. "I am curious about their holding cells, though..."

"We'll have to ask Avery all this when we stop at the station," Shadow said.

"You'd think that we would have found that out at the academy," Tails shrugged.

The others murmured in agreement as the rest of the drive carried on. Soon, they had reached the station, and caught up with the car that led them there. They all exited their vehicle, looking to see Avery doing the same.

Tails rushed over. "Sir, may I ask you a quick question?"

"I suppose so," Avery replied. "What do you want to know?"

"I was wondering, does this place have holding cells?"

"It does, but it's not a prison if that's what you're getting at."

Tails smiled. "Good to know. But where do they go when they're not... well, here?"

"Green Hill State Penitentiary," replied Ash. "It's a few blocks to the left of here."

"Don't you usually prepare your presentations with shiny pictures on a computer screen?" Knuckles asked.

"Eh, nothing wrong with throwing my hat into the ring," Ash shrugged.

"Speaking of hats," Knuckles said, "does the station have an impound lot?"

"What the hell does that have to do with hats?" Sonic asked, shaking his head.

Avery smiled and nodded. "It's around the back of the building. I trust that you want your vehicle back?"

The red echidna nodded. "Very much so." He then gulped. "Do I have to pay to get it back from out of the lot?"

"Since you're an officer here, you get a freebie," said Simian. "But just this once."

"Well then, remind me not to get crashed into by drunken idiots at 4:30 am in the morning again."

Antoine shook his head. "The big ape's joking. You do get it back for free for as long as you're an officer."

Knuckles rubbed his hands together. "Demolition derbies, here I come..."

Sonic put a hand on his friends shoulder. "Not so fast there, daredevil. We'd like for you to drive us around when we need you to."

"Why? I ain't your chauffeur," Knuckles said.

"No, but you are our friend," Sonic replied. "And isn't that what friends do?"

Shadow then spoke. "Also, the less damaged it is, the less pissed off at you Shade would be."

Knuckles appeared thoughtful for a moment. "No crashing into stuff it is, as much as it goes against my better judgement."

After some shared laughs, they all entered the station proper. Avery and the others all split up to go into their separate places, with Espio heading for Vector and Charmy's place. As they did this, Cosmo called from the desk.

"Hi, guys," she said as they walked over. "How'd the recovery process go?"

"Remarkably well, considering that the accident happened last night and we're walking fine now," Sonic smiled.

Knuckles looked around. "Where's Mina at?"

The yellow mongoose girl in question raised her head from the desk. "Sorry about that. Dropped my pen."

"Eh, it happens," Sonic said.

"S-So, why'd you call us over?" Tails asked.

Cosmo smiled. "Well, let's just say that your rooms have had some refurbishing done while you were away..."

"Yes!" Knuckles said, pumping his fist. "Hello, coffee machine and toaster combo!"

Sonic shook his head. "Thanks a lot for the help."

"Eh, it wasn't us that sorted your rooms out," Mina shrugged. "Now, go on up and check them out for yourselves."

"Thanks again," Tails said.

"Any time, sweetie," Cosmo replied.

The yellow fox blushed a bit, and almost didn't move before Sonic grabbed his friend's arm and practically pulled him away. They made it over to the elevators and opened one up, taking it to the third floor where their rooms were.

The elevator doors opened up, and the foursome walked out to the left part of the third floor where the corridors were. They made it to the third corridor and walked along it until they'd reached their rooms. They used their ID cards to open their rooms up.

Sonic whistled. "Man... they pushed the boat out on this one," he said to himself. He went to his kitchen. "Got the kettle right there, got a toaster... they even stocked up my fridge, dude!"

"Mine too!" Knuckles said. "Man, do I really need this much cereal? Eh... probably."

"You've got maintain that girlish figure of yours, right?" Sonic laughed.

"How do you think I've kept it up so far?" the red echidna replied with a chuckle of his own.

Tails shook his head as he looked through his own room eventually seeing a picture frame next to his bed. He walked over, recognising the picture. "Aw... I didn't know that they kept this..." he said, taking the picture out of the frame.

"What's up?" Sonic asked.

Tails showed his friend. "It's a photo of us just before we started at Green Hill Academy." He smiled to himself. "My parents must have been holding on to this for until we all graduated."

Knuckles looked at the back of the photo, seeing a message. "It looks like they wrote something for you on the back of the picture."

Tails turned it around and started reading the message out loud. "Dear Tails, Sonic, Shadow, and Knuckles. Congratulations on graduating Green Hill Academy! We know that the police themselves took a lot of photos of you, but this one is just for you four. Consider it a reminder of how far you've come; not just as policemen, but as people. Love, mum and dad."

"That's pretty sweet," Sonic said sincerely. "How are your parents, anyway?"

Tails smiled. "Last I checked, they're still running the Wrench Turner pretty solidly. Apparently, they're supposed to be getting cybernetic implants in to try and sell those too."

Knuckles smiled. "Well, they do specialise in robotic parts for people. It's weird that they never became doctors because of that."

Tails shrugged. "I guess that they were more interested in mechanical stuff than the medical sciences. Doesn't mean that they haven't helped out a lot of people, though."

Sonic then spoke up. "Who knows? Maybe some of those parts they made might be Bunnie's."

"Shame we didn't all get a copy of the picture," Knuckles threw in. "But I guess if Amadeus and Rosemary want to look after their little boy, I won't be too bothered by it."

Tails smiled and took his picture back into his room, placing it back inside the frame before walking back out. "So, what do we do now?"

"I'm thinking that we head over to Avery and see if he's got anything for us," Sonic said.

"You do know that we're not allowed out in the field on our own, right?" Shadow pointed out.

"Maybe there are some other cops that we can help out," Sonic smiled. "Just saying."

It was then that Bunnie's voice called. "There y'all are!"

"Yo, Bunnie!" Knuckles said. "What's the haps?"

"It's 2216, and you just used the word 'haps'," Sonic said. "I think that alone should already indicate that something's wrong with the world."

Bunnie chuckled briefly, but quickly turned serious. "It's Avery. He needs y'all in the meeting room, like right now!"

"We'll be on our way," said Tails.

They shut and locked their doors as Bunnie waited for them walking to follow the mechanical rabbit. She led them across the floor to the main meeting room, and they all entered through the door to see Avery waiting patiently at the screen at the back of the room.

"Thanks for bringing them here, Bunnie," the bear said.

"Any time," the rabbit replied, taking her leave.

"What's wrong?" asked Sonic. "Bunnie said that it was urgent."

"It is," said Simian. "Your court date has been moved forward to tomorrow."

"What?" Knuckles asked. "How come?"

"Because the judge that was originally supposed to hold your trial on the original date got sick, and they don't have the time to set another one up for then because all of the others will be busy," said Simian. "So, tomorrow it is."

"I still call bullshit on that," Shadow said. "So what if we were in a different city? We were helping to stop Nack."

"Well, it wasn't helpful enough, now, was it?" said Ash.

"You're right," said Sonic. "It's not like we had other cops with us that we didn't want dead, bad guys to chase, briefcases to try and take, and a bunch of girls to rescue that, if we hadn't made in time, would have been sold into the sex trade. And, after all of that, we got in a car crash that could have killed us." The blue hedgehog huffed out a breath. "Yeah, we really weren't fucking helpful at all last night."

"I think that what Ash means is," Lupe said, "there was only so much you could do. There was too much happening last night to be focused on Nack alone."

"It doesn't change the fact that it's a stupid rule," Knuckles said. "Seriously, why are we getting tried for just being in another city? I'm all for the laws of this city, but not when one of the most ridiculous rules that I've ever heard might cost me my job."

"Sadly, there's only so much that we can do to help you when the trial rolls around," said Avery. "I, of course, will be there to represent you as best as I can. Since you're officers of the law, you won't be needing a proper lawyer."

"Well, there's a plus," Tails smiled. "Why pay for a lawyer when your boss offers it for free?"

"So, what do we do until tomorrow?" asked Sonic.

"Just do your job," replied Avery. "Go back to your rooms and await instructions for in case we need you. And remember, you're to back up other officers. If you run any missions on your own out there, then I won't be able to help you at the trial."

"No argument here," said Sonic.

With that, he and his friends stood up to leave. Before they all left, the blue hedgehog stopped and turned to face Ash. "Sorry for my outburst earlier."

"Yeah, my sarcasm about the matter really didn't help things either," Ash replied. "Apology accepted. I'm sorry too."

The blue hedgehog smiled before leaving the meeting room, catching up with his friends as they moved to their hallway. Before they could all reach it, however, they were stopped and turned around by the sound of Espio's voice.

"Hey, guys."

"Espio," Knuckles greeted. "What's the haps?"

"Seriously, again?" Sonic growled under his breath.

"The haps is that I'm about to head out on a mission with Vector," the purple chameleon replied. "Could really use some backup in case push comes to shove."

"Not that we're not enticed by the offer," said Tails, "but don't those orders directly have to come from Avery?"

"Eh, he lets us take whoever we want with us when we spot our own missions," Espio replied. "It's a pretty cool rule, if you ask me. You guys in?"

"Yeah, why not," Sonic smiled. "I could do with the fresh air. I've been pretty much cooped up in a hospital bed all day."

"Then let's get to it," Espio smiled.

The group took the elevators down to the ground floor where Vector waited for them at the double doors. He explained that Charmy was handling the weaponry while he would be out, and they went to one of the G.H.P.D. cars, with Vector driving it.

Meanwhile, at Little Hill Nursery School...

Amy was walking around the little plastic red tables as she saw her kids drawing and colouring. She asked them to draw their favourite animals, and smiled at how talented they all were for a bunch of toddlers.

"Miss Wose!" called a little ferret boy with light purple fur. "Wook what I dwew!"

Amy smiled and looked to see that he drew the face of a cute kitten. Its fur was black, and it had a blue collar around its neck as well as a silver name tag in the shape of a star that read out Beans.

"Is this a picture of your pet cat?" Amy asked.

"It is!" the youngster replied happily. "His name is Beans because the toe-pads on his paws look like beans!"

Amy smiled and scratched his ears. "That's so cute! And such a good drawing!"

"Dank yew, miss Wose!" the ferret replied, giggling and purring as his teacher petted him.

"Are we awowed to dwaw our pets?" asked another kid, a female wolf with green fur.

"Yep," Amy replied. "Your favourite animal doesn't have to be something out in the wild; it could be a pet that you keep at home, if you want."

With that, the kids began speaking about how much they wanted to draw pictures of their own pets. Dogs, cats, goldfish, hamsters, and various other animals were mentioned as the kids clamoured to draw and colour in their animals.

After a few minutes of this, it soon hit the afternoon. "All right, it's playtime!" Amy said.

"Wast one to the sandpit is a wotten egg!" called one of the kids.

Amy got up and opened the backdoor to the playground for them, where they all rushed out to play in either the sandpit, the jungle gym, the swings, the slide, and various other playground apparatus.

The pink hedgehog smiled to herself before checking her watch. Knowing it was afternoon anyway, but wanting to make sure, she headed back inside and went to her purse on her desk, quickly fishing out the pills she had to take.

Thankful that a friend of hers had gotten her a bottle of water, she drank the pills down with the help of the lucid drink, smiling as they went down and breathing a sigh of relief before going back outside to watch over her kids, smiling as they kept playing.

One ran over and tugged at the bottom of her t-shirt. "Miss Wose?" the kid asked, a female mongoose with dark brown fur.

"Yes?" Amy replied.

"Why do you take those sweeties and never share dem with us?"

Amy couldn't help the smile on her face as she knelt down to explain. "Those aren't normal sweeties. They're pills that I have to take because I have a problem with my heart. I've had it since I was born, but I'll be okay."

The mongoose girl smiled. "If I had sweeties, I'd share dem with yew... that way, yew could feel happier when you take the tings for your heart!"

"I'd like that very much," Amy smiled, hugging the little mongoose briefly. "Now, go play with the others."

"Okies!"

The girl turned and rushed off, Amy smiling to herself. She hadn't told many people about what was wrong with her, so to share it with a kid who had caught on was quite new for her, but she didn't mind. She sat down on a bench in the playground, watching over her kids as they kept playing, thinking about how lucky she was to have these kids in her life.

And that's a good place to end it, I feel. I also feel that I did decent work with this chapter. What do you guys think? Also, what did you guys think about me giving Amy the heart condition? How do you think I've written her as a whole in comparison to my Fast Times series? How many more questions will I ask about Amy before I stop? That's how many. Stay tuned for the next one, and take care.