Making their way along the roads of Green Hill City was the car that was being driven by Vector with Espio in the shotgun seat. In the back were Sonic, Shadow, Knuckles, and Tails, all sitting back and wondering what was going to happen next.

"All right, so, where is this mission?" Sonic asked.

"Remember Jade Mountain?" asked Vector.

"Ah, of course. The place with the ribs," Sonic smiled.

"I still haven't tried them yet," Tails added. "Are they that good?"

"They are really good. Even Shadow said so when he tried them."

The black and red hedgehog shrugged. "What do you want me to say? They were good."

"And yet you doubted me in the first place anyway," Knuckles said.

The others laughed, and Sonic spoke again. "Why are we going back there, anyway?"

"Two reasons," Espio said. "For one thing, it's almost lunchtime, and the station's cafeteria lines are all full."

"I can see how that's an issue," Tails smirked.

"The other reason is that we need to shake the place down a little bit," Vector added, finishing his chameleon friend's statement. "Just because Nack and the other mooks are out of the city doesn't mean that there isn't any traces left of them."

"What about the Gear Steers?" asked Shadow.

"We'll get to that later," Vector answered. "Food comes first."

"Have you guys tried the ribs here?" asked Knuckles.

"Of course we have," Espio smiled.

"Then let's stop talking and get there," Tails said. "I wasn't hungry before, but now I'm trying to stop my stomach from sounding like a damn lion during mating season."

Vector smiled and pulled the car around, driving through the front parking lot of the Jade Mountain restaurant. There were a fair few parking spaces left for them to go to, so Vector took the one that was closest to the restaurant before they all got out of the car.

They made their way towards the restaurant, and Vector held the door open for the others to go through. They went to the counter and were pleasantly surprised to see a group of both Mobians and humans working together both behind and in front of the counter.

An older male human walked up to the group. "Are you the Green Hill Police?" he asked them.

"That's us," Vector replied.

The man smiled. "The door upstairs is wide open if you want to look around up there."

"Did you know about Nack?" Sonic asked.

"Not until I came back earlier today," the old man replied. "I was out with, ironically, food poisoning. I came back to find most of my restaurant shot to hell, and all of my employees now dead."

"Wow, Avery really told you everything..." Knuckles mumbled.

The man nodded. "I know that you were the ones to have done it. But I also know that you didn't know if they were working for Nack until it was too late."

"Yeah..." Sonic said, scratching the back of his head nervously. "Sorry for, you know, killing some of your employees and trashing your restaurant..."

"To be fair," Knuckles added, "it was the bad guys who started firing first."

The man chuckled, waving it off. "Enough of that. Would you like to place an order while you're here?"

Tails shrugged. "It is lunchtime, after all."

Vector then spoke up. "We'll take some ribs each, along with some fries."

The man smirked and looked at Knuckles. "No doubt your idea, huh?"

The red echidna shrugged. "Think of it as free promotion, past criminal activity notwithstanding, of course."

Tails then sighed. "It just sucks that some of the nice humans were killed here, too."

"Hey, everyone seems pleasant when they're hiding a gun behind their backs," Vector said. "Go on and find a table. Me and Espio will bring the food over for you when it's ready."

"Will do," Sonic smiled. "Thanks."

With that, the four of them went over to a table by the window. It was one that they'd used as cover during one of their confrontations with Nack's henchmen, and the marks from the bullets were cleaned out quite nicely.

After several more minutes of waiting, Vector and Espio came over with the ribs in question, handing everyone a box each while putting a medium-sized brown bag of chunky fries in the middle of the table, making it easy for them all to reach.

"So, do you think that Nack left anything behind here?" Sonic asked.

Espio spoke. "He seemed like he was in a rush when you guys came over here to chase him down. Maybe he left something behind here without realising it?"

"Not that I'm trying to sound too harsh here," Tails replied, "but that's pretty unlikely. He hadn't been in Green Hill long enough to set much up."

"Yeah, but... three days, and he already had potential buyers for both girls and drugs?" Vector said. "He had to have had something going on, man."

"Even if we do find anything, it wouldn't matter," Sonic said. "The last time we saw him, he sped off across the ocean on a boat with those two briefcases."

"But has he been through the desert on a horse with no name?" Knuckles pondered.

Shadow nodded, ignoring the red echidna's joke. "That's right. With that much money and that much Fokus, he could be anywhere right now, making any deal with anybody."

"But since we don't know where he could be," Tails added, "we might never even know about those deals. And besides, it's not like any of us could stop him even if we knew."

Espio shook his head. "The jurisdiction ban needs to be lifted or something. I'm getting tired of not being able to help more people."

Knuckles then perked up. "That reminds me, weren't we technically backup for the Star Light Police last night?"

Tails shook his head. "I don't think it works like that. They may have led he charge, but we were the one that chased Nack there. It was our mission, but not our city."

Knuckles grunted as he chewed into his ribs. "Stupid loopholes..."

"Stupid ass-holes who made those loopholes," Vector shrugged.

"That's a lot of holes," Knuckles noted. "Certainly a lot more than there needs to be."

"I think there's a phobia of that..." Sonic said.

"At least it's more reasonable than the fear of being watched by a duck," said Tails, chuckling nervously as he looked behind him, making the others laugh.

After more talking and eating, they were all done. Sonic picked up all the trash and dropped it in a bin as the man behind the counter tossed the key to upstairs over to Vector, who caught them quickly.

The group kept walking, finding the door that led upstairs by the bathrooms. Vector used the keys to unlock it, opening the door and going through as the others followed him. They soon reached upstairs, with the green crocodile working on unlocking the door there.

"Just what are we hoping to find up here?" Shadow asked.

"Anything that we think might help," replied Espio as the door opened, allowing them to go through.

Sonic looked around. "I do have to ask, but didn't Nack buy this place out?"

"He did," Vector nodded. "Then you guys chased him off. The only reason that he got it was because the old owner was ill. Luckily, with the money he made from the job, he was able to buy it back."

Espio shrugged. "It's not like he had any other buyers to worry about at the time."

"Well, part of our job description is rushing off competition from buying little known restaurants that make awesome ribs," Knuckles replied. "So, who's going where?"

"Espio and I will check out the main office," Vector said. "Tails, you get the kitchen. Knuckles gets the bathroom, and Sonic and Shadow get the bedroom in the office."

Knuckles snorted an immature laugh, which earned him a punch in the arm from the black and red hedgehog. "Don't laugh too hard, bathroom boy."

Tails shook his head as he went to the kitchen. "Not a lot in here. Just a microwave and some leftover pizza."

"What kind?" Knuckles asked.

"Why do you want to know?" Tails asked.

"Because, depending on the kind of pizza that it is, the leftovers could be good or bad!"

The yellow fox shook his head. "It's a meat feast, with... I think pineapples on it? Who puts pineapple on a pizza?" He threw it away into the kitchen bin.

"Not only is fruit on pizza gross enough," Knuckles agreed, calling from the bathroom. "But mouldy fruit on pizza? That's a big no-no."

"You find anything in there yet?" Tails asked.

"Nope. I'll keep you posted, though."

Sonic and Shadow, meanwhile, looked around the bedroom they were in. "You think the girls were kept in here before they were moved to Star Light?" Sonic asked.

Shadow nodded. "It seems more than likely." He then looked to see a dark stain on a mattress. "What's this?"

Sonic looked and saw it too. "It almost looks like... blood?"

"Maybe he was beating the girls he brought in?" called Vector, overhearing.

"That couldn't be it," Tails replied. "The girls didn't have a scratch on them when we got to them."

Shadow looked around, seeing some more red stains on the floor. "I think I got something..."

"Be careful," Sonic said, looking around the bed for more clues. "It could be anything in there."

Shadow nodded in reply and slowly stalked his way to where the trail led him. It stopped shortly before a closet, which Shadow carefully opened up. To his relief, nothing fell out or jumped to attack him, but it still scared him some. He carefully looked inside, seeing an unconscious body that had been hanged up by his wrists, wearing tape around his mouth as a makeshift gag. The face of the hedgehog appeared to be badly beaten, with dry blood surrounding the lips and under his nose, with a cut above his left eyelid. His clothes, which were a pair of blue skinny jeans, a red sleeveless hoodie, and black trainers matched the look on his face, as they had some holes in them that couldn't have been simple wear and tear.

"I got something!" Shadow called, untying the bonds that held the hedgehog up.

Sonic looked over. "No way..."

Vector and the others came in to see Sonic rushing over to the unconscious Mobian. Hastily, the blue hedgehog removed the tape from his mouth, kneeling and holding him up, shaking him slightly.

"You know him?" asked Vector.

"He's my brother," Sonic replied.

"That just raises a bigger question," replied Tails. "If Manic's here, then where's Sonia?"

Sonic shrugged. "Last I heard, she was still in Green Hill." He shook his brother some more. "Manic, come on! Speak to me!" After a few more shakes, there was still no response. Sonic turned to the others as he picked his brother up. "Move out of my way."

The others nodded, moving aside for Sonic and his brother. The blue hedgehog moved Manic into the main office room, laying him down on his back. He would have tried mouth to mouth in the bedroom, but the office had more space.

Carefully, Sonic pressed his lips over his brother's and pushed out a breath of air before pushing his hands against his brother's chest, pumping hard and calling out the number of pushes he gave in the hopes to bring his brother back.

"Come on, dammit!" Sonic grunted after no success. He was about to press his lips to Manic's again when he heard sputtering, which soon turned into full on coughing.

"He's awake!" Tails said.

Manic let out a few more coughs, before his eyes finally opened. He looked to see his brother and smiled. "Hey there, man. Heard you passed Green Hill Academy..."

Sonic smiled and laughed as he hugged his brother close. "Shut up, you idiot..." he said, fighting back tears.

"How long was I out?" Manic asked as he hugged back.

"That's what we're hoping to find out," Tails answered.

"Do you remember anything?" Vector asked.

Manic pulled away from the hug with his brother as he stood up, wobbling a bit as he reached his feet. Sonic reached to place one of his brother's arms on his shoulders, keeping him aloft as he gave his answer.

"I... I remember going to some restaurant late at night. It seemed like any other night, and I sat down, trying out the really awesome ribs for the first time. That's when some prick in a bowler hat burst in, acting like he owned the place..."

"That's be Nack," Knuckles replied. "That's just his usual attitude towards things."

"Let's just hope it doesn't become too much of a reality soon," Manic replied, shaking his head. "Anyway, his two goons, which were a pair of humans, also came in. They started pointing guns at everybody in an attempt to threaten them. I was moments away from, funnily enough, dialling for the police when one of the humans caught me. They took my phone away and smashed it to pieces before Nack got to me. He told his guys to make an example out of me, after which they beat the living piss out of me in the middle of the restaurant. That's the last thing that I remember."

Sonic nodded. "Well, I hate to tell you this, but that restaurant where they beat the living piss out of you? This is the upstairs office of it."

"Does that mean those ass-holes are still downstairs?" Manic asked.

Tails shook his head. "No. We chased them out late last night. The actual owner got back this morning to buy it back."

The green hedgehog nodded, blinking then instantly regretting it. "My left eyelid really hurts..."

"I'd imagine that all of you hurts right now," Sonic replied. "Let's call you an ambulance."

"Hey, you're back up for this mission, remember?" Vector said, picking his radio from his pocket. "Dispatch, this is Vector. We're going to need an ambulance at Jade Mountain Restaurant."

"Roger. It's on its way."

Sonic shook his head and smiled. "Come on. Let's get you downstairs."

With that, the group all headed back downstairs to the main part of the restaurant, locking the doors behind them. Vector gave the keys back to the owner, who thanked him, and they waited in the car park outside for their ambulance to show up.

As they waited, Manic spoke. "So, how'd your first day at work go, anyway?"

"I... uh... don't know if I should tell you..." Sonic said, somewhat nervous.

"Aw, crash and burn on your first day?" Manic teased.

"We crashed, all right," Knuckles said. "Not so much burning."

"If anything, I'd say that it was more of a mixed result," Tails threw in.

Vector smiled. "Hey, the whole department pretty much knows by now. I'm sure that you can tell your brother."

"Tell me what?" Manic asked. "Bro, what happened? I'm starting to get worried."

Sonic nodded and breathed out a sigh. "After we chased Nack away to who the fuck knows where, we were on our way back to Green Hill City."

"Your way back?"

"Yeah," Knuckles said. "We chased that overgrown ferret to Star Light City. It's a long story, and Sonic probably tells it better anyway."

The blue hedgehog smiled. "Anyway, on our way back, we got hit by another car. It wasn't an organised or malicious attack; it was just two poor saps who were too drunk to get behind a wheel."

"And this happened last night?" Manic asked.

"Yep. After that, we were found by some of our own officers who were on patrol. We got taken to Green Hill Hospital and got fixed up." Sonic smirked. "It's amazing how fast medicine moves these days. At some point during the surgery, we had to get... well..."

"Implants," Knuckles bluntly stated.

Manic reeled back a little bit and smiled. "You guys got implants?"

Tails nodded. "The doctors saw it as the best option, so they gave them to us. I got one in my spine, Shadow's got one over his chest, Knuckles has one for each of his hands, and Sonic has one for each leg."

"They decided that placing the implants over the most damaged parts of our bodies was the best move," Sonic nodded.

Espio then spoke up. "It worked for me." He lifted up his uniform's shirt, showing a mark in the middle of his stomach. "Mugger got to me on one of my days off. I woke up two days later with this little baby."

"Wait, you were injured when you got that?" Tails asked.

Espio nodded. "Yeah. A lot of people thought that I was a willing volunteer, but I initially said no. Then after, you know, getting stabbed in the belly and almost bleeding to death, I found that my options were fairly limited. Plus, I was unconscious, so I couldn't say no anyway."

Manic chuckled, then turned to Vector. "What about you? You got an implant?"

Vector threw his head back to show a scar on his throat. "I had an accident near the end of the first month of working for G.H.P.D.. I damn near lost my ability to speak."

"And now we can't shut him up," Espio chuckled.

"Yeah, keep laughing, lizard boy," Vector replied.

"What was the accident?" Tails asked.

"It sounds kinda a dumb, but... fuck it, we got time. I was at my office and slipped on a can of soda I'd left on the floor, which made me fall forward onto the edge of my desk where the corner of it crushed my throat."

"And the award for least epic reason to get an implant goes to..." Sonic mumbled.

"At least I know what mine does," Vector smiled. "If I could show it off right now, I would."

"Vector can emit a loud scream from his voice box," Espio said. "He's basically packing a gigantic cannon of sound in his throat, but it can get dangerous from time to time if he's not careful."

"Come on, I am the epitome of care," Vector replied.

It was then that a siren sounded, and Tails spoke up. "Speaking of care, here's Manic's ride."

Rightfully so, the ambulance in question appeared from around the corner. It didn't have to worry about finding a parking space since it wouldn't be there long, and it parked close to the group, steering to a stop which showed the back of the ambulance van.

A doctor rushed out, seeing the police officers with Manic. "Did you guys make the call?"

"That we did," Knuckles nodded, pointing to Manic. "Handsome here's the one you need to pick up."

The doctor grinned. "Ah... I remember you from last night. Although you won't remember me. I was one of the surgeons that helped put you back together."

"Yeah... sorry about forgetting you," Sonic said, scratching his head. "When you're on anaesthesia, things tend to get kind of blurry."

"All is forgiven," the doctor nodded, turning to Manic. "Please come with me."

The green hedgehog nodded, turning to face Sonic. "Thanks for the assist, bro."

"No problem," Sonic smiled. "You just work on feeling better, okay? The doctors will take good care of you."

"Hey, if they could fix your ugly mug, I'm sure I'll be fine," Manic grinned.

His blue hedgehog brother smiled back, waving as the doors closed, the doctors inside laying Manic down to sedate him, making the ride to the hospital a little easier. As soon as the van was out of sight, the group sighed.

"Well... lunch was fun," Tails said.

"That reminds me," Knuckles said, "did you like your ribs?"

The yellow fox smiled. "Eh, they weren't half bad, I suppose."

"Hey, when I pop one of my friend's food cherries, I do it with style and finesse," the red echidna smiled, putting an arm around Tails' shoulders. "I expect more than not half bad."

"I'll probably review them when you stop using dumb phrases and sentences," Tails smiled.

"Then we simply can't coexist any further if that's the case," Knuckles smirked.

"All right, give it a rest, you two," Vector said. "Let's haul ass to Gear Steers."

The others nodded, hopping into the car as Vector and Espio took the front portion of the car. They revved it up, pulling out of the parking lot and onto the main road. As they began turning, Vector picked up the radio.

"Dispatch, this is Vector. We're on our way to Gear Steers to check the place out," he said.

"Roger that, but make it quick," the voice on the other end replied.

"Why? What's up?" Espio asked.

"There's a situation going down at the Emerald Gem Jewellers store," the voice said. "There's a possible robbery in progress, as some suspicious figures were seen walking inside last we heard."

"All right, keep us posted. We'll head to check out Gear Steers first, but if anything urgent happens, let us know."

"Will do."

The radio went off, and after a few more minutes of driving, they had reached their destination. As they pulled up to the front, Vector spoke. "All right, here we are. We check out the mechanics shop first, but just for a quick look. I don't want those suspicious figures to get any bright ideas."

"Should someone wait in the car in case the station calls back with info about the robbery?" Tails asked.

"Good idea," Vector smiled.

Before the yellow fox knew what was happening, Vector, Espio, Sonic, Shadow, and Knuckles had all exited the car, shutting him inside. Frustrated, Tails remained where he was, but not before flipping a middle finger out the car window.

"Just stay in the car, fluffy," Vector smiled. "We'll be back before you know it."

"If anything happens, honk the horn," Sonic called.

Tails shook his head and sat back in the car, quickly moving to the front seat so that he could reach the radio easier just in case they called back soon. He puffed out a breath through his lips, making them vibrate together before he sat back on the seat in a more relaxed position.

Meanwhile, the other five were approaching the Gear Steers on foot, heading for the side door of it. There were two doors, with one being a garage door for the cars to pass through, and other one allowing civilians to pass through if need be.

As they all walked in, they looked up to see a Mobian wolf with black fur behind a counter, who greeted them with a smile. "Hello, gentlemen. What can I do you for?"

Espio and Vector showed their ID cards, and the purple chameleon spoke. "We're just here to make sure that everything is okay after the debacle not long ago."

"I heard about that," he wolf said.

"Were you here the other day?" Sonic asked.

"No, I had to go out to get a shipment of new parts to come in. I let my partner, Bark, work the register in my absence."

"So, I'm going to assume that you own the place?" asked Espio.

"Yes indeed," the wolf replied.

"Did you know about what Bark was doing beforehand?" asked Espio.

The wolf shook his head. "No. He never really opened himself up all that much to me about things, but it didn't bother me much."

"I'm sure that it bothered you when he got back, huh?" Knuckles suggested.

The wolf nodded. "You have no idea, man. He did a way less than stellar job of running this place, and I was only gone for a few hours."

Shadow spoke up. "Do you remember talking to a female rabbit named Bunnie a few days ago?"

The wolf nodded again. "Yeah, sort of. She asked for repairs, which my guys normally cover. Even I noted that they were acting weird, but I didn't think much of it."

"Well, according to her, her car came back worse, and she noticed how strangely you were acting," Sonic said.

The wolf nodded. "All in all, that was not a great day. As I said, I wasn't here, and I had to grab a shipment of some new parts."

"What about the gas price?" Knuckles asked. "Was it always fifty cents?"

The wolf shook his head. "No, it's usually just about ten. Bark must have tried to up the price to make the business look bad, not to mention offset any civilians from getting inside the building. We don't even get shipments come around the back; that's why I head to the docks every now and then. I grab the parts, and the people delivering them are able to go back home a little bit quicker."

"So it's more for them than it is for you, huh?" Vector said with a smile. "Good strategy."

"Eh, I try my best to keep this business running well. Anything to help the customers a little bit more is all that I want from my guys," the wolf smiled. "Although, now that Bark and Bean are gone, I won't have to worry about them mucking up my business any more, not to mention the others that were helping them."

"So, you never did anything bad on purpose?" Espio asked.

The wolf shook his head. "Not at all. My main goal when starting this place up was just to help people. I have nothing to gain from trying to make people feel bad."

It was then that a car entered, and the wolf looked around to see that most of his staff was already busy. He walked over to the car that had entered, and a male Mobian hedgehog with dark grey spikes left the vehicle.

"Welcome to Gear Steers," the wolf said. "How can I help?"

The hedgehog sighed, exasperated. "My damn tyres have been almost sliding off my whole trip here," he said, gesturing to his tyres held on to the metal wheels by multicoloured tape.

"Eh, we can fix that up," the wolf smiled. "Anything else?"

"Just a little gas refill," the hedgehog said, growing a bit easier around the wolf. "Sorry for my outburst. It's just been a long trip here."

"That's understandable. All right, just give me a second to go to the back room to get you some new tyres and I'll be right back."

"It's just the two on the left side," the hedgehog replied. "The right side's fine."

The wolf nodded, then turning to the cops. "Want to help me out?"

Vector turned to the others and shrugged. "Eh, why not?"

"All right, you just go grab a couple of tyres and a toolbox, and I'll help the guy gas his car," the wolf said. "The back door's open anyway, so you don't need to worry about any keys."

The police officers nodded, turning to go to the back door in question as the wolf helped the hedgehog refill his car with gasoline. It wasn't a lot, only about halfway to refill, so it didn't cost much.

As they were doing this, Tails was kicking back in the front seat of the G.H.P.D. police car, his feet resting on the dashboard as he sighed, rocking his head back and forth and tapping the sides of his chair in an idle song rhythm, which he later followed by whistling tunelessly before the radio on the dashboard sounded off.

"Any Green Hill patrols in the area, please come in! It's urgent!" the voice on the radio said.

Tails picked it up. "Dispatch, this is Tails. What's wrong?"

"It's the Emerald Gem Jewellers! The robbers have started taking hostages and stealing from the shop! You need to get over there right away!"

Tails nodded. "I'm on it. We'll be there in a flash."

"Hurry up! It might get messy soon."

The yellow fox put the radio back on the dashboard and honked the horn several times, holding it for each time that he honked. "Come on, guys!" he called.

In the garage, the officers had just finished helping putting the first wheel on. As they were about to go to the second, they heard the police car's horn honking several times, along with the sound of Tails' voice.

"That's our cue, I'm afraid," Sonic said. "We've got somewhere else to get to."

"Well, thanks for your help," the wolf said. "If I come across anything, I'll let you guys know."

"Thanks for letting us know," Vector nodded. "Take care."

"You too!"

With that, the officers left through the side door of the Gear Steers, heading straight for their car. They saw Tails hopping around to the back seat so that Vector and Espio could reclaim the front portion of the vehicle, and the purple chameleon turned to Tails as his green crocodile friend started the car.

"So, what's happening?" Espio asked.

"The station called up on the radio," Tails explained. "We need to get to Emerald Gem right now."

Vector nodded without needing any further instruction, started the car up and pulling it out of the area in front of the Gear Steers, speedily making their way into the main centre of Green Hill City.

Vector picked up the radio again. "Green Hill, this is car seven. Come in. What's the situation?"

"We have robbers in the jewellery store stealing and taking hostages. There has been gunfire, but no casualties. They'll only start shooting if they see any cops," the radio replied.

"Then we'll just have to be careful," Vector said. "We're on our way."

"Copy that. But you'd better come up with a plan to get around it."

"We'll think of something. Over and out."

"So, do you guys have a plan?" asked Tails. "Because there's a good chance that the robbers could kill us all the moment that we get there."

Espio smirked. "I got something in mind..."

Meanwhile, just outside Emerald Gem Jewellers...

Amy Rose hadn't long ago finished her day teaching at the school. She had taken the bus back to the main centre of the city, which wasn't too far from her and Rosy's house. She was merely passing by the Emerald Gem when she stopped and looked inside.

She noticed several robbers wearing masks to conceal their faces and body armour were seizing the jewellery shop hostage. Some of the bad guys had hostages with them, pointing guns at their heads or using them as human shields as the main leader spoke in a gruff voice.

"All right, if I see any cops outside, I call on my boys to start killing innocents!" he said, holding up the collar of the shop's owner and speaking to him. "But, if you don't hand over the fucking jewels, then we won't have to wait for the cops to show up..."

"Just take whatever you want, man! I don't mean any trouble!"

"Don't start any, and there won't be any!" the leader replied, picking the shop owner up by the scruff of his neck. "We know that the glass is locked by a code, so either you punch it in right now, or I pull the trigger."

The owner, gulping as he felt the muzzle press against his head. He carefully typed in the four number code, and all of the security glass surrounding the jewels opened up. The robbers nearby by it grabbed as much as they could carry, stuffing it into bags to take with them.

Carefully, Amy tried to sneak around the shop, hoping that she wouldn't get noticed by the thieves. She kept her head at a low profile, but as she was about to pass by the front door of it, she stepped on a piece of glass, likely from one of the windows of the shop having been shot out.

"You hear something?" a robber asked.

"It sounds like it's coming from outside," replied another. "I'll go check it out."

Amy tried her best to scoot back and hide around the side of the shop, but barely started moving when she noticed the muzzle of an assault rifle pointed to the floor just about appear out of the door. She froze up, landing on her back with a grunt.

The robber turned to face her, smiling. "Ah, hello there!"

"Please... don't hurt me..." Amy said.

The robber aimed his gun at her. "I won't hurt you, so long as you follow my orders. First, stand up."

Amy nodded and obeyed, and the robber patted her down to make sure that she didn't have any weapons on her person. He then gestured to her leather bag, which she handed to him. He searched through it, satisfied that there weren't any weapons inside, but taking her purse out of it.

"Consider it a down payment," he said as he extracted money from the purse. He slipped it into his back pocket before reaching over to grab her. "Get in front of me, with your back turned."

Amy gulped and turned around, her back to the robber. She felt the muzzle of his rifle pressed against the small of her back and carefully walked towards the door of the Emerald Gem Jewellers, keeping her hands raised.

"We got a new hostage?" asked the leader.

"Caught her trying to sneak by," the robber replied, pushing Amy forward onto her knees. "She's just a part of this as anybody else."

Amy whimpered some as the robbers kept talking before doing a sweep of the area. Much to her surprise, she spotted Rouge on her knees near one of the counters. Rouge was wearing a black tank top, blue skinny jeans, and green slip on shoes.

The robbers briefly paused their talking as they noticed the pink hedgehog trying to make eye contact with the white bat. "Oh, look! She found a friend!" said another robber who wasn't in on the conversation.

"How much longer are we going to lock this place down for, anyway?" asked another robber.

"Well, we got what we came for. There's no need to stick around here for much longer."

Amy was then pulled up onto her feet and forced over to Rouge, the two kneeling next to each other as the robber who picked her up spoke. "You two stay put right here. If either of you move, I'll kill you both."

The two nodded and whimpered a little bit, and the robber turned to rejoin the others. "Are we getting out of here or what?"

The leader nodded. "We've got what we needed. Let's get out of here before the cops show up."

The other thieves agreed, turning to leave through the front door. As soon as they had reached the door, though, Sonic, Tails, Shadow, and Knuckles were just about to walk through it, pausing as they noticed the thieves.

"Whoa, guys. We don't want any trouble," Sonic said.

"You don't want trouble?" said the leader. "Open up your wallets and give us some money, and we'll let you go."

"You know, you're really dumb criminals," Sonic said as he and his friends reached behind their backs to grab their money out. "I mean, CCTV could be anywhere around here. You never know just who might be listening."

"Give it a rest, blue boy," the leader replied, taking the money. "Unless you're a cop or something then you're in no position to make threats with me. And, no offence, but I don't see a uniform on your fuzzy ass."

The blue hedgehog smiled. "You know, you're right. Any officer of the law should always present themselves with the utmost class and dignity that this city deserves. Unfortunately, there are just certain people who don't deserve it."

"Like who?" asked a robber.

"Like us," Sonic said, reaching to pull his gun out. His friends joined him. "Make a move, and it'll be the worst move that you've made all day."

"Oh, what? Are you going to shoot us if we don't listen to your orders?" the leader smiled under his mask. "We got what we came for. And, since you're cops, I'm going to guess that you listened to your radio to get here?"

"So what if we did?" Knuckles asked.

"Well then, you might just remember the rule of what happens to hostages if cops show up."

Without any warning, the leader shot one of the civilians dead in the chest, causing blood to spurt out as the man flopped onto his face on the ground, gasping a few last breaths before dying, his blood pooling on the floor.

"He didn't have to die..." Shadow said.

"And he wouldn't have if you'd just stayed the fuck away," the leader replied.

Sonic grunted, briefly glancing over the inside of the Emerald Gem and seeing that most things were fine before doing a brief double-take as he noticed Amy, whimpering and scared with some tears coming from her eyes, the droplets landing on the floor.

The leading robber grinned and noticed the brief look. "Oh, you're sweet on pinky there, are you?" He quickly walked into the shop and reached to pick Amy up by her head, holding her back to his front as his gun pointed at her head. "How about I give you a much more up close and personal demonstration on what happens when cops show up?"

And I think that'll do it for this chapter, everyone. I hope you're all enjoying it so far. What did you think about the introduction of Manic? That was fun to write in. Don't worry about Amy, though; the action will continue in the next chapter. I hope to see you all then. Take care and stay tuned, folks.