"All right," Sonic said, looking at himself in his bedroom mirror, "I'm about ready to go."
"I can't believe that you're fired now," said Sonia from behind him. "I don't want to be the sister of a washed up rookie cop..."
"Gee, thanks for the support," Sonic said. "I love you too."
Sonia giggled. "I am excited about your new job on Monday."
"It's technically the same job," Sonic shrugged. "Just a bit looser in the sense of the word." He then grabbed some cologne, spraying it on himself. "Ah... nothing like the pungent whiff of pinewood to go out on my last day on the job."
"You're still technically a cop for three more hours," Sonia noted. "You could have kept the uniform on."
The blue hedgehog shrugged. "They let us go earlier than usual. It would have been pointless to keep the uniform."
"Did it feel good?" his sister asked.
"For as long as it lasted?" Sonic smiled and nodded. "Yeah. It felt pretty good to wear it."
"At least you've spent your last day having fun with your friends," Sonia shrugged. "And besides, Knuckles got his car back."
"That reminds me," Sonic said, checking his watch, "he should be here any moment now."
"Well, maybe he took his time to get ready like you did?" Sonia suggested.
The blue hedgehog smiled, looking into the mirror at his clothes. He wore a light green button up t-shirt over a black tank top, with a pair of blue jeans and some black trainers completing the look. Just in case, he had his police ID in the left breast pocket of his shirt.
"You're honestly taking that with you?" Sonia asked, gesturing to her brother's ID badge.
"Eh, it might help us get a free drink or two in," Sonic shrugged.
"You're not even having real drinks," Sonia pointed out. "You're just grabbing cokes."
"It beats going there for water," the blue hedgehog chuckled. He then craned his head as he heard a horn. "Ah, that'll be the big red moron."
Sonia slapped her brother's shoulder. "That's your friend."
"Correction; that's one of my friends," Sonic said. "We do that shit all the time to each other. We don't mean it."
"Well, how about a hug for your brother before you go?" Manic asked, walking in from the bathroom and rubbing his face with a wet piece of tissue.
"How's the eye?" Sonic asked.
"Still hurts like hell, thank you for asking," Manic replied. "I'm so glad that you drove Nack and those other sons of bitches out of Green Hill."
"Yeah, but that does mean that they're just going to cause trouble somewhere else," Sonic said.
"And you can't go after them because you don't have a job any more, right?" Manic said.
The blue hedgehog playfully sighed. "I told you before, we do still have a job. It's just a bit different nowadays."
"Do you have any plans to get around that loophole?" asked Sonia. "Nack is still out there, after all."
"I'm aware of that, but even when we get our new jobs, there's nothing that we can do about it," Sonic shrugged. "We might be more freelance, but we still need to wait to get called in before doing anything. We can't run anything ourselves quite yet."
"Yes, but you have to remember, it's any jurisdiction from anywhere," smiled Manic. "What if you wind up getting called up to wherever Nack is? Better yet, what if your mission is to take him out?"
"Not that I don't like your enthusiasm, but there's a very slim chance of that being the case," Sonic said.
"Why don't you use the awesome power that your implant has given you?" Manic suggested. "It might help."
"I don't know what my power is yet," Sonic shrugged, putting his hands in his pockets. "Let's just hope that it gets here fast." There was another honk from outside, and Sonic turned to his siblings. "All right, I'll be back later."
"Mum already knows where you're off to," said Manic. "We'll tell her the rest when she gets here."
The blue hedgehog nodded his thanks before hugging his brother. "You did ask for a hug."
"I did indeed," Manic laughed.
Sonia shrugged, and was about to talk off before Sonic caught her in a hug too, causing her to try to push him away. "It was cute when you were little, it's not so cute now."
The blue hedgehog chuckled. "All right, I'll see you guys later."
He then turned and walked out of the room, heading downstairs and straight to the front door, where he saw Tails stood there about to knock. Looking past his two-tailed friend, Sonic saw Knuckles in his car, with Shadow in the passenger's seat.
Sonic then took in the attires of his friends, and all had dressed somewhat similarly to him, only with slight variations; Tails wore a dark purple and black striped long sleeved shirt under a red sleeveless hoodie, with a pair of beige shorts and black boots; Knuckles wore a white vest over a red sports shirt, with dark brown cargo pants and light brown boots; and Shadow wore a bright blue polo shirt under a black leather jacket, with skinny blue jeans and red sneakers.
"Dude, what kept you so long?" Tails asked as Sonic shut his door.
"I was saying goodbye to my family is all," Sonic replied.
Tails chuckled, then sniffing. "Ooh... nice cologne. Shouldn't you save some for Amy tomorrow, though?"
"Eh, I've got plenty," Sonic replied.
"She still doesn't know that you're fired, right?" Tails brought up.
"Still no, but I will be telling her tomorrow," the blue hedgehog answered. "Also, just me? Dude, we all lost our jobs because of what happened. Because of me..."
"If you say it was your fault one more time, I'll make you drink actual beer," Tails teased. "Stop worrying about it so much, man."
"Yeah," Knuckles added as Sonic got into the car. "Tonight is all about not worrying about that shit. Let's go to the bar, have a few drinks, play some pool, and just have a little fun."
"No hustling people this time, Shadow," Tails said, getting into the back of the car to join Sonic.
"But I'm so good at it," the black and red hedgehog defended, smirking.
Knuckles shook his head and started the car as Sonic lifted a hand to wave at his siblings, who stood at the front porch and waved back. As they drove, Knuckles turned the radio on, switching to a rock radio station.
"Ooh, sweet," Sonic said. "They're playing one of my jams."
"Want me to turn it up?" Knuckles asked.
"If you wouldn't mind."
The red echidna chuckled, turning the radio up. The four in the car sang along to the tune, making some instrumental sounds with their mouths as well while they kept driving. This happened with several more songs before they reached the Midnight Oil bar.
They turned around to the front parking lot, soon finding a good space for their car to park that was in a middle range of sorts; not too far away from the bar, but close enough to it that they didn't have to walk that long.
The group reached the front door of the bar, where it was protected by a large Mobian lion as the bouncer. "ID, please," he said in a low rumble.
The four officers pulled out their ID cards and showed them, with Sonic speaking. "Will these do?"
"We're not in trouble, are we?" the lion asked.
"Nah," Sonic replied. "Tonight's our last night until we get our new jobs on Monday."
The lion then chuckled. "I think that I remember you guys now... yeah! You're those graduates, right?"
"That's us," Tails smiled.
The lion chuckled again. "It's good to see that you all got home in one piece." He then gestured to Knuckles. "Especially you."
"Eh, it's just how I do," Knuckles shrugged.
"Going to take it easy this time?" the bouncer asked.
"We're not going to be drinking any alcohol at all tonight," Sonic said. "We've got to clear our desks by tomorrow. Then by Monday, we get new desks... I assume."
"Being transferred to a different city?" the lion asked.
"Same city, different position," said Sonic. "We're going to be freelance agents."
"Ah, I see," the lion nodded. "Well, good luck. And remember to take it easy, okay?"
"We will," Sonic nodded. "Thanks."
With that, the bouncer stepped aside, letting the four enter the bar. The red painted double doors had silver handles which they pushed down to enter, instantly stepping on the well designed violet and dark orange carpet that adorned the majority of the floor of the bar. The bar itself was only one level, but it had a large ground floor; several doors led out to the outside at the back of the bar. There were bathrooms, a kitchen, and a sort of game room which held not only a pool table, but also some tables for video games, free wireless connection, and some tables for board games.
Then there was the centrepiece in the bar itself; it was large, had the shape of half of a square, and freshly polished redwood made up the bulk of the bar. Several towels adorned the bar, and with plenty of levers that were connected to small machines that had the consumers' desired drinks. Behind the bar were several people working to get everyone their drinks, and behind the barkeepers was a wall of other beverages, which consisted of a wide range of liquors, whiskeys, ciders, or just straight up beers.
The four went to the main bar, managing to find an empty space where they could order drinks, with Tails speaking. "Could we have four cokes in bottles please?"
"Cokes?" the woman behind the counter asked, a pink Mobian hedgehog. "You come all this way to this great bar to order cokes?"
"We're cops," Tails defended. "We're still on the job, so to speak."
The female shook her head. "I can't believe you guys," she said, then turning to Sonic. "Wait... I recognise you from somewhere..."
"Um... I was about to say the same thing to you," Sonic said. "You must be Rosy."
"What gave it away?" Rosy asked.
"The fact that Amy wouldn't wear a top that deep," Sonic replied, looking Rosy in the eyes as he said.
"Come on, there's nothing wrong with wanting an extra tip or two," the pink hedgehog shrugged with a wink.
"I'm not touching that one," Sonic replied, turning around. "Come on, let's find a table."
Before Tails could speak, the other three had already departed to a table. "It's always me... why? Why is it always me?"
Rosy leaned on the bar, unintentionally pushing her breasts close together. "You must be Tails... you know, you really are fluffy..."
Tails blushed deeply. "Th-Thank you..." he gulped. "Um... could I just get the drinks and go, please?"
"Aw, you're shy!" Rosy beamed. "You're so cute when you're shy." She then looked around him and giggled. "What's up with your tail there?"
"Tails," said the yellow fox, turning around to see them spinning around. "It's plural..."
"So, you were named after your tails?"
"Nicknamed," Tails said. "My real name is Miles, but everyone just calls me Tails."
"You know, Miles, you're acting like a real gentleman," said Rosy, leaning in to whisper. "Maybe you could teach a bad girl like me a lesson..."
Tails gulped down a breath. "I'm afraid I'm somewhat spoken for..."
"Is it serious?" Rosy asked.
"Hard to say," Tails shrugged as his tails calmed down. "We haven't even had our date yet."
Rosy sighed. "Regardless, all the good ones are always taken. I won't try to get in your way."
"Really?" the yellow fox replied.
The pink hedgehog nodded. "Sure. I might be promiscuous, but I won't get in people's ways if they have someone in their sights."
"Well, that's very admirable of you," Tails smiled.
"Just take good care of whoever this girl is," Rosy replied, handing over the drinks. "Oh, before you go, I have a message for Sonic."
"What is it?" Tails asked.
Back at the table, Sonic, Shadow, and Knuckles looked through the menus on their booth. They'd felt hungry, and since they didn't stop by Jade Mountain to grab food, they began perusing through what to eat. As they did so, Tails returned, handing everyone their bottles before taking his own seat.
"Sonic," the fox said.
"Yo," the blue hedgehog replied. "What's up?"
"Rosy said that Amy has a message for you."
"What is it?"
Tails shrugged and gave is friend a hug before kissing his cheek. "That was it..."
"That was... weird..." Sonic said.
"Hey, Rosy lowered the price on the drinks for it," Tails said, noticing the menus. "I swear to God, if you send me back over..."
"We won't," said Knuckles. "Shadow will take the orders in."
"I will?" the black and red hedgehog asked.
"You will."
"Fine..." Shadow grunted as he stood up. "But I'm not going to come back and kiss and hug any of you."
"We're more than okay with that," Tails added.
"So, what's everyone having?"
"A cheeseburger with pickles, tomato, and chilli sauce for me, and some fries," Sonic said.
"Same here, but with onions on there," Knuckles added.
Tails shrugged. "I'll be having a bacon and egg sandwich with grilled cheese and ketchup on it. No fries for me, though."
"Eh, I'm sure that we'll get a whole bowl between us," said Knuckles. "We could all share."
"I call dibs on any accidental curly fries!" Sonic said.
Shadow shook his head, walking over to the bar and finding Rosy, who grinned. "Ooh, aren't you a broody sort?"
"It's kinda my thing," Shadow shrugged.
"Well, how about I help to break you out of shell?" she asked, tracing a finger over his chest.
"You know, you remind me of another girl I know," Shadow smirked, catching Rosy's hand and moving it away.
"And what's your relationship with said girl?" Rosy asked.
"It's... complicated," Shadow replied.
"Complicated how?"
"Well, let's just say that I wasn't always the honest cop type."
"Indicating that you are now?" Rosy chuckled. "You lone wolf types always have something to hide."
"It's kinda hard to hide anything when all of your info is in a police database."
The pink hedgehog shrugged. "Well, I said it to the fluffy cute one, so I'll say it to you too; I won't try to steal you from your girl, even if it is complicated."
"Thank you for understanding," Shadow said.
"Anyway, what can I do for you?" Rosy asked.
"I'd like to order some food for myself and my friends."
Rosy nodded, taking a pen and notepad out of one of her pockets. "What'll you be having?"
"I'll take two cheeseburgers, one with pickles, tomato, and chilli sauce, the other with the same stuff but some extra onion. A bacon and egg sandwich with ketchup and grilled cheese, and finally, a small pepperoni pizza. Sliced into six, if possible," Shadow said.
"Anything else?" Rosy asked, writing down the order.
"A big bowl of fries to share between us. And that's it, really."
The pink hedgehog giggled. "All right, I've got your table in mind. I'll bring the food over when it's all done."
"Thank you," the black and red hedgehog smiled back.
He then watched as Rosy turned and went to the back of the bar, leaving through a door there to what Shadow only assumed to be the kitchen. As she did this, Shadow went back to his booth with the others, sitting back in his seat.
"The food order has been placed," said Shadow. "How much will it be?"
"We'll wait until Rosy comes back before paying," said Sonic. "But keep your hands on your wallets just in case."
"Well, the burgers cost about $2.25 each, so that's $4.50 from me and Sonic," said Knuckles. "What they put in it doesn't change the price."
"And my sandwich costs $1.70, so that makes it $6.20," Tails added. "What did you get, Shadow?"
"Yeah, you never did tell us," Sonic pointed out.
"A mini pepperoni pizza," Shadow replied.
Tails flicked through the menu, finding the aforementioned pizza. "It's $3.95, so that's the most expensive thing on there."
"And that's not to mention the big bowl of fries," said Knuckles. "That's $1.25 on its own."
"And also, Rosy did lower the price on our drinks," Tails said. "They would normally cost $1.00, but she lowered it to 75 cents each, so that's $3.00 total."
"Well, add it up, genius," Knuckles smirked.
The yellow fox sighed. "Let's see... adding all of the prices up that's about... $14.40."
Sonic nodded, seeing Rosy walk over with the food. "Here you boys go!"
"It didn't take long to get that done," Tails noted as they all handed their money over.
"That's a little much, isn't it?" Rosy asked.
"It's for the food and the drinks," said Sonic. "We put it all together ourselves, and worked out the number between us."
"Yeah, we did..." Tails muttered under his breath.
"So, you all pitched in?" Rosy smiled. "Nice going."
"Oh, wait," Sonic said.
"What?"
"Two things," the blue hedgehog said, reaching into his wallet to grab an extra $3.50. "Here's an extra tip for you."
"Aw, thanks!" said Rosy. "What's the other thing?"
Sonic stood up and gave Rosy a kiss on the cheek. "My message for Amy when you next see her. And tell her I say hi."
The pink hedgehog smiled. "I'll be sure to do that. Now, please enjoy your meal." She then turned and walked away.
Sonic grinned and turned to the others. "What, you couldn't offer the nice young lady anything extra?"
"Nah, we left that to you," Tails grinned.
"Yeah," Knuckles added. "If there's any accidental curly fries in the bowl, you may as well pay for them."
"You did call dibs, after all," Shadow threw in.
Sonic shrugged. "At least I did it out of the kindness of my own heart."
Tails smiled. "Let's get to eating."
The others nodded, and soon began feasting on their food and drinking their drinks. As they finished their first round, Knuckles offered to get in another one, so he went back over to the bar, smiling at Rosy.
"Another four, please," he said, placing the drinks on the counter.
"You're not taken too, are you?" Rosy asked.
"Actually, of the four of us, I'm the only one in a truly committed relationship," Knuckles shrugged.
"Well, your girlfriend must be very lucky," Rosy smiled as she went about pouring more drinks.
As the red echidna looked around, he turned to see another large zebra behind him, his hair the traditional black and white, albeit with dark green eyes. He grunted as Knuckles turned around to face him.
"Hey, it's you!" the zebra said in a deep voice.
"Yeah, it's me," Knuckles said. "Do I know you from somewhere?"
"I don't think you'd remember," the zebra replied. "I also don't think that you remember spilling one of your drinks on me by accident."
"Well, I'm sorry for last time," Knuckles said. "But you won't have to worry about that tonight. No alcohol for me or my friends."
"Oh, they're here too, are they?" the zebra asked.
"They are," Knuckles answered. "Why? Did they do something wrong as well?"
"Nope. Just you."
The red echidna sighed as Rosy returned with the drinks, placing them on the counter. Knuckles turned to grab them, turning to see the zebra still in his way. The echidna sighed. "There's plenty of other places on the bar to order, dude."
"That's not what I have an issue with," said the zebra.
"You do know that I'm a cop, right?" Knuckles said.
"You think I care?" The zebra stepped closer to Knuckles. "I don't care if you're a cop. I don't care about what you do. The fact is, you never apologised to me."
"But he just did apologise to you..." Rosy pointed out.
"Was I talking to you, slut?" The zebra growled, pointing a hoof at Rosy.
"All right, you're taking it way too far now," said Knuckles.
"Oh, so that riled you up, huh?" The zebra laughed. "You do have a set on you after all."
"So do my friends."
The zebra cocked an eyebrow before turning around to see Sonic, Shadow, and Tails. He recognised these three as well, but didn't have nearly as much hatred towards them as he did with Knuckles.
"So, you want to play the numbers game?" the zebra growled.
"We don't want to," Sonic said.
"But that doesn't mean that we won't if we have to," Tails added.
"Think you're tough, little man?" The zebra laughed. "I can play the numbers game too!"
The others turned to see three other Mobians walking towards them, all male. One was a gazelle, one was a jaguar, and the last one was a wildebeest. The three were equally as large as the zebra, and they stared down the much smaller police officers.
"You know," Sonic said, walking over to Knuckles' side, "you guys look like you just jumped off the cover of Douche-Bags Daily."
"Yeah," Shadow smiled, joining his fellow hedgehog. "Seriously, who are you trying to impress with those polo shirts? By the way, they're way too tight for you."
"We don't have beef with you guys," said the gazelle. "We just want the echidna."
"He spilled a drink on one of you, and all of you suddenly have a beef with him?" Tails asked, joining the other two. "Nah, not how it works."
"You mess with one of us," said Sonic, "you mess with all of us."
"You think that you guys can take the four of us?" the wildebeest asked.
"We do," Knuckles said. "But we have a very busy couple of days ahead of us, and I don't want one of my memories of this lovely place to be of four ass-holes lying on the ground with broken noses and busted teeth."
"Yeah, it'd be hard to get blood out of the carpet," Rosy added with a giggle.
"You want to fight us too?" the jaguar asked.
The pink hedgehog jerked her head to the cabinet of the bar, forcing the others to look and see a large shotgun. It wasn't high-tech, but it looked well-used and still very powerful, despite its age.
"It's not just for decoration," Rosy said. "I will blast all of your asses out of this bar if you don't leave my friends alone."
"What, security won't do it for you?" the zebra asked, chuckling.
"Would you rather have the big lion at the door slowly strangle you to death?" Rosy asked. "Or my old school twelve-gauge blowing all of your heads off?"
"If you won't do it, then could one of us have a shot?" asked Knuckles. "No pun intended, by the way."
"We are still policemen for another hour and a half," Sonic smiled. "Any gun is fair game for us."
"Any weapon period is fair game for us," said Shadow.
The zebra grunted. "I don't have time to waste on you scrawny bastards anyway." He turned to his friends. "Let's leave them be."
As soon as the group was out of earshot, Sonic spoke. "That could have been nasty..."
"Yeah, for them," Knuckles grinned, turning to Rosy. "Thanks for the backup."
"Any time," Rosy smiled.
"Also, cool gun," said Sonic. "Can't beat the classics."
"Eh, if security doesn't work, buckshot is usually very convincing," the pink hedgehog chuckled.
"I've been meaning to ask something," Tails said.
"Shoot."
"Well, we were at this bar about last week," the yellow fox started. "How come we didn't see you then? Or did we just not recognise you?"
"Actually, I was here last week," said Rosy. "But I was swamped with tables, so I didn't get a chance to say hi to you guys. I didn't even get to say congratulations for getting your job."
"Well, you have a pretty good chance to say it now that we're getting our new job as freelancers," Knuckles smiled.
Rosy playfully shook her head. "Congratulations. You dropped out, and are moving on to better things," she giggled.
"Sheesh, make it sound all negative, why don't you..." Sonic playfully moped.
"In all honesty, it is really cool that you're getting that chance," Rosy said. "Congrats are in order."
She then walked around the bar to give them all a group hug, which they joined in with. Even Shadow hugged back, which Rosy wasn't expecting. After they all broke their embrace, Rosy went back around the bar.
"Your next round of drinks is free for that save back there, by the way," she smiled.
"Does that technically mean this round?" asked Knuckles. "Because I did ask you beforehand, but then those dickheads showed up, so..."
"On a technicality, yes," Rosy nodded, fixing the drinks up and handing them over.
"What are you going to say if someone questions that?" Sonic asked before taking a sip.
"I'll just tell them that you guys are cops, and you earned it," Rosy shrugged.
"Cops or not, we'd still pay regardless," Tails smiled.
"Aw... you're too cute for your own good," Rosy beamed. "Get back to your table before I pick you up and steal you."
"I think she means it, dude," Sonic whispered in his friend's ear.
The others chuckled, walking back to their table and taking their seats. They'd almost finished their main food, with Shadow being the only one to have not finished his mini pizza, having two slices left. He picked one up as Sonic spoke.
"You know, I've been thinking about something," the blue hedgehog said.
"That's never a good thing," Knuckles playfully said.
"I'm being serious, dude," Sonic replied.
"What's it about?" said Shadow.
"Nack," said Sonic. "I'm worried about what he's got going on now."
"Look, he's gone for now, okay?" said Knuckles. "Good riddance to bad rubbish."
"That's the problem," Tails pointed out. "He's gone, but we don't know where. And since we know so little about him, we don't have a clue about where he could be."
Shadow finished his pizza, picking the plates up. "We'll carry this on when I get back."
The others nodded, and sat in silence as Shadow took the plates back to the bar. He handed them to Rosy, who rushed them to the kitchen, and soon, Shadow walked back over to the booth, picking his drink up as he stood.
"Where are you going?" Tails asked.
"The back room to play pool," the black and red hedgehog replied. "You guys coming?"
The others chuckled, rising from their seats and picking their drinks up as they stood. They followed their friend to the back room, walking through the door and seeing one of the two pool tables free to play at.
Sonic went over, inserting a coin into the machine to eject the balls to the bottom of the table. Shadow went about setting up the triangle, using the cloth that covered the small compartment at the bottom of the table as a guideline for how to arrange them.
"Traditional rotation pool, I see," Sonic said. "Coupled with that shotgun at the bar, I'd say that we've travelled back one hundred years."
"Isn't technology a great thing?" Tails smirked, seeing a Mobian sat at a computer, playing an old game.
"So much work to advance to the future," Knuckles said, grabbing two cues, "only to find out more about the world's past."
"So, what are the teams?" asked Tails.
"I'm thinking me and Sonic against you and Shadow," Knuckles replied, handing the yellow fox the other cue while keeping one.
"Who goes first?" Tails asked.
Sonic pulled a coin from his pocket. "Flip for it."
"I call tails," said Shadow.
"Why call him?" asked the blue hedgehog. "He's stood right next to you."
"Flip the damn coin," Shadow smirked.
"Heads up," Sonic shrugged, flipping it. He caught it, placed it on his wrist, and spoke. "Tails. Looks like their side goes first." He returned the coin to his wallet, then his wallet to his pocket.
"Who's breaking?" asked Tails.
"You want to give it a shot?" Shadow asked.
The yellow fox shrugged, getting to the top of the table and using some chalk on his cue before aiming at the cue ball. After a few movements, he fired, breaking the balls evenly, with the orange striped thirteen near one of the corner pockets.
"Good break, dude," said Sonic, standing up to take a shot. He aimed for the stripe near the corner pocket, but bounced off the wall next to it, gently colliding with one of the spots.
"Close one," said Knuckles as Shadow stepped up.
"It just gently brushed against it. It was almost in," Sonic said, handing Knuckles the cue.
"If by gently brushed against it, you mean completely missed it, I agree," Knuckles nodded.
Shadow smiled before focusing on the game. He tried aiming for the stripe near the pocket, but since the cue ball was so close to the main pile, it was going to be hard to get a good enough shot off from where he was.
"Just got to take this easy..." Shadow said, aiming his cue at an angle and firing. The cue ball did a little jump before hitting the stripe in. "Looks like we've got stripes."
"Sweetness," said Tails.
Shadow chuckled, focusing on hitting the main pile more. He gave it a hard hit, hoping to break the pile up more. Since it was just a stripe and two spots left, he didn't have much issue with it, aiming for the singular stripe of the pile.
After he sat back down, Knuckles went up to the table. Seeing the spotted red number three, he aimed for it as it was near one of the side pockets. It barely went in, grazing off the cushion next to it.
"Aw, dammit! So close," the red echidna said to himself.
"You'll get the next one, dude," Tails said, walking up to the table.
"Let's hope so."
After more playing, eventually it came down to Tails and Shadow having the advantage, with just the black eight ball left. Sonic and Knuckles had the purple four and the green six left to sink in, and after a missed shot from Shadow in hoping to sink the black in one of the side pockets, Sonic stepped up.
He analysed the table, seeing the two spotted balls at opposite sides. Near a bottom corner was the green six, and further up in between the middle and top right corner pocket was the purple four.
Since the green was pressed firmly against the cushion, Sonic knew that he had to aim carefully. If he hit it dead on, or hit it too softly, he'd risk losing the game. He had to press against the cushion and hit the side of the six hard enough to sink it.
Taking a deep breath, he finally took his shot, smashing the cue ball down to the bottom cushion. Luckily, it brushed against the green's side, causing it to slide over to the corner pocket, and an agonising second later, it sunk in.
Sonic put his hand on his chest. "That was too damn close..." he said.
"But you did it," said Shadow.
Sonic nodded, going to the bottom end of the table. While the shot was good, the cue ball was now only two inches away from the cushion, making it hard to shoot the ball from where he was.
"Well, here's goes nothing," he said to himself.
He aimed and fired, and the ball made its journey to the purple four, connecting with it and hitting it towards the top corner pocket... only for it to bounce between the two cushions of the pocket and roll to the top cushion, now being in the same position that the green was in earlier, while the cue ball was decently away from the cushion, now being in the same place that the purple was.
"Aw... that's just not fair," said the blue hedgehog.
"Hey, you put up an admirable performance," said Tails as he stepped up to the table, "but you just got unlucky."
"God, I want you to mess this up so badly right now," Sonic smirked.
The yellow fox shrugged, grabbed the chalk for his cue as he spoke. "Eight ball, middle pocket," he said. He aimed at the cue ball carefully, not wanting to get overconfident, and he fired, sinking the black ball easily. "Game, set, and match."
"I think that's tennis," said Knuckles. "Then again, it just applies to most sports, I think."
They all chuckled and shook hands as they put their cues on the table, leaving them there for whoever was next. They grabbed their drinks and left the room, going back to their booth again.
"You know, we never did finish that conversation from earlier," said Tails as they sat down.
Knuckles turned to Sonic. "The floor is yours, dude."
Sonic nodded. "Okay... what I'm about to say might sound crazy, so bear with me."
"We're listening," Tails said.
"And besides," Shadow added, "I'm sure that whatever you're about to say can't be any crazier than the situation we're in now."
Sonic breathed out a sigh. "What if we did our own little side thing of finding Nack?"
"You were right," said Knuckles. "That is crazy."
"This isn't a time for your jokes," said Tails.
"Who's joking?" Knuckles shrugged. "I'm being serious. If we try to pull this off, Avery will be all over us, and we could lose another job that we'd barely get. I don't know about you guys, but I ain't looking forward to doing that twice in one year."
"You didn't let me finish," Sonic chuckled. "Yes, looking for Nack on our own is risky. It might even be stupid. I'm aware of that. But what if we try not to make it so obvious?"
"How are we going to pull that off?" asked Tails. "We'll only do stuff when we're called in, remember? The police forces will take care of the rest of it."
"Screw the police forces," Sonic said. "I'm talking about us and Nack. Sure, we're only there to be called up for stuff, but we are freelance agents. We might not be able to run our own missions, but what if we don't try to rush for our chase for Nack?"
"So, what are you getting at, exactly?" Knuckles asked.
Sonic smiled wide. " I'm saying that we take our time with it. We look for any info that we can find on that weaselly bastard, but we be careful with it."
"How are we going to get that info?" asked Tails.
Sonic shrugged. "Maybe Nack left some people behind in some cities that he either screwed over or just forgot about."
"Nack really seems like the kind of dude who'd kill a person that he didn't need any more," Knuckles said. "Or the kind of guy who'd be disloyal. Thick as thieves, and all that."
"Maybe he just kills people who are disloyal to him," Shadow suggested. "Maybe that's why he's got so many friends; they don't want to get on his bad side."
Sonic chuckled. "You guys do get my point, though. I just need to know if you're with me."
Tails nodded. "I'm your best friend. Of course I'm with you."
Knuckles smirked. "And you obviously need me to make the rest of you guys look good. And also, you're my friend. I wouldn't be where I am without you." He nodded. "I'm in."
Shadow grinned to himself. "And I like to think that I add and air of mystique to the group. I'm in too."
Sonic sighed happily and nodded. "All right... that's good. But we need to be careful. And it needs to be perfect, or not at all. We can't half-ass this."
"We're with you," said Knuckles.
The blue hedgehog raised his drink. "To our new jobs, and to taking care of Nack."
"Hear, hear," Knuckles replied.
The four then clinked their drinks together before gulping them down. Checking his watch, Sonic noted that it was getting late. Since he was the only one not to have been to the bar at some point, he offered to take the empty bottles back.
As he set them on the bar, he smiled at Rosy. "Good to see you're still hard at work here."
"Eh, it's a much easier night than usual," Rosy replied. "With the rumours of Nack being in Green Hill, more people were panicking. Now that he's been driven out of the city, business is much calmer." She then giggled. "Plus, cute guys give me kisses on the cheek and decent tips."
Sonic laughed a bit. "I've been meaning to ask, how does all this work, exactly?"
"How does what work?" Rosy replied as she picked the bottles up from the bar.
"Amy working as a teacher by day, and you working in a bar at night," the blue hedgehog said.
Rosy placed the empty bottles into a green plastic bin with a recycling label on it before speaking. "It's actually a secret identity. I really am Amy, but I just wear more revealing clothing and suddenly gain a more flirtatious attitude."
"Huh. I thought something was up with that," Sonic replied, equally as serious before laughing. "Seriously, how does it work?"
"Well, I don't do much around the house in the day minus cleaning it and just goofing around," Rosy shrugged. "Amy works during the day, and I usually get to work here at the bar about an hour after she gets back home from school."
"Does it take long to get here?" Sonic asked.
Rosy nodded. "As a rule, yes. That's my only regret about the house that we own; both of our jobs are so damn far away from where we live."
"Well, if it helps, you make a good barkeep," Sonic said.
"I'll keep that in mind the next time a troubled soul shows up. I might even get a towel ready to wipe over the bar for no reason as I listen to their problems."
"Better make sure you're not leaning over so much," Sonic shrugged. "I'm just saying, their eyes might not be focused on the towel."
"Isn't that the whole point?" Rosy giggled. "I'll be sure to pass your message on to Amy. Now, get on out of here."
"Will do," Sonic chuckled, turning to walk away.
"Oh, and Sonic?"
"Yeah?"
The blue hedgehog turned to be met with a kiss from Rosy on the cheek. "That's me thanking you for dealing with those ass-holes from earlier."
Sonic looked around. "I don't see them anywhere."
"I think they're on the other side of the bar," Rosy said. "They might not even be able to notice you pass by."
"Either that, or they'll be too drunk to care," Sonic shrugged. "See you around."
He then turned to leave again, this time not being distracted by Rosy, and headed out the door where his friends were waiting for him. He saw them standing by Knuckles' car, waiting for Sonic to come over.
"What kept you so long?" Tails asked.
"Was just having a nice chat with the friendly barkeep," Sonic grinned.
"Nothing like getting to know your future sister-in-law," said Knuckles as he got into the driver's seat.
"I'm worried of what their kids will think about their weird uncles," said Tails. "One's a big red echidna, one's a broody hedgehog, and the last one is a fox with two tails."
"Maybe my future kids will like your tails," Sonic shrugged. "Dammit... well played."
"You walked right into that one," Shadow grinned.
Before Knuckles started the car, he turned to the door to see the four Mobians from earlier stumble out of the bar. They appeared to be standing weakly, and one of them keeled over, almost throwing up.
"Either they drunk a lot of booze in little time," said Sonic, "or they just can't hold their liquor."
"Come on," said Knuckles, starting up the car. "Let's head home. It's getting late."
The others agreed, and they drove out of the parking lot and onto the main road. Within little time, Sonic, Tails, and Shadow were each dropped off home, leaving Knuckles as the last one.
Not wasting any time, he made his way to his and Shade's home. He put on some music to help him pass the time, and he soon arrived at their house, pulling into the driveway and killing the engine before getting out of the car.
He walked to the front door and leaned down to get the spare key from under the welcome mat, using it to unlock the front door. The living room light was on, and Knuckles went inside to see Shade awake and watching a horror movie.
Silently, the red echidna sneaked up on his orange counterpart from behind during a scary scene in the movie where a masked killer was about to grab the main heroine from behind and stab her with his knife.
The moment that the loud music sting played, Knuckles yelled, "BOO!" from behind the couch.
"Oh, hey babe," Shade said, completely unfazed by the scaring attempt.
"I tried so hard..." Knuckles pouted.
Shade giggled. "Next time, try a little harder." She then paused the movie. "How was the bar with the guys?"
"Pretty good," Knuckles said. "No beer of any kind, as promised. We had some cokes, some bar food, had a game of pool... it was just a nice time, really."
"So, do you want to curl up with me on the couch and watch a bad horror movie with me?" Shade asked.
"I would love to, but I've got to go to bed early. Need to wake up pretty early tomorrow to get to the station and clear my desk," Knuckles said.
"I've been meaning to ask," the female echidna said, "where does all of your stuff go when you pack it up?"
"To our new base, I presume," Knuckles said.
"I mean, for the day. Remember, you have all of tomorrow free after you clear out at the station," Shade said.
"Well... I guess that I could bring it here. I'll just put it in a safe place, then take that stuff with me to our new base on Monday," said Knuckles.
Shade nodded. "Fair enough. Now, come here and give me some sugar, sugar."
The red echidna smiled and walked around the couch, picking his girlfriend up and hugging her. He kissed her lips, and they both moulded together into the kiss, smiling happily into their embrace before stopping.
"We'd better stop..." said Knuckles. "I don't want to have to stay up too late..."
"You're right..." Shade said, panting. "You need to go to sleep..."
"You'll join me soon, right?" Knuckles asked.
"Of course," Shade smiled.
Knuckles smiled, giving her one more quick peck on the lips before going upstairs. He decided to save his shower for tomorrow morning, instead just changing into his boxers and a pyjama shirt he had, curling up in his bed. A few hours later, he felt a pair of soft hands wrap around him from behind, causing him to smile in his sleep as he looked forward to the next couple of days.
This chapter wound up being much longer than I was anticipating, not to mention being more story-based. So, what do you guys think? Did you like it? What about Sonic's plan of a secret hunt for Nack? Let me know what you thought, and I'll see you all in the next one. If I don't see you before then, Merry Christmas. Or Happy Holidays. Either way, enjoy it. Take care and stay tuned, folks.