The next morning, Sonic woke up in his bed, turning to see his alarm blaring at 6:30 am. He tiredly reached over to turn it off before sitting up in bed and yawning, reaching his arms out to stretch as he balled his fists, then wiping his eyes.
He decided not to bother with a morning shower, instead just choosing to brush his teeth before changing out of his clothes. He slipped on a pair of grey and white striped boxers, some black socks, a pair of dark blue jeans, and a yellow tank top with a cool neon green computerised design on the chest of it, before slipping on some red trainers.
After he was dressed, he went downstairs, taking his clothes from yesterday with him and placing them in the washing machine. He smiled at the pile of Manic and Sonia's clothes, and placed them into the machine as well before providing some detergent to go with the clothes, turning on the machine not long after.
"Time for breakfast..." he said to himself, moving over to the fridge.
He grabbed the large bottle of milk from the fridge before searching through the cupboards, grabbing a box of chocolate cereal from there. He grabbed a bowl and a spoon, and went about making his breakfast.
He poured the cereal in first, but before adding the milk, he grabbed a thermos from the cupboard, placing it on the side next to the kettle before checking said kettle for how much water was in it. There was enough for a drink, so he turned it on whilst he set up his warm beverage.
As the kettle boiled, he finished making his cereal up, putting both the box and the bottle away in their respective places before eating his cereal where he was, not bothering to sit down before the kettle had boiled.
It soon finished heating up, and Sonic was just finishing his cereal. As soon as he put his bowl and spoon in the dishwasher, he heard slow footsteps from behind him, followed by a drowsy voice.
"Dude... could you keep it down?" Manic asked, wearing a pair of green pyjamas.
"I think that was just the kettle," Sonic said. "I wasn't making that much noise, was I?"
Manic looked wearily over to the kettle. "Damn, that thing is noisy..." He then rubbed some sleep out of his eyes. "So, I see that you're up bright and early."
"Early yes, bright no," Sonic replied. "Haven't had any coffee yet. You want some?"
Manic shook his head. "It's, like, the middle of the night, dude."
"It's 6:40," Sonic replied, gesturing to the clock on the microwave.
"My point still stands," Manic smiled. "So, you're heading off to your new base today, right?"
"Yup," Sonic said, making his coffee as he kept speaking. "All four of us get our own place and a new job. I probably won't be back at home much because of that. We never know when we'll be needed."
Manic nodded, although Sonic couldn't see it since he was focused on making his drink. "I get it. And I can't deny that it'll suck not having you around as much, but... you're moving on to better things, man. I know it."
"Thanks," Sonic smiled, finishing up making his drink and taking a quick sip. "Hot, but still good." He looked past Manic. "Sonia still asleep?"
"She's always been a heavy sleeper," Manic said.
"Yeah," Sonic nodded. "How she survives through your snoring of a nighttime is beyond me."
"At least I don't wet the bed," the green hedgehog brother laughed.
"That was when I was six, dude. It was a nerve wracking time," the blue hedgehog brother replied, laughing also.
"No need to get pissy," Manic shrugged, unable to hide the smirk at his pun. "Sorry. Couldn't help it."
"You could, but you just chose not to," Sonic said. "Knuckles is the same sometimes."
"Speaking of which, is he picking you up?" Manic asked.
"He is indeed," Sonic nodded. "He should be here soon."
Manic nodded. "Well, before I go back to sleep, I just wanted to wish you good luck out there."
Sonic smiled and walked over to his brother. "Thanks, man."
"Sonia says it too," Manic chuckled.
Sonic nodded. "I know. Give her a hug for me when she's up?"
"Will do," Manic said. "Bring it in."
The blue hedgehog chuckled and reached over to hug his brother, the two chuckling and sharing an embrace together. They both broke from the hug, and Sonic went over to his thermos, being the first to speak.
"I'll see you... whenever I next see you," he said.
"Yeah," Manic nodded, yawning. "Well, I'd best get back to sleep. Take care."
"Night," Sonic called, teasing his brother as he walked away.
Manic replied by waving him off, and Sonic soon got a text on his phone, seeing it was from Knuckles. "You up?" it asked.
"Yeah. Got my coffee ready," Sonic typed back.
"Well, I've got Shadow and am on my way to get Tails," Knuckles replied. "I should probably be there around 7:00."
"Cool," Sonic typed. "See you when you get here."
"In a bit, bro."
Sonic put his phone back in his pocket before looking outside the window. Despite it being early morning, he shrugged to himself and went to grab his headphones from his bedroom quickly.
"Maybe a quick jog around will keep me fresh for when the guys get here," he said to himself.
He grabbed a grey hoodie and slipped it on before leaving his house. As he left, he turned back to see the building, sighing a bit to himself at how much he'd miss seeing his family with his new job.
"Can't dwell on that," Sonic said, shaking his head. "Time for a few laps around the block."
Meanwhile, at the Wrench Turner...
Tails was already awake, and had just finished showering before changing into his own clothes. He went for a white t-shirt over a grey long sleeved shirt, blue jean shorts, some white socks, and a pair of dark orange sneakers.
He went downstairs to see his parents in the kitchen at the back of the shop, and smiled as he saw his breakfast of beans on toast, with some orange juice. His parents had the same, with the exception of his father Amadeus having a coffee instead of juice.
"So, you looking forward to your first day as a freelancer, my boy?" Amadeus smiled.
"Yeah," Tails replied. "It's honestly kind of making me nervous, but the more that I think about it, the less that I worry."
Rosemary smiled. "Well, you are going to be with your friends. Shadow isn't the most talkative from what we know, but Sonic seems like a good egg."
Tails chuckled. "He can be when he wants to be."
"And Knuckles... I've always liked him," Amadeus chuckled. "Not the brightest bulb, but he's strong."
"I would say that he'd be mad at that," Tails started, "but even he knows about it. And plus, you've met him, so it's cool that you like him."
"Shadow might take some getting used to..." Rosemary trailed off.
Tails nodded. "I know. He's quiet and reserved, but once he starts talking, he's actually not as bad as he likes to make himself out to be."
"Speaking of your friends," Amadeus said, "won't they be here soon?"
The yellow fox son nodded, eating some of his food. "Yeah. Knuckles usually picks up Shadow first since he lives the furthest away from the station, then he picks me up on the way to Sonic's."
"Smart way of doing it," his father replied. "Why does Shadow live so far away, though?"
"Well, he lives with Maria," said Tails, shrugging. "They take care of each other, and I think that they live far away since they're both really socially awkward."
"You've met Maria?" Rosemary asks.
Tails nodded. "Yeah. She's a nice person, despite shaking like a leaf when she's around people she doesn't know."
"Speaking of women," Amadeus said, "how'd things go yesterday with Cosmo?"
Rosemary elbowed her husband in the side. "You said that you wouldn't bring that up..." she whispered.
Tails hung his head a bit as he kept eating. He finished the bit in in his mouth before speaking. "It's fine. It went really well, actually."
"You went to Jade Mountain, right?" Rosemary asked.
Tails nodded. "Yep. She tried the sweet and sour ribs there, and pretty much fell in love with them."
"Anything else?" Amadeus asked.
"Like what?" Tails shot back.
"Did you two... you know..."
The young yellow fox shook his head with a sigh. "I'm 20 years old, dad. I'm old enough for 'you know'. If you must know, we didn't get to that stage, which I'm okay with. And even if I did, and as much as I love you both, I wouldn't just parade that around. That would be disrespectful to Cosmo, and I really want things to work with her."
"Ah, that's nice," Rosemary said.
"Sorry for pushing," Amadeus said. "But it's nice to hear that you had a wonderful time."
Tails chuckled. "She did make the first move, though. She kissed me."
"When?" asked his mother, unable to hide her curiosity.
"Just after getting out of the car to get into the restaurant," Tails replied. "And then a second time when we got back to the station, before I called up the taxi to bring me back here."
"Aw, that's so cute!" Rosemary smiled.
Amadeus reached over to stroke Tails' hair. "That's my boy!" He then paused. "Did she make the second move too, by the way?"
"She tried to, but I beat her to it," Tails chuckled, checking his watch. "Ooh... I'd better finish fast. Knuckles is going to be here any minute now."
His parents both nodded, but his mother couldn't stop her enthusiasm from gushing over. "I'm just so glad that you have a girl! Your eyes light up when you talk about her!"
Tails blushed in reply, and kept eating his food, as did his parents. Soon, they'd all finished up, and Tails was just about to pick the plates up when he heard a car honking outside. He turned to look at his parents, and his father stood up.
"I'll take care of them," said Amadeus, taking the plates from his son. "You just go on out there and do your job. Well, your new job, I guess."
"I will," Tails smiled. He then reached over to hug his dad before his mum also joined in. "I'm going to miss you guys..."
"We'll miss you too," Rosemary said, kissing Tails on his forehead. "And please, try not to get into another car crash."
"That wasn't our fault last time!" Tails defended, grabbing a coat as he left, just in case. "I'll see you guys when I see you! I love you!"
"We love you too!" they both replied.
"I'm worried already..." Rosemary said.
"He just barely closed the door when you said that," Amadeus chuckled, placing the dishes into the washer.
"Still, he's our little boy... and he's out saving the world and getting hurt in the process..."
Amadeus rested a gentle, but firm, hand on her shoulder. "Sweetie, we talked about this. You said that, even knowing this, that you'd be fine with it. He's old enough to make his own decisions now."
Rosemary nodded, kissing her husband's hand. "I know. But I'm still allowed to worry, right?"
"We're parents," Amadeus chuckled. "It's only natural for us to worry. He'll be fine, Rose. Trust me."
Rosemary nodded. "Well, let's get ourselves ready for work."
"Good thing we live at our job," Amadeus laughed.
Outside, Tails waved at his friends, hopping into the back seat as Shadow had taken the front with Knuckles. Shadow wore a black button up t-shirt with faint white stripes, and that shirt was opened up over a dark brown tank top. Long grey shorts and black boots finished the look. Knuckles wore a dark blue v-neck t-shirt with a ninja sword design on the torso, followed with blue jeans and red and green patterned sneakers.
"Ah, there he is," the red echidna smiled at the yellow fox.
"Nice of you guys to show up," Tails smiled as he put his seat-belt on. "You all ready to go?"
"Only one more person to grab," Knuckles replied.
"You still got all our stuff in the back of the car?" asked Tails.
"Yep," Knuckles nodded.
"Then let's not waste any more time," Tails said.
Knuckles nodded, pressing his foot down on the accelerator and heading for Sonic's house. Soon enough, they'd reached the house in question, and as they paused to look at the front door, they didn't see the blue hedgehog outside.
"He must be in the house," Tails shrugged.
Knuckles nodded, honking his horn. "Yo, blue boy! Come on, we're losing daylight!"
"It's 7:00 am, dude," Shadow pointed out.
The red echidna shrugged, and saw Sonic come out from around the left side of the house. "There you are! You come out from the back door or something?"
Sonic shook his head as he got closer. "Nah. I was just doing a few laps as I waited," he replied, getting into the back with Tails. "How are the parents?"
"They're pretty good," Tails smiled. "Although, they're pretty worried for me."
The blue hedgehog nodded. "Makes sense. So, what's the plan?"
"We head to the station," Shadow said. "Since we have no clue where our new base is, we'll need to take a trip over there to get our new address."
"That reminds me," Knuckles said, reaching into his pockets, "everyone got their new cards?" The other three pulled theirs out, and the red echidna smiled. "Good."
"To the station!" said Tails.
At the Green Hill Police Department...
Avery was talking with Simian in the meeting room. Ash was also there, the remote in his hands as ever, ready to press the buttons to bring up new parts of his presentation as the bear and the gorilla talked.
Also there was Rotor, whom Avery spoke to directly. "So, what did you find out about the bodies?"
The walrus sighed. "There was some traces of Fokus in them, without a doubt, but they're very faint. It's not enough to be a good lead to anything that Nack is doing."
"Did you find out anything new about the drug?" asked Simian.
"Only that it could be a very influential one," shrugged Rotor. "Without actually testing it, I can't tell you. And I'm not willing to just inject it into anyone that I feel like just to get a good result."
"He's right," Ash nodded. "And we can never find video footage of Fokus users since it's still such a rare drug. People will go to strange places to hide their vices."
Avery shook his head. "I still can't believe what we found..."
"If there's any silver lining," said Rotor, "it's that there's a very slight possibility that people could overdose from the drug. Or at least, die some other way whilst it's in their system."
Avery nodded. "That's enough to make it dangerous. We need to make a play on Nack."
"Our best are working on it," said Simian. "But we've got nothing on where he could be."
"Maybe Westopolis?" Ash suggested.
"Why would Nack, a high-profile criminal, go to a shit-hole like Westopolis?" the gorilla asked.
"Like I said earlier, some people will go to strange places," Ash shrugged. "Maybe he wants that shit-hole to look less like shit."
"There was nothing else in Gear Steers either?" Avery asked.
"Sonic and his team shook down every part of that place and found what they could," Simian said. "It's all in evidence."
"And the dudes in the holding cells aren't speaking much on it, either," Ash added. "Shadow got the best that he could out of Bark, but all that proved is that Bark wasn't important enough to handle the more serious stuff."
"I think that Nack let him go the moment that he started shooting at his men," replied Rotor, standing up from his chair. "Anyway, I need to get back to my work. If I find anything new, I'll let you know."
Avery nodded, and as Rotor turned to leave, there was a call on the bear's speaker. "Hello?"
"Sonic and his team are here," said Cosmo.
"Ah, right. Tell them to wait outside," Avery said.
"They are outside," Cosmo said. "They're probably waiting on you."
"Got you. Over and out."
"What was that about?" Ash asked.
"I think I know," Avery smiled, turning to Simian. "Is everything all ready up there?"
"Antoine and Vector finished the final touches last night," the gorilla replied. "They stayed up pretty late working on it, but it couldn't be more perfect."
"Oh, yeah," Ash said, finally catching on. "We never did tell them where the new place was, or how they'd be getting there."
"Then let's go and show them," Avery said.
Rotor chuckled, waiting for the others to leave before he did. They all took the elevator down to the ground floor, and Rotor broke off from the others to head to the morgue as Avery, Simian, and Ash went to the front desk.
"Where exactly are they?" the mongoose asked.
Mina kissed him on the cheek before pointing her finger to look outside. At the side window of the double doors were Sonic and the others, all pretending to be cold and hungry, with Tails rolling on the floor and clutching his tails as a blanket to punctuate the act.
"God dammit," Avery shook his head, although unable to hide his smile. He then walked out to the four, going over to Tails and nudging him with his foot. "You know it's illegal to sleep on the grounds of a police station, right?"
"Y-You can't give a break to fellow officers?" Sonic asked with a mix of a slight whimper and cold stutter.
"Not when they're supposed to be at their new place," Avery said. "But then again, I imagine that's why you're here."
"Pretty much," Shadow said, abandoning the act. The others soon followed before the black and red hedgehog spoke again. "So, how do we get there?"
"It'd probably best for me to guide you in a car," Avery said. "Sort of like a convoy, I guess."
"Don't you have a station to run?" Sonic asked.
"They won't go to hell in the ten minutes that I'll be gone," Avery chuckled.
"It depends on how far we'll have to go," Sonic shrugged.
"Trust me, it won't be that bad," Avery said, getting into a police car. "All right, you guys get in your car and wait for me to pull out of the parking lot, then I'll take you to the new place."
"No problem," Knuckles said.
The red echidna and his friends went over to his car, pulling out of the lot and waiting patiently on the commander. Speaking of which, he was pulling out of the lot himself in the car he picked, and turned his car to the right as he left the lot.
Knuckles was confused, but shrugged and pushed on the accelerator to follow their now former commander. The bear kept turning right as they left properly from the station, and they kept following.
"I've never been past this way of the station," said Shadow.
"Yeah," Sonic agreed. "We normally come in from the left side, to the north of the city. I know, because I live closest to the station as it is."
"Well, let's see where this takes us," Knuckles shrugged as he kept driving.
The bear led them across the south side of the police station, and they followed him until they reached a new segment of the city. They kept going until they found the westernmost side of the city, and Avery slowed down.
"We must be close," Tails said.
Knuckles nodded, and turned his eyes back to Avery's car as it slowed. It then turned left through a small road. Knuckles followed closely behind, and soon found Avery stopping his car altogether before getting out. Shrugging, Knuckles killed the engine of his own car and got out with the others.
"Is this the place?" Sonic asked, looking around and not seeing much.
"Not fully," Avery replied, turning and walking through a small alleyway.
Curiously, the others followed behind, and thankfully they could all fit through the alleyway. They soon stopped as Avery walked forward ahead of them turning back to the others and gesturing to a building behind him.
"This is it," he said.
The four looked up at the building, seeing that it was similar in appearance to the Green Hill building with a high-tech looking design and a silver-chrome paint job on the outside of the building, as well as double doors to enter and exit through.
But that's where the similarities ended, as there was a sign on a wall to the right of the building that read out Freelancers Division in bold black lettering, and there was no sign of electric blue surges or stripes to compliment the building's look.
"Whoa..." Sonic smiled. "You outdid yourself."
"Wait until you get inside," Avery replied, going over to the right door that led into the building. He said his name, and the doors opened. "Voice activated entrances," he explained. "Only you four, and some of us back at the station, can get in or out."
"What about fingerprints and eyeball scanners?" Tails asked.
"They're there too, but you can enter through any of those ways," Avery said. "Also, the voice system is two ways, so you can talk to people inside and outside."
Sonic saw a small camera sliding out of the wall above Avery. "What about that thing? Another security measure?"
"One of many," Avery nodded. "The cameras are hidden everywhere, but this one only shows up when there's people close to the doors. It's a good way to sort the bad from the good."
"Well, what about the inside?" asked Tails.
"Let me show you," the Green Hill commissioner smiled back, entering through the doors. He kept them open for the young former officers, and all stepped through, looking around as the early daylight lit the front room of the building.
On the floor was a black carpet with a faded purple striped pattern, which appeared to adorn most of the ground of the building. The walls were painted a dark red, and appeared to be mostly solid marble.
There was a staircase that led to another floor, which had a pair of catwalks directly above the ground floor. There was no elevator to get up there quicker, but there was a fire pole that started to come out through a part of the ceiling between a pair of catwalks, and leading to the bottom floor.
"A fire pole?" Knuckles asked. "Nice touch."
"Vector thought that you might like that one," Avery smiled.
Sonic laughed, looking around more of the ground floor. To the right of the room appeared to be a communications room, with several computers and monitors possibly linked to the technology around the outside of the building. There was a recreation room to the left of that, and Sonic spotted some arcade machines and a large plasma screen TV on the wall, but he couldn't tell much else from where he was.
He then looked to his left, seeing a downstairs bathroom. Next to that was the living room, also with a TV. At a glance, it appeared to have some couches, two chairs, and even a love seat and a beanbag chair.
"Wow..." Sonic smiled. "Lot of cool stuff so far."
"You can look around inside the rooms," smiled Avery. "This is your place, after all."
"Maybe when we're done looking," Tails grinned. "Do we have a kitchen?"
"It's conjoined with the living room," said Avery. "It's a bit further up ahead. And yes, we kept our promise of hooking everything up for you. I trust that you brought your own stuff from home?"
"It's in the trunk of my car," said Knuckles.
"You can bring it in when you're done looking around," smiled Avery. "Want to go upstairs?"
The others nodded, and the bear smiled, leading them up the staircase. Like the ground floor, the upstairs area also had the same design and colour of carpet, but the walls were slightly different in colour, being a bright red in contrast to the darker shade of the downstairs area.
Upstairs was mostly a large corridor that ran from left to right, with a spare bathroom at the left end of the corridor. At the right end was what appeared to be a staircase of sorts, which seemed to run both downstairs and possibly up to a roof area.
Sonic looked around and noticed two catwalks that led from the floor of the corridor to the opposite side, which was the front part of the house. There was another corridor there, and the blue hedgehog spoke.
"What's with that part?" he asked.
"Ah, that is for the spare rooms," Avery replied. "Just in case you have guests coming around."
"Like a certain pink hedgehog?" Tails teased.
"Or a certain green plant girl?" Sonic shot back.
"Perhaps both," said Avery. "Also, there's a bathroom and double staircase on the opposite ends of that corridor, like there is on this one."
Sonic smiled and turned to see the fire pole in between the catwalks. "You guys truly did outdo yourselves for this. Thank you."
Avery nodded. "It was no problem, really. We figured that you guys deserved something a bit better than what we gave you at the station, so we all put this together."
"Is there anything else?" Tails asked.
Avery put a hand on his chin. "Ah, I almost forgot! Follow me!"
The bear used the pole to get to the lower floor, and the others followed suit as Avery headed in the direction of the recreation room. He opened the door with his ID card and the others entered with him.
Knuckles was the first to spot where Avery was going, seeing a door at the far end of the rec room. "The gym?"
"Not just that," Avery smiled, opening the door up. "Come and take a look for yourselves."
The others, somewhat confused, just shrugged it off and entered through the door. It appeared to be half gym, with a variety of machines, bags, and weights here and there, but there was also some obstacle courses, complete with running lanes, climbing nets, and even some trampolines in a line.
"What, are we training for the next Mobius Olympics?" Sonic chuckled. "This is pretty mental."
"We had to make it this extravagant so that we could test your abilities," said Avery. "Since you've gotten your implants, you guys really haven't had that many chances to test them out, and we couldn't help you at the training grounds back at the station because... well, you know why."
"So, how exactly are you going to test us out?" Sonic asked.
"Ah, we'll start that tomorrow," Avery replied as he turned to leave. "We don't have much time right now, and I really should get back to the station before it's too late. You can still run around, if you want."
"Anything else?" Sonic asked as he and his friends followed.
"Only that your car can fit through the alleyway," said Avery. "I just didn't take mine through since it'll be easier to get back to the station that way."
"Good thinking," Tails smiled.
The bear chuckled as he and the others made it to the main lobby. "So, is it all to your liking?"
"It's better than we thought," Sonic said.
"Yeah," Knuckles nodded. "Once we get our own stuff set up, it'll probably feel more like home."
"Or all four of our homes mashed together in one super awesome house," Tails chuckled.
Avery chuckled, turning to Shadow. "Well?"
"I'm worried about Maria," Shadow stated.
"Ah. Well, there's no need," Avery said. "Staying in the place overnight is optional. If you have people back at your homes, then you're more than welcome to go back any night that you want."
Knuckles smirked. "That's pretty cool. I'd like to bring Shade up here. She seems like she'd like it."
"So, is that better?" Avery asked Shadow. He didn't ask in a condescending tone, but more of a reassuring one.
The black and red hedgehog nodded and smiled a little bit. "It is. Thank you for all of this."
"No worries," Avery said, extending his hand. Shadow shook it, as did the others soon after before Green Hill's commissioner spoke again. "I'd really better be off. You guys just worry about setting your stuff up, okay?"
"Will do," Tails smiled.
Avery went to the front door, and turned to the four. "Oh, and guys?"
"Yeah?" Sonic asked.
"Try not to blow your new place up on the first day."
"Have you seen Knuckles try to cook?" Sonic replied.
"I accidentally overcook one grilled cheese and ham sandwich, and suddenly I'm not allowed in kitchens any more," Knuckles said sarcastically.
"Damn straight," Tails said.
Avery chuckled once more. "Later, fellas."
"See you," Sonic said. "And thanks!"
"It was no problem!"
With that, the bear left the building for proper, heading down through the alleyway and entering his car. He gave one last look at the new building and gave a wave, seeing the others standing outside the door and waving back at him.
"Man..." Sonic said as they all stopped. "I still can't believe that this is all here for us."
"Yeah," Knuckles agreed. "And we thought that the refurbished rooms at the station were cool. They don't have a patch on this."
"So, what's the first order of business?" Tails said to Sonic.
The blue hedgehog looked a bit confused. "Why are you asking me?"
"You are still our leader, right?" Shadow said.
Sonic smiled genuinely. "You guys still think that of me, huh? Even after everything that's happened?"
"Will you let that go?" said Knuckles. "Accidents happen to cops all the time, dude. We're not the first, and we won't be the last."
Sonic shrugged. "All right. First order is to pick your rooms and get your stuff set up. Clothes, kitchen stuff, and so on."
"I do wonder if we have an armoury around here," said Shadow. "Maybe we should have asked Avery about it."
Tails shrugged and went over to the communications room. "Well, let's see what's in here first off."
The others agreed, and went into the room with Tails. The yellow fox appeared to be in his element, and sat down in front of the monitors, looking over the computer screens as they showed various cameras to the outside world.
"This technology is fantastic!" he said to himself. "The pictures of the outside are clear as day. Nothing looks off."
Sonic nodded, and then saw a camera pointed to an odd place. "What the heck is that?"
Tails looked as his friend pointed. "Huh... I don't know," he said, his fingers clacking on the keyboard. "Let me take a look..."
The camera in question was focused on the outside, around the back area of the building. There didn't appear to be much there besides a small parking lot, just big enough to fit maybe ten cars at most.
More than that was that there appeared to be a small door hidden away in one of the back corners of the building. Tails typed in some keys again on the computer and tried to enlarge said door, enhancing the picture to make it clearer.
"There seems to be something out the back," said Tails. "Judging from the angle, it looks like it's from the back end of the living room."
"Then let's go check it out," said Sonic.
The yellow fox nodded and stood up to join with the others, and they all headed towards the living room. They took a glance around the inside, seeing that it was made for lounging, but it did have a section with a large table, possibly for mission meetings, punctuated with a phone on the table.
"Bet there's more of those around," said Knuckles.
"There was one in the comm room," said Tails.
Sonic nodded and continued walking to the back door of the living room. The others followed and they all walked out to the back area. They were a few feet from the actual parking lot, so they stepped out into it, looking around.
"I don't see much," said Knuckles.
"Maybe we're looking in the wrong place?" said Sonic.
Tails looked around and saw where the camera was looking. But when he walked over, he didn't see the small doors that were shown earlier on the screen. "That's odd..." he said to himself. "I could have sworn that this was the right place."
"Could be that we're at the wrong end," said Shadow.
"You don't ever want to wind up in the wrong end," said Knuckles. "Let's go look around the other one."
"I think that's the gym," said Tails.
The others nodded and went over to the other end of the building. They did see a pair of double doors there, and Knuckles used his card to open them to confirm that the door was for the gym.
"Um... yep, it's the gym," said the red echidna.
The others looked around inside, seeing that it was the main training area of the gym. They didn't get a closer look from earlier, but now that they were, they decided to have a closer look around.
What they saw was pretty much close to an armoury; there were many weapons around, and the four recognised them as being police issue weaponry from Green Hill, as well as some from other jurisdictions, including Star Light, Aqua Lake, and so on.
"Well, this should answer Shadow's question," Sonic said.
"Uh-huh," was all that the black and red hedgehog could say.
Knuckles laughed at that then saw a riot shield, picking it up from a rack with east and trying it out in front of him. "Ooh, this is cool. Hey, Sonic, try to hit me."
"Maybe some other time," replied the blue hedgehog.
"That is cool," Tails said to Knuckles as he looked past him. "But this is cooler."
The others looked in the direction where the yellow fox was looking, and saw four suits of armour. Unlike the Green Hill police armour, these ones appeared to be more tailor made for Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Shadow.
Each one was similar in appearance; the colour was completely black, and the armour appeared to mostly favour the body, but there was some protection around the bottom half as well. There was also metallic helmets complete with goggles should the need fit them, along with gloves, boots, and protective masks, also all black. To complete the look were name tags on the left breast of the suits, each for all four members in order; Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and finally Shadow.
"Looks like we've got our battle suits," Knuckles smiled.
"I don't even care that I was wrong about the camera angle any more," said Tails. "This is definitely a great payoff."
"Why do you think Avery didn't tell us about this?" asked Sonic.
"Like we said earlier," spoke Shadow, "he only had so much time."
"And plus," Tails added, "I think that he wanted it to be a surprise."
"Well, he sure did pull out a good one," Sonic smiled. "Seriously, this is awesome."
Shadow went over to the guns, grabbing a dark silver revolver. "Huh. These are pretty cool."
"You can't beat a good old six-shooter," said Knuckles, looking over the guns as well. "Got a sawed-off, too."
Sonic chuckled. "All right, that'll do it for the show and tell, I think," he said.
"There's even a firing range," Tails said, pointing to the training area.
"Must be more stuff to determine what our implants can do," Sonic guessed. "Still, it's been a while since any of us have fired a gun, and we could all use some practise."
"That's if we'll need them for our future missions," said Knuckles. "Or if we're allowed to use them."
"Why would they give is all of this gear if we're not allowed to use it?" Tails asked. "There's even grenades of all different kinds, and different ammo clips for the electric bullets."
"I know that," Knuckles replied, "but what if our new job description bans the use of lethal force?"
"Maybe it won't be necessary unless we're told otherwise," Shadow shrugged. "We won't know until we get our first case."
"You make it sound like we're detectives," Tails chuckled.
"Ruggedly handsome detectives with cool cybernetic parts," Sonic threw in, causing some laughter. "Come on. Let's go get our rooms set up."
"Sounds good to me," Knuckles replied.
The other two also agreed, and then they all left the room through the main door leading into the gym, with Shadow quickly shutting the back door that led them to the armoury. The four went through the rec room and came to a stop, taking a look at the comfortable couches and gaming systems attached to the TV that they couldn't see earlier.
"Or..." the blue hedgehog said, "we could have a friendly four-way gaming tournament?"
"Also sounds good to me," Knuckles smiled. "It's too early to be doing actual work."
"Eh, why not," said Tails. "All the stuff's still in the car anyway, and I don't think anyone can be bothered getting it."
"We'll do it when we're done," Sonic said. "For now, let's just have some fun with this."
Knuckles nodded and pulled out his phone. "I'll provide the tunes."
As he did, the others went about setting up their game, which was a fighting game. They chose to have a miniature tournament with each other, and Sonic and Shadow stood back as Tails and Knuckles were the first two to battle.
'I still can't believe it,' Sonic thought. 'After all the shit that's happened to us, we're here. We have a new job, and there are so many new opportunities. But us four have to stay focused on finding Nack. I swear to God, we'll take that bastard down together...'
"Yo, Sonic, you're up next," Knuckles said.
"I beat him!" Tails said happily.
"Beginner's luck..." the rec echidna mumbled.
The blue hedgehog walked over, taking the controller pad that Knuckles handed to him and picking his character before turning to Tails, offering a hand. The yellow fox shook it and smiled.
"A gentleman's game, good sir," Tails said. "Good luck."
"You too," Sonic smirked. "You're going to need it!"
And that's it for another chapter! Sorry that it took so long. I was having stomach problems for a few nights, and I didn't want to stay up late writing whilst that was going on, so... yeah. I hope that you enjoyed the chapter, as well as the description of their new place. I also hope you liked reading about Amadeus and Rosemary for the first time. I've never written them in any of my stories before, so I hope that I'm doing them justice. Anyway, I'll see you all in the next chapter, whenever that may be. And Happy Valentine's Day in advance. Take care, and stay tuned.