"And here we are," Shadow said as their bot rode up to the pier. "Back at Green Hill."
"Good," Knuckles said as Shadow killed the engine to the boat. "Because papa needs to gets paid."
"We may as well talk to Avery now whilst we have the chance," Sonic agreed. "Also, there's something that's been bugging me..."
"What would that be?" Tails asked as they all began leaving the boat, stepping onto the wood of the pier.
"Well, I just remembered that I have a car," said Sonic. "I drove myself, Tails, and Shadow to Green Hill Police Department on our first day in said car."
"Really?" Knuckles asked. "Why haven't you gotten it back yet?"
"I guess that after the fatal crash and becoming freelance agents and being super busy, I must have forgotten about it," Sonic shrugged.
"It's cool," Tails said. "We can go pick it up when we talk to the big boss bear."
"Will we even need it?" asked Shadow. "I mean, we use Knuckles' car almost all of the time."
"We may as well get it back," Tails suggested. "Just as a last resort. Also so that Sonic can take Amy out on more dates."
"We should get Tails a car, in that case," said Knuckles. "More dates with Cosmo."
"Eh, I'd rather have you drive me," Tails said. "I can drive; I just choose not to."
"That reminds me," the red echidna threw in, "I really should start charging you guys some form of fare."
"Typical of a cab driver," Sonic said with a smirk. "Asking people for money that they don't have."
"Hell, if you're good at your job, why not get paid for it?" Knuckles said as they approached his car.
"Knuckles, that's not employment," said Tails. "In fact, I'm pretty sure that it's extortion, which is a crime."
"Is it really extortion if you're asking to be paid by your best friends because you're such a good driver?"
"Yes!" the other three said in unison.
"Aw..."
They all shared a laugh and got into the car, with Knuckles starting it up and pulling out of the pier, making his way for Green Hill Police Department. During the drive, he made sure to put on some tunes to keep them all occupied.
Soon, they pulled up to their destination. As soon as they managed to find a good parking spot, the car radio began sounding off. Shadow, who was in the shotgun seat, picked it up and answered it with a sigh, wondering if they suddenly had more work.
"Hello?" he asked.
"Oh, h-hi," the voice on the other end said.
"Cosmo?" Knuckles guessed. "Is that you?"
"Um... yeah..." she replied sheepishly.
"What are you doing calling up our car? Is everything okay?"
"Oh, yeah, everything's fine!" she said, a bit more hurried than she meant. "Is... um... is Tails there?"
The red echidna smiled. "Yeah. I'll pass you over." He turned and pulled the microphone behind himself, handing it to the yellow fox.
"I'm here," he said.
"Tails... um... I was wondering..." Cosmo trailed off, clearly nervous.
"And usually I'm the nervous one," Tails chuckled. "It's fine. You can say anything."
"I was wondering if you wanted to get lunch with me?" she asked in what seemed like one breath.
"Sure," Tails said. "When?"
"In about ten minutes," she replied, a bit more calmed down. "That's when my usual break is."
"That's pretty good timing," said Tails. "Me and the others have to talk to Avery anyway."
"Okay," Cosmo smiled. "I'll see you inside."
She then turned her radio off, and Tails did the same before tilting his head slightly in confusion. "Why didn't she just wait until we were inside?"
"I have no clue," Sonic shrugged. "Come on. Let's get in there and talk to our boss."
The others agreed, with all four getting out of the car and making their way to the entrance of the station. They all walked through, with Mina at the main desk, but no sign of Cosmo. Regardless, they kept on walking forward.
"Hey, boys," Mina said cheerfully. "Didn't expect to see you guys again so soon."
"We just need to talk to Avery about a couple of things," Sonic said. "Could you call him for us and let him know that we're here?"
"Sure," the mongoose nodded.
"By the way," Tails said, "where's Cosmo?"
"She's here," smiled Mina, kicking to her left. On cue, there was a sound of complaint and some pain as Cosmo stood up.
"Um... h-hi..." she said.
"Hi yourself..." Tails replied, also turning to blush.
"Seriously, if you two could stop being so damn adorable, we have business to attend to," Knuckles joked.
"Yeah, we know," said Tails and Cosmo at the same time, causing them both to chuckle and blush more.
"Whereabouts is Avery?" Sonic asked Mina.
"Meeting room," she replied. "Doing a routine presentation with Ash and Simian. Rotor's there too with your test results."
"Oh, good," Sonic said. "Let's go find out whether we passed or not."
"Thanks, Mina," Shadow added as they turned to head for the elevator.
"No problem!" she replied.
As Knuckles started leaving with the two hedgehogs, he noticed his two-tailed fox friend still stood there. Smirking a bit to himself, he pulled on Tails' arm to both get his attention and to pull him along with the others.
"S-Sorry," Tails said as he stumbled a bit.
"No need to be sorry," Knuckles shrugged with a smile as they got into the elevator. "You're just having a moment with your lady friend. I get it."
Sonic shook his head and pressed the third floor button. "You'd better wipe that blush off your face, dude. Avery might notice it and call you out."
"That wouldn't be a bad thing, though," Tails shrugged. "Right?"
"Nah," the blue hedgehog said. "It'd just be embarrassing. Mostly on you. It'll be hard to talk about how much money we're making and how we did for our tests this morning with you looking like some half-fox, half-tomato hybrid."
"But I'm a very cute and fluffy half-fox, half-tomato hybrid," Tails pointed out.
"You are indeed," Sonic smiled as the elevator door opened. "All right, let's not waste any more time."
The others agreed, all making their way to Avery's office with Sonic leading them. As they reached the door, Sonic made a point to carefully knock on it, waiting for a response. Soon, they heard a call.
"Come on in!" said Avery's voice.
The four entered, seeing their former commander smiling as they walked in. Since there were many empty seats, they decided to sit close to each other, waiting for Ash to finish his presentation.
Sonic noticed something odd on the screen, pointing to it. "What's that?"
"Oh, this is something new that Vector and the others have been working on in the armoury," Ash smiled. "It's called a Gear Board. It runs on hover technology, and from the tests we've gone over, it can go over water, mud, ice, and any bad terrain that you can think of."
Sonic and the others got a good look at the Gear Board, seeing that its shape was similar to that of a regular skateboard/hover-board. It was rectangular with a sleek design, and had the basic Green Hill colours to make up its palette, with the G.H.P.D. logo and initials shrunk down to a small size and going along the front and back ends of the board respectively.
"I've read up on hover technology myself," Tails smiled. "My dad has been trying to work some out in his shop back home."
"Did you know about the boards before you came here?" asked Avery.
"We saw some prototypes of them being used in the training sessions," Shadow admitted. "Unfortunately, we weren't able to try them out for ourselves. We were focused more on what we excelled in."
"Ah, speaking of which, you should go see Rotor soon," Simian pointed out. "He's got some good news for you in regards to your powers."
"The good news just keeps piling on," Sonic said, a bit unenthusiastic.
"This is good good news," said Tails to his friend.
"Is something the matter?" asked Avery.
"We were doing a mission earlier today, and one of the bad guys took a cyanide pill," Knuckles said.
"What part of that is supposed to be a bad thing?" Ash asked.
"We were thinking that, if those pills still exist, that means that they got them from someone," said Sonic. "We just don't know who or where."
"I get it," Avery said. "You don't want to drag people into a fight that might be too big for you?"
"Yeah," Sonic smiled. "That's it. I know that we can't run our own missions any more as part of this freelance deal, but I feel like it's worth mentioning in case someone else bumps into it."
"Well, thanks for the heads up," said Avery, turning to Ash. "So, is there anything else for the presentation?"
"I've said all that I needed to say," Ash said, turning to the pad in his hands. "And just for reference, I saved the link in here to send to Sonic and the others to read it at their leisure."
"You hear that, Tails?" Knuckles said. "You get to read all about hover technology and the new Gear Boards at your leisure!"
"Just remember that I may have to wind up making boards for us four," Tails warned. "I might be tempted to make some tweaks of my own. Just saying..."
"For a short guy, you can be real threatening," Knuckles grinned.
Avery laughed and turned to Simian. "So, you'll have our men working on it as soon as possible?"
"Yes, sir," the gorilla replied as he stood up. "They'll be there to test out what the science geeks come up with."
"Good," the bear replied, turning to Ash. "And you?"
"I'll notify the aforementioned science geeks to get to work on it," the mongoose shrugged.
"That's what I like to hear," Avery smiled. "Now, off with you."
Ash nodded, walking out of the room, following Simian as he left. The two doors closed, and Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Shadow noticed Avery looking at them expectantly. Quickly, the four huddled together, whispering.
"I'm not going to bring it up to him," Sonic said.
"You're our leader!" Knuckles replied. "And besides, it was Tails that brought it up!"
"That was before I was nervous about it when we were speeding across the ocean to stop a bunch of ass-holes from blowing more things up!" the yellow fox said.
"To be fair," Shadow threw in, "Knuckles was the most eager to get it out of the way."
"Trying to throw me under the bus?" the red echidna said. "Really?"
"Ah, don't worry about it," Tails smiled. "You could probably bench press that bus and dump it on Shadow in retaliation."
"All right, there's only one way to settle it," Sonic said. "Four way rock-paper-scissors. Odd man out has to bring it up with Avery."
"Even about your car?" Knuckles asked.
"No shit," Sonic replied. "All right, let's go."
With that, he and the others separated briefly before reaching out their left hands and forming a fist with their right. They all counted to three, slamming their fists into their hands with each count before lifting a fourth time to reveal the result.
"Scissors," said Sonic.
"Rock," said Knuckles.
"Paper," said Shadow.
"Rock," said Tails. "Sonic loses."
"How?" the blue hedgehog asked. "My scissors beats Shadow's paper."
"Yeah, but there are two rocks against you," said Knuckles. "Face it, blue boy."
Sonic grunted. "All right, fine."
"I'm not saying that that wasn't entertaining," Avery spoke up, "but could you boys hurry it up? I've got a police department to hold together."
"We've been meaning to ask," Sonic began, "but what about our... um..."
"Your um what?" Avery pressed.
"Money," Sonic blurted out. "I mean, how are we getting paid?"
"That's something I'm sorting out, actually," said Avery, smiling. "I've been in talks with the bank about how to wire money to your account. Technically, you are still getting money from Green Hill Police Department, but they're setting it up so that, whatever city you wind up helping, that city's police department will pay you."
"So, whichever city will help, that department pays us?" Sonic asked, clarifying.
"Ooh, an echo," Knuckles smiled.
"Pretty much," the bear confirmed. "Any other questions?"
"I was just wondering if my car was still here," asked the blue hedgehog.
"Indeed it is," said Avery. "It's in the lot out back. We had to move it there to prevent any parking tickets. I'll make a call to deliver it to your base."
"Thank you," Sonic said, smiling. "Sorry to put you through this."
"It's no trouble at all," Avery smiled back. "Just focus on doing your job out there, okay?"
"We will," Sonic said.
"Good," Avery nodded. "Now get on out of here and go see Rotor."
"Will do," said Tails. "Thanks for the heads up."
The commander smiled in reply and waited as the four got up to leave, sighing as the door closed. He sat down and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "I swear, those four are going to be the death of me. Good kids, but still..."
Outside the door, the quartet of friends decided not to waste any time, going for the elevator. They called it, waited, and when it arrived, they took it to the ground floor, waiting patiently to reach their destination.
The elevator dinged and opened up again, and the four stepped out, immediately making way for the morgue to see Rotor. They walked in on him examining another body, its naked feet with a fresh tag on one of the toes.
"Damn," Sonic spoke, grimacing.
"Yeah..." Rotor agreed. "Another Fokus overdose victim. Male, mid-twenties, Caucasian..."
"Can't say that this is what I was looking forward to when we were told to come down here," Knuckles sadly admitted.
Rotor shook his head. "I'll be right with you. Just give me a minute to put this one in the fridge."
The others gave a grim nod as Rotor picked up his key to open the fridge, wheeling the fresh corpse into the cold room. After a few more moments, Rotor reappeared, locking the room behind him as he addressed Sonic and the others.
"So, Avery told you to come down here, I'm guessing?" the purple walrus asked.
"Not to offend you, but we really didn't want to come here by choice," said Shadow.
"Nobody ever does," Rotor shrugged.
"Nobody ever does what?" Tails asked. "Offend you or come here by choice?"
"Both," Rotor. "Even if they do decide to pop up without prompting from a superior, it's only if it's important. Much like it is for you four." He then smiled and beckoned them over with a hand. "Come and look at this."
The others walked over to join him, seeing him begin typing into a computer screen. After a few more clicks and clacks, an image popped up before being split into four separate images, each containing a different blood sample.
"I think I managed to dig deeper into your abilities with your samples," Rotor said.
"Are these the same ones as before?" asked Sonic.
"They are indeed," Rotor nodded happily.
"Wouldn't the blood have dried up by this point?" Tails asked.
"Actually, no," said Rotor. "See, the implants in your body don't just heal the parts of you that they're in, but the release a small electrical surge through your body, making your blood cells work harder to repair. Due to this, your blood samples are still fresh because the blood cells are being kept alive and preserved, even though they're nowhere near your body for the implants to work."
"That's actually pretty cool," said Knuckles. "Super blood... that's a creepy-ass power, but a nice sounding one."
Rotor chuckled. "That aside, I think that your powers tie in to your training at the academy in some way, as well as your personalities."
"How do you mean?" Tails asked.
"Well, let's start with Sonic," Rotor said, turning to the blue hedgehog. "You hold the all time speed record for the academy's final training exams, and you excelled in that along with high jumping and long jumping before actually coming to the academy itself."
"I guess I just like to go fast," Sonic shrugged.
"That does explain why he's never been able to hold a steady girlfriend," Knuckles muttered under his breath.
"But with his speed comes an stamina as well," said Rotor. "I noticed from the tests earlier today that, of all of the others, you took the fewest breaths at the end. In fact, you barely even took any at all between the different parts of the course."
"I guess I'm just that good," Sonic smirked, turning to Knuckles, who hung his head and laughed a bit.
"Then there's Tails," said Rotor, typing on the keyboard and continuing on. "As we know, he is a well-accomplished mechanic, and is the smartest of you four."
"I guess I kind of am..." the yellow fox said sheepishly.
"But that did make me wonder how his power was flight," Rotor said. "I was especially interested by how his tails worked..."
"Kinda creepy," Tails quickly admitted.
"But then I remembered that his implant isn't in his tails, but in his spine," Rotor smiled. "More specifically, the point where his tails are attached to his spine."
"That makes sense," Tails shrugged. "I mean, that was where the most damage was done to me from the accident."
"Indeed," Rotor agreed. "But then I began thinking about how it could be related to you on a more personal level. Then I saw something when I was re-watching the tests from this morning, and I noticed you smiling as you flew."
"I've always liked the sky," Tails said. "The openness of it, the air, the freedom... I just really like that. I always tell my parents that I wished I could have gone for both piloting and intelligence tests at the academy, but since we were all only allowed one each and pretty much everyone else had decided to sign up for flying, that left me with only one other option."
"Have you flown planes before?" Knuckles asked.
"My dad was a pilot," Tails confirmed. "He taught me everything that I know today."
"Sure beats the hell out of 'I like to go fast'," Sonic chuckled.
Rotor smiled. "Regardless, seeing Tails being free whilst flying only served to confirm my suspicions about his power." He then pressed more onto the keyboard. "And now on to Knuckles."
"Ooh, it's my turn," the red echidna said a bit childishly.
Rotor chuckled and kept going. "With Knuckles, I noticed something unique about his strength, especially at the last part of his course. In some way, this made him the easiest one to judge for his personality."
"How do you mean?" Sonic asked.
"When I saw Knuckles try harder and harder, it wasn't because he wanted to become stronger," said Rotor. "It was because he wanted to keep pushing forward, despite the obstacle in front of him. He showed pure passion and determination with each hit."
Knuckles shrugged. "That's just me, I guess. I like enjoying the things I do, and if that thing benefits others as well as me, then I've got nothing to worry about."
"You might joke around a lot, but you're a big damn hero," Sonic smirked.
"I try," Knuckles smiled.
"And lastly, we have Shadow," said the purple walrus, typing again. "Now, because of how Shadow is, it was a little bit more tricky to tell how he acted during his performance."
"Shadow might not look it," said Tails, "but I like to think that he does enjoy helping people, much in the same way that Knuckles does."
"Maybe so," Rotor nodded. "Even still, it took a few re-watches, and I really had to focus on Shadow's face to try and see if anything changed when he did what he did."
"And how'd that go?" Knuckles asked.
"On a scale of one to ten?" Rotor replied. "Zilch."
"So, is there any point in me even being here?" Shadow asked.
"There is," said Rotor. "Even though it wasn't easy to tell from your face, the way that the rest of you reacted as you carried on was a lot more tangible. You steadied yourself, and you were a lot more focused and calm."
"And here I had him as unstable and full of angst," Knuckles muttered, earning and elbow in the side from Tails.
"Watching you during your test this morning was like watching you for your final trial at the academy for the Zaytsev shot," Rotor said. "You were calm, collected, and focused on what you wanted to achieve, and you achieved it."
Shadow smiled and folded his arms. "I don't really know what you want me to tell you in that regard, but I guess that I've always tried to do that. After my past, I wanted to work hard and keep my mind on the right track to become a better person."
Sonic threw his arms up. "Seriously? Everyone else said something cool and inspiring, and all that I could come up with was the fact that I like going fast?"
The others chuckled, and Rotor turned back to Shadow. "Well, if your tests are anything to go by for this morning, I'd say that you've achieved that."
"Thank you," the black and red hedgehog nodded respectfully.
"As for you," Rotor turned back to Sonic, "I'm going to give you another chance to give me a better explanation of your own personality."
The blue hedgehog smiled. "I guess it's the same reason that Tails likes the sky; the freedom of it. I've always liked how running feels, and it makes me happy. People sometimes bring up about me almost going to the Olympics. The truth is that I didn't want that."
"How come?" Knuckles asked. "You could have totally aced it! Think of all of the gold medals that you could have brought back to Green Hill!"
Sonic laughed at his friend before shrugging. "I just didn't want to. It was one of those rare moments where I wanted to do something selfless. I was already heavily debating wanting to become a cop anyway, and despite how good the offer was to become a professional athlete, the offer of saving as many people as I can each day heavily outweighs any sum of money."
"This coming from the guy who asked our former commander about our payment plan," Tails said.
"Hey, I was the odd man out at rock-paper-scissors," Sonic defended. "I had no choice."
Rotor smiled. "So, I take it that you're all happy with your choices?"
"We are," Sonic said. "Are you happy with our answers?"
"Oh, I didn't really need your answers," Rotor said. "You mostly just gave them without me asking for them. But I'm happy with them nonetheless. You all have your reasons for wanting to help and your differences, but the more I see of you four, the more I realise that maybe, just maybe, Avery might have been right in picking you in the first place."
"There were tons of others picked when we made the jump from the academy to the department," Knuckles said. "What makes us so special?"
Rotor grinned. "You were the only four of the new graduates that got to see him personally for the first time. He specifically asked for you."
"I guess that answers my question," Knuckles shrugged.
"Why us?" Sonic asked.
"Your performances, your attitude, your dedication, the records you all set... take your pick," Rotor grinned.
"I guess that we got lucky," Tails smiled.
"I honestly can't help you there," the purple walrus replied. "Anyway, get on out of here. I've told you what I needed to."
"Will do," Sonic said. "Thanks, Rotor."
"Any time."
With that, they all turned to leave. As they did, Cosmo smiled and stood waiting outside. "There you guys are," she smiled.
"Hey there, Cosmo," said Sonic. "Here to pick up your date?"
Cosmo smiled. "Yep. It's a double date today, since Ash and Mina are coming."
"He never mentioned that when we were in the meeting room," Sonic pointed out.
The green girl nodded, turning to Tails. "Is that okay with you?"
Tails nodded. "That's fine. I've got no problem with it." He turned to his other friends. "See you guys later."
"Take care," Knuckles said. "And swing back to the base when you're all done, okay?"
"Will do!" the yellow fox waved.
"Why are we saying goodbye if we're all going outside anyways?" Sonic pointed out.
"Oh... right..." Tails said, putting his hand down from waving.
They grouped up and headed outside, seeing Ash as he came down stairs. He greeted the two before moving over to welcome Mina with a kiss before the two mongooses then opened the entrance doors, letting the others go out first before following. Soon, Knuckles, Sonic, and Shadow hopped into the red echidna's car whilst the other four got into a G.H.P.D. vehicle, letting Cosmo drive.
"All right, let's head back to base," said Sonic.
"I'm on it," Knuckles said, looking out to see a helicopter flying over. "Huh. It's your car, Sonic."
The blue hedgehog looked up to see a dark blue, sleek looking vehicle hovering overhead, attached to a helicopter via a cable as it flew in the direction of their new base. He couldn't fight his small smile. "Good old Avery." He then turned to the sound of a honk, seeing Tails, Cosmo, Mina, and Ash waving. Sonic and the others waved back before Sonic turned to Knuckles.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm on it," the red echidna replied, pulling the vehicle out from the lot.
Back in Westopolis...
Nack was sat in his office, waiting patiently by his phone as he searched through his computer. Considering how much more high-tech everyone else was nowadays, Nack had to find a way around that lest he get caught out, so using an older style computer in a derelict prison was a big help.
As for what he was doing on his computer, he was looking through his business transactions, smiling to himself as he watched the money roll right in. "Ah... this is good to see. I will say, I expected Lara to be in the lead, but Beau's really impressing me thus far. Turns out that a lot of people in this city are fans of Fokus." A knock then sounded at his door. "Come in."
One of Nack's henchmen walked in. "Sir, we just got back from fixing up your car."
"Brilliant," Nack smiled. "I'll come down and check it out in a bit."
"How are the transactions going?"
"Surprisingly well," said Nack. "Although I do worry that, at this rate, we'll have more money than product. But it doesn't concern me that much."
"How so?"
"Well, the only product to worry about is really the Fokus. Beau might be in the lead at the moment, and whilst it is true that he knows how to make the drug and how to tell others to make it too, they can't go overboard with it."
"An overdose..." the human said.
"Exactly," replied the purple weasel. "It's an unnecessary risk, and I'm not willing to take it." Before anything else could be said, the phone went off. Nack picked it up. "Hello?" he asked.
"Nack, it's Martin," said the voice on the other side.
"Ah, I've been waiting to hear from you," Nack replied. "How did the trap go?"
"It went really well," said Martin. "I'm sending you a picture right now. Hang on."
After a few moments, Nack's computer made a high-pitched blip sound, and in the bottom right corner was a new e-mail. He clicked it and opened it up to see a picture of four Mobians who looked like police officers, but then he noticed something.
"Those four sure don't look like cops," he said.
"They're freelancers," said Martin.
"Damn. That accident must have made things worse for them than I thought," Nack said, rubbing his temple a bit.
"The one that you set up?"
"The very same," Nack said. "I thought that, even if the crash didn't kill them, then they'd have lost a lot more."
"I think I might have an explanation," Martin said.
Nack sat back and grinned a bit. "I'm listening."
"Well, my guess is that they were cops for a different jurisdiction, and when they went after you in Star Light, they went outside of their jurisdiction, which can get them into trouble," Martin said. "Did you see what uniforms they were wearing on the night?"
"I couldn't make them out," the purple weasel shook his head. "It was late at night in a dark warehouse, so."
"I think I managed to spot one of them," said Nack's lackey.
Nack turned to his henchmen. "Oh? Do tell. Please."
The human nodded. "It wasn't easy, but I believed that I spotted one wearing a uniform with a symbol of a bear. I couldn't make out the initials, though."
Nack nodded, turning his attention back to the phone. "Did you get all that?"
"Yeah," Martin said. "A bear symbol, right? That can only mean... oh. Oh, that's so good."
"What is it?" Nack demanded.
"You're dealing with some Green Hill cops," Martin said, unable to hide his own laughter.
"Wait..." Nack breathed. "Those same cops that fucked up the Fokus deal at that car station?"
"So, it is them..." said the human, recognising them.
Nack shook his head and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Thank you, Martin. That'll be all. And tell Brookes that he's earned a little raise."
"Will do," Martin replied. "Take care."
The two then hung up, and Nack sat back in his chair, closing his eyes with a sigh of exasperation. "I don't know how to feel about all this."
"About what?" his lackey asked.
"Those cops coming back," Nack said. "I mean, I thought that I killed them. It's a good thing that I found some really expendable people to take that risk." He then sat forward again. "At the same time, it's no risk to try and do them in all over again. In short, I'm pissed off that they're still alive, but I'm happy that they can't come after me directly. And yet, knowing that they can't come after me directly means that trying to kill them all over again will be quite tricky..."
"So, what will your next move be?" his henchman asked. "You can't just devote your time into taking them out. You have bigger things to focus on in Westopolis."
Nack nodded. "I know. From what I've heard about freelance agents, they'll usually have their own base in the same jurisdiction that they got fired from. What happened at Aqua Lake was meant to just be an accident, and those cops were never meant to turn up. But they did. It wasn't even bait, and they still latched onto it." He then stood up. "Do I have any meetings today?"
"Lara did actually ask to see you. She said that it's important."
The purple weasel nodded. "Hmm... do I have any other contacts in Green Hill that aren't dead or arrested?"
"Not that I know of," said the henchman. "Maybe the ones that got locked up have been moved to a proper prison by now."
Nack grinned. "That's the best news that I've heard all day." He walked around his table. "Come on. Let's take a look at my new ride."
The henchman nodded, following as Nack walked past him and out of his office door. The two went downstairs and saw Nack's other bodyguard waiting patiently just outside the door, turning and gesturing to the car.
The vehicle that they'd stolen when they first gotten into Westopolis went from a derelict looking heap of junk to a repainted, reworked, and redesigned car. It was made back up from bottom to top, with its new coat of paint being a gorgeous dark silver. The interior had black seats and lining, the wheels were almost shining white as their chrome contrasted against the deathly black tyres.
"This looks amazing," Nack smiled.
"It gets better," said one his henchmen. "You mentioned that there were some old cars in the garage of the prison, right?"
"Yeah," Nack said. "Why?"
"We took the liberty of taking a few up to your mechanic to help," he admitted.
"Good thinking," said Nack, pulling out his cell phone. "I need to make a call." He typed in Lara's number first, waiting for her to pick up.
She did, answering. "I will admit, whilst I don't mind the call, I'd much rather you get here before we conduct our business."
"I will still go back with you to discuss this manner of importance that you need to talk out with me," Nack conceded. "But I need to meet you and the other two at the city's centre again."
"It must be important if you want to meet us all personally," Lara surmised. "All right, let me get ready and I'll be there soon."
"Thank you," Nack said, receiving a word of goodbye before hanging up and quickly typing in Beau's number.
"Hey there, big boss!" the southern snake said. "How can I help?"
"City centre. Half an hour. Big meeting."
"Say no more, even though you didn't say much in the first place," Beau said. "I'll be over as quick as I can get there."
Nack shook his head before hanging up, punching in Manuel's number. Soon, it picked up, and Nack spoke first. "Hey there."
"Hey, man," Manuel replied. "What's up?"
"I need all three of you at the centre," Nack said simply. "It's important."
"Are the others already going?"
"Yes."
Manuel sighed. "Yeah, I'll be there."
"Thank you," Nack said, hanging up and thinking of pocketing his phone before staying still. After a few more moments, he typed in Martin's personal number.
"I wasn't expecting you to call me this quickly," Martin said as soon as he answered.
"It's actually important," said Nack. "I need you to meet me at the centre of the city."
Martin grunted a bit. "I can't just take time off work. They're already suspicious of my many anonymous phone calls. Believe it or not, not every cop on Westopolis' force is corrupt, even if almost all of us are on your payroll."
"You're the only one who knows that he's on that payroll, Martin," Nack said. "I need you for this."
The cop sighed. "All right, I'll be there."
"Alone."
Martin sighed again. "Of course I'll be alone. Do you think I'm fucking stupid?"
"You're a cop," the purple weasel said. "Cops have a really lousy tendency to be stupid and not listen when they're told to go somewhere alone, regardless of how much they're getting paid from a more... let's say, untrustworthy source. Do you understand?"
"I'll be there," Martin said, hanging up.
"Good," Nack grinned, still holding the phone to his ear before putting it away.
"Are you sure that inviting a cop along is a good idea?" one of Nack's men asked.
"Well, that depends," Nack replied. "If he gets shot in the first five seconds, then it's a bad idea. If he convinces the others not to shoot him, then it was a good idea."
"You expect everyone there to have guns?" the other henchman asked.
Nack smiled and flashed his own gun in his coat. "I'd be very disappointed if they didn't show up with guns, to be frank with you." He then got into the car, followed by the others. He got into the backseat as usual, laying back and tipping his hat to cover his eyes. "No music. I want a nice, peaceful drive."
"I will ask," said the henchman, "how important is this meeting if you're willing to bring your cop friend into this?"
"First of all, no cop can be a friend of mine," Nack said. "And if you want to know how important this all is, drive us there and see for yourself."
The henchman nodded with a slight grunt as he switched the engine on for the car, soon pulling out of the small driveway leading to the prison before heading directly for the centre as Nack kicked back in the backseat, resting his eyes.
And that about wraps it up for this chapter. Also, would you look at that? I actually put this out relatively on time! Okay, so not as quickly as I would have liked, but it's a lot quicker than my last... what, ten chapters? Eleven? Eh, who's counting? Anyway, I hope that you enjoyed the chapter. I'll see you all next time, whenever that may be. Until then, take care, and stay tuned.