It feels so good to be back! Couple of things to get out the way first, though. 1). I'll be taking no more requests now after having done so many this year. Granted, they weren't arduous or tedious to write, but I want to focus more on this. Don't worry, however, as I will take more requests after this story is all done. 2). You'll more than likely have noticed that I've changed the genres around a bit, keeping the "humour" tag but switching out "sci-fi" in favour of "adventure". This story does still have elements of sci-fi, but as I've said from the start about this story, it is ultimately an action-comedy that just happens to have elements of sci-fi in it. So, with all of that cleared up and out of the way, let's get back on with the story, shall we?

Amy sighed as she kept the phone to her ear. After a few more dialling sounds, her call to Sonic was moved to voicemail, causing her to cancel the call. She looked and saw the clock on her phone, seeing that it was almost time to go home.

It was then that one of her students, a grey dog, walked up to her. "Miss Wose?" he asked. "Are you okay?"

Amy forced a smiled. "Oh, I'm fine. Just worried about a friend of mine."

The dog nodded. "It's never good to wowwy about fwiends... I wowwy about all of my fwiends here sometimes."

"You'll still see them tomorrow," Amy smiled, leaning over to pet her student. "Do you hang out with them outside of school?"

The dog nodded again, leaning into the petting he was receiving. "Yup! My mama and papa are good fwiends with other mamas and papas here, and I get to see my fwiends here outside of kindar... kindergat..."

"Kindergarten?" Amy asked.

The dog blushed a bit. "Yeah..."

Amy smiled. "Don't worry about it. It's a hard name to keep in mind when you're only little." She stopped her petting and spoke up. "But soon, you'll be a big dog, and you'll learn all the big words and become smart!"

"Okay!" the dog smiled happily. "Dank yew, Miss Wose."

"No problem," the teacher smiled. After that, the bell rang. "All right, time to go home, everyone!"

The kids all rushed to the door, being picked up by their parents, all happy to see their families. Amy smiled at the joy that the children showed on their faces, and watched as the last two parents picked up their adorable little daughter, causing her to giggle as they headed home.

As they left, Sally was soon coming down the hall, waving to Amy. "Hi there," she smiled.

"Hey," Amy smiled back. "Fun day at work?"

"You know it," Sally confirmed. "So, you up to much?"

"Nope," Amy asked, picking her bag and coat up. "Why?"

"I was wondering if you wanted to get some coffee with me," the brown squirrel said. "Decaf, of course. I haven't forgotten about your heart problems."

"Much appreciated," Amy giggled. "Let's go."

Sally waited for Amy as she closed and locked the door to her classroom. When she did, they decided to head for the cafeteria, which was exclusive to teachers. Amy loved going there to talk to other teachers; not that she didn't love the kids in her class, but because it was rare for her to hang out with people closer to her own age.

Soon, they'd reached their destination, sitting at a laminated wooden table. Circular in shape and with four legs of steel to support it, it was large enough to seat around five teachers per table. Some other teachers that Amy knew were present at the cafeteria, but all were sat on their own at different tables.

"So," Amy said as she sat down, "what did you want to talk about?"

"Coffee first?" Sally smiled, not sitting down just yet. "Maybe a snack?"

"Croissant," said Amy. "And some cookies."

Sally nodded, walking up to the main bar of the cafeteria. She put the order in, and as she did, Amy remained seated. Many thoughts went through her mind, and to her surprise, none of them were of the jealous type in regards to Sonic. She chalked it up to Sally being an old friend of hers, and one of the only true confidants that she had when she first got into teaching.

Soon, her squirrel friend had returned, giving Amy her food and decaf coffee whilst setting her own drink and food - which was a bag of cookies and an orange flavoured chocolate bar - on the table, finally taking her seat.

"Thank you," Amy smiled as Sally handed her food to her.

"No problem," Sally said, returning the smile. She took a sip of her coffee and took a breath. "So, what have you been up to?"

Amy paused for a moment. "Well, I'm still teaching," she shrugged. "There's really not a whole lot to tell."

"You seem surprised that I asked," Sally noted.

"Well, I didn't really expect you to come out with that," Amy said. "I was thinking that maybe you'd be more jealous or that you'd be angry at me."

Sally let out a rich laugh in response, which didn't really help the pink hedgehog's unease. She calmed down from her laugh and spoke. "Amy, don't worry about it. I'm not going to try and muscle in on Sonic now that I'm back, okay? I had my chance and I blew it."

"You blew it..." Amy pondered. "Wait... is Sonic the guy that you wanted to move quick with?"

"Yeah," Sally said. "I thought that you knew that."

"You told me you had a boyfriend who you wanted to marry, you never told me which one it was!" Amy said, laughing a bit. "Why didn't you tell me that it was him?"

Sally shrugs. "It wasn't important at the time. He went off to Green Hill Academy not long after we split up, and I'm now a teacher, since I was still only in training when we were still together." She sighed. "I'm sorry that I didn't tell you about him before."

"It's fine," Amy smiled. "So, how come I never met him before?"

"He was busy focusing on Green Hill," said Sally, shrugging. "He didn't really have much time for anyone else, and he wanted to dedicate it all to his work as a policeman." She took another sip of her coffee, gulping it down. "I hear that he made it through."

"He did," Amy smiled. "It's weird to think. You wanted to focus more on studying, and you weren't even a teacher for a full week before leaving for your trip. How'd you get to go so easily?"

Sally shrugged. "I wish that I knew. I guess that since I wasn't there that long, they gave me a chance to regroup. That's the only hint that I could get, because I didn't really mention much about mine and Sonic's breakup except for the fact that it happened."

"I get that," Amy said. "I've only mentioned the relationship to Honey, and up until today, she was the only other person who knew. Well, her and Sonic's friends."

"How are they all, by the way?" Sally smiled. "Tails, Knuckles, and that other one. I never got his name."

"Brooding, quiet, thinks that he's cool?" Amy asked.

"Yeah, him."

"That'd be Shadow," Amy giggled. "To answer your question, they're okay. But they did run into some trouble recently..."

"How so?" Sally asked.

"Well, not to sound like a downer, but it's kind of my fault," Amy said. "I was kidnapped with some other girls by some dudes in suits whose name we never got. We were taken up to Star Light City."

"The Star Light City?" Sally asked. "The one with the low crime rate compared to other areas?"

"The very same," Amy said. "Anyway, on that night, it also happened to be the first day of Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Shadow being official police officers. But because they chased those goons and their boss up to Star Light, they sort of got-"

"Fired?" Sally asked. "On their first day?"

"Not fired, technically," Amy said. "More like demoted. They're freelance agents now."

"Bounty hunters?" Sally asked. "That's... actually, that's kinda cool," she giggled. "But it sucks that they lost their jobs."

"It gets worse and better at the same time," Amy said.

"This'll be good," the squirrel replied, crossing her arms.

"On that night when they were driving back, another car crashed into theirs," Amy said, her voice sombre.

"That's terrible..." Sally said, visibly worried. "But they're okay, right?"

"Better than okay," Amy said, hoping to ease her friend's emotions. "They were pretty banged up the next morning, but the doctors patched them up well. They're still healing a little bit, but most of their wounds are already gone."

"Anything else about the accident?" Sally asked.

"How do you mean?" Amy asked.

"Well, I heard about those things being used in medical procedures," Sally said. "Implants. Don't they help heal faster and stuff?"

"How'd you know about that if you were away?" Amy smiled. "They're fairly recent."

"I heard about some of the early stuff when I was still here," Sally smiled back. "I know that there were a lot of plans for them, and even when I was backpacking, I met some people who had to have them to help them recover from accidents, injuries, and other stuff."

"That's pretty cool," Amy smiled.

Sally nodded, eating one of her cookies. She chewed and swallowed it down before speaking. "So, could I ask another question? This one isn't Sonic related, so you don't need to worry."

Amy giggled. "Go for it."

"Well, I wanted to ask about the implants," Sally said.

"I mean, I don't have any," Amy said. "And I have no intention of getting into a car accident just to get one," she added with a sad giggle.

"Not what I meant," Sally giggled. She then hesitated, thinking about how to phrase the question in her head. "I was thinking that maybe you could get an implant for your heart condition?"

Amy, who was mid-sip with her coffee, paused before finishing her sip. "I don't know if that's possible. And if I did, would that be like a Deadpool thing? Would the combination of an implant and my heart condition make me a fourth wall breaking superhero who swears a lot?"

"You say that like it's a bad thing," Sally winked.

"I didn't mean to," Amy smirked. "But the swearing wouldn't be good for my teaching job. Neither would the possibility of permanent scarring just to get better."

"When it happened to Deadpool, he was thrown into some shady facility," Sally pointed out. "From what you told me about Sonic and the others, they turned out just fine after their car crash. Why not give it a shot?"

Amy sighed. "To tell you the truth... I did once. But because of how bad my heart problems are, it led to a lot of complications. None of the implants that they had were compatible with me..."

"Well, maybe they've developed one that could help?" Sally suggested.

"It is possible..." said Amy. "But the implants for Sonic and the others were picked out by specially trained doctors in a slapdash effort, and they got lucky. I went willingly to get the surgery, and nothing worked."

"If nothing worked, then how come you don't have a scar?" Sally asked.

"Oh, the medical paste that they used helped it close up without any lasting tissue damage," Amy said. "That stuff is really good. And, before you ask, they did try that on my heart as well. Before even trying with the implant. But, once again, it just didn't work." She sighed heavily, taking another sip of coffee. "I... I don't know if I'll ever try again. They tried at least ten different implants from what they had, and not a single one of those worked." She shrugged. "And besides, they're busy fixing up the people who help protect this city. What use would they have to try again for a kindergarten teacher?"

Sally reached over to touch Amy's hand. "Don't be so hard on yourself. So, they tried ten implants on you... how long ago? You didn't say."

"Actually, it was a few days after you left," Amy said.

"Ah, so the technology would have been gaining more ground at the time," Sally said. She then felt sad for her friend. "Do you think that maybe, just maybe the reasons that none of those implants were compatible were because of what the implants can do?"

"What they can do?" Amy asked. "You mean, like powers?"

"Yeah," Sally said. "Maybe they gave you basic stuff back then because that's all that they had to work with at that time. Or at the very least, it was above average."

"It is possible..." Amy said. "But those ten implants, whilst basic, were all different with what they could do. Even then, the doctors didn't know because they hadn't tested them all that much. Just enough to know that they were safe enough to heal someone." She scoffed a bit. "I guess maybe it doesn't work for people who have stuff since they're born?"

"That's possible," Sally said, letting go of Amy's hand. "So, are you going to try again?"

Amy shrugged. "I don't know. I really just don't know."

Sally nodded. "Whatever choice you make about it is up to you. Who knows? Maybe you won't even need it. I remember you telling me about how taking the medicine after having it for so long has made it better."

Amy smiled. "Thanks, Sally."

They both stood up and shared a hug, and the brown squirrel was the first to speak. "I'd better head home. Just be sure to take care of yourself, okay?"

"I will," Amy nodded. "Let's head to the bus stop together."

Sally nodded, and the two picked up their snacks, taking them with them before heading down to the bus stop. They waited patiently, and within ten minutes, the bus arrived, both girls getting on and sat next to each other.

As they sat, Amy pulled out her phone, typing in Sonic's number, dialling it. "Please pick up..."

Meanwhile, on the eastern side of Green Hill...

Sonic saw his phone vibrating, and looked to see Amy calling. "This isn't a good time..." he said to himself.

"Text her or something," Knuckles said, looking outside to see the sky growing dark. "We've got business to attend to."

"Isn't texting someone trying to call you sort of tawdry?" Tails brought up.

"Not to mention that it would take too long," Shadow added.

"Look, let's just drop it and focus on the mission," Sonic said. "Everyone geared up?"

"All good to go," Tails said, the others giving affirmations of their own.

"All right, let's keep going," Sonic said. "It's getting dark, and we don't have time to waste by hanging back."

"That reminds me, how much longer is it?" said Tails.

"We're almost there," said Knuckles. "Radio reports say that it's taking place past where our base is, so we don't have to worry about a home invasion."

"And what exactly is going down?" asked Sonic.

"From what we know, it's a shootout," said Knuckles. "I guess that you guys should listen to the radio more, huh?"

"That includes me, and I'm in the front with him," Tails smiled.

"So, what do we know about the shootout?" asked Shadow.

"Someone tried to steal a trailer that was supposed to take money up to the bank," the Knuckles said.

"Oh, yeah," Sonic said. "The bank is on the east side of the city."

"They must have had it planned out," said Shadow. "The truck follows a pretty secure route to get to where it's going."

"And you know this how?" asked the blue hedgehog.

"Maria works there," Shadow said.

"And you're telling us this now?" said Tails. "She could be in trouble, dude!"

"It's a part-time job," said Shadow. "That's why I didn't say anything. She only goes there three days a week."

"It's weird to think, though," said Sonic. "Both of the ladies in Shadow's life work with money in some way."

Shadow shook his head. "Look, if she ever does get into trouble, then I'll only have myself to blame."

"You're not the only one who's going to make sure that she's safe, okay?" Knuckles said. "You don't have to handle that on your own."

"Yeah," Sonic added. "We're here for you, man."

The black and red hedgehog smiled. "Thank you. And like I said, it's a part-time job. Nothing to worry too much about."

"Is she working today?" Tails asked.

"Nope," Shadow replied. "She mostly works on weekends."

"Well, that eases my worries," said Knuckles.

Sonic hears a gunshot nearby. "What about that?"

"I can't have anything nice any more..." Knuckles said. "All right, let's find a place where this'll be safe, but close enough. I am not going to risk using this for cover when I just about got it back."

Tails nodded, picking up the radio and changing the frequency. "This is Tails of the freelancers. We're close by."

"Get here quick!" said the officer on the other side.

"Calm down," Tails said. "Is there a plan that you can come up with that can help us?"

"Fuck the plans!" said the cop. "We just need backup! I've got two men injured and bleeding bad!"

Sonic reached over and took the radio. "We'll call an ambulance."

"Who's this?" the cop asked.

"This is Sonic, leader of the freelancers," the blue hedgehog said. "Now, can you calm down and give us a plan?"

"I-I can't do that!"

"Well, you kind of have to," Shadow mumbled. "Otherwise, we're out of a job."

"You have to think of something, sir," Sonic said. "We can't really help otherwise. We need you to guide us."

The cop took a few breaths. "There... there might be a way around the back of the bad guys!"

"How many are there?" asked Tails.

"More than 10," said the cop. "A lot of them just attacked out of nowhere!"

"Will your wounded be able to make it?" asked Sonic.

"Th-They will..." the cop said, calming down a bit more now. "Just... j-just get here fast, okay? We need help!"

"Is there anything else?" asked Sonic.

"The truck drivers... they're safe with us... but please, you have to hurry!"

"We're on our way," Sonic said. "Over and out." He then turned to the others. "Looks like we have our mission set up for us."

"There's no point in driving around," said Tails. "That'll take too long."

"Well then," Knuckles said, killing the engine, "looks like we're walking."

Sonic looked outside to see that the were close enough to the buildings on the side of the road, which were mostly a bunch of small stores and such. He smiled at his friend's work before getting out of the car, the others soon following suit.

"How do we go about this?" asked Shadow. "The shops are close together, so there's no alleyways to go through without walking back."

"And most of the shops are just about closing down too," Tails said. "We'll have to be quick."

Sonic nodded. "Follow my lead, and try to stay low. If any of the bad guys out there catch us, we're fucked."

"That's putting it bluntly," said Tails, "but I get your point."

Sonic shrugged, pulling his pistol out and going around the corner of the path that they were on. He peeked his head out and saw a cop squatting down behind a police vehicle, having just fired some shots, but looking defeated as he was on his last clip of ammo.

Sonic reached for his belt and detached one of his spare clips, throwing it over to the cop, the clip landing between his feet as he was crouched. Said cop looked around for the source of his ammo, and saw the freelancers themselves, but keeping quiet thanks to Shadow placing a finger over his own lips, given a silent shushing warning, which the cop agreed to with a nod.

"All right, let's get around the corner," said Sonic.

The others nodded, and walked around and past the corner, staying low until they reached the doors of one of the shops, a liquor store. They saw that the lights were still on, albeit dimmed, which meant that the owners might have been closing up.

Sonic pushed against the handle of the glass door, and to his surprise, it opened. "Hello?" he called.

He was greeted with an elderly black man, holding a shotgun that was aimed at Sonic. "I don't know who you are, but you'd better get out of here!"

"Calm down, sir," said Tails, walking in with Knuckles and Shadow not far behind. "We're here to help."

"You guys cops?" asked the owner, lowering his shotgun. "You sure don't look like it."

"We're freelance," said Sonic. "Trust me, we won't be here long. We just need to cut through your shop."

"And what for?"

"So that we can get around the bad guys and sneak attack them," Knuckles said. "And it's hard to land a sneak attack when we're, you know, dead."

"All right," the owner said. "So, what do you need me to do?"

"Just stay low, and turn your lights off," Sonic said. "We don't know how long this will take."

"And, if you don't mind," said Tails, "we do need to ask you some stuff."

"Go ahead," the owner nodded.

"Did you see any of the attack?" Sonic asked.

"All I saw was the cops pulling back to use their cars as cover," the owner answered honestly. "They probably didn't want to run the risk of putting any of the shops in trouble."

"And what about the bad guys?" Shadow asked.

"I ain't seen them, but I've heard them," said the owner, shaking his head. "They're probably further up the street. All I've heard is guns go off and people yell."

"All right, thanks for your help," said Sonic. "We'll be out of your hair now. Sorry to bother you."

The owner nodded, reaching to unlock and open the back door of his shop for them. "I kept it locked. Just in case."

"Smart thinking," Sonic nodded. "Thanks for the help."

The owner gave one last smile before the four freelancers left through the liquor shop's backdoor, finding themselves in a small hallway that linked all the shops together. It was fairly narrow, so they had to move carefully, choosing to head to their left. They passed by a couple of shop doors before stopping.

Shadow checked around the door's frame, seeing that the lights were on. He then knocked on the door. "Hello?" he called. "Is someone in there?"

Since the back doors of shops weren't glass like the front ones, it was harder to see through for what was happening. This just made things more frustrating, since nobody could tell if anyone was going to come and let them in.

Shadow grunted. "All right, if you don't let us in, we will be forced to-"

"Who are you?!" asked a panicked female voice on the other side of the door.

Shadow was about to talk back, but Sonic placed a hand on his friend's chest, silently telling him to back away. The blue hedgehog then began speaking. "We're freelance agents. We work with the cops. And we need your help to stop what's happening right now."

"So, you won't just blast your way in?"

"If we tried that, there's a good chance that you'd be dead," Sonic said. "To my knowledge, you're an innocent civilian. I'd rather have as many innocent civilians alive as possible, and that includes you."

There was no more words, and soon, the door opened to show a Caucasian woman opening the door. Sonic and the others peeked inside to see that the shop was a laundromat, but most of the machines weren't working and some of the lights were off.

"Thank you," Sonic said.

"Just go and deal with those ass-holes out there," the woman said.

"We may need to ask you some questions first," said Sonic. "Don't worry, though. You're not in trouble."

"Well, the quicker that you ask, the quicker you'll clear those guys from the street."

"So, you've seen the attack?"

The woman shook her head. "I heard it loudly. I didn't actually look, so I didn't know what was going on. The only time I did look was when I heard the back door going off."

"And you answered it with the risk that it could have been the bad guys?" Sonic asked.

"Actually, I checked to see how many bad guys there were," the woman admitted. "I heard someone else saying how many there were, and when I heard the door, I checked to see if that same number was still out there." She paused to take a breath. "Still, even when I heard my back door, I had to be sure..."

"Well, you won't have to worry about them any more, okay?" Sonic said. "Now, where did you see them from? There's not an easy view from here."

"Oh, they shot out one of my windows by accident," the woman said. "They didn't bother attacking me, and I had to sneak from the window to the back door just in case."

"Smart thinking," Sonic said. "All right, thanks for your help."

"Just take care of them," the woman smiled. "I was trying to watch a movie before those dicks showed up."

Sonic chuckled at that, nodding to the laundromat owner before heading over to the smashed out front window with the others in tow. They all sneaked over to it, peeking around the corner to see a group of criminals wearing mostly black and balaclavas stealing money from the truck or fighting off the cops.

"All right," said Knuckles, "how do we go about this?"

"Well, there are some of the hijackers hiding in the truck itself," said Tails. "They're not getting out of here if they keep fighting, though."

"And there's no cops around the back to stop them," Shadow said. "We should look out for a getaway car."

"I'm surprised that the truck is still upright," said Sonic. "Maybe it'd be too easy for them to just leave?"

"Too much force blocking their path, it looks like," said Tails. "Even without cops to attack from behind, they seem to be focused on what's in front of them."

"That'll help us a lot," Sonic said. "Let's start with the truck, since it's closest." He turned to Shadow. "Think you can teleport into it?"

"I can only see a corner of it, but it should be enough," Shadow said. "If there's any bad guys in there, I'll take them out."

"Sounds good," Sonic said. "We'll distract the others."

"No bother," said Shadow. "That'd draw too much attention to us."

"Not to mention that we don't really have any good cover," Knuckles complained.

"We'll wait for Shadow to take out the dudes in the truck, then we'll take it and make it into our own cover," the blue hedgehog shrugged.

"You do know where that thing has to go, right?" Tails pointed out.

Sonic nodded. "I do. But for one thing, it's armour. And secondly, it's the only chance that we've got." He turned back to Shadow. "We'll wait for you."

"I was wondering when you'd stop flapping your gums," the black and red hedgehog smirked.

He moved up close to the front door of the laundromat, but stayed low. He got a clearer view of the back of the truck, but not enough to see how many people were in there. He did take note of some sports bags stuffed with the money that had already been taken so far. He shook that off and closed his eyes as he focused on the back of the truck. As he concentrated, he felt his muscles strain slightly as he willed himself to teleport, finally opening his eyes. When he did, he disappeared with a small flash of energy, feeling himself reappear onto solid metal.

He noticed that he must have landed silently if the three inside the large truck not noticing him were anything to go by. He gave a small knock on the side of the truck, his knuckles clanging against the metal and getting their attention.

"Excuse me, is this the ferry to Station Square?" he grinned.

Neither of the three criminals spoke, the first moving quickly to attack Shadow. He swung the butt of his gun at the hedgehog, but Shadow made a small sidestep, caught the end of the weapon, and pushed his arms to the right, causing a loud clang and bashing the bad guy's fingers against the metal. As he screamed in pain, he still tried fighting back, but Shadow ducked and rolled under him, grabbing him from behind and locking his arms up.

Shadow then moved forwards, pressing his body weight against the robber from behind as he smashed his head against the metal of the truck, causing another loud clang before pulling away. The bad guy fell slack from the impact, his body soon turning limp and landing against the floor of the truck, unconscious and slightly bloodied, but breathing.

One of the remaining two robbers moved, but Shadow managed to not only dodge, but pull a quick teleport out of nowhere, appearing near the front of the truck. He was a bit taken aback, but turned around in time to see the two bad guys ganging up on him. Given how much room there was in the truck, Shadow managed to dodge both of their strikes, grabbing the one on the left and bringing him up with him.

Shadow made sure that they kept their arms locked, and the bad guy swung at him, but he ducked under it and answered with a kick to the gut. He heard a grunt of anger as the second man moved to attack him, but Shadow flipped around and landed a light back-flip kick, flipping back over the bad guy whose arm he still had locked with his own.

"So, are you two making this easy on purpose, or..."

Shadow's sentence was cut off when the second man moved to attack him. Shadow smirked and rolled back, kicking the first man towards the second one, causing them to collide headfirst, their noggins bashing hard off of each other and dazing them both. Taking advantage, Shadow quickly moved forwards, pulling the one closest to him and throwing him behind him.

Shadow focused his attention easier on the other man this way, and kicked him in the gut, easily dodging a sloppy counter hay-maker. Shadow got behind the second man before locking his right arm under his chin and bringing his left arm up, connecting his right hand to his left bicep. After a few moments, the dazed criminal fell asleep, and Shadow laid him on the ground.

The last man was still dazed, and as he walked backwards, he fell over the unconscious body of the first man who Shadow beat. The impact of falling backwards caused the man's head to bounce off the floor of the truck. Shadow went over quickly to check that he was still breathing, and was somewhat relieved that he was, even checking the back of the man's head for any injuries after taking off his balaclava, only seeing a small bruise.

"All right," the black and red hedgehog said to himself, "that takes care of that." He then peeked out of the back of the truck and waved a hand towards himself.

"That's the signal," said Sonic.

"The signal that you didn't bring up with him but are just assuming is a signal?" Knuckles asked.

"Yep, that signal," Sonic replied.

"Ah, good. Just making sure."

They all then carefully moved out, but then noticed the bad guys using their cover. They saw a couple of other cop cars on the bad guys' side, with Sonic making the assumption in his head that they must have also been stolen, even if just temporarily.

Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles soon found their way around, avoiding all the gunfire and relatively free from any lines of sight that were on them. They met back with Shadow, who was busy setting the unconscious bodies aside so that his friends could get on the truck easier.

"So, what's the plan from here?" Shadow asked.

Sonic looked around. "We need to find a way to drive this thing backwards. We can't do that from this part of the truck, and using the cover as it is might be a bad idea."

Knuckles leaned against the side of the truck and pushed it slightly, smiling when he felt it budge just a tiny bit. "Or we could just push this until it becomes good enough cover for us."

"It would be easier if we all did it," said Tails. He spun his tails around and flew up high, reaching a higher part of the truck's container and beginning to push. "If I start from here, it should balance out the weight easily."

"All right," Sonic said, he and Shadow joining the others. "1... 2... 3..."

But before he could tell them all to push, he heard a warbled voice come through on a radio. He looked over at the bodies that Shadow had knocked out, and saw one of them with a radio clipped to his shoulder. He picked it up as it spoke.

"We've got to get the fuck out of here! Start the truck!"

"You got it," Sonic smiled.

"Who is this?" the voice asked. "You don't sound like one of ours!"

"That's because I'm not. I'm freelance, and I've got some friends with me. Now, let me ask you, do you know what a freelance agent does?"

"You're just a glorified cop to me. Get the fuck out of my truck before you get hurt."

"Wrong answer," Sonic said. "I'll explain. See, being a freelance agent means that we get to do whatever we damn well please. Like, I don't know, killing your friends in the truck? Taking that money back to where it belongs? Stopping you and the rest of the ass-hole crew? I could go on."

"You don't scare me," the voice said. "I'm coming back to that truck, and I'm going to kill you myself."

"One on four doesn't seem fair on you," Sonic said.

He was silenced when the truck began moving, and the voice spoke again. But this time, it wasn't through the radio, but from the front of the truck. "You should really pay more attention to your surroundings!"

"How did we not hear that?" asked Knuckles.

"Never mind," said Sonic. "We've got to stop this truck."

There was another loud shake, and the truck starting gaining speed. The doors at the back of the truck were still open, and Sonic smiled as he saw this. He gestured to his friends, who also chuckled as they spotted it.

"So, what's the plan?" Knuckles asked.

"One of us finds a way to get to the top of the truck," Sonic said. "Tails might be our best bet."

"I'll give it a shot," Tails said.

"Be quick about it," Sonic warned. "We've still got cops to help back there."

The yellow fox nodded, quickly moving to the back of the truck. Since the doors were still open, it was no trouble for him to get to where he needed to go. But he was still hesitant, looking around and then looking at the ground, seeing the lines in the road start to pass.

"What's wrong?" Sonic asked.

"We might need to slow this down somehow!" Tails called.

"I'm on it!" Knuckles said. He walked over to the back of the truck, crouched down, raising one of his fists, and pointed it at the road. "All right... I've got to focus this..."

He then cocked his fist back before plunging it down, feeling his closed hand tearing through the solid stone of the road. He used his other hand to hold his arm in place as his right fist was practically dragged through the road, creating an annoying grinding sound and causing some rocks to fly in the red echidna's face. Still, he held onto it, feeling the truck slow down.

"Now's your chance!" Knuckles said.

"Don't need to tell me twice!" Tails said.

His tails spun around quickly, and using the truck's slowing down to his advantage, he flew out of the back of the large armoured vehicle. He kept flying a fair distance ahead so that he was far away enough to make the ascension above the truck. He found his chance when the truck managed to turn around and face the right way, and Tails then turned around and spun upwards, pirouetting through the air and landing on top of the truck.

He closed his arms over his head as he felt the wind begin to hit him, but he carried on with his mission. He couldn't risk flying where he was, so he had to risk walking across the top of the truck instead. He took careful strides as he walked, not wanting to go too slow, but knowing that he couldn't go overly fast. His steps were light enough that he could flow with the truck, but with a turn coming up soon, he knew that he had to move quickly now.

"Ah, fuck it..." he mumbled to himself. He starting picking up the pace now, getting on top of the main car of the truck. He leaned his head down, getting an upside down view of the side of the driver's covered face. Tails reached a hand to knock on the window.

The robber driving the truck didn't hesitate to pull out his gun and fire a shot at the window, the bullet smashing through the glass, but Tails knew that it was coming, his body moving back up in time to avoid being hit by both bullet and glass. The two-tailed fox then put his hands on top of the edge where the broken window was, turning his body in midair and flipping through the window, planting both feet into the driver's side.

The driver's free hand was still on his gun, but he couldn't bring it up in time to stop the blow. He screamed a bit in pain as he was struck, and tried to keep his focus on the road. This got harder for him to do as Tails pulled his gun from his pocket, pressing the muzzle against the driver's head.

"Listen," Tails said. "Either you drop your gun and take us back to that fight, or I blow your damn head off and do it myself."

"Y-Yeah, sure..." the criminal said. He subtly dropped his gun to his left, which was away from Tails. "Whatever you say..."

"Cute," Tails smiled. "Drop the gun on this side, please. "In fact, just hand it to me."

The robber grunted in frustration, reaching to grab the gun and give it to Tails. The yellow fox smiled, aiming both guns now at the bad guy. Despite wearing a mask to cover his face, the robber's expression of sadness could clearly be seen as he drove back to where the fight was happening.

The drive was silent, and didn't take too long as they weren't too far away from the scene of the gunfight itself. The truck slowed to a crawl as they reached where they were earlier, and Tails kept both guns on the robber.

"You're going to get out of this car slowly, okay?" he said.

The robber gave a small nod, killing the engine of the truck and leaving through the window. Tails followed him, keeping his guns focused on the bad guy. Tails smiled when he heard the back doors of the truck clang open, with Sonic, Shadow, and Knuckles joining their two-tailed friend on the side of the truck.

"Good work, man," Sonic smiled.

"So, where do we go from here?" Knuckles asked.

"Well, it'd be pointless to offer this guy up as a trade," Sonic said. "So, main game plan is either kill him or just knock him out and throw him into the back of the truck with the rest."

"I choose the latter," Tails said.

"Seconded," Knuckles agreed.

"Same here," Shadow said, raising his hand a bit.

"Then it's unanimous," Sonic smiled. "Tails, if you wouldn't mind."

The robber grinned a bit, shrugging. "Well, shit..."

Tails shrugged his own shoulders as well, whipping the butts of both guns at the back of the robber's head, knocking him out cold. Shadow and Knuckles picked up his body and dragged it back to the truck as Sonic and Tails stayed put.

"So, what's the next part of the plan?" Tails asked. "All out attack?"

"The fact that you suggested that makes me wonder how long you've been around Knuckles," Sonic smirked.

Tails shrugged. "What can I say? I have violent tendencies. I mean, did you see me knock that douche-bag out?"

"That was pretty violent," Sonic nodded. "Anyway, back to the plan."

"Right," Tails nodded as Knuckles and Shadow returned.

"We can't just go all out, and our initial plan of turning the truck for cover is out the window," Sonic said. "We might need to use our grenades."

Tails nodded. "Mitigates casualties, makes it easier on us, and we know how to use them." He chuckled. "Good thing we remembered them."

"Well, most of the time we don't need them," Sonic said. "But it's probably better and safer if we take them with us more often from now on."

Tails smiled, turning to Shadow and Knuckles. "You two get all that?"

"Something about grenades, bringing them with us, and having fewer dead people," Knuckles said. "Did I get all that?"

"Eh, the bullet points version is just as good as anything," the yellow fox smiled.

"So, what's phase one?" Knuckles asked.

Sonic unlatched a grenade from his belt, setting it to flash bang mode. "We'll split up into two different teams of two. One team will stay on this side of the truck, and the others will walk around to clear out any bad guys on the opposite side."

"Who's with who?" Shadow asked.

"Me and Knuckles will take the other side," Sonic said. "You and Tails stay here and clear this one."

"Understood," Shadow said, turning to Tails. "Ready to go, fuzzy?"

"Says Captain Chest Hair," Tails smirked.

Sonic chuckled. "All right, let's split and get this over with."

The others nodded as Sonic took off with Knuckles, going up and around the back of the truck, seeing more bad guys on their side than they'd seen on the previous one. Regardless, Sonic kept his grenade in his hands, but handed it to Knuckles.

"Why me?" the red echidna asked.

"You've got a better throwing arm," Sonic reasoned.

"Fair enough," Knuckles replied. He lifted his arm and tossed the grenade into the group of men firing at the cops, and one of said men turned when they heard a clicking next to them, seeing Knuckles and Sonic, who waved.

"WE-ARRGH!""

The bad guy's sentence was cut short as the grenade's flash went off, temporarily blinding him and all of the men surrounding him. Sonic and Knuckles moved quickly, with Sonic using his speed to get them there quicker. They moved to attack the bad guys, who were still stunned from the grenade despite the flash now wearing off.

"I still can't see shit!" said one of them, covering his face with his arms.

"Then maybe try moving your arms out of your face?" Sonic suggested.

"Oh, thanks," the bad guy said, seeing Knuckles in front of him.

"No problem," Sonic smiled as Knuckles cocked a fist back. He slammed it right into the bad guy's face and knocked him out with one shot.

"Get 'em!" said one of the other criminals.

Sonic and Knuckles stayed where they were, knowing that a fist fight was going to come sooner rather than later. Still, the two stood back to back as the baddies teemed around them, moving to attack all at once, only for Sonic and Knuckles to split and roll away.

"Over here!" Sonic said. One of the robbers swung for him, but Sonic ducked under it and delivered a sharp knee to his ribs. The man doubled over, and Sonic lifted his leg to axe kick the bad guy's head against the ground, knocking him out.

Knuckles was against two at once, both on either side of him. One moved to attack from his left, and just after Knuckles dodged, he felt a knee hit the small of his back. Knuckles moved forward from the blow, softening its impact and more than surprised at how little it hurt in the first place. But he shook it off, ducking under a massive left hook from one of the bad guys and slipping under to deliver a brutal right uppercut, knocking the man out in one blow.

Knuckles shook his hand, not out of pain, but out of confidence. "It almost hurts to be this good."

"Grah!"

Knuckles turned and dodged a knife swiping at his head, turning with the slashes to avoid them before managing to block one of the strikes. The robber caught on and dropped the knife to his other hand, but Knuckles brought up his own hand to grab the blade, grimacing as he did so. He headbutted the hijacker, breaking his nose and causing blood to spurt out. Knuckles then dropped the knife before punching the man in the gut, causing him to gasp for breath, landing on his knees. Knuckles landed one more punch, this one to the jaw, and knocked him senseless.

Sonic dodged a punch coming from behind, hearing the man behind him long before he reached him. Somewhat to Sonic's surprise, his speed kicked in, and he found himself right behind the bad guy. Sonic shrugged and delivered a boot to the man's back, knocking him towards Knuckles, who met him with a simple straight right to clean his clock.

"Guess I'm getting better with these implants," Knuckles smiled.

It was then that the last of the bad guys was heard speaking into his radio. "Hear that, guys? These dudes have cyber parts! We've got to be- urgh!"

Knuckles picked the man up by his throat, but just shrugged and put him back down. The bad guy looked relieved for a moment, but that relief soon turned to unconsciousness following a headbutt from Knuckles.

"Nice going there," Sonic smiled.

Knuckles shrugged, then sighed. "That's all of them from this side."

"What do you think the guy was going to say before you caught him?" Sonic asked.

"It can't be anything good if they know that we have implants," Knuckles said. "Let's go check on the others."

Sonic nodded, but reached for his shoulder mic. "We're halfway done here. You want to make a push and help us?"

"We'd best wait on an ambulance," said an officer on the other side. "We're all pretty hurt in some capacity. Some more than others..."

The blue hedgehog nodded. "Understood. We'll let you know when it's all clear. Over and out."

He turned his mic off, then nodded to Knuckles. The two rushed around the side of the truck, seeing Tails and Shadow dealing with fewer bad guys than they had to, but it was still a fair few. Most of them were already out cold, and there were three left.

One of them made a move for Tails from behind, but the two-tailed fox managed to get around the attack and used his his tails to trip the bad guy up, causing him to fall into a hard elbow from Shadow, sending him back. Tails jumped and landed a side kick to the bad guy's back, and Shadow finished it with a sharp palm strike to his face.

The last two didn't fair much better. One went for Shadow's side, but the black and red hedgehog teleported in midair behind him, spinning for a reverse kick to knock him down, but not out. Tails was about to move, but was grabbed from behind by the last man standing. This didn't last long, as Tails stepped on the man's foot to stun him for a split second, then drove his elbows backwards to keep him away.

Shadow landed from his teleport, only to teleport again, this time between Tails and the robber who tried to hurt him. Tails smiled as he spun his tails around, starting to fly up, with Shadow clinging on to his friend by the legs. Tails then spun around in place as Shadow stretched his own legs out, kicking one of the two remaining men hard across the jaw, enough to knock him down.

Shadow delivered a similar kick to the second man, but only wobbled him, not knocking him out. It was then that he tugged subtly on Tails' leg, and the yellow fox got the idea and spun faster as Shadow loosened his grip on his friend. Shadow waited for the right time, then let go, planting both feet into the man he had stumbled as Tails landed on his feet, moving to trip up the other man as he rose.

Shadow landed back on his feet after his stomp attack knocked his man down, and he delivered a swift knee to his head as he rose, catching him on the temple and causing him to flop backwards limply. Tails, meanwhile, mounted the man that he tripped up and rained down punches on his unprotected face, landing enough to knock him out. He was helped to his feet by Shadow, and the two smiled at each other.

"That was pretty brutal," Shadow smiled.

Tails shrugged, panting. "The dude was tough."

"You're lucky that you beat him up normally," said Sonic.

"How come?" Tails asked.

"One of the guys that we had to deal with may or may not have found out that we have cybernetic implants," Knuckles shrugged.

"Was the reason that he found out because you said it?" Shadow asked.

"Maybe..." Knuckles said, looking away.

"Look, we don't know what these guys were up to, but whatever plans they had are done now," said Sonic.

"True," Tails nodded. "But, don't you think that things seem kind of off?"

"Like, this was a setup?" Sonic asked.

"Something like that," Tails said.

Knuckles nodded. "I agree, but we can't talk about that stuff here. The cops might catch on to what we're doing."

"I find it weird that we're scared of telling the cops this," Shadow chuckled.

"Well, it was Sonic's idea," Knuckles pointed out.

"And you all said yes to it," Sonic reminded. "But you're right. We can't do anything here. Let's try tomorrow and see if we can talk to any of them."

"Helps that they're all being taken to the same place," Tails said.

"That reminds me," Sonic said, reaching for his shoulder mic. "We're all done here. You all good?"

"We're good," said the cop. "You call that ambulance yet?"

"Sorry," Sonic said, a bit sheepish. "We were trying to get rid of the bad guys first."

"Don't worry about it," the cop said with a chuckle. "I took care of it. It'll be here soon. I figured that you'd be too busy, so I helped out."

"Thanks."

"Any casualties?"

"Eh, a little bit of damage to the truck, but no fatalities," Sonic said. "What about your side?"

"A couple of bad injuries and some vehicle damage, but nothing that can't be buffed out."

"Good thing that G.H.P.D. is good when it comes to vehicles."

"True!" the cope said with a rich laugh. "All right, we'll see you on our end. Over and out."

Sonic hanged up, and smiled when he saw some of the less injured cops get in their cars, driving them up to meet Sonic and his friends. After a few minutes, all of the unconscious criminals were in G.H.P.D. vehicles, ready to be taken to the department building.

As the police cars drove off, Sonic smiled. "I hope that they have enough room for then all."

"Eh, they might wind up sharing," Knuckles shrugged. "Besides, the transfer is soon. They'll have more room when they get there."

Sonic was about to reply, but was cut off when his phone went off. He saw that it was Amy, and winced a bit as he answered it, hoping that she wasn't mad. "Hello?"

"Sonic! Oh, my god! I was so worried about you!" Amy said, her voice relieved.

"I'm fine," Sonic said. "Sorry for not replying. We just finished a pretty big mission."

"Is everyone all right?" Amy asked, showing her concern not just for her boyfriend, but for his friends.

"We're all okay," Sonic said. "Nothing we couldn't handle."

"Good," Amy said, a smile of relief washing over her voice.

"So, what were you calling for earlier?"

"Oh, I actually have some pretty big news," Amy said. "Your ex? Sally? She's back in town."

"And you know this how?"

"Because she works at the same school as me," Amy answered.

"Huh." Sonic cleared his throat. "Um... is she okay?"

"She's fine," Amy smiled, sensing Sonic's worry. "But right now isn't the best time to talk about it. Do you have time tomorrow?"

"We've got something small to take care of, but the other guys can handle it," Sonic said. "What time tomorrow?"

"About lunchtime?" Amy said. "I'll call up a taxi for tomorrow and come over to visit."

"Sounds good," Sonic smiled. "I'll see you then."

"You too," Amy said. "Bye." She then hanged up.

Sonic did the same, sighing and pinching the bridge of his nose. "I can't fucking believe it..."

"What's up?" asked Tails.

"Sally's back in town," Sonic said.

"Sally?" Knuckles asked. "Sally, the cute squirrel ex-girlfriend who tried to speed things up too much? That Sally?"

"I've only ever told you about one Sally in my lifetime," Sonic said.

"So, how did Amy come across her?" Tails asked.

"Apparently, Sally teaches at the same school as Amy," Sonic shrugged. "I don't know anything beyond that, but I'm going to find out tomorrow."

"We need to find out stuff from those guys that we just stopped too," Shadow reminded.

Sonic nodded. "I know. Looks like you guys might have to take the reigns on that one."

"You're not coming with us?" Tails asked. "I'm sorry, but getting vital information out of bad guys to find someone else seems a bit more important."

Sonic nodded again. "I know. I'll come with you, but we've got to wake up early. Hopefully, we can get it done before lunchtime. That's when me and Amy are supposed to meet."

"Jade Mountain?" Knuckles asked.

"Seems like the best place," the blue hedgehog shrugged. "And, before you ask, yes, I'll bring you guys something back."

"You owe us for having to wake us up early," Knuckles jibed.

"I know," Sonic smiled. "Now, let's head home, shall we?"

The others nodded in agreement, all heading past their former battlefield to head back to Knuckles' car. On their way back, an ambulance arrived, its lights whirring and siren blaring as it caught up to those wounded. Sonic even took notice of the drivers of the truck full of money managing to get back to the vehicle, taking it with them.

Soon, the four got into their car, wasting no time in driving back home. It took about fifteen minutes to get back to their headquarters, since it wasn't that far away. Knuckles found a place to park his car, and they all got out, heading inside. They decided to forego any showering until the next morning, since the fight did tire them out. So, they decided to head to their bedrooms, with Sonic checking his phone and seeing Amy's missed calls from earlier.

"Well, tomorrow is certainly going to be a lot of fun..." he said drily. He then set his alarm for earlier than usual before setting his phone on his bedside table, closing his emerald green eyes, and going to sleep.

Meanwhile, in Westopolis...

Nack was in the back of his now more polished car, and he remained silent as his henchmen drove him to the apartment complex that was mentioned earlier. But, unlike most other times, Nack had a black baseball bat with him, and his cronies brought a knife and a lead pipe, as well as some handguns just in case.

"We're here," said the driver.

"You do remember that Lara told you not to bother with this, right?" asked the other henchman.

"I do," Nack nodded, readjusting the gloves on his hands. "But I feel like these cunts are clientele that she can risk losing. I don't care how much they paid; they don't have the right to treat anybody like that."

"That's strangely heroic of you."

"I prefer business-savvy," Nack shrugged. "If Lara wants to keep the best girls, then she needs the best kind of clientele. Men like these are no different to men like us when it comes to what we want from hookers; pussy and a good time fucking it." He then sighed. "But in terms of how to handle said pussy, that is where a line must be drawn. A business like that isn't something to abuse so much."

"You seem to be doing it yourself," said one of the henchmen.

"Only from a business perspective," said Nack. "I'd never hurt any of Lara's girls before, and I won't start now. I also don't plan on letting others, especially the vile pieces of refuse that we're about to talk to, abuse Lara's girls like that."

"So, what is the plan?" asked the driver.

"In simple terms, the plan is to go in there and beat the shit out of the ass-holes who abused Lara's girl," said Nack. "But in not so simple terms, the plan is to teach them a lesson. One can only hope that men like these have the capacity to learn from their mistakes." He looked down at his bat, nodding. "Let's go."

The others nodded. All three of them hid their weapons upon their person before getting out of the car after the driver killed the engine. They looked at the apartment complex, seeing one of the lights still on this late at night, and seeing several shadows move back and forth, with some drinking beer every now and then.

The three walked up to the entrance of the complex, coming to a small shutter with a speaker on the side. There were buttons attached, with some that would have a faint glow if that apartment was still occupied or any electricity was still in use. Since who Nack was looking for was on a higher floor, he pressed that button. A grumbling voice spoke.

"Who is it?" the voice asked, gruff and slurring from the beers that he had drunk.

"My name is Nack. I'm here to talk to someone about a girl named Lisa."

"What does that bitch want this time?" the voice asked.

Nack bit back a sigh and smiled as best as he could. "She wants to apologise for her recent behaviour," he lied, hoping that the drunken man would buy it.

"She there with you?" the voice asked. "Any cops?"

"No and no," Nack answered. "She asked me to speak on her behalf, since she was afraid of coming on her own."

"All right... but make it quick, okay?" the man said. The speaker buzzed and the shutter opened.

Nack grinned, taking his finger off the speaker. "Trust me, I don't intend to be here any longer than I need to be."

He then walked up to the building proper where the Mobians were, one of them passing by to look out the window, beer in hand. He gave a brief, albeit sloppy, wave, and went down to the door of his section of the building, opening it as Nack and his men approached.

"What's a Mobian want to do with a human girls?" he asked, unaware of his mispronunciation.

"You're drunk, so I'll forgive that," Nack smiled. "And you heard already what I want to talk about. Just let me in to talk to the man upstairs, and I'll be in and out quickly."

"You got it," the drunkard replied, hiccuping near the end of his sentence.

He turned around and made a hand gesture to follow him up the stairs. His walk was wobbly as he led Nack and his henchmen to their destination, but he managed to take them up to the third and final floor with relative ease, pushing the already open door out.

"They're here!" he said loudly, unaware of his volume.

Nack looked around, seeing how many of them there were, counting a total of five. One of them, a warthog with red skin, looked up from his position on his couch and saw the purple weasel. He stood up from where he was, walking over to Nack, his breathing low enough to push out waves of the smell of the booze that he'd been drinking.

Nack did his best to keep his smile hidden. "You must be Lisa's stepfather?"

"What does she want from me this time?" the warthog asked.

"Oh, she wanted me to apologise."

"What for?"

Nack breathed in slowly, knowing that he'd have to play this man's game. "Well, you know how women can be if they don't learn their place, right?"

"Right," the warthog chuckled. "See, I like people like you. People who get it."

"Even when that comes to your stepdaughter?" Nack asked.

"Just leave that little slut out of it, okay?" the warthog said. "If she knew her place, I wouldn't have had to hurt her."

Nack's teeth clenched under his closed mouth before he opened it again. "What's your name?"

"Devin."

"Well, Devin, you know that I'm here because I have a message from your stepdaughter, correct?" Nack asked, walking closer.

"I do. She said that she wanted to apologise, right? What for, exactly?"

"That she didn't tell me. Did she do anything bad?"

"Besides join that fucking brothel and prove to be the little whore that she really is?" Devin spat.

"Well, was that bad enough to warrant what was essentially a gang rape on the poor girl?" Nack replied, his arm slowly moving behind him to reach the baseball bat tucked behind his back.

"It wasn't rape," Devin defended. "We paid."

"No, you paid for you and your friends to have sex with that poor girl," said Nack.

"What makes you call a bitch like that poor girl?"

Nack stepped closer, leaning his head up to whisper in Devin's ear. "The fact that she has a worthless piece of shit like you as a stepfather." Nack then stepped back, pulling his baseball bat out. "And I am going to give you a little bit of education as to what happens when you fuck with something that doesn't belong to you."

Before Devin could speak, one of Nack's henchmen pulled out his handgun and shot the warthog in the leg, downing him instantly. Two of the four men moved quickly, but were stumbling terribly given their earlier alcohol consumption. Nack's henchmen grabbed both men, causing them to headbutt each other hard, the impact causing them both to fall unconscious.

One of the two remaining drunks moved to attack Nack, but he ducked and swung his bat at their temple, the impact causing them to go limp instantly. The last tried to attack Nack from behind, but his drunken stumbling gave away his position, so Nack turned and grabbed the last Mobian, throwing him to his henchmen. They threw him down hard onto the ground, stomping on his head several times before he too went to sleep.

Devin, on his back and still clutching his leg, looked at his fallen friends, and saw a broken glass bottle next to him, dropped during one of the attacks. He went to reach it, but a well-dressed foot stepped on his hand, digging the heel in until bones were heard snapping. The warthog grunted as Nack lifted his shoe once more for another hard stomp.

"Now, I'm going to put this simply," said Nack. "You are going to apologise to Lisa for doing what you did to her. You are going to apologise to Lara for hurting one of her girls. And finally, and I can't stress this enough, you are never going back to Lara's brothel. Ever."

Devi shook his head. "What's it matter to you? It's a glorified whorehouse... I can do whatever the fuck I want."

Nack grinned and let out a small puff of air before swinging his bat down on Devin's genitals, causing a loud screech from the warthog. As Devin tried to recover, Nack knelt down again. "I'm sorry. What did you just say?"

"I said that I can do whatever I want!" Devin said. "She's my stepdaughter. She lives under my roof, she follows my rules!"

"And what would her mother think if she knew about this?" Nack asked, turning to his henchmen and jerking his head over to himself.

"Her mother knows, and she doesn't give a shit about her daughter being a whore," said Devin. "I do care, and I punish her for her behaviour."

"Is that so?" Nack asked as his men lifted and separated the warthog's legs. "So tell me," Nack continued, "if it's right for you to punish her for her behaviour because of what she chose for a career even though you're not related, is it not right for me to do the same to you?"

"I'm not like you," Devin said.

"That's true," Nack nodded. "Mostly because in five minutes, I'll still have my dick and balls attached to me."

Before Devin could speak, he felt a knife cutting his trousers open. The warthog looked down to see Nack's henchmen taking off his bottoms, about to do the same with his boxers before he kicked at them.

"Get the fuck off of me!" he screamed.

Nack turned his bat upside down and dug the top end into Devin's chest, keeping pressure on it. "The less that you struggle, the less that this'll hurt..."

"No!" Devin begged, still yelling. His groans of pain only increased when he felt his boxers practically being ripped off, and then the edge of a knife pressed against his testicles. "Please! PLEASE! DON'T DO IT!"

Nack delivered a hard kick across Devin's face before leaning down again. "Now, you listen to me, you worthless speck of piss. You are going to apologise to Lisa and Lara. And you're never going back to Lara's brothel for any of her other girls. In fact, if you even think about going there again, I'll strip you and take away your manhood myself." Nack took his bat from the warthog's chest, placing it near his head. "I run this fucking city, and when people like me run a city like this, then dregs like you shut the fuck up and listen when people like me are talking. Do you understand me?"

"I DO! PLEASE DON'T DO IT! I'LL LEAVE THOSE GIRLS ALONE, I SWEAR!"

Nack nodded, turning to his henchmen. They left the man half-naked still, but got up and went to Nack. The purple weasel grinned. "Good." He then reared his bat from its position and delivered a hard shot to the side of Devin's head, knocking him out cold. "We're done here. Let's clean up and leave."

The two henchmen nodded. They began by placing the unconscious bodies near the couch, making sure that beers were in their hands. It helped that one of them threw up in their sleep, making the setup look more believable. They went about cleaning any injuries as best as they could, since it was mostly with blunt weapons.

The main problem would be the bullet wound in Devin's leg. The henchman with the knife decided to use his weapon to pick the bullet out of the warthog's injured limb before cleaning the wound up. He didn't stitch it up, instead choosing to use one of the broken beer bottles as a fake weapon.

After the bodies were taken care of, Nack made sure that the lights and TV were left on. "If these guys believe that they were too drunk to function, they'll probably assume that they forgot to turn off the TV."

Both henchmen nodded, and soon they followed their boss downstairs and out of the building. Within little time, they'd made it back past the shutter and into the car. Without a word needing to be said, the driver started the car, and they soon found themselves heading back home.

"This'll be tough to explain to Lara," said the driver.

"Not really," said Nack. "Ass-hole brings gang of friends to have forced sex with his stepdaughter, same ass-hole and gang of friends get beaten up and learn a lesson." He sighed. "I'll tell Lara everything herself tomorrow. I owe her that much."

"And you did keep within the realm of not killing them," said the passenger.

Nack nodded. "True. I might have cost her a client, but I certainly didn't cost her one worth remembering." He chuckled. "Let's go home."

And so they did, soon arriving home and not wasting any time in getting to bed due to how late it was. Nack slept with a smile as he thought about how much progress he'd made that day, and his smile widened as he waited for the big day to come very soon.

And there it is! Finally got a new one up. So, yeah. If the length of this chapter doesn't tell you how seriously I'm taking the story, I don't know what will. I hope that you all enjoyed it, and that it was worth the wait. I guess there's nothing else to say except for take care, and stay tuned.