Sonic woke to his phone alarm sounding off, yawning and stretching. He smiled when he heard the other three complaining at also having to wake up this early. Sonic grinned and quickly got out of his bed, speaking as he moved to the end of the corridor.

"I'm heading in the shower first!" he said.

"Want some breakfast for when you get out?" asked Tails' voice.

"Just some cereal," Sonic said. "A chocolatey type of cereal, if it's not too much hassle."

"I can't promise that it won't be," Tails replied. "See you when you get out of the shower."

Sonic gave a word of confirmation as he went for his shower, thinking that he'd get some new clothes on for after he was finished. He turned the shower on, waiting for the water to warm up. After it did, he stripped off his boxers and shirt from last night and went into the shower.

As he started cleaning himself, he took a deep breath, thinking back to last night. He made a small mental note about how well he and the others had used his powers without straining themselves too much, and would put that aside in his head for later on.

Soon, he was all finished, heading to his bedroom to get dressed in new clothes. He went for a dark blue pair of boxers, a white sporty tank top with black around the collar and sleeves, black jeans, and black striped trainers. He turned to go for the stairs, but instead decided to slide down the pole, landing perfectly.

"Man, that's fun," he said to himself as he headed for the kitchen. "All right, shower's free," he said as he entered the kitchen. The other three made a mad dash to get upstairs for their shower, and he laughed a bit at that. He then went over to his cereal, smiling. "Thanks, Tails!"

"No problem!" the yellow fox replied. "Get out of the way, Knuckles! I need a shower!"

"We all do!" Knuckles replied. "You know how long it takes to clean these dreads?"

"Even my chest fur is an issue!" Shadow threw in.

Sonic shook his head as they kept arguing, enjoying his chocolatey cereal and a cup of coffee, also courtesy of Tails. Soon, his phone went off, and he picked it from his jeans pocket. "Hello?"

"Hey, Sonic," Amy said, her voice sounding tired. "Bit surprised that you picked up this early."

"I had to get up early too," Sonic replied with a shrug. "Got to go down to the department and have a talk with the ass-holes that we put away last night."

"Is this for you or because you were told to?" Amy asked.

"This is for us," Sonic said. "By us, I mean myself, Shadow, Knuckles, and Tails."

"Leaving me out of it, huh?"

"Sorry," Sonic smirked. "That's confidential information."

"Ooh, you're sexy when you get all authoritative," Amy giggled. "Anyway, just called to check in and see if you were okay."

"It's a bit early for me to tell," Sonic said. "I had a hot shower, and I've just had a bit of coffee, and I'm still not sure that I'm awake."

"I just woke up and am in my underwear..." Amy said sultrily.

"And I'm awake," Sonic said, laughing.

Amy laughed too. "I wanted to apologise if last night felt a bit... I dunno, out of place? I can't think of the right words to say here."

Sonic smiled. "It's fine. I get that you want to talk this over."

"It's just that you haven't spoken too highly of Sally," Amy added.

Sonic nodded. "You should have seen me after we broke up. I couldn't stand her. Good thing I was at the academy and cut off all communications to her."

"Let's save talk like that for our date," Amy chuckled. "That is why we're having it."

"I know."

"And you're not too happy about it."

"I'm really not," said Sonic. "It's almost ironic, though. I split with Sally because she wanted to take things too quickly, and now I can't wait to just get this over with."

"Do you hate her?" Amy asked.

"Not as much as I used to," Sonic replied. "I'm not going to go out of my way to demonise her for anyone's benefit, mostly because it doesn't benefit anyone."

"True," Amy said. "That's a very mature way of looking at it."

"Well, I'm a mature guy," Sonic said, burping after that.

"Lucky me," Amy said sarcastically, before giggling. "Anyway, I'll see you later, okay?"

Sonic smiled. "Later."

After the two hung up, Tails came down, his fur slightly wet still. "You need better friends."

"Does that include you?" Sonic asked.

"No, because I'm your best friend. There's a difference."

"What happened?"

"Knuckles got shower hungry. The moment I was done rinsing myself, he forced me out of the bathroom. Good thing I had my towel on already."

Sonic chuckled. "That could have gone bad. Oh, and thanks for the breakfast and the coffee."

"You're welcome," Tails smiled. "See? Best friend."

"Would my best friend like to go and dry himself off before treading water all over the house?"

"Your best friend is still drying off," Tails said. "My fur doesn't dry that easily. One of the few downsides of being a fox."

"That and the fact that you were chucked out of the shower before you could dry fully?"

"Also that," Tails nodded. "That was a factor."

"Why not dry off in your room?" Sonic asked.

"The towel was already too wet for me to use," Tails said. "And I didn't want half-ass it and waste another."

"Shower rushes are a bitch," Sonic shrugged.

"Especially if it's quick showers with friends waiting in line," Tails added on, sitting next to Sonic.

"How'd the towel get so wet?"

"I sort of used it on my tails more..." Tails replied. "I was worried that the water might affect my implant, since that's at the base of my spine."

"Tails, the implant is under your skin," Sonic pointed out. "It would have been fine."

"I know that now," the yellow fox defended.

"You're supposed to be the smart one."

"It's early?"

"That's better."

Tails chuckled, then looking down to see that he was just in his boxers, thanks in part to being forced out of the shower.. "I'd best get dressed, hadn't I?"

"Might help, yeah," Sonic said.

Tails nodded, turning and heading back up the stairs. Sonic shook his head, deciding to head to the living room. He put the TV on and saw a female news reporter, microphone in hand, speaking about the events of the previous night. She was a Mobian peacock with red and yellow feathers, and her name came up as Delia.

"As you can see," she said, "I'm at the scene of a crime that was stopped. I'm actually here to talk with some of the local residents in this district who were helped." She walked out of frame, the camera catching up, and the lady from the laundromat appeared. "So, what's your name?"

"Pamela," the lady replied.

"Well, Pamela, what happened last night?"

The laundromat owner sighed. "Well, it scared me at first. I almost didn't want to let them in, because they weren't police."

"Who were they?" Delia asked. "The freelancers?"

Pamela nodded. "I was scared out of my wits, but I put my trust in them, and they helped." She chuckled. "They were almost better than the police who got here first."

"Damn right we were," Sonic said, eating more of his cereal.

"Thank you for your time," Delia said. She then turned to an African-American man. "And your name, sir?"

"My name is Mickey," he replied. "But just call me Mick."

"So, Mick, did you come across the freelancers as well?" Delia asked.

"I did indeed," the liquor store owner nodded. "They actually needed to come through my shop to get around the back of the bad guys from last night. I almost killed the wrong people with my shotgun, but they earned my trust pretty quickly on account of them not wearing balaclavas."

Delia chuckled at that. "And what do you know about them being freelancers?"

"I heard in the news that they were fired as cops," Mickey replied. "To which I have to say this; those freelancer kids were a lot better than the cops themselves. They saw the situation, they took their time, they put together a good strategy, and somehow, they took out those thieves quicker than our cops did. Those boys have earned my respect as well as a free discount on any beer that they want."

Sonic chuckled to himself as Delia smiled. "Well, thank you, Mick." The old man walked out of frame, and the peacock turned back to the camera. "You heard it here first. Those freelance agents have been busy, but their track record speaks for itself. Maybe them being fired was a blessing in disguise. But, who can tell? I'm Delia the peacock, signing off for Green Hill News 1."

The signal then cut off, and before it went to the main news room, Sonic flipped it over to see a gaming live stream. "It's crazy how these are being more broadcast all over the world these days."

"Ooh, sweet! A gaming tournament!" Knuckles said, walking over with Tails. The yellow fox wore a dark green flannel top over a yellow t-shirt with tan jeans and red sneakers, and Knuckles wore an orange t-shirt with black sleeves, along with black long shorts and brown boots.

"Hey, guys," Sonic smiled. "I got some news; we were just on the news."

"Like, literally?" asked Tails. "Because I sure don't recall seeing any camera crew last night."

"Not really," Sonic chuckled. "Those two shopkeepers from last night talked about us. Saying about how we were better than the actual cops and shit."

"I mean..." Knuckles started.

"They're not wrong," Shadow finished as he walked down the stairs. He was slipping on a light grey sweater as he walked, combining that with blue jeans and black boots.

"You showered quick," said Knuckles.

"I used the one at the other end when Knuckles was still in the first one," Shadow shrugged.

Sonic turned to Tails. "See? He thought about that, and you did not."

"It's early..." Tails said, repeating his earlier statement.

"It's less early now than it was earlier," Knuckles smirked.

"Shut up and get some breakfast," Sonic said.

"Yes, fearless leader," the other three said in unison.

"Hey, it's Doctor Supreme Fearless Leader, and don't you forget it," Sonic warned.

They all laughed with that, and the others grabbed cereal and coffee before rejoining Sonic in the living room. They watched the TV and had their breakfast to pass the time. Knuckles offered to put the bowls away, to which the others accepted with thanks.

As he did, Tails cropped up. "So, do we have anything on Nack so far?"

"Not much," Sonic said. "The only lead that I can think of was maybe at the docks. It might be worth checking out when I get back from my date with Amy."

"We could scope it out tonight instead," Shadow suggested. "Trying to do something like that in the middle of the day would only raise suspicions. Add that onto us going to talk with last night's dick-bags, and we could lose another job."

"He's right," Knuckles agreed, walking back over. "We need to be careful about this."

"Looks like it might have to be at night," Sonic said. "It might be easier if not all of us go."

"Or we could ask someone else to come with us?" Tails suggested. "We've still got friends on the force, after all."

"True," Sonic replied. "We'd just have to hope that they're not busy."

"If they are, we'll probably get called in for backup," said Shadow. "We can probably get their help in a situation like that as a form of repayment."

"It's probably not a good idea to bribe the cops," Knuckles pointed out. "Just saying."

Sonic nodded. "Agreed. If we're going to get their help, I don't want to guilt trip them or anything. We'll ask, they'll answer, and depending on what their answer is will result in what we wind up doing tonight."

"Well, you said that not all of us are going," Tails said. "Maybe a couple of us ask a couple of them to help?"

"That could go for if we have to play the backup role too," Knuckles added on.

Sonic sighed. "All right, if need be, then we'll ask for help if we've helped them. But that's only if the situation calls for it. Otherwise, let's do this normally. Good?"

"Good," Tails smiled.

"No problems here," Knuckles agreed.

"Eh, I suppose so," Shadow said. "Come on. Let's get going."

"Hey, I'm the leader here," Sonic said. "Guys, let's get going."

Shadow shrugged. "You did say it better than I did."

Sonic chuckled, and the two shared a fist bump before heading out. Since it was still relatively early, they did grab some jackets and hoodies to keep themselves warm. They headed to Knuckles' car, and wasting little time, they pulled out and headed for Green Hill, arriving there in about fifteen minutes.

"That was quick," Sonic said.

"Yeah, traffic's usually light this time of morning," Knuckles noted as he looked for a place to park.

He soon found one, and turned his head as he heard another vehicle coming in. Not a police vehicle, this one was a blocky looking car with a black paint job, having thin yellow stripes on the sides. Black tyres and shining silver wheels helped completed the look, and soon, the car found its own space, and the driver cut the engine. The front door then opened, with Vector stepping out, wearing his police uniform.

He was followed by Charmy and Espio, also uniform-clad, as they walked up to Knuckles' car. "You guys again?" asked Vector as the four got out. "You do realise that you don't work here any more, right?"

"Eh, technically we still kind of do," Sonic smiled. "And we do a better job than you guys."

"Yeah, we saw the news this morning," said Espio.

"So, why are you guys wearing your uniforms?" asked Knuckles.

"And why did you come here in one car instead of staying in your rooms at the department?" Tails piled on.

"Uniforms are because it's easier to put them on before we get here," Vector answered. "All in one car is because we stayed up late at Charmy's place working on a little something special for you guys..."

"Shouldn't you stick to working on that at the department?" Tails asked.

"You don't even know what it was we were working on," Charmy defended.

"It's either the hover-boards or the world's shiniest blender," Knuckles said. "And I sure don't see no satisfied looks on your faces, so I'm assuming that it's the boards."

"Dammit, you're good at this," said Vector.

"Well, we are interrogating people today," said Sonic.

"And that answers the unasked question of why are you here in the first place," Espio said. "Thanks for saving me a job there."

"Grilling the bad guys from last night?" asked Charmy.

"Yep," Tails nodded. "Not all of them at once, as that'd take too long. Just their ringleader, whoever the hell he is."

"We'll figure it out," Vector said. "Let's head inside."

"Oh, not without the boards," Charmy said. He quickly rushed to the back of Vector's car and opened it, pulling the boards in question out.

"I knew I was forgetting something," Vector said, pressing a button on his keys to lock his car.

Knuckles quickly did the same, and they all grouped up and headed inside. Espio, Charmy, and Vector immediately headed for their part of the department where as the remaining four were at the front desk. Before they could speak, Cosmo ran around and hugged Tails tightly, who hugged back.

"Hi..." Cosmo smiled.

"Hi back," Tails blushed, kissing his girlfriend.

"I was worried after last night," Cosmo said. "I did call you..."

Tails nodded. "I would have replied, but after how late we stayed up, I just kinda crashed to bed. I'm sorry..."

"It's okay," Cosmo smiled.

"Um... guys?" Sonic said.

"Oh, let them have their moment," said Mina.

"They have enough moments as it is," Knuckles complained.

"Man, you really need to get back to Shade," Sonic said.

"Big time," the red echidna agreed.

Mina shared a laugh. "So, what are you guys here for?"

"We're here to have a little chat with the punks from last night," said Sonic.

"Just one punk will do, though," said Tails. "Do you girls have info on their leader?"

"Nothing except that he's a human who goes by the name of Cutler," said Cosmo.

"Then let's go see him," Sonic said.

"You might need these first," Mina said, throwing some keys to Sonic.

The blue hedgehog chuckled. "Good thinking." He then turned to his two-tailed friends. "Tails, I'm sorry..."

"I know," Tails said. "I'll see you later, okay?"

Cosmo kissed Tails' lips and smiled. "Sounds good to me."

The two broke their embrace, and Tails turned to see that his friends were already headed down the hall with the holding cells, so he rushed to catch up with them. As soon as he did, he looked around at the cells themselves, feeling a bit nervous despite most of the criminals being asleep.

"We've sure put a lot of bad people away lately, huh?" he pointed out.

Knuckles shrugged. "They can't hurt us. Electrically charged cells, remember? Any bad movements, they get hit with a bug zapper."

"And besides," said Sonic, "we're only here to talk to one of them."

"They didn't really tell us which cell was his, now that I think about it," said Knuckles.

"Maybe it's further down?" Shadow suggested.

"Or we could try this," Sonic said. "Hey! Wake up, you lazy fucks!"

At his voice, those that were sleeping woke up, with those already awake only growing more incense at the blue hedgehog's yelling. One of the criminals walked up to his cell and let out a growl, glaring at Sonic as he passed by.

"Get the fuck out of here, you pigs!" the bad guy said.

"Actually, there's not a pig among us," said Tails. "Well, there was that one officer from the other day, but he doesn't count."

Sonic walked up to the bad guy, seeing his profile and noticing a few bruises, including a welt below his left eye, both of which were dark brown. His dyed blond hair had been stained with some blood, not having been cleaned yet.

"Say, do you happen to know of a certain someone named Cutler?" Sonic asked.

"What's it to you?"

"We put him away with the rest of you," Knuckles said. "Tell us where he is, or we'll kill you where you are."

"Wait... it's you guys!" The bad guy began laughing. "The cyber freaks from last night!"

"That's another point we need to bring up," Tails said. "But not out here."

"Why not?"

"Because we need to interrogate you, Cutler," Shadow said.

"How did-"

"You're the only one who spoke up when we called out at first," Sonic said. "And given your recent head wounds, I'm going to go ahead and say that you're not the sharpest tool in the shed."

"I doubt that he really was before, so," Knuckles added.

"Let's get this over with..." Cutler grumbled.

Sonic nodded, using the keys that he'd been given to unlock Cutler's cell. Since the leader of last night's criminals still had his handcuffs on, the others didn't have to worry about him trying to escape. They kept him close, soon making it to the interrogation rooms at the end of the hall. They went to the first of the six, making sure to secure Cutler to the table there by his hands as well as by his feet.

The four smiled, then looked at each other before Tails spoke. "We need to reconvene outside."

"Do as you please," Cutler shrugged.

The four nodded, leaving the room and looking at each other again, with Tails once again striking up the conversation. "So... how do we do this?" he asked.

"I've got no problem with giving this ass-hole what for," Sonic said.

"I think we're all agreed on that front," Knuckles replied.

"If you want me to do it again," Shadow said, "all you have to do is ask."

"Well, how about all four of us?" Tails suggested.

"I don't know," Knuckles doubted. "That sure puts a weird twist on the old good cop bad cop thing considering that there's four of us."

"Good thing we're not cops," Sonic said, smiling at Tails. "You sly fox."

"I don't get it?" Knuckles said.

"Tails knows that the bad guys don't know how our employment works. They know that we're freelance agents, sure, but they don't know that we only work when we're needed." Sonic high-fived his friend. "Nice work!"

Tails smiled. "And since this guy somehow knows about our cyber parts, we can use that against him too."

"We do need to ask about that," Shadow replied.

"Well, let's do it," Sonic said, extending his fist. "All in with the plan?"

The others bumped fists with him in agreement before reentering the interrogation room. Cutler sat patiently, looking up as all four walked in. Shadow and Knuckles stood on either side of the bad guy, Tails kicked back and leaned against the wall near the door, and Sonic decided to sit across from Cutler.

"So, we have a few things that we'd like to ask you," Sonic said.

"Well, I'm not really in a position to not answer your questions, so... fire away, I guess," Cutler said.

"First thing is, how long did it take you to set up last night's hijacking?"

"About a couple of weeks," Cutler said. "It took me a while to get men who were good enough."

"You sure had a lot of them," Sonic followed on. "Where'd you get them from?"

"Mostly Green Hill," Cutler said. "Got a few guys in from Star Light too."

"No wonder the crime rate there isn't so bad," said Knuckles. "This dick-bag probably took in some of their best criminals."

"Is there really any reason for name calling?" asked Cutler.

"You called us cyber freaks earlier," Tails replied. "You can't really blame my friend for that."

"And maybe dick-bag was kind of harsh, so I'm sorry for that," Knuckles said.

"Thank you," said Cutler, not meaning it.

"And besides, douche-canoe would have been more fitting."

"Back to the question at hand," Sonic said, trying to bring their focus back to grilling Cutler, "how did you know about the cyber parts?"

"Oh, I was the guy that big red there headbutted," Cutler said, hooking a thumb behind him. "You got rid of the leader early on. Congratulations. Bang up strategy."

"Sarcasm fits you worse than your mask did," Sonic smirked.

"So, we essentially told him?" Knuckles asked.

"Well, you told him," said Sonic. "You did kind of blurt it out in the middle of the fight."

"And for that, I am sorry," Knuckles said, turning back to Cutler. "Anyway, you managed to tell your men about our implants before we went head to head."

"First of all, nice pun," said the ringleader. "Second of all, so what if I did?"

"Well, that means that you and your men must have had something to nullify that," Shadow said. "Otherwise, you wouldn't have mentioned it."

Cutler sighed. "We got our hands on some weapons that we could use against people with implants. We used some on the normal cops here, but all that we did was hurt them."

"What kind of weapons?" asked Tails.

"Grenades," said Cutler. "The ones with the multiple settings, before you ask."

"How'd you get your hands on those?" Sonic asked. "That's police grade stuff. Seems pretty high level for a bunch of money truck thieves."

"I can't tell you," Cutler said.

"Aw, and you were being so cooperative up until this point too," Sonic said. "Tell us where you got them."

"I honestly can't," said Cutler.

"Did someone give them to you?" asked Knuckles.

"Yes."

"And where did you get them?" Tails asked.

"That would also be telling," Cutler said.

"Now he's just taking the piss," Tails said.

"Cutler, you have to tell us," Sonic said. "Otherwise, we'll blow your brains all over the wall."

"But you don't have guns," said Cutler.

"We don't need them," Sonic said. "Knuckles could punch your head so hard that it literally explodes."

"I've done it before," Knuckles said. "And it's been a long time since I last did it, so I'm really looking to do it again."

"You guys can't threaten me," Cutler said.

"We're freelance," said Sonic. "We can do whatever the fuck we want. You think that we can't take you out just because we don't have our weapons on us?"

"Not just that, but there won't be a trace of you left by the time that we're done," Shadow said.

Cutler shook his head. "You're talking a lot, but you're not actually doing anything."

"You know, you're right," Sonic said. "Boys, if you wouldn't mind."

Shadow suddenly pushed Cutler's head against the metal table, with Tails joining his friend to help hold him down. Knuckles knelt down and rested his head against the table until he was face level with Cutler. He watched the criminal struggle, trying to break free of the Mobians' grip.

"See this hands?" the red echidna said. "These are where my implants are. Thanks to these, I could punch a hole right through the back of your head and then through the table, without losing any momentum."

"I could run around the room too," Sonic said. "I'll just spin this guy up in a tornado until he can't breathe any more."

"I could use my flight to hang him from the ceiling," Tails added. "Wouldn't take long, especially considering how hurt he already is."

Cutler shook his head, turning his eyes as best as he could to look at Shadow. "And what about you?"

"My best work might be done outside of here," Shadow said. "I could teleport you to the top of this building and drop you off. I could chuck you in the bottom of a lake. I could drop you into heavy traffic... I have so many options."

"So, you can't do anything inside of here?" Cutler asked.

"Well, he could probably break your neck," Sonic said. "Shadow's not the strongest guy when it comes to fighting, but in terms of accuracy, he trumps us all."

"Yep," Tails said. "If he shoots and he misses, then it's probably on purpose."

Cutler shook his head, but felt it picked up from behind and slammed onto the table again. It wasn't a harsh slam, but it got his attention, causing him to flail around a bit less. As he regained his bearings, Sonic leaned forward in his chair.

"Now, I want you to listen very carefully," he said, his voice level and cold. "You're going to tell us what we need to know. Or we're going to break your fucking neck."

Cutler struggled a bit, but soon relented. "There was something at the docks. That's all I know."

"Which docks?" asked Sonic.

"The ones in Star Light," Cutler answered.

"You said earlier that you had fewer guys from Star Light helping," Tails pointed out.

"That's true," Cutler said. "But the weapons came from those guys. I asked them about it, and they told me that they didn't really catch who they got them from. Just that it looked like some Mobian."

"Anything else?" Knuckles asked.

"That's it," Cutler said. "Those kinds of deals go down late at night. Good luck trying to match a name to a face at that point."

Sonic sighed. "All right, let him up."

The others released their grip on the man, letting him stand up. As he did, Sonic stood up with him, looking into his eyes. Cutler looked back, looking a bit confused as he was pushed back down to his seat, letting out a groan.

"What the fuck?" he complained.

"We do have one final question," said Sonic.

"Just get it over with," said Cutler. "I'm not going anywhere. Clearly."

"Have you heard the name Nack before?" Sonic asked.

Cutler raised an eyebrow. "I've heard that name, but I've never met him."

"What about recently?" Sonic asked.

"You said one final question," Cutler groaned.

Sonic smiled. "I did, didn't I?"

Cutler shook his head. "No, I haven't heard anything else lately. And even if something did pop up, I'd stay away from the guy."

"You're scared of Nack?" the blue hedgehog asked.

"Not scared," said Cutler. "More like intimidated. People like me don't really belong on his level."

"And here I thought you were all pally with someone like him."

The blond man shook his head. "No. I just run my own little group. The only affiliations I have are in Star Light, and even that was just the men from last night. There are no crime bosses in Star Light, after all."

"But there's plenty of dip-shits willing to buy what you're selling them," Sonic said. "All right, let him back up."

"Are you going to take me back to my cell this time?" Cutler asked.

"Of course we are," Sonic smiled. "Just as long as you promise to behave yourself."

"I'll try to keep my mouth shut," Cutler said.

Sonic nodded, and his friends soon lifted the bad guy back up. Sonic turned and opened the door to the interrogation room, waiting for his friends. They removed the cuffs from Cutler's ankles before walking around the table. Sonic waited by the door for the others to leave before joining them. They took Cutler back to his cell without much issue, locking him back up before walking back out to the front foyer of the department.

"Well, that was surprisingly easy to take care of," said Sonic.

"And we didn't even need weapons to do it," Knuckles added.

"Still, it feels like we got one step forwards and two steps backwards," Tails pointed out. "He had good info, but we can't really do anything about it right now."

"We could tell Avery," said Knuckles. "We probably need to go and talk to him anyway, right?"

"We can't tell him, because that would mean running an operation outside of our jurisdiction," said Shadow. "If we told the commissioner of Green Hill's police force to take care of something in Star Light, it wouldn't go down well."

"And we can't exactly go up and tell Star Light either," Tails added. "That would count as starting our own operation, and that'd just get us into even more trouble."

"Fucking technicalities..." Knuckles said. "I'm getting pretty sick and tired of feeling like we can do whatever we want to help only to realise that we can't. We're just the backup."

"I hate to break this to you," said Sonic, "but if we want our old jobs back, we kind of have to get used to being the backup."

"I know," said Knuckles. "All right, let's go up and say hi to Avery."

"Is he even up this early?" asked Tails.

"Yep," said Mina. "He's an early bird. Or early bear, as the case may be."

"Same with Ash," said Cosmo. "He spends a long time on his presentations."

"Well, we'll have to thank him for his hard work," Sonic smiled. "See you two later."

"Take care!" said Cosmo. "Especially you, Tails!"

"You too!" the yellow fox waved.

With that, the four went up the stairs to the third floor. They wasted little time and hurried to the conference room, deciding to walk in as Avery and Ash were talking. Avery was in his usual uniform, and Ash was wearing a dark red button t-shirt, a black and white striped tie, dark brown slacks, and black shoes.

"I'm just saying, maybe those people are right," Ash said.

"That could be grounds for insubordination, you know," Avery replied.

"Well, let me ask you this then," Ash began. "Your men were fighting those ass-hats from last night, and they caved in quickly to call for the backup. It didn't take long for Sonic and the other freelancers to get there, but it sure as shit took them half that time to stop the bad guys. My question is this: Why not just give them their jobs back?"

Avery sighed. "I would. You know that I would. But it's out of my hands, and the court's decision on it is final." He sighed as he gestured for the four to sit down, which they did. "You boys believe me, right?"

Sonic nodded. "We do."

Avery smiled. "You're good men. I want you to understand that. If it were up to me, that stupid jurisdiction law wouldn't exist any more."

"And if it were up to us, we probably would have found the guy who thought it was a good idea and kicked him right in the family jewels," Knuckles said.

The bear laughed at that. "I'm glad that you guys see it that way. But that doesn't mean that you're off the hook..."

"What did we do wrong, exactly?" Tails asked. "Last time I checked, our job was to wait until we were called to help. Last night, we waited, we got called, and then we helped."

"Not just that," Knuckles said, "but we took care of it quicker than your men could."

"Speaking of which," Shadow said, "how are those that got injured?"

"Fine so far," said Ash. "Got a call this morning from the hospital. They're in stable conditions. It'll take them a while to get back on their feet, but there was nothing fatal from the gunshot wounds. We got lucky."

"Let's give them implants and see how well they fare," Tails smirked.

"That actually wouldn't be a bad idea," said Avery. "But their injuries aren't serious enough to warrant that. At the moment, that's a rare occasion."

Sonic nodded, clearing his throat. "So, are we in trouble for last night?"

Avery shook his head. "No, but no doubt that you've seen the news this morning."

"Indeed we did," Sonic said. "And... well..."

"You agree too, right?" Ash asked.

Sonic shrugged. "Well... yeah. Kinda."

Ash smiled, turning to Avery. "See?"

Avery smiled back. "I agree. You guys are better than my men, and you've had way too many successful missions now for that to be called a fluke." He then turned serious. "But rules are rules. I can't really change much about your job description any more than I can give you your old jobs back."

"Well, we do technically have those jobs," said Sonic. "Just to a lesser extent."

"Remember when that judge said that we wouldn't be doing much major stuff?" said Knuckles. "All the stuff that we've been doing so far sure seems pretty major to me."

Avery shrugged. "Like I said, it's out of my hands." He shook his head. "Anyway, back to the task at hand. Ash, if you wouldn't mind."

The mongoose let out a sigh. "It's always me..." he said, pressing a button in his remote. "We saw your conversation with Cutler in the interrogation room."

"I didn't see a camera when I walked in there," Sonic pointed out.

"Well, it was in there," said Avery. "It's just very small. We even have the conversation between Shadow and Bark from the other day."

Ash smiled, pressing a button to show the interrogation between Shadow and Bark. "See? It's all on video."

"Just keeping an eye on us, huh?" Sonic grinned.

"I just want to make sure that you're sticking to the task at hand," Avery said as Ash switched back to the Cutler video. "Now, you asked him where he got his stuff from. I want to know why you asked him that."

"Good point," Tails said. "Well, we asked him because, as the video will tell you, Knuckles blurted out that we have cybernetic implants and such. And you also know that we beat the bad guys up before they could do anything."

"These are answers that I already have," said Avery. "I want to know why you asked him."

"We wanted to see if he had any connections," said Sonic. "Granted, all the criminals looked the same with their black cloth masks on, but we wanted to know where else he could have gotten his men."

"And you weren't hoping for Star Light to be his response, I'm guessing?" Avery said.

Sonic took a breath and sighed. "You guessed right."

"Sonic, you know that you're really pushing it by running your own little side thing as a freelancer," Avery said. "I don't need to point it out again, do I?"

"No," the blue hedgehog said, shaking his head. "You don't."

"But Nack is still out there," said Avery, nodding. "We get it. We get what you're trying to do. But I'm saying this both as a police force commander and as a friend: Do not even go out there."

"Is this really a protection thing?" Sonic asked. "Or is it about public perception with the prison transfer being tomorrow?"

"A little bit of both, I won't lie," said Avery. "But ultimately, it is to keep you guys guarded. We have nobody who we can trust on the Westopolis police force. Nack probably has every single one of them in his pocket." He sighed. "We don't know what he's up to, or how bad that could be."

"I've got some ideas," said Sonic. "Drugs and guns we know about already, but I feel like prostitution trafficking could be another one. Only problem is, we don't have enough proof to back that last one up, so it's just a theory."

"Maybe that could be possible, but even if we had more than that, it wouldn't matter," said Avery. "We simply can't go after him. I want to, and I know that you guys really want to. But we can't."

Sonic sighed. "We know. But..."

"But?"

Knuckles grinned. "Say we were allowed to maybe run our own mission..."

"And?" Avery said.

"And we wanted to get some backing from the good men and women here at Green Hill..." Tails followed on.

"I think I see your point," Avery said.

Shadow smirked. "I mean, we're not allowed to do it. But if we did, you'd be behind us, right?"

"Of course," said Avery. "After all, I did ask you to help us out tomorrow for the transfer just in case. I can preemptively ask you to go on planned out things like that as backup."

"Well, that's good to know," Sonic said, standing up with the rest of his friends. "Thanks for filling us in."

"No problem," Ash replied.

Avery shook his head. "I look forward to seeing you boys tomorrow."

"We'll be there," said Sonic.

Avery nodded, and the blue hedgehog and his friends turned to leave the room. They wasted no time in reaching the stairs and heading down to the ground floor, leaving through the double doors of the entrance and making their way to Knuckles' car.

"You know, you could have tried being more subtle with telling Avery that you want to go to Westopolis," said Knuckles.

"I could have," said Sonic. "But that would have meant only me saying something about it. If I wanted it to work, the rest of you wouldn't have joined in."

"True," Tails said. "Still, I feel like something is in order."

"Like what?" asked Sonic. "We can't run operations."

"I wasn't thinking that," said the two-tailed fox. "I was thinking a stakeout."

"And where would we do that, exactly?" asked Shadow.

"The docks," said Tails. "We'd have a better shot in Star Light, I think. That drug bust at the Green Hill docks might have been a lucky shot. But we got actual confirmation that weapons were delivered to Star Light City."

"That's not a bad idea," Shadow admitted. "I mean, it's not a bad thing if we're just observing something, right?"

"Right," Knuckles agreed. "Just sit back and watch from afar to see if what Cutler said was one hundred percent truth. And if we fuck up, then we'll have nothing to worry about because we won't be getting actively involved."

"Let's try to keep that in mind for tonight, yeah?" Sonic smiled.

"I'll get some food ready for tonight," said Knuckles. "And I really should work on a stakeout mix..."

"Later, big red," Sonic chuckled. "Right now, let's head back home. Put our feet up, chill, game a bit, who knows?"

"And wait until Amy calls you up?" Tails asked.

"Also that," Sonic nodded. "That is also a thing."

They all let out a laugh as Knuckles started up the car, pulling out of the parking lot and finding the road. He decided to put on some music despite how brief their trip would be, and the four friends sang along to it as they went back home to enjoy their free time.

So, there you have it! Another chapter is all done and dusted, and whilst I would have liked it to come out sooner, at least I got it out quicker than I thought. Regardless, I hope that y'all enjoyed the chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it. Obviously, there is more to come as we close in on the endgame of the story. But I'll save that for when it happens. Oh, and since it is about that time where I am, Happy Halloween! Anyway, hope you liked the chapter. Remember to take care and stay tuned.