Back at the freelancer headquarters, Sonic was in the gym with Knuckles. Knuckles was holding up a heavy bag, and Sonic was landing strikes against it, mostly throwing punches, but also throwing in some kicks as well. After a particularly hard strike, the blue hedgehog panted a bit.

"Why are we doing this?" he asked.

Knuckles shrugged. "We need to be on top of our game, dude."

"That's only just in case, though," Sonic reminded Knuckles. "This mission could go off without a hitch."

"And the shit could hit the fan," Knuckles replied. "I think that it's kind of inevitable by this point that we should help."

Sonic nods. "Maybe you're right," he said, drinking from his water bottle. "Still..."

"Still what?"

Sonic took a breath. "All right, look, if things do get fucked tonight, then we can't be too risky. I think that we might have to try being nonlethal for a change."

"But these fists were made for being lethal," Knuckles replied.

"I know. They belie your cuddly demeanour," Sonic deadpanned. "But we have to be careful. Any single one of those guys being killed could be bad."

Knuckles nodded. "I'll keep something lethal in my car just in case, if that's okay?"

Sonic nodded back. "Yeah. But only if you absolutely have to use it. Otherwise, stick to something less... shooty and bullety, I guess."

"We've got the grenades," Knuckles shrugged. "They could help."

"Not to mention the option for tranquillisers," Sonic added.

Knuckles nodded, checking his phone. "It's about time we got this underway."

Sonic shrugged. "May as well get our uniforms on then."

As he said that, Tails and Shadow came through the door, with the former of the two the first to speak. "It's about time that we-"

"We know," Sonic said. "That's why we're changing into our uniforms."

Tails sighed and chuckled. "Can't blame me. Shadow here was on the fun of his life on that MMA game."

"30 fight unbeaten streak," Shadow explained. "All online battles. I'm almost at the gold ranking now."

"It's only taken you... what, almost a month to reach that?" Sonic asked.

The black and red hedgehog nodded as he and Tails started changing into their uniforms. "Carried on from the academy. Luckily for us that they have a shit-ton of gaming consoles for free time."

"Dude, that streak started on your own console," Tails said. "I was there, remember?"

Shadow chuckled. "I do. Still, it's carried on well, I think."

"Shadow's a video-gaming god, and we just didn't know it," Knuckles smiled.

"Further proof if proof be needed that it's always the silent types that you need to watch out for," Sonic chuckled.

"So, what are the mission options if things go bad?" Tails asked, somewhat getting them back on track.

"Nonlethal," Sonic replied. "Well, that's if the tip was right, at least."

"I get you," Tails nodded. "If we're able to spy on them and pick up on what's going down, then there won't be a problem. But if we get caught..."

"Then me and Knuckles will step in and help," Sonic said, catching on to Tails' train of thought. "We'll go at them from behind if need be. It'll be hard to find a road that'll let us sneak up on them, but we'll find a way."

"And taking a boat would make too much noise," Shadow noted as they all finished getting dressed. "It'd be too direct. Too obvious."

"Well, if we get found out, then we're not going to kill," Sonic replied. "Hurt them if we need to, but no killing. We don't know how many there'll be, or what kind of bad guy could be holding what kind of information."

"We've got it," Tails said. "Man, I'm lucky that we can just casually exploit the loophole of what kind of force to use despite being on probation. I mean, we have killed as freelancers."

Sonic chuckled. "True. But that's one of the few rules that we get to share with the cops. And I'm really thankful for it." He then turned to face everyone else. "You boys ready to go?"

"As ready as we'll ever be," Knuckles answered.

The blue hedgehog smirked and shook his head as he led his team out of the gym and through the house until they'd reached the outside, where they saw their surveillance van waiting for them. Next to said van was a normal G.H.P.D. car.

"Antoine! Bunnie!" Sonic called out. "We're here!"

Bunnie, who drove the G.H.P.D. van, exited it and walked over. She was dressed in lightly armoured uniform as she waved at the four freelancers. Antoine, exiting the car, did the same, also waving as Bunnie spoke first.

"Y'all need to work on how to be sneaky for our mission," the robot bunny said with a slight chuckle.

"First of all, me and Knuckles are the muscle anyway," Sonic shrugged, unable to hide his grin. "Secondly, this is coming from the two people who brought a giant van onto our headquarters."

"This giant van is going to be sneakily hauling your asses into Star Light so that we can get this op underway," Antoine reminded as he and Bunnie opened the double doors that led to the back of the van.

"We know," Sonic smiled, turning to Tails and Shadow. "You two ready?"

Shadow nodded. "Yep."

Tails also nodded. "Come on, edgy."

The black and red hedgehog shook his head, climbing into the back of the van. Soon, the two-tailed fox joined him, and both of the freelancers in the van gave thumbs ups to Sonic and Knuckles, who did the same back.

"We'll look after those two," Bunnie smiled. "Don't you worry."

"When those two are put together, I usually always worry," Sonic joked. "Thanks for all of this."

"It's not a problem, really," Antoine smiled. "Just make sure that things go right, okay?"

"Hey, you guys are the ones doing the spying," Knuckles smirked. "We don't have to worry."

"Oh, do you have that stakeout mix for me?" Tails asked.

"Oh, sure," Knuckles replied. He pulled out his phone, flicked through a few files, and hit send. "There we go. All rearranged for the perfect spying operation."

"What'd you do that for?" asked Bunnie, more curious than angry.

"We like music while we drive," Sonic shrugged.

"What kinds of music are we expecting to hear?" asked Antoine.

"Do you want main genres, sub-genres, bands, styles... what are you looking for here?" Knuckles asked.

"You know, never mind," Antoine smiled as he shook his head. "That'd take too long."

Sonic chuckled, extending a hand to Antoine. "Be careful out there, okay?"

"You too," Antoine replied, shaking.

Bunnie smiled at Knuckles, and the red echidna shrugged and opened his arms to give her a hug. "You'd best make sure that those two don't get into trouble."

"Eh," Bunnie shrugged, "I watch over Antoine all the time."

"Sadly, I can't deny that," the coyote chuckled as the embrace broke. "You two take care as well."

"We'll do our best," Knuckles said.

Bunnie and Antoine nodded back, closing the back doors of the van. Tails and Shadow gave parting salutes just before the doors were shut, and Sonic and Knuckles did the same. When Antoine and Bunnie were in the front of the van, they started it up, and Sonic and Knuckles both tapped on the back of it, sending it off into the night.

Sonic then looked at Knuckles, and the two nodded to each other. They went over to the police car that Bunnie and Antoine had brought with them, with Knuckles starting it up and Sonic in the main passenger's seat. The engine soon kicked in, and they pulled out of their parking lot, driving quickly. They reached the main road, and were soon caught up well enough behind the van, keeping a safe distance.

The drive itself was silent, with the only noise being Sonic texting Amy to let her know where he'd be, and him getting a response text back, which made him smile. Knuckles smiled to himself as he kept going down the road, but felt his own phone going off. He reached down and answered, putting it on speaker phone.

"Hey, babe!" he said.

"Hey back, babe!" Shade replied. "Just making sure that you're there."

"Why wouldn't I be?" Knuckles asked.

"Because I sent you a text earlier. Must not have come through," Shade said.

Knuckles clicked away from the call to see a text, and cocked an eyebrow as he read through it. "You got held back, huh?"

"Yeah," Shade said with a nod. "Sorry that I won't be back until late."

"We're in the same boat," Sonic said. "We've got a mission on our hands."

"A mission?" the orange echidna asked. "You're allowed to run your own stuff again?"

"It's not our own mission," Sonic clarified. "It's a minor op that we put some good friends at Green Hill up to."

"We got a tip from one of the ass-holes that we got last night," Knuckles added. "Said that something was going down at the Star Light docks."

"Isn't mission info confidential?" Shade asked.

"Only when it's not somebody important," Knuckles shrugged. "You're my fiancee. You have a right to know."

"The fiancee who you're not engaged to and haven't shared a bed with for a few days?" Shade teased.

"The very same," Knuckles smiled. "I'm sorry that I haven't been home much lately."

"It's okay," Shade nodded. "We're just waiting for this freelancer ban to be removed, and then you'll be all mine again."

"Trust me, I don't plan on leaving your arms any time soon when that happens," Knuckles smiled. "I'll call you when we're all done, okay? We're almost at the highway."

"See you later," Shade said. "I love you. So much."

Knuckles couldn't hide his heartfelt smile. "I love you too."

The two hung up and Sonic smiled. "Aw..."

"Don't start it, blue boy," Knuckles smirked.

Sonic shrugged and kicked back for the rest of the drive. Soon, they'd reached the highway, with the G.H.P.D. van more in their sights because of other cars not being in the way. They followed the van as it went down the right road to reach Star Light, being stopped by one of the cops there.

"Are you the guys running the stakeout operation?" the cop asked.

"Yep," said Antoine. "Got two freelancers in the back of the van, and two more in that fancy car back there."

The cop looked down to see the car, and Knuckles looked back, smiling as he recognised the cop. "It's Cameron," Knuckles said, turning to Sonic.

"That cat guy that almost stopped us when we chased Nack up here?" Sonic asked.

"That's the one," Knuckles shrugged. "Guess that he got promoted something fierce when we got demoted to freelancers."

"Would you really call it a demotion given how much ass we've been kicking?" the blue hedgehog mentioned as he watched Antoine show the pass.

"No, I would not," the red echidna replied. "I'm just hoping that he didn't get some sort of smug satisfaction from it."

"Who knows?" Sonic shrugged

They stopped talking and watched as Cameron moved to the back of the van, seeing Tails and Shadow inside. The two smiled, and the cat cop shook his head, turning around to see Knuckles and Sonic. He began slowly walking towards the car, going to the driver's side.

"I never thought that I'd see you guys up here again," Cameron said.

"We were actually here the other day, but you were crammed with work," Knuckles said.

"Oh, that's right!" Cameron said. "You helped out that rookie to take out those back alley thugs."

"That was us," Sonic confirmed with a nod.

Cameron sighed. "Listen, for what it's worth, I'm sorry about the shitty deal that you guys got. If I could have stopped it, I would have."

"It wasn't up to you," Sonic said. "There was nothing that you could have done. Hell, there was nothing that Dingo or Avery could have done. The call was made the moment when we stepped into that courtroom."

"I know it was," the cat nodded. "Anyway, I'll tell Spencer and Walsh that you said hi."

"Thanks," Sonic smiled.

"Where are those two, anyway?" Knuckles asked.

"Swamped with paperwork," Cameron replied. "We drew straws, and I got the biggest end of it, so I got the fun job."

"I'll bet that they don't resent you for that at all," Sonic joked.

"I'm hoping not," Cameron smirked. "Anyway, go on. Pass through before I get sick of seeing you guys."

"Don't emote too hard," Sonic laughed. "You might pull a muscle."

Cameron chuckled and patted the back of the car as it went through. The car stayed close enough to the van as it took its path through the city, with Bunnie and Antoine leading the charge, checking every now and then on the progress of the other vehicle.

"Are we almost there?" Tails asked from the back of the van.

"The docks are up far into the city," said Antoine. "We might have a short while yet."

"Are you getting anxious?" Bunnie added on.

"Not really..." Tails muttered under his breath.

"He said that he's pretty jittery!" Shadow called, earning a light punch on the arm from Tails. "Sorry, dude."

"So you should be," Tails smiled playfully. "Dick."

"So, are you okay?" Shadow asked, more serious now.

"Yeah," Tails nodded. "I'm just... really bothered by Dingo's strategy."

"You mean his strategy of not having men ready to take out those pricks at the docks?" Shadow asked.

"Yeah, that one," the yellow fox answered. "What if we get caught?"

"Then I would imagine that we're fucked," Shadow shrugged.

"You really don't beat around the bush, do you?"

"It's part of the reason why I don't talk much," the black and red hedgehog shrugged again. "But, if you're asking me, I don't think that you've got anything to worry about."

"He's right," said Bunnie from the front of the van. "This is just an intelligence gathering mission. Our job is to find a far away place that isn't too inconspicuous, but at the same time, we can't get caught. If we do, as Shadow said, we're fucked."

"It's so sexy hearing you swear in your accent," Antoine chuckled. He then looked at the GPS in the van. "We're almost there." He turned to the back of the van. "You hear that, guys? If so, then you'd best get set up."

"Are we there yet?" Tails asked.

"We will be soon!" Bunnie replied.

"Then me and Shadow will get set up," Tails called.

Antoine chuckled at the exchanged before grabbing the microphone of the van. "Sonic, Knuckles, we're almost there."

"Got it," Sonic said. "We'll break away from you guys and find somewhere else to hide."

"On my count," Antoine replied. The drive continued for a bit, and Antoine had the docks in his sights. "In 3... 2... 1... split."

Sonic and Knuckles instantly hit the brakes on their car, stopping and watching as the van sped ahead. The two kept watch as said van made a sudden sharp left turn, getting behind some buildings and out of their sight. Sonic and Knuckles nodded to each other, and the latter of the two turned to the right, going past a few buildings before circling around past one where they were out of sight enough.

"We're all set," Sonic said, pulling out the binoculars from the glove compartment. "Thank god that they remembered these."

Knuckles smiled and nodded in reply before motioning for Sonic to hand them over. The blue hedgehog did so, and Knuckles looked through the binoculars to see Antoine and Bunnie's van coming up on a small hill that was well protected by the trees and buildings surrounding it, but still had a clear path of sight on the docks.

"Are you guys all good to go where you are?" Sonic asked into the microphone.

"We're set," Bunnie replied. "Just let us get into the back of the van, and we'll be right with you."

"Don't take too long," Sonic chuckled.

Bunnie and Antoine got out of the front of the van and headed into the back, with the coyote about to speak before seeing the inside of the main surveillance part of the van, letting out a high-pitched whistle.

"What did you guys do here?" he asked.

"Oh, Tails here rearranged it to the communications room that we have out our base," Shadow said. "Said that it was easier for him to navigate around."

"Well, it sure does look a lot better," Bunnie smiled. "We should have you come down to the department to sort out our electrical work."

"As long as you pay me a little bit for it, I'll happily do it," Tails said.

"Would cookies be good?" Antoine asked.

"I'll accept cookies," Tails chuckled. "All right, so... who's doing what?"

"Bunnie and I will check the sound and audio," Antoine said. "You two focus on the cameras. See if you can hack into anything nearby that could get in close."

"Doesn't CCTV shut down at night?" asked Tails.

"Actually, since Dingo let us into the city, he's left one open for us," Antoine replied. "He even gave us the code to hack it, which means that someone on his team gets the pleasure of changing it to something else first thing in the morning."

"So, that's how we'll see them?" Shadow asked.

"Well, that's how the three of us will see him," Bunnie clarified. "We'll need you to do something for us to help."

"Name it."

Bunnie reached into her pocket and handed Shadow a bullet. "This is a tracking bullet. We need you to shoot it so that it's close enough."

"What's he going to use to fire it?" Tails asked.

Antoine chuckled, quickly walking around to the front of the van before returning. He returned with a briefcase and handed it to Shadow. The black and red hedgehog opened it up, and grinned at what was inside.

"No way..." He picked out the parts of the sniper rifle from inside the case. "Did you sneak this past Avery?"

"He actually recommended it," said Antoine. "He knows that it'll help for recons and stakeouts. This is one such scenario."

Shadow smiled and assembled it all together easily. After he did, Bunnie handed him a pair of earphones. Shadow nodded, putting them on before walking to the edge of the back of the van. He jumped up, catching the edge of the roof with one hand before swinging himself around to land on it. He took a few steps forwards before laying down prone, setting up the sniper rifle on its small tripod and attaching a silencer and scope to it as well.

"All right, I'm all set up here," Shadow said. "I would like to ask why I'm up here doing this, though."

"Well, CCTV can only do so much," Antoine answered. "Besides, it's good at catching video, but not for audio. That's where your tracker bullet comes in."

"Do you guys have more of them?" Shadow asked.

"I'm afraid not," Antoine said. "They're relatively new and hard to come by. We only got this one for you, so... well, long story short, you really need to make this shot count."

"No pressure," Shadow shrugged, looking through the scope. He spotted the docks in question, looking more squared around than Green Hill's docks, making it easier for people to get on. "All right... I'm looking at the docks right now..." He trailed off as he saw some humans, dressed in similar black garb to the criminals from the night previous. "I see our bad guys. They're wearing similar stuff to the dudes from last night."

"Masks?" Bunnie asked.

"Surprisingly, no," said Shadow. "But I can only see the backs of their heads, and it's also really dark."

"Have you fired the bullet yet?" asked Tails.

"No," Shadow replied. "I'm waiting for the others to turn up and make a deal."

"Good," Antoine replied. "All right, we've hacked into the CCTV."

"What do you see?" asked Shadow. "Can you ID their faces?"

"Eh, just a lot of ass-holes of a lot of different races," said Antoine. "And yet not one of them is Mobian."

"Which is weird, since they're supposedly buying from a Mobian," said Tails.

Shadow chuckled, but then focused up when he moved the scope. He looked in the distance to see some water rippling, and a speedboat was fast approaching. Shadow then looked back down at the bad guys on the docks already as they put on their masks to cover themselves up.

"You guys saw that too, right?" Shadow asked.

"Yep," Bunnie confirmed with a nod. "Why would the bad guys cover their faces when they're making a deal with other bad guys?"

"Maybe it's Nack's idea of professional courtesy," Tails replied. "Or maybe these guys are smarter than we gave them credit for and they're covering themselves up in case something really bad happens."

Shadow shrugged. "Maybe..." he said as the boat reached the docks. "All right, the boat's up. Is now a good time to shoot?"

"Yeah," said Antoine. "It doesn't need to happen when the deal starts directly. By then, it could be too late anyway."

Shadow nodded. "You guys got a spot for me?"

"There's some barrels on the left side there," Tails observed. "That should be a good place for a shot."

Shadow nodded, taking a deep breath as he found the objects which the two-tailed fox had pointed out. He took a deep breath and focused as he found a spot between the barrels. He steadied the scope, took another look to make sure, and pulled the trigger. The silenced shot whizzed out of the sniper rifle's muzzle and landed flush in between the barrels, with not even a slight ding against the metal.

"I made it," the black and red hedgehog said. "All right, I'm coming back inside the van."

"Good work, Shadow," Tails praised.

Shadow removed the attachments from the sniper rifle and hopped off of the roof of the van onto the ground, quickly getting back inside the van. He joined Tails at the cameras as Antoine and Bunnie rearranged themselves to sorting out the sound and audio.

"Come on..." the French coyote said as he turned it. "Got to get the right frequency here..."

"I can see that those bullets aren't perfect," said Tails. "They're pretty damn cool, though."

"It is one of the testing issues," Bunnie admitted. "Getting any nearby radio frequencies to connect with it can be an issue, especially if there are others with electrical devices that could disrupt it."

"The only ones that could have something like that might be the dudes on the boat," Tails said. He got out of his seat and went over to Antoine. "Do you mind if I take a look at it?"

"Not at all," Antoine smiled. "You're the tech geek, after all."

"I prefer the term of electronic and mechanical intellectual," Tails smirked drily. "Just let me take a crack at it."

"Be quick about it," said Antoine, moving out of the way.

"Please, my full name is a pun on a term used to describe speed," Tails chuckled. "I can be quick."

The two-tailed fox sat at the radio and turned it around to test the frequencies, but got nothing back but static. He kept turning it until he felt a faint signal, and smiled as he got it. He turned the other dial, not focusing on the volume, but trying to confine it.

"What are you doing?" Shadow asked.

"I'm trying to keep it to a small area," Tails said. "That way, if I can redirect the signal more directly to the bug that you fired, we'll be able to get every last bit of this..." After a few more turns, he boosted the signal now that the radio was set right, and began picking up sounds and voices. "I've got it! Bunnie, turn this dial a bit to the left for me. I need to listen out..."

Bunnie did so. "This good?"

Tails smiled as the sound came through proper. "That's perfect! We've got them!"

"Then let's listen in," Antoine smiled. "Good work, Tails."

"Eh, that was textbook," Tails shrugged. "I read that on my first day here."

"I wasn't even past the first chapter of that particular textbook on my first day..." Shadow mumbled.

"Shh!" Bunnie said. "Watch the cameras!"

They all stayed silent as Shadow and Tails moved to the cameras whilst Bunnie and Antoine focused on the radio, listening to the first parts of the conversation. Since Tails and Shadow also had headphones, they listened as they watched the footage unfold, seeing the bad guys already on the docks with some briefcases of money.

"This enough?" asked a gruff voice as he opened a briefcase that he was carrying.

"Just barely," replied another voice, this one from the speedboat. The camera footage showed him not needing to cover his face as the darkness surrounding him in the water covered his features enough. "Where'd you get that kinda cash?"

Another voice, much more calm sounding, spoke. "By being upstanding citizens and upholding our values and... ah, I can't finish that with a straight face."

"I wish that you two would take this seriously," the man from the boat said. "Wait... where's Cutler?"

"Locked up in Green Hill. Got caught up trying to rob an armoured truck full of money last night, but he was stopped, as were his men."

"They alive?"

"Yes," said the calm man.

"All right... well, you brought the cash, so here's the stuff."

The man then threw a briefcase from the speedboat over to them. In return, the men on the docks threw the money-filled case over. They opened the case filled with weapons and looked a bit disappointed, closing the case.

"Where the fuck are the rest of our guns?" asked the gruff voice.

"Considering that you didn't pay full price, you don't get the full price value," the deliverer said. "In fact, you're lucky to get that, with the shit that you pulled last night. You're lucky that Nack ain't down here to wring your necks."

"Like that Mobian fuck-stick knows how to handle a gun," said the gruff voice. "Everyone talks about him being this big deal, but I ain't seen a damn thing to prove me wrong. He's a pussy."

"He's a thinker," said the deliverer. "You don't think that he has a plan for every city around? You think that he's got these attacks going just because it's fun for him? There's more to this shit than just that. And the sooner that you two fuck-sticks learn that, the longer that you'll get to live."

"You'd best deliver some good pussy tomorrow for that," said the gruff voice again, lifting one of the guns from the case and pointing it at the deliverer. "How does the phrase go? Don't shoot the messenger?"

"Well, it's a good thing that I'm not a messenger," the man with the boat chuckled. "But you still shouldn't shoot me, unless you want your asses on a silver platter." He paused. "Speaking of asses, you don't have to worry about tomorrow. Nack will send you some damn fine sluts."

"Nack..." Sonic grunted, listening in.

"You're catching all this?" Shadow asked.

"Yeah," Sonic nodded on his end. "Well, I'm hearing it, at least. The sound quality on these microphones is pretty damn good."

"What was that about bringing girls over?" Knuckles added. "Could it be that Nack is trying to push human trafficking?"

"It's prostitution trafficking at the very least," Bunnie replied. "Either way, it's not a good thing."

"Yeah, true..." Knuckles said.

Back to the conversation, the two thugs on the docks picked up some assault rifles. "All right, let's give these bad boys a test."

"You got anything around here for target practise?" asked the deliverer.

The man with the gruff voice whistled, and out came a few more bad guys with crudely made firing targets. They were set up in the docks, and the bad guys that helped to set them up also walked over to grab some guns of their own, similar to what the others already had.

"All right, boys," said the gruff man. "Ready... aim... fire!"

They all lifted and fired away at the targets, the sounds of their guns firing drowning out everything else. There were several pinging sounds as the bullets bounced off of the targets, some hitting the head, some hitting the body, and some missing and hitting various parts of the docks themselves.

"Looks like they got some good stuff," Tails said.

"I wonder what grade it is," Antoine spoke. "It's hard to tell from the design, but it looks almost military grade."

"Maybe there's more than just the guns," Tails shrugged.

The gruff man smiled as he and his men stopped firing, turning back to the deliverer. "Sounds good to us!"

The man with the boat smiled. "You've got something extra in the case too. Some grenades and knives, so nothing that you can really test out."

"But I thought that we didn't pay enough to get it all?" asked the calm man.

"True, but my boss was feeling pretty generous."

"Huh," the calm voice replied. "I never thought that I'd hear about Nack showing generosity towards people."

"It's just a little extra to help you along," the delivery man shrugged. "Luckily, you can pay Nack back by helping him out."

"And how do we do that?" the calm man asked.

"The same way that you've been doing so far," the delivery man smiled. "Work over this city, make sure that what we ship out gets here properly, and take it all out from the inside."

"Eh, it's worked well so far," the gruff man said. "All right, I guess that we're done here."

"I guess we are," the deliverer said. He pulled out a handgun and quickly shot the gruff man in the back of the leg, causing blood to spurt out of the wound as he fell down. Before the others could move, the delivery guy shook his head. "Do you idiots have any fucking idea how long the trip was to get here from Westopolis?"

"Wait up," said the calm man. "What's your problem?"

"My problem is that we don't need Nack's name almost yelled out in the dead of night," the delivery man said. "You don't know who could be listening in on us!"

"What do you mean?"

"I'm just saying to be careful," the deliverer replied.

"And you had to shoot me in the fucking leg to get your point across?!" the gruff man replied. "I swear, if Na-"

The deliverer fired another shot, but this one didn't hit anybody and was a warning. "What did I just tell you about saying his name?" He then calmed down with a deep breath. "And besides, you fucks already chose not to work with him. The less associated with him that you are, the better."

"We're buying guns, drugs, and pussy from him," said the calm man. "I'd say that we're pretty well associated."

"Well, you'd best hope that this is all that you buy," the deliverer said. "And also, don't be such goddamn cheapskates about it, okay?"

"If it's a money issue, then you don't have to worry," said the calm man. "We'll get you more cash."

"It's not a money issue, you moron," said the man with the boat. "It's an issue of your little gang leader here saying the name of my boss over and over."

"Well, what can we do to make up for it?"

The deliverer grinned. "Help out tomorrow."

"What's happening tomorrow?"

The deliverer looked around. "Come closer, and I'll tell you."

"I'm fine where I am, thanks."

The deliverer sighed. "Look, we may already be in some shit with you bunch of fuck-wits yelling out Nack's name. If I don't tell you this up close, then we may be in even more trouble."

"We have masks to cover our faces," said the calm man. "Things will be all good."

"Not if you get a bullet in your leg."

"You really like shooting people's legs, huh?"

"Eh, your boy will be fine," the deliverer said as the other two bad guys who were too shocked from earlier finally picked the gruff man up. "Just trust me, okay? Whatever I tell you needs to be whispered. After I've done that, I'll leave, and I want you to relay what I tell you to the others. And I want you to get that out to any other men that you have, okay?"

The calm man sighed and shrugged, nodding in acceptance. He walked over to the delivery man, putting his gun away as he went over. He got closed enough and leaned in, being careful not to fall forwards into the water as the deliverer whispered into his ear.

"Turn the volume up," Antoine said. "See if we can pick anything up."

Tails did, but shook his head. "I'm not getting anything. They're too far from the tracking bullet, and their voices are too low for me to hear."

"Me too," Shadow said as he kept watching. The video showed the two men breaking apart, with the boat man speaking first.

"Remember, tell that to your friends, but don't shout it out loud, okay?"

"All right, fine," the calm man said. "You know, you're lucky that we didn't kill you after what you did. We very easily could have done just that."

"True," the deliverer admitted with a nod. "But if you did do that, then you wouldn't have gotten this opportunity." He started his boat and revved it up, turning away from the docks with a wave goodbye.

The calm man waved back, and as he turned to walk to his other men, he turned and saw the barrels, seeing a small hole in one of them. "What the heck?"

"Oh, shit," Shadow said.

"Hey, guys!" said the calm man. "I think I found something!"

"Oh, shit," Tails repeated Tails' statement from earlier.

"We've got to shut the camera off!" Antoine hurriedly said, pressing around the controls to do so.

"What's going on?" Sonic asked.

"There's a good chance that we've probably been spotted," Tails replied. "Guys, we need that backup."

"We're on our way," Knuckles said.

The calm man picked at the hole, using a small torch attached to his garb to help him. He saw a long black shell with a small red dot inside it, and he twisted the end of the shell off to look inside, seeing a small circular group of circuits against a green board.

"We've been made!" he said. "Get this shit inside!"

"That backup had better come quick!" Bunnie said.

"We'll go around the opposite side," Sonic said. "We'll reach the docks and discuss a plan."

"What should we do?" Bunnie asked.

"You and Antoine should stay in the van," Sonic replied. "You're the ones who led this small op. If you get in trouble, it'll cost you, and I don't want you guys risking that."

"What if you get into trouble for sorting this out?" Antoine asked.

"Then we'll deal with it," Sonic said. "Besides, this does sort of fall under our backup rule. So... we should be safe."

"You guys close?" asked Shadow.

"We're almost at the docks," Knuckles said. "What about you guys? You getting ready?"

"As ready as we can get," Shadow replied. "We can't get any closer, otherwise this entire thing is compromised."

"You mean, even more so than it already is?" asked Bunnie.

"Yep," the black and red hedgehog nodded. "Me and Tails will get sorted out and try to reach the docks on foot."

"We'll try to come around and meet up with you," Knuckles said.

"Actually, that's a negative," Sonic said. "We may have to stay split up for this one. We have a better chance of catching these ass-holes off guard that way."

"We'll get on our way," Shadow replied. "See you at the bottom."

"Yeah," Sonic said. "We'd best cut the radios. Bunnie and Antoine, you two stay on. See if you can hack that camera again, and keep watch of what's happening."

"Will do," Antoine replied, turning to Shadow and Tails. "You got all you need?"

"Yep," Shadow said. "Good thing that we all brought our pistols just in case."

"You know, I don't think that we've ever used much more than these things. With the exception of your sniper rifle, of course," Tails shrugged. "I guess that we rely on them too much, maybe?"

Shadow chuckled and nodded. "I even have some grenades. We've used these before too."

"Oh, what a shock," Tails smirked. "Let's go."

Shadow nodded, and the two headed out of the van, shutting the doors behind them quietly. They carefully stepped down the hill that the van was on, sliding down the stony wall carefully. Tails used his tails to keep balance so that he didn't fall too far, and soon, he and Shadow reached the bottom, landing just to the side of the docks.

Meanwhile, Sonic and Knuckles had finished their drive, but stopped a few buildings away from the Star Light docks. They cut the engine and weaved their way through the buildings, soon reaching the opposite corner of the docks to where Shadow and Tails were already.

"All right, camera's back up and running," said Antoine.

"Got it," Sonic whispered. "What do we got?"

"Including the ones we saw earlier, and the one that got shot in the leg, we have about... six," Antoine said. "Or five, with bleeding leg guy."

"The hero that this city never wanted," Sonic said mirthfully. "All right, what's their status?"

"Two on the right side of the docks nearby where you two are, two in the middle, and one on the left where Shadow and Tails are."

"And they're looking to use that new weaponry that they just got," Bunnie added. "Be careful around these guys."

"We will be," Sonic replied.

Shadow and Tails, still on the other side, moved quickly to the docks, their shoes carefully touching the wood of the pier. Tails and Shadow watched the man in front of them as he looked back and forth. Tails turned to Shadow and nodded. The black and red hedgehog took off and used the cover provided slide behind the bad guy before putting a hand around his mouth, striking the small of his back with a knife-hand strike. He then held one of his arms around the thug's neck, connecting it to his other arm's bicep, slowly choking him out. When he did, he dragged the body back to his cover, picking up his gun and kicking it into the water.

"What the fuck was that?" asked one of the two men in the centre.

"I don't know. Just check it out," replied the other.

The first man nodded, going over to investigate. He looked over the cover that Shadow was using to see the body of his fellow thug, but no sign of the black and red hedgehog. Just as the bad guy was about to call out for help, he felt a sharp pain in his neck and fell to the ground with a noticeable thud.

The other man in the middle of the docks heard it and grunted. "We've been made. Everyone, get back inside!"

The others nodded, heading back inside one of the docks' houses. Sonic and Knuckles looked ahead and saw the gruff man from earlier with the bullet wound still in his leg and some blood that was drying, indicating that the injury was patched up.

"Let's close in on them," Sonic said to Knuckles, who nodded.

The two left their cover, still sticking to it as they watched the house on the docks. The men behind it shut the doors to it, blocking their line of sight, which meant that Sonic and Knuckles could now stand up. They headed towards the centre of the docks, shaking their heads.

"I can't believe this shit..." the blue hedgehog said. "Nack's pushing this shit everywhere... this has gone far beyond a coincidence by this point..."

"It's something that we can talk more about when we're done here," Antoine said.

"Can you get eyes inside the dock house?" Knuckles asked.

"Negative," said Bunnie. "Looks like you guys are on your own for this last part."

"Yeah, looks like it," Sonic said. "Thanks for the help, guys."

"No problem," Bunnie smiled. "And, hey, we're still here."

"You don't mind waiting for us, do you?" Tails asked. "We may need it."

"It's no issue," Antoine replied. "Do you guys want radio silence all around?"

"It might be for the best," Sonic said. "If you guys can't see inside the dock houses, then there's no point in us keeping you online."

"It's nice to feel wanted," the coyote joked. "All right, we'll go silent. We'll still be waiting for you to finish."

"We'll let you know," Sonic said. "See you in a few."

"Later," Antoine replied.

They both shut off, and Knuckles spoke first. "So, how do we go about this?"

"Let's try different groups this time," Sonic said. "Tails, you're with me on this one. Shadow, you go with Knuckles."

"What's the plan of attack?" asked Shadow.

"Me and Tails will try the front door," Sonic answered.

"Then I guess that we'll take the back," Knuckles shrugged. "Shouldn't be too bad."

"See if you two can get the drop on them," the blue hedgehog said. "We'll try to pinch them from both sides."

"Everyone got their tranquillisers ready?" Tails asked.

Sonic checked his clip, as did Knuckles and Shadow. They all nodded, and Sonic and Tails split off from the others, with the pair going to the left of the house whilst Shadow and Knuckles went around the right, reaching the back entrance. Sonic turned to Knuckles and raised a hand with three fingers, counting down before pointing at the door. The red echidna gave a nod and pushed the door open slightly. Sonic went past the door, getting to cover opposite his friend before they both stood up, aiming their guns at the bad guys.

"Freeze!" Sonic said.

"Oh, come on," said the gruff man, sitting up a bit. "We're just trying to do a simple sale here, and you guys just can't keep your filthy noses out of it."

"Is that a cop thing or a Mobian thing?" Knuckles asked.

"Doesn't matter," the gruff man replied, pulling out a gun of his own. "It'll be a thing where you fuckers both wind up dead."

"Oh, really?" Sonic said. He saw the rear door open out the corner of his eye, but didn't look over too much as Tails and Shadow entered the fray. "And what makes you say that?" Sonic continued.

"The fact that there's three of us and two of you..."

"More like two and a half with that bullet in your leg," Knuckles smiled.

"Oh, you're going to get it for that, you son of a bitch..." The gruff man stood to raise his gun, but then felt something in his arm. He soon passed out and fell to the side, and the other two bad guys turned to see Tails and Shadow.

"Got more of them!" the calm man said.

"Just drop them and save yourselves the trouble," Tails sighed.

"How about you go fuck- AGH!"

The calm man looked to see his friend fall onto his knees, holding the back of his neck. He removed his hands, showing a tranquilliser. He fell to the side, unconscious, and the calm man gave a sigh and dropped his gun to the floor.

"You're just going to give up?" Sonic asked.

"There's no point," the calm man shrugged, getting to his knees and putting his hands behind his head. "Look, you've got me where you want me. Now, take me away and lock me up. Just don't hurt me."

"You should have thought about that before you started buying from Nack," Knuckles said.

"So, you were spying on us, huh?" The calm man chuckled. "You're pretty smart for a bunch of pigs."

"I think that we're too fluffy to be pigs," Tails shrugged. "Oh, you mean cops!" He chuckled, playfully slapping his head as if he'd forgetting something. "Funny thing, actually."

"What's so funny?"

Shadow leaned down and got next to the bad guy's ear. "We're not cops..." He then moved his head back before pushing it forward, headbutting the last remaining bad guy and causing him to fall unconscious.

"Hey, that's usually my finishing move," Knuckles said with a smirk.

"Well, you are the only one thickheaded enough to get away with it," Sonic chuckled.

"Yeah, I walked into that one," Knuckles shrugged. "So, what do we do about these guys?"

"We give out a late night call to Star Light's finest and tell them to come here."

"This late?" Tails asked. "Won't the station be shut down?"

"Eh, Rotor stays up late back at Green Hill," said Sonic.

"He's supposed to," Tails said. "He's a mortician."

"Doesn't mean that we can't find someone to help," Sonic said. "I mean, it happened on our first day, remember?"

"True," the yellow fox conceded. "And this mess is a lot easier to clean up than that last one."

"Got that right," Sonic nodded. He then switched his radio back on. "Bunnie? Antoine? You still there?"

"Yep!" Bunnie replied happily. "Did y'all get the job done?"

"We did indeed," Sonic smiled. "We need another favour from you guys, though."

"What is it?" asked Antoine.

"We need you guys to call in Star Light to take care of this mess."

"What about what we learned?" Bunnie asked.

"That's for Dingo to decide on," Sonic said with a sigh. "We won't withhold any information from him. It's best to let him know just who's been pushing this stuff out here in the first place."

"Want to call him now?" Knuckles asked.

"Yeah," Sonic said. "Let's head back to the van to do that. It might be the best place for it."

The others nodded in agreement, heading past the docks and up the small hill that connected them to the mainland. They went up the staircase and soon made it back to the van, all hopping in the back with Bunnie and Antoine.

"How'd it go?" asked Antoine.

"We got seen, but we don't have to worry about that too much," Tails replied. "They're not ours to take in."

"I mean, you're freelancers," Bunnie giggled. "They wouldn't be yours to take in anyway."

"Good point," Sonic chuckled. "Can you guys get on the horn to Avery?"

"Sure thing," Antoine said. He pulled out his phone, and the others looked at him. "What? I've got to call him somehow," he smiled. After a few seconds of ringing, the phone picked up on the other end.

"Hello?" Avery asked.

"Hey, Commissioner," Antoine replied, putting it on speaker phone. "So... we did our job."

"Did it get messy?"

"Sadly, yes," Sonic said. "But not too bad."

"What happened?" Avery asked.

"We got spotted, but Sonic and the others took them out easily," Bunnie replied.

"Non-lethally, I might add," Tails threw in. "They're all unconscious and waiting at the docks."

"Well, one of them is technically bleeding," Knuckles said. "But that one isn't our fault."

"What happened in that case?" the brown bear asked with a chuckle.

"The dealer shot him in the leg as a warning," Sonic answered.

Avery let out another small laugh. "So, how did they see you?"

"One of them spotted a tracking bullet that I shot," Shadow said. "Lucky bastards..."

Avery sighed. "There's only so much that can go right with these kinds of missions. Don't beat yourself up about it too much, okay?" After a few seconds, he followed up. "So, it happened, huh?"

"Yeah," Sonic said. "Luckily, they're all knocked out now, so they can't take those things to wherever they were going to take them."

"How bad were they?"

"Military grade," Tails said. "All automatic weapons, and that's only the stuff that we got to see. They mentioned grenades and knives, but we didn't see much else."

"They took it inside one of the dock houses with them, and even then we only went in to take out the rest of them," Shadow added. "We didn't stop by to see the rest of the weaponry."

"That's probably a blessing in disguise," Avery said. "Actually, even more so, since some of Star Light's finest are on their way now."

"How so?" Bunnie asked.

"I just relayed what you told me to Dingo, and his men are closing in," Avery chuckled.

"Good call," Sonic smiled. He then looked out the back of the van to see a pair of S.L.P.D. cars pulling up. "Actually, they're here right now."

"They must have gotten started the moment that I told them that you were all done," the commissioner smiled.

"We'll get them set up then head back home," Antoine said. "See you in a few."

"Likewise," Avery said. "Oh, and well done. You did a good job tonight. All of you did."

"Thank you very much," Sonic replied. "Later."

Avery chuckled and then hanged up, Antoine doing the same as he shrugged. They all then left the van, talking things over with the Star Light cops and guiding them to the docks. With all of their efforts combined, they were able to get the unconscious bodies up the hill and into the Star Light cars. They then went back down for any weapons as well, coming across the new case of guns. Sonic joined them, and looked to get inside the case for himself.

"What are you doing?" asked the cop accompanying him.

"Just taking a look," Sonic shrugged as he knelt down. "We did take these guys down, after all." He opened the case up, whistling. "Damn... that is some military stuff right there." He subtly pulled his phone from his pocket and took a quick photo of the guns.

"You done looking?" the cop asked.

"Yeah, yeah," Sonic replied, quickly putting his phone away and closing the case. "Good thing that we came here when we did."

"I guess so," the cop shrugged. "You did a good job in helping out this city."

"It ain't the first time, and it ain't the first city," Sonic chuckled. "Something tells me that it won't be the last."

The cop smiled, taking the case up with him. Sonic followed him back up, heading back into the van, where the others were waiting. Bunnie and Antoine were waiting in the front, and Sonic shut the back doors behind him, sitting with Knuckles, Tails, and Shadow in the back.

"Straight home?" Bunnie asked.

"Straight home," Sonic replied.

"We'll drop you guys off first before heading back to the base," Antoine said.

"Sounds good," Sonic nodded.

As the drive started, the blue hedgehog pulled out his phone, showing the picture that he took to the other three. The others' expressions were rather surprised and grim, but they nodded in silent agreement not to say a word about it for the time being.

After a 45 minute long drive, they were back home, with Bunnie and Antoine pulling into the alleyway. "We're here!" said the Southern bunny.

"Ah, base sweet base," Knuckles smiled.

The van soon stopped, and Bunnie and Antoine left the van to open the double doors for the others, letting them hop out. When all four had left, the doors were closed behind them, and they turned and smile at Bunnie and Antoine.

"Thanks for the help tonight," Sonic said.

"Hey, you guys were the backup," Antoine chuckled. "We should be thanking you, if anything."

"Still, it means a lot," he nodded.

"Thank you," Bunnie smiled. "So... group hug to celebrate before we go back to the department?"

"Eh, I don't see why not," Sonic chuckled.

The others also agreed, joining in a group hug together and sharing a laugh about it. After they were done, the freelancers waved and said their goodbyes to Bunnie and Antoine, who did the same back as they got back into the van.

As soon as the freelancers entered their own place, Tails switched the lights on, and they headed to the gym's armoury to get changed. When they were all done, they immediately headed upstairs, but didn't enter their rooms yet.

"You know," Shadow said, "we're going to be talking a lot more about that picture tomorrow."

"I know," Sonic nodded.

"Do you think that we can get away with this even though Avery told us to stop?" Knuckles asked.

Sonic shrugged. "I honestly don't know. He's not stupid, so he'll catch on."

"Well, at least we can now confirm that Nack is connected somehow," Tails said.

"Yeah..." Sonic said. "I just wonder how much, you know?"

"Well, we'll find out," Tails smiled.

"What happened to us talking more about it tomorrow?" Sonic joked.

"Good point," Tails said. "All right, let's head to bed. Night."

The others repeated variations of the last word of the two-tailed fox's sentence, all getting changed into nightwear and getting curled up in bed. As they slept, they thought heavily about the next day with the prison transfer, and just hoped that everything would be okay.

I honestly didn't expect this chapter to be this long, or to take this long to write, but there it is! Anyway, yeah. We're reaching the final stretch now, and I'm going to have fun writing it out, even though I don't know how long that'll take. If I don't see you before then, then I wish y'all a Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays. And I'll see you soon with new stuff... I hope. Take care, and stay tuned.