Sonic the Hedgehog

Forced AU

Rating: R

Pairings: None (Undecided)

A/N: Follow story development on tumblr blog sonicforcesau

Cassidy sprinted. It turns out that if you're unlucky enough, you'll run into an unreasonable, anger-inducing, asshole of a client that didn't seem to be able to tolerate even the concept of failure.

Well, what she did back there was self-defense, anyway. The black cat obviously had the intention to shoot her when he pulled out the pistol. She gave his face a neat, hard roundhouse kick that she was quite proud of - quite literally knocking the feline off his feet - and quickly made her escape.

What did he expect? That she'd be able to actually kill, or even cause harm to one of the best mercenaries out there? Actually, what was she thinking; accepting the task in the first place? It was no simple task to assassinate one of the most skilled mercenaries in the market - it was way beyond her current abilities.

Why did she accept the job?

She turned around a corner, into one of many dark alleyways obscured by the night, between the many tall buildings of the city that she was currently in.

Oh.

She remembered. It went something like this:

"This is the target." the feline revealed, showing a photograph of Finnigan the Jackal. Cassidy recognised him right away, partly because the other was a jackal, too.

"Are you kidding me?" she exclaimed incredulously. "I won't even be able to touch him, let alone kill him!"

"Is a simple assassination job too difficult for you, lady?" he nearly purred, smirking as he leaned backwards in his seat. "No wonder I rarely see girls your line of work."

She hated his guts already, and he had hit a very, very sensitive spot. Poking fun at her just because she's a female in this male-dominated line of work? She prided herself in the skills she honed as an assassin, and as a mercenary.

Cassidy would become one of the best mercenaries out there!

Oh, she would show this damn cat!

"Fine! I'll do it!"

That was then. Two days ago.

"Argh, stupid, stupid…!" Cassidy groaned, rubbing her temples as she realised that she had been goaded into accepting the mission. Damn her female pride.

But, first things first, she needed a place to lay low. Crossing such a powerful figure would definitely have put her on more hit lists than she'd like, and she'd probably be dead in a few days if her ex-client had decided that he wanted her dead.

Who was she kidding? He obviously wanted her dead already, and with her delivering that kick in his cat face - probably even more than before. Cassidy pulled out her red-covered phone, quickly scrolling down her list of contacts and dialed the one she wanted to call.

A ring.

Another ring.

Call connected.

"Salvador?"

"Yeah, what's up, Cass?"

"Is Jesse with you?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Listen, there's trouble. I'm gonna have to lay low for awhile. I'll meet you guys in the usual place."

And with that, Cassidy ended the call.

Better hurry back to their hideout before she gets caught. She had quite a lot of explaining to do to her friends.

About an hour later, a group of three jackals - two male, one female met up in a location unknown. It was some kind of abandoned warehouse, and the female had just finished sharing her story.

"So..." Salvador began, pacing slowly. He wore a red beret. "To sum it up, you accepted a job in anger, tried to kill Finnigan the Jackal, failed miserably, got spared by him, and now you're on the run from Cyrus the Panther?"

"Argh…" Cassidy groaned at the mention of the feline and the events that occured recently. Why did this happen to her? "Basically, yeah."

"Damn it, Cassidy!" another jackal - male - spoke out, obviously frustrated with the situation at hand. He had a red neckerchief on. "When will you stop getting provoked by 'You're a girl!' comments?"

"Shut up, Jesse!" lashed the female jackal at the other's mockery. She was incredibly on edge right now.

"Calm down." Salvador chided. "Right now, we really need to find Finnigan the Jackal. Any idea where he might be?"

"The last time I saw him was in Green Hill Village, and that was a day ago." Cassidy replied. "He probably isn't even there anymore."

"Green Hill, huh?" Jesse chimed in. "I know a few people there. They might have seen the guy."

"Make the calls, will you Jesse?" Salvador asked while taking out a laptop from his backpack and also his mobile phone. "Meanwhile, I'll do some checks with the hotels and inns in that area; there could be a chance that he is staying in the town for a few days before moving."

Watching the two males jackals suddenly getting busy, Cassidy suddenly felt touched. And she was glad that she had friends that she could depend on; that she could trust with her life that they would stick with her no matter what happened.

"... thanks, guys…"

When Clyde and Finnigan were leaving their room for breakfast minutes ago, they suddenly found themselves facing three other jackals.

The three jackals arrived in an old van, and it was made clear they meant no harm. Currently, the five all sat in the inn's cafe, discussing something that the young thief wasn't quite sure about.

"So, what is it that you wanted?" Finnigan asked to the only female sat at their table, playing with his almost-new pack of cigarettes on the table with one hand.

"I need your help." replied Cassidy.

"She's got on the bad side of Cyrus the Panther." stated the red-hatted jackal. "Are you familiar with him?"

"Quite." the Ultimate Mercenary crossed his arms as he frowned. "How did that happen?"

"Long story short - I failed to kill you, he tried to kill me, and I defended myself." the female leaned forward as she sucked in a deep breath. "And I need your help. These guys are probably going to be in danger too because of me."

Finnigan the Jackal unfolded his arms, taking out a stick of cigarette from the package before offering the depressant to the other jackals.

Cassidy drew out a stick from the pack, and the maned jackal placed the pack of cigarette back onto the table when it was made clear that there were no other smokers.

Lighting up the stick of tobacco, he sucked in a deep breath of smoke and slowly exhaled.

"... and he wants my head too, huh." Finnigan pondered out loud enough for all the jackals to hear. He pulled out his black mobile phone. "I'll have to make a call."

And so the four jackals sat in silence as the Ultimate Mercenary scrolled through his phone and dialed a contact. He put his phone to the side of his head and waited for the call to connect.

"Vulpes." He said as soon as the call connected. "I need your help."

"Fire away, Finn." came the smooth reply, and Finnigan felt a small surge of relief flow through his body.

"I might need Cyrus dead."

"Cyrus the Panther?"

"Yeah."

"I thought you'd never ask. I'm free today; let's meet up - You know where to find me."

"I'll call you back. See ya."

The call ended.

As Finnigan put down his phone on the table next to the pack of cigarettes, he felt a smirk crawling its way onto his face. He then made eye contact with Cassidy.

The female removed the stick of cigarette from her mouth and exhaled, causing smoke to pour out along with her breath. "Something on my face?"

"You're in luck." he replied simply.

And so, the group of jackals got into the jackal trio's black van with Cassidy behind the wheel in the right front seat.

With Finnigan's directions, they drove to the secret meeting location that the maned jackal was quite familiar with - a small abandoned oil field hidden somewhere forgotten in the deserts of Mobius, which fitted the criteria for a secret place.

"All of you don't look much older than me." Finnigan commented after some silence along the road journey.

"That's because we probably aren't." replied the red-hatted jackal, who rode shotgun. "I'm only nineteen. And my name's Salvador."

"That's the same age as me." Finnigan stated.

"No way…" came a reply from another voice. It was Jesse. "And you managed to become the Ultimate Mercenary?"

Finnigan shrugged. He didn't feel like sharing what he has been through to get to this point. "What about you - how old are you?"

"Seventeen." came the response. "The name's Jesse. And no offense, but I thought you'd be, like, twenty something - at least."

"He probably looks old from all the smoking he does!" joked the young thief, and Finnigan smirked.

"Is he your brother?" asked Salvador, referring to Clyde.

"Kinda. Well; Clyde here tried to steal from me, and I took him in." the maned jackal replied, causing a smile to appear on Clyde's face. "And he's only sixteen."

"Remind me to steal from you if I ever needed a place to stay." the driver commented, making the rest of the jackals chuckle. "Anyway, we're nearly there."

It was already sometime after noon.

Moments after their conversation, Cassidy parked the van by the side of the lonely road. The jackals were greeted with the sight of an oil field, equipped with at least a dozen wells. It was abandoned, and it was apparent; for it looked forlorn and neglected with overgrown shrubs and sun-bleached structures.

The group was led to a cabin by Finnigan. Opening the door to one of the temporary office cabins, he was greeted with the sight of a familiar fox. Upon hearing the sound of door opening, the vulpine turned his head and stood up.

"Ah, Finn, I-" he suddenly stopped talking; noticing the figures behind the mercenary. "Friends of yours?"

"They're with me." Finnigan clarified, as the fox sat back down on his chair.

"Right. Take a seat." He said simply, referring to the many black office chairs in the cabin. "I'm actually quite pleased that you're looking to get rid of Cyrus; he has quite a bad history with me. But that aside, what happened that made you want to kill him?"

"Not me." Finnigan replied, with slight humour with his eyes as he looked to the only female in the room.

"He wanted me to kill Finnigan, and I failed, and now he wants my head." Cassidy repeated her story once more, and contemplated recording it down and playing it whenever someone asked the same question again.

"Sounds like him. He probably wanted Finnigan dead after he killed his first choice amongst mercenaries." chuckled the reddish-brown fox. He made himself comfortable his seat.

"Anyway; here's my story. I run a legitimate, honest tobacco company - providing almost certain cancer to the world-" A snort was heard from the youngest jackal. "-while Cyrus, as you mercenaries would probably know, deals major league in illegal cannabis-"

"Strange, Vulpes - you never told me about this." Finnigan commented.

"Well, you never asked. And I never needed to." he answered before continuing his speech. "The cat tried to frame his crimes onto me multiple times. Luckily, I have people I can count on - like Finnigan here - working with me to make sure that I don't get labelled by the law as a drug courier-"

"Explains the hefty amounts of weed you wanted me to stash away." the maned mercenary commented once more.

"I'm talking, Finnigan. And don't complain; I know you sold those to whoever." he informed in a deadpan, causing the jackal named to snort in amusement. "Anyway, jackal. Just to let you know; you smoke cigarettes from my company."

Finnigan's smile disappeared, and he took out his pack of cigarettes.

A symbol of a fox's head against a star shape. 'Foxhead Tobacco'.

"Huh." The Ultimate Mercenary made a noise at the fresh piece of information while his brain made the connections, causing a certain young thief to snicker once more at his reaction.

"Sorry to interrupt your discussions with your loyal customer-" Salvador spoke up, leaning forward in his seat. "-but we really need to know how to take out Cyrus the Panther."

"That wouldn't be too difficult. He has quite a high profile." Vulpes stood up and walked to a corner of the cabin where a desk sat with a laptop bag on it. The fox took out the laptop decorated with black metallic paint. "And I'm constantly tracking his actions - just in case he tries anything again."

"Stalker." Finnigan commented again with a smirk.

"Shut up, Finnigan." the fox chided once more as he moved his index finger around on the touchpad. He was quite used to the jackal's antics. "He has a main base of operations located in deep within Mystic Jungle, near the casinos."

"Is there anything else we need to know?" asked Salvador.

"Not much; I'll send Finn the details through text later. You can probably proceed with your plans now." Vulpes suggested. "The cat's probably busy sitting in his base, smoking cannabis while planning to get more of the stuff to sell."

"You seem to know him quite a lot, Vulpes." Finnigan teased once more. The fox stared at him, unamused.

"Anyway; knowing Cyrus the Panther - the longer you wait, the more mercenaries he would hire just to get rid of your jackal squad. You better get a move on." The vulpine stated as he chased Finnigan out of the room.

And soon, the five jackals were outside the cabin, left to stare at oil wells scattered around, and the single parked van by the side of the road.

"Right." Salvador broke the silence. "Shall we leave for Mystic Jungle?"

"I'll drive." Finnigan started to walk towards the vehicle, followed closely by Clyde. The rest of the jackals followed suit, as Cassidy passed the keys over to the new driver.

"'Jackal Squad' is a nice name, Finn." commented the young thief as he got into the shotgun seat on the left side of the van.

"It has a nice ring to it-" came the response as the jackal started up the van. "-but you think they'd join us?"

"Totally - It'll be cool!"

Finnigan stared at Clyde.

"Put your seatbelt on."

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