Sonic the Hedgehog

Forced AU

Rating: R

Pairings: None (Undecided)

A/N: Follow story development on tumblr blog sonicforcesau

It was late evening, and the sky began to turn dark.

Somewhere near a certain jungle in Mobius, an old, black van was currently being driven by Finnigan the Jackal on a lonely, winding road, with four other jackals sat as passengers. Along the way, the jackals made occasional conversation with each other as the journey was long and uneventful.

"We need some gas." the driver stated after a brief check of the fuel gauge that revealed the fuel tank running low.

"Argh, bad timing." Cassidy cursed, turning to her two friends. "We should have filled this thing up yesterday - there's not a single gas station that we passed by!"

Jesse looked ready to retort, but it was stopped by Salvador's sigh.

"No use saying that now." reasoned the red-hatted jackal. "There might be a gas station nearby."

"I'll try to find us one." Finnigan replied.

BANG!

The van suddenly jerked, and the passengers screamed at the sudden violent movement - Finnigan had swerved their vehicle instinctively as soon as he heard the gunshot.

A quick glance to the right - driver side - mirror revealed to the mercenary: an old, red sedan muscle car driving up the side of the van. The driving jackal changed to a lower gear and floored the gas, and the engine roared in response as it built up revolutions.

"Shit! They found us!" Cassidy cursed out loud, and the van suddenly swerved and jerked violently once more as their driver slammed their van into the other car, while both vehicles negotiated a right bend on the winding road.

Finnigan felt that the van still handled like before, meaning that the attempt at shooting out their tyres failed; lucky for the jackals.

"Sit tight everyone!" Salvador suggested loudly as tried to keep himself steady.

BANG! - The front glass of both doors shattered as a shotgun bullet shot through. Fortunately, the bullet didn't manage to cause harm.

"There's a gun in my bag - use it!" shouted the Ultimate Mercenary, as he slammed their van into the offending car once more. The road had straightened, and it lead to a left bend.

Jesse wasted no time responding to Finnigan. Trying his best to maintain balance in the shaky van, he opened up the bag mentioned and was greeted with the sight of a revolver along with what seemed like huge amounts of mobium.

"Wow, you're rich." Jesse casually commented - offhandedly - as he checked the gun, while managing to keep his balance. "Only three bullets?"

"Gun's not mine." came the reply with gritted teeth as another harsh impact from the side shook the van.

"Damn it, just start shooting already, Jesse!" Cassidy shouted at the jackal holding the gun, ticked at the other's lack of urgency.

Suddenly, the muscle car braked and fell back. Finnigan's eyes followed, and he peered into the mirrors, revealing the dented muscle car attempting to ram them from the back once more.

Big mistake - With his quick reactions, Finnigan slammed his right foot onto the brake pedal. The tyres screeched as they locked up.

CRASH!

The van violently jerked forward, and the rear axle bounced from the momentum delivered by the impact as the back doors acquired a massive dent.

Engaging the clutch with his left foot, Finnigan put the van in second gear and accelerated, picking back up their lost speed.

"Cover your ears!" Jesse warned as he fired a bullet out the broken back window.

BANG!

"I got the gunner!" announced their shooter. And indeed, the gunfire from the other car stopped.

Speaking of things that stopped...

"Finn!?" Clyde panicked as he realised that the van was losing speed as the engine sputtered, causing the van to vibrate.

"We're out of gas!" Finnigan hit the steering wheel in frustration.

"That hit must've broken the gas tank." Salvador figured, as their driver hastily shifted the gear lever into the neutral position to keep the vehicle moving.

CRASH!

The jackals screamed, as the van was sent forwards forcefully again. The car had rammed them once more from the back.

BANG!

"Damn…" Jesse silently cursed. "One bullet left…!"

BANG!

Finnigan used whatever momentum the van had left to spin their vehicle. With his right hand, he spun the steering wheel as his other hand pulled the handbrake, converting the van into an effective roadblock.

"Brace yourselves!" the driving jackal instructed as the car approached. The other driver slammed their brakes, but there was not sufficient space to come to a stop.

CRASH! - The car plowed straight into the right side of the van as it failed to slow down in time.

The momentum sent into the van had put another dent in the bodywork, and both vehicles stopped completely. The machines were totalled.

As soon as the jackals bailed from their van, they saw the driver of the other car getting out of the vehicle. He had a bleeding cut on his face; most likely from the shattered windscreen of his car.

And he was a white-furred wolf.

A wolf.

At the sight of the other mobian, Finnigan's mood turned considerably worse, as his face adopted a fierce scowl.

Before the other could even pull out the pistol to defend himself, Finnigan was already pushing his face into the ground. The jackal had weighed his body onto the wolf, as he grabbed a hold of his right arm.

"Who sent you?" He growled menacingly.

The wolf was obviously in distress, and he was terrified. He tried his best not to cry out in agony as his arm was painfully twisted to the point where it felt like being ripped out of its socket.

"Cy- Cyrus!" the wolf panted out as he fought the excruciating pain. "Please, don't- ARGH! - kill me! I'm just a driver!"

The rest of the jackals stared at the scene. Cassidy was impassive, while the rest had a troubled look on their faces, especially Clyde.

"Finnigan." Salvador spoke up with a surprisingly calm voice, causing the named jackal to look at him. "Let him go."

"Let him go?" came the angered response. Was the other insane? Did he seriously just suggest letting the enemy free?

"Like he said, he's just a driver-" Salvador tried again. "-getting paid to do work, just like us."

Finnigan's hold on the other's arm slackened slightly. Salvador was right.

"... fine." he growled as he completely loosened his grip, setting the other's arms free. He stared straight into the face of the wolf, intimidating the other with his mismatched eyes. "But you must know where Cyrus is, don't you?"

"Yes!" came the frantic response from the wolf as he was let up. "I'll- I'll bring you there!"

With the cars wrecked and unable to drive, they had no choice but to navigate their way to the base on foot.

The bleeding white wolf led the way all the while with Finnigan scrutinising the lupine with a watchful eye from behind. He didn't trust the enemy.

But before he could continue his attempts to burn holes into flesh with his eyes, Clyde - who was walking next to him - had began to talk to him.

"You seem very interested in the guy." Clyde commented quietly with a mischievous smile. It was obvious that he aimed to tease. "Is he really that attractive to you?"

Finnigan scoffed. "Don't be stupid. I'd never be into wolves."

"Ah, well." came the reply. "So you might be into guys?"

"What?" his eyes widened and he heard soft snorts ahead of him. The thief - meanwhile - snickered at his reactions.

Unexpectedly, the Ultimate Mercenary smirked.

"Oh, don't worry Clyde. I won't steal from you." he responded.

"What!?" It was the young thief's turn to get embarrassed. "I'm-"

"We're here…" The nervous wolf suddenly announced as they came to a stop in the jungle. He pointed in a direction. "It's... right up ahead…"

"Finnigan, pass me five mobiums, will you?" Salvador requested.

The Ultimate Mercenary, surprisingly, complied - ignoring his bias against wolves - and handed over the five mobiums out of his own earnings. However, instead of passing it to the other jackal, he handed the money straight to the wolf, slapping it onto the other's hand.

"Go home." And the lupine ran, making his leave and disappeared from the jackal's sight as he watched.

Turning around, Finnigan began to walk with the group in the direction of the base. And soon, the jackals hidden by foliage were greeted with the sight of a huge, intimidating, metal shutter gate, moderately guarded with a some men. Embedded into the side of the shutter gate was a door. It was open.

The warehouse itself looked to be built into the cliffside. A truck was currently being unloaded, and packs of goods were being moved by a few mobians. The packages probably contained the cannabis that Vulpes spoke of. There were also three parked cars that they could see.

"Clyde?" Finnigan called.

"Yeah?"

"I want you to stay here."

The youngest jackal hesitated. "Okay…"

And the Ultimate Mercenary turned to face the rest of the jackals.

"Ready?"

All of them nodded.

"Let's go."

"Get them!"

It was a riot. As soon as the four jackals charged in - weapons at the ready - every single person in sight was on high alert. Pistols were fired towards them, but with the help of Jesse's throwing knives, they were able to eliminate shooters from afar.

Meanwhile, the other jackals engaged in close-range combat with enemies, wrestling their guns away from their grip while they took their lives. They were continuously moving, and using corpses as shields to avoid being shot. So far, they had managed to take down a few enemies, but they were still fighting an unfair fight, as the opposition had the aid of ammunition.

And with them being experienced fighters, they had picked up the pistols dropped by defeated foes to even up the odds. The jackals currently took cover from countless gunfire behind a parked truck.

And after shooting out some more enemies, they were on the move again.

Nearby, hidden by the jungle and watching, the young jackal thief was feeling quite uneasy about seeing so much blood, and even more uneasy at the fact that they were actually killing people. Living, breathing creatures moments ago were now dead, lifeless corpses just by the pull of a finger.

But he still had to put up with it. This is his life now. He drew out his flamberge, and moved in to dive into battle with the rest.

"CLYDE!"

Salvador's voice rang into his ears as he felt himself being shoved into the ground.

BANG!

The gunshot attracted his attention, and he was now greeted with the sight of a pistol aimed straight at his face.

But before the gun could be fired once more, a tomahawk suddenly appeared in his sight. He watched as the sharp blade sliced into the wrist of the gun-wielding arm. Blood dripped as the gun fell onto the ground. Soon after, the body collapsed too.

He felt sick.

It was silent now. Checking his surroundings, he noticed that the fight was over; the jackals had managed to take out the enemies that was stood guard outside of the warehouse. Bodies and blood were littered all around the clearing.

"C'mon." Salvador offered him a hand to grab, and he did. As the young thief stood up, he saw the rest of the jackals making their way towards them.

"I thought I told you to stay. Why did you move?" Finnigan had traces of worry, anger and disappointment evident on his face.

But the one that stood out the most to Clyde was sadness.

"I… just wanted to help." he mumbled, feeling guilty of the other's state of mind.

Finnigan held his breath as he stared at the youngest jackal. Then, he sighed and closed his eyes temporarily before opening them back up.

"... let's move." said the maned jackal as he faced the direction of the warehouse, and began walking towards it. The other jackals did not follow immediately, while Cassidy's trio made eye contact with one another, silently communicating vague messages as they started to follow some distance behind the leading jackal.

Finnigan opened the warehouse door fully, and he peeked into the warehouse. His ears perked as he heard a soft, unmistakable sound of a car's starter. Somewhere, in this area, a car was getting ready to move.

SCREECH! - A car had peeled out. The jackals tried to pinpoint the source of the sounds.

And just moments later, they were greeted with the sight of a black sedan smashing through the cannabis packages behind the truck in order to drive away from the warehouse, causing the contents of the parcels to burst into the air as the car's tyres picked up dirt and threw the particles into the air.

Cyrus the Panther was getting away.

The jackals reacted immediately; Jesse was the first one breaking into the nearest car that didn't have the tyres punctured by bullets - a dark blue, four door sedan - and started to work on prying open the dashboard covers below the steering wheel to get access to the wires needed to hotwire the vehicle.

"Sal, I need your tomahawk." Jesse said, and he was immediately passed the weapon, allowing him to continue his work.

Meanwhile, Clyde had unlocked the sedan using the driver door panel controls so that they could get into the vehicle easily.

VROOM!

"Right, let's move, Jesse." Cassidy said as she got into the shotgun seat.

In response, Jesse grabbed the column shifter behind the wheel, put the automatic transmission into drive, and floored the gas. The car accelerated quickly, and soon they were following the dirt trails that the panther took. They could see faint clouds of dirt kicked up by tyres far ahead.

Finnigan looked at Jesse as he sent the car charging down the twisting dirt road with trees and other vegetations littered at the sides. The kid's got skills, and he wondered where he got them from. Perhaps the other was a getaway driver.

With every single twist in the road, Jesse seemed to be able to take a shorter path than the other car, and they slowly caught up to the black sedan.

A sudden, sharp left bend presented to Jesse forced him to step on the brakes, slowing down the car in order to navigate the corner. Although the car was on loose dirt, he didn't lock up the tyres at all while braking. With a pull of the handbrake, he put the car into a drift, and the tyres kicked up more dirt into the air as they slid through the corner. The technique performed by Jesse - that might have possibly put some rally drivers to shame - had caught them up to Cyrus.

The difference in momentum of the two cars coming out of the previous corner gave Jesse a chance to rapidly close in on the black sedan.

BONK!

The bumpers of the two vehicles touched as the chasing driver decided that a light tap would be sufficient for what he needed, and this simple action had caused a subtle change in Cyrus's driving style - he became more erratic in his steering inputs, and the selection of the paths that the car would take became worse.

"Keep him alive." Finnigan said to Cassidy, who was opening up a window in order to get potshots at the car ahead.

BANG!

The shot dug a bullet hole into the rear bumper of the car. Cassidy was attempting to shoot out the tyres.

Jesse's brows furrowed as the movements of the car ahead became more difficult to predict. He won't be able to stop the car ahead unless he could clearly see what the getaway car was trying to do.

"Not now, Cass!" Jesse informed, resulting in the female sitting back down in the vehicle as both cars slowed down once more in order to negotiate a slow right hand corner. He carefully observed the car ahead.

The black sedan turned left for a moment before the wheels turned right for the bend. Cyrus was attempting to use weight transfer to turn the car.

However, the panther timed his move slightly late, causing the initial left turn movement of the black sedan to take a wider path than intended. Jesse saw, and took the opportunity; turning the wheel right and flooring the gas as he positioned their car right next to the other car, causing the two cars to scrape right against one another they entered the bend.

Right when they began to turn, Jesse turned the wheel of the car a smaller amount than what was required to turn the bend, causing their car to push the other sedan outwards, away from the corner with the aid of centrifugal force acting upon them.

CRASH!

The black sedan had plowed straight into a tree as Jesse spun their car away completely and stopping to allow the group to get out of the vehicle.

"I'll get him." Finnigan said, as he quickly stepped out of the car and ran over to where the cat was before he could bail out of his car.

Delivering one hard, swift punch with his right fist aimed directly at the cat's face, Finnigan knocked Cyrus unconscious. Moments later, the other jackals had joined the Ultimate Mercenary in staring at the limp body of the panther.

"Let's get this cat back to Vulpes."

And so began another long journey to a previous location.

"Oh - hello, Cyrus. Pleasure to see you."

It was already late night. The group of jackals had contacted Vulpes the Fox several hours earlier about the results of their assault; and the vulpine was quite pleased with their answer and wanted to meet up immediately - with the target, of course.

"Thank you, 'Jackal Squad'; and, as expected of the Ultimate Mercenary." the fox smoothly spoke as he looked to the tied panther while he held up a cup. "Tea?"

The panther growled.

"A day is all it takes to take down the big, great Cyrus. Anyway." Vulpes disregarded his responses. "I'll discuss pay with you later, Finn. I've got to get this feline well accommodated."

"With legal cigarettes?" Finnigan smirked.

"Something like that." the vulpine replied with a chuckle. "Help me load him into my car, please."

In response, the two jackals closest to the panther - Clyde and Jesse - carried the bound cat and followed the fox out of the room. Vulpes opened up the driver's door of his white sedan and pulled the lever to open up the boot of the car, and the panther was put into the space with some resistance.

"Thank you, now I'll be making my leave." said the fox as he got into his car, started it, and drove off slowly.

"... 'Jackal Squad', huh…" Salvador softly repeated Vulpes's previous words as he watched the white car drive off. Then, he looked to Cassidy. She nodded. Then, he looked to Jesse, who nodded too.

"Finnigan?" he called, causing the named jackal - who had just lighted up a cigarette - to turn his head and look at him.

"We would like to form a mercenary team with you and Clyde." the red-hatted jackal proposed.

This had caused the Ultimate Mercenary to stare at the trio. Then, he took in a deep breath out of his stick of tobacco before deeping sighing out the smoke.

"... fine." he replied. "But I don't have a place to house all of you."

"We have that covered." Salvador stated. "The base in Mystic Jungle, remember?"

A sense of dread settled into the maned jackal.

"No way. No. I'm not going to travel such a far distance again today. We're going to stay at an inn."

The jackals laughed at the reaction as they watched Finnigan get into their stolen sedan and started it up.

Follow story development on sonicforcesau on tumblr.