While Antoine and Bruin weren't allowed back in the saloon, that rule didn't apply to Sonic. In fact, for stopping the drunk human, Sonic was given a free meal of his choosing. Antoine told Sonic to enjoy his meal while he "made a call". So, while Sonic slurped down a warm chili dog at his table inside the saloon, Antoine got to work.

"Just a wee bit higher, Bruin!" Antoine called down to Bruin, who was lifting Antoine up over his head. From on top of an old telephone pole. On his tippy toes. Needless to say, Bruin was not having fun.

"Would you hurry it up, kid?!" He shouted.

Antoine was holding out a small radio dish as far as he could with one hand, and hanging on for dear life with the other. Don'tlookdowndon'tlookdownDON'TLOOKDOWN! Suddenly, the headset that the dish was attached to crackled to life as it found a signal. "Enfin…Yes, Antoine to Knothole, come in Knothole," he said, shaking the radio dish up and down.

"bzzzzt-hole to Antoine, we read you," came a voice from the headset. Antoine lit up.

"Wonderful. I have something I wish to discuss with ze prince-uh, ze boss. Mind patching me through, Rotor?"

"She doesn't have time for another one of your love letters, 'twan," Rotor replied dryly.

"Just patch me through, petit malin."

"Fine, fine." Rotor's voice faded back into static, which continued for about two seconds before another voice, feminine but commanding, came through. "What is it, Antoine?"

"A-ah, my princess, how lovely to hear your voice," Antoine said as smooth as he could. Which is to say, not at all.

"I'm hanging up," She replied immediately.

"Wait! I actually do have something for you. You see, we met this mercenary who, well, knows us. Or at least knows about us. He wants to join the freedom fighters."

Antoine could practically hear her pinch the bridge of her nose. "Antoine, we're not so desperate an organization that we'll take in any gun happy stray off the street."

"Princess, you must under-" Bruin grabbed the headset off of Antoine's head and held the microphone to his mouth. "Ma'am, the boy subdued an armed human in the time it took me to blink," Bruin said. "And no, I'm not exaggerating about that. Kid's lying through his teeth about the whole mercenary story, but he seems to genuinely want to help us. His abilities, I believe, at least warrant a meeting, if not a test."

There was a pause, as Antoine (who was now holding onto Bruin's arm the way a koala hangs on a tree) and Bruin listened closely to the headset for the boss's answer. Finally, a sigh. "Fine, bring him to the usual spot, I'll give him the once over." Antoine and Bruin sighed in relief. "But," she continued sharply, making the two reclench their butt cheeks. "Don't think you're out of the woods just yet for botching up getting that info."

Antoine and Bruin looked at each other in shock. Antoine looked back at the headset. "H-how did you…?"

"I can practically smell your screw up through the phone. I'll be at the usual spot at 0500, I expect to find you three there. And Antoine-" The coyote gulped audibly. "-stop calling me princess." The headset returned to static.

"Well, that went well, I think," said Antoine.

"As well as it can go with her," Bruin added as he climbed down the pole and dropped Antoine face first onto the ground. "Let's go get the kid."


"Roboticizer plans?" Sonic asked the tied up human while gulping down his last chili dog. "That's what this is about?"

"Yeah," replied the human, who had been sobered by the pounding sun. "I'm a merc. Did some jobs for Robotnik that got me into his base in Robotropolis. So those morons thought that I'd know which of the bazillions of computers in that place had the roboticizer plans on it." He scoffed. "As if I'd be allowed to walk away if I knew."

"Uh huh," Sonic mumbled. "And the fight?"

The human smirked. "Old war bear couldn't take a joke, is all. He could take a punch though." The human was then shaded by Bruin, who stood over him arms crossed, staring down at him with a growl.

"And if you'll recall, I can give one back," said Bruin.

The human rolled his eyes. "Look, I don't know anything, now will you leave me alone?"

Bruin growled louder, but Antoine stepped between them. "Yes, yes we will," he said firmly to both of them.

Sonic stood up smiling and dusting off his hands. "Well glad that's all sorted out," he said. "Sooo, what now?"

"Now you get to meet our boss so she can make a decision about you," said Bruin. "You better hope that earlier stunt wasn't a fluke, she hates having her time wasted."

Sonic sauntered over, brandishing a smirk, and nudged Bruin in his very large torso with his elbow. "Don't you worry, old man. Within a week, you'll wonder how you ever got by without me."

Bruin huffed and turned and walked away. Antoine chuckled nervously. "He'll warm up to you, promettre," he said. Antoine followed Bruin and gestured for Sonic to follow. "Come, our ride is this way."

Sonic shrugged, put his hands behind his head and followed the two down the street and around a corner. The only thing really of note in the alley was a dirty tarp thrown clumsily over a hoverbike. Bruin removed the tarp, folded it up, and placed it in his backpack. Bruin and Antoine got on the hoverbike, where Bruin then pressed a small button on the console. A compartment opened on the left side of the bike, and a sidecar assembled itself right in front of Sonic. "Get in," Bruin ordered. Sonic rolled his eyes, if they gave him a destination, he'd have been there by now. But he had to play along, or he wouldn't get anywhere. So, swallowing his pride, Sonic crammed himself into the small sidecar and pouted.

Bruin chuckled at Sonic's misfortune before pressing the ignition switch on the console. The hoverbike sputtered and growled to life, clumsily floating into the air. Antoine fumbled about with his backpack until he pulled out a small computer pad. "Okay, let's see," Antoine said to himself as he activated the GPS. "Setting destination for the usual spot. Should be about an hour."

Sonic groaned audibly. "Ya know, if you want me to meet your boss so bad, I can be there myself in 5 minutes," he said.

"And that's the problem," said Bruin, who pressed another button, summoning a seatbelt to bind Sonic to his seat. "Now sit down and shut up."

Sonic rested his chin in his hand. The hoverbike sputtered twice more before taking off, leaving Incipere behind. The ride was long and the most awkward form of quiet. The sidecar being two sizes too small for Sonic certainly wasn't helping with that. Mind you, being too sizes too small for a mobian is two sizes too small for most things. Any conversation Sonic tried to start up was met with a disinterested grunt from Bruin and outright silence from Antoine, who had fallen asleep on the way. The mountains that had surrounded Incipere had given way to barren, sandy fields with barely any wildlife to speak of dotting the land.

Just as Sonic's skull was about to collapse in on itself from boredom, he felt the hoverbike shift in direction for the first time in over an hour, which was enough to rouse him awake. In the distance, he spotted a series of dots that, as they grew in size, revealed themselves to be a cluster of hollow ruins overgrown with plants. Sonic yawned and stretched his arms as best as he could. "This the place?" he asked Bruin.

"Some ground rules," Bruin replied without answering his question. "You are to stay a minimum of 6 feet away from the boss at all times. You are to remain in our sights at all times. You will relinquish your weapons whenever you are in the room with her at all times. Until such time as she deems you trustworthy, this will be the extent of your interaction with her. Is that understood?"

Sonic huffed and rolled his eyes again, but nodded. "Sure thing, old man," he said.

Bruin grunted and pulled up in front of what used to be the top of a considerably large building. Buried under the Naka soil, its top three stories were all that remained. Most of the wood had rotted away, leaving an exposed clockwork exoskeleton. A clocktower? Sonic thought to himself as he was led by Bruin and a groggy Antoine to a carved out hole in the side. The hole was covered by a torn and faded tarp. If Sonic looked closely, he could just barely make out the color blue with two stripes of red intersecting across. Bruin pulled the tarp aside and watched Sonic as he walked inside.

The inside of the building was a mess of large rusted gears, strung about cables, and assorted stone and metal debris. The moment Sonic was two feet inside, he knew he was being watched. They were smart enough to stay as far away from the streams of sunlight coming in from the openings in the ceiling as they could, but they weren't careful about moving around and causing echoes. Bruin walked up next to Sonic and held out his large paw. Sonic nodded, and handed him his holstered chaos pistol and his knife. Sonic held up his hands as high as they could go. "I just wanna talk," he said. "I hear you've been fighting this robotnik guy, well, I want in."

"That so?" asked someone that Sonic had not heard move. He turned around to face this new voice. She was shrouded in the darkest part of the already dark clocktower, well hidden from any would be attacker. She revealed herself, meaning she was interested. She struck a match on a nearby piece of stone and brought it up to her face, lighting a cigarette. The match illuminated part of her face, revealing her piercing blue eyes that locked on Sonic like an apex predator. The match went out, and she walked out of the darkness with a puff of smoke floating around her head. A vision of beauty and danger that left Sonic stunned to his spot. A hybrid between a squirrel and a chipmunk, with a mane of fiery red hair that partially obscured her eyes and ran down to her shoulders. Her slim, slightly muscular body was cloaked in a navy blue trench coat that hid a holstered revolver.

This was Princess Sally Acorn, and within ten seconds, she had done the near impossible; shut Sonic the hedgehog up.

Sally walked toward Sonic, her eyes never leaving his. She stopped mere inches away from him and stared deeper. The smoke from her cigarette wafted from her mouth and stroked along his face. Finally, Sally blinked and pulled back. As if her eyes casted some kind of spell on him that kept him from moving, and blinking was the act that broke it, Sonic clenched his watery eyes shut and waved the smoke from his face with a cough. "Holster 'em, he's not a spy," Sally said. The sounds of rifles being holstered echoed through the room. Sally, looked back at Sonic. "So, you're the upstart that Bruin recommended?" she asked, looking him up and down.

Sonic regained his composure and smirked. "The very same. Sonic the hedgehog, at your service," he said with a clumsy bow. "You must be the princess."

Sally remained stoic. "I am Sally Acorn, yes," she replied.

Sonic leaned in to her, "Well I am just charmed." Sonic then leaned back, slowly, when Bruin placed the barrel of his rifle at his head.

Sally didn't miss a beat. "Bruin informed me of your skill; subduing a gunman in the time it took my best soldier to blink. Quite a recommendation." Sally blew out another stream of smoke before taking out the cigarette and holding it between her index and middle fingers. "However, I remain unconvinced." With her other hand, she snapped her fingers. "Bunnie." Sonic looked up to his left to see, standing on one of the rusted catwalks, a bunny mobian with robotic legs and right arm. She glared down from under her cowgirl hat as she aimed her robotic arm down at Sally. The hand rearranged itself until it finished in the shape of a small cannon. Which was aimed right at Sally's head.

Sonic whipped his head back around to Sally, who calmly placed the cigarette back in her mouth. "She is going to shoot at me. You're going to stop her." Sally looked back up at Sonic, right back into his eyes. She wasn't kidding. "Bunnie…Fire." Before Sally could finish that command, Sonic was off like a bullet. A trail of blue tinted wind followed behind him as he sped past the four other guards stationed along the catwalks to get to Bunnie. Right as a ball of glowing red energy finished building up in the barrel, Sonic grabbed Bunnie's arm and pulled it up. A crimson beam of superheated plasma sped down towards the princess. Sally, meanwhile, calmly put out her cigarette on her boot, reached into a pack to grab another, and tilted her head upwards to catch a light from the plasma beam, which just barely missed her head and impacted the wall behind her. Sally gave a toothy grin that plumed with smoke.

Sonic glared at Bunnie. 'Okay, first off, you are a whole other batch of crazy," said Sonic, who got a wink from Bunnie as a response. Sonic sped down back in front of Sally, turning his glare on her. "Secondly, what if I wasn't that fast?"

Sally chuckled and parted her trench coat slightly. Hooked onto her belt was a small octagonal device that glowed blue in its center. "Then this shield generator would've blocked the blast. That was hardly Bunnie at her best, I would've been fine."

Sonic's glare subsided and he backed away from Sally. "Still, that was a little much, don't you think?"

"Hardly," Sally replied. "I needed to test how fast you are, and you performed admirably." Sally reached over and lightly patted Sonic's cheek with the back of her paw. "You're in."

Sonic stared wide eyed at Sally. He looked around at the other soldiers around him for any kind of indication as to how to feel about what just happened. Antoine was chuckling under his breath, Bruin rolled his eyes and grunted, and he could hear Bunnie laughing from across the room.

Sonic sighed, something told him that his fun had only just begun.