Author Note: Only a few more chapter's in this Act. Please send criticisms or it can't improve. Thank you.

Chapter 20

Sonic shouldered the damaged cop-bot to the ground while his siblings fired at the ones behind it. As three of the remaining cop-bots stopped Sonic swung up his gun and emptied its clip into the last one.

"Where is Knuckles coming from?" Sonic asked.

"Same way we came in." Sonia said.

"Do you remember the way?"

"Yes."

"Take the lead."

Sonia went to the front as Sonic and Manic reloaded their clips and pushed the former king into the center of the formation. They started down the hallways of the palace, and began to hear the sound of tracer fire coming closer. As they turned a corner they saw Knuckles and a unit of freedom fighters firing at cop-bots from around a corner. The three hedgehogs ducked back to avoid loose bullets from their comrades, while the skunk frowned at the bullets burrowing into his property. Sonic poked around the corner to shoot a cop-bot from behind, distracting them long enough to be neatly finished by the freedom fighters. Knuckles's unit joined up with them, with some of the kids keeping watch so the leaders could talk.

"This is the king?" Knuckles asked, pointing at the skunk.

"Yeah." Sonic said. Knuckles turned to address the former king.

"Sorry, majesty, but this was the quickest way to get you out."

"Why do-" The king began to ask, but Knuckles pushed him to the ground as the rattle of gunfire started back up.

"Negotiations. We'll talk later." The gunfire stopped as the last of the latest cop-bots fell. They made their way to the outside of the palace, but as they opened the door several units of cop-bots were waiting for them. Knuckles and Sonic chose to quickly fire along the middle height of the cop-bots before ducking into cover like the rest of the kids, pulling the former king with them. Knuckles turned as he heard the clanking steps of cop-bots coming from the hallways.

"Tell me." He asked the king. "Did this kid ever mention knowing military tactics?"

"Maybe once or twice. Why?" The king asked.

"Cause he's had more training than I have then." Knuckles flattened against the wall and shot the first cop-bot to come around the corner. "Sonia, we're going to need help fast."

"Ha." Lisa yelled as she turned over a card that made the rest of the players wince. Sure she had rigged the deck, but so had they, so there was no love lost. There was nothing else to do since Knuckles had led a unit in to bail out Manic's band when they tried to kidnap the king, and the girl who kept stalking Manic's brother was heading up a distraction. Suddenly a radio crackled to life, and the annoying green bird was the first to pick it up.

"Hey, they need some more dudes." The bird yelled. "Apparently Amy can't get out after all, and all the big jobs need someone else to get them out. He's saying the gangsters should do it."

"Come on." Lisa moaned, brushing the cards away and standing up. "Anyone else want to come besides my gang?" there were a few, including an echidna and the human girl who was supposed to be the stalker girl's friend. "This'll work."

Amy kept her gun pointed at the roof as it shook again. She hadn't been able to tell precisely how the cop-bots had reached the roof, but she did see a larger machine with a stack of metal sheets on it. She figured if she waited long enough the guy would say what happened, seeing as he felt the need to give details about everything else. Her radio crackled to life and she ducked into the living room to listen to it.

"Hey Amy." The voice on the other end said.

"Yona?" Amy asked.

"Yeah. I got handed the radio since I'm not the best fighter here. We're clearing off your rooftop now and then moving on to help out Knuckles and the band."

"Okay… nice talking to you?"

"For given definition. Don't worry about Sonic, I'll make sure he gets back in perfect condition." Amy breathed in hard.

"Just couldn't resist, could you?"

"Nope."

"Boo-yah." Dalin yelled as he finished of the fork lift robot. Pretty clever using industrial equipment to make bridges over the rooftops, but that would only make this rescue team's time easier. The freedom fighters quickly ran over to the next roof top and paused to deal with another contingent of cop-bots sent to stop them. The human girl with the radio pulled off the metal sheet leading to the stone house, temporarily stopping cop-bots from reaching it again. Dalin helped finish off the last of the most recent cop-bots and then the freedom fighters were moving again, running a full two rooftops before having to stop to destroy more cop-bots. Dalin could see in the distance a factory rooftop where the cop-bots were coming from. They soon fought their way to the factory's roof, and destroyed another squad of cop-bots as it exited the elevator. The gangster girl who was running things took the liberty of shooting up everything inside the elevator, probably disabling it. As she walked out she pointed behind her.

"We'll have to finish this on the ground." She said. They shortly made their way down the factory's fire escape and paused before running to the next alleyway. They kept still as a unit of cop-bots walked by them, and then continued their advance towards the palace. They turned a corner and could see the palace just down the road, a crowd of cop-bots surrounding one point. Dalin glanced down his tracer's scope and opened fire, causing a few of the cop-bots to turn around and shoot at him. A rough hand grabbed him and pulled him back into the alley. The gangster attached to it started cussing him out for revealing themselves to soon, when time was suppose to be of the essence. She led them around by a different route to reach the cop-bots from a new angle.

Knuckles took a quick glance at the exit before turning to fire another burst down the hallway.

"We're clear to leave." Sonia yelled as she put her radio down. Manic shoved the door open and dragged the king out as the other kids followed, while Knuckles stayed to fend off the advancing cop-bots. As he took out the last of the latest batch to be sent at them he turned and ran out the door, slamming it behind him and joining up with the combined group of freedom fighters. He quickly started yelling out directions.

"Sonia, call the other group and tell them we're pulling out. We'll have to stay on the street the entire time; the king won't be able to make the jump between rooftops. If we keep in cover we shouldn't have any problems.

Big looked through the bags, seeing as there was no place to fish and nothing else to do. He found a box with a large glowing ring in it, so he took out the ring and started throwing it in the air and catching it, seeing how many times he could do so before dropping it. He had worked his way up to five catches before everyone came back, and the old echidna with the brass knuckles was with them. The echidna immediately started yelling at him to put it back, so Big put it back before the echidna could yell anymore or start hitting him. He tried to look as small as possible as he shuffled into a corner, but he knew it would be hard to do with so many of the little hedgehogs around and only a few humans. If he was lucky people would start ignoring him again.

Knuckles watched the wolf pace back and forth impatiently. Bartelby sat in a chair, flicking his fingers back and forth. The king of Thran was standing still to the side, nodding absently. The silence that surrounded the manor was finally broken by Sonic.

"So, king-dude, what's your name." The king took a few seconds to realize that Sonic was talking to him and another few to realize he had never actually said his name.

"Oh, uh… Geoffrey. Geoffrey Saint John."

"Cool. Doesn't sound very Thranish." Sonic said. King John put his hand up and rubbed his forehead. "Oh. Hear that a lot?"

"Yes." John said. Knuckles clapped his hands together in irritation.

"Enough with the small talk. We need to get moving quickly, and we honestly should have left already. Antoine, you've probably already been marked as working with us. Your staff can probably fend for themselves."

"Indeed." Said a butler that Knuckles hadn't even realized was there.

"Bartleby, you-"

"Will have to come with." Sonia said. Her brothers looked at her suspiciously. "This kid…"

"Edward Goering." John clarified. "And he's not really a kid."

"Edward, can probably look up that you visited here, and judging from his accusation at the king, probably think you are collaborating to."

"Oh, bother." Bartleby said.

"At least you know how to shoot." Sonia said.

"Oh, right." Bartleby mumbled. Knuckles nodded and took back the lead

"Now that that's sorted out, we need to get moving. Antoine, we'll be taking some of your food as supplies, seeing how we have developed a habit of picking up random people. Noble people, I hope you know how to walk."

The watcher leaned back against a tree, listening to the sounds that sped through the forest. Leaves rustled from the wind, bugs hummed and chattered, animals pattered over dead leaves. Behind him a fire burned in the center of the dirt road, around which the two hunters that he followed talked again.

"So, what should we do with the kids when we find them?" Sleet said. The watcher stayed where he was. It was clearly a trick to lure him out. He kept his temperament, not letting his position be revealed.

"On the knees execution?" Dingo suggested.

"Nah." Sleet replied. "Too tricky. They've got a small army with them, and that older echidna will probably be too good to just avoid. It needs to be something quicker. Hey, or we could take them away from the group and figure out what to do later." Sleet said. Dingo shook his head.

"I couldn't carry all of them." He said.

"I got it." Sleet said repositioning himself. "We kidnap one, and use them to lure out the other two. Got any one you'd think be best?"

"Well, the girl is really pretty." Dingo said. The watcher suppressed a shudder at the obscenity of the thought. He didn't know what the orange one was, but it certainly wasn't a hedgehog. Sleet coarsely mumbled a need to relieve himself, and ran into the woods towards the watcher. It was clear that his hurry would have him totally ignore the watcher, giving time to reposition and miss detection on the return journey. The watcher gasped as the wolf's foot suddenly spun into his neck. He must have heard the shudder. How could I let- the watcher cut off his mental tirade as Sleet grabbed his arms and dragged him up, the watcher shifting into a dark yellow color. The being kicked at the wolf's shins that simply weaved away as Dingo came and grabbed the watcher's legs. The two bounty hunters carried the watcher into the firelight and threw him on the ground, revealing it to be a chameleon. They quickly brought out their guns to keep him in place.

"Ha. Knew it was a ninja." Sleet said.

"A ninja?" Dingo said fearfully.

"Not a real one. Just a clan of assassins who decided to take the name, right?" Sleet said, nodding towards the captive. The chameleon had evened out his breathing, and was slowly fading into a dark purple. He shrugged his shoulders expressively.

"It is true we are not the legendary warriors, but I do not know where our name was drawn from."

"Right." Sleet said. He jerked the gun up once to punctuate his question. "Now, who you after?"

"I am here to kill the three leaders of the Mobian revolution." The chameleon said. "I have no grudge against you."

"You just don't like how we were gonna' do it?" Dingo said. The chameleon looked at him quietly for a few seconds before responding.

"Yes." Sleet laughed and lowered his gun. "You're still caught up on that? That was just to freak you out, right Dingo?"

"Right." The orange anthro said distantly.

"Now." Sleet said. "My job's just to make sure the three kids end up dead, and how that happens is up to me. If you can figure out a better way to do it, that's fine by me. Though I think you need our help finding them, right?" The chameleon looked to the ground and suppressed a flash of black across his features.

"Yes." He said.

"Okay then, you can come with us. By the by kid, what should we call you by?" Sleet said as he sat back down for the night. The chameleon flashed black and faded back to purple quickly, suppressing his anger.

"I am Espio Altair, student of Master Mil-Lah, ninja of the tenth circle." The chameleon said. Sleet popped his head up from a sleeping position to pose one last question.

"Tenth order: that good or bad?" the wolf said. The chameleon bowed his head and answered.

"It is the lowest circle a full ninja can be in."

"That's what I figured." Sleet said, leaning his head back on the ground. Espio went over to a tree and leaned back against it for the night. There was no purpose anymore in avoiding the hunters, and they would probably find him useful enough to give him free reign. He let himself fade into sleep quickly.

"So they escaped?" the Robotnik said.

"Yes." Edward replied. After having a unit of servitors release him he had gone to Thran's converted throne room, where the communicator to the other overseer's, including his distant uncle, was located.

"And you did not pursue?"

"Thran's reserves of cop-bots were severely depleted in the attack. I am planning to have them intercepted at the next city they eneter."

"Did the rebels suffer any casualties?"

"Not that I am aware of."

"I see." The Robotnik said darkly. Edward took a soft-boiled egg from the bowl behind him. Leading the defense against the rebels had made him hungry, and he had been pleased to find the eggs in the palace's storerooms.

"Do not worry, uncle, I have every reason to state that I am perfectly in control of this situation." With a single flick Edward made a crack along the entire egg's length.