DISCLAMER: I OWN NOTHING OF SONIC THE HEDGEHOG, Sega or Archie Sonic Comics:

*Aside from my original characters*.

ALL RIGHTS BELONG TO SEGA + Archie Sonic Comics.

Please R&R. Enjoy!

Chapter 12

"let's play hard-ball"

Sally Acorn and Geoffrey St John sat there for a long time. One of the secretary's had brought two cups of tea for them, but they sat on the silver tray untouched. When John had eventually calmed down, He jerked away from Sally's lap, wiping his eyes on his black blazers sleeve. Sally looked away, sniffing away her own tears. Those ten minutes had been one of the best moments she had in months, the thought disgusted her.

When Geoffrey had climbed, crying and wailing, to lay his head on her knee, Sally felt needed again. She stroked the back of the weeping skunks head, hushing him soothingly. The princess had never seen the agent express emotion like that, and… no one had opened up to her in a long time. Sally shook her head. Stomach turning with guilt, she got to her feet and bolted from the room, trying to keep her lunch down. St John had hardly noticed the Princess leave, The Acorn Agent was already on the phone, formulating plans, and trying his best to keep his sorrow turned rage, in check.

The Princess had made to the female bathroom; the churning in her stomach had subsided. She took a few breaths, the chipmunk thumped her fist on the sink, embarrassment flushing her cheeks. Her head swam around with a hundred thoughts at once, things had gone bad so quickly it was hard to believe she had just heard the news…

Miles abducted, two agents wounded and one dead, and all this, after telling sonic the plan, which he made perfectly clear he did not approve. What was he going to say when he got the message to return to the Acorn Palace? The Princess was now regretting even calling him in the first place. Had she jinxed the mission? "Sally? Are you ok?" Sally jumped at the sudden appearance of her A.I. companion Nicole.

Nicole was now the Acorn Agency's intelligence and communications chief, it was no doubt she had witnessed the whole mess in the briefing room, and the melt down of St John and herself. If Sally could hug a hologram she would have at that moment. Since the peace Nicole had been furiously studying the finer points of emotions and how to communicate, and express feelings, the A.I. program had gotten so good at conversational skills she was offered a diplomatic role in the Human-Mobian relations.

But, St John had convinced Nicole to stay and help the agency, and help hunt down the Independence. "Sally? Please talk to me" Nicole pressed on, knowing to crack this 'acorns shell' she had to be persistent. Eventually sally let her emotions flow, confiding in her A.I. companion the mixed and sudden feelings for St John, the overwhelming guilt she now felt for even agreeing to this absurd plan. Crying as she went on, the guilt for putting one of her oldest friends in that situation, she wanted to know how Tails was doing so bad it hurt her insides. And now Sonic was sure to lose his cool. She shuddered.

The confusion and guilt became anger. "How could I put Tails in danger like this? Why did I listen to Geoffrey?" she blurted when she was done ranting, Nicole pondered this for a moment, but before she could express her thoughts her face went blank, eyes fading to grey as she received a message. As soon as it happened it ceased, "Sally… That was your father on the emergency line; he needs you in the briefing room immediately… the Governor of Gemini is most upset. I think we should hurry." Nicole knew it must be worse than either of them thought...

Sally was already washing her face at the mention of her father. She stood, drying her face, "alright, let's see if I can fix this mess…. Nicole?" "Yes?" Sally looked to the ground, "Will you stay with me during this mess? I don't think I can take any more bad news today" Nicole smiled, "Of course, I'm your friend right?" giving the princess a reassuring thumbs up as the two old friends headed back to the briefing room.

When they entered the room, St John was already seated at the half circle table, with the Video conference projector ready. King acorn waved Sally over to him, he was seated out of the projectors sight "My dear girl this couldn't be any worse! He's saying our agents killed 3 human police officers! One killed in a hail of gun fire and the other two killed by a grenade!" Sally cut him off, her father was becoming panicked, and with his health in decline Princess Sally waved a black suited agent over, directing him to wheel her father out of the room.

"Please take my father up to see my mother. She should be awake, she might be clear minded enough to have a visit today" Her father hushed up at the sound of seeing his wife, in her old age Queen Alicia's mind had slipped. She often forgot people and events, like getting married… every once and a while though, she would come too, just long enough to have a meaningful conversation. "Hurry lad, let's get a move on." Urged King Max as the agent wheeled him out, Sally smiled, as her father was pushed past her, he reached out and gently grasped her hand, giving a quick squeeze, seeing her mother always made her father's mood improve, but it was always a game of chance, Sally hoped it wasn't one of her mother's off days.

As soon as her father was out of the room she wiped a tear away, "princess we should answer the governor yes?" Nicole tenderly asked, Sally nodded and turned to the head of her security, and the master mind behind this whole mess, asking flatly. "What was my Father talking about? We attacked police?" Geoffrey wasn't looking to well, his eyes had darkness in them now, he was sitting straight up, looking forward at the blank wall opposite himself. The air around the agent was giving off a cold, negative vibe. Sally's anger wavering slightly at the sight of the black and white skunk, he was a very different Mobian now, it was evident.

"Sally, really we must respond now, lest we infuriate the Human government more" Sally Nodded, hitting the button in the center of the ornate wooden table, the projector snapped to life, connecting the two leaders via video transmission.

"About damn time!" the human governor of Gemini was red faced, a rather large human, mostly around the waist, and obviously upset. "I'm terribly sorry governor, we were having communication issues," Nicole gave a snort; Sally shot her a look "I hear there has been an incident in your city?"

"LIKE YOU DON'T KNOW!" blasted the tubby human, "your agents were here illegally, and shot up a popular night club an' too top it off killed three of the city's law enforcement officers!" "NO THEY DID NOT!" yelled St John, "If your police had any brains they would see that your police were killed by bullets and an explosive device. First off we use phasers, and are in no way allowed to carry explosives."

Sally gawked at St John outburst, then back at the projected image of Gemini's "My head of security is right, we-" "What does it matter what they used, they shouted your fathers praise before they ran off!" the human blurted, Sally cut him back in return "Please governor, Calm down! We might as well tell you, my head of security will explain the situation." She sighed as she stepped back, St John going into the details of the independence, there failed attempt to capture them on earth, and the kidnapped Freedom Fighter

It took a while to get everything explained to the huffy human. "-And that's why we need your co-operation Governor, we can keep this contained, our Intel is clear on one fact, there hideout is on the outskirts of Gemini city. We just need to find it and its game over, there already broken, we just need 24 hrs…" Geoffrey St John sighed as he finished. The human was quiet for a few moments, "Alright Princess, we will keep this between us for now. You have my permission to send a team. Just fix your own problems on your own planet for now on." *Blip* and the human switched off the two way projector.

Sally collapsed into one of the many chairs in the room sighing, crisis temporally adverted, the hard part was getting Tails back. "I got to say Geoffrey, you can really spin a good story… you made the independence sound really scary!" Nicole exclaimed, happy to see things had been worked out, at leaset politically speaking. But Tails was still a hostage and the agency had taken a bad hit with the loss of Hershey St John, and the wounding of two of their best, Antoine and Rob 'O.

St John turned as he was leaving, his eerie and tired eyes making the A.I. program 'shiver' "They can kill the best of us. They are scary…" Geoffrey said quietly, and then left to prepare a rescue team.

Tails awoke inside the car. But the engine was quite. The fox went to lift his hand to scratch his nose, but his hands were cuffed, same with his feet. Despite it being one of the worst nights of his life, he felt ok, no hang over from ether the alcohol or from the drug he had been injected with. He gave a slight jump when his door was opened, It was Dutch, the dog bent in and un cuffed Tails feet. Then motioned for him to exit the car, Tails did as he was asked. As soon as he could stand his heart sank, he could feel his twin tails had been taped together at their bases, making that initial twist, to get lift up off the ground, impossible.

Dutch put his hand on the young foxes shoulder guiding him away from the huge inside parking lot; they walked for a few minutes, not saying a word. Tails was stern faced. The euphoria of the past night drugs and booze long gone. Tails was thinking on overdrive, Freedom Fighter training kicking in. The fox was eventually left in a room with nothing in it.

Before Dutch left he said something too Tails that made his hair stand on end. "So my friend, this is where you have a choice. Help us, and you will be rewarded and blah blah blah… a fighter like you won't stoop so low as to be bribed, but threats... Help us and we won't kill everyone you know. Refuses and you will never leave this room until you do help us."

Dutch stood there, awaiting a response. "I'd rather be roboticized then help you…" Tails said with a slight hiss, glaring at his kidnapper. "I'm sorry to hear that, but I didn't expect anything less from you. I want you to meet someone then… and remember, you can change your mind at anytime… Mister Smith!"

Tails could hear someone walking down the hall towards his cell, appearing beside Dutch a was a human, its skin was a pale white, it was male and must have been in its late 40's, the human was a bit chunky around the waist, and its large round black framed glasses made its comb-over stand out. The human also had scruffy hair around his mouth and upper lip, cheeks too. Its hair, both on the face and the top of its head was a dark blond in color; its clothes looked plain, but neat and clean. The human had on jet black dress pants, a white dress shirt, and a black tie.

The Human walked up to Tails, extending a hand "Well hi there little buddy, I hear you want to play hard-ball. I can say something before I begin? I think you should reconsider. I don't know if you know much about humans, but we usually get what we want. Get my drift? So, want to think this over?"

The young Freedom Fighter had done so much in the years fighting Eggman, had suffered with his allies, and seen much death. He was not afraid of one middle aged human. Tails smacked away the outstretched hand and hissed once more.

"Well," the human looked behind himself at Dutch, who was watching with an indifferent face, "That settles it I guess?" Dutch nodded, turned and left. The human grabbed Tails cuffed hands and dragged the small fox to the center of the room, it was calling out to some Mobian's who entered with a large metal chair; it looked like it weighed a ton. It took two large dog type-Mobian's, huffing and puffing, to half drag half lift it to the center of the room.

The human shoved Tails towards the two grinning dogs, then grabbed him roughly and forced the struggling fox in the chair, once they finally got the tussling vulpine in the contraption, they strapped him in. one strap across his forehead, one strap across his chest and waist, one on each foot, and each hand. "RRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH HHH" Tails was bellowing as he fought against his restraints, his chest rising and falling with his rage, "Let me Goooooo!"

"Thank you gentle-dogs, that'll be all" said the human casually, ignoring his prisoners screams and protests with a calm smile. The two Independence fighters laughed as they shook 'Mister Smiths' hand as they left them alone in the cell.

"Oh! One thing before you two go, can you get someone to bring me a water hose and a towel. And my suitcase…"

*Thanks again for reading!*