After having gone on down to Merbiana to discuss evacuating the people until the threat of Dr. Eggman's seaside factory has been averted, Sally was quickly swimming back towards the surface and arrived there, crawling out of the water and grabbed a towel she had left there before proceeding to dry herself off, causing her legs to return as the brown chipmunk proceeded to put her jacket and boots back on.
"Alright. The people of Merbiana have been warned about the threat that is upon them. Now to try and gain more intel on Eggman's seaside factory like I told the other Freedom Fighters I would be doing." Sally told herself as she ran off into the forest to go find Eggman's seaside factory.
Shortly after Sally left the scene, Vector, Espio and Charmy proceeded to arrive there, carrying their camera equipment as well as a bunch of scuba gear. "Here we go, guys! Our first trip down under the ocean as we try to search for the existence of Merbians! Isn't this exciting?" Vector asked Espio and Charmy with a bright smile.
"It sure is, Vector! I wonder what kind of Merbians we'll be meeting during our trip underwater? Merhogs? Merfoxes? Merchidnas? Mermunks? Merdogs? Mercats? I can't wait to see them all!" Charmy buzzed happily as he began putting on his scuba gear.
Espio sighed as he also began putting on his scuba gear, finding the idea of hunting Merbians for money morally sickening, but as he found earlier, he didn't have a say in it, because Vector and Charmy were clearly in the majority on the matter. "I pray to Gaia that Vector will soon learn that hunting Merbians and then selling them for money isn't the right way to go about earning money...If not, I might just end up leaving the Chaotix..." Espio thought to himself.
Vector also started putting on his scuba gear, laughing at Charmy's excitement to start looking for Merbians. "Well, regardless of what kind of Merbians we'll be meeting during our trip under the ocean surface, you can bet your boots that it's gonna make us richer than we could've ever imagined!" He told Charmy. Soon, the three Chaotix finished putting on their scuba gear, and Vector proceeded to grab his camera and turned it back on, beginning to film once more.
"Welcome back, Mobius, to The Merbian Hunters! Me and my boys, Espio and Charmy just arrived at the closest body of water we could find, and we're about to start our journey into the ocean as we're going to start looking for Merbians! So, without further ado, let's take a dive into the deep unknown!" Vector proudly announced as he spoke to the camera.
Charmy gasped in shock. "Vector! Vector, you gotta take a look at this!" Charmy exclaimed as Vector turned the camera towards the young bee, who was pointing at the marks that Sally had previously left in the sand with her fishtail when she crawled out of the water. "These marks in the sand couldn't have been made by an ordinary Mobian, so that clearly means that a Merbian was here not too long ago!" Charmy buzzed happily.
"Good catch, Charmy! That means that at least one Merbian should be nearby! Let's take a dive down under and find out if that's actually the case!" Vector beamed as him, Espio and Charmy each put their air helmets on and proceeded to dive into the water, swimming out into the open ocean.
Meanwhile, Sally had ventured further into the forest, trying to find any signs of Eggman's seaside factory being built, and before long, the brown chipmunk had found the building site of the seaside factory. She quickly dove into a nearby set of bushes as she began to observe the situation. She saw multiple SWATbots working on the construction of the seaside factory, building pipelines that led into the ocean as well as setting up the general skeleton of the factory's foundation.
"Hm...How am I going to get a closer look at this construction site without being detected by those SWATbots...?" Sally let out an inquisitive hum as she tried to think of a plan of action. She then got an idea, as the brown chipmunk proceeded to get out Nicole's handheld computer form and booted her up.
"Greetings, Sally. How's your solo recon mission going so far?" Nicole chirped after having booted up.
"I've managed to find the location where Eggman's seaside factory is being built, Nicole. The only problem, it's swarming with SWATbots, so I can't really get a closer look at the construction site without being detected. Do you think you could hack into the SWATbots' systems and scramble their comms so that they go away from the construction site?" Sally asked her computer companion after having explained the deal to her.
"Working on it, Sally. Scrambling the SWATbots' comms as per your request." Nicole chirped once more as Sally looked back at the SWATbots, seeing their visors changing colors as they began to move away from the construction site. "Those SWATbots won't be too much of a trouble for you anymore, Sally. You're free to move towards the construction site." Nicole informed Sally.
Sally lightly smiled. "Thank you, Nicole. I no longer need to not be disturbed during my recon mission, so if you have anything from Sonic and the other Freedom Fighters on their end of the mission, be sure to keep me posted, and tell them that they're free to contact me again, alright?" She informed her computerized associate.
"Understood, Sally. Sonic, Antoine and Bunnie should be nearby, and I've made them aware of the SWATbots coming their way. They should be able to handle them efficiently. Once they're clear of danger, I will inform them to link up with you, and then we should have a decent investigation team put together for the remainder of this mission." Nicole replied to Sally.
Sally nodded at that. "Alright. I'll take a look at the construction site as I await Sonic, Antoine and Bunnie to arrive." She replied back to Nicole before putting her away again as she began to move towards the construction site, being careful not to get wet from salt water and transform into a Mermunk in the process.
A short distance away from the construction site, Sonic, Antoine and Bunnie were currently engaging the SWATbots Nicole had led away from the construction site in combat, with Sonic letting his feet do their stuff, Antoine using his sword and Bunnie using her cybernetics to take care of the SWATbots.
"Boy, am I glad Nicole warned us of those SWATbots coming our way. Wouldn't have wanted to bump into those things and risk being caught off guard." Sonic remarked as he kicked one of the SWATbots' heads in, deactivating it in the process.
"Oui, and I'm glad to hear zat Sally is available for contact once again. I appreciate Rotor, Tails and Nicole 'elping wherever zey can on zis mission, but Sally is still ze leader. And a team can only function at its best with guidance from ze leader." Antoine chimed in as he stabbed a SWATbot through the chest with his sword, causing it to sputter and deactivate.
"Don't worry 'bout Sally girl so much, 'Toine. She's a strong young woman, an' she can handle herself in a fight if she ever finds herself in one, y'know?" Bunnie assured her husband as she uppercut a SWATbot with her robotic arm, causing it to deactivate from the sheer force of Bunnie's punch.
"Bunnie's right, Antoine. If anyone can handle themselves in a fight, it's Sally. She's dealt with plenty of tough fights in the past and she's managed to come out victorious of pretty much all of 'em." Sonic pointed out as he Spin Dashed into another SWATbot as it fell at the hands of the cobalt blue hedgehog.
Antoine nodded at Sonic and Bunnie's words as he slashed at another SWATbot with his sword, defeating it in the process. "You both make a good point. But zere's time for talking later. For ze time being, we must take out ze remainder of zese SWATbots and zen try to link up with Sally, oui?" The coyote pointed out to his fellow Freedom Fighters.
Bunnie grinned and nodded. "Ah hear ya, 'Toine. With our might combined, we'll have these buckets of bolts mowed down in nothin' flat." She told her husband as she did a Spin Kick at one of the SWATbots as it fell from the might of her cybernetic strength. The trio of Freedom Fighters kept on fighting the SWATbots until all of them were defeated.
"Alright, that should be all of 'em! Now let's go link up with Sally!" Sonic grinned as he began running towards the location of the construction site.
"Wait up, Sonic! Don't leave us like zis!" Antoine shouted as he ran after Sonic.
Bunnie giggled. "You should know how Sugah Hog operates by now, Sugah 'Toine." She told her husband with a playful roll of her eyes as she began to follow as well.
Back with Sally, the brown chipmunk was in the middle of writing down notes about the construction site and what she needed to know in order to formulate a plan to take down the construction site.
"Alright, I think I should have about enough notes and enough material to work with to start formulating the next phase of my plan to deal with taking down this seaside factory..." Sally muttered to herself.
"Hey, Sal!" Sonic shouted as Sally looked up to see Sonic arriving, with the cobalt blue hedgehog skidding to a stop and kicking up a bunch of dirt in the process. "Glad to see you made it out of your solo recon mission in one piece!" Sonic told Sally with a grin and a thumbs up.
Sally lightly smiled and waved upon seeing Sonic arrive. "Hello, Sonic. Glad to see you made it here unharmed as well. What about Antoine and Bunnie?" She asked the cobalt blue hedgehog.
"They're fine, and they're on their way here. Have you managed to get any intel on the progress the ol' Eggbelly's managed to make with building this factory?" Sonic asked the brown chipmunk, putting a finger to his lips in an inquisitive manner.
Sally nodded at Sonic's question. "I'd say so. I've managed to get a decent amount of notes and material to work with from observing this construction site, so that should be able to help us in formulating our next step in taking down this factory before Eggman can finish construction on it and potentially cause serious harm to the aquatic wildlife that surrounds the Republic of Acorn." She informed the cobalt blue hedgehog as she held up Nicole's handheld form in her right hand while having her left hand resting on her hip.
Sonic grinned and gave Sally another thumbs up. "I'm glad to hear that, Sal. Once Antoine and Bunnie get here, we should get outta here before the Eggmeister sends more of his robotic lackeys after us." He suggested to the brown chipmunk, to which Sally nodded in agreement. Not too long after that, Antoine and Bunnie arrived at the scene as well.
"Ah, Sally! I'm glad to see you're fine!" Antoine beamed as he came to a stop next to Sonic, with Bunnie doing the same thing.
Sally giggled a little bit. "Don't worry your buttocks off about me, Antoine. Just because I'm a princess who's delicately built doesn't mean I can't handle myself in a fight. And even if I do lose a fight, I can find myself out of the predicament I find myself in afterward. And if I don't, then I've got you and the other Freedom Fighters to count on." She assured the coyote with a light smile.
Bunnie giggled too as she playfully punched her husband's shoulder. "Ah keep tellin' 'im he don't need to worry 'bout you so much, Sally girl, yet he keeps on doin' it." She replied to the brown chipmunk.
Sally giggled a bit more before jumping down from the construction site's skeleton as she walked over to the rest of the group. "Well, I'd say we got what we need from this recon mission, so let's head back to Freedom Fighters' HQ and start planning out the next steps of this operation." She suggested to her friends as they began making their way back towards their base of operations.