Manuel was driving back to Westopolis, pleased with himself as he played some music on the radio as the four people he brought along celebrated their little victory in the back. He turned the music down as he looked back at them, noticing that their masks were off now as well.

"You four did good today," he said.

"Did good?" Jude scoffed. "We fuckin' killed it!"

"And Marla didn't shoot someone either, so bonus," said Taylor.

"If you keep reminding me of that, I will shoot you on purpose," said Marla.

"Well, it's hard to forget it," Taylor smirked. "Why, I remember it like it was yesterd-"

Marla flung a punch at him, making him jerk his head back before he reached to point a gun at her chest. Before he could smile too much, he heard the cocking of another gun, looking down to see Marla's hand on a pistol, the muzzle aimed at his crotch. He put his hand up before putting his gun away, nodding.

"All right, I'm sorry," Taylor said.

"Good." Marla got a tissue from her pocket, giving it to him. "Your lip's bleeding."

"When you'er all finished," Manuel said, "as soon as Jem wires the money to our accounts, I'll give you guys a bit extra for a job well done. You can spend it however you like. After all, you can't live in Westopolis unless you're free to do as you please."

"That's a weird notion of freedom, but I get it," Bruno said. "With Jem around, things do feel... different."

"He did give us a home after the riots," said Marla. "So, Manuel... who was Lara?"

"Oh, uh... she... she used to run a brothel that I frequent," Manuel said. "She was an important person to me."

"She must have given some incredible head," Taylor muttered.

Manuel huffed out. "I mean... she was great at that part. Obviously. But also, there was a connection to her that I had. More than the physical aspect, we had respect between us. Even Beau and Nack kept that balanced... and then Nack went to prison and left us a lot of money. Things started going well until he came back and brought the freelancers with him."

"Why did he do that?" asked Bruno.

"He kidnapped a human friend of one of them. Her name was Maria." He let out a low sigh. "Neither of them deserved to die that day. Nack... he did."

"So how come you didn't go out and get revenge after the riots?" asked Jude. "We all saw the news and the fact that the freelancers were on hold afterwards."

"Jem was trying to rebuild. We'd lost a lot of men and women before, so he wanted to do things right for when the freelancers were allowed to do their job again."

"And you were helping him to rebuild?" asked Marla. "Is that why Beau isn't around?"

"Beau isn't around because he made a stupid decision," Manuel said. "I don't know where the fuck he is. And I honestly don't much care."

"Why not?" asked Jude.

"Because he poisons people more than the rest of us. I never liked the drug business," Manuel scoffed.

"Right, because bullets are a much safer thing to pass through someone's body," said Taylor. "And we just picked up a lot today, so... try not to be so hypocritical about it."

"Hey, I know what I do and I know how messy it is," said Manuel. "I don't necessarily like killing, but the key word is the necessity there. If we need to, we will." He pulled into Westopolis, driving through the city. "Where do you guys want to be dropped off?"

"HQ," said Marla. "We do have rooms there."

"Well, it's getting pretty late and Jem might need us for another message or something tomorrow, so..." Taylor shrugged.

"I'm going with you guys, so I'll see if I can swing that extra money thing for you," Manuel said.

The rest of the drive towards the old prison was silent, and Bruno put in a call ahead of time for Jem, Gerren, Martin, and anyone else there to help bring the guns in. After that was all sorted, Manuel found himself in what used to be Nack's office, sitting across from his new boss and giving him a debriefing, explaining what happened at Green Hill to the point of delivering the message.

"Well, I hope for your sake that they do deliver what I'm demanding," Jem said. "How did the other four do today?"

"They held their own today," Manuel said. "Followed orders, did as they were told, showed no nervousness or anxiety... and I think that they should get a bit extra."

"Well... as soon as we get some of those guns sold, they'll get their bit extra," said Jem. "But you... you've really impressed me today. I mean, getting to them at their preferred eatery is a bit obvious, but we don't even get Jade Mountain up here. It sounds delicious."

"I've tried the sweet chilli chicken before," Gerren said. "It's actually quite nice."

"I'll bet," said Jem. "Nonetheless, Manuel, you've earned extra pay and a few days off for your work."

"Actually, I was wondering if that extra pay could go to the fake freelancers," Manuel said. "I said to them that they should get some extra money. I don't mind my account taking a hit."

"That is very altruistic of you, but you led them. You got the guns, you sprung the trap, and you delivered the message. The others merely followed you instructions, and they did it to the letter, I might add."

"But-"

"And wired," Martin said, holding his phone in his hand. "Don't spend it all in the one place that you're going to spend it."

"I really don't like you some days, Martin," Manuel said. "But thanks." He turned to Jem. "So, what's the next message?"

"I haven't thought much about it yet, but I'm thinking that we should maybe film a video this time." He turned to Gerren. "You're going to deliver it to them."

"I'll get to work on the ID," Martin said.

"What are you going to say to them, boss?" Gerren asked.

"Hmm... I don't know," Jem said. "It'll be off of the top of my head."

Gerren nodded. "Fair enough." He pulled his phone out and pressed the button to record, nodding that it was ready.

"Freelancers, this is another warning to you that if you don't give me the thing that I want, things will get much worse for Tails' parents. Again, I don't care when you deliver the implants to me. In fact, take as long as you need. It'll be on your collective consciences that people are suffering. I may put the guns in my men's hands, but you will be pulling the triggers. And yes, those will be the guns that once belonged to people like you. And those won't be the only things that I take from you. If you don't want the body count to get any higher, give me what I want." He nodded to Gerren, who stopped the recording.

"Good work there," said Martin. "So, what will your next attack plan be?"

"The same as usual," said Jem. "Find out where they're going and stage an attack there. If we're going to make a point, we need to push past Green Hill."

"Thanks to Martin, we can go pretty much anywhere," Gerren stated.

"Well, you guys have fun with that plan," Manuel sighed, turning to leave. "I'm going to turn in. It's getting late and it's really cold. I'll go get some warmth."

"So who's on the menu tonight?" Gerren asked. "Or does that not matter? You can fuck as many girls as you want from there, but they won't be... what was that bitch's name again?"

The bull smiled and ran to grab the human's collar, pushing him against a nearby wall and huffing a breath at him. He knocked him to the ground with a hard punch, landing another one to Gerren's stomach before kneeling down next to him, seeing Gerren's nose bleeding from the punch that he landed before he reached to lift him back to his feet.

"Her name was Lara," Manuel said. "She did a lot for this city. She was strong and stood her ground when it counted. You're just Jem's bitch monkey and you're only here because you helped a dead weasel."

"Manuel," Jem called out, "that's enough. Go have your fun."

The black pull shook his head, but he was kind enough to get a tissue from his pocket and handing it to Gerren. "Your nose is bleeding."

He then brushed past him, leaving Jem's office and going to his truck outside. He hopped in and drove to the brothel, finding a spot to park before walking up to the door and knocking on it, being let in by the security guard and checking himself in at the front desk.

"Hey," he said to the receptionist. "Who have you got in today?"

"There are three girls available tonight," said the receptionist. "Ava, Gianna, and... Kenzie. Who would you like."

"Ava, please," Manuel said.

The receptionist smiled and called for Lisa's room, conversing with her before nodding. "All right, she's ready for you."

"Thank you," Manuel said. "I'll pay you in the morning. I'm staying the night."

"Well, I don't run the brothel, but thank you," the receptionist smiled. "She's upstairs."

The bull went upstairs and knocked on the room to Lisa's door, and a Mobian bird with orange feathers opened it and smiled. "Ah, there you are, handsome."

"Hey, Ava," Manuel smiled, leaning to hug her. "How are you doing?"

"After the recovery process, things have been going well," Ava said, hugging back. "And not just from us rebuilding the brothel."

"Yeah... I remember that you were hit pretty badly after it exploded." He pointed to her right leg. "How is it?"

"Still taking a bit of getting used to each morning," said Ava, sitting on the bed. "Thankfully I'm still in contact with Lisa and she's been helping me just as a friend."

"How's she doing at college?" Manuel asked as he joined her.

"She needs a bit more money," Ava sighed. "They upped the shit out of student loans lately and she's got to pay more. So I'm guessing that you came here to send her some money."

"Well, that and have a good time with you," Manuel winked. "But yeah, I'll send her some cash. I got extra pay."

"Good. You deserve it." She leaned to kiss his cheek. "I know how much Lara meant to you as well. She was like a mother to me, and you've always taken care of us all even before what happened to her."

"I'm just glad that you're heading this place up in her memory and holding it to the same standard that she did," Manuel said. "I keep... seeing her. I keep getting reminded of her. She wasn't always keen on the trafficking part of her job and she just wanted people to be happy. She had to deal with a lot of ass-holes on occasion."

"We all have in here," said Ava. "Luckily, you're one of the good ones."

"Thank you," Manuel smiled. "How are you handling the cold? Is the heating good here?"

"With another payment, it will be," Ava said. "Jem's been giving us enough to survive on, even without your donations."

"You've all got food and stuff, right?" Manuel asked. "Clothing, toys?"

"We're not actually animals, Manuel," Ava giggled, making the bull laugh as well. "We just look like animals."

"Those aren't the kind of toys that I meant, but I understand," Manuel said.

Ava nodded. "You know... if you want to have a good time here..."

"I do," Manuel said. "I'm going to stay the night. I need to just... wash away today's stress."

"What about your daughters?" Ava asked.

"They can look after themselves for a night," Manuel said. "They've been doing that pretty well lately..." He sniffed. "I feel like such a bad father to them..."

"If you feel that way, then you shouldn't be here," Ava replied, seeing a tear roll down Manuel's cheek. "Hey... come on. Let me help you feel better..."

"I'd like that," Manuel said. "I'll pay extra."

"I know you've got the stamina for extra, handsome," Ava winked, pulling the bull on top of her.

Outside the Midnight Oil...

Shadow the hedgehog was riding his board towards the familiar bar, wearing his nano-suit to provide some extra warmth as snow continued to gall. He parked his board up and walked into the bar. He walked over to a booth, his nano-suit disappearing as he felt the warmth of the bar's heater blasting through the bar.

"Man, that feels good," he said, shuddering a little bit.

Rosy walked up to him and smiled. "There you are. A bit earlier than usual."

"I've got to head back to HQ soon," Shadow said. "I wanted to get a quick drink in."

"Ooh, celebrating?" asked Rosy.

"Nope," Shadow said. "We went to Spring Yard today and turned up just about sweet fuck all. We know the guy who busted Nack out of Green Hill Penitentiary as we've dealt with him before, but that's almost it."

"Ah," Rosy nodded, pointing to something on his wrist. "What's that, then?"

"It's a gift that Dingo gave us via Alec," Shadow said. "It's some sort of whip. I have no clue how it works, though. Hopefully we'll find out tomorrow... if we get any time."

"Is dealing with Anti-Light and being a freelancer stretching you a bit thin?" Rosy asked.

"Oh, not at all," Shadow said. "I can handle that. But it looks like Jem is keeping his word about the constant attacks. He hit all four of us up at Jade Mountain. He also took out a supply truck and stole some weapons."

"I saw about the accident on the news," Rosy said. "But I know that you tried to save all of the people that you could."

"There were a lot of people injured, several were killed," Shadow sighed. "We weren't even in the city to stop it, and all that we got were this shiny new toys that we don't know a fucking thing about." He gripped at the edge of the table. "We should have chased after the bastards who attacked us at Jade Mountain. Put a bullet through each of their eyes. Send a message of my own."

"I've told you before that I'm not your therapist," Rosy said, "but you really need to calm down." She put a hand on his wrist. "Hey... you're doing the best that you can. Don't slip down that path. Not tonight."

"I'm not going to," Shadow said. "I'm just... god, I'm so fucking angry at myself for what happened today."

"You couldn't control it."

"No, but I could have stopped it before it started!" Shadow said. "I should have taken the opportunity to head off to Spring Yard and find out where he was. I should have killed Gerren and everyone else at Westopolis to stop any of them from breaking Jem out. Then we wouldn't be in this miss, and innocent people would still be alive."

"Shadow... you have saved so many people with what you've done. You can't let that one mistake hurt you so much."

"No?" Shadow scoffed. "Because of that mistake, Maria is dead. Because of that mistake, people got killed. People who never deserved it, who were just caught up in the crossfire. Because of that mistake, a lot of people have had to sacrifice their livelihoods to help others, with all these supply runs going around, and now we know that any of those could get attacked at any time." He curled his fist on the table, slamming it down. "Fuck!"

"You need to stop, Shadow," Rosy said, her hand going over to his curled up fist. "Please..."

There was then a scoffing laugh behind them, and they both turned to see about four humans, three men and one woman. The leader, one of the men, shook his head. "Sorry to interrupt, but we... we ordered more drinks." He slurred heavily and pointed.

"I thought that I asked you to leave after that inappropriate comment," Rosy said.

"Well, if we knew you had a boyfriend this pathetic, we would have still asked you to join us for a little bit of fun," the man laughed. "Screw it, emo kid can get in on it too."

"I would, but I have a night shift," Shadow said, standing up. "I'd better get to it, actually."

"Wow, really?" the woman of the lot asked. "You show up to complain at the bartender for a while, then when we come along, you just up and leave?"

The black and red hedgehog ignored them, trying to push past them to get outside, but they stayed in his way. He sighed, nodding to himself and teleported behind them, making them turn around in confusion before one of the men snapped his fingers in realisation.

"I thought that I recognised you!" he said. "You're one of them freelancers!"

"Yeah?" Shadow asked. "What are you guys going to do? Do you want me to sign something? Whatever it is, make it quick. I really need to leave."

"Oh, yeah, we'd like a meeting with you," said the third man, reaching into his pocket for a knife. "You put my brother in jail!"

"There's a high chance that he broke out because of the riots," Shadow said. "If you want to go find him, might I suggest Scrap Metal City? I hear that a lot of ass-holes ran there."

The third man moved forward to attack Shadow, drunkenly stumbling forwards, the black and red hedgehog to sidestep him easily and tripping him over. Shadow looked to see that the door was open and he looked over to Rosy apologetically before teleporting to the drunks quickly.

"I reckon that we take this outside," he said.

He zipped them outside before they could respond, and the whiplash from the teleport made them almost keel over. Shadow was content to walk back into the bar and apologise to Rosy, but when he felt an arm on his shoulder dragging him back, he turned to see the second man pulling a fist back, bringing it forwards.

"Are you sure that you want to do this?" Shadow asked. "You're all very drunk and I haven't had a single drop tonight."

"Sure we're sure, you son of a bitch!" the first man replied.

"Fine. Easy night for me."

Shadow quickly zipped forwards to the first man, hitting him hard in the stomach with a raised up knee and making him buckle, holding his stomach as he tried to hold back what he'd drunk. Shadow then zipped to the second man, grabbing a lazy arm swing that nobody could mistake for a punch, slowly swinging him over his shoulder and making him land on the floor.

"Hehe, now you're screwed," the woman said. "You... you wouldn't hit me..."

"You're not the first woman I've had to hit," Shadow said. "I mean, given the circumstances. But just so you know, I don't take any enjoyment from this."

"Shame, that," the woman said, reaching into her pocket to pull out a knife. "Because I'm really going to like it..."

She moved forwards, but she stumbled as she slashed the knife, bringing it in a downwards arc and almost striking at his leg before he stepped slightly to the side and grabbed her wrist, giving a small jerk to the side and making her drop the knife. He then slipped behind her, putting her arm behind her back and tripping her to the floor as gently as he could manage given how icy the ground was.

"Again... I'm not enjoying thi-"

He was struck from behind, the third man from the bar having recovered from his earlier drip and charging Shadow when he least expected it. Shadow managed to roll with him, tucking himself and rolling over on top of the last man, taking his back. The man tried to fight back, but Shadow simply stepped back and brought the man up with him looking him in the eye before turning around to throw him across the ground, making him slide into the others with a rough sounding grunt.

"Ah, shit," Shadow sighed. "I left something in the bar." He walked back in, seeing Rosy on the phone. "Sorry about all of that."

"Don't be," Rosy said. "I just called them a cab. How are they doing?"

"They're all down, but not out. They can barely move, though," Shadow said. "With this weather and their current tipsy state, they didn't really get much on me."

"Fair," Rosy said. "And thanks for helping with that. One of the drawbacks of owning a bar and being a flirt to get more tips is that you get your fair share of creeps going after you."

"I don't do either of those and I still get people going after me," Shadow smirked. "Although I guess that it's a different type than what you've got to deal with."

"Where are you going now?" Rosy asked.

"Back to work, I guess," Shadow shrugged, walking into the bar. He grabbed what he'd missed, which was the food from Jade Mountain, and he went back to the entrance, walking over to his hover-board as he heard a car pull up. He turned to the drunks that he'd just taken down. "Hear that? Your ride home's here!"

"Eh... fuck you..." said the leader of the drunks.

The black and red hedgehog let out a light chuckle at that and gave a small wave to Rosy before putting his nano-suit back on, beginning his ride back to Anti-Light. He stuck to the hover-board lane and eventually made it to Anti-Light. He went inside, parked his board up, and he went to his room, putting the food he had in the microwave to reheat it as he went to make himself a hot cup of coffee.

"Wow," Rouge said from the doorway. "Trying to beat the cold, huh?"

"The weird thing is, it's not super cold outside," Shadow said. "It's not pleasant, but it's just snow."

"Is that why you still have your suit on after getting back in?" Rouge smirked.

Shadow turned his suit off and scratched the back of his head. "At least I'm sober tonight. I don't think that any amount of drinking could help me get over what happened today, though."

"I saw it on the news," Rouge said. "Those poor people... all for a measly supply drop."

"It's not as measly as you might think," Shadow said. "It was Jem's doing. He sent Manuel and those ass-holes that wear freelancer masks after us at Jade Mountain as part of a warning. I get the feeling that today isn't going to be the last time he steals something."

"It is mysterious," Rouge said. "Jem's attacks would almost seem random if he didn't make it clear that it was going to get worse each day."

"That's what scares me," Shadow said. "If civilians could die, who's next after that?"

"I wish that I could tell you," Rouge said, looking at the hedgehog's wrist. "Looks fancy."

"Got it from Alec... who got it from Dingo," Shadow said. "We all got one when we went to Spring Yard, actually."

"What are they?" Rouge asked.

"Whips, of some sort," Shadow said. "We haven't figured out how to work them, and we don't know if we'll even get time to."

"Can't you ask the guys at G.H.P.D's armoury?" Rouge asked.

"I guess that we could," Shadow said. "After all, supply drop help isn't a breach of jurisdiction. And since these whips belong to the freelancers, that means that we could take them wherever we want. But I get the feeling that we don't even have the time." He put his food in the microwave, setting the timer for two minutes as he turned to Rouge. "Want some dinner?"

"Please," the white bat replied. "We can't exactly order that stuff in as that would give away our location."

"Yeah, that's true," Shadow said. "Luckily, since only a select few know about Anti-Light, we can eat whatever we want when we're undercover. Hiding in plain sight, in a way."

"So, with that being said, would you mind being the delivery bitch boy?" Rouge giggled.

"I'd mind the bitch part, but I can do that, yeah," Shadow smiled, getting a plate for the bat. "Hell, I'll grab you some lunch tomorrow. May as well try and make up for how I was last night."

"If you want to make up for how you were last night, don't talk about last night," Rouge said. "You were drunk, I declined, nothing happened."

"I know," Shadow said. "God... imagine what Maria must have thought of me for acting how I did."

"I'd say she'd be disappointed, but I can only speak on my behalf," Rouge said. "Especially given how bad we used to be with stuff like drinking when we were younger. And it's not the first night that you've come back like that."

"That reminds me, I didn't take anyone drinking with me tonight," Shadow smiled. "Then again, I didn't drink. I did fight a bunch of drunks, though. That was fun."

"Why did you fight drunks?" Rouge asked, taking a bite of some chicken.

"They were harassing Rosy. Three men and one woman. They wanted to invite her to their place for... well, sex," Shadow said. "It wasn't even a hard fight. Four drunk people stumbling on a mostly icy and snowy floor. It's a far cry from what happened earlier."

"What happened earlier?" Rouge asked.

"Manuel and some soldiers he'd brought along attacked us at Jade Mountain," Shadow said. "Nobody was hurt badly, but it was another message from Jem."

"That must have come out of nowhere," Rouge said. "Wait, I think I saw it on the news... was Manuel related to the supply drop attacked?"

"He orchestrated the fucking thing," Shadow answered. "I didn't think that he could be that sloppy about it. Back with Nack, he was much cleaner, more refined."

"I get the feeling that it wasn't the passing of Nack that's made Manuel less professional," Rouge suggested.

"We... we did lampshade losing Lara and Maria," Shadow said. "Apparently he's been spiralling worse than I have."

"Wow. That's saying something." Rouge giggled when Shadow threw a piece of chicken at her, looking to see his smile too. "But I am proud of you for holding your own tonight."

"Thanks."

Rouge nodded. "Do you have any plans for tomorrow?"

"That's up to Sonic," Shadow said. "Right now, it all lies on Tails. He got some Fokus because he has a theory in that brain of his. I just hope that it pays off."

"What is it?" Rouge asked.

"He's thinking that if he can mess with the formula of the drug and combine it with the implants, he can either dampen or just fully remove their effect," Shadow said.

"That is some smart thinking by the cutest member of your team," Rouge smiled.

"Hey, I didn't come up with it," Shadow shrugged, seeing a piece of chicken thrown at him. He grabbed it and put it in is mouth. "Ah... that's good stuff."

Rouge nodded. "It really is. Hey, uh... next time you head to The Midnight Oil, take me with you?"

"I'm sure that Rosy would appreciate that," Shadow smiled. "And besides, it gives me someone else to cry at for a couple of hours each night."

"And if you need backup fighting drunk idiots who couldn't beat you in rock paper scissors, I'll be there," Rouge giggled.

The two would finish up their food together, Shadow thanking Rouge for the conversation before she left for her own room. Shadow checked the time and got ready for bed, looking at Maria's picture and closing his eyes, soon drifting off to an uneasy sleep.

Outside of Green Hill Hospital...

Tails the fox rode on his hover-board to the hospital, checking around before parking up and going into the hospital. He checked in with the front desk to see if he could visit Cosmo, and he was given the okay, going to her room and seeing a familiar face in there with his girlfriend.

"Dr. Aston?" Tails asked.

The human turned around and smiled at the two-tailed fox. "Ah, good to see you. It's been a while."

"It has," Tails said before making a gesture to his chin. "The beard's new. I like it."

"Thanks," the doctor said. "Don't mind me, I was just checking on Cosmo. She's still asleep right now."

"How's she recovering?" Tails asked.

"Very well," Aston smiled. "If you were expecting to talk to her, though, I'm afraid you're out of luck. She's just fallen asleep."

"I know, but I still wanted to come by and check on her," Tails said. "Also... I wanted to ask you something about implants, if I may."

"Well, since your family basically made the things and is part of what's keeping good places like this in business, I'm happy to answer whatever questions that you may have."

"I was wondering if you've ever had patients crashing from overdoses before?" Tails asked.

"We've had our fair share, yes," Dr. Aston nodded.

"What do you do with them to help them?"

"First thing we do is knock them out to take them out of their shock and immediately try to flush the drugs out before putting them on medicine," Dr. Aston replied. "We don't put implants into them to help because of how it could mess with their internal systems if any traces of a drug are left."

"Did you have accidents with that in the early days of implants?" Tails asked.

"We didn't get many implants at first because the business of it was still small," Aston noted. "Why do you ask?"

"Oh, I'm just trying to screw over a terrorist who's been attacking innocent people for all of the implants that my family's got right now," Tails said. "I was wondering if you knew what Fokus did to them."

"Hmm... well, the only case that I can think of is when Sonic was here a year and a half ago," said Dr. Aston. "But that was a delayed response and it took a while for the Fokus to reach his system and take effect, if I recall correctly. Directly mixing the two immediately... you'd need a good balance to do what you're going to do."

"Well... in that case, I have faith," Tails said. "Thanks for your help there. And for helping Cosmo."

"I'll tell her you came by," Dr. Aston smiled. "And whatever you've got planned for that Jem... please put that son of a bitch down for good. I don't want this hospital to become a cemetery."

"Do you have any of the patients in here after the supply drop was attacked?" Tails asked.

"We have a full space right now, pretty much," Dr. Aston said. "Some of them didn't make it... but some did. Those are the ones that you're fighting for."

"I'm not just fighting for the ones that made it," Tails said. "I'm fighting for the ones that didn't." He turned to Cosmo, smiling at her sleeping form before his face turned serious again. "She was the first person hurt by this whole thing. I'm not going to let anyone else suffer."

"Just play it safe," Aston said. "You need to work fast to prevent further attacks, which I understand. But you need to be smart as well."

"I know." The two-tailed fox sighed. "Thanks again. And wish me luck."

"I would if you needed it," the doctor smiled, bowing his head.

Tails gave a small smile, looking over Cosmo again before leaving the hospital. Later, he'd made it back to the workshop, grabbing some implants and setting up the work table as he prepared the Fokus, setting the Restarter up to help him as well and playing some music to help him focus.

He started with what he'd done before, shifting the Restarter's settings as well as he could before he took the canister in the weapon out. He emptied a syringe of Fokus into it, and then he grabbed an implant to inject it, seeing what the restructure would do. Within seconds, the implant fizzled and burned out, and Tails nodded.

"You know, with the Fokus and the Restarter mixed in one thing like that, I should have expected that to happen," Tails said, grabbing another syringe of Fokus. "If I had the ingredients for it... I could redo the formula." He looked over the work table and brought up the holographic display. "Hmm... do you have anything on the chemical composition of Fokus?" He brought up a file named "effects from drugs" and saw that it had been recently updated, so he opened it up. "Recent studies have shown the negative effects that Fokus has on people with cybernetic implants, but if someone could change the composition of Fokus, they could lessen the effect, even to the point of it being beneficial." He sighed. "Is there a way that I can do that?" He checked through the file, but he saw nothing on how Fokus worked directly. "Shit..." He brought his phone from his pocket, calling the front desk of Green Hill Police Department and not waiting long for an answer.

"Hello, Tails," Mina said on the other end. "It's a bit late, you know."

"I know," Tails said. "I just wanted to ask something a bit strange."

"Define "strange"?" Mina replied.

"I was wondering if you had any of the ingredients for Fokus available in the storage locker. I ran into a snafu."

"Let me go check really quick," Mina said. She got up to go over to the storage locker, leaving Tails on hold. After looking around in the storage room, she didn't find a lot that could help. She sighed and returned to her phone. "Okay, all I have is cocaine and heroin, which is good for speedball. You might have to get the harder stuff from a different source as we don't have any of it."

"Well, it is hard to come by..." Tails sighed. "But I have no idea where we can get the other stuff."

"It's hard to come by, even after the riots," Mina said. "That might be the reason why. Escapees were probably looking to get their fast fix, and with you and other freelancers only just coming back, it could be anywhere. It just won't be anywhere easy to find."

"Maybe you're right," Tails said, thinking it over. "I'll try and come up with something with the others tomorrow. I need to get back to work. Thanks for the help."

"Any time," Mina smiled. "Give Cosmo my best the next time that you see her. And a hug too. I really miss her."

"I will," Tails replied, hanging up. He turned his attention back to the Restarter, and he injected a smaller dose of Fokus into the Restarter's injection canister, and he brought another implant up as well. "All right... let's see how this goes..."

He injected the Fokus into the implant, and said implant held on for a few moments longer than previously before fizzling out, although it was less sudden and violent than the first attempt. The two-tailed fox got another implant ready, deciding to use the Restarter on its own first to rewrite the coding, seeing that it worked as usual before putting some Fokus back in, injecting it into the implant which again shorted out almost instantly.

"Hmm... again, I have the right idea... I just don't have the stuff that I need." Tails sighed, looking at the time. "I have one more idea..."

He grabbed one of the Fokus syringes and put it onto another implant, and he quickly placed the Restarter on the implant and rewrote the code. The implant at first began to short out like before, but then it stopped, giving Tails a sense of hope. He waited a few moments as the implant exploded violently, leaving several plumes of smoke and leaving a small streak of fire on his desk. He grabbed a cloth from under the table to put it out before any alarms or sprinklers went off, and he sighed.

"Okay... I'm on the right path," he said to himself. "I just need the right ingredients next time. I should also stop before I kill all of the implants." He gathered his things before going to his bedroom, looking at a picture of his girlfriend on his phone. "I'll make things right. I promise. I love you." He put his phone on the bedside table and closed his eyes to go to bed.

And another one of these done. Mostly filler and light on action, but I hope that you liked it. Next is more Join The Fun, the Sonic story of mine that people actually read and review. I'll see you all for that. Until then, take care, and stay tuned.