"Nicole, how are things across the sectors?" Sally asks as it had been quiet for a few weeks now.
Nicole hums as she reclines, floating in the air and looking at a hovering screen in front of her. "Still quiet," she remarks, sounding bored.
"What about our spy network? Any word from them on recent movements?" Sally asks.
"In Efrika, there has been a significant shift in resources and personnel. It looks like they are building there, and word is a few of the former Death Egg personnel are being transferred to Infinite's command. This should slow her down a bit," Nicole informs.
Sally looks to another piece of incoming data and the climbing number of personnel sent to each egg boss. "And the others, so that's good news. Can you track the location of them all? Best to tell every cell an updated list they might have to face in the future," she orders.
"Going to ask about Sonica's recovery?" Nicole asks.
Sally sighs and stares off into the air. "If she is fine enough to fuck around, she is fine."
"Her stamina is about sixty percent of what it once was. I am just kinda concerned that Kuro will impregnate her at this rate," Nicole voices.
Sally smiles and idly taps at her screen. "Yeah. Doubt it. Sonica is smart enough for it."
"Heh, she is practically becoming Whisper's pet with how she dominates her," Nicole jokes.
Sally chuckles. "The few times we see that girl tied down. But maybe with him around, she can slow down a little."
"Speaking of him. Can you guess where he is?" Nicole asks.
"Tailsko's shop and messing around," Sally suggests.
"No. Where he has been every day since getting back," Nicole says, showing her a feed of Kuro training in the gym.
Sally raises an eyebrow before humming. "Must have thought his skills have gotten stale. It has been mostly infiltration and subterfuge. Not exactly the part about blowing up robots and saving a lot of lives at the same time."
"Weight he is up to is two hundred pounds on each leg," Nicole informs.
"Isn't that more than he weighs?" Sally asked, a bit alarmed.
"Very," Nicole hums, impressed but also a hint of teasing in that tone. "He started, I think, with one hundred and fifty."
"Now a combined weight of four hundred and…how long has he been at it?" Sally asks.
"Seven hours," Nicole informs.
Sally looks back at the AI and raises an eyebrow. "And he hasn't moved or taken a break, has he?"
"Quite the endurance he has. It explains how he handled three girls in bed at once right after that run with Sonica and Tailsko. He also is easy on the eyes to watch him work out," Nicole says, giggling a bit in a perverted way.
Sally drops her head on the table with a loud smack. "Please tell me those girls weren't important to an upcoming mission."
"Sonica, Whisper, and Tailsko," Nicole informs.
"Good. Maybe tell him not to do Tailsko as much. We need all the help we can get from her," Sally informs.
"He hasn't gotten to sleep with her much. She has been locked in her workshop. Also sent Rodder some new designs. I think they are improvements to Wispons or improvements on the bot poppers," Nicole informs while feeling up Sally's rear a bit.
Sally's tail twitches and she turns around to look at the smirking lynx. "That hungry still?" she asks, sighing.
"Want me to go grab Sonica while you work?" Nicole asks, smirking.
Sally groans before grabbing her warm hand to stop her. "No. This is fine. By the way…why were some of the cameras out of commission? I know they were working fine last time I checked."
"Which cameras?" Nicole asks.
Sally raises an eyebrow as a permanent screen beside them shows the cameras watching their base. With about five of them offline. "Really?" she asks, crossing her arms.
"I will be back in a moment," Nicole says before disappearing and reappearing in front of Kuro.
Sally listens to the feed with a frown. "Kuro, could you look around? Some of our cameras have gone down," Nicole asks.
Kuro blinks before humming. "Which ones? Cause if it's Tailsko's room, it's on purpose," he remarks.
"No, exterior cameras. Only enough to make a few blind spots to sneak in, but not enough where we wouldn't notice an attack," Nicole informs.
Kuro sighs. "Fine. I'll have a look. But do look for Tailsko. She owes me a kiss for a good morning," he says cheekily with a grin.
"Looking at her now. It looks like she pulled an all-nighter again," Nicole informs.
Kuro groans. "That vixen will never stop," he laments as he throws the weight and then plants his feet onto the floor while the weights land with a clatter and get right side up. "Give me a few minutes, and I will see what is up, but to be safe, check and see if all the plans and equipment are accounted for and haven't been accessed."
Nicole smiles as she leans against him. "Not to worry. Already in process. Nothing seems broken in…yet."
"If security for any of them goes down, then you know what to do," Kuro says, heading out to see.
Nicole snickers. "Yes. Blow everything to smithereens," she jokes, still snickering.
Kuro rolls his eyes as he heads down the hall, passing by many relieved and smiling members of the resistance. As they all talk amongst themselves, Kuro sees quite a few being very close and speaking in a whisper. He smiles as the carefree atmosphere is helping morale. Which, after even the massive boost from getting Sonica, is what they needed.
As Kuro opens the outside door at the end of the hall, he looks over the deep thick forest and how they made the doors and buildings deep in tight spaces between the roots. It is a tight squeeze as he moves along the walls and finds the first of the cameras. Kuro hums as he blinks up near it and hangs onto an edge of metal as he inspects the device closer. "Heh. Something as simple as a bird's nest," Kuro muses as he sees an empty bird's nest while a wire was yanked out of the back. He reconnects the wire before blinking down and continuing his walk.
"Hey, guys. It was a bird's nest," Kuro informs as he walks around to another large tree and finds another corner. This overlooks a small hanger door as the base is covered in moss and grass to blend into the large green tree roots, while the door is just enough for small vehicles. "Maybe the birds love the heat," he suggests as he blinks up to the camera and sees the same thing but no nests. "Strange," he hums as he reconnects the wire.
"We do have that problem with the lights," Sally shrugs off as Kuro moves onto the third one. "They love those heat fins for their eggs."
Kuro grunts as he lands on the roof and walks to a corner. "Maybe we should build an aviary. At least, so they don't get in trouble with us bothering them," he proposes as he blindly reaches up and grabs the wire. "That way, we have control and don't need to worry if whatever their nest is sitting on is taken down," Kuro adds as he keeps trying to reconnect, thinking he is missing the plug.
"I will talk to Tailsko and the maintenance crew. Would save us a hassle on bird droppings," Sally agrees as she shudders at the mess of one of their doors one time.
Kuro sighs while still blindly trying to plug the wire before stopping. He then tries to crane his head over the edge and look at the camera he is trying to connect before stopping. "Nicole… what's the last footage of the camera where I am at?"
Nicole blinks and looks at the screen and reconnected cameras, making sure they have the correct settings. "Shouldn't be much, I think," she says as she brings up the logs and finds the last files. When it plays on screen, both Nicole and Sally watch as the camera pans around the empty woods. Then it shakes as the video freezes and then stops. "Okay. That is weird. Maybe a bird messed it up badly."
"Unless this bird has claws of steel, I doubt it," Kuro notifies as he looks at the cleanly cut wire. "Someone is here. And I wouldn't say I like it. Maybe you guys should place a lockdown on all terminals for now," he recommends while looking behind him onto the mossy, dirt, and grass-covered roof. But he scans the roof for something that can easily be missed before spotting a vent that has moss missing from the edges in the shape of fingers. "Intruder. In the vents," he calls as he rushes up to the vent before tearing open the cover and jumping inside.
"On second thought, scratch that," Kuro says, cracking his claws. "I found them," he informs, dodging some shuriken that was thrown his way.
"Aw! I wanted to use the laser vents Tailsko set up," Nicole whines as they try to find a camera watching this mess.
"They don't look smart enough to try that way but activate them just in case. Also, do we want them alive?" Kuro asks as he spied a bird mobium as well.
"In the best case, absolutely yes," Sally orders as Nicole gives up finding a camera and sends out a small drone to look through the vents to find them.
"Right. It looks like there are two of them. Lynx…Storm's clan most likely, but no sign of uniform. Either an elite or banished member. But he was sloppy. He left a trail right to them. So yeah. Idiots now. Even I'm not that lazy," he mocks before blinking to the side as he dodges another shuriken.
"The fuck you are talking about, bastard?!" the lynx demands as he throws multiple shurikens that make an entire wall of them. Kuro frowns as he blinks ahead of the wall and ends up right in front of the spiky black-haired lynx. The lynx flinches before grunting as he gets a kick to the chest that sends him flying back down a vent. The two new beings in the vent watch as the lynx grunt and cry out as he hits the walls and floor of the duct before going down a shaft and crashing below into a room.
"You're next!" Kuro calls as he appears right in front of the bird mobium before grabbing his beak. The bird squawks before they disappear and drop into the training area. The lynx groans as he lays on the floor beside them before hearing a stomach-churning grunt when Kuro kicks the bird in the stomach. The lynx looks up and frowns as the bird goes flying into a stack of training mats, bringing it all down on top of him. "Wow. For even being one of Storm's forces, you're a joke," Kuro scoffs, tapping his foot against the ground.
"Shut your mouth. You have no right to say her name," the lynx growls.
"Lightning, focus. This guy is no joke," the bird growled, getting up.
Kuro raises an eyebrow at the initial reaction. "What name? Storm? You mean that ninja girl who chases after me to make me her husband?" he adds, hoping to twist the knife now if it's Storm's name.
"You bastard!" Lightning yells, launching himself at Kuro with surprising speed, but his course is obvious. So evident that Kuro has no trouble catching him by the throat and chokeslamming him into the ground before bringing down his foot onto Lightning's ribs, causing a cracking sound and a very pained cry from the lynx.
"Gotcha," Kuro mutters as he pins Lightning before looking at the bird who is trying to dig himself out from under the training mats. "Here's an idea I never thought I would use. Use your friend to make you tell me your name. I at least want to know whose ass I am kicking and kicking their feathered tail out of here," Kuro demands before stomping his foot again and getting another pained cry as a reward. "So how about it, tweety bird?"
"Hawk, get him!" Lightning yells out, only for Kuro to dig his heel in harder on his wounded chest.
"Kuro, stand by. We are getting everyone to the training room right now. So don't do anything stupid," Sally warns over his communicator.
Kuro frowns as he looks at all the windows around the room and sees a few setting up right now with their various weapons. The doors on the bottom floor even start to lock down, as indicated by the light change to red on the keypad near them. "Hawk, is it? Come get your buddy here," he mocks, grinding his heel into the lynx and makes him cry out in groaning pain. "I am sure you want to whisk him away to safety and do whatever you two do together," he waves off dismissively. Kuro then grins as Hawk finally gets out of the mats and glares at the wolf. "Or is it he can't even get himself up at night for you?" he mocks and pinches his fingers together to a small size. "Maybe is it too small for you?" he laughs. Even he hears a few snarks coming from the viewing area above and a couple of sighs.
"I love Kuro now," Nicole says to Sally, smiling as she records that insult for later while Sally groans and facepalms.
Sally then glares at the cameras as she watches everyone start to set up around the room. "Kuro, we need them alive. Can you not make them want to try and kill you more? Blood cleaning is tough to get out of rubber floors."
"Oh, if you insist," Kuro says before blinking behind Hawk. He then spins around and bitch slapping him hard headfirst into the wall, knocking him out before the birdbrain even knows what is going on.
Lightning groans on the ground as he tries to get up off the ground. But the window above him shatters as someone jumps out. Lightning looks up in time to see a masked wolf land onto him and break even more of his ribs when their heel lands onto his chest. "We need a medic," Whisper informs as Lightning wheezes as he tries to gain his breath back before a rifle is shoved into his face that pushes his head against the ground. "But not for us."
"Hey Nicole, what should I do with Lightning and his bitch?" Kuro asks, smirking, gesturing to Hawk, who he had knocked out with a bitch slap.
Nicole hums as he gets the medical team over to them and unlocks a door. "The little birdy can be put into a cage, handsome. Poor little lynx has to deal with being tied to a gurney for a while," she informs him as the medical team reaches the door and enters the room.
"Wolves one, lynx and his bird bitch none?" Kuro jokes to Whisper.
Whisper sighs and slowly facepalms while Sally does the same in the control room. The other forces in the area above the room shake their heads and start to walk away, and the problem has been dealt with already. Until they got the order through their communicators for the cleanup and checking everything in case the two intruders touched something they shouldn't have.
"Exiled. And humiliated," Nicole enlightens as she brings up Lightning's profile and then Hawk's, respectively.
"So why were they here?" Whisper asks.
Kuro frowns as he looks at the gathered group in the room with Sally, Nicole, Whisper, Sonica, and Tailsko. With Sonica wearing some of Tailsko's small PJs after being rudely woken up for this mess. "The better question is how did they find us? I am sure not even Storm, or Infinite for that matter, knows where we are."
"Well, to be fair, they are also busy, but I can imagine one of our black market contacts might have sold us out," Sally informs.
"What do you think?" Kuro asks Whisper as he holds up a knife, bottle of something, and a popper to her. "Should we stab, poison, or electrocute our now laid-off contact?" he suggests, looking at the wolf expectantly.
"Kuro!" Tailsko and Sally both yell, annoyed, making him drop all the kill choices onto the ground.
"Fine. No killing. I will strike fear into their hearts when I meet this contact instead," Kuro suggests and gets a double tailwhip to the head, courtesy of Tailsko.
Nicole giggles as she brings up the history of their new prisoners. "According to what we found, these two have gone rouge a while ago. It was sometime after the Death Egg implosion, with Lightning getting kicked out way earlier. Poor lynx who couldn't even get a proper girl to notice him. Had to choose a glory hound bird," she giggles in a teasing voice. No doubt that insult from before coming into handy for her database.
Kuro blinks a few times before massaging his forehead. "Don't tell me. Lightning loves Storm and most likely came all this way to capture me to get back into the clan and try to get her to love him?"
Sally hums as everyone looks at each other from that idea. "You know, knowing Storm, she would kill him, release you for a few minutes, and then chase you so she can properly capture you."
Kuro sighs. "Fifty-fifty at this point. But either way, this base may be compromised. We should move," Kuro says.
Sally hums, nodding. "We already started the data process. After the meeting, we will send out the order for everyone to start packing. I wouldn't be surprised if most of them aren't already halfway through this place."
"Right. Come on, Tailsko, I will help to move your equipment," Kuro says, leaning towards the vixen.
Tailsko sighs as she lets him lean on her. "You are carrying the heavy stuff," she says before grabbing his tail and pulling him back to her workshop.
"Now that their part is taken care of…" Sonica speaks up. "Can I finally get some proper clothes and PJs? Tailsko's are too small and tight-fitting for me," she asks, gesturing to her tense set of clothes.
"How is your new outfit?" Sally asks Sonica as she and the rest of the high-profile members of the resistance ride in a camper across the country.
Sonica hums approvingly as she spins in place to see every part of her outfit flutter around. A red tube top with a golden ring pattern on the front and a red skirt held up with a gold ring style belt adorns her form. Sonica smirks and flicks a part of her skirt before looking towards Amy as the pink hedgehog tiredly lays her head on Knuckles's lap. "What do you think, Amy? Think Kuro and other guys can't take their eyes off me now?" she asks, giving a pose that makes her look proud but also pushes her ass out a little.
Amy giggles. "Please. With the way that skirt is going to fly while you run, boys behind you will crash into a wall," she jokes before yawning as Knuckles strokes her side.
"That is why she is wearing short shorts as Sally does underneath it," Nicole teases.
Sonica bends over and flicks her tail up, showing off the shorts to Kuro with a wink, but also the crease showing through of her panties. "You like it, big boy?" she asks, giggling.
"Save for later," Kuro says, looking over reports with Sally while he points something out, making her double-check it and hums thinking about it.
"I see. What do you think they are up to?" Sally asks.
"They are beefing up security for the next region in Eurish," Kuro says, pulling out a little black booklet.
Nicole hums teasingly. "Is that your book of fucks given?"
"No…hum…I think there is something new as none of these would get more security," Kuro says, showing Sally the pages of the booklet as she goes wide-eyed and scans it before grabbing it and starts looking through it.
"Kuro?" Sally asks slowly after a while.
"Yes?" Kuro asks, leaning over.
"When were you going to tell me you had been finding and making detailed records of all the operations, checkpoints, factories, storage of the Eurish egg army?" Sally asks after a bit, making all who were riding in the camper, but Whisper and Tangle turn and stare at him.
Kuro looks up at Sally before patting her cheek. "Been doing it before I met you," he chuckles as he thinks back to when he was always on the run.
Sally frowns before opening it up so everyone can see it. "Nicole, start scanning and coordinating with our resistance cells."
Nicole smiles as she quickly scans over the book after taking it. She then passes it around as everyone marvels at how well thought out and detailed every entry is. "Hey, it's the small outpost we found one time," Amy mentions as she points at one. "The one with the ugly bird on the front door."
"I am guessing the entries crossed out have either been taken down or no longer in operation?" Bunny asks.
Kuro grins a toothy smile. "Nah…just ones I raided and stole from already. Check after Storm's. It should be five pages worth of them. After that, I started putting down things for you guys too."
"Casino Park, Breezie's vaults. Estimation, ten million per vault?" Nicole asks, reading that.
"Oh…that is for post-war jobs," Kuro says, sweating a bit.
Sally stares at him with a piercing gaze as he looks away and tries to act innocent. "We are going to be watching you after the war."
"Kuro," Tailsko says scoldingly.
"Moving on," Nicole says, flipping the page. "Hum, where are Northamer entries? It skips from Casino Park to Eurish," Nicole points out.
Kuro taps a finger to his chin thoughtfully. "That might be when I…oh…that's when," he realizes as he thinks back to his heist attempt with Abyss and Storm.
"Kuro, did you remove all of the Northamer entries?" Sally asks suspiciously.
Kuro looks side to side for a few moments before replying. "I am not on trial and don't have to answer that."
"You are with me," Tailsko remarks, holding a light frown.
"Yes, I know I am with you. But you haven't seen me for several days now. I miss you not being around," Kuro responds, trying to twist the meaning away from what she was implying.
Tailsko blushes before growling to the side. "You are deadly annoying."
"Kinda reminds me of Antoine and your antics," Nicole says, looking at Bunnie.
Bunnie smirks. "Except he listens," she points out and grabs Antoine's hand, making him stiffen and freeze up.
"Well, how long have you two been married? And how long has Kuro and Tailsko been together?" Nicole points out as Bunnie hums, thinking it over.
"A few years," she responds, leaning against Antoine before smirking. "And give them almost a few months."
"Maybe less," Nicole says, pointing out Kuro is now leaning onto Tailsko with a smirk on his face.
"Fuzzy fox…" Kuro coos and smiles as he hugs the vixen.
"I think the government in exile of Eurish is going to find this useful," Sally says as she grabs the book back to look at more pages.
"Please copy to another book," Kuro requests as he nuzzles Tailsko under her chin.
"Down boy," Tailsko says before putting his head in her lap and pets his head.
Kuro chuckles. "Okay. Can get used to moving if she keeps doing this."
"Feeling guilty you haven't been spending time with him?" Whisper whispers to Tailsko.
Tailsko whips her tails at Whisper while petting Kuro behind his ears. "So how the heck are we going to hide now? We got found easily by just two idiots."
"And fuckers," Kuro adds, grinning, only for Tailsko to smack his head.
"We have had five different locations prepared ahead of time. We will be heading to one of them while leaving a trail that we went to one of the other four to throw off pursuers," Sally informs.
"Where are those assholes anyway?" Kuro asks, picking his head up, but then grins at the idea. "They are sharing a cell like they want?" he jokes.
"We are shipping them off to an undisclosed prison where we are sending members of the egg army. Thankfully they had no chance to learn Sonica was in base," Nicole informs.
Sonica chuckles and leans back, reclining in her seat. "And they missed my awesome plan…of taking them out so quickly, they won't know."
"So what is the next step? We should be out there taking the fight to Eggman," Knuckles says impatiently.
"And the brawler has a plan. Please, share with the class," Kuro sarcastically jokes, waving a hand at him.
"We should assemble our forces and hit the capital of a region. Without the Death Egg to provide space ship support, we can retake them," Knuckles says.
"That…is almost as dumb as attacking a sleeping giant," Kuro sums up, trying to think up the right words.
"Knuckles, we don't have the weapons or supplies for that right now. Let alone hold one against the counter-attack that would soon come most likely lead by Infinite herself," Sally says, trying to defuse the situation.
"And the explosions…and civilians still in the city," Kuro adds, holding up a finger as he nuzzles his head against Tailsko's lap.
"It's a no-go, for now, Knuckles, but it will happen," Nicole assures.