"Hedgehog Trapped"
Naugus, wearing a cloak, is entering a tavern. He notices the Nasty Hyenas sitting at a table, laughing among themselves, then notices Ro-Becca at another table, drinking what appeared to be a cup of oil.
Naugus then notices in a corner is a fox, wearing a vest, and a bear, wearing a bandolier, sitting at a table, before the bear groans, "Rrrruuuurrr."
Naugus turns away when he notices a jerboa, wearing a large hat, sitting at a table, with his feet up on the table.
Naugus approaches the jerboa, "Are you the fabled Fang the Hunter?"
"Who's asking," Fang lifts the tip of his hat, looking up at Naugus.
"I am Naugus, and I seek you for a job," Naugus leans in at him. "Get rid of Sonic the Hedgehog."
"I heard of Sonic," Fang says. "A real troublemaker for Robotnik."
"And you knew Robotnik?" Naugus asks.
"The old tyranny had left me and my favorite tavern alone, since I had supplied him with some… useful information," Fang tells him, before lowering his feet. "But for the job of this hedgehog, I have to insist on a high pay."
Naugus gets angry before he raises a hand, covered in energy, with Fang lifting into the air with the same energy. Everyone else in the tavern stops what they're doing to watch them for a moment, before returning to their own businesses.
"Your pay will be your life, bounty hunter," Naugus tells Fang.
"With a deal like that, how could I say no," Fang says.
The energy around Naugus' hand, and around Fang, disappears, with Fang falling onto the ground. Naugus starts to turn away, as Fang returns to his feet, dusting off his hat.
"With all of your power, why don't you deal with Sonic yourself," Fang asks, before putting his hat back on.
"I must focus on my goal," Naugus stops walking. "But the hedgehog had proved to be too much of an interference to be left alone."
Naugus continues to leave the tavern.
Sonic is speeding through the Great Forest, when he hears something and slides to a stop. He looks ahead before speeding toward the sound, when he stops at a clearing, seeing Antoine in front of a pillow tied to a tree.
Antoine tries to kick the pillow, but he loses his balance and falls down. He hears laughing before looking up, while lying on his back and sees, from his perspective, Sonic upside down next to a tree, laughing.
"Iz you," Antoine turns and pushes himself up, as Sonic approaches.
"Hey, Ant, I thought Dirk was training you," Sonic's trying to fight back more laughter.
"He's working with Griff and some others to set up housings for the newcomings from Lower Mobius," Antoine dusts himself off.
Sonic watches as Antoine tries to punch the pillow, "Perhaps you should quit, Ant. While you're so far behind."
Sonic speeds off, with Ant watching him for a moment, before resuming his punching.
Sonic speeds through the forest, then comes to a stop.
"Mmhm, was I too hard on Ant?" Sonic wonders, before shrugs his shoulders. "Nah."
Sonic speeds back off.
Fang is flying his airbike, Marvelous Queen, over the Great Forest, as a screen on the dashboard is showing a grid of the forest.
"Just have to scan for any abnormal speed and…" Fang says, as a blip moves across the screen. "Aha, there you are." He slides a finger across the screen. "Just have to figure out a pattern, and I'll know exactly when to strike."
Antoine is walking through the forest, carrying the pillow under his arm, "Perhaps mon is wasting time… mon did capture Robotnik… for all of one minute." He stops and holds up the pillow. "Though mon did save Bunnie on the last mission." He sighs. "Mon just got lucky."
He tugs on his uniform slightly, "Mon's an embarrassment to this."
Sonic continues to speed through the forest, before stopping and seeing a small cloaked figure lying on the ground several feet away.
Sonic walks over to the cloaked figure, "Are you okay there?"
The cloaked figure holds up a hand, "Kind stranger, can you help me up."
Sonic takes the cloaked figure's hand, when suddenly Sonic is surging with electricity. Sonic tries to pull himself free, but the cloaked figure holds tight onto his hand, with Sonic continuing to surge with electricity.
The figure throws off the cloak, revealing Fang, "Not so fast, hedgehog. Marvelous Queen, fire Solution Number 3.
The airbike rises out of some brush, with a small barrel pops out of the right side and fires a pink goo, which hits Sonic, knocking him away from Fang. The pink goo solidifies, entrapping Sonic in a large pink orb, with only his head sticking out.
"Hey! I can't move!" Sonic complains. "What's going on?!"
"I am Fang the Hunter," Fang starts to fold the cloak over an arm. "And you have Naugus to thank for this."
"Why would Nut-gus want to catch me?" Sonic asks. "If I should've to ask."
"Actually, Naugus just wants me to get rid of you," Fang approaches sonic. "But I got the idea to capture you and sell you to, what's his name? Oh yeah, Snively. Should make for a good payday."
Sonic looks ahead, angry.
Antoine continues to walk, kicks a small pebble, when he turns past a tree and sees Fang is wrapping a large piece of rope around the trapped Sonic, with the Marvelous Queen right next to Sonic.
"Ze Sonic's trouble," Antoine whispers, before he taps his ear, accidentally poking himself. "Ouch. Left my communicator back at Knothole." He starts to back up. "Mon must think of something to do…"
He steps onto a thin branch sticking out of the ground, then steps off with the branch, which snaps back and hits him in the back.
Fang looks away from Sonic, with Antoine hiding behind a tree and covers his mouth with his hands, before Fang resumes work. Antoine lowers his hands, then looks down at the pillow he dropped.
Fang finishes tying Sonic to the Marvelous Queen, "There you go. All ready for the ride?"
"So excited," Sonic annoyingly says.
Suddenly, a pillow hits Fang in the head, knocking his hat off.
"I don't believe this," Fang says, before picking up his hat and dusting it off. "My hat's all dirty!" He places his hat back on. "Excuse me, Sonic. I have to teach someone a lesson."
Fang runs off into the forest.
At nearly the same time, Antoine comes over and starts to try and untie Sonic.
"Ant?" Sonic responds, surprised.
Fang walks through the forest, looking around, "There's no one here." He notices the wobbling branch. "Just this poor fool of a catapulting branch…" Fang looks ahead, with his eyes widening. "Catapulting?!"
Fang turns and starts to run off.
Sonic watches Antoine trying to untie the rope, when he sees Fang coming out of the forest, "Great, the crazed bounty hunter is back."
Antoine gets on the Marvelous Queen, grabbing its handlebars.
"Ant, do you know how to fly one of these things?" Sonic asks.
Fang holes up his popgun, aiming it, "Get off my baby!"
Antoine presses a button on a handlebar, when the Marvelous Queen, with Sonic attached, flies off.
"What?!" Fang lowers his popgun. "No one makes off with my airbike and gets away with it!"
Antoine is having trouble controlling the Marvelous Queen, close to the ground and barely dodging trees, with Antoine keeps on screaming at near hits. Then the airbike hits a stump and is knocked into a brush.
Sonic watches as Antoine gets out of the brush, rubbing his back. Antoine then turns to Sonic, pulls on the rope, managing to untie Sonic, still stuck in the pink orb, from the airbike.
"So, Ant, what's your plan now?" Sonic asks.
"No fear," Antoine crosses one arm across his chest. "Mon got it all covered."
"Somehow I'm not too assured," Sonic says.
Fang is walking through the forest, looking at a watch, with two small keyboards had slid out of it, with the watch face showing a grid with a blinking blip.
"I can trace the Marvelous Queen to the ends of Mobius, and make whoever stole it sorry," Fang says, before he presses a couple keys. "And to get an early start…"
A wireframe image of a missile appears on the watch face.
Antoine starts to struggle pushing Sonic away from the airbike, when a missile pops out of the left side of the Marvelous Queen, which Sonic notices.
"Missile!"
The missile fires from the airbike, with Antoine slips and falls down, with the missile flying over him. Antoine looks up to see the missile flying high in the sky, before it starts to fly back around.
"Iz a follow missile!" Antoine returns to his feet.
"That's a guidance missile, Ant," Sonic says, as Antoine looks to the side.
Antoine continues to push Sonic, before pushing him down a hill, with Antoine holding onto the top of the sliding pink orb. The missile chases Sonic and Antoine down the hill, before the pink orb slams through a tree, knocking it down and onto the missile, which explodes.
Fang stops walking, when he hears the explosion with a smile, "And that is the end of that."
At the bottom of a hill, Antoine sits back up, behind the trapped Sonic, before quickly checking himself, "Why mon not kaput?"
"This gunk I'm stuck in must've shield us from the explosion," Sonic guesses.
"Right, of course, mon meant to do that," Antoine stands up. "All part of mon's plan."
"Yeah, sure thing, Ant," Sonic rolls his eyes.
Antoine starts to push the trapped Sonic again, "Now… to get back… to Knothole…"
Shortly later, Fang walks up to the Marvelous Queen, before closing up his watch.
"I might've got rid of that thief, but now I can't claim any reward on Sonic," Fang says, as he places a hand on the airbike. "Hold on, Solution Number Three should've protected that hedgehog from the missile."
Fang walks past the Marvelous Queen and slides down the hill to see wreckage of the destroyed tree. He then notices drag marks going away from the bottom of the hill.
"So you did survive," Fang holds up his popgun, grinning. "But you won't get far."
Antoine continues to push Sonic.
"You make for a crummy soldier, but you surely make for a pretty good pusher, Ant," Sonic says.
Antoine stops pushing him, before groaning, "Enough, do you know why I wear this uniform?"
"Yeah, yeah, you were a squire for the Mobotropolis Royal Guard or something like that," Sonic says.
"That much is true," Antoine starts, before slightly tugging on the uniform. "This uniform was my father's when he was a squire. I started wearing it when he was lost during the Great War. I tried to live up to it ever since, and just failed along the way."
Sonic lowers his eyes for a moment, "Listen, Ant, everyone is good at something. Sal is a great leader and tactician. Rotor and Uncle Chuck are great at mechanics. Bunnie's really strong, and I'm super fast…" He looks at himself. "Normally."
"What mon's good at?" Antoine asks.
"Well, you are, let's see," Sonic looks around. "There's, hum, you can, well, you're good…"
"For target practice!"
Antoine turns, with Sonic looking to the side, to see approaching them is Fang, riding the Marvelous Queen.
Fang stops his airbike, several feet away from them, holding up his popgun, "Any last word?" Fang then notices Antoine's knees are knocking, before Fang starts laughing. "You have to be kidding me! Scared there, are you?"
Antoine grabs his knees to stop them from shaking, before he notices the pink orb Sonic is trapped in.
Fang tries to stop himself laughing, "Okay, okay, enough of the comedy."
Antoine starts to turn the pink orb, turning Sonic away from Fang.
"You can't get away from me, shaking," Fang aims his popgun.
Fang fires his popgun, shooting a cork stopper at high speed, with Antoine ducking behind the pink orb, allowing the cork stopper to bounce off the pink orb and slams into the front of the Marvelous Queen.
"Hey! The engine!" Fang tries to grab the airbike's handlebar, as it drives around crazy.
Antoine peeks around the pink orb, watching Fang as he tries to get the airbike under control, before flying wildly off into the distance, as Fang screams.
The Marvelous Queen continues to fly wildly, with smoke shooting out of the sides, before the airbike crashes against a tree and sends Fang flying off it.
Fang pushes himself back onto his feet, rubbing his shoulder, as he walks over to his airbike.
"That's enough," Fang starts to check his airbike. "This job is too much trouble. Once I get you beaut working, I just go someplace isolated."
A side panel opens with smoke blowing into Fang's face, which he waves away, "And wait until Naugus forgot all about me, or another power mad warlord takes his place. Whatever comes first."
In Knothole, Antoine is catching his breath next to the trapped Sonic, as Rotor is examining the pink orb, slightly tabbing it with his knuckle, before placing a hand on it.
"Mon… need to… lie down…" Antoine says.
"You know, I think I know how to get you out of this," Rotor says.
"You do?" Sonic asks, as Antoine looks up.
Rotor pours a pot of boiling water onto the pink orb, with it breaking apart, freeing Sonic.
"That's it? I just need to take a dip in a pool?" Sonic asks, rolling his shoulder.
"Not exactly," Rotor lowers the pot. "It would seem this gunk had gotten so brittle from all the punishment you described, that we just need to add some heat to it.
"Awesome, thanks Rotor," Sonic says, before looking over at Antoine. "And thanks, Ant, you really saved me back there."
"Serious?" Rotor asks, surprised, as Sonic starts to walk past Antoine.
"Yeah, I might be a tad bit easier on Ant from here on," Sonic says, then grins. "For the moment."
Sonic speeds off, as Rotor looks at Antoine, proudly puffs out his chest. Rotor smiles and shakes his head slightly.