Rabbits House, Mobotropolis

Afternoon

"...Going to South Island again in a long time really brings me back to my earlier days." Sonic had came by to visit Vanilla and Cream following his return from a recent trip to South Island. "You ever been to it yourself?"

"No but I have heard nice things about it. I'd love to visit it myself but unfortunately with my work schedule, I may have to forgo that trip for a while."

Vanilla had baked a batch of butter cakes and made a pitcher of pink lemonade for Sonic and Cream to share before he had arrived, having spent most of her free time in the morning doing so.

Sonic had gave the mother rabbit a hand earlier by helping her out around the house. "You'd love the scenery of Bridge Zone, you could see plenty of sights from there. There's also Hedgehog Town that's got a good teashop in it too. I had my first big breakout sucess on that island some years back when I dealt with Egghead there."

"I see, I see…" Vanilla said with a smile; "Sounds like a very pleasant place to visit. I've also heard there's ruins there as well. Is there any truth to that?"

"Marble Zone and Labyrinth Zone are what you're thinking of. I've been through them myself and let's say they're not the safest places to sightsee at." Sonic replied with a nod. "The former's got plenty of lava pits there and the latter's a nightmare to navigate through with the amount of water there, both full of traps."

"Well, that definitely doesn't seem like a safe place to bring Cream. I bet there's plenty of beaches though, right?"

"There should be plenty of coastal spots to chill at and same for the lakes too."

"Lakes, you say?" Vanilla perked up, her interest piqued. "Do they rent out lakeside cabins over there?"

"I wouldn't know the specifics since me and the others had Dr Robuttnik to deal with but there's probably cabins to stay at for vacations." Sonic turns his head to her. "You thinking about it?"

"I've considered it. Well, once we have more money coming in anyway... This job of mine has been paying okay but I still have a lot of room for growth. My boss seems to like me enough though..."

"Isn't the hours seem a little late though? And in another city no less." Sonic said as Cream walks in.

"We don't exactly have a lot of options right now..." Vanilla then looked over at Cream a moment. Remembering the weather forecast. "Cream, sweetie; I think it's supposed to rain today. You mind getting the laundry off the clothesline outside before it does?"

"Okay." Cream nodded and goes off to go fetch her mother's laundry outside.

"...How's she settling into her grade at school?" Sonic asks Vanilla. "Been making any new friends?"

"It's been hit or miss really..." Vanilla said with a light sigh. "Some of the kids at her grade school haven't been very nice to her... She gets bullied sometimes... Kids can sometimes be so cruel, you know?"

"Yeah... I would know because of how Tails was being treated by the other other kids on West Side Island before I came along and all over his second tail. I think I remember overhearing one of them say that his parents abandoned him for it." Sonic's mouth line went to a neutral one. "Ungrateful is what they are for everything he's done for them. Fought off a whole invading armada on his own one time and not even a single thank you from any of them..."

"I don't know why some people decides that someone like Cream are ones to walk over..." The hedgehog sips his glass. "She's apart of Ames' team and her Chao Cheese is a WMD all by himself. I think Cheese is a some sentient homing rocket pretending to be a Chao... Chocola is probably one too. Say, where is he at?"

"He's sleeping in my room, I think. Sometimes, people have been ungrateful for all we've done for them..."

She looked down at her own glass of pink lemonade. "Things have been tough lately for us but we've been trying our best to make things work."

"You know if you're having problems, you can call on us for help and get things sorted." Said Sonic with an assuring nod. Speaking as someone who's never had to raise a child and endure the harrowing experiences that pops up from time to time, having to deal with the troubles of adulthood as a parent. Speaking like someone who believes there's an answer for every problem.

The blue blur as fast, heroic and insightful he can be is still a young man learning his way through life with him not hitting his prime just yet. A young man raised by unusual circumstances that makes him have an outsider's perspective on everyday domestic living but not too well versed on the everyday domestic adult reality as she would be.

"It's not really that simple..." Vanilla admitted with a head shake, her eyebrows angled back. "It's... Well, it's complicated... Really complicated..."

"I just want to see you both be able to live happy lives together without the other stuff weighing you down."

"I know... But this is something only I can deal with..."

"I see..." Sonic nodded slowly before letting out a sigh. "I won't force myself into your problems nor will they when you'd rather manage it yourself."

The hedgehog then moves over to a new subject; "How's things been looking in Cyber City this week?"

"They're good..." Vanilla replied vaguely, refraining from mentioning the unpleasant encounter with Hud and Migu Veruca at a teashop. "Can't really complain, honestly."

"Heard there's been a fire over in Geno City today."

"I heard about that in the news actually. I hope no one was hurt."

"Me too. Hopefully they'll catch the people responsible for it."

Vanilla nodded in agreement. "I hope so too."

"Can't be any worse than the public menace I was dealing with when I was on South Island a few years ago."

"I think you may have told me about him once. What was his name again?"

"I think it was Anton or something like that. Fuzzy on his last name because I keep remembering it differently." Sonic taps his knee as he recalls the memory. "He was a hooligan and a half, the kind to intimidate people with violence to get free pizza and making grandiose entrances. I encountered him early on when I was starting out before I ended up on Eggman Island and you know the rest of the story. I was pretty green at the beginning, so he managed to get lucky on the first meeting but I'd kicked his hide on the second encounter and went to take on Eggman afterward."

He'd then click his tongue. "I don't know what his deal was or why he acted like a jerk. Not that I'll ever know since when I came to South Island again not too long ago, he wasn't there anymore and when I asked someone what because of him; they said he left the island along with the rest of his family that there on it. Good riddance he said also."

"I see." Vanilla said with a light nod, sipping her glass of lemonade. "He must not have been very popular there then if that's the answer you got."

"I was probably really young when I first encountered him. I suppose I'll never get to know what's become of him unless I happen to run into him some day."

"I would imagine so. That happens with people you meet years ago sometimes."

"Maybe he's mellowed out since or something like that." Sonic takes a piece of cake. "Becoming someone inspiring instead of someone to fear or despise and living a straight path. Whatever he was going through personal back in the day, it doesn't excuse him taking out his frustrations on Hedgehog Town."

Sonic's communicator then buzzes and he goes to answer it. "What's up? Sure, I'll be over in a moment. Bye."

He puts the device away as he looks over to Vanilla. "Rotor needs me for one of his projects and thanks for the treats by the way. Tell Cream I couldn't stick around for longer because I'm needed at Rotor's Workshop."

The hedgehog got up with a nod before going to the front door and sped off just as Cream came in with the laundry basket from the backdoor, prompting the young rabbit to ask; "Where did Mister Sonic go?"

"Rotor needed him for one of his projects, so he had to leave at short notice. Don't worry, I'm certain he'll come back sometime."

Cream nodded slowly with a semi-blank expression before giving an understanding smile; "If something urgent needs to be done, then I understand."

Vanilla sees her smile, then smiled herself. "Come on. I'll help you fold the laundry since you sometimes have trouble with it."

"Okay mommy..."

Anton's Palace

Afternoon

After fighting a small number of Shadows through floor seven to nine of the Anton Levels, the group of four would replenish themselves with their medical supplies including stuff for their stamina whenever they felt exhaustion beginning to kick in. The gaudiness of the floors, the constant visual presence of Anton's mug, the recurring appearance of Sagittarius and the occasional puzzles they had to sort through made them more eager to get the other half of Anton's Palace soon.

During their journey up the floors, they'd unlock some more locked chests and finding more details regarding Anton's real world actions or internal thought process like finding an office dedicated to his own glory; one that Rogue writes off as pure ego-stoking. On floor nine, they'd discover a special dressing room and they went to go search it. Finding it to be one that stores a variety of costumes including a maid outfit and other items that told them much of Anton's inner thoughts.

"...This room here, it's for female employees only." Avatar concluded after they searched the dressing room in question, glancing at a thong suit on a hanger. "Whenever they're called up to his office, they must come here and get dressed into whatever he orders them to wear and bring whatever he asks them to bring."

"Figures a room like this would be here..." Sly responded, shaking his head. "Some of these outfits are just outright exploitative or outright deplorable. What a fucking pig."

"Knowing he controls what Tatiana wears, this is real on-brand for him." Avatar tutted in disgust. "Likely the same applies for whatever woman he happens to lay leering eyes on."

'Maybe even Fiona as well...' He tries to think of what a realistic reaction from Fiona would be if she were to ever know the existence of this room that they only searched through for anything worthwhile, finding more items that can be pawned off later. Hoping to find an interested buyer to raise the funds for whatever the hospital bills will be for Little John and Jean.

The curious part in him was also tempted to picture either Fiona or even Vanilla in some of the spicier-looking outfits but stamped out that thought when he remembers what the dressing room internally represents for Anton and feeling dirty about letting his mind hit the gutter in the first place. More so in wake of what happened today.

"Let's go before I start considering torching this place..." Avatar said as they left the dressing room and continue searching the floor. The other three just as eager to get away from that uncomfortable room too.

Rogue would spot an office door and beckons the others to come check it out before they continue on further, the other three following him into a high level executive office. Having gone through similar offices earlier, they did their usual examination til Seeker brings their attention to a document he said he found from one of the desk drawers.

"Look at this. Seems to be some kind of sales receipt, sales document or whatever it is. Recent too." Seeker said as the other three came over to him. "Regardless, you need to see this guys. Appears to be for the upper-brass' eyes only."

"What's on it?" Avatar asks. The mongoose took a few moments to examine the paper.

"There's a bunch of things that's worth pointing out. Here's one example: The Nasty Hyenas delivered a January supply of inking paper and printing paper purchased by their business partners from Soumerica during the latter portion of December before Christmas Eve. The order of the counterfeit mobium batch is currently at sixty-five percent as of this writing with the remaining thirty-five percent estimated to be completed in about two weeks."

"Nasty Hyenas?" Rogue questioned with a dumbfounded expression as he turns to Sly. "Are they a gang you know of?"

"A little bit but usually they operate over at Midwest Northamer. According to rumors, they took up residence in some abandoned military bunker that they've converted to a big, guarded compound..." Sly continued. "Admittedly; I did hear about them expanding over onto here, though they've mostly kept themselves isolated over in the nuclear district in the decommissioned power plant there. The nuclear plant was shut down and abandoned after the city deemed it too costly and switched back to good-old natural gas power plants. Supposedly, the Nasty Hyenas had recently sent a group of them over there to create their own chapter of the gang here or so I heard. Their ties to Anton is new to me..."

Then the green hedgehog added; "And allegedly, the founders of the gang might be cannibals too..."

"Cannibals? Blooming heck, the hell is Anton dealing with here..." Rogue shakes his head. "As if the extortion conspiracy wasn't already bad enough..."

"We know that the Hooligans couldn't be the producers of the products they sell. In the case of the counterfeit money and the drugs, they're just the distributors for someone else who supplies them with what they need to make the sale." Avatar surmises based on current information. "Anton being the middleman so to say in a hidden criminal network."

"How about this one? New potential target on behalf of Captain Krouch: Detective David Keilee. Pending further updates." Seeker reads off another paragraph on the paper.

"Huh?" Sly said, snatching the paper away from Seeker; "Well, fuck man; of course he'd be a target too. He seems to be the only other one on the force that have looked out for me or at least looked out for Jean and someone I know that isn't one of Krouch's cronies."

"And he was there at the scene of the fire as well." Avatar added. "If he's a target, then it might have something to do with what's going on with Little John and her or he's someone that's been on Krouch's radar for a while and Anton's in the know about it."

"Likely, yeah..." Sly agreed, "Fuck... Okay after this, I definitely want to check in on them at the hospital... No matter what, I need to make sure they're okay."

"We're nearly done clearing the Palace according to our map. Just need to grab the third Will Seed and get to the tenth floor to call it a day." Avatar nodded, looking over the paper himself before noticing something alarming. "Let me see that... Oh no..."

"What is it?" Rogue asks.

"It's Monica. Our assumptions were right after all." The red wolf snarls at the revelation. "Anton's secretly been in talks with a pimp to sell her out to him behind her back for twenty-thousand mobiums and based on when this was written, it took place before she went to him about that protection. We were both there when she asked him about it and he blew her off for it."

"What?!" Sly exclaimed, snatching the paper away again, "Oh my God... Fuck, man... Dammit!"

He seethed with rage as he narrowed his eyes in anger. "That bastard will do anything for a quick buck... Even if it's someone that's actively trying to avoid being pimped out..."

"He is without honor." Avatar added. "Knowing what Migu has told me, Anton appears to be consumed by his greed for wealth. He's become heavily distorted by his own desires and we haven't fully understood what is his ultimate desire in all this."

"All the more reason to stop him sooner rather than later." Seeker said, glancing around the room. "Who knows what else he would do if this keeps on going."

"Everyone, we're clearing this Palace today." Avatar told the other three. "Whatever it is we'll be running into, we're clearing through them. It's our lives, their lives and everyone else's lives at stake here."

With that the four quickly left the office, resuming their trek through the ninth floor.

As they proceeded, Sly's mind kept going back to Monuca whom he hoped wasn't being pimped out today. He knew her history with prostitution as her mother had been one before she died of STD when she was young and since then, she'd been living in the hideout with him before he went to juvy for the drug charges with her later being pressured into joining Anton's gang.

They proceeded onwards before O.V.I directed them on over to the location of the third Will Seed; having to do a puzzle where they have to open doors in a hallway at a certain order or else they have to redo it all over. Eventually, they'd reach the taped door to the third chamber but an Enforcer stood in their way.

"This Shadow is a strong one, do you really want to take it on?" O.V.I spoke up, advising Avatar. "I suggest you and your party to be prepared should you decide to fight it."

"If it's guarding the Will Seed, then we need to beat it and see what Anton's trying to hide from us." Avatar narrows his gaze. "Everyone ready for this?"

"Ready and willing my friend." Sly replied. Getting out his weapons.

"Ready to kick some arse." Rogue whirls his staff weapon.

"Let's steamroll this Shadow into submission." Seeker added. With their answers, Avatar went up to the Enforcer guarding the door.

"Hey, no one except the Don can come in here!" The Enforcer says to Avatar. "Turn now or suffer!"

"Make me." Avatar replied before the Enforcer melts down to become a fierce-looking Shadow. Resembling a crab with the head of a bovine.

"They'll be scraping you off these walls when I'm done!" The Shadow starts attacking the four with a Water skill, dealing a bit of damage on the four including Sly with his weakness to it. The four Persona users did battle with it through their melee weapons and firearms. In addition to using melee weapons and firearms, the group also used their elemental Persona magic moves as well; though were very strategic with how they did so. Taking into account of their weaknesses and strengths.

Each party member would take a hit each as did the Shadow throughout the battle while O.V.I works to figure out it's weakness.

Sly would use his mid-power Earth moves on the Shadow as well as occasionally utilize melee and firearm attacks. Seeker pelted the Shadow with his Persona's Bless spells, following them up by using his silencer pistol to blast at it.

Rogue uses his melee weapon to hit it, then pulling out his gun to spray it with bullet shots. Eventually summon John to deal a physical attack on it as it resisted all Force attacks.

The rabbit even made use of his mask's special ability to initiate bullet-time, slowing time down for a few moments which gave him the chance to better line up his shots for more effective damage. Having discovered it on floor five during an intense encounter with a highly aggressive pack of Shadows.

The longer they fought the Shadow, the more they were whittling it down. Rogue pulling out an Atom Match and tossing it at the Shadow, dealing decent damage to it with Avatar summoning one of his stronger Personas in his inventory to chip more of it's life away. Eventually, Avatar would manage to get it knocked down. Knowing what to do next.

"Let's go!" Avatar calls the others in for an All-Out Attack as the four attacks it in a flurry of quick strikes. Moving like a set of colours streaking all over.

The red wolf finishes it off, tipping his hat back with a finger-pointing gesture and shoving the hands into his pockets; "And just like that, another evil falls to the force of justice..."

"Hell yeah!" Sly cheered with a grin, doing a fist-pump, "That was badass as fuck!"

"With him out of the way, we can go and grab the last Will Seed." Avatar said as he cuts up the tape to allow himself and the others in, coming face to face with engraved mosaic wall art of Don Chairman Anton Veruca staring at them. The overgrown vines present as they were for the other two Will Seed rooms and a Green Will Seed stood on the organically grown podium before them.

Sly reached a hand to touch the Will Seed, eager to see what it had to behold. The room around them faded into white upon the Will Seed being touched...

When the white faded away, they're greeted by the frozen monochrome sight of Anton with his back to them in a room at a house. Upon glancing around the room with his eyes, Avatar could tell the house is somewhere in Geno City and that it's nighttime due to how dark it is outside the window in the room.

"What is this place?" Sly murmurs, looking around himself. "Is this someone's house?"

"You're asking me..." Rogue scans the room, then at the frozen Anton. "Is this his house or something?"

"...I doubt it." Avatar looks to over to the window, seeing it wide open. "Unless he's left that open to let the cool air in, he's broken into someone's house."

"B and E then?" Sly asked, peering out through the window. Seeing the backyard outside.

"He's got a gun." Rogue tells the others upon examining Anton at the front. The wolf tenses up at that one, his breathing becoming uneasy.

"He's going to execute someone here..." Avatar said hauntingly. "We're going to witness a murder scene..."

Colour came to the scene with the room suddenly becoming familiar to Sly now and they see Anton loading up his revolver, putting a round into the cylinder. The dark-clothed lizard with the black ski-mask rolled up examines his execution tool.

"Anton!" They'd hear the voice of Hud call to his elder brother from another room. "We don't have all night here, hurry up!"

"I'm coming, I'm coming!" Anton replied as he goes to walk through a hallway while the four follows him and the appearance of the hallway adding more to the sense of familiarity for the green hedgehog, a deeply unpleasant feeling began to quickly form in his gut as the place seemed familiar to him. "Just make sure he doesn't go anywhere..."

When they reached what would be the living room... Everything about the house struck Manic like a truck. They're all in his childhood home from several years ago and he can see the alive but bruised form of his late father Farrell with his arms held up by both Hud and Mad Veruca similarly dressed to their older brother, the insect Mobian staring up at Anton in defiance.

Manic's blood went cold, his body going tense as he watched the scene with his full attention fixated on it. He was about to see how his father was killed and so far, it was making a strong impression on him with the others watching on in quiet horror.

"Anton Veruca... Why?" Farrell looks up to the young lizard, unintimidated by the sight of his firearm. "Have you become that desperate to try to make a name for yourself like this?"

"That's how it is old man. The streets are cold that way." Anton coldly says to the insect master thief. "You made the fatal mistake of trying to be a good guy in a bad man's game and for upsetting the natural order of things here."

"Natural order?" The four memory observers hears Farrell letting off a chuckle to himself. "Son. There's nothing natural about it, it's just a collective group of crooks in all forms pretending to be upstanding people who didn't like the fact that someone was trying to show them up for who they really are. I may be no saint myself but I know what I am, I don't try to pretend to be something I ain't and I've actually got a real set of principles that I stand by while they're quick to go against theirs' in a heartbeat whenever money's involved or caught in a bad bind."

"Money makes the world go round. Everything else is worth less than that."

"I know you're resorting to this because you have gave up trying to do things the right way and would rather do it the easy way. I know..." Farrell shook his head. "He's got dirt on you and putting you up to this, hasn't he—"

"Shut up shut up shut up!" Anton screams as he angrily smacks Farrell in the face with his revolver. "I'm doing this because I amthe Number One Hooligan in town! Me and nobody else! I do what I want, when I want!"

"Yooo... Come on Anton, we need t—" Mad was saying before his big brother cuts him off.

"You want some of this too!?" Anton threatened Mad and Hud by extension with his pistol. They were quick to shut up.

"Listen to yourself kid..." Farrell shook his head at Anton in pure disappointment, wincing a little bit from the soreness of that pistol whip. "You're letting yourself became apart of the problem and allowing the tumour to use you as a tool. Are you that willing to throw away your life like this by crossing the moral line in exchange for becoming famous because you want to prove them all wrong? Once you cross that line, your life will spiral out of control for yourself and you'll live to lose everything that ever mattered to you most if you live long to see it happen."

Anton stopped to think about it, mulling over his question. Then gain a malevolent sinister smile as his eyes darkens once he made his mind up. "...It's easy for you to say but put yourself in my shoes for just one moment and you'll see what I see. Having everyone always looking down on you for your whole life, wonder why bother to be good when you can get more and gain more by playing bad... I won't have to be the one being looked down upon anymore because I'll be having you to thank for it; posthumously of course and I will be sure to pay my "gratitudes" to the green hoodlum street trash who'll predictably grieve for your absence."

"His name is Paulie Manić Hedgehog and he's no hoodlum trash either!" Farrell retorted fiercely, angered by the insult. "He is my son!"

Manic seethed as he watched this scene, trying to keep himself from crying and lunging at the younger Anton as his hands balled up into fists. The truth of his father's death has finally been revealed to him at long last years later through the mind of his killer.

"Dad..." He murmured, feeling a combination of rage and sorrow building up in him as he knew too well on what was about to come next. Knowing what came next made it all the more difficult to watch, not to mention knowing now who was responsible for what he was about to see. The night of his grief threatening to come to him at full force.

"Tomatoes, tomatos... It's all the same to me bugster. You'll be making my career forever when this is all over and I will soon be a big player in this shithole..." Anton narrows his gaze, the grin shifting to a smirk as he lets off a dark cackle. "Don't worry; I'll see to it that he gets to join you in the next life. Whenever that may be."

"You're nothing but a big fish in a small pond..." Farrell glares at the youthful lizard. "No matter what you do to him, my son will always come out as the better man than you. He'll be the one person in your whole existence you can never truly get one over on and that fact will eat away at you for as long as you live..."

Anton raises his pistol and aims the barrel at Farrell's head. "Sayonara Farrell, I won't be missing you~"

"DAD!"

When Anton pulls the trigger, the whole scene quickly fades to white and the four hears two gunshots echoed out into the white void afterwards. Knowing what happened to Farrell that night and more than glad that they were spared the graphic sight of his execution.

Soon, they'd hear the last of Anton's inner monologue and it's one of triumph much like the tone his Shadow uses; "I came to Cyber City with my family as a nobody and was treated as one too but when I was approached by him with an offer, I took it without hesitation. No longer will I be some nobody for I will be a somebody they'll be forced to look up to and I don't care whose lives I have to ruin if it means climbing up the social ladder as long as I get the power and wealth I could ever want. I will prove them wrong... I'll prove them all wrong for I am the Number One Hooligan and everyone will remember the name Anton Veruca!"

To Be Continued...