Nickel walked into the Resistance HQ to be immediately greeted by Sonic, Knuckles and Charmy. "Alright, what did you call me over for?"

"Happy birthday!" they all shouted in unison, producing a cake from seemingly nowhere. It was well made and prettily decorated in red and green - no doubt Amy had some part in making it, those guys were useless at making food - and it even had fourteen unlit candles on it. Nickel could see the effort behind it. But it wasn't his birthday.

"Why, though? My birthday's the other side of the year."

"Does it matter? We just wanted to give you this," Knuckles replied.

"Did you have to play the birthday card, though?" Nickel sighed through his nose. "Besides, I don't celebrate my birthday that much."

"You don't? Buddy, we gotta throw you a party when it comes around!" Sonic proposed enthusiastically.

"Nah, you don't need to do that." Nickel paused. "Same thing with the cake. You didn't need to do that."

"But we did! We made it just for you!" Charmy complained. "At least try it!"

Nickel looked at the confection, tilting his head in contemplation, before relenting to try just one piece. The trio hurriedly cut one for him and served it to him without a plate.

The vermilion feline sniffed it apprehensively, wondering if there was some secret ingredient that they were interested in testing out on him. Upon seeing their faces light up and smelling the faint mint-like aroma, he knew what they wanted to happen.

"You put catnip in this." It was a statement, not a question, and it erased their grins in a flash. "Why would you do that?" They said nothing, and Nickel raised an eyebrow. "I'm waiting."

After a long silence, Nickel continued. "You wanted me to act like an idiot, didn't you? Don't you know that some cats aren't affected by catnip?" He cracked a grin of his own. "It doesn't work on me. I'm immune."

The other three looked at each other, before suddenly dumping a mountain of catnip from out of nowhere on top of Nickel, covering him from head to shoe, only leaving his big ears out. Said ears splayed to the side, and Nickel brushed off all the leaves from his person with the most deadpan stare he could muster.

"What part of 'I'm immune' do you not understand? Do you want me to say it again in a language you do understand?"

Just then, the door opened behind Nickel, and the cat turned around, hoping with all his will that the one entering was not another feline.

Thankfully, it was not. It was Amy.

"Care to explain why this was in your cake?" Nickel asked before she could say a word, gesturing to all the leaves scattered across the floor.

"You can thank those guys for that," Amy replied. They looked appalled that she would leave them in the lurch like that, but she was unmoved. "They wanted to see you catnipped. I didn't."

"Liar!" Charmy shouted. "You were curious about what would happen too! You wouldn't have made the cake if you weren't!"

As the argument rose and war threatened to overtake the land for a second time, Nickel sighed through his nose again and left the headquarters. "I wonder how long it'll take Amy to realise that I wasn't actually under the effect," he mused.

.

.

.

Nickel paid a visit to the former supervillain who lived next door. Living on the edge of the City made 'next door' a rather loose term, as Zero was still a good distance away from him, but who really cared.

The cat knocked on the door, and in response a voice inside said that the door was unlocked.

Nickel found the jackal swinging a sword around the large room he was in, having taken care to move things out of the way so that they wouldn't be hit and perhaps broken.

"You know, I forgot you had that," Nickel said.

Zero stopped his onslaught on the air and faced the feline. "This will be my main form of combat again. I'm just getting back up to speed with using it."

"Just don't slash off anybody's head with that thing."

"No promises. If there's an adversary, that rule will be questioned." Nickel shrugged, implying that he was fine with that statement. Sure, it might have been a little morbid, but he didn't necessarily care.

Just then, an alarm sounded on Nickel's comm, and without prompting an audio message played. It was from Amy, and it detailed the wreaking of havoc by a group of individuals going around and ransacking properties all over. They'd last been spotted near the outskirts of the City, but each time the Resistance members had gotten to the place of last sighting they weren't there anymore. She also specifically warned Nickel to look out for them - they were most likely headed his way.

Zero looked out a window. "I don't see them at this moment. Should we confront them at all? It may not be wise to do so."

"It's either that or we tell the Resistance where we see they are, but by the time the Resistance get there they'll have moved somewhere else again. We don't have much choice." Nickel grinned. "Besides, it won't be too hard."

"I'm still unsure." Zero turned away from the window and to Nickel. "What if that doesn't work? They might exact some kind of retribution. They might tear through your place. They might get - "

"Lily," they said at the same time. "You're right," Nickel continued. "Saying that, we mightn't need to confront them. Directly, at least."

"What do you mean?"

"If you could somehow slow them up while I tell the Resistance where they are, then I can keep them here with my - "

"Your electric powers, and then they'd be caught," Zero finished. "I still don't know. It's not a direct accosting, but it could still go wrong."

"Zero, we have to try something. Doing nothing isn't going to help, no matter how much we might want it to."

The jackal signed in resignation. "Fine. But tell them quickly."

As soon as Zero had gone outside, sword in hand, Nickel glued his eyes to the window, trying to catch a glimpse. He was well aware that these offenders might come from the other side of the house, but Amy did say that they were on the outskirts of the City - the City was in the direction he was looking.

Sure enough, a band of around six or seven appeared in the line of sight and Nickel hurriedly spoke into the communicator. "This is Nickel. They're by my house and going away from the City. Come quick." He made sure the message had gotten through before dashing outside himself, just in time to see Zero crumple to the ground. He didn't look hurt, though; the former villain looked more like he'd been drugged by something or other. What did dogs react to, like how cats usually reacted to catnip?

Nickel decided that that was the least of his concerns at that moment. He ran closer to the group - he noticed that there were six, all wolves - and got their attention wordlessly.

They charged at him, and Nickel readied himself. He'd need excellent timing for this to work perfectly.

Unfortunately, his timing was a little off; when he brought down an electric dome onto the wolves, he trapped only four out of six. He exhaled sharply in frustration. "Not quite," he muttered.

The other two seemed very unwilling to escape themselves, the pack mentality very much playing a part in that and playing into Nickel's hands. All he had to do was hold up these troublemakers a little longer.

One wolf demanded that he release them. Nickel shook his head no. That wasn't happening.

Another reached into a pouch he was carrying, and Nickel hoped that there wasn't a weapon in it. At very close range, anything of the sort would be lethal.

There was not; the vermilion cat found himself with his face covered in some familiar leaves. He cheered internally, trying to keep his face straight. If their main way of getting through people was by - quote unquote - 'drugging' them like they had done to Zero and had tried to do to him, the Resistance had gotten very, very lucky.

"Wh-Why aren't you drugged?!" asked the first wolf incredulously. Nickel just smirked cheekily at him.

And just in time, Nickel caught a glimpse of an arriving red echidna in the air. He dropped the electric dome and jumped away, allowing Knuckles to deal with them very swiftly indeed. Soon the wolves were doubled over in pain and unable to stand.

"Thanks, Knuckles," Nickel said.

"No problem, Nickel. Thanks for the help. Couldn't have caught 'em so quick without you."

Nickel grinned again. Knuckles collected the wolves and proceeded with his great strength to carry all of them by himself away to - wherever they'd go for what they did. Nickel didn't know where that was.

As the echidna trudged away gruffly, the jackal just a few paces away - that Nickel suddenly hoped Knuckles either didn't see or didn't pay attention to - was starting to recover from his experience. Nickel quickly stepped over to him.

"Ugh, what happened? I..." Zero groaned. "I don't know where I am..."

"You're outside, Zero," Nickel told him. "You got hit with something and it made you - "

"Oh, yes, I remember now. It was a spray with some sort of ingredient that makes us canines go crazy. Kind of like catnip to cats."

"Ah, so I was right." Nickel felt his face, and he realised that he'd never brushed off the leaves. "Whoops, still got some on me."

"Some what?" Zero asked, starting to rise.

"Catnip." Nickel wasn't looking at him, but he was sure Zero did a double take.

"Catnip? Why weren't you knocked out like me, then?"

"Because it doesn't affect me," the vermilion feline explained. "I'm immune."

"I didn't know cats could be immune to catnip," the black-and-white canid said.

"Yeah - last I checked, around thirty percent of cats are."

"Oh. Well, I'm glad it came in handy today; if nothing else, it was very lucky."

Nickel agreed. Far more lucky than what he'd gotten used to in his fourteen years. But that was the nature of being in such an unpredictable world.