SZ: Hey minna. Welcome to part two of this little mini-arc. Hope y-

Call: *offscreen* Is this really necessary, miss Roll?

Roll: *offscreen* You look very nice in it, Call-chan.

GT: Don't ask, SZ. Don't ask.

SZ:..okay I won't. Anyways...let's recap on what happened last time, GT.

GT: Right. Well, last time...The Underground Freedom Fighters were sent to the Chunan Mountains due to another team going MIA up there. On their way, they stopped at a village that ended up with the villagers fleeing into their homes when Makoto made mention to a name in the last known report from the missing team; Tsao.

SZ: Yup, and hoo boy we got a lot to talk about him in a bit. But moving on...Roll and Yacker then notices something and begin to follow it, the others following behind them as they reached a cave, the other side of said cave containing a rather large area. But that wasn't the only thing they encountered.

GT: Indeed. They ended up encountering a group of Mobians that were looking for a panda by the name of Panda King to assist in something. After hearing the names and descriptions, Manic was the one who realized who the group of Mobians were; the Cooper Gang. A group that steal only from the corrupt and from other thieves.

SZ: Yep. After a bit, the two groups eventually find the Panda King, and Sly's group, much to Sly's chagrin due to certain reason, tries to recruit him. While against it at first, Panda King accepts their offer on one condition..freeing his daughter before she could be forced to marry General Tsao.

GT: The Underground Freedom Fighters agree to aide in freeing Jing King since the missing Freedom Fighters went missing in General Tsao's area. Bentley assigns everyone to different jobs with him, Sonia, and Tsubaki going in disguise to be hired by Tsao to 'help' with the wedding, Sonic, Guru, and Roll checking out the prison, Murray, Penelope, Makoto, and Panda King looking at a mysterious signal they found, and Ben, Sly, and Manic stealing important information from a building Tsao uses.

SZ: Hai. However...when Sonic, Roll, and Guru arrive at the jail...they find out things are much worse than they anticipated.

GT: Eeyup. Luckily for them, Ben finished his mission and went to assist them while Sly and Manic had to help with Bentley, Sonia, and Tsubaki's mission. While on the first mission, Ben unlocked a new alien by the name of Shadow Edge and used it to infiltrate the prison, where he ended up running into Jetfire, one of Robotnik's three Flyers.

SZ: Hai. After he freed Jetfire, who stayed behind to distract the guards while promising not to bother Sonic or the others, Shadow Edge comes across Roll and the two arrived in the Collar Control Room to unlock said collars with Bentley's help via the Binocu-com. However...he only had enough time to unlock one collar.

GT: Which was in their favor since the one released was one of the Freedom Fighters that went MIA; a white tiger by the name of Jian. After she got freed...it...it was not pretty for the guards and one orange cone.

SZ: Yeah….she had a LOT to vent. Over with Makoto, Murray, and Penelope, they find the source of the mystery signal. And as it turns out, the signal was coming from the Cooper Gang's old van, much to Murray's glee.

GT: And by 'glee' we mean he kept calling the van his baby. Anyways, Penelope got the van out of the water, Makoto protected Murray as he broke it free from the ice it was in, and then Makoto and Penelope worked together to help him get the van down a road to hide it. Murray's efforts to save his van inspired the Panda King and he aided with blowing up traps and guards in their way with his fireworks. Murray, in thanks, gave him shotgun for a month.

SZ: Yup. Once the group was back together, with Jian now included in, Bentley began to explain the next part of the plan to rescue Jing King, and the prisoners. However...there was one major issue; Tsao took Bentley's laptop, which had all the plans in it.

GT: Oh great. Sneaky rooster, that guy is. Anyways, they went on to split into three teams with one staying to protect the hideout. Bentley, Sonia, and Manic went to the palace and ransacked it to find Tsao's personal computer. Once they did, Bentley hacked it and found something interesting information in it from a diary entry.

SZ: Hai. After handing out said info to Sly, he, along with Sonic, Roll, Ben, Jian, and Makoto, headed to where Tsao was, using the hints, and Guru's magic, to help them find the corrupt, egotistic rooster.

GT: Guru stayed behind since getting them to Tsao's nearest area had tired him out spiritually. The remaining members went off and found Tsao in a large battleground of bamboo. As the others went down beneath the mist, Ben and Sly stayed up top to fight Tsao.

SZ: Hai. However, Tsao proves he's tougher than he looks as he holds his own against both Sly, and two of Ben's forms, Big Chill and Rath. After moving the battle to the forest floor below, Tsao reveals that he plans on 'revolutionizing' Mobius by making it male dominate, and forcing the females to being what they 'truly are'; servants only meant to serve men while he leads the 'new generation' of kings.

GT: That guy's nuttier than a fruitcake. Especially when he uses his family's dark arts to revive powerful warriors of the past; including King Azure and the first Sakurai and the original partner to Yacker; Zen Sakurai.

SZ: Yup. Will the group be able to deal with Tsao and his army of undead warriors? Let's find out. Btu first...disclaimer! GT, if you will?

GT: Nope. *punts the disclaimer out* People already know that we do not own the franchises involved in this story, but we do own the OCs aside from Alpha the Hedgehog, which is owned by Kamen Keyblade Duelist AKA KKD Silver.

SZ: Hai. Now...let's start this thing then.*scrolls the screen down*

The full moon hovered silently above the bamboo forest, a cold wind blowing through as the sounds of blades clashing, guitar noises followed by laser shots, fist meeting flesh or another fist, and bones breaking filled the air. Sly was dodging Tsao's blows while Sonic and Roll were dealing with Azure and Zen, Makoto, Jian, and Ultimate Rath dealing with the rest of the warriors Tsao summoned.

"This is kinda weird," Makoto muttered as she dealt an uppercut to one of the warriors as Jian rolled out of the way of another swipe aimed at her.

"What is?"

"Rath not shouting or being angry," Makoto replied as she glanced over at where Ultimate Rath was currently holding his own against the stronger of the two martial artists with just his tail blocking kicks and swatting away strikes with the hands all while keeping his calm expression.

"You mean he's normally not like this?" Jian questioned, blocking an attempted slash at her with her naginata.

"Nope," Makoto replied, entering a grapple with her opponent, "Normally, he's a lot louder and hilarious."

"You know I can hear you very well at the moment, yes?" Ultimate Rath questioned in a calm tone, kicking at the leg trying to sweep his feet and hitting their knee, shattering the knee of the opponent.

"Sorry," Makoto meeped as she tossed her opponent into the waterfall, "Go soak your head and think about what you've been doing!"

Nearby, Sonic was dodging every attempted swipe at him from his father's blade, a few slashes barely nicking him. He fired another shot and Azure blocked the laser with the flat of his sword. Sonic sped back from Azure, only for him to speed up to him, easily keeping up with his son.

'Guess I know where my speed comes from now,' Sonic thought, 'Just had to learn it when he's under control and trying to kill me.'

Azure just grunted as he grabbed Sonic by the throat and threw him into a tree, causing the younger hedgehog to grunt a bit before he rolled out of hte way, Azure's blade barely missing his head as he chased after the hedgehog. Roll was having as much trouble with Zen. The blade that she was holding kept changing into a copy of whatever form Yacker was taking on to try to fight her and showing just how far ahead she was in comparison to her descendant with each weapon. Roll squeaked as she barely rolled out of the way of a barrage of tainted pink spikes.

"Heh. It seems your 'friends'' minds are troubled," Tsao noted as he ducked under an attempted swipe from Sly's cane, "Of course...wouldn't you if you went against one of your ancestors? A shame I was unable to obtain a Cooper at this time. It would have been pleasing to see you perish at the hands of one, perhaps even your own father."

"It's amazing that you get nastier with each passing second," Sly countered with a frown as he swiped his cane at Tsao again, who blocked with his obsidian shield.

"Hah!" Tsao roared, firing a red energy blast at Sly, causing his body to shatter...into wood, "What?"

"Sir Andrew Cooper's Thief Replica Technique," Sly's voice mused before his cane slammed into the side of Tsao's head, sending him tumbling into the water, "Good for taking an attack and getting in an attack."

"...How clever," Tsao whispered, spitting some water out as he sent a flurry of red energy orbs at Sly, who jumped back from each one fired at him, "But at times, a clever foe…" Sly backflipped, avoiding the last shot...and ended up colliding with Sonic as he was jumping back from a swipe, sending both of them crashing to the ground, "...will make a foolish mistake against a Tsao."

"Okay...I'm really starting to hate this guy even more than Eggman," Sonic frowned as he got up..

"Any reason why you're using a guitar?" Sly asked, "I thought you said it could become a sword."

"I don't know why, but it won't change into the sword," Sonic replied.

"Maybe it's because you're fighting someone you don't want to fight," Sly replied, "I know I wouldn't be able to fight my father at my best if our situation was flipped. Then again, what child would want to fight someone who died trying to protect them?"

"...Very good point," Sonic whispered, gripping his guitar tightly as he shot a venomous glare at Tsao, "...Keep my dad distracted for a bit. I want to give Tsao a piece of my mind."

"You sure?"

"Jerk's using my dad, he insulted my mom, my sister, and a friend that's like a big sister to me...he just made it very personal," Sonic narrowed his eyes, gripping his guitar even tighter as it glowed along with his gloves, turning them into the decorated sword and glove-sized gauntlets respectively.

"...Alright. I'll keep your old man distracted," Sly nodded.

"Thanks," was all Sonic said as he charged at Tsao.

"Ah, the eldest prince wants to fight me now?" Tsao questioned, blocking the sword with his shield., "Fine. I shall show you that Tsao is more fit to rule Mobius than you or your siblings!"

"You're not fit to rule a tin can!" Sonic argued.

"Such insolence!" Tsao snapped as he jumped back from him, throwing his shield at the hedgehog as it spun madly like a saw, intent on beheading the hedgehog

'Too slow,' Sonic thought, about to dodge.

"Do not dodge."

'?!'

"Stand your ground and block with your blade's flat. Tsao expects you to dodge, but will be thrown off if you can deflect his shield."

Sonic swung his blade, putting the flat against his free hand, and grunted at the shield collided with his sword. Sparks raced off the collision of the blades of the shield against the sword. Sonic let out a roar as he swung his sword, sending the shield away from them.

"What?!" Tsao gasped before Sonic rushed at him, managing to slice into Tsao's armor, cutting almost all the way through before the rooster managed to jump away from the hedgehog, 'He didn't dodge?!'

'What was that voice just now?' Sonic pondered, glancing down at his sword, 'Was it...Nah. It couldn't have.'

"You dare strike me?!" Tsao snapped, earning the hedgehog's attention, "You dare ruin my armor with your pathetic stick of a sword?!"

"...Questions for later," Sonic whispered as he blocked an attempted strike from Tsao.

Back over with Sly, he was barely dodging each high speed slash Azure did. He did a backflip, managing to land on a bamboo pole to get a small breather. He took out his book, quickly flipping through the pages.

'Come on, ancestors, I know that there's a...Yes!' Sly thought before putting the book away just as Azure cut the pole down, "Whoa!"

He jumped off the falling bamboo and landed across from Azure. Azure frowned as he charged at Sly once more, his sword reeled back as he jumped at the racoon. Sly closed his eyes, took in a deep breath, and opened them slowly. Around him, everything had turned into a crawl of a snail's pace.

'Thank you, Dev Cooperinda and Matthew de la Cooper,' Sly thought, wincing as his body started feeling the strain that his entire body was enduring.

The technique he was using was known by many names, but to the Cooper Clan, it was known as Thief Reflexes. With it, they could send time into a crawl. Excellent for making escapes when there were too many chasing you at the moment. However...it would put an immense strain on the user and the user could only activate it for short bursts. Sly acted as fast as he could, managing to use his cane to disarm Azure and throw the blade into the air before hooking his cane onto Azure's leg before he stopped the technique. A sharp, sickening snap went off as Azure's leg dropped from the cane while he smacked into a bamboo twenty meters away. Sly panted slowly before he coughed up a bit of blood.

'I'm going to be feeling it later…' Sly thought.

With Roll, she was panting heavily as she stood across from her ancestor, who gave her an empty stare as she stood ready..

'Why? Why did he do this?' Roll thought, 'It...It's not right. It just isn't right to do this to those who have passed!'

Yacker reformed Laser Rapier, Zen's blade turning into a tainted duplicate. Roll and Zen charged at one another, entering a fencing duel. Their blades glowed as they thrust at the other, the cyan lasers slamming into one another and making a small explosion. Zen erupted from the smoke, her blade reshaping into a tainted Burst Buster. She roared as she swung down, managing to hit Roll and creating a fiery explosion. The hedgefox slammed into the wall beside the waterfall, coughing up blood before collapsing onto her front while her rapier dropped from her hands. It glowed before Yacker popped out of the swiss army knife, the Wisp zipping over to the burnt Hedgefox that was his current partner.

"Well..it would seem one of your comrades will fall this battle," Tsao noted as he jumped back from Sonic, "Zen, finish her off! She's useless to me!"

"Roll!" Sonic gasped before parrying Tsao's shield with his blade.

Zen slowly approached Roll, letting her blade change back into its original state. Yacker trembled as he floated above Roll, his mind going nuts in trying to make sense of what to do. It was then Ultimate Rath's opponent's upper half rocketed over them, dispersing the mist above the Wisp and downed Hedgefox. Ultimate Rath exhaled slowly, lowering his extended fist, as the lower half of his opponent collapsed to its knees and then to its side. Zen stopped as the light of the full moon shined down upon the Wisp and hedgefox. The Wisp looked up, seeing the full moon in all its splendor, though the bit of smog in the sky in the air despite the distance away from the pollution Eggman's controlled lands was making made the moon appear purple.

"6ur673…" Yacker whispered as his eye changed colors before settling on purple, "FRENZY…"

"Frenzy?" Makoto repeated.

Yacker glowed before turning into a purple Wisp, its head/body resembling a pair of horns. It was...unsettling to see, because there was no eye or eyes...but a single, jagged mouth with not a detail visible within. Yacker hissed before shooting into Roll's defeated form. The area he had entered glowed before violet chains erupted from it, making Zen move back as the chains struck wildly all around the hedgefox.

"What is this?" Tsao narrowed his eyes as Roll slowly stood, her head slumped.

The chains began to cover her body. Her feet and lower legs were the first to be covered. The chains glowed before shattering, exposing a pair of pitch black stockings now covered her shapely legs, purple jagged, fur-like armor over the stockings. More chains covered her waist and extended a bit to halfway down the back of her legs, glowing and shattering to reveal a black skirt with the back reaching down to the back of her knees, all covered in more of the purple jagged fur-like armor. The chains then covered her chest and neck, glowing and shattering to reveal armor in the same color and design as the rest of it, her entire middle cleavage exposed with a demonic red eye-like gem nestled at where her neck turned to cleavage. Her arms up to an inch below the shoulders followed next, forming long fingerless gloves with the jagged purple fur-like armor covering them up to her fingers, the claws extended and more sinister in shape. The last of the chains covered her head, shattering to reveal a helmet shaped like a demonic wolf's face, tainted blue sapphires acting as the helmet's 'eyes' with a demonic purple eye on the forehead.

Roll rasped out slowly before tilting her head back, "AWOOOOOOOOOOO!-!-!"

She crouched down, assuming an intimidating fighting stance. Her tail knocked the swiss army knife into the air before she caught it. The purple chains came out of her hand and engulfed the blade, shattering it to reveal a scimitar shaped like the Frenzy Wisp.

"...What...the…?" Jian whispered with wide eyes as everyone stopped to see the new transformation.

"Destroy her!" Tsao ordered.

Zen's blade glowed before it took on the tainted copy of Roll's scimitar. She charged at Roll, who was slowly moving her blade over her chest, the flat of it facing the charging Zen. She twisted her wrist and blocked the tainted blade with the blade of her schimitar. She swiped with her free hand's claws, sending sparks off her ancestor's armor and forcing her back. Using the brief opening, Roll fiercely swung her Frenzy Scimitar, delivering slashes to Zen and sending more sparks off the blended armor she wore. Zen tried to counter her attacks, but a rising swipe from the berserk Roll sent it flying high into the air, sending it back to where its sheath was as it changed back to normal.

"She's gone nuts," Jian whispered as she noticed that the exposed full moon's light was shining down on Roll as if it were a spotlight.

'It's like a hidden berserker slipped out of the sofa of boredom and became unstoppable,' Sonic thought.

Roll lunged at Zen, savagely striking the ancestor of her family. Sparks soared from Zen's armor as more and more of it was starting to be destroyed by the relentless assault.

"If all living things have a mission to fulfill," Ultimate Rath noted calmly, "Then right now, she is a Soldier who fights only by its own instincts." Roll let out another howl before the armor over her face opened, acting as the 'wolf's' jaws, "Baring her fangs and standing up…" Roll vanished as the mist kicked up from that act, "If you see the shadows of a wolf…" Zen stopped moving, "It will mark the end of the long night."

Roll growled as she stood up from her crouched position behind Zen. Her helmet's 'jaws' snapped shut as Zen collapsed, her two halves falling to the sides of each other.

"...Such rage…" Tsao noted as he looked at the fallen states of Azure and Zen, "...Cooper. You may have won this battle..but the war still rages on. Here…" he reached into his robes and threw out Bentley's laptop, "Take your foolish computer. I already got what I needed from it. Not that the info on it will help you...Jing King is mine, and I still plan on accomplishing my goal."

Roll snarled as she turned to him. She lunged with a frenzied roar, swinging her blade at him. Tsao threw something at it and Roll cleaved it in two with her blade. The two halves glowed before letting out a flash with a loud…

BANG!

By the time the ringing and blindness faded from everyone, Tsao was long gone.

"Beware….Beware the power of Tsao!" Tsao's voice echoed within the area.

Roll panted slowly, tensing when a hand laid on her shoulder. She turned her covered head to look up at the concerned emerald eyes looking on her. Her breathing slowed before her new armor glowed purple and shattered along with her scimitar, letting Roll fall against him with her clothes in tatters while the partly-melted, twisted remains of her pocket knife landed on the ground, Yacker faceplanting beside it.

"...It's over…" Jian finished as she looked up at the mist, a frown still evident on her face, "But the battle against Tsao still isn't over."

"Mmm…" a voice whispered, catching everyone's attention as they saw Zen struggling to get up, a faint aura coming off her as her body slowly started to turn to ash.

"Guess when they lose, their revived bodies start to burn away," Sly noted before he moved away from the others.

"...It looks like she's reaching for her weapon," Makoto noted, seeing Zen's halves slowly crawling towards her sword and sheath while Yacker began to float.

"...Hedge...hog…" Zen whispered out, catching Sonic's attention, "My sword...please...give it...to my...descendant…"

"..." Sonic nodded, "I will."

"...Thank...you…" Zen smiled softly as she looked over at Yacker, small tears escaping her eyes as the rest of her body started to crumble, "I am...so sorry...my friend…"

"SFgw24%..." Yacker whispered as he floated over to her, a sad look in his eye while slowly patting her head with a tiny tentacle.

"Amaterasu...I...return to…you..." Zen whispered as her head was the last to turn to ash.

Yacker couldn't contain the sadness in his body anymore as he floated down to where his old friend once was, tears escaping his single eye. His soft, squeaky sobs filled the area until the group left, Sly being the last to leave while looking at the makeshift pile of bits of armor stacked along a sword stabbed into the ground before the mist made it impossible for them to see it.

"Thankfully, we've managed to retrieve the ThiefNet computer. However, all the plans stored inside of it are compromised," Bentley informed as his projector showed an image of the laptop with doodles of stink lines coming off it before he looked at the assembled group, "Uh...Where are Sonic and Roll?"

"Roll's still knocked out from that fight," Makoto replied, "Sonic hasn't left her side since we got back."

"Plus, the dude can't be more than five blocks away from her or something bad will happen," Manic replied.

"Bad?" Murray repeated.

"Not sure what it'll be, but the pamphlet does not make us willing to let them be that far apart," Sonia replied, handing Murray the pamphlet.

"...Ahem. A-anyway…" Bentley spoke up, "The wedding is still on. Jing King is still Tsao's prisoner, and the Mobians he captured are still in jail, including Jian's team. We're still going to free them, but that's not enough. No, for this phase, we really need to put the screws to this guy. And trust me...he's earned it," a slide then showed a fairly large treasure house, a few dollar signs drawn around it, "Therefore, we're cleaning out his treasury as well." he changed slides to show Greymatter working on the team van, "A feat impossible without Murray's van. Ben's been working on it since he came back from that fight. Unfortunately, all that time in the ice has ruined its polycellular battery, a key component that Greymatter needs in order to give the engine the same tune-up he did for the Underground Bus's engine." he held up a finger before Sonia could say something, "And, no, we are not using your bus for this instead of the van. Mainly because your bus was too big for the passageway to get here. I'll need Manic's help in acquiring a new one, which won't be easy as the general's gone all out with security."

"How big we talking?" Manic asked as Bentley changed slides to show a demonic dragon head attached to black smoke.

"Well for one, he's enlisted the help of dark magic dragons, and Jiangshi, A.k.a Chunese hopping vampires," Bentley stated, changing the slide to show a group of them, "Also it seems he's enlisted the help of some ninja as extra security for the palace."

"...These ninja. They wouldn't happen to be lynx, would they?" Jian asked with a frown.

"Lynx and a few spiders, yes," Bentley replied.

"...Raiju," Jian frowned, knowing about them all too well.

"Fortunately for us, the three generals that know the codes to freeing Jian's team have gathered together in the jail," Bentley continued, showing a slide of the three generals entering the jail, "Makoto, you, Penelope, and the Guru will be working together on getting those codes and freeing her team. Also, try to connect the Binocu-com again to the Collar Control and I'll try to see if I can get more prisoners freed."

"Got it, Bentley," Makoto saluted.

"We're going to need to even the odds before the wedding. Sly, you and the Panda King will work to gather some fireworks to blow up the vampire's crypt."

"What?" Sly blinked twice.

"No crypt, no more jiangshi," Bently either ignored or didn't hear the question.

"That just leaves those dark magic dragons, and the ninja guarding the palace," Tsubaki pointed out.

"I'll deal with the ninja," Jian offered, "I...have a history with their leader if she's there."

Bentley nodded, "Take Tsubaki along with you to be safe."

"Got it," Jian nodded before looking at Tsubaki, "Word of advice; don't let your guard down, especially around a Raiju."

Tsubaki nodded in response.

"That just leaves the dark magic dragons then," Ben noted, 'Wish Gwen was here to help with that. She would deal with those in a heartbeat.'

"Ben, when you're good and ready, you'll head over to here," Bentley said as the screen showed a locked metal box, "If we can open it and hack the phone lines within, we'll be able to listen in on any plans Tsao has."

"Right," Ben nodded.

"Mmm…" Roll whimpered a bit as she began to regain consciousness, her eyes slowly opening as she saw Sonic looking at her, "..Sonikku…"

"Heh. Morning, sleeping beauty," Sonic greeted/joked, earning a small blush from her, "Glad to see you're okay."

"...H...How long was I out?" Roll asked.

"Almost a day," Sonic replied, "...Roll, what do you last remember?"

"I...I was…" Roll thought aloud before her eyes widened, "I...I lost to Zen-sama."

"More like you won," Sonic whispered, catching her attention as he held out Zen's sword, which rested in its sheath, "After Tsao left, she tried to reach for her sword, but started to turn to ash…." he then gave her a small soft, yet sad smile, "She wanted me to give this to you before she passed on."

"...Her sword…" Roll whispered as she took it, pulling it out of its sheath to see the blade no longer a tainted grey, but a pure silver.

"Yeah...in a way, she was passing down her spirit to you," Sonic said as he sat down next to her.

"S...Soka…" Roll nodded, putting it back in after cutting her finger on it.

"What the…?! Roll, why'd you do that?" Sonic asked, looking at the cut finger.

"A tradition…" Roll replied, "When a blade has a sheathe and is drawn, you need to give at least a drop of blood to show that you respect it."

"Ahh…" Sonic nodded, "Still, warn a guy before you do a tradition, okay?"

"Hai…" Roll nodded, "...Sonikku."

"Yeah, Roll?"

"What Tsao did...it…" Roll paused as she tried to remain calm, the memory of Tsao using her ancestor to attack her still fresh in her mind, "...It's unforgivable."

Sonic nodded, his mind flashing to when Tsao summoned his father and had him attack Sonic, "Yeah. Completely unforgivable."

Roll nodded before her left ear twitched, "Hm?"

"What's wrong?" Sonic asked before seeing Panda King walk by, a troubled look on his face.

Panda King seemed to ignore the two as he walked into a separate room. When he walked in, he stood right in front of a mirror, looking at his reflection. Sonic and Roll peeked in, seeing he had added a red open silk vest to his outfit and his wooden fireworks bazooka on his back.

"...Hello, old friend," Panda King whispered as he looked at his reflection, seeing himself with his new additions, "I'm about to work alongside Sly Cooper, and I cannot carry you along with me on the journey."

"You fool! This is your chance for revenge! He humiliated us! Ruined us! Made us weak!" his reflection argued in his mind.

"...Humiliation was a crossroads. I have chosen to walk the path of humility."

"Humility that cost you your daughter!" the reflection clenched his fist in his mind, "Destroy Cooper NOW!"

'My mind is fractured. I cannot assist Sly Cooper while I am in this state,' Panda King thought, "...Cooper is a teacher of humility. We have slain his parents, and yet he manages to trust us."

Roll and Sonic managed to cover their gasps.

'No wonder Sly acts weird around the guy,' Sonic thought.

"By studying him, we will become whole," Panda King continued.

"...I have no desire to join with my weaker side. You are a failure. I am the strength that used to be the once glorious Panda King!"

"You are strong, and I am humble...but, only through cooperation will we become the father Jing King needs," Panda King countered.

"The Yin and the Yang?"

"If strength were all that mattered, Tsao would be an ideal son-in-law."

"Very well...Cooper shall live," his reflection agreed before Panda King blinked and saw his currently self reflected within.

"...You two can come out now," Panda King spoke, not once turning to face the two.

"Uh oh. Busted," Sonic muttered.

"You...you killed Sly-san's parents?" Roll asked, her ears drooping as she looked at Panda King in sadness.

"I...had a hand in it," Panda King replied, "I did not deliver the fatal blow that took the life of his father nor did I deliver the deadly shot to his mother, but I still aided in it."

"But...But why?" Roll asked, "What did his parents ever do to you? You have a daughter and they had a son."

"I was never told they did," Panda King replied.

"Then why? Why would you still do such a horrible thing?"

"...Clockwerk," Panda King replied, "I refused to aide him at first, even with his lie of them having no children. Yet…"

"He threatened to take Jing?" Sonic guessed.

"He ended my wife when I was away and told me that my daughter would suffer the same should I not aid him."

"How horrible…" Roll whispered.

"Yes...I regretted that day ever since. While my daughter was safe...I could not escape the cold iron grip of Clockwerk...in a sense...I lost my freedom to him in exchange for my daughter's safety."

"..." Roll hugged him, surprising the panda, who looked at Sonic.

"She does that. Her family had a saying that hugs let one show others how they feel," Sonic explained, remembering Roll telling him that when he asked her why she always gave hugs.

Panda King nodding, patting the smaller Mobian's head until she ended the hug, "I must go now. Sly Cooper needs my assistance. Bentley has most likely not left yet. Speak to him and see if you two may aid in today's operations."

Sonic and Roll nodded as Panda King left the room, leaving the two by themselves as they looked at each other.

"I hope he can make up for his sins," Roll whispered.

"Yeah…" Sonic nodded, "You sure you're okay for doing this?"

"Hai," Roll nodded as the two left, finding Bentley and Manic about to head out, "Bentley-san!"

"Hey! Sis-in-law, you're up!" Manic beamed.

"I see that Sonic gave you your ancestor's blade," Bentley noted, "Excellent. Roll, I did some research on that blade and it holds some mystical properties in it. I believe that these properties will allow your sword to destroy the dark magic dragons Tsao's brought in for security."

"Cool. L...wait. Dark Magic Dragons?" Sonic blinked twice at that.

"Yes. Tsao has stepped up security by using Dark Magic Dragons, Jiangshi, and hiring Raiju as extra security for the p-"

"Raiju…" Roll repeated, a frown evident on her face, "Did you say…'Raiju'?"

"Jian-san, may I ask you something?" Tsubaki asked as the two walked to the palace, "Who're the Raiju?"

"...A very powerful clan of ninjas, mostly populated by females," Jian replied with a frown, "Their leader, Conquering Storm, is the most powerful kunoichi the clan has ever had. They say, as her name suggest, can harvest the power of the storm itself."

"...I see," Tsubaki quietly noted.

"Yes...I also heard the Raiju are the rivals/main enemy of the ninja of Ryugu," Jian added.

"...You are forbidden from going after them," Bentley stated once he, Manic, and Sonic stopped staring at Roll with wide eyes from her explanation.

"But they…"

"No 'buts'!" Bentley interrupted, "Focus only on the Dark Magic Dragons. If you see one of the Raiju, don't go near them. In fact, Sonic..." he looked at the blue hedgehog, "It's your job not to let her go near them. If you see one, keep six blocks away from them."

"..." Roll frowned at the turtle.

"Sorry. But we can't afford to have a ninja war suddenly break out," Bentley apologized, "Manic, let's get going."

"You got it, dude," Manic nodded before shrugging at Roll, "Sorry, sis-in-law, dude's right about this at the moment."

"...Fine," Roll sighed in defeat.

Back at the palace, Tsao frowned as he threw off his destroyed armor, the rooster obviously angry that he lost two of his best finds for his undead army. He had to pay a good chunk of his treasure to ensure that he would get the corpse of King Azure and the ashes of Zen Sakurai.

"...It would seem you've been humiliated," a voice spoke up, causing Tsao to frown a bit as a female lynx in dark purple kunoichi garb that fit her fit, yet developed, body appeared from the shadows, her eyes hidden underneath her strawhat.

"...I do not need your opinions, Conquering Storm. I want you and your ninja to keep my palace guarded," Tsao stated as he grabbed a new piece of armor and put it on, "I've already lost my best warriors for my undead army. I don't need you putting salt in my wounds."

"...You should know it's unwise to anger a Raiju ninja," Conquering Storm stated with a frown.

"Hmph...please. Like I'm afraid of a group of ninja that sold their souls t-" Tsao began before a hand was aimed right at his neck, electricity crackling off it, "?!"

"I will do what it takes to make sure my clan remains as the strongest in Mobius," Conquering Storm stated as she glared at him, her hat having moved a bit to reveal that her eyes were cybernetic, the pupils a crimson red while the rest was a pure obsidian black, "Even if it means working for him in exchange."

"Once my marriage is a success, that fool will only be in power for a matter of days," Tsao informed.

"..." Conquering Storm said nothing as she reeled her arm back, the lynx still glaring at the rooster.

"Now if you'll excuse me, I need to check on my bride," Tsao stated as he began to walk off.

"...One more thing, General Tsao," Conquering Storm spoke up, causing him to stop, "My clan will work for you for now...but if you or any of your men touch a single hair on my ninja…" she paused as electricity crackled off her intensely, "You will be dead where you stand. Understood?"

"But of course," Tsao replied as he walked off.

"...Akane, report," Conquering Storm called out as a female lynx in the same garb as her appeared, "What have you found out?"

"...A native to Ryugu is here," Akane replied, pulling out a picture of Roll, "The last of the Sakurai Clan."

"...Soka," Conquering Storm noted with a frown, "...Tell the others to be on standby in case she makes a move. Out of all the clans in Ryugu, the Sakurai are the most troublesome, second to the Prowers."

"Understood."

"Akane," Conquering Storm spoke up, halting the ninja, "If you see that she has their family's missing blade...obtain it no matter what."

"...Of course, Conquering Storm-sama," Akane bowed as she became a blur, leaving the older lynx within the room by herself.

"...That fool Tsao…" Conquering Storm frowned to herself, "To think he had that blade in his possession."

Back over with Sly, he was waiting right beside a safe, the front shaped like a roaring flame as a pale red ruby rested in the middle, acting as the safe's 'lock' more or less. He let out a small yawn before he spotted the Panda King approaching him.

"Fear not, Cooper, I shall not kill you this day," Panda King informed.

"...Uh...ditto," Sly nodded as he walked over to the safe, "Watch my back while I get this open."

Panda King nodded as he stood ready, prepared for any guard or Jiangshi that'll come his way. A groaning noise made Panda King look to the right of Sly to see a group of Jiangshi on the higher area. He narrowed his eyes before loading his wooden bazooka. He aimed and pulled the trigger, sending the fireworks upon the hopping vampires, blowing them up and sending their burning remains into the icy waters below.

"...Okay. I'm done with this one," Sly spoke up as he opened the safe, pulling out a bundled pack of fireworks before handing them to the Panda King, "You handle the stuff. I'll head out for the next cache."

"Excellent! I'll make good use of these!" Panda King informed.

Sly nodded as he ran ahead, dodging any guards that passed by as Panda King stuffed the fireworks into the wooden bazooka on his back. Once he was done, he followed after Sly, attacking any guards that spotted him with a flaming chop.

Over with Makoto, the Guru, and Penelope, the group had just arrived at the Jail Sonic and his team were at before hand. The three looked around for any guards before, once they were sure, the Guru began to chant. A set of carts floated over, forming a 'bridge' to the window they had gotten in through yesterday. After climbing the 'bridge,' the three climbed in through the window just in time as a Tiger Guard just passed by.

"...How horrible…" Makoto whispered once she and Penelope got a good look inside the jail.

"Agreed," Penelope frowned as she looked around before taking her pink Binocu-com out, "Bentley, we're in the jail."

"Good. I've managed to pinpoint the locations of the three generals within the prison. Lucky too, since they just arrived today," Bentley said, "However, they're in three separate rooms below the main floor. There's a hidden elevator you can take. Once you've found one of the generals, Penelope can knock them out with the tranquilizer darts in her RC chopper. Once they're knocked out, the Guru will bridge Makoto's mind to that general and take their code."

"And once we get the codes, we'll be able to free Jian's team mates," Makoto added.

"Exactly. Once you get the codes, head down to the very bottom floor, help Jian's team escape, and run back to the collar control room. With any luck, I'll be able to unlock all the collars in the jail."

"Hajaji ihavhaj."

"Agreed. We'll make sure everyone goes free!" Bentley declared.

"Okay," Penelope pocketed her Binocu-com, "Let's find us a hidden elevator."

"I'll scout ahead," Makoto offered, "You two stay here. I'll signal you two when I find it."

"Got it."

With that, Makoto climbed up onto a nearby beam and began to climb down it, the squirrel girl running behind a nearby crate as a pair of guards passed by. Once the coast was clear, she made a mad dash for a nearby barrel to hide in, pulling her tail in just in time as another guard passed by. Once he was gone, Makoto climbed out and resumed her search quietly. She may not be a member of the NOL's Intelligence division anymore, but she still had the stealth skills needed to find out any information for her team.

"Okay...if I were to hide a hidden elevator, where would I…?" Makoto whispered before she skidded to a halt, seeing a large poster of Tsao, the rooster looking very intimidating in it as he stood in front of a fiery background, "...It can't be that easy, can it?" she slowly reached out for a corner, btu quickly reeled her hand back, "No no..it would be too easy. He'd probably had a trap set behind it or something." she frowned, "Then again, he probably wants me to think that it'd be a trap when it's the elevator." she began to move on before she spotted another large poster, the Beastkin trembling a bit in a bit of womanly anger as she saw Tsao stand proudly on top of a pile of weakened females, like he conquered each and every one of them while he had that prideful smirk on his face, "..." she raised her fist and reeled it back, "You sexist bastard!"

*CLANG!*

"Huh? Whazat?" a large Mobian boar muttered as he woke up from his sleep, surrounded by tons of fruits and veggies as he wore a pale green robe on top of bronze armor, "...I didn't scare myself with my fart again, did I?"

=If you did, then you need to cut those beans out of your diet= a voice stated over a nearby communicator.

"Aw shaddup, you smart ass turtle, and go back to your games…" the boar waved it off before he ate an entire watermelon whole, seeds and all.

"..." Makoto blinked twice as she slowly pulled her fist out, "..." she looked in through the hole she made in the portrait, "...Found the elevator. Might as well signal Penelope and Guru." she then snuck over to a nearby corner and, once the coast was clear, signaled her team mates over as she pulled herself back around the corner.

"There's the signal," Penelope noted.

The Guru nodded and the two made their way down, the Guru using his power to hide them at times to avoid the guards. Once things were safe and sound, they hurried over to the corner Makoto was hiding in.

"Alright, where's...the…" Penelope began before she noticed the ruined poster, "...Do I even want to know?"

"Trust me. If you saw what I did, you would've done the same," Makoto replied with a small frown.

The three entered the elevator and they began to go down. All the while, elevator music played in it.

"...Soooo...What exactly was your diet that, uh, got you that figure?" Penelope asked.

"Jealous?" Makoto asked.

"A bit, yes," Penelope blushed.

"Nanaya family secret," Makoto stated, "No way can I tell anyone about…" the elevator dinged and opened to reveal a tiger guard, "..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

*WHACK*

The guard squeaked as he collapsed, his tail curled up between his legs.

"...As I was saying, no way can I tell anyone about how the woman in my family, especially me and my mom, got our figures," Makoto finished, slowly lowering her leg, "So no matter what you say or offer, Penelope, you…"

"I'll buy you your favorite dessert for a month."

"..." Makoto said nothing as she grabbed a piece of paper out of the tiger guard's pockets, wrote down something, and handed it to her, "Follow these instructions, and you'll have the perfect body in about a year."

"Thanks," Penelope smiled before a spear tore the paper.

"Intruders!" a pig guard snorted before Penelope glared at him, "Uh…"

OINK!-!-!-!

"?!" the boar got up again before looking around, his eyes narrowing as he laid back down, "...Whoever's farting...stop it."

"..." the Guru peeked out from behind Makoto as Penelope stood over the pig guard, panting while holding the broken spear in her hands.

"...Wow," Makoto blinked twice.

"I...finally...got...what I needed...and it's gone..just...like that…" Penelope panted as she dropped the broken spear.

"Uh...there-there?" Makoto patted her back.

"...How much is it going to take for you to write it down again?"

"...Wow. You are one determined mouse."

"Darn right I am."

The Guru cleared his throat, "Vihajain?"

"...Oh right!" Penelope realized as he looked through her Binocu-com, "Okay, the closest general is...in the food storage?"

"Seriously?" Makoto blinked.

"That's what I'm reading," Penelope nodded as she put her Binocu-com away, "Come on. Let's hurry before anyone finds out we're here."

"Got it."

Meanwhile, with Bentley and Manic, the two were sneaking around.

"Okay, Manic, Penelope's aerial reconnaissance has located a candidate. But due to the delicate nature of the work I should be the one to decouple it," Bentley explained.

"So, wait, what am I doing?" Manic asked.

"You'll be in charge of charging the battery," Bentley replied.

"Oh...wait. How am I gonna pull that off?" Manic asked, "Ben's not here, and I…"

"Over there is your source to recharge it," Bentley pointed to the upper part of the wall surrounding Tsao's castle.

Manic raised a brow as he slowly turned to see a female red fox Mobian searching around. She had a mole under her left eye, and waist-length blue hair tied in a braid at shoulder level. Her outfit included a dark blue midriff-baring corset-type top that zipped in the front, form-fitting dark blue pants, and a choker which a gold star badge hung from. She wore a light brown leather jacket and yellow gloves. She wears a lone earring on her left ear. On her feet were a pair of brown combat boots and had red lipstick on her lips.

"...Uh...if I recall correctly...she's with Interpol...right?" Manic asked slowly and nervously, seeing where Bentley was going with this.

"Yes. And she carries a unique weapon; a shock pistol," Bentley informed, "When we get the battery, you'll…" he whispered the plan to Manic, "Got it?"

"...Can I change my mind about this?" Manic asked.

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"...Ugh...fine," Manic sighed before giving Bentley an even glare, "But when we take Tsao's treasure, I want a cut of it: 25 percent."

"5 percent."

"20 percent."

"7 percent."

"15 percent, and that's my final offer."

"10 percent and, depending on how this goes, a chance at something bigger."

"...Deal," Manic said as he shook hands with him.

"Pleasure doing business with you," Bentley nodded, "Now come on. The battery's this way."

Manic nodded as he followed Bentley, the two keeping a close eye out for any guards or, at worse, a Raiju ninja. They eventually reached a fishing hut that was hanging over the water before running behind it, seeing a fairly large battery connected to the back.

"Seems simple enough," Bentley cracked his knuckles before he quickly went to work, "Get ready on your end, Manic."

"...How big is this other chance again?" Manic asked.

"Very, very big," Bentley replied as he finished removing the battery.

"...hoo boy. Here goes nothing then," Manic muttered as he took a deep breath, the green hedgehog took the battery out and strapped it to his back.

'There goes a brave hedgehog,' Bentley thought as Manic walked out into view of the fox, 'Better him being chased by Carmelita than me, though. That I don't feel sorry one bit about.'

"I know he's out here somewhere…" Carmelita whispered to herself as she looked around her ears twitched, "Drums?" she ducked under a boulder the size of a tire, "Madre de dios!"

A sharp whistle made her look down at the ground near a fishing hut. Waving at her was Manic, his drums turning back into his medallion. He blew a raspberry at her while smacking his bottom in her direction.

"Why you little…!" Carmelita growled, "You're under arrest for assaulting an Interpol officer!"

"Gonna have to catch me first, Foxy Loxy!" Manic mocked as he hightailed it out of there.

"GAH!" Carmelita growled before she jumped down and began to chase after him, firing a blast of electricity from a blocky yellow and red gun-shaped device in her hands at him, "Get back here, you idiota verde!"

'Shitshitshitshitshitshitshitshit!' Manic mentally panicked as he ran from the livid vixen, 'Sonia's gonna kill me if she finds out I made a cop mad! ...oh god. I forgot Tsubaki used to be one too! I'm doubled screwed if they find out!' his quills stuck straight up as a shot nearly hit him, 'Ulp. I just had to agree to whatever that big thing was! I shoulda kept the 15 percent!'

*ZAP! ZAP! ZAPPITY-ZAP-ZAP! BZZZZRT!*

"Ugh…" Manic groaned as he collapsed onto his face, smoking.

"Got you, you idiota verde," Carmelita frowned as she walked up to him, aiming her weapon at him as she got a better look at the green hedgehog, "Hmm...Sixteen years old, average in height compared to the average hedgehog male at that age. Royal medallion of the Hedgehog Royal Family...wait, que?" she bent down to get a better look at it, "It is." she scowled at the hedgehog, "Stealing from a lost royal family of Mobius?" she took out a radio, "Interpol, I've captured a criminal in possession of a missing heirloom of the late Royal Hedgehog Family. Requesting extraction unit - over."

"Nice acting, Manic. The battery is fully charged! Plug it into one of the mainline outlets to stabilize it, then we'll attach it to the van for Ben to finish fixing the engine," Bentley whispered in the communicator in Manic's ear, "But be careful. Now that the battery is full, it won't absorb any more of Carmelita's shots."

"I'm serious. He had it right around his neck," Carmelita argued over the radio, unaware that Manic was slowly crawling away, "The design? Well, it looks like a…" she turned to see Manic not there anymore, "What?!" she turned to barely see the battery go around a corner, "CRIMINAL!"

"Gh?!" Manic tensed as he bolted out of there, going almost tenth the speed Sonic and Roll would normally do.

"Get back here!" Carmelita snapped, her Spanish accent strong, as she opened fire on the green hedgehog, running after him with a strong determination in her eyes.

'God, kami, and whoever else is up there, if you help me get out of this safe and sound, I swear I'll turn over a new leaf once Robotnik is taken down! I'll start a business! I'll find a nice girl to settle down with! I'll stop stealing! Just please don't let this livid fox get me or let my sister find out!' Manic pleaded, managing to drop the battery off at a mainline outlet.

"It shouldn't take more than a minute for it to stabilize," Bentley informed, "Just keep dodging her and-oh, you attracted the guards."

"NO SHIT!"

"Trust me on this; get her mad at them," Bentley advised, "She'll get distracted long enough, hopefully."

"...Hey, guards! That vixen said she'll give you free money and food!" Manic shouted as he ran past a few guards.

"HM?" the pig guard of the group looked up.

"I said that vixen will give you free money and food!" Manic shouted in the distance.

"Free food?!" the pig guard exclaimed as he and his fellow guards shot up, "Where?!"

"Get back here, you criminal!" Carmelita roared as she ran by them, shooting at Manic's direction.

"...Quick! After her! She's got the free money and food!" a monkey guard shouted as they began to chase her.

"...What the heck is going on out there?" Sonia pondered as she heard noises coming from outside.

"Usted estúpidos guardias! No tengo ninguna comida gratis!" a voice outside snapped.

"Uh oh. That sounds like Carmelita," Murray gulped as he hid under the table. Or rather...attempted to.

"Okay! It's in and charged!" Manic shouted before he began to slam on the door, "Open the door! OPEN THE DOOR!"

"Manic?" Murray opened the door and Manic scurried in, slamming the door shut and locking it, "Wait. You got the battery? Awesome! After Panda King's month is over, you've got shotgun for a month!"

"Thanks...now if you'll excuse me…" Manic said as he rushed into one of the rooms and slammed the door shut, locking it.

"...Is he okay?" Murray asked, looking at Sonia.

"...Honestly? I don't know…" Sonia shrugged as she looked outside the window, seeing Carmelita looking around for her target while piles of guards littered the streets around her, electricity crackling off them, "...MANIC. THE. HEDGEHOG!"

"Shit! I'm dead!" Manic freaked from inside the room.

Meanwhile with Ben, he was busy searching for the metal box Bentley pointed out in the plan, keeping his Omnitrix on standby just in case. He snuck around a corner before finding a large metal box, a pair of locks on the front.

"Okay...there it is," Ben whispered as he snuck over to the box, "Okay...Bentley said once I get this open, we can hack the phone lines and listen in on what Tsao has planned...should be easy enough." He was about to reach for his Omnitrix before he stopped, "...Wait. This seems too easy." he took out his Binocu-coms, "Anyone on?"

"The Murray's here," Murray replied, the sounds of something being struck hard in the background.

"...What's going on there?"

"Sonia's trying to beat the door down to Manic's room here," Murray replied.

"Manic the Hedgehog, you get out here this instant!"

"No! You're gonna yell at me!"

"You're darn right I'm gonna yell at you! Why was that vixen chasing after you?!"

"Well it's not because she was a cop or anything a…"

"...I'm telling Tsubaki when she gets back."

"NO! NOT ANOTHER LECTURE!"

"Ohh…" Murray cringed, "Uh...Where are you, Ben?"

"I've pinpointed my location in the Binocu-com. Why?" Ben asked.

"THE MURRAY'S GETTING OUTTA HERE BEFORE A LECTURE COMES!" Murray hung up, leaving a dumbstruck Ben.

"...Uh….what just happe-" Ben began before someone bumped into him, knocking him to the ground, "Oof!"

"Oh good, I found you!" Murray exclaimed as he picked Ben up, "I think Sonia was about to start lecturing." he looked around before seeing the locked container, "Hey, isn't that the container that Bentley wanted you to handle?"

"Yeah…" Ben nodded as he dusted himself off, "But...I think there's a problem."

"Hmm?"

"Doesn't this seem too easy?" Ben asked as he looked at the box, "I mean, no guards, no security...if you ask me, this has trap written all over it."

"Oh. I think that's because Carmelita zapped them all," Murray replied.

"Who?"

"Don't you worry, my awesome shapeshifting buddy! Just leave opening this up to The Murray!" Murray declared as he ran over to the hard container and grabbed the lid.

"Wait Murray! I think this could be a-!" Ben began as Murray forced the lid open, "...trap."

A blast of green smoke engulfed Murray. He coughed and gagged as he stumbled out of it.

"That's...bad...gas!" Murray groaned before collapsing onto his face, knocked out.

"D...damn it…" Ben coughed as he quickly activated the Omnitrix, quickly choosing an alien before smacking down the symbol, changing him into, "NRG!" he walked over to Murray, "Hold on, Murray." he pulled up the hippo, grunting a bit, "Hoo boy. You are vun big hippo, ja?"

Murray groaned as NRG dragged him off, and just in time too as a few Tiger Guards in gas mask came into the area. They looked around as NRG managed to drag Murray into one of the empty houses. He waited until the guards were gone before walking back out, leaving Murray snoozing on the floor.

"Dat vas a trap," NRG noted to himself as he looked inside the heavy box, "Dat Tsao eez vun sneaky rooster." he then changed back to Ben and pulled out his Binocu-com, "Bentley, you there?"

"I'm here. What's up?"

"Turns out that metal box was a trap," Ben replied, "Tsao set up a gas trap in case anyone opens the box."

"You didn't get captured did you?"

"No. Murray opened the box and set the trap off. I managed to get him safely stored in one of the empty houses here just before the guards showed up," Ben assured.

"Okay good. Still...I didn't expect Tsao to pull of something like this. Return back to the Safe House with Murray if you can."

"You got it, Bentley," Ben nodded before going back into the empty home to see Murray still snoring away, "Hey, Murray...wake up."

"Zzz…."

"Come on. We need to hurry back to the safe house and wait for the others," Ben said as he shook the snoring hippo.

"Zzzz…"

"...Tsubaki and Sonia are going to give us a lecture?" Ben tried.

"LECTURE?!" Murray shot up before looking around, "What the…? Where are we, Ben?"

"We're inside an empty house," Ben replied, "You got knocked out by some gas when you opened the box."

"I did? Wait, you got me in here all by yourself?" Murray asked.

"Yeah," Ben nodded, "Barely made it before guards showed up to look around."

"You are awesome!" Murray cheered, pulling Ben into a big hug, "You've got shotgun for two months after Manic's turn is done!"

"Uh...thanks?" Ben grunted, 'I think my spine's breaking…' "Murray?"

"Yes?"

"Let's...just get back to the Safe House."

"Oh...okay."

Back over with Sly and the Panda King, the two had just reached the third fireworks cache after the latter just finished dealing with a wave of Jiangshi while the former opened the safe.

"Heh...we make a pretty good team," Sly smirked as he handed the Panda King the fireworks, "This should be the last of the fireworks. Put 'em in the crypt and ka-boom! No more Jiangshi."

"Yes. This ordinance will suffice," Panda King nodded as he stuffed the fireworks into the wooden bazooka.

"There're gonna be fangs everywhere!" Sly grinned in excitement before seeing the deadpanned stare he was getting from Panda King, "...Right. I'll just head back to the...safe house."

"...Yes...do that," Panda King agreed as Sly ran back to the safe house.

Once he was gone, the Panda King started heading back to where the first cache was located, which of course was also the location of the crypt the Jiangshi were coming from. Once the crypt was destroyed, there would be one less problem to deal with, meaning he would be one step closer to rescuing his daughter from that vile rooster, Tsao.

The door to the food storage slowly opened and Makoto, Penelope, and the Guru poked their heads in. Laying in the center of it was the boar general, snoring loudly as he rested in his bed of fruits and veggies.

"Well...This should be easier than expected," Penelope whispered.

"Hai," Makoto nodded as she looked at Guru, "Well...you know what to do."

The Guru nodded. The three entered the room and approached the sleeping boar. Makoto sat down in a meditative stance as the Guru began to spin his moonstone. He was about to chant when…

*PFFFFFffffft*

"?!" the boar shot up, eyes snapped wide open.

"Shit!" Makoto cursed as the three quickly hid under a nearby table.

"...Seriously, whoever keeps doing that...just knock it off…" the boar narrowed his eyes as he went back to sleep.

"...This guy's supposed to be a general?" Makoto asked with a sweatdrop, "...Nevermind. Guru, just...connect me to this guy's head before he wakes up again."

The Guru nodded as Penny turned on her RC chopper, keeping its tranquilizer darts aimed on the boar. Makoto reassumed her meditative sitting state as the Guru began to chant.

"Okay...where's...the…?" Makoto began as she appeared in a...large dessert-made landscape? "What the…?"

A squeal caught her attention as she saw the boar from earlier dive into a milkshake waterfall, wearing nothing but a...speedo...urp.

"...I did not need to see that," Makoto gagged as she held her hand over her mouth, trying to keep her food in as her face went green before she heard the Guru's voice, "Huh? Find his memories? All I see is food all over." the Guru spoke again, "Oh. The memories are probably in the form of food...shit. I'm gonna be in here for a while"

"Makoto's gonna be in there for a while, isn't she?" Penelope asked, looking the annoyed/distressed look on the squirrel girl's face.

The Guru nodded.

"...Great. Now w-" Penelope began before a RC jet nearly knocked her chopper out of the sky, "Hey. Wh-"

=It's interesting to see a fellow RC lover= a voice came from the RC jet as it hovered down to her, a hologram appearing on the top of it to reveal a mobian tortoise, a pair of reading glasses/goggles on his face =Greetings=

'Uh oh,' Penelope thought.

=I am Tsun ki, one of Tsao's more...intelligent generals= the tortoise introduced himself as he adjusted his glasses/goggles a bit =And correct me if I'm wrong, but it looks like you're trying to retrieve the code my 'friend', Jun Pao, has...correct?=

Penelope tensed at that as the tortoise chuckled a bit.

=It's fine...I was wondering when something exciting would happen here= Tsun ki admitted =But don't think I'll hand my code over so easily. But...given how you're a fellow RC enthusiast like me, I have a proposition for you=

"A proposition?" Penelope raised a brow.

=Yes…= Tsun Ki nodded as a map appeared beside him =Come to this room alone, and I'll explain my little challenge to you. If you win, I'll give you the code. If not...well...you'll stay as my assistant for Tsao's machines. What say you? Do you accept, or are you gonna prove Tsao right...= he paused as he leaned in a bit =and be a cowardly female?=

Penelope narrowed her eyes at that. She looked over at the Guru, who nodded and spoke in his language that he and Makoto would be fine.

"...I accept."

=Splendid. See you in a bit then...little mousy= was all Tsun Ki said as his hologram disappeared and his RC jet flew out of the room and headed towards the right.

"Good luck, you two," Penelope spoke before running out.

Over with Sonic and Roll, the two were busy roaming the streets, looking out for the Dark Magic Dragons. In Sonic's case, he was on the lookout so Roll didn't see the Raiju.

"I wonder where it's been…"

"Hm?" Sonic looked at the hedgefox.

"This sword went missing years ago, when I was just a year old even," Roll explained, "It was part of a tradition where the next head of the clan would inherit it. No one really knows what happened when it went missing except that it just went missing. We replaced the sword in the tradition with a hand-made weapon that the next heir was the most proficient in, but everyone no matter the generation always felt that something was...missing."

"Ahh...I see," Sonic nodded before he pondered for a bit, "Though that does raise a few questions now. Like how did Tsao get a hold of it?"

"I'm not sure," Roll replied, "But I won't let it leave my side now that it's back."

Sonic nodded before an explosion echoed throughout the area, startling the two as they stood ready for whatever caused that noise.

"The deed is done!" the Panda King's voice roared.

"...Sounds like he had fun," Sonic noted, hearing the small hint of glee in the roar before looking over his shoulder, "Whoa! Incoming dragons!"

"Eh?" Roll blinked as she turned around, yelping as a few dark energy dragons came charging right toward the two, "Yipe!"

She grabbed the blade and unsheathed it. The dragons were on them just as she swung, her blade cutting through the dragons and dispersing them into wisps of darkness.

"Nice one, Roll," Sonic grinned before he yelped, ducking under a dark magic dragon's attempted bite at his head, "Ahh! Sorry, but I'm not on the menu tonight!"

"Got it!" Roll called, cutting the dragon in two.

Some of the Dark Magic Dragons roared as they all gathered up on the two, each one getting sliced in two by Roll's blade. Twenty minutes passed before the last of the dragons that had been attracted by the explosion had been cut down, leaving Roll and Sonic panting from the dodging and attacking.

"O...okay...we're done…" Sonic panted, 'And good news...no sign of any Raiju.'

Unaware to the two, Akane and a few Raiju kunoichi were spying on the two, eying the blade in Roll's hand as she used it to stay balanced. Yacker emerged from Roll's hair and looked at the two panting young adults. He blinked twice at seeing the blade in Roll's hands before chirping happily.

"HOVER!" Yacker declared before zipping into the blade, turning it into the Hover Boarder, surprising Akane and the Raiju kunoichi with her.

"Phew...I feel like I've wiped out, man…" Roll fell over onto the Hover Boarder, her eyes once more the Hover Wisp green color.

"You're not the only one...come on. Let's hurry back to the Safe House so we can give Bentley teh good news," Sonic said as he climbed on.

"Like, yeah. Gnarly, Sonikku," Roll agreed as the two went off.

"..." Akane looked at the two leaving before motioning for a few of the kunoichi to follow them, "This is a new development."

"What should we tell Conquering Storm-sama?" one of the kunoichi asked.

"...We'll tell her once the wedding is over. But this doesn't change our mission, Tsumi," Akane told her, "Understand?"

"Yes, Akane-sama," the kunoichi all replied.

Akane nodded as they left in a blur.

Back at the palace, Tsubaki and Jian managed to sneak inside and were currently hiding out, keeping a close eye out for any guards or Raiju ninja. When they got into the main throne room, they quickly hid when they spotted Conquering Storm, sitting in a meditation pose as she had her hat off, letting her ears fold out as her eyes were closed.

"I had a feeling she'd be here," Jian whispered as she and Tsubaki hid behind a pillar, the two looking at the lynx from their hiding spot.

"Who is that?" Tsubaki softly asked.

"That's Conquering Storm, leader of the Raiju," Jian replied quietly, "Keep your guard up around her. One false move, and you'll wind up dead around her."

Tsubaki nodded.

"Stay here...I'm gonna try and knock her out," Jian whispered, "If we can get rid of her, the rest will fall back and leave. Think of it like chess...knock out the queen, and the rest of the game is yours."

Tsubaki nodded as Jian snuck out from behind the pillar and quietly began to approach Conquering Storm, gripping her naginata as the tigress inched closer to the lynx. When she got close enough, Jian raised her weapon up and brought the down, only for Conquering Storm to raise to fingers and catch the blade, startling the white tigress.

"...Foolish mistake…" Conquering Storm began as she opened her eyes, electricity crackling off her fingers, "Freedom Fighter."

Jian tensed as she jumped back before she could get shocked, the wooden part of the naginata she was carrying being reduced to ash as the blade began to warp before Conquering Storm dropped it to the floor, letting it melt into a pile of liquid metal.

"...Should've expected that," Jian noted as she stood ready.

"Yes….you should've," Conquering Storm nodded as she stood up, placing her hat back on her head before she charged at Jian, swinging a punch at her only for a sun-themed shield to block her punch.

"Sorry, but I won't let you hurt her," Tsubaki informed as Conquering Storm jumped back.

"...Hmm…" Conquering Storm mummered as she cracked her neck a bit, "Interesting weapon. However…" she paused as she threw her arms forward, sending a flurry of electrified shurikens and kunai at the two.

"Noble Blaze!" Tsubaki declared.

Her shield glowed before the points circling the shield spun around, igniting and forming a larger, spinning shield of fire before her and Jian. The shuriken and kunai struck the fire-made shield, most of them burning away while the few that got through bounced off Tsubaki's shield.

"...Not bad," Conquering Storm admitted as she put her hands down.

"That's not all I can do," Tsubaki replied as she twirled her sword around, "Justice Strike!"

She flicked her sword at Conquering Storm, the blade segmenting into a whip with the segments connected by intense flames. Conquering Storm jumped to the side, avoiding the initial strike from the sword-turned-burning whip.

Conquering Storm made a few hand signs before she shot her opened palm forward, sending a semi large electric dragon at her. Tsubaki tensed as she and Jian barely rolled out of the way of the attack, letting it hit a gold statue of Tsao. The two turned to see the statue hadn't melted like Jian's sword had before the two readied themselves to continue fighting the lynx.

As soon as Conquering Storm landed, she tossed a flurry of kunai at the two. Tsubaki brought up her shield to block each one, only to quickly notice that they all had paper slips on them as they started to burn. Her eyes widened before the paper slips went up in large explosions. A burst of flames dispersed the smoke, revealing a dome of fire that dissipated to reveal the two as Tsubaki's flame whip changed back into a sword and her shield's spikes halting their spin, dispersing the flames on them.

"What is with that shield and sword?" Jian asked.

"They were made when I regained my missing light," Tsubaki replied, "They burn as strong as they do because of the light I've regained and I'll never let it succumb to darkness ever again!"

"I….I see," Jian slowly nodded, looking at Tsubaki in slight awe before she tensed, the white tigress barely dodging an overhead kick from Conquering Storm as the lynx landed and attempted to use an over house kick on Tsubaki, who blocked with her shield.

"Ifrit Spiral!" Tsubaki declared as flames engulfed her sword in a drill-like formation while she lunged at Conquering Storm.

The lynx jumped over Tsubaki, rolling out of the way of a punch aimed at her from Jian when she landed. Before Jian could pulled her arm back, Conquering Storm delivered a reverse drop kick into the tigress' stomach, knocking the air out of her as she was sent crashing into Tsubaki while the lynx jumped back from the two, her cybernetic eyes glaring at them. Tsubaki gasped as she noticed them.

"What?" Tsubaki gasped, 'Those eyes…Makoto told me that only Eggman had those black and red eyes.'

"You're probably wondering why she has those eyes," Jian spoke up, catching her attention, "You see, there are some Mobian that joined up with Robotnik just recently, giving him a 'legion' of sorts to rule over each part of Mobius he currently controls. And as you can see..." she paused as she glared at Conquering Storm, "There's a price to pay when you join him. From what I heard, Robotnik calls it 'Legionization'."

"Legionization?" Tsubaki repeated.

"Think Roboticaztion, only parts of you become robotic," Jian explained.

"And you're telling me...There are Mobians that joined up with Robotnik aside from Sleet and Dingo?"

"That's correct," Jian nodded, "Conquering Storm is one of them...or as Robotnik likes to call his main leaders of each Dark Legion, Grand Masters."

"I...Wait. But Tsao isn't allied with Eggman," Tsubaki noted,"Why is she working for Tsao?"

"...It's to keep a close eye on him," Conquering Storm responded, catching their attention, "Robotnik has heard his machines have been mysteriously disappearing around Chunan lately, and he suspected it was Tsao. On his orders, I and my ninja 'offered' our services to Tsao so we can keep a close eye on his actions."

"And until you have proof, despite how he sees all women as inferior, you have to stay here?" Tsubaki questioned.

"...No matter how much it infuriates me...yes," Conquering Storm admitted with a frown, "Until the wedding is over, we'll work aside Tsao for now. However..." her frown grew a bit, "It seems something else came up...the sword the last Sakurai has in her possession."

"Zen's sword?" Tsubaki pondered.

"Correct. In ancient times, it was part of twin sacred swords that were passed down through generations. However…" Conquering Storm paused as she glared at them, "One disappeared while the other was stolen by a traitor to our clan."

"A traitor?" Jian repeated.

"Yes...a child my ancestor once raised...Hisako Sakurai," Conquering Storm growled.

"What?!" Tsubaki's eyes widened at that.

"She betrayed our clan, and joined with the Prowers of Ryugu...that blade she stole is rightfully ours!" Conquering Storm snarled as electricity violently crackled off her, "I and my ninja will not rest until we get back what is rightfully ours!"

"...That sword is one of the last things she has of her family," Tsubaki narrowed her eyes, "If you want to get that sword, you'll have to get to her through me."

"With how long it's been with the Sakurai, it sure as hell belongs to Roll now," Jian added, cracking her knuckles, "No way we're letting you take what's now hers."

"...Now...then I'll send her a message...Your heads," Conquering Storm frowned as she clapped her hands together, the lynx' hands a blur as she began to make hand signs, the electricity around her starting to grow immensely as it began to form something, "Raiton: Dai Tora Kiba (Lightning style: Great Tiger Fang)!"

"Jian, get behind me!" Tsubaki ordered, 'Please...let me still be able to use it.'

The electricity around Conquering Storm began to form into a giant tiger made of lightning, roaring as it glared at the two before it lunged right at them, bearing its fangs as it roared.

"Tsubaki...whatever you have planned, do it now!" Jian hissed as the giant lightning tiger was nearing the two.

Tsubaki closed her eyes and took in a deep breath before slowly exhaling. Briefly behind her, a glowing white symbol appeared. It resembled a circle made of different lines that conjoined to resemble three phoenixes with their wings made from the wings of the other two, their tails made of a single large feather pointing out in three directions that, if connected by lines at the tips, would make a triangle outside of the circle. Within the center of the three phoenixes was what resembled her shield with four of her swords pointing outwards from it to the north, south, east, and west.

"White feathers are proof of innocence. Black feathers are condemnation of original sins," Tsubaki recited.

Pure white and pitch black flames erupted from her shield and sword, engulfing Tsubaki. The flames dispersed, revealing her attire had transformed into a Valkyrie's armor in the colors of flames while her chest armor was a mixture of black and white. Her hair was pulled into a braided ponytail, a golden bauble on the locks of her hair framing her face and at the end of the braided ponytail while a pair of gold rings floated inches from the sides of the top of her head, wings in the color of fire emerging from them. A pair of the wings, each as large as her body, emerged from her back. In place of her shield and sword were a decorated bow resembling a phoenix with the string made of black and white energy.

"We are agents of the God, coming to bring criminals to justice…!" Tsubaki continued, pulling back the string and forming an arrow of gold flames in it.

'What is this?' Conquering Storm pondered as her tiger nearly reached the two, Jian feeling the heat coming off of the lightning-made beast.

"Conclude this, in the blink of an eye! All sins, be judged!" Tsubaki snapped her eyes open as she released the arrow, "Astral Heat: Requiem Aeternam - Judgement Phoenix!"

The arrow shot towards the tiger, transforming into a pure white phoenix the size of the lightning tiger. It gave a shriek as it and the tiger collided.

"What?!" Conquering Storm gasped in surprise as she quickly shielded her eyes, the bright flash escaping out of each and every window of the palace.

"What the heck was that?" Sonic asked as he and the others currently at the safe house noticed the bright light shining out of Tsao's palace..

"I'm getting some massive energy readings from it!" Bentley exclaimed, looking at his laptop.

"Whoa! That is bright!" Murray exclaimed.

"This light…" Panda King spoke up, "I sense something...calming about it."

"Calming?"

"Hai," Roll agreed with the Panda King, "It...it feels warm and calming, as if assuring all that everything's okay."

"Indeed," Panda King nodded.

Back at the palace, the light faded away. Tsubaki panted as her outfit changed back to its previous state, her sword and shield dispersing into puffs of flame. Behind her, Jian lowered her hands from her eyes before they opened wide at seeing the pool of plasma separating them from Conquering Storm. The kunoichi was currently getting up, holding her shoulder where Jian could barely make out a burn on it.

'She...She hit her?' Jian thought in shock.

'She...She overpowered my attack?! Impossible…' Conquering Storm thought, looking at Tsubaki, who was looking at her with determined, exhausted eyes. She then took a calming breath as she gave her an even glare, "..Not bad. Not many have been able to surprise me and live...Tell me; what is your name?"

"Tsubaki, Tsubaki Yayoi," the redhead replied.

"...It's a shame really...You have so much untapped potential in you," Conquering Storm admitted a bit, "Akane!"

"Akane?" Jian repeated, looking around before a female lynx appeared beside Conquering Storm.

"Hai, C-" Akane began before she noticed the wound her master had, "?!"

Jian assumed a fighting stance, moving in front of Tsubaki to try to shield the tired woman.

"Yame (wait)!" Conquering Storm shouted just as Akane was about to attack, "Akane...gather all our forces in the village...we're retreating back to our home."

"?!" three sets of eyes widened as the three looked at Conquering Storm in surprise.

"We already have enough info on Tsao...let that fool deal with his own problems," Conquering Storm stated, still giving Tsubaki and Jian an even glare, "As for you two...I have a message I want you to give to the Sakurai in your group. If I ever see her...war...I will declare a war with the ninja of Ryugu...to prove who the true shinobi are…" her frown grew a bit, "And to retrieve what is rightfully ours."

Tsubaki and Jian only nodded, returning the even glare with their own.

"Good…" Conquering Storm nodded as she looked at her servant, 'Akane...I will meet you at the entrance to the village. Once you gather all our forces, we leave."

"H...hai, Conquering Storm-sama," Akane bowed.

With that, both Kunoichi jumped towards a nearby broken window and left through it, leaving the two by themselves within the semi-destroyed throne room. Once they were gone, Tsubaki sighed in relief before Jian barely caught the exhausted redhead.

"You okay?" Jian asked.

"Been...a...good while...since I...used...an...Astral...Heat," Tsubaki replied, panting heavily as she fell to her knees.

"Astral...Heat?" Jian repeated as she helped her up.

"My...strongest...attack," Tsubaki replied.

"Jian! Can you hear me?!" Bentley's voice shouted on the PA.

"Yes, Bentley! We can hear you loud and clear!" Jian shouted, cringing at the loud volume.

"Get back to the hideout! Tsao's forces are heading for the palace right now to investigate that light!" Bentley informed.

"On it! Also, get a bed ready for Tsubaki! She used up a lot of energy!" Jian shouted.

"Can do!"

With that, Jian carried the weakened Tsubaki out of the throne room as quickly as possible. And just in time too as Tsao and his guards came rushing in, seeing the destruction caused by the batlle.

"My throne room!" Tsao gasped before narrowing his eyes, "Who did this? Conquering Storm! Answer me! NOW!"

His response was a kunai that barely hit him, embedding itself in the wall as a note hung from the blunt end of it. A guard walked up to it and removed the note, bowing while handing it to Tsao.

"'Our services are no longer required. Your attempts will fail based upon what we have seen and there are no benefits to working with you any longer,'" Tsao read before growling, using his family's dark magics to destroy the note, "I should have know better than to hire those pathetic women!" he turned to his guards, "Clean this place up, NOW! This wedding will not be stopped!"

"Um...but...sir. Th-"

"NOW!"

"Ahh!" the guards yelped as they began to clean the room as best they can, not wanting to provoke Tsao any longer.

Back over with Penelope, she arrived at a pair of double steel doors.

"This is where the location was on the map," Penelope observed, "Okay, time to do this and free those prisoners."

With that, she walked in through the doors, the mouse seeing she stood in front of a metal platform with what looked like a console installed on it. Strangely, it kinda reminded her of a controller for an RC vehicle.

"Greetings, little mousey," Tsun Ki's voice spoke up as a light shone down on the other end of the room, showing him on a similar platform as he smirked a bit at her, "So glad you could come."

"This is some impressive work," Penelope admitted, looking at the console.

"Thank you," Tsun Ki nodded as he adjusted his glasses/goggles a bit, "Now...before we begin, let me ask you a question...how do you feel about robots?"

"Huh?" Penelope blinked at the question before two more lights shone in the room, revealing two robots based on a samurai and a knight.

"For years, people have debated on what is superior. Cats vs dogs, cars vs planes, pirates vs ninjas, and my personal favorite…" Tsun Ki paused as he grinned a bit, "Knights Vs Samurai."

"Interesting," Penelope nodded, "Two different warriors, yet both following a code of honor, following a different kind of ruler, different armors and weapons, even religions."

"Indeed, which is why they'll be perfect for my challenge," Tsun Ki stated as he walked in front of his console, "If you can beat my samurai, I will give you my part of the code to release the Chunan Freedom Fighters. If not...well...heh. You already know what'll happen."

Penelope nodded as she stood at her console, "And that's why I won't lose. Bring it on."

"Good. Now as the monks would say…" Tsun Ki began as he pressed a button on his console, activating his robot, "Gong Yi Tempai!"

Penelope looked over her console and pressed a button. The knight robot let out a noise as its red optics turned on. Penelope pressed another button and the knight began to walk out into the arena, the samurai entering it at the same time.

"Okay, so everything on here is like an oversized RC controller," Penelope observed under her breath before grinning, "I can do this."

"Heh….can you?" Tsun ki asked as he pushed his control stick forward and pressed another button, causing his robot to charge towards Penelope's as it pulled out a beam katana.

The knight robot responded as Penelope began to work the console, pulling out a beam sword. The two blades collided, sending sparks flying.

"Knights may have the advantage in terms of defense and strength...however…" Tsun Ki paused as his samurai robot moved to the side of the knight robot's slash, "Samurai have the advantage in terms of speed and precision. Like so," he then entered another command on his console, causing his robot to deliver a series of high speed slashes on Penelope's, sparks flying off the robot as it staggered back, "Let's see how you counter that, little mousey."

"Okay…" Penelope replied as she had her knight move to the side, barely missing a slash of the samurai's katana, before grabbing the samurai's sword-holding arm and swung its beam sword, digging into the arm, "All that speed and precision also meant that Samurai had less armor on their bodies, giving way to more vulnerability."

"...That is true, yes," Tsun Ki nodded as his console showed a monitor that read '80%', "But Knights have their own weakness as well," he quickly entered another command on his console, causing a crossbow to pop out of the samurai robot's other wrist before shooting at an open spot in the knight robot's leg armor, causing it to 'wince' as its opponent jumped back, "Take out one of its legs, and their speed lowers by about 50 percent, making it easier for their opponent to attack."

"Impressive way to integrate the bow into your samurai," Penelope noted, "Not many outside of Japan can remember that aside from the katana, Samurai were also trained in horseback riding, archery, and a few others talents."

"Well of course. It would be foolish not to look into the backstory of both kinds of warriors," Tsun Ki replied with a slight chuckle, "In fact...why don't we up the ante a bit. You win...you can help yourself to a few blueprints I keep on hand." he then adjusted his glasses/goggles once more, "Telling by how you look, you could probably make some interesting machines if you got your hands on them."

"Perhaps," Penelope replied before her knight produced a laser shield, blocking the beam katana, "And if I lose?"

"You know your squirrel friend, correct?"

"Makoto? What about her?" Penelope asked.

"A place like this could use a warden. And after seeing some footage of her taking out the guards no problem, she'll make either the perfect warden, or a messenger for General Tsao telling by how she got past all the guards in the upper floor so easily," Tsun Ki answered, "In short...if you lose, you both have to work for me and General Tsao. Understand?"

"..." Penelope nodded before her knight's beam sword extended into a beam broadsword in mid-swing, managing to tear into the samurai's midsection, "I understand perfectly and it only makes me more determined not to lose."

"Good. it would makes things more exciting for me then," Tsun Ki smirked as his samurai robot jumped back, his console screen reading '59%' now as his robot put its crossbow away and pulled out another Beam Katana, the robot dashing by Penelope's robot as it left slash marks on its armor, the screen on Penelope's console reading '70%', and started to slowly go down with each slash Tsun ki's robot delivered.

"Two-sword style. Invented by Musashi, correct?" Penelope noted, her knight managing to block some of the strikes with its shield now.

"Correct," Tsun Ki nodded as his samurai got behind the knight and slashes behind its knees, causing it to buckle as it jumped over it and delivered a X-shaped slash on its opponent's chest, tearing into it as its energy went down to '50%', "More options to attack, and twice as deadly."

Penelope nodded, "An inventive technique Musashi developed. Tell me, Tsun Ki, do you remember a sport that knights were typically connected to?"

"Hm?" the tortoise raised a brow as his samurai charged at the knight.

"The Jouste," Penelope smirked as the knight held up the empty handle its beam sword was produced from and let the beam out.

The samurai's frame groaned as its charge was ground to a halt by the beam lance impaling its torso, erupting from its back.

"...Clever girl," Tsun Ki frowned as his robot's energy shot down to '30%'.

"Thank you. And one more thing," Penelope informed as a crossbow emerged from the knight's free arm, "When a knight's training began as a page, they learned archery."

Tsun Ki tensed a bit as he entered a few commands on his console, causing his samurai to pull itself out of the beam lance as it barely dodged the incoming arrow, nocking an open spot in its armor as it jumped back, sparking a bit as it dismissed its second beam katana.

"...Clever...but there's one more thing Samurai have that knights do not…" the tortoise stated as his robot 'sheathed' his weapon, "The resheath technique, a very fast and deadly attack."

Penelope nodded as the knight kept its lance and traded the crossbow with a strong shield, a beam emblem resembling her face forming on it.

Tsun Ki merely smirked as his robot charged, becoming a blur for a second as it appeared behind the knight, it's katana nearly inside its 'sheath' as he slowly 'resheathed' it, causing a large gash to appear across the knight's shield and chest while its weapon arm was sliced completely off, causing its energy to go down to '20%', and slowly went down from its 'bleeding' stump and gash.

"It's over," Tsun Ki grinned as his samurai charged from behind.

"Yeah...it is," Penelope smirked.

The knight spun around, throwing its shield at the samurai. The samurai batted the shield away before its head unit was met with the empty handle held by the knight's remaining arm. A light was the last thing its optics witnessed before a beam knight tore through its head unit. The head sparked as the knight removed the beam knife before the samurai dropped its katana. It fell to its knees before the head unit exploded.

"What?!" Tsun Ki gasped.

"While they aren't as iconic, knights also knew how to fight with daggers. Blades varied from round, ice-pick like daggers to those with three blades with made wounds nearly impossible to close," Penelope smirked before the knight spun its empty handle before producing a war hammer, "They also used war hammers."

"I...I see," Tsun Ki's eyes widened before the knight swung, crushing the samurai's frame into the ground from the impact and sending the energy to 0, "...I...ahem. I'm really impressed...you handled yourself in battle perfectly," he then adjusted his glasses/goggled once more, "It's a shame Tsao doesn't see the potential females like you have. All he cares for is making Mobius a male-dominated world, and lead the new 'kings' that soon follow."

"His mind's stuck in the past when it comes to certain things from what I've seen," Penelope shook her head.

"Indeed. He thinks he is the next Genghis Kahn, which in truth he isn't…" Tsun Ki shook his head before he pulled out some blue prints, and a small hard drive shaped key, "Anyways, a deal's a deal after all." he then pressed a button on his console, causing his platform to move closer to hers, "Here. My part of the code, and the blueprints to the machines I made."

"Thanks," Penelope nodded, "This was rather enjoyable, dangers of losing aside. You'd probably be a big hit on the net if you recorded these fights."

"Heh...funny. I was thinking just the same," Tsun ki chuckled as he handed her the 'key' and blueprints, "Before you go though...I have one thing to say to you."

"What?"

"...You have a brilliant mind. Don't let anyone poison that," Tsun Ki stated in a serious tone, "Like power and greed, intelligence can corrupt a person's soul, no matter how kind they are."

"?" Penelope tilted her head, "Uh...sure. Thanks?"

"...do well to remember that," was all Tsun Ki said as he pressed a button on his console, moving his platform away from Penelope's, the light glaring off his glasses/goggles as he disappeared into the shadows.

"...What did he mean by 'intelligence can corrupt a person's soul?'" Penelope whispered to herself, "Wait. Did he just imply I might turn into a Robotnik?" she shuddered, "I hope not." She then looked down at the 'key' in her hand, "...I better get back to Makoto and Guru. They should be done getting the other part of the code by now."

"...I can't believe I'm doing this," Makoto whispered as she snuck closer to the sleeping Jun Pao. She found out where he kept his part of the code...unfortunately...the 'key' was in one of his back pockets.

The Guru began to chant, causing a periwinkle aura to cover Jun Pao. He lifted up a few feet and was turned upside-down, exposing the back pocket to Makoto.

"...Here goes…" Makoto whispered as she slowly reached into his backpocket, the squirrel girl trying her best to not gag at how nasty it smelled down there. She then felt something and slowly pulled it out, seeing a 'key' with a fruit like design, "...There. I g-"

*PFFFFT!*

"Huh?! Wazzat?! What's going on?!" Jun Pao sputtered as he woke up, looking around and ending up looking Makoto in the eyes.

"Uh...Drop him, Guru!" Makoto shouted.

Guru stopped chanting and Jun Pao grunted as he landed in his pile of food. Makoto ran off, picking up the Guru on the way out.

"Hey! Get back here with my key!" Jun Pao snapped as he picked up a large watermelon-themed mace and chased after the two, his footsteps causing the ground to shake with each step he took.

The Guru spoke up, earning a bark from Makoto, "I'm running as fast as I can, dammit!"

"Get back here! I'm annoyed, and haven't had my dinner yet! I'm hungry and angry! So therefore, I'm hangry!" Jun Pao snapped.

"That's not a word!"

"Yes it-urp! Is! Look it up in a damn dictionary, you stupid crossbreed woman!" Jun Pao argued before Makoto skidded to a halt, "Huh?"

"...What. did. you. say?" Makoto clenched her fists tightly as the Guru wisely hopped off and turned himself into a pile of rocks with a flower nearby.

"...Uh…"

"I said…" Makoto began as she slowly turned her head to him, her neck popping a bit as she had a look on her face that promised one thing...death, "What. did. you. say?"

"...Uh….a stupid crossbreed w-"

The sounds of a very loud squeal of pain echoed throughout the entire village as the area around the jail rumbled violently, the sounds of bones breaking and fist meeting flesh echoing inside the jail.

"Guys! I got the…!" Penelope called as she turned a corner before skidding to a halt, "Whoa."

The pile of rocks with a flower on top slowly skidded over to Penelope, trying not to earn the attention of the angry Beastkin still kicking the toothless pile of blood and flesh and exposed bones that was Jun Pao.

"Come on! Say it! Say it again! I dare you! I double dare you, mother fucker! Call me a crossbreed one more goddamn time, you fat fuck!" Makoto snapped as she kicked Jun Pao's face in, further breaking his nose and tusk.

"...What did he say?" Penelope asked as the Guru dropped his disguise once he was behind her and replied in his normal tongue, "Ouch."

"Ahh...ah…." Makoto panted heavily as she stopped kicking the unconscious Jun Pao, "Stay down….you jackass…" she then took a slow deep breath as she turned around, seeing Penelope and Guru staring at her, "Oh. Welcome back, Penelope-chan. Did you find one of the other generals that has a part of the code?"

"Uh...Yes?" Penelope replied showing the 'key.'

"Perfect! We just gotta find the last one, and we can free Jian-chan's team!" Makoto beamed, acting like what happened before never happened.

"..." the Guru and Penelope shared looks, giving a silent agreement to never make her mad.

"Okay. Now where's the last general?" Makoto asked.

"...Uh...they should be behind one of the d-" Penelope began as she pulled out her binocu-com, only for a long monkey tail to grab it and drag it into one of the rooms behind her, "Hey!"

"Ohh~ Very high tech looking binoculars, okie," a voice from behind the door noted, "...These don't work right. I can only see things further away, ukie."

"Hey!" Makoto snapped as she ran into the room followed by the other two, "You give that back right now!"

"..." the owner of the tail blinked a bit as she stared at the Beastkin.

The owner of said tail turned out to be a Beastkin as well..or to be a precise, a capuchin monkey based Beastkin. She wore an all yellow fighting/monk garb that fit her fit and slightly developed figure, a pair of dark orange red monk pants, and a pair of black fighting shoes. On her back was what looked like a red pole with each ends covered in gold.

'A Beastkin?' Makoto pondered in surprise.

"..."

"...Um...why're you st-" Makoto began.

*grope*

"Gh~?!" Makoto's eyes widened.

"Wh-wh-what?!" Penelope yelped at the sight while the Guru raised a brow.

"Mm...very big, okie…" the monkey Beastkin noted as she groped Makoto's chest a bit, "Very bouncy too, ukie."

"Ahn~!"

'What have I stumbled into?' Penelope thought with a blush forming on her cheeks.

"Ohh~! Very big butt too! Wonder h-" the monkey Beastkin began.

'St...stop that!~" Makoto snapped as she tried to punch the Beastkin, only for her to jump back and land on top of a padded corner.

"Mmm...why did you try and attack Sonson? I was only trying to have some fun, ukie," the Monkey Beastkin tilted her head.

"Sonson?" Penelope repeated before her eyes widened, "She's the last of the generals with the code!"

"Code?" Sonson blinked, "...Ohh! You mean key Tsao Tsao gave to me so dragon, pheasant, and girl turtle stays locked up, ukie!"

'There are dragon Mobians?' Makoto pondered.

"Mm….Even though Sonson promised baka Tsao Tsao not to give key...I'm bored, ukie," Sonson pouted, "You, squirly girl!"

"Me?" Makoto asked, tensing up in case the monkey Beastkin tried to grope her again.

"Strip to undies and get in ring," Sonson stated with an excited smile.

"...what?" Makoto's pupils shrunk to dots.

"You and Sonson mud wrestle for key. If you win by pinning me 3 times, Sonson give you key and quit baka Tsao Tsao's army. If you lose...mmm…" Sonson tilted her head, thinking, "...you treat Sonson to something to eat, ukie."

"Hajyiha hananajhan?" the Guru pondered, not understanding why Makoto was hesitation in agreeing.

'I almost forget at times that Guru is a naturalist,' Makoto thought, "All right. I'll agree to it."

Penelope turned Guru around while she also looked away while Makoto stripped down.

"Yay!" Sonson beamed as she jumped out of her clothes, the Beastkin now in a pair of pure yellow bra and pantes as she stood in the middle of the mud covered ring, "Hurry, squirly girl! Let's play, ukie!"

'Why do I always fight the weird ones?' Makoto sweatdropped as she got into the ring, the Beastkin wearing her black bra and thong as she readied herself.

"Okay let's go over what's been done so far," Bentley looked up from his laptop, "We got rid of the Jiangshi and their way of being controlled?"

"Check," Sly nodded.

"The ninja Tsao hired have left the area?" Bentley looked over at Jian.

"Eeyup," Jian nodded.

"Black Magic Dragons dispelled?"

"Yup," Sonic nodded.

"Van nearly finished?"

"Almost," Greymatter replied on Binocu-com.

"Battery obtained and charged for van?" Bentley sent an amused smile at Manic.

'You cheeky turtle…' Manic thought before replying with, "Yeah. One enraged fox still zapping guards out there?"

"Por última vez, no hay comida para ti!" everyone heard from the other side of the village.

"Check," everyone replied.

"That just leaves Makoto and her team," Bentley noted, "Murray, see if you can get a connection to them and see how it's going."

"Can do," Murray nodded as he pulled out his Binocu-com, "Penelope? You there?"

"Ahem! Y...yes we are," Penelope responded, the sounds of grunting in the background.

"Everything okay in the jail?" Murray asked.

"Yeah. We already got two of the keys and….well...we found the third general and…well, you don't want to know."

"Let me see that," Manic said as Murray handed him the Binocu-com, "Come on. It's can't th-" he paused before Penelope showed him what was going on, the green hedgehog standing still for a moment before he fell to the floor, a large goofy grin on his face as blood dripped from his nose.

Sly raised a brow as he picked it up and looked into it, "...God damn…"

Bentley and Murray gawked at Sly's statement. He showed the two.

"...God damn…" Bentley agreed.

"I don't get it. They're just wrestling," Murray scratched his head, "Why are you guys cursing about wrestling?"

"Wrestling...in mud…" Manic got out.

"Eh? Wrestling in mud? Why...would…" Sonia began before a heavy blush grew on her face, "Oh my…"

"So glad Ben's not in here right now to see this," Sonic whispered.

"Hai," Roll nodded.

Panda King merely raised a brow at the reactions they were all having.

"You don't want to know," most of the group replied to his unspoken question.

"Penelope, just...just tell Makoto to hurry and get the last part of the code," Bentley cleared his throat, "Once you and Jian's team are here, we can begin the last part of the plan."

"Can do…" Penelope replied.

"Hey! No stealing bras!" Makoto snapped, causing another spurt of blood to shoot from Manic's nose.

"...Is this the one your team lost to?" Panda King raised a brow at Jian, who was blushing hard.

"Y...yes," Jian nodded, clearing her throat, "Not...our proudest moment."

"And she's the one behind your tail?" Roll asked.

"...yes. Tsao ordered it and...now that I think about it...she looked sad," Jian admitted.

"Ahhh…" Roll noted, Panda King's perpetual frown getting sadder for a brief moment.

Back over with Makoto and her team, the squirrel Beastkin was panting heavily, her entire body almost covered in mud as she used her tail to cover her exposed chest. Sonson on the other hand was completely covered in mud, and looked like she wasn't getting tired at all. In fact, it looked like she just woke up from a nap.

"Well...at least she's managed to pin her twice so far," Penelope noted.

'I think I have mud in places it should never be in,' Makoto thought.

"Come on, squirly girl! You close to beating me!" Sonson giggled as she hopped in place, her bust jiggling a bit each time she did, "One more pin, and you get key, ukie!"

"You can do it, Makoto!" Penelope cheered.

Makoto nodded as she waited for the right moment to grab Sonson. However, the Monkey Beastkin charged at her and got into a grapple contest with her, Sonson slowly starting to push Makoto down to the mud.

"What wrong, squirly girl? Tired, ukie?"

'I think I get it. Both times she managed to pin her, Makoto always used her tail in some way,' Penelope thought before her eyes widened, 'She took Makoto's bra to get her tail out of the way!'

"Heh heh. Sonson going to pin squirly girl, ukie…" Sonson said as her tail grabbed one of Makoto's legs before tugging it, tripping the Beastkin as she fell into the mud, "Boing~!"

'Dammit!' Makoto thought, rolling out of the way just before Sonson was about to land on her from her small pounce.

"Mmm...you made me miss," Sonson pouted as she quickly got up.

"No way I'm gonna get pinned," Makoto replied.

"We'll see, ukie," Sonson noted as she hopped up onto one of the corners.

"...What's she up to…" Makoto whispered as she prepared herself.

"You can do it, Makoto!" Penelope cheered.

"Right...I can't lose," Makoto nodded before…

"Boing~!" Sonson chirped as she bounced off the top rope high into the air, flipping a few times as she headed right towards Makoto, using her tail as a propeller to make her fall down faster.

'Hey! That's my move in reverse!' Makoto thought in annoyance.

"Bouncy bouncy~!" Sonson chirped as she held her hands out.

"...wait. Is she gonna… oh hell no! Not that again!" Makoto snapped as she jumped at the Beastkin.

"Ukie?" Sonson blinked at the action before Makoto was behind her and grabbed her from behind, her hands firmly grasping her breast, "Ukie~!?"

"Let's see how you like it!" Makoto smirked.

"Mmm..let go, ukie~! No f-" Sonson began before she noticed she was heading for the mud, and she couldn't break from of Makoto's grip, "...oh bananas…"

*SPLAT*

"Ahh!" Penelope yelped as she shielded herself from the splashing mud.

"Ukie…." Sonson groaned as Makoto sat on top of her back, her eyes swirls as her tail rested between her legs.

"And pinned!" Makoto grinned as she got off Sonson, "Now gimme my bra back!" she snapped as she took it from Sonson's tail, the monkey having tied it to her tail to make sure she wouldn't lose it, 'Fluffy tail plus sensitive skin does not equal a good time in a fight.'

"Great job, Makoto!" Penelope applauded as the Guru levitated Makoto's clothes to her.

"Thanks," Makoto smiled a bit as she took her clothes and hopped out of the ring.

"Hajaba tshbujita?"

"...Oh right. The part of the code she had," Makoto realized as she looked at Sonson, "Hey. I won fair and square, so where's your 'key'?"

"Mmm...hanging off...Sonson's power pole...ukie…" Sonson groaned, using her tail to point at her pile of clothes.

"Thanks," Makoto nodded before helping her up, "Now come on. Let's get you dressed up."

"...Okay, ukie…" Sonson nodded, a bit of a sad look on her face, "...squirly girl...can you promise Sonson something?"

"Hmm? What is it?" Makoto asked.

"...You see white tiger girl….tell her Sonson is sorry for cutting her tail off…" Sonson sighed before frowning, "Mean Tsao Tsao ordered her to cut it off to put her in her place."

"I'll be sure to let her know," Makoto nodded.

"Speaking of, don't forget that you have to quit working for...ahem...Mean Tsao Tsao," Penelope reminded the Beastkin.

"Yeah...ooh! When I leave, Sonson want to join Freedom Fighters!" Sonson beamed, "They're a lot more fun than mean Tsao Tsao, ukie!"

"Glad to hear," Makoto giggled, "Just don't grope other girls when you do."

"Okay! Only Sonson do it when she sees new friend, ukie!"

'Oh god…' Makoto and Penelope sweatdropped, the latter facepalming, while Guru walked over to the mouse with the last 'key'.

"Heh heh...Sonson go get dressed now, ukie," Sonson giggled as she picked her clothes up with her tail and ran off, "Bye bye new friends, ukei!"

"...We are never telling the others about this, got it?" Makoto glowered at Penelope.

"...Uh…" Penelope tried to not look her in the eyes, "Oh, we have all three parts of the code now! You go free them and Guru and I will get to the Collar Control to let Bentley hack into it!" she ran off, the Guru hanging off her back, leaving the squirrel Beastkin with the three 'keys,' "Okay-good-luck-bye!"

"...Okay," Makoto nodded as she put the 'keys' down for a moment, the Beastkin quickly getting changed as she picked the 'keys' and began running back to the hidden elevator.

With Penelope and Guru, the two were rushing over to where the Collar control room was, Guru using his magic to hide them from any guards that passed by. Eventually, they managed to make it into the room and Penelope connected both her Binocu-com and Guru's mostly-unused one to it.

"You're good to go, Bentley," Penelope informed.

"Okay…" Bentley cracked his knuckles, "Round two."

Penelope nodded as she and Guru kept a close eye out for any guards while Bentley was busy hacking into the controls.

"Okay...passed the fire wall again. N...well hello emergency firewall. We meet again. This time I'm prepared for you!"

"Come on, Bentley, hurry…." Penelope whispered.

"Get back to work, slave!" a tiger guard snapped as he pushed down a weakened panther Mobian, "General Tsao needs these weapons good and ready for when he goes to conquer Mobius!"

"Please…" a younger female panther Mobian begged as she held her hands on the cage, "Leave my father alone. He's too weak to continue."

"Silence, whore! You will be quiet and know y-"

*BEEP! Click*

"..." the tiger guard looked down slowly as he saw her collar had fallen off. He then heard a few more beeps and clicks as her looked around to see more of the collars started falling off all the prisoners, followed by the cages opening up and the chains around the men falling off, "..."

"We….We're free…" a lioness Mobian whispered as she touched her neck, "We….we're finally free." she, along with all the other female inmates, glared at the tiger guards on the main floor, "..."

"...Uh oh," one of them whimpered, picking up an orange cone, "Protect me, cone!"

"GET THEM!" the females all shouted.

"AHH!" The Tiger Guards screamed as they tried to run for it, only to get tackled by a group of angered females.

"My leg!"

"The cone doesn't do anything!"

"Sounds like they freed the prisoners," Makoto noted as she rode the elevator to the very bottom floor of the prison, the Beastkin faintly hearing battle cries upstairs as the elevator came to a stop, "Bottom floor; gift shop, delivery, and Jian's teammates."

When she walked out, she saw three cages, each one seemingly fitting to what they held inside, while at the same time, making sure they didn't get out.

"Hello~!" Makoto called, "Anyone in there?"

"Hmm? Who's out there?" a voice asked from one of the cages.

"Makoto Nanaya of the Underground Freedom Fighters!" Makoto replied, "Here to rescue you."

"...Where's Jian? Is she safe?"

"She's fine. In fact, I was sent here to free you from Tsao's cages," Makoto assured them as she held the three 'keys' out, "Now...where to put these in?".

"There's a stone console in front of you," a third voice came from one of the cages, "You need to put the keys in the correct order, or else you'll put this place on lockdown."

"There's an order?" Makoto asked.

"Yes. You ever heard of the story of Momotaro? You need to put the keys in order by when each of his companions joined him."

"...Shit. The one time I wish I hadn't slept through class," Makoto muttered as she began to ponder, "...Um...Okay, okay…Well, that explains why the keys are labeled as a monkey, a bird, and a dog. Come on Makoto...think. Tsubaki made you do homework on this for sleeping through that lesson..."

"Hey!" a voice shouted, causing Makoto to turn and see a group of heavily guarded tiger guards, "Stop right there!"

'Hmm…' Makoto thought, "Hey! Any of you know about the order the monkey, the dog, and the bird joined Momotaro?"

"...hmm…" the guards began to ponder a bit.

"...I think the dog joined first."

"Nonono. He joined last. It was the monkey that joined him first, then the bird, then the dog."

"What? Why would a monkey join him first? Wouldn't it make sense for the dog to join first?"

"I thought the bird joined him first."

'I can't believe that worked,' Makoto sweatdropped.

"No, you idiots! I keep telling you it's monkey, bird, then dog! Gods! Would it kill you idiots to pick up a book every now and then?!" one tiger guard snapped.

"Thank you~" Makoto thanked, putting the 'keys' in that order.

"...Oh son of a bitch! Get her!" the lead Tiger Guard ordered as they all charged just as the cage doors opened, causing them to skid to a halt, "...oh crap."

"Oh shit."

"Oh fuck."

"We're dead." they gulped as smoke bellowed out of one of the cages, a pair of dragonic wings unfolding themselves as a figure stepped out the shadows in the cage

'So that's a dragon Mobian…' Makoto blinked twice.

The figure was a female dragon Mobian with sea-green scales and a pink mohawk. She wore blue Chinese fighting robes with gold trimming and armor on her shoulders. Her eyes were slit and magenta in color. She snorted, smoke coming from her nostrils.

"...D….Don't just stand there!" the lead Tiger guard snapped as he shook his head, "Get them before General Tsao finds out!"

"...Yeah screw that! I didn't sign up to fight a freakin' dragon!" one tiger guard shouted as he made a run for it, only to come face to face with a female Mobian pheasant, her feathers a bit of a fiery orange, "...Uh…"

"Hello," the pheasant giggled as she poked him in the eyes.

"Gah! My eyes!" the guard yelled as he held his face, only to get kicked in the back hard by a female Mobian turtle, "My back!" he then ended up hitting his face into one of the cage doors, "My mouth!"

'...Jian's part of an all girl Freedom Fighter team and they kick ass. ...Awesome,' Makoto grinned, slamming the back of her fist into the face of a guard that tried to sneak up behind her, knocking him out with his teeth falling out.

"Come on! They're just a bunch of weak girls! You ca-" the lead Tiger guard began before the dragon Mobian flew in front of him, "...Uh...is it too late for me to take back what I said?"

"Yep," the four girls all replied.

"...I see…" the tiger slowly nodding, dropping his weapon before he ran for it, "Retreat! We're quitting and retiring!"

"But aren't they d-"

"Don't care! Tsao can deal with them himself!"

The rest of the tiger guards there looked at each other before looking back at the four girls, the dragon smirking a bit as she blew a bit of fire, "...WE QUIT!"

"You all better run!" Makoto shook a fist at the fleeing tigers, "Well, that was fun."

"Agreed," the dragoness nodded in agreement, "Dulcy, leader of the Chunan Freedom Fighters."

"Bunker. Ni hao," the turtle bowed.

"Ooh! New friends?! Hi! Hi! Hi! Hi! Hi!" the pheasant greeted excitedly, "I'm Cinder!"

"Jian's going to be relieved you're all out," Makoto noted, "Now come on. Hopefully, a jailbreak is happening upstairs."

"Cool. I don't want to miss a chance to see it," Dulcy said as the group hurried out of there.

Upstairs...well, saying it was chaos up there would be an understatement as the remaining tiger guards were trying to run or defend themselves from the now free female inmates, a few of them helping out the weakened males while the rest dealt with their tormentors. Penelope and the Guru ran in on this sight as the hidden elevator gave a ding and opened to let Makoto and Jian's team come out of it.

"You freed them! Great job, Makoto!" Penelope beamed.

"No prob!" Makoto saluted, "Now come on. Let's open the door and get everyone out of here!"

"Allow me," Dulcy offered as she flew over to the large metal door.

She then took in a deep breath, taking in as much air as possible before she blew out a steady stream of fire at the door, the metal slowly starting to become warped as it began to melt. After a few minutes, she stopped her flames, looking at the large opened hole that used to be the door, the liquid metal cooling off from the cold air outside. Makoto let out a long, low whistle while Penelope's glasses almost fell off from her shock at how strong the firebreath was.

"Dulcy is not our team leader for nothing you know," Bunker spoke up.

The Guru hopped onto a pile of pummeled tiger guards before whistling loudly and sharply earning the attention of the freed prisoners. He pointed at the large opened hole where the door had been.

"Hayjana~!" the Guru called out.

"...What did he say?" one of the prisoners asked after a beat.

"He said 'To freedom!'" Penelope called.

"Oh… To freedom!" the female inmates shouted as they all ran for the opened entrance, a few helping the weak men walk through.

"Hey!" Guru looked down to see the same cat Mobian he first treated giving him a soft smile, "...Thank you."

The Guru nodded, a small smile on his face. The Dream Spirits were in joy of the freedom returned to the innocents. But he knew one thing..this night was not truly over yet.

"General...Tsao…" an injured tiger guard grunted as he dragged himself into the throne room, "We...have...a problem. The...prisoners..."

"Hmm? What about them?"

"Th...they've escaped….along with the rest of the Chunan Freedom Fighters!"

"...What?" Tsao narrowed his eyes dangerously at him.

"Th...The collars...they...they failed…"

"...Where are Jun Pao, Tsun Ki, and Sonson?!" Tsao demanded, anger now evident in his eyes.

"Barely alive for...Jun Pao...and missing for...the last two…"

"What do you mean 'missing'?!" Tsao snapped as he grabbed the tiger by the neck, "I did not order them to leave their post!"

"Sir...you're...killing...m-"

*CRACK*

"...Guards! Get this trash out of my site!" Tsao ordered as he tossed the now dead guard to the floor, "Also change of plans. The wedding shall be tonight!"

"Everyone!" Jian cheered, pulling her saved teammates into a group hug.

"Jian! We missed you so much!" Cinder exclaimed excitedly as she hugged her friend.

"I'm glad you girls are safe," Jian smiled as she released the hug.

"I'm really glad for you, Jian-chan," Roll smiled.

"Oh~! Are you the friend Jian told us about?" Cinder asked, "Hi! I'm Cinder! Nice to meet you!"

"My name is Roll," the hedgefox bowed, "It's nice to meet you as well."

"Same," Bunker spoke up, bowing to her, "Bunker. Ni hao."

Bentley cleared his throat, "As much as I am happy for you all, we have an issue. A bug I hid in Tsao's chambers when Sonia, Manic, and I were in his palace has just informed me that Tsao is planning to have the wedding tonight."

"Wedding?" Cinder repeated.

"He plans on having a forced marriage with the Panda King's daughter," Jian explained.

"Correct," Bentley nodded, "Therefore, it's time to free Jing King, rob General Tsao blind, and send him out for delivery. I call it…" Bentley turned on the projector, displaying a picture of Tsao with crosses drawn over his eyes, devil horns added to his helmet, and a goofy grin, "Operation: Wedding Crasher. If it had just been myself, Murray, Penelope, the Guru, and the Panda King, it would have been a multi-pronged job. But with all of us working together, this will be much easier."

"Good," Dulcy nodded as she punched her open palm, "Been meaning to give that sexist rooster some payback."

Bentley nodded, "Good. Though your payback will have to be indirect." the slide changed to show Tsao's treasure temple, "First, Murray, Penelope, and Sonia will make their way past all the security inside Tsao's treasure temple and then drop the goods off to me, Dulcy, and Makoto for loading into the van. Meanwhile, the Panda King, the Guru, and Bunker will tunnel under the palace, creating an escape route for Jing King."

"Ooh! Ooh! What can I do?! What can I do?!" Cinder asked excitedly.

"You, Sly, Sonic, and Roll have one of the more important jobs in this," Bentley informed, changing slides to a room filled with blue vases, "Taking care of any topside security designed to detect subterranean shocks. Once you guys are done, Manic will lure Inspector Fox into the palace."

"Who is going to lure who where now?" Manic paled.

Bentley changed the slides to show Manic's face, "You, Manic, are going to lure…" he changed slides to show Carmelita standing on a pile of zapped guards, "...Inspector Fox…" he changed slides to the temple, "...into the temple, where we will trick her into taking Jing King's place."

"...I am having very mixed feelings about that right now," Manic admitted, wanting revenge at the same time, but also didn't want Carmelita to be the decoy for that rooster….then again, after what Sonic told him and Sonia what happened in the forest, the guy has it coming.

"With the girl and loot in hand, we run for it," Bentley finished the presentation, showing a slide of the van, "And don't worry about Inspector Fox, she can handle herself when it happens. Especially when she believes that Tsao is actually Sly in disguise as Tsao."

"...I am feeling no remorse right now," Manic admitted, "In fact, really wish I can see her fry that jerk myself."

"I'll leave a grapple cam in there to let us see it live," Bentley chuckled.

"Sweet," Manic grinned.

"How're you feeling, Roll?" Sonic asked as the hedgefox readied herself for the mission.

"I'm doing okay, Sonikku," Roll assured, "I'll be glad when Jing King is away from here."

"Me too. And I'll be glad we won't have to see that jerk Tsao ever again," Sonic nodded as Roll picked up her sheathed sword, looking at it, "...something up?"

"I'm still in awe that my family's treasured blade is back," Roll replied before putting it on her back, "It feels...right having it."

Sonic nodded before he saw the door open up, the hedgehog seeing Tsubaki walk in, "Hey? What's up?"

"Noting. Just...I want to talk to Roll for a moment...alone."

"...Okay?" Sonic replied, "I'll go see if Sly's ready for our part of the job then."

Tsubaki nodded. Sonic walked out and closed the door. Once Tsubaki was sure Sonic wasn't there, she turned to Roll.

"Roll...I want to talk to you about something important…" Tsubaki stated, a serious look on her face, "The history behind your clan and the Raiju."

"Hai?" Roll nodded slowly.

"Is it true that your ancestor, Hisako Sakurai, used to be a part of the Raiju?" Tsubaki asked, the serious look never leaving her face.

"I've never heard of a Hisako Sakurai," Roll replied.

"You haven't?" Tsubaki raised an eyebrow slightly at that.

"Iie," Roll shook her head, "The earliest ancestor recorded in the family was Zen Sakurai, which is when Yacker-chan became our family familiar." the Wisp poked his head out of her hair at the mention of his name, "Maa, maa, Yacker-chan, I was just telling Tsubaki-chan about you." Yacker nodded with a yawn before going back into her hair, "See?"

"...Soka," Tsubaki nodded, "Then answer me this...why is there such bad blood between the Raiju and your home town of Ryugu?"

"...From what I remember from our classes back home, it all started over a shinobi named Rioichi," Roll replied, "The Raiju wanted him for his skills while Ryugu wished to become allies with him. I don't know the exact circumstances, but it ended up with Rioichi allying with Ryugu since we cared more for the person and not the shinobi unlike the Raiju...and that none of us minded his new invention; sushi."

"...I see," Tsubaki noted as she took this info in, "...Thank you, Roll. That's all I needed to know for now."

"Hai. demo...if you want to learn more about it…" Roll began as she stood up, "You'll have to discuss it with Miyuki-sama the next time we're in Ryugu."

Tsubaki nodded, 'Though...it will be the first time for me.'

"Excuse me. I need to meet with Sonikku and Sly-san," was all Roll said as she walked past Tsubaki.

Over with Sonia, Penelope, and Murray, the three had just reached Tsao's treasure temple.

"Okay, we're in position. We just need a roll call," Penelope said over the Binocu-com.

"Ready," Manic spoke up.

"We're ready on our end," Sly spoke up.

"In position," Penelope noted.

"I'm pumped!" Murray beamed.

"All set up," Sonic spoke.

"Hai!" Roll agreed.

"Everything's ready over here," Ben spoke up.

"We are ready," Bunker confirmed.

"How about we make it all short and simple? Everyone ready, just say aye," Jian sighed.

"Aye!" everyone but Panda King responded.

"I too stand ready," Panda King spoke up, "Even if we fail, it will have been an honorable effort. Jing King is not forgotten."

"Alright everyone, let's go," Sly smirked.

Sonia nodded as she looked around the building, "He's most likely locked the doors, so we'll need another entry."

"I did a quick surveillance earlier when I finished refilling my RC chopper," Penelope noted, "There's a ventilation shaft at the top of the building that might lead to the entrance."

"Right," Sonia nodded as she looked over at Murray, "Give me a boost. I'm gonna sneak in and open it from the other side."

"You got it!" Murray nodded.

Sonia nodded as she jumped into Murray's arms, the hippo carefully tossing her to the top of the treasure temple. The magenta hedgehog crawled into the building through the opened ventilation shaft. Minutes later, the two heard a rough noise on the other side of the doors before they opened, revealing Sonia.

"Come on in. We've got snacks," Sonia joked as the two walked in, "We better be careful in here. I looked ahead, and security is really tight."

"Really?" Murray asked.

"According to the blueprints, there's a security computer on the far side of the room under the dragon statue," Penelope explained, "The security Sonia's mentioning is a series of blue security lasers that, when triggered, will not end well for us."

"Blue security beams?! Oh man...this is tense!" Murray gulped.

"Don't worry. I should be able to pass them with my RC car," Penelope reassured him, holding up the mentioned vehicle.

"Oh, that's a relief," Murray beamed.

Penelope nodded as she put down her RC car and drove it into the next room, going through a small opening through a laser 'door' as she carefully maneuvered the remote control vehicle through the maze like area, avoiding the blue security beams, and the devices that produced said beams. The three managed to keep track of the car's progress with the Binocu-coms, displaying what the camera feed between the blasters on it was viewing.

"Okay. I should be nearing the security computer any second now," Penelope whispered, gritting her teeth as she barely drove her RC car past a device that produced a 'x' shaped wall. Once she was in the clear, and passed through a few more security beams undetected, she eventually reached a large gold dragon statue, a glowing orb in both its claws.

"There's the statue, now where's the computer?" Sonia frowned, not seeing a computer.

"I see it ahead. It's right underneath the statue, sitting against the support beam," Penelope replied as she drove her RC car under the statute, seeing the computer console before she fired a few shots at it, causing it to spark a bit before it exploded, "There. That should do it. The laser door should be going…" she looked at the laser door before them, seeing no change, "...away?"

"Tsao probably anticipated this and set up a second computer," Sonia frowned, "Most likely, it's with him."

"But...there was only supposed to be one…" Penelope whispered in slight shock, "The security nodes are still active. If you're right Sonia, then if the second computer fully boots up, there's no way we'll get in."

"...Penelope," Murray spoke up, catching the girl's attention, "I've been doing this for a long time. If there's one thing I've learned, it is that when the plan gets messed up, always fall back on the golden rule."

"The golden rule?" Penelope repeated with a raised brow.

"Go with Plan B?" Sonia suggested.

"Yep! Break Stuff!" Murray slammed his fists together.

"...That sounds like something my brothers would say," Sonia sweatdropped

"But he's right, Sonia," Penelope spoke up, getting her attention, "If I can destroy all the security nodes before the other computer comes online, that laser door should deactivate."

"Less talk and more breakery!" Murray whooped.

"...You really sound like my brothers when it comes to smashing stuff now," Sonia's sweatdrop only grew larger.

"Achoo!" Sonic sneezed a bit as he, Sly, Roll, and Cinder stood outside the palace doors, "That was odd."

"Bless you, Sonikku," Roll excused him.

"Okay, they're in position, you three," Tsubaki informed.

"Might as well do it with style," Sly smirked, putting a blue and white card resembling a raccoon's face on the doors while the trio entered the palace, Cinder staying outside to keep an eye out.

"Okay. We're here topside," Sonic said as he, Sly, and roll stood in the vase room.

"The vases around you are used in an ancient Chunese security technique to detect subterranean thieves. Our tunneling to free Jing King will most likely shake the palace," Panda King explained.

"I get you. If any of the vases tip over, it'll trip an alarm," Sly summarized.

"Correct. Don't allow them to fall. I am…" Panda King paused for a moment, "Putting my trust in you, Sly Cooper."

"We'll get Jing King… I promise," Sly promised before the Guru spoke up, "The Guru's right. Let's get this show on the road."

"Just keeping vases from falling over?" Sonic raised a brow, "Heh. Too easy."

"...Oh! Sly-san, I have an idea," Roll noted before Sly bent down to let Roll whisper in his ear.

"..." Sly chuckled, "Good idea. Okay, Sonic and I can handle it. You do what you need to do."

"Arigatou," Roll bowed before running off as a blur.

"What was that about?"

"Oh, she's just getting something that we'll need to help trick Carmelita into thinking I'm disguising myself as General Tsao to marry Jing King," Sly smirked.

"Ahh….clever girl," Sonic smirked back.

"Okay. We're starting the tunneling now. Get ready," Bunker's voice spoke from the Binocu-com.

"We're ready up here," Sonic grinned.

Sly nodded in agreement before an explosion occurred underground, causing the palace to shake a bit as two of the vases began to topple over.

"I got it," Sonic said as he dashed over to one of the vases, the hedgehog grunting a bit from how heavy it was as he managed to get it back on balance, "...Okay. This might be harder than I thought."

"Yeah. These are a lot heavier than you'd expect," Sly agreed, managing to stop the other from falling over.

Minutes passed as more and more vases started to shake, the underground team making their way as the above ground duo were doing their best to deal with making sure the vases didn't fall.

"What's taking them so long? They should be done by now," Sonic whispered as he prevented two vases from falling over.

"You tunnel through something without causing the tunnel to collapse," Sly grunted as he and Sonic managed to stabilize the last vase.

"Success! We're directly beneath the bridal chamber, just a few inches from Jing King," Panda King informed.

"Hear that, bro? It's showtime for you," Sonic grinned.

"I would like to say it one last time; WHY ME?!" Manic demanded.

"Because she knows you're here and thinks you're a thief that stole your medallion," Bentley replied.

"...Whatever that big thing you mentioned was, it better be worth it," Manic frowned as he stood ready.

"Make sure to lead her to the palace gates in the front. I left her a calling card, and I'm sure she'll see it and come inside," Sly explained, "Roll's gotten me something to help fool Carmelita into taking Jing King's place. Once you get her here, do whatever you can to escape."

"You got it, dude," Manic nodded, putting the Binocu-com away as he took a deep breath, "Well...here goes everything. Hey, Foxy Loxy! Chicken Little called, and he says he wants to pay you back for bullying him in school!"

"What?" Carmelita looked around.

"Hey!" Carmelita turned her head to see Manic across the street, 'I am in so much trouble when this is over.' Manic thought as he took in a deep breath, "I know why you can't catch Sly Cooper! You've been sleeping with him, haven't you?"

"..."

"BAD DAY! BAD DAY! BAD DAY!" Manic screamed, running as fast as he could while dodging the spheres of lightning from Carmelita's shock pistol.

"GET BACK HERE AND DIE!" Carmelita snapped, her entire face a vivid shade of scarlet.

'CRAPCRAPCRAPCRAPCRAPCRAPCRAPCRAPCRAPCRAPCRAP!' Manic mentally panicked as a sphere of lighting barely hit him, causing his head fur to poof up into an afro, "AH! MY 'DO!"

"I'M GOING TO SEE TO IT THAT YOU'RE LOCKED UP FOR A LONG TIME, PUTO!"

"You kiss your mother with that mouth!?" Manic shouted before yelping, dodging another blast sent at him.

"YOU LEAVE MY MADRE OUT OF THIS!"

"Whatever it is you said to get her this mad...Ball of steel, Manic. Balls of steel," Bentley informed, one of his grapple cams looking out at the fleeing hedgehog pursued by the red fox with a shock pistol.

"I JUST WANT THIS NIGHT TO BE OVER!" Manic shouted as he bolted into the palace walls, "There's the entrance!" he skidded to a halt before the stairs to the entrance and turned to face impending doom.

Carmelita jumped over the walls and landed across from Manic, "Any last words before I fill you with enough volts to light the entire continent for a month?"

"Yeah," Manic replied before summoning his drums, "Name's Manic, dudette! Later!"

With that, Manic began to play a drum solo. The ground below him opened and he fell through, the ground closing up before Carmelita could react and leaving an arrow pointing at the gate. Inside, Sonic and Roll sighed in relief as they managed to prevent any of the vases from falling over once more, while Panda King, Guru, and Bunker blinked twice at the green hedgehog currently hiding behind the Panda King.

"I am never distracting again. That was the worst experience ever. Of all time," Manic informed.

"...right…" Bunker sweatdropped a bit before clearing her throat, "Anyway, we should be under the bridal chamber any second now. Just one more blast should do it."

Panda King nodded. He loaded his fireworks bazooka and aimed at the ground. He pulled the trigger and the last of what separated him from his daughter was gone. Panda King was the first to emerge. Before them was a young panda, no older than Ben and a foot shorter than Tsubaki.

"Oh Father!" the panda gasped as she ran up and hugged him, "You've come to rescue me from General Tsao! I was beyond hoping for such a thing."

"Yes, my daughter...you are safe," Panda King whispered as he held her close.

"I think I'm going to cry…" Roll sniffled, the three hearing in on it on the other side of the walls.

"Heads up, Sly. You and your team have company," Bentley whispered over the Binocu-com as Panda King helped his daughter into the hole.

"Got it," Sly nodded before looking at Sonic and Roll, "Get ready you two."

"Hai, Sly-san!" Roll saluted.

"You got it, Sly. Or should I call you 'General Tsao, Ruler of the Northern Mountains?'" Sonic asked, looking at the spare suit of Tsao's armor Roll got for the raccoon.

Sly nodded as he started to change into the costume, and just in time as Carmelita started to come into the room, her pistol out as she looked around. Roll and Sonic quickly donned some random armor in the room and saluted to Sly just as Carmelita looked in their direction. She narrowed her eyes as she quickly hid.

"Okay you two," Sly informed, slightly louder than normal, "Secret Plan 'Alpha' is underway."

"You mean the one where you disguise as General Tsao and we dress up as his guards to trick them all into leaving the palace?" Roll asked.

"All so you can steal the veiled bride during the wedding ceremony?" Sonic added.

"Yeah. Once you do that, make sure that the whole gang's there," Sly ordered.

"Got it, boss," Sonic saluted with Roll.

"Ok. We're gonna head to the rendezvous point now. Got it?" Sly asked.

"Hai," Roll nodded as the three walked off.

'Sly Cooper and his secret plans…' Carmelita thought, narrowing her eyes, 'Who's this veiled bride he's so interested in anyways?' she looked over at the now-opened bride chamber, seeing a red chinese wedding dress with veil there, 'Well, he's not the only one who can play the disguise game. I'll give him and his growing gang a shotgun wedding they'll never forget.'

Carmelita quickly entered the room and closed the door. A few moments passed before General Tsao emerged from a door nearby.

"What strange rumblings have disturbed my meditation, and on the very night of my wedding?" he looked over at the paper door, seeing a shadow in it, "Do not worry my bride - I will not let anything prevent our love from blossoming. Not Sly Cooper, not the Royal Hedgehog Triplets assisting him, and not even your misguided attempts to escape. Ah well. Perhaps my meditation will be more focused amid the splendor of my Treasure Temple."

"Okay...Carmelita took the bait," Sly said as he, Sonic, and Roll stood on the roof, Cinder waiting up there for them beforehand, "Where are you guys at with Jing King?"

"We are in the van, waiting for the treasure and escape!" Panda King replied, "Manic is currently looking around at the moment with the Binocu-coms."

"Dudes! The purple chicken has left the coop and is on its way to its golden egg that's going to turn rotten!" Manic informed.

"Manic, you know I hate code names for things," Sonic frowned.

"Tsao is heading for the Treasure Temple and Sis, Penelope, and Murray ain't out of it yet!" Manic translated.

"...I see," Sly noted with a frown, "Murray, Tsao is heading your way. How you coming with the treasure?"

"We're doing awesome!" Murray replied "Stand aside, girls! THUNDER FLOP!"

"No wait!" Penelope yelped.

"Murray!" Sonia snapped as the four on the roof looked to see the Treasure Temple start rocking.

"Uh oh…" Murray gulped.

"Okay guys. Parachute down the treasure to us! We're ready!" Bentley shouted as he, Makoto, and Dulcy waited on top of one of the houses down below.

The bottom of the Treasure Temple collapsed, dropping Murray, Penelope, Sonia, and the treasure in a chest onto the ground. Upon them impacting the ground, the supports of the Treasure Temple broke apart. General Tsao ran up the way to the Temple just in time to witness it fall into the waters below. Below, Bentley, Makoto, and Dulcy screamed as the Treasure Temple came down at them. Dulcy grabbed the two and quickly flew off, barely missing the treasure temple crushing the fishing hut they had been on before both went into the icy waters below.

"Murray!" Bentley groaned.

"Sorry!" Murray shouted.

"My…my family temple…destroyed…" Tsao whispered, the rooster visibly shaking as a look of anger grew on his face, "Never...have I suffered such an outrage! First I lose my soldiers, then my prisoners, my two most powerful undead soldiers, the Raiju, and now my family's treasure temple! You...you all shall pay!"

"Eat it, Tsao!" Murray mocked, "I broke your temple and I'll break your face for messing with the Cooper Gang, the Freedom Fighters, and Panda King's daughter!"

"You cannot hurt me," Tsao scoffed.

"Oh yeah? Heads up, Bentley! Treasure chest comin' down!" Murray shouted before he picked up the treasure chest and threw it down at the roof Dulcy landed on, Makoto jumping and managing to catch it.

"Alright!" Makoto whooped.

"...I am no longer angry...nor outraged...I am…" Tsao paused as he glared dangerously at them, "Absolutely livid!"

"Then bring it on!" Murray replied, "The Murray can take anything you dish out!"

"Very well," Tsao growled before swinging his arms outward, "Stone dragon of the temple, I summon you! From rock to flesh, aide the Family Tsao in this hour of need!"

The water began to bubble where the Treasure Temple had sunk into. The bubbles grew more frenzied before a red blur erupted from the waters with a roar. The blur was a massive, red and gold Eastern dragon.

"Sweet strawberry shortcake!" Murray freaked.

"That's a huge dragon!"

The dragon roared as it sent a flaming fireball at Murray, who yelped as the blast sent him flying towards the water. Penelope yelped as Murray ended up colliding with her on his way, sending her towards it as well. Both gave a cry as they fell before an orange blur zipped by, catching them.

"What was that?" Bentley asked before the blur landed beside them.

"Hello," Jetfire greeted, dropping the two, "The magenta one, he is very much the heavy."

"..." Makoto slowly put the chest down as she reached for her tonfa.

"Oh no no. There is no needing to be attacking," Jetfire assured as he held his hands up in defense, "I am doing the, how you say, favoring return for comrade who be saving me." he pointed at Penelope's Binocu-com, "That is being something he was holding when I was to be seeing him saving. You are comrades to new comrade, yes?"

"...Uh…" Makoto began before the dragon roared out as it flew by, Sonia being held in one of its claws, "Sonia!"

"No! Let me go!" Sonia demanded.

"Ha-ha! The Tsao line is master in this place!" Tsao gloated,"You Hear me, Cooper, hedgehogs?! My lineage surpasses both of yours in every way, proving that I Tsao am the true ruler of Mobius!"

"It's not about the family name, dude!" a voice shouted before Tsao jumped back from a boulder thrown at him, causing him to look to see Manic drumming while floating on a large rock, surrounded by boulder, "It's what you do with it!"

"Hpmh! Foolish! Dragon, destroy them all!" Tsao ordered.

"Hey, big guy!" Sly called to Jetfire, "Mind giving me a lift up to that dragon?"

"Okie for dokie!" Jetfire saluted before transforming into his jet mode and flew up to Sly.

"Guys, I'll handle Tsao," Manic informed as he began to send more boulders at the rooster, "Get Sonia away from that thing and get that treasure to the van."

"On it, Manic!" Makoto nodded as she picked up the treasure chest.

"Roll, you go with them a-" Sonic began.

"No," Roll said as she glared at Tsao, "I want to stay and help."

"But…"

"Bro, I'll keep an eye on her. I'll make sure she's okay while we fight the feathered moron!" Manic replied on the Binocu-com.

"Jetfire Airlines, now to be awaiting those who are to being going to red thing?" Jetfire hovered before the roof.

"...Be careful, Roll," Sonic said.

"I will," Roll assured.

Sonic nodded as he summoned his sword. Sly and Sonic jumped onto Jetfire and he took flight towards the dragon. Manic had one of his boulders float before the roof to let Roll hop onto it and bring her to him.

"Ready to go dragon slaying, Sly?".

"Yeah. Ready to save your sister?"

"Actually, I'm more worried for the dragon than her," Sonic joked.

"Ahh…"

"Fools! You cannot defeat me!" Tsao shouted as he dodged a boulder from Manic, "My dragon will see to it that you all will perish! And once you are all gone, my conquest of Mobius will be much easier, starting to that filthy women filled town, Ryugu!"

"Leave my home out of your delusions!" Roll narrowed her eyes, aiming her Burst Bustersword at him and releasing bursts of fire at the rooster while Manic continued to fire rocks at him.

"Hah!" Tsao yelled as he fired multiple dark energy spheres, sending them crashing into the two attack waves while a few headed straight towards Roll and Manic.

"Oh shit!" Manic yelped, quickly changing the tune he was drumming to make a shield with his remaining floating boulders.

"Return that sword now to Tsao, wench!" Tsao ordered as he charged at Roll, blocking any fireballs sent at him while using the rocks heading for him as stepping stones, "It is rightfully mine!"

"It belongs to the Sakurai clan!" Roll replied, her blade igniting as she jumped down at him and swung her blade, burying it into his obsidian shield.

"A whore such as you is not fit to carry such a regal weapon!" Tsao argued as he pushed her back, sending his obsidian shield straight at her as it spun madly, "The family Tsao are the only ones that deserve to carry it! My father did not steal it so a filthy wench like you could…!"

"What?" Roll's eyes widened before grunting as she barely blocked the attack with the flat of her blade, Manic sending a small stone platform to her to land on, Yacker coming out of her blade, "Your father stole my family's sacred treasure?!"

"Of course! He believed filthy women like you should not belong on the battlefield, and don't deserve such a weapon! So he hired an assassin to sneak into the city of Ryugu to steal it, killing its former master!" Tsao shouted as he landed on the platform.

'Obaa-chan…' Roll thought, gripping her blade tighter, "Onore…!" Roll snarled.

"FRENZY!" Yacker snapped, shooting into Roll once more and forming the armor and Frenzy Scimitar.

Roll roared as she lunged at Tsao, the sapphire gems in the helmet flashing briefly.

"The berserk state again…" Tsao frowned as he jumped back from Roll's attempted slash, "It seems it only emerges when the pathetic creature is enraged."

"Yeah, and you're the main source of it!" Manic shouted as he sent larger boulders at Tsao, who jumped out of the way as he landed on the second one.

"How are you doing that?!" Sonic demanded, having to bury his sword into the dragon's scales as he made his way towards the head while Sly was running along the spine.

"It's a trail of points," was all Sly said before jumping over a blast of flames sent by the dragon while Sonic had to duck lower to avoid them.

"Yes, but HOW are you walking on them so easily?!"

"Family secret," Sly replied before a fireball smacked the dragon in the face.

"Over here!" Jetfire taunted, sending another fireball at the dragon's face.

'I can't believe I'm cheering for one of Eggman's robots to save me…' Sonia thought.

Roll snarled as she blocked Tsao's shield before swiping at the rooster. Tsao ducked under the swipe, delivering an uppercut to her before jumping from a rain of stones the size of golf balls going at twenty miles an hour. He landed down at the lowest point of the village and Roll snarled before jumping down as well.

"To defeat your enemy, you must know your enemy," Tsao noted as Roll landed across from him, "Dragon! Ascend higher!"

The dragon roared as it flew higher up into the clouds, nearly breaking the o-zone as flew through the night sky. Roll charged at Tsao, who merely smirked while not even attempting to block. She was about to jump when…

*Ba-BUMP*

"?!" Roll choked out a gasp of breath, dropping her blade as she stumbled back, a hand to her chest.

"Roll?!" Manic gasped as he landed his platform.

"She never leaves more than a five-block radius of the blue one, correct?" Tsao spoke up, earning Manic's attention, "Well, there's a good reason for it. Her family's tradition will be her downfall."

Roll gasped and choked out, trying to breathe. Tsao smirked as he rushed at her, delivering a series of harsh blows upon her with his shield.

"While your bond to him makes you and him stronger the closer you two are, it also weakens you vastly when the range you two are apart is exceeded!" Tsao informed with each strike on her, "Those five blocks? That's the range when your foolish binding kiss is not even a year old. The further he goes from you, the more pain your body begins to experience until your heart finally gives out!"

With a final strike of his shield, Roll cried out as her armor shattered. She tumbled back as her outfit changed back into her original now in tatters. The shattered armor glowed before coming together into Yacker, passed out on the floor.

"Roll!" Manic gasped before he glared at Tsao, "You bastard…."

"Such as a woman should be before a man," Tsao snorted at Roll, kicking her away, "Weak, helpless, able to do nothing with a man giving them orders."

"Stop it!" Manic growled, unaware of the main drum of his set starting to flash in the front.

"Why should I? This vile woman is paying the price for 'loving' that foolish brother of yours," Tsao snorted as he kicked her further, nearly sending her into the freezing water.

"Stop it right now!" Manic growled, the drum set starting the rattle as the main drum's flashes began to increase in pace.

"Hmm...Perhaps you are right," Tsao picked up Roll's family sword, "How fitting; the blade that created the Sakurai family will be used to end it!" he raised the blade up, "Now begone, foolish woman! This is the end of your foolish female blood!"

"STOP IT!-!-!" Manic screamed, slamming his sticks onto his set.

The main drum's flashing reached its point before something erupted from it. A gold blur shot out, slamming into Tsao and knocking the blade out of his hands. The gold blur shot by Tsao five more times, sending sparks off his armor with the last strike knocking him away from Roll.

"Awoo~! Awo-awooo~!" the blur howled before landing on top of Manic's drums, revealing itself to be a gold wolf with a knife blade for a tail.

"Wh-Wh-What are you?!" Manic gasped.

The wolf turned to Manic with excitement in its emerald eyes. It jumped into the air before its body transformed into a knife handle. Manic grabbed the knife before it landed on it and his drum set began to glow. It shattered before shooting onto his body, reassembling into a suit of armor. The armor was a brilliant silver with emerald gems embedded into it on the back of the hands, the elbows, the knees, and the sides of the helmet. Runic markings were engraved on multiple parts of the armor with a pair of discs resembling cymbals were connected to the sides of his lower legs. The back of his helmet was shaped to resembling the quills on the back of his head while a silver visor covered his face. Manic swung his free hand out to the side, a burst of dirt and dust coming out of the back of his armor into an emerald-green cape.

"...What is this?" Tsao frowned as he stood up.

"I'm not sure, dude," Manic replied as he looked at his hands before looking over at Tsao, playing with his new knife, "But you're not hurting my sis-in-law anymore!"

"...Hmph. We shall see!" Tsao shouted before clapping his hands together, "Reanimation!"

Groans filled the air as a few undead armored warriors appeared before Tsao, each one wielding a different weapon.

"These were once my father's top assassins, the 6 venomous fangs!"

The knife in Manic's hand gave a soft glow, Manic's eyes flashing the same color as the glow for a brief moment. He spun the knife around into a reverse grip and slammed it down into the ground knife-first. Six massive jaws snapped up, tearing the six summoned assassins in two in their stone jaws before going down into the earth.

"What?!" Tsao gasped as Manic approached him slowly, "St...stay back! One step closer, and my dragon will go into space, killing your brother, sister, and Cooper!"

A groaning roar made the two look up. A shadow fell over the area before the dragon spiraled into the waters of the village, crashing into the highest point of the village where the Treasure Temple had been on its way down.

"I….Impossible…" Tsao whispered in complete shock, "How...how did they best my family's dragon?!"

"No idea, but you pissed me off big time," Manic replied.

Tsao snarled as he charged at the armored hedgehog. He swung his shield and struck Manic with it. He smirked and made to pull it away before his eyes widened. He grunted as he tried to pull the shield, but it wouldn't budge. Manic slowly brought his hand up, causing Tsao to be lifted off the ground with his shield, Manic's hand tightly gripping it. He swung and knocked Tsao away. The rooster got up and charged again, only for Manic to deliver a series of kicks into Tsao's torso, shattering his armor with a final roundhouse kick and knocking him into a wall.

"Gah!" Tsao gasped out, a bit of blood escaping his beak as her glared at Manic, "How dare you…!" he got up, "You may have bested my dragon and stolen my treasure, but I still win! I still have the bride! Jing King is mine!"

He threw down a smoke bomb, filling the area with smoke. Manic stayed close to Roll, her breathing returning to normal as Yacker dragged Roll's blade back to her. As the last of the smoke bomb's smoke dissipated, Sly, using a parachute resembling his calling card, landed with Sonic and Sonia holding onto him.

"Roll!" Sonic gasped as he got off and ran towards her, noting the wounds on the hedgefox's body, "Manic...what happened while I was gone?"

"And where did that armor come from?" Sonia asked, looking at it with wide eyes.

"He...Sonic, you are staying within five blocks of her at all times," Manic replied, "Tsao...he knew what would happen when you two are further than five blocks away from each other. And it's worse than what the pamphlet implies."

"What?" Sonic and Sonia blinked twice.

"Now if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna pass out now," Manic informed before his armor and knife glowed, turning back into his medallion before he collapsed.

"...Come on, you two…" Sly spoke up as he picked up the unconscious Manic, "Let's hurry and meet up with the others."

"Right," Sonia nodded as Sonic picked up Roll as gently as he could before sheathing her sword for her.

"Good idea…" Sonic spoke up, holding Roll close in her arms, "The sooner we're out of this place, the better."

Over at the palace, Tsao stumbled in as he walked into the throne room, coughing up a bit of blood as he tried to stay up. He walked over to his dressing room and put on his ceremonial robes. His remaining guards escorted the bride into the ceremonial wedding room as he stood in it, managing well to hide his injuries. Unaware to them, one of Bentley's grapple cams was set up, hidden in a corner.

"Let us start the ceremonies," Tsao stated, "I do not need your answer, my bride, so I will ask for you. Will you be my wife, of course. Do I want you as my bride, of course. I now pronounce us as husband and bride. You may now kiss me."

The bride smirked before pulling off her veil, revealing not Jing King, but Inspector Carmelita Fox, "Surprise, Cooper!"

"What?!" Tsao gasped.

*BZZZZZZZZRT!-!-!-!*

Tsao groaned as he collapsed, his feathers singed and his robes ruined. Carmelita smirked as she handcuffed him before blinking twice in surprise when she tried to remove his face, only to realize it wasn't a mask.

"You...you're not Cooper….who are you?"

"That is General Tsao, miss Inspector," a voice spoke up causing her to turn and see Tsun Ki standing before her, "Greetings."

"Who are you?" Carmelita aimed her shock pistol at him.

"I am Tsun Ki, a former general of Tsao's," Tsun ki explained as he reached into his robes, pulling out a few pieces of paper as he held them out to her, "Here. You may want to see what my former 'boss' has been up to in this town, and what he was planning on doing after the wedding."

"..." Carmelita received the papers and looked them over, her eyes widening with each sentence read, "Madre de Dios..."

"Indeed," Tsun Ki nodded, his glasses/goggles glaring a bit as he adjusted them a bit, "You'll be doing the Freedom Fighters, and the people of Chunan a favor by detaining him."

"...Why even show me this?" Carmelita questioned.

"Because I see potential in everyone and everything," Tsun Ki replied as he glared down at Tsao, "Unlike him and his horrid family line."

Carmelita nodded, "Well, the raising of the dead alone will get him life due to it being in violation of the UN's ban on using the dead as weapons. The rest added onto it is more than enough for even his great-great-great-great-great-great grandchild to remain behind bars."

"Good," Tsun Ki nodded, "It's about time someone ended this horrid rooster's family legacy. And while you're at it, you may want to lock up his guards too."

"Why?"

"Both mental and physical abuse, slavery, starvation, and of course..." he paused as his frown grew, "...rape."

*BZZZRT*

"..." Tsun Ki looked down at Tsao, now without any feathers and sparking, "...I feel no remorse whatsoever for you right now, Tsao."

The next day, further away from the town Tsao used to rule, news had spread about the terrible things Tsao had done, not just to the town he ruled, but to Chunan itself. Radios, papers, television, and articles online were informing the world of what happened and what had been exposed. Sly cracked a smile as the paper gave credit to Carmelita for discovering what Tsao had done and plotted to do. Needles to say, neither Tsao, nor his guards were getting out of jail anytime soon.

"Murray slept in the team van last night," Bentley informed, rolling up to Sly as he was sitting in the Underground Bus's dining table.

"Not surprised. He's had the van for years now and it's been gone for an entire year," Sly shrugged, "Speaking of the van, can't believe the upgrades Ben gave it once we got it back."

"No kidding," Bentley nodded, "No idea why he did that, though."

"Maybe he saw something about the way Murray treats the van and wanted to give him something nice," Sly shrugged.

"Though, speaking of Ben…" Bentley pulled out his laptop, "There are no birth records, dental record, hospital records...Not a single thing about him in any databases. It's like he doesn't even exist."

"Seriously?" Sly raised a brow at that.

"Neither for Tsubaki nor Makoto, either."

"So...what? You think they're aliens?"

"Possibly," Bentley replied, "After all, Ben has a device that turns him into aliens. It wouldn't surprise me if those three are from another planet. Either that, or their identities are just false ones due to mysterious pasts, but that's a little too out there."

"True," Sly nodded, taking another drink of his coffee, "But hey. If it wasn't for their help, we wouldn't have figured out what Tsao was really up to and we'd probably have it a lot harder in beating him."

Bentley nodded, "Speaking of which, I've been going over what I recorded in that fight Tsao had against Manic…"

"More like a curbstomp for Manic on him," Sly smirked.

"...and I've been doing some studies on recent aerial surveillance on the island. It seems that the ground had become unstable in many areas around the base of the mountain due to the multiple attempts at opening the vault," Bentley continued, pulling out a diagram of an island fortress, "Manic's geokinesis when he uses his medallion would be just what we need to stabilize the ground so it doesn't cave in beneath us when we go for the vault."

"Ahh...I see where you're going with this now," Sly noted.

"Exactly," Bentley adjusted his glasses, "Also, I happened upon their lab when we were doing our celebration at stealing from Tsao and him getting arrested by Carmelita and noticed a device. It seemed to be a tracker of some sorts."

"What did you do?"

"I may have amplified the signal to see what they were trying to find with it and found that they were looking for a unique energy signature," Bentley explained, "Two are in here, two are far to the east and ended up going off the amplified radar's range a few seconds after, and one…" he tapped the diagram, "Was pointing to here."

"...I see," Sly noted as he looked at it before a yawn made the two look to the stairs to see Makoto walking down in just her shirt and a thong.

She mumbled as she made her way to the kitchen area, her eyes barely opened, "Need...coffee…"

"..." Sly slowly held up his camera and took another picture.

"You're going to get killed by a woman's fury one of these days," Bentley muttered under his breath, looking away from the half-naked Beastkin as she fumbled around for a coffee cup.

"Come on...where is it…" Makoto muttered as she looked around for a cup, finding one placed on the counter, "...Here we go…" she gave a small, tired smile as she tried to pick it up, knocking it to the floor as it hit the rug, "...Whoops," she then leaned down to pick it up, unaware of what was going on, or who else was in the room.

"..." Sly took another picture.

"I give up…" Bentley muttered under his breath while shaking his head.

"...Time for some coffee…" Makoto whispered as she went to go make some coffee, the Beastkin tiredly waving at the two, "Hey, Cooper, Bentley…"

"Morning, Nanaya," Sly replied.

"Good morning, Makoto," Bentley greeted, still looking away from her.

"..." Makoto said nothing as she poured herself some coffee, the Beastkin taking a slow sip before her eyes shot open in realization, "?!" She then slowly turned her head a bit to see them, unaware that the coffee was spilling out of her mouth and onto her shirt, "..."

"...I'm out," Bentley yelped as he wheeled himself out of there as fast as he could, grabbing the diagram as he bolted out of there.

"...Bye~" Sly waved slyly before vanishing, taking one more photo to go.

"...COOPER!" Makoto snapped.

"Makoto, wh-" Ben began as he ran in to check on her, only for a heavy blush to form on his face, "...uh…"

"...What?" Makoto blinked, turning to him and spilling a bit more coffee on her shirt.

'...She sleeps braless…' Ben thought as his entire body went red, "Uh...sh….shirt."

"Eh? What about it?" Makoto blinked twice as she moved towards him, causing her covered, yet exposed, chest (thanks to the coffee) to bounce a bit.

"Too early for this…" Penelope mumbled as she walked down before seeing Makoto's current state, "...Ack! Makoto, you've got coffee spilled on your shirt!"

"Huh?" Makoto blinked as she looked down at her shirt, the movement causing her chest to bounce again.

"...Oh man," was all Ben got out as he fainted, a bit of blood escaping his nose as Makoto quickly shot upstairs, both screaming, and cursing Sly's name at the same time.

"How's she doing?" Sonic asked as he stood outside the room Roll was resting in.

"While her injuries have healed thanks to the Guru's natural remedies, she is spiritually exhausted," Panda King explained, the Guru currently chanting inside Roll's room, "He is currently helping her recover it while she rests through the Dreamtime. Has she ever used that form we witnessed her use against Tsao before now?"

"...No," Sonic shook his head, "In fact, she's only used it twice, both when he summoned her ancestor, Zen Sakurai, and when she was facing Tsao last night."

"Perhaps it was because of the dark magic Tsao used somehow influenced the form," Panda King hypothesized.

"Maybe," Sonic agreed, "...How's Jing King?"

"She's resting peacefully in our room," Panda King replied, "She spent many a night unable to rest while held hostage by Tsao, afraid of what might have befallen." Sonic nodded before a small silence fell for a few moments between them, "...Thank you."

"Hm?"

"For helping in saving my little Jing King and for not telling your friends of what I did that night so many years ago."

"Ahh...no problem," Sonic nodded.

"Should you need my aid when it is time for Robotnik to fall, you have my fireworks for the battle," Panda King assured with a bow.

"...It would be an honor," Sonic said as he bowed back to him, "Honorable Panda King."

"Zzz..." Manic snored softly in his bed.

'The Guru said that he was just exhausted from using the armor for the first time,' Tsubaki thought, sitting in a chair beside the sleeping hedgehog's bed, 'That was reckless and dangerous for him to use an armor he's never even worn before. But...he did it to protect his in-law. He was able to beat Tsao enough to make him retreat for the last time and didn't hesitate to fight.' she bent down and lightly kissed his cheek, 'Good job, Manic.'

"Zzzz..." Manic smiled a little in his sleep.

"Greetings, Sonia," Tsubaki said as she walked into the magenta hedgehog's room, said female hedgehog sitting up in her bed, "How're you feeling?"

"I'm doing a bit better, thank you," Sonia replied with a nod.

"Good…" Tsubaki nodded as she sat down.

"...Is something up?"

"...In a way, yes," Tsubaki nodded, "Sonia...when Jian and I were dealing with the Raiju, we found out something about them, and who they were really working for."

"Hmm? What do you mean?"

"..." Tsubaki took in a deep breath as she gave her a serious look, "It turns out Robotnik has his own group of Mobians called the Dark Legion."

"Dark Legion?" Sonia repeated before her eyes widened, "Wait...the Sonic from the Zone Kirby and the others came from mentioned them."

Tsubaki nodded, "I recalled that a while after we learned that from the Raiju's leader, Conquering Storm. This means that not only are we dealing with Eggman and his robots, but Mobians and possibly Beastkin that are allying with him as well."

"...We have to tell Sonic and the others this," Sonia said as she tried to get up.

"Not yet. You still need your rest after what happened last night," Tsubaki shook her head as she held the hedgehog back down, "When everyone is recovered and we all leave...we'll tell them."

"...Okay," Sonia nodded, 'Fighting against fellow Mobians...this war against Robotnik just became harder.'

Meanwhile, in Eggman's fortress, the mad doctor had heard what had happened in Chunan, mostly about how Tsao was using his machines for his own gain.

"This explains where the missing machines went," Shockwave observed, "And why we've lost contact with Jetfire since he went over the country last week."

"Grr...I'm glad that damn rooster is in jail, otherwise I'd have roboticized him, and thrown him into the smelter!" Eggman snapped

=This is being Jetfire callings to quarters of head=

"Jetfire, report!" Eggman snapped.

=Crazy purple birdie captured me with red thing that was to being a dragon. I manage to be escaping from him when things had be goings down= Jetfire informed.

"...I see," Eggman noted, "...Report back to base once you meet up with your 'brother.'"

=I am to be very glad in seeing brother again= Jetfire beamed =Thanking you very much, Lord Eggman=

"...Shockwave, is it finished yet?" Eggman asked.

"The last of the alloy had finished being smelted and is now being attached as we speak," Shockwave replied as a hologram of something appeared before them, "It will be ready for flight in a matter of hours and combat in a day if we continue to work on the combat systems while in the air; half of day if we do not take flight."

"Perfect," Eggman smirked as he leaned back a bit in his chair, "Take all the time you need while I look into my Dark Legion. Heh...I am so glad she gave me the idea for it."

"...You mean the female echidna, correct?"

"Of course! That Legionization she showed me saved me a lot of time, and has increased my army by the dozens!" Eggman exclaimed in slight excitement before grinning darkly, "And of course, there's the special failsafe I had installed in each of my Legionnaires to make sure they stay loyal to me."

=Um...about that failsafe…= Sleet spoke up from the speaker on Eggman's chair, =Don't you think that it's...well…=

"...Well what?" Eggman asked with a frown.

=...N...nevermind! I'll just go back to overlooking your robots, sire= Sleet gulped.

"It was rather logical to replace her initial concept with that, my lord," Shockwave noted, "Had you gone with the original idea and someone was able to hack into the systems to trigger it, you would have lost the soldiers you've Legionized."

"And thank you for suggesting the video demonstration for them all on what it would do," Eggman smirked, "Not only do we let them know what it does, but we also show them that we mean business on what happens when you betray the Eggman Empire."

"However, I still find it illogical in leaving behind the center of the kingdom to personally operate the…"

"Shockwave, are you questioning my orders?"

"I am not, my lord, merely questioning your logic in doing this."

"...I see…" Eggman noted, "But don't worry. I left the center of my kingdom in good hands. Now...any ideas where Sonic and his siblings are headed next?"

"It appears that they have managed to scramble the signal of the Chaos Emeralds they hold," Shockwave explained as the hologram changed to a map, "Their last known location was entering Chunan."

"I see...either way...wherever they go…" Eggman paused as he grinned, his glasses glaring a bit, "They'll have to deal with my Dark Legion and the God of Destruction."

GT: Yikes. Almost forgot that this was also the Chaos 0 Arc of Omniverse Underground...Memo to self; reread previous chapters.

SZ: Yeah. it's always a good idea to reread previous chapters so you don't get lost in your own story. Speaking of...this might be the longest chapter you...well, we have ever done for Omniverse Shift. But hey, at least we managed to do something a bit for Sonic's 25th anniversary...kinda.

GT: Yep. Still not over yet, though.

SZ: No it is not. Things have only just begun for the Underground Freedom Fighters.

GT: *nods* Too true.

SZ: Eeyup. Not only will they have to deal with Robotnik and his machines, but they'll have to do with the Dark Legion.

GT: This war against him is a big pain in the tuckus for the Freedom Fighters in general, especially now that they have to deal with Mobians who've turned traitor.

SZ: Eeyup. In fact...depending on how things go for this story, I might just make a second part to it. Think of it like a...Book 2 or something. You know, like Avatar...the awesome cartoon/anime, not the movie of the same name.

GT: I liked the movie.

SZ: I thought it was good too.

Call: *pokes head in* Excuse me, but there is a miss Kokonoe in the next room, and she seems upset.

SZ: Wh? What...could….uh...GT? You...did show her 'Help me: Professor Kokonoe!' segment at the end of chapter 25….right?

GT: I did not do it. Could not think of anything for it and, really, just did not want to do it.

SZ: Ahh...well...you might want to try and avoid her from now on. Re-*tenses at seeing who was behind GT*...GT...walk….away….slowly….

Call: *blinks before Roll pulled her back into the other room*

GT: *fires a catnip canon behind me*

Kokonoe: … *fidgets a bit as she tried to remain calm, yet angry...only for her basic instincts to kick in as she chased after the catnip* MINE!

SZ: 0-o...uh….

Call: *off-screen* Miss Sakurai, why did y-*yelps a bit*

Roll: *offscreen purrs loudly*

GT: Oh yeah...forgot foxes are affected by catnip, too.

SZ: 0-o...I….I see...ahem! I believe that's all the time we have then. Hopefully this won't be the last time you'll all see me as I enjoy helping GT out with this story. So until the next chapter, This is Seanzilla115…

GT: ...and I am GammaTron. Ready and review, everyone!

SZ: Yup. Ja ne, and good evening!*teleports out in a swirl of Xel data before teleporting back in* And before we forget...we have one last thing...ahem.*unfurls a banner, showing Sonic's face around his logo as a gold '25' stood next to him*

SZ, GT: Happy 25th Anniversary, Sonic!