He'd initially raised an arm in self defense, ready to snag the sparking metal weapon plunging his way, and find out first hand whether he or the mechanoid fox was stronger. And, given the busted cement below Nine... Kaison wasn't entirely confident he'd win that test. Fortunately, Nine had lunged in the opposite direction to counter the attack, jerking the wayward tail back a split second before disaster. The man offered a wordless snarl, a feral display of teeth, as his widened gaze shot towards the fox himself.

Nine was trying, he really was. Through the chaos, Kaison could still see that. It was the reason he'd gone through with tossing the spool instead of counter attacking the tails. And when Nine had fumbled the catch, Kaison had been ready to stand back and let the fox handle it, or even dart forward if given the request. But something else happened in that moment.

A stray tail had struck the ceiling, which wouldn't have been a big deal -other than cutting into his first paycheck to repair later- if not for the eleven-year old child that had now stepped onto its threshold.

Kaison didn't have time to transform, nor did he have the brutal transformative strength of the dragons to simply rip through synthetic clothing. The man sprung forward, vaulting through the air as plaster began to rain down. Nine was hitting the ground at the same time, knees striking the cracked, broken cement below him as the lycanthrope reached for the offending tail. He didn't wait to see whether Nine would be successful in shutting the weapons down, or whether that tail was even going to harm Maruui. He didn't even consider the girl's earlier concerns over the tail potentially being a literal part of Nine. He's only goal was to grab it and render it useless, whether by crushing it between the inhuman strength of his hands, or tearing it free from the fox's body...

'Well, it could be worse.' The goblin rationalized, reminding himself that his own crew had come out of the debacle alive and relatively okay... well, mostly okay. He looked away from the hole and back to Erathun. The dragon's broad snout was hovering a few feet above Zhenn'arh, whose breathing was sounding nosier than it had a few moments ago. "Kid, how's that healing going?"

Era's rigid face didn't betray the fierce and sudden anger that rippled through him, but his widened eyes did hold a look of intensity that Keedle couldn't miss. And even if he had, the dragon's rushed words more than carried those emotions to the forefront, "It's not!" He flexed his golden wings outward, then pulled them in tight against his sides, "You should have asked me about healing! I didn't know this was going to happen!" Before Keedle could get a word in, the young Erathun continued to unload all the tension that had been building up from the start, "I can't heal what I can't see! I don't know if-" His yellow and olive-scaled snout dropped down low, hovering over the troll before drawing back with a side to side shake, "I don't know where the bullets are! I can't- I don't know how to fix that! You should have asked!"

"Hey, hey!" In the face of the Green's targeted wrath, Keedle raised his voice and pivoted himself to better face the child that was many, many times his own mass, "Just use a speck of your magic, Rath, that's all I'm asking!" With one hand to brace his awkwardly seated position, the other was waved in the air for emphasis. "Look, I'm not saying-"

"That's not how it works! It could go wrong - I can't!" Erathun cut him off with a heightened snarl, shaking his head again, "You should have known that!"

Heat from the dragon's breath washed over the goblin, hitting with enough force to make the little man squint and draw back a little. What hit harder was the panic beneath the snarls though, and it deflated the verbal fight Keedle had been about to gear up for. "Alright kid, just..." In a rare moment, Keedle's own tones had lowered in quieted acquiescence, and he dropped that hand that had been ready to waggle a pointed finger at the other.

-I can handle the humans for now.- In the beat that followed this, Chloe's disjointed vocals broke in, -Erathun can't carry everyone, as it is.- A few discreet steps brought her six-limbed form hovering directly over the agents, where her attention fell now that all immediate fires had been put out; at least, the ones that she could help with. Chloe scooped up two of the three UECH workers and stepped over Keedle as she moved towards the side of the small garage, with her path directed towards the larger one, -Get them to safety, and I'll clean up here.-

"Were there any others with you?" The woman was speaking again, once more ignoring Sonic's requests as she cut straight to the details that were most important to UECH, "Or was it just you and Nine?"

"Damn, internet cut out. I know I came across a Nine on one of those pages, too. Denis, you played those games, right? What do you know about the Nine creature?" Scrunched up the door, his body turned away from Sonic as far as the seatbelt would allow, EMP man glanced up from his phone long enough to dart a look to the other.

Denis was watching everything with initial silence, but jumped back into the conversation to both ignore Sonic, and to denounce EMP man, "Jesus Smith, the hedgehog can't hurt you right now. Scoot over any further, and you'll fall out the door." He'd also blatantly refused to answer Smith's question regarding his gaming history, and instead worked to unbuckle his seatbelt as the SUV came to a stop. "I'll help you haul him up; grab the rope, and watch the quills. Jan, enough with the questions - our job's over, as far as he's concerned. We'll work on locating his partner after this."

The snap of orders was so quick and decisive that even the driver paused to glance back, but ultimately didn't chime in. He merely secured the vehicle in park, and unlocked the doors.

A cowed Smith fumbled his phone back into his pocket and clicked himself out of his seatbelt. He and Denis both ignored whatever else Sonic might be saying, including the line about not not attacking anyone, as the pair each grabbed a section of the nylon rope and tugged the hedgehog up and out from between the seats. "I swear, if I get stuck with a quill..."

"Just move, out your side." Denis rushed, crouching awkwardly in the vehicle before shuffling out the passenger side, following Smith. With little more ceremony than that, Sonic was transferred - wiggling, fighting, resisting or not - onto a cold metal gurney surrounded by four scientists in stark white gowns, gray leather gloves, and pale masks. Smith and Denis readily stepped back, as the shorter of the pair huffed out, "He's all yours. With any luck, we'll have a second one soon."

The gurney was moving soon after that, clattering over cement, and bumping up over a metal threshold that lead into the smaller, brighter hallway where the scientists had come from. As it was wheeled down this smaller space, a man with a sharply pointed nose and pair of bright, blue-gray eyes joined the convoy. Dressed in the same white garb as the others, this man was otherwise distinguished by a clipboard held close to his chest. And where the trio in the SUV had been keen to talk over and mostly ignore the hedgehog, this fellow's hawkish focus was solely for Sonic. "Your name is Sonic, is that right? I'm Professor Harlow, and I'd like to ask you a few questions."

Pembrook tried to wrap his mind around the sudden disfigurement, and the wild rush of panic that came with it. But a dreaming mind often wasn't a rational one. Reality clashed with the surreal, and somewhere in that sudden spiral, the truth bled in.

Aldra shouldn't be here. He'd died. Along with Pemiri. Along with his entire clan. The whole of Highmoor.

"Wait." The word came out in a harsh, hastened slur of sound, impeded by a twisted jaw and a tongue that felt out of place. As if to banish the these hard facts, Pembrook moved forward and reached for Aldra, to confirm with touch that his nephew was still alive and well. Because if Aldra was real, then Pemiri would be walking up through the cellar doors any moment, to admonish the pair for horsing around and eating goods meant for the customers...

Before he could make that connection, the illusion broke. The warm, green and brown earthen tones of the bakery faded away. The sweet tang of honey and scent of fresh bread departed. Waking from his dream, Brook opened a pair of mismatched eyes and found himself staring at the sterile white ceiling of the recovery ward, the banks of overhead lights currently turned off in the early hours of the morning. Instead of the inviting crackle of an oven fire, he heard the soft shuffling of feet along nearby hallways, space that was separated only by tall partition panels. The hum of electricity was pervasive, as was the scent of cleaners and sterilizing chemicals.

Pembrook tried to close his eyes and force his mind to shut off. He tried to reach for the dream again, so that he could see his family one more time. He wanted to ask Aldra how his magic studies were going, or share an evening meal with is parents. He wanted the chance to say goodbye.

With a heavy breath and a throat clenched in sorrow, Brook wiped the wetness from his face and shrugged the covers off himself. He couldn't fall back to sleep now. But he also couldn't just lay there and fret away the hours until sunrise again. Without putting much thought into it, the firbolg sat up and slowly swung his legs off the edge of the bed. He sat there for a moment, partially to gather his limited strength, and partially to make sure that Ratchet wasn't currently on duty. When he didn't see the bright chartreuse plates of the resident CMO, Brook eased himself off the bed, found his shaky balance, and headed for the nearest route that would lead him out of the facility.

"Just shush." Aldra didn't bother looking to his uncle as he hovered over a sheet of freshly cut pastries, glazed with honey and topped with a speckling of spices. Just as with Brook's voice, his words were delivered in a quieted tone to avoid attracting the attention of the bakery's matriarch, though he didn't take the time to look over his shoulder to make sure Pemiri hadn't reentered the room. "This is going to revolutionize things. -Trust- me."

Hunched beside his nephew as he was, watching helplessly as a few strands of gray fur sunk firmly into the honey, Brook quietly agonized over the lecture they'd both be getting. And the extra hours he'd need to work mixing, baking, cutting, and topping a new batch of pastries for their client.

Aldra raised a hand above the sheet - a hand that was distinctly bereft of the glove it should have had on, which would have prevented the fur from falling into the glaze in the first place - and began to wiggle his fingers.

Pembrook's ears laced back in defeat, then perked forward as he considered the option of salvaging the unsoiled pastries. "C'mon Aldra, we really don't have time for this..." Maybe their client would be okay with a discount, for receiving less product? But as he reached for the tray to rescue what he could, Aldra slapped his hand away.

"Brookie, have faith." The younger firbolg's fingers went back to wiggling, while Brook was left with a growing knot in his stomach. Aldra settled his feet on the ground and adjusted his stance. The end of his long tail curled upward, and he sucked in a deep breath, "Okay, here we go... Parvamuta!"

Pembrook turned his face away subtly, dark eyes squinting just a little as his nephew uttered a phrase that sounded distinctly arcanic. Despite the flare and effort put into it though, and despite his bracing for the unexpected, the pastries and the bits of firbolg hair remained completely untouched. There was no flash of bright light or whoosh of wind, or whatever it was that Aldra's spell was suppose to do. Absolutely nothing had happened.

As Brook turned to look at his younger kin, his earlier expression morphing into something more akin to exasperation, Aldra wrinkled his face into a thoughtful frown, "Ahh.. well, shit. Did I say the word wrong? Maybe the somatics weren't quite right. Paramuta! Paromuta? Muto? Huh."

Brook let his head fall forward as he stared down at the sullied treats. "Maybe next time... we practice magic on leftover food?"

Aldra had now crossed his arms in front of him, "I figured the urgency of the situation would help the magic come about, you know?" He then shrugged and reached a still un-gloved hand for one of the ruined squares, removing it from the tray as a defeated Pembrook simply watched, "Ahh, don't worry. You've got, what, eighty of these things made? I only count like... two or three with hair in them. Buyer's not going to miss two or three." After plucking a strand of fur from the honey, Aldra popped the treat into his mouth, and grabbed a second square for Brook.

Brook stared for a second, before ultimately exhaling a frustrated chuckle and taking the pastry from his nephew. "We have to be honest with them." After removing two strands of hair from his portion, Brook likewise stuffed the honeyed treat into his mouth, "..b't... we d'n't 'ave to tell.. N'ma."

The two shared a surreptitious glance to the cellar door before Brook gave his nephew a shove to guide him away from the rest of the pastries and towards the sink and white-handled water pump that had been worn smooth over generations of use. When he tried to swallow his bite of food so that he could verbally implore his younger relative to clean up before their grandma returned, a strange sensation gave him pause. Almost like he couldn't quite close his mouth...

Unfortunately, because of his manoeuvring about, Nine was further away from Kaison than he would have liked. When Kaison tossed the spool of wire, the anthropomorphic fox tried to spin himself backwards and twist to catch it. He might have succeeded – ‘might’ being the operative word, since Nine was more used to tapping on keyboards than playing catch – had one of his mechanical tails not jerked in the opposite direction at the worst possible moment, throwing him off balance. The wire bounced off the tip of his gloved fingers and began its descent towards the floor.

Nine tunnel-visioned. He needed that wire.

It might have been safer for Kaison to chase the spool from the ground and try to toss it back up again, but Nine still wasn’t used to accepting help and might have missed a second catch again in any case. He poured his last spark of energy into his organic tails and shot down towards the ground with both hands outstretched, relying on speed. It would have worked for Sonic. It sort of worked for Nine. Most of his robotic tails flapped groggily, but one of them writhed and flipped over his head, bashing against the roof above the door frame. White plaster chipped and came raining down like snow on anyone who might have been unfortunate enough to be standing too close to the door.

That mishap aside, the gambit paid off. Nine’s fingers closed around the spool and he grabbed at the end of the wire thread as his knees hit the ground, reopening the cuts and scrapes. As quickly as he dared, he inserted the tip of the wire into a micro-pinhole on his belt. The lights on the tips of his mechanical tails instantly went dark, and all seven of them crashed to the floor and remained there, motionless.

Nine pitched forward, the last of his energy spent. He was unconscious before his head hit the floor. The wire fell from his hand and tumbled across the garage floor, unspooling as it went.

The male voice which had been talking about rings before spoke again, although not to answer any of Sonic’s questions. Sonic frowned, trying to make the words make sense in his still-dazed mind. ‘Trank’, like… like tranquiliser? Like that thing inside a knock-out gas bolt? If they’d hit him with one of those already, it would make sense that his brain felt as fluffy as a cloud. If the voice had decided to trank him again then there wouldn’t have been anything he could have done, but fortunately another voice decided against it. Sonic flicked his ears, trying to make sense of where the different voices were coming from and get clues about what kind of space he was in. There was no kind of echo, which suggested somewhere small and enclosed or somewhere soft. Or both, Sonic thought groggily, as he stared at the stitching in the black leather.

There were other noises too, beyond the vehicle. A rumbling sound, and a noise Sonic recognised from Eggman’s various contraptions: the whine of electricity. Bright spotlights periodically shone from above, making the leather gleam, before passing by and plunging them all into darkness again.

He wiggled again, trying to push himself onto his back so that he could get a different angle on what was going on. Unfortunately, he seemed to be wedged between two leather arms on the seats; between those and the cuffs, he was getting nowhere.

The woman’s voice followed on from the men’s, and this time someone was finally talking to him. She was asking questions of her own instead of answering his, but Sonic could take that as long as he wasn’t being ignored. He hated being ignored.

“That’s me.” They knew him in this shatterspace, then. Did that mean there was another Sonic here? The possibility made his head hurt even more. “He’s Nine, and he has nine tails. Don’t try and call him Tails though, he hates that. You said he was with me, like not with me now? Like, you guys didn’t get him? He’s out there?”

Sonic wasn’t one for shuttering away his emotions; hope and relief lifted the tone in his questions. Of course they didn’t get Nine. They’d get more than they bargained for if they messed with Sonic’s best buddy. And if Nine was out there, he was most likely putting his brainy fox brain to use trying to track down and rescue his friend.

If Nine were here, he would have used his brainy fox brain to tell Sonic to shut up so he could listen for the clues which would tell them more about where they were as the vehicle slowed to a stop. Unfortunately for Sonic, Nine was not here, and shutting up wasn’t exactly one of the hedgehog’s go-to moves.

“So you know me then? Or like another me?” He asked, hoping the female voice would answer him this time. “Is there another me here? And another Tails? You didn’t seem to know who he was though. Hey, can you sit me up? I can’t see anything. All this security is really unnecessary, you know. I don’t even know who you are, dudes, I’m not going to attack you or anything. Who even are you guys? Do you know Eggman? Are you related to Eggman? Ugh,” he groaned. “This isn’t going to be another one of those Eggman family reunions, is it? I’m so done with those.”

But, that's also one of two reasons why he'd brought Erathun.

"Hey kid, you good over there? I need ya!" He didn't try to stand just yet, not with the way his ankle and foot were throbbing, but he was noting some spots of concern on his gray-skinned friend. Though his keen night vision didn't come with the kind of color-enhanced visuals that Eltican dragons were gifted with, he could tell that Zhenn had shouldered at least one bullet; or was it two, or three? The troll's clothing was so eclectically colored and patterned, it was hard to tell in the dark. But he was breathing okayish, and that was a solid sign.

Erathun had just managed to shake himself free of the garage rubble, with a bit of help from Chloe's dexterous limbs. His breath was still coming in quick and heavy, and his mind spinning as it tried to make sense of all that had happened in such a short amount of time. At Keedle's request, he looked across to the little man with a touch of disbelief. How could the goblin be this level-headed and casual after just screaming his head off in pure terror a minute ago? How could Chloe be so calm? ...what was going to happen with three unconscious humans and a wrecked vehicle?

"Yo, Rath!" Keedle swiveled around from his seated position to look at the gawking dragon, "Zhenn needs a touch of magic."

Erathun started forward, his large paws sweeping slowly over the ground without much conscious prompting. His rattled mind had turned to the troll, where his heightened eyes could see the deep crimson of fresh blood that Keedle's eyes struggled to define, blossoming against a patch of orange and yellow fabric. A similar, smaller spot was welling up a few inches above that. Both in the chest, which wasn't an ideal spot. There were important organs there. Arteries. Possible bullets or fragments thereof.

Erathun felt his magic swell, but he didn't dare guide it forward yet. He wasn't training to be a healer like his sister. That was Maruui's goal to chase, not his. If he offered his magic in the wrong way, he could make things worse; trap dirt in a deep wound, force more cellular growth than the body could handle, shift a lodged bullet into a dangerous area...

As the young dragon quietly panicked over these things, Keedle was scooting himself back, moving towards the agents as Chloe circled back to the group, "You really came in clutch there, Chloe! Nice work grabbing these guys. I knew there was... ahh, wait. I recognize the gal, here. Not the two guys though... where's the taller fellow?"

-Zhenn'arh got to him before I could.- Chloe answered, without needing to elaborate. Keedle hadn't been able to snap the troll out of his frenzy before the shots were fired, and that very frenzy had bought the tusked powerhouse a few fleeting seconds of consciousness against the effects of the darts.

For a second time, Keedle's giant ears sagged down in visible dismay. Maybe the plan hadn't gone quite as well as he'd thought.

The dragon breathed out a deep, slow breath, feeling some semblance of control trickle back to him now that the cover of night was again on their side, and his true senses and body were back under his control. "...no." Their was a hitch to his word as adrenaline still surged through his veins, but at least Erathun was now certain he'd not gotten hit by any of those bullets, and other than some definite bruising and minor scrapes from the collapsed roof, his sturdy form had otherwise shrugged off any serious harm. And if he was hurt worse, the young Era was not about to admit that to Chloe.

He watched her step up, quickly and methodically scanning over the debris before honing in on the partially-crushed Honda. For a nearly eleven-ton creature, the alien's unsettling, six-legged scuttle brought her into the heart of the debris as sure-footedly as a spider traversing their own web, without causing any further collapse or major shift of broken wood or tile. Two stout hind limbs and a single forelimb braced the ground, finding voids in the wreckage where she could reach the solid cement below. The other three forelimbs took on the task of maneuvering the mangled car and the burden laying across it, slowly and carefully hoisting it up, while trying to prevent any further collapse, -Can you move?-

As one of the few other beings capable of understanding Chloe's speech without the use of a translator or her telepathy, Keedle had an instant-fire response to the big creature, "Aye, yeah, yeah! Just move it! Hurry!" He was still clawing at the cement, all thoughts of the agents and their mission in the rearview as the fear of getting crushed left little room for anything else.

The second the vehicle was lifted high enough, the goblin was tumbling forward under his own momentum, and being snatched up a second later in one of Chloe's large hands. In a whirl of movement, he was then deposited in the lawn next to Zhenn and James, while the alien turned to the task of helping Erathun extricate himself from the garage.

Keedle dropped heavily onto his back, panting hard to catch his breath as he stared up at the dark sky above, and wincingly gave his ankle an experimental roll. "Hakkar's hell, that.. got a little... dicey. Good job sticking... to the plan, boys. ...and girl. Ahhh, my ankle though." After just a few moments to descend from his short-lived panic, Keedle propped himself back up, looking to Zhenn'arh first, and then to James. "You guys okay? Guys?!" Neither were moving.

-I knocked James out, for his safety. The agents too.- Chloe's twittered response drew a look of surprise from Keedle. It was only then that the goblin became aware of the three agents laying neatly in a row a few yards away. Disheveled and dirt-covered, but somehow alive.

Inside, a stuffy and very brief silence had fallen over the agents after being chided by the driver. It wasn't until 'that thing' suddenly spoke and began to squirm around that conversation picked up again, first by the EMP man, "Ahh, shit." Having seen first hand what Sonic was capable of, he glanced to the man sitting across from him, "Should we tranq him again?"

"No..." Answered the other fellow, a shorter man who'd only stepped out at the Visitors Center after Sonic had been knocked out, and Nine had fled. "Those cuffs will hold."

The woman was twisting around in her seat to look back at the hedgehog, while the EMP man was trying not to squirm himself, now that their captive had woken up. "Your name is Sonic, right?" She asked, ignoring a look from the driver, as well as Sonic's first requests. "Nine; is that the one that was with you? The one with all the tails?"

While the hedgehog was left hopelessly pinned, the SUV was coming to its final stop in the deep depths of the tunnel. With a lurch, the vehicle was shifted into park, and the driver stepped out. Somewhere beyond Sonic's vision, the deep, resonating hum of machinery sounded, followed by the hiss of hydraulics. The glow of brighter light hit the side of the car as a pair of metal doors opened to a smaller hallway. And inside this hallway was a crew of scientists ready and waiting with a rolling metal table.

The only thing Sonic might be aware of was the way the wheels of the table clattered over the threshold of the sophisticated doorway, then thumped into the tunnel, moving towards the SUV. There was a soft chatter of voices too, but they were much quieter than that of the woman currently interrogating the hedgehog.

Above it all, the little engineer's cries pierced the bedlam, "Holy mackerels, Rath!" His voice had climbed to its highest setting, sputtered out between coughs as dust and smoke invaded the half-demolished garage. "S-stop moving! You're gonna crush me!" Keedle had turned his claws against the floor, scrabbling desperately to pull himself forward after two blown tires had dropped the chassis down and nearly pancaked him beneath it, as the honda itself now bore the weight of fallen structural beams and roofing. Claw and scrape as he might though, the goblin only succeeded in breaking the pointed tips of his sturdy fingernails. One foot was trapped firmly between cement and metal. "I-I'm stuck! I'm stuck!"

Erathun had held back on the bellow that wanted to escape his maw as so much of the building crumbled on top of him. Splintered bits of wood bit into his hide, while a heavy beam slammed across his neck and the front edge of one hunched wing. A harsh hiss slipped past bared fangs and he started to squirm back and flex his shoulders, torn between wanting to rid himself of the heavy debris, while also being cognizant of the very tiny man buried somewhere below it all. "...where are you?" He rasped out, blinking irritants from large eyes that suddenly saw the darkened landscape with new clarity and deeper hues, "I..." A section of roof tiles clattered down from the top of his head as he swung his dial upward, trying to pinpoint Keedle, and get a glimpse of what was happening outside. The dragon winced, and his stomach knotted further, "-I can't see you. If I move.. things are going to fall, I can't..." 'I don't know what to do!'

-Stay calm.-

It took Erathun a second or two to recognize this voice. He rarely interacted with the nocturnal Chloe, and thanks to his innate magics, was one of the very few who could understand her native speech.

-Give me a moment, I'll come to you.- The voice warbled out again, and now he saw, through half-squinted and watering eyes, a flurry of movement from a now silent sinkhole. The SUV had either fallen or been pulled into the depths of the earth, as Erathun could no longer see it. But he did see the six-legged alien emerge at last, nimbly extricating herself from the trap with a stretch and scrabble of her long, curiously jointed limbs. Shuttling quickly back and forth, he watched her extract Zhenn'arh and James, setting each along the ground before diving back into the hole. Three humans followed, each laid out on in the dewy grass.

Were they dead?! The startling thought crossed Erathun's mind, as none of the five were moving. Wait, no - he could see the movement of chests rising and falling. They were alive, just... passed out? The young dragon didn't have much attention to spare as Keedle's voice pierced the darkness again, and Chloe came surging in their direction.

Kaison had still been listening for any changes outside, remaining on high alert for any sign of UECH encroachment, when Nine's behavior took a dramatic shift. The rapid-fire 'No's' had been the first warning, and as Kaison turned a scrunch-browed expression back to the anthro-fox, the tails that had initially warranted his high suspicion now rose up in a myriad of frightening actions.

A single, defiant blow from just two of these tails was enough to crack the cement of the garage. That gave Kaison an idea of how much force and durability these metal appendages were capable of, but it wasn't these tails that he was focused on, nor was it the pair that were currently hurling tools into the wood paneling of the nearby wall. It was the one that was now pointed at him that had the man's full attention.

"Hey!" He snarled out, with his newly darkened eyes wide and intense, "What the hell is this?!" Kaison's stance dropped, his knees bending into a readied crouch. A hand went for the waistband button of his jeans as he watched the end of the pointed tail light up and begin to rotate ominously. With his boots already shed, the restrictive denim was the only thing physically stopping him from taking his innate powers further.

Black and silver eyes darted towards the door, where he heard Maruui's voice shouting in innocent concern from her position in the basement. He looked back to Nine, whose organic tails were beginning to rotate. If Kaison hadn't already clocked the fox's distress, or if Maruui stepped through the door...

-I can shut them down!-

This, and Nine's request for help ultimately stalled Kaison from launching into a defensive strike. That card was still very much on the table, but at least the man lowered his hand away from the front of his jeans and stepped with almost feline-like grace to a tall, metal shelving unit at the far end of the work bench. He was so engrossed with watching the hysterics of the metal appendages that his mind didn't have time to muse over the way Nine was now levitating himself under the rotating power of true tails. He spared the metal shelving the briefest of glances before grabbing a spool of thin wire - the closest he could get to a paper clip - and tossed this in Nine's direction.

"Get it done!" The sharpness of his words and dropped some, but there was a clear tone of threat levied in there, backed by the way his posture still rested in a slightly hunched, ready-for-action stance.

"Kaisey? What's all that noise?" The child's voice again drifted through the door, sounding louder and a little more clear than before. It was followed by the rapid patter of feet up a case of wooden steps...

He opened his eyes, but everything was still dark. It took a bit of blinking and focusing before Sonic realised that he was looking at shiny black fabric with just a fine line of black stitching running vertically to help identify it. Leather? The ground beneath him was rumbling as though he was in transit. Like on the mothership maybe? Had he been captured by the Chaos Council again? No – he was back in Green Hill, wasn’t he?

Whatever he was in jerked as they hit some turbulence, and Sonic became aware of a female voice saying something about water. A vision of a wine-dark lake shooting towards him pushed its way to the front of his brain, followed swiftly by a tumble of new memories. He wasn’t in Green Hill, he’d come through the Void with Nine to… somewhere. Somewhere where they weren’t a fan of non-humans, Nine had said. Sonic wiggled his shoulders slowly, starting to get some feeling back into his arms – which were twisted behind his back and restrained by cool metal – while a male voice he didn’t recognise started talking about rings. This felt like a good situation for some rings, but unfortunately for Sonic, the male voice was correct to say he didn’t have any. The Void had come so suddenly he hadn’t thought to try and ring up before running right at it.

His legs were restrained too. Having regained feeling and awareness, Sonic glanced downwards. Huge metal cuffs were clamped around his legs and a twine of thin, green-yellow rope had been wound around his torso so he couldn’t even flap his elbows. The only thing he could move was his head. Well, and his mouth.

“‘That thing’?” He grumbled. “I’m a hedgehog, dudes.”

It was really hard to see much other than the sheet of leather his head had been shoved into. Sonic wiggled like a worm, trying to get a better look at what was lying next to him. It was also black, but a different kind of matte fabric, and curved around something roughly cylindrical in shape. A leg? Was there an Eggman sat next to him?

“Hey, what’s up with the cuffs?” He asked, trying to wiggle further down so that he could see the possible Eggman better. “Can you sit me up? I can’t see anything. Also, who are you guys? Where’s Nine?” A shot of panic washed away any remaining grogginess and he raised his voice. “Nine! Nine! Where’s Nine?”

(No wonder he was tired.)

But just because he had seen a lot, that didn’t mean nothing could faze him anymore. The hairs pricked on the back of his neck and a jolt of electricity ran up his spine as the human, who had seemed apparently normal a moment before, underwent a transformation of his own. Shadows seeped across the whites, stopping short of gleaming silver irises. Nine watched them with hypervigilance, his own eyes narrowed. If this was the precursor to an attack, he had no defence. His tails were out of commission and his energy and mind were spent.

No attack came, but Nine’s expression remained guarded as the man spoke again. Even in his state of exhaustion, he filed away information to follow up on later. UECH. Anomalies. If he could get at another computer, primitive as they were, he would still be able to –

Kaison finished his sentence in a lower rumble, and his words took a second for Nine to process. The precise moment he did process them was clearly visible on his face. His blue eyes widened, his jack slackened and his mouth downturned cartoonishly in an appropriately horrified expression as the truth of what had happened, what would happen, what he’d done, sank in.

“No.” Nine growled through gritted teeth, not hearing the exchange between Kaison and Maruui or what Kaison said next. “No. No. No.”

He shivered as though an ice bucket had been poured over his head. His hands and feet felt numb. He didn’t immediately feel it when his mechanical tails began twitching, sparking and writhing with more electricity than before. He did, however, feel it when they started going completely beserk. Two tails reached up to snatch at random items on the workbench behind him; two more slammed into the ground with such force that it cracked the flooring, pushing him up onto his feet; two flapped around like flags in the wind; and the final one pointed at Kaison, lit up and began to spin its end piece menacingly.

“What – ?” Nine started to say, but yelped as one of the tails embedded into the floor pulled itself up and to the left to grab at something he couldn’t see, since the sudden movement had made him lurch sideways.

The two tails which had grabbed items off the workbench threw them at a wall and started reaching for new things to snatch up. This was ludicrous. Nine’s tails had never been this out of control before, not even when he was initially testing them. This needed to stop. Now.

Nine’s gloved hands curled into fists and his forehead creased as he concentrated. His organic tails spun – slowly at first, and then within enough speed to lift him off the ground. He manoeuvred himself carefully to be equidistant between the floor and the ceiling and away from the walls, so his robotic tails were out of reach of anything they could grab at. They sparked and flapped and spun angrily, stretching towards items beyond their grasp. Nine had to strain and fight to hold his position while the tails tried to drag him in every direction.

“I can shut them down!” He yelled down at Kaison. “Throw me a paperclip!”

Their safest bet was to keep quiet, conduct their experiments quickly, and hope the public simply didn't found out before they disposed of the alien.

And so, after a few moments of discussion, the massive steel gates were opened, and the vehicle rolled forward into the cliff-side tunnel. It was at this point that their captive may or may not be waking up from the double-whammy of sedatives and paralyzing electricity. If he did, Sonic might eventually notice that his legs were tightly hobbled by a pair of titanium-alloy shackles that seemed absurdly large for his small legs, yet left no room to wiggle his feet free from. His arms, likewise, were pulled sharply back and manacled by the same sturdy brand of metal. For good measure, a length of nylon rope had been wrapped around around his arms and midsection too, as the agents had improvised on the scene. Having then been laid on his side and wedged in between the rear passenger seats of the vehicle, there wasn't much room for the hedgehog to move.

"..says here, he's afraid of water?" This was from the woman who'd leapt out of the SUV and took part in firing the electro-darts. With a flip of her thumb, she scrolled through a few more articles of information on her phone, then looked back over her shoulder from the front passenger seat.

The man who's EMP gun had been obliterated, and who was sitting in one of the seats next to Sonic, was also scrolling through his phone, "Where'd you find that? All I found was the ring thing. And we didn't find any rings on him."

"You're all thinking too hard about it." The third voice came from the driver, "The scientists will figure it out. We don't know what kind of universe it came from." The EMP man glanced to the woman, who gave a shrug of her brows. Before either could say anything, and before the third man who sat in the seat on Sonic's opposite side could interject, the driver spoke again with strained patience, "Put your phones down and keep an eye on it. If that thing gets lose before we get it in containment, Raimond will have your heads."

In the garage, Keedle was frantically dragging himself beneath the honda, wedging his small form under the partially collapsed vehicle as all hell broke loose a few yards behind him. "R-rath, now's the time to shed skin!" He rattled out between clattering teeth, "Get outside, through the side door! I'll c-cover ya!" And despite having ducked immediately for cover, the goblin was reaching back with one hand to dig into one of his many jacket pockets, while the other arm was being used to actively pull him in an crawl across the ground until he was partially shielded behind a tire.

Erathun felt his head swim as his hands and knees struck the cement, while the sting of his earlier scrape was well beyond sensation now. He'd flinched dramatically at the gunfire, and vaguely recalled hitting his head against the side of the car when the lights went fully out. He'd just gotten behind the honda when Keedle started shouting at him again. The goblin's voice barely registered above the pounding in his ears and the panicked, ragged breaths he was drawing in as fear engulfed him.

-R-rath, now's the time...!- Erathun hadn't caught all of what the little man was saying, but he heard enough. If only the terror of self preservation hadn't been so intense, the young dragon might have stopped to consider the confines of where he was, or what Keedle was rattling on about. But with bullets flying, and his own predatory senses screaming at him about a lurking danger beneath, Erathun acted on pure instinct. He didn't bother shedding his human clothes, and instead let them fray and burst apart under the sudden expanse of mass as he dropped his human guise and let his natural form break free. In a matter of seconds, fifty-one feet and several tons of green scale and dense muscle unfurled in the confines of the single-story garage, with golden wings buffeting the thick cloud of gray from the smoke bomb Keedle had deployed...

The smoke shield mattered little anyway, as the front end of the SUV, along with the four that had been near it before the lights cut out, had dropped downward into the earth as the ground gave way beneath them...

"Article three of the Alien Hostility Mitigation Act requires all threats from non-aliens to be reported immediately to local and state authority." The tall fellow didn't miss a beat in reciting this bit of legislation, countering Keedle's gutsy stubbornness with a frustratingly calm, knowing tone. As the goblin's little talons were piercing the fabric of the backpack's handle, the agent looked blatantly in Zhenn'arh's direction, "Article seven defers to the use of lethal force when-"

"Hey, hey!" Keedle snapped, waving a hand in the fellow's direction as his temper frayed and he caught on to what the man might be attempting, "Ain't no reason to be bringing up your fancy laws and legal bullshit. This deal's under the rug, you and I both know that. Zhenny, ignore this creep! Look-" The words came a little more quickly now, but were clear and deliberate as he glared between the man and the prawn that was still shaking against the dirt and gravel, "-I'll meet you halfway, and open the bag so you can see I got the goods. Zhenny here will grab James, and you'll bring Friend out, k'?"

Without giving the man time to properly answer him, Keedle reached a sweaty palm for the front zipper of the backpack and pulled it open. A number of folders were illuminated by the headlights as the flap fell downward, exposing the contents within. Though unlabeled, it was clear the folders were filled with paper, and the goblin took the extra step of pulling a handful of these sheets out to wave above his head, "See? Got your schematics right here. Now Zhenn, you grab James so the kid can take a look at him. ..Zhenn?"

Keedle glanced back, and then upwards at the forest troll that was towering over him. Even with the fellow's eyes narrowed against the blinding light, Keedle could see just how deeply flushed they had become. The sclera weren't just blushed pink, they were quickly deepening to a crimson hue. The goblin's ears reflexively flattened back for a second or two, much like a cat that found themselves unexpectedly before a coyote.

"We only brought the adult." The agent answered back at length, collected and unphased as he watched the little man's control begin to collapse. He'd moved his hand deliberately to the holster at his side, his focus now rapt on Zhenn'arh. "Considering how dangerous it was, I couldn't negotiate a release. Not even for those papers."

The reality of the situation began to dawn on Keedle all at once. The agent wasn't even looking at the backpack or the papers that were being held up. His fingers were curling blatantly around the gun at his side, all while James kicked and floundered just a few yards beyond their reach. "Rath, move back." He murmured sharply, then reached back to slap a hand against Zhenn's leg, desperately trying to jolt the troll out of his growing frenzy before it was too late, "Zhenn, I need you to snap the hell out of it! Now's not the time to spiral." To the agent, his rapid-fire speech came pitched with bitter venom, "I shoulda known you creeps would try to pull a fast one on me. Well I got news for you, you're little ploy's not gonna work. You're gonna get back in your car, get Friend, and we'll start this deal fresh, got it?" He was keenly aware of Erathun's feet scuffling slowly backwards behind him, while Zhenn'arh hadn't budged an inch. Sweat collected across his temples, "And you're gonna get your hands off those guns, before you provoke something none of us can stop."

In his ongoing struggles, James made a sudden, sharp squeal of noise and twisted on the ground, as if being attacked. Zhenn'arh's muscled tightened, and his weight shifted subtly forward. The movement was slight, and he didn't offer so much as a growl of sound or threatening word to go with it, but he didn't need to. That faint shift in position was all the agents needed to seize on the moment they'd been trying to tease forward from the beginning. An electro-dart was fired, right alongside that of a pistol round. Keedle flung himself backwards with a yelp, diving first behind the backpack, then scrambling for the dusty honda civic. Erathun had already been slowly stepping back, and dove right along side the goblin, while the troll burst forward...

The lights flickered suddenly around them, and then dimmed and fell into darkness. As a second round of shots followed the first in rapid succession, the ground seemed to quake, and a now silence drone dropped like dead weight from the sky...

Keedle's plan might have been thwarted, but the goblin always had a contingency plan for his contingency plans.

Some cursed him, some begged, some wept. Others were too feral to even comprehend their predicament. He'd never stopped to listen though. Raimond couldn't afford to, not when the fate of humanity itself depended on his work. And not when his own life continued to hang in the balance, now no closer to a cure than it had been years ago when they'd first captured the girl. He merely kept his chin up, and his feet moving, despite how very heavy they felt toda.

This would have been the end of the shifter's story, just another lost soul quietly snuffed out to make room for a new subject. For better or worse though, Brent still saw a value in the girl that Todd did not, and his mind swam with both questions and possibilities as he stared down at the frail creature before him. She had nodded, and the corner of his mouth twitched, as if attempting and then abandoning a smile. "Good."

Carissa idly shuffled a handful of glass tubes on her cart, her attention more for Brent than it was for her work. It seemed this equipment wouldn't be needed after all, much to the woman's disappointment. "So... what exactly do you want me to do?"

Cold blue eyes lifted to the small woman, "Sanitize the room, then take the day off. I'll handle the paper work and lab reports." The tone he used was no different than if he were instructing Carissa on a routine order, but there was an unspoken threat levied in there that needed no harsh words or scowling expression.

Like Taru, Carissa nodded her understanding. "Alright, no questions." Vaguely flippant response aside, the lab tech set down the vials and moved to unlock Taru's cell.

Brent took a single step back, now looking down at the shifter he towered above, "You're going to walk quietly with me, head down." A broad hand reached in through the opened door, and landed firmly for the girl's thin shoulder, "No fuss, no talking to anyone. Say a word, and you'll be sent to the Galeswood Facility. Where the real monsters are kept." Fingers curled against flesh now, applying a less than gentle grip as he aimed to pull Taru from her confinement, and to his side.

Luckily her stream of thoughts were cut off with the sound of metal wheels on tile flooring. A flicker of movement in her eyes as she glanced out of the corner to see the main assistant join Raimond along with the other scientist that had lead many of her experiments. They were probably about to discuss something new. At least, that's what she originally thought until. "...euthanasia." Even in her weakened state, with her mind nearly broken and muscles barely wanting to move, that word made her eyes blow up as big as marbles. She knew what that meant. Even with how young she had been when she was transfered to this world, the shifter had experience with having to put a pet to sleep. Like prey hearing a twig snap in the dark of night, her head lifted and snapped towards the conversation. 'They....They can't be talking about... They wouldn't... They...'

The conversation was quick and, within only a few seconds of her mind flipping through stages of disbelief, Raimond was making the motions to leave. Panic set in and energy suddenly found its way to her thinly muscled limbs as Taru stumbled over her own feet to rush to the bars and exclaim after the man who was the subject of her torture. "W-Wait!!" Voice hoarse from less use, hazel eyes frantically looked towards the man. "Eutha-Euthanasia?! B-But I can help! Y-You can use me, I-I swear!! I-I-I... I-I'll listen, I pr-promise, PLEASE!!" With each word came the tightness in her throat and the feeling of tears in her eyes. Yet, as is so important to his job, the lead scientist didn't spare her a single glance. He had probably done this hundreds of times before. What made her any different? Her forehead pressed against the bars, and she clenched her teeth as she resisted the urge to cry. 'All of this... everything they did... I don't... I don't want to die... Not after all this...'

Through her mental spiral, a voice rung, cold as ice but demanding of her attention from years of being under his proverbial telescope. Her breath hitched as she froze her sniffling mess of a break down to process what he was saying. Fresh from high emotions and still running on the dread she was feeling, the words took a second to translate. Suddenly, her brain stopped its frantic search for a nearly impossible way out and, with a look of both defeat and a sliver of gratefulness, grasped at the opportunity of hope that was served to them like scrap to a starving dog. Without a word, Taru gave a slow nod, head not lifting from the bars that were practically supporting her, now both physically and mentally exhausted, body.