~3: Bounty~

"Alright, squad," River spoke up in the early hours of morning. "Authorities in the city have been warning of a dangerous bounty hunter for months. He works alone and has never failed any of his missions. Anyone captured by him has yet to be found again, and anything stolen has no chance of being returned."

"Let me guess, we're gonna capture this guy for the authorities?" Thorn guessed. "They've probably hired him to come for us."

"We're mercenaries for hire, Thorn," River reminded him. "We've been hired because the authorities don't believe they can catch this guy lawfully. We've not been promised safety, but we've been promised a decent amount of money – enough to keep us stable for months. We've just gotta hope that Jackal Squad don't swoop in again."

"Then let's get this bounty hunter," said Rock, his beige ears twitching. "It's only one guy, right? And there's twelve of us."

"Not all of us are the best fighters," Crimson reminded with venom. "Strength doesn't come in numbers, Rock."

"Those jackals already proved that," Thorn added, rolling his eyes while he stood with his arms folded.

"We'll be fine," River assured firmly. "Twelve foxes against one bounty hunter is different compared to twelve foxes against seven jackal mercenaries."

"We should trap him!" suggested Scrub the orange-coloured kit fox. "While we're not all the best fighters, many of us are pretty handy. Some of us should focus on setting up a trap while the others should focus on luring the bounty hunter into the trap."

"Good idea, Scrub," River acknowledged, nodding his head proudly. "Alright, the squad will split up into to teams." River then looked towards Blizzard. "Blizzard, I want you to lead the attacking group."

Blizzard was slightly surprised that River was putting him in charge of the attack group, since the Tibetan sand fox was almost always the one to lead such a unit. Still, Blizzard nodded his head once to show that he was accepting the command.

"Sandy, Cliff, Scrub, Nippy, Dune; you guys are with me," River continued. "That means the rest of you are with Blizzard."

"This'll be fun," spoke Mini the cape fox as she made sure her brown jacket was zipped up. "So, what does our target look like?"

"He's a silver fox," River described, "and his name is Mercury."

"Anything else?" asked Thorn. "I don't wanna jump down on some respected silver fox in the city, I wanna make sure we get the right one immediately."

"He's got a strip of white hair going down his head and he's got red eyes," River further described. "Tuft of white fur on his head, mostly seen wearing a belt along with black gloves, black boots and a black fedora or something. You guys will know him when you see him."

"So, a suspicious looking grey fox," commented Rock thoughtfully. "There can't be too many of those around."

"My team should split up," Blizzard suggested. "We'll stay within close range of each other so that we can all meet up at a certain point if necessary. It'll make searching much faster."

"I like your thinking, Blizzard," River replied. "My team will work together to set up the trap, but it would definitely be more appropriate for your team to split."

"Then let's do this," Blizzard finalized. "Let's catch this fox and get our reward."

"Let's hope that this time we don't get interrupted by those jackals," Thorn chuckled, folding his arms. "I'm not in the mood to lose to them again."

"None of us are," River told him. "Alright, Fox Squad. Let's get out there and start setting up this trap. We'll keep in contact with one another using walkie-talkies. Remember to track the target once he's been spotted, and keep everyone up-to-date on his whereabouts."

"He won't know what hit him," Rock grinned, cracking his knuckles. He was ready to take down this bounty hunter. The task had to be done quickly to make sure that Jackal Squad didn't beat them to the bounty.

…

"So, uh, I really like your basement," spoke the silver hedgebot which was now locked beneath Rang's house, accompanied by the jackals. "Any idea how long I'll be staying here?"

"This thing talks a lot," Striker noticed as he observed the machine. "I've never seen anything like it."

"I mean, it's kinda like a little hedgehog," Barrett added, scratching just beneath his red hat. "It's acting just like a kid. You don't suppose the doctor has gone back to using roboticization technology again, do you?"

"It's possible," Blank added, folding his arms. "Maybe he roboticized a kid who kept his consciousness."

"Nope," the badnik revealed. "I've always been a robot."

"Does it have a name?" asked Anubis as he sat sharpening his throwing knives. Striker, Barrett and Blank all stared at the robotic hedgehog, expecting an answer. It noticed this and drooped its mechanical ears.

"Pressuring me to answer, huh?" he murmured. The jackals nodded, prompting the robot to sigh. "Alright, alright. My name's Metal Sniper."

"Metal Sniper, hm?" Striker grinned. "I'm guessing you specialize in shooting targets from long distances?"

"Didn't seem too good at that," Null interjected. "And why would a sniper robot be so… loud and obnoxious?"

"Yeah," Barrett agreed. "He didn't shut up for the whole walk here."

"He did have silent footsteps," Blank noted. "I definitely picked up on that while he was moving about, and when he was walking with us."

"Something tells me that he's probably a defective model," Anubis assumed, sheathing his knife as he approached the hedgebot. He watched as Sniper's mechanical ears drooped. "The old doctor has never appreciated having robots with personality and free will. This one must be defective, so maybe the doctor doesn't even want it back."

"Even so, it's still advanced," Blank reminded his associate. "Maybe the doctor was working on perfecting it before it escaped."

"Hello, I'm right here," Sniper huffed. "You can just ask me, y'know."

"You don't seem to be the cooperative type," Null hissed.

"You're right about that," Sniper smirked.

"Enough of this nonsense," Zero spoke up, stepping forward. The other jackals moved aside to allow their leader to loom over the hedgebot, who now definitely appeared to be fearful. The scar-faced jackal glared and pointed his red sword, placing the tip directly onto the golden lightning bolt marked on Sniper's metallic chest, then slowly walking so that he backed the robot against the wall. "No matter how much personality a machine seems to have, words do nothing," he continued. "It's actions that really get their response."

"U-Uh… th-that's not necessarily true," Sniper stuttered, eyeing the sword cautiously. "Most robots, um… respond to d-d-direct commands…"

"Then you're clearly not like most robots," Zero deduced, then glancing back towards Striker. "Go and inform Rang that we'll be borrowing his household electricity." A somewhat hesitant nod came from Striker as he then jogged upstairs into the main house, searching for Rang to pass on the message from Zero. The jackal squad leader then looked towards Anubis and Kali. "Kali. Anubis. Secure him to a chair or something."

Kali moved from where she was standing, distant from the rest, and approached Sniper with Anubis at her side. Zero backed off and seemed to search for something else while they dealt with the piece of Eggman technology.

"H-Hey, c'mon, I've already got the collar!" Sniper complained as the two jackals grabbed him.

Zero turned to Blank while plugging a cable into one of the wall sockets. "Tell me how much voltage that collar you invented can take until it fries," he commanded. Blank was almost surprised by such a question, knowing the path his leader was going down, but gave an answer rather than choosing to ask questions.

"I'd say it can take… maybe eight hundred volts?" he estimated, shrugging his shoulders to indicate that he didn't know the exact number.

"I'm sure seven hundred volts will be enough to get this robot talking without damaging his internal parts," Zero theorized. "Once we know enough, we'll see who we can sell him to." The jackal looked towards Sniper, who stared back at him with a look of pure terror. It didn't make him feel much better when Zero approached with the other end of the cable.

…

Blizzard and the other foxes in his team sat together on the outskirts of the city, hiding behind a large rock. "Listen," he began. "Mercury was last seen in the forest just south of here. River's group is already there setting up a trap, so once one of us tracks Mercury down, we've gotta lure him towards the ambush. The rest of us will also gather there in case he puts up a fight the others can't handle."

"They have River," Silk pointed out. "They'll be alright; it's only one guy, after all."

"We need confidence, but we shouldn't get cocky," Blizzard warned her. "We need the confidence that we can take this guy down with ease. Believing that we don't need to help River's team is taking it too far, though." The arctic fox stood up to his full height, leading the others to do the same. "Alright, squad. Let's head south and split up before we get into the forest." The other foxes nodded, and together they sprinted further away from the city.

…

Elsewhere in the woods, River sat up high on a tree branch with the other members of his group nearby. Silence was key; if Mercury was near these parts then they couldn't risk blowing their cover, or else the trap could ultimately fail.

Nobody spoke. Nobody made a sound.

But they were discovered.

A lasso was wrapped around Sandy, pulling the fennec fox down from the tree before he could even react to the situation.

"Sandy!" Cliff reacted, taking off his headphones so that he could listen to the nearby surroundings, but he found himself being knocked down when a rock hit him in the back.

River knew something wasn't right, so immediately jumped down to see who was attacking, but nobody was there.

"River!" Nippy cried out. "Get out of the way! It's Mercury!"

The young swift fox was right. Now standing upon one of the branches was Mercury the silver fox, and his signature black hat was on his head. He kicked Dune and Scrub down before throwing another rock at Nippy, and once all foxes were on the ground, he cut the rope which they had been guarding. A large weighted net dropped down onto the group, and that was when Mercury finally returned to ground level, approaching the squirming mass of foxes.

"Hmph," he reacted to the sight, sounding almost disappointed. "I thought Fox Squad would be more of a challenge for me, but I suppose you're only the lesser members." His red eyes narrowed as he stared at River. "Except you. Aren't you River, the leader of the entire squad?" A cold chuckle left his mouth. "How pathetic. Your age must really be getting to you now, if you can be outsmarted by one person."

"Darn it…" River cursed under his breath, seeing as Mercury smirked a little.

"Well, it looks like you guys worked real hard on that net," the bounty hunter noted. "You won't be going anywhere anytime soon, so I'm gonna go round up the rest of the squad. I know some guys who will pay handsomely for the lot of you." With that said, Mercury darted away to track down the other half of Fox Squad.

"Well, this isn't good…" Sandy commented, his large ears drooping.

"It sure ain't," Cliff agreed, sighing heavily, then looking towards River. "Any ideas, boss?"

"The others are all going solo," River recalled. "We need to warn them of the situation. You should be the one to contact them, Cliff."

"Right," Cliff agreed, putting his headphones on as he managed to get into contact with all walkie-talkies connected to his own.

"Fox Squad, this is Cliff," he said, heard by all. "There's a situation on our end which has changed the plan greatly. Mercury has trapped us all in our own net, and he's coming after you all one by one. Be on your guard. Don't let him take you all out. Group up if you can, and then take him out when he makes his approach."

…

Blizzard received the message from Cliff, as did everyone else, so he was quick to use his own walkie-talkie to communicate with his team. "Right, squad, you heard the news," he began. "Our trap's out, and Mercury is likely to already be hot on our tails. If he took out that whole group, it might not be best for us to try grouping up. Some of us might not even make it without being found by our target. Thorn, I want you to go back and free the others. The rest of us will continue to search alone, and once one of us encounters Mercury, we'll switch on our walkie-talkie to allow others to track us down. Is that understood?"

"Yes," each member of Blizzard's team answered.

"Good," Blizzard ended, then continuing on with his own search for Mercury. His ears were as pointed as they could be, and he was making sure to listen out for any out-of-place sounds.

…

Rang's lightbulbs flickered as he sat in his living room, with Striker stood not far away from him. The jackal was scratching his own head as he listened to the muted yelling coming from the basement.

"Tell Zero he's gonna be paying for this month's electricity," Rang growled, not seeming too comfortable with what was going on beneath his feet.

"I don't think he'd agree to do that," Striker shrugged. "He pays you by keeping you safe, remember? And sometimes he pays you some money if we get plenty of it on one job."

"He's wasting my electricity on some robot which really shouldn't be in my house," Rang reminded. "It's one thing to have a group of mercenaries under my roof, but harbouring one of Eggman's robots is a whole other story in itself."

"We won't be keeping it here for too long," Striker assured with a smile, scratching his scarred nose. "Once we know enough about it, we'll either be selling it to whoever we can find or we'll even try getting some money from the doctor himself."

"Sounds dangerous," Rang murmured. "I've heard that Eggman doesn't play nice."

"Neither do we," Striker grinned as the yelling from the basement continued. Rang could see that the jackal was right.

~End of Chapter~