Advanced Writing

Feb 21, 2005

Christina Roberts

DREAMING CHAOTIX

I was hired, along with my team, to find a young woman named Maria Robotnik. She was the granddaughter of the infamous Professor Gerald Robotnik and cousin to our client, Eggman Ivo Robotnik. My two team members are Vector and Charmy. I'm Espio. Together, we make the famous detective team called Team Chaotix. Vector is an alligator who spends his time either eating, sleeping, or listening to music. He's the team leader so Charmy and I leave it up to him to pay our rent and bills for our suite. Charmy is a bee, age six, with a high-pitched, annoying voice. He's more of a mascot for the team but we keep him on for his ability to fly and track clues come in handy. I'm a chameleon with violet skin. On my head is a horn; my tail curls at the end and I have a nifty ability to blend into my surroundings so the enemy can't detect me.

Our client already wants reports from us, but we've just started. He's a strange, ostentatious man if one would call him that. People fear him because he's known as a world schemer, but I don't really care. All of his world domination plots are always ruined by a certain blue hedgehog named Sonic and his gang of carefree friends. The last time we worked for Eggman, he didn't pay us and so now I don't trust the ugly dictator. Vector insists we work though.

No one really knows what happened to her, but, from the obvious wreck, I'd say she was dragged from the room and taken hostage.

We were searching through Maria's bedroom, now trashed, as if someone had pitched a fit and destroyed the whole room. All sorts of random trinkets and items were scattered everywhere: hair pins, clothes, broken ceramics, keep sakes-even some fruits she had been eating!

I was kicking some random trash aside when Vector spoke up from the left corner of the room, "What do oranges and lemons have in common?" He chuckled slightly at my open annoyance, holding up a half-eaten orange and a lemon; both were rotting. "They both taste nasty!" Neither Charmy nor I laughed so he chucked the food and turned his back to me.

"I have a bad feeling about this case," I said, staring at one of those miniature fold frames that contain two photos when you open it up, "Eggman is too intelligent to have to rely on us to find Maria for him. If he can create hundreds of carrier-sized ships for an air Egg Fleet, he can certainly stretch his resources to find one girl."

"Who cares?" was Vector's reply, "Besides, how else are we going to pay the rent? Remember our policy: we never turn down work that pays!"

"But remember last time!" Charmy wined, "Eggman didn't pay!" The bee had a queen of hearts solitaire card in his left hand and a chess piece-a queen-in his right. I glared at him as he hovered above us then kicked some more items around the room.

"He's a bad man-rotten!"

Looking at the clues in the room, it suddenly hit me like a weight, "This isn't really a case." I held a wilting rose in my palm and turned towards my team mates, "We're fools to be taking up this case, unquestioning Eggman's true motives. We're better than this: Team Chaotix is a professional detective agency hired to help the innocent and solve crimes." But my words bounced off the blood-stained walls. Blood. Maria's blood.

"What are you three doing in my room?" A soft voice shocked us all and I jumped, twirling around to face the imposter, but backed a pace. "Mother never tells me when she has visitors over!"

"Ma-Maria? I gasped, "Why are you here?"

"Umm… I was taking a vacation with my friends for a few weeks in Japan. Espio, why are you all here?"

"We… Eggman hired us because he thought you had been kidnapped."

"No! Not at all!" She stepped away from the open door, trying to contain laughter and shock at the same time. I couldn't make so light of the situation. We had been abominably used by that fat old fart and my temper was rising faster than a volcanic eruption. I noticed Vector's fist was shaking and Charmy's wings were buzzing violently.

Maria overlooked her room, cheeks darkening, and then down at us again. I bashfully took up the responsibility of justifying our cause, and so said, with as much dignity as I could, "What about the blood on the walls and cut carpet-and this mess? It looks like someone came in here and wrecked havoc."

"That's not blood on the walls! It's dried paint. I had started painting my room red when Melly about going to the store to but some snacks for our trip and when I came back, I couldn't finish painting because I had to pack and leave. The carpet has been slashed like that for a long time. I was cutting boxes on the floor a few years ago with one of those huge butcher-like knives and I accidentally cut it. As for this mess: it's been like this since I left! I couldn't find the items I needed on the trip and well… panicked… and so I tore my room apart looking for the things I needed."

"Oh… I see." The only thing I could see was gold buttons, British regimentals, long, shining, black boots, and a mustached figure wearing them. I saw us beating him to a pulp for doing this to us. Maria was in no danger; we were in danger of being mocked by her.

I awoke slowly, with a beam of white sunlight frying my eyes, and turned over, pulling the covers over my head. My dream flooded back and I groaned, aggravated.

Maria had been Eggman Robotnik's cousin and Gerald Robotnik's granddaughter, but she had also been murdered 50 years ago on an orbiting colony called The Space Colony ARK. Gerald Robotnik had raised her aboard ARK, where he had created all sorts of "beneficial" life forms for earth-for the bettering of mankind the professor had claimed. In the end, G.U.N. soldiers had barged in, destroyed his work, killed Maria accidentally, and stolen a creature known as The Ultimate Life Form. Gerald had gone insane and later died on earth from old age as a broken-hearted, bitter man with no purpose left in life.

G.U.N. was a government-operated, military copy of special soldiers that functioned similarly as the army. The exception was that G.U.N. was "top secret", stayed away from international affairs, and worked for Washington only.

But I couldn't understand why I had dreamt that pointless dream. I wasn't even alive when Maria was killed and I know nothing about her other than mouth-to-mouth transfer of information. I knew that she had always been a sickly child; I knew that she had been sweet and caring, and I knew that she had also sacrificed herself to save the Ultimate Life Form known as Shadow-Gerald's masterpiece. She and the creature had been the closest of friends.

Then it clicked: my dream was like a portal to the emotions and pain people suffer. The blood on the walls represented unforgiving hate, anger, and bitterness. All the scattered trinkets represented the small things in life that one cherished. The game card and chess piece reflected the carefree times in a person's life: games, laughs, jokes. The red rose I had been holding in my dream was a picture of the love a person needed in order to survive and what would happen to them if love was rejected.

Feeling proud that I had solved that case on my own, I curled into a small ball, but lay still to listen when I heard the faint noises of electric guitar and drums seeping from Vector's earphones. Even in bed, I thought, does he listen to music? That 'gator is the most addicted guy I've ever known.

Suddenly the door flew open, freezing gusts of air blowing my blanket off, and Charmy was there with a package in his hand, exclaiming wildly, "WORK! We have WORK! It's here!" He always did that when we were hired by a new client. Sometimes I wished he'd go do something worthwhile for once-perhaps screw a light bulb in a lamp and get shocked at the same time?

Oh well, he wasn't going to ruin my mood. I had solved the mystery dream all on my own without any strenuous labor or waste of my time. This was starting out to be a good day. Case solved, client earned, and sunshine to greet me.