A/N: Hello friends, My name is Melon! Man, does anyone even read these character x oc things anymore? well, I sure hope so. I love Espio with all of my heart and I feel as though he doesn't get nearly as much love as he should. That being said, I hope you enjoy my Espio x OC story which I am hoping to evolve. Thank you for spending your time reading this, it means a lot.
Act One: The Chaotix
The bell above the door rang out as a group of three buzzed bar hoppers enter. Espio glanced at them briefly from behind the counter as he wiped the rim of a wine glass with a washcloth. They held each other up with their arms around their shoulders, laughing together boisterously. They approached Vector, who greeted them with a toothy grin. "Gentlemen! What can I get for ya today?"
"Whiskey! Got any?"
Without a second thought, Espio reached behind Vector and grabbed a bottle, pouring three separate glasses. Vector turned and grabbed two and placed them gently in front of them, Espio held another and slid it across the counter carelessly, then returned to the sink to continue his tasks. The men behind him cheered and clinked their glasses together while Vector sparked conversation."You boys got something to celebrate?"
The man in the middle, a monkey with graying hair, clasped his hands together loudly and chuckled. "My man here has a knot to tie next month, and tonight we're celebrating before he has to make any commitment!" He pats the back of a younger man sitting on the right, a turtle wearing a hard hat; hands dirtied from a long day of work.
"Don't say it like that, pops."
Vector joins their laughter and Espio turns away, shaking his head as he grabbed another glass from the sink, drying it with his cloth.
"Well then, certainly a reason to celebrate!" Vector pours them a couple shots, and the men all three slam them back without a second thought.
The door swings open again, reigning in a draft of cold evening air. Espio pays no mind, putting a glass atop a straining rack. He closed his eyes briefly, seeking to ignore the vulgarities spoken by the three men at the counter and Vector's enthusiastic ass-kissing.
"C'mon men, another round for the husband to be!"
Espio was then interrupted by a tap on the back, and when he turned, he met eyes with a man who had just entered, who extended something to him. An envelope.
"This was tacked to your door, thought you'd like to see it."
Espio said nothing as the man slipped the envelope into his hands and walked away. Espio walked away from the bar and towards the stairs up to their office where he sat at the bottom step. With a kunai hidden in his glove, he opened it. The letter was written on elegant stationery sealed with a wax insignia and written in italicized cursive, addressed to The Chaotix Detective Agency. He raised a brow, and Vector approached him with his arms crossed. "What's that you got, Espio?"
"A case."
Vector swiped the letter from Espio's hands with widened eyes that scanned the paper ferociously. Espio stood and held his hands behind his back, attempting to peek over Vector's back to read the letter, just for him to turn and grab him by the shoulders.
"Espio! We've got a case!"
"I just said that…" Espio sighed. "What does it say?"
Vector cleared his throat. Speaking in a mock old-timey accent. "Chaotix, I am writing you as the headmaster of an Academy for Talented Young Women, otherwise known as ATYW. I write in concern, as one of our young girls have gone missing from her dorm just last night…" As he understood the severity of the situation, Vector dropped the goofy accent. "We believe someone has kidnapped her off of school property, and we have reason to fear the safety of our other fifteen students, who are deeply worried for their dear friend Elizabeth, who is amongst our youngest, only six years old- oh god."
"What?" Espio asked, prompting him to continue.
"Apparently these girls are orphaned." Vector says.
"Why is that significant?"
"Have some empathy, Espio. If we don't go looking for this girl, nobody else will. And nobody will know she's missing."
Espio looked away as if ashamed, but his expression remained calm and cold. "Continue."
Vector scoffed. "She has no family and no one else to come for her. We are her only family and wish to see her home safe and sound. We found this job most suited to you, Vector, Espio and Charmy, as you are respected and honorable war heroes after the resistance against Infinite. Our girls have been taught of the resistance and your excellent feats. Expect to be handsomely repaid, you may name your price. We also offer you our hospitality during your investigation. Thank you, signed Miss Sibyl." Vector turned the letter to its backside. "And then there's coordinates."
"Coordinates?" Espio raised a brow. "No street name?"
"Nope."
"I do not trust that." Said Espio blatantly. "This is too convenient for an attack."
"Why would you think that?" Vector made his way back to his bar to refill a man's vodka soda, all the while still talking to Espio. "This is clearly a woman's handwriting, she has this elegant official stationery with a wax seal with the school's insignia, and it's signed by the headmaster. I feel like that's as legit as it gets."
Espio shook his head. "I'm still doubtful." But, he was uninterested in an argument with Vector. He knew well enough he could never argue with him, especially after reading out loud the phrase 'name your price'. But still, he felt strangely about this situation. He figured, the names of orphaned children may not appear in any kind of database, meaning this missing girl in question may not even exist and this could be some sort of plot to get them to these coordinates. There's reason for them to be cautious, especially since the resistance, their names have been floating around and they could have caught the attention of unfavorable people.
But, Vector is the leader.
"Tomorrow I'm punching these coordinates in and we're booking it. We can't afford to ignore it, regardless of its legitimacy. We have bills to pay, you know."
Espio simply nodded and hung his head in thought, returning to his task.
No matter what the situation is, he was going to stand by the side of the Chaotix.
When they finally closed up for the night, the pair headed upstairs to the agency office and living quarters to find a sleeping Charmy Bee in front of a flashing quiet T.V. Vector took the remote from the arm of the couch and switched it off, he then swiped Charmy up into his arms and began to carry him off into his bedroom, but before opening the door he turned to Espio and whispered to him. "Be sure to be packed up and ready in the morning. We won't know how long the trek will be until we punch in those coordinates."
Espio nodded and turned away towards his own bedroom door on the opposite side of the office and decided to turn in for the night, eager to face a brand new day and an interesting new case.
She sat wrapped up in blankets, a mug of coffee in her hands, a book in her lap and a grand crystal ball in front of her. She watched it with red puffy tired eyes and she held her hands out, channeling her faltering energy into it. She watched the same scene over and over. A robotic hand clutching Elizabeth, the little hummingbird, and pulling her out of her own bedroom window while she screamed. The sleepier she got, the harder the scene was to bear.
"Oh Lizzie... "
Sadie turned away from her crystal ball and took a sip from her coffee before setting it down on her nightstand. Rubbing her eyes, she stood from her bed with her ball cradled in her arms, hoisting it up onto a table across from her bed in front of the doors to her terrace where it reflected the moonlight. She adjusted the straps to her nightgown and hugged herself as she shed a tear.
She could read so much about herself and others with nearly any form of divination, yet she failed to see this tragedy coming. How many times had she read her Tarot Cards for Lizzie? Five or six times? And none of them happened to be relevant to her distant future. Which simply meant: She failed her. She was supposed to be a role model, a protective big sister figure to all the girls. Yet she failed to see this coming. She curled up on her bed and pulled the covers over her entire body, squeezing her eyes shut. She knew better than to let her anxiety take control, but truth be told she couldn't help it. Not once in her entire life here at the Academy has something so horrible happened. She figured she should just try and sleep. She held hope in her heart that the detectives that Miss Sibyl contacted could do a better job than she could.
Hopefully they'd find her alive.
She clutched her chest and looked out her window at the stars as she dozed off.
She should be better than this.