TheShamanMaster presents...

Framed Fox

Story & Script by TheShamanMaster

Sonic & Friends © SEGA & Sonic Team

Chapter 1: Deliverance

It was Saturday morning in the Mystic Ruins. Miles Prower woke to the sunlight shining in his face through his bedroom window. He turned his head over, opening one eye to gaze at the clock on his bedside table. Ten-fifteen am. This had been enough time in bed, he thought as he sat up slowly, rubbing the sleep out his eyes.

Today was the day where he would complete his work on the latest model of the Tornado Bi-Plane. 'MK III' as he dubbed it would be his greatest work yet. Better yet, the next time Eggman planned an attack, he and Sonic would be more ready than ever before.

Tails jumped out of bed, quickly changed and showered before grabbing a quick bite to eat. Chewing a mouthful of bread roll, his attention was suddenly drawn to some strange markings on the back door of the kitchen which led into his workshop. Examining it closer, it appeared that someone or something had used something sharp to force the door open, as the latch had been dented inward.

The young fox gasped. "What the heck? Oh no..." Dropping the food, he quickly ran into his workshop, and was greeted with an unpleasant sight.

"What the-!"

Tails' workshop had been completely ransacked. Books, papers and blueprints lay scattered and torn all over, tools had been chucked off the walls and overall, it looked like a bomb had gone off. The worst part of it all though, made his heart sink. The Tornado had been dismantled at the engine and now the engine itself, several key gears along with mechanisms which required the Chaos Emeralds to work was now missing.

"Who could've have done this?..." He said, staring at the mess that his hard work had become. "This is insane; the alarm system I had installed was..." He stopped and realised something. The alarm system! He ran out the workshop back into the kitchen where the alarm box was fixated on the wall. The little door of the box had been left opened with the lock had been disengaged, flashing a green unlock icon above the keypad.

This is impossible! I'm the only one who knows the code to this system. Someone must've hacked into it...

Tails shook his head. Only a few people knew about this project he had been working on, so who could be having been responsible for all this?

"I better call Sonic."

He walked over to the phone and dialled Sonic's number. The dialling tone was heard, but nothing happened. He tried twice more after, and there was still nothing.

"Damn it!" He slammed the receiver down in frustration. It was bad enough he had woken up to a disaster area, but now he couldn't get a hold of his closest friend.

"He's probably in town somewhere, I'll try and catch him there...but what if that same person comes back here?"

Tails looked round his workshop one last time to see if there was anything else that had been taken or better yet, some sort of clue that could help him piece together this mystery. He looked over the nearby bookshelf, noticing that some of the books had remained undamaged. He remembered there was one book that he had been writing the previous night, which outline most of his work prior to the current model of the Tornado. Startled, he began looking all over the place for it. Much to his dismay, the book had been stolen.

This somebody must've known beforehand exactly what they wanted if they've taken that exact book...let me see if there's anything near the plane...

Tails surveyed the area where the Tornado had been taken apart. Amongst the various nuts, bolts and tiny gears spread on the floor, he noticed a small aqua-coloured card with a brown strip. Inspecting the object over, the reverse side was decorated with an old-English typeface letter "O", with the numbers "507" on the bottom. He instantly recognised where he had seen that logo before.

"That's from the Orchids Hotel in Station Square. I guess that'll be my first place to stop by and begin solving this mystery."

Pocketing the card in his jeans pocket, he left his workshop feeling miserable. All those months of hard work, had now gone down the drain in an instant and he wanted to know who was responsible for all this mess. Grabbing his wallet from his jacket, he opened the front door, which to his surprise had been unlocked from the outside.

"How in the...?" Tails was pretty sure he had locked up last night and left his keys on the dresser by the door. Suddenly, it hit him like a tonne of bricks. The card he found must've been used to get the door open.

"The oldest trick in the book and it STILL works..." He muttered annoyingly as he shut the door behind him.

The Chaotix sat in the lounge of their detective agency watching TV and drinking coffee. Vector was itching for another case, as the money was running short and they hadn't had a decent case in weeks. Charmy, being the youngest of the trio, was suffering from boredom.

"Vectorrrrrrrrr!" Charmy squealed. "I'm so borrrrrred! There's nothing to dooooooo!"

The crocodile sighed, holding his head in frustration. "Charmy, what did I tell you yesterday? And the day before that? And the DAY BEFORE THAT! Unless we get some work, we haven't got much we CAN do!"

Espio looked up from reading his book. "Charmy, have you thought about taking up a new hobby? There's so many that you can try and you'll feel good for learning a new skill or two."

The young bee huffed and folded his arms. "Yeah but I tried that! There's nothing I liked that seemed fun!"

"Not all hobbies have to be fun, but they can be extremely rewarding."

Vector picked up the remote and began channel surfing. "Well fun or not, if we don't get some money soon, we'll be living on instant noodles for the next two weeks!"

"BLEEEEEEAAAAAAAHHHHH!" Charmy exclaimed sticking his tongue out. "Noodles are so plain and uncool!"

Suddenly, the phone began ringing. All three slowly looked over to the table of the ringing phone astounded.

"Hallelujah!" Vector cheered. "Money!" He reached over and picked up the receiver. "Good morning, Chaotix Detective Agency, Chief Inspector Vector speaking..."

Espio raised an eyebrow. "Since when are you the 'chief inspector'?"

"Sshhhh!" Vector gestured as he carried on speaking. "Sorry you were saying..." As the other two gathered round eager to hear what was being said, Vector's eyes suddenly widened and he began snapping his jaws together in a nervous manner.

"You have GOT to be kidding me..." He spoke out loud midway through the conversation.

Espio and Charmy looked at one another. Whenever they saw their friend like this, it could only mean one thing; this case was going to be bigger than they would expect.

Tails soon arrived at Station Square. Getting off the train and walking onto the platform, everything looked busy as normal. Nothing looked out of place at all. People still got on and off trains as they normally did. Business commuters would meet in the coffee shop downstairs before their respective journeys. It didn't make sense to him. Surely whoever stole the plane parts and came through here couldn't have been that easy to ignore. They would've stuck out like a sore thumb. An engine that big couldn't have been carried by one person alone, unless they were really strong.

The young fox headed out of the station and began walking down the two and half blocks towards the Orchids Hotel. Mid-way on his route, he couldn't help but notice a few people stare at him. It made him feel uneasy like he was one of those characters in fictional novels with a strange deformity. He looked round trying to make heads or tails of what was going on. He eventually walked past the 'Heritage Cafe', where one of the waiters was reorganising the tables. The waiter stopped to look up at Tails with a bewildered expression on his face.

"My my, that was fast. Ya back for more then?"

Tails stopped and looked at him. "Erm...excuse me?" He questioned, wondering what this guy was on about.

"Ya back for another round after that huge meal earlier on? Ya must be hungry today lad..." The waiter placed down two tumblers with cutlery wrapped in napkins.

"What are you talking about?" Tails asked confused. "What meal? I'm starving hungry right now!"

The waiter chuckled. "Fast metabolism I see ya got there. Alright lad, come on in and I'll fix ya something up."

The young fox had no idea what was going on. He had never eaten at this place before, yet he had eaten earlier? This wasn't making any sense at all, but Tails needed answers now. Who knows if he went back and found his entire house destroyed? He had to act fast. After thinking for a few seconds, he followed the waiter indoors.

TO BE CONTINUED...

So its TheShamanMaster back with another Sonic fic! Another Tails one too! This is gonna be a fun one to do as well! So please feedback/critique and hope this first chapter got you wondering what's going on :D

Next time, Tails continues his investigation by heading to Room 507, but what he discovers, isn't what he expected...Meanwhile the Chaotix investigate what seems to be the most difficult case of their career...all this and next time in Chapter 2, Ghost of Perdition