Disclaimer: Sonic the hedgehog belongs to SEGA. I only own my OC and this story.

Chapter 1

(Somewhere outside Mobotropolis)

Sonic was out for another one of his nightly runs. If there was one thing he loved most in the world it was the feeling he got as he ran at the high speeds he was known for, the feeling of freedom. Freedom was his ecstasy, he loved every bit of it. Sonic stopped running at a single tree that sat atop a cliff overlooking the ocean. It was a nice night, but the way the moon and stars shone lighting up the landscape and making the ocean glisten made it all the more beautiful.

"I don't think I've ever seen a sight as amazing as this," Sonic said to himself as sat at the base of the tree looking out to sea.

He closed his eyes as he sat there, feeling the calm breeze move over his face and listening to the ocean waves crash into base of the cliff below. He opened his eyes again as a smile crept onto his face.

"Yep, it doesn't get any better than this," he said speaking to himself again, still smiling.

His ears suddenly picked up the sound of a stick snapping and leaves rustling. He reacted to late though as he felt something jab into his neck followed by a sting. He let out a yelp of pain before bringing his hand up to the place on his neck where the pain was coming from. His hand came into contact with a small dart shaped object. He stood up as he pulled the intruding object from his neck and looked at in his hand. It was indeed a dart of some kind.

"What in the.." Sonic slurred as he began to feel dizzy and his vision became blurry.

He tried to run but tripped on his own feet and fell onto the ground with a thump. Weakly raising his head he saw two sets of feet approaching him. Even in his disoriented state he immediately recognized a familiar pair of boots that belonged to none other than Dr Eggman.

"Finally one of plans my have worked, and to think it would be through such a simple method," Eggman gloated.

"It worked because it wasn't your plan in the first place Dr," the other growled, shutting Eggman down.

"What do you.. it was.. well I.. rrgh never mind, let's just get Sonic back to the base so we can continue," Eggman grumbled defeatedly.

Sonic passed out as he felt a pair of hands begin to lift him up.

(4 days later in Mobotropolis, Castle Acorn)

Sonic had been missing for four days now, all of his friends were beginning to become very worried of his absence. Sonic never just randomly disappeared, if he was ever going somewhere outside Mobotropolis for a few days he would let someone know. The first day he was gone everyone just figured he was out running or having a day to himself. The second day his friends began searching for him, calling him constantly and checking places around the city he was known to hang around. On the third day the tension began sink in, nobody knew where he was and he hadn't left a single message to lead them to his whereabouts.

Sally Acorn was sitting at a desk in her office inside of Castle Acorn. She had hired detectives from all over the city to search for Sonic, even going as far as hiring the Chaotix Detective Agency even though they weren't the most reliable ones around. All in all, so far not a single person knows what could have possibly happened to Sonic.

Sally didn't want to consider that someone may have captured him. Sonic had more or less never been captured in his life, he was to fast and to agile for someone to get the slip on him. Thinking he may be dead made her gut churn, that was a possibility she refused to believe.

"Sonic, where are you?" Sally worriedly whispered to herself as she stared out the window. She was pulled out of her thoughts when she heard a knock on her door. "Come in," she answered.

The door opened revealing Tails as he walked into the office.

"Hello Tails," Sally greeted as she put on weak smile for him.

"Hey Sally, I heard you were feeling pretty down so I thought I might drop in and see how you were going," he replied.

"In all honesty Tails, I'm not good. Four days and still no sign of him. Something bad has happened, I don't want to believe it but I'm sure it's true." Sally's smile dropped as she put her elbows on her desk and placed her head in her hands.

"I'm sure something will come up soon Sally. I know it's hard but you just have to keep your head up and think positively," Tails tried to comfort her.

Sally let out a sighed chuckle. "You're the younger one here and yet I'm the most worried out of us both. I don't know how you keep yourself so composed through all this."

"Someone has to be the one to keep a positive outlook through the tough times," Tails chuckled

"You certainly have grown up Tails," Sally replied.

Suddenly Tails and Sally heard a commotion coming from down the hall from the office. Vector burst through the doors roughly pushing past Tails as he entered.

"Hey Sally, what's with all this about not being paid unless we're the ones who find Sonic,"Vector asked in an upset and annoyed tone.

"That's just how it is Vector, if you're the one who finds Sonic then you will be the one who gets the reward," Sally calmly replied not being phased by Vectors rudeness. She had expected to get this from the greedy alligator.

"What! Come on Sally. Surely we should get a little compensation for the hard work we're doing."

"That's how it is Vector. The deal isn't going to change no matter how much of a storm you stir up," Sally was beginning to get slightly annoyed now.

"Well forget this then. I'm more than certain the only way Sonic will be found is if he just walks back into town by himself," Vector stated in a huff.

Tails was listening to the whole conversation. He would never admit it but he had figured the exact same thing as Vector. It may have only been a day since the searching began, but with the amount of people looking for Sonic some sort of clue should have turned up by now. Tails looked over at Sally, he could tell by the look on her face that she was thinking the exact same thing.

"Well then it's hopeless. We're never going to find him," Sally stated before letting her head drop onto her desk in defeat.

"Look Sally, I'm not usually the kind of guy to give out information for free, but I guess I could just this once," Vector offered. Sally lifted her head back up off the desk and looked at Vector in interest.

"Go on," Tails said to him.

"I've heard of this guy. He's a bit of a detective as well as a bounty hunter. From what I've heard he's never missed his mark. Every job he's taken has been a success," Vector told them.

"That's perfect!" Sally almost shouted. She was willing to take any help she could get. "When can we meet him."

"That could be a bit of a problem Sally. He never meets his clients in person and from what I've heard he doesn't play well with others if you catch my drift," Vector replied. "But if you want to meet him you may have to talk to Espio. He says he's met the guy one time, however no one knows where he lives."

"Right now I don't care, but if I'm going to hire him I'll have to meet him first."

Vector gave Sally a nod and said he would go and find Espio before taking his leave.

"I hope this works out," Tails said

"That makes two of us,"Sally replied

(Later in the day)

Sally's office was now being occupied by a few more people as they waited for Espio to show up. In the office were Sally, Tails, Rouge, Mina and Rotor. Rouge, working for G.U.N., had been helping with the search. Mina however had been passing through on one of her shows tours when she heard the news, she had put her tour on hold in hopes she could help in some way.

"How long is it going to take for Vector to find one person, his own partner for crying out loud. I thought detectives were supposed to be good finding people," Rouge stated in an impatient tone.

"This is Vector we're talking about," Mina said, giving everyone in the room something to chuckle about.

Five minutes later the purple chameleon finally arrived followed by his two Chaotix partners, Vector and Charmy.

"I was told you needed to see me princess?" Espio asked in his usual calm tone.

"Please just call me Sally would you Espio. And the answer to your question is yes. I was told you might be able to find someone to help us with our search for Sonic," Sally replied.

"I can't actually find him for you, but I can point you in the right direction."

"Please Espio, anything that might help some way," Rotor said to him.

Espio looked at Rotor and then gazed at Sally for a brief moment. "The man has record, if you check it you might be able to find his address."

"Wait, record? As in a criminal record?" Tails asked slightly perplexed.

Espio simply nodded. "I should probably warn you, he's not a very social person and he can get quite aggressive if you're not careful."

"So all we have to do is look him up on the criminal database and we'll find him?" Rouge was next to ask.

"Yes, you should do that now if you're truly set on meeting him in person,"Espio replied.

"Before we go, how do you know him?" Mina asked

"I had a run in with him during a job. It appeared that the client had hired a second detective to work the case in hopes of it being solved quicker. I more or less told him to get lost and find another case to work on. We got into an argument and.. well," Espio drifted off from the story.

"Go oooon," Vector teased him. This story obviously amused Vector some how.

"I ended up with a fractured jaw," Espio stated finishing the story.

Everyone was a little shocked by this. Everyone except Charmy and Vector who were silently laughing behind him.

"How does some random guy manage to fracture the jaw of a trained ninja?" Rotor asked

Espio responded by staring at Rotor, he obviously didn't want to answer the question.

"I don't know about the rest of you but I think I might go found where this guy lives instead of wasting my time with stories," Rouge bluntly cut in before leaving Sally's office. The Chaotix team followed Rouge out.

"I think I'll go with them and see what can we find out about him," Tails said to Sally. She gave him a nod and he left the office to catch up with the others.

Down at the police station Rouge, Espio and Tails had just walked through the doors. Vector and Charmy had left stating they were no longer needed. The three of them approached the receptionist at the front desk and asked to see the records on a particular person. The cat that sat there simply stated she couldn't allow them to see any of the police records seeing as they weren't authorized to do so. Rouge let out a huff before producing her G.U.N. identification badge and showing it to the lady.

"Is that identification enough for you?" Rouge asked somewhat irritated by the setbacks. The cat verified her credentials and then led her to a computer so they could begin their search.

Espio sat down in front of the screen and began to search through the database. Twenty minutes later and they were still looking.

"How long is this going to take?" Rouge asked not even attempting to hide her boredom or frustration.

Tails was sitting in a chair staring up at the ceiling as he waited for the results. He was usually the patient one, but even he was starting to get bored. He began to think of what might happen if Sonic didn't turn up. Everybody would be hit hard without a doubt, Tails felt he would take it the worst though. Sonic and him were practically brothers, they were more or less inseparable back in the day. The anxiety and nervousness was slowly eating away at him, he knew he couldn't continue being the calm and positive one forever. At some point, everyone will break down.

Tails was snapped out of his thoughts when he heard Espio say he had found what he was looking for. All three of them drew their attention to the computer screen.

"What the? They don't even have a name or a picture on his record. How did you manage to find it Espio?" Tails asked.

"I looked for my name. There's only one person in here that would have my name on his record. I charged him when he broke my jaw," Espio replied.

"So he lives on twenty-three Argyle street. That's on the south district in the worst part of town. I can't believe he lives in that hellhole," Rouge told the other two. "All I can see on here are assault charges, he really must have a bad temper."

"I think that's all we're going to find out. We should send a few people to go get him," Tails suggested.

"I'll go with them. I'm interested to see if he puts up fight or if he comes peacefully," Rouge said with a smirk before leaving to find someone to help with the pick up.

"I guess we should head back to Sally and give her the news," Tails said to Espio receiving a nod in agreement.

(Mobotropolis, South district)

Rouge was seated in the backseat of a police vehicle as they drove to their destination. Rouge had made the decision to find two of the bigger cops in station just as a precaution. Driving the car was a rather intimidating looking brown bear. In the passenger seat was his partner, a fairly muscular looking black dog. It took them fifteen minutes to get to their location.

"This is the place," the bear said stepping out of the car.

"What a shithole," his partner stated.

Stepping out of the car and looking across the road Rouge saw an almost run down looking apartment building. According to the records the man lived in the number five apartment on the second floor. They wasted no time making their way up the stairs to the apartment. Once they reached the door the bear knocked and used the oh so original line, "Police, Open up!" There was no reply so they tried again, still no reply. After the next knock the bear threatened to kick the door down if he didn't open. They had thought he wasn't home but they decide to proceed anyway. With no other choice they kicked in the door.

The apartment was small. Small bedroom, small bathroom, small kitchen, you get the picture. The two cops entered the apartment, Rouge waited at the door. The curtains were closed and the lights were switched off leaving the room very hard see in. The apartment smelt like cigarette smoke. The cops entered and began to look around, however they didn't see the figure standing in the corner staring at them as they entered. The bear was the first in, he didn't see the glass ashtray come flying at his head until it connected and shattered causing him to fall to the ground holding his head in pain. His partner went to assist him only to be spear tackled into the wall winding him. Their attacker went to leave but was suddenly stopped by a quick acting bat who delivered a strong kick to the side of his head knocking him to the ground. Thinking quickly, Rouge snatched up one of the coppers cuffs and handcuffed the man who was now on the ground.

"That wasn't exactly what I'd call a warm welcome," Rouge teased. "How about we get some light in here," she continued before flinging open the curtains drowning the room in sunlight.

Now that the room was lit up she had a look at their would be fugitive. He looked to be about the same age as her, his hair was long, it was grown to halfway down the back of his neck, it was blonde but it looked greasy as if it hadn't been washed in a while. He wore a black leather jacket over a white long sleeve shirt, some faded and torn blue jeans and black converse shoes. The thing that caught her attention though was that he was human. There weren't many humans on Mobius.

Rouge noticed the two cops were starting to get back onto their feet. "Times a wasting boys. Let's get back to castle with our new friend," she teased.

The cops stared at her for a moment and then at the other man before picking him up and carting him to the car. The man stared at the ground as he was escorted to the vehicle. The cops literally threw him into the back seat of the car, he let out a slight groan as his head connected with the opposite door. Rouge casually stepped into the vehicle taking her seat as she watched the man straighten himself up. For the next five minutes of driving everybody sat in silence. That was until they heard a clicking noise coming from the man. Next thing they knew he had brought his hands around from behind his back and had placed them on his knees, he'd managed to undo the handcuffs.

"Present for you," he said to Rouge as he handed the handcuffs to her.

"Show off," she replied smirking.

"Put those things back on him, I don't trust him," one of the cops growled. The man smirked and held his hands over to Rouge, she handcuffed him again. Three minutes later he had removed the cuffs and handed them back to Rouge yet again, Rouge let out a chuckle as the cops grumbled in the front seat.

(Castle Acorn)

Sally was still in her office. With her was Tails, Rotor, Mina, Bunnie and Antoine. Espio had left earlier. Everyone was becoming nervous, they weren't sure what to expect from this man. It wasn't long before they heard a commotion coming from down the hall again. They heard some shouting followed by a yell. The doors opened and Rouge was the first to enter.

"That was certainly an interesting excursion," Rouge said to everyone.

"Did you have any trouble," Sally asked.

"In a way," Rouge smirked. "You've all got one hell of a surprise coming your way."

One moment later the man the whole commotion had been over entered Sally's office, he was followed very closely by three castle guards. One of guards was cradling his own arm.

"What happened here?" Sally asked.

"He broke my damn arm," the guard groaned.

"And I told you to stop pushing me and to get your hands off me. I did warn you," the man cut in. The guard muttered something under his breath and left to get his arm taken care of.

"I thought you might have had him handcuffed," Sally then said to Rouge pointing at his uncuffed hands.

"I did handcuff him," Rouge replied, "Five times." Rouge looked over at him and caught him smirking at her. He then proceeded to produce a cigarette from his pocket light it up.

"You can't smoke in here!" Sally almost yelled at him.

"That's what everyone keeps telling me," he replied as he continued to smoke his cigarette. Sally simply sighed and shook her head.

"So what is this surprise you mentioned?" Sally asked directing her attention to Rouge. Rouge responded by just looking at the man. He noticed that everyone was now staring at him. He then used his hands to push his hair back behind his ears revealing his face.

"Connor!" everyone in the room, besides Rouge, shouted.

"Long time no see guys," Connor said to everyone. Connor was a past friend of theirs, they hadn't seen him for almost three years now.

"Connor, I haven't seen you since.." Mina said, going quiet at the end of the sentence.

"Since I caught you cheating on me with that blue bastard," Connor finished her sentence for her.

"It wasn't like that!" Mina quickly stated.

"Oh really, then what do you call me finding you and Sonic practically sticking your tongues down one another's throats." Mina didn't say anything. "Exactly, there's no other name for it. You cheated on me," Connor finished.

Three years ago Connor and Mina had been dating. He had walked in on Sonic and Mina making out with each other. After seeing that he immediately dumped her and began to push all of his friends away from himself. He became secluded and even went as far as moving houses without telling anyone so they couldn't find him. For the past three years his whereabouts had been a mystery to them all.

"Enough with the reunions, why the hell am I here!" he demanded.

Shaking the surprise off Sally replied. "We were told you could find almost anybody if the price was right."

"If that's what you've heard then you would be correct," Connor replied slightly interested now.

"Sonic's missing, we need help to find him," Tails told him. Connor began to quietly chuckle.

"What are y'all laughing about," Bunnie asked, somewhat confused.

"Even if I could find him, what makes you think I would actually want to?"

"But you're his friend," Rotor cut in.

"No, out friendship ended when he betrayed my trust. Besides, what could you possibly offer me in return. I don't want your money," Connor coldly stated. Everyone was quiet, they felt defeat wash over them.

"We could have that piece of jewelry around your leg removed," Rouge quickly said.

"What are you talking about Rouge?" Sally asked. Connor looked at Rouge and then Sally. He then looked down at his left leg and lifted up the jeans leg. Underneath was what looked like some sort of bracer.

"Is that a tracker," Tails asked.

"Yep, because of my past 'incidents' the cops have decided I can't leave Mobotropolis for some time. If I leave the city boundaries then the tracker will activate and lead them right to me. They've threatened to throw me in the slammer if I do just that," Connor replied.

"I'm sure we can work out something to have it removed, if you find Sonic of course," Sally offered. Connor thought for a moment, he had been wanting to leave the city for some time but due to the circumstances he hadn't been able to. Connor held his hand out to Sally.

"So it's deal then?" she asked before shaking his hand.

"It's a deal," he replied.

"Before you leave Connor, there's just one thing I'd like to happen. I want someone I know accompanying you. I want to know where you're at during your search and I'm guessing you won't spare a moment to let me know from time to time," Sally quickly added.

"Fine, whatever," Connor replied impatiently. "Who do you want to send. I'm telling you now, I'm not having one your royal guards or some cop come with me."

Sally gazed around the room. No one looked like they wanted to volunteer. Rouge suddenly piped up.

"Fine then I'll go with him. I'm actually somewhat curious to see how much you've changed Connor."

Connor directed his attention to Rouge. "Come find me tomorrow, we'll start searching then," he told her. With that, he left the building.

"I hope we made the right choice here," Tails said to Sally once Connor left.

"You and me both Tails, you and me both."