Okay! Now for the second of our challenges. Same Disclaimers apply. This one was by my friend, SecretFlowerChild AKA Flora, so go check out her profile as well.
Vector sat in the Chaotix Detective Agency office as he usually did, feet laid on the table listening the rock music blaring through his headphones. The green crocodile Mobian wore black shoes and white gloves with black wristbands attached to them and also wore a gold chain around his neck.
Suddenly, he heard a noise bust through the doors as two more animals, an orange bee and a yellow squirrel, flew into the room. The bee, obviously excited, charged toward Vector. "We got a job! We got a job!" he screamed excitedly.
"Whoa! Charmy, what are you doing?!" Vector shouted, getting knocked backward in his seat. Sitting by the wall of the office, a purple chameleon with black, white, and purple shoes and gloves sidestepped toward Charmy.
"Hold yourself, my friend…" the chameleon, Espio, interrupted, "Who has hired us?"
A red armadillo opened the door to one of the side rooms and stepped into the office. "Man, how is a guy supposed to get a nap here when there's so much racket everywhere?!"
"Mighty, we have a client!" the squirrel replied, smiling lightly.
"Everyone hold on a second!" Vector yelled, causing everyone to become silent, "Now… who's the client?"
"That would be me…" replied a voice. The Chaotix turned to see a young male human with short brown hair in a tuxedo stand before them.
"Okay… so what is it you need?" Vector asked.
"Allow me to introduce myself. I am Mr. Unako, owner and curator of the Station Square museum. Multiple disappearances of our latest exhibit on the ancient Echidna tribes have occurred, and this is a very serious problem. We fear that the newest work unveiled at the exhibit, the ancient staff of the tribal leader Pachacamac, will be stolen…"
"No worries, sir! We never turn down a case. Name your price…"
The curator brought out a briefcase, which he revealed to be filled with cash in the case. "You get paid double for bringing the stolen exhibit pieces back."
"Wow! That's a lot of cash!" Charmy gasped.
"Yeah… I know…" the squirrel, Ray, replied.
"Now that's what I'm talking about! Don't worry, Mr. Unako! Team Chaotix always solves the crime!" Vector shouted, motioning toward the 4 team members, "C'mon, boys! We have a mystery to solve!"
"Ladies and gentlemen," Mr. Unako announced, standing before a group of museum visitors, "I am proud to announce the unveiling of an ancient relic from the time of the almighty Echidna Tribes. I present to you… the ancient tribal staff of Tribe leader Pachacamac!" As he finished, he pulled the cloth off of the exhibit behind him, revealing a spear-like staff with tribal carvings on the pole and a glowing blue stone in the shape of an arrowhead resting at the top.
"Please enjoy the exhibit for as long as you like. The staff is going to be on display for quite a long time… I hope."
From inside a large vase, a pair of antennae stuck out from the mouth as the small head of Charmy popped out of the vase. The bee lifted a walkie-talkie to his mouth, and spoke into it.
"This is Detective Bee! I have a visual on the staff and I am ready to kick butt!"
"Calm yourself, Charmy!" Vector replied, "Your job is only to track down the thief with Ray if he comes to steal the staff. Ray, are you in position?"
"I-I'm in position, Vector…" Ray replied in his timid voice.
"Alright. So, everyone knows the plan. Espio and I are going to investigate some of the clues Unako gave us. We'll try to find the thief before he strikes. Charmy and Ray, make sure that if he does steal the staff that you do NOT lose him. We've placed a beacon on the staff to make sure that we can track it. Mighty, you're on standby in case either team needs help."
"Roger that!" Mighty replied.
"Vector," Espio spoke as Vector put away his walkie-talkie, "Are you sure we should put Charmy and Ray up for this task? They are our two most inexperienced members."
"I'm sure they'll be fine, Espio!" Vector replied, "Besides, Charmy understands the mission."
"It's Charmy that I'm mostly worried about. What if he messes up again like he did on Northside Island?"
"So the client got accidently stung by Charmy. It doesn't matter. Charmy is a loyal member to the Chaotix through and through, and he will not let us down on this mission."
"I hope you're right, Vector…" Espio murmured as the two examined the clues, which consisted of multiple footprints and thumbprints of the possible culprit.
"So… it appears that when the crime occurred, multiple footprints were found leading to the exit along with these black and gray quills," Vector stated, "Due to the evidence, I can identify the culprit as a hedgehog with black and gray fur, which wears shoes of a particular pattern."
"Too bad criminal records don't take footprints along with fingerprints…" Espio replied, curious about whose footprints they were.
"Either way, we'd better check the database for any black furred hedgehogs," Vector stated, "Doubt it's Shadow's fur, though, considering there are also gray fur patches as well."
Espio typed into the Chaotix computer, pulling up a few matches of black-furred hedgehogs. Even still, there weren't many hedgehogs with that type of fur color.
After a few hours of searching, Espio came up with a result. "Hey, Vector, look at this! A mysterious hedgehog known as the Black Thief Phantom has been reported to have stolen from multiple museums in both the Cardinal Atoll and Empire County!"
"Hmmm… this sounds like our guy… but how does he steal the artifacts from the museum? There's no alarms activated and the place looks the same after he steals it except for bits of fur and a few footprints at the base of the exhibit."
"Well, he must have had some way to get onto the roof. That would be the obvious explanation…"
Meanwhile, at the museum, a shadowy figure approached the enterance at night. Shooting a grapple gun at the top, the shadow got onto the roof.
"Then, he'd most likely go through one of the ceiling windows. I do wonder, though, why they have those things in the first place…"
The shadow then attached a cable to a part of a roof as the other attached to a harness which he lowered himself into position to take the staff.
"If there is a glass container covering the artifact, he'd most likely have a way to cut through it."
The figure, revealed in the moonlight to be a black hedgehog, pulled a laser pen from the harness, cutting a hole in the glass large enough for him to grab it.
"Of course, he'd have to temporarily disable the security system around the exhibit first, then the staff would be his."
The hedgehog flung some kind of marble across the room, slamming into a security panel. The panel became electrified, and all security systems in the room shut down. The hedgehog then placed his feet on the glass, removing the staff from inside and examining it.
"Hmmm… what an interesting artifact," the hedgehog grinned, "Many people will pay well for this fine piece of 'history'."
Over by the vase, Charmy slept silently until he heard the voice of the hedgehog. He rose his head up, then fumbled for his communicator in panic.
"GUYS! The thief has the staff right NOW!"
The hedgehog looked over at Charmy, who looked over and smiled nervously, then activated the cable holding him, which caused it to go up.
"Damn it, Charmy!" Vector replied, "Do you have to shout like that?!"
"Ray, wake up! We need to go!" Charmy shouted over to the other vase.
"Uh… what? Oh right!" Ray replied as the two flew after the black hedgehog.
"Espio, we gotta go now!" Vector called as he and Espio ran toward the museum to intercept the hedgehog. Meanwhile, Charmy and Ray chased after the hedgehog, who ran rather fast, until they saw Espio and Vector running by them. Vector proceeded to tackle the black Mobian, knocking him into the light.
"Mysterious Thief Phantom, I presume," Vector stated.
"God, not this bumbling detective agency," Phantom replied in a british accent, "I had a feeling you Chaotix would be after me. After all, it takes someone with plenty of master thieving skill to gain the attention of the world's greatest detective agency."
"Flattery will not work here. You're going straight to jail!" Espio retorted.
"Oh? And how will you find the other missing artifacts?" Phantom replied, dropping something from his hand. When it hit the ground, the floor crackled with electricity, zapping everyone into submission except Phantom.
"Now, I take my lead. Farewell, Chaotix Detective Agency!" Phantom laughed. However, as he walked forward, he felt the force of a fist slam square into his face, knocking him to the ground.
"Hate to do that to you, dude, but you forced my hand," Mighty stated, dusting off his gloves.
"Hey, good job, Mighty!" Vector cheered.
"No big deal. It's all in the… urk! Wrist…"
As Mighty said that, Phantom rose up grabbing him by the neck. A trail of blood bled down his nose. "You really thought that would work?! I'm stronger than you, fool!"
"Hey, leave him alone!" Charmy shouted, plunging his stinger into Phantom's back. The hedgehog squealed in pain, releasing Mighty, who proceeded to uppercut the hedgehog to the ground.
"Nice work, Charmy! Who knew you had it in ya," Vector cheered as he placed handcuffs onto the black hedgehog.
"Aw, it was nothing…" Charmy blushed.
"Well, boys, looks like it's case closed!"
"But… what about the stolen artifacts?" Ray asked.
"We can get him to talk and tell us where the artifacts are," Espio replied.
"Either way, boys, I think we'll be paid well tonight," Vector stated as the group walked towards their office.
Notes: So... the Chaotix! I don't normally write about them. The only time was during Knuckles's story, and they were mostly minor characters in that. Considering my first game was Sonic Heroes, I really grew to know these characters and I liked their solve-the-puzzle playstyle. I didn't really know much on Mighty and Ray's characters, but thankfully I was able to figure them out.
Charmy, of course, can come off as annoying, but I can't help but find him a funny character. Maybe it's because I can't really see the bad in Sonic characters (like how I don't think badly of Elise or Chris even though most people hate them...) Anyways, review, favorite, and follow on my stories and profile, because it means a lot to me when you do, and I'll see y'all next time!