A/N - To those who have read my previous version of this story, this chapter begins for the most part the same as before. The rest, however, is much different, so I encourage you to read through at least from the middle on. And for those who are new to this story and have no idea what I'm talking about , don't worry about it!
That being said, here's chapter 2! Enjoy!
Chapter 2 – The Secret is Out
Meanwhile, at the warehouse, Antoine, Rotor, Tails, and Silver all sat awaiting the return of their teammates. Antoine was nervously rubbing his hands while Silver was tumbling random objects around in the air with his PK powers. Rotor was playing another game of mine sweeper on the laptop, practically ready to fall asleep. Tails was already sleeping on an old couch with one of his tails tucked under his head as a pillow and the other laid on top of him as a cover. A car horn outside stirred everybody out of their stupors.
"It's about time," Silver said.
Silver used his mind powers to pull a switch on the wall in the front of the warehouse. A metal garage door raised up, revealing the black Carerra GT behind it, its headlights flooding the warehouse as the door rose. Once the path was free, the car pulled into the warehouse and parked amidst the other cars, door closing behind it. As Manic and Ray exited the Porsche, the others made their way over to them.
"What was zee 'old up, Manic?"
"There was a car accident that slowed us down, so we had to take a detour. Plus, we had to play it cool. After all, we were in a Carerra GT. That's not exactly a low-profile kinda car, ya know."
Ray was currently marking off the Carrera GT from a list of cars marked on the wall with chalk. The squirrel was having quiet a lot of difficulty of shaking off the nervousness he'd just had from the rather intense drive over.
"What's the count, dude?" Manic asked.
"Tw..twenty down, eighty to g-go!"
"Sweet! A fifth of the way done! Let's see if we can get to twenty-five tonight and get to a quarter of the way done!"
Manic turned to leave.
"Wait a meenuet, Manic."
"Ant, we can't waste time. We're on a tight schedule as it is."
"I don't t'eenk you were telling me zee truth about why you were late."
"It's the truth, man. Right Ray?"
Ray was caught off guard by this question, resulting in him losing the ability to talk.
"Right Ray?" Manic pressed, not wanting to get caught red handed.
"Zere wasn't any car acceedent... was there?" Antoine asked, starting to see right through what was going on.
"I'm tellin' ya! There was an accident!"
"Yeah, it happened right behind us!" Ray spat out, trying to cover up their already shaky story.
"Behind you? I sought zat you said you had to take, how you say, a deetour around eet?"
Ray suddenly let out a bit of a nervous squeak. Looking like a little kid who just got caught with his hand in a cookie jar, he realized he'd contradicted their story.
"Nice going, dude. You just busted us," Manic said quietly, glaring at the squirrel.
"I'm sorry! I d-didn't mean to!" Ray said back, looking like he could cry.
"Manic... you were street raceeng again,... weren't you?..."
"... Nobody followed us..." Manic answered, a bit too quickly.
"MON DIEU!," Antoine shouted, throwing his arms in frustration. "Do you t'eenk zis ees a veedeo game zat we are playing 'ere! We need to be careful with zis!"
"You think that's bad? Why don't you ask him how they got in," Tails said.
"Better yet why don't you tell me how zey got in, Tails."
Manic threw the fox a look as if to say 'answer and you'll pay.'
"Rather than letting me work my magic and trip the security systems and what not, Manic over here used his car as a battering ram and smashed through one of the showroom windows," the fox informed them
"You serious!" Silver asked incredulously.
"Yup. I don't know how they got out, though."
"S...same way," Ray said, twiddling his thumbs.
"What the!" Manic yelled, not believing Ray was telling on him again.
"We j-jumped the car out of the sh-sh-showroom using the display stand it was on out into the middle of the street th-through another window."
"Geez Manic! If I'd known you were gonna do that, I'd have come with ya. Half the city probably knows what happened now," Rotor said.
"YOU GUYS ARE ASSHOLES!" Manic shouted, stomping a few feet away.
"Manic, zis eez unaccepteeble! Eez zat clear! UNACCEPTEEBLE!"
"Would you guys just shut up already! I told you nobody followed us!"
An uncomfortable silence ensued as everybody's tempers cooled off. Antoine, letting out a sigh, looked to Manic.
"Manic... are you sure... are you certeen... zat nobody followed you?"
"I am absolutely... positively... 100-"
"Wrong!"
Ray had finished the sentence as a bright light flooded the dark warehouse. The sound of a helicopter overhead could be heard as it's light illuminated various parts of the room. Also, a crescendo of sirens was gradually rising outside. The coyote looked up at the light, his eyes lighting up in fear.
"Sacrebleu! Eet's zee cops!" Antoine squeaked.
Aside from the noises outside and Ray whimpering, Antoine noticed it was unusually quiet. Turning back to everybody else, he found them all staring at him, apparently too surprised to think straight.
"WHAT ON ZEE EARTH ARE YOU WAITEENG FOR! ZEE 'OLEEDAYS! WE NEED TO GEET ZEE 'ECKS OUT OF 'ERE!"
"I'll get the list!" Silver said, hurrying over to the list of cars to steal and started erasing it as quickly as he could.
"I'll get our cars started!" Tails said as he ran for the back door.
"Zee rest of you, get zee gear!"
Ray, Manic, and Rotor ran over to all the parked cars, leaned in through the windows, and pulled out the fancy looking keys from each car's ignitions. They then quickly gathered up all of their gear that they had sitting out, piled it into a few duffel bags that were sitting around, then high-tailed it to the back door. Manic also stopped to grab his laptop before fleeing the warehouse.
"Antoine! Help me out here!" Silver called.
The list Silver was erasing was huge and he'd only gotten it about half done. The coyote helped Silver rub out the rest of the list as best they could, then went for the rear as well. Outside, the two found both cars started and ready to go. Manic, Tails, and Ray were already in the the IROC-Z, while Rotor was waiting in Antoine's 1990 BMW 750iL. Ant performed a somersault jump into the front seat through the window while Silver used his powers to open the door and close it without touching it. With the sirens growing close, and the helicopter hovering overhead, Manic took lead and the two cars sped away from the warehouse, darting down alleyway after alleyway until they finally reached a normal street and proceeded at full speed from their hideout.
A short while later the warehouse was infested with cops. Photographs and notes of equipment, the cars, and the building were being taken by all that were on scene. In the middle of all this, another police car pulled into the crime scene. But this was no ordinary car. It was a brand new black BMW M5. On it's dashboard was a removable police-light which was currently on, it's red glare flashing about the garage. The undercover car pulled inside and stopped in the warehouse, its bright xenon headlights blasting the interior of the building with light. The driver door opened and from the driver's seat stepped a tall, green crocodile, with a large gold chain necklace, white gloves with gold chains on the cuffs, black boots, and a set of head-phones.
"Mighty, Espio, Charmy, you guys wait here... I'm gonna go get the scoop," the croc said through the open window.
As the croc. disappeared into the swarm of officers in the warehouse, the rest of the occupants began to converse.
"What do you guys reckon happened here?" Mighty asked, a red and black armadillo with red shoes and tan chest fur.
"Probably some sort of illegal operation. Maybe drugs, counterfeit money, or guns," Espio said, a purple chameleon with purple shoes with studded cuffs, white gloves with similar studs, and a yellow horn on his face.
"Could I try shooting one of them at some soda cans! PLEEEEEEEASE!" Charmy asked, a black and yellow bumble bee with orange shoes, and orange jacket, and a black helmet with goggles.
"What do you think? Of course not!" snapped the chameleon.
"Awwww, come on! I won't hurt anybody!"
"That's what you said when you got that stupid nerf gun a few weeks ago. What's the first thing you did? Shoot me right in the eye! Do you know how many eye drops I had to use to get my eye better?" the purple being said, anger filtering into his voice.
"I sure hope it isn't guns... I hate those things," the armadillo said, shuttering a bit.
"Haha! 'Mighty the Pessimist' doesn't like guns!" Charmy taunted.
"I think you mean... pacifist," Mighty corrected.
"Whatever! I think guns are cool!," Charmy said excitedly, then made several shooting sounds with his mouth while making gun shapes with his hands.
"Any weapon, no matter what kind, is dangerous and should be treated carefully," Espio said affirmatively.
"Like you have any room to talk! I've seen some of the stunts you've pulled off with your throwing stars and knife thingys!"
"They're shurikens and kunais, for your information. And for the record, whenever I train with them, I do it in private so I don't hurt anybody. And I never aim at anything that is living or representative of living."
"So what about the time you hurled a bunch of rubber practice throwing stars at me?"
Espio shut his eyes in frustration and sighed angrily. Mighty decided to chime in.
"You were singing and dancing along to the 'Pepto Bismol' song when he was fighting off a bad case of the flu and had been awake for over twenty-four hours."
"He was taking the stuff, though! I just thought I'd try to cheer him up. I never thought he'd snap like that. Good thing he didn't use metal ones!"
"I think anybody would have snapped," Mighty suggested.
"Moreover, it was a one time occurrence. And a regrettable one. One that I have long since apologized for and repeatedly sworn never to do it again. And I'd appreciate if you'd stop bringing that up for that exact reason. It's all in the past," Espio said, mumbling a bit.
"Sure thing, mister 'I never aim at anything that is living or representative of living," Charmy said, mocking Espio's voice and mannerisms.
"You are so immature..." Espio said with an exasperated sigh.
"Am not."
"Are too."
"Am not!"
"Are too!"
"Am not!"
"Are too!"
"Am not!"
"Are too!"
"AM NOT!"
"ARE TOO!"
"YO! Enough!" Mighty said in a calm but stern way. "If you're done acting like a couple of kindergarteners, Vector's motioning for us to come to him."
Mighty exited the car and headed off towards Vector. The post-arguing teammates gave each other a look like two little kids who just got punished would give each other, then exited the car and caught up with Mighty. The trio found their boss standing in front of what looked like a parking lot of cars.
"What the?" Mighty said, confused.
"What is going on here?" Espio asked.
"Guys... we've happened upon a major car-theft operation."
"COOOOOOOOL!" Charmy squealed with excitement while buzzing about in the air.
"Charmy! Keep your voice down!" Espio scolded.
"I love cars! I love em, I love em, I love em!" Charmy continued, dancing about on the ground.
"Well... this is unexpected. What do we know, Vector?" Mighty asked as Espio tried to calm Charmy down.
"According to a radio transmission by officer Sam Speed, leader of the S-Team high speed patrol squad, officer Speed saw a horrible accident occur in an intersection by street racers. He was about a block away at the time, issuing a citation to another car he caught speeding. The first car, a black Porsche Carerra GT, just got through. But the second car, a Toyota Supra, hit two cars in the intersection. Officer Speed called for help immediately. As it turned out, a Station Square air unit was in the area and spotted the other car fleeing the scene, then followed it here to this warehouse. Once all the other forces got here, this is what they found."
"Has anybody been taken into custody?" Mighty asked.
"Unfortunately, not a single one of the thieves has been caught. They escaped here without anybody seeing them."
"Disgraceful," Espio said, having finally calmed Charmy down. "Is there anything more promising than that?"
"Well, the interesting thing about this is that we know we're dealing with professionals here."
"How so?" the chameleon asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Well, none of the cars show any kind of break-in damage. The locks weren't broken, the ignition systems are intact, the steering columns aren't tampered with, there weren't even any scratches on the paint."
"Sounds like these guys must have been playing a lot of the 'Grand Theft Auto' games!" Charmy said.
"That's an understatement. To do what they did with normal cars is hard enough. But as you can see, theses are not everyday cars."
The four detectives walked over to the parked cars, discovering just how truly special the cars were that they were talking about.
"Charmy, you've got you're camera, right?"
"Of course I do! You guys don't call me shutterbug for nothing," the bee replied, pulling a small digital camera out of his jacket pocket.
"Heheh! That you are, Charmy."
Vector began to point out each car and tell what it was, with Charmy snapping a picture every so often.
"Well, first off, we have a 2005 Porsche Carerra GT. This was the car that was just stolen and was spotted in the street race. Now, for the other four cars in this row, we have a 2008 Cadillac XLR-V, a 1983 DMC DeLorean DMC-12, a 1999 Acura NSX Alex Zanardi Edition, and a 2006 Hummer H2 'Pacific Blue' Edition."
"WOW!" Charmy squealed, taking a bunch of pictures.
"Oh my..." Mighty said, a bit overwhelmed by the kinda cars they were dealing with.
"With the exception of the Porsche, these aren't as impressive as I thought they would be. I was expecting something of a higher caliber," Espio said.
"Are you kidding me, Espio! These are awesome cars!" Charmy squealed.
"Is that so?," Vector said, walking to the next row of cars. "Then how about these. This row consists of a 1992 Bugatti EB110 SS, a 2008 Audi R8, a 2008 Rolls Royce Phantom Drophead Coupé, a 1990 Ferrari F40, and a 2008 Nissan GTR ."
Mighty and Espio only stared in silence at the smorgasbord of automobiles in front of them. Charmy, however, wasn't so silent.
"WOW! WOW! WOW!" the bee shrieked, dancing about and taking picture after picture of the red Ferrari.
"Charmy, will you cool it already!" Espio growled, grabbing the bee's arm tightly.
"OW! I'm just excited. How else do react to cars like that?"
"Hate to say it, Espio, but I'm with Charmy on this one. I know they're just cars, but even I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed being around these things."
"Heh! We're only halfway done here guys. Let's take a spin through the last two sets of five, here."
The next set of five consisted of a 2008 Ford Mustang Bullit Edition, a 2008 Honda S2000 Club Racer, a 2008 Dodge Challenger SRT8, a 2008 Porsche 911 GT2, and a 2008 Cadillac Escalade ESV Platinum.
"Hey Vector... isn't that last one the same as your wife's car?"
"Yup. And I'd have already driven it back if it were. Nobody steals from me."
"Haha!" Charmy laughed at Vector's comment.
They now arrived at the last group of five. This group consisted of a 2008 Porsche 911 GT3 RS, a 2008 BMW M3 Coupe, 2008 Mercedes-Benz AMG SL63, a 2006 Lamborghini Gallardo SE, and a 2002 Pagani Zonda S. Charmy whistled in amazement, snapping away with his camera.
"And I thought I'd been amazed before," Mighty said.
"Here's the interesting thing, though. A lot of these cars have been said to be impossible to steal not only because of their complex security systems, but also because because of the special equipment they require to be accessed and started," Vector pointed out.
"Whoever did this is either a technology master or has one working for them, that way they could build their own keys and program them to whatever car they needed," Espio said.
"Correct-o-mundo," Vector said.
"Whoever did this really knew what they doing, since they not only got around the security systems for these cars, but also they solved the problem of not having the key that goes with the car," Mighty commented.
"I'd sure love to know just how they got away," Espio said.
"We have a partial answer for that. Charmy, save some batteries on the camera and let's go."
The detectives walked to the rear door of warehouse.
"This is probably where they escaped from. There's a bit of engine fluid on the ground and slight tire tracks. How they managed to get away is nothing short of a miracle," Vector said.
"Unbelievable. They were all right here and none of them were caught," Espio said.
"Well, not much we can do about it now. Chances are good, though, that these guys will surface again. So, until then, all we can do is study what we have here and look for signs that these guys are at it again," Mighty suggested.
"That's exactly what we're gonna do, as well as file this at H.Q. to get it on record. Not only that, but I've been told that these cars are being impounded for the time being. Princess Elise could own these things and she'd be S.O.L."
Vector and Mighty shared a good laugh at the joke. Espio, however, was looking around.
"What's up, Espio?" the croc. asked.
"...Where's Charmy gotten to?"
In all of their discussions, nobody had noticed that the camera flashes had stopped. The three spread out through the warehouse, trying to find their missing comrade. And it didn't take long, for about a minute or so later, Vector whistled to the other search parties and motioned for them to come over to them. Sure enough, Charmy was sitting in one of the cars. The bee was happily playing inside the yellow Lamborghini, pushing various switches while holding the steering wheel and making engine sounds. He was so into playing that he didn't notice three faces staring at him through the window of the car. Therefore, Vector tapped the window lightly with his fingers, catching the bee's attention.
"Uhhh... Hi!..." Charmy said while smiling sheepishly, his face blushing with embarrassment.
Vector shook his head and motioned with his fingers that it was time to go. Before getting out, Charmy held his camera out in front of him for a self-portrait picture, then exited the car.
"I think we're done here, team. Let's head back to out H.Q. and start sifting through all this info."
"And the photo album of pictures we now have," Espio muttered, throwing Charmy a side-ways glance.
Team Chaotix proceeded back to Vector's cruiser and fired it up. Pulling out of the warehouse, Charmy could hardly contain his excitement. But Vector, keeping a cool head, was thinking otherwise.
"What's on your mind, Vector?" Mighty asked.
"I'm just thinking about this whole crime. There's so much about it that seems so... I don't know. I feel like I could know who did it already, and yet I don't."
"Well, we already know that we're dealing with individuals who are technically and mechanically inclined," Espio pointed out again.
"Also, this is clearly a team job, as it's impossible for one person to do all of this," Mighty stated.
"And, whoever did this must be sneaky! Twenty cars stolen and stashed without anybody knowing!" Charmy added.
"Lastly... this whole thing has been clearly planned out and executed with precision. No ordinary, everyday criminal could have pulled this off... Whoever did this is was experienced... whoever did this has a good noggin on their shoulders."
"You mean they're smart?" Charmy asked dumbly.
"Yes... They're smart," the croc. replied, a bit frustrated with Charmy's scatter-brained question.
"So... who do you think did it then, Vector?" the bee asked.
"That... is indeed the million dollar question. And it's one that I plan on finding the answer to. I'll make sure that whoever did this gets to ride in my car... right to jail."
"Actually... the million dollar question really should be..." Espio started.
"What?" Charmy asked.
"With all the rumors that have been floating around recently... does Robotnik have anything to do with this?" Espio asked in an tone suggesting he was truly concerned.
Silence followed as each member of the Chaotix considered this fact.
"I didn't even think about that... My God... Vector... Do you think that?..." Mighty said, not wanting to finish the sentence.
The tension was mounting as the three detectives waited for an answer. Six pairs of eyes stayed fixated on the leader of the group as he thought.
"...It can't be ruled out."
Though he kept his eyes on the road, Vector knew all too well that all of his teammates just threw nervous glances at each other.
"But let's not jump to conclusions, guys. The truth is we don't know who's operation this was, yet. I know there's rumors about Robotnik resurfacing these days, but with the way this city is, it could just as easily be the work of some criminal pinhead that gets his kicks from stealing innocent people's hard-earned property. Therefore, we're gonna do what I said we're gonna do. We're gonna study our evidence, ask some questions, and make some inferences. Hopefully, when we connect all the dots, we'll end up with our answer and we'll bring down those responsible for this crime against society."
To the crocodile's surprise, he received a round of applause from his teammates.
"Right on, Vector. I'm with ya all the way," Mighty said.
"As am I," Espio replied.
"Me too!" Charmy added.
"Thanks guys," Vector said, blushing a bit.
Seeing such enthusiasm in their leader, the rest of the team's anxiety was relieved and they began to socialize as they drove on. Inside Vector's mind, however, the reptile's brain was racing.
"...What if this is Robotnik's doing?... What if I'm getting into something bigger than I think?... I don't want anything to happen to my team... I don't my wife and daughter to get hurt... But this is my job... my duty... I have to get to the bottom of this for the greater good!... And if things get too heavy I'm not going to hesitate in asking for help... My pride isn't worth as much the lives of others."
A/N - I personally had a blast creating this chapter. I hope that it left you craving more. And trust me, there's plenty more to come. I hope that you'll tune in next time!
Also, I wanted to say something. I realize that not everybody who reads this story is going to be as avid a car fan as I. I therefore apologize that I use so many car names and companies in this story. But just like the Sonic characters, the cars are just as important characters of the story, as each one is special in some way and plays a role into developing and setting up the whole plot.
See you back here for chapter 3! All reviews and suggestions welcome!