Hia, sorry for the terribly long wait, I've been very ill over the last week and a half, so haven't even been able to sit up, let alone write. It's going to take me a little while to get back in to the swing of it again, so here's a short chapter to get me started. Sorry.
3. The Criminal Mind
As Blossom scanned around the room behind, Sonic just looked at the hole in the door of the vault. Eventually, he decided to pick her brain.
"What are you thinking?" he asked. Blossom paused momentarily.
"Nothing," she said.
"Nothing! You must be thinking something!"
"Don't get me wrong Sonic, I'm thinking something," Blossom reached down and flicked up the corner of the carpet, before shaking her head. "The something I'm thinking of is nothing."
Sonic was not greatly pacified by this response. "Could you elaborate perhaps?" he said impatiently. He was hungry.
"Okay," Blossom took a step back and thought for a moment. "Nothing makes sense. For a start, I can't identify a point of entry. All the locks are undamaged and there's no holes in the walls or anything. Secondly, once in the bank, the criminals haven't left anything. Not even a hair! It's as if they didn't even step on the floor. Add to that the hole in the vault." She walked over to it, and felt round the inside. "It's too small for a start; only a child could have crawled through. And it's a perfect circle, completely smooth. How was it cut?"
"Power saw?" suggested Sonic.
"Yes, but if that was the case, why aren't there any metal filings of anything on the floor around the door?"
"Maybe they cleaned up after themselves," Sonic suggested.
"There's only ten minutes of security footage missing," said Blossom dismissively, "they would have had to be going at quite a rate. Put even if they did, why would you go to all that effort only to steel a suitcase of money?" She showed Sonic the inside of the vault. "Nearly everything's been left! Plus no sigh of a getaway car or anything like that. It just doesn't make sense!"
Sonic nodded and looked at his watch. "Okay," he said, "you can have a think about it over lunch."
Blossom was still thinking about it that afternoon, when there was a knock on the door. She recovered from the shook of someone actually knocking before entering fairly quickly.
"Come in?" she said, wondering what it was about. Boomer stuck his head round the door.
"Is this a good time?" he asked nervously, "because it isn't that important really."
"It's as good a time as any," said Blossom, who was hoping that it would help her take her mind off things. Boomer entered fully and stood in front of the desk, twitching uncomfortably. This worried Blossom slightly. "Are you alright?" she asked.
"Yes, fine," said the clearly not fine blue Ruff, "I was just wondering if it would be okay for me to inquire about the fact that I haven't got a bonus this year."
"That's it?" said Blossom surprised, "I thought you'd done something awful."
"Why?"
"Because you're extremely tense."
"Err… that's because I heard a rumour that the last person who complained about pay got pushed out a top story window," said Boomer, who still refused to relax.
Blossom laughed. "That's just a rumour," she reassured, "the complaint wasn't about pay. Anyway, you said you haven't got a bonus?"
"That's right," Boomer relaxed a bit as Blossom flicked through a couple of pieces of paperwork, before acknowledging the fact with a nod. However, he returned to full-on nervous mode when Blossom reached forward and pressed the intercom button.
"Sonic, why haven't we given Boomer a bonus?" she asked while the Blue Ruff tried to control his breathing. He shouldn't be this scared of the person who could fire him, should he? Boomer had to admit he'd been fired quite a lot during his life, by a wide range of super villains. Maybe that had made him paranoid. Still, explaining his latest cock up to Brick hadn't been much fun back then, he doubted explaining it to Bubbles would be any better.
"Did you have to involve Sonic!" he hissed. Blossom looked up.
"He's not going to do anything Boomer," she said.
"He could fire me!"
"Sonic? He'd never be bothered to do the necessary paperwork."
The SSR's leader shoved open the door. "Okay, the reason Boomer hasn't got a bonus is because he hasn't solved a single crime since he's been here."
"What?" said Boomer, "but what about that Kryptonite thing, I helped with that!"
"Yes," admitted Sonic, "but you were off duty at the time, so that went down as an overtime payment, and everything else you've done has been… well rubbish."
Blossom blinked. "That answer your question Boomer," she asked, slightly shocked. She wondered how many other heroes had managed to do an entire year around this place without actually achieving anything. Probably quite a lot of them.
Boomer looked rather defeated, but Sonic was looking at him in a strange way. Blossom slowly recornised the expression; a plan was developing in the back of his mind, and it wasn't necessarily a good thing…
"Boomer, come with me for a moment," Sonic said suddenly. Boomer jumped, and looked at Blossom for direction, showing his usual lack of self leadership. Blossom nodded for him to follow, so he did.
Sonic closed the door of his office behind Boomer. "Take a seat," he said worryingly kindly. Boomer did so, and Sonic sat down opposite. "So," said the hedgehog, "you want a bonus."
"Err… yes."
"Right, well that report is only a first draft, so there is still time for you to earn one. You see I have a job for which you are perfectly suited."
"You do," said Boomer excitedly, with no suspicion what so ever. How were you ever a super villain, thought Sonic to himself, your so trusting.
"There's been a robbery at the ITCD bank, as you may have heard," Sonic lent back on his chair, "and it's got us rather pickled." He put his face into a suitably taxed expression. "The evidence is quite… spars and contradictory. The only thing we can agree on is that which ever gang did this, they are likely to strike again. So I was thinking, since you are the latest "convert" from the criminal world to the SSR, your expert understanding of the criminal mind could just be the key we need to crack it."
Boomer had never been called an expert in anything before, and he was predictably flattered. "Really?" he said. Sonic nodded smugly.
"Absolutely, so if you want it, it's your investigation. And if you solve it, I'll give you a bonus. Okay?"
"Sure, great, thanks!" said Boomer enthusiastically. He got up to leave. "I'll start right away!"
"That's the sprit," said Sonic happily, "take Sonia with you to help."
"Thanks Sonic," said Boomer nodding, and he left.
The blue Hedgehog sat back in his chair. That had gone better then even he could possibly have expected. Sure, Boomer did have an understanding of the criminal mind, but not a very good one. In fact, Sonic reckoned that the only reason the Ruff's had swapped sides was because they were such terrible Super villains. They'd defiantly been doing something wrong, since despite having the fantastic claim that their brother had killed Superman, both Butch and Boomer had been broke when they'd swapped. Pure incompetence, thought Sonic.
He was 90 certain that Boomer's incompetence could be relied upon in this case too. Which was perfect as far as Sonic was concerned, as it would give him time to sort it out with no interference…
This shall henceforth be know as, mistake number one.
Okay, as I said, sorry for the delay and the length. Please review, thanks. Oh, and I'm having probelms with my document manager at the moment, if anyone else is too, please say. Thanks.
