A/N: G'day readers! Long time no see!8D
Not really, but whatever...
Originally, this chapter didn't exist, but I thought that if I didn't create it, there might be some confusion. So now you lovely readers have an extra chapter to read (Yay!).
I was kind of in a hurry to finish typing this chapter last night so if it seems rushed towards the end... you'll know why. Also, did anyone notice the small and incredibly lame joke in the last chapter? I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't...
Regarding one of my reviews...
I'm terribly sorry Duskzilla but I won't be killing off Sally Acorn in this fic. The reason being that I'm strictly following the videogame storyline. However... I may just write a separate fic involving Mephiles killing her, maybe even the other Freedom Fighters...
Now without further ado... read on readers!^^
The Darkness Returns
Curiosity Kills
One day later…
Morning
Chaotix Detective Agency, Vector's office
Vector the crocodile reclined leisurely in his padded office chair, crossed feet tapping and jerking about on his desk to the rhythm of the obnoxiously loud rock music escaping his headphones. He hummed along in a gravelly off-key voice which, after about five seconds, began to grate on the other occupant of the room's nerves.
Espio opened his mouth to express his displeasure at having his meditation interrupted by his boss' bad singing but the sudden appearance of a small flying object, which burst through the office door screaming in a high pitched voice, cut him off.
"Vector!"
"Woah!" the crocodile yelped, jerking backwards in his chair at this unexpected new arrival. Unfortunately, he jerked back with so much force that not even his wildly flailing arms could stop his fall, so he landed on his head with a large thump. The small flying object, a bee by the name of Charmy, ignored the fall of his boss and buzzed anxiously around the desk, a rolled up newspaper clenched tightly in one gloved fist. Espio noted the distressed look on the face of the six year old and experienced a dark and uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach. Fear.
"Charmy, what in the world are you doing?!" an irritated Vector snapped at the bee as he rose from behind the desk, rubbing at his tender head. The bee made to talk but only a small sob wrenched itself from his throat. Both Vector and Espio immediately stiffened.
'Uh oh… this can't be good…' the crocodile thought with a nervous swallow.
"Charmy… what's that newspaper?" Espio asked as calmly as he could manage with his barely suppressed anxiety. Vector, on both impulse and habit asked, "You didn't steal it did you?"
Charmy blinked, dumbfounded, for two seconds before giving his head a quick shake. Vector nodded with a pleased smile. "Good. Now… can I have a look at it?"
With shaking hands, the bee handed the newspaper to his boss, who muttered a small thanks as he sat back in his chair and unrolled the newspaper.
It took a full minute for what Vector was seeing to fully process and when it finally did, his eyes widened in an almost comical way. "… Can't be…" he murmured, gold eyes quickly rereading the inked words stamped to the paper. Sure enough, the obnoxiously bold headline 'Mysterious Epidemic Kills Hero' remained the same, as did the colour picture showing Sonic's trademark red and white sneakers peeking out from under a crisp white sheet; no matter how many times Vector looked over them.
"Vector?" Espio spoke up, worried by the expression on the face of his boss and friend. The crocodile quickly waved a hand in a gesture of silence and Espio promptly snapped his mouth shut. After scanning the headline and picture a couple more times, Vector read the small paragraph underneath.
'Disaster struck two days ago in the 'Water Capital' Soleanna when an unknown epidemic with gruesome side-effects made itself known, panicking the citizens to no end. This is not a big surprise, considering the unknown disease killed five in just one day. Counted among the victims are Princess Elise the Third and Sonic the hedgehog.
The death of the long time hero and protector in particular has been a massive shock to all, leaving many to question their safety now that he is gone. More shocking were the deaths of the 'Blue Blur's' closest friends, Miles 'Tails' Prower the fox and Knuckles the echidna, which occurred a mere day after his own in the young fox's own house.
The source of this disease is still unknown but it is advised that everyone should check for symptoms, and receive medical attention if these symptoms are found.'
Vector reread the paragraph three more times to let the words sink in then flicked to page five, where there was a more extensive report with details of the deaths, who would take over Soleanna now that its last living monarch had died, and the mysteryof the unknown disease with many theories of its origin.
The whole story of the epidemic was spread over two and a half pages, with the last half page having the portraits of the five victims as well as a small box in the corner with details about the disease such as how to spot the symptoms and what to do if any are found.
Vector slowly lowered the paper with quivering hands. "This… this isn't… Sonic and the others can't be…"
"What, Vector?" Espio asked, somewhat annoyed and impatient that the crocodile hadn't relinquished the newspaper to him or even told the chameleon what he was babbling about.
Vector slumped forward and rubbed a gloved palm over his eyes. "Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Amy are dead…" he said hoarsely. Espio's eyes flew wide open and his jaw dropped.
"Wh-? Impossible!" He exclaimed, indignant at first. "T-they couldn't have… it's just not… possible…" he continued, albeit with no faith in his words, knowing that his boss' words were true.
Vector dragged his hand over his eyes again. "Yeah, well… it happened. The evidence is here," he sighed, tossing the newspaper at Espio's feet, "cold and hard as a genuine diamond…"
The chameleon stared hard at the cover picture, fear and disbelief etched onto his face.
The photograph of Sonic's sneakers peering out from under the white morgue blanket remained the same, no matter how long Espio stared so he kicked it away, sending pages flying. Charmy jerked at the sudden violent action but Vector ignored it, staring blankly at the surface of his desk.
A heavy and depressing silence descended over the three Chaotix as various thoughts of their dead friends and dark emotions swirled through their minds.
Charmy was the first to recover his voice and he immediately asked, "What're we gonna do now, Vector?"
Espio's eyes flicked up to stare intensely at the sullen crocodile. He too wanted to learn of their proposed course of action.
Vector was silent for a moment before he slowly pushed out his chair. "We're detectives…" he said flatly. Charmy cocked his head to the side and Espio blinked. The crocodile suddenly flashed his subordinates a toothy grin. "We investigate!"
Hours later
Afternoon
Tails' house
Mephiles sighed with aggravation as the last of the reporters left the house of the dead fox. Slowly, he emerged from the shadow of the fridge, absently flexing his hands.
He had stayed at the house, expecting the arrival of more of the blue hedgehog's friends… instead he was greeted by some bumbling human journalist, probably looking to interview the fox on the death of his friend. Needless to say, initially both Mephiles and the journalist were surprised at each other's presence, neither moving once they locked eyes.
Eventually, the man's had flicked to a spot somewhere behind Mephiles (He later learnt that the man had been eyeing a bloody footprint which he had created by stepping through the blood of the fox so many times.) and then he had turned tail and started to run. Without thinking, Mephiles had tackled the human and snapped his neck. After that he spent about five minutes staring at the dead man's lifeless eyes, wondering what he should do next.
After those five minutes transpired, he formed a portal to a random timeline and tossed the body through, uncaring whether or not he scared whoever was unlucky enough to be caught under the portal's (and the body that it transported) trajectory. That deed done, he re-entered the house and took his previous position in front of the kitchen window to keep a lookout for further intruders.
Hours had passed by, with each accompanied by humans. At first it was one or two more of the journalist type, but as time ticked on, there had been arrivals of up to five or six uniformed humans.
While the journalists had been armed with cameras and notepads, these humans carried more intriguing items such as firearms and some type of metal cuffs connected by a thin chain as well as other very interesting pieces of technology.
The first round of uniformed humans had stormed the house, poking their small firearms around cautiously and Mephiles had wondered if they knew that he was hiding and watching them from within the shadows. As time passed by though, he realised that they had only been doing that as a precaution and so he relaxed somewhat. More time passed, and with it came more uniformed humans. These humans sported rubber gloves and didn't seem to mind poking and prodding at the dead fox and echidna.
At one point, Mephiles had used the shadows to manipulate the dead pair, making them twitch or jerk slightly when only one human was observing them, receiving mild amusement from their terrified reactions. Eventually though he grew bored of this and decided to merely observe the humans as they worked and that in itself was interesting enough for him.
They flitted about, carrying small brushes and little plastic containers filled with some type of powder. This powder was coated over specific spots and objects, followed by the brush being lightly dusted over these powder covered areas. Apparently, the idea was for the powder to pick up anything undetectable to the naked eye; although how this was supposed to help the humans with their investigation was completely beyond Mephiles.
There were more uniformed humans outside, leaning against white and black cars with red and blue lights attached to the tops of them, quietly conversing amongst themselves but he mostly ignored them because they weren't doing anything productive.
But moving on to the present time… the uniformed humans seemed to be calling it a day, packing up their equipment and ushering stray journalists away, and for this, he was grateful.
Mephiles leaned back against the fridge and sighed deeply. 'No luck so far today… perhaps I should just come back tomorrow...'
His eyes moved to stare out the window, noting that the scenery was faintly tinted with orange light. He hummed lightly. Well, it certainly wouldn't kill him if he chose to stick around.
The thought made him chuckle.
Absently, he trailed a finger in small lazy circles over the smooth surface of the fridge. "Perhaps I should stick around until nightfall…" he mused aloud, allowing the slow circles to gradually grow bigger. "It might prove to be a fruitful decision…"
'Not to mention that I haven't the slightest clue on where Shadow is…'
The thought made him sigh irritably.
If someone didn't come by soon, he would have to wander around like a moron, searching high and low for his hated enemy. This of course begged the question: What were he to do if he was unable to find Shadow?
"No!" he hissed aloud, "I will find him. And when I do… he will die… painfully!"
A harsh grating screech made itself known, and Mephiles immediately stared down at his hand. It was crystallised.
Mephiles cocked his head to the side. His aggressive train of thought must have been the cause of his transformation.
Mentally he shrugged. It didn't matter at this point, as there were no humans around and it seemed that none of the blue hedgehog's friends would show up.
Absently, he tapped his pointed fingers over the fridge's surface, each tap clicking slightly from the contact. He had no clue as to how much time passed before he was aware of the sound of approaching voices.
His ears perked and if he had a mouth to grin with, it would have been equivalent to the Cheshire cat's. "Ah… finally… some mild entertainment!"
"Are we there yet?" Charmy asked for probably the hundred and eighty-seventh time since the Chaotix left their detective agency in search of information regarding the deaths of their friends. "No we aren't!" Vector snapped, swatting at the bee. "And if you ask one more time, we'll go back to the agency!"
Charmy pouted and buzzed ahead, grumbling about 'old people who aren't any fun', leaving Espio behind to listen to Vector griping about 'annoying brats with no patience'. The chameleon rolled his eyes. Both of them were acting childish.
Charmy suddenly buzzed back, looking extremely hyper. "Hey! I think I found Tails' house!" he exclaimed excitedly, pointing at the not so distant break in the tree line. Vector squinted and nodded once he could make out the shape of the fox's home. "Yep… that's gotta be it. Let's hurry it up boys; the sun's going down!"
The trio picked up the pace and were out of the forest and in front of the house within a minute. Once there, they took a moment to stare at the police tape that surrounded the perimeter of the house. Vector cracked his neck and strolled towards the front door, Espio and Charmy in tow.
Mephiles smirked as he watched the strange trio cautiously push open the door and peered inside. 'They don't look like much, but they'll do.'
The crocodile strode through first, followed by the chameleon, with the little bee ending the precession. The chameleon immediately froze and his gold eyes flicked about.
"What's wrong, Espio?" the crocodile asked as he turned around to face his companion.
The chameleon, Espio, continued to look around edgily. "I sense… a terrible evil, all around us."
Mephiles was intrigued. 'So… he knows that I'm here. This should prove much more interesting than I originally thought.'
The crocodile too began to glance around uneasily. "Yeah. I know what you mean. It feels mighty hinky around here, so let's make this quick."
The trio exchanged nods then made way for the kitchen. Mephiles quickly followed after them through the growing shadows, eager to see their frightened reactions before he killed them.
As soon as Vector poked his snout into Tails' kitchen he was overwhelmed by the scent of blood.
Granted, the whole house had smelt like that, but here, it was much more concentrated. As soon as he entered, he could see why.
A blood drenched Tails was slumped in front of the far wall with a multitude of dark jagged crystals jutting from his body. Three of these crystals had an equally limp Knuckles pinned to the wall.
Vector quickly backed up, almost knocking over Espio in his haste.
"Ow! Vector!"
He ignored the chameleon's annoyed exclamation, far too wrapped up in his fearful thoughts.
Reading about deaths in the newspaper had been a shock, but that was nothing compared to physically being in the same room as the corpses, with the stench of their blood burning at his nostrils and their bodies before his very eyes. It was almost too much to bear.
"Vector, what's up?" Charmy called from behind Espio.
The crocodile's head whipped around so fast that it was a wonder it didn't fly right off his shoulders. "Don't come in here Charmy!" he barked in a voice that was a lot harsher than was intended. At first the little bee was startled by his boss' tone, but he quickly recovered, glaring at Vector's wide scaly back. "Why not?!" he yelled, sounding extremely annoyed.
Vector whirled around to fully face the bee, almost knocking Espio off his feet with his tail in the process. "Because you're young and don't need that kind of mental trauma!" he yelled back.
"I was their friend too!" the bee argued, curling his little hands into fists as tears filled his eyes. "So you can't stop me!"
"Yes I can! I'm older and wiser than you! Not to mention,I'm your boss!" Vector snapped in reply.
The pair's bickering continued and Espio watched from the sideline, eyes flicking between the two as he tried to find some way to stop their arguing.
Just as he opened his mouth, a disturbing and highly painful sensation made itself known and whatever he was going to say was lost to his agonised scream.
As the chameleon continued to scream in pain, Mephiles quickly slipped into his body before he could be noticed by the now concerned bee and crocodile. Mephiles ignored their frantic yelling about the wellbeing of the chameleon and began to spread his substance throughout the reptile's bloodstream. This had proved to be the fastest method of gaining control of his victim's bodies so he employed it. As Mephiles worked on taking over the chameleon's body, he slipped into his subconsciousness. There was something that he needed the chameleon for…
It was dark all around him, but he didn't mind. And why would he? Darkness was his element after all. Mephiles stepped forward, slowly moving his head about. "Where could it be?" he wondered aloud, taking a few more slow steps forward. Moments worth of looking quickly paid off when he spied a small chest, covered in a faint gold light. He smirked his mouthless smirk and eagerly strode towards the object. However, once he was within a metre from the chest a giant metal wall laced with thin veins of purple that were the same hue as the chameleon slammed down in front of him, barring the way.
Mephiles cocked his head to the side. "It appears you have quite a strong amount of willpower, chameleon." He said, slit-pupiled eyes gazing at the obstruction with faint amusement. "However…"
Mephiles raised his left hand, forming a dark orb the size of an ostrich egg. "Willpower alone cannot stop me!"
The abomination hurled the orb at the wall, laughing as it hit the obstruction dead centre and made the whole thing explode into little fragments. Mephiles strode forwards eagerly towards the chest, still laughing. Once he was standing directly in front of the object, he hooked one crystallised claw under the lid's overhang and flicked it up.
At once he was blinded by brilliant golden light, which swirled around him in a miniature vortex.
Once the light faded, Mephiles saw that there was a small luminous orb sitting in the centre of the chest. He laughed triumphantly and plucked the orb out, holding it close to his face.
Within its depths, the faces of those known to the chameleon flashed by one after the other. With each passing face, Mephiles was imparted with a small amount of information regarding the face's owner.
The crocodile, the bee, an armadillo named Mighty, Sonic the idiotic blue hedgehog, Amy the equally stupid pink hedgehog, Shadow and the bat girl, a robotic version of Sonic and the egg shaped man who had created him, a small rabbit girl and a fat purple cat...
Mephiles smirked. He now knew what his next course of action would be after dealing with these three idiots.
"Espio! Espio! Wake up!" Vector yelled, frantically shaking his subordinate's shoulders.
The only response he got from the chameleon was more harsh coughing and spasming as well as the occasional pained cry.
"V-V-Vector, what's ha-appening?" Charmy sobbed, extremely distressed. Vector ceased shaking the unresponsive chameleon, slowly shaking his head. "I-I dunno… but I think he caught the disease that killed Sonic!"
Charmy whimpered. "I do-on't want Espio to d-die!"
"He won't!" Vector growled, even though he didn't believe in his words.
Espio went still.
Vector immediately feared the worst, and so did Charmy, if his loud wails were a clear enough indication. Then Espio's eyes snapped wide open.
The other two Chaotix were stunned to silence for a moment before Vector grinned. "See Charmy! I told you that he wouldn't-"
He then noticed his subordinate's green slit-pupiled eyes and the words froze in his throat.
He didn't even have enough time to scream as Espio lunged at himself and Charmy with an ungodly scream, crystals ripping out of his body in all directions.
A/N: Yay, Mighty makes a cameo appearance!8D
I really enjoyed writing the first part of Mephiles' point of view... and I found it kind of cute (Wait... what?), particularly his curiosity towards the police. But that's just me...
The next chapter will have the meeting of Shadow and Mephiles, as well as some Shadow/Rouge fluff, but no immediate deaths. Well... none that are real or haven't already happened.
Thank you for reading!^^