CHAPTER 8: Time-Space Rift Pt. 2: A Hauntin' we Will Go.

Mystery mostly by Gnat1, with a few ideas thrown in from me. BEGIN TRANSMISSION!

Silver and Silhouette went and took refuge in another part of town, away from both 'themselves' and others that may catch on to something suspicious. The Chaotix Detectives went to meet their new client.

Thunder the Lion was waiting for them in a dense jungle between Seaside Hill and Mystic Ruins. He had purple eyes, green fur, and large catlike ears that stuck up from a wispy mane. He brought them to the scene of the crime and began to explain.

"My friends and I, Lightning the Hedgehog and Wind the Eagle, were hearing these loud wails coming from the forest a while back. They always started at eleven at night sharp and went for a few hours, finally just stopping and resuming the next night. We followed the sound last night and came here." He motioned around the sandy area they were standing in.

"But the weird thing was no one was around. But as soon as we stepped into the moonlight, the wails stopped. We decided to camp here for the night. When I woke up, Wind and Lightning were gone."

"You didn't hear them leave, or anything?" Vector asked.

"Nothing at all." Thunder admitted. "It was as though they just…snuck away."

"Any clues?" Espio asked.

"Yes…actually." Thunder nodded. "This way."

He lead them a bit further into the woods, almost to a beach. He pointed to the sand at his feet.

There was an almost perfect 3D imprint of a hand, pointing to the right. "I was sleeping here." Thunder said, motioning to the ground just a few feet away from the imprint of the pointing finger. "This was really what prompted me to find you. I mean…you can find my friends, right?"

"Of course. We're not amateurs." Vector said.

The group went to work checking the area for any clues. Nothing came up, other than a feather (Thunder explained it was from Wind) and an empty bag of chips (That Thunder guilty admitted he tossed).

Espio had eventually strayed from the group as they searched the area in a wide berth. He was standing nearby the 3D hand, facing the forest in the direction it pointed. He began to follow it, walking in a straight line until a tree stopped him.

As he turned around, something caught his eye.

In the bushes…there! A glimmer of blue. He knelt and picked up a shining blue sapphire-like jewel that appeared as though it had fallen out or off of something. Oddly enough, it seemed familiar…

"Oh, hey! Espio found something shiny!" Charmy reported loudly.

"What is it?" Vector asked.

Espio held up the jewel. "I don't know about you…but it looks familiar."

"Yeah…it does…" Vector narrowed his eyes and thought for a second. While he was doing that, Charmy snatched the sapphire from Espio, stared at it for a second, and said:

"That's GhostKing's. From her saber."

"Hey…it is!" Vector said. "How'd it get here? What was she doing out here?"

"My question is why the hand was pointing to it." Espio motioned back towards the hand imprinted in the sand. "Almost directly in its 'line of sight', if you can call it that."

"Maybe Wind or Lightning had just enough time to make a sign pointing to a clue?" Charmy suggested.

"That's an idea…" Vector nodded. He turned back to Thunder. "Did you happen to notice where the strange howls were coming from? Any specific place?"

"It sounded as though they were coming from treetops." Thunder said. "But we couldn't see anything up there and nothing flew away or anything as we approached."

"Charmy, go check the trees." Espio said.

"Ok!" Charmy flew off, buzzing from tree to tree.

"If my suspicions are correct…" Vector muttered to himself. "There should be a-"

"VECTOR! I FOUND A WEIRD BOX! IT LOOKS LIKE MY RADIO!" Charmy shouted.

"…suspicion correct?" Espio asked.

"Yes. Someone's been rigging this whole thing." Vector said as Charmy threw the box down at him. It was only about as big as a Kleenex box and just as light.

"But that still doesn't explain Lightning and Wind." Thunder said.

"Not yet. But I do have a few ideas on what happened to them. But we're going to have to hear these wails for ourselves. We're camping out tonight!"

"OH BOY! MARSHMALLOWS!" Charmy cheered.

XxXxXxXx

"Tell me again why we're doing this." Espio sighed.

"Partly because we can't go back to the agency because Silver screwed up time and space and partly because I just want to hear what drew Thunder and his friends out here." Vector explained in a low whisper.

"What time is it?" Charmy asked in bored tones. "And what kind of a camping trip is this? There's not even marshmallows!"

"Almost eleven. It should start soon." Thunder said.

A few more minuets passed in silence before a long, eerie wail began. It cut itself off and began again, louder this time and seemingly much more close. Charmy grabbed Vector's arm and refused to let go, terrified.

"That's what we've heard last time." Thunder nodded in the dim light. "And when we stepped into the moonlight…" He got up and took a couple of steps forward. As soon as he entered the light, the wails stopped almost immeadentally.

"And that's what happened to us, almost exacally." Thunder shrugged.

A stick snapped somewhere to their right. The group sprang up, prepared to face the incoming intruder. "Who's there? Show yourselves!" Espio hissed.

From the darkness came two figures, both of them walking in unison. Thunder squinted into the dim light and said, "Is that….no way…"

The two figures finally came into better light. One was an eagle with dark brown feathers and the other was a golden hedgehog. They had to be none other than Thunder's friends.

"Where have you guys been? Do you know how worried I was? I thought you were kidnapped! Killed! Maybe something worse than death…I don't know!" Thunder growled. "Well? Aren't you going to say something?"

They just stood, not making eye contract with anyone. Espio cautiously approached Lightning, staring into his eyes for a few seconds. "Their…their eyes look like Silver's after he came in contact with the Apple of Eris."

"Hey! Lightning!" Thunder smacked his friend across the face, knocking him to the ground. Lightning blinked madly and scrambled up.

"What happened?"

"Well, we figured out what was causing the wails." Thunder said. "And what happened to you."

"What do you mean? I was at my house." Lightning said. "And the next second, I'm here. Can anyone tell me what's going on?"

"First, you need to tell me what happened to you. We were out here last night, remember that?"

Lightning nodded.

"And after I stepped into the moonlight to cut the wails off, we all decided to call it a day. What happened to you after that?"

Lightning thought for a few long seconds. "I…I don't remember exactly. I think someone was telling me to get up…I think there was a sword or something…the first guy ran off…"

Thunder was busy reviving Wind. The eagle jumped up from the ground after being hit down, screaming, "What the heck was that for?!"

"You were zoned out, man." Thunder sighed. "What do you remember from this time last night until now?"

"Nothing really. I was at my house."

"Ok, now this is a bit weird…" Charmy said.

Another sound caught their attention. The group turned to see a bush move slightly, as though someone had ducked behind it.

"Come out!" Vector growled.

The bush moved a bit more and two figures approached them slowly. "Hi, guys. We didn't know where you went, so we've just sort of been wondering…" Silhouette muttered.

"What's going on here?" Silver asked.

"Nothing much. Go away." Vector sighed.

"Hey, that's him!" Lightning exclaimed. "He came and told me to go back to my house last night!"

"What, me?" Silver asked.

"Yes, you! Who else around here is pure white?"

"I wasn't out here!" Silver protested. "I didn't even know this part of the forest existed! We just followed your voices here!"

"Did you rig this place with the speakers?" Wind demanded.

"What? No!"

"All right, we'll deal with him later." Vector said. "Wind and Lightning are back now, and I think that's really all that matters here. Well…that and finding the source of the wails. We should get those speakers and crush them."

"We'll do that in the morning. Thanks, guys." Thunder said, taking a glowing gem from behind his back. "I found this a few days ago…I don't know what it does, but maybe you do. It's really all I can pay you with, so I hope it's ok…"

"Hey, the Chaos Emerald!" Silhouette cheered. "Great! Thanks!"

"Thank you." Thunder said.

"All right. Come on, guys. There's one more thing we have to do…" Vector said.

XxXxXxXx

"It's the middle of the night! GhostKing's not going to come to the door!" Espio sighed.

Vector just pointed to one of the windows of the agency. It was lit up, and they could see the shadow of a figure bent over a desk and studying some notes. He walked up to the door and knocked sharply, putting the blue sapphire they had found on the welcome mat before diving back into the bushes.

GhostKing did indeed open the door and find her gem. She bent down, scooped it up, and slammed the door shut behind her.

"She must really like that thing." Charmy observed.

"Well, our work here is done." Espio said. "Now the main mystery is why Silver is being blamed for everything."

"You know I didn't do that, right?" Silver asked.

"You're still under house arrest!" Charmy said.

Silver sighed and raised the Chaos Emerald into the air. "Chaos Control!"

XxXxXxXx

Silhouette had given them a diamond necklace as payment for trying to find Silver's father. Now the three detectives were sitting in the TV room in the back of the agency, pondering what they had witnessed in the past few days.

"I would never have imagined that Silver's dad would have dark fur like that." Espio said.

"Now we know what his mother looks like." Charmy said.

"When he just jumped off the hill like that…didn't he look familiar?" Vector asked. "I mean…dark fur…hedgehog…You don't think…?"

The three of them paused slightly.

"Nah. That's impossible." Espio concluded.

XxXxXxXx

Cool! I wrote a time-traveling mystery! These things are so hard to do sometimes! I confused myself!

Remember in the last Detective Agency story when Amy was being caught up in everything? Now it's Silver.

So will they get to the bottom of the strange occurrences and such? Will they prove Silver innocent? Will they rescue Shadow from GUN? Will they do anything at all?! There's TV to be watched, after all…

Find out next time!

Oh, I just uploaded my 50th story! It's a STAR TREK and Sonic crossover! So if you're into that kind of thing, check it out! Although I won't be able to work on it until I get done with this story here...

Next mystery is HyperTomboi429's!

Hasta la Vista, Readers!

Lordoftheghostking28

PS: My neighbor's cat that was supposedly run over by a car…IS STILL ALIVE! I got to see my kitty again! The bad news is either his son or his dad got run over in his place…poor cat. I like cats.