CHAPTER 9: Darkest Deaths

HyperTomboi429's mystery.

The rest of the day passed uneventfully.

It was at one in the morning and pouring rain when the day started up early. Vector awoke to the sound of someone pounding on the front door. He jumped out of bed and darted down the stairs to the door, Espio, GhostKing and Charmy standing in their doorways looking tired and confused.

"What's going on? At this hour, too?" Charmy asked, yawning.

Vector had yanked open the door and a gray-blue hedgehog stumbled into the room, soaked head to toe. She wore a white T-shirt, black jacket, black slacks, white sneakers with grays straps, gray fingerless gloves, and black basketball wristbands.

"You've got to help me!" She cried, her voice breaking. "You've got to!"

"We will…what's wrong?" Vector demanded.

"There was an explosion! My…my mom and dad…" The hedgehog coughed. "They're…they're dead!"

"Where did this happen?" Espio demanded, running down the stairs. He was quickly followed by Charmy and GhostKing.

"Leaf Forest! I…I came here because I know you can help…!" She trailed off, sinking to the floor.

"Help me get her to the couch." GhostKing took one arm of their visitor and hauled her up.

"They're dead…" The hedgehog muttered again. "…Dead…"

XxXxXxXx

"She's got to be exhausted." GhostKing muttered, casting their guest a look. The hedgehog had fallen asleep on the couch and had stayed that way for the past few hours. The rain outside still hadn't ceased. "Leaf Forest is at least twenty miles away…"

"She came all that way just to ask us for help? Why didn't she contact the police?" Espio asked.

"Well, one of the many things we'll have to ask her." Vector yawned.

"Her parents are dead?" Charmy squeaked.

"Apparently." Espio couldn't help but notice GhostKing was holding her saber again, the blue sapphire back in its normal place on the hilt. He knew his boss to be paranoid, but this was a bit extreme…

"I'll make pancakes." GhostKing stood. "I think she could use a good meal when she wakes."

"Don't burn the kitchen down." Charmy warned, all humor gone from his voice.

The three of them sort of stared into space, listening to the rain come down outside. "Isn't Leaf Forest really…well…isolated from society?" Vector asked.

"But that still doesn't explain why she came all this way." Espio said.

The hedgehog coughed and turned over on the couch, falling off the edge and landing heavily on the floor. She scrambled up and spun around to face the three detectives, terrified.

"It's ok!" Charmy squeaked. "We're going to help you! Can you tell us what happened?"

The hedgehog continued staring at them for a while before falling heavily back onto the couch. "My parents are dead." She started. "I…I don't know how or why. Or what destroyed my home. There was an explosion…I was thrown out into the woods. I just started running…I don't think I stopped until I reached this place. I don't know what lead me here…I just heard someone talking about you at some point and my brain screamed at me, 'Chaotix Detective Agency.'"

"Why didn't you just go to the police?" Vector asked.

"Because…" The hedgehog trailed off for a few seconds. "…I don't know how or why I thought this…but I think I'd be putting them in danger."

"What's your name?" Espio asked.

"I'm Bolt." The hedgehog said. "I can control natural elements like fire, water, earth, air, electricity, and some metals."

"That's awesome!" Charmy exclaimed. "Why can't I do anything cool?"

"You work for us. That's cool enough." Espio said.

Bolt smiled slightly.

XxXxXxXx

The rain was still coming down heavily. The group had managed to convince Tails to fly them a good twenty miles to Leaf Forest, but they still had a long ways to go through the woods. Tails stayed behind in the plane, the cockpit now covered by a huge dome of glass.

Charmy was carrying an umbrella at least six times as big as he was and trying to fly at the same time. Vector had stolen GhostKing's rain poncho, but it didn't seem to be doing any good. Espio had given his umbrella to Bolt and was now drenched by the rain.

"I never really caught your names." Bolt said.

"I'm Espio. The bee is Charmy and that's Vector." Espio said.

"I like ice cream." Charmy said.

Bolt smiled slightly once again, but it was drowned out by a heavy sigh. "I can't believe this really happened…it's like a dream…"

"Maybe it is." Vector muttered, trying to see beyond the trees and sheets of pouring rain.

They kept walking—or more like kept tripping over logs, roots and falling in mud puddles—until a structure rose out of the gloom. Bolt sped up, the three detectives quickly following.

"Welcome to the Leaf Forest village." Bolt said sadly. "Or…what's left of it. I think everyone evacuated."

She walked over to the splintered remains of a house. Vector bent down to pick something up and Charmy, Espio and Bolt explored the wreckage. "This was the living room." Bolt sighed.

"What could have done something like this?" Charmy asked.

"That's what we're trying to figure out." Espio growled.

"I think I found something." Vector reported.

Espio walked over while Charmy kept Bolt company. "What? Is it a clue?"

"Seems to be." Vector held a tiny shard of a crystal out. "I don't know where this could have come from…"

"We'll take it back to the agency. I've seen enough here to know that whoever did this…they were aiming to kill in the first place. I think everyone else is lucky to have escaped while they could." Espio glanced around once again. "Even if there were clues in Bolt's house…they're buried under debris and probably impossible to find now."

"So in other words…there's nothing worth staying for?" Vector asked.

Espio nodded, walking back over to the demolished house to guide Charmy and Bolt back to Tails' plane.

XxXxXxXx

"It hasn't stopped raining once." Charmy muttered. They had made it back to the agency and were now just trying to get warm.

"It's freezing out there!" Bolt shivered, pulling the blanket she was wrapped in closer. "I'd be surprised if we all didn't catch colds."

"Bolt…have you ever seen this?" Espio held out the crystal shard that Vector had found.

"No…why? Did you find that in the forest?"

"Nearby your house." Vector said from the main desk.

"Maybe the killer dropped it!" Bolt said. "It looks like it might have come off a necklace or something…any ideas?"

"We can't just jump to conclusions." Espio reminded her. "We need more clues, or pointers, or anything before we start adding things together."

The phone rang and Vector picked it up on the third ring. "Chaotix Detective Agency. How can we…oh. Hi, Silver."

"I wonder what he's calling about." Charmy wondered.

"Probably asking if he's not under house arrest anymore." Espio sighed.

Bolt chuckled. "Can you even do that?"

"To tell you the truth, I don't know." The chameleon shrugged.

The three of them turned to watch Vector, who was becoming very animated with his responses. "You saw what? When?...What happened after that?...We'll be right over!" He slammed the phone down and turned to the others. "Come on, guys. I think Silver's giving us the clue we need."

"What? Out in the rain? Again?!" Charmy wailed.

"Come on!"

"What kind of clue?" Bolt asked, slightly nervous.

"He said he'd tell us more at his house, but he saw something in the sky last night. He said it was hovering over a large forest…"

XxXxXxXx

The four of them went as fast as they could down the rain-slicked sidewalks, along the way bumping into one of the detectives' past clients, Dark Misery.

"Hi, guys! Why the rush?" He asked.

"Not now, Dark Misery!" Vector sighed.

"Oh, ok." He went on with his business.

They finally came to Silver's place, Vector pounding so hard on the door that it cracked slightly. Silver quickly opened it. "I'm not deaf, you know!" He sighed.

The four of them stumbled into his house, throwing umbrellas and rain ponchos into the corner.

"All right… what did you see last night?" Vector demanded. "This is important! Her parents were killed!"

"Really?" Silver gasped. "Well…uh…there was this…really small, dark cloud swirling above a forest. It wasn't a natural cloud, I know that much. I could only see it through flashes of occasional lightning, and then it just darted straight down in a small orb. There was a soft explosion…I could feel the ground shake."

"Anything else?" Espio asked.

"After the explosion…the cloud went back into the air and drifted off towards the other side of town." Silver said. "That's really all I know."

"The forest had to be Leaf Forest." Bolt sighed. "I think you've spotted the killer…or something used by the killer."

Silver stared at the ground, muttering things about how everything always happens to him and he didn't do anything to deserve house arrest.

"Shut up, Silver." Vector growled. "We've got bigger things to worry about at the moment. Just sit tight for now and we'll get back to you later."

"What do we do now?" Charmy asked.

"Silver said the cloud went towards the other side of town, right? We have to follow it." Espio said.

"How are we going to catch a cloud?" Bolt asked sadly.

"Something tells me it isn't just a cloud…"

XxXxXxXx

The group found themselves standing in the middle of a soaked field. The rain had finally let up, but the ground still was a standing puddle. They sloshed into the middle of the field and began glancing around.

"I don't see anything." Charmy reported.

"Well, obviously." Vector sighed. "Spread out. Maybe we'll find something."

They split up. Bolt inched her way around a tree stump and continued towards the edge of a small wooded area, a small group of trees providing a nice home for a family of squirrels.

"This is impossible. There's no way a killer would just be hanging around here…" Bolt muttered to herself. "What am I going to do?"

She turned away from the forest and began making her way back towards the others when a sound caught her attention. Bolt didn't know how to place it, but it was the sound of pure evil. She spun around, unsure of who or what was behind her. A shadow moved, then began towards her. Nothing was casting it…

"Guys?!" Bolt began to back up nervously. Energy crackled in her hands for protection. "Guys?!"

The shadow swirled upwards, seeming to be taking a shape. Within a few seconds it had taken the solid form of a hedgehog. A crystal-like substance covered his limbs and quills and his eyes were bright green against a vivid purple.

Bolt had fallen in her haste to escape, now inching backwards. The demon-like being in front of her laughed. "Oh, Bolt. Same as ever. Why do you try to run from your fate?"

"Go away! Wh…who are you?" Bolt demanded, still backing up.

"I am Mephiles. Mephiles the Dark." The demon said, staring directly at her.

"Bolt! What's going…" Vector trailed off as he came up beside his client. "What's going on?"

"I don't know! Do you know this guy?" Bolt managed to stand again.

"We know him, all right." Espio growled. "Last time we saw him we thought he was locked away forever."

"It was only a matter of time before I would have escaped." Mephiles began staggering towards them. He held out his hand, where a bright red stone was.

Mephiles had been trapped in a stone sheltering Iblis' spirit during the attack by Scourge. The Chaotix and the others thought that he would be unable to escape…but they were obviously wrong.

"If you're here…" Charmy squeaked. "…Does that mean that Iblis is here too?"

"No. Not until the Iblis Trigger is destroyed." Mephiles faced Bolt again. "Join us, Bolt. I can grant you anything with the power that I now have. Do not resist, or I will be forced to destroy you like I did your parents."

"My…you killed my parents?" Bolt managed to say in a strangled whisper.

"I can bring them back." Mephiles promised. "Just the way they were before they were destroyed. All you have to do is join me."

"He's lying." Espio growled. "Even with all the Seven Chaos Emeralds, that would be near impossible. You can't possibly control that kind of power."

Mephiles laughed again. "How are you so sure?"

"I know he's telling the truth." Bolt hissed. "You can't possibly undo what you've done! You've killed my only family! I'll destroy you!" Energy crackled in her hands as the flung the sphere of electricity at the demon. Bright sparks obscured the group's vision for a few seconds before they looked back to see that Mephiles had vanished.

"Quickly! Back to the agency! We've got to tell GUN that we've found one of the escaped!" Vector shouted.

XxXxXxXx

"How's Bolt?" Vector asked. They had made it back to the agency safely, but since then Bolt had been extremely quiet and almost unresponsive to anything they asked.

"She's sad." Charmy said. "So I'm going to make her and me some hot chocolate, because she's making me sad too!"

Vector watched the bee fly off before glancing into the TV room, where Bolt was curled at the far corner of the couch. Espio was talking to her about some unknown subject, and Vector wasn't about to interrupt them.

Why had Mephiles been after her, out of all people? Why hadn't he gone after Sonic or someone twenty times as powerful as their client? Why her, out of all people? He even seemed…desperate.

Charmy came flying out of the kitchen bearing two steaming mugs that were probably loaded with fifty times the normal amount of chocolate. "Want hot chocolate, Bolt?"

Vector returned to his desk and went over some mystery notes he had written down on Luke and Josh, both of whom were still missing. Along with their notes, there were other things scrawled in the margins of the paper involving Summer's stolen ring, Shadow and Silver's odd behavior, the escapees from GUN, the stolen Timeonds, and various things about Thunder the Lion and his friends.

Vector couldn't explain it, but he just knew that this was all connected…somehow…

XxXxXxXx

"Bolt finally fell asleep." Charmy said a bit later. "And we can't watch TV because she's in that room. I feel so sorry for her! First her parents…and now there's a creeper after her!"

"Anyone know why Mephiles was after her, out of all people?" Vector asked.

The three of them were silent for a while before Espio surprisingly spoke up.

"Love,"

"What?" Charmy demanded.

"Love." Espio repeated. "Think about it. He killed her parents so she'd lose all hope…and then he comes and tells her he can bring them back to life if she joins him. There's no other explanation. Bolt's not necessarily strong in terms of power, and she otherwise wouldn't be viewed as a threat."

"Oh, good Chaos…" Vector facepalmed. "You know the world's at its end when demons start falling in love…"

"This is serious, Vector." Espio hissed. "Partly because she could be in real danger and partly because I think she's beginning to develop feelings for me."

"Oh, good Chaos!" Charmy exclaimed.

"For the record, I have none for her. She is a client, and I am sworn to help solve her case." Espio bluntly growled.

"Believe me, we know that." Vector sighed. "But how the heck are we going to keep her safe from someone like Mephiles…?"

"I don't know yet. Although I believe the agency isn't the safest place. Mephiles already knows we're working with her."

"We can ask Vanilla to watch her!" Charmy suggested. "That way, Vector can go and see her while on the case!"

"Shut up, Charmy…" Vector sighed again.

"Or maybe Tails or Grock and help! They're awesome and nerdy! They could help-" Charmy was cut off as a loud explosion shook the agency. From the other room, Bolt screamed.

The three detectives ran into the back room to find one window blown out, glass scattered across the room. Mephiles was standing in the center of the room, an arm around Bolt's neck. His other hand was holding a knife, which was pressed to her head.

"Don't follow me." He growled before jumping out the window and vanishing.

XxXxXxXx

…And Bolt is never seen or head of again.

I'm kidding! *Dodges HyperTomboi429's bullets*

But now another client has gone missing! Supposedly kidnapped out of love! What has this world come to?

So what will happen? Will they rescue Bolt? Will they ever find out what happened to Luke and Josh? Will Espio finally get a girlfriend?

Can't tell yet. You'll just have to wait and see!

I wrote this mystery in a Snuggie! I love my Snuggie! And I just ordered a refurbished iPod Touch online! Yey! So I can write stuff on long car rides in the Notes! (I've been saving up for one of these things for three years now…)

Next up is Johnny RocketBooster's and Pandamonium's mystery(s)!

Hasta la Vista, Readers!

Lordoftheghostking28