Greetings, Internet. Sorry this one took a bit longer. I believe I have experienced writer's block. Next one should be on time, though. Enjoy.

Act I: Scream

Chapter 10: Best Laid Plans

The basement door burst open. An extremely irritated echidna began stomping angrily toward Shadow. When he had crossed the floor to reach Shadow's bar, he slammed his palms onto it. "PUT ME IN A BASEMENT, WILL YOU?"

Shadow began cleaning a glass with a cloth. "If you are going to argue about my private life while there is a murderer on the loose, yes. I most certainly will."

Knuckles closed his eyes in suppressed rage. "I want to make sure that we can trust her because she could be the key to catching this guy."

Once again, Amy interjected. "Oh, so she's a key now, is she? Well how would you like it if I just called you a-"

She was interrupted by Omega firing another bullet-less round into the air. "This unit's patience is nearing its end. Our objective is to assist Shadow in apprehending a felon. Further distraction will result in incapacitation and removal from the premises."

The android ushered the others out of the basement. "Omega is right," said Tails. "We can worry about her later. Right now, we need to focus on the library."

All of the others gathered around the bar. Some sat, some stood. "Right," said Shadow. "I checked the place last night. There weren't any signs of a killer."

"Aw, man," said Sonic. "I wish we could just go trounce that guy and be done with it. I almost wish Eggman did it."

"No," said Rouge. "I think we can safely say that it's not Eggboy. He's too loud and big-picture to be doing this sort of thing."

"Okay," said Espio. "What should we do about the library? Should we set up surveillance again?"

"It looks like that's all that we can do at this point," said Tails. "We might also consider closing the library for a while."

"No," said Vector. "He'll just wait until it opens back up or find the place with the next most books."

"So what should we do to make sure that no one gets killed?" asked Rouge.

There was a long pause. Everyone seemed to be thinking very hard about this. Even if they knew where it was, how were they going to stop someone from killing someone else and getting away?

"Wait," said Tails. "What if we posed as library staff, then made sure that we had pictures of everyone who came in? That way, even if it was timed or something, we could round up everyone who was there that day."

"Good idea," said Knuckles. "But how do we know who did it if it doesn't show up on the cameras?"

"Easy," said Rouge. "We'll have specific blind spots in the cameras. If any of the people never go into one of them, they're home free. The rest of them will be questioned by G.U.N. interrogators. Even if they don't talk, those guys can tell the way someone thinks by the way that they speak. If one shows the signs of a murderer, boom. We have our man."

"Interesting," retorted Knuckles. "And just who might these interrogators be?"

Rouge got up from her barstool with a sly grin on her face. She walked behind the bar and put her arm around Shadow. "Why, us. Of course."

Shadow smirked. Apart from being field agents, Shadow and Rouge had also done several interrogations together. If there was a prisoner who they needed to crack, Shadow and Rouge were their mallets. Their good-cop-bad-cop routine worked wonders. Sometimes, Shadow quite enjoyed being the bad cop.

"You two?" asked Sonic with suppressed laughter. "What are you gonna do, Shad? Glare at me angrily?"

Shadow looked at Rouge, still smirking. She returned his grin and nodded.

"Level 3?" asked Shadow.

"Nah," said Rouge. "He'll barely make it through level 4. Let's go with that."

Shadow sneered. Level 4 was good too.

Without a warning, Rouge front-flipped over the bar and restrained Sonic with his arms behind his back.

"Hey! What are you do-"

Shadow interrupted the struggling blue hedgehog by using a Chaos Paralysis on his legs. He had learned the trick by experimenting with Chaos Control. He found that he could focus a Chaos Control to stop time in specific points in the victim's spinal chord. Though it took quite a toll on his energy, he was able to paralyze any part of their body. For Sonic, he chose the blue one's most formidable weapons: his legs. The azure hedgehog was now on his knees on the floor with Rouge bending his arms painfully behind his back.

"What's going on? Why can't I move my-?"

"Shut up!" shouted Shadow. "Until you have learned your lesson, you are now a low-level felon prepped for mild interrogation. We will go easy on you for now."

The others were staring with wide eyes. The statement about going easy on him had calmed them a bit, but still, this was Sonic.

"Oh yeah?" asked Sonic, slightly wincing from the pain of the ivory bat tugging at his arms. "Show me what you've got."

Shadow smirked. "You are a low-level prisoner. I am not authorized to bring enough harm to you to cause a long-term injury unless you give me too much trouble."

"Ooh, I'm shaking."

Rouge brought her face to Sonic's ear. "I wouldn't try his patience if I were you, green-eyes. I've seen him do some pretty painful stuff." She whispered in his ear, "And I always loved to hold them down while he does it."

Sonic gulped. His copyright grin turned into a nervous smile. Shadow drew closer to him and held his index and middle fingers up. At Shadow's command of, "Chaos Knife," they began to spark with golden electricity-like energy.

"Alright, that's enough," said Espio. "We get it. You interrogate people. Can we get back to the situation, please?"

Shadow turned his head. "I agree," he said, releasing the Chaos Paralysis.

Sonic sighed with relief as Rouge relinquished her grip on his arms. Amy was soon on top of him in a bone-crushing embrace.

"Oh, Sonic! Are you alright? Speak to me!"

The blue one's words were difficult to interpret with the desperate gasps for breath. "Amy... need... breathe... get... off!"

Eventually, she caught his meaning and released him. He was on all fours struggling to regain his breath. Shadow wasn't sure who would have caused Sonic more pain; himself, or Amy.

The following day, everything was in place. Rouge had received a warrant from G.U.N. to perform active surveillance on and impersonate the staff of a city establishment. All of the current cameras of the building were altered to just such a way that there were specific blind spots that even the most psychotic killer would be able to spot.

The library itself consisted of two floors. The first consisted of a large assortment of shelves all surrounding the central desk used for checking out books. There was a glass elevator on the far side which led to the second floor. That floor was in somewhat of a 'U' shape that overlooked the first. Floor 1 consisted mainly of fiction and literature, while Floor 2 held most of the non-fiction, biography, and records.

Amy, Cream, Tails, and Vector would be working at the central desk. Sonic, Knuckles, and Charmy would be staff there to help guests look for books. Espio would be hidden in an air vent on the second floor taking pictures of all the people who entered the front door. All of the other doors were temporarily sealed. No one in or out for the time being. Even if someone were to slip in through one of the other doors unnoticed, there were cameras always pointed at the doors. They would know who was in there that day.

The members of Team Dark would be receiving the pictures of and keeping track of the guests. Despite his change in personality, Shadow would not be seen. He would attract too much attention from being all over the news. They could only pray that Sonic's glasses and clothes would keep people from recognizing him despite his protests that clothing slowed him down.

They opened the library at 7 AM, but their first guest didn't arrive until 8. It was a human male in his twenties. Judging by the rush he was in, it was safe to say that he was a college kid who forgot to do some studying. He was watched closely for the short time he was in there. Everyone's eyes were fixed upon him when he wasn't looking.

The next few hours hailed a few more guests. A lavender fox, a white hawk, a human girl, a brown mouse, and a gray wolf to name a few. Sonic was put particularly on edge when a green hedgehog who bore striking resemblance to him walked in. It seemed to calm him when he smiled at Cream baring straight and clean teeth.

The trouble was that none of the guests seemed to be going into the blind spot. At 10:21, however, that changed. It was a silvery gray hedgehog with yellow eyes. His quills stood up in the front making him resemble a cockatoo, while two longer ones curved downward in the back. He appeared to not like the presence of the security cameras. They seemed to put him on edge, and he ducked into one of the blind spots.

"Gotcha," said Rouge, saving the picture of him that Espio had sent her. She dialed a number into her phone, and the phone at Tails' desk rang. Shadow heard the phone pick up and Tails' voice say in a quiet tone, "Thank you for calling Station Square Library, how may I help you?"

"Tails, get the picture of that silver hedgehog and see if you can get a name."

"One moment, please," said Tails, staying in character.

After typing the name on his computer, his voice came again. "I'm afraid that that book has been checked out. Would you like for me to put it on hold for you?"

She understood the meaning that he wasn't registered and asked if she wanted him to save his picture.

"Yes."

A few more taps on the keyboard, and it was done. "Alright, thank you. Have a nice day."

A similar pattern continued for several hours. Occasionally, a guest would walk into one of the blind spots and be reported to one of the four at the desks.

At 4:24, they had just received the picture of a twelfth suspect. "How do you think he's going to try to kill the next one?" asked Shadow.

"If I had to guess, I'd say that he has some sort of timer that'll drop the body from the ceiling a few minutes after he sets it up-"

Shadow's cell phone rang.

Uh-oh. This doesn't look good. But will they catch the murderer even if he gets away with killing the victim? Tune in next time to find out! Thanks to youthboy14 and Rafael Pereira for your reviews. I love all of you guys! (no homo XD)