Chapter 13: Revenge of the Ultimate Dare Challenge

Sent in by Troy 168

Few things: Ok, the beginning is a little slow, but it's really important. And I'm really sleep-deprived. So don't be too weirded out if you find strange typos.

Begin teh story (That typo is on purpose)

Shade's funeral was as depressing as you can imagine. Her entire family was there, including the members of the Chaotix Detective Agency, GhostKing included. With the detectives were Vanilla and Breezy, along with many past clients; Tamara, Grock, Randi, Rachel, Tessa, Dark Misery, Dull, Light, Duskzilla, Reece and Cinnamon. In fact, many of the people at the funeral knew each other well.

Blade was on the verge of tears throughout the entire thing, Charmy occasionally patting him on the back; close to tears himself.

Espio, as always, looked completely emotionless. And completely out of place.

"This is so sad," Tails sighed after the funeral was over. "Poor Blade. I can't imagine losing anyone really close to me."

"Scourge will pay dearly for this." Vector nodded.

The detectives walked back to the agency, finding a red envelope with golden stars lying on the doormat. GhostKing picked it up and handed it to Vector. "It's for you. Looks suspicious to me."

XxXxXxXx

"Welcome to Revenge of the Ultimate Dare Challenge!" The talk-show host exclaimed. "I'm Troy. And I'm very grateful you could make it. This is my fourth and most popular season." Troy was a human that has Black/Brown hair, green eyes, and a black jacket over his shirt, and he wore jeans and some sneakers.

"What are the facts?" Espio asked.

"I have a feeling that someone is sabotaging the show," Troy explained. "Things are rigged so a certain contestant is winning everything. Even things they shouldn't be."

"What's the prize for winning this show?" Vector asked.

Troy beamed. "Five rule free wishes. You want a car? You got it. You want money? You got it. You want a house? You got it. Any possession out there, we'll get it for you. A great reward, for an extremely hard show, don't you think? I grant the wishes myself."

"A little too great." Charmy muttered.

"All right…well, any suspects?" Vector asked.

"My co-host, Greg, caught a man walking around backstage in a trench coat. All he managed to get out of him was that one of the six victors that won the last challenge is a suspect. And just a few days ago we spotted two white-furred bats in the alley, like they were rigging something."

"What was the reward for winning the last season?" Espio asked.

"You had to work in teams of six. The winners got one wish each. This one is worth so much more." Troy said.

"Who were the winners of the last season?"

"I have a picture of them for the moment. Later you can interview them." Troy pulled out a crumpled photograph from a pocket.

It showed six Mobians cheering; three cats, a dog, a bat and a hedgehog. The dog was holding an enormous trophy over his head, a wide grin on his face.

"They don't seem like they would unnecessarily do anything wrong." Charmy said.

"Innocent until proven guilty, Charmy." Vector said.

XxXxXxXx

The only contestant from the last season they managed to get ahold of was one of the cats. He was tall, almost taller than Vector. He was obviously a strong runner.

"Have you seen anything weird the last time you were here?" Charmy asked as soon as he walked into the door.

"Charmy!" Espio growled.

"Uh…weird like what? There's a lot of weird things here." The cat shrugged. "No offence, Troy."

"None taken." Troy beamed. His teeth should come with a warning, 'DO NOT STARE AT TEETH. PERMANENT BLINDNESS MAY OCCURE.'

"Like weird people and stuff!" Charmy piped up again, Vector shot him a death glare.

"Oh, there's plenty of those." The cat said. "I'm sorry, I didn't give you my name yet. I'm Zoro."

"What kind of weird-" Charmy started but Vector slapped him off to the side.

"Well, there was a few people hanging around near the back alleys." Zoro said. "They were wearing black, so I didn't really get good looks at them. I just know there were three people."

"Troy, when's the next show?" Espio asked.

"Tomorrow night." Troy said.

"Continue as you usually do. We'll look around and watch the contestants for any sign of obvious cheats. This should make everything to faster."

XxXxXxXx

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Revenge of the Ultimate Dare Challenge!" Troy beamed at the audience. "Tonight I have a real surprise for you…"

Charmy was sitting in the front row, cheering loudly along with the crowd. Espio and Vector were backstage around the alleyways, hunting around for anyone suspicious. They had found nothing so far.

"Vector!" Espio hissed.

"What?"

"Look. Someone's over there."

Indeed, someone wearing a long, black cape or something was moving smoothly from alley to alley, pausing occasionally to wait and then continuing on. "Come on." Vector said.

They began to follow the mysterious figure.

The guy stopped and entered a door that was almost completely hidden in shadows. Espio followed quickly, Vector trying not to make a lot of noise.

"Don't move." The figure hissed. The faint light in the room caught the metal of the gun the figure were holding.

"Who are you?" Espio demanded.

The figure hesitated for a few seconds. Then they put the gun down. "What did you do to get caught up in this too?"

It took Vector two seconds to realize who they were talking to. "GhostKing?"

"Yeah. Come on, we wasted valuable time." GhostKing burst past them and seemed to fly into the alley. "I knew you were following me, by the way. You need to work on stalking. Pick up a few tips from Amy."

"Hey…" Vector growled, but he followed his boss out of the abandoned room.

"So why are you here?" Espio asked. "Troy hired us to find out who was sabotaging the show."

"And I'm here to find an assassin." GhostKing sighed. "This guy's good. He's evaded me three times already."

"Oh, boy. Who's he targeting?" Vector asked.

"He's killed all the victors from the previous season. As far as I know, the final winner is here…and he's not safe."

"We need to get back. Charmy and Zoro are in the front seats of the show…" Espio growled.

"D'Arvit!" GhostKing swore.

XxXxXxXx

"THIS SHOW IS AMAZING!" Charmy exclaimed.

"I know! And really hard!" Zoro agreed.

"How does she do that? She's winning almost everything!" Charmy said, pointing to the white bat that had gracefully owned the next competition.

"Yeah, she's really good!" Zoro agreed. "Now please excuse me, I need to go to the bathroom."

He carefully made his way out of the hall, walking back towards the exits, where the bathrooms were located. Just as he was about to enter the door, someone stopped him.

"All right. Turn around slowly."

"Who're you?" Zoro demanded, realizing with horror that the figure was holding a gun. They were dressed completely in black, save two small slits for eyeholes.

"An assassin. You end here." The figure cocked the gun. "Any last words?"

A foot connected solidly with the assassin's arm, making the gun skitter off into a corner. Espio flipped over to it, picking it up and tossing it to GhostKing, who held both her gun and the assassin's. "Give it up."

The assassin laughed. Over the roar of the crowd in the background, the sound was almost inaudible. "You really think you're a big deal, don't you? You don't even know who you're working for."

Doubt flickered onto GhostKing's face. "I know you're here to murder an innocent. I'm here to stop you."

"How do you know they're innocent?"

GhostKing fired. The figure ducked with amazing speed, then leapt up and turned a summersault in the air, landing gracefully behind the group. GhostKing kept firing while the figure kept dodging with amazing agility.

The first gun clicked on an empty cylinder. The second was close to follow.

"Good job on stopping me." The assassin sneered. A crowd had gathered around them now, police men trying to hold back the hysterical crowd.

Espio leapt up, throwing ninja stars as he went. The figure dodged, ducked and lashed out, actually sending Espio stumbling back a few feet. He recovered quickly, attacking the assassin as fiercely as he could.

Zoro, meanwhile, slipped away.

Vector, GhostKing and Espio had the upper hand now. The assassin was backed into a corner, with nowhere to run. GhostKing yanked the mask off their face and gasped.

"Shadow?"

XxXxXxXx

There was a short intermission between the first scene and second for Troy's show. Charmy decided to find where Zoro had gone to, but a lot of people began to block the exits, screaming about murderers and masked people.

Once he finally got though the doors, he found GhostKing, Vector, Espio and out of all people, Shadow, handcuffed and being lead away by security. "Guys! What did you do?"

"It's not 'what we did', it's apparently what we 'attempted to do'." Vector growled.

"Let my friends go! They're only trying to keep this place safe! There's a murderer and stuff!"

"The so-called murderer was Shadow." Espio said.

"…What?"

"GhostKing was hired by some guy to try to kill Shadow! Charmy, you need to find Zoro and stop him! He's-" Espio started, but the police lead them into a room and the door was locked.

Charmy hovered in midair for a few seconds, not really sure what to do. He plucked up what courage he had and said out loud, "I am Charmy Bee! I will stop this guy, even if it kills me!" He began to fly off, then hesitated and said, "Well…maybe not go to extremes of killing me…but I'll do my best!" Then he flew off.

XxXxXxXx

"Was that the best idea, sending him off like that?" Shadow growled.

"Probably not." GhostKing sighed.

They were all forced into separate chairs, facing a long table with a sullen-looking man staring at them. A few police officers stood by him. "You are all under arrest."

"Figures." Vector muttered.

"Concealed weapons in a public place, attempted murder and violence…you have a long list of crimes committed in the past half-hour."

"Yeah…about the concealed weapon part…" GhostKing kicked at her boot, where it fell off. A belt was tied around her leg, filled with seven knives of all lengths and sharpness. "I have more."

A few of the police men came over to retrieve the knives. GhostKing slammed her foot into one's face, using her forehead to down the other. She flipped one knife up into her teeth, where she grabbed it. She jerked her head backwards, throwing the knife into the air. She angled herself so the knife fell blade first into the key slot in the handcuffs. She broke free immeadentally.

"Guards!" The man shouted, but GhostKing held a blade to his face.

"I wouldn't do that." She warned, picking another knife from the belt. She went over to Espio and freed him, giving him the knife to get the others out.

"So what's the deal with Zoro?" GhostKing asked Shadow.

"He's part of the sabotaging of this show." Shadow said. "One of the contestants is working with him…and they'll use the five wishes to bring Scourge to true power. We need to stop them."

"Somehow I knew this was going to happen…" Vector sighed.

XxXxXxXx

Charmy flew backstage, looking for Zoro. The cat had vanished without hardly a trace, but Charmy was pretty sure that he had taken refuge backstage.

Troy was announcing the next Dare Challenge to the crowd that was gathering back in the stage area. It sounded pretty awesome. Too bad Charmy would have to miss it. Intermission was only going to last another five minuets and he was certain that he was going to miss everything after that.

A flash of white fur caught his attention. He followed it and found a white bat with large ears staring out one of the windows. "Rouge?"

The bat turned. It wasn't Rouge, but she did look a lot like her. "Huh? Who're you? What are you doing back here?" her voice was different too.

"I'm looking for a weirdo cat." Charmy said proudly.

"Haven't seen any." The bat said.

"Charmy!"

Charmy spun around to see the others, somehow free from the clutches of evil police men. "Guys! You're alive!"

"Rouge?" Shadow asked.

"I'm not Rouge! I'm her sister, May!" the bat shouted. "Jeez, get it right! I haven't seen Rouge in days!"

"Same here… do you have any idea where she went?"

"No." May sighed. "Come over here, though. I have something to show you."

The group began to follow her. Espio hung back a fair distance, staring at something on the floor. It looked a bit like…makeup. But makeup didn't come in ashy gray, did it?

"Hey,"

Espio glanced up to see that May was back. "You know, you're kinda cute."

"I don't have time." Espio sighed, turning to follow his friends.

"Oh, come on." May grabbed his arm, pulling him back "One kiss…just for me?"

"Uhhhhh…" Espio sort of froze in place. He had never kissed a girl before. This was sure an awkward situation.

XxXxXxXx

Meanwhile, with the others, May lead them down a short hall until they came to a small room. Standing in the middle of it was Zoro.

"Get him!" Shadow shouted, lunging forward. Before he could make another move, a hard-heeled boot slammed him into the ground. May dug her boot into his back, preventing him from moving. "Not while I'm here." She hissed.

The others began to take action immeadentally. May was just as skilled as Rouge when it came to fighting, and Zoro had skills that rivaled Espio and Shadow.

"Hey…where is Espio, anyway?" Charmy asked, zipping around May to try to confuse her.

"We'll worry about him later! Just get these guys!" Vector growled.

XxXxXxXx

"I…uh…I should really find my friends…" Espio said.

"Oh, come on." May pouted. "Haven't you always wanted someone a bit more than a friend?"

Espio decided that the response 'not really' wasn't very accurate. "Uh…I guess…"

May leaned in and kissed him. Espio was sort of taken by surprise for two reasons. One, she was a really good kisser, and two…some of the gray stuff he had found on the floor had been on her lower lip.

That was the last thought he had before falling unconscious.

XxXxXxXx

GhostKing managed to kick Zoro in the face, allowing the others to force him to the ground. May, on the other hand, was still putting up a fight until Shadow took the knife that GhostKing had given him earlier and shoved it up against her neck.

"All right, what are you planning with the wishes?" Charmy demanded. "You're in the show this season, May!"

May didn't say anything. She just scowled at them. Zoro, on the other hand, began laughing. "You really don't know?"

"Oh, we know. We just want to know what you'd use the wishes for." Vector said.

"You killed the other contestants in the other season, didn't you?" Shadow growled. "Why? I never caught onto that."

"Because they knew. They knew our plan." Zoro laughed. "So they were killed. You decided to get to the bottom of the murders, didn't you? And you found me. I hired one of the best detectives to seemingly 'protect' me, therefore making her the villain. But then these three got caught up in this mess."

"You're working for Scourge…why?" Vector demanded.

"To protect Rouge!" May cried. "He took her…we don't know where she is! He told my sister and I to win the show or else she'd be killed!"

"Your sister?"

"My twin sister, Mary." May said. "We took turns onstage…we each have strengths and we played on them. She'd do a few challenges, and then switch out with me when my time to shine came. It was foolproof."

Zoro growled something under his breath.

"Twin sister?...uh…anyone know where Espio went, now?" GhostKing sighed.

"I'll find him!" Charmy shouted. He didn't get far before an identical clone of May burst into the room. That had to be Mary.

"Don't worry about him. He's taking a well-deserved break." She drew a knife from her pocket.

"May, help us. We'll get Rouge back. Just help us stop your sister and Zoro." Shadow said in a low voice.

"All right." May agreed. The two of them leapt at Mary along with the others. GhostKing glared at Zoro as if she dared him to move.

With their combined efforts, it didn't take them long to bring Mary down. "What did you do to Espio?" Charmy shouted.

"Nothing." Mary hissed.

"Mary, listen to me!" May pleaded. "We can save Rouge. We just need to help these guys!"

"And someone please get some guards in here! We need Zoro arrested!" GhostKing growled.

XxXxXxXx

"Espio! Say something! Are you dead?" Charmy shouted.

"Ow….Charmy…stop slapping me…" Espio muttered.

"Espio, how was it?" Vector asked.

"…What?"

"You kissed a girl. How was it? If it knocked you out, it must have been awesome." He snickered.

"Shut up…I didn't want to…" Espio groaned. "She had some sort of knockout powder on her lips…"

"Kinda smart." Charmy agreed.

"What happened?" Espio sat up.

"Zoro's been arrested. Both Mary—that was who kissed you, May's twin sister—and May agreed to help us stop Scourge. He apparently kidnapped Rouge and is using them to win Troy's show so they can get the five wishes for something. As far as we know, Mary and May are still pretending to be the villain to keep on Scourge's good side." Vector said.

"Oh,"

"And GhostKing cleared everyone' names, which I suppose is good. We were almost arrested twice in the past hour."

"That's good."

"And Troy gave us a ton of money!" Charmy squealed. "Let's go buy a Wii! No wait! I want to take Breezy for ice cream!"

"A bit of down time sounds good." Vector agreed. "When we get back to the Agency, we're calling Vanilla and Breezy up!"

"Hurray!" Charmy cheered.

Espio rolled his eyes and stood shakily. Girls….they were either crushing on you or knocking you out or a terrible mixture of both. He would never understand them.

Or his fellow detectives.

XxXxXxXx

Haha. This was a fun chapter to write. Sorry, Espio. I bet I confused a couple of you for a while, Readers.

Hope you liked it, Troy 168.

And next is the final mystery before the finale, Iris Taishou!

Hasta la Vista, Readers!

Lordoftheghostking28

PS: VOTE ON MY POLL, POR FAVOR!