A.N. Sorry for the late update.
Sonic's in Brawl!
And I introduce two of the OCs in this part.
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A green crocodile sighed, adjusting the volume of his music, suitcases standing by his scaly legs, wiping some sweat from his forehead in the humid heat. He may have been born here, but he hadn't been there since we was young.
In fact, he wouldn't have even been here now if it wasn't for the call from one of his many brothers. It was odd, and he was a detective after all, and it wasn't like a crocodile Mobian to say no to family.
So, leaving Espio in charge and heading south for the land of his birth, Vector breathed in the marshy air, almost coughed up a lung, then stood up straight again, picking up his suitcases and heading down the train platform.
After all, it wasn't everyday your nephew got kidnapped.
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"Yo, Vector, wake up," Mighty said, snapping his fingers in front of the crocodile in question, who awoke with a start, leaning back in his chair.
"What is it? I just got to sleep…" Vector mumbled. Indeed, Espio had left only a few minutes ago with the Chaos Emerald, en route to Angel Island.
"Our appointment, remember?" Mighty answered, looking at the crocodile, "Big bucks, the government's paying us too, and we get some diplomatic immunity."
"Oh, right," Vector sighed, stretching then getting out of the chair, "And Charmy is…?"
"Vanilla is watching over him," Mighty told his boss, "And Espio knows what to do."
Nodding, Vector headed over to the wall, snapping again as another secret panel appeared, sliding out, revealing his special guitar. Gripping its handle and hoisting it over his shoulders, he glanced towards the armadillo.
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"Says his name's Fang. Looney as a toon, but he's got a rep," Vector's brother, or at least the one who had the kidnapped nephew told him, passing him a picture of the weasel in question. "He showed up in these parts about two months ago, thought I was someone I wasn't."
Vector nodded and studied the photograph. Fang was a purple weasel with a hunting hat, boots, vest, and two dangerous looking guns holstered to his sides. He was not one you would want to mess with.
The two were in a dimly lit back water restaurant. Music in some sort of southern language floated from an ancient jukebox in the corner, there was rapid talk in the same language a few tables away, and a waitress was wandering about, randomly refilling the patron's coffee, and asking them if they wanted anything else, an accent that betrayed her southern upbringings.
Sighing, the music loving croc then looked back towards his brother.
"Alright, be straight with me bro," a pause, as in a rare time, Vector's music was off, and his headphones were off his ears, "Are you being straight with me? Is he really mistaking you for someone else? I'll help you either way; I just want to make sure I know what I'm dealing with."
"I'm being honest. I never heard of this guy, but he claims I owe him two million Rings. There's no way I can get that money," the brother answered, "You're the only one I know who can help."
"Yah, yah. And my fee is reasonable," Vector grinned, taking a sip of his drink, looking around.
"Fee?" the brother seemed puzzled.
"I'm kidding," Vector replied, serious. You mess with one croc, you mess with them all, especially if the one you mess with is a kid. No payment except what would be needed for living was required.
Besides, the detective already had a good idea of where to start looking.
The first thing to do would to be getting some more info on this Fang character.
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About ten minutes later, and Vector and Mighty found themselves on a G.U.N. helicopter, above Station Square and quickly headed to a remote location somewhere to the south.
"So we're being debriefed once we land?" Vector asked, casually to the G.U.N. soldier who accompanied them in the copter.
"Correct, plus you're meeting up with the third member of the team," the soldier answered.
Mighty looked puzzled, "A third? Why do we need a third?"
"The chameleon isn't here, so we substituted someone else whose done work for us," the soldier answered, "You'll have plenty of time to meet him once we land."
Staying silent, Vector and Mighty merely shared a glance. They had faith Espio would meet up with them later, but for now they'd just go along with G.U.N.
After all, something strange was happening in the southern hemisphere.
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Vector loved the public library. All this information, right at your fingertips. And it was all free, provided you used it probably and didn't lose the books.
He still had yet to find 'Green Eggs and Ham' to return, but thankfully this was a different library all together, and it's not like it cost that much.
Fingers flying over the keyboard, the croc had to admit, those computer classes were a good idea. One of the few Charmy had actually been having. Now, he could surf the web like a pro.
"Hmmm…Bounty hunter, all right. Free lance, works for the guy who pays him the most," Vector mused, reading the screen quietly, and trying to ignore the sounds of an argument a few feet away. He had managed to find some information on this Fang, and was trying to see why he might mistake his brother for someone else.
"Well, he seems competent, at the very least. Something ain't adding up," the crocodile sighed. Either his brother was lying, or Fang had gotten sloppy suddenly.
Or…Well, Vector wasn't sure if this third option was valid. A possible third player, or fourth, if Vector could be counted as the third, was hiring Fang to kidnap his nephew. He couldn't think of any motif why, but it's not like Vector was particularly close with his siblings. The last he saw more then one of them was at Mother's Day, two years ago. That had been an awkward day.
Printing out a few pages and paying for them with some loose change, Vector headed outside, placing the sheets carefully in his nearly empty suitcase, turning the corner, then, suddenly, was dragged into an alleyway.
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"Of course," Vector thought dryly, "Another hedgehog."
"Hey," the green hedgehog said sheepishly. "The name's Vinny."
Vinny was a green furred hedgehog, who wore a black cape around him, obscuring most of his body from sight. He was a little shorter then Mighty, and seemed awfully young to be on this mission.
"Mighty," the armadillo said, shaking Vinny's hand.
"Hey…" Vector said, looking towards the G.U.N. agent who would be giving them their orders, "I hate to seem rude, but doesn't he seem a little young? Plus, Espio shouldn't be to long."
The three, four if you count the human, were inside a nicely air conditioned building within a G.U.N. base situated at the southern end of Mystic Ruins, a good many miles away from Angel Island.
The agent sighed, looking at a few folders, and then glanced back up towards Vector, "Vinny has proven himself before. And as for Espio, he was headed for Angel Island, correct?"
Mighty and Vector nodded.
"Well, we received a report about a large spike of Chaos energy in the tunnel leading towards Angel Island. And now it seems like there's fighting going on there as well. We sent some probes to go check it out, but…We've had some problems," the agent answered, "So I doubt Espio will be able to join us."
"Espio's in trouble?!" Mighty shouted, standing up quickly, "Then we got to go help him!"
"He can handle himself," Vector spoke up, with the outmost confidence in his employee. "And we have a job to do."
Mighty frowned and sat back down, but he was clearly uneasy about all this.
"Now, your mission…" the agent continued.
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Vector awoke on the couch in his brother's apartment, suitcase gone, and additional blue, black, and red colors added to his usual green coloring.
"Oh man…" Vector groaned, sitting up slowly, finding a bag of ice on his head, "What hit me?"
"Don't know," the brother told him, "The wife and I found you by the door with a note…Said to stop stalling and cough up the money."
Vector growled and got into a full upright position, ignoring the pounding pain in his head. He didn't even notice his missing headphones, as they had been broken and left in the scuffle in the alleyway.
"Alright, I guess this means I must be on the right track. I wasn't shot, and Fang doesn't like to hire out, so my suspicions of another party involved were right," Vector mused, more to himself then his stunned brother, "But the question is why…"
"I don't know," the brother sighed, "I haven't done anything that should be getting me this kind of attention. I swear."
Vector just nodded, thinking to much now to bother with a formal way of saying, "Yah, yah, I believe you."
Furrowing his brow, he looked back towards his brother.
"Hey, has anything like this happened before?"
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A small explosion rocked the small southern factory, the workers screaming in their local dialect, leaving as another one hit the padlocked doors to the side, owner of said blasts then walking through the rubble, blue eyes scanning the machines there.
"Attendre! Attendre!" a voice shouted, shakily, stepping out and pointing a gun at the figure, a scared looking guard.
With a blank face, the attacker shot forward, kicking the gun out of the guard's hands, and then slamming him into the ground with a well placed blow.
"Sorry," the female hissed, ears flattening to her head, "But The Doctor has ordered me to retrieve something he needs."
Rendering him unconscious, the cat Mobian proceeded unimpeded throughout the factory, easily securing the necessary part.
Now it was time to proceed back to base.
To easy.
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Back to the library, more research to be done, to investigate and see if there was anything else that might pop up.
Public records, newspaper scans, police reports. It was a good thing Vector was a licensed detective, otherwise a good chunk of what he was getting would have to have been acquired through illegal means.
Scratching his chin thoughtfully, Vector read through an article, noting significant details and similarities between his case and what had happened.
If there was a pattern, it was well hidden, and would take most, if not all, of Vector's detective skills.
And hopefully that lug that attacked him in the alleyway wouldn't be back for round two.
Either way, he'd be prepared next time.
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A.N. Yo.
Didn't see what happened with Shadow, Doom, and the others yet, but we'll get to that next part.
Ahhh, evil, evil ideas.
Does anyone like this Chaotix side story going on? And the Vector one, the one in italics, as well? I'm proud of it so far.
Anyways, I may introduce another OC next part, maybe both of the others, but I'm not sure. Vinny, and the other one, shown in this part, won't be in the next part, since they're currently part of the Chaotix side story.
Also next part, some more on Issai, Metal, and Vanilla, Cream, Cosmo, and Charmy.
I really hope it'll be out sooner! I need to work harder on this! Been lazy and a busy, bad combination.