August 6th, 1:45pm

Yukes Arena, Relic Square

On this bright, sunny and insanely hot day, the square surrounding the great round stadium was filled to the brim with people from all over the Emerald Coast region and even from across the length and breadth of Mobius; a multi-coloured sea of fur, skin, branded clothing and more covered the concrete square, with every single stretch of this spectrum-like ocean filled with excited anticipation for the returning fight of the region's champion as they hustled and bustled towards the towering entrance. Suddenly, the excitement at the back of the crowd was interrupted by a lime green car crashing through one of the countless stalls set up for maximum cashing-in.

Well, when I say the car was crashing, what I really mean was that the car was rolling sideways down the street and it happened to burst through the aforementioned stall, littering the square with plushies of MMA fighters as the tastelessly coloured vehicle fell on its tyres. As people scrambled to the plushies and started practically killing each other to take a very rare 12' plushie of Spencer Metzner (hey, collectables are serious business, y'know?), the feline driver of the heavily dented automobile smiled sheepishly at her passengers and obliviously said "Alright guys, here we are! Ready for the big fight?…Eh, guys?"

Unlike herself, the other four Mobians in the car were slumped about the place like they'd all had a collective heart attack AND a stroke, with eyes that seemed to endlessly spin in a daze and mouths agape from pure fright. It shouldn't take a genius to figure out what happened given that even Charmy was like this! After a few awkward seconds of silence, the four of them slowly regained their consciousness/sanity and opened up the doors, falling out onto the concrete like corpses from a collecting cart.

Mighty was the first to get up from the ground, strangely enough wearing a pair of azure shorts that had now become a much deeper shade of blue, as he slowly and awkwardly removed the moist garments and tossed them into a nearby trash can, commenting "Man, those shorts really did come in handy, didn't they?"

"They certainly did," Honey replied as she got out of the car and grinned somewhat bitterly at the armadillo, "At least it means I don't have to spend all night washing out the passenger seat again…"

As Mighty smirked nervously and rubbed the back of his shell with a cheerful chuckle, Espio picked himself up from the ground next and observed the skirmish for the super-rare over-muscled fighter in front of them with derision, rolling his eyes with disdain as he remarked "Load of bakas, they are. Can't they restrain themselves from acting so impulsively until after the fight's come and gone?"

"Hey don't knock it Espio," Charmy replied out-of-nowhere as he flew up to the ninja chameleon's face, cradling a cuddly doll made to resemble a gorilla with boxing shorts in his arms, "Some of this stuff is pretty cool!"

The reptilian detective raised an invisible eyebrow and glanced behind him, seeing only Vector attempting to get off the ground instead of both him and Charmy as previously thought, before looking back at the young bee and asking in slight bewilderment "…How did you get over here with that plushie so quickly?"

Charmy tilted his head in thought for about a second before he simply shrugged in response, earning a groan of disbelief from Espio as he folded his arms and looked back to find Vector getting up from the floor. Quite unusually, the crocodile was actually wearing pants for once, though in this case, they were purple boxers with tacky green stripes that went down to his knees. Yes, they looked silly but Espio claimed that it was the appropriate colour for such a great fighter, though Vector suspected that the chameleon was simply trolling him for all he knew.

As well as this, he was also wearing garishly red boxing gloves, which made it irritatingly difficult for him to put his hands on his hips as he ominously said "So, this is it. The fight between me and Raz…"

While the oldest detective's gloved hands continued to slip off his hips over and over again, his team of trainers looked at him as Mighty stepped back with his hands in his leg pockets to stand beside him and asked "You really think you can do it, Vector?"

Vector's neutral frown formed into an extremely confident toothy grin as he folded his arms and gave a cheerful look to the teenage armadillo, replying "'Course I can! C'mon, you all know dat when someone gets a trainin' montage, dey're gonna kick ass and take names! This'll be easy!",finishing off his grand reply by pointing straight at the steel stadium only a hundred or so yards away. Or, he was supposed to be pointing but given the fact that he was wearing boxing gloves, he just ended up looking even sillier than someone who was wearing purple and green boxing shorts.

Espio continued to stare at the older reptile with the same enthusiasm one would use when they've been dragged into town to look for new curtains as he suggested "Vector, have you ever heard of the phrase 'tempting fate'?"

After a short pause, the crocodile fighter lowered his boxing glove and glared at the chameleon in a weird manner before asking "…What now?" Suddenly, all five of the Mobians had their ears assaulted by the deafening, high-pitched squeals of what looked like legions of fangirls running at about a million miles an hour in their general direction. The grin on his face growing even wider than usual, Vector stuck his chest out and proudly, yet sort-of flirtatiously, assured "Yeah, I know ladies! Check out da greatest fighter in town!"

However, his only reward was to get trampled over by the scurrying of the rabid screamers as they completely ignored him and dashed to the edge of the kerb, where a long, black limo had just parked. The door opened up and there he was; Razter the Crocodile, the current reigning MMA champion of the Emerald Coast region, cheerfully waving and grinning to the ecstatic estrogen brigades being blocked by equally sized numbers of bodyguards. The crocodile champ placed a fist against his chest as he boisterously boasted "Don't worry ladies, it's just an exhibition fight; no-one's going to dare strip my glorious title from me!…Certainly not without a fight!"

And with that, he proudly and loudly chuckled as he eagerly made his way towards the stadium, not noticing the resentful glares the now-covered-in-fangirl-footprints Vector was sending him, bitterly commenting "Arrogant chump!…C'mon guys, we better get in dat stadium so I can kick his ass!" as he walked towards the enormous arena, motioning his friends to follow him with a wave over his shoulder.

Espio stared on in exasperation before he felt a sudden but soft nudge in his side from Mighty to start moving, the two of them following from furthest back as the chameleon confoundedly remarked "…The irony is astounding…" As the team brushed through the last few remaining crowds of people and made their way for the entrance, the ninja detective glanced at his armadillo comrade and asked "Just out of curiosity, if things don't work out and we end up losing, do you have any idea on what you're going to do?"

Becoming slightly uneasy all of a sudden, Mighty looked at Espio and dodged the question by suggesting "Hey, we don't know that we're going to lose. And besides, Vector's right; how many movies have you watched that had a training montage of some sort and the hero ended up actually losing?"

"Porco Rosso, for one," Espio replied as his eyes narrowed somewhat, "Anyway, that's not the point. The point is, if Vector loses and we get evicted because of it, what are YOU going to do about it?", placing particular emphasis on the word 'you'.

This stumped the shelled Mobian as he realized that he'd never actually considered the possibility of the agency closing down. Feeling beside himself, the armadillo covered his tanned muzzle with his hand and closed his eyes as he though in silent contemplation for several seconds. After some time, by which point the five were very close to getting into the gigantic entrance, Mighty folded his arms behind his head and replied with a bittersweet smile on his face "I'll figure it out when I get there…that's how I've always done it."

Raising a slight eyebrow, the purple chameleon hummed in curiosity before he opened his mouth to ask Mighty another question. However, that train of thought was suddenly derailed when Vector's irritating voice exclaimed "Oh for God's sake!" The two teenage detectives looked forward to find the crocodile staring up at the two massive banners on each side of the entrance. The one on the left had Razter holding a triumphant fist up towards the shining heavens, while the other banner on the right simply had a blank silhouette with a white question mark in the middle of it. As he held up his hands like he was holding invisible oranges in annoyance, Vector crabbily complained "They couldn't even be arsed to make some kind of poster to show off da great Vector?!"

"To be fair, Vector," Espio pointed out as he and Mighty caught up with the frustrated 'fighter', "No-one really knows who you are and if they did, they'd be avoiding this like the plague…well, unless you were on the losing end of things, in which case, everyone and their mother would show up," a cheeky smile forming on his muzzle as Vector attempted to blow up the chameleon's brain with his eyes. "Anyways," the ninja detective brought up, "we better get in there. The fight should be kicking off pretty soon…"

And with that, Vector and his valiant team of trainers walked into the entrance of the arena. As to whether or not Vector would actually win the fight, or if they would get enough money to pay the rent, none of them honestly had the faintest clue. However, in unspoken agreement, they knew that as they stepped into the unknown, at the very least, they'd give it a try. After all, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

August 6th, 1:55pm

Main Fighting Ring, Yukes Arena

Making their way through the packed halls of the arena, the five Mobians finally passed through the doors of destiny into a small stadium that, unlike the last time Vector and Espio had been in the centre of the stadium, was absolutely stuffed to the brim with people on the bleachers, food vendors walking around and demanding that attendees buy food they definitely did not spit in and big busty babes showing off their assets and signs as to when the fight would properly begin to a whooping audience mostly made up of 20-something virgins.

As they walked up to the large cage in the middle of the room, the Chaotix and Honey found that the room suddenly went pitch black, leading to a few panicked murmurs from the crowd. That was until a light descended from the heavens onto the centre of the caged stage, where a man in a tuxedo stood tall and held a microphone up to his face, speaking into it "LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, DO NOT BE AFRAID. INSTEAD, BE PREPARED FOR SOMETHING TRULY AMAZING, SOMETHING YOU ALL HAVE BEEN WAITING QUITE SOME TIME FOR…"

(Mood Music - 2 Minutes to Midnight ~ Iron Maiden)

Just then, a powerful guitar riff began to play over the room, chilling the spines of everybody who heard it, as the mysterious man continued, his voice increasing in excitement as he went on "THAT'S RIGHT FOLKS! TODAY, YOU SHALL ALL BEAR WITNESS TO THE RETURN OF THE CHAMPION OF EMERALD COAST…WELCOME, ONE AND ALL, TO THE DOMAIN OF THE GREAT…RAZTER THE CROCODILE!" And with that, light returned to the small stadium to show Razter proudly walking towards the stage. The crowd exploded into a wild cheer of barely disguised ecstasy while the guitar riffs became even louder and more epic than before and a loud voice pierced amazing vocals into the denizens' ears.

Blinking his eyes back into a working state, Mighty felt a strange feeling pressed up against him and looked down to find Honey also opening up her eyes, but more to the point, she was clenching onto his chest tightly. Embarrassed beyond all belief, the red-faced teenagers quickly let go of one another as Razter confidently strutted past them into the ring, once again completely oblivious to Vector's hateful glare. The taller crocodile walked into the centre of the ring and standing alongside the tuxedoed announcer, he proudly punched a fist up to the lights above as he declared "Don't worry y'all! If you think I'm gonna get my butt handed to me by some random chump, he's got another comin'!"

As the audience cheered in delight at this announcement, the announced commented "AND SPEAKING OF SOME RANDOM CHUMP," much to Vector's grunting anger, "I THINK IT'S ABOUT TIME WE INTRODUCE OUR MYSTERIOUS FIGHTER…" before he looked around the outside of the ring, scanning for the alleged fighter. After quite some time spent in a futile search, Mighty, Honey, Espio and Charmy repeatedly pointed towards the smaller crocodile standing nearby in order to send the signal to the announcer.

Eventually, he caught a glance at this and with a bewildered shrug, he walked over to the edge of the ring and knelt down to take a closer look at Vector, awkwardly asking without the microphone "…Aren't you that Raz knock-off from those unofficial commercials? What the hell are you doing here?"

"I ain't that chump's knock-off!" Vector irritably replied as he leaned forward, breathing out great amounts of annoyance through his nose like a bull that's just had a nine-forked pitchfork shoved up his bottom, "I'm da guy who's takin' him on, the Karate Kroc!"

"…The Karate Kroc?" The announcer repeated with mild apprehension as he pushed his spectacles up the bridge of his nose before muttering under his breath, "That's a stupid name…" As he brought the microphone back up to his mouth, the light-skinned announcer spoke up once more as he returned to the centre of the stage "AND NOW, IT'S TIME TO REVEAL OUR UNKNOWN CHALLENGER! FROM THE SLUMS OF THIS GREAT CITY…"

"Hey!" Vector loudly remarked, though this could barely be heard above the excitable chatter of the audience.

"STANDING AT A REMARKABLE 5FT, 11 INCHES AND WEIGHING IN AT 480 POUNDS," the announcer continued as Mighty gave his trained fighter a bewildered glance at his apparent weight, "INTRODUCING…CAPTAIN CATASTROPHE!" And with that, the epic guitars and screaming vocals screeched to a sudden halt and the audience quieted down to an unbelievably silent level. Hell, there weren't even any cockroaches chirping or pales of dust flying across the stage for once, the reaction was that apathetically confused.

As the stunned silence tightly gripped pretty much everyone in the room and refused to let go, Vector went through an open door and walked into the caged arena, flexing his…sort-of muscles and giving the audience a crazily confident smirk as he self-appraised "Yeah, yeah, I know. Y'all are just so stunned by the arrival of the Great Vector that y'all can't even speak, am I right?"

Just outside, all Espio could do to react to that entire paragraph was to look away in embarrassment and pinch the bridge between his eyes so tightly, he risked popping a vein open, muttering "This is going to be a disaster…"

Razter scratched his head in pure bamboozlement as he stared at all the muscle-flexing, cocky strutting and winking to the more well-endowed members of the audience that this new challenger was doing. But when he remembered that this was Vector doing all that nonsense, he shook his head in jolly exasperation and stepped forward to face the smaller crocodile as he said "Of course they're stunned! When they're in the presence of a renowned legendary crocodile l-"

"Like me!" Vector interrupted as he proudly pounded his chest and gave a peace sign to all his homies, though the only effect this seemed to have was that it caused Espio to have a horrible pain in his head, which could only be eradicated by repeatedly banging his purple noggin off the gate.

"Actually, I was referrin' to myself, the Great Razter!" The crocodile champion cheerfully replied as he thumbed towards himself, resurrecting the cathartic cheers of the audience once more.

"How can you be such a legendary croc?" The smaller fighter asked as he leaned forward with a bitter grin forming on his face, "All you do is just punch people and fa cryin' out loud, you middle name's Argyle! How the hell can someone with THAT for a name be legendary?!"

"Comin' from someone whose only made love to their right hand," Razter snarkily retorted while folding his arms, "that's rich!" Vector opened his mouth to call back another insult when the audience burst out in uproarious laughter, drowning out whatever he'd intended to say.

As the taunting went on, Espio continued to bang his head against the metallic wires as Mighty, Honey and Charmy stared on, confounded as to what was going on, while the chameleon irritably commented with each word being accompanied by another forehead attack on the cage exterior "It's…the…ultimate…cock…contest…" Eventually, he could take no more of the crocodiles' nor the audience's stupidity and with hateful impatience pouring out of his lungs, he angrily yelled at them "WILL YOU TWO STOP ACTING SO CHILDISH AND GET ON WITH THE FIGHT?!"

That somehow managed to work as the two reptilian fighters and the everyone else in the room glared at the ninja detective with eyes wide with shock and a staggering silence unheard of for quite some time. After about a minute or so, the announcer walked in front of the twin crocodiles and spoke up in a very hammy voice "THAT MAN OVER THERE IS RIGHT! WE SHOULDN'T BE WASTING OUR TIME ARGUING OR TAUNTING EACH OTHER! WE SHOULD BE FIGHTING RIGHT NOW!"

"He's right!" Razter loudly agreed, clenching his hand into an eager fist in front of his face, "There's no time to waste! We've got to make every second of our short lives count! Let's get this fight done and over with, am I right?!" And the denizens of the bleachers broke out into rapturous applause and cheering at the champion's speech. Holy hell, things are getting so hammy, even Brian Blessed and Aquaman doing a double skydive battle while yelling boisterously at each other couldn't make this day any cheesier than they already were.

"WHEN THE BOTH OF YOU ARE READY, LET THE FIGHT BEGIN!" the announcer gleefully reminded the two fighters, much to the glaringly obvious glee of the audience. And so, Vector and Razter walked back to face each other on opposite positions of the middle of the ring as the tuxedoed Overlander went over the rules "THERE WILL BE THREE ROUNDS TO THIS FIGHT, EACH OF WHICH SHALL LAST 5 MINUTES. THE WINNER WILL BE WHOEVER KNOCKS OUT THE OTHER FIGHTER, TECHINICAL OR NO, AND IF IT REMAINS A DRAW THE WHOLE WAY THROUGH, JUDGES SHALL BE ON HAND TO DECIDE THE FATE OF THIS MATCH!" as he pointed towards the three judges sitting at a small desk just outside the ring.

As Razter cracked his knuckles and Vector performed a number of different arm-stretches, the man continued "THERE SHALL BE NO HITTING BELOW THE BELT, HEADBUTTING OR ANY NUMBER OF ILLEGAL TECHNIQUES; WHOEVER DOES SO SHALL BE GIVEN A WARNING AND IF THEY DO IT AGAIN, THEY SHALL BE OUT OF HERE FASTER THAN ADMITTING YOU WRITE LEMON FANFICS!" As the joyful uproar from the audience grew loud once more in appraisal, the announcer looked at the twin fighters before asking with great anticipation "SO, ARE THE BOTH OF YOU READY TO GO?"

"Of course!" Razter eagerly replied as he punched one hand into the other, much to the delight of everyone else. Vector, on the other hand, looked back to his team of tough trainers and gave them a cheerful thumbs-up and a smile, silently telling them that he was ready to clear this up once and for all. To bring justice to Noah Thompson's assault, to resolve his longstanding grudge against Razter, to finish up this episode so the writer can take a break, he was ready for all of it.

As the reptilian detective-come-fighter clenched his fists up and prepared himself for the battle of a lifetime, the announcer finally yelled "THEN LET'S GET THE FIRST ROUND UNDER WAY! 3...2...1...FIGHT!"

Ding ding.

5 minutes later…

The first round did not go well. At all. Imagine the most incredibly one-sided fight against an elite fighter and a relatively low-level weakling, or basically any time in Dragon Ball Z when Yamcha was fighting someone. Now take that fight, and think of something twice as embarrassing. That would only be about half as humiliating of a curb-stomp battle as was the first round of Vector and Razter's exhibition match. As the bell rang once more to conclude the opening round, Vector, beaten, battered, bruised, slumped back to his corner of the ring and fell into a small fold-up chair, arse first.

Through laboured, heavy breaths emerging from bloody, partially broken teeth, Vector saw his friends gather round him and saw their mouths move but heard only the sound of a disorienting noise that echoed endlessly through his mind. Clearly, that last punch before the bell went off knocked something out of him. As his trainers continued to fuss over him, though given his ruined hearing, they could've been singing YMCA for all he knew, his half-blackened gaze directed itself towards the slightly fuzzy image of Razter strutting confidently over to the other side of the ring.

Acting on instinct, the crocodile tried to rise up from the fold-up chair to walk over to his twin and smack the living daylights out of him, but that idea was thwarted when a snap in his lower back brought back not just his proper hearing senses but also an insurmountable feeling of pain. His damaged eyes expanding out as far as they could, Vector pressed his hands against his lower back as he screamed bloody murder in unfettered agony, with the rest of the Chaotix Crew surrounding him to try fix the problem.

On the other side of the ring, sitting on a leather chair and leaning disinterestedly on one fist that had its knuckles dampened slightly in blood, Razter watched his brother's unfortunate situation unfold with a neutral, but weary gaze in his eyes. Whether or not he tried to hide it, it was obvious that something was on the taller crocodile's mind. However, whatever that thing was, it was swiftly interrupted by the familiar voice of his overweight black-suited manager exclaiming "Razzers! There you are!"

"Of course!" Razter replied with a tone of tired sarcasm, his bored eyes glancing to the left to find the sunglasses-wearing Overlander standing over him with his arms folded and a confident grin on his face, "Where else would I be?…Anyways, what d'ya want?"

"First off," the manager cheerfully explained in that bizarre Cockney accent of his, "Congrats on your first round! I don't think I've seen a clobbering like that in a long time!"

The taller crocodile leaned forward in his chair as he turned his head to get a better look at the man and commented "Well, it ain't too hard to dish out a heck of a beatin' when your opponent is about as enthusiastic for it as you'd be for getting a rectal exam…"

"Ha ha, very funny," the manager sarcastically remarked as his grin turned slightly sour, "As well as that, I thought you'd like to know that Noah Thompson, also known as the man you planned to fight, is actually at this arena. If you'd like, I could bring up here to prove that you didn't beat him up. Now would be the best time to do it, after all."

"Is that right?…" Razter cheekily asked with a tone of irritation in his voice. He scratched the bottom of his jaw as he pondered about whether or not to do this. He knew that he hadn't beaten the panda up for one thing so it's not like he had anything to hide but more than that, he just didn't feel like going through the rest of the match, surprisingly. For a fight he'd been excitedly training for over the last week, especially with someone he hadn't seen in years, the first round felt very dull and underwhelming. The champion couldn't really put his finger on it but he knew that it something to do with Vector and how he was acting.

Normally, Razter's opponents would always seem like they were having the time of their lives when fighting against him, or at least, that's what they were paid to do. But Vector wasn't enthusiastic for the fight at all; instead, it felt like he was bitterly apathetic over something. Throughout the fight, Razter not got any impression of joy on his twin's part, which immensely bothered him as he just wanted a good, fun brawl. Not the beat-down that he forced himself to deliver, using Vector's weary demeanor as his justification for it. As the situation on the other side started to calm down, an idea popped into Razter's mind.

He picked himself up from the chair and requested "Give me a minute." before he walked over very non-chalantly to the five Mobians opposite.

Given that the nightmarishly loud wailing had stopped, it was a likely assumption that whatever was going on with Vector's back had buggered off, seeing as said fighter was sitting down in the fold-up chair again. Noticing his twin walking towards him, he glanced up bitterly and slyly remarked "Y'know, I thought da next round was supposed ta start before ya beat da hell outta me again. Os is that just somethin' else you don't care about?"

Stopping in his tracks just a few feet away from Vector, Razter sighed wearily as he folded his arms and said after a short pause "…Before the next round starts, you should know that the man I 'assaulted' is here, if you wanna prove I'm guilty or not. It's your choice…" And with that, he unfolded his arms and put his hands into his pockets as he turned around, slowly walking away from the team of trainers and his twin.

As he applied a bandage to a cut that had appeared on the crocodile detective's head in the first round, Espio suggested "Well, do you think we should properly wrap this investigation and get it straight from the bear's mouth? Or do you wanna keep getting pummelled by someone far beyond your class?"

Vector glanced up at the chameleon with a bittersweet smirk on his face as he sarcastically commented "Ya certainly ain't biased with these things, Esp," before he seriously replied "But I'm still gonna keep fightin'; you and Mighty can check things out with da panda guy, whatever his name is."

"You sure you wanna do that, Vec?" Mighty asked with a tone of concern as he leaned on the cage, "Even with that montage last time, you're doing really badly. Maybe you should just get it straight from the man himself; he might've been on meds or something when we checked in on him so who knows?"

A brief period of silence passed until the fighting detective placed a hand on his knee and slowly rose up from the chair, replying "You two take care of that then. I've gotta go settle somethin' important…" But before he did anything else, he looked at Espio and asked "Yo Esp, could ya do somethin' for me?"

The chameleon raised a curious eyebrow as he cautiously asked "What is it?"

Vector smiled bitterly as he requested "Espio, if the next couple of rounds don't go well and worst comes to worst…" A look that was actually sort-of concerned formed on the ninja detective's face as the crocodile put his hand in his pocket and pulled out a small MP3 player of some sort with tiny headphones dangling off of it, "Take care of my Walkman for me, would ya?"

Rolling his eyes as per usual, a small smile appeared on Espio's muzzle as he replied "Don't worry, I will…" and took the Walkman out of Vector's hand, noticing that the older detective gave him a trusting wink as he slightly nodded towards Mighty and Charmy, who simply stared at this in bamboozlement.

And on that note, Vector walked into the middle of the ring to find Razter giving him an indignant glare. Raising an eyebrow in annoyed confusion, the small croc tilted his head and glared back at his twin brother as he irritably asked "What?!"

(Mood Music II - Migawari no shinyu ~ Shiro Sagisu)

"What d'ya mean you've got somethin' important to settle?" the champion asked in an unusually quiet, calm voice as he continued to stare at his twin brother. Just then, something clicked in his head and his eyes narrowed in disgusted realization as he asked a second time "…Is that what this is about? You're still jealous of me, after all this time?!" Instead of loudly refuting a claim that demeaning, Vector simply looked away in defeat.

Razter's eyes widened out to an extent and he sighed in exasperation before remarking "So, that's what's been botherin' ya lately…Well, I can't say I get where you're comin' from cause I don't. Kinda wish I did, though…"

Vector's eyebrow raised even further into the air as he asked in bewilderment "Wait, what d'ya mean you wish? How could someone like you wish you were like some chump like me? And how come you're quiet for once?"

A bittersweet smile formed on the champion's face as he gazed up towards the ceiling and commented "I guess it must've been somethin' awful; always under your bro's shadow no matter where you go, 'specially when said bro was tryin' ta be like you…" He looked back down at the stumped crocodile opposite and chuckled softly, "Talk about irony, eh?"

Vector's jaw dropped in shocked surprise as he asked "Hold on, you were trying ta be like…me?" thumbing himself as he said so.

His twin brother chuckled again and his smile became more cheerful, saying "Why d'ya think I'm so loud? Or why I started callin' myself da Great Razter? Only from the best, bro! Anyways, I'm sorry for makin' ya feel like crap this whole time…and for sleepin' with your girlfriend that one time, I might've been a bit tipsy that night." as he sheepishly scratched his head.

In response, Vector looked towards the floor, unsure of just how to respond to that as he processed everything that had just been said through his mind. A minute or so passed in silence as the cheers of the audience grew loud once more at the announcement that the second round would be start again in less than a minute. Finally, the reptilian detective-fighter looked back up at his brother and asked "…Can you do somethin' for me, Raz?"

Razter raised an eyebrow slightly and tilted his head in confusion as he asked "Sure…what is it?"

The neutral frown on Vector's face formed into a cocky grin as he held his fists up in the air and took a fighting stance, loudly replying "Can you put up a decent fight?"

Raz grinned cheerfully as he took up an offensive pose and replied with a booming voice once more "I thought you'd never ask! But ain't you still bushed from the last round?"

"Maybe," the reptilian detective admitted, "But that don't mean I don't wanna good fight, y'know bro?"

The champion danced lightly on his feet as he joyfully replied "Sure do, bro. I sure do…"

And as if he was anticipating this moment for some time, the announcer stepped onto the stage in between the two crocodile fighters and exclaimed "SO ARE YOU TWO FINALLY READY TO BEGIN THE SECOND ROUND?!" Upon receiving an eager nod from both reptiles, a gleeful grin formed on the tuxedoed man's face as he concluded "ALRIGHTY THEN! FIGHT!"

Ding ding.

August 6th, 4:43pm

Sparkling Emerald

(Mood Music III - Rise from the Ashes - Turnabout Jazz Soul)

"Well that could've turned out better…" Espio dully remarked before taking a sip from his cup of dark, bitter coffee. As you may've expected, the rest of the fight didn't turn out to be all that much better; Razter won the match with flying colours and because this is a fighting episode where logic goes right out the window faster than watching Battlefield Earth, that meant he wasn't guilty of using steroids or beating up Noah Thompson. Hell, I'd be surprised if anyone actually remembered that's what kickstarted the events of this silly episode to begin with!

Anyways, Vector leaned on the table with his elbow and stared out the nearby window as he nibbled onto a very small slice of pepperoni pizza, admitting "Yeah, that didn't go as well as I figured…But hey, at least I didn't get too badly beaten or anythin' like that!"

"Of course!" Espio acquiesced in a tone of cheerful sarcasm as he threw his hands up in the air, "At least we still managed to solve the mystery of Thompson's assault and earned enough money to pay back our landlord so we don't get evicte-oh wait, that didn't happen at all!"

"Jeez Espio," Mighty commented as he helped himself to his only other chilli dog in the meal, "I know we should've done something but better but hey, things could be worse."

"Yeah!" Charmy agreed as he leaned forward on the table, "At least Vector didn't get hit in the nuts or anythin' like that!"

"Oh, what a disservice to Mobius that would be…" Espio bitterly remarked in sarcasm as he drank another portion of his coffee, "All the same, we still could've come up with a contingency plan had we not gotten carried away with that damned musical number," glaring irritably at the ashamed-looking armadillo and feline that came up with that plan. The chameleon sighed wearily and suggested "The problem is we didn't and now, there's a very good chance we'll end up getting kicked out if we can't think up a solution of some sort to get us paid. Anyone got a decent plan…other than you two?" as he looked at Mighty and Honey yet again.

That just left the three experienced members of the Chaotix to ponder the possibilities of how to earn a thousand Mobucks before the day was out, but the problem was that they were completely and utterly stumped as to what they were going to do about this whole situation. After a minute or so of silence, Espio simply groaned and muttered "Well then, we better go check if that homeless centre's got any spare room for four dimwit detectives…That is, unless you've got another idea in mind." as he glanced tentatively at the shelled Mobian sitting opposite.

Mighty scratched his head and put on a fake smile as he replied, the nervous tone in his voice giving the game away, "I guess I'll…" His mouth stayed opened but only sounds of uncertainty and guilt passed from his lips as he realizaed that he wasn't sure what to say. He wanted to be honest, but then again, he didn't want to come off like some kind of jerk to his friends so all he could do was non-chalantly shrug and say "I'll figure out tomorrow…"

Espio's glare at the armadillo narrowed in disappointment and he leaned back in the leather seat, taking a final sip of his cup of coffee as he whispered very quietly to himself "So, you're the short-sighted kind, aren't you Mighty?"

Hearing a vague mention of what he thought was his name, the black teenager leaned forward on the table and asked "You say something, partner?"

At that moment, a familiar-sounding voice called from the counter "Hey you Chaotix guys!" The five patrons at the table looked towards the counter to find Kyle with his hand over the receiver of an old-school cord phone and telling them "It's your landlord. Says he wants to talk to you guys about something."

The purple ninja raised an invisible eyebrow at this as he looked at Vector, silently asking if he should go and take the call. But instead, the older reptile got up from his seat and squeezed past Mighty and Charmy as he made his way from the counter. He took the phone out of the large feline's hands and held it up to his great, stinking of pepperoni slices, mouth as he asked "Yeah Ben, what's up?"

Ben's usually weary voice actually sounded more enthusiastic today as it replied through the phone's receiver "Something pretty decent for once. I heard through the grapevine about your great big loss at the arena today. Man, who knew you'd fail that badly!"

As the voice from the other end broke out in vindictive laughter, Vector rolled his eyes and mockingly remarked "Yeah, yeah, it was sooooo funny! Is that what ya called for? I've got better things to do than get laughed a-"

"Hold on a sec," Ben quickly demanded, "That wasn't why I called, though I figured I get that outta the way first!" before snickering once again, much to the crocodile's annoyance. After a short while, the landlord cleared his throat and continued "Anyways, after I died laughing, I checked out the mail as usual and I found something pretty interesting…"

"If it's that August special of PlayReptile," Vector hurriedly requested, "I will kill you if you've done somethin' to it!"

Ignoring the warning, Ben went on with his story "It's a small cheque addressed to a Mr Arthur Argyle Dent," referring to the fake name Vector came up for himself when he moved into the city, "and it's worth about 1,000 Mobucks, which is, oddly enough, the amount of money you lot owe me…"

Vector's eyes widened out to the size of tractors and his jaw smashed through the blue-and-white checkerboard floor as he stammered "W-w-what?! A t-thousand M-m-m-m-m-" before he gulped to calm himself down, "…Y-you've gotta be kiddin' me!"

"I wish!" Ben remarked from the other side, "Anyways, you wanna use this little surprise to pay me back or do you wanna waste it on more porn?"

"Of course we'll pay ya back with it!" Vector ecstatically replied to his landlord's blatant teasing, "But do ya know who the heck sent that check in?"

"No clue," the squirrel's voice dully said, "Though there was a small note included with the cheque to tell you that it's an apology for that exam results night, whatever that is."

(Final Mood Music - Turnabout Sisters Ballad - Masakazu Sugimori)

The truth behind that off-hand remark shot straight into Vector's heart and he felt a proud grin crease his bright green lips as he replied after a short pause "Yeah, whatever that is…See ya later, Ben…" And on that note, he placed the sky blue phone back into its hook-up before walking back to the table with a feeling that something heavy had been lifted from him.

As he made his way back into the leather seat, Espio noticed a strange change in his comrade's demeanor and remarked "You seem a lot more cheerful all of a sudden. Just what was that phone call about?"

"Eh, nothing," Vector non-chalantly dishonestly dismissed with a wave of his hand, "Anyway, you guys don't need to worry about getting kicked out from home. Something just came in and cleared up that problem!"

"Oh really?" The chameleon suspiciously remarked as he leaned on a disinterested hand.

The oldest detective replied with an eager nod and a cheerful "Yep! But this means somethin' else too; we can't keep on waitin' for somethin' to crop up from the blue and save our asses! We've gotta start taking on more cases so we don't have to rely on some kind of Deus Ex Machi…somethin' or other…"

"Deus Ex Machina, Vector," Espio quickly retorted in a deadpan manner, "It's not that hard to remember."

"Yeah, whatever," the crocodile dismissed yet again while shrugging, "But you get what I mean! We've got to take on more work! Otherwise, how else are we gonna become da greatest detectives on Mobius, eh?" as he gave the young armadillo next to him a playful yet knowing noogie. As Mighty and Charmy laughed joyfully at this, Vector charismatically concluded "From tomorrow onwards, we ain't lazin' about until we've got enough money to make sure we don't get screwed! Who's with me?"

"I'll give it all I've got!" Mighty cheerfully affirmed.

"Me too!" Charmy delightfully replied.

"I'll be there to help you guys out!" Honey added with a big smile on her fuzzy muzzle.

"At least, we'll actually get something done for once." Espio agreed with a joking tone as a smirk appeared on his face.

Vector's grin grew even wider as he looked towards the clear blue skies just outside and thought to himself "It may be tough but come sunshine or snow, we'll get da job done! And why? Cause we're the Chaotix Crew, that's why!…Thanks, bro…" a small tear forming on the edge of his eye as the cheering around him went on.

The End

Because the writer has gone off on a date with the badass baritone from chapter 34's musical number, he's left the Chaotix themselves to narrate the next episode preview. Take it away, lads!

Next time on The World's Greatest Detectives!

Espio: We finally decide to get off our collective butts and do some proper work. Though knowing us, it doesn't turn out as well as we hoped…

Vector: What d'ya mean it didn't turn out well, Esp? We were doing pretty fine with solvin' that case in the store.

Espio: That was until Charmy locked himself in the freezer when we needed him most!

Charmy: Hey, it was filled with loads of ice cream! Don't knock me for it! Besides, you guys should see Mighty when he's got one of those chocolate Magnums! Man, he can suck a big o-

Mighty: S-shut up, Charmy! Anyways, all this and more will be revealed next time in Episode 07 - Revelations, Tea Parties and Magnum Ice Creams!

Espio: I don't think we can actually have the name be that long on .

Mighty: Augh, fine. Check it all out in Episode 07 - One of Those Days! There'll be some fan-service on the way!

Espio: You mean that Magnum thing Charmy was on about?

Mighty: Stop talking!

Message from the Author - 15/Sep/2013

(I'm finally done with this bloody episode and hey, my episode preview at the end of chapter 29 was actually on the mark! I did get this finished off in less than 2 and a half months hurrah! Anyways, I know the finale to this episode might've been a bit disappointing, especially after the big damn musical number from last time, but hopefully, I still managed to come up with an engaging finale that you guys enjoyed!

As for what's going to happen about that whole re-write thing I mentioned last time, I'll get to work on it after uploading the next Intermission, which is really needed to explain one or two plot holes in this episode since I'm a bit of a lazy writer ;D! While I'm working on the re-writes, I'm gonna be taking a break for three weeks but don't worry! When I come back, I'll make sure to try put up a more consistent uploading schedule but hey, this is me we're talking about so who knows who things'll turn out?

In any case, give me your thoughts on this chapter, this episode and the general fanfic and I'll see you all for the next chapter before my little break. I hope you've enjoyed reading this episode and the whole general fanfic and until we meet again, have a great day y'all! - FrDougal9000)