August 27th, 8:03pm
Location: Unknown
Flashing neon lights, powerful bass hits bouncing in the background and many people of all kinds swaying about on the checkerboard dance floor, some more erotically than others. Most typical detective stories wouldn't start in this fashion but then again, this isn't like most typical detective stories.
A tall, green crocodile walked through the crowd in a strange manner, as if he had no idea where he was going. Trying to step carefully, and not doing very well at that, past teenagers doing the latest unusual-looking dance crazes, some of which resembled a man riding a horse in the most awkward fashion possible, the emerald reptile wandered through the building aimlessly until he heard a faint static ring out in one of his leg pockets. He stopped in his tracks and pulled a small grey walkie-talkie out of his pocket, holding onto the one large button on it as he walked through the crowd. He held it up to his head in a semi-discreet manner as a calm voice crackled through the speaker "Are you there yet, Vector?"
Glancing around for a good enough spot to hide, the crocodile known as Vector replied with slight uncertainty "I think so, Espio."
As he stumbled past another onset of people attempting and failing quite badly at dancing like zombies, Espio's voice asked in a baffled, irritated tone "You think? Didn't you follow the instructions I gave you?"
"Yeah, yeah," Vector tiredly replied with a dismissive wave of the hand, "take a left at da post office, keep goin' till I see some bright neon sign a-"
"Wait a minute," Espio asked as the green reptile finally found a small discreet corner of the enormous room and quickly walked towards it, "did you say left? I told you to go right, you dolt! Where the hell are you?"
"Oh…that would explain things…" Vector admitted in a monotone voice, realizing his mistake around roughly the same time he noticed an intense make out session going on between a blue jay and raccoon about five feet away from him.
August 27th, 8:05pm
Topaza Convenience Store, Spiegel Street
Being as claustrophobic as he was, Espio didn't take too kindly to being stuck in the tight, dark air vents, even if it was for the mission. Nevertheless, this wasn't the most annoying problem for the chameleon detective right now. That honor went towards, yet again, his older reptilian comrade, who he was currently trying to contact through the walkie-talkie in hand "Explain what? Anta baka, Vector? Where did you go off to? Vector?" If Vector had bothered to reply, the purple ninja could barely hear it over a big wall of brass noise and what sounded suspiciously like two men moaning at the top of their lungs. Sighing through his teeth, he angrily exclaimed "Kuso!" as he took his thumb off the central button of the device.
As he pinched the gap between his eyes out of frustration, the chameleon decided to focus on the mission at hand; he would burn Vector's skinmag collection later. And with that, he directed his gaze back towards an opening in the vent, guarded only by small metal bars. They weren't much, but they were certainly doing a better job of guarding than the one security guard being held hostage under the opening. With his hands behind his head, the dark-skinned man faced the frozen foods section alongside four customers unfortunate to get mugged at this hour. The convenience store was currently being robbed by a small gang of four young Mobians, the leader of whom was crouched down on the counter with a gun pointed at the similarly aged clerk holding her hands up as well.
(Mood Music - Sinnerman ~ Nina Simone)
This leader was a emerald green hedgehog, with unusually short quills, who wore a pitch-black leather jacket like some kind of biker gang reject, opened up to reveal two long scars that stretched across his peach chest, and orange shades that were hanging over his forehead at the time. He stared at the female shopkeeper in front of him with mischievous sky blue eyes as he tilted the gun to a degree, preaching "You know, loads of people like to have you believe otherwise but the sad truth is that the world is the greatest bitch imaginable. You might not think it is but then, you get kicked in the balls right out of nowhere and you're left wondering just what the hell happened…"
He straightened his gun towards the squirrel-chipmunk girl as he explained "Take us, for example. I do everything I can to make you happy, and what do ya do?" The red-haired woman glared at him in bitter silence as he went and answered the question anyways, frowning in disgust as he did so, "You dump me and go off for that random chump that packs bags at the local supermarket!"
"I've told you God knows how many times already;" the squirrel angrily replied as her hands clenched slightly and her gaze narrowed at the hedgehog, "We've been finished for six months. Will you just leave me alone already?!"
The hedgehog tilted his head at such an confused angle as if she was testing his knowledge of ancient Echidna algebra, remarking "Not until you go ahead and dump that bag-packing chump! That," as a devilish smile bore his peach muzzle and he thumbed towards himself, "or you drop him for one special night with the Scourge of the Streets, baby…" He then leaned on the counter in a very alluring manner, putting on his best possible smile, and asked in a seductive voice "So, what's your answer?"
Taking a deep breath, the outraged squirrel replied with a cheeky smile "Yeah right! I'd rather die than do it with you again!"
A small look of disappointment appeared in Scourge's eyes as he pressed the barrel of the gun against his ex's forehead and replied "Well, that can be arranged…" The smug look on the clerk's face was replaced with a fearful look while her ex-boyfriend looked back to the two comrades keeping the customers hostage on the other end of the store and asked "How's it going over there guys?"
One of the comrades, a tall pure white wolf dressed in all blue clothes with the sleeves ripped from his half-opened shirt, kept his small pistol pointed at the helpless security guard as he looked back towards Scourge and replied "Don't worry, no-one's causing any trouble so far! Bu-"
"Can you please just grab the money so we can get outta here?!" a nearby gang member suddenly demanded with a fearful tone in his voice, his grip on his own pistol shaking like an earthquake. The emerald leader waved a dismissive hand in the member's direction before he began interrogating the clerk once again.
The wolf stared judgementally at the nervous member, a coyote as grey as an overcast sky clad in a pitch black hoodie and deep blue jeans gazing guiltily towards the ground, as he whispered harshly "Just what was that all about, Flynn?! You could've gotten in us in trouble, you know?"
Flynn sighed softly before he looked up at the tall wolf and stammered "S-sorry Drago, it's just that…well…it's that guy over there," as he indicated his pistol towards one of the hostages; a black armadillo with a bright red shell on his back, "Remember that time I tried to mug a couple of people and I got knocked out for it?…I'm pretty sure that's the guy who did it."
"Oh really?" Drago affirmed incredulously before he walked towards the armadillo, still keeping his firearm directed at the security guard and ordered "Hey punk!" Quite calmly, the armadillo turned his head to find a white wolf glaring at him lividly, an unusual sight for most people but not this one, as the wolf asked "So you're the idiot that went and beat up my friend?" thumbing towards the grey coyote quivering in his feet only a few feet.
Raising an eyebrow, the armadillo tilted his head and stared at Flynn with a blank expression. The coyote looked somewhat familiar but he couldn't remember where he'd seen him before. So, he shook his head and replied "Nope!"
Grunting in exasperation, Drago turned back round and walked towards the distressed Flynn, who was trying to protest but given his state, the wolf only heard indecipherable babblings on the way back. Standing tall over the smaller canine, the white wolf interrupted the babbling protests "Look, what does it matter if he beat you up one time? There's four of us and only one of him. And besides, if you can keep your nerves calm," as an alluring smile formed on his muzzle and a seductive shine appeared in his eyes, "I'll let you be on top tomorrow, for once. How does that sound?"
As he gulped in anticipation, a delightedly nervous smile creased Flynn's lips as he eagerly nodded to this ultimatum and with that, the two of them got back to making sure none of the hostages could do anything to foil the hold-up…
August 27th, 8:10pm
Just outside the Topaza Convenience Store
Normally, when the local Destructix gang held a robbery of any store, they'd usually get Drago to guard the doors, given his incredibly height and for some, his ability to make fan girls faint at the sight of him, or at least that's the case with the author. Nevertheless, it was decided that Myles would take care of things this time round. After all, it's just the entrance to an ordinary convenience store, not a local weapons armoury or whatever. As the yellow fox, wearing no more than a short sleeved jacket coloured a confident crimson, stood just outside the door with his arms folded, he was eager to believe that this would be the start of his rise up the ranks of the Destructix, that one day, he'd be calling the shots. At the very least, he'd do more than just rob places that happened to have ex-girlfriends as their employees…
Suddenly, his thoughts of glorious grandeur were interrupted with the strange sight of a tall, lanky shadow in the distance crashing into a group of trash cans. Instinctively flinching at first, the young fox straightened himself up and stared at the alleys many yards away, noticing a strange figure stumble to the left before it quickly ran towards him. As time passed, Myles saw that the black apparition slowly began to take colour and a more distinct shape as it got closer. Eventually, this unusual being became a crocodile coloured a bright shade of green and yellow, though on closer inspection, the latter was because of the ridiculous amounts of golden chains hanging off of this odd character.
As the crocodile ran towards him, the golden vulpine remembered his job and so, he stood tall in front of the door to the store as he sternly asked "Hey, where do you think you're going?", trying his best to make sure that the stranger didn't notice the occasional squeak in his voice, "This place isn't open for business!"
Finally, the green reptile reached the store, bending forwards to catch his breath. In between tired pants, he looked up and saw that the light from inside beam out through the glass door, as well as a neon sign above the door claiming in large purple and red letters 24-7-365. Also, there was some random fox trying to look like he was the toughest guy on these streets since Axel Stone and not doing a very good job of it, but frankly, that didn't matter right now. As his breathing began to calm down the crocodile's gaze directed towards this fox and asked "So, what's with the lights bein' on and everythin'?"
Myles raised an attempted-apathetic eyebrow at this question as he replied with a faint stammer "N-none of your b-business; just shove off now or you'll regret it. Do I m-make myself clear?" He glared disdainfully at the emerald Mobian to further hammer in the point, though inside, he was just about ready to run to the hills and away from them again just in case.
After a few seconds, the crocodile finally stood straight, bringing the young fox's attention to the fact that this total stranger was a good foot taller than him. It was at this point that the reptile noticed something peculiar and with a smug grin forming on his face, he sarcastically complemented "Nice toupee, kid!" Having the black, neatly trimmed hairpiece sitting on top of his head pointed out to him finally did Myles in. His pupils dilated like crazy, his breathing became rapidly nervous and he began to sweat buckets as the tall croc oh-so innocently asked "Mind if I see it?" And with that, he grabbed the toupee off the teen's head and tossed it up into the air, which carried the tiny little wig several feet away.
As the yellow fox dashed after it, cursing the situation he was in all the while, the crocodile pushed the headphones up against his ears and walked through the glass door into the store. Humming his good ol' favourite tune, the tall reptile was completely and utterly oblivious to the blank stares that Scourge and the clerk were giving him. As he watched the mysterious crocodile flip through the magazine section, the hedgehog leader silently mouthed in disbelief "…What the hell?" His eyes glanced towards the door and, upon finding that Myles wasn't standing in front of it like he was told to, he sighed irritably as he jumped down from the counter, remarking "'Cuse me a minute babe, I've got something to take care of. But don't worry, I'll still come back for ya."
"Drop dead!" the squirrel angrily demanded as she glared at the devilishly smiling scourge.
Chuckling through a crooked smile, Scourge commented "Not without you, Alicia." He looked towards Drago and Flynn and asked "Hey Drago, keep an eye on her while I'm gone," as he nodded his pistol in her direction. As the white wolf walked over towards the ex-couple, the green gangster stepped out the door and looked around as he yelled "Ian! What did I tell you about staying focused on your job?" And with that, he walked to the right as he tried to find that lazy newbie of his.
Meanwhile, Drago walked towards the crocodile browsing through the magazines and pointed his small firearm at him, pointing out "Hey chump! What d'ya think you're doing here?!"
Poised with his gun at the ready, the tall canine expected some kind of attack from the mysterious reptile that he would easily overpower before punching the guy's lights out. But instead, the reptilian adult flicked through the seedier shelves of the section as he quietly sang "If ya're strong; you can fly! You can reach the other side…of da rainbow!"
The white wolf's nostrils began to flare in annoyance as his grip on the pistol tightened and he angrily shouted "Hey, I'm talking to you! Don't ignore me!"
Just then, the crocodile took out a swimsuit catalogue of some sort from the back of the rack and removed his headphones as he looked towards the clerk, holding the magazine with a sleek green and yellow gecko posing seductively on the cover as he asked "Yo ma'am, how much is this worth? Plus, ya got any spare Kleenex boxes?" The stumped squirrel stared at him in total bamboozlement, much to the croc's confusion as he tiled his head and asked again "What's ya problem?", completely unaware of the wolf gangster pulling back the lock on his firearm and pointing it directly at his head, "Haven't ya see someone buy skinmags in da middle of da night?"
The white wolf was about to pull the trigger when suddenly, a loud bang rang out from above and a purple chameleon, along with small fragments of metallic bars, descended from the ceiling. You could've said it was like an angel falling from the heavens, except 1. that's unbelievably pretentious and 2. most angels wouldn't land by planting both feet directly into someone's face and kicking them about five feet away. In any case, that's the fate Drago was subjected to just then and as he flew across the aisle, crashing into a pile of cans that tumbled all over him, the chameleon brushed himself down as he commented "Took you long enough to get here, Vector…" while Alicia crouched down and pressed a small button under the counter repeatedly.
Hearing the noise, Flynn turned to find his 'friend' lying under a pile of cans and with a quick glance towards the two reptilian assailants conversing only a few feet away, he held up his small pistol and began firing shots at the two. The mysterious ninja easily dodged out of the way while Vector scrambled towards one of the discount donut mountains seen in those kinds of stores. As he snagged a donut or two from the pile and tossed them casually into his mouth, the green reptile shouted back over the gunshots "Sorry, Esp! I told ya already; I got lost on da way! But hey, I found a place that you and Mighty could check out!" as a cheeky smile wormed its way on his face.
As a bullet pierced the pile, causing Vector to be showered in donuts of all different flavours, shapes and colours, the red-shelled armadillo turned around and quickly ran towards the grey coyote, who turned only too late to find a white gloved fist flying directly towards his face. A dejectedly tired looking forming on his face, Flynn muttered in exasperation "Not again…" before the fist made contact with his face and knocked him straight into unconsciousness.
The K.O'ed coyote's body staggering back to the freezer doors, where he stopped and slumped down onto the floor, the armadillo assailant cracked his knuckles as he looked towards Espio and Vector, remarking with an irritable tone in his voice "You're still ringing on about that whole Esighty thing? It's been two months since that happened!"
Digging his way out of the pile of pastries, the cheeky croc opened his jaw to reply when suddenly another bullet whizzed just past his face. Yelping in shock, he looked to find Drago pointing his pistol at him with a vengeful look on his face. The white wolf ran towards Vector and started firing several intense shots at him. The oldest detective scrambled out of the donuts and ducked under the aisles, just barely avoiding the bullets knocking down cans and wrappers instead. Eventually, the tall canine stopped in place and attempted to fire once again but instead, he only heard clicks emerging from the barrel. Cursing under his breath, he threw the pistol onto the floor and ran towards the position his target was currently hiding under. He spotted a large green tail escaping to the next adjacent aisle and turned left to catch the crocodile unawares.
However, what he found was not a reptile cowering in fear but the purple chameleon from before appearing out of nowhere and delivering a powerful kick to his chin, knocking him into the air yet again. He flew across the aisle and crashed into the coffee machine with a hard thump, finally rendering him unconscious. Vector gave the younger reptile a grateful thumbs-up and said "Thanks, Esp! Oh, by the way," as he glanced cheekily back and forth between Espio and Mighty, "sorry for thinkin' ya two go pretty well together!"
As the hostages became aware that they were no longer in trouble and cheered in delight, Vector grinned optimistically as he rubbed his hands together, remarking "Anyways, another successful mission! Good job, Chaotix Crew!…Guys?" as he noticed, much to his eternal disbelief, that the two teenage detectives weren't actually paying any attention to him. Instead, they were staring with wide eyes at something else altogether…
Hearing the door swing open, the crocodile detective turned around to find Scourge and Myles walking through the door; Scourge glaring very disapprovingly at the young fox as he scolded "You idiot! See, this is why we let Drago guard the doors half the time…"
"Hey, don't blame me!" Myles talked back as he cradled his precious black hairpiece in his hands, "That stupid alligator threw my toupee away!"
"I ain't an alligator, kid!" an irritating Brooklyn accent pointed out, bringing the two gangsters' attention to the fact that the other two members had been knocked out and were lying across the store, the hostages were free and that in short, their robbery attempt had gone completely and utterly wrong, "I'm a crocodile!"
His hands twitching nervously at the thought of being responsible for this mess-up, Myles' eyes shifted between the three detectives glaring at him, back at the green hedgehog staring on in bewilderment and in particular, one of the hostages picking up the food they'd dropped when this whole situation began. Feeling something click inside his brain, he ran over to the hostage and grabbed her as he pulled a small firearm of his own and held it against her head, demanding "T-that's it! D-don't move or I'll blow this hag's brains out!"
As the woman screamed fearfully and the gang leader cheered the younger member on, Espio's eyes narrowed at the older reptile as he asked "Vector…?" Vector and Mighty looked in the chameleon's direction as he continued with a slightly annoyed tone in his voice "…I was under the impression that you'd taken care of those two guys…"
Holding his hands up defensively, the crocodile protested "Hey, I didn't think that th-"
"Of course," the ninja detective sarcastically interrupted as he rolled his eyes, "you didn't think. Well, stop the bloody presses!"
"Don't you get cheeky with me, Esp!" the reptilian adult remarked as he pointed at Espio.
Feeling ignored, Myles pushed the barrel of the gun up against the old Overlander's head as he desperately ordered "Seriously, I'm gonna kill this lady if you do anything stupi-"
"Will you be quiet?" the purple reptile sharply said, shutting the young fox up as his jaw dropped slightly, "If you're going to take that long to retrieve a toupee, the very least you can do is be patient with others!"
As this little debate went on, Mighty shook his head with a tired smile on his face, whispering to himself "Not again…" Crouching down to the floor, he snuck past the shelves, not noticing that Scourge had seen a red shell traversing across the aisles and began to discreetly follow it. Eventually, the armadillo found his way back to the freezers, finding the hostages on the ground with their hands over their heads in fear. Without turning his head to look, he whispered "Hey Charmy, we'd better take care of this ourselves!"
Quite unusually given who he was trying to talk to, he didn't hear any kind of response and so he turned his head to find that the young bee in question had vanished. As his eyes widened out slightly in surprise, he began to look for the vanishing Charmy, under the curious gaze of the leader of the Destructix. Meanwhile, only a few feet away, Espio stared down at Myles as he elegantly pulled out a kunai from a grey cartridge in his glove and held it in his hand, ready to attack as Vector reminded him "Espio, are ya nuts? That guy's got an old lady hostage! He's gonna kill her!"
"Somehow," the chameleon calmly asserted with a confident smirk on his face as he continued to stare at the young fox aiming his gun at the old woman's head, "I don't think he'll have the guts. And besides, I never miss!"
As the fear and desperation began to take control over him, the yellow fox pointed the pistol away from his hostage's head and towards the ninja detective as he threatened "Fine! Then at least, I'll g-get someone else instead! You asked for t-this!"
The two Mobians stared each other down, anticipating the other to make the move that would set the rest of the night in motion, as Mighty noticed a strange black and yellow thing in an ice cream freezer. He stood up slightly as he opened up the lid to find Charmy swimming in a sea of opened ice cream wrappers and a ridiculous amount of chocolate on his muzzle. The shelled detective's jaw dropped to the floor at this sight as he angrily whispered "What the heck, Charmy? I told you to wait with me until this mess cleared up!"
"You did!" the young bee protested as he sternly stood up, brining the armadillo's attention to the fact that the bee was holding a half-eaten ice burger in his hand, "But then you went and buggered off to beat up that wolf guy! So I got bored and saw this and well…" Mighty folded his arms and looked at Charmy disapprovingly before the youngest detective remarked "You'd do it too!"
As the teenage detective rolled his eyes, Scourge hid behind a small stall as he cocked his gun. With a cruel grin on his face, he turned around the corner and pulled the trigger, firing a bullet at the red-shelled Mobian. Hearing the powerful bang, the armadillo ducked over Charmy, causing the bullet to hit his shell and bounce off it. At the same time, Espio finally threw his kunai with extreme precision and prejudice at Myles. The young fox pulled the trigger to fire but much to his rage, the kunai flew into the barrel, causing a small explosion to emerge from the firearm.
The yellow fox let go of the lady and stumbled backwards in a daze, he tripped over a can and fell onto the floor, banging his head off one of the shelves. Now, that would've been the end of that. If it wasn't for that stray bullet that bounced off Mighty's shell and ricocheted its way into Espio's left shoulder. The chameleon gasped in pain, clutching his shoulder as blood began dripping out of the wound and down his arm like streams of red water. The armadillo's eyes widened out in distressed shock as he and Charmy ran towards the pain-struck reptile also being fussed over by Vector. As the Chaotix surrounded the ninja detective to try and help him, Scourge quickly sneaked out of the store and dashed down the rain-swept alley as the sounds of police sirens closing in rang out in the night.
Like I said, this isn't like most typical detective stories. After all, how many of these kinds of stories begin with a case going horribly wrong and one of the detectives getting shot in the shoulder?…Well, not too many I can think of…
To be continued…
Message from the Author - 9/Oct/2013
(Finally, I return from my 3-week hiatus to bring some more oddball stories from the inner machinations of my mind! Annoyingly, I haven't been able to work on those rewrites as often as I probably should but I've been pretty busy once again, what with going back to school, working on brand new videos and the like etc. All the same, I'll try my best to work on both so you guys get the best quality fics as I can deliver!
Anyways, I figured I'd start the episode off on an interesting note; the typical formula seen in the last few episodes shall be tossed out the window for this one and replaced with something rather…unique. I won't tell you what just yet but come next chapter, I'm sure you'll figure it out for yourselves… As a side note, I'll give a bonus prize of some sort to the first person who can tell me just what this first part was a shout out to; shouldn't be too hard to guess, it's a very popular show, or at least an extension of it. And if no-one can guess by the time I've finished this episode, I'll tell the answer in the first chapter of Episode 08. Best of luck guessing, guys!
As well as this, I'd like to thank Lordoftheghostking28 for supplying the 85th review of this fanfic; thanks so much, man! And I'm also quite delighted at the fact that I've reached 4,500 views for this fanfic; it ain't much, I know, but all the same, I'm still happy about it. Thank you all for checking out the fanfic, even if it was just a curious glance and nothing more! Anyways, tell me your thoughts on this chapter and if I can make any improvements to my writing style (other than O.C. details, this episode contains no O.C.s to speak of, for the curious among you guys). I hope you enjoyed reading the chapter and until we meet again, have a great day y'all! - FrDougal9000)