To that reviewer who claimed I took AndTails's story and added stuff to make it more convoluted: bruh, there were 2 other FFN writers spitballing ideas at me for chapter 2. One of them was AndTails. The other writer (who originally spitballed the idea of the Chaotix being involved) is DoomFox. AndTails and Admiral Prower were basically involved in reviewing the first chapter. Yes, the setup might be the same, admittedly. But that's where most of the similarities end. Anyway, enough of the rambling.

"I know you've been running low on reported leads to chase, so I thought you might as well start on this." The receptionist walked to the breakroom and calmly placed the leads and lined paper on the table.

"Miles Prower- oh, Tails filed this?" Knuckles queried.

"I don't know as much about Mr. Prower as you do, sir, but..." the receptionist was explaining until his voice trailed off.

"Considering I've been with Tails on several missions to fight Eggman off, this seems like something I need to check more than ever. For Tails."

"What's this about Tails?" Espio inquired.

"Apparently the guy's had cubs. Worse still, they've been discovered in an alleyway. And it seems he did provide leads to chase."

"Right... so that's where they were found?" Espio pointed at an area circled red on the screenshot.

"Yup. Since there's a security camera close to there, we're going to need to find a way to get recordings from the past 8 weeks. "

Meanwhile, Tails was continuing on his morning circuit. Actually, he was getting close to home. "This is fine," Tails groaned. "This is absolutely fine." He returned home to see an ecstatic Sonic. "Uh... what's all the smiles about, Sonic?"

"KILIAN LEARNED TO FLY!" Sonic yelled in happiness.

"Kilian did what?" Tails inquired in anger. If Kilian could fly, then that meant the baby gates he'd installed would become useless. Tails was smart, but he couldn't come up with an answer to "how do you stop a 6-month-old cub that can fly from entering your workshop?". At least, not immediately. And if Kilian could fly at 6 months old, then nothing could stop him from just de-activating any electrics. "Am I getting too paranoid?" Tails thought. Then, he began talking about his age as Sonic tried to baby Tails.

"Sonic, you do realise I called you to babysit them, and not me? I'm 19. I'm far too old to be treated like a child."

Meanwhile...

"If Tails found his cubs in that muddy alleyway there, there's the back of a tyre shop down there... the tyre shop should have surveillance cameras... alright." Charmy explained. The bee kept pointing at the locations as he mentioned them. "Let's get to that place." So Knuckles, Espio and Charmy left. Because no buses got to the area, Charmy had stupidly decided to be a doofus and take the bus to a similarly-named neighborhood a few miles to the south. Which meant Espio would have to shell out a few for the train from that place to the place they were supposed to go to.

When they finally arrived, Knuckles began asking questions.

"Thomas Kesselworth, may I have access to the surveillance cameras?"

"You can't just barge in and ask for CCTV videos! Although I do save videos for up to a year..."

"Perfect. Hey, stop eating that chocolate bar, Charmy, we need to act professional here."

"What the blazes do you want my CCTV footage for? You some sort of government agent or what?"

"Listen here, it's for a friend. I do not work for the government."

"Well, then why do you need the damn footage?"

"Ten days ago. I want footage from ten days ago between 7:00 and 9:00. And I want it from the back of this place.""

"Fine, fine! You don't have to torture me for it! Come here..."

Knuckles followed Kesselworth to the surveillance room. Kesselworth typed a date into the box, and another box popped up. It read "Do you want to start from a specific time, or start at 10:00?". He chose the earlier, and typed in 7:00. Knuckles hit paydirt at 7:53. A fox with one tail (since the CCTV camera was black-and-white, Knuckles couldn't be sure of what colour the fox was) carrying a box. The box seemed heavy, as they were visibly tired of lugging it around. He couldn't see their face, but did note it looked like a female. He wasn't sure whether this was the mother, or whether they were sent by someone else to dump the box.

"CHARMY? ESPIO? I'VE GOT PAYDIRT." Knuckles immediately yelled. And so the two people whose names were called out came in. "AND WHAT DID I TELL YOU ABOUT EATING TOO MUCH CHOCOLATE, CHARMY?"

"Uh... I don't know?"

"Fine, I don't remember what I was going to say anyway. So, rewind by a few seconds, Kesselworth." The footage was rewinded.

"One-tailed fox... can't see her face. I'm not sure of the colour, because this camera is black and white." All this was written down in a notepad Espio had taken.

Meanwhile, back with Tails, he'd recently brainstormed on what to name the other 3. He'd decided on Kirby for the last yellow-furred cub, and then he immediately remembered Sonic. So, he named the second red-furred cub Maurice, which was Sonic's real name. Kilian was hovering about a meter off the floor. Tails then asked Kilian if he could land. And he did. Considering Kilian was only 6 months old yet was already flying, Tails thought he must've inherited his intelligence.

Meanwhile...

"Alright, all we know is the person who dumped the cubs is a female fox. I couldn't see the face, though, so I couldn't ID her straight away. How are we going to find the next clue?" Knuckles explained, then asked.

"Hold on a second, Knux," Charmy replied. "Remember the DNA evidence Tails sent in? We can test the cubs' hairs and find out who their mother is that way..."

"But how does that help with finding the person who dumped them, unless..."

"We're probably going to need that box for fingerprinting." Charmy then fumbled around for Knuckles's phone.

"I'll take the call, Charmy!" Knuckles then took his phone. He fumbled around in his contacts for a while, having forgotten that he already had Tails saved as a contact. When he finally found Tails's number, he called.

"Umm... hello?"

"We're going to need the box for fingerprinting. It's most likely going to be useful as evidence of who dumped the children."

"Alright, then. Meet me at Volpen Square."

Both Tails and the Chaotix were preparing to go to Volpen Square. It was a largely empty concrete field save for the statue of the old king of the state that governed the rest of it from the building near it. Tails guessed it must've been 300 years old. So, Tails ran down and put gloves on to preserve the fingerprints that were on the box. He later left for Volpen Square.

At the same time, Knuckles was trying to find the 5 bucks (not dollars) he needed to catch the train from the nearest train station up to the station next to Volpen Square. He did. So him, Espio and Charmy were waiting at the train stop when Tails called to inform him he was already on Volpen Square. Knuckles told him that he'd need to wait a few minutes, as they were taking the train.

A few minutes Tails had waited until he spotted Knuckles, Espio and Charmy. He gave them the box.

"Here's that evidence you said you needed."

"Thank you."

So, when Knuckles, Espio and Charmy returned to the building later that day, they started dusting up and using tape on the box. A few of the fingerprints matched those of Tails. But the other fingerprints matched another person they knew...

That's it, I'm ending this on a cliffhanger.