Hello there! Welcome to my very first published fanfiction. (Other than a certain abomination which has hopefully been deleted from the internet forever.) This little section right here is the author's notes, so feel free to skip it if you want to get straight to the story. I decided to write this story because I was inspired by another story on this site, 'Murder on Green Hill Island' by twotailedfox. I really enjoyed reading that one and wanted to write a Sonic murder mystery of my own. This first chapter is mostly just an introduction to the characters and setting, but there is one hint very early on in the chapter. If you have any theories, I would love to see them. In fact, I will five you a little tip to get started. In this story, the method used for murder might just be more important then the murderer themselves. Try to figure that out first and then determine which character would be most capable of using that method. If you have any criticisms please let me know. I really hope you enjoy this story.
The seagulls loudly announced their presence and the sun shone brightly when Sonic the hedgehog stood in front of the sizable ship. The sunlight made the ship's white surface painful to look at, with its only irregularity being the large black letters indicating its name: 'S.S. Aqua.' A bit of a generic name, Sonic thought. Couldn't the big egg have been a little more creative?
While sonic was lost in thought, the man he was just insulting in his head walked up to deck and called out to him.
"Hey Sonic, you sure are here early! Well, I guess I should expect that from the blue blur. Get up here already, you are going to get a stroke if you keep standing there in this weather."
Sonic looked up at Eggman, who was wearing a fancy tuxedo which didn't suit him at all. He sighed and said:
"So there you are, big egg. I guess I will board your little boat since it is quite hot out here."
The boat was actually anything but little. It was almost like a mini-cruiseship.
While Sonic walked up the ramp to enter the deck, a new voice called out to him from behind.
"There you are Sonic! How dare you walk here on your own, I wanted to walk with you you moron!"
The girly voice complaining about Sonic's behavior was Amy, who seemed quite angry. Right behind her stood knuckles, looking just as annoyed as Amy but probably for a different reason. And some distance away from those two Shadow was the third individual wearing an irritated expression as Cream was passionately talking about something he did not much care for.
"C'mon Amy, I need to keep some distance from you every once in a while!"
Amy turned up her nose at Sonic's excuse and then passed by him and stepped on deck, with Knuckles following suit. Sonic sighed once again and then followed his two friends. Cream was still talking to Shadow at super sonic speeds when the two of them went up the ramp and onto the ship's well-polished deck, Cream being clearly ignorant of the black hedgehog's annoyance.
Eggman welcomed all the new arrivals, and the did same for four guests who he now noticed from up on the deck.
"Ah, there you guys are! Most of us are already here."
Silver, Blaze, Vector and Espio looked up at Eggman from the docks, and then joined with the rest of them. Now everyone was standing together in the middle of the ship's deck, with some having a somewhat uncomfortable expression on their face.
"Remember Eggman, you promised that this wasn't an evil scheme in any way, and that you just genuinely wanted to make it up to us by taking us on a relaxing vacation in Emerald Island Resort. I am going to be very disappointed if this ends up being like that space theme park thing."
"If it does, I will simply scorch him with my flames. lets just enjoy this for now."
Blaze and Silver opened the door to the lower floors and carried their luggage to their rooms after Blaze reassured the blue hedgehog, disappearing from sight.
Sonic then heard a familiar noise al of a sudden, one reminiscent of a helicopter.
"Tails! You are late, Buddy."
Tails gently floated down onto the deck and landed on his two feet with an apologetic smile.
"Sorry for being late guys, I overslept."
"Don't worry about it Tails, I am glad you are here" Eggman said.
Tails was not used to being treated so nicely by dr. Egmann and flashed an unsure smile.
"Now Charmy is the only one who has not arrived yet. Hurry up already, stupid bee!" Vector said.
"Well actually, Charmy just messaged me, and he is not coming because he is sick."
Espio showed Vex the message on his phone, eliciting a disappointed grunt.
"Well, I guess that means everyone is here then. How about you guys follow Blaze and Silver's lead and take your luggage to your rooms. The bedrooms are two floors down. Then we can meet up in the living room, which is one floor down."
The S.S. Aqua had two floors other than the deck. The one directly under the deck was a floor which contained multiple rooms for relaxation and recreation, such as the aforementioned living room and the library. The floor underneath that one and also the lowest floor on the ship was were all the bedrooms were, and also housed the ship's storage room. The only place of notice on the deck was the captain's quarters, a closed of room build on top of the deck without any windows, which is why Sonic and his friends did not yet know what the captain looked like.
Sonic and his pals followed Eggman's advice and left the deck for their rooms.
The moment Sonic opened his room's door to head for the living room after dropping off his luggage, he was instantly greeted by the clingy pink hedgehog.
"Finally Sonic, I waited here for like four hours! What were you even doing in there!? How could dealing with your luggage take this long!?"
"You waited here all this time?"
"Ugh, whatever. Lets go, Sonic."
Sonic shrugged and followed Amy to the living room. They were the last ones to arrive, as everyone else was already sitting around a large round table. There were three seats left empty, and Sonic took the seat next to Tails, with Amy of course taking the one that would allow her to be close to Sonic. On the round table was a tabletop game, which Eggman was busy explaining when Sonic and Amy took their seats.
"Hey Tails, what the hell are we doing?" Sonic whispered.
"We are going to play mini shogi, just look at the table."
On the table were six small wooden boards. The boards each had a grid of six by six squares on them, and six flat wooden pieces on each side.
"What the hell is that?"
"Shogi is kind of like a variant of chess, and mini-shogi is a smaller, faster version of it. Eggman was already explaining it, but I guess I should explain since you missed all of that."
Tails explained the rules of shogi to Sonic, and then informed Sonic of the fact that they would be doing a tournament, in which Vector would be his first opponent. If he won that round, he would have to fight either Eggman or Blaze. Since there were eleven of them, Cream got to pass the first round for free. And since there would also be three contestants left by the end, It was decided that two of those three would be randomly chosen to battle each other, and that the third person would fight the winner of that match in the true finale.
Sonic stood up from his seat and repositioned himself in the one opposite to Vector.
"Don't underestimate me just because I am a big guy Sonic. I may have awesome muscles, but I can think too!"
"How about you proof that to me by playing instead of talking!"
Sonic started to really get into it. He was fired up ready for battle.
Vector ended up not exactly living up to his promise. Sonic could see Vector's every move coming from a mile away and punished him for all of them, quickly conquering Vector's king and winning the game.
Vector looked at the board with a defeated face and awkwardly waited for the others to finish their games.
Sonic then had to face his next foe, his former nemesis doctor Eggman.
"Even if I am no longer going to fight you for the sake of world conquest, it still feels good to face you again." Eggman said, fired up just like Sonic was.
"Ditto, Moustache McEggface. And just like always, I will win and save the day."
Sonic felt very confident for his first few moves, but Eggman slowly started capitalizing on Sonic's mistakes more and more, until Eggman caught Sonic in a fatal one and took his king.
"Take that, you wretched hedgehog! I finally win! If this happened back when we were fighting for real, it would have been game over for you!"
Eggman was literally jumping for joy over his victory, until he noticed that everyone was staring at him and he calmed down.
"Ahem. Sorry, I swear I am not evil anymore."
"Sure, whatever Eggman" Sonic said, trying to appear nonchalant despite his frustration.
"I guess you will have to just watch the games of the others and wait like the rest of us losers, Sonic." Blaze said with a sincere smile.
"Yes, now you have time to talk to me!" Amy said predictably.
"Well, of course he lost to Eggman if I did." Espio said.
Sonic waited while enduring the constant attention he got from Amy, until the true finale had finally arrived. Tails and Eggman looked each other in the eye. The tension in the room could practically be tasted, and was only broken when Tails made the first move.
"You ready for a beating, Eggman?"
"We'll see about that."
Eggman was somewhat hesitant to get to excited since he did not want to repeat his embarrassing display earlier.
For a while, they both played it safe, until they both started making more aggressive, risky moves. The fox and the doctor were evenly matched, and in a game like Shogi were captured pieces could be reused, that meant the game could go on for a while.
By, now it had already gotten dark outside, the sea an inky black. Blaze had turned on the electric chandelier hanging from the ceiling, which gave of a warm and cozy light.
Eventually, something happened which seemed to finally break the stalemate. Tails moved a piece which he had seemingly done very little with so far, and Eggman's attitude immediately changed from a focused one to nervousness.
Espio, who had been closely watching the match, was astonished by something which Tails had done, and he stared in awe at the gameboard.
"Wait a second, Tails, if you were able to make that move, then does that not mean that Eggman had already lost within the first few turns of the match?!" Espio said.
"What?! You mean I sat through all this boredom even though Tails could have just admitted he already won?! What the hell?!" Amy said.
Not everyone had been as enthralled by the game as Espio. Amy, Vector and Shadow were all just lounging about.
"I guess I lost." Said Eggman with a sigh.
Eggman stood up with some effort and collected the game pieces. Tails also stood up and helped him.
"It has gotten pretty late, and I am sure you all are tired. How about we call it a day for now?" Eggman said.
It was as if the three bored little losers were freed from a spell. Amy, Shadow and Vector were the first to act on Eggman's offer. Amy grabbed Sonic's hand and pulled him along, much to his annoyance.
The others then also stood up and headed for their rooms. Only Eggman remained in the now empty living room. He then also went down the hallway and to his room to sleep in his cozy bed.
Now, the living room was empty, pitch black under the blanket of the night. No creature should be scurrying around in this realm of shadows. And yet, that night, the serenity of this darkness was disturbed. Noises could be heard. Footsteps, quiet yet not entirely silent. No one could have known what they would see the day after. No one but one.