Chapter 13: The Black Gem Case, Part 2

When Sapphire woke up, she was lying on a couch, within a familiar room. As she got up, very groggy, she looked around and realized she was in Cream and Vanilla's living room. Her vision was blurry, and she had a hard time fully understanding any more detail, but once she rubbed her eyes, and her vision began to clear up, she found the least likely person she expected to see here.

"You're awake," a deep voice said. Taking a good look to make sure it was who she thought it was, she saw the black-furred hedgehog with his crimson eyes staring at her with their usual intensity, what also with a hint of worry.

Seeing she was alright, Shadow smiled. "Good to see that you're okay. Were you hurt?"

"I... don't think so..." Sapphire responded. "What happened? Why are you here?"

Shadow looked off to the side. "I found you and your friends knocked out on the ground, so brought you back here."

"Oh... is everyone okay?"

"Seemingly, although..." Shadow looked away. "Apparently, someone wasn't there."

"Wh-what?" Sapphire responded, nervous.

At that point, Vanilla walked in. "Oh, thank goodness, you're awake! Cream just got up, too." As if to prove it, Cream walked out from behind her mother, and ran up to Sapphire, very distressed.

"Saph! It's terrible!" she cried.

"H-huh?" the yellow hedgehog replied.

"Gem- Gemerl, he's..."

Shadow shook his head. "Based on what Vanilla told me, he was with you girls, but when I found you, I didn't see him anywhere."

"He's... gone...?" Sapphire said.

"Sapphire... What happened?" Vanilla asked.

Sapphire was distressed by this news, but she tried to explain what happened. How they were walking home, then someone used some kind of energy burst to shut down Gemerl, then followed with some sort of gas, which caused them to fall unconscious.

"An EMP," Shadow summed up, "plus some sleeping gas... Whoever did this, they knew what they were doing."

"I... I can't..." Sapphire started to tear up. "Tails trusted me with Gemerl, you trusted me with him, he... trusted..."

"It's okay, Sapphire, this wasn't you're fault," Vanilla replied, trying to comfort her.

Shadow got up. He was not happy that someone made Sapphire cry, even unintentionally. "Sapphire."

Sapphire looked over to the black hedgehog. "Y-yeah," she managed between tears and sniffles.

"Whoever did this, whoever thinks they can simply take your friends from you... I will find them, and I will make them pay! And I will bring Gemerl back, one way or another."

"My, aren't you determined," Vanilla replied. "But are you really going to do this alone?"

"If necessary. I work well when alone."

"Well, for something like this, you should ask for help. And I know who could help. Why don't you take Cream and Sapphire down, and ask for their assistance?"

Shadow's eyes narrowed. "You aren't talking about- ...No. I don't want help from them!"

"I can't believe we have to talk to these guys," Shadow grumbled.

The three mobians (plus Cheese) now stood in front of an old, run-down building in town. The sign on top read "Chaotix Detective Agency".

"You know these people?" Sapphire asked.

"I'm familiar with them," Shadow replied.

"Aw, they aren't that bad," Cream chimed in, with Cheese adding in with a "Chao Chao!"

Shadow gave a sigh. "Fine, I'll admit, they're helpful allies in the heat of things. But they are also a group of bumbling idiots, ...except for maybe Espio, and even then-"

"Give them a chance. They're good friends, and great detectives!"

"I don't know about great," Shadow mumbled.

Sapphire was very nervous. She hadn't even met these people yet, and she was already unsure if they would be helpful or not.

...But she still felt that she was responsible for Gemerl's disappearance. If these guys could help her find him, and her friends trusted them, then she would accept their help.

Sapphire took a deep breath, and said, "let's go." Then she went forward to enter the building, before Shadow and Cream could react.

Inside the building, she found herself in a waiting room, with a couple of short, potted palm trees and cushioned benches.

Within the room, she saw two mobians. One was a teenaged purple chameleon with yellow eyes, a yellow horn between his eyes, a heart-shaped area of bare chest, and was wearing metal-reinforces ninja gear. The other mobian was a child bee with amber-colored eyes wearing an orange vest with a bee symbol on it and a black, dark-pink-rimmed helmet with a pair of google on it.

The two of them were in a conversation, until the chameleon noticed the newcomer. "Hello there," he replied. "My name is Espio the Chameleon. Are you here looking for some assistance?"

"Y-yeah, you see I..." she started. "I need... um..."

"Hey, come on, we're not going to hurt you!" the bee chimed in, in response to Sapphire's nervousness.

"Charmy, calm down," Espio told the bee, "She seems nervous already, you're only making it worse."

"Oh, I-I'm okay," Sapphire said. "It's nice to meet you, Espio, Charmy."

At the moment, Shadow and Cream appeared from behind Sapphire.

"Oh, Shadow," Espio responded.

"Hey, Cream!" Charmy greeted his fellow kid.

"So, what brings you here?"

"Well, me and my friends need some help with something," Cream answered.

"And she believes you are the ones to ask," Shadow continued, with no enthusiasm in his voice.

"I see," Espio replied. "So, this is a friend of yours?" he asked, referring to the yellow hedgehog.

"Yes! This is Saph!" Cream exclaimed.

Shadow sighed, and added, "Sapphire the Hedgehog in full."

Sapphire merely smiled at her friends, still nervous about talking to these guys.

"Well, it is good to meet you, 'Saph'," Espio said. "So, what seems to be the problem.

"Um, a friend of mine is missing, and Cream says you can help us find him," Sapphire explained.

"Wait, so does that mean we got work?" Charmy said, before excitedly flying into another room, crashing through the doors. Espio gave a slightly exasperated expression, and then motioned for everyone to follow.

In the next room, they found a messy office, with a large, reptilian mobian with green scales, red spikey-scales going down to his tail, and gold-yellow eyes. The shoulders on his broad upper body had black shoulder pads on them, along with white gloves with large, black-and-orange cuffs with a gold buckle on them, black shoes with a little white and orange on them, and of course, a gold chain around his neck and a pair of wireless black-and-gray headphones. His entire attire made Sapphire think he was more of a DJ, rather than a detective.

"Charmy, what do you want!?" the detective angrily asked the bee.

"Vector! We've got work!" Charmy replied.

"WHAT!?" Then the detective looked up, and found his guests, along with Espio, watching him. He cleared his throat, and said, "Hello. Sorry about my associate here. He can get... a little wild."

"Th-that's okay," Sapphire replied nervously.

"So... Cream, Shadow. Strange to see you two together. Who's your friend?"

"Oh-oh, I'm Sapphire."

"Sapphire... hm, yeah I've heard of you. You're Sonic's friend, right?"

"Um, actually, I'm his sister. A-adopted! He adopted me!"

"Ah! That's good to know." The detective got up, and walked up to Sapphire, offering his... rather large hand in greeting. "My name's Vector, head of the Chaotix Detective Agency! And I bet you've met my friends and associates, Espio and Charmy."

"I have..." Sapphire replied, looking at the large mobian, still very nervous.

"Hey, no need to be nervous!" Vector replied. "I won't bite." Then he looked off to the side. "Okay, so maybe I've got a big mouth, but it's fine, really!"

Sapphire smiled and raised her hand, giving a return shake to him. "So... Vector. Does that mean you're an alligator?"

Vector gave a big, hearty laugh. "That would make sense, but no. I'm a crocodile. Vector the Crocodile," he explained.

"Oh. Sorry, I've... never met an alligator or a crocodile before, so I don't really know the differences between them."

"Ah, that's alright. People make that mistake all the time. Though, I have thought of the title 'Vector the Detector'."

"Which is DUMB and STUPID!" Charmy countered.

"Oh, come on!" Vector replied.

"I have to agree with Charmy, to a point," Espio added. "it is fairly... lame."

"You too!" Vector continued.

"Um, I kind of like it," Sapphire said.

"Yeah, we think it's cool!" Cream added.

Shadow gave no comment. Though he agreed with Espio and Charmy, he really didn't care.

"Thank you! I knew it would catch on!" Vector exclaimed. "So, what do you need!?"

"Well... you see... Cream and I, we were with Gemerl, bringing groceries back for Vanilla..." Sapphire explained.

"Okay, okay. Go on."

"And then, we were attacked. There was an EMP and sleeping gas... And when we woke up... Gemerl was gone..."

"And we don't know who took him," Cream added.

"I see," Vector replied, trying to seem professional and calm. However, someone was more than willing to disrupt him.

"WHAT! Someone took Gemerl!" Charmy blurted out. "But he's so much fun! Why would anyone-"

"Charmy! Please, calm down," Espio interrupted. "It's okay, we'll figure this out."

Vector sighed. "Still, this is distressing. Gemerl's been a big help in the past, and he's a good buddy, too. Whoever took him is going have to pay for the consequences." Vector then went silent, realizing something. "We're not going to get paid for this one, are we?"

Sapphire looked around nervously, while checking her jacket pockets. "I don't have any rings on me. Cream, do you?" she asked.

"No. Mama usually handles that kind of stuff," Cream answered.

Vector sighed again. "It's alright. You guys are friends, it's okay if this one's a freebie. Still..."

Shadow, recognizing the stress he was feeling, and how badly his friends wanted their help, decided to speak up. "Fine... As an agent of G.U.N., I get quite the hefty paycheck. But I don't care to use it. You help us, I'll give a month's worth of my salary in payment."

"How much?" Espio asked.

"Enough to pay your rent."

"You... really don't need to do this for us, Shadow," Vector replied.

"Says the greedy crocodile," Shadow said in return. "Ma... my friend here... wants your help, and I want to help her. Consider this compensation for staying out of my way if things get heated."

"Fair enough." Vector smiled. "Looks like we got our rent paid for! Now, let's this case started!"

"Yeah!" Charmy, Cream, and Cheese exclaimed (Cheese is with his "chao" speech), while Shadow and Espio remained stoic, but grinning, and Sapphire softly smiled in gratitude.

"Thank you," she said to all of them, and they all gave her big smiles in return.

Author's Note: So, yeah, if you didn't figure it out already from the name, this is that basic detective mystery story. As I said last time, the idea with Gemerl and the idea of a mystery story were two separate ideas, but I decided to mix them together.

And of course, if it's Sonic and detective mystery, you got to have the Chaotix! They're the whole reason I wanted to do one. Sapphire is there, of course, being the main character and all. Cream's there because of Gemerl's disappearance (though that's Saph's problem, too). Shadow's here because I said I wanted to get him in here more, and he basically functions as the guy to voiced the common opinion of the Chaotix. Though Shadow did do stuff with the Chaotix in the last season of Sonic X, but that's not game cannon, so that doesn't matter to me.
I did sneak in a Sonic Boom reference in here with "Vector the Detector". Though really, why wasn't Vector an alligator? It rhythms! It makes so much sense.

Now, I'm not the biggest fan of mysteries outside of the occasional mini-plot like this one (literally, I couldn't get myself to read an Agatha Christie novel I was assigned for English class, and even told my teacher that I knew I'd get a bad grade for it, but I just couldn't do it). The short of it is, this probably won't be very good, nor very long.
However, at this point, what I was hoping would be two, maybe three parts, is looking to be more like four or five parts. I was actually going to continue on from this chapter's ending and start the case now, but it made more sense to end it here when looking at it.
This has basically become the story's first real story arc. And funnily enough, I was planning what was intended to be the actual first story arc to happen RIGHT after this. Guess that's just how it goes.