A/N: This is my first Sonic fiction. It is centred around Team Chaotix from the game; Sonic Heroes. Hehe, funny game... But don't worry guys; Sonic is here too, he's just not that important... Or maybe he is... O.o;

Summary: A bunch of kids gets kidnapped and one of them manages to call Vector. He decides to take job of finding them; obviously some mad man is using them all for a ritual.

Disclaimer: Sonic does not belong to me, neither any of the other characters... Just the ones that I made up as I ran along the sea of craziness...

Operation: Rescue

Chapter one

Vector was alone at the office that afternoon.

Outside, the birds twittered under the hot sun and the bees hummed. Speaking of bees... He looked around, and then frowned as he placed the box of doughnuts down on his desk. Wasn't Charmy supposed to be home by now? Sniffing around the office, he was even more surprised to find his headset gone!

"Charmy, have you taken my headset again!"

He trashed about for a while looking vigorously for it, turning everything upside down. He was just about to crunch the box of goodies when Espio entered the room. He was carrying a fat envelope in his hand and a sly smile on his face.

"Hey Vector, guess what just arrived in the mail..."

But the larger man didn't even seem to notice as he just stared sadly out the window.

"Save it if you haven't found my headphones..."

He slumped down behind his desk and grabbed a doughnut to comfort himself with.

Shaking his head, Espio waved the envelope in front of the crocodile.

"See this? With all this money, after I get my fair share of it off course, you can buy yourself all the headphones and walkmans you'd ever dreamt off."

Finally getting the croc's attention, he placed it next to the box of doughnuts.

Fanning himself, due to the hot weather, Espio sighed in content.

"This job is finally paying off..."

"Oh, how so? I've lost my headphones--"

Espio glared and threw his hands up.

"Headphones, headphones! You shouldn't be bothered by things like that, they can be replaced! And on the note, where's Charmy? I haven't seen him all day..."

Vector grabbed another doughnut and munched it down.

"Maybe he's still at school, heh; the kid needs an education after all."

Getting back onto his feet he made a grab for the phone. But just as he reached for it, it rang. Suddenly, the vase in the window fell. Looking down at it, Espio frowned and muttered something about a bad omen. Vector snorted and picked the receiver up instead of fussing over a broken vase.

"Hello, Vector here, how can I be of service?"

"He-hello?"

He looked at the receiver, the voice was frightened. It also sounded like a child...

Nodding to Espio, he signalized the chameleon to trace the phone call.

"Yes, can I help you?"

He tried to not to sound pushy as he led the conversation on.

"Yes, I-I need help. Ple-please don't tell him that I called! He's doing odd things to the other children. I-I'm scared!"

Espio shook his head and gave Vector thumbs down; the call was untraceable...

Gathering his wits, Vector tried to reason with the child.

"Ok, I won't, now will you please tell me your name and where you're calling from? I want to help, but I need a location first."

"O-ok... Um, my name is Ashime. I'm an o-orphan. There was this man that came to the orphanage last night, said that he wanted to a-adopt me or s-something. Um, he took me and my brother away to this city; I've never been here before. So-sorry..."

"That's ok doll. Now; you were talking about the other children. How many are you?"

The voice gasped and the line suddenly broke. He looked concerned over at his colleague who looked back at him.

"We should try and find that girl."

Espio nodded to this, and then he shook his head and tapped the trace device.

"The only thing I could trace is that the call came from the abandoned docks over on the south side of the city... But shouldn't we find Charmy first?"

Nodding, the huge croc dialled the number to the school were the third member of the group attended to his education. Meanwhile, Espio turned the TV on to see if anyone was missing any kids. Perhaps the kidnapper only took orphans and in that case, they had to warn other orphanages from letting go of any kids...

"Hello, this is Vector, Charmy's, err, uncle. Is he by any chance close by? I need to talk to him."

It was kind of hard to explain the work-relationship that he shared with the six years old kid.

Espio leaned back in the chair as he flipped the various channels looking for the news channel.

As he arrived at it, it was all over the screen. Three children were missing and there were also eight orphans that had been 'adopted' around the last twenty-four hours.

"Vector, look! It's that girl, Ashime!"

He pointed at the screen as pictures of the missing kids were being showed. The girl was something similar to an Echidna, with golden fur and a cute blue dress on her. Next to her was a boy Echidna holding onto her hand. He was darker in the fur, yet he had the same blue eyes as Ashime.

"They must be siblings, Vector, are you watching this?"

He looked annoyed over at his friend as he heard a clatter. Vector was staring into thin air. Getting hastily to his feet, Espio jumped up and delivered a slap to the man's face.

"Hey! Get back into that empty head of yours! What is it, do you know that girl?"

"No... Espio..."

Vector gave him a scared look.

"Charmy never made it to school today..."

TBC. . .