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...

Chapter three.

"He never showed up?"

Espio shook his head and glanced away. Had Charmy gotten kidnapped as well? He started gathering his stuff, among them; some gadgets that he knew would come in handy. Opening a locker, he spied a lost item. Picking up the neglected headphones, he threw them at his friend. Vector caught them in midair and slammed them onto his head.

Running out the door, they bumped into a certain blue hedgehog and his pink furred friend.

"You here? What's next, Dr. Eggman?"

Sonic brushed the comment off as he levelled the crocodile with a glare.

"I didn't come here to listen to your lame remarks; I came here for information on some missing kids!"

Vector looked stunned at the short critter. How typical of Sonic to get involved in cases like this. But as long as the doc stayed away, he wouldn't complain.

"So what do you want? I'm a busy croc..."

He crossed his arms and glared back. The two of them seemed to be standing their ground until Amy nudged Sonic to go on.

"Uh, yeah. Listen, we've been hearing stuff about kids disappearing, and I was wondering if you three had heard anything... Wait... You're not three... Where's the bee?"

He peered around the office.

Espio pulled the back pack better onto his shoulders and started to walk past them.

"That's what we want to know... Follow me; I'll talk as we go to where our only clue got us..."

And so they waltzed all the way to the south side of the city. The buildings and warehouses there seemed to have been abandoned for decades. Rust and mould coloured the metallic walls and the pavement was cracked.

Amy summed up what both groups had gathered of information:

"So apparently, Charmy's gone, he got kidnapped this morning. Seeing how he's six years old, he would fit to the fact that kids that age are disappearing... The call you guys got was from one of the victims, Ashime, who made a call from this area and apparently they are being used for some ritual..."

She stopped to peek around the area.

"But from where? This place is huge. We'll never have enough time to search all these warehouses before the kidnappers will move again, not even Sonic can do that!"

Perking up at the mention of his name, Sonic jumped back down from his lookout post, on top of a building. Landing safely next to the others he grabbed Vector's cell phone.

"Then it's time to call for professional help."

He dialled a long series of number; some of them were numbers for connecting with other countries... Lifting it to his ear, he grinned as a voice appeared on the other side of the line.

"Hey Tails, I could really use you here in person, but this will have to do."

"What's up Sonic? Trouble with tying your shoes again?"

The hedgehog twitched. That had only happened like once and he had been too drunk to even count his fingers!

"Very funny kid, but this is serious! Someone is kidnapping kids. We're as close as we can possible be, but Vector and Espio couldn't trace this phone call all the way back to the caller's position... Can you help?"

A snicker on the other side tingled its way into his ear. He had just given Tails a challenge, and the kit was going to take it on! Telling Espio to give him the tracking device, he played of the call for Tails to hear. After that, he gave his current locating and then waited for the answer.

"Hm, tough one... Let me rewind the taped call:

'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 away to this city; I've never been here before.

So-sorry...'

'That's ok doll. Now; you were talking about the other children--'

That's what I got... Lessee... Aha! I found a match. A phone booth not far from where you guys are standing! She must have escaped and made the call from there. Man, that tracking device that you used must have been made by a knucklehead...It was ancient. Anyways, I'm making a search on images taken from this area; maybe a satellite has seen something..."

The line went dead for a while and Sonic reckoned that the kit would call him. Sprinting around aimlessly, he warmed up his leg muscles. You never knew when you had to make a run for it...

The others seemed worried, Espio kept jumping around looking for clues and Vector scowled at his own shadow on the ground. Amy was replaying the call to see if there were any background noises that could lead them to who the kidnapper was... When the phone finally rang again, Sonic jumped to take it.

"Yes, what you got for me?"

"Bad news I'm afraid... I checked the satellites and it seems that more than five people has been walking trough here, but no one has entered any buildings from what the pictures tell me. But, that doesn't mean that this is the wrong place. Now would you please be so kind as to move your butt off that man hole that you're standing on Sonic?"

Sonic glanced up into the air. Could Tails see them? Where on earth was he? He moved to the side and laughter came from the receiver.

"Yes Sonic, I can see you..."

"Um, where are you?"

He looked up again and tilted his head.

"That information is confidential, I'm sorry. Let's just say that I'm not on Earth anymore and leave it at that."

"Ok, then what do I do know?"

He was then told to go to the phone booth. Whoever interrupted that call might have left a clue. And they could only hope, because there were no images of the place on Tails' map.

When they arrived, the first thing they noticed was; the blood.

The open yard that trucks were often parked at, was drenched in it. The walls, the ground and the phone booth.

"Tails, why didn't you tell us about the-"

"About what? I only have a black and white screen in front of me; darn cut backs in the budget-"

"Tails, there is a lot of blood here... Everywhere..."

They all stared stunned at the scene for a moment. Was this the blood of that little girl? Vector felt awful as he stepped out on the ground.

Then Tails' voice suddenly echoed in Vector's phone.

"Wait! Vector, don't step there! There's an opening in the ground. The blood is a diversion to lure away people who come here! I'm pretty sure it's pig's blood or something..."

Jumping back to the others, Vector looked carefully at the ground. And sure as the sky was blue, there was a trap door that was half-open in front of him. Gazing behind him, he gave Espio the go ahead to check it out. Rendering himself invisible, Espio jumped over to the door and kicked it open. The door swinged down towards an underground sewer system.

"Tails, it seems to be a sewer system, can you find a map for us?"

Sonic whispered as he jumped down after Espio and the croc. Well down, he reached up and helped Amy get down. Down in the darkness, the blood was gone, except for a trail of footprints that led away from them.

"I'm working on it, don't go anywhere... Since I can't see you I am going to assume where you are standing. Look north..."

"Ok, now I am."

He turned north and wished once again that he had had his gadgets with him.

"I wish you could have beamed me something to help me in this darkness..."

A hand reached out to him and opened to reveal a tiny screen fastened on a headset. Its owner was the chameleon.

"You're faster than me... So this ought to help you more than me."

He averted Sonic's gaze and pulled back into the shadows. Fastening the headset, Sonic turned it on. The humming sound it made indicated that it was responding to him.

"Hey, can you hack into this device and help me?"

"Gimme the serial number and two minutes."

Two minutes later he was ready to go. The floor was slippery which could mean that he needed to be extra careful. A flash in the screen and he saw the face of his dear friend.

"Tails!"

"Yeah, yeah...Listen, I'm putting on a headset too, so I'll see whatever you see, and in techno colour even. So don't go looking at anything I'm too young to see k?"

He snorted and waved at the others.

"I'll call you when I find them, ok? See ya!"

And with that he disappeared into the darkness...

TBC . . .