"Yeah, I'm down to start tomorrow," Charmy said into his phone. "We're starting by that big loop, right? I'll meet up with the other two there then. What time you need me there? …Yeah, ok, that shouldn't be a problem. See you later Jimmy. Thanks again for all this." With that, he hung up the phone and let out a groan.

"You alright?" Cream asked him.

"Just kinda… nervous I guess. My first big collaboration, and it happens to also be my last 'case' with the Chaotix. This is gonna be so awkward…"

"I'm sure everything will work out in the end. Who knows, maybe you'll have a fun surprise halfway into this challenge thing you're doing." The rabbit giggled a little mischievously.

Charmy raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?" he asked.

Cream smiled at him. "Oh, nothing," she replied. "I'm just being silly."

"Uh, well… alright then. Hey, did you want to go out tonight? I wanna get some time in with you before I don't see you for like, a week or so."

"Oh, you didn't hear? I'm going out of town for a week. I'm leaving here soon."

"What? Why didn't you tell me?!"

The rabbit shrugged. "I thought I did! Sorry! I only just got everything confirmed this morning anyways."

"It's alright," the bee sighed. "I just wish I'd known ahead of time. I would've spent even more time with you!"

Cream kissed him on the cheek. "Sorry for the short notice. We'll spend the whole day together once we both get back, alright?"

Charmy blushed. "A-alright, sounds like a plan."

The rabbit gave him a hug. "I'm gonna head out now. I hope everything goes alright with you over the next week. Try not to fight with Vector too much, alright?"

"Alright I'll play nice," the bee laughed.

"Good." Cream broke the hug. "Well, I really gotta get going now. See you in a week!"

"See you, hun!"

Cream picked up a bag and left the house. Charmy let out a sad sigh, lying down on the couch. "Might as well go to bed early," he thought. "Gonna need to enjoy some quiet rest before I deal with that loudmouth for a week."

Vector tapped his foot impatiently. They were going to record any moment, and Charmy still hadn't showed up. Two of Jimmy's cameramen had just arrived and were still setting up, so it wasn't like they were waiting on him, at least not yet. It was unlike the bee to so late, however. Just as he thought wasn't going to show up, a soft buzzing sound alerted him to the bee's presence.

Charmy landed by the loop, walked right past Vector without so much as glancing at him, then asked Espio, "I'm not too late, am I?"

"Not at all," the chameleon replied. "Tareq and Bailey are still setting everything up."

"I see. Glad I made it in time, then. So, what's the set up?"

"We have five days to track down Jimmy, who, for the sake of the video, we are to refer to by the moniker 'Dr. Beast.' His friends have a series of challenges for us to complete. Completing one gives us a clue to the next challenge."

"So… it's like tracking down Eggman, but it's just us, no Sonic, and also a game show where we get a giant cash prize if we win?"

"Pretty much."

Charmy smiled and shook his head. "Yep, we're in a Mr. Beast video, alright. So, how are we going to start this out?"

Vector walked over to the two of them. "Well, once the camera's start rolling, we gotta watch a video Jimmy recorded," he explained. "Then we gotta react to it and do the pose while I say the line."

"The pose?" Charmy groaned, clearly annoyed. "Do we have to?"

"You're the one who's always happy to do the pose," Espio muttered.

The bee jabbed his thumb in the direction of Vector. "That was before this guy became a real pain in the stinger!"

The crocodile looked over at the bee, a little nervous. "Hey… can we talk?"

"You, know, you're the last person I want to talk to right now."

"…Fine."

The trio stood in silence for a bit, before Tareq ran up to them. "Alright you guys, we're all ready to start rolling here soon," he said. "Can you guys line up for some B-roll?"

"Sure thing!" Charmy said. "Be sure to get my good side-" he pointed to Vector, "-and his bad side."

Vector scoffed, but didn't say anything. The three of them lined up, with Vector in the middle and Charmy and Espio on either side of him. Tareq and Bailey shot some b-roll of the footage of them.

"Yeah, that should be good," Bailey said after a few minutes. "Tareq, do you have the laptop with the video?"

"Yeah!" Tareq replied. "It's, uh… umm…"

"Is this the one?" Espoo asked, holding an open laptop.

"Y-yeah, that's the one alright," Tareq replied, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. He walked over to Espio and logged into the laptop, then pulled up the video. "Alright, let me get the shot lined up and you guys can hit play. Vector can you hold the laptop? You can hold it out in front of you and the other two can kind of lean in to look at it."

"Oh, oh!" Bailey said excitedly. "I can see that in my head! That's a good shot! Do that!"

Vector smiled as he grabbed hold of the laptop. "With pleasure!" He yelled. In response, Charmy let out a soft groan.

The three got in positions, with Charmy standing a bit further away from Vector than Espio did. Threw squinted as he looked into his camera while setting up the shot. "Ummmm… hey, Charmy?" he asked, looking up from the camera. "Can you scoot closer to Vector? You're not really in the frame all that well…"

The bee grimaced, but only for a second as he immediately forced a grin. "Oh, sure!" he said, trying not to sound annoyed. He took a small step closer to the crocodile. "How's this?"

"Ummm…" Tareq looked through his camera again. "A little more, please."

Charmy took another step closer. "This?"

"Nah, a little more."

Another step. "How about now?"

"Uhhhhh, maybe just one more step."

Yet another step. They were practically brushing shoulders at this point. "Now?"

Threw gave a thumbs up. "Perfect! Don't move!"

"Great…"

Tareq clicked a button on the camera. "Ok, on three, you all look at the laptop and watch the video. So after I say three, play the video, alright?"

"Sounds reasonable," Espio replied.

"Great! Ok, one… two… three!" Tareq gave a thumbs up from behind the camera and Espio his play on the video. The video started out with the Mr. Beast logo, before cutting to Jimmy. Unlike his normal outfit, he was dressed quite similar to Eggman's old outfit, only instead of red and white, there was pink and blue and he didn't wear any spectacles or goggles on his head. He sat behind a control panel of some kind.

"Meddlesome Chaotix!" Jimmy in the video yelled, playing into his Eggman-esc character. "You may have caught on to my nefarious schemes, but you'll never be able to track me down! Not with my three greatest lieutenants standing in the way!"

"If his lieutenants are who I think they are, then this will be a piece of cake," Charmy joked.

"You have five days to track me down before I enact my evil plot!" the video continued. "Here, I'll even throw you a bone so you can do your little detective thing. Riddle me this: what once stood high in the sky but now lies on the green ground? Figure that out, and you'll find my first lieutenant! Good look, losers! Dr. Beast, out!" With that, the footage came to an end.

Vector scratched his chin. "Riddles," he groaned. "I hate riddles."

"What once stood high in the sky but now lies on the green ground…" Espio repeated. "Hmm… that could be a number of things."

"Hmmm… since he's got an Eggman theme going on, what if he means one of Eggman's old flying machines?" Charmy suggested.

"But there's a million of those that crashed," Vector pointed out. "How are we supposed to know which one to go to?"

"Well, if you actually paid attention to that riddle, you'd know it had to be nearby."

"What? How so?"

"Oh, I get it!" Espio yelled, eyes widening with realization. "The green ground! As in 'Green' Hills! But the only old Flying machine the doctor worked on that's still around here is-"

"The crash landed first Death Egg!" Vector yelled, coming to the same conclusion.

"Took ya long enough," Charmy scoffed.

Before Vector could make a retort, Espio quickly chimed in, "Let's not waste anymore time then. Get a move on!"

Just as the three were about to start running, Bailey flagged them down. "Hey, wait man! Wait! We have a car!" He pointed to the car parked just down the hill for them to use. The trio looked at each other and blinked. "Uh, right, let's use that," Vector said awkwardly before the group made their way to the vehicle.

"Woah, woah, wait!" Tareq said. "We still gotta do the pose! Go back to the loop real quick!"

"I was hoping they forgot about that," Charmy grumbled. The trio walked back in front of the loop and waited for Tareq to set up the camera.

Tareq held a thumbs up. "Ok, you're good!"

Vector cleared his throat. "Alright, gang!" He yelled. "The Chaotix Detective Agency is on the case!" The crocodile smirked as he pointed straight into the camera. Espio put his hand to his fist and gave a slight bow, and finally Charmy jumped off the ground and fluttered his wings so he could hover, outstretching his legs and holding up two peace signs as he winked and grinned at the camera.

"Man, this better be the last time I have to do this," the bee thought.

A short, hour long drive with the five of them probably wouldn't have been that bad, had it not been for Vector's hulking frame. Tareq and Bailey fell out of the side of the cover and caught their breath. "Man… It was cramped in there…" Bailey breathed.

"We should've asked Jimmy for a bigger car…" Tareq groaned.

Espio and Charmy got out of the car like normal. The bee stuck his thumb in the direction of the two cameramen. "Get a load of these two. It's like they've never been almost squashed by the lamest incarnation of the Hulk," he joked.

"I suspect they will get used to it in the coming days," Espio replied.

Vector finally managed to squeeze himself out of the car and let out a sigh of relief. "This wouldn't be an issue if we'd brought the hummer…" he groaned. The croc looked over his shoulder. "Anyways, looks like we're here."

Sure enough, they were in front of the ruins of the first Death Egg, the crash-landed space station long since fallen way out of repair and partially reclaimed by nature. One half of Dr. Robotnik's face iconography could still be made out, having remained surprisingly intact apart from the mountains of rust. Bailey immediately started getting exterior shots of it while Tareq started recording the Chaotix trio.

"So… Do we just go in?" Vector asked.

"No, I think we should stay here and watch it for a while," Charmy replied sarcastically.

"Let us enter, but keep your wits about," Espio cautioned. "There's no telling what dastardly machinations of evil await us inside." The chameleon marched down the crater and towards a large hole in the side of the structure.

"I can't tell if he's getting into character or just being himself," Charmy muttered.

The other four followed Espio into the Death Egg, with Tareq and Bailey keeping a little distance as one focused on recording the interior and the other focused on the Chaotix trio. Soon, the group reached an open clearing in the wreckage. Espio stopped the other two. "Something here is… amiss," he whispered.

"Amiss?" A voice casually echoed in the dark. "More like… your life… is… a miss. Gottem!"

"I recognize that voice," Charmy muttered.

Just then, a bunch of lights flicked on. After a moment of blindness, the group's eyes adjusted to their surroundings. There was a large revolving door in the center of the room. Lights shone down on it like a stage. A tall bear dressed in a suit and tie stood in front of it. "Hello, Chaotix!" he said, trying and ultimately failing to sound menacing. "I'm Chandler, the first of Dr. Beast's lieutenants. In order to proceed, you must first beat my challenge!"

"Let me guess," Charmy said smugly, "we have to beat you in a game of 'who can last the longest in the revolving doors,' right?"

Chandler frowned. "Well yeah, I was just about to say that. This one's different, though! Only one of you is allowed to compete against me. I'll be generous and let you decide amongst yourselves who will challenge me."

The Chaotix went in for a group huddle, though with Charmy noticeably not put his arm around Vector. "Alright, so here's some background for you two," Charmy said, looking only at Espio. "Chandler was notorious for never winning a single Mr. Beast challenge video ever. It wasn't until the 'Last To Leave the Revolving Door Wins $50,000' video that he finally won a challenge. Since then, he's won a few more challenges, but he's still an uncommon winner. That means he likely picked this challenge because he thinks he can win this easily."

"Alright, so what's the game plan, kid?" Vector asked.

"Don't call me that," the bee snapped. "Anyways, this challenge is good for people who can handle speed and run around in circles for a long time without getting sick."

Almost immediately, both Charmy and Vector looked at Espio.

"Ok, I get it," the chameleon sighed.

They broke apart from the group hug and Espio stepped forward. "Lieutenant Chandler," he said in a serious tone. "I, Espio, shall be your opponent in this challenge. I anticipate no foul play."

Chandler smirked. "So long as you don't use any ninja tricks on me."

"These seem like agreeable terms."

Espio and candler both got into the revolving doors and took their places. The two looked at each other with intensity before looking straight ahead and simultaneously beginning to count down.

"Three… two… one… go!"

The two started running almost instantly, pushing on the handlebar of the door in front of them. Wind whipped their faces as the world spun and spun around them. The two glanced at each other briefly. Both of them were not going to back down. This was serious. Life or death. Not really, but it felt like that. For a simple little game, they were both taking it very seriously.

Vector blinked in confusion as he watched the two men run around in circles. "Are we seriously going to just stand here for an hour and watch these two idiots run around in a circle for an hour?" he asked, scratching his head.

Charmy burst out in laughter. "An hour!" he wheezed. He looked into Tareq's camera and stuck his thumb in Vector's direction. "He thinks this is only gonna last an hour!"

The crocodile frowned. "They're just running around in circles. How long could this possibly go on for?"

"Who the hell runs in circles for five hours straight?!" Vector yelled in frustration.

"People willing to run around in circles for twenty-two hours straight," Charmy replied nonchalantly.

"No wonder they gave us five days to go after four people…"

"Give… up…!" Espio panted. By this point, the two of them had stopped running and instead were just walking in circles.

"We're only at… the twelve hour mark…" Chandler breathed. "I can do this… all… night…"

"Please don't!" Vector yelled, cupping his hands around his mouth. "You can't do it, Chandler! Give up!"

"Shouldn't you be cheering on Espio instead of heckling the competition?" Charmy asked, clearly ticked off.

"Look, I just want this to be over with already so we get to the next challenge, alright?"

"Whatever."

"I can't… take it anymore…" Chandler breathed. He stepped out of the revolving doors and collapsed to the ground. "So… dizzy… I feel sick…"

"FINALLY!" Vector screamed with joy, rubbing his tired eyes. "There was no reason for that to last TWENTY-THREE HOURS!"

"I told you to take a nap," Charmy said, shooting a dirty look at Vector, "but nooo, when's Charmy ever right about anything?"

Before Vector could respond, Espio came tumbling out of the revolving doors. "I have… received… victory…" he said in between deep breaths. "Now… I rest." Almost immediately, he collapsed to the floor, passed out.

Charmy threw a blanket over the chameleon and patted him on the head. "You get some good rest, buddy. You've earned it." He walked over to Chandler and picked him out. "Now then, scoundrel!" he said, doing his best heroic impression. "Tell us the clue for the next lieutenant's location!"

"Clue?" Chandler muttered, dazed and confused. "Uh… give me a minute." He massaged his head as he tried his best to think. "Umm… ok, I think I got it. A city with four sides… ummm… A city with four sides holds a key. Find the holder, there the lieutenant will be. Ok, good night." Almost immediately, the bear passed out. Charmy gently laid him down on the ground.

"Well, ya don't gotta be a genius to know a city with four sides is Station Square," Vector said.

Charmy put his hand to his chin and thought. "I suppose the key in question is the key to the city? And the last person to get that would be Sonic…"

"Knowing him, he probably gave it back. He's fine with medals, but giant trophies… aren't exactly his forte."

"Which means the mayor is more likely to have it, then I suppose."

"So we gotta bust into the mayor's house?"

"No, obviously we should go to City Hall instead, you moron. Now go pick up Espio and let's get out of here. I'll drive, none of you are awake enough to do that."

Charmy walked off out of the Death Egg and towards the car. "This is gonna be a long week," Vector thought as he slung the unconscious Espio over his shoulder. He looked down at Chandler.

"Hey, what about him?" he asked the cameramen, pointing to the sleeping bear.

"Oh, don't worry about him, we got a team on standby upstairs," Bailey explained. "They'll take care of him."

"See? Here they come now," Tareq added, pointing at the men coming down a flight of stairs to tend to Chandler.

"Huh," Vector said with a shrug. "Guess there's more to this YouTube thing than I thought…"

Author's note: The plan is to do one Chaotix chapter every other chapter from here on out. Next one will have more Sonic, Amy and Tails. Hope you enjoyed this one, be sure to read & review. Thanks for all the reviews so far, I appreciate it a whole lot.