Chapter 13: Looking for Someone Special

When Amy had told Nebula about all the places that she and Sonic went to yesterday, Nebula had used a pen and paper from Shadow's desk to write down all the locations that Sonic and Shadow might revisit. Using the knowledge she had picked up from Amy, as well as her own memory of what she and Shadow were doing that day, Nebula had made a rough list of where their boyfriends, as well as the two girls, might be.

Now, Amy and Nebula were investigating the 'Flaming Subjects' store that Shadow had taken Nebula to. When the two girls asked if they had seen their boyfriends or the matching set of girls, the cashier reported that he had not seen Sonic or Shadow, but he most definitely remembered the two girls described to him.

"Of course I remember those girls from this morning," the fat man behind the desk said. "They were HOT. One of them bought some of the crappy makeup that we sell, and I must admit that they somehow looked even hotter than they did before."

Besides the fact that the man in front of them was kinda creeping Amy out, she was still impressed with the detective work that Nebula was displaying. 'So there really is a connection with those two girls. I wonder how Nebula figured this out. What did she read in that journal that made her come up with that conclusion?'

"Do you by any chance know where they might have gone next?" Nebula asked as she wrote any relevant information onto one of the many pieces of paper that she took from Shadow's desk.

"Can't say I do," the man replied. "They just speed walked outta here way faster than I can bother to run. If I could be bothered to stand up, I probably woulda ditched this place and escorted them myself."

"Thank you for answering our questions," Nebula stated.

"Anything for a pretty lady. Ya know, despite the fact that I still remember those two chicks, I must say that you look pretty decent yourself. So if ya got nothing better to do, maybe we can..."

"Sorry fatass, but I already have a boyfriend." Nebula turned around to walk out the store with Amy, leaving the man who now had a pissed off scowl.

Walking out of the Flaming Subjects, Nebula turned to Amy and explained to her what they had found out so far. "At approximately 10:35 AM, the two girls entered the Flaming Subjects store and stayed there for about 8-10 minutes. This is only a short time after Shadow wrote in his journal, which was at 10:30 AM. Judging by the distance between Flaming Subjects and the mall, it's safe to assume that the girls simply walked to the mall and spent about two hours there shopping or doing some other sort of activity. Seeing as how you and Sonic were at the mall at around the same time Shadow and I were at Flaming Subjects yesterday, it seems probable that Sonic and Shadow simply decided to check the mall first where they could have possibly met the girls before or after we saw them on stage. Considering how huge the mall is, this doesn't seem too far fetched.

Nearly four minutes after we saw those girls on the dance stage, the explosion happened, which you and I investigated first. We were able to make it to the explosion sight in about a minute thanks to me flying over the traffic and buildings whereas it would've taken Sonic and Shadow about five to eight minutes to reach it if the traffic was bad.

If my assumption is correct and these four really did meet before going to investigate the explosion, then it's safe to say that they had arrived shortly after we were knocked unconscious. Since we saw the remains of the robots ourselves, it's obvious that Sonic and Shadow won their respective fights by using their signature attacks. It's likely that the two girls took us to the hospital while Sonic and Shadow fought the robots. They somehow transported us to the hospital where we stayed unconscious for almost thirty minutes. They then left after a power outage occurred shortly before we woke up, which was likely caused by the same unknown factor that these girls might be connected to."

Concluding her incredibly long summary, Nebula looked back up at Amy, who had an awestruck expression on her face that was accompanied with wide eyes that showed she was impressed. Though Nebula never realized it, she could possibly be a better detective than Shadow could be. Shadow was still more powerful than Nebula in terms of raw energy/ power and weapons skills, but Nebula found ways to measure up to Shadow in a respectable manner.

Amy simply nodded her head, trying her best to absorb all the information. "So I get that Sonic and Shadow are probably with those two girls. Do you think that they would still be trying to retrace their steps if they had already met?"

"It seems unlikely, but it's still a possibility," Nebula said. "If they really are connected, then they still might be retracing their steps with the two girls. After all, Shadow wrote in his journal that they had to clear something up. Perhaps finding those girls was only part of that plan, but I doubt that they would continue to retrace their steps once they have met. Again, this is all just a theory." Nebula looked thoughtful for a minute.

To be quite honest, though she didn't want to admit it to Amy, Nebula wasn't quite sure on exactly where else they should go with the case. She was able to get them this far, but there were still variables that she didn't know of. For example, she couldn't quite investigate the two mystery girls because she didn't even so much as know their names. It would also be difficult to find someone who might know them.

Amy looked at Nebula and spoke up. "Maybe it's best if we just go back to the mall and investigate over there too. We could probably ask the staff what caused the blackout while we're at it."

Nebula nodded in agreement. Perhaps they'll find out even more about this if they continued to the place where they first saw those girls. Just then, she heard her phone ring. Anxiously, she got her phone out of her jean pocket. She hoped it would be Shadow or even Sonic or one of his friends. She was slightly disappointed to find that it was her sister, Selene that was calling. Still, this was her sister and it would be downright rude of her to just ignore her call.

"Hello," Nebula answered into her phone.

"Hey sis," Selene said. "I heard that there was some weird robot fight out in the middle of Station Square.I'm guessing it was..."

"Eggman," Nebula confirmed. "Don't worry about me and Amy. We're doing alright." She figured that it would be best to not tell her sister how they were at the hospital earlier because of that situation.

"Well I'm glad you two are fine. I suppose that Sonic and Shadow took care of the situation like they always do."

"Yeah..." Nebula was hesitant to ask her the question on her mind. "Speaking of Sonic and Shadow, have you seen either of them lately?"

"Can't say I have. Why, did something happen?"

"It's nothing. Uhm... Hey, you remember that dance show we saw back at the mall?"

"Of course I do! It's too bad we couldn't stick around to see the rest of it though."

"Yeah... Well, those two girls that we saw on stage, do you remember them from any place? It would be nice to meet them and I was wondering if you had seen them anytime before or after the show.

"No I haven't. Are you sure there's nothing wrong? These are some pretty specific questions that you're asking."

Figuring that Selene wouldn't be able to help much with this personal matter, Nebula decided to brush off her question and not leave her too worried. "Oh it's nothing. Those girls were just very good dancers... I guess it would've been nice to... meet them or something."

There was an awkward silence over the phone. Thoughts raced through her mind as Nebula tried to come up with a conversation that would distract Selene from their previous conversation."

"So how was the fight that Adam got into? Neither of you got hurt did you?

"Oh we kicked their ass!" Selene perked at her sister's sudden interest in her well being. "Turns out that gang was just a bunch of punks. We practically sent them crying away!"

"I guess it's a good thing they didn't piss him off before the sun set," Nebula mused.

"Now that would've been something to see! Even then, he's still just a big teddy bear, just so long as you don't do anything stupid like those guys did."

"I guess so. Selene, I think I gotta go. If you see Shadow or Sonic can you tell me about it? Amy and I are having trouble contacting them. This kind of stuff tends to happen when they fight Eggman," Nebula lied.

"No problem. See you girls at dinner!" With that Selene hung up. Nebula once again turned her eyes directly at Amy's face.

"To the mall then," Amy said bluntly. There needed to be no exchange of words as they both knew of their current situation and that it would be best to continue their investigation. They walked side by side back to the mall where their day had suddenly taken a strange turn.

(Meanwhile)

Nikki and Nights were standing by the shore of the lake as they waited for Zorra to mix up the ingredients. Even though Zorra was in the form of a mist, she seemed to pick up the jars with relative ease just like when she picked up that Mobian back at the mall. Each ingredient that was necessary was thrown into the lake with precise measurements. There were many leftover jars (probably because the shopkeeper added them to add more money to the cost like the cheap bastard that he was) but Zorra figured that she could save them for a future spell.

After Zorra dropped each ingredient into the lake, she would wait for a few minutes to let them settle into the lake water. Considering that there were at least ten initial ingredients for the spell, this took a rather long time.

"Hey Zorra," Nikki spoke up. "Just how long is this spell going to take?"

"i MUST wait for the inGREdients to properly set into the WAter. if you are TRUly that impatient, you can go aHEAD and find the NEXT rare inGREdient. though i MAY have to prepare another SPELL to help you FIND it."

"Just tell us what it is and we'lle get to work finding it."

"i must WARN you that this PARticular inGREdient is rather DIFFicult, perhaps even DANgerous to find."

"Just tell us what it is!" Nights butted in impatiently.

"if you're so EAger, then fine. you must FIND a certain type of CREAture and bring me it's BLOOD."

AN: I'm sorry if this whole investigation scene seemed to focus on Nebula a little too much. I know, I said that I don't like it when the OCs take too much attention away from the story, but I simply felt that Nebula would be the better detective than Amy on this case; the same could be said about Shadow being a better detective than Sonic if the situation were flipped. Their soulmates are very similar to one another I suppose.

Don't worry, Amy will offer some useful insight and actions later on in the story, but for now I think she works better as a periodic dose of comedic relief while still serving some more significant purposes, just like Sega tries to do with her.

And in case you're wondering, in my own personal head canon I consider Nebula and Shadow equal in most aspects, so try not to think too hard about that section that compared the two. I'm not sure if this conforms to Nebula the Hedgehog's original stories, but whatever.

You may have also guessed that this chapter is hinting at the inclusion of another OC that belongs to someone else. I know that I may be going overboard with the OCs in some people's eyes, but I came up with a situation that was simply perfect for this character. An explanation will be given in the next chapter.