Chapter 48- The Black Box

Outside the studio…

Kaute stood staring at the large building that had replaced Liz's home, "How the hell did this get here?" he demanded.

Science Teacher was behind him twiddling a scalpel in her fingers, "Some strange plot twist, perhaps?" she offered.

Kaute shrugged, "Whatever. So long as Tails is still there I don't really care what the house looks like." He said, then he glanced around, "Where's that stupid Egghead anyway?"

"I think he got chapter eight!" Science Teacher said excitedly, "I just wonder what he plans to do with it."

"Hello you two." They both turned around to see Eggman floating towards them in his mechanical flying… thing and sipping tea.

"Where is it?" Kaute asked.

"Where's what?"

"The eight!" Science Teacher said, "Didn't you steal it?"

"Of course not!" Eggman said, "That would be redundant. Liz's fan character and I stole it in the last version of this story."

"But… if you didn't and neither of us did… then who did?" Kaute wondered aloud.

"Who cares? The good thing about this situation is that Liz is too busy searching for it to pay any attention to us! Sonic and the others are sitting ducks!" Eggman said happily.

"He's right." Kaute shrugged, "She brought in some replacement and I haven't seen her do anything but type on that damned laptop she constantly carries around."

"Well, I suppose we should stop standing at the top of her driveway and go somewhere to plan this out." Science Teacher said, "We should hurry before Liz finds the chapter."

"I think we have awhile. Last time it took her quite a few chapters to find it and it was just by accident." Eggman reasoned. Nevertheless the three hurried off to their favorite cyber café.

Inside…

Shadow sat on the couch staring at the TV but ever vigilant for a rogue clock to jump off the walls.

A few minutes rolled slowly by when suddenly he stood and shouted, "WHERE THE HELL IS LIZ? This scene was supposed to be over ten minutes ago!"

Sonic came into the room and stared at him, "Calm down. She has to be around here somewhere." He said.

Shadow pulled out a script and tore it up, "You know what? Fuck this! Three more chapters are NOT worth this."

"You're not going anywhere!"

Shadow and Sonic looked up to see Liz sitting on the chandelier that… was suddenly there… with the laptop in her lap, "You signed a contract. Leave now and I'll sue your ass for all you've got!" she said.

"What have you been doing up there?" Shadow demanded, "I've been waiting for you to come in and read your lines!"

"Someone has to type this crap." Liz mumbled looking back at her laptop.

"I'm shocked to be saying this but I liked the old Liz better." Sonic said, "At least she was interesting. The real Liz is just creepy."

Liz glared down at him, "You'll pay for that." She said angrily.

"What are you going to do?" Sonic mocked, "Type? Oh I'm scared."

"You should be." She said as she pressed rapidly at the keys of her laptop.

Suddenly Sonic was hit by a falling cinderblock. Hehe, I enjoyed that.

Sonic stood up and rubbed his head, "Ugh… I need to go lay down." He mumbled heading for the stairs. On his way up he tripped and fell all the way back down.

"OH COME ON!" he screamed up at Liz.

She only snickered and went back to typing.

Sonic went slowly up the stairs and made it this time. He went into his room cautiously and closed the door. He turned around and screamed. Standing in the middle of his room was Komodo, still in her bowler cap and Watson coat, "What are you doing here?" Sonic demanded, "Shouldn't you be off with Liz trying to find the chapter?"

Komodo shrugged, "I suppose so." She said, "However, it appears there is a bit of more important business I must attend to before gallivanting about on a quest for a missing piece of literature."

Sonic just stared at her, "Why do you talk like that?" he asked finally.

"Sophistication, old boy." Komodo said taking of her hat, "Now that I'm here I've something I need to give you." She reached into her coat pocket and pulled out a small black box about the size of her palm. She looked at it for a moment then held it out for Sonic to take.

"What's this?" he asked.

"It's a present."

"Um… why?"

"It's not for you!" Komodo said quickly, "I want you to give it to somebody else!"

Sonic stared down at the box and then reached out to grab it, "Who?" he asked.

Komodo only smiled, "Open it. I think you'll know."

"WATSON! WHERE ARE YOU?"

Komodo put her hat back on, "Must be off. Cheers!" Then she turned and dove out the window.

Sonic looked down at the small box in his hand in confusion. After a moment he cautiously lifted the lid and stared inside. His eyes became wide, "Oh… my GOD!" he cried.

Komodo stood up and dusted her jacket. Then she headed farther into the backyard where Liz was looking at the tree with a magnifying glass, "There you are, Watson!" she said, "It seems as though the chapter came by this way."

Komodo looked at the tree to find a grouping of letters in the tree. "Obviously the chapter is trying to tell us something by leaving these particular letters behind." Liz said, "We should try to put them together." She began to pull the letters out of the branches and started to shift them around on the ground to form a sentence. Komodo pulled out her notebook and wrote down all the letters.

Sonic came down the stairs into the living room where Shadow was trying to force Liz to come down from the chandelier. He stopped trying to hit her with a broom for a moment and looked at Sonic immediately noticing that his face looked unusually pale.

"What's up with you?" Shadow asked.

"I know." Liz said with a wicked smile.

Sonic glared up at her, "This is your fault." He mumbled angrily, "You made Komodo give me that damned box!"

"What box?" Shadow asked.

"Don't bother yourself with my problems." Sonic said with a shrug, "I think I'll just go along with it so Komodo doesn't impale me…"

Just then Tails came down from his room, "Hey guys. What's going on?" he asked.

"Nothing." Sonic said, "How have you been holding up?"

Tails smiled weakly, "Alright I guess." Then he turned and headed into the basement.

"He's been taking Cosmo pretty hard." Sonic said sadly.

"He'll get over it." Shadow said picking up the broom and whacking Liz again.

Sonic glared at Shadow, "You have no feelings for anyone but yourself." He said angrily.

"I kind of trained myself to have no feelings after Maria was murdered." Shadow replied, "If you don't feel bad for anyone else it's easier to solve your own problems."

Sonic growled and followed Tails into the basement.

"EUREKA!" Liz cried. She stood up from the grass and stared down at the sentence she had made, "I've figured out what the chapter has been trying to tell us!" she cried triumphantly.

Komodo looked down at the sentence, "Knuckles retreated into the bathroom and locked the door." She mumbled, "What does that mean?" she asked.

"It means that Knuckles is the perpetrator!" Liz shouted, "And he's hiding in the bathroom with our chapter! Come on!" Liz ran into the house and up the stairs to the bathroom door in the hallway.

She banged on the door with her fist, "Open up, Knuckles!" she shouted, "I know what you're up to!"

"GO AWAY!" Knuckles shouted.

Liz tried the doorknob but it was locked, just as the sentence had implied, "You won't get away that easily, Knuckles!" she shouted. Komodo came up the stairs and watched as Liz kicked in the door and ran in.

Komodo followed and just stared into the bathroom. Liz was standing there staring, dumbfounded, at Knuckles.

"What are you doing?" Komodo asked.

"IT'S NOT WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE!"

"Looks like your shaving your legs." Liz said.

Knuckles looked down at the shaving cream on his legs and the razor in his hand, "Ok… maybe it is what it looks like."

"Um… so you didn't steal the chapter?" Liz asked.

"No. I didn't." Knuckles replied. Then he glanced at the two of them, "Hey, could you guys not tell anybody about this?"

The two glanced at each other then looked back to Knuckles, "We can't make any promises." Liz replied. Then the two ran out the door, slamming it behind them.