One year later

It was a boring cloudy day with no cases to solve and no money to earn. Vector fell asleep at his desk, dreaming about what it would be like to be rich. Charmy was trying his best to get Espio to stop meditating and play a game with him. It seemed to Espio as if he were having enough fun doing this. Throwing random crap at him, making his favorite tea and taunting him with it, saying he would go play with his weapons, singing one part of a song over and over again to try to make him yell at him, and many other annoying plans!

Three hours later Espio was about ready to snap Charmy's neck, lucky for Charmy there was a knock on the door.

"Charmy get the door!" Vector groggily commanded.

"Why should I get it! Aren't you the head detective? You should go answer." Charmy retorted in a whiny voice.

Espio stood up and answered the door. It had been to long since their last case and they needed money bad. His thoughts of finally being able to pay the rent were interrupted by a couple sobs. It was their to-be client, a relatively tall female rabbit. Espio quickly lead her inside, getting her settled down would hopefully help her mood. Besides the fact that he got awkward around people that cried.

Vector became wide awake after seeing who their possible client was. The detective jumped into a chair across from the one she sat at and put on a smile.

"Excuse me miss, I am Vector the boss of this detective agency. You seem pretty upset, Is there anything we could do for you?"

She sat up straight and wiped away her tears as her face became more determined. She began to tell them of her "problem":

"M-my name is Vanilla, please hear me out. Two weeks ago my husband disappeared. He still hasn't been found and is presumed dead. My daughter Cream and I have been in mourning since then. B-but today when I went to pick her up from her friend Amys, I was told she already left. I went searching for her and I couldn't find her anywhere. Please, you're detectives- find her for me! I'll pay you as much as you want! I don't know what I would do if I lost her too!" She put her hands in her face and started crying.

Vector, Espio and Charmy gave each other knowing glances. They couldn't back down after hearing something like that! This was a case for the Chaotix if they were going to get paid or not! Vector stood up and placed a big gloved hand on her shoulder.

"Don't worry Miss. Vanilla! Us Chaotix will no doubt find your daughter and bring her back to safety!"

They all gave her reassuring nods. She seemed to brighten up a bit at this.

"Thank you! Please find her fast as possible!"

The Chaotix nodded to let her know that that's exactly what they planned to do. But before they started searching they needed information.

"Miss. Vanilla, before we can go looking for your daughter we need you to answer some questions to help make our search easier and quicker. Do you think anyone would want to harm your daughter?" The head of the Chaotix asked. When he got serious he could be a good detective.

"N-not that I know of. She is such a sweet and polite little girl, only sickos would want to hurt her!"

Espio took this information down as it was said, Vector paced the floor thinking hard. Charmy stayed quiet for once. He may be energetic and annoying most of the time, but he knew when to get serious.

"Do you think her friend is hiding something from you, or could possibly be a suspect?" Espio questioned.

"No I don't believe Amy would do anything to harm Cream. First of all she thinks of her as her own sister- and secondly, even if she is a bit hot headed shes truly a good person at heart. She helped me search today." Vanilla looked confident when she said this.

" I think it would be best if we went and questioned her as well. Vector, what do you think?"

Vector looked off into the distance for a moment before answering.

"That would be perfect. Miss. Vanilla could you lead us to Amy's house please?"

"Yes of course. Anything as long as it will help find my daughter."

All four of them headed out to Amy's house as quickly as possible.

As they got closer they started to hear some occasional yelling. When they arrived they beheld an unusual scene. The pink hedgehog whom they guessed was Amy, had for some reason caught and tied up a blue hedgehog. Tails was arguing with her about it, trying to get her to let him go free without getting himself killed.

"Hmph! You think I'll let him go again that easily Tails? This is the first time I've caught Sonic and I wont let him get away again!" She said while looking looking away from him with a stubborn look on her face.

The one they called Sonic was struggling with all his might to escape from his bonds. It wasn't working.

"Amy he isn't going to fall in love with you if you hold him hostage! That's just cruel and... scary! " Tails reasoned with her waving his hands around.

"AAARGH! I know that! But that's not the point! And what do you mean cruel an-" Amy stopped her sentence short after realizing they were being watched. The pink hedgehog gave them an innocent smile.

Tails seeing Amy's face, turned around. He laughed in embarrassment.

"She's definitely a suspect." Charmy pointed towards Amy a bit shakily, then flew behind Vector for protection.

"Yes, Yes she is Charmy." The other two replied. Vanilla gave the detectives an awkward smile, not knowing what to say.

"What do you mean "suspect"! Miss. Vanilla, why are you with this strange bunch of people? Does this have something to do with Cream? Is she still missing?" Amy spewed a little to fast.

"Amy please calm down. These three are here to help, they're detectives." Vanilla explained cheerfully.

"You must be Amy. I'm Vector the boss of the Chaotix detective agency. These are my partners Espio and Charmy."

"We are here to ask you some questions." Cut in Espio trying to get to the point. "Had Cream been acting... different at all while she was with you?"

While they were "distracting" Amy, Tails freed Sonic. But neither of them ran, they both wanted to see what this was all about.

"No she wasn't, she acted how she always did. We just had fun like always. Did girl things. Then she left so she could get home for dinner. Few hours after that Vanilla came by the house looking like she had gone through the 9 levels of hell." Amy recalled each event carefully.

"Do you think she could have gotten lost?" Sonic butted in trying to think of possible scenarios.

Vanilla answered him before Amy could start off again. "No, Cream knows her way around this neighborhood better than most people, including the adults."

"So you guys think she was kidnapped? That would be horrible! If she was we gotta find her!" Tails cried out.

The Chaotix sat by listening, each thinking their own thoughts. If Cream knew this area as well as Vanilla said then there was a low chance she got lost. The only thing left was either she went and stayed over another friends without telling her mother, got stuck somewhere, or she had been kidnapped. They were currently leaning more towards the latter, which meant they didn't have much time to just sit by and talk. Vector spoke up to tell everyone his plan.

"Alright, everyone who is going to help search listen up. Since we don't know anything more than which way she would have started walking, I want all of us to start looking for traces of any clues."

"Such as signs of a struggle, footprints, a strand of fur, things she may have dropped, ANYTHING! We already know the general area of where she would have been so our search will be a lot easier." Espio added to help clarify things.

"Alright! We'll find her in no time! See ya later!" Sonic said with confidence, then sped off to search areas further away. Tails and Charmy took to the air to see what they could see. The rest of them stuck to carefully searching along the path for any small clues the others would miss. After searching for half an hour without any luck, Vector and Espio found footprints. They followed them until they unexpectedly vanished. Vanilla and Amy walked over to see what was up.

"That's weird. The footprints just end here. Do you think she was picked up?" Vector wondered aloud.

"No. There is no other set of footprints around this area. Unless the kidnapper was flying they would have left at least a small mark behind." Espio responded matter of factly.

"There seems to be more footprints down here." Called Amy from a couple yards away. They ran over to inspect this find. "She must have flown until she either got tired or was grabbed from the air."

"After she landed she tried to run, got caught, struggled, and was taken away. Look- the grass on this side of the path is worn down." Vector deducted at a fast speed.

"Yes. Which means the bad guy was not on the path in the first place. He ran through the field to catch her. There are large footprints in the grass on this side that lead somewhere. It wont be to hard to do since the culprit must have been pretty large."

Both Vector and Espio got so into it that the other two who were with them would have felt guilty if they interrupted. Amy decided to help them remember that there were other people with them.

"Excuse me."

They continued their conversation.

"Ahem. Excuse me."

Still no answer.

"EXCUSE MEEE!"

The reptiles stopped and looked at her.

"Um..er sorry ladies." Vector scratched the back of his head.

Espio simply bowed and said a quick "Forgive me."

"Ahem.. well its alright. But should we gather everyone up?" Amy asked politely like she didn't just yell in anger and frustration a second ago.

"Yes. That would be a great idea. Espio and I will start following these footprints, and we will wait for you guys at the other side. If you cant find the perpetrator's prints again then just follow ours. See ya!"

They took off down the "path of prints".

"AGH! They are so rude. Telling us what to do and then leaving like that. Hmph." Amy crossed her arms over her chest and pouted.

Vanilla smiled patiently "But Amy wasn't it your idea in the first place?"

"...Let's gather the others. SONIC! TAAAILS! CHARMY! COME BACK!"

While Amy screamed to gather the others, Espio and Vector were following the path at a fast pace. Stopping and looking every once in a while to see where the enemy turned. It had been a good hour before they arrived in front of a house deep in the woods. The sign out front had a name on it.

"P-Pedoro Bear?"