"Vector, I don't like this at all. Why is there a house this far out of the way, in the middle of the woods with a name that sounds very suspicious? And the path leads directly towards the house..."

"We need to move quickly Espio. Come here I have a plan..."

In the meantime Vanilla, Tails, Sonic, Amy, and Charmy were following Vector's footprints at a slower pace. Sonic was getting impatient, to him they were moving far too slowly and he was getting restless.

"Hey how about if I run ahead to see what they are up to? I promise I'll come back to lead you guys there once I find them!"

They all exchanged glances. Tails smiled and said

"That sounds like a great idea! While you do that we will try to follow the path."

Sonic nodded and ran off. Amy sighed. "He always gets away, damn it."

Vector knocked on the front door. The door opened a few moments afterward. What he saw was a large, strange looking brown bear with eyes that looked like they were painted on. A little hat sat on the top of his head.

"Can I help you?" He asked in a deep, creepy, voice.

"Hello sir, I'm a detective and recently a young girl disappeared. We were wondering if you have seen her before?" Vector showed Pedoro a picture of Cream.

"Hmm I can't say I have. Sorry."

"Oh no problem. I just have a couple more questions for you..."

While Vector distracted the bear, Espio cloaked himself and snuck through the back door. The first floor was just one big room divided up by tiles into different "rooms" or sections. There was a kitchen, a living room and a dining room. Besides the cabinets there were no other places you could possibly hide Cream. His instinct told him to search the upstairs. This seemed a lot more likely, plenty more places to hide a child.

After searching every nook and cranny of each room, he still couldn't find her. Not even any evidence that she was there before. He was running out of time. Even Vector could run out of ideas.

'Maybe he doesn't have anything to do with it? Impossible, the path leads right up to his house! And I just have this strange feeling that that bear is... dangerous.'

Instantly following this thought process he heard a loud thump coming from the direction of the staircase. He walked towards it and listened to see if it would happen again...

Vector was having a hard time keeping this up. Pedoro was obviously getting more and more uncomfortable with each "question" he thought up. That's when he thought of the perfect distraction. Or at least he thought.

"Pedoro do you happen to like... little kids?" Vector asked trying to make it seem like this was an everyday question you asked any other normal person you meet.

Pedoro was silent for a few seconds. Then his face lit up in happiness, joy and rainbows.

"OF COURSE I LOVE CHILDREN!" He danced in the doorway gaily.

Back upstairs Espio had his ear to the ground. The thumping was coming from the floorboards at the top of the steps. He inspected them and noticed that they seemed to be made of newer wood. He found out that it was a sliding door made to look like the rest of the hallway flooring. Espio then discovered a suspicious looking knot in the wood of the door. It looked similar to a latch. The chameleon pulled on it and opened it up quietly. Inside was a frightened, tied up little Rabbit with a little Chao.

"-and if you buy them sweet things they will do whatever you want!" Pedoro had gone off on this one man conversation about children and what they like and how fun they are. Vector just nodded his head, getting more disgusted with each noise that came out of the guys mouth. After listening to Pedoro for about 5 minutes he glanced behind him and saw Espio carrying a little girl towards the back door. Espio gave him the thumbs up and kept going. Vector looked back to the bear starting to say,

"Have a go-"

"VECTOR MOOVE! ICANTSTOP!"

None of them knew exactly what happened during the next 10 seconds of their lives. Vector found himself knocking over Pedoro because something small and spiky had just rammed itself into his back at top speed. Time stood still when they realized that Pedoro had caught Espio in the act- taking Cream and Cheese out the back door. He roared in anger-

Pedoro picked sonic off Vector and threw him into the wall. Vector tried to hold the bear down, and would have if Pedoro hadn't found a fire poker and whacked him in the face with it. He went after Espio- who by that time had already left.

Vanilla, Amy, Tails, and Charmy arrived right when Pedoro left. Vanilla ran over to the the injured victims. Sonic had been knocked unconcious and Vector was bleeding like crazy.

"S-Sonic!" Amy cried out in alarm.

"VECTOR!" Screeched Charmy.

Vanilla started treating their wounds instead of just sitting there screeching their names.

"Where's Espio?" Tails looked left and right.

"GO! He has Cream and her Chao! They went out back!" Vector told them which way he had gone as he desperately told them what happened.

Tails and Amy set off after him hoping they would make it in time.

Poor Espio was having a hard time. He was trying to get the two young ones to quiet down before Pedoro heard them, he wasn't in the mood to fight a pedo right know. They both tried their best.

"Sneaky little Chameleon where are you?" *BAM*

Cream jumped at the noise. But he put a hand over her mouth to stifle the scream.

'great- Pedo Bear's got a gun.'

"Mister? Is he going to find us? Will he hurt us?" She was on the verge of breaking down. That would not be good.

"Shh, don't worry I wont let him or anyone else hurt you. But I need you to do something for me ok? "

"O-okay."

"Run. Get away from here. I'm going to take care of him."

"Will you be okay?"

"...Of course I will. Now go!"

"H-Hai!" After she started running Espio jumped out of his hiding spot and threw a bunch of kunai and shuriken at the Pedo. Pedoro did a barrel roll dodging the attack, and countered with a shotgun blast. Espio dodged the bullets and warped in front of his adversary- elbowing him in the face with all his power. Pedoro dropped his gun and quickly brought his paws to his face, roaring in pain. Espio then kicked his knee out and punched him in his face again for good measure. The bear lay on the ground knocked out... or worse.

Too bad Espio forgot one very important rule in life or death fights- he didn't keep his eye on his opponent. Pedo Bear pretended to be knocked out, grabbed his gun and was about to shoot Espio in the back. The gun clicked. It was loaded. He started to pull on the trigger and-

"LOOK OUT!" Espio spun around while Tails tackled the bear making him drop his shotgun again. He spun his Tails like a helicopter and smacked the criminal in the face multiple times. Even at 7 Tails tails were incredibly strong, even a large bear could feel the sting. Pedo went into a blind rage and slashed at Tails with his claws- just narrowly missing him. BAM! Amy's hammer smashed the bear's face in. They could hear bone crunching. This was definitely the end.

Espio applauded them.

"I foolishly let my guard down. I owe you two my life. Thank you."

Tails scratched the back of his head in embarrassment...again. "I've been practicing..."

"No problem. You can treat all of us to lunch later. Or something. Where's Cream?"

"I'm right here Amy-san!" She floated down through the trees.

Amy hugged her tightly. "I'm so glad you're safe! Your mother will be so happy!"

Tails laughed in relief. "I'm glad everything turned out all right." He also learned to stay on the look out for strange bears with pasted on eyes.

Cream smiled at them. Then she turned to Espio and on impulse, gave him a hug.

"Thank you mister ninja for risking your life for mine! You're a brave person!"

He blushed in embarrassment. But didn't say anything.

They took Cream back to where her mother and everyone else was. Sonic had been constantly apologizing ever since he had woken up. He was extremely embarrassed that he of all people would make that mistake.

When Vanilla saw Cream, a touching mother-daughter moment happened between the two. Sobbing and crying. Everyone was touched. Even Espio had almost begun to tear up.

"Alright since she is back we should have a celebration at the Chaotix detective agency!" Sonic declared energetically, lightening the mood. They invited a couple other people they knew. None of them were able to make it. But they had it anyway, and it was one hell of a party.