Disclaimer: Sonic and co. © Sega
Reise © Blank the Nobody
Chapter Ten
First Hell Unleashed
1 Month, 21 Days and 12 Hours before Eggman Armageddon
1 Hour before the First Eggling Attack
1 Hour and 30 Minutes before Sonic shows up
Mike Lawso . . . Missing since . . . . Last seen . . .
Derek Espinoza . . . Missing since . . . Last seen . . .
Elliot Wackfod . . . Missing since . . . Last seen . . .
More and more posters describing the missing people were posted on every wall or post. Some posters drifted along, following the wind in an endless journey. People passed by the posters, not caring about the missing people. Most people don't care about this sort of thing. They just see the picture on the poster and leave as if nothing was wrong. The cruel reality was the fact that no one really did care other then the missing persons' family or friends. No one else would toss a penny into their bucket of pity at all. But there was still hope. Sometimes a select few with big enough hearts would come along and help with the search. Even if its help from a couple of idiots.
"Wow! That's a lot of people missing after three days!" said a small, hyperactive bee as he marveled at all of the posters.
As the bee looked over all of the posters, a tall green crocodile marched up behind him, with his earphones pounding with its large output of music. With the large croc's sudden appearance, a large shadow was suddenly cast over the bee, but he didn't mind. Both of them looked at the army of posters taped or stapled to the wall. A saddened look washed over the crocodile's face as he looked at the posters. People ranging from young to old were missing.
"No way this can be a coincidence." said the croc, as he glared at every poster.
Only two hours after Eggman killed Rouge, people started to disappear. Not just one by one, they started to disappear by large groups. No one took the situation seriously since the city was working on rebuilding the destroyed parts from Eggman's attack a few days before. The government was always to blind to see what was coming until it was too late. There was a plan being put in motion and a couple of detectives knew it.
"I know!" exclaimed the bee in a shocked yet playful tone. The bee turned to face the crocodile. "Come on Vector, let's go find Espio. Maybe he knows what's happening." said the bee before flying off.
Vector swung his body around and sighed, before running after Charmy. After all these years working with that bee, nothing has really changed. Charmy is Charmy, the hyperactive, never quiet, loud bee, that everyone has come to know and love. But some people have changed, mostly because of their jobs.
The Chaotix Detective Agency underwent some serious financial problems for a while, causing the team to cooperate with G.U.N. During that time, the team investigated murders, interrogated assassins, fought tougher foes, and much more. They solved more crimes then ever before, but everyone had some breaking point. After a while, Vector became a bit more serious when it came to working after seeing so many dead people and letting so many people down, Vector just couldn't give up. Espio got smarter on many levels and became physically stronger to stop whatever or whoever gets in his way. After their time with G.U.N. Team Chaotix earned enough funds to rebuild their agency and they finally departed from the military's brutal way of solving crimes. Now they were back to helping people and solving some crimes like finding stolen objects, helping other people and oddly enough finding missing people.
Aided by his sugar hype, Charmy made it back to the agency and over to Espio's redesigned room within minutes. Instead of knocking on the door like a normal person, the hyperactive bee just burst into Espio's room. The scent of exotic fruits and a warm sensation washed around Charmy. In the far corner of the room a group or Japanese incense sticks burned and a small string of smoke floated into the air from their burning tips. The walls were a light brown hue, matching its bamboo plant waterfall and the speakers hidden within the room played a soft koto tune. All in all, the room looked fit for a person solely built on meditating, fitting Espio's style exactly. In the middle of a room, sat a peaceful Espio, his legs crossed in front of him in a meditating pose like a Buddhist monk.
"Yo Espio! We've got lots of work to do!" yelled Charmy as he flew circles around Espio just to annoy him.
Charmy circled Espio a couple more times before Espio finally got up. With his quick ninja reflexes, Espio grabbed both of Charmy's wings with one hand and held him up. The bee yelped out in pain before the chameleon brought him up to eye level. Charmy stared deep into Espio's serious yellow eyes, making the kid's spine tingle in fear.
"Knock next time." Espio said simply, before releasing the bee's wings.
After being let go, Charmy fell on his butt with a thud, the bee then flew back up and followed Espio to the living room. A fresh stack of 'missing person' posters were piled onto the table. Yesterday there was only a handful of posters, now there was more of a trunk load.
"What the hell is going on?" Espio asked in a cold tone as he grabbed a handful of posters.
He quickly glanced through the photos, memorizing each face without even knowing it and put them down on the table. This job would probably get the team a lot of money, but right now that wasn't really the goal. Most people would know that Team Chaotix was more of a non-profit organization, seeing that Vector used every chance he had either spending it on music or giving it away to the needy.
"Eggman?" suggested Vector as he walked up to Espio.
Suggesting the main villain of every huge crisis ever to come to Mobius was obvious, but it didn't seem right. The doctor would never kidnap a massive amount of people. Most people found the doctor to be a bit squeamish and less sadistic then most villains, so he was out of the question.
"No, I don't think so. Eggman isn't that type of person who would actually experiment on people." said Espio before crossing his arms.
Vector leaned back against his wall, his hand rubbing his chin. "Who else can do this without making that much of a scene?" asked Vector, as he tried to come up with a list of names.
As hard as Vector tried, he couldn't come up with a reasonable list of names. So far, the team knew no one as smart or as sadistic. They were able to match Eggman with the intelligent part, but the fat man didn't fit the other part. Neither of them could come up with anything, only leading them to believe that it was either coincidence or there was a bigger picture that they weren't seeing.
"Maybe it really is Eggman." said Vector, giving up on trying to find another villain.
With the sun still high in the afternoon sky, people walked and chatted along the sidewalks of Station Square. All was normal yet again amongst the city's streets, even though the people there knew that it wouldn't stay that way for long.
Somewhere else in the city, within a dark and damp alley, a large semi-truck pulled up. The container that the truck was carrying was black and the sound of thuds could be heard from inside of it. That was only one truck though, scattered around Station Square, ten more identical trucks parked in locations around the Chatoix Detective Agency. The trucks within the city would provide a big enough distraction for Eggman. His objective this time, was different from what he had done before. At first, Eggman found his objective a bit harsh, but Reise was able to talk him into it. Besides, after this mission was over, both Eggman and Reise would get a good laugh after.
As the children played on the slides and monkey bars, and as the adults walked about, continuing their normal lives, monsters were hiding. Waiting until their time would come to finally quench their thirst for blood. Soon enough they would released and soon enough, more people would suffer.
"Where are we going to next, Mother?" asked a very young female rabbit as she tugged on her mother's dress.
Today was the day that young Cream, went grocery shopping with her mother, Vanilla. They were only two steps out of the store, plastic grocery bags in hand. Cream was wearing her normal vermillion dress, and shoes; her ears swaying a bit in the slight breeze that fluttered about. Vanilla was wearing her casual purple and crimson dress, and red shoes. As she stared at her mom, a cerulean chao landed atop her shoulder. Cheese was there that evening as well; happy as ever to be with his best friend.
"We're going to drop by the Chatoix Detective Agency, just to say hi." said Vanilla in her soft, gentle tone.
Much like Rouge and Knuckles' relationship, Ms. Vanilla and Vector hid their feelings from each other. Even though Vector was more of an oaf then Knuckles, he was a bit more outgoing. He would act more like a gentlemen towards Vanilla, other then denying his love and acting like a jerk like Knuckles. What made this love even more interesting was the fact they that knew about it, they just never really confessed it to each other in public.
"Yay! I get to see Charmy!" exclaimed Cream in a happy tone.
Both the rabbit and the chao celebrated at the news. Like any other child, they all had friends, as for Cream and Cheese, their friend Charmy was the best. Even though that bee was prone to get into trouble they didn't mind it at all. It was all for the sake of fun, even though Cream didn't follow Charmy in his insane, sugar fueled stunts. Sometimes Cream would just sit back and watch the bee perform some crazy stunt, and when Tails is around, she would just hang out with him.
Fifteen minutes passed as they walked towards the agency. They approached the front door and Vanilla knocked. No one answered the door at first, making Vanilla feel a bit uneasy for some odd reason. The adult rabbit took hold of the door knob and turned it luckily it was unlocked. She swung the door open and took a step inside, Cream and Cheese hiding behind her in case anything bad would happen.
"Hello? Vector, are you here?" asked Vanilla as she stepped into the agency that seemed darker then usual.
No answer came from the dark corners of the building. For most people, they would've left immediately and called the cops. Not for Vanilla, something was drawing her in without her even knowing it, and she continued to walk into the agency. Cream tugged on her mother's dress, hoping she would stop.
"Maybe they're not home." said Cream, her words falling on deaf ears.
Even Cheese could tell something wasn't right, as he pulled on Vanilla's dress as well. The adult rabbit took another step forward, not fearing whatever was ahead of her. As she did, a small shadowy figure crept up behind the three without either of them noticing. A glint flashed off the creature's teeth as it smiled evilly. In a split second, the creature pounced, grabbing onto Cream and pulling her onto the ground, making the rabbit drop the grocery bags she was holding.
"Yay! You came to visit!" yelled an excited Charmy as he hugged Cream even though they were on the ground.
As Charmy continued to play with Cream on the floor, a bumbling green crocodile stumbled into the room, an angry look on his face.
"What happening? Who's ther-" Vector stopped mid-sentence at the sight of Vanilla. "Ms. Vanilla, I didn't know you were coming." He said, his voice already eased into a calmer tone.
Seeing her friends, Vanilla started to calm down. Seconds before she was about to tear things apart in order to find them, but finally seeing her lover, made that fear and aggression go away, like magic.
Surprising to most people, if Vanilla ever sensed something bad, she would get very defensive, since she is a mother. She had to make sure she could defend her child no matter what would happen and not just run away. Living in a world where heroes live and where villains come up with plans to destroy the world, of course she had to figure out some form of self defense. Not just for her sake, but for the sake of her daughter as well.
"Sorry Vector, I just wanted to drop by and see how everyone is doing." said Vanilla curtly as she walked up to the croc.
Charmy helped Cream back onto her feet and they both could see that the croc and the rabbit were a bit too close to each other. The bee giggled at the sight, knowing of Vector's crush on Ms. Vanilla, he then took Cream and Cheese into another room so they could play, leaving Vector and Vanilla alone.
This was actually their first time seeing each other after Team Chaotix got out of G.U.N. which was why Charmy was so excited to see Cream. During their time with G.U.N. Vector did manage to send Vanilla some letters, describing every heart breaking, creepy, and demented moment of his time with the military. Every time Vanilla read those letters, she cried almost every time. The pain, the sorrow, the stress that Vector had to go through was heart breaking for her, but she was glad that he made it out okay and almost unchanged.
"Good to see you again." said Vanilla as she gave the crocodile a big hug.
"Did you get the letters I sent you?" asked Vector, returning the hug.
Vanilla chuckled at the question. "Don't remind me." She stated, causing both of them to laugh.
Both Vector and Vanilla talked to each other while Charmy, Cream and Cheese played in the other room and espio left to do some investigating of his own. Another couple of minutes passed by as Vector chatted with Vanilla about his experience in G.U.N. A couple of laughs were shared between the two and even some tears, but they were happy to see each other and that was all that mattered.
In another room, the kids continued to play. Charmy jumped from chair to chair, imitating the sound of a plane. Cream copied him, as Cheese flew after them, a smile on all of their faces. The bee over-jumped the chair and accidently slammed into the window. The young bee slid off the glass and landed on his butt. Cream rushed to his side and helped him up to his feet like a good friend.
"Are you okay?" asked Cream, as Cheese landed on her shoulder.
Charmy blushed before answering. "Yeah, I'm okay, I do that a lot anyway." He answered.
Before continuing to play, something caught Charmy's eye and the bee looked out the window. Outside parked in the middle of the road, a large black semi truck stood. Loud honking could be heard as others cars tried to pass it, but failed. People were getting out of their cars to yell at the driver, but no one could see through the truck's pitch black windows. Charmy raised an eyebrow at the scene as Cream joined him to see what he was looking at. Charmy noticed that the truck was hefting a large container, larger then normal truck cargo, but Charmy thought that it was only a coincidence.
"What's going on?" asked Cream as she inspected the truck.
"Dunno." answered Charmy plainly before rushing out of the room.
Cream raced after Charmy, a nervous look on her face, even though she's been in similar situations. "Where are you going?" she asked as she chased after Charmy.
"I'm gonna go tell Vector, maybe he knows what's happening." said Charmy without looking back.
Charmy finally made it to Vector and Vanilla and instantly interrupted their conversation.
"There's something weird going on outside!" The bee yelled loudly.
Vector got up, obviously annoyed by Charmy's lack of manners. He did get used to it though, since Charmy only bothered him when something important was happening. Instead of yelling at Charmy at how rude he was being, loud honking filled the air. He look out the window to see what the ruckus was all about. Outside he could see that a crowd of people were starting to gather. The people were yelling at a large semi-truck blocking the road with its large cargo.
"The hell-" Vector cursed before racing out the front door, Vanilla, Cream, Charmy and Cheese followed him. Before reaching the front door, Vector looked at Vanilla. "In case anything really bad happens, I have the number of my old G.U.N. commander on table. Don't hesitate to call him if things go bad." He said. Vanilla nodded in acknowledgment before Vector turned the knob on the front door.
Once outside, Vector plowed through the crowd and made his way to the truck. Seconds before he could go up to the window of the truck and break it, a purple scaled arm stopped him. Vector jumped back in surprise as Espio suddenly appeared in front of him. Like always, Espio wore his calm expression as he stared at the truck.
"Why'd you stop me? You know the driver or something?" yelled Vector in an irritated tone.
"What driver? There's no one in there." answered Espio, without turning to face Vector.
Almost all of the people stopped their yelling after hearing what Espio had said. Some of them scoffed at the statement.
"Yeah right, I saw this thing park here and I haven't seen anyone get out." said a random civilian, from within the crowd.
"That's because there was no one in there when it got here." said Espio calmly, his eyes still set on the truck.
Before anyone could say another word, a loud hissing noise could be heard coming from the truck, causing most of the people to step backwards. Espio stood his ground though, he wasn't afraid. The hissing could be heard from the back of the cargo container that the truck was transporting. Clicking and clanking joined in as the door unlocked itself. Loud hydraulic pistons continued to hiss as they slowly opened the double doors, releasing whatever was inside of the container.
All around Station Square, the identical trucks did the same, unleashing the hell that lived within its steel walls.
Seconds later, a dozen loud gut wrenching roars filled the air, causing the people to clasp their hands over their ears in pain. Car windows shattered at the loud roaring, showering the people in tiny glass shards and some people fell on their knees in pain. Once the roaring was over, a large group of crude, feral monsters suddenly poured out of the container, rushing out to feast on the weak. One of the monsters tried to jump onto Espio first, but the chameleon was fast and he jumped backwards to avoid the attack. That was when he finally got his first glimpse at the monsters.
They were all a variety of races, cats, dogs, other hedgehogs, and so on, but they all did have matching qualities. Each of the monsters had long, jagged claws that jutted out from their fingers, which aided them when they would tear a person apart for their feast. Long, jagged fangs gleamed in the sunlight, with drool covering all of them and sharp bone-like spines protruded out of their elbows. Espio stared into its bloodshot eyes and he could tell that there was no hop in trying to bring them back from their feral state.
Screaming and yelling surrounded Espio and Vector as they were surrounded with the carnage that the monsters brought. Vanilla had already brought the kids inside of the agency so they would have protection, leaving the two to fight. Blood was spilt, as one of the monsters dug its long claws though the abdomen of a civilian and furiously withdrew it, leaving a huge hole in the Mobian's chest. Espio did a back-flip and threw three ninja stars at the monster in front of him. The steel stars dug into the monster's chest, but it didn't affect it at all, making a shocked expression wash over Espio's face. Vector on the other hand, grabbed a stop sign and tore it out of the ground. The croc used it as a bat to defend himself, slamming the red octagonal plate into the face of one monster, sending it flying to the side. To his surprise however, the monster got back up and was ready to fight once more. Both Espio and Vector were astonished with the monsters' incredible strength and endurance, but they still had to survive no matter what.
"We need to call for help now!" yelled Espio over the angry roars of the creatures.
"Don't worry, I told Vanilla to call G.U.N. in case anything bad would happen." answered Vector, as he slammed the sign into another creature's face.
"Let's just hope that they get here in time." said Espio as he blocked an attack with a dagger.
Eggman is really starting to make me sick.
Sorry for taking so long. FYI, this is a hobby, not my job, so don't complain.
So I decided to add some background to Team Chaotix, making the work for G.U.N. I'm sorry if the idea doesn't appeal to you, but I did it anyway. I made Cream's mother a bit more outgoing then what most people would think, besides, if you were a mother living in a world where fat genius's were trying to rule the world, wouldn't you want to learn how to defend yourself. (No, she's not some Kung Fu master, she just knows the basics.) As for the beginning, I did not add the first italicized part, because I couldn't come up with a snappy line to start off the story, so I put it at the end to finish the chapter.