CHAPTER 31

Later, Shadow was walking alongside Espio through a quiet neighborhood.

As he walked, Espio was flipping through the pages of a school yearbook. "This is awesome that we got a hold of Razi's old high school yearbook."

"Yeah", Shadow agreed. "How lucky are we to get that from one of his old teachers?"

"Very", he continued to glance through the book. "I even see Damon and Allan in here." He made a chuckle, "You think they're nerdish now? You should take a look at them back in high school."

"His old science teacher said he wasn't really close with a lot of his classmates. He mostly hung around Damon and Allan."

Espio took his eyes away from the book, "Well since Damon is with him and Allan being…deceased, how are we supposed to dig up more info on him?"

Shadow took the book from him and flipped through the pages until he came across a picture of a teenage fox girl. He pointed to her picture and gave the book back to him, "Her."

Espio studied the girl closely and read her name that was under her picture, "Amy Guller?"

He made a nod. "Yup. His old teacher said that Razi spoke with her from time to time. Maybe she can give us some helpful hints on where we can find him and the rest of The Raiders."

"Hopefully", he shut the book and glanced over to Shadow and decided to change the subject. "So how's it going with the baby thing?"

He shook his head and sighed heavily, "Not so well."

"I'm sorry to hear that, dude."

"She's starting to get all depressed about it…"

"Well if it doesn't work out, have you guys considered adoption?"

"Yeah we talked more than enough about it and we just both agreed that we want our own child."

"Ah I see."

"I think her mother's giving her hell about it too which isn't helping." Shadow knew that her parents weren't thrilled to know that he wouldn't be able to give her a family.

"You know her parents are just trying to discourage you guys. Just don't listen to them."

He shook his head sadly, "Well it's not just that. I just…I just feel like I'm failing her as a husband."

"Don't say that, dude. Rouge will still love you regardless of what happens and you know that."

He tried to force a small smile, "You're right. Thanks, Es." He decided to change the depressing subject, "How are you holding up?"

He figured that he was referring to what was going on between him and Tonya. "Tonya and I are talking, but as far as getting back together…she said she just wants to remain friends."

"…She misses you."

The chameleon gave him a confused look, "Huh?"

He turned to him with a smile, "She misses you."

"How would you know?"

"The way she looks at you at work. I can just tell."

Espio arched an eyebrow and thought otherwise.

"Even if she doesn't show it, she still loves you, Espio."

"If she misses me and loves me so much then why are we not back together yet?"

"Just give her some space. If you leave her alone, she'll come back to you. Just give it time."

He thought that it had been long enough already. It was now going a little over two weeks since their breakup. "Okay whatever you say." He then saw Shadow stopping in his tracks and looking at a two story white house.

"Well this is it. Amy's house."

He walked onto the porch along with Shadow and watched him ring the doorbell. "I bet she's all hideous and fat now since she left high school."

Shadow turned to him in annoyance, "They graduated like seven years ago."

He shrugged his shoulders, "Hey a lot can happen in seven years."

When Shadow heard footsteps approaching from the inside, he hushed Espio.

They both waited until the door slowly opened. Standing at the doorway was a pink fox woman with blonde short hair. Even in her late twenties, she still looked like she belonged back in high school.

Espio's mouth hung open in disbelief because she looked like she hadn't changed at all. "Damn she still looks hot!" He suddenly felt Shadow punch him in the arm, enough to make him wince a little.

The fox woman rose an eyebrow at the two. "Who the hell are you?"

Shadow pulled out his badge and showed it to her. "Good evening. I'm Detective Hedgehog." His eyes wandered over to Espio, "And this is Detective Chameleon." He turned back to her, "We work for the Chaotix Detective Agency."

She crossed her arms, "Detectives? Like cops?" She began to have a paranoid look on her face like she had done something wrong. "What's gong on? What did I do?"

He tried to calm her down when she had started to get nervous. "You didn't do anything. We just came to ask you a few questions about an old classmate of yours."

"Um okay?"

Espio opened up the yearbook and flipped to the page that showed Razi's picture. He showed his photo to the woman. "Does this guy look familiar to you?"

She rose an eyebrow at the picture of the beaver, "That's Razi."

"So you do know him?" Shadow asked.

"Yeah how could I forget that little weirdo? He sat beside me in science class with his other geeky friends."

"You do know that he's a wanted criminal along with a few other fugitives?"

She nodded, "Yeah it's all over the news. I can't believe it but at the same time I shouldn't be surprised. He got bullied a lot back in school. He took a lot of shit from people but he always remained quiet. He barely spoke to anyone except Damon and Allan."

"What's your relationship him?"

"Razi and I talked little to none. We weren't even friends. I was just a super popular cheerleader who needed to pass science to stay on the squad."

"So you and Razi never associated with each other at all?" Espio asked.

She shrugged her shoulders, "I mean we said hey to each other a few times. There was only one time we maybe had an intense conversation."

"I know this was awhile ago but can you remember what you two were talking about?" Shadow asked.

She placed her hands on her hips, "Of course. I remember every word. He asked me to go to prom with him. I told him no and I walked off."

"He just asked you to prom?" Espio asked.

She made a nod, "Yeah the little weirdo tried to ask me out. I mean why would I go to the prom with that? All he did was stare me down in class all the time." She sighed heavily, "What a freak!"

It didn't take much for Shadow to figure out that Amy was indeed one of the many students that had bullied Razi. "Do you know what happened to him after school? Like did he move to a different house or city?"

She shrugged her shoulders, "As far as I know, he's always lived with his grandmother which is only a couple blocks from here. But his grandmother passed awhile ago and after when all that happened, the house he was staying in just disappeared."

"It…disappeared?" Espio repeated blankly.

She nodded, "I know it sounds crazy but the house isn't there anymore. There's no signs of renovation or anything. I don't know what happened to it. No one does."

Shadow and Espio gave each other puzzled looks as they thought the story was hard to believe.

She suddenly saw Shadow hand her a pen and paper.

"Could you give us the address of where his old house used to be?"

"Um sure but I'm telling you, you're not going to find anything over there."

While she was writing down Razi's house address, Espio pulled Shadow to the side so he could talk to him more privately. "Shad, this girl's story sounds crazy. How can a house vanish into thin air?"

"That's why we're taking a trip to Razi's old stomping ground. There's gotta be something over there that'll steer us in the right direction that will lead us to The Raiders. There just has to be."

"Okay here it is", Amy had spoke as she held the paper out towards Shadow and Espio.

Shadow walked back over to her and took the paper from her hand. "Thank you for taking this time to talk to us."

The pink fox made a nod. "Anytime I guess."

Shadow had then noticed her staring at him in interest. "…Um is something wrong?"

She began to give him a flirtatious look. "You know you're kinda cute."

He was taken by surprise that she had suddenly began to hit on him, but he tried to ignore it and act like he was oblivious about it. "Oh? Thanks", he spoke in an uncaring tone.

She placed a finger to her chin, "You wanna do something later?"

He paused and gave her an irritated look as she tried to flirt even more with him. "…I'm married."

She crossed her arms and angrily huffed. "Man! All the good ones are always taken!"

Espio had then jumped into their conversation. "You know I'm…" He was then suddenly pulled away from her by Shadow.

"You're taken too!"

Her eyes widened as the annoyed hedgehog practically dragged the chameleon off of her porch and down the sidewalk.

In The Next Chapter…

Nack: What the hell?

Razi: It's Shadow and Espio!

Zena: How did they find us?

Maxcell: Holy crap! They know! They're on to us! It's over!

Shadow: Charmy, are you all right?

Charmy: You're a selfish man, Shadow…