Hey guys! The end is coming for this story and I can only feel sadness as the ending words are coming closer to being typed. I'm not sure whether I really want it to end though, but I know that it can't go on forever. I'll come up with something pretty soon for an epilogue but for now let's focus on the start of chapter twelve! Enjoy!
Disclaimer: Dark-Illusion-Detective does not own any of the Sonic Characters nor does she own Sega and most likely never will. She does however own her OCS: Illusion the Cat and Charcoal the Cat.
Here's Chapter Twelve!
Chapter Twelve
The world seemed small at that moment, seemed to only amount to the size of a flea, or at least that's what Illusion believed as she stood on top of a roof. The glow that surrounded her dulled slightly as she camaflouged but she was still able to see past it and glance around.
Illusion was grateful she was able to make it to where Charmy and Vector were before the figure actually succeeded with what he was planning. Her gaze dropped to the streets where she saw the dark figure running swiftly, only a striped tail was visible under the cloak and she felt herself smirk ever so slightly.
"Magic tricks again? Figured you gave up on that a long time ago… my dear Uncle Sherman," she whispered as she let her glow brighten significantly and she darted after the escaping raccoon.
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"YOU LET HER GO?!" Espio practically shouted when Vector and Charmy explained what happened.
The chameleon crossed his arms and anger didn't even come close to what emotion was etched on his face. Vector sighed and sounded nervous as he said, "Now let's take this moment to calm down and-"
"You let her go off to find her brother! That's worse when he's armed!"
"But she was glowing all cool-like so I figured she would be fine. She can probably handle the situation."
Espio crossed his arms and sighed; perhaps he was just merely overreacting to this situation and making it sound worse than it was… but something in the back of his mind screamed for him to keep the anger he was feeling and vent it on Charcoal. It wasn't anger focused on Vector and Charmy, it was anger that was aimed right as Espio for allowing himself to fall asleep and let Illusion go off carelessly like that.
"Hey what's this?"
The purple chameleon was dragged out of the sea of anger to see Charmy holding a piece of paper that looked like something that was just pulled out of nowhere. Espio walked up to Charmy and looked at the paper and blinked; it was a list.
Charcoal's Fate
Espio blinked, "Charcoal's Fate? What does that mean?"
Reading further he understood what it meant.
"She… went after Charcoal to get him arrested, that's what you said right?"
Charmy nodded and flew under the paper and pointed out, "Hey there's a note on the other side!"
Turning the paper over, Espio read the small note that Illusion left and blinked in slight surprise that all she wanted to write actually fitted onto the small scrap paper.
Espio,
I'm sorry if you wake up and I'm not here, but I just thought of something important that I just remembered while thinking. I remember a lot about my family, but one thing was how I got my name.
The Chaotix members looked at each other in confusion but resumed reading Illusion's small hand writing that made them squint just to read all the words clearly.
I guess it was when I was born. The strange fur, the green markings on my fur made my uncle ponder over my existence. He told me a lot of stories and one of the stories he told me was of when he used to be a famous magician, and illusionist. He said that my parents didn't know what to call me so he came up with my name. Sitting here thinking about what would happen to my brother, I wondered what if him dying along my parents… was just a mere illusion. I'm going to find my brother and ask him for myself. He would know after all… or at least I hope he does.
From,
Illusion
Espio dropped the note and for a long moment silence filled the building. Vector looked at Espio and Charmy's gaze followed Vector's orange eyes and landed on the purple chameleon.
"Espy?"
"… We're… truly idiots. We should've guessed that! We read the profile on all of them and yet-"
"He looked dead and that was enough for us," Vector quickly said. The crocodile was actually shocked that he didn't remember that.
"But wait, if the uncle was an illusionist, how did he do it?"
Espio shook his head, "I don't know."
"Magicians never reveal their tricks."
The trio fell silence as they heard the front door open and the figure that walked in nearly made Espio kill him. Standing in the entrance was none other than Charcoal the cat.
"You-"
Charcoal held up a finger that signaled for a moment of silence. Espio still had the intent of murder in his eyes but Charcoal didn't seem to notice as he walked into the kitchen where the Chaotix were all gathered.
"What are you doing here?!" Vector found himself asking.
"What's up?"
The cat stopped and his green eyes glanced at Espio then at the members… then his eyes were glued to his shoes as he took out a gun. The Chaotix looked ready to fight but their eyes all widened when they saw Charcoal drop the gun at his feet and kick it toward the Chaotix.
"I can't believe you guys are suppose to be detectives, and yet… you never guessed…"
Charcoal walked over to the table and smiled, "Bet you're all surprised. To think that the gun slinging brother isn't responsible for all that has happened."
"Don't fool us, you shot them dead and Sherman survived."
"UGH! You're all so stupid!!"
"We are not!" Charmy shouted at Charcoal.
Charcoal rubbed his temples and questioned, "Did you find it odd how I supposedly got up and pointed a gun at my family? The family that I loved and honored very much? Do you find it not odd that Sherman survived by a mere illusion? A trick? You're stupid if you can't see that I'm not responsible for what happened at that restaurant!"
Vector looked at Charcoal, "Can you prove that you didn't do it? Because the security cameras can prove it was you."
"Yes. Just now, you saw me take out the gun with my left hand correct?"
The trio blinked and nodded.
"I'll say this right now for the record; I'm left handed not right. I can't use my right hand and when I use my right hand for shooting I miss my targets completely," Charcoal said quietly. He paused and looked at the Chaotix member's faces, hoping that they would catch on to what he was getting at. When nothing came to their faces he sighed in frustration. "Espio, you look like a Mobian with a good memory, which hand was I holding my gun in and how good was my aim?"
Espio closed his eyes and began to think back to the day where their lives changed. He saw the gun men looking toward them then he saw Charcoal stand up and pointing the gun at them. That's when he saw how good his aim was and the chameleon blinked out of the flash back then stared at Charcoal.
"… Prove you can't shoot with your right hand."
"But you remember that you saw the impersonator holding the gun in his right hand and shooting with perfect precision, right?"
Espio sighed and nodded.
"I couldn't have done it, because of an injury I received before you arrived."
This made the Chaotix stare at Charcoal; injury? What injury did he get? Charcoal then pulled up the sleeve of his jacket away from his hand and Charmy turned away swiftly and the remaining duo stared at his hand.
"It really wasn't you…"
"I told you it wasn't!" Charcoal stated almost in a voice that a little kid would use as he showed off his hand. His hand looked shattered, almost destroyed. His right hand looked like it was slammed against something hard numerous times and was never repaired.
"How… did that happen?"
"The better question is who did it? Really changed the way I see people. Never trust anyone; even now I'm curious about what you guys are thinking. And… where did my sister head off?"
Espio looked at Vector and Charmy with a slight glare visible in his gold eyes. He then looked at Charcoal, "If you didn't do it in the first place… you mean to tell me that Sherman did it?"
Charcoal nodded, "Who else would've slammed my hand in the door and shoved me in my closet and locked the door? He stole my appearance and made a copy of himself with his cheap mirror tricks and did what the security cameras would say I did."
As the chameleon looked at Charcoal, he didn't see a murderer anymore, he saw a victim in a crime that was pinned against him due to an incident caused by his uncle, a person he trusted and loved. Espio then saw Charcoal get up and looked at Espio.
"I know my sister has been here, I've heard it from a friend of mine named Beacon… or Pride, not sure if he kept that nickname. So where is my sister? Where did she go?"
Espio reread the letter that Illusion had written as small as she could, then he looked at his comrades and Charcoal with a worried glance.
"I think Illusion is in trouble… she was searching for you, but she's actually… going after her uncle…"
Espio grabbed Charcoal's hand and picked up the gun and handed it to him, "We're getting your sister out of there."
The duo darted out of the building swiftly and left Vector and Charmy behind. Vector connected the dots and asked Charmy, "Where did you see her heading to?"
"It was toward the old train station nearby, remember the one that was shut down due to something wrong with the tracks or something? We had a case there once right?" Charmy questioned as he replied.
"That doesn't matter, what does is that we guide them toward where Illusion is."
Vector grabbed Charmy and darted after the duo but realized they had fallen way behind and the duo were out of sight when Vector ran out the door.
"Chaos, help them find Illusion before it's too late," Vector thought to himself as he darted toward the old train station, praying it wasn't too late.
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And there's the chapter guys. Okay I didn't really plan on for this weird twist of events to happen but I decided why not? It makes it just a little more interesting. What do you guys think? Did you like it? I hope so; it took me a long while to write that but it's done. I hope you'll tell me what you guys think about this chapter.