Hello everybody! Here is a new chapter to this story that all of you have been waiting for. Hopefully, it'll be somewhat enough to recover from the rather long wait I've been putting you all on.

I'm sorry for not updating this story and all my others for almost an entire month. A lot of things happened. I had to finish my college finals, I had to get my wisdom teeth pulled out, I had to suffer an on-off fever because of said operation, I had to schedule summer classes, I had to go to work training, and my computer got viralized and temporarily put out of commission. That's a lot of stuff to happen to one single person in just one month, and all of them are things that you don't want to have happening to you anytime soon.

Anyway, I hope that the wait for this chapter was well worth it for you all, and I hope that you will also send me some reviews on how you think this chapter is. Also, I've started on a new story that's based on Yu Gi Oh! 5D's. I titled it, "The Wayward Journey", for any of you who would like to read it. It's only the prologue right now, but it kind of helps to set the mood of what, to the reader's point of view, would be taking place in the future of the story. I hope that you'll be able to find the time to read it after you've read this new chapter.

Anyway, don't forget to leave a review before moving on to you next story. Until the next update everybody!

Evidence:

Attorney's Badge: Nobody would believe that Sonic was one if he didn't have it pinned proudly upon his chest. He proved that he was deserving of it despite his age after successfully completing his first career case.

Profiles:

Sonic Hedgehog: A seventeen year old blue furred male hedgehog. Passed the bar exam with flying colors, allowing him to earn his Attorney's Badge a year earlier than normal. Has a likable and confident attitude about him, but sometimes gets nervous when in the courtroom. He's Tails' adoptive big brother.

Miles Prower: Best known by his nickname Tails. He's a twelve-year-old orange furred fox with two tails. He spends most of his time in the Robotnik Law Firm where Sonic works making sure the place stays relatively clean. He doesn't go to school because of the school board recognizing his brilliant mind surpassing even the most advanced high school work.

Dr. Ivo Robotnik: A fifty-three year old defense attorney of some renown. He owns his own law firm, albeit a small business version, and hired Sonic to be his understudy. He's usually too busy working on some kind of case to be seen in the office much. He allows Tails to hang out in the office regardless if he does any work in there or not. He's currently out of town on business and entrusted the upkeep of the office to Sonic and Tails.

Knuckles Echidna: He is an eighteen-year-old detective who works at the local precinct and is good friends with Sonic and Tails. He also knows Prosecutor Vector and his gang in his little detective agency. He sometimes works with Silver on certain cases, although he tends to be on other cases most of the time because of his lower ranking status.

Vector Crocodile: A twenty-year-old crocodile prosecutor. He loves the gold chain necklace that rests against his neck along with listening to music through his headset, including during his time in the courtroom. He can sometimes be a bit rash in making decisions and has a sort of stubborn side, but he always strives for the truth within the heart of any matter.

Charmy Bee: A hyper little bee who's attitude sometimes surpasses his eight-year-old body. He works alongside Prosecutor Vector as a sort of small rag-tag group of detectives that work apart from the local precinct detectives.

Silver Hedgehog: An eighteen year old detective who worked painstakingly hard to earn his promotion to senior detective after one official year on the force in conjunction with one year of internship. He knows Knuckles and sometimes works with him on cases. He has just received a new office in conjunction with his recent promotion as reward for conducting investigations to the best of his abilities without fail.

Chapter 7: Dangerous Twists and Turns Part 1

"I thought I asked for you to take care of murdering that detective's meddling woman a couple of weeks ago," a person over a phone with a muffler on it stated more than questioned in a stern and unpleased tone. "Why was it that Ace Sleuth himself was the one to do the deed himself and get caught in the process?"

"Unfortunately for me, something of great importance came up at the last minute, and I didn't have any time to call and confirm the change," the person on the other end of the line responded in a surprisingly calm and muffled tome despite being chastised in a harsh manner. "You wanted the murder done half past midnight, and I was about to leave to do so right at midnight until something kept me from going. As a last ditch effort, I thought to ask one of our members who happens to have great flexibility in where it is they can move around in such a short amount of time."

"Hence the reason why you called the detective to take over your job, the man who I last considered calling for this. Being the position that you're in, you do have some more leniency than others in our little group. That and your ability to think quickly when the situation calls for it is what make me keep you on the payroll despite some of the trouble you bring me at times. I do find it strange at times, however, how you tend to have something important to do at moments that are very important to our cause."

"Well, you know how I like to work in my business, whenever there's something of great importance that I feel could be for good usage in blackmailing the owner of said damning information; I've just got to be there to obtain it. After all, the more people we have on our side helping us through means of blackmail, the better our chances of your plans taking effect without any problems."

"Yes, my plans do require the most help that I can get. However, there are those who are still investigating that incident from two years ago. I've already tried to get two of them accused of murder so that they wouldn't pose much of a nuisance when the time comes, but two of my own men have both failed and been caught themselves. And speaking of which, have you managed to figure out where it is that they're keeping that detective?"

"Unfortunately, all my friends who I have doing things around the city at both yours and my discretion cannot seem to get any kind of lead on his whereabouts whatsoever. There aren't any official records of where he might be much less any good idea. It seems like the only person who knows where he is would be that prosecutor."

"Hmm, this does pose a problem if he's all but disappeared from right under our noses with nobody except that prosecutor knowing where his is. If Ace decides to talk to his captor about our plans, then we'll be set back somewhat with the police no doubt turning the city upside down looking for us."

"Would you like for me to take care of him and have him tell us where he's hiding our dear detective friend? You know that I can easily manage that with just a simple snap of my fingers along with my blackmailing skills."

"No, he's right now not of highest priority. There is another specific detective, however, who poses more of a problem to us. I want you to take him out as soon as you can. I hear that he's been trying to investigate that incident from two years ago in his own time. I fear what it is that he might have already discovered about us."

"Just say the word sir and I'll be more than happy to kill the man with my own bare hands with no help needed whatsoever. And I'll make sure that I'll be more than free when the time for erasure comes around. Who is it that you would like for me to pin the murder on this time around?"

"I'm sure you already have an idea as to who I want to see behind bars. After all, in order to insure that our plans take effect, we need to take out the very root of our bane that's killing us from the outside in. I'm sure you know where I'm going with this. I want you to take care of the one putting away our men. I want you to go ahead and frame..."

A Month later...

"Hey Silver!" Sonic called out to the silver furred hedgehog with an excited wave of his hand as he walked past the other people and up towards him. "This is a nice little party that you threw here tonight. Are you sure you'll be able to get away with it by having it here in your office though? Wouldn't your boss drive you up the wall for this? I know Dr. Robotnik would kill me if I tried to pull something like this."

"Oh, the precinct doesn't mind so long as I don't overcrowd this office and make too much of a mess," Silver responded with a smile and a light chuckle. "And besides, the boss said that I could if I wanted to in celebration of my raise and promotion."

"How many promotions can you get in such a short amount of time?" Tails asked as he walked up to the two with a red cup filled with punch in his hand. "When first met you after a couple of years during our last case, you told us that you were a new senior detective. Now you're a senior detective with the right to work in conjunction with most prosecutors on their cases. That and you got this new office to boot as part of the promotional deal."

"Well, that's the result of countless hours of hard work," the silver furred hedgehog stated as his cheeks gained a bit of a blush to them. "To be honest, I don't think that I'm really deserving of all these promotions and stuff. It's good and all, but there are other detectives on the force that are more deserving of this than me."

"That may be true, but how many detectives do you know who would willingly work long hours into the night and emphatically ask not to be paid overtime for it?" Knuckles questioned as he happened to pass by on his way to the snacks on a nearby desk and stopped momentarily to add his two cents to the discussion. "Such a sacrifice in your personal time and not asking for anything in return isn't something that you run into these days. If not that, then why are you not deserving of such a promotion? And trust me on this Silver; if you're getting praise like this from a fellow detective, then you know that you're more than good enough for this promotion."

"Thanks Knuckles," the senior detective thanked the other with a smile and nod of his head. "I'm pretty sure, however, that you're just as much deserving of a raise and promotion more so than me. I know that you've been working your butt off on this particular case you have no reason to be looking into. It's not that I'm going to rat you out for breaking the rules or anything for doing that since I know you have some personal connections with it," he added in a reassuring tone. "It's just that I've noticed the same file resting on your desk for a while now every time I have something for you to sign or check over."

"Funny, I thought it was because you were openly investigating that same case that you got this promotion," the red echidna stated more than asked as he took a couple of cookies and a forkful of chow mien while not looking at the other in the eye. It was clear he was purposefully avoiding his gaze as if out of embarrassment at being caught doing something he was not supposed to have been doing. "Then again, you were the one officially assigned to look it over whenever you pleased. As far as everybody else is concerned here, I'm not officially on the case, so they could care less about any progress I've made on this."

"Speaking of progress, I think I've figured out a couple of new things while being able to openly work on the case. I suspect that you three would be interested in knowing what it is being that you were all involved with the incident. I'll tell you all about it after the party when it's just the four of us. No need to drag the Vector and the others into something they theoretically don't know a lot about. And maybe we could also exchange information that only we both exclusively know about and could combine with each other in order to get even further into the case? We just might get the break that we've been searching for?"

"Sounds like a good plan to me," the red furred detective agreed with a nod of his head and a small grin. "Just let me hurry and finish up this plate of food before we go ahead and start exchanging information. I have a feeling that we'll probably have to write some stuff out in order to keep things together."

"Alright, then I'll go ahead and hang out with Vector and his group while I wait. I need to ask them about something that I had them help me out with a month ago anyway. Don't go taking too long, you hear? And I'll talk to you two about it later."

And before the other three friends had a chance to say or ask anything else on the subject, the silver furred senior detective moved towards the other end of the room where Prosecutor Vector, Charmy, and a purple scaled chameleon with his arms crossed were huddled together and talking amongst themselves with plates of food in their hands. Although Sonic and Tails never saw the other person before, they suspected that he was the third member of the prosecutor's Chaotix Detective Agency being that he seemed more than comfortable and slightly professional around them.

"That's one way to for him to keep us in the complete dark about the case," Sonic stated with a slight raise of his eyebrows and his head cocked to the side. "Just walk away without saying much else about the topic and hope that we don't go bugging him about it until he's ready to say. He knows that we're the most curious about what he figured out since we were directly involved with it. There's no reason for him to go hiding the details from us."

"I think it's more that he doesn't want to go rummaging through his drawers with all this food around here Sonic," Tails responded with an answer that was probably more logical than the one his older brother was coming up with in his head. "It wouldn't be good if all of the important paperwork and information he worked so hard to get ended up becoming dirty and hardly readable, you know?"

"As if I care about neatness when it comes to information regarding the incident we were in two years ago," the cobalt hedgehog countered in a nonchalant fashion. "It's not like he'll be ready to present it to the courts anytime soon. Either way, I guess we're not going to be getting anything out of the detective until this party's over. By the way, do you know who that purple chameleon guy is Knuckles?"

"Oh, he's another member of the Chaotix Detective Agency," Knuckles answered as he started to eat away at the food on his plate at a slightly rushed pace. He then added with his mouth full while being careful not to spit any of the pre-chewed food out, "His name's Espio. He has his own ninja dojo that he runs during the weekends and act as an instructor for those wanting to learn. He's good at what he does with all his ninja stuff that could easily be used for crime if used by the wrong people, but I've known him long enough to know he can be well trusted with his skills. I also think that he secretly prefers working with Vector and his small detective business than teaching what he can of his skills in his dojo. Why else do you think that he would only keep that place of his open for only two days in a week and work as a private detective for the other five?"

"I guess that would kind of make sense," the two tailed fox agreed with a small shrug of his shoulders. "Then again, you're the one who knows him better than me and Sonic combined, so who am I to go about saying anything about him? By the way, I don't remember where it was that I heard of this, but I got the impression that Vector's private side business doesn't really pay well. He's probably doing it just for kicks."

"Some people sure have some interesting hobbies they take up these days," the defense attorney stated as he went to the table to get an apple from the fruit basket. He then took hold of a fruit knife next to it and cut it into quarters so that it would be easier for him to eat. "Then again, I guess everybody has something about them that makes them seem weird to other people while making them into who they are."

"Oh, please don't try to pass yourself off as some kind of philosophical idiot by talking about these personal spiritual-like crap," the echidna said with a low growl of annoyance before he moved away from the group to the garbage can to dispose of his now empty plate. "Not only does it sound so damn fake; hearing it come out of your mouth just makes you into more of an idiot than you already are."

"Hey, I resent that Knucklehead! Don't forget that it was this same idiot who managed to get you acquitted of those murder charges two weeks ago. If you want me to go helping you again, don't go insulting me."

"And since when were you the type of guy who follows up on his threats? You have learned to follow up on your claims ever since you took up your job as a defense attorney, but that hasn't helped you in terms of your childish threats. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to take care of a couple of things that I forgot to take care of before coming here. Hope to see you two tomorrow."

And before Sonic could even say anything in regards to that, the red furred detective had headed towards where Silver was still talking with Vector and his group of detectives. It was clear that he wanted to talk to him about the information on the case that they were both working on before the night was out.

"Is it just me or is everybody seemingly just spontaneously decided to leave us when it comes to things that we might want to ask them about that they don't want asked?" Sonic asked with a raised eyebrow as he finished off the rest of his apple. He then placed the fruit knife that he did not know he still had in his hands back onto the table. "Do they all think that we're not so deserving to know whatever it is that's floating around in their heads? Curiosity might have killed the cat, but I'm sure that it died satisfied with whatever it is that it wanted to know about before it kicked the can."

"I'm sure that both Knuckles and Silver are busy in their own right with whatever it is that they have to do," Tails responded with a raised eyebrow at the strange play on words with the old saying as he tried to sound reasonable. The last thing he needed now was to have his older brother become more annoyed than he already was. "And speaking of which, didn't you have some paperwork that Dr. Robotnik asked you to fill out before the day was done? I'm sure that's right now of more importance than wanting to figure out some details of a case that you can always get at some other point in time. Whatever happened with that plan?"

"He asked me to get them all done by tonight before he was called out of town this afternoon for an emergency meeting in a completely different country tomorrow morning," the cobalt hedgehog stated with a rather smug smile on his face as if he found a way to beat the system. "And since he didn't say anything about faxing them over to him when he was done, I can let it go for a couple of days before I finish it."

"Do you always have to leave everything up to the last minute?" the two tailed fox asked rhetorically as he shook his head in disapproval before heading towards the snack table and taking a banana for himself. He then continued on as he began to peel back the bright yellow fruit, "I'm amazed that you managed to graduate high school leaving all of your work to the last minute and cramming for your tests with all-nighters. You're going to get yourself an ulcer with that kind of constant worry."

"Then how about you go ahead and head back to the office so that you can finish up the paperwork for me?" the defense attorney asked playfully despite having a very strong hint of seriousness to it. "It sounds like it's something that you really want to work on more than I do. If you do it, then you'll stop going down my throat for not working on it and I'll avoid a possible ulcer from the thought of it."

"Oh, that is the stupidest idea that I've ever heard coming from you for as long as I've known you, and that's saying something. No sane person with any sense of morals would want to help you falsify important papers meant for work and to be sent to your boss. And even if I were to swallow my morals and seriously consider going along with your crazy idea, I don't know a thing about what it is that you need to put down on those things. Why don't you just make it easy on yourself and start working on it the moment we get back to the office tomorrow morning? It'll save you a lot of trouble along with erasing any unneeded worrying about something so simple."

As Silver's promotion party continued on through the night, the brothers continued to go on about prolonged work and all that other good stuff that Sonic did not like or even wanted to talk about. It was not until about an hour later did they decided to stop and move on to trying to ask the senior detective about what it was that he wanted to discuss with them. By that time, however, the party was coming to a close and said detective was already starting to clean up with the help of Knuckles and Vector's crew. Not wanting to seem like a couple of freeloaders, the two brothers decided to pick up their end of the slack and began putting away the unused cups and plates and heading towards the kitchen and returning with containers meant to put away the party leftovers.

"I hope that I'm not intruding on anything important here," a voice suddenly stated right after a small set of knocks on the open door were heard. The occupants all turned towards the entrance to see a woman with auburn red hair dressed in a rather nice blue spring dress with white daisies on it that seemed to also double up as a sort of formal wear. She had an oriental face that seemed to defy her fluent accent in the English language when they first heard her speak. "I could come back at a later time if that's the case."

"Oh, hello Ms. Rose," Silver greeted the woman with a nod of acknowledgement accompanied with a small smile as he stepped away from where he was cleaning in order to properly welcome the woman into his office. "It's nice to see you here. You're not intruding on anything important here. We were just cleaning up the remnants of the promotion party I had earlier. Is there anything that I can help you with right now?"

"Oh, I was thinking of talking about something in private with you Detective Silver," the woman now known as Ms. Rose responded politely as she gave a small wave of her white gloved hand. Her red high heeled shoes shifted ever so slightly against the tiled floor as she kept a proper posture. "Is there a time tonight when you'll be available?"

"Hmm, I would suppose that I'll be able to talk privately with you in about half an hour," the detective responded after he spent a couple of seconds thinking about it. "I should be done cleaning up this office by then."

"Alright, then is it okay if I go ahead and help you and your friends with the cleaning while I wait? It could help pass the time and bring us closer to our private discussion. And besides, I feel I need to know as soon as possible what it is that you know about a case that I'm just curious about."

"Everything's alright in here. We're almost done with the process. I also promised a couple in here a bit of my time after this party, so I should be able to get to you in thirty minutes. And just as an added comment, I can't guarantee you anything that I'll be able to answer whatever questions you have for me. There are restrictions in place in order to prevent certain information from falling into the wrong hands, you know?"

"Oh, I understand completely detective. I'll go ahead and sit on the chairs outside until you're ready," the woman stated as she began to turn to exit the office. Before she did so, her eyes caught sight of the bowl of fruit and she turned back to face the interior of the office. "Oh, do you mind if I go ahead and take a piece of fruit before I wait outside? That apple looks simply divine from here."

"Feel free to help yourself to whatever it is that you'd like to eat in here. I don't want you to be waiting for me on an empty stomach after all. I'd be a poor host if I didn't try to let you have a comfortable wait."

"Thank you very much," Ms. Rose thanked Silver with a small bow of her head in appreciation as she made her way across the room towards the table that had some of the snacks that have yet to be packed up and put away. As she went to grab an apple, Sonic was still cleaning up around the area and took hold of the fruit knife in preparation to put it away. "Oh, do you mind if I used that for a second before you put it away? Eating fruit like this as it is tends to hurt my teeth after a couple of bites."

"Uh, go right on ahead miss," the cobalt hedgehog responded with a small shrug as he handed said knife to the woman who then began to quickly quarter the fruits before returning it to him a couple of seconds later. "Wow, you sure took care of that apple pretty quickly. It takes me at least thirty seconds to do what you just did."

"I was once in the military working as a part of the special forces team," the woman quickly explained as if it were nothing but old news before taking a small bite out of a piece of the fruit. "That particular branch taught us how to make quick and effective usage of knives such as this in case we were ever caught in a close combat situation with an enemy or hostile native. Anyway, I won't be in your way of cleaning anymore. I'll be outside waiting until you're free Detective Silver."

"I'll see you in about thirty minutes Ms. Rose," the senior detective answered just as the woman officially exited the room. Once the door was closed and she was out of earshot, he said with a slightly annoyed sigh as he continued on with where he left off with his end of the after-party cleanup, "Boy, that woman can really get on my nerves sometimes. She always wants to come in and ask me about stuff that's off limits to everybody every once in a while regardless whether or not I'm busy. It's like she just comes in for the heck of it so I can suffer from the headaches she gives me."

"Hey, she sometimes comes around to my desk outside your office wanting to ask me some things that she really doesn't have any business knowing about," Knuckles responded with the same exact sigh along with a shake of his head. "She only does that when you're out of the office and when I'm the next best person to talk to. I pity the people she tortures when both of us are out of this precinct. I think that she thinks she has some kind of power over us just because of her social standing with the public."

"Ouch, she sure sounds like a pretty hard woman to be around," the defense attorney stated with a slight twitch of his mouth that formed a momentary frown before it disappeared as he continued putting away the food in their containers brought in from the kitchen. "What do you mean though by her having power because of her social standing?"

"You really have to start watching the news more often Sonic," Tails said in a rather monotonous tone as he took some of the garbage bags and tied them up so that they would not spill out their contents. Knuckles simply looked at the teen as if he had just came out from under a rock while Silver pretended to have not been paying attention to their conversation. "Honestly, she's been talked about for over a month now ever since the senatorial race began. You can't even pass by people on the street without hearing her name at least once."

"You know I don't care much about watching the news and all that junk they usually spew out Tails. That and I could care less about listening to what other people are talking about when they're not even speaking to me in the first place. And when it comes to this boring politic stuff, I'm further away from it than the moon is from this planet. You'd have to catch me dead before I set even one foot into political land."

"Ever heard about trying to be less dense on the world around you Sonic?" the red furred echidna questioned as he walked by with a handful of trash before dumping it into a still untouched garbage bin. "Honestly, the world could be busy suffering from an apocalypse and you'd probably be the last person to know about it."

"I highly doubt that there would be any kind of good communication between people if it were to ever come down to that Knuckles. Everybody would be busy running around in a panic trying to find supplies to help them survive while taking out anybody who just so happens to get in their way."

"...Ms. Rose is a woman who's trying to become a senator for this district," Silver suddenly decided to explain as he did not want to have a possible and unnecessary argument to ensue over something as trivial as this. "Her full name is Kuro Rose. She's of Japanese descent but was born and raised here. She joined the military ten years ago when she was twenty and soon became a member and valuable asset to the Special Forces team two years later. Due to an enemy bullet that ended up puncturing her lung and bringing her to the brink of death, she has since retired from duty since the injury rendered her incapable of doing anything overly stressful or strenuous. Apparently, the stresses of being a senator seem low key to her compared to being on the battlefield."

"While I didn't ask for a history lesson, I guess it is kind of good to finally know a bit about this woman who suddenly decided to barge in here," Sonic stated in a half arrogant tone while the other half showed slight intrigue as he finished packing up the food and began to help Tails tie up the remaining garbage bags. "If she's running for senator though, then why would she want to stick her nose into you guys' cases? It's not like she's trying to run for the chief of police business or anything like that."

"One of the things she promised to do if and when she becomes senator was to reduce the crime rate here," Tails explained as he stepped back from his job and allowed his older brother to handle the rest. "If she's going to be doing that, however, then she needs to know what it is that the police and precinct detectives are working on and decide whether or not they're working on cases that require the utmost attention."

"If you ask me, that woman's just trying to find ways to score points with the public by trying to look good while making us look bad," Knuckles stated with a huff of his breath as he began to replace the garbage bins with new garbage bags.

"I don't like how she's bothering everybody in this precinct with her election agenda any more than you do Knuckles," the silver furred hedgehog agreed with the other in a calmer tone as he walked over to his now somewhat clean desk. "However, we're just going to have to grin and bear it until this whole political journey of hers is over.

"Anyway, I just happen to have an extra Newspaper Article talking a bit about Ms. Rose with me here," the senior detective continued on as he opened a desk drawer and quickly took out a cut out newspaper clipping. He then passed it into Sonic's hands while making sure he did not protest in the action. "You never know when you might need to know something about people who go into politics like her. That and it's basically a repeat of what I just said, so you can just look back at it if you forget about it."

"It sounds like you don't really have a lot of trust with her Silver," the cobalt hedgehog speculated with a raised eyebrow as he folded up the article without so much as giving it a glance before stuffing it into his gloved hand. "Any particular reason as to why that is besides her always wanting to come barging in unannounced into your office and demanding to know your business?"

"Politicians are all promises and no action. They make all these false promises during the election period just so they can sway the people into voting for them to go into office. Once there officially in, a good majority of their promises are never heard of again. And out of the ones that they do follow up on, they're usually not conducted or completed in a manner the people thought they were going to be completed. They're just nothing but a bunch of liars hiding behind their newly elected title."

"And yet you're actually cooperating with one of those very political runners right now," Vector, who he and his crew had been strangely quiet for the entirety of this conversation, stated as he was carrying the packed leftovers out of the office and presumably into the precinct kitchen. "If you ask me, it sounds a bit hypocritical of you."

"Funny, I never thought of you to be the kind of guy who would become a hypocrite Silver," the purple chameleon who Sonic remembered to be Espio added in a sort of deep voice as he also exited with food in his hands.

"Ha, they called you a hypocrite!" Charmy teased in a muffled sing-song voice as he fluttered out of the office with a container of cookies in his hand along with one jammed into his mouth like a gag. He was then heard mumbling to himself out in the hallway with the cookie clearly still in his mouth, "What's a hypocrite?"

"Oh, I can't believe I actually work with those crazy guys sometimes," Silver murmured under his breath as he let out a slightly agitated sigh as he looked at his office and saw that it was relatively clean and now void of any food before turning to face the cobalt hedgehog. "Anyway, why don't you guys get out of here if you're done helping me clean up here? I want to get over with having to talk to Ms. Rose as soon as possible. I promise I'll talk to you and Tails about that case once I'm done with her. And sorry Knuckles, but I don't think I'll be able to get to you about it tonight. How about we go ahead and start exchanging information first thing tomorrow morning when we start working? With this woman around, I'll probably never get to get out of here at all tonight."

"Hopefully, I won't be too busy when tomorrow comes around," Knuckles stated with a shrug of his shoulders as he started to make his way out of the office now that everything had been cleaned up as best as it could have been. "You just make sure you don't forget about our meeting then. I really hate it when people say that they're going to do something and then forget about it or just plain not want to do it."

"And since when have you known me to be the kind of person to do something like that to you?" the silver furred hedgehog questioned rhetorically as the red echidna left the office and began walking to wherever it was that he was planning on going to. "You just make sure that you're not the one forgetting if you do have some free time."

"I guess it's about time that we started to make our way back home too," Tails responded as he allowed a barely audible chuckle leave his lips and a smile of amusement. "Thanks for inviting us to your promotion party Silver."

"No need to thank me about that Tails," the senior detective said with a smile also on his face as he turned towards the two tailed fox. "You and Sonic have both known me for a while now, and I thought that this would be a good way for us to catch up after being out of touch for a while."

"Well, if you take into consideration that we've only talked to each other on rare occasions over the phone over the past couple of years as actual communication, then I'd say that this was a good time to physically catch up with each other," Sonic stated with a sort of weak sarcastic tone while still sounding generally genuine in response. He then added with a smile before making to leave the office with Tails following closely behind him, "With me now working as a full-time defense attorney, I hope that we can spend more time talking face to face than just over phone lines."

"I'm sure that we'll be able to work something out with our jobs pretty much serving the same purpose. Oh, could you please tell Ms. Rose that she can come in now when you pass by her? I can't really keep her waiting out there any longer than needed even though I would really like for that to happen."

"Good luck with her buddy," the cobalt hedgehog stated softly as he gave off a small sigh. Tails only shook his head at the thought that the detective was simply exaggerating how bad she really was. "Hope she doesn't end up giving you too much trouble."

And with that comment out of the way, both boys made their way out of the office and left the detective to clean up the rest of the small stuff that still needed to be cleaned that he could manage on his own. As they started to walk down the hallway towards the exit of the building, they could see Kuro sitting on a chair a few feet away looking at herself through her compact mirror and waiting patiently.

"Hello Ms. Rose," Tails greeted the woman politely with a smile on his face. Said woman looked up upon hearing her name called and gave a warm smile to the young fox. "Silver said that he's ready to see you now."

"Oh, thank you for relaying that to me," she thanked him with a small nod of her head as she pocketed her compact into a small barely noticeable pocket at the side of her dress. "I'll go and see him right now. I would suspect that you two are going home now?"

"Yeah, I need to get up early and finish up some paperwork that somebody here wants me to get done," the defense attorney stated as he shot a small glare at his little brother. "He's not going to let me rest until I get it done."

"Well, it sounds like you better have a good night's sleep then in preparation for tomorrow," the woman said with a small chuckle as she got up from the chair and gave a small bow before moving towards the office. "I have to go now and discuss some important matters with Detective Silver. It was nice to have met you two."

And with that rather hastily said goodbye, Kuro had moved down the short distance of the hallway and entered Silver's new office without any hesitation whatsoever. The two boys heard the door close behind her and then continued on their way back home.

"Time for Silver to be bored out of his mind," Sonic stated with a sort of half smile on his face as he said it. "I really don't envy being in his shoes right now."

"How about you worry about the work that you'll have to finish tomorrow instead of what it is Silver has to do right now?" Tails asked rhetorically. "I would think that that would be more important than worrying about what others are doing."

"Killjoy," the cobalt hedgehog whined as he stuck a playful tongue out at his little brother. "You sure know how to put a damper on a night that's been going pretty well, you know that?"

The fox simply ignored both the gesture and the comment as he continued to walk beside his older brother. While still exchanging small words, they began to make their way back home for a good night's rest after having a controlled party all night.

New Evidence:

Newspaper Article: A clipping talking about Ms. Kuro Rose, a woman running for the position of senator in her district. It talks about how she served her country in the military's Special Forces team before being forced out because of a battle injury rendering her incapable of conducting anything overly stressful or strenuous. She promises to try and reduce the crime rate in her represented district if elected.

New Profiles:

Espio: He's a purple chameleon with a white horn on his forehead. For some reason, he doesn't like to give people including his team members his last name. He's skilled in ninja arts and has his own dojo for teaching others said techniques. However, Knuckles says that he probably prefers detective work being that he spends most of the week with Vector and Charmy.

Kuro Rose: A woman of Japanese decent who speaks very fluent English. She is trying to run for the senate seat of the district that she's representing. She was once a member of the military's Special Forces team. According to Knuckles and Silver, she constantly comes to the precinct to ask them about cases that they are working on or have already finished ever since she announced her candidacy.