Hello everybody! Here's a new chapter and new case to this story. And when you read the title, I'm sure you'll know what it is this case will be somewhat revolving around. I hope this will be the start to some questions that I've been handing out to you all.
Anyway, this is just a fair warning to you all. This story might take a little while to update. The reason is because I've just suddenly come up with a new story idea revolving around the Kingdom Hearts characters. It's been a while since I've had a random idea that feels like it could work, so I'll be going for it for a little bit. Don't worry; I haven't given up on this story in a long shot. And for those of you curious in reading it when it's out, I'm thinking of naming it, "Scotch on the Rocks". Yeah, it's an interesting name, but the summary on it should explain a little bit why it's like that.
Anyway, that's enough of my rather pointless rant. I hope that you'll all enjoy this new chapter and beginning to a new case. Things are now taking a turn for the serious. Don't forget to leave a review after you're done reading telling me how I did. Until the next update to this or any of my other stories, or maybe even the introduction to my new one, everybody!
Evidence:
Attorney's Badge: Sonic's badge proving that he's a genuine defense attorney. Ever since getting tied into a murder because of him losing it, he's since taken precautions to make sure that it stays secured within the inside of his gloves.
Profiles:
Sonic Hedgehog: A seventeen year old blue furred male hedgehog. He works in Dr. Robotnik's Law Firm office and is currently on track on becoming a full-fledged attorney and escape from fledgling status.
Miles Prower: Best known by his nickname Tails. He's a twelve-year-old yellow-orange furred fox with two tails. After his performance in the previous case at the local Precinct, Dr. Robotnik has taken him in as the firm's local on-scene detective.
Knuckles Echidna: He is an eighteen-year-old red furred echidna detective who works at the local precinct and is good friends with Sonic and Tails.
Chapter 16: An Ironic Twist of Fate and Truth Pt. 1
"I'm surrounded by nothing but complete and utter imbeciles!" a muffled voice on the phone stated with a heavy sigh and a light slam of his fist on his desk. "I had asked Naeco Eulb all those months ago to try and get that young freak of a fox the capital punishment for murder to prevent any potential threats from flaring up, and he falls to the hands of a complete rookie! How disgraceful can that be for a top-notch thief like himself?"
"Well, life can sometimes throw unexpected curveballs to even the most well-trained of people," another person on the other end of the line responded in as calm of a tone he could muster in the presence of the other. "The best of people can sometimes get the most unluckiest moments of their lives at bad times. Either that or he wasn't as good as he claimed to have been on his initial résumé."
"And then one of our best moles within the Police Department and Precinct was forced to perform the job of another because said other person had an urgent piece of business to take care of," the first person continued to rant as if the other had not said anything. "I can't believe Detective Ace ended up being so careless with both his girlfriend and cell phone. Doesn't he know that those two don't mix at all, especially when I gave him contacts that were all women by pure coincidence?"
"Well, he probably would've been caught sooner or later by her," the other tried again to calm the man down. "According to his testimony during his indictment hearing, he said that Ms. Vulpin was already starting to become somewhat suspicious of his movements. He wouldn't have been surprised if she ended up stalking him to one of his rendezvous points without him knowing of it."
"At least then the situation would be different than it was when I purposely tried to keep him away from this assignment. Yet it still somehow managed to end up in his hands! And to top it all off, he was caught by that same blasted rookie attorney who should be wasting away in his college life instead of meddling in adult affairs! So much for trying to get that meddling echidna away from his private investigation of a case that he's restricted from…
"And as if to make a further mockery out of me, my one ace in this entire operation somehow managed to get himself accused and charged for murder just yesterday!" he continued on without showing any signs of stopping soon. "Espio, my greatest subordinate who knows how to rub people out of a picture with his ninja skills, got the best beaten out of him by that same demented fox I tried to get charged for murder! Intelligent or not, no child should be poking their noses in adult business and acting like they know everything about it. I understood it was a long shot to try and get that rookie attorney on the hook for Ms. Rose's murder by forcing him to come back to the office right after the deed was done, but I still can't believe he failed to kill Silver at the same time!"
"…Perhaps he underestimated the time it took for both him to adequately complete the job and when they might have been back. However, I did hear from the case report that I managed to snag a look at that he almost gotten away with it were it not for Prosecutor Vector being hired by Prosecutor Shadow to snoop around his house for evidence and the brilliant mindset that the young fox put in by putting the pieces altogether. So if it's any consolation, he would've gotten away with it all if the meddling fox wasn't in the picture that night despite what everybody else tried to do."
"I can't believe that my plans I have been putting into action for two years are quickly being undone by a matter of months by a brat posing as an attorney and his idiotic brat of an adopted brother wanting to play detective! The statute of limitations for the LK-9 Incident will be up in a couple of weeks, and I'll be damned if I'm caught before then."
"I wish you all the luck with that then. Last I checked, everybody who's involved with that case is still alive, and half of them are currently looking into it. And Prosecutor Shadow has authority enough to look into those files without having to ask a higher-up. He has a good set of brains in that head of his, and I've heard that he's even come up with a couple of good leads he's currently pursuing."
"Then I guess I know who I should have erased next," the first man stated thoughtfully after a pause that seemed to be there only for suspense purposes. "If what you say is true, then he's the one who's as close to the truth he could be than the others are. The good prosecutor's days as a free man are now numbered.
"However, with somebody as smart as him, I think it only fair to ensnare him with someone of equal or greater intellect," he continued on as the other simply listened quietly. "Of course, I'm talking about myself in these terms. He's a person I can't trust anybody except for myself to handle. After all, I know him very well and how certain weaknesses of his can be exploited to our benefit. I'll handle everything this time around and make sure even that brat of a defense attorney and his twit of a brother won't be able to defend him. They won't stand a chance under my direct might!"
"That may be all well and good, but I still suggest that you exercise caution when dealing with them," the other man warned in a friendly tone. "While they both may be young, it should be clear even to you now that they're a force to be reckoned with, especially when they combine their two strengths together in order to come to the absolute truth. I'm sure you wouldn't want that against you seeing as how you're just two weeks shy of being scot free from ever being persecuted as the true perpetrator of the LK-9 Incident."
"An attorney with beginner's luck and a preteen fox who doesn't have much recollection of the ins and outs of proper law proceedings can't possibly have anything against my many years of expertise!" the man responded in a cockily confident tone accompanied with a strong chuckle. "I've taken care of more people here than they have both combined. I do, however, appreciate your concern for me in this. Then again, I shouldn't expect less from the person whom I regard as my right-hand man in all this."
"I'm honored to hear you say that about me, even if it's merely a repeat of what you said so many times over," the other person stated in a tone that sounded suspiciously like pride. "Of course, there's still one other little matter that I want to bring to your attention before we end tonight's contact. It's about our renegade friend."
"I don't think you need to be told twice on what needs to be done with him. Find him and make sure that he doesn't live to breath a word about me and my plans to anybody. Kuro Rose already tried to defunct from our little group and intended to reveal all of my plans through her soon-to-be powers as a member of the senate, but nobody defuncts from me and lives to see another day. Make sure our renegade meets the same fate. And besides, how hard can it be to spot a person with Feralisis Syndrome? They basically stick out like a sore thumb! And also do the same to his beloved brother if he chooses to interfere."
"As you wish, sir. I'll make sure any and all irritants to your plan are taken care of. You just make sure to be careful when dealing with Sonic and Tails. As I warned earlier, their combined intellect isn't something that you should sneeze at."
"I'll keep your consideration in mind when I enact my end of the plans. Now then, it's time for me to hang up and take care of other business that requires my attention. Good luck my dear friend; and I hope to hear of your success in taking care of our renegade the next time we make contact."
"And I hope that everything ends up well on your end, too. Don't act too suspiciously, and you'll be safe after two more short weeks. It would be a real shame to come so far and be caught after all this painstaking work."
And with that little reassurance, the other party hung up the phone just as the first person was about to thank them. With a small sigh, he hung up his phone and began to scribble away on a piece of paper sitting on his desk in front of him.
"Sonic and Tails," he murmured under his breath without once stopping. "Ever the thorn on my side ever since the day you became involved in that blasted incident along with your currently meddlesome friends. Now you'll all be too preoccupied trying to reverse his fate of being a murderer and waste all of the time you have left trying to find answers. Your tenacity is commendable but futile. Only I will have the opportunity of knowing the whole truth and having escaped from it in the process. Ha, ha, ha…!"
A week-and-a-half later…
"Well, it looks like I win again!" Knuckles stated happily as he threw down some cards that were in his hands on the coffee table inside the Dr. Robotnik Law Office. "This is a flush, and it makes it my fifth win today."
"Oh, come on!" Sonic exclaimed angrily as he threw down his cards with a click of his tongue before leaning back on the chair in exasperation. "Nobody can possibly win that many times with hands that are hard to get in a regular poker game. Are you sure you're not trying to cheat me here, Knux?"
"How could I if you were the one who insisted to shuffle the deck every time since my second win?" the detective simply countered with an amused roll of his eyes before picking up a cup and taking a sip from it. "You just have real bad shuffling skills. And I have no reason to be cheating since we're not even playing for money."
"Sonic, are you sure you should be playing cards during working hours?" Tails asked from his position behind him in front of the office window. He was currently cleaning the glass of any smudges with a wad of paper towels and a blue spray bottle of Windex. "I know that Dr. Robotnik isn't here right now and that it isn't everyday Knuckles gets a day off, but shouldn't you have some semblance of professionalism in case a potential client shows up?"
"I'm on my lunch break right now, Tails," the cobalt hedgehog reminded his little brother without turning to face him. He then continued on as he gathered all the cards together, "I'll take care of any clients that might come in then, but I think I'm entitled to slack off a bit when on my break. And besides, you just said that we don't get to see Knuckles during his days off often, so we might as well make the most out of it."
"I can't believe that train of thought actually makes sense," the fox stated with a small sigh and headed towards the kitchen after he was done with the windows. "Then maybe you could take a break from your pitiful card game and help me clean the office a bit. You could always start by straightening up your desk area."
"Hey, my card game is anything but pitiful! I'm just having some bad luck while Knuckles here is somehow cheating his way to a win."
"And I already told you that you were the one who shuffled the deck in our last three games," the echidna repeated with an annoyed sigh before standing up and moving to the kitchen. "You're just being a sore loser, Sonic. I can't believe you don't act this childish while you're in court."
"And that's because I have enough class to know that a courtroom isn't the best of places to be acting like my usual self unless I want to get the boot. Anyway, think you can get me a soda while you're in there?"
"Why don't you get up and get it yourself? I'm not your personal servant. And don't even think about asking Tails to get you one. He's right now busy cleaning up the mess you so graciously left inside the sink."
"Hey, it's not my fault that I accidently burned some of the breakfast I was trying to make for us and couldn't scrape it off. I was just planning on letting it soak through for the whole day before I go washing it."
"Yeah, just like it wasn't your fault that you nearly burned down the office kitchen during the entire process," Tails deadpanned as the sound of running water was heard along with some scraping sounds. "Just consider yourself lucky that there aren't any scorch marks on the wall, or Dr. Robotnik would be down your throat in a heartbeat. I still can't believe you forgot all about the oil you were heating and let it start a grease fire."
Before an angry retort could be heard, the sound of knocking coming from the doorway was heard. Sonic turned his head towards the sound while both Tails and Knuckles poked their head out of the kitchen, one from the doorway and the other out of the window that connected the office and kitchen area.
"I hope I'm not disturbing anything here," a young-sounding voice was heard saying in an apologetic tone. "I can come back later if that's the case."
Standing in the doorway was a cat with fur as pure as the eternal darkness itself. It could possibly rival that of Shadow's minus the red streaks of fur. However, his stunning ruby red eyes seemed to offset that difference. He was currently wearing a red vest that was clearly meant to offset the winter chill that was quickly starting to take over Mobius by storm. His tail swished along the ground lightly as he waited for an answer.
"N-no, we're not busy right now!" Sonic answered a little too quickly that it sounded like he was desperate for some business. "We're right now on our break, but we're still open to accept client offers or simply give out legal advice. I'm afraid that my boss is out at the moment, though, so I'm the only one available."
"Good, because I'm afraid that what I want to talk to you about can't wait much longer," the black cat responded in a rather cryptic fashion as he made sure to close the door behind him after entering. "I hope you don't mind me closing the door, but I'd rather that what I'm discussing with you doesn't attract any unwanted attention."
"Uh, then would you like for my brother and guest to leave the room?" the cobalt hedgehog asked just as said two people exited the kitchen. Tails, being the quick one, was carrying a tray with a tea kettle and a few cups on it to serve the potential client.
"On the contrary, having them around to listen to what I have to say will save me the trouble of repeating it," the other responded, still being rather mysterious about the whole thing as he walked over to Sonic's desk and picked up his phone as if inspecting it. "I apologize in advance for messing with your phone, but I haven't seen this model before."
"That particular model has been out for a few years already," Tails mentioned with masked curiosity at the other's already odd behavior. "Nearly every household has one now that the older models have become obsolete."
"Unfortunately, I happen to be in one of those few households who still have the obsolete models. You can blame my parents on refusing to move into the twenty-first century. Anyway, this isn't what I came here to discuss."
"Yes, you said that you had something you had to discuss with us," Knuckles stated so as to get to the point of the matter. He also put added emphasis on the word "us". "That is what you led me to believe when you said you didn't want to go repeating what you wanted to say. That could only mean you wanted to talk to me, as well."
"Heh, you really are a great detective despite your young age, Detective Knuckles," the black cat responded with an amused grin approaching his lips as he saw the look of confusion on the other's face. "In case you're wondering, I've seen your name in the papers a few times along with a picture. I have a good memory for those things, so that's how I knew your name, so don't be too alarmed by it.
"And this must be the young fox that made headlines all those months ago for being the youngest ever to be accused of murder," he continued on as he saw Tails taking a seat on a chair next to his older brother. "I believe your name is Tails, correct?"
"My, that really is a good memory you have," the fox said with eyebrows raised in amazement. "I guess introductions on our end aren't needed. Mind telling us your name so that we're all on the same playing field?"
"Of course," the other answered with a slight chuckle before deciding to take a seat next to Knuckles and reaching for a cup and the kettle. "My name's Salemand Eres. I originally came here in order to make a request of Sonic. However, I don't think I need to know now that my plans have unexpectedly jumped ahead."
"Uh, what are you talking about…Salemand?" Sonic asked after a bit of hesitation and watching the cat pour himself a cup of tea. "We haven't really discussed anything yet, and you've already managed to lose me."
"I'm sorry, but I kind of have that effect on people from time to time," Salemand apologized before blowing at the hot liquid and taking a small sip. "What I meant to say was that I originally came by to ask that you contact Detective Knuckles for me. Seeing that he was already here, however, meant that I could save you the hassle. That's all I meant with that admittedly strange comment."
"And why did you need to ask Sonic to contact me?" the echidna asked with raised eyebrows at the explanation before reaching out for a cup of his own. "You know that you could've just went to the Precinct and asked for an appointment. I would've gotten to you sometime tomorrow."
"Unfortunately, this isn't something that I can have wait until tomorrow. In fact, I might already be too late coming to you for help now," the cat added in a lower tone of voice laced with what sounded like regret. "If anything, this is the best I can do right now in order to help him out."
"What do you mean by that?" the detective asked, immediately putting down his cup and looking at the visitor straight in the eye. Apparently, he was starting to become concern upon hearing a few choice words. "What do you mean by too late? And who exactly is this 'him' you're talking about?"
"You see, I couldn't risk being seen going to your office asking for your help. Don't ask me why that is. It doesn't pertain to what I want to request you of. Needless to say, I needed a third party to contact you in order to not leave a trace about my whereabouts, and I felt that the offices of a rookie defense attorney with connections to you would be my safest bet. After all, nobody would really have great suspicions of me coming in here and asking the help of a defense attorney who everybody believes to have one his cases based purely on luck. In my opinion, they're just biased simply because of your age."
"Anyway, what I want to ask is for your help to find my little brother," he continued on as he took another sip of his tea and ignoring the annoyed look that quickly turned into confusion from the cobalt hedgehog. This time, he took a little bit longer as if he was contemplating whether or not to continue, but his ruby red eyes seemed to portray something else without giving anything away. "He's eighteen-years-old, and I last saw him a couple of days ago in a restaurant in downtown Mobius."
"…You understand that I'm a homicide detective, do you?" Knuckles responded after a short silence. "As much as I would like to help you in this, I can't because it isn't within my power to do so unless it's tied in with a murder of sorts. Are you telling me that he's connected to some kind of murder that I don't know about yet?"
"I know your main area of expertise lies in the homicide department, and I wasn't suggesting that my brother was involved in any kind of unknown murder. And besides, you haven't even heard everything that I had to say yet."
"Let me guess; you wanted to ask Knuckles if he could contact the Chaotix Detective Agency for you so that you can ask them to find your brother," Tails threw out as a guess before he had a chance to continue. "That's the only reason I can think of you wanting to contact him knowing full well that he doesn't perform anything outside of homicide."
"You really are as smart as everybody says you are. I was skeptical when the papers credited you as the main reason why the police was able to nab Espio as the true criminal in the murder of Ms. Rose a month ago. I see now that my skepticism was unfounded. Naturally, you're right in your assumption. I've heard of the Chaotix group's exploits in past paper articles, and I was hoping that they would be able to help me. I've also heard from beyond the grapevine that Detective Knuckles had some connections with them. That's why I wanted to ask Sonic to get a hold of him so that I could ask him to get the leader of the freelance detective group in order to ask for their help in locating my brother."
"…Wow, talk about creating a rather complicated chain of communication just to get to one person," Sonic said in disbelief and a shake of his head after hearing this rather strange explanation of things. "If you don't mind me asking, just what's the reason behind all this practically shady behavior? It kind of makes me inclined not to trust you."
"I'm sorry you feel that way, Sonic," Salemand simply replied with a shrug of his shoulders before moving to refill his now empty cup. "However, my reasons for doing so have nothing to do with the initial reason as to why I'm here. I promise you though, that I do not intend to bring trouble with this request. All I have in mind right now is to find my little brother and make sure he's okay."
"… … …Give me a moment while I go ahead and call Vector," the echidna said after a long pause and a sigh as he got up and took his cell phone that had been lying on the coffee table all this time. "I can't make any promises that he'll agree to help, though."
"As long as you can get them through to me, that's all I can ask for," the cat replied with a smile as he got up and took out a cell phone of his own from his vest pocket. "If you don't mind, however, could you call him on my cell? I want there to be a number left in the call history so that I can have direct contact with him and not go through with this again."
"I guess that is a good idea," the detective stated as he put down his phone and took the other. "You might not be this lucky to have both of us available and in the same place to help you out like this."
"Speak for yourself on that. It was a headache just to come up with this convoluted idea so I could avoid being traced."
"You can go ahead into the kitchen if you want some more privacy," Sonic suggested as he pointed to the aforementioned room.
With an agreeing nod, Salemand took his phone back after Knuckles was done dialing Vector on it and moved into the kitchen for more privacy.
"…Is it just me, or does Salemand seem a bit…interesting to you guys?" the cobalt hedgehog asked in a whispered tone once the black cat was out of sight.
"If by interesting, you mean suspicious and somewhat untrustworthy, then yes," the echidna responded with a nod of his head as he sat down and picked up the deck of cards that had sat forgotten. He then added as he began to mindlessly shuffle them, "Nobody in their right mind would go through all this trouble like he has just to get into contact with one person. He says it doesn't have anything to do with the reason of his visit, but I can't help but wonder if that's really the case."
"Well, you can always ask Vector later about what they were talking about," Tails suggested with a shrug of his shoulders as he poured himself his first cup of tea ever since he prepared it. "Sure, there's all these confidentiality between client and detective, but he should be able to bend the rules a bit if you tell him about his suspicious behavior here."
"And that's what I intend to do once he gives me back my phone and leaves this office. Hmm, perhaps I should try my hand at a missing person's case myself. Maybe I'll be able to figure something out about this Salemand Eres while I'm at it. That and I haven't worked with Vector on a case for a while, so this should be a good excuse to do so."
A couple of seconds later, they saw Salemand exit the kitchen with Knuckles' phone in hand and closed. Apparently, he was already done with his phone call.
"Thank you for letting me use your phone, detective," the black cat thanked the other as he threw the phone over to the echidna who caught it with little effort. "I'm glad that my efforts here have paid off. I just hope that my little brother is tapping into his instincts and surviving against those guys."
"Speaking of which, I don't believe you ever told us the name of your brother," Tails asked while purposefully avoiding the most obvious question any regular person would have asked. The reason he did so was because he figured that the cat would not tell him who was chasing after his little brother even if his life depended on it. "Think you could give it to us? That way, we'll be able to call Vector and give him new leads if we hear of him."
"…I guess that could work," he responded with a sigh after a moment's pause. "Then again, more hands out there helping to search for him would increase my chances of seeing him again. Alright, my brother's name is… Leucis Kruger. He's a lion, but don't think that he's like any of the others. He's unusual in that his fur's pure white. He also has a rare condition that really makes him stand out."
"And what is it?" Sonic asked just as Salemand was making his way towards the door in preparation to leave. "Does he have some kind of mental illness like autism or something else that makes him act weird?"
"Excuse me, but my brother is hardly mental!" the cat angrily responded as he turned around to face the cobalt hedgehog in the eye. "For your information, he happens to have a rare genetic mutation known as Feralisis Syndrome. If you don't know what it is, then go and look it up on the internet!"
And with an angry huff of his breath, the black cat exited the office and slammed the door behind him. All three reacted to it by wincing, all surprised that the wall was not cracked in any way judging by how hard the door was slammed.
"…You know, you really ought to try and use some tact when talking to people, Sonic," Tails replied with an aggravated sigh as he took the tray with the cups and kettle put back onto it and brought them back into the kitchen. "Honestly, don't forget that you're not just representing yourself but also Dr. Robotnik and the entire law firm in the process. You don't want to give this place a bad reputation."
"Seriously, you should try to employ some of your seriousness tactics that you use when in the courtroom," Knuckles added with an amused smirk before opening his phone again and most likely calling Vector. He then said while the phone was most likely ringing, "I still don't understand how you managed to pass the oral portion of the bar exam with the kind of attitude of boundless energy you have."
"What did I do wrong here?" the defense attorney innocently asked with a shrug, clearly oblivious to how he had just insulted Salemand and not understanding the advice his brother and best friend was giving him. "I was just asking him what kind of sickness his brother had so that we could better identify him. Is that really a crime around here?"
New Profiles:
Salemand Eres (from salamanders): A twenty-two year old black cat with unusually bright red eyes. He came to Dr. Robotnik's Law Firm in order to employ the help of Vector to find his little brother. However, his actions make him seem rather suspicious.